Don’t Think — Know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXDTx9YcN50 Thinking is great, it's something you NEED when you're designing. But if you want your clients to trust that you know what you're doing, maybe you shouldn' ...
Passion Projects (why every designer needs one)
A few months back a we brought a designer friend of mine, David Schwen (owner, DSchwen) into town to speak at our 99u event. He spoke about passion projects. His work is fun and goof ...
See Type Differently (Conference Talk)
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 ...
Stay Relevant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIDCeSDEhHk As graphic designers it is part of our job to stay up to date with the trends. If we aren't relevant, we can't expect people to want us to do work ...
It’s Good to Fail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szZoosQboL4 Design is not a science. There is no one right answer, and the road to the best solution is paved with failures. You may never have find new paths if you ...
The Myth of the Right-Brained Designer
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 ...
You Can Be Weird
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH35Ay7P5ys Creatives need to learn to embrace their weird and stop trying to be like other people. Way too often we kill ourselves tying to find ways to be successf ...
The Who, What, Where, & Why of Networking
Who cares about networking, right? I mean, it’s just a bunch of schmoozing design snobs drinking and eating strange hors d’oeuvres and bragging about themselves. Who wants to be a part of th ...
Type Matters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uktyz2NP_cg Seriously everyone, type matters. Maybe you think you know fonts and you like letters. But do you use type to help you with your designs in the e ...
Creative Courage & Using Your Fears
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 ...
Embrace Your Weird
When did weird become a bad thing? I grew up with parents who never discouraged my weirdness so I freely accepted who I was. In fact, when I was in high school I had a bumper sticker (from Hot Topi ...
What do graphic designers do and why is it important to EVERYONE?
Design can be a thankless job. It is also kind of an invisible job in a lot of ways. People don't realize that it is all around them every day and even more than that, not many people consider that s ...
Twelve Habits of a Happy Designer
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 ...
5 Secrets to Choosing Colors for Your Designs
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 ...
Sometimes Things Just Don’t Work (and that’s okay)
Today’s post was supposed to be about some very important things to consider when you’re choosing colors for your designs. Unfortunately, thanks to some unknown ghost in the machine that is my com ...
How to Use Music to Unlock Your Creativity
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 ...
You Should Try to Use Paper
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 ...
4 Ways to Kill Your Soul as a Designer
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 ...
Stop Making Excuses
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 ...
Embrace Boundaries
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 ...
Learn Color Theory
So maybe you think you've got color theory covered. You know the color wheel, right?... You could tell me what the primary and secondary colors are and maybe even the tertiary colors. But frankly, ...
Why You Should Care About Pantone Color Trends
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.
Design Tip Tuesday is now on YouTube
Welcome to the future.. of Design Tip Tuesday that is. I’m so happy to announce that my weekly design tip will now be weekly videos available on my new YouTube channel.
Don’t Fall in Love with Your Ideas
The creative process is all about coming up with a ton of ideas, and realizing the most of them will probably not ever see the light of day, and we need to be okay with that. There’s a few reasons why we designers can tend to fall in love with our ideas. But why shouldn’t we?
Design problems don’t have ONE solution
I’ve been asked more times than I can count, “How do i know if i’m going the right direction with my design?” or “What if i chose the wrong idea to go with?” Designers are often more insecure about t ...