by Cathy Fishel

“Freelance Design in Practice,” to be published in Spring 2009 by RotoVision, will be a book for freelance graphic designers who are in it for the long run. I’d like to invite experienced, full-time freelance designers from anywhere in the world to contact me directly for possible interviews. Please contact me at cathy@fishel.com if you have advice, anecdotes and insights to share with peers. Design work will also be shown in the book.

Chapters will include succinct advice and real-life case studies on subjects including:

(more…)

Logo Design Love Awards is a competition that is going to recognize the best logos in the blogosphere. I was lucky enough to help with the judging, and I thought you guys would enjoy browsing through the logos as much as I did. There are ten categories of blogs and somewhere around 100 logos. Check it out, and cast your vote in the comments of their site.

There is a post that I wanted to do for some time, but never had the time. While this might not be pertinent for every designer in the world, it is something that needs to be said for perspective design students in the mid-west and Nebraska. Here it goes.

Stay away from the Creative Center! There are plenty of good design schools in the state, but the Creative Center in Omaha is a horrible way to go. I have friends that went there and they would tell you the same thing. A good deal of professional designers in Nebraska will back me up on this. It is extremely expensive and you come out with some antiquated illustrations, some mediocre designs and a hefty debt. I know several successful designers that came from the Creative Center, but this is only because they learned things outside of school and are very talented and driven people.

(more…)

I haven’t had a chance to read this book yet, but I wanted to do a little video review before the final goodbye here at BADG. Even without reading the interviews, insight and captions, this is a great collection of Modern Dog’s work. Where would posters be without these people? The book appears to be as irreverent and fun as Robynne and Michael … and if Dr. Figus Upshaw endorses this book, how could it not be good?

What is a design blog without shameless self promotion. I had to get one more in here. Here is a very short video for my wife’s show with good friend Adam Nielsen. If you are in Nebraska this weekend, you should check it out. If there is a message for designers in this post, it would be … Get out and see more art (especially printmaking).

Enjoy the five seconds of artwork!

I have created a short list of products that get free advertising without the consumer even realizing they don’t have to put up with the logo/ad placement.

(more…)

by Paul Berkbigler

Bennett and Adrian have lit a bit of an Internet campfire and rustled the hedges in the forest around it to call several of us wayward BA authors and writers back to share in the warmth and swap a few more fireside stories together. So, as I trudge out of the many tangled branches of teaching, research, writing, grading and continuing to work as a freelance designer, it’s great to at least briefly brush the leaves and twigs off my jacket and rejoin good friends in conversation.

When last I left BA Design Group and its group of campers, the podcast was continuing its rapid rise to the most regularly scheduled programming on the site, I was in the midst of leading a workshop in Tennessee, and I think we were all still fielding comments in the Gig Poster thread – the hits just keep on coming, right?!

It’s incredible to see how quickly a year passes and to try making some sense of the individual images that make up the blur once you’re standing at the other end of that time span. It kinda makes my brain hurt to realize that my workshop post was almost exactly a year ago this week!

…Time to move on in the writing then, I suppose!

In aiming to make some sense out of the big, crazy, wonderful thing that has been BA Design Group and the many twists and turns that it’s taken along the way, my brain heads towards a phrase that Stefan Bucher used about a week-and-a-half ago while he was visiting the college I teach at:

Launch and learn…

(more…)

This is just a link i came across this morning via QBN.
Interesting insights on issues like motivation and aspiration from some brit designers.
It’s always somewhat therapeutic to hear designers discuss issues like these, at least for me.
Hope you enjoy.

http://www.knowyourvalues.com/

If you ask me, these are far better than listening to those annoying Be A Design Cast hosts Nate and Donovan.

Announcing 36 Point.com!

oh Hai. We’R leavin ur websitz.

What seems like forever ago, Bennett Holzworth moved. He moved to Hastings Nebraska, and if you know where that is, you have my sympathy. Not to be cut off from his close friends back home, he started this blog — this one right here — with his friend Adrian. Some months later, they made the mistake of saying “Hey Nate! How about you write on this blog with us?” To which I replied “Okay.”

(more…)

…or how Nicole and I succeeded at designing a poster for Chip Kidd because of Nate’s failure.

Just over a year ago, Adrian went to see Chip Kidd speak in Denver, and his reviews were great. Within hours I had emailed the programming chair on the AIGA Colorado board and contacted Chip Kidd off of Adrian’s word to see if he would be interested in speaking in Omaha.

Turns out, Chip not only said yes, but did so with the understanding that we’d wait a while, as he had a new book coming out (a new novel actually, I hear he has a new book cover come out more often then I make it into bookstores).

And that leads us to this Friday (2/29/08), when AIGA Nebraska is bringing Chip Kidd to Bellevue.

(more…)