Brainstorming magazine | issue 01

What Design Means To Me

ISSUE 01

JULI 2008

BIH edition - Printed in the BiH

6 EURO | 12 KM

brainstorming magazine Mustafe Kameriæa 6 71000 Sarajevo Bosna i Hercegovina p: +387 33 471 326 p: +387 61 208 895 w: www.brainstorming.ba e: info@brainstorming.ba

Publisher DDS Idea is all Mustafe Kameriæa 6 Hadžisulejmanova 10 71000 Sarajevo Bosna i Hercegovina p: +387 33 471 326 p: +387 61 208 895 w: www.ideaisall.com e: info@ideaisall.com Editor: Rusmir Arnautoviæ | rusmir.arnautovic@brainstorming.ba Review editor: Ena Matkoviæ | ena.matkovic@brainstorming.ba Cover illustrator: DDS Idea is all "idea is all" is an digital design studio located in the Sarajevo area and serving clients worldwide.

We have experience in Branding, Identity Design, Web Site Design, Graphic Design, Multimedia and Print Production. Our work has been recognized by a number of clients in various industries for exceptional performance, expert advice and quality services in the fields of design, information architecture, branding and development.

INFO: http://www.ideaisall.com

We`re always on the lookout for new artist as well as established creatives - so if you`re interested in contributing to the magazine, please send some examples of your work to (e.) samples@brainstorming.ba

01 | ISSUE 01 | What Design Means To Me

Welcome For me, design is facilitation of the message. In my opinion, content is your branding, so design for design’s sake is a mute point without something to say.

That’s why I feel that we as designers serve a two-fold role: 1. Facilitating the message of the client, and 2. Quality control - keeping people off the internet that have nothing valuable to say. :)

Meet the artists Interview with designer duo Mireldy

Meet the artists Adhemas Batista

Mireldy is one – girl – one – boy creative duo - Imelda Ramovic and Mirel Hadzijusufovic. We are working on a range of projects including art direction, design, illustration, for arts & culture, music industry, fashion and advertising clients ...

The visions created by Adhemas Batista are like dessert for the retinas.

Our eyes spend so many hours each day munching on uninspiring, insipid flavors: a school desk, a white board, a cubicle wall, a linoleum floor, and countless other tiresome views ...

Meet the artists Radim Malinic

Meet the artists Kevin Banna

Is one of the most sought after, internationally renowned illustrators / designers working today, with an extensive high end clientele. His work has been described as imaginative, sophisticated, sensual and sexy ...

Kevin Banna captures modern life with his camera like Norman Rockwell would today, that is with a healthy dose of cynicism. It’s not the lighting, composition that are not clean and idealized, it’s the content ...

Meet the artists Dave Hill

Meet the artists Mario Belem

As digital capture slowly replaces film for still photography, Dave Hill stands as a dual figure on either end in the death of a medium. A roll of film is strapped into the electric chair, and Dave Hill is both the man at the switch, and the governor calling in a last minute pardon.

Mário Belém is a Portuguese Illustrator and Designer. He's work is impressive.

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 02

CONTENTS JULY

Traps To Avoid When Designing An Online Photo Portfolio

What Design Means To Me Gone are the days when verbal communication was thought to be the best and the only medium to deliver a message to the mass. Technology has revolutionized. More and more developed and effective mediums have been implemented into the market to achieve this task. And the best one is through a graphical design. Now you don't have to go for broadcasting your message on radio or a loudspeaker.

You can simply make poster, or type a letter to achieve the same task. To be more technical and specific you can even design a business logo or place an advertisement in a magazine.

People also circulate computer printouts nowadays as a mean of advertising their products. Well, these particular form of visual way of communication is what we call graphical design.

You believe it or not, in every moment of your life you are surrounded by the work of a graphical designer. You just need to have the right skill to identify it and also to appreciate. Graphic designers are well established in various businesses.

Page 11

Creating an online photo portfolio can be a very tedious and laborious task. The personal showcase of your art works is the main indicator of your skills and abilities and makes a major impression on your site’s viewers.

The importance of the issue may seem frightening, but there are certain principles that will help you create a really impressive and successful photo portfolio. In this article I’d like to concentrate on those principals and some common traps to be wary of while creating your portfolio.

Trap 1: Arrangement Trap 2: Excessive Material Trap 3: Beware of Trying Too Hard Trap 4: Obscure Navigation Trap 5: Decorative Mess

Page 25

15 Great Graphic Design Agencies Learning what successful design agencies are up to will help broaden your education as a designer. What does it take to run successful small, medium, or large design companies? How do they start, grow, and operate? How do they land big clients and consistently produce awesome work?

sign What De

Means

To Me

These are just some of the questions to consider when looking at these great graphic design agencies. I'm sure you'll come up with a myriad of others to consider when viewing an impressive sample of their work. Follow through to each agencies site to learn more about them.

BIH edition

ISSUE 01

Page 19

in the BiH

JULI 2008

- Printed

6 EURO | 12 KM

Narani Kannan Some kick-ass work from recent graduate Narani Kannan, from OCAD (Ontario College of Art & Design). Her graduation project included this milk concept packaging and design process bounded book documenting how Gotta Moo's conception, research, and design came to life. Here is a small rationale on her project: Gotta Moo focuses on the most eco-friendly method for milk packaging.

This greener milk packaging solution would be made out of Sugarcane Bagasse molded pulp paper, coated inside with sugarcane lignin and printed with vegetable based inks, all based on food safe materials. Bagasse is an annually renewable plant resource and is compostable and recyclable.

Page 105

Artist, Illustrators, Photographers, News Interview with Anton Huml

Meet the artists Benjamin Delacour

Well, I’m Anton Huml, and I’m a video designer from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, still located here, making a living doing motion graphics and animation, however without any official degree in the field of work that I am in, since there wasn’t any academic course ...

Most artists want to take you somewhere else in their work, but Benjamin Delacour wants to take you apart! Benjamin Delacour ’s computer is a wrecking ball for the human form, and with our eggshell skin cracked open, the vast beautiful emptiness inside of us is revealed ...

Meet the artists ROTFILTER

Project BOSNIART

Our passion for detailed realism as well as our holistic and individual approach to each specific challenge are appreciated by growing community of advertising and photography professionals around the world ...

Bosniart project enabling and opening wide range of possibilities for people working in art & culture, to advertise and to publish theirs information about current projects, plans, schedules and occupations.

Bosniart is equipped with several sections ...

Meet the artists Ray Massey

Interview with Dario beliæ

I was first exposed to light in Somerset in the South-West of England. Thirteen years later I discovered photography whilst experimenting with pinhole cameras made from coffee tins. To this day the emotional experience of watching my first print develop before my eyes ...

My name is Dario Beliæ also known as monkey, Im twenty year old student of Faculty of Graphic Arts in Zagreb.

Currently living in Velika Gorica where I finished highschool of Economics ...

Meet the Artist:

David Carron David Carron is a young visual artist focusing on illustration and graphic design originally from St.Louis Missouri.

Combining both digital and traditional mediums, he forms unique content for both print and web media. David’s work has been featured in several design websites and magazine publications.

Currently working out of Denver as an in house designer for Beatport.com, he also often freelances under the creative identity Avadav. Advanced Design and Visual also serves as a conduit of experimental media.

Services Illustration, Graphic Design, Identity, Website design, Concept & Mood Boards.

Proficient with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, and basic Flash knowledge base.

3 years + in Illustration & Design.

INFO: http://www.avadav.com Wacom Intuos 4 Campaign 05 | ISSUE 01 | What Design Means To Me

Beatport 5 Senses | Campaign Contributor

Beatport Gift Cards | Layout & Design

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 06

Meet the Artist:

Reno Ranger German fashion photographer Reno Ranger likes to keep things fairly simple, at least that’s what his bio indicates: No. I was not born with a camera in my lap. Nor do I have an extensive history of artistic ancestors. Turning eleven I was not given my first camera from a supportive relative. I did not assist to anybody (if anything below two days counts). And I did not attend any sort of respectable photography school. I do not have a degree in what I am doing at all. I simply love what I do.

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Design is finding the ultimate balance between form and functionality. Because unlike form which can exist by itself, functionality cannot exist without form.

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Good design is design which has served this purpose.

For me, design is facilitation of the message. In my opinion, content is your branding, so design for design’s sake is a mute point without something to say. That’s why I feel that we as designers serve a two-fold role: 1. Facilitating the message of the client, and 2. Quality control - keeping people off the internet that have nothing valuable to say. :) Gone are the days when verbal communication was thought to be the best and the only medium to deliver a message to the mass. Technology has revolutionized. More and more developed and effective mediums have been implemented into the market to achieve this task. And the best one is through a graphical design. Now you don't have to go for broadcasting your message on radio or a loudspeaker. You can simply make poster, or type a letter to achieve the same task. To be more technical and specific you can even design a business logo or place an advertisement in a magazine. People also circulate computer printouts nowadays as a mean of advertising their products. Well, these particular form of visual way of communication is what we call graphical design.

You believe it or not, in every moment of your life you are surrounded by the work of a graphical designer. You just need to have the right skill to identify it and also to appreciate. Graphic designers are well established in various businesses.

They make their living in various ways. They can be found working in the field of painting, photography or computer generated graphics etc. their main work revolve around creating and organizing these following elements – typography, images and “white-space”. And a perfect design is the perfect medium to convey a message to an audience.

You can see graphic design as the perfect combination of technology and art. Designers use their creativity to come up with great ideas and then use various available technologies to implement those ideas only to reach the audience perfectly.

Graphic design can be considered to be composed of two fields mainly – image based designs and type based designs. Both are elaborated below.

Essence of image designing Well, anyone will accept the fact that picture are most powerful technique to convey an information. It not only contains the message, but also the emotion and the expression of the designer. And it also greatly depends on the designer how he interprets it. Now these images can be drawn or painted or generated graphically in a computer.

In whatever way it is generated it must contain the message. And really, it is totally up to the designer to decide whether image based design will be the perfect option to deliver the message or not.

What is type-based design?

It is not always the best option to go with image-based design for proper communication. As already said, it is always up to the designer to choose what is best for the task. So, they also decide to go with words! Here, we

don’t mean what is written to deliver a message. Rather we mean, the way a word looks. Yes, it is the essence of typography, a way to communicate through printed words, is to impress the audience with the appearance of the words highlighting the main keywords. Designers use various ways to achieve this task. They really can grab your attention with poster only! To be more technical, they also go for running texts, which are more effective for the same purpose. They use this technique to present information to the public in various industries like, print industry or film or packaging industry.

For achieving a successful type-based design, designer has to read the minds of audience. Once they do that, they have the perfect design in hand. They can print the words on paper in various format, all aimed to grab the attention at once. It’s not just a simple page.

Words are decorated with different typeface and type sizes. Proper spacing and margins have been given in between the paragraphs and lines. And all the paragraphs are perfectly indented. And most importantly, the main words in between are always in boldface with italic or underline. Won’t you think if you see something like this at a corner, you will wait for a minute to read the whole text? And if you don’t you will certainly miss the opportunity to appreciate a work of perfect art.

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Combination of both Now these both forms of graphic design can be combined to deliver the message to an audience in a better way.

And to achieve this task, a perfect balance of both forms has to be maintained in the design. That means, the designer has to select the proper typography or wording to be placed with the images. Once done, the design is far better than the traditional ones.

In this business there are two broad aspects while designing a particular tasking in hand ? the client and the audience.

The client has the perfect idea what needs to be done. And the audience believes what they see. They don’t need to know anything else. And here, the designer is a like a bridge in between these two broad aspects.

They need to get every requirement from the client, what they need to be delivered to the audience. And then they analyze the audience with the help of business analysts. Once everything is done, designer's task is to come up with a design concept. This design concept is then implemented with the help of various specialists like photographers, printers, typesetters or whoever is required to complete the task.

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Now at last we should discuss about two other forms of designs, which are also used to deliver a information to an audience – symbols and logos. They are particular forms of identifiers, which will summarize or you can say condense the whole information within. You can call them special typographic word treatment to convey some main ideas.

Designers also go for combining these two forms sometime to achieve the task in hand.

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4 rules to make good design

Design has to be aesthetically pleasing; some may say good design and bad design are both still design but for me, design has to look good.

If it looks unappetising I would prefer not to call it design at all.

The rule of functionality Design has certainly to do with arts and crafts. But it is neither one of them. Good design is rather based on analysis, experience, cause and effect—all together rather scientific definitions—than it is an art. If something was designed well, it is unobtrusive, and using it will feel smoothly. It won’t make you think a lot about how it was made, about how pretty it is, or how well you can use it.

A good designer has removed all barriers that made using the designed matter a rough and unpleasant experience.

Reducing design to its core purpose, functionality, doesn’t make it less pleasant. It doesn’t mean design has to be dull, boring, or making the designed matter uninvitingly cold. The point is, whatever is added or used for the design, needs to fulfill a purpose. Every little detail needs to serve the core, the essence of the matter that is designed.

The rule of attraction Decorative elements in design have a purpose too: To give you a certain feeling about the spirit of the thing you are using. Be it a car, a building, a picture frame, file folder, headset or the food on your plate. A decorative element has the purpose of completing the image, of expressing the values you see in this matter.

Seeing the beauty of a design bears a danger of focusing on making it look good instead of making it work. Making a thing work the best way it can work isn’t an easy task. It requires a sharp eye for details, combined with a mindset that is able to grasp the big picture. It requires you to think outside the box, find and focus the essence of what you are designing and at the same time you need to be able to cut things off, simply because they don’t work. And this is what seems to be the hardest thing for most designers. They can’t let go of “pretty”.

So you see drop shadows, color fades, flower patterns, ornaments, frames, outlines and round corners all over the web, because these are the things that make something look nice. It is of course a debatable question wether the use of those graphic elements do or don’t fulfill a purpose. But in most cases they don’t.

If design looks beautiful, it should come out of simplicity and elegance, and because it makes you want to touch and use it. You can see this with everything you decide to get. From a mountain bike to a house—even the choice of your life partner is based on what you like about them. Beauty may be a part of your reasons, but in the end, you like who or what they are and how well they go with you. The mountain bike of your choice will be the one you spend a lot of time with, and the reason why you chose it over other bikes was not the pretty sticker on its frame. You chose it because it was the best designed on many levels, the best bike you could get for the money you had.

Beauty is a result of good design. But if you set beauty as your goal, you the surface in charge of your judgment.

You can easily lose track of what is important. Suddenly, your choices for color, typography, any graphic element you used in your design become irrelevant and replaceable. Which is the main reason why your client should never be able to say “Can you show it in green?”.

The rule of consistency Every web- and print designer knows this sentence. It’s replaceable with “can you enlarge the font” or “my wife didn’t like pink in the logo”. In short terms, all these sentences mean the client didn’t get your design. And neither did you.

Because if you can not explain why you chose red over green, you didn’t do your job properly as a designer. This

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 14

goes back to “every element has a purpose”. If your client asks “can you show it in green” and you did your homework, then your answer can be a confident “no”.

But it shouldn’t come out of stubbornness or wrong pride. It should be the right answer, because you did your job and went through a thought-process to find the best set of colors. Irrelevance and randomness are your biggest enemy here, not the client asking for variation.

Clients asking for variation happens out of natural reasons. Clients are insecure about their choices, just like you are insecure about which is the best mountain bike you can get for money. You want to do some research before you settle for a solution, and so does your client. In order to make him understand why you chose red over green, you will have to guide him through your thought-process. You will have to show him what made you think red was better than green and have him agree with you. Following this pattern, selling your work will become a lot easier.

Be consistent with your decisions. If a client’s brand is about human spirit, then it should show in your resulting work. If it is about sophistication, then your design choices should naturally result in expressing sophistication. And contrary to popular belief, true sophistication is not about making it golden or glittery. It is often more about simple and pure elegance, a subtleness that makes one stop and look closer.

Whatever your direction is, it should be singular, and you should stick to it. That means you consequently leave away cluttering elements and anything that doesn’t support this one direction. But in order to know that direction, you first have to find it.

The rule of direction Just yesterday I was asked to show someone a variety of styles. I don’t blame the client; it is a valid request. If you are involved in any sort of design, be it information architecture, software design, development or interface design, you should know your arts and crafts.

You should be capable to use the tools that get you there.

But the reasons why you are hired shouldn’t be your versatility in styles. It should be because you know how to take something, find its essence and make that core work in the best way it can.

This ability is what makes you a great designer. From that point on, your job title may bring more responsibility, it may be based on your leadership skills, your ability to analyse or conceptualize and create streamlined results. You may be a great sales person or a creative director. At the core of taking something and shaping it to a useful idea always stands design.

A great designer has one style, and that is to make people understand what he or she is doing. It is not

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always something that can be explained easily. But it should become visible through your work.

Say, you are a art director in an advertising agency. It was my position for several years, so I know what I’m talking about. Leading several creative teams, and making them find the path that leads to the best result you can deliver to your clients, is never a trivial task.

As a art director, it is your primary job to give direction.

And you do this best by taking what your creative teams show you and pin-point the essence of what you are finding. It doesn’t only mean working with them closely and repeat processes until they are going in a good direction. It also means challenging them and yourself over and over, asking the root questions of what the designed matter is about: What does it do? How can we make it work the best way?

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 16

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15 Great Graphic Design Agencies Learning what successful design agencies are up to will help broaden your education as a designer. What does it take to run successful small, medium, or large design companies? How do they start, grow, and operate? How do they land big clients and consistently produce awesome work?

These are just some of the questions to consider when looking at these great graphic design agencies. I'm sure you'll come up with a myriad of others to consider when viewing an impressive sample of their work. Follow through to each agencies site to learn more about them.

Go Media

Forty Seven Media

Studio 7 Design

Go Media has a style all their own. If you think their vector packs are impressive, check out their portfolio.

I have always been a fan Forty Seven Media. They have a style that is very much their own and this is reflected in everything they do.

I am always inspired by the Studio 7 Designs website.

It is nothing short of an impressive business portfolio website.

INFO: http://www.gomedia.us/

INFO: http://fortysevenmedia.com/

INFO: http://www.studio7designs.com/

400

Brownjohn

Chermayeff and Geismar

We've been building up since 1989, offering loads of creative services like corporate communications, promotions and branding, new media, exhibitions and events, advertising.

We started in 2002 so we are new kids on the block.

On the other hand, we have been designing for major clients for over 20 years, so nobody could accuse us of lack of experience.

Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar initially formed their partnership in the late 1950s with the idea of working collaboratively and in a wide range of disciplines.

INFO: http://www.400.co.uk/

INFO: http://www.brownjohn.com/

INFO: http://www.cgstudionyc.com/

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FutureBrand

Giant Creative

Interbrand

Another huge firm that has work with major clients in just about every industry under the sun.

Giant is one of those firms where you have probably seen a lot of their work and never even known it. Lots of popular designs come from these guys.

These guys have a big name client list that goes on and on and on...

INFO: http://www.futurebrand.com/

INFO: http://madebygiant.com/

INFO: http://www.interbrand.com/

Landor

Minale Tattersfield

Pentagram

This is the company that created famous brands such as the well praised FedEx logo.

A neat studio that has a very diverse style with a wide With locations all over the world, it is only natural that range of clients.

Pentagram has huge list of clients, styles, and an impressive portfolio.

INFO: http://www.landor.com/

INFO: http://www.mintat.co.uk/

INFO: http://pentagram.com/

Siegel + Gale

Brand Engine

DDB

This large design agency also has offices around the world. They have worked with companies such as: Post It, 3M, American Express, and many more.

Recently this firm handled a lot of the campaign management for a number of HP Products and packaging.

Each website listed as DDB work (#15) was actually done by HUGE, an interactive agency based in Brooklyn, New York. Scholastic, Readers Digest and Scientific.

INFO: http://www.siegelgale.com/

INFO: http://www.brandengine.com/

INFO: http://www.ddb.com/

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 20

Preparing and Talking About Your Graphic Design Portfolio As a graphic designer a portfolio is essential. While it's great to have an online one, it's also a good idea to have a physical one too to take along to meetings and interviews.

There is no right way of doing it – there will always be differences in what employers or clients expect, or would like to see.

So, to get started it's worth mentioning that your portfolio, and the way you talk about it, is an opportunity for you to shine and to demonstrate that: * you are creative

* you have a range of skills

* you can apply good thought processes

* you are ambitious and enthusiastic

Your audience Who will be looking at it?

As designers, when we start a design project one of the first questions we always ask is who the audience will be.

You should be applying the same thinking when putting together your portfolio – who will be looking at it? What are their needs and expectations?

Depending on your situation, your target audience is likely to be one of the following: * A potential employer * A potential client If you are looking for a job in the design industry remember potential employers will most likely be designers themselves. This means they will have a keen eye for the look of your work and will want to understand your contribution to each project.

If you are looking for work from potential clients they, on the other hand, will be more focussed on whether you have experience in the type of work they need to produce, and whether your design style is to their taste.

Adapt where you can Try to adapt your portfolio and presentation style to fit each audience. This means a bit more work each time but will make it more engaging for them. It will also lead to more success for you by demonstrating you understand their business.

are a potential employer what kind of work do they produce? Are they really creative or more corporate? If they are a potential client what sort of design work have they had produced before? What kind of industry are they in and who are their customers? Luckily today most businesses have websites, so all this should be relatively easy.

Choosing projects Only select your best work Limit the number If you can, try and keep it to about 6-10 good size projects. People don't want to go through everything you have done and will probably make up their minds about you during the first 3 you show. Obviously if you don't have much to show for any of them (e.g an individual logo) you could consider showing more projects.

Select your best I can't stress this one enough and you will hear the same thing from other people in the industry: Only select your best work and work you want to talk about. If you don't love it or can't talk about it endlessly, over and over, it will show and they won't be interested. I know myself it's tempting to fill out your portfolio with work that isn't your best but shows other skills or types of client. But it won't be long before you struggle to talk about them engagingly, and you will come across as not enjoying your work.

Do some research

What order to show them in?

When you have a meeting set up to show your work, do some research. What sort of company are they? If they

The first and last projects in your portfolio will stick in people's minds the most. So, you should select carefully

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which projects to put in these positions. In addition, the last project can be the best place for a project you really like talking about or has samples that people can look at. This is because it can often end up staying open on the desk while you continue the meeting.

The projects you show in the middle of your portfolio should then be ordered in a way that demonstrates variety in skills and style. Keep them interested by mixing things up and being dramatic. If there are samples to pass around for one project, consider following it with a project that doesn't. Don't, for example, put all your logo or brochure projects back to back if you can help it.

Show creativity One of the things potential employers will often look for is how you got to the finished design. They may be interested in sketch books, loosely bound sheets of ideas, mood boards or unused concepts. Put a few of them in your portfolio but not for every project. They are there to demonstrate your ability to think and and sketch before you jumped on a Mac to create the work.

You should also aim to include at least one or two mockups or printed samples. This will stop your portfolio from looking like just a collection of flat printouts of your work, and therefore a more memorable experience.

Put in what you want to get out What does this mean? Well one important thing to remember is that you should only put types of work in your portfolio that you want to get more of. If you've done a lot of one type of work but you’re now really tired of it, don't put it in your portfolio even if you think it's good work. Chances are, you will only get more of it.

Presentation is key The standard of presentation in your portfolio must be the highest you can achieve. Employers and clients alike will be judging how much attention you pay to these details as well as the actual work. But don’t dress it up – the quality of your work and your presentation is much more important than a fancy or tricksy portfolio.

Explaining the work Each meeting is an opportunity to develop OK, so we have covered putting your portfolio together, but you also need to learn how to talk about it.

It's not easy The art of talking about your work is not something that comes naturally to designers – I know I didn’t find it easy in the beginning. But it's a good skill to learn, and learn as early as you can. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes and look upon each meeting as an opportunity to develop this skill. Not only will this make it easier to talk about your portfolio, it will also make you better at presenting concepts and design work, both to your colleagues and to clients.

The simple rule here is engagement. Your aim should be to arouse interest in your work, not give a speech or lecture. Remember, showing your portfolio to people is also about them, not just you.

When you come to each project, talk about it briefly to introduce it but don’t talk at length. See how they react, let them ask questions or let them simply look. If they are looking at you rather than the work, talk some more about the project – tell them what interested you about it. Look for signs that it's time to move on to the next project.

To help you get used to talking about your work, try it on other people whenever you get a chance. If they are non-designers it will help even more, as you will practice not using designer lingo to describe each project.

Show your value Employers want to see how you could be useful in their organisation, and when showing your portfolio they will often ask what your involvement was on a project.

Whatever you are tempted to say, I advise this: Be honest, give yourself credit, but be clear about your skills.

A potential client will be wanting to find out if you have the skills they currently need. Focus less on talking up the design aesthetics of your work, and more on explaining the value of your services to the client of each project.

Were they pleased with the work? Did they achieve their business goals?

Know yourself You should take some time to understand your strengths and weaknesses (and yes, we all have weaknesses) before showing your work. If you can't see them yourself ask another designer for an honest opinion (and be prepared for the answers!). You may not get asked about these specifically in a meeting, but you should be prepared to discuss them anyway.

The reason I mention this is that showing you understand your limits and where you are most effective is far better than trying to prove you are simply amazing. Employers and clients are interested in how they can use you best – they know no-one is good at everything and are not looking for that.

If you are particularly strong in one area though, make sure every piece of work in your portfolio shows that without you even having to say it. They will remember you better that way.

Summary Hopefully this article will give you a good starting guide to your portfolio. Remember, it is a skill to be learned during your career rather than mastered beforehand – every time you show your work it will give you extra experience and feedback that helps you improve.

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 22

15 Great Resources for Learning Adobe InDesign Alright vector lovers, let's turn on multiple-pages 'eh! Adobe Illustrator is great, it's my favorite program actually, but even with the new Artboards feature in CS4 it just doesn't compare to InDesign for creating multi-page documents. If you've been meaning to get started with InDesign, but have put it off for whatever reason, well now is the time to get stared!

This article rounds up a bunch of great resources on learning Adobe InDesign, which will get users started and keep intermediate users growing.

InDesign Secrets

Layers Magazine

Instant InDesign

This site is loaded with great features. They have a If you're not familiar with Layers Magazine, well then videocast on InDesign. There are loads of great you should be. Aside from there actual magazine, quick tips, articles, and tutorials from multiple authors. they have loads of high-quality video and text based tutorials on lots of Adobe products.

This website is meant to accompany the book "Instant InDesign," which focuses exclusively on the art of template design and production. However, there are loads of resources here for you to use,

INFO: http://indesignsecrets.com/

INFO: http://www.layersmagazine.com/

INFO: http://www.instantindesign.com/

The InDesigner

InDesign Magazine

Tips & Techniques

Michael Murphy, who wrote such books as "Adobe InDesign CS4 Styles: How to Create Better, Faster Text and Layouts," runs this site.

Most of the resources listed in this article are web based, but the fact that there is a magazine dedicated to InDesign is something those looking to learn this program, and stay up to date ...

This is a blog run by Keith Gilbert, who is a software trainer and consultant specializing in the graphic design market.

INFO: http://www.theindesigner.com/

INFO: http://www.indesignmag.com/

INFO: http://blog.gilbertconsulting.com/

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Scratch Disk

Tim Cole's InDesign

Adobe InDesign Support

This blog is run by The North American Technical Resources team, which is a small group of Application Engineers who sell and support Adobe's professional desktop applications.

This blog's main focus is on InDesign. It's not updated Adobe's official support channel for InDesign. Loads often, but the content that is there is high quality and of resources at your fingertips here. Get access to worth your time to check out. official Adobe articles, access the help, and find even more great InDesign blogs ...

INFO: http://blogs.adobe.com/scratchdisk/

INFO: http://blogs.adobe.com/indesignchannel/

Adobe TV InDesign Videos InDesign Docs

INFO: http://www.adobe.com/support/indesign/

30 Tutorials

There are some great instructional videos here produced by Adobe for InDesign users, as well as other Adobe products.

This blog, which is updated regularly, has loads of There are a whole lot of tutorials here to get started informative posts on InDesign. It's run by a passionate with InDesign. They are a bit randomly organized InDesign expert Bob Bringhurst. though. You could also try searching some tutorial directories, like Pixel2Life as well.

INFO: http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1582v1847

INFO: http://blogs.adobe.com/indesigndocs/

INFO: http://arbent.net/

Seneca Design

The InDesign Guy

Answers to Reader FAQ`s

There are a lot of resources here. It's very well organized. You can grab some handouts, tips, and links to a whole lot of InDesign resources.

The is a resource page from Robert Levine, a certified InDesign expert with lots of experience teaching this program. There are links to tutorials he's written, as well as others.

Aside from tutorials, it's great when blog owners answer reader questions that come up directly. This blog post does just that.

INFO: http://www.senecadesign.com/

INFO: http://www.theindesignguy.com/

INFO: http://www.creativecurio.com/

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 24

Traps To Avoid When Designing An Online Photo Portfolio Creating an online photo portfolio can be a very tedious and laborious task.

The personal showcase of your art works is the main indicator of your skills and abilities and makes a major impression on your site’s viewers.

The importance of the issue may seem frightening, but there are certain principles that will help you create a really impressive and successful photo portfolio.

In this article I’d like to concentrate on those principals and some common traps to be wary of while creating your portfolio.

Trap 1: Arrangement The first thing that comes to mind is the very organization of a portfolio. Be attentive to the priority you give your artworks. Place an emphasis on your best works by presenting them before the others, as first impression is always important. If a viewer is captivated by your art at once he will be motivated to continue browsing. Interest him from the first works down and you will definitely get a chance to be highly appreciated.

Trap 2: Excessive Material Don’t over saturate your portfolio with too many works.

Be sure to put quality above quantity while deciding on your material. The old saying, “less is more” rings very true here. It is equally as detrimental to make your showcase too tight, as it will hardly add to its professional look. Attempt to design the elements a bit loosely and harmoniously. Stay away from showcasing too many of the same styles; this will help convey originality, so ¬the viewer will not become bored.

Trap 3: Beware of Trying Too Hard Making a very complex portfolio won’t leave an impression of professionalism. Try not to invent something that you personally won’t be able to cope with. Make it simple and viewers will definitely appreciate how easy to use your portfolio is and will be able to focus on the artwork itself. Of course this doesn’t mean that your online showcase has to be overly plain.

Make use of contemporary technologies, implement 26 | ISSUE 01 | What Design Means To Me

interactive elements and maybe include some flash animation - it will make your portfolio more live and vivid. Just don’t overdo it and remember that usability is very important.

Trap 4: Obscure Navigation Don’t neglect the matter of clear navigation while constructing your portfolio. You will hardly be given a chance if your content can not be viewed properly. So be careful to avoid incomprehensible and confusing navigation, and nothing will prevent a visitor from evaluating the real quality of your works. Arrange photos in such a way that they can be viewed one by one with simple clicks, preferably in the same window, so the viewer won’t be confused with browsing. Let them quickly and easily estimate your little masterpieces by adding a comment right away with no additional clicks and transitions. The easier it is to browse, the best impression your photo portfolio will make on the viewer.

Trap 5: Decorative Mess Of course you want to make your personal showcase the most striking and captivating one. For this purpose you can add different visual elements, white space and so forth; making your portfolio look more vivid and professional, but don’t overdo it as someone may become confused by the decorative mess your portfolio will become.

Interview with:

Imelda Ramovic and Mirel Hadzijusufovic art directors from the Croatian advertising agency Bruketa&ŽiniæOM You two are art directors in the advertising agency Bruketa&ŽiniæOM. Can you first introduce the agency to our readers?

Bruketa&ŽiniæOM is one of the most awarded marketing communications and design agencies in the region with over 300 international awards such as Epica, New York Festivals, London International Awards, Art Directors Club New York, Cresta, Clio, Red Dot, Cannes (finalist) and many more. It is a community of around sixty people creating on-line and off-line projects as the result of the interaction between many talented individuals from different cultures, from Lebanon to Switzerland.

Why did you choose to work there?

For us, working in an agency was a great challenge. We wanted to be a part of a large creative team.

What kind of projects does the agency create?

The agency creates all sort of things like developing communication and creative strategies, advertising, visual identities, graphic and packaging design, interactive communication, retail communication (BTL), and all sorts of different communication activities like branding, events and digital communication which Bruketa&ŽiniæOM creates together with its sister agencies Brandctor and Brlog.biz and other partner agencies. The projects are made for the whole region.

For example, last year the agency made an event in the Zoo for Puma and a year before an event in a

building transformed into a steaming pot for Podravka.

The agency's interactive project Merr y BiŽiæ (www.sretanbizic.com), used for exchanging Christmas gifts among clients and partners, was awarded as the best interactive project in Croatia last year, and the agency's campaigns were pronounced as the top three campaigns in Croatia in the last year.

It is a creative agency, does this mean you only develop the creative solutions?

Bruketa&ŽiniæOM is a full service agency providing clients with a full range of strategic, creative and production services. Every creative process follows a specific methodology: research, analysis, creation and evaluation. Before every good creative solution, there is a lot of research and analysis to be done, and the agency always follows this methodology.

How long have you been working for Bruketa&ŽiniæOM and what did you learn there?

We have been in the agency for three years. Besides having the opportunity to work on interesting projects in a team with really good creative individuals, in this period we gained a lot of experience on different levels of creative communication. And this is something we are very happy about.

The agency has made many awarded projects. Can you pick a few of your favourites?

The most recent project we liked is a redesign and

Matica hrvatska - Logo proposal

Kristina - Logo

Creative team:* / Bruketa&ŽiniæOM // Creative Directors:* / Davor Bruketa, Nikola Žiniæ / Art Directors, Designers:* / Imelda Ramoviæ, Mirel Hadžijusufoviæ

Creative team:* / Bruketa&ŽiniæOM // Creative Directors:* / Davor Bruketa, Nikola Žiniæ / Art Directors, Designers:* / Imelda Ramoviæ, Mirel Hadžijusufoviæ

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advertising campaign for a famous Croatian candy brand KiKi. The campaign is called “Mo matter where, game is everywhere” and we created the illustrations that we had fun with. The campaign is very successful in Croatia. There is off course a cookbook “Well Done” that you have to bake before use, quite famous internationally. It was even the most commented project at the Dezeen.com last year. Then there is the annual report with 3000 different covers, each one bearing the portrait of one of the employees of the company. Then a poster for International Museum Day that shows the famous Picasso's ready-made of the bull's head only compound of modern bike parts illustrating how museums have the responsibility to keep the ideas from the arts alive, making them more up to date with the audience. Or posters for women only jazz festival – Jazzarella, with designed instrument bags on them.

We are very proud to be able to work as part of a team on such projects, and to be given an award for it. It is nice to know how all that work and efforts and the creative solutions are recognized by Croatian and international festivals.

Can you give an example of one of that projects that was important for you and why?

Every project is important in a way. No matter the difference of the projects we work on, we always try to solve a problem in a creative manner.

Who and/or what inspires you?

It would be unfair to say that we don't believe in inspiration, but we most certainly do not rely on any.

Inspiration is a moment, a flash, an impulse, an instant … depending on various things beyond our control. It is only the creative process that is consistent in this job.

What are your tools/programs of choice?

Scissors, scotch tape, pieces of colorful paper, Plasticine, Styrofoam, pens, crayons, marker pens, a scanner, a printer, a computer…

Depending on what kind of idea we have, we use different tools to make it possible.

In general, we find the choice of programs and tools irrelevant to the actual work. All that matters is the way in which an idea is presented.

What things do you do to try and push yourself farther as an artist?

It is important for us not be constrained by design framework. We try to keep ourselves informed as much as possible and be up to date with the latest in design, as much as music, economy, politics, and all current affairs, because it is imperative for a designer to know a little bit of everything!

Are you currently working in a graphic related field?

And if so, what advice would you give to aspiring designers tr ying to break into the field?

We like frequently changing the media we work with and do not what to see our design work applied solely to prints on paper. We find a great interest in exploring possibilities and different ways of applying our ideas and designs.

Accordingly, the advice we could give is that anyone engaging in design should try using different media because it is the best way to gain experience, and also a chance to have one's idea find a tool for expression and not the other way around.

You were also part of the team for the agency's recent exhibition in Belgrade that happened in an old empty historistic bank building? What was the concept?

That was one completely new and special experience.

When we all saw the space at first it scared us and in the same time we were thrilled. We tried not to disturb the space too much, but at the same time we wanted for the space not to take over the things that were exhibited. The idea was to show a creative process. So the space was divided into three parts: the elements of style, the ideas, the work. The last level contained books with creative solutions from different fields of design and advertising. What was special about it were pencils next to each book, so the visitors could write on them, with a comment or a drawing.

You've been awarded by some festivals for your unique style and technique. What first got you interested in this style and how did you master your technique?

To tell you the truth, we prefer not having a specific style.

We always see a new challenge in everything we do.

Grad - Logo

Zelen - logo

Creative team:* / Bruketa&ŽiniæOM // Creative Directors:* / Davor Bruketa, Nikola Žiniæ / Art Directors, Designers:* / Imelda Ramoviæ, Mirel Hadžijusufoviæ

Creative team:* / Bruketa&ŽiniæOM // Creative Directors:* / Davor Bruketa, Nikola Žiniæ / Art Directors, Designers:* / Imelda Ramoviæ, Mirel Hadžijusufoviæ

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 28

Jazzarella – All Women Jazz Festival (Sapienti Sat) - posters & catalogue Creative team: Bruketa&ŽiniæOM / Davor Bruketa, Nikola Žiniæ (Creative Directors), Imelda Ramoviæ, Mirel Hadžijusufoviæ (Art Directors, Designers), Maja Benèiæ (Copywriter)

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For us there is no such thing as a usual pattern to follow.

We try to find the best solution for each new project.

Designers are always going through ups and downs creative blocks, can't find enough work and then become overloaded with work, dealing with the stresses, how do you handle it?

We don't ;)

Thanks for taking the time to sit down and answer our questions, we wish you great luck in the future!

Thank you for having invited us. We are happy that a portal like this has been launched in Bosnia and Herzegovina. And of course, we wish you all the best in your future work;)

Ripping, everyone's been victim of this in one way or another. What are your views on rippers and your techniques to get back or to avoid being ripped?

It is something that is impossible to prevent. Therefore we don't pay too much attention to it. A person who truly loves his or her work will find the way to be innovative and consequently a step ahead of those 'borrowing' their ideas.

What are your views on current online art communities and where they are headed?

We must admit that it was relatively easier before (as far as online art communities are concerned), because there were a few relevant online art/design portals where one could be regularly updated. Now, in the time of visual chaos the question is who is really able to hear/ see anything or to be heard/seen by anyone. As in any other area, design suffers from total hyper production so it is definitely more difficult to detect and acknowledge quality.

KI-KI - No matter where, game is everywhere Kraš - illustration Creative team:* / Bruketa&ŽiniæOM // Creative Directors :* / Davor Bruketa, Nikola Žiniæ / Art Directors, Illustrators:* / Imelda Ramoviæ, Mirel Hadžijusufoviæ

Colors in Motion Istragrafika - press kit Creative team:* / Bruketa&ŽiniæOM // Creative Directors:* / Davor Bruketa, Nikola Žiniæ / Art Directors:* / Imelda Ramoviæ, Mirel Hadžijusufoviæ

International Museum Day - poster Creative team:* / Bruketa&ŽiniæOM // Creative Directors:* / Davor Bruketa, Nikola Žiniæ / Art Directors, Designers:* / Imelda Ramoviæ, Mirel Hadžijusifoviæ

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 |30

Meet the Artist:

INFO: http://www.secretshowcase.com

Rik Oostenbroek Rik Oostenbroek, born and bred in the media city of the Netherlands is an aspiring 18yr old graphic designer.

With a 4 yr experience.

Rik will attempt various artistic styles to try and progress he succeeds creating his own, unique style.

Since he aproved a lot the last years from a unknown person into a respected artist he's been into freelancing and earned a huge dose of experience. From print design to clothing design.

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Meet the Artist:

Olli-Pekka

INFO

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Jauhiainen

please meet a 26 year old graphic designer and illustrator from Finland - Olli-Pekka Jauhiainen! He is currently living in Helsinki and finishing his studies at the TAMK University of Applied Science, where he specializes in Digital Media.

Among his works we may find surreal photomanipulations, 3D experiments and illustrations. They all excel in both creativity/originality and technical execution. Olli-Pekka plays with metaphors and symbols, putting strong ideas and original concepts into his works. You might have seen some of his works on the pages of our blog, where we have used his creations more than once.

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Meet the Artist:

Rob Shields A freelance designer from Philadephia designing for the music and fashion industries (plus others).

INFO: http://www.robshields.net/

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 36

Meet the Artist:

INFO: http://www.yoram-a.co.il

Yoram Aschheim Yoram Aschheim is one of Israel`s most prominent commercial photographers. He opened his studio in 1984. His photographs have been featured in many of Israel`s highly praised advertising campaigns as well as in numerous award-winning annual reports, catalogues and packaging programs.

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What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 40

Cannes Lions festival Commercials collection shown at last year's Cannes Lions festival.

INFO: www.canneslions.com

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 42

state of design festival melbourne 2009

designboom is just back from new york after a successful mart. our full snapshot report will be online soon. getting back into the swing of things we're ready for our next cultural exhibition designboom mart to be held for the first time in melbourne, australia held during the annual state of design festival. apart from our designboom mart the state of design festival(https://www.stateofdesign.com.au/) event will include a series of workshops, exhibitions, pecha kucha, seminars and design:made trade fair. read the full program of events here (http://www.stateofdesign.com.au/2009-festival-program).

design capital (business day) will present a toolkit for tommorow's innovative insights and case studies to assist business for the challenges of tommorow.

melbourne open house is a series of walks and talks that invites guests to visit various buildings around the city and learn about their structure and history.

at the design capital (design day) international designers including nipa doshi and hernan diaz, as well as designboom's editor nate archer will be speakers discussing the next big shifts in design culture.

the portable film festival works in the same way as other film festivals - the only difference is that it is delivered completely online and distributed through portable video devices.

michael reynolds - the garbage warrior will speak about earthships and his sustainable principles during his first visit to australia from new mexico.

visitors can get prepared for the festival by creating their very own festival planner.

the australian abundant exhibition, which was exhibited at the 11th venice architecture biennale will be shown at various venues around the city. see designboom's venice architecture biennale report here. designboom mart and design: made: trade fair will be held at the city's royal exhibition building, where visitors will have an opportunity to meet international and local designers and sample their wares.

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we are currently accepting applicants. if you are interested in participating please email us your works. hurry as places are filling fast! more details here (http://www.designboom.com/dbmart_melbourne_09 .html).

10 Web Typography Rules Every Designer Should Know When someone visits a website you’ve designed, the odds are that they don’t care much about the colors, images or sounds, they’re immediately looking at the text. No matter how many bells and whistles you’ve built into a website, everyone relies on text to accomplish whatever they’re visiting the site to do.That alone should make typography, the art of arranging type, a priority for any web designer.

1. Read through the text yourself With a design like JonesingFor a designer without a great grasp of the text would have struggled to put together the typography that makes this site really work.

As you tackle your own typography, you probably don’t have to worry about writing a site’s text — but you do have to read it!

Some web designers think that just copying and pasting out of a text file constitutes the total of their textual duties. But reading through the text provides at least a basic idea of how the text can be integrated into a website, avoiding the disconnect between the writing and the design of a website.

You can kick your typography up yet another notch, if you can read through the text once it’s in place in your design. Take special note of the space around the letters. Do you have any unusually big spaces that look odd? A little careful typography can eliminate those issues. You can also get an idea of lines that might be too long to easily read, awkward line breaks and similar issues.

2. Dump Lorem ipsum as soon as possible Do you think you could have designed Jesus Rodriguez Velasco’s website without the actual text? The site is heavily dependent on the written word — and very specific words too. Even the body text got special attention with a drop cap and some other tweaking that just wouldn’t have been possible with Lorem ipsum.

Unless the text of your website is actually Lorem ipsum, dummy text will bear no similarity to the real thing. That means that any tweak you might make to the text — or the design surrounding it — will have to wait until you get the real thing. Asking for (and getting) text from your client as early as possible in the process will give you the ability to match your overall design and your typography.

3. Show a clear hierarchy When you arrive at Rik Cat Industries, you know immediately where you should start reading. Even though there are a few links at the top of the page, Rik’s welcome catches your eye first. It’s much bigger, using typography to establish a clear hierarchy.

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Every site needs a well developed hierarchy: indicators of where to start to start reading and how to proceed.

Your typography can provide that hierarchy — just as Rik’s does — as long as you know your hierarchical order ahead of time. By thinking about size and typefaces, you can highlight a piece of text as a headline in a way that different placement in the design just can’t provide.

Your design’s hierarchy goes beyond just the typography you employ, of course, but since users almost always start with the text, it makes sense for designers to do the same.

4. Pay attention to both macro and micro typography Relying entirely on typography for their front page, the Crowley Webb and Associate’s website was designed with two factors in mind: both macro and micro typography.

Macro typography is the overall structure of your type, how it appears in the context of your design and its aesthetic when you consider your text as a block on its own.

Micro typography is more concerned with the details of spacing, the issues that determine whether words are easy to read. Micro typography is an absolute necessity when it comes to putting together a block of text: if it isn’t legible, there’s no point in proceeding. Crowley Webb and Associates addressed this question through both careful writing and spacing out those words that the site would highlight.

But macro-typography provides you with the opportunity to make your text more than well-spaced: it’s the chance to make it look appealing and a part of your whole design. The choice of typefaces and colors on this website create a viable whole. Ignoring either facet of typography is detrimental.

5. Take care with type colors It would be so easy to lose text in the background of ArtofElan, especially the bright red on dark red combination used by the designer. When a web

designer works with colored type, care is absolutely necessary, there’s no guarantee that a red on red combination, or even a yellow on red combination will be visible. After all, everyone has visited a website where the text seemed to be only one shade off from the background color and gotten a case of eye strain when they tried to read it.

The easiest fix for this situation is to make sure that the color of your type is drastically different from that of your background. Black and white work so well because they are as drastically different as you can get, but there are some color combos that work well: something along the lines of a dark blue on a light pink will get the job done. Reversed out text is pretty tricky… while you can work with light pink text on a dark blue background, you’re more likely to get a complaint about it.

6. Get serious about your CSS If your CSS is solid, you can move between pages of your website seamlessly, just as the different versions of Hutchouse.com rely on different stylesheets to create some impressive effects. Even if you don’t take things as far as Hutchhouse, CSS can help eliminate amateur typography issues like changing up typefaces and sizes between pages.

CSS can provide easy consistency between your typography across the entirety of a website. If you are consistent in how you use type, however, breaking that consistency even a small amount can make whatever you wish to highlight truly stand out, just like establishing and then breaking a grid can make for an effective design. In web typography, keeping your fonts consistent can be a simple matter of CSS. 7. Ditch the centered text Choosing an alternative to centered text can make a website design easy to read, just like DesignCanChange.org. Opting for centered text, especially on a page like this, would make for a problematic page: the jagged edges centering creates on each side make it much harder to read and there are plenty of opportunities for perfectly centered text to wind up distorting the rest of your designs on different displays.

In some circles, centered type is only one step up from using Comic Sans in a website design. You might consider it for a headline, but in general, aligning your text to the left will make your readers much more comfortable, unless they read from right to left.

8. Deal with smart quotes and other symbols Luigi Ottani’s site showcases what careful attention to quotation marks and other symbols will get you: a complete lack of problems when the site displays those symbols. Many websites are dotted with symbols a browser cannot display. It’s a legacy of the fact that most of the text a web designer works with was probably written in Microsoft Word or another piece of word processing software that makes all sorts of little changes to text without the writer paying much attention.

One of the worst changes is smart quotes: the curly quotation marks Word automatically substitutes for straight quotation marks. Another problem area comes when you work with text written in another language: accents and umlats can cause just as much trouble as Word’s helpfulness. If you just copy and paste text with such changes into your design, you’ll likely have to go back and fix them later, at least for some web browsers.

Instead, get them early in the design process so you can focus on making your text fit better with your design.

If you do want those fancy symbols and smart quotes showing up in the final design, break out your HTML entities.

9. Plan for your text to get larger When you increase the size of the text on Veerle Pieters’ website, it’s not quite as pretty than if you use the font size she picked out. However, you can still read everything, locate links and so forth, something that is true of very few websites.

That’s because, in part, many designers make sure to layout text in 10 point font or even smaller. Most people are comfortable reading such fonts, but Baby Boomers make up a huge section of the web-browsing population and a lot of those aging web surfers are going to have their browsers set to display type as large as they can. Your text, as well as your design, needs to be able to adapt to that fact.

It’s also worth taking into account the fact that browser size can vary dramatically, moving text around to unexpected locations if you aren’t careful. If bumping the size up a point creates problems, that older demographic is going to move on to the next website in a hurry. Having to scroll forever over to the side will have a similar result.

10. Show a preference for sans serif If you look at the A List Apart’s website, pretty much every big block of text is set in a sans serif typeface, making it much easier to read. Headlines and other smaller blocks of text are laid out in serifed fonts, creating a balance between the two.

When it comes to laying out text on a screen, sans serif fonts are almost always the best bet, especially if you chose a font like Verdana that was designed for display on a computer screen. Serifed fonts have a higher chance of displaying poorly, becoming blurry or even pixelated.

It’s not possible to entirely avoid serifs, of course. But for large blocks of text especially, using a font without serifs can offer an extra level of guarantee that visitors will be able to easily read a site’s text. When you’re choosing fonts for a project, look through your sans serif options first.

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10 Excellent Tips For Designers To Improve Their Income Sometimes, it seems absolutely impossible to keep up with all the design work you’ve got coming in. But, other times, it may seem like you just don’t have enough work to meet your income goals.

In these times, it makes sense to offer a few more services to your clients — to make sure that you can make a little more money. The ten services below can make it easy to boost your income and take advantage of the design skills you’ve developed.

1. Blog Setup Everybody and their dog wants a blog these days — but a lot of these would-be bloggers aren’t up to much more than opening a free account on Blogger or WordPress. Setting up a hosted blog, installing plugins and customizing a theme are all beyond them. But if you can provide these services, you can pick up some easy cash.

While setting up a blog can require a little technical knowledge, it’s generally a fast process, especially when you get a little practice. In general, customers looking for blog set-up services don’t necessarily want a custom design: they usually have a theme in mind that they just want to slap their own images on. WordPress takes about five minutes to install, making blog set up surprisingly lucrative.

2. Hosting Many web design clients don’t really want to worry about hosting their own website. If you’re willing to take on that worry, you can make plenty of money and increase your chances of repeat business. After all, if you both designed a website and are hosting it, a customer is unlikely to go to someone else to update his or her site.

You don’t have to mess with servers of your own, either: using a virtual server from one of the many web hosts available can handle the needs of many small websites. There is a little worry that goes along with hosting — if a client’s website isn’t up, it’s on your shoulders — but it remains a relatively easy source of income.

3. Ad Design For your clients who are buying ad space online, it’s worth their while to use ads that match their website’s design. Offering an online ad design service saves your clients from trying to turn their logo into a banner ad and 47 | ISSUE 01 | What Design Means To Me

puts some money in your pocket. Because there are certain common ad sizes, you can offer a single ad design or a package of several common sizes.

4. Templates Many web design customers aren’t actually looking for a unique design for their website. Instead, they’re more than happy to accept a template — especially if they’ll pay less for it than for a custom-designed site. Some customers are just looking for files they can set up themselves, while others want to hire a web designer to fully implement the template.

Either option allows you to continue making money off a design long after you’ve finalized it. In addition to selling your templates on your own, there are many market places with significant traffic for specific types of templates (i.e. WordPress, Joomla, etc.).

5. Icons There are certain icons you’ll spot all over the web — such as the RSS icon. While there’s one set symbol, though, there are thousands of design variations upon that theme. Not only can you sell such icons to individuals setting up their own websites, but you can also sell them to other web designers to help them speed up their work. Icons are commonly sold in sets related either by theme or design qualities: you can often earn more with scalable vector icons. There are thousands of potential icons you can work with, as well.

6. Sub-Contracting Design is not the only aspect of a website that a client might hire out. While you might be given all the text the client wants included in a website, you may not. Rather than trying to help your client find someone up to writing copy, you can agree to take it on as part of the website design. From there you have two options — write it yourself or sub-contract to a writer.

You effectively earn a finder’s fee from providing a writer with the work, and if you have a writer you can work with regularly, you can take on more projects than you might otherwise. You don’t have to limit yourself to writing, either: web applications, marketing and other projects associated with setting up a new website all offer sub-contracting opportunities.

7. User Testing Putting a website through its paces can require money, leading many web designers to simply skip it. But if you offer this service to your clientele you’ll be able to provide another layer of quality work. User testing can be as simple as sitting down with a couple of people and asking them to try to use the site. It can be as cheap of offering them lunch in exchange for their time. You may have to spend more time explaining to your customers just what user testing is than you might need to spend on your other services, but that bump in income is often worth it.

8. Training Especially when you’re setting up a website that a client expects to update on his own, you have to expect lots of questions on how to use the site. Those questions don’t have to be just another cost of doing business, though.

Instead, you can offer a client the service of walking him through every part of the completed website and explaining each step. If you and your client are in the same area, it might be worthwhile to go in and educate the client in person.

However, with all the various online conferencing applications that allow you to share your desktop with an observer, physical proximity isn’t necessary.

9. Search Engine Optimization The methods search engines use rank websites change quite often. Part of good website maintenance is updating a site as necessary to keep up with search engines’ needs. Offering search engine optimization offers you a chance to revisit past clients’ websites: they may not need visible changes, but a little tinkering under the hood may get a website better search results. You can also offer SEO services to potential clients who already have well-designed websites.

10. Marketing While web marketing can be a full-time job, you can provide your clients with a basic web marketing package: setting up accounts on social networking sites, emailing bloggers on your client’s behalf and other small tasks. Most designers don’t have any interest in doing a large amount of marketing, but a few simple services can help a client get started as well as generate a little income.

If you’re interested in adding any of these services to your web design offerings, consider starting with your existing clientele. Send out an email explaining what you’re adding to your offerings and see if you get any bites. From there, you can start thinking about new customers. It may not be practical to add all ten services in one go (and you may need to brush up on a few skills before marketing your work), but these options can give you a starting point.

Additionally, there are far more than ten services a web designer can offer. Think about how you might combine your non-design skills with your web work and see what you come up with — you might find an option that works better with your skill set than those listed above.

Bonus Income Source: Passive Income If you’ve still got a couple of hours left over after you finish helping your clients, consider passive income opportunities. Every service you offer results in active income: you’re trading your time directly for money.

With passive income, however, once you’ve established an income source, you get money with only minimal time and effort. Traditionally, passive income came from investments — you needed a large amount of money in order to earn income.

However, these days there are plenty of opportunities for web designers to create passive income streams: most require an upfront investment of time (rather than money), but can continue to pay off indefinitely.

* Stock Graphics: You can sell a variety of graphics through stock graphic sites. You create one image, upload it and the stock graphic company sends you money whenever someone purchases a copy of your graphic. You can often sell website templates in much the same way. * Niche Websites: You can create a website on a specific topic, fill it with content and set up either ads or affiliate programs. With ads, you’ll get money whenever someone visits your site and clicks on an ad.

With affiliate programs, you’ll get paid whenever anyone purchases a product through your website. * Web Application: Projects like web applications can take a lot of upfront work. But, depending on your payment model, you can earn money for every person who uses your web application.

These are just a few examples of passive income streams. There are thousands more available to you, and they’re just a matter of figuring out how you can sell your skills without selling your time.

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 48

Brainstorming is the successful monthly spin-off of DDS “Idea is all”. Each issue gives you an in-depth guide to a different creative subject, and future issues will covere themes such as print design, web design, Photoshop, typography, packaging, creative advertising, and how to start your own design business. Inside every edition, you’ll find great step-by-step tutorials and tips from the best digital artists in the business, showcases and profiles of upand-coming talent and established creatives, as well as explorative features on the subject in hand.

Why Advertise on brainstorming.ba and brainstorming magazine?

Meet the Artist:

Linn Olofsdotter Deep below a raging torrent of artistic frustration, down into a clam sea of distilled imagination, there at the boiling vents at the bottom of the ocean of inspiration Linn Olofsdotter wavers elegantly feeding off the nectar of creativity that spews from the center of the earth that barely ever reaches the surface.

INFO: http://www.olofsdotter.com/

Meet the Artist:

Ray Massey INFO

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I was first exposed to light in Somerset in the South-West of England.

Thirteen years later I discovered photography whilst experimenting with pinhole cameras made from coffee tins. To this day the emotional experience of watching my first print develop before my eyes remains with me as constant reminder of the magic of photography.

To the consternation of my mentors, photography, which had by this time developed into a passion, enticed me away from further academic education. Two years prematurely I was accepted at Art Colleges in Somerset and Kent, where I studied Fine Art, Graphics and Photography. Although my parents supported my decision I think they would have preferred I took a proper job.

Having left the security of art school where I was able to experiment with many techniques and processes, I moved to London where I endured a period of assisting. During this eighteen months of employment, I worked with five very different photographers before realising that I was unemployable.

At the age of 20 I became an independent freelance photographer from my first studio in Camden. My earliest work consisted of editorial commissions for magazines, record covers and book jackets before establishing a firm base of design and advertising clients.

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 54

Meet the Artist:

INFO: http://www.behance.net/spizak

Adam Spizak There is something at once compelling and repelling about the images created by Adam Spizak. It is like the feeling that comes over you when you stare into the blank eyes of a doll that looks just a little bit too real, that looks like it comes awake at night and wanders the house with evil intentions. Adam Spizak’s images depict humans who exist in that precarious gap between clear artificiality and true humanity.

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Meet the Artist:

Adam Bartas The style began in 1985 in Prague. It's at the beginning ever since. * education: University of London, Beijing Normal University * equipment: 35mm, 120mm, 4000Ws, 64bit, 77kg * is that you John Wayne? Is this me? * IPA Photo Awards 2007 finalist (Advertising - 3rd place; Digital Enhancement - 3rd place) * Czech Advertising Photographer 2002-2006 finalist and exhibition participant INFO: http://www.adambartas.com

Meet the Artist:

Rotfilter INFO: http://www.rotfilter.com/

Rotfilter, founded in 2001 by Andreas Furtner and Martin Riedl, specialises on creating and refining photograhic imagery in advertising, fashion and art.

Our passion for detailed realism as well as our holistic and individual approach to each specific challenge are appreciated by growing community of advertising and photography professionals around the world. Our services include retouching, pre-and postproduction, digital operators on the set, computer imagery (CGI), lithography, colour management and certified proofs made to meet the individual specifications of your printing needs.

INFO: http://www.neilduerden.co.uk/

I'm a self confessed mac monkey is based in a rural miners cottage 20 miles north of manchester, I create pieces that combine elements from mixed media, photography that are interlaced with complex vectors to create pieces that always hit the brief for clients all around the world. My art is from the heart and this passion shows through clever usage of the latest technology. I am always hungry for commissions.

Neil Duerden

Meet the Artist:

Meet the Artist:

Radim Malinic

INFO: http://www.brandnu.co.uk

Radim Malinic is one of the most sought after, internationally renowned illustrators / designers working today, with an extensive high end clientele.

Radim Malinic, prides himself on his artistic sensibility, passion for details, innovative resutls, pushing the boundaries.

His work has been described as imaginative, sophisticated, sensual and sexy. While his goal is to fulfill the needs of his client, he creates contemporary visions that are a complex montage of layered photographic, colorful elements, hand drawn renders.

His award winning creations have been used in the above and below the line advertising, books, magazines, product illustrations, music releases, album artwork, CD’s and DVD’s, posters ... anything in need of injecting of visual finesse and colour.

3 3

Invaluable PHP Tutorials and Resources

PHP is one of the most popular scripting languages on the internet today, and one of the easiest to get into.

Whether you're a PHP newbie, or an experienced code-slinger, there is always something new to discover. A function you're unfamiliar with a killer timesaving tool, a technique that you forgot about...

Object Oriented PHP

Your First Simple CMS

Learning OOP in PHP ASAP!

Killer PHP teaches the basics of Object Oriented PHP. An easy to follow 5-page guide with videos to go along with the article.

Jason Lengstorf shows how to build a very simply object-oriented Content Management System with PHP.

An authoritative into to PHP OOP here at NETTUTS. Jo‚o Gradim does a thorough job at explaining the basics of Object Oriented Programming in PHP, with plenty of clear code examples and comments.

INFO: http://www.killerphp.com

INFO: http://css-tricks.com/

INFO: http://net.tutsplus.com/

SQL Injection Prevention

Password Hashing

SQL Injection

A brief primer on SQL injection and how to counter it.

One of the worst things you can do security-wise is to store users' passwords in plain text. A lot of people use the same passwords on multiple websites, and if someone manages to gain access ...

Chris Shiflett explains SQL injection, and covers a few permutations of the exploit, along with instructions on how to prevent it.

INFO: http://www.tizag.com/

INFO: http://phpsec.org/

INFO: http://shiflett.org/

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5 Helpful Tips

Akismet

ReCAPTCHA

Avoid five of the most common security issues in PHP programs, three of which involve user input. If someone isn't cross-site scripting or injecting SQL, they're reading your error messages ...

Email spam isn't as bad as it once was, thanks to improved filtering technology. Now we have a greater menace: Comment spam. Any site with user-contributed messages ...

Bots, they're annoying, but what can you do about them? For blog comments, and similar applications, you have the wonderful Akismet filter, but what about other things?

INFO: http://net.tutsplus.com/

INFO: http://akismet.com/

INFO: http://recaptcha.net/

PHP Short Open Tag

State. in PHP and MySQL

PHP Contact Form

PHP offers a shortcut for the echo() construct, which looks something like <?=$var?>. It is often used by users of the CodeIgniter framework in Views, as a surrogate for a templating system.

A few years ago, the MySQLi PHP extension was released to improve upon the existing one, known simply as MySQL, like the database software both extensions communicate with.

Sometimes it's a good idea to have a contact form on your website. It's more convenient than a mailto link, and you don't give out your email address right up front, which can help prevent spam.

INFO: http://perishablepress.com/

INFO: http://www.mattbango.com/

INFO: http://www.kirupa.com/

User Membership With PHP RSS Feeds With SimplePie

Dynamically Create Thumbnails

User accounts are one the more common components of web applications. Allowing users to register and login isn't as hard as it may seem at first thought.

RSS Feeds are one of the best things since sliced bread. Not only can you stay up to date with hundreds of websites' content, but you can parse them with PHP.

When you deal with large images, it's often necessary to create smaller "thumbnail" versions. In gallery situations, you may want to display a grid of thumbnails that link to the larger versions.

INFO: http://net.tutsplus.com/

INFO: http://simplepie.org/

INFO: http://net.tutsplus.com/

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PHP Markdown

Zebra Stripes

SimpleXML in PHP

HTML isn't really the most user-friendly way to style text. Sure, some "ordinary" people know it, but overall the markup language is not something that most people want to mess around with.

Have you ever noticed how, if you have a long list of data, such as a table showing several data fields, it can be hard to follow a line from one side to the other when you read it?

In this "Web 2.0" age, more and more web services are making public APIs available, allowing you to access data from their applications from yours.

INFO: http://michelf.com/

INFO: http://michelf.com/

INFO: http://www.webmonkey.com/

Dynamic PHP pages

CodeIgniter

CakePHP

If your website is on a shared hosting account, you need to be careful of how much processor power you are using at any given time, especially if you tend to get sizeable amounts of traffic.

A lightweight and modular Model-View-Controller framework for PHP. Requires little configuration, and no command-line usage.

Another popular MVC framework. CakePHP is a little heavier than CodeIgniter, but has it's own advantages.

INFO: http://papermashup.com/

INFO: http://codeigniter.com/

INFO: http://cakephp.org/

Symfony

Zend Framework

Flourish

Symfony is a bit harder to use than CakePHP and CodeIgniter, requiring the use of the command-line to run configuration commands and to create applications.

Developed by Zend Technologies, Zend Framework is licensed under the New BSD license. It is along the same lines as CodeIgniter and CakePHP.

Flourish is an object-oriented PHP framework, but not an MVC one. The library allows for a more free coding structure than other frameworks ...

INFO: http://www.symfony-project.org/

INFO: http://framework.zend.com/

INFO: http://flourishlib.com/

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Build a Login System

WordPress as a CMS

CodeIgniter

Build an object-oriented login system as you follow this hour-long tutorial. It's not a complete solution, leaving you plenty of room to expand and make it your own ...

WordPress is more than just a blogging tool. It's powerful enough to handle just about anything you throw at it. If functionality you need isn't built-in, it can be added with a plugin or some custom coding.

A twenty minute video showing how to use CodeIgniter to create a basic content management system with posts, permalinks, and comments.

INFO: http://net.tutsplus.com/

INFO: http://css-tricks.com/

INFO: http://codeigniter.com/tutorials/watch/blog/

Crash-Course in WP Plugin Using Custom Fields

Custom Write Panels in WP

In this screencast, Jeffrey Way walks you through the creation of a basic WordPress plugin to automatically rewrite unfavorable HTML in posts.

The WordPress Write screen offers an option to assign metadata to a post when you are writing it. That data could be anything from a thumbnail URL to your current mood ...

Add a new meta box to the Write Post screen in WordPress. The tutorial uses post thumbnails as an example.

INFO: http://net.tutsplus.com/

INFO: http://codex.wordpress.org/

INFO: http://wefunction.com/

10 Useful RSS-Tricks

Display your last Tweet

PHP 5 for Dummies

Exclude categories from your RSS feed, put ads in your feeds, set a delay between when the post is published and when it shows up in the feed.

Who doesn't use Twitter these days? The "A-List" bloggers were the early adopters, but now the Twitter community is full of developers, designers, politicians, businesses, celebrities, etc..

A solid and easy to understand introduction to the PHP language. True to the series' reputation, this volume could potentially teach nearly anybody (even someone without prior programming ...

INFO: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

INFO: http://yoast.com/display-latest-tweet/

INFO: http://www.amazon.com/

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 68

Meet the Artist:

INFO: http://www.ekiselev.com

Evgeny Kiselev "The diverse work of Evgeny Kiselev oscillates between the rigors of symmetry and prolific excess.

Several compositions begin with vivid tiled patterns that are mirrored again and again until they can no longer be contained and are forced to push beyond the confines of their logic. Others, emerge from a single outline that manifests the controlled lawlessness of the work. Each piece achieves a complexity of color and layer that continues to build infinitely into the space of the page creating a warping spatial depth".

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London International Awards INFO: http://www.liaawards.com/

The London International Awards was conceived in London in 1985. It has established itself as a global leader honouring Advertising, Design and Digital media. For the past 24 years the iconic LIA has been raised worldwide, celebrating the power of ideas, and recognising the Legends, Iconoclasts, and Avatars of creative excellence. LIA was the first comprehensive award of its kind accepting all media and executions from all over the world, to be judged by a truly diverse international Jury comprised of the most talented, recognised and awarded individuals. Each year, it is their commitment to the integrity of the judging process and the contributions of the Jury Presidents to support the tradition of awarding only the most inspirational ideas.

New for 2009, LIA launches The "NEW" Category, recognising ideas and executions without boundaries. This category will be led by the “NEW” Jury President. The “NEW” Jury will honour work that merges the power of an original idea with a relevant compelling execution – emotionally inspirational, imaginative work, effectively creating new dialogues, creating new spaces of interaction, altering perceptions, setting new benchmarks that invite and reward at every level of engagement. How we judge: All work entered is prepared and presented to each of our Jury Presidents and their respective juries. After all work has been viewed by each Jury, their collective votes and voices, including the Jury President, without bias as to origin of work by country, company or individual, determine the Gold, Silver or Bronze LIA winners. Each Jury has the opportunity to award a Grand LIA, although it is not mandatory. A Grand LIA can only be awarded to an execution among those that have been chosen to receive a Gold LIA. The commitment to recognising great work does not end with the entries and the Awards Show. The annual LIA showcase of the awardwinning work commences directly after the Awards and continues through the following year. We share these extraordinary accomplishments via our online archive, industry forums, exhibitions and presentations. The LIA Annual, a beautifully crafted hardbound edition is distributed worldwide providing a lasting resource for all, and a tribute to the Winners and Finalists. Over its entire 24 year history Barbara Levy, Founder and President of LIA continues to lead the organization. Her unwavering support for this industry has provided a unique stage to award and honour these creative achievements.

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Meet the Artist:

Mario

Belem

MĂĄrio BelĂŠm is a Portuguese Illustrator and Designer. He's work is impressive.

INFO: http://mariobelem.com

What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 76

Meet the Artist:

Benjamin Delacour Most artists want to take you somewhere else in their work, but Benjamin Delacour wants to take you apart! Benjamin Delacourâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s computer is a wrecking ball for the human form, and with our eggshell skin cracked open, the vast beautiful emptiness inside of us is revealed. This vacuum becomes the perfect place for Benjamin to start anew with light, and color more glorious than the grim truth of what really lies inside.

INFO: http://www.behance.net/Nanopao

Interview with:

Anton

Huml 1. First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where did you go to school?

Well, I’m Anton Huml, and I’m a video designer from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, still located here, making a living doing motion graphics and animation, however without any official degree in the field of work that I am in, since there wasn’t any academic course at my city’s university for that field. So I’m mostly self tutored.

4. Do you identify yourself as an “animation” video artist, or just a video artist.

Animation and video artist.

5. Describe your first piece.

It was at the animation school I mentioned earlier, in hindsight a very badly done short animation made without any script or storyboards about two bunnies killing eachother over a feud in a playground, and ending in a message about tolerance. Nothing spectacular, quite the oposite, however it got me hired at the agency and I earned a living for 3 years, and met some cool people working at their hive who helped me improve my work tremendously.

2. How did you get into animation and video editing?

It has always been a passion of mine, and I got into it 5 years ago when I saw an advert in a newspaper about an animation school, which was mostly a ploy to recruit people to work on a commercial animation serial for a local advertising agency. There I met some cool people I worked with, they became my friends, and have been into it ever since. I’ve been working as a freelancer for the last 2 or so years.

3. When you were a child did you always want to become an artist?

Secretly, yeah. But growing in a community where it is not viewed as a serious or a steady source of income, I never really imagined I would succeed in this line of work, so I first got into economic studies, which didn’t end well, so I dropped out, realising that I didn’t want to sit at a desk my whole life being a bank accountant.

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6. Can you describe an evolution in your work?

The base of my work is vector animation, since it speeds up the 2D animation workflow over traditional pencil on paper animation, and speed is always of the essence in this deadline-filled line of work. It started out quite primitively, doing animation in CorelDraw, then I came

across a wonderful little program called Moho, which is currently called Anime Studio, in which I do most of my 2D animation. After Effects has always been a part of my workflow, first used for 2D compositing, but as of the last few years, compositing 3D animation has been increasingly a part of my job.

7. Why do you think animation in music vids is becoming increasingly popular?

Animation and music videos went together since the dawn of TV, so it’s understandable as the animation quality over the years increased, that the symbiosis of those two artforms increased.

stage. Also there are several other projects brewing, but I can’t talk about those yet.

9. Where have you shown your work recently?

My work has been shown on several international festivals over the last couple of years, including Zagreb Animafest, Sarajevo Film festival, Ottawa Animation film Festival, Neum Animated Film Festival, No Limit Advertising Festival, and many others.

10. Where can we see your works? Are they online?

Yes, I regularly update my personal online portfolio at www.tony.ba , and also on Knap Animation and Design

Award-winning animated film inspired by the song by band Zoster, which is also a first music video from their album “Festival of fools”.

by Anton Huml and Adnan Mahiniæ

8. What are you working on at the moment?

Currently I’m finishing up a comissioned short cartoon where I have been hired as an animator, it should be 89 minutes long, and it’s currently in post-production

studio (knapstudio.com) website, place I’m working at with my “partner in crime” Kenan Tuzi.

11. Is there anything that you’re afraid of regarding the future?

An alien invasion or a nuclear war perhaps… In all seriousness though, I don’t worry myself too much into the future, or about the past, I’m more focused on the present.

12. Do you have any advice for young artists?

The internet is your friend, and in this digital age you can teach yourself pretty much anything, the only thing you need is the will and patience to do it.

Anton thank you very much for answering our questions :-) So if you want to visit Anton and his works you should do that now.

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Meet the Artist:

Heiko Klug

INFO: http://www.jesar-one.com/

jesar-one.com is the creative portfolio of Heiko Klug. A 25 years old digital artist. His first contact with art was graffiti, almost 10 years ago. In the beginning of 2004 he discovers the digital medium and started to publish his works in the world wide web. At the moment Heiko is searching for an apprenticeship training position as digital media designer in germany.

In 2008 he started an online project called "RiskShiftLabs", a collaborative portfolio with Kai Isselhorst.

Meet the Artist:

INFO: http://jeffsoto.com

Jeff Soto Through striking visual imagery, Jeff Soto communicates profound visions and fears, nostalgia of his youth, and themes of love, lust, and hope. Sotoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s distinct color palette, subject matter, technique and bold themes resonate with a growing audience. Inspired by childhood toys, the colorful lifestyle of skateboarding and graffiti, hip-hop and popular culture, Sotoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s representational work is simultaneously accessible and stimulating.

Environmental issues also take precedent for Soto, who is concerned with conflict of humans trying to harness, or take advantage of nature. His paintings exude this tension, as robotic creatures duel, organic tentacles and flower bouquets thrive, and black smog looms amidst floating, ominous skulls.

In 2002, Soto graduated with Distinction from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He currently lives in Southern California, with his wife Jennifer and daughter Shannon.

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Meet the Artist:

Loic Sattler Loic Sattler is a French Art Director experienced in web, multimedia, print collateral, clothes styling, and corporate identity.He studied Media Communication and Multimedia for 2 years at the university Louis Pasteur (France), as well as 2 years in multimedia creation / theory at the European Institute of Design (France). He then moved at the Merz Akademie Stuttgart (Germany) to study new-media theory for his European Media Masterof Arts, an MA diploma delivered in 6 schools throughout Europe, by the University of Portsmouth (Uk). His Master thesis was curated by Pr. Olia Lialina and Pr. Dr. Helmut Draxler.Loic worked as a freelancer during his whole studies, doing print, web, styling and some 3D/motion works for French and German studios.

INFO: http://www.lysergid.com

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Meet the Artist:

Kevin Banna

INFO: http://bannaweb.com/

Kevin Banna captures modern life with his camera like Norman Rockwell would today, that is with a healthy dose of cynicism. It’s not the lighting, composition that are not clean and idealized, it’s the content. Kevin Banna may fire off fancy flashes at his subject, but he doesn’t gloss over the real content of the photo, and instead allows it to be exposed properly.

Somethings that once seemed scary or strange may become more familiar and somethings once overlooked may come to light. Creative Tempest enjoys Kevin Banna’s unique blend of the ideal, and the real, which is far more delicate than many photographers currently making images.

Meet the Artist:

Adhemas Batista

The visions created by Adhemas Batista are like dessert for the retinas. Our eyes spend so many hours each day munching on uninspiring, insipid flavors: a school desk, a white board, a cubicle wall, a linoleum floor, and countless other tiresome views, but in the decadent colors of Adhemas Batista’s work, which curl over each other like tasty cold sherbet as it’s scooped into a bowl and garnished with a sprig of refreshing mint, our eyes finally get a taste of something potent and sweet, and as Creative Tempest believes, there’s always room for seconds.

INFO: http://www.adhemas.com/

Meet the Artist:

INFO: http://www.davehillphoto.com/

Dave Hill

As digital capture slowly replaces film for still photography, Dave Hill stands as a dual figure on either end in the death of a medium. A roll of film is strapped into the electric chair, and Dave Hill is both the man at the switch, and the governor calling in a last minute pardon.

By defining a look that is purely digital, Dave Hill furthers the digital movement, but also allows film and a â&#x20AC;&#x153;film lookâ&#x20AC;? to retain an important place in photography.

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Interview with:

Dario

Belic 01. First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Where did you go to school?

My name is Dario BeliĂŚ also known as monkey, Im twenty year old student of Faculty of Graphic Arts in Zagreb.

Currently living in Velika Gorica where I finished highschool of Economics.

02. How did you get into photography?

I was always intrested in all kind of art. I also do photomanipulations, web & graphic design and illustrations but photography has special place for me. I started taking photos in primary school, I needed some kind of hobby. So I liked it alot, started posting photos on internet, and people liked it that was a big boost for me.

Big turning point for me was my first solo exhibition in my highschool when I sold my exhibition to Tourist board of Velika Gorica and bought camera that I use today. I started to experiment alot, and read alot. And here I am today still experimenting alot, learning, taking photos and having fun.

03. How do you choose your locations? Do you happen upon them by chance or do you do any exploring?

Hmmm locations that is hard I think one of the hardest things in process. When I get the idea for the shot I also get the vision of location where I would put the model, but finding the right spot is often very difficult task, always trying to be original makes it more difficult. So finding the right place is a process that takes time and 93 | ISSUE 01 | What Design Means To Me

exploring and going where no man has gone beforeâ&#x20AC;Ś :) I like directed photography so I like everything to be planed, but sometimes you find the right location spontaneously.

04. Your selection of models, styling and scenery is impeccable. Are these shots primarily for fashion clients or are they purely artistic?

Photos for clients I usually dont publish, this what you can see on internet are for my pleasure and purely artistic works.

05.Do you shoot with primarily digital or film? What kind of gear do you use? Explain your process.

I primarly shoot digital with Canon EOS 350D and lens 17-40 f4 L, 70-200 f4 L and 50mm f1.8 and Canon Speedlight 430EX flash.

Im often inspired by music or movies or things that happen around me for my shots. So I get some kind of vision that I then try to put into photo. Sometimes I sketch light setup, location, model position, model description and stuff that is needed for my shot and then I try to get all these things together. I always shoot in RAW so that I have most possible quality of photo

without compression and any automatic adjustments. Than I do postprocessing in Photoshop contrast, color warmth… all this little things that make good photo become even better.

06. How much of your photography is story-telling? I feel like there’s a story begging to be told behind every photo.

Story telling is a main goal of mine photos. In early works it was not so important because it was technical practice and learning. Today I try to make people think when they look at my works. My personal opinion is that every person has different view of every photography so it is not to me to tell them what it is about, that I leave to them… that’s what makes it fun.

07. Where do you see your photography and art going in the next couple of years? What are some of your artistic hopes?

I hope forward. ;) My artistic hope is to create unique style that people will recognize when they see my works. I think that is very important specially in our days when everybody has a digital camera and everyone is a “photographer”.

Dario thank you very much for answering our questions So if you want to visit Dario and his works you should do that now Visit: http://www.nosise.com http://monkey07.deviantart.com What Design Means To Me | ISSUE 01 | 94

Meet the Artist:

INFO: http://portfolio.in8design.com

Seth Weisfeld

My name is Seth Weisfeld and I am currently working with the interactive and film production company B-Reel out of New York City. Over the past 10 years, I have created award winning advertising with digital and traditional agencies including Goodby Silverstein & Partners, BBH, BBDO, AKQA, Saatchi & Saatchi, JWT, B-Reel, Poke, Mekanism, EVB, Juxt Interactive, Odopod, marchFIRST, HZDG, and Big Spaceship.

Some of the brands I have experience with include Coca-Cola, Nike, Adidas, Sony, Toyota, Levis, Giorgio Armani, JetBlue, Smirnoff, Microsoft, HP, AdCouncil, Adobe, Axe, Kleenex, Saturn, Frito-Lay, Starbucks, Budweiser, MTV, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Future US, We TV, Trump International, Sea-Doo, Kawasaki, Quiksilver, and Chabad.

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QBN Book Mike Giesser along with a few other had an idea for a book project that would take advantage of the many talented up-and-coming as well as established artists, that can be found daily on the design-community website QBN.com formerly known as Newstoday.

The aim of the book project was to inspire donations [$50 per book] to the Patrick O'Brien Foundation and to the strengthen the QBN community in 'coming together' for this cause. Patrick was one of the original editors, contributers and members whom was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in 2005 at the age of 30.

The QBN book, "A Better Tomorrow", showcases a diverse selection of work from members of QBN, representing all styles of outstanding visual media, including graphic design, illustration, and photography.

The book is envisioned to paint a picture of the unique community that QBN is - a community that in spite of vast differences among its members (geographical, biographical, philosophical, and disciplinary) plays an important part, both professionally and personally, in the lives of the community members.

A community, where everything from students asking for direction on elemental graphical issues, to established designers asking for help with a logo takes place. There's a unique 'camaraderie' among the members, and at the same time it is incredibly competitive and sometimes ruthless (as the designprofession often is). We feel, that that the tie-in to Patrick (a long time QBN member) and his need for support is a very opportune time to display the importance and power of the QBN community.

The book features the work of established designers such as, Andrew Townsend (Un.Titled), Michael C. Place (Build), Darren Firth (keepsmesane, wearitwithpride), Chuck Anderson (nopattern), Hellohikimori and many other up-and-coming designers.

For the past couple of months Mike Giesser and other contributing people have received, art-worked and laid out all submissions and have been working with DGV / Die Gestalten Verlag as the publisher. But as of recently this partnership has ended, so now the fellas at QBN are looking for a new publisher that would be interested in this project. Please feel free to drop Mike a line mgiesser@gmail.com if you have interest in helping this project come to fruition.

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38 Gorgeous Vector Business Cards The mini-canvas of the business card doesn't leave much space to play with, but designers are constantly pushing the creative boundaries in their business card designs. Check out this collection of 60 gorgeous examples of great business card designs, all constructed with vibrant and crisp vector artwork.

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Bosniart project enabling and opening wide range of possibilities for people working in art & culture, to advertise and to publish theirs information about current projects, plans, schedules and occupations. Bosniart is equipped with several sections and categories which contain professional works and analyses, video section, artists and gallery page, forum about almost all topic themes linked with art & culture, as like category which dealing with art in B&H through centuries, but also, in this portal is page about World art history in its most wide form and shape.

Bosniart offering every day fresh information from art world of today, and we are connected with most competent and most popular and content full online magazines and portal for art and culture such as E-flux, Artforum, Freeze, and so on... You can easily find actual art competitions from the whole World, artists residency programs, graduated and master studies calls, informations about World art fairs, and all other topic and fresh information about this matter.

Bosniart project successfully started in the beginning of December 2008 and so far its gathered significant number of artists members, published professional works, videos, and many other useful things, as like many people, members, users, and all others.

Bosniart internet portal for art and culture is fee to use, its membership is free, and everybody who is ineteresed in matter which this portal dealing with, is welcome to join.

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Meet the Artist:

INFO: http://www.naranikannan.com/

Narani Kannan

Some kick-ass work from recent graduate Narani Kannan, from OCAD (Ontario College of Art & Design). Her graduation project included this milk concept packaging and design process bounded book documenting how Gotta Moo's conception, research, and design came to life. Here is a small rationale on her project: Gotta Moo focuses on the most eco-friendly method for milk packaging. This greener milk packaging solution would be made out of Sugarcane Bagasse molded pulp paper, coated inside with sugarcane lignin and printed with vegetable based inks, all based on food safe materials. Bagasse is an annually renewable plant resource and is compostable and recyclable. This can replace plastic and plastic coated packaging, which is currently used in the food/beverage industry today. This packaging solution does not rely on oil extraction and it also minimizes green house gas emissions. This new molded pulp milk packaging solution could be an eco-friendly vision of the future. See more of her work on Behance.

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introduction in

issue 02 AD agen in cy

Bosnia

This is the age of advertising. Also the parameters of advertisements are changing with the changing global scenario.

Now, the advertising is not restricted to your locality but it is global.

The internet has paved way for online advertising that reach to every corner of the world. The print media is also still aggressing forwards being the first advertising medium. Logo designs and banners still have good impact on masses.

Whatever form of advertising you choose to enhance your business boundaries, you need good advertising agencies to work efficiently. These agencies will serve you in good stead whatever your business type is.

Interview with Marina Filipoviæ

Interview with Goran Markoviæ

My name is Marina Filipovic, I’m 23 years old, I live and work both in Osijek and Zagreb. On the web I’m better known as Marinshe, a nickname my grandfather gave me when I was little.

My name is Goran Markoviæ, and I m graphic designer for about 10 years.I enjoy in my mind freedom, but the clients think different, then i hate collision in ideas, but in the end in most of the time i get the bigger piece of cake.

Meet the artists Phillip Toledano

Meet the artists Scott Hansen

Through an opening in a heavy door, a shaft of light falls onto the shining surface of the white linoleum floor of a pristine laboratory. The glowing shaft stretches wider and the black silhouette of Phillip Toledano moves into the room.

The work of ISO50, Scott Hansen, appears to be seen through the cracked, fogged, and dirty cockpit window of a light speed space craft, and influenced by the radiant colors of the nebulas, galaxies and stars.

15 Top International After Effects Tutorial Sites

15 Killer Motion Graphics Demo Reels

The beauty of vfx and motion graphics is that you don't need to speak english to be amazing at it.

Our business is truly international. In this roundup we highlight 15 of the top international After Effects tutorial sites.

Inspiration comes in many forms but for motion graphic designers it's hard to beat a great demo reel. For this issue we gathered 15 killer motion graphics and vfx demo reels.

brainstorming magazine Mustafe KameriĂŚa 6 71000 Sarajevo Bosna i Hercegovina p: +387 33 471 326 p: +387 61 208 895 w: www.brainstorming.ba e: info@brainstorming.ba