By Brockett Horne New graphics at the airport made my recent trip through security much more pleasant. Good design makes all the difference! At Baltimore International airport, gorgeous graphics and cool colors brought down my blood pressure before entering the checkpoint at Gate B. An attractive holographic display of x-ray goods marked the threshold into the checkpoint (pictured). I...
By Justin Ahrens Illustration by Justin Ahrens I recently had the opportunity to do something I’ve always hoped to do – visit Africa. I visited for several reasons, but I think my biggest motivation was my belief that firms need to do work outside their “normal client” environment, especially when that work helps organizations that so desperately need it....
By Eric Benson Part III: Sustainable printing and the graphic designer “The single most important problem is our misguided focus on identifying the single most important problem.” – Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography at UCLA. (From the book “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.” Penguin Books. 2005.) It is fairly simple to call a few printers in...
By Karen Morrill-McClure Where to start in a review of a book that’s over 900 pages long? Hard to say. Maybe I should start with what I was looking for. I’m not a complete beginner with PHP, I’ve been using it on my sites for several years now and I’m starting to write more complicated web applications using both...
By Ilise Benun At Marketing-Mentor.com, we see too many creative freelancers working their butts off for small potatoes clients who don’t appreciate or value their work — being paid peanuts for it to boot! And all because you haven’t learned the basic business skills you need to get the projects you want, from the clients you want, at the...
By Brockett Horne Image: Chris Jordan’s Plastic Bottles, 2007 (detail) This summer, I’m pondering the enormous weight of numbers: 426,000 cell phones retired every day 9 million American children with no health insurance 12000 plastic bags are used every minute 400,000 plastic water bottles tossed every minute $60 to fill up my Honda with gas! Ouch! Artist Chris Jordan...
Hjalti Karlsson and Vera Yuan at home with their son Dagur Married couple Vera Yuan and Hjalti Karlsson live together in New York with their one-and-a-half-year old son Dagur. They are both designers and, as with all creative people, their work is an important part of their lives. Which also makes it an important part of their relationship (“It...
By Justin Ahrens Illustration by Justin Ahrens Last post, I talked about creating a designer “farm system” that works for everyone involved. Of course, that doesn’t matter much if you don’t have the work. So, how do you “shake the marketing tree”? First, you need to know that there’s no magic bullet here – and I’m sure you’re aware...
By Bryn Mooth I often find that designers, whether they’re new to the field or have been at it for a few years, are a bit muddy on their career options. Should I go the in-house route? Is a design firm for me? What kind of business know-how do I need? What about opening my own shop? I suppose...
Want to get a glimpse of what’s going on inside the heads of some of today’s most interesting designers? The exciting new online video series Designing Minds lets you do just that. In three just-long-enough installments, the videos deftly mixes interviews with shots of past and present works and voice-overs. First out is the prolific graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister...
