Joshua Davis is a Graphic Designer

Delicioussssssssssuuuuuuuuuucks

2011-09-27T15:29:00.000-05:00

In response to the newly designed delicious.com website:

11 Mac Apps and Design Resources for only $49

2011-09-06T16:49:00.001-05:00

World Media Awards

2011-08-31T14:51:00.000-05:00

The World Media Awards exists to recognize and reward great contributions to media from bloggers and publishers. It will culminate in a 1 day event in San Francisco that will celebrate the best in blogging, forums, publishing and media from around the world. So if you are a world class blogger, why should you enter?

1. Get Recognized - You Deserve It!
You put a lot of effort into making your blog incredible. You know it and your readers know it. The World Media Awards is a way for you to get authoritative recognition from other bloggers and industry experts. That recognition will help you build your readership, make new collaborative connections, and hopefully have great moments that make all the late nights even more rewarding.

2. Meet Other Bloggers Who Care
Blogging, forums and most other online media is about conversation and interaction, but sometimes it's easy to end up pecking away behind a monitor in your office or home all alone. Meeting other bloggers and publishers keeps the fire lit and the conversation going. When you enter the World Media Awards, you'll be listed alongside other bloggers and publishers who put the same level of pleasure, attention and work into making their blog top notch.

3. Expose Yourself to New Partners
If your blog or forum is part of your organization, being part of the World Media Awards will increase your exposure by putting your name in front of the thousands of visitors to our site and the award ceremony. That means you can find out who else is doing very good work, strut your own stuff, and expand your network of contacts and collaborators.

4. Make Yourself Irresistible to Clients
What helps your chances at winning that next pitch more than expanding your network? Telling that network that you are the winner of a World Media Award. Winning an award shines a light on your achievements, and it serves as an example of the commitment, engagement and exacting standards you apply to your work.

5. Be Part of the Beginning of Something Big
Because 2012 is the first year for these awards, you have the one-time chance to be the inaugural winner and set the standard for the World Media Awards in your category. Getting in on the ground floor of these awards will open doors for you as a blogger and a publisher. The bottom line is, the World Media Awards will shine a spotlight on the year‚ as most successful bloggers and publishers, and on the businesses that serve and interact with them. Now is your chance to be one of them. The sponsors include Growmap, Pace Lattin, VigLink and Trancos. World Media Award judges include Steve Hall, Sarah Austin, Chang Kim, Julie Wohlberg, Pierre Zarokian, Ivka Adam, Cheryl Contee, Krystyl Baldwin, Adrian Harris, Jeremy Wright, Rob Bloggeries, Dave Duarte, Tanya Alvarez, Dana Oshiro, Tom Foremski, and Judith Lewis. hashtag #wmads on Twitter. Media partners include Adrants, Bloggeries, MediaVision, The Affiliate Marketing Awards, Read Write Web, My Blog Guest, Web Traffic Control and FeedBlitz. Murray Newlands is author of How to Make a Blog Book and Online Marketing; a User Guide. He is also founder of the Affiliate Marketing Awards. Born in the UK, he now spends his time in San Francisco and New York. Murray works for Audience Mindshare and consults for Trancos Ins as well as being an advisor for VigLink. Actually he is working on his new book: The Email Marketing Book.

Wacoms Inkling: A new way take your sketches digital.

2011-08-30T21:53:00.000-05:00

The Inkling sketch pen uses pressure sensitivity to capture a digital image of your work while you draw on any paper. This is ideal for making quick sketches or brainstorming, and best of all it finally gets rid of the scanner and tablet! The best part is it allows you to create layers with the touch of a button. It's small and portable, so you can take it anywhere. When you get home, simply plug it in and transfer your drawing to your favorite editing program.

I think I'm in love.

LogoGargen.com rips off world famous logos and gets away with it!

2011-08-18T18:43:00.007-05:00

At first glance LogoGarden just looks like another stock logo farm out to scam small businesses with the lure of quick and cheap custom logos. But upon closer inspection we come to find that they're not ripping off regular joe logo designer, but are going after the big boys. They have stolen the intellectual property rights of some of the most famous brands such as The World Wildlife Fund pictured below.

To show how ridiculous this is, the following was taken directly from their terms and conditions.

LogoGarden retains the copyrights and all associated rights to the original symbols, but the license allows Users to use and display that symbol in the customized logo.

I find this more than a little ironic. LogoGarden has the nerve to steal other logo designs and claim full copyright to them, only to turn around and illegally license it to unlimited users.

The whole purpose of a business seeking out a custom logo is so that it can be uniquely identifiable to them, only used by them, and be copyrighted / trademarked so that if infringement occurs, they could take legal action and protect their brands value and reputation. Once a logo develops brand recognition, customers associate it with certain core values like trust, quality, reliability, experience, etc. All of which take years to develop and therefore has a priceless value.

What gets me the most is how the word custom is abused so much recently. If it is not created from scratch, it's not custom. Sometimes I wonder how people can fall for a scam like this, but that's what happens when you're looking for a quick solution. As a head's up some other "custom" logo sites that have been know to sell mass generic logos or just flat out rip offs include: logoworks, logoyes, quicklogo, and more. Basically if it says fast, cheap, and has a large selection of pre-made designs to choose from, RUN!

Moral of the story? There are no shortcuts in life. There is no such thing as do it yourself logo design service. There is only old fashioned, time consuming, do it yourself work. Or you could hire someone that creates logo designs for a living. Just an idea.

I first found out about LogoGarden from Jeff Fisher who has the misfortune of multiple instances of his logo designs being ripped off.

I hope it spreads that what LogoGarden and similar sites are doing is not only a scam, but also theft.

Why Microsoft a.k.a. Bing still Sucks!

2011-07-01T16:06:00.001-05:00

No matter how many chances I give microsoft to redeem themselves I find time and time again that their products and services just plain suck. After buying Windows machines all my life I finally got fed up and bought a Mac. No problems ever since. I tried using Bing once and gave up because I could not get good search results. After being thoughouly disgusted with them, I thought why not give them one more chance and use bing's webmaster services? No need to sign up, just log in with Facebook and this will be quick and simple. Nope. Didn't work. Had to sign up for an account. After the signup form rejected my password several times I finally got an account and loged in. Bing! I get presented with this lovely message. Goodbye forever Microsoft!

Working your Life Away

2011-02-07T20:39:00.002-06:00

* You will spend at least 2,080 hours per year working a full-time job in the United States.
* This equals 87 straight days working per year without a single break to eat, drink or sleep.
* If you begin working full time at age 18 and stop at 65 you'll spend 97,760 hours at work.
* Or we can look at this as only 4,073 continuous days without a break.
* To put this in perspective, at a child's eleventh birthday they'll have barely experienced 4,000 days.
* Factoring out sleep, we only have 242 days per year to be awake
* This means you spend greater than 36% of your waking time working.
* If we average 2 hours a day eating then we only have 212 days to call our own
* And this increases our time spent working to greater than 41%
* The average time spent behind the wheel each day for Americans is 87 minutes
* If we consider this part of your work day, then you are at work for 45% of your time
* 460 hours (57 work days) more then a peasant in 13th century England
* 716 hours (90 work days) more then an average worker in Germany
* 1456 hours (182 work days) more then the !Kung Bushman (a group of hunters and gatherers)

New Gap Logo Causes Fan Revolt

2010-10-15T12:41:00.003-05:00

This article is a continuation of a recent rash of branding failures that include Bing, Pepsi, and now Gap's new logo. The backlash has been spread far and wide across the internet in news stories, design blogs, and even a make your own "crap" logo. Apparently the Gap changed their old logo online and replaced it with a new one because

"We’ve had the same logo for 20+ years"

Well, that may be true, but after having brand recognition and customer loyalty for over 20 years, why would you throw it all away on a whim? The president of Gap made an attempt to explain, but in the end admitted that

"we plan to ask people to share their designs with us as well"

So basically they have no idea what they are doing and are making a pathetic plea to the crowdsourcing community. After all, wouldn't you put your brand in the hands of people who know less about your company, have no point of reference, and may not even be designers or familiar with branding; what could go wrong? Well, it looks like we will never find out, because almost immediatly Gap listened up

"Ok. We’ve heard loud and clear that you don’t like the new logo. We’ve learned a lot from the feedback. We only want what’s best for the brand and our customers."

But has Gap really learned their lesson? This whole fiasco could have been handeled in a much more professional manner. I mean, if they wanted the opinoins of fans, why didn't they just take a poll? Companies stage controversy all the time to get more attention, but the question is did it work? And if so, are you going to rush out and buy Gap clothes?

UPDATE: 99designs held a contest to redesign the logo. The prize is only $500, but over 4600 logos were submitted. That's only $9.20 per concept and it shows. See for yourself >

100 Brands of Interest

2009-08-08T16:09:00.001-05:00

Recently I was fortunate enough to have my logo featured on Dache - a blog by logo designer David Pache. The following is from his article 100 Brands of Interest II:

"It can be the easiest thing to create a logo for a client but when it comes to assessing what style of identity can best represent yourself or your business, this is a different matter altogether...

No matter what the style, I think it can be said that all of the 100 brands below have been executed successfully to create effective, professional logos which communicate well to their audience."

Thanks again David, for featuring my logo along with many other talented designers.

What makes the World's Largest Brands Logo Designs Special?

2009-08-07T16:36:00.000-05:00

According to the ‘Top 100 Global Brands Scoreboard’ report the top 50 brands & logo designs in ranking order were:

Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, GE, Intel, Nokia, Walt Disney, McDonald’s, Toyota, Marlboro, Mercedes-Benz, Citi, Hewlett-Packard, American Express, Gillette, BMW, Cisco, Louis Vuitton, Honda, Samsung, Dell, Ford, Pepsi, Nescafé, Merrill Lynch, Budweiser, Oracle, Sony, HSBC, Nike, Pfizer, UPS, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Canon, SAP, Goldman Sachs, Google, Kellogg’s, Gap, Apple, Ikea, Novartis, UBS, Siemens, Harley-Davidson, Heinz, MTV, Gucci and Nintendo.

You would think that an analysis of this list should give some good commercial pointers to a good commercial new logo design. So here then is a description of a logo designs that conforms as near as possible with the emphasis supported by these top 50 brands (the (%) identifies the percentage of these brands that hold to this view) :

The name does not describe the product sold (94%)
The by-line tag is not included in the logo (90%)
The font style is clean and clear (84%)
The logo design uses one colour only (74%) (white & black not counted as a colour)
The logo design uses letters only without the symbol (74%)
The logo design is a made-up name or ACRONYM (72%)
The logo design is rectangular in shape (66%)
The logo design is one word only (62%)
The logo design includes the trademark symbol (54%) and is placed in the top right (48%)
The name is 6 letters or less (52%)
The name uses upper & lower case (44%) (excluding ACRONYMS)
The background is filled and solid. (52%)
The pronunciation includes three sounds/syllables (44%)
The predominant color base is blue (40%)

Originally published on: Knol by Peter Baskerville

Google's new Wave Logo passes with Flying Colors

2009-08-06T08:13:00.000-05:00

Google's new communication service, Wave, put simply is a combination of email, IM, and threaded comments. You can view a full video preview on YouTube. This post, however, is about how Google has created a new fresh logo design while still maintaining it's brand consistency. Thanks again Michael for suggesting this post. If you would like to make a suggestion for future posts, please leave it in the comments below or email info@joshuardavis.com.

My critique of the design is below.

Form: Usually I do not care for 3D logos because they are executed terribly. They have tons of gradients, weird perspectives, and when you remove all the effects, the design fundamentally looks different or is just boring. What makes this design different is that it works in one color. You can take away all the special effects and it will still retain its core essence. I can not stress enough how important that is, because it ensures that the design will work in any and all media.

Function: Because the logo is a symbol and in a square format there are lots of possibilities do display it. It can be used alone, with the text larger to the right, or smaller underneath, all while adjusting to different circumstances and available space. This helps the logo fit seamlessly into any design layout.

Scale: Is not even an issue, as the logo will be recognizable even at 16x16px, or your standard favicon. Even so, if you notice on the Google Wave website they simplified the favicon even further.

Color: This is where Google shines, not because they choose the best looking colors, but because in every version of their brand they use the same ones. Remember consistency and familiarity breeds trust and loyalty in consumers. Besides that I think it was rather tastefully done with subtle gradients.

Uniqueness: Google Wave reminds me of Apple's logo in a few instances. They are both simple and yet have tremendous impact, can be used alone or with text, and are a visual representation of the brand name; which has shown to be an extremely effective technique to retain brands in customer minds.

Your Opinion: I purposefully do not expound further, because I would like to start answering specific questions you have, so that we can all gain a deeper understanding of design and branding. So go ahead and feel free to leave a comment, question, or suggestion.

Also check out: Microsoft's new Bing Logo is an Epic Fail

Most Innovative Websites

2009-06-07T14:42:00.004-05:00

BooneOakley: Website made entirely on YouTube videos. Visit it on YouTube to get the full experience.

IE6 Users are Killing Babies

2009-06-04T09:26:00.018-05:00

Well, not quite. That headline may be a little misleading. If you are a web designer or developer though, you know how fast the web evolves, and I don't need to explain why IE6 is a festering pile of yesterdays news. However, the average Joe is left blissfully unaware of the massive headaches, pain, frustration, and general discomfort he is causing us. That may all change very soon as more creative attempts are made to grab users attention.

Here are some of the more outlandish attempts. Enjoy ;)

view more *** WARNING *** messages contain vulgar language and crude jokes. Like that's going to stop you.

Selection of images results from Google search: Bring Down IE6

If you have come across a creative way to get the message out about IE6 put a link in the comments below or send an email to info@joshuardavis.com

For more information about the cause and why you should upgrade your browser check out these websites and blogs: TechCrunch, 37signals, 6 reasons why IE6 must die,
IE6 – Oh IE6… Why Must We Live With You?, IE6nomore, and of course join the bring down IE6 movement.

At the very least, please update your browser to IE7, or better yet, download one of these browsers for free: Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Opera. And if your wondering what a browser is, your using one right now to view this page. Please help support the cause by clicking the spread the word icon below.

This has been a public service announcement. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

The Secrets to Good Logo Design

2009-03-24T15:31:00.007-05:00

You may be surprised to know that a good logo design has little to do with its color, shape, size, aesthetics, or whitespace. Not to say that these elements are not important, because they are, but only if used correctly and purposefully. Paul Rand (best known for IBM, UPS, and ABC logos) explains a logo’s purpose:

A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon.
A logo doesn't sell (directly), it identifies.
A logo is rarely a description of a business.
A logo derives its meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around.
A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it means is more important than what it looks like.

Quoted from and article originally published in 1991 by AIGA, the professional association for design, and was included in the book: Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design

So in the end, it does not matter what your logo looks like as long as it fulfills its purpose. However, if you find that your logo no longer serves it’s purpose or no longer aligns itself with your companies core values it may be time to, gulp, re-brand.

What really goes into a Large Scale Website?

2009-03-24T11:57:00.002-05:00

If you’re really serious about your business website here are some of the essentials you will need.

Copywriter: Most of the time this position will fall on you. Responsible for writing all the content that will appear on the site. It’s not an easy as you would think, so I would recommend hiring someone if you don’t like writing a lot.

Web Designer: Your designer and possibly also your graphics go to guy. Responsible for the entire look and feel of your website, UI - user interface, and to a certain extent, how the site will function. I would not suggest undertaking this by yourself without at least first contacting a designer to see what you’re really in for.

Web Developer: Your programmer and possibly your IT person. Responsible for coding more advanced functions such as interactive features, databases, e-commerce, etc. Defiantly not a job to leave to yourself. Do not even think about it unless you have had extensive experience with coding a website.

Project Manager: Again, this duty will fall on you, so if you’re planning a large undertaking you may want to consider how much free time you have. Responsible for coordinating everyone’s task and generally keeping everyone happy and productive.

Jack-of-all-Trades: It is very possible to find a person to fulfill all these positions, just make sure you have a backup plan.

Now of course, if you have a small website you can be all of these people at once and still have a successful website, but it is still important to know the functions they play in your site so if you ever need help or want to expand, you’re all set and ready to go!

Why the term Graphic Design should be changed to Graphic Solutions

2009-01-18T14:12:00.007-06:00

I think in for the most part, people in general get the wrong impression of design and confuse it with art. Design is merely yet another tool that serves the purpose of communication. In its purest sense, design is visual communication.

"Design should never say, “Look at me.” It should always say, “Look at this."

- David Craib

This is what separates design from art. Art is created, and enjoyed for its aesthetic purposes alone, while design serves a function. Now this is where it can get confusing so bear with me. Design can also be art, but art cannot be design, but art can have a design to it, and yet serve no function, and art can also communicate a message without a target audience. Confused yet? Well, it’s this blurring of ideas; concepts, theories, and definitions that create misleading assumptions about design, designers, and what they actually do, which is identify “problems” and create solutions. A designer’s job is to analyze the many factors that will affect the outcome of a design, such as the purpose or goal, target audience, demographics, gender, emotions, geographic area, politics, religion, not to mention budget, time constraints, and sometimes other creative input. All of a sudden it seems there is much more to design than drawing pretty pictures or seeing who can design the most glossy web 2.0 logo.

Design can be a tricky term to define, but what always helps me remember is to think of it as something that fulfills a specific need for a specific purpose at a specific time in a specific way.

“It may be nice to look at, but if it fails to fulfill its purpose, the design becomes irrelevant.”

- Joshua R. Davis

So, if you are in need of a graphic solution, feel free to contact me, and together we will design for a purpose.

LogoInstant is giving away Free Logos, but is it too good to be True?

2009-01-14T08:43:00.019-06:00

How could a website possibly be giving away logos for free? The short answer is they’re not. A quick look at their terms and conditions clears things up. The following quote is taken directly from their site:

“You may not claim copyright to any logo designs you download from this website even after you have performed modifications on it, UNLESS all images and design objects are replaced and the design looks drastically different from the original one.
All intellectual rights to the all design materials on this website are held by LogoInstant.com”

In other words you can’t download any of these logos to represent your business unless you create a completely new logo. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the site? If anyone needs to drastically alter their logo, feel free to contact me. Their terms also go on to say:

“We take no responsibility for the way you use the designs (graphics and logo names) provided on this site. We are not reponsible for any damages of any kind arising (if any) that can happen when you use or modify it.”

So if you do decide to download a logo, you stand the chance of infringing on other people's rights and possible legal altercations. And the chances of legal trouble only grow as more people download the same logo. Besides that, why would you want a logo that is the same or close to hundreds or even thousands of other people's logos? It defeats the very purpose of a logo: to differentiate yourself from your competition. When it all comes down to it, LogoInstant is a great site for design inspiration, but not the right place to find a logo. It would stand to reason that you would save much more time, money, and legal battles if you just get a logo designed right the first time. Unfortunately, many people fall for this gimmick, because let's face it, who doesn’t like something for free?

As a side note, I want to make it clear that I am not concerned with how free logos will affect the design industry, but rather how it will harm you by using them. To those entrepreneurs, business people, and companies alike, I hope that whatever decisions you choose will make you proud, productive, and profitable!

91 Ways to Know if You're a Graphic Designer

2008-12-26T15:21:00.020-06:00

1. You have bags under your eyes so big you'd have to check them in at Heathrow Airport
2. You watch the superbowl just for the commercials
3. You can spot bad typography from 100 yds away
4. You are pro-facebook because 95% of the myspace accounts burn your retinas
5. You can name more than 200 fonts in under five minutes
6. You are completely immune to subliminal advertising
7. You look upon a well-designed project with either: sympathy OR extreme jealousy
8. Your hand is permanently stuck in the shape of a mouse
9. You tell stories of exacto-knife inflicted wounds with grizzled sort of pride
10. You practically take caffeine intravenously
11. You have an appreciation for everything unique
12. You've been spending three days non-stop on a project and it still looks like shit. You find yourself overcome by Deathlust.
13. You find your pulse increase at the sight of a lovely ligature, glasses steam up when an unusually elegant arm, leg, or tail comes in view, and a well-kerned paragraph is apt to make you break into a sweat with excitement.
14. You know you're a Graphic Designer when... you buy a CD or DVD for the artwork, even if you have no idea what the actual music or film is like. (even worse, you don't actually watch or listen to it, just stare at it for hours and hug it in adoration)
15. You know you're a Graphic Designer when... you look at the clock and see it's about midnight and think 'I'll go to bed now'... and you actually go to bed about 2-3am.
16. You know you're a Graphic Designer when... you need someone else to point out that you're sitting in a room in front of the computer with all the lights off, and haven't noticed
17. When you know what "kerning" is and you really, really like it.
18. When you wear two [ke] [rn] pins on your bag, and only you know what the mean. To others its probably a band of sorts.
19. Forget the boy-wonder and the man of steel; your heroes have names like 'Tibor Kalman', 'Stefan Sagmeister', 'Paul Rand', and 'Paula Scher'.
20. You don't wear black to look cool, you wear it to hide the gauche.
21. You have a thing for chairs. You don't know why.
22. You giggle whenever you use the colors F0CCED, EFF0FF and 44DDDD
23. You’re in the sun and you look around for a Drop Shadow to sit under.
24. You give your relatives a lecture about color spaces and profiles when you email them your vacation photos.
25. Seeing someone use Lens Flare or Comic Sans adversely affects your blood-pressure.
26. You maintain a grid system for your refrigerator magnets.
27. You organize your CD collection according to the Pantone chart.
28. You sit at work for eight hours straight just looking at your monitor, waiting for a spark of inspiration that doesn't come.
29. You're up 'til 5am because you came up with the best idea ever while brushing your teeth.
30. The hottest dream you ever had was "Trace contour... Find Edges... Pinch... Extrude... Smudge Stick... Motion Blur.... Sprayed Strokes..."
31. You know Lorem Ipsum by heart.
32. Your kid knows Lorem Ipsum by heart.
33. The preschool teacher complains your child won't color inside or outside the lines – only indicate colors on a separate sheet.
34. Activating your entire font collection makes your computer crash.
35. You deliberately butcher your perfectly cross browser compatible site in IE by placing a “Too Cool for IE” banner on it.
36. You prefer a Layer Style of 50% Opacity (or less) on your wife’s Satin.
37. You spend $200 on a font for your personal website because "it's the only one where the lower-case g is just right..."
38. Looking at a menu make you go "hmmm, ITC Baskerville italic" rather than "mmmm, lunch!"
39. And when you finally order, you go for Layer Based Slices with Grain Texture...
40. You use words about fonts you dislike that other normal people reserve for fascist dictators and serial killers.
41. Apple+Z is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something.
42. You refer to colleagues as Strict, Transitional, Loose and the Future Unemployed.
43. You refer to your privates as "the Magic Wand".
44. You know that rivers are more than just water.
45. Your best friends are all employees at the local print shop
46. The only people who seem to know what you do for a living are other Graphic Designers (ex: Graphic Design? What's that? You'll never be able to make a living being an artist!)
47. Kerning and leading on your shopping list actually matters to you, and you don't see a problem with that.
48. Several South American economies suffer noticeably any time you try to give up coffee, or even cut your consumption of it by half.
49. You know that "bleeding" doesn't hurt.
50. When your significant other/ friends have threatened to never speak to you again if you point out one more font to them.
51. When you know the difference between fuchsia, magenta, and maroon.
52. If you could go back in time you wouldn't go back to see the rise and fall of civilizations, you'd go back in time to destroy comic sans and papyrus.
53. You Know You're a Graphic Designer When deciding on the right crop doesn't involve a choice between corn or wheat.
54. You've considered naming your children things like 'Kern', 'Pica', 'Bézier', and 'Serif'.
55. You can understand everything on this list.

from: You Know You're a Graphic Designer When... Facebook Group

56. You’ve had a client that thought they knew more about design than you.
57. Your clients pay you for your professional expertise and skill, yet you’ve run into one of ‘those’ clients, that refuses to take the advice from the very person he/she is paying for advice (you).

58. You’ve had a client that insisted on using the font “Papyrus,” and you had to hold in your barf as you prepped it [the design] for printing.
59. You’ve requested a vector logo from a client, and instead, they email you a 72 dpi image they grabbed from a website.
60. You’ve used typography as a texture.
61. You don’t have a favorite font because you love “Typography.” Not Fonts. Choosing a favorite font would be like choosing a favorite child, it’s just wrong.
62. You collect as many free stuffs from the interwebs as you can on your hard drive, hoping that one day, that cool project will come along that you can actually use some cool shit on.
63. You’d rather have a free font than a free gallon of gas.
64. It’s hard to talk about frustrations at your job with a group of friends because they have no idea what “Vector” or “DPI” is, just to name a couple.
65. You’ve had a client ask you to “Make the logo bigger.”
66. You’ve had a client that insists on “filling up the space.”
67. You’ve learned to over-price web design projects because most clients are more picky about their websites than a high school girl picking out a prom dress.
68. You feel like you’re “On Call” half of the time because clients procrastinate so much.
69. You know keyboard shortcuts that require 4 fingers.
70. You’ve lost hours of work because an application crashed, and you had to start over from scratch because you were in the “zone” and forgot to save. Basically, you were having so much fun being creative that saving was the last thing on your mind at the time.
71. You’ve “Live-Traced” something.
72. You spend more hours per week looking at CSS showcase sites than you do at the gym.
73. The only thing that would make you happier than the demise of IE6 is world peace.
74. You’ve done everything but give up a body part to talk a client out of a “Flash Intro.” Yeah. I said it. Flash Intro. Sad, so so sad. (goes along with #2)
75. You have enough fonts on your hard drive to last you for: 1 font per day for about a decade, give or take a year or two.
76. You know, explicitly, what a “Flourish” is.
77. You worry about negative space as much as the content area.
78. You get phone calls from friends and family members on a regular, sometimes annoyingly-frequent basis, wanting your services for free or extremely cheap. (and the “portfolio” line makes you want to throw something across the room)
79. You’ve had a client that wants a website they can “update” on their own, but doesn’t know shit about websites.
80. You’re never more than 99% happy with your final product because you believe that EVERYTHING can be improved upon. (especially with those tight-deadline projects)

from: bittbox

81. You learned your lesson and stopped using the word final in any file name when saving.
82. You consider meals interruptions.

83. You clean your keyboard more often than you wash your car.
84. You nicknamed the OSX spinning wheel. (and not affectionately)
85. You almost rear-ended the car in front of you because you were analyzing a font on a billboard.
86. You would rather study the paisley pattern on your boyfriend/girlfriend's shirt than listen to what he/she has to say.
87. You kept a ragged concert ticket just so you could scan it.
88. You intentionally overbid a project because you can sniff out a bad client from a mile away.
89. You get pissed when a free Photoshop brush you download is less than 1000px in size.
90. You can use keyboard shortcuts at light speed, blindfolded, but you can't type a paragraph of text without staring at the keyboard.

from: Youknowster

91. You search the internet constantly for anything design related.

from: Joshua R. Davis

There are more to come, in the meantime, feel free to leave more ideas in the comments or let me know of any double entries

Microsoft's new Bing Logo is an Epic Fail.

2008-12-25T20:24:00.000-06:00

If you haven't heard by now, Microsoft has rolled out a new search engine called Bing, which is supposed to rival Google. I'll believe it when I see it. However, the real controversy is over the new logo for Bing which most people are calling just plain ugly. And rightfully so. Everything you could possibly do wrong has been done. It is such a poorly designed logo it almost makes you think they did this on purpose. And maybe they did and we're just not giving them enough credit. In any case I am going to critique the design.

First let's look at the design in all its ugly glory.

Typography: The font choice is a rounded sans-serif that is typical of web 2.0 logos. No surprise there. Boring, unoriginal, and bland come to mind.

Scale and Proportion: I don't know what the design team was thinking, but it looks as though the logo has been run through a taffy puller and been stretched out. It seems during this process that the kerning was also skewed. Obviously they didn't think they need to pay attention to pesky little details like that. The picture below shows how kerning was completely disregarded.

Color: Typical corporate colors that in my opinion do nothing for the brand and do not speak the vibrancy you expect when you hear the word Bing! It's a shame; so much more impact could have been created with the design.

Uniqueness: If you call the strange indentation of the i and the orange dot unique.

Your Opinion. I could go on forever about why this logo is terrible, but I would rather hear your opinion. Go ahead and leave a comment below. Good, bad, off-topic, it doesn't matter, but please no spam.

Well that is my critique of Microsoft's new Bing logo. A bit harsh maybe, but you should expect much better from one of the worlds leading technology companies.

The image below is what the logo should have looked like with the proper kerning, scale and proportion. Slightly better, but still no beauty pageant winner.

It seems as though Bing's the logo is not the only unoriginal concept on their website. It was recently pointed out that they copied their interface from Kayak (a popular travel destination search engine). This is just disgusting and disgraceful. Shame on you Mircosoft. Shame.

Here are some other popular re-design disasters, and for even worse examples of poor logo design check out: YourLogoMakesMeBarf.com

Is Graphic Design Art?

2008-11-12T09:18:00.015-06:00

I think this is a rather simple question to answer. Yes, of course it is by it's very definition:

The art or profession of visual communication that combines images, words, and ideas to convey information to an audience.

I didn't even know this was an issue until I went to is graphic design art.com. A site where anyone can vote if Graphic Design is art or not. Apparently so far there is large percentage of people who think it is not. Why they think that is is beyond me. If you truly think Graphic Design is not art, and you have viable reasons for thinking so, please leave them in the comments below.

UPDATE: I have found a very good article that contends that Graphic Design is not art. Although very well written, I believe the article should have been titled Graphic Designers are not Artists. There is a big difference between the two. When you say Graphic Design is not art, you are implying that the finished visual works of designers should not be considered art, but it is just a design, like it has less value, importance, or required skill to execute. Designers use the very same elements as Artists do: line, shape, value, texture, and color. So my question is:

If Graphic Design should not be called art, then what do I call it?

And why stop with Graphic Design? Should we also question whether Architecture, Music, Literature, or Dance is art? Art is a term that is all encompassing for many fields and applies to more than just Artists in the traditional sense (Fine Art). It is a general term as should be treated as such. What I am saying is be specific about what you're talking about because there are literally hundreds of art fields and professions.

I don't know why people like to devalue the work of Graphic Designers, but it needs to end. I've never heard anyone say it was just a dance.

I leave you with this simple definition of art: the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

UPDATE: Josh at Cubicle Ninjas has put it best

"Personally, I think you need to define art before you can say they aren't artists. Art can have many far and short definitions, and I think people are reacting to your blanket accusation. But it sounds like you mean "People who create things for visual beauty and personal satisfaction", and by that definition we can all agree that designers aren't artists. Though I do feel there is art within graphic design."

Ways to get more Creative

2008-11-06T14:54:00.007-06:00

1. Create/break routines. Creating a routine of something you enjoy will help stimulate yourself.
2. Break boring or monotonous routines
3. Don't think, just do it. It seemed to work well for Nike.
4. Take something old or common and look at it differently or reinvent it.
5. Talk to people. Simple yet effective.
6. Collage. Randomly throw ideas together and see what comes out.
7. Challenge yourself. Solve a problem in an unusual or unexpected way.
8. Create fictitious ideas. Companies, Places, Other Worlds, etc.
9. Ask open ended questions. What makes you creative? Add your ideas in the comments.

Teeopia | t-shirt utopia

2008-11-01T17:36:00.023-05:00

I'm happy to announce the launch of a new website project of mine called Teeopia. Basically it will showcase the best tee's on the Internet, keep you up to date with the latest trends, tutorials, and contests from around the web. If your artwork is featured on the site, it will also be seen on Flickr and Facebook. If you are interested in having your work featured on Teeopia, you can submit it here. Please leave any suggestions or feedback you have in the comments.

If you would like to join the Teeopia team or have other inquires please send an email to: webmaster@teeopia.com

The Future of the Internet

2008-11-01T12:04:00.014-05:00

The Internet is a constantly evolving medium and keeping up with can sometimes be frustrating, however, the future seems bright as we see more powerful applications, browser compatibility, and emerging web standards. The following list contains ideas that will one day make the web a more safe, user friendly, and beautiful place.

1. All Internet connections will be fast and there will be unlimited bandwidth.
2. We will have one User ID that contains our basic information, so that we can access any website without creating a new account or username.
3. All Internet mediums will be synced together - Online Applications, Email, Mobile, TV / Video.
4. We will be able to access any type of media that is available on the Internet from our television.
5. Flash will become a standard and be optimized to display media content like videos, games, and animations.
6. All browsers will be completely customizable and follow one set of web standards.
7. We will be able to post to all our services like Flickr, YouTube, iTunes, Google, etc. all at once.
8. We will own all our content and be able to transfer / download it from anywhere. (Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc.)
9.We will be able to access our computer files from anywhere.
10. All software will be backwards compatible and much of it open source.

Can Anyone become a Graphic Designer?

2008-10-28T19:24:00.014-05:00

Personally I believe anyone can do anything they set their mind to, but if you think design is easy or you don't need any experience or training, you would be sadly mistaken. If you want to know if you got the right stuff for the job, consider the list below.

Do you have a natural eye for design?
It is very important that designers have a natural ability to recognize what works and what doesn't and why.

Do you enjoy creating art?
Let's face it if you don't enjoy what your doing for a living your not going to get very far.

Do you have good communication skills?
Communication is essential and often understated in the design field.

Do you like working with computers?
Design is becoming entirely computer based. If you don't like working with computers your design opportunities may become extremely limited.

Can you keep up with technology and trends?
If you are planning on becoming a web designer, you may find it difficult to keep up with new coding practices, standards, browser compatibility, etc.

Do you like to be a jack of all trades?
Now more than ever Graphic Designers need to have knowledgeable in web, print, and logo design, however it is always a good idea to specialize in one area.

Can you handle the competition?
The world is changing for the Graphic Designer. There is a flood of competition from "newbies", but just because you own a copy of Photoshop does not make you a Graphic Designer.

Are you willing to take training and gain the required skills?
All designers should have basic training in The Arts and know the design elements and how to apply them. It is not enough to be able to make a design, but you must explain why you made certain choices and why your design is the best way to communicate the message or idea.

Always remember the goal of a Graphic Designer is to communicate a message.

Why Writing Regularly is Important to Graphic Designers

2008-10-22T16:33:00.045-05:00

If you're a Graphic Designer or Artist you may not think writing regularly is not important to your occupation, but it can greatly influence your creativity. The list below covers some of the ways writing on a regular basis can benefit creatives, or anyone for that matter.

Writing regularly can help you…

1. Communicate ideas more clearly and effectively.
2. Keep your thoughts and ideas organized. Always good if you’re a scatter brain like me.
3. Challenge your mind in different and unexpected ways, which leads to better problem solving.
4. Get your ideas out fast so that they can be shared with others.
5. Experience flow the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

So the question is: How important do you think writing and communication skills are to your occupation and success?