29 YOU NEED TO KNOW AS A DESIGNER....

[from Doug Bartow]
Many of the questions and concerns young designers share today are the same we had as graduating students looking to make our mark in the professional world, with only a résumé and portfolio of student projects to get our collective feet in the door. There’s nothing different in the design industry today that makes getting—and nailing—that initial interview or client pitch any easier.

Throughout the years, I’ve collected these questions and have tried answering many of them as an ongoing personal project. Here are 29 of my thoughts on how to approach and interact with our culture as a young designer, in no particular order.
[posted on Bartow's company site, also on HOW design]

29 THINGS EVERY YOUNG DESIGNER SHOULD KNOW

ANOTHER ONLINE LIFE LESSON

Check out this online life lesson about how to treat people. The blog it is on has many posts related to spirituality (not religion) in everyday life. This one expands on the following 5 tenets the author asserts are how you should treat others.

Check it out:

1. First Important Lesson - "Know The Cleaning Lady"
2. Second Important Lesson - "Pickup In The Rain"
3. Third Important Lesson - "Remember Those Who Serve"
4. Fourth Important Lesson - "The Obstacles In Our Path"
5. Fifth Important Lesson - "Giving When It Counts"

Global One TV

GOOGLE-ING....

Google--the company so ubiquitous that has its own verb. When you want to know something, students now turn to Google and "Google it." back in the day, you had to schlep to a library and look into card catalogues, indexes and periodical guides. Now...you Google.

But to the Googler  beware! Like the human brain, the average student utilizes a small portion of its power. (Not to mention the fact that all sites are not mandatorily fact-checked or extensively researched for purely FACTUAL content).

So check out this site if you are ready for some Advanced Googl-ing! While you are at it, you'll also be exposed to all of Google's free tools for reading, writing, and editing documents. They offer one of the best online calendar systems, and one of the best free e-mail clients (with scads of server space for a free e-mail client). They have free e-books that can be read on multiple readers, ability to setup discussion groups, blogs, photo albums, etc.

Google Tricks for Students

SUPER COOL EXAMPLE OF INFO GRAPHIC

Who says they have to be boring? Info graphics that cover vast amounts of information can be extremely cool. Check out this info graphic of the earth's surface from the upper atmosphere down to deepest oceanic trenches.
Click to go to the sight, then click on the small graphic in the left of the image window to zoom in (and prepare to scroll down, down, down).

air-land-ocean

WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR OLD PC?

Well...not too old.
Folks are using old PC's for a variety of tasks- including home voicemail and fax systems, MP3 servers, and even Boxee PC video systems. Make magazine (one of my other complete faves) offers plans on how to make your previous pc into a home DVR.

The image on the site is fairly big and bulky mini tower wedged beneath the TV-- I have seen case mods appropriate to the form factor that allow for you to make an aesthetically appealing appliance as well (google that one separately).

home dvr system

COOL ONLINE CONVERTER

OK--so this won't be replacing high-end media software at all, but there is this neat online converter for basic files that is pretty convenient if you have a good internet connection. Maybe you want to convert that WMA to AAC without setting up  iTunes, or you want that funny video clip you downloaded in 3GP for your cellphone, or a rather common DOC file into a PDF, or even converting e-book formats from the various e-book retailers to your specific e-reader device.


Free Online Converter

MORE PHOTOSHOP TUTORIALS...

Check out yet another Photoshop Tutorial Site chock full of nifty tuts. There are a few that are replicated from other sites I've posted before, but by and large some pretty cool stuff. 10 pages of  links with several interviews with Photoshop Professionals from various disciplines.

10 pages of Photoshop Tutorials

NICE CANS! (aka you CAN be that specialized and make a living)

Do one thing, and do it well (or so the saying goes). Do it really, really, really well and you may just have a niche that you can eek a living out of.

There have always been illustrators, designers, and photographers that were the "go-to-guys" for a very specific requirement, but that was often balanced against a very developed career (rarely the front end) or the pragmatism of practicing a career based on breadth versus strictly speciality.

Then came the internet. The store-front equalizer that puts a small-time basement operation on par with a multinational... as long as they create a similar quality product.

Check out this business... they shoot CANS...and that's their business. They do it  very well and that's about it.


they shoot cans...

"DESIGN INFERIORITY"

I'm a fan of all things design, and I've posted here before about my love for the I.D. site CORE 77. Recently they posted an article related to a "compromise design" ...in order to sustain a project at the cost of peak efficiency.

So the question for YOU is:

Is an inferior design still inferior if more people can afford/use it? 
If cost constraints would prevent the perfect object from being commercially successful, is it better to design something with inferior performance but feasible manufacturability (or for that matter price-point or commercial viability)?

Tawlk amongst you'selves...

STARBUCK's NEW LOGO...

Let the debate begin.

Pundits are either hailing or criticizing the latest incarnation of the Starbucks Logo. Logo redesign is not unique to Starbucks, but they have the corporate audacity to elevate their mark (the correct term for what students commonly call logo) from a mixed mark (meaning type integrated) into an icon (no typography). Old timers will remember the Greg Berryman "Notes on Graphic Design..." book that elucidates these levels of marks.

The fact is laid out that Starbucks may drastically change its business model in some way, and potentially its core business and target market/s. So the time is ripe for a change in mark. But do they have the iconic status of companies like Nike, Pepsi and Apple? Do they have the brand loyalty and high equity? I'd say yes... and they are following the logical (Berryman-ian) progression of their mark as such.

Anyone with small children knows the power of the golden arches. When you drive by a McDonald's (and long before your children can read) they point gleefully at the arches and cry for McDonald's.

Starbuck's mark, as wonky as it may have been--mired in greek mythology and Seattle folklore-- is instantly recognizable. To overhaul that mark (versus tuneup) would be too many steps back in the equity it has built.

fastco article on Starbuck's mark overhaul