How to attract and manage novice clients

The continuing growth of Web 2.0 startups means designers can expect to be approached by a lot more clients with five-figure budgets who are virtual novices to the web design process. Without proper handling these clients can be extremely difficult to work with.

I know, because I was one of those clients. […]

What 50 pounds of clay can teach you about design

My 3rd year graphic design teacher, Alison Woods, once told me a parable from Art and Fear that’s still stuck in my brain years later:

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be […]

Kiss your boring dry erase markers goodbye!

If you’re embarassed by mundane office supplies, check out TUL Dry Erase Markers. 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 about such […]

Design like a pro: 20 web design tips

.net magazine offers 20 pro tips to help neophyte web designers do it like the pro’s. The tips emphasize writing clean, organized code yourself, rather than using a WYSIWYG editor like DreamWeaver or GoLive.

.net magazine’s 20 pro tips:

Planning Do it by hand Stylesheets: importing vs linking Smarter gradient backgrounds Commenting Use simple PHP to build sites Set fonts using ems IE Box […]

Structured procrastination with the (10+2)*5 hack and Meridian

Ok, I like to be lazy and put things off. In an effort to break this habit, I’ve implemented the (10+2)5 procrastination hack with a shareware application called Meridian. So what is this (10+2)5 math mumbo jumbo, you ask? The idea is simple: dedicate a fixed amount of 10 minutes for work and 2 minutes […]

Fail early, fail often: my first experience with rapid prototyping

This summer, I’m interning at Dubberly Design Office, an interaction design studio in San Francisco. My first week consisted mostly of 10-hour days manning the copier in preparation for a week-long interaction design workshop we were putting together for Samsung’s design group. The next week, I got the incredible opportunity to assist with and sit […]