So you have your graphic design blog up and running. Great template, all the right plugins, some portfolio pieces uploaded into a cool lightbox gallery. You even have some great jQuery sliders and user interface components. Wonderful! But now what? How do you market your finite graphic designer self to an essentially infinite audience on [...]
The smart way to run a web design business is simple: copy the plan that someone else used successfully to run a web design business and stick to it. That is it. Many of you know I’ve moved on from running my own web design business. I’m off in different directions including a lot of [...]
A small milestone for our humble little blog. I just noticed crossed a million page views a couple weeks ago. since launching at the end of 2009. Our most popular posts remain those focused on typography. The Big Book of Font Combinations and the Font Combinations app continue to grow in popularity as more people [...]
Head over to Smashing Magazine to see my latest article, “How to Choose a Typeface“, and leave a comment or two!
Once again, just a little horn-tooting: we crossed 200,000 visits last week. When we crossed 100,000 back in May 2010, I mentioned that I thought our tally of visitor totals felt significant for some reason. For that same unknown reason, 200,000 seems important too. Unique page views crossed 340,000. We started in September 2009, and [...]
Many of you know of what secret skill I’m referring to. I’m talking about graphic designers who write great copy, but keep their writing chops hidden in plain sight. Why do they do this?
What is the main reason a graphic design fails miserably? It’s quite simple: you played with graphic content before you worked out your message.
I’d like to let everyone know The Big Book of Font Combinations PDF eBook is now ready for download. All 370 pages of typography goodness is yours for the taking. Enjoy!
Let’s face it: clients usually don’t know what they are talking about when it comes to design for both web and print. How do you navigate around a client that insists on A or B, when you know C is what they need? Here are 20 “templates” that you can “use” to convince any client [...]
When it comes to making font combinations, there are principles and methods, but no absolutes. You can’t apply all the principles or ideas listed here at the same time. Just peruse this list of ideas and see what strikes you as interesting, and then pursue creating your own interesting typeface pairs!
So you wondered the same question about your graphic design blog too? Join the crowd! But I do have some interesting and hopeful numbers for you.
“Font Combos” for the iPhone is on sale at the iTunes store now! From today until June 22nd, Font Combos will be on sale for .99 cents, which is 50% off the list price of $1.99. We want to increase awareness of the Font Combos app in preparation for the publishing of our graphic design [...]
Just a little horn-tooting: we crossed 100,000 visits last week. It’s not much, but our first 6-digit tally of visitor totals feels significant for some reason. Unique page views crossed 160,000 too. We started in September 2009, and in general get 300-1000 unique visitors a day, but have the odd day of 3000-7000 hits if [...]
I’ve done the homework for you so that you don’t have to! Let’s take your blog from bad to worse, like a slow train wreck, over the next 12 months. All you have to do is follow these 10 steps:
One of our new iPhone apps is called “Rosary Gems” and is a functional rosary for the iPhone. We tried to break out of the “bead” paradigm and design something novel around the UI constraints of an iPhone. We used Blender, Photoshop and Fireworks. Let’s take a look at the production art.
When using vector tools for drawing realistic objects, many subtle tweaks are required here and there to give that realistic “fit and finish”. The process is not linear, like many tutorials are for certain things. There is no step 1, then 2, then 3. Rather, there is a cycle that is more like “rinse, wash, [...]
We are excited to have our first app be published in the iTunes Store. It’s a simple app called Font Combinations that lets you see how different header and body fonts relate to each other with a simple swipe. So many fonts, so little time!
I’ve seen a lot of humorous posts lately about the very random things Google Suggest will come up with when trying to read your mind. So what does Google “suggest” about graphic design related topics? I plugged in some terms for some entertaining, informative, and unintentionally funny results. Enjoy!
The dreams of graphic designers can be very interesting as well unintentionally revealing. I speak from personal experience. Let me tell you about an episode and then you can make of what you will, and perhaps apply the lesson to your own life as a designer and human being.
Pre-flighting your print-ready digital design files for a printing press run is as much an art as it is a science. The science of printing from digital files is the part that never changes. However, the art of pre-flighting is getting yourself to remember to check for all the things that could delay, or at [...]
Part of the fun of running a graphic design blog is getting to see how people find the site through Google. I recently took a look at my analytics, and found some crazy typos and hilarious search strings! While most of my traffic comes from other designers through Twitter and other graphic design related sites, [...]
Update: T-Shirts of some of these are now available at CafePress… My son nabbed Edward Lear’s Complete Book of Nonsense from the library some time ago. It was one of my favorite books growing up. I wondered if it was possible to write limericks about Graphic Design. I penned some (dare I call it) Graphic [...]
Boy, the term “been there, done that, got the t-shirt” rings true today. I’m a big fan of M.C. Escher and deeply appreciate and am inspired by his work, both as a graphic designer and artist, and so I was astonished today to find what is likely – directly or indirectly – the archetypal artist [...]
Apple just released the all-new iMac 27-inch today, along with a 21.5-inch. The 24-inch model has been retired. The new iMac monitor is crazy good for graphic designers for several reasons:
Drawing is fundamental to graphic design. Habitual drawing increases the skills of logo designers, page layout designers, and typographers alike. When a designer “makes do” by not sketching on a routine basis, the designer in some ways in shortchanging his or herself. Yes, designers absorb a lot of information from other designers and can “get [...]
Want a reason to create some great new portfolio pieces, get some exposure for your freelance graphic design business and maybe win an award or get published? Now is your chance to work! In lieu of pro-bono work, which is actually surprisingly tricky to give way while also getting a decent portfolio-worthy piece at the [...]
A quick way to give customers fast complete access to a printable version of your business or products is to get a PDF version of your brochure on your website. Smart move! But you don’t want to put just any PDF brochure design on the web. If you want to communicate your services or products [...]
As soon as I could hold pencil, I was drawing. I drew through grade school where I spent time out of boring classes and instead got to decorate the hall bulletin boards. I drew through high school and three years of art studio time every day. I drew before I painted, then painted over what [...]
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"Again, congrats on a great book. It's really proven helpful. Not only has it aided my design process but I've also been able to quickly show clients some options and therewith dramatically reduce the time it takes them to make decisions."
Timothy Victor, The Typesetter
"(5.0 stars) Very cool...I love this book! I've got in on my iPad for quick access and zooming in on the detail. The resolution is awesome and it displays beautifully...."
—Belinda
"(4.5 stars) If you are interested in typography and want to get up close and personal with some classic fonts; The Big Book of Font Combinations may be just the kind of tool you need."
—Jacci Howard Bear About.com
"Douglas has pulled together...a real resource for typographers and anyone who has to work with type...a treasure trove of inspiration and a great addition to your type library."
—Joel Friedlander The Book Designer
"I...downloaded your (at first sight awesome) book. Can't wait to use it, thanks a lot!"
—Ard, Simplability
"...your book is really a great help and its worth the money! I can highly recommend it!"
— M. Jäckel
"Thanks very much for putting together the big book – I purchased it today, and it will be extremely helpful for quickly perusing new combinations (as you intended!)."
—S. Eastwood
"Thank you so much...We're amazed by how extensive it is - great job!"
—Jyoti
"I have just bought your book and started reading. Thank you for putting together such valuable information."
—Alev
"Brilliant! I have been looking everywhere for something like this!"
—Tay, ignician.net
"I'm thoroughly enjoying your book so far..."
—Jackson R., soundnewmedia.com
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