A client commented to me the other day, “I think I get some of your best work from you,” right after he’d commented that my “best” work was at the back of my portfolio. I was a bit taken aback; a design professional tends not to think in those terms. It got me thinking. What […]
Working with entertainment clients, you sometimes get a project that has to be turned out very quickly with limited resources. The show WILL go on, and a full-page ad that’s due on press tomorrow must have enough impact to make people notice the show and want to attend. On this occasion, we had about three […]
I make no secret of my admiration for Gridiron Flow, which in my not-so-humble opinion is the best thing to happen to designers since desktop publishing. Here is the very original YouTube video that enticed me into the private beta test program for the product, more than a year ago:
The Creative Tips newsletters have proved amazingly popular, far more than I ever expected. There’s an interesting double-effect here: as I write more and get more feedback, I find the newsletters taking on a life of their own. Number 10 is the start of a series on company image that I suspect is going to […]
A couple of recent articles on John McWade’s Before&After blog really point up the importance of keeping the audience in mind, as opposed to the designer or the client, and designing for that audience. A week or so ago, John posted two Craig’s List ads for the same classic Jeep. He asked for comments as […]
Ann Wayman, whose excellent blog is a terrific resource for freelance writers in any field, left a comment the other day about an author whose book had been “designed” by someone with super-powerful design software, but who clearly had never bothered to learn the hows and whys of graphic design. It wouldn’t, Ann conjectured, sell […]
John McWade is a designer’s designer, someone who not only does superb work himself, but has been a teacher and inspiration to many, many others in the years since he became the very first user of the very first desktop publishing software: Pagemaker. I frequently recommend his books, “Before and After: Graphics for Business” and […]
Pepsico recently revamped their brand identity for the range of Pepsi soft drinks, provoking a minor storm in the design community. The new look has few supporters, some who are indifferent, and a great many detractors.
Thomas Phinney, the noted type designer who designed at Adobe for many years, is conducting an informal survey of people who use type (fonts, typefaces) on their computers. He’s interested in how people use the terminology of type, and although some of the questions are undeniably of interest mainly design geeks he also wants input […]
I came across an odd but fun website that does nothing but sell t-shirts. It’s not the only such site out there, by a long way, but the designs have a quirky sense of humor that’s refreshingly geeky and stays on the right side of good sensibility (for the most part, anyway). I have to […]
