CMD+Shift Design
Liz Andrade
Designer of print and web. Podcaster, Blogger, internet nerd and crazy cat lady.
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Yesterday I took off from the office a little early and had myself a field trip in search of some stimulating reads related to art, design, business, technology… whatever caught my eye. In the past, I’ve made a handful of trips to the downtown branch of the Seattle Public Library, which is world famous for its Rem Koolhaas designed building. It’s a beautiful place and I do admit that just being there makes me feel creatively inspired!
I rarely go to the library looking for anything specific — I find the sections that interest me and then browse through the titles until I settle on something or spot something I had heard about from someone else. My inspiration to seek out inspiration was sparked after watching Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose Discuss Their Top 5 Must-Read Books on the 4-Hour Work Week Blog.
I ended up with 3 finds that I’m really excited about, the first a graphic novel I have been meaning to read for YEARS, but haven’t gotten around to it, Blankets. I started this last night and quickly plowed through the first 320 pages before falling asleep on it. The story and artwork of this novel is just beautiful! If you’ve never read a graphic novel and the whole phrasing gives you visions of capes and cowls – you’d be completely wrong about Blankets! No superheroes, no villans, just a story of childhood, first loves and some real genuine emotion!
Next was the only Seth Godin read left on the libraries shelves and one that I haven’t read! (it was a sign) All Marketers Are Liars. This book excites me, it’s all about marketing with an authentic voice – something I think is a paramount part of building a strong brand! This book I can see already is going to go hand-in-hand with the 3rd title I picked up, Design Issues by DK Holland. This book was suggested earlier this year by kick ass designer and my good friend, Kristine Johnson.
I’ll let you guys know about these books as I get further into them.. and I’m planning to make this library adventure a monthly feature – so if you have idea’s for books I should keep my eye on leave a comment and let me know about it!
PLUS, check out some of my photos from this library visit on Flickr.
It’s always good to have a good laugh, and staying in good spirits can make you more productive! …just don’t spend too much of your work day perusing these links ;)
Freelance Freedom
The Bradz
1Pt. Rule
xkcd
PC Weenies
Kopozky
BLaugh
OK/Cancel
Joy of Tech
PHD Comics
I was recently a part of an article at VelvetAnt.net called Ghosts of design work past, where 18 designers shared some of our student work from back in the day. Luckily, it looks like everyone had doe a tremendous amount of growth since these pieces!
It was difficult to even find my old stuff — this is all from back in the days when owning an external hard drive wasn’t dirt cheap and many of these things were originally backed up on ZIP drives (do you remember those!?) Plus, much of my layouts were composed in Quark, which I do not even have a copy of anymore!
Antonea chose to feature in her article a magazine cover design I did Freshman year.
There just seems to be no regard to typography or grid on this, the only thing I actually like is the image concept – but that’s about it. - This is me talking about this horrific piece of “design”
Magazine Cover, Freshman Year
After putting one piece of design past out there, I figure I might as well open myself to even more embarrassment! :) So here you go people… design skeletons from my closet. You can see some of my more recent (and less gag inducing) work here.
Poster, Junior/Senior Year
Poster design to promote vericomposting. The typography on this is appalling, I know the “grunge” thing was in fashion – but some of this just seems sloppy to me now. Also – the assignment was that you were creating design work for King County Waste Management and this DOES NOT look like anything a County office would ever go for!
Packaging & Print Advertisment, Senior Year
Logo/Branding/Print Marketing for fictitious salsa makers, Desert Mountain Salsa. This project included everything from Black and White Newspaper ads to coupons. Here is the package label and a magazine ad. The typography on the logo horrifies me and also the shotty Photoshop job I did on putting salsa in the jar – why didnt i just PUT salsa in the JAR!? I dont know! My favorite parts of these are the puppet I used in the ad (made my my roommate) and the slogan I came up with for a Salsa sold out of Seattle. “A Taste of the Southwest in the Northwest.”
CD Packaging, Senior Year
CD Packaging for fictitious band, The Nothing. (I guess I don’t have a lot to say about this one) Those were my roomates who posed as the band!
I asked some of your to recommend some must have books and I’ve pulled together a great list! Check it out, time to start that summer time reading! :)
“Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop” by Timothy Samara (Recommended by Brian Hoff.)
“Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click?” by Susan M. Weinschenk (Recommended by Jean Yi.)
A recent read – great, current book that compiles recent psychological research that can be applied to web design
“My So-Called Freelance Life” and “the Anti Nine-to-Five Guide” by Michelle Goodman (Recommended by Ashley Marie)
“Craft, Inc.” by Meg Mateo Ilasco (Recommended by Ashley Marie)
Not just for craft entrepreneurs! :)
“The Ultimate CSS Reference” by Sitepoint (Recommended by John Loudon)
“HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide” by O’Reilly (Recommended by John Loudon)
“Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” by Steve Krug (Recommended by John Loudon)
“Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional” by W. Jason Gilmore (Recommended by John Loudon)
“Joomla! A User’s Guide: Building a Successful Joomla! Powered Website” by Barrie M. North (Recommended by John Loudon)
“The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web (Voices That Matter)” by David Shea (Recommended by John Loudon)
“Typography: Macro and Microaesthetics” by Willi Kunz (Recommended by Kristine Johnson)
“Typography: Formation +Transformation” by Willi Kunz (Recommended by Kristine Johnson)
“Design, Form, and Chaos” by Paul Rand (Recommended by Kristine Johnson)
“Design Issues: How Graphic Design Informs Society” by DK Holland (Recommended by Kristine Johnson)
This next interview is with Niki Brown, a web designer and blogger living in Boston, MA. Niki works by day at a small web design firm and by night (and in the wee hours of morning) cranks out freelance design and content for a design blog, which I am sure you all know and love, The DesignOBlog.
What do you do when you’re feeling uninspired or burnt out? Do you have any rituals to help you cope? Resources to get you inspired?
One of the first things I do when I feel uninspired is to get as far away from my computer as possible. Last time I felt uninspired I hopped on the subway and headed to an old historical neighborhood of Boston called Beacon Hill. So many old buildings, texture and lovely typography.
Whats your favorite project to date?
My favorite project to date has been my blog, I get to write whatever I want and design things how I like it! :) People say they hate designing for themselves, but I love it.
What do you do at your 9to5?
My 9-5 (or 10-5) ‘day job’ is a Designer at Brunello Creative. We make the internet a better place one website at a time :) We do a lot of web work for Mens Health: (Mens Health Yoga Center, Eat This, Not That.)
How many hours per week do you spend on freelancing/blogging/building your personal brand?
I usually spent 10-20 hours a week freelancing and blogging. Right now its skewing more towards blogging :)
What would you do if you woke up tomorrow and the internet did not exist?
I’m sure I would attend more local networking events if the internet did not exist, and I would probably go crazy…
What do you think of the Tropicana packaging Re-design?
I think Tropicana’s new packaging is horrible.* My friend Steph wrote a good blog post that basically sums up my opinion. I think that drastic redesigns are not the way of the future. Realign, not redesign.
* since my interview with Niki, Tropicana released word that because of negative feedback, they’ve received. The newly designed cartons would be discontinued. Read more about this at NYTimes.com.
Why do you think design is important? How do you see design effecting the day to day lives of ordinary (non-designer) people. What makes “good or bad” design?
Design affects everyone because it influences our decision making. It can be as trivial as a choosing carton of orange juice, or as serious as a way of finding design for a hospital.
I think good or bad design is sometimes in the eye of the beholder (although there are definitely rules that design should follow)
Favorite HEX? #ff0000 although I never use it :)
Do you say “font” or “typeface”? I use both interchangeably, I like breaking the rules like that :)
When setting live San Serif text, which do you choose more often; Helvetica, Arial or Verdana? Unlike some people who hate helvetica, its my trusted and true sans font.
Favorite Keyboard shortcut? Apple + tab
Favorite internet celebrity &/or internet celebrity crush? Gary Vaynerchuk, but only for his wine prowess.