Anna Grace's Blog

Continue to be inspired

Anna Grace Abell — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:19:27 +0000

In previous posts I have discussed various RSS feeds and blogs a designer can subscribe to for daily inspiration. A few beautiful pieces of inspiration I have received in my email inbox lately have come from Daily Designer News, MyFonts and Grain Edit.

The first piece of inspiration I received was a collection of beautiful photoshop textures created by various designers. The textures reflect various aspects of nature and look incredibly real. Many times textures can be just as effective as a photograph because they give the appearance of reality.

Tree Bark Texture

The second piece of inspiration is from MyFonts and is a collection of rising stars in typography. Even though you would probably never use these exact fonts in a piece, they are still a good source of inspiration for typefaces you may create for a future project. This collection is a monthly newsletter that comes out showcasing popular fonts.

Allura Pro by Rob Leuschke

Lastly, I received a post from Grain Edit featuring Commonwealth Stacks, a new skateboard line, with images of their board designs. The typography on the board and the use of space is beautiful and very inspiring. I probably will never design a skateboard, but I can be inspired from the way the typography and symbols are used in Stacks skateboard designs.

Commonwealth Stacks Skateboard Designs

Don’t ever think that you can only receive inspiration for new pieces from other graphic design print works. Anything from a texture to a creative typeface can give you inspiration. Keep subscribing to designer blogs for daily inspiration!

Learn from the best

Anna Grace Abell — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:56:42 +0000

Part of becoming an amazing designer is learning from the best and working with professionals that have been in the field longer than you who can teach you more about design than you already know. This past summer, I worked as the Creative Intern at Siquis Ltd. in Baltimore, Maryland. I worked under Senior Design Director Greg Bennett and will never forget all that I learned from him about design and working in the field of graphic design.

Greg Bennett has not only won many prestigious awards and created beautiful pieces of work, but is also a very approachable designer who loves to pass on his knowledge to the younger generation. His design portfolio, known as WORKtoDATE showcases a decade time worth of work, weekly blog postings, helpful resources for designers and publishing what is fresh in the design world.

Brighter Days Ahead, Philanthropy Poster

Bennett has used social media incorporated throughout his website including his blog and links to Behance Network, Flickr, Twitter and LinkedIn. This incredible designer is fully engaged in the internet daily, which is one reason why he is well known and has had his work recognized and awarded. It is very important to work under people such as Bennett, because you will learn more than researching on your own.

There is nothing like working under someone with years of experience who has been nationally recognized for creative excellence by Communication Arts, Graphis, AIGA, Print, How, UCDA, Gestalten Publishers, Rockport Publishers, HarperCollins Publishers, Quayside Publishing, Adweek, The American Advertising Federation, California Home & Design, Sports Edge, Good50x70, Grain Edit, FPO: For Print Only, and many more.

My advice is to keep up with amazing designers you have worked for and take advantage of every opportunity in working with designers who are more experienced than you.

Siquis Ltd. and social media

Anna Grace Abell — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:10:43 +0000

Advertising agencies are using social media tools just as much as designers to help promote themselves and stay connected. Siquis Ltd. is one example of an advertising agency and design firm that uses Twitter, Linked-In, Facebook and their website to their advantage. What are the advantages of an advertising agency or design firm using social media tools?

In the design world, it is important to have a presence in all areas of the web and these social media tools are the perfect way to achieve a presence for all to see. Each social media tool has a different specific purpose, but they all keep people connected to people and businesses connected to other businesses.

Siquis Logo

Through Twitter, siquis_says tweets about recent designs and advertisements created by Siquis, press recognition and features from various magazines and websites about their work, as well as tweets about current issues and projects in the design world.

On Linked-In, Siquis has a company profile, as well as bios and connections of many of the directors, managers and employees.

Siquis on Facebook has a direct link from Twitter for people who use Facebook more than Twitter. Every time siquis_says posts a tweet, it also posts a thread on Facebook for everyone on Facebook to see.

Siquis of course also has a beautifully designed website that has links to these social media tools where you can also join their mailing list.

Check out these links today and see how Siquis uses social media tools to promote themselves and stay connected!

Have you stumbled upon StumbleUpon?

Anna Grace Abell — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:37:58 +0000

StumbleUpon is another social media tool that is helpful for graphic designers, photographers, advertisers and artists in general. StumbleUpon is a website in which you chose categories of interest and “stumble” upon different websites that match these interests. Interests include arts, photography, painting, animation, computer graphics, graphic design, media, advertising and many more. The website will find matching websites all throughout the Internet that directly match your chosen interests. You can easily send the link of a found website to a friend for them to enjoy as well as linking it to Facebook or Twitter.

The interesting aspect of StumbleUpon is that you have no idea what website you will be given. This website is better than searching one of your interests into Google because it is very broad and you could find yourself on a website that normally would not pop up through the search engine. You can set the websites that are stumbledupon as favorites so that you can refer to them at a later time. You can also go to the top rated sites and see what everyone else is looking at.

Through my account, I have found many interesting websites on graphic design, advertising and photography including: Logo Pond, Ad Awards and Young Gallery.

Check out StumbleUpon today and stumble upon an awesome website!

Need to design a website?

Anna Grace Abell — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:53:39 +0000

One way to brand yourself as a designer is to have a website with a portfolio, resume and contact information. Many companys are currently using the web to learn more about future employees, which is a good reason to have information about yourself through a designed website online. There are many tools online to help anyone design a website without learning how to use dreamweaver. Here are a few websites that can help you design a website to better brand yourself:

- Build Your Site

- City Max

- Web.com

If you do know how to create a website but need help learning how to design it using photoshop, check out How to Design a Website Layout in Photoshop. Keep in mind that in branding yourself it is best for your resume and website to work together as a cohesive whole through the design. Read the 8 tips that make a great website at Cyberindian. Having your portfolio online is helpful for possible future employers because they can reference your work at any time without your physical portfolio in front of them. I designed my website from scratch using photoshop and dreamweaver if you want to check it out! On my website I also have a link to my blog so possible future employers can access it easily.

Do you listen to podcasts on design?

Anna Grace Abell — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:17:19 +0000

One of the many tools within social media are podcasts. A podcast is a series of audio or video files that can be streamed or downloaded from the internet. Anyone can make a podcast on any subject and post it for the public to listen to. There are many podcasts online that are free to listen to, including topics about graphic design, freelancing, the adobe creative suite and typography.

There are several websites that list top design podcasts including The Design Cubicle, Dustin Brewer’s list of top 5 designer podcasts, The School of Visual Arts, and the Adobe Creative Suite. These websites all contain podcasts that are relevant and helpful for designers.

Podcasts from websites such as the School of Visual Arts can be helpful to learn about the anatomy and history of design, while the Adobe Creative Suite podcasts website feature podcasts that have helpful tutorials on how to use the Adobe creative suite to the full potential. The nice thing about audio podcasts is you can put them on your ipod and listen to them from anywhere. A benefit to the video podcasts is the visual aids the speaker can show through the video while also speaking about the subject to the viewer.

Check out these websites today and listen to podcasts on design to learn something new!

How can designers use Wikipedia?

Anna Grace Abell — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:19:01 +0000

A wiki is a social media tool that consists of a collaborative website whose content can be edited by the people that have access to it. Wikipedia is the most well known worldwide wiki that anyone who has internet has access to. Wikipedia is known as the free encyclopedia that contains millions of words, concepts, historical events and people. But how can Wikipedia be of use to designers and artists?

On the main page of Wikipedia there is a list of broad portals with themes including arts, biography, geography, history, mathematics, science, society and technology. Under the arts category there are even more specific sub portals including architecture, dance, design, film, literature, photography, poetry and visual arts. This is where Wikipedia is helpful for designers. Under the design sub portal, there are many resources for designers.

Wikipedia Graphic Design Portal

Under the sub portal of design some of the helpful resources include a thematic index of designers, objects, graphics and interiors. The specific thematic index’s could be helpful if an artist was looking for a specific graphic or chair that a famous designer created. Not only are there specific thematic index’s, but there are also featured articles as well as a category tree that splits design between industrial design, graphic design and interior design. The category tree is helpful as a reference to specific examples of artistic design categories such as product design, logos and mosaics.

Check out the design Wikipedia portal today to find information and resources in regards to design!

What about advertising within social media?

Anna Grace Abell — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:48:03 +0000

Have you noticed that advertisers are targeting people on social media websites such as Facebook with their ads? Advertising on the internet has grown in many ways because of social media. Most people are on the internet everyday and this leaves a perfect opportunity for advertisers to target you with their product. Social media has created another outlet for advertisers, but since social media is relatively new, it is good to know what good social media advertising looks like.

A post on the Online Marketing Blog discusses 5 Tips on Social Media Advertising. It is important for advertisers to understand the channel through which they advertise and target the correct users with their message. Blogs such as the Online Marketing Blog have tips for people that are just starting out with social media and marketing. After you know what is necessary when advertising through social media, it is time to find an outlet for your ad. Facebook is one example of a social media tool that reaches millions and has an easy set up for people looking to advertise.

Facebook Advertising makes it easy for anyone to post an advertisement to everyone with a Facebook account. Facebook is an excellent place to advertise because there are a variety of demographics you can target on the site.

Facebook Advertising

If you have a company and want to advertise anything from products to design work, check out Facebook for creating an ad for millions to see!

What RSS feeds are you subscribed to?

Anna Grace Abell — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:14:02 +0000

One aspect of social media is RSS feeds. Real Simple Syndication or more commonly known as RSS feeds, give online users the ability to have a subscription to a frequently updated entry of some kind. There are RSS feeds of everything from a company’s stock prices to sales for the newest product. The question is how can graphic designers take advantage of RSS feeds?

One feed that I have subscribed to, as a graphic designer, is grain edit. Grain edit is a modern graphic design inspiration blog that showcases modern design from around the country. Instead of visiting the website everyday, grain edit has set up an RSS feed that sends a daily Yummy Fresh grain feed to my email account. This makes life much easier, because instead of seeking out websites everyday, grain edit will send the email to me everyday.

Here is a snapshot of what one day of the Yummy Fresh grain feed looks like:

Folk Concert Poster designed by Jason Munn

The Yummy Fresh grain feed gets sent to my email everyday and showcases one specific persons work, a more extensive project, a famous designer or other forms of modern design. It is nice to check my email everyday and have a good piece of design in my inbox for inspiration or just for enjoyment. I can archive the design that I enjoy for future reference or just trash it if I am not interested in the design. Check out the RSS feed for grain edit and start getting fresh graphic design emailed to you daily!

Are you taking advantage of social bookmarking?

Anna Grace Abell — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:08:59 +0000

Everyone has their favorite websites, whether they go to them everyday or just for reference when needed. But how does a professional go about saving all of these websites online in an organized fashion that is easy to use? The answer is using a social bookmarking site. There are many different social bookmarking sites on the web today including Delicious, Digg, and Google Bookmarks. But what exactly is a social bookmarking site? Commoncraft created Social Media in Plain English for a quick explanation.

For designers, social bookmarking sites such as Delicious are very helpful for a few reasons. When you are online and you find a site that could be an inspiration later, its easy to log into Delicious and save it for later use. Not only can the tags be for inspiration, but a designer can create tags that are for favorite company’s, places you want to eventually work or friends websites to later visit.

Delicious

The other great thing about social bookmarking sites is that other people on Delicious rate websites that are in various categories. There are several categories that are relevant to designers and advertising including graphic design jobs, graphic design companies, advertising agencies and online advertising. It is helpful to have a list of websites that other people have rated so that you can quickly type in a search term and access a top rated website.

Set up an account today at a social bookmarking site and save sites that you can easily reference at any time!