How to Use the “Negative Space” in Your Day
Spare minutes are the negative space in your life where you need to take advantage and use wisely. As an independent creative director, I don’t have someone to make sure all my tasks are getting done. It’s really easy to become a consumer instead of a creator and not take advantage of the moments given […]
Gift Ideas for the Creative Design Geek
Every year I wish I could send a list of all the cool stuff I find to people who buy me gifts. I also wish I could get all these things for other geeky designers that I know. But here’s some gift ideas for the Creative Design Geek in your life. Whether it’s a friend […]
Things You Should NOT Say to Your Graphic Designer
In thinking about topics over the past weeks, I’ve also started thinking about things that clients or potential clients, or even just casual acquaintances might ask me that frustrate me. So here’s a list of things you should not to say to your graphic designer: To be honest, many of these comments or questions are […]
Simple Ways to Fill Your Portfolio
When you’re first starting out, it can be a catch-22 to fill your portfolio. You need clients to get work but you need work in your portfolio to get clients. So what do you do?
Don’t trust a designer who doesn’t collect
Don’t trust a designer who doesn’t collect something.
Podcasts I’m Loving Right Now
I know I haven’t been super consistent with my blog posts and I apologize for that. There’s so much going on that I share on my podcast but I still want you guys to get some useful content through the blog. I love podcasts and I wanted to make a quick list of the podcasts […]
Where to Find Creative Community
You should ever stop learning and never settle. But how do you do this? Well, one of the main ways is to be proactive and find creative community. What is creative community? It’s a group or multiple groups of creative people who get together to learn, share, and relate to each other. It’s so much […]
A Taste of My Favorite Design Books
We all have our favorite websites or design books that we use and go back to over and over again. I wanted to share (briefly), some of my workhorse design books. No matter what project I’m working on, I come back to these books over and over again to get my creative juices flowing. So […]
Should you use Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign?
A short guide to the design programs you have but may not know how to use correctly. #designmatters
3 Things I learned about Winning Design Awards
About a week ago I had the opportunity to attend the ADDY awards and was shocked to have won three (two silver and one Albuquerque 30) for some posters I designed. I have to confess that I’m sort of a strange creature when it comes to anything competitive. Whether it’s sports or design or anything in between, I […]
Make Milk (how to problem solve when you’re not actively working))
What does a cow have to do with being creative? #designmatters #makemilk
The Silly Strange Weird Unique Creative
I’ve been thinking about this idea of creativity for awhile now (the sketch above was over a year ago). As kids, all our crazy creations and inventions are seen as clever or creative. Then somehow, over time, it morphs into being a negative thing, until we are able to embrace our weirdness and we eventually become creative again. I […]
My Top Five Design Tips on YouTube
If you’ve been following me for the past year or so, you already know that I have a YouTube channel where I post short design tips (usually) every Tuesday. These tips are meant to be really brief tips and thoughts on things that can help you be a better designer. This week I thought it […]
Be Honest
Treat Yourself Like a Client
Brand yourself. Why you should be your own client even if it’s scary.
How to Fill Your Blank Pages
We follow family members to keep up with their lives, we follow friends to see what they’re up to, and we follow interesting people for entertainment. But as creatives, we should have a more intentional group of individuals to follow.
Be Committed
It’s a bit ironic that I’ve been wanting this as my tip for today. I was committed to posting while it was actually Tuesday, instead of a few minutes after midnight going into Wednesday, but that’s exactly why I did this tip. It’s easy to get excited about things when they’re starting out. But it […]
Success takes patience
Being patient and consistent and not giving up while waiting for success will yield some amazing benefits.
It’s Good to Question
This one is important to practice from time to time. I don’t know about you but I tend to like rules, at least at first. Then I want to question the rules and ask where I might be wrong. Much like wanting to break rules, sometimes it’s good to ask questions about the rules. There’s […]
How to Follow Trends Without Becoming a Sellout
Avoid the trauma to your creative self, and learn how to use trends to your advantage without selling your artistic soul.
Design for the Content
You will save yourself a ton of time and headaches if you are sure to get content before you start to design or layout anything.
Creative Risks Not Taken are Just Misses
There can be perfection and amazing beauty in the imperfect, in the abstract and messy-take risks.
Don’t Be Afraid to Get Dirty
{ Get Dirty } Don’t be an OCD Designer, always doing what looks clean.
Show Yourself – let them see who you are
People will understand you and your creative journeys even better if you show yourself. Don’t be afraid to let the world see you, they want to see you.
Be Ready to Always Explain Yourself
Sometimes I think we forget that our clients don’t really understand what we do. Whether it’s out of arrogance or passion we sometimes get carried away with our jargon about fonts or printing terms and lots of other things. We need to try to remember that design might be foreign to them. Be ready to […]