Design Seeds&: For All Who Love Color #d9e8c3 #ced181 #7c8f50 #555e32 #bf867c #d4b9b9 Find The Palettes You Love turkey tones posted 11.24.11 comments 1 cocoa tones posted 11.23.11 comments 1 shelled tones posted 11.21.11 comments 3 berry fresh posted 11.18.11 comments 2 pink tints posted 11.07.11 comments 0 succulent tones posted 11.06.11 comments 6 vintage tones posted 11.02.11 comments 1 tulip tones posted 11.02.11 comments 0 ShareThis Copy and Paste 9 Sites That Made Me a Better Logo Designer Any person serious about their career – carpenters, graphic designers, dentists, or anyone else – is constantly trying to learn and improve at their craft. You and I are no different. If you’re reading this, chances are you’re an aspiring or perhaps established graphic designer (*design bro high-five*). Likewise, if you’re reading this, you’re interested in self-improvement. There are a myriad of ways to improve on your skills, but today I’d like to share 9 websites that have helped me improve, specifically, as a logo/visual identity designer. These sites are visited by me frequently, and if you haven’t already, you should bookmark ’em. Brand New UnderConsideration’s Brand New is, in my opinion, the undisputed king of logo/identity design critiques. LogoDesignLove LogoDesignLove is another site that provides unique and thoughtful takes on any and everything related to logo and brand design. JustCreativeDesign JCD is one of the earlier design blogs I discovered. Creattica & LogoPond ReBrand
Color Theory 101 - DesignFestival First impressions are everything. How you look and how you present yourself can determine how you are perceived. The same goes for our design work. The impression that our work gives depends on a myriad of different factors. One of the most important factors of any design is color. Color reflects the mood of a design and can invoke emotions, feelings, and even memories. Figuring out which colors work well with others isn’t just a matter of chance. Primary Colors Colors start out with the basis of all colors, called the Primary Colors. Secondary Colors If you evenly mix red and yellow, yellow and blue, and blue and red, you create the secondary colors, which are green, orange and violet. Tertiary Colors Tertiary colors are made when you take the secondary colors and mix them with the primary colors. So, now that you know how colors are made, you can understand how the color combinations on the color wheel model work. Complimentary Colors Analogous Colors Triads Split Complimentary Colors Red
42 Free Online Magazines for Designers Art and design magazines are designers close companion. Not only it feeds us with latest trends and news in the design industry, it’s also a good source of inspiration, particularly useful for those who hit the design block frequently. Just in case you weren’t aware, there’s a huge pool of free magazines on the net related to the design field; we meant those softcopy magazines you can either browse online or download (.PDF, .SWF) for offline viewing. Not only they have high quality content, each issue released is also free. Eye Magazine A very artistic and well-curated magazine, Eye has everything that a professional designer or a design student looks forward in a graphic design journal. Additionally, Eye Magazine informs you about the ongoing and upcoming events like design summits, workshops, exhibitions and talk sessions related to the graphic design and visual culture taking place all over the world. Frequency: Quarterly Idea Magazine Slanted Frequency: Biannually Creative Review net
50 Beautiful Color Palettes for Your Next Web Project Choosing the right color scheme is essential to your website’s success. Your layout and other design choices — including font — should be developed in concert with your color scheme, which can ensure readability, cohesiveness, and beauty in the final product. Unfortunately, making that choice or creating a color palette from scratch can be quite the challenge. That’s why for today’s post I’ve put together a collection of 50 beautiful color palettes that are ready to use for your next web project. If you like these, check out another 24 palettes I’ve recently rounded up. Getting the Most Out of This Post Before diving into the color palettes I’ve collected, I want to mention a few tools that can help you get the most out of this post. Editor’s Note: Want to make your own palettes even better? Remember that Photoshop will display certain colors far more vibrantly than they will look on the web when you use hex codes. That’s all. Pick Your Palette Bonus Resources!
Self Publishing Basics: How to Create Your ARC Cover Years ago I used to buy books at a famous bookstore in downtown New York City, in the old book selling district. This bookstore was famous for the range of subjects it carried, its steady inflow of new books, and the lively and sometimes erudite people you could meet browsing the narrow aisles looking for an out of print book or a bargain read. The other reason this bookstore was famous was the shelves of books near the front of the store that proudly displayed Reviewer Copies for sale. These books, dutifully rubber stamped with large “Reviewer Copy: NOT FOR RESALE” stamps, were in new condition and often still had publicity information from their publishers stuck inside the covers. Sometimes you could see people arrive with cartons of these books, which they would sell to the store. A Long Way from Bound Galleys to Digital Proofs At one time these uncorrected proofs were bound up in plain covers and sent to the early reviewers. Creating the ARC Cover Here’s the customized version:
10 Awesome Infographics for Graphic Designers As a graphic designer, you’ve probably designed at least a few infographics for your clients – or even for fun. You can create (and sell) infographics for any topic or industry, which means infographics can be a lucrative source of income. Some designers make a full-time living designing infographics alone. And while infographics always require the talents of a graphic designer, how many infographics have you seen that feature graphic designers? The following 10 awesome infographics were made by graphic designers, for graphic designers. Follow the links to view the full infographics. 1. Learn what different colors represent and what emotions they stir, and when and how to use them in your own designs. 2. This infographic serves as a quick reference for the basic elements of design, complete with tips for how and why each should be considered when creating any design. 3. 4. Want to be a better, more successful, more inspired graphic designer? 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. by Glantz Design
100 habits of successful graphic designers A little good advice never hurt anyone. If you’re looking for a few tips on how to improve your graphic design business or just a little insight into how others do things, 100 habits of successful graphic designers is worth a read. On to a few quotes from the book… Keep in touch with your clients, past and present. Every business has competitors and you want clients to think of you first. Do an extra-good job on tiny projects. Small projects are often treated as churn and burn jobs, but every business starts small. Spend time with your client to build consensus and create shared goals. It’s understandable that clients are excited and designers are eager to begin a new project, but you can never have too much information. Don’t stop at just a written brief, have a few conversations. Seek out creative clients for successful collaborations. Although good graphic design is about what works, and not personal tastes and preferences, they sometimes can’t be avoided with some clients.