I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing the incredibly talented James Martin, also known as Made By James. He’s a creative and logo designer extraordinaire, and trust me, you don’t want to miss out on this conversation.
Do you ever feel like an imposter? How do you know if you are being confident or just arrogant? I’ve met lots of designers and creatives over the years and one thing is certain, we all doubt ourselves.
If you’ve been following me for the past year or so, you already know that I have a YouTube channel where I post short design tips (usually) every Tuesday. These tips are meant to be really brief ti ...
I know a lot of people who have dabbled in design. I know even more people who, when I tell them I'm a Creative Director and Graphic Designer, that tell me something like, "I've always wanted to try g ...
https://youtu.be/KwXuodlJb8k Enjoy your work. Show joy and exude excitement in your designs and people will hire you not only because you're good at it but because people want to hire someone who l ...
Building a concept can be difficult. Many creatives (including myself at first) don't quite get the purpose of a concept. Today I'd like to write briefly about what a concept is, why you might need o ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x5g9fKRQHE Many designers look at their work and think, “It’s still missing something.” But maybe it’s actually that something needs to be missing. Your design is d ...
Why do I write this blog? I mean, what's the point? There's probably lots of other designers or creative directors that know what I know (and more) that don't feel the need to talk about it. This we ...
Asking why, or questioning your decisions, tests your motive for every design decision you make. Knowing your reasons requires that you, have gone through some questions and had to answer for them. T ...
Creative people are not magicians. Ideas are not something that you need special skill to find. Someone may be born with talent but that doesn't make them idea makers. Have you ever wondered why cer ...
This past week I had the opportunity to speak to designers from the SEE/PRC at their annual conference. SEE is a professional association of communication directors, editors, graphic designers, and ...
If you are a designer, and someone were to ask you if you are right brained or left-brained, chances are that you would answer without hesitation, “right-brained”. Designers are marketed to and told ...
So I talk about design on this blog, why would I talk about fear? No one is afraid of design right? Well, not exactly, but sort of. We may not be afraid that the Baskerville capital letter "G" is go ...
I talked a few weeks ago about ways you can be sure to kill your design soul. It’s hard work being a designer these days so it’s really easy to focus on the negatives of what we do. But how can we ...
So what’s so important about color choices? I mean, the trends change so regularly with Pantone releasing new color reports twice a year and choosing a special color to represent every year. So why ...
Music is my secret weapon in the arsenal of my creative process. As I am writing this post I have music playing in my headphones. My music choices vary dramatically based on what I am doing or wh ...
What difference does it make if you actually use paper or if you just start making stuff and fleshing out your ideas directly on the computer or on an app? Tons, trust me on this one. https://www.yo ...
Have you ever finished a project for a client and felt dirty? Not like “Man, I did a ton of pencil sketches and boy are my hands dirty!” More like you hand over the project, they pay you, and you fe ...
Even after being in the world of graphic design for close to 15years, I still encounter things I don't know about or don't know how to do. If you are a student or if you're new to the graphic desig ...
If you've ever thought that boundaries were restricting, I would suggest you think about them differently. Check out today's tip on my YouTube channel and see what I think about Boundaries. https://y ...
The purpose of the colors is not just to set a trend. There is so much psychology behind colors and color theory; the reports are meant to represent the zeitgeist (spirit of the time) of the entire world.
If you are creating a design using photos as your primary backdrop, let the image give you a guide on where to place your type. You can create interesting compositions busing the space allowed by th ...
Let me start off by saying that I don’t see anything wrong with design awards. Just like awards in any arena of expertise, they are important in the realm of visual design. However…
Everyone wants to be the boss. People like to be in control; of their lives, of their relationships, etc. Designers, I believe, especially the good ones, are actually control freaks. But there are tho ...
Much like love, creativity is a choice, you have to choose to be creative, you need to decide in your own mind that you will be creative, and the feelings of excitement and motivation will follow.
