With rising gas prices and other economic troubles, freelance designers (as well as their clients) may be feeling the pinch. Clients are eschewing major redesign jobs and other big budget projects, and designers are scrambling for ways to keep work rolling in. But you might be able to get back on track with two little words: Thank you. Now...
Do we have any responsibility for the messages we help to communicate? Everyone has run into a prospective client that wants to sell fantasy to people who are living in fact. The truth be told, many of us use the fantasy approach ourselves—I am the first to admit it. But is it possible to design without deception? You bet...
No doubt you already know the value of tracking your site’s traffic. You know to look at visit totals. You know to look at what sites your visitors are coming from. You know never to rely on the number of hits. But there can be even more interesting information found in common site statistics that you can use to...
Since the folks at Notes on Design have asked me to contribute a few posts previewing the upcoming HOW Design Conference, I wrestled with where to start. So I figure I’ll begin with a few of the presenters I’m most excited to see in Boston. Namely: • Debbie Millman. She’s flat-out one of the brightest, most talented, nicest people...
You asked your legal, copyright, and trademark questions, and Jean has answered! All questions are culled from the comments section attached to the original ‘Ask Jean’ post. We invite you to ask more questions. Dear Jean, Hope all is well with you. I am in the music entertainment business and recently one of the companies I do business is...
Checking on the incoming links to my blog one day, I found a link to a photo from one of my posts. I was surprised to see that another blog was using my photo in one of their posts. They didn’t give any credit to me for the photo, though they did link back to it. I spent some...
With the recent success of the sarcastic and definitely NSFW (not safe for work) You Suck at Photoshop tutorials that have made the Internet rounds, I’ve noticed a lot of people are trying to make their own design software tutorials to share on YouTube. Search on any design app and you’ll find lots of tutorials from designers. What can...
This competition is about more than creating great design concept; it’s about creating an end to extreme poverty. Design 21 calls for the design of a web based campaign for the non-profit organization Millenium Promise that promotes public awareness of the Millennium Development Goals (the UN declaration to address extreme poverty that was signed by 189 world leaders in...
Let’s talk about harmony. Not the hippy-dippy kind… the kind dictated by your color wheel. Unfortunately, with crazy deadlines looming and pushy clients on the phone, designers often don’t have time to go back to basics. The fundamentals of color theory that you learn early in your design education might even be a distant memory. You probably have a...
Part I: Sustainable paper and the graphic designer “There is no business to be done on a dead planet.” – David Brower (Sierra Club Foundation Founder) We’ve heard a lot lately about global warming and its connected dangers posed to our civilization and current way of life. But what does this mean for the graphic designer? Do we have...
