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The Art of Placing Graphics More Efficiently : Jeff Witchel | Adobe Certified Instructor and Freelance Creative Director. How to Structure Academic Writing. In academic settings, writing is the most fundamental method for sharing knowledge. This is true for scholars who share their work through peer-reviewed journals, and it is also true for students writing in learning settings. However, many students (and even scholars) often fail to provide coherent structure to their academic writing. This is a problem because using an appropriate structure allows the writer to express ideas more effectively. In addition, using appropriate structure aids the reader in understanding what is written more easily.

As an instructor of graduate courses at several universities, I have found that many of my students have benefited from guidance on how to structure their papers; therefore, in this post, I will share a useful, basic reasoning structure for writing academic papers. The Basic Reasoning Structure for Academic Writing Structuring Academic Papers The Abstract summarizes the entire paper in one paragraph. Tips for Making a Paper Readable More Examples. 10 Awesome Videos On Idea Execution & The Creative Process. At 99U, we try to demystify the creative process. To show you the real inner-workings of how ideas are made to happen by sharing the thought processes and creative practices of great achievers. Here, with the help of our readers, we’ve rounded up some of the best videos on idea execution from artists, writers, designers, storytellers, researchers, and chocolatiers. 1.

William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible (53:12) This rich and wonderful profile of acclaimed South African artist William Kentridge comes from PBS’s Art:21 series. Among other things, Kentridge talks embracing the seriousness of play and learning how to work out of your weaknesses. It’s always been in between the things I thought I was doing that the real work has happened. 2. The most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. 3. Sometimes we over-value our own experience. I know that being right is a pretty deadly thing. 4. 5. Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 9 Reasons Why Failure Is Not Fatal. Failure. Fear of it is universal, experiencing it is inevitable, and running from it is dependably routine.

As a culture we can’t seem to shake the negativity of the term – even though most success stories have a shared foundation in some kind of accidental realization, wrong-footed first attempt, or outright error. Here, we pool our favorite videos and articles on the subject as a gentle reminder that our only real failure is to live life without it. 1. Kathryn Schulz: On Being Wrong This brief TED talk by “Wrongologist” and author Kathryn Schulz cleverly covers the inescapable error of the human mind – and the beautiful results of its imperfection. 2. The US’s bestselling vacuum isn’t just a perfect example of rethinking the norm, it’s the happy result of failure – 5,126 of them.

You once described the inventor’s life as “one of failure.” I made 5,127 prototypes of my vacuum before I got it right. Not all failures lead to solutions, though. We’re taught to do things the right way. 3. Tina Seelig: On Unleashing Your Creative Potential. Pablo Picasso once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” As we enter adulthood, we tend to self-select in, or out, of creativity. (We’ve all heard someone say, “I’m just not a creative person.”) Stanford professor Tina Seelig argues that such hard-and-fast distinctions are both inaccurate and untrue. r.

Seelig’s latest book, inGenius: Unleashing Creative Potential, offers insights and tips from a career spent teaching both creativity and entrepreneurship. I sat down with Seelig to discuss her own rather unusual career path, the overlooked importance of physical space for big ideas, and tips on how to live a more creative life. How do you approach the idea of creativity? When we go to school we’re taught different “languages.” I find for me that creative outlets come in all different flavors. Tina Seelig with students at Stanford’s d.school – What is your response when people claim creativity can’t be taught? Can you teach math? Dr. Are You Trapped in a "Shadow Career"? The Artist vs The Addict. A few months ago, a colleague of mine told me about meeting a young woman who was “passionate” about writing.

He asked her what she had written recently, and she said nothing. In recounting the story to me, he said, “How can you say you’re passionate about something if you’re not doing anything about it?” Good question. And yet, this is a common affliction. Many of us feel passionate about a particular job or creative project or cause, but we don’t take action on it. Why? Novelist and War of Art author Steven Pressfield gets at the crux of this conundrum in his excellent new book, Turning Pro: Tap Your Inner Power and Create Your Life’s Work.

Many artists are addicts, and vice versa. The addict is the amateur; the artist is the professional. Both addict and artist are dealing with the same material, which is the pain of being human and the struggle against self-sabotage. Distractions. Displacement activities. Addiction becomes a surrogate for our calling. The amateur is an egotist. Having Trouble Finishing Your Labor Of Love? Everyone thinks they have a book inside them, but not so many make the time and effort to bring it to birth. For ‘book’ you could substitute ‘screenplay’, ‘album’, ‘startup’, or ‘crocheted iPad case for your Etsy shop’. All of these are self-started creative projects – labors of love that we feel inspired to do in spite (or maybe because) of the fact no one is pressuring us to get them done.

If you can actually see a project like this through to completion, it’s one of the biggest creative buzzes you will ever experience. But getting it done – without a boss or client told you to account, and with precious little spare time or money – is one of the biggest challenges you’ll ever face. This was brought home to me recently when I decided to write a book, in the middle of running my own business and being responsible for two blogs and two toddlers. 1. Unless you have more spare time and resources than most of us, you will have to sacrifice something to make room for your project. 2. 3. 4. Architecture and the Lost Art of Drawing. 10 useless resume words and 10 eye catching ones - Latest job search advice, employment trends and career-related topics - CareerKing.Net.

PM Guy's Blog: True Creativity Can Never Be Taught. Collaboration by Difference - Video. The Keys to Design Business Success: Belief, Opportunity, Capacity. What leads to design business success? The first path is a deeply held belief or confidence about your value to your clients. In spite of the fact that nearly everyone espouses this to be true, the evidence tells a different story. But some, indeed, have an uncanny, even unwavering belief that their work is worth a certain amount and they escape the normal equivocation that comes when discussing fees. Their body of work, often over more than a decade, commands significant fees (regardless of its effectiveness). These people are rare, but they don’t depend on external validation for their business value, and that confidence becomes self-fulfilling in the marketplace (clients are drawn to confidence and can sense a lack of confidence on the flip-side).

The second path is benefiting from many opportunities that come your way, either accidentally (being in the right place at the right time), or intentionally (you’re really good at marketing your services). Bringing More Success. Create a Realistic, Burning Sparkler Using Adobe Illustrator. In this tutorial we will create a photorealistic image of a sparkler. We will learn how to create vector textures using the standard bitmap filters. We'll create complex lighting from two light sources using gradient fills, Blending Modes, and Clipping Masks. Let's get started! Step 1: Sparkler Handle Start by creating the handle of the sparkler. We will create the sparkler on a black background in order to select the best colors right away. Step 2: Round Sparkler Cap Now create the shape of the burning part of the sparkler. Combine parts of the burning fire area and align them vertically with the help of the Align palette.

Step 3: Form the Burn Area Take the Direct Selection Tool (A) and move the lower point of the upper part of the sparkler straight down. Remove the lower part of the upper shape, select the upper shape, take the Pen Tool (P) and join together the points A and B. Step 4: Heading Text Apply the same technique to the burnt piece of the sparkler. Step 5: Color the Burning Part. T-Shirts and Suits - helping creative people make their businesses even more successful. Ming up with design concepts - Tips. Whether you’re fresh out of university or the creative director of a huge studio, some days there will be a sneaky problem that you just can’t solve.

Improving your skill in transforming a brief (and a blank piece of paper) into an engaging, beautiful and effective design is a never-ending task – often aided by a little outside inspiration. We spoke to some of the most successful graphic designers and upcoming talents to mine their collective knowledge for tips, ideas and new approaches that will help you hone your craft and beat creative block. Chris Harrison, founder, Harrison & Co I encourage designers to start with a blank sheet of paper and turn off the Mac when coming up with ideas. Mark Lester, creative director, Mark Studio Question everything. Will Kinchin, middleweight designer, Purpose Always push to keep the big ideas scribbled on the small bits of paper in the first stage of a project. George Adams, senior designer, NB Studio. The 8 Best Ways to Have Breathtaking Ideas | Vivid Ways - StumbleUpon. One Is Not Enough: Why Creative People Need Multiple Outlets - Design. I can still remember the satisfaction I took from dragging a crayon against a particularly toothy piece of paper in a coloring book when I was very young.

Unlike the cliché, I was trying to stay in the lines, but even then, it was the creation process that gave me the most pleasure, not the results. A year or so later, I began to draw freehand, and from that point on no blank page, post-it note, page margin, envelope, or napkin was safe. Needless to say, that compulsion was what led me to become a graphic designer. Some people specialize in ideas, constantly scheming, iterating, finessing.

I prefer doing. You'd think this would be a non-issue—after all, I'm lucky enough to be paid a salary to design all day. For as long as I can remember, I've associated creative pursuits with other activities. Fortunately, my coworkers understand the concept of auditory learning, because I didn't stop doodling after I left school. Creativity in any form is healthy, as study after study has shown. The Relationship School - NYTimes.com. 30 Days Of Creativity & Design Inspiration. The book "Unstuck" features 52 exercises, divided by time commitment, to help you beat creative block. Here we sample 5 for a work-week's worth of inspiration. Creative Bliss is a web series that pools together 30 creativity exercises.

No. 30 challenges you to shift your perspective to that of a beginner. Creative Bliss pools together 30 creativity exercises. Today, you're going to make your very own pattern, finding inspiration in the mundane. Creative Bliss pools together 30 creativity exercises. No. 28 challenges designers to imagine stardom and design rookie cards for one another. Creative Bliss pools together 30 creativity exercises. Creative Bliss is a web series that pools together 30 creativity exercises.

Creative Bliss is a web series that pools together 30 creativity exercises. Creative Bliss is a web series that pools together 30 creativity exercises. Creative Bliss is a web series that pools together 30 creativity exercises. In-House Business Startup Journal, Week One. The New Guy In Town By Andy Brenits, as originally seen on www.in-source.org I’ve had the privilege of starting a new job 11 times in my career if you include the part-time after-hours teaching gigs. As such I have seen a pretty wide gamut of orientation and on-boarding programs.

Some have been great, others have been less-than-great. I’ve also seen the lack of any orientation and on-boarding, and think it’s pretty telling about an organization when your first few days on the job don’t have any formal structure around getting you up to speed on who’s who and what’s what. When running a business of any kind it’s important to remember that you, as a manager, have just three resources at your disposal – money, people, and information. As a start-up organization however, none of these things may exist yet. Andy Brenits has had the privilege of managing creative services start-up operations for four organizations in his 20 year career. 17 Designers Dish Their Best Advice. Terry Lee Stone asks a group of seasoned design pros: If you could give young designers one piece of career advice what would it be? In other words: early in your career what do you wish someone had told you? Their thoughts may surprise you… 1.

Sean Adamswww.adamsmorioka.com “What did I know? “What did I not know? 2. “Almost any situation gets better when you ask yourself this: How can I be most useful right now? Find More Advice: 29 Things That All Young Designers Need to Know. 3. “Emphasize your peculiar talents. “Also, think about your portfolio as a whole design statement and try to make the presentation format fit the work. 4. “Early on, if anyone had been able to tell me exactly the right thing, I would have dismissed it as preposterous because the world has just changed too much in unforeseen ways. “However, here’s my advice: get a second degree in something totally different— neuroscience, medicine, linguistics, or whatever feels right. 5.

“Fortune demands being a professional. 6. Innovation Is About Arguing, Not Brainstorming. Here's How To Argue Productively. The Five Personalities of Innovators: Which One Are You? The Portfolio of the Future. Ignacio OreamunoPresident IHAVEANIDEA I know it makes me sound old but eleven years ago I was job-hunting for my first art director job. Since I’d decided to study web and art direction at the same time, I had a combination of interactive and print campaigns in my book. The advice I got from CD’s was always the same: “If you want to be a web developer, make a web portfolio. If you want to be an art director, make another one but don’t mix them up. Fast forward five years and suddenly traditional print portfolios began getting more interactive, as gutsy juniors added banners to their print campaigns. “How wrong he was,” I thought last year, as I looked at the juniors attending Portfolio Night 9 in Amsterdam, armed with all sorts of tablets, mobile applications and laptops.

This is the first time since the days of the Mad Men that portfolios have truly transformed and it puts a lot more pressure on creatives trying to get that dream job. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. A Creative Team of the Future Update. By Donna Farrugia, Executive Director of The Creative Group Last summer, we launched a new research program, The Creative Team of the Future, which takes a look at key trends shaping the creative profession and how to prepare for upcoming changes. In fact, some of you may be familiar with this project as we debuted it at the 2011 HOW Design Live Conference. (If you missed the presentation, you can view the video we showed at the start of the session on our YouTube channel.) It’s amazing to think that it’s been nearly a year since we started this program – and, more impressive, how many of the trends we uncovered actually came true. For example, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of in-house professionals we surveyed last summer said they expect the number of in-house designers who work remotely will increase in the next three to five years.

Take a look to see what Ric had to say in this short video interview. A Call to Action: Information Design for Project Initiation Documentation. Inspiration from the founder of Twitter. Master composition in your designs - Tips. 6 Steps for Designers to Successfully Partner with an Illustrator. Video: Five-Year-Old Girl Provides Insight on Popular Logos. Harvard Seeks to Jolt University Teaching - Teaching.