Another resource

Before taking Pub Design I would rely on the usual sites (pinterest, behance  and google), but thanks to this program I have way more than enough places to go for resources. 

Now my process consists of cycling through these sites until something sticks.

One website that never gets talked about is Deviantart.

 I've seen plenty of creative backgrounds and fonts nestled deep within this website. Hope this helps.

Keeping up Appearances

Nice topic Layla. Ahem!

• How do I keep up with what’s trending in design?
• What measures do I take to stay up-to-date on technology?
• How do I adjust and keep fresh with tech?”

I was a late bloomer with most technologies. I got my first cell phone when I was 18. I got my first smart phone in 2012. I didn’t join Facebook until 2007. I was late to the party with Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, PayPal, Snapchat, Fantasy Football, still calling when texting was officially the primary method of communication, my career, you name it. Call me a Luddite, but with each emerging technology, my initial reaction is usually, do we really need that? Why do I need Instagram when Facebook already lets me post pictures? Why do I need Snapchat when Instagram lets me post pictures on which I can actually go back and reminisce? How much time must I spend creating new profiles? Isn't it a bit narcissistic to constantly self-promote and project this ideal persona? When will the madness stop?

But then everyone else seems to be enjoying themselves with these new toys and I feel like I’m missing something. So I try it. Mustn't get left behind! I dabble in all of them to see what the hype is about, but the most important thing to me is my professional development. If it's not contributing something positive to my life, it's a waste of time. I’ve been doing my best to streamline these technologies in a way that “checks all the boxes” to get me promoted:

• Deleted all incriminating evidence from Facebook. Facebook is pretty much dead anyway, unless you count birthday reminders and event planning.

"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things...on Facebook.” - Ghandi

• Googled ways to build my Twitter following. My buddy thought it would be a good idea to purchase followers on my behalf without informing me. I got 2500 followers in 10 minutes. It was the strangest feeling. I thought my phone would explode. I felt exposed. Where are all these followers coming from??? 
• Spiffied up the LinkedIn profile. Took all the restaurants off of there. Put on a suit (just the top) and spent 15 minutes trying to take the perfect head shot selfie. 
• Put it all together on Behance. If Adobe is going to tax me $30/month, I may as well take advantage of the bells and whistles, at least until I’ve learned how to code my own website.
• I still have my fun with Instagram by following things I find funny. I won't post anything obscene, or even "like" things that I wouldn't want my parents or an employer to see, but I am guilty of following some low-brow pages and they are hilarious. Just this morning I found a rather clever page where guys imitate basic you know whats. Tip: Click on the pictures and read the ridiculous hashtags for the full effect.

Do I listen to any podcasts? No. Not yet.

It's tough to find time to read up on what's trending in design. I spend the better portion of my waking hours looking at screens, whether I'm at work, doing homework, watching tv, or looking at my phone. I want to rest my eyes whenever possible before I go blind. If I get the opportunity to talk to someone about design, that's ideal, because I can absorb information in a new way. It can't all be taken in through the eyes. Try to get all the senses involved. Drive past H&S bakery. Eat a Ferrero Rocher. Listen to Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee at full volume. 

Re: Design Resources

I also have a hard time finding loads of extra time to dedicate to spending with resources I actually subscribe to. I look forward to that day. However, I have become a big fan of the site Creative Market - lots of reasonable images/vectors/fonts/photos, etc. It's kind of like an Etsy resource for designers? You can open a shop/follow people, a lot like other stuff out there I have just grown to use it a lot.They are another outlet that emails you on the daily, but also sends you links to 6 free design elements every Monday. I always download them as I find that even if I don't need them that moment, I have gone back and used so many of them when presented with a project down the road or remembered them when trying to think of a new way to use something in a design. For instance - that typeface I used for my holiday card last week was a freebie from last Monday. They also send a "Top Trends" email every week, which I find easy to skim. Honestly, this is all I have time for right now, ha ha. I really like the idea of subscribing to podcasts and magazines - I remember this Joe advice. I should probably follow it.

Re: Design Resources

I'm guilty of signing up for a lot of design blogs and email newsletters, but never actually opening them. I either send them to my design email or trash them. I initially sign up for these with the hope that one day I will actually have time to sit down and read something.

As of two weeks ago I am an AIGA member, which is exciting but, again, I need to find the time to read everything they are sending me. So when I really think about it, I don't do that much (or enough) to stay up with the trends, although I can say that when I have some downtime at work (10 minutes tops) I go on behance and look at what artists from around the world are creating. 

I remember Joe recommending to us to go to Barnes and Nobles every six months and either spend at least $100 on design magazines or sit there for a few hours and browse through them. Remembering this, I decided to research top magazines for designers. A good list can be found here. A few that I see repeated on other sites that aren't on this list are Juxtapose, Graphic Design USA, and Design Week.

Design Resources

Hello! Sorry for the delay. I had some confusion as to who was supposed to be on the blog this week, since Shannon and I switched between October 7 and 14.

In my class discussion, I had talked mostly about process and briefly about design resources and how we as designers can stay on top of whats trending both creatively and technologically. I'm a member of AIGA, so I follow them on various platforms in addition to receiving their emails. I also read Smashing Magazine, and follow Girls Who Code as well as Girl Develop It for more web based and related information.

In searching around for other resources, I came across an article on the Creative Bloq on The 10 Best Graphic Design Podcasts, which I thought was interesting since I never really thought about an entire "channel" being devoted to graphic design jargon.

Unfortunately, I'm not too familiar with podcasts and the only one I've heard about from multiple people is the Serial podcast. So, after reading through this article, I decided to subscribe to a few. One of them is Design Matters with Debbie Millman. This podcast has a lot of spots for well known graphic designers to come on and discuss their work as a designer and discuss various topics. There is also Mac Power Users which talks heavily on all things Mac, including software upgrades, workflow progression, essential apps and utilities for your Mac, etc. There is also TypeRadio which covers type talk and design talk. This is a little different because it also serves as a streaming internet radio station.

So now that I've learned about this new way (to me) of keeping up with design trends, my questions to you are...

How do you keep up with what's trending in design?

Do you listen to any of these podcasts, or any other ones not represented in this article? If so, what are they? Do you have a favorite episode?

What measures do you take to stay up-to-date on technology, especially when software changes and things that you used to be able to do are now different or sadly no longer exist because they are replaced with something else? I started learning design in CS2. So I've had to adjust with every version. How do you adjust and keep fresh with tech?

Flexin' and Feeedback

I love the idea of intentionally designing badly! I, too, took Creative Concepts a few years ago and after reading your blog post here, I realize that the brainstorming techniques we practiced weren't the only helpful ingredients for coming up with original ideas, but the removal of pressure to present immaculate, perfect proofs was a huge help in this regard. For those that haven't taken the class with Ed Gold, you simply had to bring in a rough sketch of your idea. It is kind of amazing how when you remove constraints how much more easily the creative juices can flow and original ideas emerge. I know for me as a budding designer, I am not a guru with all of the Adobe programs. But in Ed's class, I didn't have to worry about whether or not I could execute a concept in Illustrator, I just had to dream it up and explain it. Mo, your post was like a reminder that I should try to brainstorm an original concept and THEN figure out how to execute it instead of just sticking to what I know how to do or am comfortable doing.

JIM:

I posted a comment, but not sure it will go through....I think your imagery is very strong and appropriate for both your parent and kid audiences. It all looks like it's in the UnderArmour family, too. But my only critique from my brief perusal is to remove the space between I and CAN in the # I CAN. I can understand why you used a space, but really we only ever see hashtags in print without spaces between words, so it looks funny to me the way you've presented it here. If #ICAN is too un-readable, try #ICan or #Ican or ICAN in SMALL Caps. Or what about #iCAN?

Flexing Design Muscles and Feedback for Jim

Flexing Your Design Muscle

In response to Maurice's question regarding activities that I use to flex my creative muscles, I've done a few exercises but unfortunately not a lot. I wish I made more time to freely express my creativity. I doodle, a lot. However, my doodles generally don't mean anything. I think their main purpose is to just let my brain work out a problem while keeping my body occupied (less distraction maybe).

I have done the 30-day drawing challenge, which is pretty cool. For every day, you draw something different. You can draw 30 separate drawings or make one big collage which gets to be interesting.  Here is an example of one of the many drawing challenges out there.







In regards to designing badly on purpose, I understand the role of how getting bad ideas out helps the process of finding that really good idea. However, I don't always feel that the first ideas are bad ones. I think you just sometimes have to work it out in the design process to really see if its a good idea or bad idea.

In regards to Shannon and Erin's comments regarding clients who request bad design, UGH! Just, ugh! I do however follow a similar process to Shannon and Erin where I may outright suggest a better idea, and then if they come back still wanting their bad design, I'll badly design something, and then design something better to show them a comparison. I feel like this process is very irritating and time consuming, but unfortunately necessary to prove a point. I know I'm still young in the field of being a full-time designer, but I kind of feel like, would you tell your doctor what your diagnosis is, or would you let them do their job and diagnose you? Just, UGH! Sorry, that's my rant.

Feedback for Jim

Hey Jim! This is looking good. I do agree with Erin that the interior pages are hard to differentiate from the homepage. If this is a parallax website, it may work okay. But if it is going to a separately linked subpage, I think there should be a little more differentiation. Hope that helps!