I'm ready to get my foot in the door of the design world. And man oh man, the door is huge, but the bouncer is quite strict.
I realize that almost anyone can grab a computer and design themselves a poster, or movie label, or a website for their start-up company... the truth is though, that not everybody should. What I mean is that nothing sells better, or grabs peoples' interest, than an eye catching, emotion yanking design. Something that says "Professional!", instead of "Amateur". In the long run, it's a good plan to spend a few extra bucks in the beginning.
I try to follow the adage, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." but it's almost impossible to do these days. Everybody does it. The thing is... we might get the horrible book to design an advertisement for. Does that mean we need to make a crummy ad because it's a crummy book? Of course not. We do our job, we make it amazing. That's why we're designers, and the rest of the people... glorified desktop publishers armed with Microsoft Word, and Windows Movie Maker.
Basically what I'm saying is that anybody can call themselves designers these days because the tools are readily accessible. The difference between them and us, is the years of school, and years of experience. And we know the difference between Helvetica and Helvetica Neue. Hahaha.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Business Cards For You!
A few weeks ago a couple came into my work and needed cards printed, but didn't want anything that we offered. Not surprising, since we only have boring templates. So, I offered to design the cards for them. They were more than happy to give me money rather than a large corporation, so that night I designed them some cards.
They're pretty standard, as in simple-ish layouts, but they wanted something clean and professional looking. They needed them double sided, and that was no problem.
The one interesting aspect was that the woman wanted square business cards. She had her heart set on square cards. I was more than happy to oblige because you don't always see square cards, do you? She was totally cool that they wouldn't fit in a standard business card case, or wallet, or anything.
So I did some proofs for both clients, and then printed up 100 of each on some nice glossy on one side, matte on the other, business card paper.
I learned a few valuable lessons in doing this job for these people.
1. For a designer such as myself without a job in the design industry.. working in retail... almost every customer can be a potential client/employer. Poke them, or prod them, ask them the right questions and you might just find they're looking for a website, business card, letterhead, etc.
And the second lesson... Be VERY careful about adding thin lines bordering a business card! I made that mistake with the square cards... and I had to trim almost every one by hand to get that damn line an even distance on every edge. What a nightmare!
Here are some cards I've designed for myself... it's really hard to design for yourself. Very hard.
They're pretty standard, as in simple-ish layouts, but they wanted something clean and professional looking. They needed them double sided, and that was no problem.
The one interesting aspect was that the woman wanted square business cards. She had her heart set on square cards. I was more than happy to oblige because you don't always see square cards, do you? She was totally cool that they wouldn't fit in a standard business card case, or wallet, or anything.
So I did some proofs for both clients, and then printed up 100 of each on some nice glossy on one side, matte on the other, business card paper.
I learned a few valuable lessons in doing this job for these people.
1. For a designer such as myself without a job in the design industry.. working in retail... almost every customer can be a potential client/employer. Poke them, or prod them, ask them the right questions and you might just find they're looking for a website, business card, letterhead, etc.
And the second lesson... Be VERY careful about adding thin lines bordering a business card! I made that mistake with the square cards... and I had to trim almost every one by hand to get that damn line an even distance on every edge. What a nightmare!
Here are some cards I've designed for myself... it's really hard to design for yourself. Very hard.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Music and Design
Music is awesome. I love music, and can only put up with certain things while listening to music. For example, bus riding. I can't stand sitting there, forced to listen to conversations. I can try and block it out, but that's why I have music.
I want to take my love for music (and movies, but that comes later) and find a way to integrate it into my love of designs. Whether that involves designing CD covers, band posters or just concept pieces.
So, here's a few things I'm working on at the moment. I'm a big fan of the band Underoath, and I like their lyrics, artistic style, and pretty much everything. For their CD, "Define The Great Line", all the songs names are very interesting, so I wanted to visually represent the meanings (As I interpret them) behind the songs.
Track One...
and Track Two...
So! This is a work in progress... as is everything I'm doing. I'm horrible at finishing projects I start. I'm a very ambitious person, but I am horrible at completing things. I hope to finish all 12 tracks, print it out and bind it.
Photo Sources:
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/379367
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/363563
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/951860
Other:
www.underoath777.com
I want to take my love for music (and movies, but that comes later) and find a way to integrate it into my love of designs. Whether that involves designing CD covers, band posters or just concept pieces.
So, here's a few things I'm working on at the moment. I'm a big fan of the band Underoath, and I like their lyrics, artistic style, and pretty much everything. For their CD, "Define The Great Line", all the songs names are very interesting, so I wanted to visually represent the meanings (As I interpret them) behind the songs.
Track One...
and Track Two...
So! This is a work in progress... as is everything I'm doing. I'm horrible at finishing projects I start. I'm a very ambitious person, but I am horrible at completing things. I hope to finish all 12 tracks, print it out and bind it.
Photo Sources:
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/379367
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/363563
http://www.sxc.hu/photo/951860
Other:
www.underoath777.com
My Typography Fills the Tubes
Verdana, Arial, Courier, Georgia, Lucida Grande, Trebuchet, Times New Roman.
These are my type selections. It's tough to decide how to represent myself with this very limited font selection. However, despite the billions of pieces of information flowing through these "tubes" that make up the internet, we are limited to approximately 7 fonts, out of the hundreds of thousands available. That's technology for you!
Anyhoo, this brings me to my first submission here. Type is amazing. Type can be expressive, without ever saying anything. That's the way I feel. Type can standalone, or it can hang out with an image. It can make an image, it can break an image. Type is underrated. Or it has been in the past, but it may be making a mainstream comeback.
These are my type selections. It's tough to decide how to represent myself with this very limited font selection. However, despite the billions of pieces of information flowing through these "tubes" that make up the internet, we are limited to approximately 7 fonts, out of the hundreds of thousands available. That's technology for you!
Anyhoo, this brings me to my first submission here. Type is amazing. Type can be expressive, without ever saying anything. That's the way I feel. Type can standalone, or it can hang out with an image. It can make an image, it can break an image. Type is underrated. Or it has been in the past, but it may be making a mainstream comeback.
Enough blither. I was to create a brochure for a conference on the future of robotics, and accompany it with a banner that could be displayed in the entrance of the conference. So, here's the cover of the brochure, and the inside showing all the important information, about times and speakers. I don't think I even need to mention that the image quality isn't fantastic. That's another limitation of these "Tubes".
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