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Is My Type Stressed? A Primer on Stressed Typography. As a designer, either working with a design firm or on a freelance basis, you probably know a lot about stress. From deadlines to redesigns, client relations to cash flow — it is part of everyday life for someone working as a designer in any capacity. But did you know your typography could also be stressed?
Just like in your life, type has certain pressure points, and there are good and bad types of type stress. In today’s article, we’re going to delve into this concept in a little more details. We’ll walk you through exactly what types of typographical stress there are, how you can ensure it doesn’t affect the readability of your designs. What is Type Stress? Type can also be stressed by its surroundings Type stress refers to the change in direction of a stroke, vertically or horizontally. Typefaces are designed with or without stress points. Type can also be stressed by its surroundings and by effects that are added by the designer in the creative process. Stress by Design Uneven Strokes. Fonts And Their Subliminal Messages. 30 Most Popular WordPress Plugins. Why a commercial printer wants a PostScript or PDF file - Publisher.
By John Giles, owner of The Giles Group Submitting a digital file to a commercial printer can be confusing, so printers are using a new technique to standardize the process. To help you save money, find out now what commercial printers may start expecting from you. Commercial printers are changing how they accept digital documents and publications created by customers. Because of new workflow methods, printers are bypassing native application files and asking customers to submit their documents and publications as PostScript or PDF (Portable Document Format) files.
Customers use hundreds of different software programs to create publications and documents. When a commercial printer supports a file in its native form, several problems can develop due to customer design errors or printing production issues. PDF is the new commercial printing standard Commercial printers are using the advantages of the PDF format to save customers money and time. 3 ways to submit a PDF file About the Author.
Riddles. If you’re into riddles and also like LEGO, we have something very cool for you! To commemorate the 55th anniversary of the LEGO brick, the company has issued 55 graphic riddles where LEGO bricks represent various characters from movies, songs, cultural or political highlights that occurred over the last 55 years. Some of them are a bit more obvious than the others, but constructing the right answer from the hints feels almost like a mental LEGO game. The plastic brick, that’s recognized all over the world today, was patented in its current shape on January 28th, 1958. With the production reaching 19 billion LEGO elements a year, around 400 million people around the world have played with it at least once in their life, and every year kids spend around 5 billion hours at it!
Currently there are 6 LEGOLAND theme parks in the world: USA has two in Florida and California, and Denmark, United Kingdom, Malaysia and Germany host one each. Website: lego.com Can You Solve These 55 Lego Riddles? How to Creatively Market Yourself as a Designer. Sometimes it seems like every time you jump online, you read about a talented new designer who’s making it big with their latest project. There are a lot of wonderful designers out there, and the constant showcasing of others’ skills makes it feel all the more like you’re lost in the crowd. It’s not enough anymore to have a solid portfolio and work experience; if you really want to stand out in today’s market, going the extra mile in marketing yourself can make all the difference in landing the perfect job, or getting some great freelance projects going.
When you’re considering all the ways that you could market yourself, the most important thing to take into account is how much of a time commitment you can realistically make. Don’t overstretch yourself with a daily blog entry or illustration unless you think you’ll be able to do a great job on it. There are many different levels of requirement for projects that can make a difference in your career; choose what works for you. The psychology of fonts. Great Color Resources | JM Designs - Graphic Designer: Logo, Brand Identity, Web, & Print. Color is incredibly important in any design. If you have studied or know a little about color theory, you know the great psychological and emotional effects color has on viewers. It is an incredibly powerful tool, that when used wisely will wow views and help create an emotional bond with any product, service, or company.
This is why I have put together some of the sites/tools I use and recommend when dealing with color. Colour Lovers is esteemed by many as the ultimate color resource. It is made up of a creative community where sharing colors, palettes, and patters are all part of the love. In addition this site provides information on the newest trends along with great articles. Kuler has been a useful tool that I have used in a number of projects. ColorZilla is a great plug-in for Firefox and Chrome. Colorotate is a web application and iPad app as well. The Color Wizard let users submit a color which is then used to create various color schemes. Bonus I hope you found this list useful. Design Fails: Embarrassing Logos. Logos are such a critical part of branding and design.
You would assume that companies and brands do everything in their power to make sure their logos are perfect. And yet, we keep coming across logos that look like a sad joke. It’s not a question of personal taste. Some logos should have never been approved as drafts, because they are not communicative; have no regard of basic aesthetics; look totally outdated or even ridiculous. In short, they’re giving the brand they represent a bad name – which is the exact opposite of what they should do. The list of examples is endless but we picked some really horrid ones for you. Go over these logo fails and you’ll learn a lesson or two in how not to design. 2012 London Olympics: A stupefying amount of money was spent on designing the 2012 London Olympics logo, which turned to be as uniformly disappointing as was its opening ceremony.
Drake University: D+, huh? GAP: The GAP logo used to be a well-recognized iconic symbol of comfort and fashion. Free Resources to Help You Build Your Next WordPress Site. WordPress is a popular website publishing platform. What once was primarily a blogging system has now evolved into a flexible and robust CMS used by both small businesses and large corporations alike. When working with clients, front-end developers are often expected to produce creative, cutting edge content in a very short period of time. And beyond staying innovative, there can often be a lot of redundant coding and debugging which requires a careful, meticulous eye. Between managing client expectations and trying to produce well-designed sites in a reasonable amount of time, developers can really feel the pinch. Fortunately, there is an immense amount of resources to help aid with WordPress development. In this article, I’ve seeded through tons of stuff to bring you a list of my favorite free WordPress resources for designers and developers.
WordPress Theme Design Inspiration One of the toughest parts of web design can often be just getting started. Theme Design Gallery WP Inspiration. Freelance Graphic & Web Design. For all of you who’ve been to the Creative Freelancer Business Conference and loved keynote speaker, Luke Mysse (and his annual rants), you might be sad to hear he won’t be attending this year’s upcoming conference (May 12-16 in Boston). But there’s a very good reason! Luke will be riding his bike across America to...
Today’s blog post comes to us from Elke Giba, Chief Creative Officer, Giba Group, who will be on the panel “The How-Tos of Virtual Teams” at the Creative Freelancer Business Conference (and HOW Design Live) this May 12-16, 2014 in Boston. Come learn more about how to run a successful virtual team. I left the... Thinking about going solo? You probably spend a lot of time perfecting your website, creating relevant content and searching for the perfect “keywords”—but how important is this, really? The final early bird deadline for HOW Design Live is Tuesday, April 1.
Like many creatives, Jen Lombardi doesn’t like sales. Tom N. Your Embarrassing Web Site? 6 Things Apple Did Not Invent. Apple receives — and deserves — a lot of respect. They’re absolutely incredible innovators… But were they really the first to envision, manufacture, or sell many of the tech products we take for granted today? An Apple-loathing friend told me over the weekend that my favorite tech company “ripped off” loads of other tech companies with all of their most popular products.
He said they weren’t really the “first” to market with much of anything. I was riled, and certain he was wrong. That’s not to say that Apple doesn’t deserve its accolades. There’s a reason every tech company in the world follows Apple’s lead, rushing new products to market to compete with Apple’s latest and greatest products. Personal Computers Micral N Depending on who you talk to and who you believe, there are several claims to the throne of the “first personal computer.”
Apple II Portable Digital Music Players Audio Highway's "Listen Up" iPod Online Music/Media Store Ritmoteca.com iTunes Store Smartphones IBM Simon iPhone G. Information about graphic and print design | Printernational. Hue-Infused Branding - Josa Lightbulb Packaging Emits More Color Than Most. Totally Typography: 18 Textual Packaging Designs. Totally Typography: 18 Textual Packaging Designs Article by Steph, filed under Products & Packaging in the Design category.
These 18 packaging designs, found on everything from trash bags to gourmet cheese, don’t need fancy graphics or photography to stand out on the shelf. They employ the beauty of text, in flourishing or minimalist sans-serif typefaces, carefully chosen and arranged to convey the identity of the brand. Hand-Drawn Text by The Manual Co. (image via: invadespace.com) Modern and visually engaging, this hand-drawn packaging was produced for boots, bags and accessories by The Manual Co.
Chocolate Cut-Outs by Niamh Richardson (image via: lovelypackage) Typography cut-outs characterize this fresh modern packaging by Niamh Richardson. One Village Coffee by Able Design (image via: designed by able) Eye-catching text covers the packaging for One Village Coffee, designed by Able of Philadelphia.
So Good… Naturally by JJAAKK Design (image via: lovely package) Sivaris Rice by Pepe Gimeno. Gmail Tip: Use your own domain with gmail. FOUNDFONT™ and the Art of Typographic Archaeology. FOUNDFONT™ tutorial Andy Hayes here from Hucklebuck Design Studio. The subject for this tutorial will revolve around a pet project of mine called FOUNDFONT™. Foundfont™ is dedicated to typographic archaeology as well as the use of found typography within design.
It’s about extracting unique type for specific design needs or creating complete type sets based on found examples. In this tutorial we’ll talk about what makes a good FOUNDFONT™ source and the steps to creating your own usable vector characters from found samples. Type is where you find it Useful typography is not only found within the bounds of one of today’s successful foundries. Here are a few great samples that are ripe for repurposing. What makes a good FOUNDFONT™ source? There are a few questions to ask when scouting good FOUNDFONT™ resources that will help you get the best result. Are you starting with a quality image? The set of key characters for capitals is: A, B, D, E, J, M, O, S. D and S are unique. Step 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. TextureQualityPro - Royalty Free Textures & Backgrounds -