Nov 17, 2006

Learn graphic design basics at the legendary Basel School of Design

In 1999, a legendary graphic design program died. This program, Armin Hofmann’s Advanced Class for Graphic Design at the Basel School, was famous for its disciplined approach and emphasis on foundation courses. The program attracted students from around the world and later partnered with the Yale School of Design. Beginning 2007, the program lives again [...]

Nov 15, 2006

Find the right typeface with FontBook

With a gazillion typefaces available, how do you find the right one? After eight long years, FontBook, the “largest type reference in the world,” is back with a spanking new edition. This “big yellow book” helps you choose typefaces by showing samples of 32,000 typefaces from 90 major and independant type foundries around the world. [...]

Nov 13, 2006

Beat WordPress spam with two plugins

I love WordPress. It’s designer-friendly, easy-to-use, and free. What I hate is managing spam. I have two pet peeves when it comes to preventing spam: I’m lazy and don’t want to moderate every single comment. Making readers enter CAPTCHA letters is annoying and just isn’t cool. Fortunately, here’s two plug-ins for worry-free and unobtrusive spam [...]

Nov 10, 2006

Get a crash course in color theory

I have a secret. I’m a designer, and I suck at color. Maybe it’s because color theory wasn’t part of my graphic design curriculum in college… Thankfully, it’s never too late to learn. If you’re color-challenged like me, here’s two sources that can help: Mark Boulton’s Five Simple Steps to Designing with Color This is [...]

Nov 8, 2006

Fantastic Man: A fashion magazine for guys who hate fashion magazines

Sick of fashion magazines? Check out Fantastic Man, a fashion mag that’s decidedly anti-fashion. You won’t find ultra high-gloss paper, loads of ads, and vacuous content. Instead, the magazine favors uncoated paper, restrained advertising, and refreshingly quirky yet compelling articles. Oh, and most of it’s in black and white. Fantastic Man is the brainchild of [...]

Nov 6, 2006

Pick perfect colors for your home

You’ve been there. Paralyzed in front of a giant display of neverending color swatches at Home Depot. With so many color possibilities, it’s ironically impossible to choose. How do you decide which white do use? Or if Pepper Grass goes with Hot Pink? Fortunately, there’s help with Behr’s ColorSmart tool. ColorSmart lets you preview colors [...]

Nov 1, 2006

The Apple Blog: Access any Mac menu with Quicksilver

Quicksilver, the miracle shortcut tool for the Mac, should have its own Marvel Comics movie. It just has too many features and mutant abilities to ignore. Yasser Dehab of The Apple Blog adds to this neverending list by showing you how to use Quicksilver to access every menu item in any Mac application. He explains [...]

Oct 31, 2006

5 writing tips that don’t suck

Tired of lame writing tips? Check out Brian Clark’s Copyblogger, a collection of non-sucky tips for blog writing. It’s quickly become my favorite writing blog. Brian’s advice is approachable, concise, and never pedantic. Here are his recent Hemingway-inspired tips: Use short sentences Use short first paragraphs Use vigorous English Be positive, not negative Never have [...]

Oct 26, 2006

Free eBook: 37signals’ Getting Real

37signals’ manifesto and eBook, Getting Real, is now available for free as an HTML site. The book details 37signals’ rapid prototyping and web-app development process with the goal of showing you “the smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application.” If you’re familiar with the company’s successful web applications, Backpack and Basecamp, the [...]

Oct 24, 2006

Give your résumé a face lift

After avoiding the 7 deadly sins of résumé design, you may be asking, “If I can’t use crazy colors, clip art, and other types of decoration, how do I make my résumé stand out from the crowd?” Like many things, the answer lies in the details. Even if you can’t hire a fancy designer and [...]

Oct 20, 2006

MediaTemple: The last hosting plan you’ll ever need

MediaTemple, the web hosting service favored by designers, has finally announced their new Grid-Server (gs) hosting plan. Unlike other shared-hosting plans, Mediatemple’s Grid-Server eliminates the “bad neighbor effect” by distributing the load over several servers instead of confining it to one machine. This redundancy means more stability and virtually no downtime. After testing the new [...]

Oct 19, 2006

Want your own wiki? Find the right one with these four sites

It’s true, setting up your own wiki can be torturous to configure and customize. But don’t let their apparent complexity get the better of you. Several sites can help you choose a wiki solution to match your (un)willingness to get your hands dirty with code. To sort through the mess, here are my favorite wiki [...]

Oct 18, 2006

Kiss your boring dry erase markers goodbye!

If you’re embarassed by mundane office supplies, check out [TUL Dry Erase Markers.](http://www.tul.com “TUL home) Part of OfficeMax’s new brand of affordable designer writing tools, these markers are surprisingly cute and clever. Each marker has a magnetic body that sticks to most whiteboards, a comfort grip, and a built-in eraser cap. I get weirdly excited [...]

Oct 16, 2006

Give and get direct feedback with Photoshop Notes

After slaving away creating beautiful design comps or prototypes in Photoshop, you’ll most likely have to show them to a client, colleague, or creative director to get feedback. Often, this process generates some confusion as emails and verbal exchanges go back and forth. To reduce uncertainty and mix-ups, use Photoshop’s Notes tool to place comments [...]

Oct 10, 2006

Merlin Mann interviews David Allen, father of Getting Things Done

Merlin Mann has just posted the first in a series of interviews with David Allen, author of Getting Things Done. The series of conversations will focus on GTD implementation, with today’s interview tackling everyone’s worst habit: procrastination. Merlin and David discuss some of the reasons why we procrastinate, followed with insights into how we can [...]

Oct 9, 2006

Shhh… Borders bookstore has a secret inventory search tool

So you desperately want that book everyone’s been talking about, Getting Things Done. You could order it from Amazon, but you hate waiting. Luckily, there’s a Borders bookstore around corner. You like saving time, so you go online to Borders.com. to make sure the store has it in stock before you head out. But wait, [...]

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