Author: Bradley Hotson for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

Neon Signs

Neon, Advertising & Vice

One message strongly signified by neon advertising seems to be vice. The enthusiasm shown by those in the alcohol, tobacco, gambling and sex trades for embracing neon to advertise their wares, services and establishments has been substantial, forming for many an indelible connection between neon signage and decadent commodities. The inherently bright and showy properties of neon make it an ideal choice for the cheerful yet pushy style so often adopted by vice-based industries, and by extension those simply selling cigarettes and Budweiser beer. So whilst there is nothing intrinsically trashy or risqué about neon, the sober and the luxurious sections of the business and cultural communities seem largely to have made their minds up, and decided it’s not for them. One recent exception has been London’s Wellcome Trust who engaged the services of London-based graphic design studio Graphic Thought Facility to create a “series of neon artworks based on the scientific models that represent the structures of proteins used in the treatment of HIV, obesity, malaria and cancer.” Images may be found here.

The connection between neon and the advertising of vice is undeniable. Peddlers of alcohol, tobacco, gambling and sex are well aware of neon’s attention-grabbing and brash potential. Image © Cheryl Goodwin.

Certain brands have subsumed neon into the fabric of their DNA. The flickering neon Budweiser sign has attained cultural familiarity through cinema and our own experience. Image © David Morton.

Electrifying in blue, and perfect to sit over the door of a nightclub. Image © Ian Muttoo.

As with vice, neon advertising has strong connections with the body modification industry. Image © Marc Weinreich.

I Never Knew That…

When used in tubes for signs, neon produces a distinctive red-orange light. It’s the other noble gases which when used emit the greens, blues and other hues commonly seen in signage, though all are commonly referred to as ‘neon’ signs. Neon signs are expensive to produce, the high costs due to the rarity of neon, and not the liquifaction process involved in their production.

During daylight hours, the neon sign drops back into the landscape, becoming a mere painted sign with a tubular exo-skeleton. Image © Patrick Boury.

David Warwick likes “the incongruously jaunty type” of this neon sign. Nothing murky about the establishment though; The Dungeon is a London-based art gallery.

Though often typographic, sometimes an illustrative sign crops up to amuse and delight. Image © Gerard Donnelly.

It’s the roman and Asiatic-type neon signs that have filtered through to our consciousness, but cyrillic and other-writing people make them too. Image © Dit is Suzanne.

Neon’s Influence on Future Noir

Whilst commonplace in our cities, it might also be useful to look at how a commodity like neon can have an influence on style and subculture. Neon has featured heavily in the work of film directors looking to project a dystopian vision of the future, signifying the particular un-organic look its fluorescence communicates. Throughout Blade Runner, Deckard, the detective who inhabits Ridley Scott’s Los Angeles of 2019, weaves his way through a neon-soaked cityscape. Here, neon signs advertise every kind of ware—legitimate and shady—in roman and Asian type of bright reds, greens and blues, as crowds hurry through fierce rain with neon-handled umbrellas. Scott’s idea of a future Los Angeles was based less on the LA of the time and more on Tokyo, itself a futuristic city teeming with neon.

Neon features heavily in science fiction filmmakers’ work, perhaps most notably in Ridley Scott’s 1982 future noir thriller Blade Runner, who’s 2019-set Los Angeles resembles a neon-drenched rain-swept Tokyo, itself a kind of future-city.

In Sum

A writer whose name escapes me once divided historians up between what he called parachutists and truffle hunters, meaning those who are driven by the broad sweeps of history and those who find meaning in the unexpected nuggets of stories often related by ordinary people. As designers we need to be both. We shouldn’t ignore the wider world around us—to take an interest in global trends will help improve our work as well as our character. At the same time we must nurture and cultivate a keen sense for the miniature of life, to zoom in to the detail of the everyday, pick an attribute of the environment and link it back to a wider cultural context. Neon signage is one such attribute, and there are countless others out there to explore. Ernesto Rogers (I don’t forget everyone’s name) once claimed that if you examine a spoon carefully you can understand enough about the society that made it to visualise how they would design a city. Whilst possibly stretching things with this assertion I believe he was on the right path. You will be too if you develop the visual awareness explained above, striding towards signs reading ‘Awards’ ‘Recognition’ and ‘Success’, in neon naturally!

“The baths are no longer there, but the sign was restored in a recent conversion of the building into flats” explains Herschell Hershey. Gorgeous.

Author: Bradley Hotson for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

Substrates & Finish: 7 Sumptuous Substrates

Greyboard

Primarily used for inconspicuous packaging material, graphic designers have been turning to greyboard as a substrate on which to print for some time now, in a table-turning celebration of its rough-edged qualities. Despite its unglamorous origins (it is produced from waste paper) greyboard has a tactile quality which feels satisfying in the hands. High contrasts between coarseness and precision may be achieved by combining this gravelly favourite with a lavish printing finish such as foil-blocking (see images below).

Greyboard postcards with cyan foil printed on front, black foil on reverse for artist-led organisation Interval. Designed by © Graham Jones.

PVC

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a cheap, durable and easy-to-assemble material often used for signage and report covers. Type and imagery can be transferred onto PVC through screen printing, die-cutting and transfers. Widely produced in myriad colours and weights, PVC is an appealing substrate which graphic designers should (and do) take advantage of to produce objects most often printed on more predictable stocks. The results can be dramatic and unpredictable, turning easily-forgotten or disposable printed matter, like invitations and business cards, into memorable objects of permanence.

These business cards were printed on a translucent PVC substrate which is refreshing and unexpected. The black and silver inks used lend them an expensive feel. From © Pinkograf.

Fabric

The use of fabric for graphic design purposes has obvious uses when one considers clothing label clients and the like, but can also be used to suggest any number of meanings, as the various fabrics themselves do. Tweed has become a symbol of the countryside, and silk connotes expensiveness. Fabrics can be screen printed and hand-drawn onto. They lend actual weight to objects and are inevitably tactile.

To suggest “vibrant modernity as well as solid City tradition” in a piece designed for investment bank Lehman Brothers, London-based graphic design studio The Design Conspiracy produced 5 handmade pin stripe boxes, with material sourced from Savile Row. When the box was opened it revealed an explosion of bright colours.

Translucent Stock

Transparency and translucence have an intrinsically enchanting value that children are fascinated by and graphic designers have been clever to exploit. Thin stocks are often susceptible to showthrough, which is generally seen as a defect, but transparency may also be used by designers deliberately and creatively to great effect. With translucent objects compositions change depending on what happens to be beneath the stock.

Striking posters designed for a series of talks held by LongLunch. Printed on Transcolour Leaf and Transcolour Red Roses, both by GF Smith. Image used with kind permission of © Proud Creative.

Specialist East Yorkshire-based paper merchants GF Smith offer customers a tremendous selection of tactile and unusual substrates.

Newsprint

Composed of mechanically-ground wood pulp, newsprint has a short lifespan and is cheap to produce, hence its principal use for newspapers and comic books. Perhaps due to its cheap and ephemeral nature however, graphic designers sometimes use it as a substrate on which to print work of high caliber, which might arguably be better suited to a stock offering more longevity or a higher quality finish. This knowingly perverse design decision can add novelty to a project; to view a publication with high design standards printed on newsprint can be a bemusingly pleasurable experience.

The cheap and ephemeral nature of newsprint hasn’t stopped many designers choosing it as a substrate on which to print great work. Image supplied by © Jennifer Daniel.

Flock

If ever there was a substrate candidate intended to add a tactile quality to printed material it must be flock. Flock was originally intended to simulate tapestry and Italian velvet brocade. These days, designers use it to add a decorative, tactile and luxurious feel to printed materials. As with fabrics, flock naturally recommends itself to projects for clients such as clothing companies and textiles merchants, and its luxurious, almost baroque, character makes it ideally suited to wedding materials. The robust nature of flock means it can be embossed, debossed and foil-blocked.

For those intending their project to connote luxury teetering on the decadent, few substrates can match flock. Image used with permission of © CraftyKat.

Astrolux Mirror Board

Astrolux is a highly reflective, high-gloss card available in a wide range of colours. When combined with embossing, the results can be beautiful. Luxury, again, is a look which can be achieved, especially when hues of gold or silver are used, although astrolux board offers a more contemporary and less traditional experience than, say, flock does. Precision, seriousness, fun (think grown-up tinsel and baubles) and cool futuristicness are all values attainable with the versatile astrolux board.

Why limit yourself to one intriguing substrate? To evoke the feeling of opening a tin for his ‘Pilchards’ project book arts enthusiast Simon Goode has used astrolux mirror board, kraft, tracing and graph papers in an audacious blend of materials.

Top Tips

• Choose a substrate which can ‘take’ a printed design and is appropriate for your intended message
• Research the substrates available from paper mills and specialist suppliers
• Familiarize yourself with the costs of materials. Prices of substrates can fluctuate, and it pays to keep your knowledge topped up.
• If you’re sure of a particular substrate’s powers to connote luxury/spontaneity/hand-craftedness (delete as appropriate) but are worried about costs, obtain printers’ quotes on both standard stock and your special choice. Present both to your client and argue your case.

In Sum

Choosing a substrate is an integral part of the design process, and should be carried out at the start of each project. Luckily for creatives, the number of substrates available to us is now greater than ever before, giving us unprecedented choice over the materials we select for our jobs. Few other elements of the design process work so hard at buttressing, connoting and amplifying the messages we communicate, or so persuasively at cajoling our audiences into “feeling” these messages. The death of print has been heralded regularly for a decade now, and whilst evidently an overblown claim, designers must continue to do all they can to explore, fathom and utilize the frontiers of the Printed Object. In this unprecedented era of glorious substrates, you’ll be in with a head start.

If a surface will take a printed impression, it’s fair game! Image used with kind permission of © Dave Kirby.

DO: Keep your page structured

In the recent months we’ve seen an explosion of great grid layouts and css files. The most famous (in my opinion) being 960.gs and one of the cooler, more light weight grid systems being the 1kb grid. Following after the structure and balance of a great magazine/newspaper, these grid systems help lay out information in a structured and easy to follow format.

DONT: Just place boxes everywhere

We’ve all seen these types of websites before – 20+ boxes, all different sizes, nothing lining up properly and not on piece that actually grabs your attention because you’ve just ran into a whirlwind of craziness. if you’re a web designer and you cannot properly place items in a structured environment, well, I would’t really call yourself a web designer.

DO: Focus on what’s important

Are you building a website for a business that sells one specific product? If so, make sure that’s the focus of the home page. Allow yourself space on the inner pages to place calls to action for that specific item. If you’re building a blog that gives out freebies or writes tutorials, make sure they’re getting the proper amount of focus and attention. Websites like WOO Themes do a great job and putting forward what their main focus is – wordpress themes.

DONT: Place irrelevant ads across your page

If you’re going to try and make money from your website/blog, do yourself a favour and lay off the excessive advertisements. If your page loads and has 70% ads and only 30% content, odds are high that people will leave and never come back. Making your ads the #1 priority is a bad idea. Try blending them in and making sure they don’t take away from the content.

DO: Choose the right colour scheme

Knowing what your readers emotions are will help you in choosing the proper colour scheme. You won’t want a bright and ‘loud’ colour scheme if your website is in the meditation niche. You’ll notice that most punk rock bands have CMYK colour schemes (pink, yellow, black and blue), while a doctor/medical website will generally stick with a lighter, more ‘open’ colour scheme

DONT: Overdo it with 20 different colours

Having every colour that is inside the 64 set of crayons on your screen will not only look bad, but it will annoy your readers and drive them away. Your colours should blend well together, not clash. If you’re not good at picking colour schemes, I’d suggest a site like Colour Lovers which has user generated colour schemes posted. Find the right colour scheme (at most, 5 colours) and see how much better your designs turn out.

DO: Make it easy to scan your pages

People will not spend 5 minutes trying to figure out what your website is about and what it has to offer. The best way to ensure you’re getting the right information out to your reader is to make the page easy to scan. Use proper H tags (similar to how this post is using h3 tags) to focus on the important items. You can also use pull quotes, block quotes and images.

DONT: Write one paragraph per page that is 1,000+ words long

If there’s one thing that stops me from subscribing to a blog is that the posts are literally 1,000+ words and have no paragraph breaks. This, and they normally don’t even have blog words or any indication that there’s anything important inside their content. Break your content up and make it easier to read – please, and thank you.

DO: Keep it simple stupid

It’s a proven fact that sign up forms with more than 3 items (usually – name, email & one other item) will have a significantly lower sign up rate than the easier forms. People HATE doing things for too long – so don’t over complicate things. Make things as easy as possible for your readers by pretending a 4 year old will be viewing it. It definitely helps get things out in the open where they need to be.

DONT: Go on and on (and on) about nothing

Rambling, excessive LOL’s, too many smiley faces and random dribble will drop attention spans of your visitors. You want them to stay – act like it. If you have a personal blog where you write about your life, thats one thing, but to randomly post about what you ate, or where you went yesterday on your business website will definitely drive people away.

DO: Focus on killer copywriting

Words matter. Keep them short, sweet and to the point. If you have trouble writing copy that attracts the readers attention to where you need it to go, hire someone. Copy is just as important as the design of your website. Choosing the right words for sign up buttons, page headings, navigation items and calls to action can be the difference between 50% sign up rate and a 90% sign up rate.

DONT: Stuff your pages full of keywords

Google isn’t stupid. Neither are your readers. If your page has the main keyword for your site stuffed into each paragraph 30-40 times, it will not only read very poorly, but you’ll be penalised. Writing should flow naturally and should only mention your keywords where they fit.

DO: Set your navigation up properly

If you’ve got a sign up page on your website, maybe you’ll have your main navigation in a blue colour, while the sign up button is in a green colour. Regardless, you’ll want to make your navigation easy to spot and easy to use.

DONT: Make your readers search to find something

Your readers shouldn’t spend 30-40 seconds trying to find a contact or about page. They also shouldn’t have to click through three pages just to get to a sign up form. Get the important things out in the open. For the items that aren’t required to have a strong focus on your website, you might want to invest in a search box – I HATE when websites don’t have a search box. Web design 101 maybe?

DO: Optimize your load times

If there’s one recurring theme in this entire article it is the fact that visitors are impatient. You need to build your website with optimal speeds and allow your page to load in around 1-2 seconds. You can do this by making sure your css files are compressed, using the google hosted javascript files and ensure your page is coded and designed with optimal speeds in mind.

Someone like embed a video on their site. Then I will not suggest you to make it auto load or auto play, because it makes your site slow. If you do not know how to set them, I suggest you to use moyea flash video mx 6, because you can set the player’s profile in this software. The product site: video-to-flash.com.

DONT: Make everything on your page an image

Text on a website is there to be exactly what it is -text. There is no need to make the text blocks of your site jpg images. Also, making your website background 1MB or more in size will also cause your page to load very slow. I’ve seen websites also use 2 different javascript libraries and load 10+ plugin scripts for them in the headers and their websites took around 20 seconds to fully load.

DO: Choose the right fonts and sizes

I’ve only recently got into typography and have realised that it is a highly important aspect of web design. Making your section titles the right size and making sure the fonts you’re using will greatly effect the experience your visitors have when viewing your websites. Generally speaking, you should use one main font for the content and then you may switch the titles of the pages to a different font.

DONT: Have 5 different fonts in 10 different sizes

Picture this: Page titles are in times new roman, content for those pages are in Arial, navigation links are in comic sans and the sidebar is in impact (yes, that impact). How ugly does that look? Now, remember that vision the next time you want to build a website with 5 different fonts.

DO: Make your page visually appealing

The world may tell you that people don’t judge a book by its cover, but thats a lie. The first thing people see is the web design you’re branded with. That first impression better be a good one. Utilise textures/gradients that give your website depth and draw attention to the beauty of your design. I would strive to ensure each of your website designs are accepted to galleries like css mania.

DONT: Throw a bunch of crap together and think you’ll do well

Animated gif’s are your first no-no. After that comes the marquee scrolling text and the jumbled mess of text and graphics that resemble a 13 year olds myspace page. It isn’t cute and in case you’re not aware of it, it’s no longer 1980. Things have changed and people don’t expect to see something that looks like a 7 year old made it. If you’re a professional, act like it and make sure your designs are up to par.

Author: Bradley Hotson for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

Substrates & Finish, Article 2 of 3: Gorgeous Print Finishes

Debossing & Embossing

Debossing and embossing are the processes whereby an element of a design is stamped into the substrate with ink or foil, giving printed medium a 3-dimensional, textural quality. Debossing occurs when the design has been pressed into the surface of the substrate, producing a recessed effect on the page. Embossing yields the opposite result; a raised design component on the printed object. Great impact can be achieved through an emboss or deboss, especially when combined with a striking foil or special colour. In aiming to communicate a more subtle effect, designers might also want to consider blind debossing and embossing. The processes are identical, save the fact that no ink or foil is used (see below right).

(L>R): A subtle deboss combined with what appears to be a white spot varnish. Image courtesy of © SeptemberIndustry; Debossed gold card. The emboss was achieved by operating a “curious industrial machine with a ‘single button”, explains © Kariann Burleson.

Foil Blocking

Few finishes can rival foil blocking for sheer razzle-dazzle. The process (also interchangeably known as foil stamp, heat stamp, hot stamp, block print and foil emboss) is achieved by pressing coloured foil onto a substrate with a heated die, which causes the foil to separate from its backing. Foil blocking can be used to great decorative and memorable effect. It is also versatile, and may be used to signify an array of signs and meanings, such as luxury, futuristic-ness, modernism and metallic-ness.

London-based graphic design studio North are famous for not having a website. They instead show a single page of logotypes they have designed, which segue randomly from grey to colour in a delicate array of cadences. Shown above is a striking foil-blocked rendering of the same concept. Image courtesy of © SeptemberIndustry.

Die Cutting

With die cutting, a steel die is used to cut out a defined area of a design. This finish is often used with decorative intentions, and can create pleasing results on printed pieces, which resonate with recipients. Many printers stock a range of popular dies like circles and radiussed-cornered ingots, but you can also have them designed to your own specifications. Die cutting may also be used creatively as a functional element of the overall design; apertures in the covers of printed material allowing show-through to the content within being a good example.

From the simple to the complex. (i). Many printers stock a range of circular dies due to high demand for them. Their popularity does nothing to diminish the impact a well-designed circular die cut business card can make. (ii). This coaster was letterpress-printed and die cut in the shape of the state of Ohio. Images courtesy of (from L>R) © Malota and © Cranky Pressman. “Don’t Lose Heart” coaster designed by © Mikey Burton.

Varnishes

In addition to the practical uses varnishes offer, such as protecting substrates from smudging and wear (their primary purpose), the different types available can also be used decoratively by graphic designers to embellish printed material. As with foil blocking, different messages can be communicated through different uses of this finish, though having stated this, it should be added that this is perhaps natural, given the wide selection of varnishes available. Gloss, matt and satin are all commonly used and explain themselves. Two lustrous varnishes which merit a line or two of their own are

• PEARLESCENT
  Pearlescent varnish, when used, delicately reflects a whole gamut of colours, giving a subtle, luxurious effect
• SPOT UV
  Perhaps the most “designery” of the varnishes available, spot UV can be applied discretely to areas of a printed page so that when turned toward the light, these areas become highlighted

Devilishly versatile, and there to lend weight to the meanings you wish to communicate, from muted and delicate to glossy and whorish. (from L>R) images supplied by © Kariann Burleson and © SeptemberIndustry.

Deckled Edge

Perhaps not strictly a print finish, as a deckled edge on a paper stock will either be present when selecting a substrate or not, a deckled edge is nevertheless a visually arresting design component when used cleverly and appropriately. The name refers to paper that has a soft, raggedy edge to it. There are two types of deckles; natural and tear. Natural deckles occur (obviously enough) naturally at the point the paper is made. During paper manufacture, the slurry of wood pulp fibres which make up the paper are drained of water, and what is left sits atop a screen in a frame called a deckle, and it’s this frame that causes the uneven edge of paper made in this way. Tear deckles are achieved on purpose, by tearing, after the paper has been made.

Deckled edge paper seems to connote integrity and hand-craftedness. More often than not natural, they betray the very old and esteemed origins of the process used to create them. It’s perhaps no surprise that deckled edge papers are popular with letterpress printers and bookbinders all over the world.

(L>R): Charming letterpress-printed book by © Webb & Webb; Intriguing business card by Koichi Sato using a blind impression on the printing press. Both pieces are printed on deckle-edged paper. Koichi Sato image courtesy of © Kariann Burleson.

Perforation

Perforation is a process that generates rows of small holes through a substrate which weaken it along their axis and make tearing easy. Often used for practical purposes like tearing sections off forms, in recent years graphic designers have awoken to the tactile potential of perforation and began to introduce them into their designs. The process is there to serve a single, obvious function; for the paper to be torn apart or open, and this seductive proposition means the human compulsion to interact with perforations is always in attendance.

Shown below are pictures from “Drentse Bodemweek 2008″, a book designed for a Dutch environmental convention by Jelmar Geertsma of Netherlands-based design studio Typehigh and illustrator Lieslot Moed at Art Academy Minerva. The book is bound French-folded with illustrations to the insides of the pages and perforations running down their edges, inviting readers to tear them open and reveal the imagery within.

Few print finishes get recipients interacting with printed medium more than perforation does. It’s the curiosity-barren person who doesn’t experience the desire to tear. Images supplied by © Typehigh, designed in collaboration with Lieselot Moed.

Special Colours

Most full-colour printing is achieved through the four-colour CMYK process, and while myriad colours can be reproduced using this method, CMYK cannot cover everything, and sometimes more striking results can be achieved through the use of a spot (or special) colour. A spot colour is a specially made ink all of its own, and usually requires its own plate when passing on press. During printing, the special colour is not mixed with any of the other inks, hence its dense, flat quality. Fluorescent colours are special, as are metallics, both unachievable through the four-colour process. The vibrancy attainable through the use of special colours need not be stated.

Additional special “spot” colours can be added to the four-colour CMYK process at any pass on press. Eye-catching effects can be achieved through the use of carefully chosen special colours. Image supplied by © SeptemberIndustry.

In Sum

The print finishes outlined above, and more besides, are all at the creative’s disposal for adding a special final touch to a project; the graphic designer’s icing on the cake, if you will. As with substrates, finishes can be used to enhance messages and communicate meanings to audiences. Whilst typically carried out at the end of the production process, for best success print finishes should not be applied to a project merely as an afterthought, but built in to the design from the start.

Practical factors such as costs, budgets and print runs are ever-present in the designer’s life, and it can take some hefty persuasion to convince a client of the benefits of spending funds on a brilliant finish, a task compounded by global recession. However, with such a dazzling array of finishes there to be used, it has to be worth a try now and again, surely? Many of the projects photographed included in this article were printed in the past two years, so we can infer that some clients are budgeting for lavish print finishes. Given this, would it be overly optimistic of me to cry: “Profligacy is dead. Long live profligacy!”?

The words above may be a strapline for UK-based graphic design studio Golden, but they might equally apply to us creatives who tirelessly strive to explore the bounds of print finishes! Image supplied by © SeptemberIndustry.

Author: Abby Holmes for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

Recruiters – Do you need them to land a job?

What’s the job of a recruiter?

A recruiter is basically the middle man between you and an employer. There are many recruiters that deal specifically with design and advertising agencies. They’re in close contact with a number of employers, so they’re often the first to know about freelance and permanent jobs that are coming up. They also know exactly what’s going on at a large number of agencies; who’s hiring, who’s firing etc.

When a job brief comes through from an employer, a recruiter kind of does the ‘screening process’ for the employer, sending them what they consider to be the top candidates for an interview.

Recruitment agencies also have a wide network of contacts. So even if an agency doesn’t have many jobs on the books when you meet them, they may be able to get you in front of potential employers with a lot more ease than you could if you had to contact them yourself.

Should you get a job through a recruiter, they will also negotiate your salary and day rate, as well as all the details regarding your contract.

Whose side are the recruiters on? Image used with kind permission of Pogo. www.wemakepogo.com

Do I need to use a recruitment agency?

You may be looking for your first job. Or even a new job. Where do you start? It’s rare that you’ll find design jobs advertised. The advertising and design industry just doesn’t work that way. The industry is quite small, so often if an agency needs someone, they’ll ask people in the agency if they know anyone. Or they’ll go through recruiters.

This is not to say that you can’t get a job without using a recruiter. Many people ‘cold call’ agencies, asking if they can come in and show their folio. It’s a foot in the door. An agency will often say, ‘You can come and see us, but we don’t have any jobs’. Don’t worry about this. If they really like you, they might be able to find you some freelance, or maybe even a full time gig. Or if there’s really no work going, they’ll keep you in mind when a job does come up. After ‘cold calling’ a number of agencies and going into show my folio, I was offered two jobs in two weeks, just weeks later.

Throughout my career, I have used recruiters on a few occasions. A recruiter once found me a job interstate, which would have been very difficult for me to do on my own. And when I decided to go freelance in 2007, I found recruiters very useful in finding jobs, as they are the first people to get contacted when freelance work comes up. However, the majority of jobs I have found on my own. Once you’re in the industry, you build up a network of contacts, so you often find out jobs through word of mouth. And if mates in the industry know you’re looking, they’ll think of you when a job comes up. As soon as friends knew I was freelancing, I would be recommended if work came up at their agency.

Things to consider when working with a recruiter.

The most important thing to remember is – never rely solely on a recruiter to find you work. Going in and showing your folio to a recruiter and then sitting back waiting for the calls to come flooding in is not the way to go. You could be waiting a long, long time for that call. A recruiter may see your folio, but have no jobs at that moment. Then when a job comes in, they may call the person they’ve just seen and forget to call you. Or it could be a long time until the right job comes up. Maybe you slip their mind. Maybe they didn’t like your folio. They could have left the agency. Who knows? Perhaps you do get a call, but the job is totally unsuitable. Put yourself in control of your destiny. Don’t leave it in the hands of someone else.

Why? Because no one cares about your career like you do. Don’t think for a minute that anyone else but you truly has your best interests at heart. It sounds harsh to say, but it’s the truth.

A recruiter can help you get the job you want, but maybe they won’t. You need to be out there actively ‘cold calling’ agencies, working up your folio, showing your folio to as many people as possible and utilising all your contacts to get that dream job.

A recruiter is not a designer.

Sounds obvious huh? But think about this. Whenever you go and see a recruiter, they are judging your folio from a designers perspective. Then, based on this, they are putting you forward for jobs they deem you are suitable for and that they consider you have the talent for. Whilst some recruiters have worked in advertising or design, it’s mainly on the account service side. So the vast majority of the time, your folio is being judged by an untrained eye.

There have been countless times I have gone to see a recruiter and they sit there flicking through pages and it’s blatantly obvious that they’ve missed the whole idea or concept of an ad or piece of work. This is frustrating to say the least, as you know that a designer would never miss something like that. Recruiters just don’t ‘get’ your folio like a designer would. So in my mind, they shouldn’t be judging it as if they do. But they do and based on what they ‘see’, will put you forward for the jobs they deem you suitable for. This means you have no control over how you are been represented. Another reason why it’s dangerous to solely rely on recruiters to find you a job.

Does a recruiter see what a designer sees? Image used with kind permission of Irina Vinnik http://vinnik.net

Can I see more than one recruiter?

Yes. But how many all depends on the size of the city where you live. In Melbourne, approximately three to four recruiters is more than enough. In London, I’d say five at a minimum. If you register with too many, you will find that you end up having recruiters applying for the same jobs for you, which can get a little bit tricky. That’s because an employer will often give a brief to a number of recruiters, so every recruiter in town could be touting for the same job. You don’t want your CV to be put forward by two different recruitment agencies, as then there’s a dispute about who gets the fee. It can get very ugly.

Read the contract carefully.

A recruiter has scored you a freelance gig for few weeks. After being there a few weeks, they decide to keep you on indefinitely. Fantastic.

A couple of years ago this happened to a creative team I know. What started off as a great gig eventually meant they were let go to make way for someone they had found without a recruiter. Why? So the agency didn’t keep having to pay the fee to the recruiter on top of the freelance day rate they were paying them.

What they hadn’t done was read the contract closely. The contract stated that as long as the team kept freelancing there, the design agency had to keep paying the recruiter a fee for one year. This seems an awfully long time to keep receiving a fee, relative to what the recruiter has actually done. To add insult to injury, it was the recruiter that contacted the Art Director and in fact the Art Director than found a copywriter to work with. Yet, the recruiter got the ‘finders fee’ for both! After four months of working at this very small agency, the director just couldn’t afford to keep paying the day rate and fee to the recruiter for both the Copywriter and Art Director. So they were ousted for a team the agency found themselves. If I had been in this position, I would have tried to negotiate 3-6 month, rather than a year.

The point is, read the contract carefully. You can have a say about what is being negotiated. After all, it involves you!

It’s all up to you. Image used with kind permission of Victor Oritz. www.iconblast.com

Working with the recruiter to get the best deal for you.

Like an employer, the recruiter is trying to get you at the cheapest fee for their client. You in turn are trying to negotiate the highest salary you can. How do you get the best deal for you?

If you get freelance work, recruiters will ask what your day rate is. Tell them what it is, maybe leaving it open, with a ‘I usually charge round …..’. This tells them that you’re flexible to taking on the work at a slightly lower rate. Sometimes the client won’t pay more than a certain rate, so it’s better to have the gig at a reduced rate than not at all. But do not take work at a rate that is significantly lower than what you’re worth. The recruiter will think they can always secure you at this rate. And if it turns into a long time gig, you will quickly resent the pay you are on.

If you’re currently in a full time job, the recruiter will ask you what you’re on. Generally, people give a slightly higher figure than they’re already on. Then they will ask you what you want to be on – which is something around 15% more than that.

When I moved from my first to my second job, I effectively ended up doubling my salary. How? Basically, I had been in my first job for three years and was underpaid. So the salary I told the recruiter was what I really should have been on at the time. The recruiter was then able to negotiate a salary higher than this again, meaning I could move agencies and start moving up the career ladder.

You must do this with caution though. A couple of years later, a recruiter called me about work and asked what I was currently on. I stated a figure that was quite a bit above what I was being paid. As the recruiter knew the market value of someone in my position, he knew I couldn’t possibly be on that much and was none too happy that I had lied to him. You can exaggerate a little, but don’t push it.

A good tool to have.

So, back to the question of whether to use recruiters or not. Well, as you can see, they can be very useful to find work. They have inside knowledge of the industry, many inside contacts and the ability to negotiate your salary and contract for you. I guess, I like to think of them as one tool to use in any job search. In the end I think the best person you’re ever going to find to help you search for a job – is you.

Binding, the collective term given for the range of processes which hold and fasten a publication’s pages together, is essential for, well, holding and fastening your publications’ pages together. Whilst on the surface not as compelling a design component as, say, print finishes, a little closer inspection reveals a range of distinct processes which exist for different uses. These binding methods aid function; decisions on binding necessarily affect a printed piece’s robustness, longevity and form. Used creatively, they can even add an aesthetic finishing touch to a piece and help amplify messages and intentions. The closer inspection I mention above, and which binding merits, is what this article’s all about.

Author: Bradley Hotson for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

SUBSTRATES & FINISH, ARTICLE 1 OF 3: Diverse Binding Methods

Case Binding

Also known as edition binding, case binding is often used in the binding of hardback books, owing to the sturdy, robust qualities inherent in its process. As with perfect binding, pages are gathered and folded into sections, or signatures. These are then sewn together, the spine glued and the book block pressed and trimmed. Covers are prepared with buckram or other hardy material and, once dried, the book block is ‘cased in’ to the covers. If we rewind a few steps to just before the book block is glued and pressed, designers can embellish their books by specifying coloured headbands and ribbon bookmarks to creative effect (see images below).

A commission for four A3-sized, quarter-bound case bindings from London-based bookbinder © Simon Goode.

Japanese or Stab Stitch Binding

Interchangeably known as Japanese, stab and traditional Chinese binding, pages are here sewn together with a single, continuous thread. There are many variations, far too many to cover here, but in recent years Western designers have helped bring some of them back into people’s consciousness. Gift and children’s books are often to be found stab stitch bound, and increasingly design-conscious clients like Onitsuka Tiger, who produced a superb stab stitch-bound 2004–05 trade brochure (an image of which your normally resourceful writer was, alas, unable to obtain) are turning to the process. Best used to bind publications on the thinner side and when wishing to add a tactile dimension to a publication’s design, the effect can look pleasingly delicate, yet is a robust enough binding method.

A stab stitch-bound notebook and journal, both of which demonstrate the, by turns, innocent and intricate qualities of the method. Images courtesy of © Ruth Bleakley and © Michelle Clement.

Z-binds

The z-bind, so-called because of the distinctive ‘Z’ shape a z-bound piece forms when viewed from above, is a visually arresting method of binding two publications (or two parts of a single publication) together into one. This can be achieved either with permanence in mind by stitching the two together end-to-end, or as a temporary device, through the use of an elastic band or perforation. Lots of interactivity or ‘relational aesthetics’ as French art curator Nicolas Bourriaud has termed it, can ensue through an encounter with a z-bound project; the publication flipped and turned, separated and re-put back together.

Beautiful z-bound MA Project ‘Warnings From The Past’ by © Leanne Mallinder. She explains: “‘Warnings From The Past’ is a small collection of five purely typographic speeches each coming with a corresponding poster of a quote from that speech.”

Bellybands

A bellyband looks much like a portion or strip of a book’s dust jacket, and performs in much the same way. Reasonably versatile, the bellyband can be used functionally to hold a collection of loose leaf pages together or decoratively and as an added layer of protection. When used decoratively as part of a well-designed publication, bellybands seem to lend an air of importance to things and manage to connote the idea of a certain graphical luxury.

Two examples of well-designed and -integrated bellybands. Both carry important publication information, the first printed from handset type and the second featuring a subtle black spot varnish. Images supplied by (L>R) © Trip Print Press and © Oliver Rone-Clarke.

Elastic Bands

The humble elastic band is another innovative method of binding both loose leaf sheets (usually with notches die cut into their tops and bottoms) and for making more permanent binds. When not used for holding loose leaf sheet together they are best used for devices like flip-books, less good for binding thicker publications, as the elasticity makes for poor page fall. The intrinsically ephemeral nature of the elastic band can help signify a feel of happy ingenuity and immediacy.

Charming and intricately bound ‘album to store feathers in’ for a bird-watching friend of © Ruth Bleakley. An exposed spine is visible, over which diagonal, coptic stitching sits housed. Elastic bands at the opposite end act as a clasp to keep it all together.

Exposed Spine

A largely recent phenomenon driven by designers and more visionary patrons that has had traditional book binders scratching their heads in befuddlement, exposed spines have become an increasingly common sight on design bookshelves in recent years. Perhaps the most openly decorative entry in this article, an exposed spine is not a method of binding per se, as all that has happened is a publication has been produced, usually perfect-bound and as per usual, and then its covers (and hence spine) left out of things, permitting a view of the exposed signatures and stitching which would typically be hidden away. The effect can be both cheerful and utilitarian, cheerful in that colourful signatures are often used in order to wring the most out of the finish (see project below), and utilitarian in the same way Renzo Piano’s Centre George’s Pompidou in Paris is, with its “exoskeleton” of escalators and scaffolding.

As featured in these articles elsewhere, Typehigh and Lieselot Moed’s ‘Bodemweek book’ is a graphic banquet of format design and printed finish. In addition to containing gatefolds and perforations, the publication is also bound sans cover, revealing the colourful spine within.

Loose Leaf with Slipcase

There are several ways of collecting loose-leaf pages and holding them together (see ‘Bellybands’ and ‘Elastic Bands’ above) but few feel as luxurious as a bespoke slipcase. These die cut, quickly assembled gems can be designed to fit the pages within as snugly as a book’s covers. From a functional perspective, nothing can beat loose leaf for pages falling and staying open, as the whole point of them is that they aren’t bound, although the process does imply a certain artisanal decadence; a motorcycle maintenance manual, loose leaf, would be an inappropriate choice due to risks of pages becoming lost, discarded or rearranged out of order.

Stunning self-promotional piece by Leicestershire-based graphic design studio Six. Six, ‘Made by Six 08/09’ is composed of loose leaf sheets that feature credentials, recent client work and selected studio projects, all housed in a subtly embossed slipcase/box. Image courtesy of © SeptemberIndustry.

In Sum…

An important, and at times fascinating, design component then, no? As with print finishes and substrates, for best results a method of binding should be decided upon at the start of a project and not at the end. Functional considerations should always be heeded, as the diverse array of binding methods available offer up an equally diverse breadth of differences in longevity and robustness. How easily a publication’s pages fall open should be a prime consideration for the thoughtful graphic designer. From a formal and aesthetic perspective, the myriad materials and sundry levels of intricacy available mean that several of the binding methods covered above may be used as signifiers for all kinds of messages, and, as I hope has been demonstrated, even act as the distinct finishing touch to a project.

…and it’s not just paper-based substrates that can be bound in visually compelling ways! Image courtesy of © Kate Black.

Author: Abby Holmes for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

The Worlds Best Looking Design Studios

It’s true. Our environment affects the way we work. I remember an agency where I once worked, I found it really hard to be productive as it was a bit like being in a science lab. Think; concrete floors and stark white blank desks – heaven forbid you had work on your desk! Although sleek and well designed, it was not conducive to creative thinking. As designers we hope our offices are designed in an inspirational manner. It is definitely easier to think and be motivated and inspired in such surroundings. Here’s a few creative spaces I would love to work in….

Ogilvy

A boardroom that changes colour.

I’d be pretty impressed if I was a client sitting in this reception. Ogilvy in Cape Town is one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. No excuse for a lack of creativity in this building Oglivy

Three Rings Design

After the whole office gave input into their wants and needs for the office design, the theme for the space was decided on – Victorian / Steam Punk.Photo credit and interior design;LLC & Three Rings San Francisco

Mono

Mono Minneapolis

Nothing

The offices at Nothing are made entirely of cardboard. The idea being to create an office that is nothing, a blank canvas on which people can leave their mark.Pretty bleeding obvious it’s Amsterdam, what other country wouldn’t shut down this place for OHS reasons… Love the Dutch! Nothing Amsterdam

Parliament

Photos care of Lincoln Harbour Parliament Design Portland

Oktavilla

Photos care of Oktovilla Stockholm

JWT

Photos care of JWT New York

Michon

At Michon, they believe they work better in light and bright surroundings. They transformed what was formerly an old school into a creative agency.Michon UK

Design by Front

Design By Front Nth Ireland

Barkley

Exterior photos; Allistair Goodman, interior photos; Ron Berg

Got a great looking studio?

email us your pics and we will add them. Email: admin@thegraphicdesignschool.com

Author: Bradley Hotson for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

Professional Design Practice Lesson 6: The Presentation

First Things First

The presentation is the moment of truth. The moment when the designer must bring all his communication skills to the fore and convince his audience that what he’s showing them is the right response to the brief. Many designers find presenting to clients nerve-wracking, which is understandable given that client decisions can at times mean the difference between shopping for food that week or going back to Mum’s for dinner.

Presentations can feel momentous and even daunting, but persevere and over time they’ll become easier. Image used with permission of © Tim Phillips.

Being nervous isn’t perceived by others as being half as bad as you’d think, and it’s good to keep in mind that nobody expects designers to possess statesman-level oratory skills. The main thing when giving presentations is to be yourself. If you’re a smooth sort of person that’s wonderful, but being rough-edged or a little awkward is equally fine, if that’s part of your personality. Just don’t try to be smooth if you’re not as you’ll more likely than not tie yourself up in knots with the effort of it all. Be yourself, and be passionate and confident about what you’re presenting.

Noone expects designers to be accomplished orators of Steve Jobs-level prowess.

All in the Preparation

“There is no such thing as luck. There is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe” — Robert Heinlein

Be prepared and leave nothing to chance. Image used with permission of © Victor Chang.

Another important ingredient in the presentation is preparation. Spend time on every little detail before the big day, and be sure to have each component or topic in place, and in the order you want to present them. From there, keep things simple and structured and take your clients, from beginning to end, through your creative process. Avoid making assumptions about what your clients know; you may have worked, lived and breathed the project for the past fortnight but your audience won’t have. You might begin by restating the brief, explaining the developmental process and ending with a compact summary. Presentations really needn’t be any more complicated than that.

Adrian Shaugnessey, acclaimed designer and writer of ‘How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul’ states

The great immutable law of making a design presentation is this: tell your audience what you are going to show them and then show it to them. That’s all there is to it. Don’t tell them what to think about what they are going to see, just tell them what it is that they are going to see. Try it. You’ll be amazed.

This is sound advice. To reiterate what I stated above, you may have become used to your solution, but your client may have just been presented with something, to his mind, daring or even downright shocking. He’ll need time to digest things, and, after explaining what you’re about to present and presenting it, you can help this digestion by keeping quiet.

A Visual Reference of What You might Include in Your Presentations

Taking a lead from Shaugnessey, follow this visual reference guide for simple, effective presentations. The images comprise brief, project development and final execution of the visual identity for the Folkestone Film Factory.

Imagery courtesy of © Playdontplay Creative.

It’s not What You Say it’s the Way that You Say It

I wrote above that ideas can be rejected based not on their inferior quality per se, but more on the way they are presented, and the illustration below demonstrates how, by utilising creative ways of thinking, we can often turn decisions favourably in our direction. This isn’t to contradict my other point about being yourself throughout presentations, but being aware of the micro-climate of each presentation you find yourself involved in and employing the communication skills necessary to resonate with each client will certainly do your cause no harm at all. Back to the example:

Writer and producer Albert S. Ruddy, on being approached by Peter Bart, an executive at Paramount Pictures, agreed to work as producer on the forthcoming “The Godfather” movie. At that time a best-selling novel, the Godfather script had nonetheless managed to accrue certain negative associations based on the belief that it glorified the Sicilian mafia. It had been touted to and rejected by various Hollywood studios, and was back in Paramount’s in-tray when Ruddy agreed to take the job on. The only hurdle to clear was the approval of the then-head of Paramount Charles Blühdorn, who reserved final approval of producer and director on all motion pictures passed. Blühdorn was a volatile Austrian industrialist who talked candidly about getting involved in the film business more for the fun of it than the money. A meeting was set and Ruddy flew to New York to meet Blühdorn. “Whaddaya wanna do with this movie?” Blühdorn enquired in his inimitable and brusque style. Ruddy knew that if he began to discuss the novel Blühdorn would reject the project out of hand, so instead went on to expound “Charlie, I want to make an ice-blue, terrifying movie… about people you love.”

Ruddy flew back to Los Angeles with Blühdorn’s blessing.

Your rhetoric and planning will have to be polished, but you’ll need also to present great work. Image used with permission of © Thom Fougere.

Top Presentation Tips

• Prepare thoroughly
• Speak factually, coherently, distinctly and not too quickly
• Intersperse your speaking with appropriate pauses to allow your audience to absorb the information
• Be as articulate as possible
• Argue convincingly, objectively and fairly
• Maintain eye contact
• Don’t speak for longer than your audience’s attention span allows
• Don’t use PowerPoint

Aim to make coherent, well-structured and memorable presentations. Image used with permission of © Southtyrolean.

In Sum…

Thorough preparation and solid planning are vital for the effective implementation of good presentations. The work you present also has to be up to scratch. Ultimately though a lot rests on your personality. Throughout your presentations strive to come across as reasonable and likable, maintain eye contact with the members of your audience, speak articulately and passionately about your work, listen to comments and attempt to answer any questions put to you as best you can. Your clients, prospective or actual, need to be convinced that you are the not only the right designer for the job, but are also going to be easy to get along with. The more you satisfy clients of this important criteria, the more you’ll be trudging back from the supermarket laden with food from all the well-paid jobs you’ll have won!

Don’t, through lack of preparation or confidence, allow stage fright to overshadow your presentations. Image used with permission of © Linus Gelber.

Spending time on preparation, being yourself and showing first-rate work will help you turn out confident performances time and again! Image used with permission of © Linus Gelber.

Author: Bradley Hotson for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

Putting Together an Effective Portfolio

Contained Therein: What to Include

What graphical wonders might reside within…

What should a freelance designer’s portfolio contain? For starters, it should include no more than 6–10 projects. Any more and you risk your interviews dragging on and prospective employers and clients hurrying you along whilst glancing at their watch. Try not to include two too similar projects, even if you’re equally proud of both. Each piece in the portfolio should come with its own unique narrative. There is an exception to this rule; it can be ignored if you have a series of projects designed for a certain client, say a triptych of biannual trade brochures, which together demonstrate the development of a concept or narrative and can be presented, from your point of view, as a single project.

Your portfolio truly is your shop window to the world, offering others a glimpse of your priorities, competencies, predilections and professional level. Sweat blood over it. Image courtesy of © Juan Pablo Cambariere.

For traditional ‘paper’ portfolios, high-quality printouts of uniform size are recommended. These printouts could include developmental and conceptual work alongside the final solutions. Attempt to inject a dose of uniformity into things; it looks neat and consistent and your efforts won’t go unnoticed by those on the opposite side of the table. Just be sure that each project tells its own unique story, and go to brow-furrowing lengths deciding just what to include, and the order in which you present them. Print-based designers will naturally enough want to include finished printed pieces, but these may still be combined with printouts explaining the ‘journey’ of each project. Exactly the same rules described above apply to web-based designers. They can, if they choose to make use of printouts, show frames from websites they’ve designed, which can in turn accompany actual visits around the websites themselves, if a laptop is present.

A dazzlingly original portfolio concept. A series of perfect-bound books contained within a slipcase and all bound with an elastic band. Image courtesy of © Zoo Press.

The Receptacle Itself

A great alternative to the traditional “paper” portfolio, the laptop is an increasingly appealing method for showcasing one’s work. Image courtesy of © François Proulx.

“Don’t fret, it’s what’s inside that counts” we are told by our mothers when spurned by a playground sweetheart. But with regard to the portfolio, the exterior, the actual, physical receptacle you carry your work around in, matters a great deal too. The slim black case, once beloved by all, has, over the decades, become ubiquitous and predictable. It has an evergreen appeal, in the same way that gallery spaces’ white walls and beech blonde floors do. Because of its very ubiquity though, here in the 21st century, the slim black case is no longer going to raise any eyebrows or get hearts a-thumping. Employers will have seen thousands of them. Therefore, I’d advise you to think about something a little different. The key here remains discretion; a receptacle whose appearance visually or tactilely overpowers the work contained within has failed in a basic aim, much as a gallery in charge of a Mondrian retrospective would if it hung the great Modernist’s canvases on garish flock wallpaper, if you can imagine so undesirable a thing.

Photographers’ archive boxes make handsome receptacles for a freelancer’s portfolio. They are sturdy, protecting, beautifully made from acid-free materials and discrete in their design, much in the same way the slim black case is. Their self-folding covers carry just enough weight for them to open and lie flat with a pleasing ‘clunk’. Also of immense value, they allow the freelancer to carry his work around loose-leaf fashion. To carry your work loose-leaf is an infinitely more desirable system than having a ringbound portfolio, which requires the designer to frequently turn the case around and (if the case is on the larger side) awkwardly turn the plastic sleeves as he goes. Loose-leaf printouts allow the freelancer to pass them around to those they’re presenting to, and this is A Good Thing.

“Thou shalt not use Powerpoint to present thy portfolio”. Image used with kind permission of © Ian Ruotsala.

If you have a laptop, you may wish to make this your main portfolio receptacle. Laptops are good for this, and a modern, not-too-scuffed Apple laptop can help make a slick impression on others. Be sure to have all the technical bases covered before presenting; arriving to a meeting with an uncharged laptop, sans mains charger isn’t going to impress anybody. Choosing to carry your portfolio on a laptop allows for expedient and rapid updating of work. You can shuffle things around, add and omit projects as you see fit and effectively tailor your body of work to suit each new meeting and interview you bag. You can of course do the same with a traditional paper-based portfolio, though high-quality printouts can represent a not negligible expense. A final word on using laptops, if you do choose to pursue this route avoid using Powerpoint in your presentations; everybody by now should know that this software is the last word in corporate uncool.

This Is The Modern World

Portfolio site of successful designer Fabien Barral.

Of course, most freelancers with a decent body of work nowadays will also have an online presence, used, in the main, to display their work. Take as much care with your online portfolio as you would your physical one. Strive for a uniformity and dynamism in your photography of projects, and make sure that images and pdfs saved from the computer are of sufficiently high and consistent resolution. Write concise, foolproof explanations to accompany the work and organise it all in an intuitive level-based fashion, much as you would a website. Sites like Flickr and View Creatives go some way to aiding the freelancer in this professional-feeling endeavour, but you’ll still need to pour energy and vim into the whole enterprise to create the right appearance.

A Dynamic Process

Don’t, through neglect or complacency, allow your portfolio to become stale… “Retro” bedroom image used with permission of © Steve Collins.

If not tended regularly, and updated at least periodically, portfolios can make their owners seem stale and static-seeming, much as a restaurant that hasn’t updated its menu or decor since the 1970s would appear. Your relationship with your portfolio (for that’s what it really is), should be a dynamic process which engages your thoughts and labour continuously. A portfolio assembled two years in the past may have once seemed the sexiest thing alive, but if not updated and cared for as and when necessary, projects may become vaguely dated, printouts and interleaves may ‘stick’ together and, if you spend a lot of time carrying them around, projects inside the portfolio may become dog-eared and crumpled. Keep things shipshape and Bristol fashion as best you can. If printouts look a little worse for wear, replace them. Rotate, add and omit projects when desirable.

Useful Top Tips

• Keep things small. A portfolio any larger than A3 is really too big
• Keep things clean & uncrumpled
• Loose-leaf sheets are better than ring-bound sleeves
• Assembling a portfolio should not be a one-off exercise, but a dynamic and continual process
• Request and absorb other people’s comments and allow this information to flow back into the way you maintain your portfolio
• Interleave your loose-leaf sheets with a bold and dazzling substrate, though choose something that doesn’t overpower the work contained within
• If you choose to carry your portfolio on a laptop, for pity’s sake avoid using Powerpoint in your presentations!

The “restless and questing” disposition of the freelancer when putting together his or her portfolio is an asset, not a fault. Image courtesy of © Humminggirl.

Keep things on the smaller side; a portfolio any larger than A3 for the graphic designer is, nine times out of ten, unnecessary. Image used with permission of © Stefho74.

In Sum

A restless disposition when it comes to the freelancer’s personal portfolio is, according to Adrian Shaugnessey, a strength, not a weakness: “Designers are never happy [with their portfolios]. I’ve known many competent and talented designers who’ve begun portfolio sessions with an apology: ‘I’m just about to redo it,’ the say; or, ‘Sorry, it’s a bit out of date.’ It seems to be a designer foible that the portfolio is ‘never finished’ and ‘never representative of current work’. Yet far from being a sign of weakness, this is a good sign: It indicates a restless and necessary desire to improve and develop.”

To reiterate what I stated at the top, your portfolio is your second most important asset after your personality, and thus requires the thought, care and attention this level of importance deserves. Like a Savile Row tailor, your success as a freelancer may depend on tiny details, and the portfolio is a complex enough animal to through up lots of details-based challenges. Pour thought and care (not to mention funds) into things, leave nothing to chance and be unswerving in your commitment to the upkeep and presentation of your portfolio. Perhaps most important of all, remember that each project included should not be composed of merely an arresting image or piece, but tell a compelling story about you as a designer and the process you went through. This is the key to an effective and resonant portfolio!

Aim for your portfolio to make a spectacular impression on others. Image used with kind permission of © Guiniveve.

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Author: Bradley Hotson for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

Get off the Mac, roll up your sleeves and get making. Once a week.

Steve Jobs is nobody’s fool. The sleek, sexy and justifiably praised desktops and laptops that Apple make are now a staple —a necessity even— of any self-respecting graphic designer. We await the release of new iMacs and operating systems with impatience, queue up to purchase our copy, and coo over them once they’re installed as if they were newborn babies. We learn them inside out and gush, blog and tweet over new Photoshop filters. Graphic design, along with many other professions which used to require a certain amount of manual endeavour, has, with the rise of digital technology become nigh-on completely computer-based and desk-bound. The modern graphic designer need never sketch out a rough by hand or design a font on layout paper. Everything can now be done with the help of a computer.

The latest “big-cat-themed” operating system that you simply can’t live without and the best ever. Until the next one…

And yet there was a time when graphic design was a very hands-on profession, not at all centred around a magical-looking computer, and which involved all kinds of tactile and smelly materials, and which required actual physical effort to work with the various mediums associated with it. I’m talking drawing boards, airbrushes, magic markers, inks, layout pads, lightboxes, silk-screen printing, linocutting, collage and drawing. What is most fascinating here is that these analogue processes aren’t from some far-flung past. We aren’t talking William Morris’s Kelmscott Press here. No, many graphic designers and tutors in their fifties, forties and even thirties, will have some recollection of their professional life involving the making of things by hand.

Large-scale Voltron models made entirely of Lego, from Grand Admiral / Mark Sandlin www.flickr.com/people/grandadmiral/

Thankfully, most design schools still offer students the chance to get to grips with some, if not most, of the processes listed in the paragraph above. And this fact should be celebrated, as it provides those willing to learn with an anchoring in the distant and not-so-distant analogue past. One could view this advocation of older processes as a certain charming backwardness through lack of funds on the design schools’ part, although the well-planned and carefully thought out courses will have been designed with the same points that I describe here in mind. Good design schools, like many designers out there ‘in the field’, recognise that it’s highly beneficial for the young graphic designer to think outside the Mac. For students, the freedom and breadth of disciplines offered should be taken advantage of, as the opportunity to indulge these passions (in the quantities that design schools can offer) will hardly likely come round again once you’re out there in the working world.

During my own final year of education I decided I wanted to learn about letterpress printing, and planned to use it to print my major end-of-year project. In my pursuit I was fortunate enough to have a course head as enthusiastic as I was and who had valuable connections to a fine printing press in Wales. Within a month I had been packed off there for an intensive, hands-on introduction, and emerged two weeks’ later having learned to design, handset, compose and print using letterpress, and returned home with two posters to exhibit at my end-of-year show. On graduating I kept in touch with the staff at the press and continue to visit them each year. Two weeks is scarcely enough time to master the discipline, though I was at least given an initiation into letterpress printing which enabled me to continue to use it for personal projects. Clients and other designers seem to like the fact I include these handmade projects in my portfolio, and of all my work it is often these pieces, and not my commercial work, which is singled out for praise and which people are most easily able to recall when I speak to them.

Lovely commission for ilovetypography.com letterpress-printed by Typoretum www.typoretum.co.uk

Gorgeous 2010 handbound, accordion-fold letterpress-printed calendar by Campbell Raw Press www.campbellrawpress.com

Two tactile Christmas cards from Hand & Eye Letterpress both set in wood and metal type and printed on a metal-coated board www.handandeye.co.uk

As mentioned above, on completing your education, if you’re lucky enough to bag yourself a job either inhouse or within an independent studio, the chances are the prospect of long hours at the Mac beckons. You won’t mind this at all because within your studio, through all the graft, artworking and occasional tedium involved, you’ll glimpse moments of pure enchantment; when you get a job couriered over from the printers, or have an idea of yours passed for inclusion on a project. You’ll be trying very hard to make a positive contribution to your studio, to make the transition from someone who needs a lot of help and support to a genuinely productive member of the team.

A charming montage of greetings cards and the colourful back patterning from letterpress-printed stationery designed and printed by Smock www.smockpaper.com

Amidst all this though, try to maintain some link with the traditional processes you’ll have learned at some point during your education. It’ll be all too easy to let things slide when you’re strapped in to an iMac. Sketch out roughs with a pencil as opposed to on screen. Suggest using letterpress on that new album cover. Anything. Thankfully there is now more appreciation for the handmade than there was fifteen years ago. Back then the age of Mac had only just become prevalent and software like Photoshop had still to really catch on. Graphic designers (and their clients) were in thrall to what they could now accomplish with computer-aided design. Luckily, here at the end of the decade, you could say that disciplines such as letterpress and traditional drawing are enjoying something of a renaissance. People will always value the tactile and the handmade (if it’s any good that is) and by choosing to take this route where appropriate your professional life will be richer and more rewarding than it would be spent solely on the Mac.

The creative possibilities that computer-aided design brings is undoubtedly a Good Thing. Adrian Shaugnessy again “The computer has revolutionized the design process. It has made the act of designing easier, and in many ways it has improved the way we design things. Yet in other respects it has made design more formulaic, and it has standardized the act of designing.” These are words worth heeding. Traditional skills retain a charm and often present a usage which should always be remembered, celebrated and, wherever appropriate, used!

Impactful four and three-colour silkscreen prints by Waste Yourself www.wasteyourself.com

Author: CA Miles and Deborah Roberti for The Graphic Design School

Printing Pre Pres Do’s and Don’ts

Do create and edit your text in a word processing application such as Microsoft Word and then import the text to a desktop publishing application such as QuarkXPress, InDesign, Pagemaker or Corel Ventura where you can create your page layout, format the text with graphics, etc.

Do use QuarkXPress or Adobe InDesign for desktop publishing. QuarkXPress was the print industry standard page layout program for decades, designed and perfected for commercial print output. Adobe InDesign, however, has given Quark a run for its money. InDesign not only costs half as much as Quark, but it is fully-integrated with its sister apps, Photoshop and Illustrator. Another page layout program is Adobe Pagemaker—now discontinued but still around. However, I find that Pagemaker is nicknamed “Ragemaker” for a very good reason. It is fine for small projects—newsletters and whatnot—but for large projects, books in particular, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and trouble in the long run if you use Quark or InDesign. Also, if you are lucky enough to have a choice as to what platform you can use, go Macintosh. PC/Windows desktop publishing files are far more likely to cause problems when it comes to graphics, fonts and printing. If you do decide to stick with a PC/Windows platform, make sure that the commercial printer you select has ample experience with that platform.

Don’t use Microsoft Word as a desktop publishing application. Word does have many of the same layout features as desktop publishing apps such as Quark and InDesign (i.e., it can create columns, import graphics, create nice laser prints, etc.) but when it comes to commercial printing, Word is not going to get you very far. Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, etc. are word processing applications, NOT desktop publishing/layout programs. They handle font replacement differently and often cause reflow.

Don’t create your page layout for multi-page documents in draw programs such as Illustrator or Freehand. Use desktop publishing apps like Quark or InDesign.

Do provide the printer with a hard copy laser printout of your project, as well as all of your layout files (in Quark, InDesign, etc.), graphics and fonts. Inkjet printers are fine for initial proofing and printing, but always get a final printout (and proof it) from a PostScript laser printer.

Don’t assume that what you have printed out and submitted as hard copy or see on your monitor is what you will get. Take a good long look at proofs and bluelines supplied by the printer.

Do take your printer’s advice.

Don’t assume that you know more than the printer.

Fonts

Do supply the printer with ALL of the fonts used to create your project (even the symbol, fraction and dingbat fonts). Try not to use TrueType fonts, and for PostScript fonts, make sure you supply the printer with both the screen and the printer font parts. Remember to include fonts used to create EPS graphics, and fonts that the printer probably already has (i.e. like Helvetica, etc.). There are many different versions of some fonts and a “wrong” version can cause reflow/repagination problems.

Don’t use Bold or Italic in the style menu or hit the Bold or Italic button when you want to bold or italicize text in your page layout program. Use the actual font. For example, in Quark, if you want to create text that is Helvetica Bold, don’t select some Helvetica text and then bold it. Instead, select the text and change the font itself (not the style) from Helvetica to Helvetica Bold:

Do

Don’t

Don’t use TrueType fonts. Period. Always use PostScript or OpenType and Adobe fonts (Macintosh or PC/ Windows) are always a safe bet. TrueType is fine for printing to a laser or inkjet printer, but TrueType fonts can cause severe problems when it comes to commercial printing. Many commercial printers won’t even print a project that contains TrueType fonts. Often, they pop.

Don’t use 20 different fonts for a 4-page newsletter. It makes you look like you don’t know what you’re doing. In desktop publishing, consistency is everything. Use one font for your main body text, another for your main heads, another for photo captions, another for sidebars, etc., but don’t mix and match fonts for your main body text or make every headline a different font unless you’re trying to create some sort of chaotic effect and it is your intention to confuse the reader. Too many fonts is not only considered to be bad design, but it also slows printing to a crawl.

Graphics

Do supply ALL of the graphics used to create your project. Desktop publishing applications like Quark and InDesign link to your graphics; they do not embed them in the document. If you don’t supply the graphics along with your Quark or InDesign documents, the printer will get a missing picture error, and won’t be able to continue until you supply the graphics.

Do use TIFF and EPS graphic file formats:

Don’t use other graphic file formats like PICT, JPEG, GIF. Just because you can import them into your desktop publishing application doesn’t mean that you should. Stick with TIFF and EPS. If your graphics are in any other format, convert them. This is especially true of the PICT format. Quark hates PICTs; imagesetters hate PICTs. Steer clear of PICT.

Do most, if not all, of your image editing and graphic manipulation (i.e. lightening, darkening, resizing, etc.) in the original program that the graphic was first created or edited in, rather than the desktop publishing application. For instance, if a Photoshop TIFF needs to be lightened or darkened, lighten or darken it in Photoshop, not in Quark. Even though Quark will lighten or darken an image, adjust contrast, etc., you may get different results once you project goes to press and is printed.

Do name your graphics with the appropriate file extension: filename.tif, filename.eps.

Don’t rename graphics once you have placed them in your desktop publishing/page layout document(s). If you do, make sure to go back into your document and re-link the graphics

Do check your mode for color TIFFs. Save color TIFFs as CMYK (not RGB, never RGB). Save black & white TIFFs as Grayscale.

Do check with your printer to see if they charge extra for breaking any of these “rules.”

Design & Page Layout

Do use a document setup size (i.e. your page dimensions) that is the same as your trim size. For instance, if you are creating a 6 by 9-inch book, set up your initial page size in the document setup for 6 by 9-inches.

Don’t create 6 by 9-inch text frames in a 81/2 by 11-inch document setup and manually add registration marks.

Do make page elements that bleed extend at least 8th of an inch beyond the page boundary.

Don’t use your page layout/desktop publishing program’s predetermined “hairline” rule. The width varies from program to program, and prints out differently on a laser printer than on an imagesetter, if it prints at all. Don’t create rules that are less than .25 pt.

Do watch for widows, orphans, rivers, bad kerning and other desktop publishing no-nos that will make you look like an amateur. Get rid of double-spaces after periods, don’t use spaces to align columns (use tabs) or to create paragraph indents. Know your en dash (–) from your em dash (—).

Now on to some tips for editing and formatting those wonderful design and publications in Illustrator and Photoshop

Illustrator vs. Photoshop

This is not about what program is better but more of what program to use for what. You can not say that one is better than the other because they have completely different uses but work closely together.

Photoshop This program is great. It is the best application for editing images and works primarily with pixels. A limitation with pixels is that the pixel-based image is not to be scaled since all you are doing is enlarging the squares/pixels which lose quality and clarity.

If you are a web designer you will work very closely with Photoshop for different elements and graphics of your website… even for Flash. If you are working to produce print you will only use Photoshop to create images that will be imbedded into Illustrator or a layout program such as Quark. Photoshop should not be used to produce text for print.

Illustrator This is not about what program is better but more of what program to use for what. You can not say that one is better than the other because they have completely different uses but work closely together.

This program is also great but is not a pixel-based image editor. Illustrator works mostly with vector graphics. This allows the image to be able to be scaled to just about any size and keep its integrity. As a result logos should always be produced/finalised in Illustrator. You will be able to scale them to just about any size you like.

You can even produce graphics for the web using Illustrator and a lot of the time I have found myself doing this. Since you can output to many pixel-based files, you can make extremely smooth looking graphics and convert them to a JPEG or other raster files.

For print this can act as a layout program. You would take your images edited in Photoshop (most of the time high resolution TIFF files) and place/embed them inside your document. In Illustrator you would then create all your text and shape designs as well as add your logos and other things like that.

Just follow this simple rule: in print use Photoshop for your image editing and then do everything else in Illustrator.

Author: Carol Ann Miles for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

What Is Open Source & How Does It Relate To Graphic Design?

Open Source: What is it? How to use it?

Chances are you have heard of Open Source, and if you haven’t you will have used it in some form or another. But what does the term “open source” actually mean? An open source program is one who’s source code can be accessed, improved and redistributed by one and all. If many hands make light work, then many coders make open source programs possible. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) states ‘Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer.’ The FSF has some pretty tight criteria for what complies as open source and what doesn’t. You can check those out here. Many still think of it in terms of “Free Beer” (who doesn’t love free beer?), “Free Code” or the “Open sharing of Knowledge”. If we talk in terms of beer as a metaphor for Open Source. Open Source is essentially a worldwide community of brewers that can add their dose of yeast, sugar or water to the beer to better it’s final outcome, and unlike certain industry tycoons that we wont mention here (cough Bill Gates) no one has a claim, there is no ugly monopoly, licensing is shared and distribution to all mankind is advocated. Sounds like more beer for all.

How is it Applied?

Commonly Open Source is applied to software, however, open source is spanning across other products and services. You can find open source hardware, books, products, journalism and films such as the now infamous Big Buck Bunny. You can even find the recipe to cola through OpenCola. In an age where we seem less and less divided by geographic and economic barriers the cyber age has gone all ‘hippy’ on us and more and more we are sharing code, ideas, music, words, inspiration and most importantly all working towards a common goal.
If you would like to read a bit more about how it all got started (quite a scandalous story) see at the end of the article.

So enough of the ideals! How does it apply to design students and what can I get for free?

Many Open Source software projects were either started in colleges or started by recent college graduates. Whether it’s a coincidence or not, a lot of the available open source software is ideal for college students.

Free and Open Source Software Tools for Students

With the widespread use of the Internet and the growth of web-based applications, there are also a lot of hybrid forms of software available – free software with APIs (Application Programmer Interfaces) but not truly open source. The following list covers some of the best free and open source software from an average student’s perspective. Note: The list is arranged by software category, with recommended applications and the occasional short list of alternative or supplemental apps.

Visualisation, Graphics, Photo editing and Diagramming Tools

This is a fairly broad category that includes vector and raster graphics editors, 3D graphics programs, and diagramming tools.
Recommendations for Design Work

Inkscape a graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

Gimp, an Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring with capabilities similar to Photoshop.

Scribus professional page layout program. with capabilities similar to InDesign.

Blender, a 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Gliffy a diagram creation software, you can easily create professional-quality flowcharts, diagrams, floor plans, technical drawings, and more.
At The Graphic Design School students have the choice of learning in Adobe and Open Source softwares in our online course. Not because we believe that tomorrows Graphic Design industry will suddenly dump Adobe as software standards, but because we believe in affordable access to creativity and education for all.

Web Browsers

So you need a good browser. TGDS recommends: Mozilla Firefox. This is hands down one of the best web browsers available regardless of what your major is. There are many hundreds of useful add-ons for writing, researching as well web development and design. Alternatives: Google Chrome, Opera, Safari.

Research

There’s no one software tool that will satisfy all your research needs, but start with some of the following

Ottobib for research paper bibliographies.

Google Reader for subscribing to your favourite web feeds.

Spreeder to help you do all your reading faster.

Dictionary.com to look up definitions.

SpellJax to make sure you’re spelling is spot on.

Google Video, YouTube and Vimeofor some learning via web video.

Learning and Brainstorming

Research is useless if you’re not actually learning anything. An ideal way to learn new material is by using concept mapping or mind mapping – which are similar but not exactly the same.
TGDS recommended: XMind and FreeMind. Alternatives: Mindomo, Mindmeister, Cmap, Comapping. (Comapping offers real-time mind map editing from multiple users, which is ideal for virtual team brainstorming.)

Document Editing and Management

There probably aren’t many students who don’t have to write a term paper or essay. This is pretty much a given for most students. When it’s time to aggregate all that research you’ve done in the library (or online), you have numerous software options for writing and producing a finished paper. OpenOffice suite, includes a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool, which it’s also compatible with MS Office. Get all your assignments completed in no time. And it even converts documents to Adobe PDF format for when you have to submit term papers. Alternatives: Google Docs + Spreadsheets, Zoho. Supplemental: PDF Creator to produce a finished document that you can email or upload to your TGDS tutor.

Presentation Tools

If you need alternatives to MS PowerPoint, pick from either OpenOffice, Google or ZohoShow presentation tools, or you could embed your presentations into a web page with SlideShare.

FTP/ File Transfer/ File Storage

Need to share those documents and presentations with your study/ project team? You can FTP (upload) to a team website or use a filesharing service. TGDS recommended FTP: FileZilla. Alternatives: FireFTP (runs in the Firefox browser as an addon). Filesharing: There are far too many services to make a recommendation. However, if you have a Google Mail (GMail) account, you can save files online by attaching them to a draft email.

Programming/ Coding/ Web Development

If you don’t already know it, the Linux operating system is the breeding ground of an immense number of open source projects – having taken the mantle from its predecessor UNIX. If you want to take full advantage of the numerous open source coding tools, you might have to install Linux on your computer. (Or you can install the cygwin environment for MS Windows, but you miss out on a lot of true Linux features.) Even if you don’t want to/ can’t use Linux, you have a number of options for coding and web development: Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby and Ruby on Rails – all of which are good for relatively fast prototyping of code. If you need an open source IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for code development and testing, try Eclipse, which has components that cover Java and many of the languages above. If you’re using Java only, you can also try Ingres Cafe. If you want a multi-platform web authoring tool comparable to FrontPage or Dreamweaver, try NVu. Finally, Microsoft’s Dreamspark program also allows students to download and use their developer and design tools for no charge.

Forums/ Social Networks

Need a custom social network for team/ class/ department projects? BuddyPress gives you that ability by installing over a WordPress Multi-User (WPMU) installation. Alternative: BBPress or Vanilla forums.

A Word on Donations

It’s good practise and great karma to donate to an open source project. You can often find a Paypal donation symbol on Open Source websites. There is a lot of blood, sweat and tears that go into Open Source projects by the individuals that inspire and run them. If you are using an Open Source program that you couldn’t live without, then show your gratitude by donating some short change. A few bucks a piece makes a big difference to the life blood of an Open Source collaborative. Perhaps you can consider that it’s your turn to shout the ‘free beer’.

The early days

The story begins in the 1970s, when software invariably came supplied (or bundled) with purchased hardware. Vendors made their money from hardware purchases, and the software was seen as a low value item that would need to be customised by the individual user. Consequently, when the software was supplied to customers it was accompanied by its source code and a licence that permitted modifications. This all took place before the arrival of the personal computer and free and open source licensing model.

In February 1976, Bill Gates, then a 20-year-old founding partner of Microsoft, wrote an open letter to early personal computer hobbyists, taking issue with the ‘theft’ of personal computer software within the hobbyist community. He asked: ‘Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share [...] Is this fair?’ Although many hundreds of people had used his Altair BASIC software, Gates estimated that only 10 per cent had actually paid for it. He was of the opinion that software should be sold, regardless of whether it was bundled with hardware. Reaction to the Gates’ open letter was strong and varied, with many arguing for alternatives. For example, Jim Warren, then editor of Dr. Dobb’s Journal, wrote in the July 1976 ACM Programming Language newsletter “There is a viable alternative to the problems raised by Bill Gates in his irate letter to computer hobbyists concerning ‘ripping off’ software. When software is free, or so inexpensive that it’s easier to pay for it than to duplicate it, then it won’t be ‘stolen’.”

The birth of FOSS (Free Open Source Software)

Almost a decade later, 1984 saw the start of GNU Emacs , a project created by Richard Stallman. This was the first free software application. Shortly afterwards, in 1985, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) was founded. The foundation is committed to the freedom of software users. The FSF outlines and maintains the Free Software Definition : ‘Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of free as in free speech, not as in free beer.’ The definition also refers to four kinds of freedom; if users have all of these freedoms, a program is free software.

Some years later, in the late 1990s, Eric Raymond presented and published ‘The Cathedral and the Bazaar’ , an essay based on his experiences managing an open source project, fetchmail . Two distinct models of software development are presented and compared: the ‘cathedral’ model and the ‘bazaar’ model. In the cathedral model software is developed by a restricted group of software developers while source code is not made generally available between releases. In the bazzaar model software is developed via the Internet in view of the public who have access to the source code in development. Raymond credits Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux Kernel project, as the inventor of the bazaar model.

In 1998 Netscape, the most widely used browser before the browser wars of the 1990s, was released as free software. It later became Firefox, the key product of the Mozilla Foundation, which is also responsible for the Thunderbird email client, and many other web related technologies and products.

References Used

If you’re looking for more Open Source desktop software, visit the Sourceforge repository. Just search with a suitable keyword, and browse through the options. You can also check the following references, which were used in building the list of free and open source tools above.

Free College Software Guide.

Students : Top Web Tools for College Students.

50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Writers and Writing Majors.

Web Tools for Students.

100 Terrific Web Tools for Meeting Your Personal and Career Goals.



]]> http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/general/what-is-open-source-how-does-it-relate-to-graphic-design/feed/ 8 http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/general/what-is-open-source-how-does-it-relate-to-graphic-design/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GraphicDesignSchoolBlog/~3/Q0UEDTm-shM/ http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/general/how-do-replica-designer-chairs-stack-up-a-review-of-sorts/#comments Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:23:13 +0000 admin http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/?p=1486


Its no secret that designers are often at their desks morning to night… and then some.
If you are studying design and have started to notice that your lower back is giving you aches and pains, chances are it’s not your age… It’s your chair! Read on for a (sort of) review of the best that replica has to offer…


Author: The Graphic Design School
4 of The Graphic Design School employees spent one and half months in 4 different replica Eames chairs. At a fraction of the cost of the real deal. How do they really compare?

How Do Replica Designer Chairs Stack Up? A Review…Of Sorts!



Warning! We say the words ‘buttocks’ and ‘bum’, far more times than necessary or politeness warrants throughout this article.

When your career is up and running, a Herman Miller or Eames chair may make you feel like you’ve “made it”. Until that day, we have reviewed the next best thing, and judged with our backs, buttocks and good old fashioned economic sense, whether the replica may just suffice.

The Contenders



Firstly we have to admit that all styles of chairs performed far beyond our expectations. They arrived in boxes and were assembled easily with three parts only to each chair. All chairs are without a doubt the best looking chairs that we have ever had through the office, despite that fact that a few of us own some pretty pricey chairs.
The chrome finishings are of high quality and the mechanisms: rolling base, height and tilt adjustments smooth and deign of chairs at three times their price. The leather of good quality, and the look well worthy of Eames… Naturally! The armrests are very comfortable, and fit nicely under a standard size office desk.
To see the specifics, height, price etc of each the chairs, be sure to follow the links below to suppliers found nearest to you.

And The Winner is…



The Soft Pad Management Chair

This chair was voted unanimously the most comfortable chair of the four, and one may argue, the most comfortable chair in the office (competing with a few chairs priced at least 3 times it’s price). As with all of the chairs, the swivel action is smooth and the recline easy and comfortable. We know for a fact that a few of our visiting graphic designer friends and colleagues went out to order these for their own studios, after falling inlove with it’s look and feel. Yes, the feel… Never has a buttocks loved anything more (not since the invention of 4 ply anyway). The padding is fit for a king and the back support just right. We highly recommend this chair to anyone who values their back as well as the look of their studio, a real winner for it’s price.

Second Place



The Management Chair

Honestly, not really a close second, as the winner really blows this chair out of the water for all day comfort. As with all of the chairs the mechanism is smooth and easy to operate. Probably the best looking chair of the four. As it’s name suggests the Management chair, would be very well suited to an extra chair for the occasional visitor, or for a board room. Only slightly cheaper in price than the first, the difference makes the first an even more worthwhile investment.

Third Place… A Tie



The Mesh Chairs

We tried both the high and low back Mesh chair. A great looking chair with the same smooth system as the others. We couldn’t really give an honest review of the difference between the high and low back, as the both suited even our tallest employee at 6ft3. The high back, however does offer you a little more support if you are illustrating or using a tablet, and like to chill back and recline. The mesh chairs were the least comfortable for the buttocks of the 3 styles, the nylon fiber being harder than one would imagine, as we did not test the chairs for much more than one month, its hard to say whether the mesh would soften a little over time. We suggest if you need to opt for the cheapest of the chairs that the mesh back is still a great buy. It could perhaps benefit from the addition of a soft cushion, for your buttocks sake, with that inclusion we think it could really pass for a good all day chair. All question of buttocks aside, the mesh chairs offers fantastic back support.

The Conclusion

No longer will we waste money on the ‘real deal’. We have unanimously decided at The Graphic Design School, that we would much rather save money with a replica chair and have a big night out on the town, (or a new mac) than investing thousands in a designer chair. Next chair update we are heading straight to Milan Direct. Exciting news! Milan Direct are opening up in the UK before xmas.

Follow Milan Direct on Twitter

Check out your local suppliers.

In Australia

Milan Direct

In the UK

Milan Direct

In the USA

Exclusively Home



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We have been lucky enough to follow Leo Burnett Art Director Djordje Joksimovic for a day around legendary Agency Leo Burnett. Leo Burnett created iconic symbols of American-branded products. It was his creation of the Marlboro Man, the Jolly Green Giant, and Tony the Tiger that would make his small mid-western company one of the largest, most sought-after agencies in the world. The Marlboro Man and the Jolly Green Giant are said to be two of three most recognised characters in the world (with Ronald McDonald).


Author: The Graphic Design School
A first in our new series of articles A Day In The Life Of… The Graphic Design School will, each month be offering you a tour around the ins and outs of the best graphic design agencies, freelancers and studios in the world… A virtual work experience.



A Day in the Life at the Leo Burnett Agency



Leo Burnett's iconic work that kick started a career spanning decades and dozens of multi-national agencies: The Malboro Man, The Jolly Green Giant and Tony the Tiger.

Big ideas come from the big pencil

is the statement behind Leo Burnett's thinking, along with a humankind approach. The single greatest thing for Leo and Design Schools are its people. In the end it all comes down to the people you meet, talk to, network with, work with, love, avoid, respect and so on. I have a great opportunity to work with top professionals from many different areas of expertise, every day. The advice, opinions, views, knowledge and skill set of each individual at Leo offers me a network of highly skilled assistance at my fingertips, that's priceless.



Project: Image Campaign Client: Leo Burnett Belgrade Creative Director: Dejan Bojovic, Art Director: Djordje Joksimovic Photographer: Djordje Joksimovic

Leo Burnett Belgrade, I believe has a specific climate, we call it a ‘relaxed’ atmosphere. Your priority at work is to finish your days duties regardless of when you arrive. Working hours are 9am to 5pm, however many people arrive after 10. So long as you meet the requirements of an 8hr day. This atmosphere enables you to feel free to find your own private way of functioning to your best advantage. I believe our ‘relaxed’ atmosphere, and different schedules can be difficult for the Accounts dept. when trying to gather us all for a group meeting. However, designers are those lay-back, cool and often quiet people that you handle with care, their genius allows them to invent ‘stuff’ from scratch, and that kind of talent requires kit gloves and flexibility!



One of the greatest challenges with being a ‘creative’ in this kind of work environment is the delicate juggling between the ‘Logical’ and ‘Creative’ parts of the agency. To some extent an agency can be described as a similar set up to the two sides of your brain. The Logical side represents all non-designers such as the Accounts, Traffic and Media departments. The Creative side with Designers, Copywriters, the Creative and Art dept. The Creatives create fantasy, and the Logicals help refine fantasy to meet the goals of communication, and the logistics of the business. In unison the two sides perfect the storytelling to enhance sales. In the words of infamous Director, Author and Producer Hermann Vaske.

Advertising is the fine art of separating people from their money



Image Campaign Client: Heinz Agency Location: Paris, France Creative Director: Stephan Ferens » Copywriter / Art Director: Eric Esculier.

The most rewarding aspect, once every detail of a campaigns communication has been perfected, is feedback. We receive this feedback when the campaign ‘hits the streets’. This is the ‘litmus test’. The public. The truth, the moment that you learn whether you invested yourself in something that can make you feel accomplishment and pride or feel like hell!

Learning is a constant process and campaigns definitely enhance your learning, however I believe that learning really starts on the day you enter any office or design school, in my case Leo Burnett. Advertising can be a tough world, and each day can takes its toll. Every day you burry yet another unused idea that seemed as bright as a star. Yet, as this industry requires, we continue to ‘reach for the stars’ because we want to be the best. Advertising guru Paul Arden once said “It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be!” He was damn right too. This is the quote that has most inspired me in my career and my life. The better you want to be, the better colleagues you will have, the more happiness you will spread, the more people you will inspire and the more people will love you for it. That is the simplest life philosophy. Once again Leo was right it all comes down to people, ourselves included.



Image Campaign Client: McDonalds Leo Burnett Chicago Global Chief Creative Officer: Mark Tutssel Chief Creative Officer: John Condon EVP/Creative Group Head: John Montgomery Creative Directors: V. Cook, G. Fox-Robertson, B. Shembeda, A. Gross

Working in an environment of creatives one is constantly aware of the fact that creative people have big egos! We insist on how great we are and how amazing our design is. Working in this agency has taught me that we should always share our knowledge with others, no matter how big your ego, or almighty your position. (People that don’t share their ideas, probably don’t have many of them anyway). Leo Burnett Belgrade has 120 employees, and many walls, however, colleagues are not segregated by departments and teams, our agency has moved the barriers between us, we support and enrich each others ideas. Our philosophy is that if we haven't moved these metaphorical barriers our day has been unproductive… useless. Our attitude to healthy competition and challenge sees us having some great nights out after a synergy of successes.



Image Campaign Client: Pirelli Leo Burnett, Milan, Italy Global Chief Creative Directors: Enrico Dorizza, Sergio Rodriguez Art Director: Roberto Piazza Copywriter: Matteo Lazzarini

Although our barriers are less than in other more traditional agencies we do team up (Art Director and Copywriter for example) to work together in ‘micro7rsquo; environments, presenting ideas and working long hours on pitches for clients. We do what we can to keep the agency's spirit alive and beating. Like the rhythm that exudes from the speakers of my iTunes playlist. I have earnt the role as the agency's DJ. I play music to over 40 people on my floor. I keep them happy! one of the perks of being a ‘creative’.

And so starts another day… I'm getting up, fresh enough so I can rewind the film in my head of how I got here. A spanking new morning in Belgrade 2009, clean head, big drive, full batteries, after so many trips, boarding passes, frequent desk changes, computer desktops, cityscapes and music on iTunes. I start with a double shot of coffee, warm milk with one sugar, please. Made from the Communal Leo Burnett coffee machine… of course!

Take a peak in the life of an Art Director at Leo Burnett

Video created by Djordje Joksimovic filmed by Zoran Jovanovic, Written by Marija Mladjenovic, prize winner in HumanKind Leo Burnett world challenge.

Definitions that you may find useful in this article

Copywriter has ultimate responsibility for an advertisement's verbal or textual content, which often includes receiving the copy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copywriter) information from the client.

Art Director An Art Director isn't necessarily the head of an art department. He/She typically works in tandem with a copywriter. The team usually works together to devise an overall concept (also known as the “big idea”) for an ad, commercial, mailer, brochure, or other advertisement. An A.D. may come up with the headline or other copy, and the copywriter may suggest a visual or aesthetic approach. Each person usually welcomes suggestions and constructive criticism from the other. Ideally, the words and visual should not parrot each other; each should enhance or enlarge the other$#39;s meaning and effect.

Accounts Account Services or Account Management is somewhat the sales arm of the advertising agency. An account executive meets with the client to determine sales goals and creative strategy. They are then responsible for coordinating the creative, media, and production staff behind the campaign. Throughout the creative process, they keep in touch with the client to update them on the ad's progress and gain feedback. Upon completion of the creative work, it is their job to ensure the ad's production and placement.

Creative Director The CD oversees the design of branding and advertising for a client and ensures that the new branding and advertising fits in with the client's requirements and the image they wish to promote for their company or product. The main aspects of this role are to interpret a client's communications strategy and then develop proposed creative approaches and treatments that align with that strategy. Another is to initiate and stimulate creative ideas for and from everyone involved in the creative process. Creative directors normally oversee copywriters and art directors.

Traffic The traffic department regulates the flow of work in the agency. It is typically headed by a traffic manager (or system administrator). Traffic increases an agency's efficiency and profitability through the reduction of false job starts, inappropriate job initiation, incomplete information sharing, over- and under-cost estimation, and the need for media extensions. In small agencies without a dedicated traffic manager, one employee may be responsible for managing workflow, gathering cost estimates and answering the phone, for example. Large agencies may have a traffic department of five or more employees


Featured Designer Djordje Joksimovic
Featured Agency Leo Burnett
Djordje is Art Director at Leo Burnett Blegrade.
Communication is a priority.
Perception is everything.
Design is the key.
What I'm Like? As a boy I dreamt about launching and flying a spacecraft, and was only happy if the other kids that played with me were happy too. Today I'm launching the brands that serve the purpose and help people to feel comfortable and
happy about themselves. In fact, design is the way we talk to each other these days, and doing so in clear, direct, honest
and interesting ways, we can make better things – and make things better.
Handstand To be unique, imaginative, simple and memorable by capturing people's imagination to inspire them to be the best they can be.
Craftwork I create work, inspired through humanity to influence people's behavior.
Rocket Science I help marketing people to make their brands part of people's lives by understanding, inspiring, and
activating human behavior.
Djordje’s Blog
Follow Djordje on Twitter

]]> http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/advertising/a-day-in-the-life-at-the-leo-burnett-agency/feed/ 1 http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/advertising/a-day-in-the-life-at-the-leo-burnett-agency/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GraphicDesignSchoolBlog/~3/w8ZMJ8vc8wM/ http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/graphic-design/logo-trends-and-galleries/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 05:31:49 +0000 admin http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/graphic-design/logo-trends-and-galleries/


Here are our fav logo galleries and trend articles. The for and against trends, the good, the better and the darn beautiful logos of 2009.


Author: The Graphic Design School
The Graphic Design School has reviewed and chosen the best logo trends and galleries of 2009. We would love your feedback… Do you think that 6 months into the year they still apply? Can you find any other trends that have emerged?

Logo Trends for 2009 from Logo Lounge

Logo Lounge



Gossamer



Circulate



Dandelion



Recycle



Sequential



Mosaic



Flip Flop



Doily



Monologue



Encrust



Texting



Candy Stripes



Vari Dot



Concealed



Photo Fill



Logo Trends for 2009 from Logo Orange

Logo Orange



Puzzle Patterns



Street Art



80′s Geometry Lesson



Typographic Logos



Pictograms



Classic Modernism



Arabesque



Tactile Logos



Psychedelic Pop Backgrounds



Origami



Logo Trends for 2009 from Abduzeedo

Abduzeedo



Amazing One Element Logos



















Logo Trends for 2009 from Graphic Design Blog

Graphic Design Blog



Classic Modernism



Typographic Logos



Psychedelic Pop Backgrounds



Puzzle Patterns



Arabesque



Pictograms



Tactile



80’s Geometry



Origami



Street Art



Arguments Against Trends in Logos

Not all designers believe that trends in logo design are such a good thing… checkout these three articles.

Im Just Creative

Im Just Creative



David Airey

David Airey



Design Bay

Design Bay



Logo Galleries

Logo Designer Blog

Logo Designer Blog



Logo Faves

Logo Faves



Creattica

Creattica



Creative Pro

Creative Pro



Brand New

Brand New/UnderConsideration



Logo Pond

Logo Pond



Logo Bee

Logo Bee




]]> http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/graphic-design/logo-trends-and-galleries/feed/ 8 http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/graphic-design/logo-trends-and-galleries/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GraphicDesignSchoolBlog/~3/xZd0m3exT10/ http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/whos-who/interview-with-veerle-pieters/#comments Sat, 23 May 2009 11:25:55 +0000 admin http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/?p=1401


If you haven’t heard of Veerle Pieters… Where have you been?

Veerle is one the design industry’s most savvy and branded designers. Her candid interview with The Graphic Design School, reveals a charm and savoir faire that has seen her (deservedly) shoot to the top of her game. Based in Belgium Veerle studied graphic design and print, before moving into web design.


Author: The Graphic Design School
The Graphic Design School loves Veerle, her philosophy to open herself and her processes to educate and share charmed us. Thanks Veerle, a beautiful lady!

Welcome to The Graphic Design School Blog. Please tell us a little bit about yourself. A brief bio.

I’m a graphic/web designer living in Belgium. I went to school in Mariakerke, Gent.

I began my career in 1992 as a freelance graphic designer under the name of “Duoh!”.

As a child I always loved drawing and considered it a hobby. I always thought it wouldn’t be possible to make this my day job so that’s why I studied tourism until I discovered that you could actually study graphic design. That may sound crazy now, but if you put it in its context and time frame (1987) it wasn’t very well known that you could actually study that. I always thought about it from an artistic point of view and believed there wasn’t a future in it.

Studying graphic design changed that, and from that point on my hobby became my passion and income.



You have been voted in the top 50 North x East’s Fifty Most Influential ‘Female’ Bloggers. How do you think you can use this title/influence to further your cause/career?

It is nice to see your name on a list and it delivers an attention span towards you but in all honesty this doesn’t bring food on the table. The biggest catalyst towards your career is your work. Your portfolio is what should do the talking as these lists are only short term.



Speaking of your blog. How much time do you need to spend daily on the upkeep of your blog… do you ever sleep or play?

I think I spend an hour to two hours when I’m just doing my approved list checking and answering all the mails and comments. Most of my weekend time goes in to researching tutorials and creating them.

Two last question on the subject of your blog. What was your goal when you started blogging?

I didn’t have any. I’ve started this to learn CSS/HTML and my first blog was a test case after reading about pMachine in MacAddict magazine.

Did you ever expect the success, or the fantastic Google page rank of 8?

No I didn’t have any idea that would happen. I didn’t have any expectations.

Learn how to create your own organic shapes in this tutorial.



We are a blog for beginners and graphic design students. Can you share with us the most enjoyable moment, subject or lesson that you had while studying?

To be honest I have no idea since it is like 20 years ago. The only thing I vaguely remember is a bookbinding lesson that we had to craft a book from scratch with headband, bookmark… and everything.

How did that moment, subject or lesson shape what you do now?

Eye for details.

Describe your style of graphic design in a few words. What kind of advice would you give students who wish to excel in this style?

Illustrative with a strong preference towards colors. The best advice is to be passionate about what you do and keep on trying after failure.

Learn how to create the font used in this poster.



Why did yourself and Geert Leyseele (partner and one would assume the ‘brain’ in the self professed ‘beauty & brain’ duo) decide to open up your own Graphic Design studio as opposed to working for a larger firm, or independently?

We had a few opportunities over the years to sell our business and become part of a larger group. We both are not interested in becoming a manager and direct other people. That would break the creative part that we love so much.

Do you use hand drawn techniques to help you develop a design. How important is this in your process as a Graphic designer?

Yes I still use a pencil and paper from time to time. It depends on what type of project I have going on. Most sketching is done for icons and logos and also wire framing for websites on occasions. It definitely is a bonus if you can draw your thoughts.



Learn how to create your spirals in this tutorial.



Do you keep an ideas journal? If so can we have a sneaky peek?

Yeah I do and you can see some on my art section on my blog and also in the duoh.com blog, “Illustration for Espresso Application Startscreen”





Do you have a special method for brainstorming, i.e mind mapping etc?

No, not really.






We have noticed on your website that you are very open about sharing your process as a designer. Why is it important to you to communicate this side of your work with your visitors?

Because we believe it show valuable information towards students. We don’t believe in not sharing what we know.

What are your favorite websites at the moment?

welovetypography.com

ffffound.com

Who are your 5 all time favorite graphic designers?

Scott Hansen



James White



Jacob Souva



Robert Lindström



Oksana Grivina



What typefaces do you use the most in your designs?

Mostly Sans Serif ones.



What about your job do you find the most rewarding?

To see a client happy with a design that we created.

A moment to brag… who are the most prestigious clients that you have worked with?

Netvibes, Google, Library of Congress, Ernst & Young, Coca Cola…




Where do you see your career and your studio in five years?

I am where I want to be meaning earning a good living and loving what I do.

See how Veerle went from illustration to vector in this tutorial



What advice would you give to graphic design students around the world. About shaping a great portfolio?

Let your work have the spotlight.



One last question, that is on everbody’s mind… Billy Elliot feels on fire when he dances… how do you feel when you are designing?

On cloud nine, not in this *real* world.

Cheers,

Veerle

Duoh Website

Veerle’s Blog

Veerle’s photostream on Flickr


]]> http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/whos-who/interview-with-veerle-pieters/feed/ 3 http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/whos-who/interview-with-veerle-pieters/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GraphicDesignSchoolBlog/~3/jrK7iDv47WA/ http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/whos-who/interview-with-fabien-barral/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 05:34:50 +0000 admin http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/?p=1372


We interviewed one of the most talented French Designers. This is what he had to say about himself…

I am Fabien Barral. I am a graphic designer. I am passionate about images and graphic design. I am a husband and I love my wife. I am a father and I love my daughter. I am not the clients I work with, I am the art I create with them. I am what I create. I create what I am.


Author: The Graphic Design School
We asked some hard hitting questions (not really) to one of Europe’s most talented designers. His candid responses and enormous heart, resonate in Fabien’s designs.

Welcome to The Graphic Design School Blog. Tell us a little bit about yourself. A brief bio…

My name is Fabien Barral, I live in France, in an old country house, that my wife and I restored together.

Our village is so remote and small that there are not enough houses to name the streets. I love the fact that I can work here on such amazing projects so far away.

I was not a huge fan of school, while still at school I was introduced to an amazing design school. Design really appealed to me, Once into it, I loved it, and I have made it my life ever since. I’ve been designing for 12 years now, believe it or not, I learnt in a time without internet, and on photoshop without layers!

See the original on Flickr



We are a blog for beginners and graphic design students. Can you share with us the most enjoyable moment, subject or lesson that you had while studying?

The best lesson I’ve learnt is that design does not start on computer… computer is just a tool… you have to step away from the computer to get inspired. One of my teachers told me that “the greatest ideas come from the subconscious”. When you need a big idea, fill your mind with all the background information you can about your subject, then step away from the project and let your subconscious work on the idea for you. Usually when you come back to the work, your mind has processed all the big info and the ideas flow out much smoother.

How did that moment, subject or lesson shape what you do now?

I always step back from computer to find ideas…

Describe your style of graphic design in a few words. What kind of advice would you give students who wish to excel in this style?

Combining stuff (texture, fonts work, organics, color treatment, watercolor effects, old imagery, handwriting) is the best way to describe my style. To develop this style I recommend finding your own sources… I always looks for old papers, old materials I scan stuff myself and use these as textures.

Europavox original picture



Europavox reworked image



Europavox final poster



Do you use hand drawn techniques to help you develop a design. How important is this in your process as a Graphic designer?

Not at all, I do not know how to draw, I am so bad at it… it was really hard when I was at design school, my teachers told me I couldn’t succeed if I can’t draw… they were wrong!



Do you keep an ideas journal? If so can we have a sneaky peek?

I do keep a journal, I use it for not taking only. So its not that interesting to see. I make my own journals because I never found the ones I want in the shops.



Do you have a special method for brainstorming, i.e mind mapping etc?

Yes, I check my own blog and choose images that fit the project I am working on… that’s why I update the blog so often, the more images are in it, the more I am inspired.



What are your favorite websites at the moment?

www.evasion.cc blog

ffffound.com

www.beastpieces.com

Who are your 5 all time favorite graphic designers?

My friend Reno Orange



Tollesson Design



Jennifer Sterling



Sonner Vallée u. Partner

Paprika

What typefaces do you use the most in your designs?

Disturbance.



What about your job do you find the most rewarding?

When I am as proud of the project, as much as the client is… It is rare but, these days it happens more and more.



A moment to brag… who are your most prestigious clients?

I was asked to redesign the Rolling Stones web site… Yes, you read correctly. I can’t believe it myself… It was a year ago now, the project was never online as the band have change their plan, but I hope it will be someday…



Where do you see your career in five years?

Roaming the world and working on more blockbuster movie or music group websites, having fun!

 

What advice would you give to graphic design students around the world. About shaping a great portfolio?

I like ‘The Combinations Rule’ from James Webb-Young’s little book:

Designing is basically the practice of combining stuff; ideally in ways that haven’t been seen before. So, the more stuff you know (about everything), the greater chance you’ll find a relevant and distinctive, and therefore effective (and original) combination.



A question on everybody’s mind… Billy Elliot feels on fire when he dances … how do you feel when you are designing?

That’s what I call an “Imaginary moment”… I named my original website “Imaginary Moment”. I later changed the site to my own name. When I design I feel absorbed by the images I create… in an imaginary world.



Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with us… any famous last words?

Designers are meant to be loved, not to be understood.

Fabien Barral



Thank You Fabien!


]]> http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/whos-who/interview-with-fabien-barral/feed/ 1 http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/whos-who/interview-with-fabien-barral/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GraphicDesignSchoolBlog/~3/6YXk3DWlCRQ/ http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/graphic-design/idea-generation-techniques-mind-mapping-for-graphic-design/#comments Mon, 18 May 2009 12:42:12 +0000 admin http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/?p=1360


The most difficult part of being a creative of any kind is idea generation. Why do you think there are so many copy-cats out there? There are several methods available to brainstorm.

Mind mapping has been around since the 70′s, it’s uses and attraction is snowballing. So what is it? And how does it apply to Graphic Design?


Author: The Graphic Design School
In between tutoring students in The Graphic Design School’s Online Course and making multitudes of coffees, we thought that we would whip up this little blog entry simply for your viewing pleasure….
Ahhh no sleep for the wicked! Enjoy!

What is a Mind Map?

A mind map is an intricate web of thoughts, ideas, names, words and images that all stem from one central idea or word in diagram form.

Many designers use Mind Mapping to brainstorm and generate ideas. The loose and visual manner in which a mind map is created is not only a fantastic tool to ‘free up’ creativity, its a great way to communicate to clients, team members and professors while in a design’s concept phase.



Mind Mapping: A Crash Course

Lets look at a mind map that has a topic that we are all familiar with before looking at a mind map in terms of a design tool.

One can see in the Mind Map above, the author has started with a central topic ‘Solving Global Warming’. The main points then radiate outward from the centre. These represent the main points of the Mind Map. Each one of these points sprouts its own branches and twigs. This star-like pattern of ideas is referred to as ‘Radiant Thinking’.

Getting the Creative Juices Flowing

Mind mapping expert Paul Foreman has dedicated an enormous amount of time to the study of mind mapping, in his e-book entitled “Idea Creation”, he shares his philosophy on opening up your mind to the creation of ideas through mind mapping:

• Everything stems from a thought
• Every thought is a word
• Every idea is a thought
• Every word is a potential idea
• Every image is a potential idea
• Every thought is a potential idea
• Good thoughts come when bad thoughts stop
• Good ideas come when bad ideas go
• You flick your brains switch to ‘on’ when you stop over-thinking
• Once you still the mind ideas come
• Patience allows time for ideas to evolve
• Preconceived notions only breed preconceived ideas
• Stressing for answers brings stressful results
• Stretching your mind is effortless and simple
• Saying: “I can’t think of anything” Really means: “I think I can’t think of anything”
• Ideas don’t dry up – thoughts do

---

Mind Mapping in Graphic Design

So, now that you know a little of how mind mapping works. How can you use a mind map while generating design ideas?

We contacted Damien Horan. Renowned graphic designer for international surf brands, Mambo, Volcom, Insight and a successful Freelance graphic designer in his own right.

Damien recently designed the logo and branding for hip new restaurant/bar “Little Avalon” (named after the local surf break). Damien, having lived and surfed in the area for years knew all there was to know about the local surf culture.

Damien worked in conjunction with infamous Mambo graphic designer and artist Jim Mitchel, in developing the concepts and ideas for the bar. Damien knew that the bar had to appeal to the surf culture in order to ‘make it’ in the Avalon scene.

Owner operator Shane Clinton, wanted the ambience of a chic inner city bar, with the familial feeling of local surf shops. It was important that the branding of Little Avalon, combine the culture of city and surf. Not an easy task.



Damien had received his client brief and used these to define the map’s main branches. The results of his research and images were then applied to the outer branches/twigs. Applying these words and images to a mind map helped create visuals, with relevant connections between the maps branches as well as between the twigs. Creating a somewhat intricate, yet easy to read, visual embodiment of all design aspects that the logo needed to encompass.

Points realised throughout the process:

• Typeface must have serifs that represent the organic shape of a wave.
• Inspired by a B&W photo of the area the color palette became very dark. Keeping it crisp, black and white were chosen.
• Exploring the available typefaces with curved serifs, he was inspired to create his own font.
• An abbreviated version of ‘Little Avalon’… ‘LA’ was the locals appelation of the surf break, therefore essential to feature it in the branding.
• The ‘LA’ and ‘Little Avalon’ where to remain independent of each other.

Below are few of Damien’s working sketches.

Hand Drawn Sketches



Computer Comps



Final Logos



Application






One can imagine easily from this example how you may use a mind map in your career as a designer or during your studies as a student. Although idea generation is only one step of a much more involved design process. It is a recommendable practice to adopt at any level.

Unlike many methods of brainstorming that encourage refining the concept for an idea. A mind map does the opposite, it helps us think holistically about a problem and tackle it from all sides. Although most designers employ more than one method to brainstorm, we find mind mapping a very successful way to get those creative juices flowing.

Mind Mapping Spreading its Wings

David Kelley, founder of IDEO one of the planet’s most innovative design firms, uses mind maps to foster creativity. IDEO designed the Apple mouse, the first laptop computer, and the Palm V.

Mind maps are a popular thinking tool in Silicon Valley. Kelley says:

When I want to do something analytical, I make a list. When I’m trying to come up with ideas or strategize, I make a mind map. Mind maps are organic and allow me to free associate. They are great for asking questions and revealing connections between seemingly unrelated ideas. I start in the center with the issue or problem I am working on and then as I move farther away I get better and better ideas as I force myself to follow the branches on the map and in my mind. The cool thing is that you allow yourself to follow your inner thoughts, which is different than making a list where you are trying to be complete and deal with data.

Oprah magazine featured an article The Mind Map: “Six Steps to Get Your Creativity Flowing” on the role of mind mapping and idea generation techniques. In this article Oprah states:

Forget Making a List! Lists often come from the organized, analytical left side of your brain, and to solve an intractable problem, you want to engage the right, the creative side. Make a mind map instead. Get a big piece of paper and start in the center with a circle that contains the original problem. Write different solutions, and follow paths outward on the page, limb by limb, pushing beyond the obvious. To plan a party, for example, I put “A great dinner party for friends” in the middle, and among the many branches, one went: “Make your own sundaes → mashed potatoes → have dessert first → sit on floor → indoor picnic.” Another branch went: “Progressive dinner → go to a different restaurant for dessert(s) → show up at friends’ houses uninvited → scavenger hunt to find food.” A third: “Teach something → learn something → juggling → magic trick → expert invitee on food/wine.” Your to-do list will just get you from point A to B.

Other Fun Stuff, Extra Reading and Free Mind Map Templates

At The Graphic Design School, we are Mac lovers. We are now also iphone freaks, keeping in touch with the student forum when on the go is important for staff and tutors. We found this groovy new free iphone app ZeptoPad Brainstorming App that allows you to mind map on the run!



A great mind mapping application for blackberry also available from MindBerry

Free Mind Map Templates Ebook

Paul Foreman from Mindmap Inspiration, has generously donated readers an e-book with 22 mind map templates. Download the Free Template Ebook here.

Articles

“A Mind Map From IDEO’s David Kelley», Business Week

“The Mind Map: Six Steps to Get Your Creativity Flowing», The Oprah Magazine

Galleries

Mind Map Art Website

Tony Buzan

John Clapp’s Sketchbook

NovaMind’s Website

mappio.com

The Mindjet Blog

Blogs

Mind Map Insiration

Mind Tools

mind-mapping.org

mindmapsearch.org

IQmatrix Blog

Austin Kleon Blog

The Mindmap Blog

Books

How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day

Mind Maps at Work: How to Be the Best at Your Job and Still Have Time to Play


Featured Artist: Damien Horan
Sydney Artist/Designer & Tea drinking procrastinator Damien began his creative journey as a Dazed 70′s child absorbed by the music, diversity & extreme lifestyles of the era.
This pathed the way for a dreamy high school experience followed by an even dreamier Art School education spent surfing twin fins.
Since then, after many broken pencils & command z’s he has nurtured his wiry frame into a High Profile Artist/Designer with talents compared to Picasso & Magritte.
He has worked with many international companies including Mambo, Volcom and Insight and is currently designing his own fresh blend of cotton called ‘The Astral Plane’.
The Astral Plane
The Astral Plane’s Blog

“Share Your Graphic Design Process Group” on Flickr

We have started a group on flickr for Graphic Designers and students who wish to share their Graphic Design Process.

Share Your Graphic Design Process, on flickr


]]> http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/graphic-design/idea-generation-techniques-mind-mapping-for-graphic-design/feed/ 10 http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/graphic-design/idea-generation-techniques-mind-mapping-for-graphic-design/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GraphicDesignSchoolBlog/~3/9OTigWCmxSg/ http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/advertising/when-times-are-tough-graphic-designers-get-tactile/#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 01:55:55 +0000 admin http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/?p=1348


As always its up to the graphic designer to keep the economy running when times are tough… Really! Graphic Design makes the modern world go around, and the medicine go down!

Graphic Designers are the men and women who’s ideas bridge the gap of communication between industry and man. We are therefore partly responsible for economic stimulation.

The Graphic Design School has been noticing the creative ways that designers have been pushing the boundaries beyond the flat print form and ‘reaching out’ to appeal to our SENSES. Below are a few creative designs that verge on engineering.


Author: The Graphic Design School
In between tutoring students in The Graphic Design School’s Online Course and making multitudes of coffees, we thought that we would whip up this little blog entry simply for your viewing pleasure….
Ahhh no sleep for the wicked! Enjoy!

CHANEL Nº5

Chanel’s new sample card is simple yet different enough to have you smelling and admiring its sculptural form… We wish all brands would spend as much on advertising and branding as Chanel.




Russian Standard Vodka

Smell-o-vision it is not… its lick-o-newspaper. What a great way to kick start the ride to work on the train. Reportedly an April fools day joke… Those crazy Russians!



Welch’s

“A lot of people won’t lick a magazine no matter how good it tastes”says Chris Heye, Welch’s marketing chief. But a lot of people will talk about it. Released last year in People magazine. This ad may have given Welch exactly the market boost it was needing.



Arcor Bubble gum

Leo Burnett in Sao Paulo created this clever ad for Arcor bubble gum.



Dior

The controversially named makeup line Addict, has been under fire from Addiction support groups, for insensitive appellation. Well as we all know the fashion world loves a scandal, and Dior Addict is on the advertising rampage now more than ever! This simple and elegant envelope style page opens out to invite your personal consultation at the Dior counter… Sell,sell,sell.



Headline Review

What worn out housewife could resist the allure of a bath, a romance novel and a free lift out that tells the kids to take a hike. Say no more… target audience… HIT!



Sopranos

“Bada Bing!” Sopranos magazine insert used to promote the latest season.



Fruits of the Loom

Undies so fresh they smell like flowers?



Tide

Creating a tactile look and feel to a fabric softener, this 3D ad takes the cake.



3 Musketeers

A pop up chocolate sample, extra tactile! Yumm.



Giorgio Armani Onde perfume

For the release of the Onde series of perfumes, Armani let us sample all three in a 6 page spread of the May issue of Harpers Bazaar.



Oil Of Olay

Clever use of specially designed light catching textured paper, help demonstrate that Oil of Olay has glamour and shine, without the price tag. Nice.



Absolut

Absolut is taking tactile to places where everybody dreams of going…

Visionaire

Lastly, have you heard of Visionaire magazine? Visionaire is a multi-format album of fashion and art produced in exclusive numbered limited editions. Published three times a year, each Visionaire features a different theme.

Issue number 55 is called “Suprise”, engineered by Bruce Foster it utilizes complex 3D environments with classic pop-up techniques. The Visionaire 55 is a showcase of impressive pop-ups by Sophie Calle, Nicola Formichetti with Gareth Pugh, Cai Guo-Quiang, Andreas Gursky, Steven Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Alasdair McLellan, Steven Meisel, Guido Mocafico, Solve Sundsbo and Mario Testino.

See it live here and be sure to visit their site

www.visionaireworld.com


]]> http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/advertising/when-times-are-tough-graphic-designers-get-tactile/feed/ 1 http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/advertising/when-times-are-tough-graphic-designers-get-tactile/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GraphicDesignSchoolBlog/~3/mJNpKFjmf5Q/ http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/advertising/your-business-card-is-crap-note-quite/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:22:17 +0000 admin http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/?p=1304


Your business card leaves an impression of You, even when you are not there. A beautiful business card helps you stay in on the radar of the people you are giving it to, a great business card makes you standout. We have came across some beauties, and we would like to share them with you.

Send us business cards that stand out, we will publish them!


Author: The Graphic Design School
In between tutoring students in The Graphic Design School’s Online Course and making multitudes of coffees, we thought that we would whip up this little blog entry simply for your viewing pleasure….
Ahhh no sleep for the wicked! Enjoy!

Your Business Card is Crap!

This clip inspired us to make a reactive thread. We laughed so hard at this self professed ‘Rich jerk’. We couldn’t agree with his appellation more. Check it out, see what you think! Below are a few of our fav interactive business cards… that didn’t take 25 years to design!!

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“I am Emerson Taymor”

Emerson Taymor is a quirky ‘little’ guy. His business card seems to reflect his overall style, check out his website too.

www.emersontaymor.com




Impact Salon

www.creativesuitcase.com



“Google Me Card”

Ji Lee

Download a template to make your own!

www.pleaseenjoy.com



Lego

Can you believe that this is a business card? For who else, but the employees at Lego. They are designed to look like the employee that they represent by matching hair color, style and accessories.

www.lego.com




Tur & Partner

Jong von Matt of Germany (also featured in our European Print Article this month) made this awesome business card for Tur & Partner an architectural landscaping company. The card contains seedlings that germinate when you water and expose to light.




Raphael Essoo-Snowdon

He designed and created these awesome 3D glasses when he was a Graphic design student. He painstakingly did all of the cutting and construction by hand.

Raphael Essoo-Snowdon on Flickr



Peet Pienaar

Laser cut business card of South African performance artist/graphic designer Peet Pienaar. From Daddy buy me a Pony magazine.

I’m using art as an excuse to live a very interesting life – it allows you to be whoever you want to be, do whatever you want to do, go where ever you want to go. It’s like a free ticket.

Peet Pienaar

Peet Pienaar on Flickr



1scale1

Lasercut business card of David Sjunnesson of 1scale1: a Critical Research Studio looking into the development of interactive media solutions. This business card really needed to be interactive for a company with that kind of a mission statement.

www.1scale1.com



Scizors

Scizors is a small post-production company who asked Ben Schlitter to create their identity and branding. Those ambitious enough to cut on the dotted line are rewarded with a small paper robot.

benschlitter.com




Bracket

Bracket is a publication that features everything-in-between – ideas, process and voices overlooked and under-appreciated. Nice representation of the company through this simple yet effective idea… genius.

www.silnt.com



Che-Wei Wang

This design is inspired by Ken Blackburn’s world record paper airplane.

Tip: Fold the business card airplane with the wings tilted downward. It’ll fly like a dart. Nothing like a paper airplane flying around an office of board pencil pushers to get your message ‘out there’.

cwwang.com




Murillo Design

A good identity promotes instant retention and long-term recall in an already overcrowded marketplace.

As stated on their website

And what better way to prove your point than practicing what you preach! Hell if they make it big, we might be able to use this business card as currency.

www.murillodesign.com



Donovan Mafnas

Business card of our very own lovable tutor and forum technical advisor at The Graphic Design School Donovan Mafnas. Donovan is not only one of the most professional and efficient people that we have ever had the pleasure of working with, he is a ‘kick ass’ designer. Love your work Dino… again!

www.fuelhaus.com



Reactor

The boys at Reactor thought they were worth a little extra. This is a great concept for a business card to leave at an interview… sets an ‘up and coming’ designer apart from the hoards of potentials that an employer may seek. Nice one!

www.yourreactor.com



The catapult business card

Bryce Bell is a designer with a LOT of time on his hands, and quite a few fans.

You can create one of these yourself, by visiting his site for instructions and instructional videos. You never know when you may need a catapult for an ant invasion… think about it!

www.instructables.com



Master Promo, Curitiba, Brazil

They designed this card for Couples Therapist Marisa Schmit Silva. Makes you wanna have marital problems just to get your hands on one of these. Thanks to adgoodness for this find.

www.frederiksamuel.com



Make your own interactive Business Cards

Want to learn how to make this cute little guy? You can follow a tutorial and even download the templates at computer arts. You will need InDesign for this one, maybe even Scribus. Be inspired by this template and adapt it to your own style.

www.computerarts.co.uk



American Psycho

American Psycho: “Business Card Scene”

Last but not least we would like to leave you with this little clip from the movie American Psycho. Too good!



]]> http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/advertising/your-business-card-is-crap-note-quite/feed/ 20 http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/advertising/your-business-card-is-crap-note-quite/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GraphicDesignSchoolBlog/~3/dw9XkeIy9jM/ http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/whos-who/interview-with-luke-feldman/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 04:02:57 +0000 admin http://www.thegraphicdesignschool.com/blog/?p=1302


It has been said that Luke Feldman is to digital art what Tim Burton is to cinema, or Dr. Seuss is to children’s books, his distinctive unmistakable design style, has landed him jobs with Coca Cola, Apple and Disney to name but a few. This is Luke Feldman Interview with The Graphic Design School.


Author: The Graphic Design School
Luke’s style is an inspiration to all designers. We needed to know what makes this guy tick. His candid and open approach left us charmed… Thanks Luke!


Welcome to The Graphic Design School Blog. Tell us a little bit about yourself. A brief bio…

Luke Feldman, the creator of SKAFFS, is an Australian multimedia designer who creates for a multitude of platforms. Inspired by childhood experiences and a vivid imagination, his illustrations and animations are distinctive with defined lines, elaborate detail, and intensely vibrant colors.

SKAFFS is a collection of work made up of art, animation, games, giant vinyl adhesives, skate decks and collector toys.

Luke’s vast technical experience and skills developed working in numerous mediums. He studied Visual Arts and Multimedia in Australia and has worked in the gaming, education and animation industry; his work ranges from graphic design, illustration, computer animation, Flash interactive, mobile media, website design and functionality, character design, installations and advertising.

While the scope of his work is extensive, it is bound together through his unique and dynamic style; a style that has led to a number of awards, exhibitions and collaborations with high profile artists including Theodore Geisel and Maurice Sendak and companies such as Disney, Coca-Cola, Facebook.

Luke Feldman’s artwork blends the classic stylings of 1950s Disney with a modern design sensibility to create something both cutting edge and timeless.

Andrew Farago, Manager & curator, San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum Gallery

Indeed, one might contend that Feldman is to digital art what Tim Burton is to cinema, or Dr. Seuss is to children’s books, as each artist has a distinctive, unmistakable style.

Hans Fink, Los Angeles’ Skinnie Magazine

Luke Feldman’s instantly recognizable ‘Skaffs’ creations comprise a heady mix of bright colors and razor sharp style mixed with an underlying, almost tangible naivety that make his illustrations easily identifiable in a world where originality is not as easy to find as you might think..

Jo Spurling, author and editor of Desktop magazine

We are a blog for beginners and graphic design students. Can you share with us the most enjoyable moment, subject or lesson that you had while studying?

Interactive design was probably my favorite subject as I got to learn all about Illustrator and Photoshop and how to ‘mock-up’ designs. One of my most enjoyable moments was an electronic design project whereby I had to concept, design, and develop a computer game and present it in its finished form including packaging.



How did that moment, subject or lesson shape what you do now?

This project helped me see the big picture and demonstrated what is involved in developing a product from concept. Being a creative director consultant, my work today is predominantly taking a project brief and fleshing it out into a concept, then a finished design to a full functioning product i.e. game, mobile content, Flash advertising.



Describe your style of graphic design in a few words. What kind of advice would you give students who wish to excel in this style?

My style is based on symmetry, flow and vibrant colours. My advice would be to develop a unique style, perfect it and experiment with your style by adapting it to as many platforms as you can.



Do you use hand drawn techniques to help you develop a design. How important is this in your process as a Graphic designer?

Everything I do starts off as a hand drawn sketch. It’s very important to be able to translate your ideas into physical form. Freehand drawing is an important skill as it is often the first thing you show future clients and you need to win them over with this concept to land the job.

 

Do you keep an ideas journal? If so can we have a sneaky peek?

I have a trusty sketch book that I carry around with me at all time. Ideas can come to me at any time of the day and it’s important for me to be able to jot these ideas down before I forget. These books also come in handy when thinking of concepts to pitch to clients. Below is a sneak preview.



What are your favorite websites at the moment?

My favorite websites would have to be:

Flashkit

Kirupa

Cold Hard Flash

Vector Tuts Plus

Who are your 5 all time favorite graphic designers?

Some awesome graphic designers would include McBess and James Jean.



 

Mc Bess also featured in The Graphic Design School European websites.



James Jean

What typefaces do you use the most in your designs?

I change fonts depending on the design brief. But, my most commonly used fonts would be century gothic, swiss 721 and avant-garde. I have also been known to create my own fonts here and there to better complete a project.



What about your job do you find the most rewarding?

Developing a concept into a finished product would be the most rewarding part of my job. I also like the challenge of being able to adapt my style to various platforms from print, to broadcast, to mobile media to wall installations.

I have been fortunate enough to have written and illustrated my very own book through San Francisco-based publishers, Immedium. The book is called “Chaff n Skaffs: Mai and the Lost Moskivvy”.

In this project I completed all the graphics in which each page is a finished piece of artwork, and I did all the text layout and graphic design. I have developed giant wall installations for LA stores and have developed my own product line of skate decks, artwork, collector toys, and iPhone applications.



A moment to brag… who are your most prestigious clients?

I’ve worked with some great companies. My most memorable projects and clients would be designing the 2007 advertising campaign for Coca Cola, the 2008 Apple MAC world 1-storey conference booth, animation design concepts for Disney and developing Flash content for Facebook.

 

Where do you see your career in five years?

I would hope to continue to grow as a multimedia designer and to continue to work with great companies on fun and challenging projects. And to continue to develop my SKAFFS line of products.

 



What advice would you give to graphic design students around the world. About shaping a great portfolio?

A great portfolio is important. Definitely take time out to put together a great selection of work. Ensure that your work has a distinct style but show diversity in how you apply your style. Be confident about your work and don’t give up.

A question on everybody’s mind… Billy Elliot feels on fire when he dances … how do you feel when you are designing?

Designing energizes me: It’s as if my design field is frenzied and the world around me stops; I don’t feel hungry; I don’t feel tired; I don’t feel thirsty.

Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with us… any famous last words?

Thank you!

Luke has kindly contributed a tutorial for you to have a crack at vectorizing one of his adorable characters entitled ’How to Create a Finished Vector Character“



If you would like to learn more about Luke you can visit his website Scaffs and Luke’s new book Chaffs and Skaffs


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