Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Favorite Recent Fun

I always tell people that I really love design. But I don't just love doing it, I love appreciating it. I read a lot of articles and look at tons and tons and tons of other people's work. Absorbing it, learning more, and getting excited about what other people are doing are all definite motivators for me. Here are a few of the links that friends have sent me or I've come across recently. When I first opened these links, my eyes widened and my jaw probably dropped as well. Hope yours does, too.

Hebrew Literal Typography

Woodcut Maps

Conner Pierson's Portfolio

What Convicts Can Teach Us About Branding

The 100 Most Creative People

Welcome to the Era of Design

May Infographics : What You Could Do With An Extra 2 Hours

Monday, February 6, 2012

Negative Space Logos

I love LinkedIn. I have to admit, I'm not a big reader. I'm a designer, and I see words as chunks of content that needs to fit on a page. I need visual stories, and respond to them much more readily than long written articles. There is no shame in the kid-like need for pictures within our stories. But I guess I'm biased!

This article...well, collection of images...really caught my attention. The LinkedIn articles that provide inspiration for me, as a designer, are my favorite. I archive these articles in my bookmarks in Chrome so if I'm ever stuck on a design, I can browse back through them and get a good kick in the pants (creativity-wise, of course).

Pretty cool stuff. My favorite is the Oak Brothers logo. I get pretty jealous of ideas that good. Enjoy!

40 Negative Space Logos

Monday, January 30, 2012

Origins of a Logo Design

This is a really interesting article about where the logo comes from. Branding is nothing new!

Origins of a Logo Design

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Be a Pirate

This article came to me via this week's LinkedIn "5 Things You Need to Know in the News this Week" email. It original article appeared in CoDesign. It's a pretty cool idea, especially for someone like me, who is looking to be a pirate rather than hire one. The only downside to the article is that the typesetting is terrible (I know it's online, but still, that's no excuse) and I found a typo almost right away. I guess my being critical of articles like this one is a good thing, though. I means I'm becoming a better designer and learning to see these errors more and more. I love learning!

An HR Lesson from Steve Jobs: If You Want to Change Agents, Hire Pirates

Thursday, January 5, 2012

What Being a Graphic Designer Means (from Imprint Online Magazine)

Happy New Year!

I realize it's been quite a while since my last post, and I tell myself almost every day that I should really take the time share some of the things I come across via this blog. So, in the spirit of New Year Resolutions, I promise to at least try and post more often. Posting is mostly helpful because it allows me to have an archive of articles I'm interested in, cool sites, and my own process.

The post today is a simple link to an article I found. Well, it found me. I get a weekly email from LinkedIn called "The 5 things you need to know in the news this week," and my email is graphic designer-specific. The articles are usually really fun and almost always useful. Another recent favorite was the "Best and Worst Logos of 2011," which was both entertaining and horrifying. 

The link below is to an article by Hunter Wimmer and it's called What Being a Graphic Designer Means and was originally published in Imprint Online Magazine. I hope you enjoy it.