How to design grid systems in 5 simple steps

The brief, vague introduction to grid systems I received in school left me puzzled. These invisible “underlying structures” seemed more like arcane runes than rational design tools. Thirsty for understanding, I googled and found Mark Boulton’s fantastic series of articles on the basics of grid systems.

I had always thought that things looked nicer and were […]

Talent isn’t everything: 7 habits of highly effective junior designers

Here’s a common myth: to be a successful creative person, all you need is talent. It’s a nice myth to believe in, because “talent” suggests a divine or evolutionary genetic gift. So if you have talented DNA, you’re special and can be a cool creative person. If not, you’re destined to be an accountant. After […]

Bind your own professional-looking book

Comic book artist, Toby Craig has an excellent tutorial on do-it-yourself bookbinding. The process requires some sewing and gluing, but his instructions are thorough and comes with lots and lots of pictures (which we like). The materials and tools he used should also all be available at your local arts and crafts store.

For artists, writers, […]

Strengthen your love of screenshots by adding a little control

For as long as I can remember, I have been in love with Command+Shift+3, the Macintosh keyboard shortcut for capturing a screen to a file. While this love is enduring, I must admit some dalliances with Command+Shift+4 (capture selected area of a screen to a file) and Command+Shift then Spacebar (capture a specific window, widget, […]

A world of brands at your fingertips

Brandsoftheworld.com collects downloadable logo artwork (usually in .eps format) of major companies world-wide. They also have a large section of corporate identity guidelines and manuals (.pdf format).

The site’s especially handy for:

Finding logos to use in design prototypes and presentations when clients are slow to send their own artwork
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