Daily Design Fix » Graphic Design

“Nobody Tells this to People who are Beginners…”

melaniewilliams — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:26:30 +0000

I just found this amazing poster by Sawyer Hollenshead that features an amazing quote by Ira Glass. Check it out below.

See more of Sawyer Hollenshead’s great design work here.

Daily Deal Website Design Tips

Jimmy Hendricks — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:40:54 +0000

We have been spending a lot of time lately reviewing daily deal site designs. We have had a lot of requests for custom deal branding for our daily deal software, Deal Current, and we wanted to share tips, sites for critique, and sites we have designed.

Groupon is one of the hottest internet companies on the web today and this is due to the fact they are a steward to their brand. We feel the foundation of a great company is brand design. The way you communicate each element of your brand through design determines the initial impression and lasting memory you leave with a customer.

Here are some tips:

The brand initially starts with the name. Try not to use “Deal of the Day” or “Daily Deal”. Deal in the title is OK, but keep it short and simple.
Try to have a mascot or at least an icon that people can associate your brand with.
Keep the design simple. You don’t want to distract from the purpose of selling the deal.
Make sure the deal title, main image, and buy button are the 3 most prominent focal points.

Here are some sites we found that we weren’t too fond of:

The next two are from the site Media Web Connect. They have created their software on a template system and the design customization capabilities are minimal. Also its hard to see the buy button on the sites and there doesn’t seem to be any guidance with design standards and color choice.

The following two are from the site Tippr. Tippr runs their own daily deal site and is licensing their platform out to 3rd parties. We like their site, but their 3rd party sites seem to be the same template and brand. Usability is clear, but the design is pretty plain.

Here are some sites our clients designed on our platform that we love:

IDineDeals.com is from the Rewards Network. They implemented a very clean design with a clear focus on the offer each day.

Another one of our clients Morgan’s Deals implemented their brand with a great sense of style leaning towards the female demographic.

The design is clean and the messaging is clear. These are the key elements to a good e-commerce and daily deal site.

Another one of our favorites is by DiscoverSD here in San Diego. They call their program the Hookup and have an excellent sense of brand. Their program is a weekly deal and each week they feature the coming weeks deal upfront. This builds the momentum and ensures a strong day of sales each week.

Adobe Illustrator CS5: Top 5 new features

michelle — Tue, 11 May 2010 16:19:16 +0000

This video about the new Adobe Illustrator CS5 features are life changing for us designers. I can’t wait to use the “Perspective Drawing tool.” We would love to hear what your favorite feature is. Sharing is caring

Vintage books get a facelift

michelle — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:51:28 +0000

While perusing a bookstore in a Malaysian mall and I came across lots of beautiful classic books with beautifully done covers. They are simple, attractive and get right to the point. Love them!

Check out all of the Vintage Classics here

Other great book covers:
“Two Caravans” by Marina Lewycka
“The Buddha of Suburbia” by Hanif Kureishi
“Metamorphosis & Other Stories” by Franz Kafka

Beer Loves You

melaniewilliams — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:11:09 +0000

This made me smile this morning. Can you tell it’s a Wed? Happy hump day ~

See more Various Posters from Behance.

Worth a Click

melaniewilliams — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:54:56 +0000

A collection of links that we loved this week.

Incredible Retro Work of Mathiole – holla at a local SDSU student – REALLY beautiful work

Typedia – an encyclopedia of typefaces – a typographers dream!

25 Sites with Lighting Effects – A 3-part post with a great collection of beautiful web design – good inspiration

8 ways to drive a graphic designer man – absolutely hilarious

Marketing Rules and Principles for Freelancers – good tips from Smashing on how to market yourself

20 Fresh & New Design Galleries – really good source for new inspiration – unique because they include inspiration sites that are specific.
EX: inspiration for portfolios/website footers/shopping carts/html5/type/blogs and more…

20 awesome Illustrators for Inspiration – i love the illustrators – their brains work differently

Don’t Judge My Hair – a.ridiculous b.funny c.disturbing d.all of the above.

Photoshop Disasters – see hideous photoshop mistakes on real ads – funny
Can you see whats wrong with this photo? Let’s hold hands…

We hope everyone has an amazing Friday -

Tantoo

michelle — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:59:29 +0000

I was reading through HOW’s design blog and found this gem. Tantoo. The project entitled, “Tan the Man,” from Janine Rewell of Finland pushes the idea of what graphic design means. Vinyl stickers + tanning bed = sweet temporary tattoo. Ouch, my skin hurts just looking at it. I hope someone gave him some aloe.

Iglu & Hartly Design Competition – Weekly Winner

melaniewilliams — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:28:14 +0000

Iglu & Hartly is running a weekly design competition with awesome prizes, including 2 free tickets to their concert! Every week we will be interviewing the winner and sharing it with you. PS – if you don’t know who Iglu & Hartly is… YOU SHOULD. They are an amazing band with an insane style. Their music is fun and they are electric on stage. Listen Here.

WEEKLY WINNER 06.01.09
Congratulations Morgan!

This shirt is ON SALE NOW! BUY

ABOUT THE ARTIST

1. Name: Morgan
2. Location: Ojai!
3. What’s your sign: Taurus
4. Nickname: Mo
5. Paper or Plastic: paper is best
6. Dog or Cat: german shep
7. Mac or PC: PC
8. If you could be a font what would you be? I just remember using comic sans a lot when i was younger
9. What blogs/websites do you love? i do facebook a lot, texts from last night, and unfortunately perez hilton
10. School/Grad year: Loyola Marymount University/ May 2010
11. Company: (if applicable) none
12. How long have you been a fan of Iglu & Hartly? dont remember when, but i was a fan when they opened up for shiny toy guns at ventura theatre
13. What was your inspiration for this design? i like pop art, so this worked
14. What is your favorite medium? i like it all, but i loveeee ceramics
15. What inspires you? everything i guess?
16. What is the most played on your itunes? iglu and hartly of course, plus lil wayne

___________________________________

Think you can design better?
DESIGN the next Iglu & Hartly tee and VOTE for your favorites.

Click to see the Official Iglu & Hartly store.

How to Design a logo > Creating Artistic Hub

melaniewilliams — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:47:44 +0000

Creating a logo is creating an identity. What does your logo say about your company? The kind of people you work with? The kind of business you do? Would you be approachable? Are you strong? Are you fun? WHO ARE YOU? When we launched Artistic Hub, we knew we needed a new identity that emcompassed these things and more. Michelle and I are the graphic designers for Artistic Hub and we think it’s easier to learn about the design process when you can SEE it, so here you go.

The making of the Artistic Hub logo.

1) The Design Brief

We met with Jimmy and Pat to decide what our main goals were for this new identity. We have learned from experience that is is very important to include the necessary people in this meeting (the first time) and allow some time to chat. Taking time to discuss the identity of the company, the goals, the clients, the work and the design ideas are all necessary to ensure that we have a clear direction.

What is Artistic Hub?
Artistic Hub focuses on on-demand merchandising and virtual design. We create interactive campaigns to engage our client’s fan base by coupling our custom built design competition application with the market leader in on-demand printing. This technology creates engagement, validates new product potential, creates measurable return on investment, and most importantly turns the expense of design into a revenue stream.

Who are the clients?
Bands, Brands, Major Corporations and Interactive Agencies.

How would you describe Artistic Hub?
fresh, innovative, approachable, fun, interactive, helpful, global, supportive, community, smart

Main goals for the Artistic Hub logo:
*Must represent a hub – we want people to get it
*Easily recognizable
*scalable (standard for all logo design, but an important aspect here)

2) Research

Michelle and I spent time with some books and Google to get a better understanding of what a “hub” is and how it is expressed in other logos.

What is a hub?
dictionary.com says: 1. a center around which other things revolve or from which they radiate; a focus of activity, authority, commerce, transportation, etc. 2. the central part of a wheel, as that part into which the spokes are inserted.

3) Sketching

It is important to put pen/pencil to paper to shoot those ideas out of your hand. I’m a strong believer that the ideas don’t come out the same when transferred directly to a mouse. Don’t be afraid to sketch EVERYTHING. Michelle and I both sketched until we had at least 60 ideas each. It’s good to try everything so you know you have exhausted all of your ideas and you are choosing the right one in the end.

4) To the computer!

We scanned in our favorite logos to trace in Adobe Illustrator. (We don’t have wacoms in the office yet… hint hint )

Adding Text:

Adding color:

5) The Final Logo

We chose this shape because it represented a hub and the negative space shows a group of heads coming together. Unity and global expansion are represented here and the green color has that light, fresh feel. Jimmy and Pat were very pleased with this logo design and we went from concept to live website in 3 weeks. See how this logo is used in our company identity: (web, promotional materials, business cards and logo versions)

Check out ArtisticHub.com for more info.

Other GREAT blogs about Logo Design:

What Makes a good logo design?

6 Reasons Why a Logo Should Cost More than your lunch

My Logo Design Process – David Airey

or hey – just go to 81 of the best logo design resources

Good Source for Logo Inspiration:

-Mel & Michelle

Verizon gets a new logo – April Fools

melaniewilliams — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 20:25:09 +0000

REALLY?! So BRAND NEW announced that Verizon was getting a new logo. This rumor seems to have been started by Johnson Banks, the alleged design company that was in charge of the new Verizon brand. So many companies are loving the rounded-edge, bubbly, art-school design these days, and we’re seeing more big brands change their logo. I almost believed it was true! Ok, so I did… for a minute. I guess everything on the internet isn’t real, huh?!;)

Designers commented about the new logo and were excited about the re-design. Maybe this is a wake-up call for Verizon! ha

-Mel