Design Process: Presenting Your Ideas
Presenting is actually a crucial design skill, one that you can be good at with intentional practice.
Design Process: RenderingÂ
The rendering phase can be the most fulfilling because your design is taking shape, but before you get to excited, here are the things to learn about this step.
Design Process: Sketching
The simple use of a pen (or pencil) and paper, helps you clarify your thoughts, and in turn, reach your goal more quickly.
Suck it Up
Don’t have a pity party, don’t cry over the mistakes you made, and don’t give up.
Do Your Research
Research allows you to see the full scope of the project
Design Process: The Brief
The [design] brief is the single most important step in the design process. Without it, you will be lost.
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 e ...
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 wa ...
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 a ...
Walk Away
Just like its best to walk away from a disagreement or heated argument because we aren't seeing clearly, sometimes we get too close to the work we do. Leave your design to chill out, move away from ...
Be Free
 Being that today is the 4th of July I thought I would write about freedom. Freedom is something we all want to have as designers and creatives. And "Creative Freedom" is kind of our ultimate. Somet ...
Bad Design is Always Easy
But so many people make things and think they are designers. If you want to be a designer and have your work be respected by others, you will never be able to take the easy way out.
Print is Not Dead
 Remember to learn about physical printing and don't just design for the web. Chances are even if you are a web only designer you will encounter a print project at some point or work with a project th ...
Collect Stuff That You Love
Collect things. Collect quotes or portions of texts you find inspiring. Save textures and patterns you find interesting. Gather intriguing photography or shots you take of unique places. If you coll ...
Use Your Friends
There are many different ways you can improve your work or make an idea better. I have found, that it is very useful to use my friends, and my colleagues. Show them your work, your sketches, concept ...
Why Boundaries Make You More Creative
It’s easy to come up with an idea when you can do whatever you want, but often the best ideas can come from forced margins.
Why “simple” design isn’t easy, quick, or cheap
Bad design is easy. Bad design is quick and cheap. But good design takes time, and has value. Anything good is worth something. And good design is worth a lot.
What is Design Sense?
Unlike common sense, design sense is a sort of intuition combined with education about design. It’s knowing when and why to choose Bodoni or Goudy, and it’s very important.