Maybe you’re fresh out of design school and are feeling the inevitable pull to find a job and get to cranking out new graphics. Or, maybe you’ve just quit the day job and have decided to make graphic design your sole source of income. Either way, if you’re looking to carve out your own niche within the graphic design workforce, you’re going to have to remember to keep a few things on your mind. In other words, if you don’t have the pointers we’ve included below, you may end up in a gig that doesn’t fit your needs and doesn’t help you progress as a designer. To avoid that, just skip on down below the jump and get to reading, Cowboy!

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When new designers come to us looking for advice, one of the most popular questions is: What sort of materials do I need? One which we strongly suggest you look into is a pen tablet. If you hadn’t considered purchasing one before, or don’t know why you even should, then this blog post is perfect for you. But first, you might be wondering, what is a pen tablet? read more…

Before we go any further, we’d like to say something: If you don’t have a website, or even an online design portfolio that showcases your talent and previous work, you’re seriously missing out on some golden opportunities, Pilgrim. Both are a brilliant means of getting your name and designs to the masses, and without either, you’re running the risk of falling flat on the bill payments each month. That being said, even the best of us sometimes need a few pointers on how to improve our online portfolios. Optimizing that bundle of joy to best represent you and your style is

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We aren’t going to kid you: We wish there was a fool proof method to teaching someone how to be a brilliant graphic designer. How amazing would our world (especially modern advertising) be if we could only pump individuals through school, and have them come out like miniature Ed Roths? Sadly, life isn’t so, and there are simply things about the designing process that cannot be taught. However, just because we can’t teach them to you does not mean we don’t know what they are. In fact, we have them pegged pretty well! And though we can’t tell you how to acquire these three elements necessary to become a successful graphic designer we can give a few examples and send you in the right direction.

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Within the world of graphic design, there seems to be this vague idea of the design process itself as some sort of mystical art known only by a few jungle men with big hair and many unusual piercings. However, the truth couldn’t be more the opposite! Creating a stellar and potentially award-winning design does not take voodoo and black magic: All it takes is a thorough understanding of visual communication and the design process. So in case you’ve been struggling with the initial steps of creating your design and are looking for a little guidance, we’ve compiled below the For Dummies . . . guide to the project creation process. This is only a rough guide, but if your rough designs are giving you pains, it will start you in the right direction.

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When you’re building a website, either for your company or your client, there is a lot of preparation involved. After you’ve defined your objectives and decided on the kind of website that’s best for your business, you need to think about layout and sketch yourself out a wireframe.

All you need is a pen and paper to create this simple line drawing. Like a blueprint, this will outline the framework of all the elements in the website. It’s a good thing to do before you begin to focus on the style and become distracted by other aspects of the skin like the color or typography. read more…

In one of our previous posts, we discussed a few quick ways in which you could boost your productivity in the office, whether that office is at home between the nursery and the kitchen, or downtown between the Waldorf and the National Bank. No matter where you’re working, being a graphic designer is a tough job that can be every bit as stressful as it can be fulfilling. We understand that, somedays, it feels like there simply aren’t enough hours in the week. With that in mind, we feel it’s important to share a few more of our favorite, productivity increasing tips to help guide your workflow and streamline your life. Starting, of course, with:

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Here at Design Contest, we’re always looking for ways to improve things for Designers and Contest Holders – thinking about new features you’d like to see. During a brainstorming session – like a lightbulb turning on – ting…we realised where we were going wrong: It isn’t always what you want to see, it’s sometimes what you don’t want to see, that counts for the Design Contest community. So we are proud to present our newest available upgrade for any contest: Blind Contests.

What is a Blind Contest? read more…

We aren’t necessarily afraid to admit it: graphic designers often like our own work, and if we’re criticized, we can become overwhelmed, discontent, and even offended. Often times this means we’re relying entirely on our individual abilities as an illustrator to create graphics for our projects. However, this doesn’t have to be! For example, there about 507 different reasons to use photographs in your design projects. They’re an effective, simple, and emotional way to illicit a response from your users—and all without even lifting a sketching pen!

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