Even the best artists and designers need a pep talk every once in a while to keep motivated, inspired and moving forward. This collection of quotes will keep you going even when you feel like giving up. Print them out and post them around your studio or home to remind you to stay focused and creative.
Spring is here and the summer is coming up fast. Gone are those seemingly endless weeks of winter cold gloom and doom. Days of warm temperatures and sun-filled days are in store for the foreseeable future.
This summer Laura and I will be bouncing around the country and then the world. We have planned stops in the forest and abroad. We’ll be leading a high school trail crew with the Student Conservation Association. Afterwards we’re planning to explore a few of the many places on our bucket list. Currently we are thinking about Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. But the winds may take us a different direction. We’re pretty excited wherever we end up.
Because our offline time will increase we’ll be scaling back the number of articles published on the WE Design Blog. From May until the end of August we’ll publish once a week on Tuesdays instead of the twice-weekly schedule we usually follow.
Also, our scheduled weekly tweets will fall mostly silent in June and July but we plan to comment from abroad when we are in range of WiFi.
You can look forward to us getting back on our regular schedule as fall begins. We expect to have a lot of fresh inspiration and creativity to share with you then.
Now go out there and create something awesome in the sunshine!
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Keep an eye on our Instagram feed for pictures from the road!
Today we are happy to announce the launch of Mission Seven Five (M75), your new place for graphic prints and posters. Visit M75.
M75 is David’s brainchild. The work you’ll find there is drawn from his interest in street art, the avant-garde, vintage wares and experimental imagery.
“The city streets are where emerging art is seeded. When I visit New York my eyes are drawn to the spray-painted walls, stickered traffic signs and deviant wheat-pasted posters. The urban canvas is alive and ever-changing. I wanted a place to play around with that imagery and M75 was born from that urge.”
M75’s premier collection is comprised of six original posters, with new designs planned for release later in the year. Check out the prints.
Join the M75 email list to be in the know and get in on upcoming announcements and deals.
To get the launch party started, prints are discounted 15% today through Saturday (April 25-27). Just enter the code M75LAUNCH at checkout.
Check out M75 and tell your friends and neighbors too. Bring some street style inside and hang it on your wall.
Imagine working at a company where you and nine other employees put in eight solid hours performing a variety of office tasks. At the end of the day a boss reviews your performance, as well as your colleagues’ work, and then decides which of you did the best job. Whoever is arbitrarily determined to have done the best work gets paid. The other nine get nothing.
Would you continue to work for this company? Probably not. If you are putting in the time and effort you expect to be compensated for your work. Performing a job with just the mere hope of getting paid is not too far removed from being a slave. Unfortunately this a serious problem currently found within the graphic design and illustration profession.
Spec work is a term to describe work done on a speculative basis. Spec work involves the absence of a fair and agreed upon wage before a project is submitted. If you value your talent as a designer and creative you should always say no to spec work. If time and effort is put into a a job with no guarantee of payment then you should walk away (if not run) from the proposed deal.
A common example of spec work is the design contest. In this popular racket an individual or organization in need of a new logo or poster invites creatives to submit original artwork for evaluation in hopes of being selected the winner and getting paid. Contest hosts can receive hundreds or thousands of entries but only one lucky designer gets the reward.
Charlatans over at 99 designs have been pushing the design contest format for years. But even household names like department store chain Lord & Taylor, and even President Obama have gotten in on the scam.
And it’s not just design contests that attempt to exploit artists. According to a 2009 New York Times article Internet giant Google once invited established artists and illustrators to submit their work to be used as digital “skins” in the company’s Chrome browser. Google offered no payment for the artists work. Instead it said the opportunity would provide exposure for the artwork to be seen by millions. But several of the artists Google approached had already been featured in magazines such as Rolling Stone, Esquire and Entertainment Weekly. Exposure is not a compelling selling point for artists. Money, however, never goes out of style. Yet it seems that a cash payment was the last thing Google, worth several billions of dollars, considered offering them.
Although the Google example isn’t a form of spec work it is another case of those who have the means to pay artists still try to get something for nothing. To counter this industry-eroding practice designers and illustrators need to put their foot down and take a page from celebrated graphic designer Paul Rand who once did work for the equally praised Steve Jobs. Before creating a logo for the tech company NeXT Rand told Jobs, “…I will solve your problem for you and you will pay me. You don’t have to use the solution. If you want options go talk to other people.”
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NO!SPEC is a great online resource that aims to educate creatives and clients of the hazards of spec work. Check out the site for further explanation on why spec work is unethical and to learn about the latest design contest scams.
Earlier this year Laura and I taught a course revealing the design process. During the class we asked our students to work through a design problem using a simple five-step plan. Yes, the design process is that simple (to outline)! Working through it, however, can take time and bring up new challenges along the way. But that is what makes design an interesting and rewarding profession.
Unlike magicians, we are happy to reveal the “secret” to creating a successful design. Below is a graphic that explains the five basic steps each designer works through to reach a final form. It works across all design disciplines: graphic, industrial, web, architecture, environmental and many others.
Print it. Post it. Share it.
A couple weeks ago I stumbled upon three great design resources filled with lots of tips, tricks and inspiration for graphic, print and web design:
These sites aggregate design articles and posts from around the web and compile them for easy browsing and access. Sometimes even a WE Design Blog article will appear! Pretty awesome.
Use any or all of these to find out about the latest in the exciting world of design. What will you create today?