Design is Fluid

Graphic Designers are no longer segmented into neat categories of print, web, typography, illustration, ect... Designers today, especially freelance and those who work at a small firm, are called to be more diverse and offer a variety of skill sets. It is impossible to know it all, but we can see some growing trends for young designers

UX: "user experience" This is a growing field for business and designers. It is crucial to understand how users will interact with your site or app to know how best to program and layout the program so that it works with the intended audience. This can help your specialty brand or business to tailor your enterprise directly for the needs of your customers.

Coding: Maybe its because we grew up with computers, but many young designers know at least a bit of code if not expanding their capabilities to create custom sites for themselves and their clients. If you don't know any coding and would like to learn more Treehouse.com and Lynda.com are great resources. Of course searching on google can provide you lots of great information on html, css, javascript, php, and any other programming you may need to use to create your next website or app.

Guitar Cards with thermographic printing

Print still leaves and will new technogologies come with new ways to interact with print. Because of technology advancement it can bring the cost of doing specialty effects down. Such as embossing, thermal ink, matte mixed with Aqueous gloss, die-cuts, and more. Obviously I am still a fan of the old techniques, such as letterpress. Most of these technqiues just take one additional pass through the printing press. Print can really do anything you can put your imagine

Make a Deep Impression

It is no secret that I love the tactile experience of letterpress. My dream retirement would be a refurbished vandercook and I cranking out beautiful type and lino-cuts. My LetterMpress app is great, but it is nothing like the real thing.

Created by a Savannah Red Top 

Muhs Home by Passing Notes

By Ray Fenwick

This blog shows the process that went into making this card. I can practically smell the ink through my screen.

Cut It Out!

Die cut done by hand require artistry, skill, and patients. Technology has come a long way to allow computers to make complicated die cuts simple and fairly affordable. It instantly gives a new dimension and dynamic to your printed piece. Especially since communication is moving more and more digital. I find that most clients do not want to make the leap to this extra expense, but it can be fun to dream about a future project with die cuts like these:



Via CardObserver

Via Avie Design

Nicolas Zentner

via Design Boom

Made by Julene

I don't know where this came from, but it is amazing

Monster Mash

This time of year always gets of thinking of the creatures that go bump in the night, but I have always had a soft-spot for adorable monsters. These creative illustrators have made monsters the cool kids you want to hang out with, and I love the vibrancy and texture.

Anna Johnstone

WOTTO

Tad Carpenter

Chad Lesch

Unknown: if you know please let me know

Alcohol Packaging: Fox Barrel

My husband's mom works at a liquor store, needless to say we see a lot of booze in this house. Tyler usually likes to buy me bottles that have labels that I might enjoy, and then he considers flavor next. I don't like beer, but I do enjoy a boozy cider. Fox Barrel is naturally fermented pear cider with other natural juices mixed in for a different flavor. Some still taste a little too much like beer, but the Pacific Pear was my favorite. The simple design incorporates negative shapes, metallic inks, and embossed labels to make these ciders really stand out.

Engagement Season

The Holiday season marks the beginning of engagement season. My sister-in-law and a child hood friend of mine just got engaged, and quickly following has been 3 additional engagements. I am sure there will be more in the next few weeks until Valentines. Weddings are often stressful and dramatic events, but there are some that provide some beautiful creative inspiration.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,

Is Print Dead?

The topic of print vs digital comes up a lot in the graphic design community. It comes up in popular society as well. More and more people are using internet as a means of communication and self promotion. Digital has its good and bad. With so many people using the internet you can grasp a variety of audience and try to attract them to your site, but with some many people it can be hard to target your specific niche (that is getting easier as coders are learning about seo and internet marketing). Social Media and blogs help direct companies to specific targets, but internet ads are easy to ignore and not very personal. (this could change in time)

With print is much more personal, and can be easier to target depending on the information you take from your customers. Print is very personal something you can touch and experience. I get a lot of junk mail, but I still have to hold it and physically take it to the recycle bin. I guarantee I spent more time with it than my junk emails. But If you create a well designed, postcard, brochure, or catalog I am much more likely to onto it. Getting mail, even more promotional, is more special and intimate experience than email. One mail piece I enjoy every time I get it in my mail is my Paper Source catalog. Everything has been thought out from products to design and color to paper choice. They took care to make this something that I want to hold onto and reference. Print costs more, but if you put in the effort you can get a more genuine and longer-lasting experience with clients.

BIG Grownup Experiences

I have some big grownup experiences coming up in this next month. I am going to try to keep this blog going even as the personal to do list grows exponentially. Maybe I will be able to share photos of the exciting new things ahead. Until then:

I have been working another card/print. Chevron pattern is huge right now. I see a lot of crisp zigzags filling the blogosphere. Using linoleum blocks enabled me to get a little grungy and organic. Of course each one is hand printed by me! this time I used turquoise ink.

Learning from Mistakes

I often hear we learn from mistakes. Mistakes are not failures, unless we fail to learn from them. Errors become these bright red lights that at the time overwhelm me with disappointment. when I finally move on from it, I can make the further effort to make sure that NEVER happens again. To help you learn from my own mistakes here are some typical mistakes for designers (but not limited too).

• SPELL CHECK: spelling errors are probably the most common mistake. And I have seen fellow designers loose clients through lack of diligence. Sometimes I too forget to hit that little spell check button. In fact if I could convince Adobe to make it a little icon on the tool bar, instead of being hidden in the file navigation, it would be a very welcome change.

•  MIND YOUR FOLDS: a recent mistake of mine to ignore the printers folds. Made a huge problem. It has to be reprinted and refolded. It has caused a project that was already running behind (due to the client's complications), but now the project is another week behind schedule. It has taken me a few days to stomach this problem, but I need to move on and make a vow to dictate clearly my vision to the printer. Hopefully this mistake will never occur again through vigilance.

•  USING RGB (for print): Printers can only print in CMYK and particular ink (such as Pantone).  Believe me it can make a huge mess to clean up after someone who uses RGB for CMYK. RGB is for screens only. If you are doing digital work that is perfect, but for print use CMYK.

• MISUSE OF PROGRAMS: the Adobe Suite can be fairly interchangeable, but each program has its own specialty. You can create print documents in Photoshop, but I would not recommend. Doing so will create more work for yourself, and for your printer (professional not your desktop).

Linoleum Illustration

For this month's illustration I went the analog route. I freehand cut a linoleum block and made a simple nesting doll stamp, that I have put on a few cards. If you would like one (email me your address, and I will send one to you!) I love way the lines become thick textured lines from the way the knife pulls at the linoleum (if you are having trouble carving you can always use a hair dryer or iron it heat it up, then it carves like butter!)

Earth Day

It’s Earth Day, so like many others we are celebrating sustainable design. Particularly in graphic design there are simple things you can do to create greener designs.

1) Recycled paper has come a long way. Paper can come in a variety of green levels: recycled (in a variety of percentages), post-consumer recycled (also in a variety of percentages), and sustainably farmed paper. Now costs on all of these tend to be more, but the price has come down to match virgin bleached paper. Encouraging clients to go even as little as 10% recycled helps save some trees and the energy to harvest those trees. For general copy paper that we use around the office, buy recycled copy paper. Office Depot in their store brand has several options for recycled copy paper. Take advantage, and it is pretty much the same price as regular. If consumers can use their buying power to voice that we prefer recycled paper to regular, I think we will find that recycled becomes the new norm.

2) Cutting Waste is easy to do too; you just have to think before you act. When you print off a sheet of paper for layout purposes or to show a client a quick mock up, make sure you use the back for sketches. Or start a recycling bin. It won’t take too much effort, some people have recycling at home that they can volunteer to take it home with them or many grocery stores and stores like Walmart and Target have bins for recycling office paper, ink, and general small electronics. If you have something larger that you would like to recycle such as a TV or computer Best Buy now has a recycling program. Graphic designers naturally use a lot of paper. It is a part of our trade, because print is not dead yet. The more you can reuse or recycle, the better.

3) Soy Inks have good and bad qualities. Soy ink does not have the mix of metals and VOCs that cause headaches and dizziness for employees at printing copies, and these chemicals often leak into soil and ground water. Soy ink degrades faster, which is great for the recycling process. Heating point is greater than conventional ink so the colors will stay truer longer. Soy ink has some drawbacks. Soy Ink is not all soy, it is still partially petroleum. Most soy is not produced in the US and forests in foreign countries are being cut down to make way for Soy farms. They make soy ink for large presses (ask your printers) and there are soy ink options for your personal printers in your office.

4) Electronic Messaging. Encourage the reduction of a company’s direct mailers, for email or other ways of electronic direct marketing. There are companies that can provide lists for a target audience with emails and even ads on Facebook and Google. A drawback is that it is easier to ignore an email than a physical piece in your hand, but emails are cheaper to produce and you can send that email to many more people. Just because it is cheaper, does not mean you want to spam email. People will then see you as more of a nuisance than a company they want to do business with. If the client would still prefer print encourage them to view your projects digitally.

Check out more green ideas on my blog on Monday! Until then…think before you act. What can you do today to make your designs greener? Green Note: reduce water waste by shutting off the water while soaping up your hands.