On a recent biz card project, I got to revisit DaFont.com in search of dingbats.  I needed old skool 80s graphics, and I found what I was looking for—and then some:

CKas- Retro cassette tape dingbats by junkohanhero

Beatbox- Ghetto blaster dingbats by Mathew Taft
DeeJay Supreme – Early 21st century rave style simplified dingbats by Fontalicious

Nothing beats a dope beatbox when you're stuck at a desk!

from Web Design Dispatch

Checked my inbox and was happy to see this post What Recruiters Look for in a Resume  on the SimplyHired Blog. The article breaks down the criteria in a logical fashion. You need to present a resume that outlines your:

Work experience/ employment dates
Software packages & technology
Education
Success- If you’ve won awards, increased Web traffic, etc.

I want to add two more things to this list for professional designers. Your resume needs to have:

1. Portfolio or link to your design samples 
2. A clear, well-designed identity (your brand)

 Graphic designer’s resumes must be carefully thought out, designed pieces.

I don’t mean to say that your resume has to have over-the-top typography, reverse type on a color, over-sized glyph elements, or some 3-D component. I mean that the page must be easily scannable AND elegantly designed. This is the most important marketing piece you’ll ever work on, because the product you’re selling is YOU.

When recently tasked with reviewing resumes for a graphic designer position, I scanned the applications of 200+ respondents—quickly weeding out the poorly designed ones first; art directors and hiring managers don’t want to see MS Word Resume Wizard! I also weeded out CVs with no portfolio link or samples.

When there is one job and 200 applicants, the designers who present the best first impression (i.e. resume/portfolio design) get the interview.

EPub will get your e-books easily viewed on smart phones, tablets and various readers--I dont mean a PDF




Here's part two:

I think the perspective grid is in my top five too!!



Coming soon--to a blog near you--embarrassing practice vectors using perspective drawing tool!

Thinking about going it alone—or at least getting started as a freelance designer?? There are hundreds of resources out there to help you get started.

 A favorite of mine is the book “The Business Side of Creativity” by Cameron Foote. This book offers practical advice on getting started, preparing contracts, doing your taxes, and even incorporating yourself. If you’ve never heard of this book, you have now. Pick it up.

Recently, a designer asked me how I approach the copyright issue when approaching a new project. The best advice that I could offer—without scanning and emailing a page from the book above –was to direct her to the AIGA Documents page. AIGA has a huge offering of sample contracts and advice for the freelancer. Members must login!

Graphic Design Forum also has a post that includes one of the most comprehensive list of contracts and documents that you might need.

Speaking of the interweb, Envato notes directed me to an awesome blog that they also produce, http://freelanceswitch.com/. This blog is pretty comprehensive and offers answers to questions that working designers come across all the damn time.

Another great blog –as I ALWAYS say—is Bittbox.com. Jay Hilgert is a designer/developer who spends all his time creating and finding various tools for the graphic designer. I’ve bookmarked him and check in every week to find tutorials and vectors that might help in my design work.

Good luck, y’all!

Like many designers in my peer group, I loathe conventional drop-down menus. Where once they provided added functionality and a sneak peek at the site map, many companies overuse the poor things. Often drop down menus make simple navigation complicated. At times I yearn for the day of the landing page.

Enter the Mega-Menu:

I saw this, www.eatright.org, the updated website of the American Dietetic Assn.Thank you,  Davis Design Partners  for giving  the dropdown menu back its dignity. This was achieved by creating a hybrid landing page/dropdown; when users roll over an item in the main navigation the content area changes to reveal the MEGA-menu:

• a section description
• “featured content” a.k.a your dropdown menu
• a beautiful user interface.

This is achieved through advanced javascript and incredibly elegant, functional graphic design. Kudos!!

This week I've been working on a planned giving campaign--Web ads, print ads, etc-- and I did a search to see what sort of hand and plant images were popular with the non profits. That's when I came across Davis Design Partners.  The design piece pictured is elegant and out-of-the-box! I had to share.

In my frantic search for creative commons I came across a gorgeous design site. The subtle, clean color scheme and the simple navigation reminded me why I love web design. More specifically why I love portfolio design. Here's a sampling of the design that took my breath away. Cline&CO Graphic Design Studio

Writer and poet, Simone Eva Alexis has more talent in her left eye than I do in my whole being when it comes to the spoken and written word. She amazes me every time I see her.
Her site did not, however. We discussed a redesign over a year ago and played phone tag or just drank wine when we should've been talking business.

Today we've begun a project that will make her site more accessible and easier to navigate.  The first problem with the original site is that it does not work in most browsers.  Early version of IE, yes. But Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, or even IE 8, not at all.