Advanced design course assignments are conceived to mirror real-world experience as closely as possible, but at the end of the day, it’s still just a class assignment…or is it? More and more school projects are enjoying a life beyond the classroom, so if you think you’re doing something just for practice, you might want to reconsider. Learning environments, whether...
I sometimes think of myself as the ‘Johnny Appleseed’ of web design. I go forth and plant seeds of knowledge with potential clients and I do it not because I want to seem like a know-it-all but because it helps them down the road, which in turn can help me. Sometimes as web designers we forget that we’re working...
To have continued success as a web designer, you must diversify your skill set. Not only do you need to know how to create a web site but you should also know how to create and edit themes for various content management systems, know how to design blog templates and possibly even design Myspace pages. This sometimes means downloading...
Holly Becker, décor8 As a freelance writer and interior design consultant, Holly Becker has created a very loyal readership to her blog, décor8. Holly is an Interior Design Consultant practicing in New Hampshire, Boston and the surrounding areas. She’s also a published freelance writer, having 10 years of combined writing and design experience, working for Fortune 500 companies and...
If you’re considering a career in special effects for film, it may be news that fire-breathing dragons and futuristic fight-scenes aren’t all that lie in store for you. More and more directors are relying on digital editing to add drama to the telling details of actors’ onscreen performances. Though actors have traditionally been paid the big bucks to cry...
Homemade YouTube video ads will soon be de rigeur in advertising designers’ portfolios, if Google’s trendsetting moves are any indication. You may recall when Google launched first its Gmail feature, it generated buzz by eschewing advertising for the old “secret club” tactic—you had to be invited by another gmail user in order to create an account. Now Google seems...
The online generation may still want their MTV, but they want it online, not on the boob tube. That’s the message sent by MTV’s recent layoffs of 250 TV employees and their plan to redirect those funds towards building their interactive media offerings. MTV head Judy McGrath issued a statement affirming their push towards digital media, saying “these moves...
At some point in every creative person’s career, the question of taking on spec work is contemplated. Creative industries from photography to design all seem to agree that generally it’s not a great idea. For most students “real world experience” is the hook used to lure folks towards it along with a (usually hallow) carrot of “I’ve got more...
Anyone thinking of entering the corporate design industry should—but probably doesn’t—know the name Eliot Noyes. Have you ever heard the maxim “Good design is good business?” Its originator, Eliot Noyes, died in 1977, but he laid the groundwork for the corporate design culture we take for granted today. During the 1950s and 1960s, he assembled the in-house design programs...
Bruce Livingstone, Founder, President, CEO, iStockPhoto Bruce Livingstone, 35, is founder, President and CEO of iStockphoto, an innovative marketplace for imagery. Bruce started his design career in 1994, as a clerk in the mail room of Image Club Graphics, a Calgary company credited with being the first to put RF images on CD-ROMs. After a piece of software essentially...
