Having a degree can be important in the design business, especially for people who look for firms to employ them. Let’s not forget what having a degree means, that is having the knowledge to use whatever communication channel to effectively deliver a message, whether it be through a flyer, a poster, a website or anything else you can think of.

Fear not, however, because BoDo (Business of Design Online) has just launched. This is one of the most brilliant ideas I have seen. I’ll let the people behind BoDo tell you what this new blog is about. More »

I just felt like posting something that appeased my mood.

People go through not-so-brilliant periods, but they have to keep fighting and be ready to rise again. I am probably saying this more to myself, than to any of you who read my blog, but the most important thing is to never loose sight of one’s objectives, even more so when they seem to be far from you.

I had a link to a video called Rise by Gabrielle, but it’s no longer available. Iif you happen to find that video then watch it, listen to it. It is quite uplifting.

It’s almost Christmas time and presents fly around. Your neighbour stops trashing your flowers with the car. Companies make offers. My hosting company, SiteGround, is distributing gift certificates for people who want to buy new services.

Since all the people I know already have their hosting, I thought I’d let you guys know. If you are looking for a hosting company I can assure you SiteGround is a great one. If you want one of my gift certificates please leave a comment here and make sure you fill in your real email address in the comment form. I won’t spam ya. I’ll just send you the invitation.

Happy holidays.

In 2004 I posted this question in the About Desktop Publishing forums. I did get a reply, which was perfect in regards to its context. However today someone replied to that question again adding another definition.

While I definitely know what a slug is since quite a while I thought I’d share this short forum discussion with you, where we see that “slug” has actually several definitions, yet the ones I am interested in because of my job are related to writing and desktop publishing.

I was peacefully surfing the internet, in a moment of cyber relaxation. Suddenly I realize my Firefox has an open tab with some site waiting to be looked at and, wondering whether lack of coffee was getting to my head or my touchpad decided I clicked on some Google link, I clicked on the tab.

There it was: an automated logo creation site! It’s called “Make My Own Logo.” More »

Next Book, Big Book of Layouts

PRESS RELEASE
Los Angeles, Calif. – September 12, 2006 – Mayhem Studios recognized for design excellence. The Studios’ works will be featured in David E. Carter’s next book, Big Book of Layouts, which will be in book stores soon. The book will feature outstanding design layout works from around the world. More »

The other day I was sitting in a restaurant with my colleagues, happy to put my teeth onto some Italian gnocchi with tomato and basilico (basil.) We just had a meeting, but there were questions I couldn’t ask in that meeting as they were not pertinent.

I thought—let’s see what these other designers think about spec work, so there was my question, “What do you do with a client who asks you to make changes to a design concept? How many times do you allow them to do it, and do you even have something in the contract about this?” More »

Today I was messing around with a page for a monthly magazine I design. It was supposed to be a quick thing—just a bunch of boxes with ads—but in my quest to make the page interesting, I got lost and I just couldn’t achieve a satisfying result, with my headache as accessory.

I kept changing things around, you know—this title doesn’t work, maybe I should add a line, I shall move this… Eventually I just sat back and thought, “That’s it, I am going back to simplicity.” I took off the background, some decorative lines and simply used colour to get what I wanted. The page looked much more sober and, most importantly, it worked.

It might be really tempting to do really complicated and cool things when you have powerful software, but sometimes simplicity is all it’s needed. You’ll also find the most clever design is often the simplest.

I just realized I got tagged again. Well, despite the distressed title, I actually find it fun. So as Shai Coggings is curious, I am going to carry on the tag tradition More »

That’s right. I haven’t been publishing very much lately, but this is about to change. I have been off doing stuff, getting a new job as Art Director and Graphic Designer in a design studio and a number of things. Enjoy your party until you can because I will be back soon. More »