I was just reading the terriffic blog of Ashworth Graphic Design Instructor, Mike Nelson. The blog is called, The Ideation Phase, and it’s is a great resource for all of our graphic design, web design, interior design, and photography students.
Mike recently profiled a couple graphic designers that should definitely inspire our students. Check their sites out and be sure to drop in and say “hello” to Mike when you get a chance. Thanks Mike!
Greg Lamarche uses a collage to create his work and does a great job.
Hornall Anderson is a Seattle based graphic design firm that is simply phenomenal.
I’d like to take this opportunity to summarize some points of extreme importance for you as a beginning designer. I have followed these principles throughout my career and have used them to guide me in the development of your graphic design program. I call this methodology the Michael R. Nelson “12-Point Program for Successful Designers.”
1. Be humble and ready to learn. Even after you complete your program, there is still a vast world of design out there for you to learn, experience, and absorb.
2. Always enter into a design project with clear objectives and criteria.
3. Establish a clear design process with a methodical intent of reducing possible solutions until a clear solution rises to the top.
4. Don’t be afraid to revisit parts of the design process as many times as needed to get it right.
5. Have a clear hierarchy of information in the graphics you design.
6. Respect typography.
7. Make your imagery meaningful. Don’t be overly simplistic with your imagery. Make sure it’s appropriate and communicates your core message.
8. Always push your designs for a higher level of excellence.
9. A successful designer must be willing to self-educate. Never stop learning about design and exposing yourself to creative outlets.
10. Make your own opportunities. Designers do not have the luxury of sitting back and waiting for prospective clients and employers to come to them.
11. Be discriminating in defining what good and bad design is. Whether you are critiquing yourself or work you randomly run across, or you are participating in a formal group critique, hold the work to a high standard and have the confidence to declare it successful or unsuccessful. Allow proven, high-quality work like we cover on this blog define your standards of good work.
12. Don’t let computer programs “own” your designs.
If you can excel at these 12 points, you will be well on your way to becoming a good designer. Let me know how you are progressing through your program and please reach out to me through this blog if you need any direct assistance. All you have to do is leave me a comment and I’ll follow up with you right away. I’m here to do whatever I can to make this learning experience a successful one for you!
All you Graphic Artists out there give us a holler!! The upcoming Ashworth Newspaper is in need of your talents! We desperately need cartoonists. We would like a funny page! Any takers?
If you’re interested, follow up with us on the Ashworth University Forum “Student Newspaper” thread. Click here to view and participate in this thread. Thanks!
Thanks to Carol Esther for permission to use this Photo.
One of my biggest daily struggles is creating graphics using “dummy” images or filler copy, simply because a client is late in providing me with the final art work or copy. This forces me to make blind decisions in Photoshop, because I know they will all change once I receive the real artwork and/or copy. It’s no use coming up with the perfect way to make text fit a page, if the text is going to change in size when you receive the final draft. Working with dummy text or art work is okay for making general decisions, but don’t waste your time with it. If you are already working in your computer program, you are at the stage of making final decisions. Don’t make those decisions until you can be sure that they will truly be final.
I realize that operating efficiency isn’t the sexiest topic a designer can imagine, but let’s look down the road to your future in the industry. Remember, that’s what this course is about: your future. Suppose that you are working with a design team and you are in the comp stage of a project. Let’s add to this scenario that you’re working to get a promotion or a bonus. You’ll look like a hero to your art director if you arrive at critique sessions with twice as many comps as your peers, due to your higher proficiency with the design software. Also, the quality of your work will be higher because you can successfully flesh out ideas and create a better end product. Your final comps will also have more detail and therefore look better than the less-developed submissions of other designers. This is the kind of edge every designer looks for. It’s the kind of edge you need in the very competitive world of design. I want you to have this edge.
Thanks to gregveen for permission to use this Photo.
I enrolled in Ashworth’s graphic design program in February of this year. I’m a mother of three children and it’s hard for me to travel to an actual campus due to my children and the fact I don’t drive. I’m very talented when it comes to learning things in the area of graphic arts/crafts; it’s always been somewhat difficult financially though. One night I went to sleep after making flyers and woke up telling myself: “Why don’t I just do something to prove that I really know how to do this stuff?”
I ended up speaking with my husband and we decided to go for it. I love this program. I’ve learned things I would have never learned on my own and will continue to do so. When my three year old is a year older and ready to start school, I plan on pursuing even more of my goals. It is hard sometimes, but if you keep working at it, I believe that things will turn out great. Just keep faith in yourself and you’ll do great!
Thanks to thinbegin for permission to use this Photo.
David Carson spent a decade building his reputation as an underground graphic designer before gaining mainstream popularity in the early 1990’s. Some have labeled his signature style as “dirty” in the sense that it may appear unpolished, heavy, and visually dense to the common viewer. Carson was one of the first graphic designers to mash seemingly unrelated typographical and photographic elements into one composition, a practice that is so commonplace today as to almost appear cliché, but at the time,Carson’s ability to convey what were perceived to be complex (subconscious) messages through his work was considered groundbreaking. In the following video, Carson discusses how his design instincts have always guided his career from day one—and how important it is for young designers to develop their own intuitive style in order to consistently create substantive work. Click on the image above to watch this video. I think you’ll find some inspiration in the life and work of David Carson.
Whenever I get a question from a user asking me “how did you draw this?”, I often have to answer that I’ve used the Pen tool. The Pen tool is probably the hardest tool to learn in Illustrator. It just takes time to master it fluently, but once you do, you have this freedom to create. Sometimes we can get a long way using only shape tools like the ellipse, polygon, rectangle or rounded rectangle. With a bit of creative thinking and some simple aligning in combination with Pathfinder’s powerful tools you might just achieve the perfect drawing in no time. Here is another Illustrator tutorial where I show you to draw a simple icon without the use of the Pen tool…
Draw the basic shapes
Before you start you might activate Smart Guides (View > Smart Guides). Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool from the Toolbox and draw a shape as shown in the image above. You can modify the corners of the rectangle using the up or down arrow keys while dragging the shape. Make sure the radius of the rounded corners of the rectangle is big enough. Next, select the Rectangle Tool and draw a small vertical rectangle shape below as shown in the right-hand side image. Now select the Polygon Tool and draw a small hexagon below the small rectangle (see image above).Select the Selection Tool (black arrow) and select the 3 shapes. Click the Horizontal Align Center from the toolbar at the top. Select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and drag a selection over the bottom 2 points of the hexagon.
Resize and align the shapes
Click in one of the points, hold down the Shift key and drag the 2 points downwards as shown in the left-hand side image above. Now select the Selection Tool (black arrow) again and select the small rectangle above the hexagon. Hover your cursor somewhere on the middle of the bottom border until you get the resize cursor icon. Drag the border of the rectangle downwards so it overlaps the hexagon shape.
Thanks to Nic McPhee for permission to use this Photo.
I find maintaining and repairing plumbing systems the most interesting and challenging work in the plumbing industry. If you enjoy figuring out and solving problems, then plumbing service work will likely be a good field for you. Even as a seasoned professional, I openly admit that there are simply some problems will be difficult to figure out, diagnose, or repair. Here are some key points I have learned through many years of doing plumbing service work:
Keep your mind open and stay loose on your feet. When you first get to a job, try not to get locked into one course of action.
Before you jump into a course of action, remind yourself that the customer has probably been living with the problem for days, months, or even years. You have only been on the job for a few minutes. Give yourself time to choose the best course of action.
Listen to what the customer has to say. Try to understand the facts. It is appropriate to write down what the customer says.
Now, try to put what the customer has said aside. Look and test for the problems yourself.
Compare your independent observations with the customer’s comments. Do they match? Look and test some more.
Be aware that there may be several causes for a plumbing problem, or several independent problems that need repairing.
Before beginning work, list the various repair options along with an estimate of the cost and discuss this with the customer. Offer what you believe is the best course of action, but let the customer decide how to proceed.
Following these seven points is very important. If you just jump right into a situation without analyzing the entire job site, you are likely to see only a part of the problem, and therefore won’t be able to fix the problem correctly.
Here is an actual problem that I was recently involved with. The customer had smelled gas near the hot-water heater. (more…)
As a web designer with the ability to create dynamic online business platforms, you are truly in a unique position to turn your entrepreneurial dreams into reality. This video tells the inspiring story of Theresa Rodriguez, a young entrepreneur who founded BostonNighlifeTV, an online site that keeps Bostonians in touch with everything “cool” going on in the city’s nightlife scene. Do you have a great business plan that you’ve been sitting on? What are you waiting for? Think about it. You’re a web designer. You don’t have to wait on anyone to get your idea off the ground in the online marketplace. It’s not unrealistic to think that you could be the next Theresa Rodriguez. If you have an idea that you’d like some feedback on or would like to share your own success story, feel free to email me at:
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Before you start you might activate Smart Guides (View > Smart Guides). Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool from the Toolbox and draw a shape as shown in the image above. You can modify the corners of the rectangle using the up or down arrow keys while dragging the shape. Make sure the radius of the rounded corners of the rectangle is big enough. Next, select the Rectangle Tool and draw a small vertical rectangle shape below as shown in the right-hand side image. Now select the Polygon Tool and draw a small hexagon below the small rectangle (see image above).
Select the Selection Tool (black arrow) and select the 3 shapes. Click the Horizontal Align Center from the toolbar at the top. Select the Direct Selection Tool (white arrow) and drag a selection over the bottom 2 points of the hexagon.
Click in one of the points, hold down the Shift key and drag the 2 points downwards as shown in the left-hand side image above. Now select the Selection Tool (black arrow) again and select the small rectangle above the hexagon. Hover your cursor somewhere on the middle of the bottom border until you get the resize cursor icon. Drag the border of the rectangle downwards so it overlaps the hexagon shape.
