The world has enough interviews of rock star designers, so I’m interviewing everyone else—designers who are happy, without the fame.

Let’s start Stephanie Orma, a former student from my alma mater, the California College of the Arts. I first met her when I was a TA for Jim Faris’s information design class.

I recently caught up with Stephanie and asked her a few questions about her struggles, inspirations, and future:

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Posted in: Design, Interview

Samantha asks:

I’m just finishing up 4 years at an ad agency and moving to a new a location and job. I am wondering, how do you stay up on trends? I feel like sometimes I’m so caught up in the day-to-day getting-it-done that I forget to look around. Any tips or sources that would be helpful?

First, the short answer

To keep up on what’s cool, check out these three resources:

1. Alltop: Design
   Alltop’s design secetion aggregates posts from top design and trends blogs such as Cool Hunting and Design Observer. This is where to get your daily dose of cool.

2. AIGA events
   The AIGA holds a million events throughout the year. These include portfolio reviews, lectures, and conferences. Many of these events include free wine, cheese, and lots of black-rimmed glasses.

3. Flavorpill
   For art, fashion, music, and film events, Flavorpill’s got the latest. For now, the site only covers New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Chicago, and Miami.

Now, the long answer

Staying trendy is easy. The tougher question is: How do you keep growing as a designer?

This is much harder to do.

Why?

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Posted in: Career, Design, Growth

It’s May and that means graduation time. Congrats to all the students leaving college to become professional designers.

I’m working on a series of posts geared towards new design graduates. But first, I’d like to know what aching questions you have now that you’re fresh out of school. What useful advice do you need? What do you want to know about finding a job? What worries you the most?

No questions are stupid, so speak up. Email me, or post your questions in the comments. I’ll pick out the compelling ones and answer them in future posts.

I’m fed up with Photoshop and its one billion rarely-used features.

How about a simple photo-editor that’s quick, easy, and doesn’t cost a thousand dollars. Fortunately, there’re tons of web-based photos editors popping up. Most are crap, but some are promising. Check out these free web-based Photoshop alternatives:

1. Picnik

Arguably, Picnik is the most popular web-based photo editor. Why? Because it’s now integrated with Flickr.

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Posted in: Photoshop, Web

From Erik

Posted in: Design, Retro, Typography

When designing anything to accomodate names—such as a business card, an address book, or a project management app—don’t forget about Wolfgang Wienerschnitzelhaus.

Why?

Because he’s a got really really long name.

And he won’t be the only one.

So while everyone else cozies up to the boring John Does of this world, make sure you’re best friends with the intriguingly complicated, Wolfgang Wienerschnitzelhaus

Photo by thegloaming

Posted in: Design, Interfaces