| Free Design Resources
8 professional designers share their most
frequented
websites for design inspiration and techniques.
 |
Nancy Taylor is the Creative
Director, Designer and Owner of Nancy Taylor
Design, based in Brooklyn, New York. |
Coroflot
http://www.coroflot.com
"This site is great for several reasons:
1. You can post a free portfolio and browse other
people's portfolios. Coroflot lists individual
designers, companies and organizations. Attention
Sessions students: create a free portfolio here
if you haven't uploaded your Picasso-esque award
winning personal portfolio site yet! It's a free
online promo piece for you while you're perfecting
that work of art that will represent you later.
2. People with design
work sometimes search the archives and offer you
jobs if you have a Coroflot presence. I wouldn't
recommend putting a portfolio up on Coroflot and
just waiting for customers to email, but I have
gotten some inquiries through my page."—
NT
Communication
Arts
http://www.commarts.com/
"The Design Interact section showcases nice
new websites and industry info, while Creative
Hotlist shows new portfolios and job listings."
— NT
The Flashkit
Board
http://board.flashkit.com/index.shtml
"I have had many tech questions answered
on this board: HTML, Javascript, .asp, Photoshop,
Illustrator, industry + pricing, as well as Flash
questions. It is the most friendly tech board
I've found." — NT
flavorpill
http://www.flavorpill.net/
"This would be a good place to submit a header
design if you are building your portfolio. Flavorpill.net
is an event listing company that takes free header
submissions. Although having them choose your
design doesn't mean that suddenly your name is
in 'lights', it's pretty fun to see your design
up on the web if you are looking for another link
to add to your design 'collection'."
— NT
squidfingers
http://www.squidfingers.com/
"I love this site for it's pattern and code
archives." — NT
Designer's
Blog
http://www.k10k.net/
"Just look around, there are lots of goodies
here!" — NT
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Tara MacKay is a Web and
multimedia designer who has designed award-winning
exhibit sites for the American Museum of
Natural History and the Rose Center for
Earth and Space.
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A List Apart
http://www.alistapart.com
"Just found this one recently, and am addicted.
Piles of articles for interactive designers, covering
existing and up-and-coming front-end and back-end
technology." — TM
Design Interact
http://www.designinteract.com/sow
"A week doesn't go by that I don’t
check the Design Interact Site of the Week. Sites
presented usually exhibit the latest high-end
design trends and technologies." —
TM
Creative
Pro
http://www.creativepro.com
"Essentially an online magazine with articles,
reviews, news, interviews, etc, this is another
one I visit at least weekly for the latest graphic
and interactive design info."
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Brian Slawson is a designer
and educator who teaches graphic design
and typography courses ranging from typography
to digital media to graduate-level seminars. |
Scott Kim
http://www.scottkim.com/inversions/
"Scott Kim is a designer most well-known
for his experiments with "inversions"
— sort of a Rubic's Cube of letterforms."
— BS
Various
Designer Blogs
http://www.coudal.com/
http://www.typographi.ca/
http://www.designobserver.com/
http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/
"Even designers are blogging these days!
A blog is a kind of online journal or diary —
read some of their thoughts, tips and discussions
about design culture and practice." —
BS
T26 and
Segura
http://www.t26.com/
http://www.segura-inc.com/
"Carlos Segura is the mastermind of the digital
type foundry, T26, in Chicago. T26 is actually
a collective of typeface designers from around
the world who constantly contribute fresh designs."
— BS
(note: Advanced Typography at Sessions include
free T26 fonts.)
The Apollo
Program
http://www.theapolloprogram.com/
Elliott Earls is a "designer in residence"
at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. In
very unusual ways, he combines design and typography
with music and performances.
Motion Design
Firms
http://www.brandnewschool.com/
http://www.imaginaryforces.com/
"Ever wonder who does those cool spots for
MTV or eye-opening film title sequences? Two examples
of motion design firms are: Brand New School and
Imaginary Forces. You can view quite a bit of
their work online. What is most interesting is
how typography plays an active role in their motion
design. Keep your eye on the type!" —
BS
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Laura Schwamb is the co-founder
of Steam Design Group and the founder of
Sign Off, a press check, quality control
company. |
Net Diver
http://www.netdiver.net/outstanding/
"Start with the collage foundation, all these
sites are pretty great,
loads of fun. See them all." —
LS
ic! Berlin
http://www.ic-berlin.de/
German sunglasses...beautiful site.
Urban Action
[ UACT ]
http://www.urbanaction.com/flash_new.html
Clothing line that describes itself this way:
"The UACT concept is to make clothes, which
through a strong thematic style enable people
to express their personality — to make you
act."
Chanel
http://www.chanel.com/
Yes...that Chanel. (We've not seen Laura carrying
a Chanel bag?! ;-)
Zakka
http://www.zakkacorp.com/home.php
The web address for this New York and Tokyo design
boutique tagged as "shop and space for creators."
Gucci
http://www.gucci.com/uk/index2.html
Hide your credit card...ok, good...now click above.
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Thom McKenna is the Owner/Senior
Creative Director of FlatironWorks, a graphic/multimedia
design firm based in New York City. |
design interact
http://www.designinteract.com/
Design Interact is a great source of information
and inspiration for interactive media. Targeting
information architects, designers and programmers
with news and feature articles explore the creativity
and technology necessary for the completion of
successful interactive media projects. It gives
you a nice window into the people, process and
tools in interactive media and is an important
source of information (and inspiration).
American
Institute of Graphic Arts
http://www.aiga.org/
"AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts)
is a beacon of light in the designing community.
The association is committed to stimulating thinking
about design through the exchange of ideas and
information. They frequently sponsor conferences,
competitions, exhibitions, publications and websites.
Their purpose is to inspire, educate and inform
designers, helping them to realize their talents
and advocating the value of design among the media,
the business community, governments and the public." — TM
Shift
http://www.shift.jp.org/
"This is a great Japanese resource/magazine
site for finding design blogs, international designers
and a host of excellent graphic designers - and
also a great place to make contact and collaborate
with others on projects. Great digital art gallery
for some digital entertainment."
— TM
Heavy
http://www.heavy.com/
"Pure inspiration - with some great music
that is frequently updated. Meant to showcase
some of Heavy Industries talented multimedia designers,
this site is a "must visit" when you
have a little downtime - or need some instant
multimedia motivation. (It is also consistently
hilarious, but can be a bit raunchy and obscene
is some of it's racier presentations)." —
TM
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Donald Gambino is a computer
artist, consultant, educator, and trainer.
Formerly the Chairperson of the Computer
Art Department at the School of Visual Arts
in New York City. |
Worth 1000
www.worth1000.com
A mind-blowing site that is a humorous and astounding
collection of what some Photoshop Artists can
do with this weekly competition. You can just
view the current and archived contests - or enter
and compete! ( Click on the "Photoshop"
tab)
Worth 1000
— Photography
http://www.worth1000.com/
Default.asp?display=photography
"Same main sight as above, but go here for
a taste of straight Photography, for those interested
in putting your Digicam to work."
— DG
Some publications
online:
NY Times — Circuits
www.nytimes.com/circuits
"A Must-read on every Thursday - or read
the archives files." — DG
Mac Addict
www.macaddict.com
"One of my favorite Mac magazines."
— DG
Mac World
http://www.macworld.com/
"Another Mac magazine." — DG
Wired
www.wired.com
"For all things digital and to keep current,
hip, and in-the-know." — DG
Lost America
http://www.lostamerica.com/lostframe.html
"More Photography - this guy does night photography
in the Southwest USA desert." — DG
Mac.com
http://www.mac.com
"If you own a Macintosh with OS X, go here
and get a “dot Mac” subscription."
— DG
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David Witt is a Brooklyn,
NYC-based new media artist and award-winning
interactive multimedia designer. He has
worked for many top brands and agencies. |
Apple
http://www.apple.com
"My choice for the best-designed site on
the web; Information, e-commerce and branding,
all wrapped in a clean, cohesive interface (not
to mention the best-designed hardware, software
and OS!)" — DW
Slashdot
http://www.slashdot.com
"Think Geek! An excellent news and discussion
resource for cutting-edge computer-related technology.
A great daily read to keep up with tech news and
announcements." — DW
Kirupa
http://www.kirupa.com
"A great Flash/Actionscript resource and
community; Lots of source code and eyeballs to
help debug your code!" — DW
Robert Penner
http://www.robertpenner.com
"The site of Robert Penner, one of the all-time
Actionscript greats; Lots of killer Flash animation
and Actionscript source code." — DW
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Fredrik Skold's expertise
lies in his creative use of Photoshop and
3-D animation programs to digitize traditional
photography. His clients are major media
and advertising agencies. |
Art and
Commerce
http://www.artandcommerce.com/
anthology/archive/
"This site has some pretty high-end photographers
showing their work." — FS
Getty Images
http://creative.gettyimages.com/
source/home/homeCreative.asp
"The biggest image provider. Some of my images
can be found on the getty site. Search for Gamma
Ray Studio Inc (my company)." —
FS
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