You Can't Miss...Graphic Design Stumbles

Here's what happens when I try to blog and stumble at the same time: three awesome things for you all to checkout!

1: Google Logos

Ever visit Google and really like the design? Google has archived all their logos here! 

The idea for doodles (as the logos are called) was created in 1998 when founders Larry and Sergy toyed with the logo while attending the Burning Man Festival in Nevada. From there an intern, Dennis Hwang, was asked to create a doode for Bastille Day. Since then, "doodles on the Google homepage have made searching on Google more fun and enjoyable for its users worldwide." They are now used when news seasons start, important birthdays happen and on anniversaries!

2: Awesome Tutorials

I've always been the type of designer that does better at learning when I just test out the tools to see what it does. But incase you're looking for some specific directions, check out these tutorials by Tutorial Outpost! 

3: Creative Packaging

My favorite part about being a designer is the idea that we get the opportunity to work in every aspect of journalism -- news design, magazine design, promotional and even advertisements like these.  

You Can't Miss...Inspiring Photos

I have recently become rather obsessed with Stumble Upon, so if you haven't been to this website -- do it now!

That said, one photography blog I came across had some great inspirational illustrations. I think in all that we've learned there is a lot to say in combining our abilities. Many of us have experience using a professional camera; and that, matched with our extensive use of typography for the last two semesters, would definitely reflect in our ability to create something like the samples I've provided below!

Plus, sometimes we just need a little pick-me-up!

You Can't Miss...Heel Art

This week I took a break from my normal following of Smashing Magazine, because I can't help but share Kobi Levi's blog featuring her unique high heel designs. It amazes me when I realize that so much of everyone's life is determined by a designer -- the clothes/shoes we wear, the buildings we learn and work in, the cars we drive to get places...and, of course, the magazines we read obsessively!

You Can't Miss...Designing Futures

The more I've been exposed to new ways of designing I have begun to wonder what's coming next. Growing up laptops were new and iPods were nonexistent. This week on Smashing Magazine I read a post on the future of web design. They discuss how Google would equivalently taken 30 days to send a response if it had existed 100 years ago.


"Services such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are becoming the hub for our online life, and we are blending them to create our own unique Web of content: Facebook for our social life, LinkedIn for our professional life, Spotify for music, Netflix for television and film."

"The key rules to bear in mind when working through a design for the portable Web:

1. The website should be available to as wide an audience as possible;
2. The website should contain the same content wherever it is viewed, where feasible;
3. The website’s structure should be the same wherever it is viewed;
4. The content should be displayed in a manner that is appropriate to its environment.

A website that meets all of these criteria would fit snugly in the future portable Web."

You Can't Miss...Tips I Wish I Knew, But Already Know

In the last year I have spent more time using Creative Suite programs than anyone other program I've used in my lifetime. This week on Smashing Magazine they had a post about tips on InDesign that designers wished they knew -- what I loved about it was the fact that I knew how to do all but a few of the tips. There's nothing like knowing that you've chosen the right career path -- and the idea that I knew how to do a lot of what others find to be "new" is great!


My favorite that I already knew...saving color swatches and loading new ones.

For a designer with a color-centered personality, I knew all about this tip about 30 seconds into opening InDesign for the first time. Maybe they should name the next color library after me ;)


A new one for me...master pages.

I knew that InDesign had a master page capability -- but, to be honest, I had no idea what the purpose was in the slightest. Now I know that if all my pages need to have a number of elements that are the same all I have to do is save them to the master page!


Check out all the other tips in the post and see how many you know -- but like they close with, know that as designers the best way to learn the "tips" of InDesign is to open the program and just start trying to make it work!

You Can't Miss...The User Experience

Yesterday's post on Smashing Magazine starts by saying: "A lot of designers seem to be talking about user experience (UX) these days. We’re supposed to delight our users, even provide them with magic, so that they love our websites, apps and start-ups. User experience is a very blurry concept. Consequently, many people use the term incorrectly."

What's crazy about this model that they discuss is that I see both sides of the spectrum. Growing up I was the user -- so I chose my magazines based on what I saw on the cover as it related to me because that made me like the product and it had the special appeal. But now that I'm at Mizzou I have been taught to focus on those first four product features as a designer: content (always content...that has been drilled into my head over the last four years), presentation, functionality and interaction. And as far as the center section is concerned -- both the designers and the users manipulate, stimulate and identify each other, which is why I believe both parties take part in that step of the model.


What's most important in this post however, was the final section -- telling us that we can not design the user experience because we can not design the use. However, we can design for the user -- and that was the plan all along.

You Can't Miss...Design Cliches

This week on Smashing Magazine I wasn't interested on many of their posts...so I went back a couple of weeks to a post about cliches in our designs. I can see where they're coming from because we all know what already works -- and so, we turn them into cliches for having been so overused. But I have to say -- sometimes the old cliches make perfect sense when it comes to design, because it draws a reader into something that is familiar to them.

You Can't Miss...Web Font Formats

My design personality is alway geared by color -- though oddly enough I like black and white photos more than full color. Regardless, the post about on Smashing Magazine today was about another design love of mine, typography (for the web -- and they call typefaces "font-faces," which I find hilarious because so many of us correct each other when we say "font" and now they've combined the two to make their own). 


"There’s hope that regular system fonts will soon be abolished by Web font embedding, which enables us to choose practically any typeface and font style they want — just like in print design," says Smashing Magazine. Now that's what I like to hear -- I have hundreds of "font-faces" on my computer, and having to reduce my web creativity to those that are formatted correctly would have gotten old. I can't wait for this revolution!


Also...as promised, check out the March desktop calendars post! They've got some really great designs this month!

You Can't Miss...Habits of Effective Designers

This week on Smashing Magazine I really enjoyed their post on the habits of effective designers. And honestly it was nice to see the connections I made with their selected characteristics. 


1. They know when to quit.
2. They redesign processes.
3. They combat distortions of reality.
4. They find the right environment.
5. They habitually rewrite the habits.


Here's my take on these five:

1. It's taken be a long time to learn when to quit, but being in the journalism school has taught me how to go with the flow. 
2. As designers it is our job to execute a vision, meld it with editors and the art director's thoughts and continually redesign everything we do. In doing so we learn our design personality and because every designer is different, we tend to change what used to be.
3. A headline is meant to grab a reader's attention, but it may not include the whole story. And a photo is only a single image, so it's not the same as being there. But as designers it is our job to bring the headline, the text, the captions/pull quotes and photos together in a way that the readers can engage in the story without being lost for understanding.
4. Just as each of us carries around an array of emotions, so do the stories we design. The design sets the initial mood for the story before even a single word is read, so without the perfect environment the story is lost.
5. Designers are weird; we all have our quirks. We get into a niche with something we like and we go with it -- probably more than once, because we know it works. But we also get bored easily and we need something new and different; something people have never seen before. So the niches (or habits) of ours change repeatedly. 

You Can't Miss...Design Events in 2011

On Smashing Magazine this week my favorite post was previewing all the design conferences that are coming up in the next six months -- and they're all over the world. What pulled me into this blog was the vast number of international locations for these conferences. I have always been one that has wanted to see the world throughout my career and after reading these previews I can see how my interest in design and my love for travel could be integrated in the very near future.


Which would I choose?

Because nearly all of the conferences center on technology and web design, I would base my decision on location -- and it would definitely be WebDU in Sydney or UX London in the UK. 


Another thing you all should check out is their post on typography tips for illustrator!!

You Can't Miss...Photoshop Tricks and Taylor Swift

My favorite post from Smashing Magazine this week dealt with some tricks for Photoshop -- and I am in love with the possibilities that the Creative Suite offers. Every time I open up one of the programs I find a new tool or trick that I didn't know was there.


They focused on three different topics in the post: noise, rounded edges on rectangles and gradients. To be honest -- I read the noise section twice and I'm not sure I really understand what they were trying to tell me -- but, please, feel free to check that section out and learn for yourself. My interest was more-so in relation to the rounded rectangles. While I already know how to give my object the rounded edge, I related to the post's discussion of the annoying pixelation on the corners of the object when you use the tool. They say "to enable pixel-locked drawing for the Rounded Rectangle vector tool, check the “Snap to Pixels” option in the Options bar. If you have “Snap to Pixels” turned off, drawing at 100% zoom achieves the same result." Wonderful!


On another note having nothing to do with design other than that I listen to music while I'm designing...something every Taylor Swift fan should know is that tickets for her concert tour have already been on sale in a number of cities (including St. Louis, which is already sold out). However for those of you in Kansas City and those who, like me, will be moving in the direction of the Magazine Metropolis of the World -- NYC -- tickets for her concerts go on sale TOMORROW at midnight! 

You Can't Miss...40 Free Computer Desktop Calendars!

If you're anything like me, then you'll love all the wallpaper calendars that Smashing Magazine just came out with two days ago! Each of the 40 FREE desktop wallpapers were created by different artists -- and they give you the option of downloading the wallpapers with or without the calendar. I love how each of them has their own unique style and creativity -- it reminds me of the dynamic we have in our designs. 

They are producing these wallpapers every month, so I'll be sure to post the link every month for those of you that are interested in nabbing some awesome designs for your desktop!

You Can't Miss...Cupcakes and Web Design

I still have a love for the physical aspect of holding a magazine and flipping through the pages as I read, but after a summer in New York City at Hollywood Life I learned that designing for the internet is definitely something I will consider post-graduation. Keeping that in mind, I have decided to follow Smashing Magazine for the semester. Many of the their most recent posts deal with internet design and internet advertising. One post I stumbled upon focused on productive web design using Illustrator. They detail the use of Illustrator as a quicker and easier choice over Photoshop because it allows the designer to avoid having to jump from level to level in order to change things and, instead, keeps all objects on a single art board with the designers ability to select the object they wish to alter. For those of you that haven't used Illustrator much in the past, you should definitely check this out!

On another note, after talking about cake during a large portion of the Meredith presentation and because I was reminiscing about NYC cupcakes I ate this summer I did a quick search on cupcakes and found this bakery. And while their "designs" may not be as extravegate as some of the many beautiful bakery cakes, what I love was the photography displaying how wonderful and different each cupcake was without all the decorations. That's how I see this course and each of us as designers.