Designers Who Blog: Design, Illustration, Photography, Web, Advertising, Branding …

Killed Ideas Blog

This morning, while still recovering from the Rod Stewart concert, I received an email from Siri, the Account Manager at Ammo, a Word of Mouth Marketing agency in San Francisco.

Ammo, with their client Blurb.com, has an exciting new project in the works.

The project, in a nutshell, seeks to collect the best “killed ideas” (creative that never saw the light of day).

Steve Hall of AdRants will be vetting and selecting the final 50 best killed ideas to appear in a book called Best Killed Ideas Vol. 1.

What a fantastic idea, as what old salt in the design industry doesn’t have a long list of killed ideas?

Because where there be clients, there be idea killers galore.

I’m now off to twiddle out my favourite been dead a long time ideas… how about you?

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Netdiver’s Best of the Year 2008

Last year I was on time when Carole contacted me about their Netdiver: Best of 2007.

But a lot can happen in a year and this year I’m running late. And admittedly, running late could easily be my middle name for the whole of this year, so stay tuned.

Netdiver Best of the Year 2008 released!

Netdiver has just released the list of projects and whose talents have made a strong and lasting impression in 2008. We aimed to list 100 and just could not. So how about 110 because we feel they gave their 110% best!

Now in its 7th edition, the crop of the year is for us, the top of the year. Refresh your memory and (re)encounter new sources of design inspiration.

Looking though the array of sites, I chose what I believe are the best blogs of the the lot… (it’s what one does on a site called Designers Who Blog, right?)…

• Information Architects
• EffektiveBlog
• Veer: Ideas
• Funkbuilders
• DesignPorn

It only took me a short while to select the ones I fancied. As I was clicking and listening to all the music and watching my browser enlarge and bounce around, I just had to wonder how long it took Carole to choose Netdiver’s Best of the Year 2008.

I’m betting it wasn’t quick. Or easy.

I’m betting it was a whole lot of work putting it together.

So once again, way to go Carole!

Enjoy…

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Todd Bertsch

Design Dump

Yeah for Design Dump! Yeah for Deb! Yeah Todd!

Design Dump Announces First Book Give-Away of 2009

We are very excited to kick off the new year with two FREE SIGNED books donated by acclaimed author Debbie Millman.

Debbie has kindly donated her books, How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer and Essential Principles of Graphic Design.

About Design Dump:

Design Dump has a team of seasoned professional designers and teachers that continue to share their time and knowledge into the idea of keeping us all in the loop.

Our staff and correspondents consist of design professors, professional graphic designers, seasoned web designers, marketing analysts and students.

We collectively scour the Internet, design magazines, books, conferences, publishers, and more to bring our audience the latest trends and topics in the design community. We do the grunt work so designers can concentrate on being creative.

So, what are you all waiting for?

Enjoy…

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scottberkun.com

Here’s a thought for the day…

We’ve heard from Scott before. He’s the author of Making Things Happen and The Myths of Innovation. A former manager at Microsoft, he’s now a public speaker and more.

At his blog, scottberkun.com, Scott pens thought-provoking posts worth reading (you can find the whole list under essays in his nav).

How to be a free thinker is his latest.

Enjoy…

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Dave

grain edit

There’s a ton of great stuff at grain edit…

Grain edit is focused on classic design work from the 1950s-1970s and contemporary designers that draw inspiration from that time period.

Site content includes interviews, articles, designers’ libraries as well as examples of rare design annuals, type specimens, Ephemera, posters and vintage kids books from our bookshelves.

And if you scroll back through Dave’s archives, you’ll be inundated with a top class array of posts from September 2007 to the present.

Nice work Dave! (I be put to shame ;-)

Enjoy, all!

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Omega

Lady Omega

Last September, Omega contacted me about a feature on DWB, wanting to know if Lady Omega fit the criteria. And wow does she ever!

I’m a web designer working at- and co-owning Elune Art web design company. My blog is about various forms of art – computer arts, crafts, exhibitions, music events.

I write about what i encounter online and in different countries – i travel a lot. I also write about some projects i am working on, either music-related (i also sing in a band) or web-design related.

She’s creative, she’s diverse in her talents, she travels, and she’s zany. All, I like.

Enjoy!

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Pawel Grabowski

Margins And Columns

Here’s a real design treat for you this December, Margins And Columns.

Margins and columns is run by Pawel Grabowski from Think Two, a web development studio from Ireland.

It’s not often I see a one column design blog these days, and Pawel’s is simply gorgeous. No ads. No banners. No nothing. Nice. I was going to go on and on about just how nice. But, why, when I can cut to the chase with simply fine.

Just this week I did my being nice bit in Bangkok (anyone been watching the news lately?) and helped out my Thai hairdresser. As slim and sleek was all that was needed, I used the one column WordPress theme, PocketT, as a cms (yes, it’s that “Schwing!”)

Looking at the two side by side, I’m now coveting Pawel’s crisp black, greys, and lime greens… how very fine they are.

Enjoy…

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Divya Manian

Nimbupani Designs

Ahhh… the storm is almost over (but not quite). Past time to get back in the saddle with Nimbupani Design.

Nimbupani is a freelance portfolio with attached blog. If you check out the portfolio, you’ll see that the clean design reflects her overall style. Nice.

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Designer as Author

I’ve taken serious thought on how to break my hiatus from DWB.

Who. Or what. Or what for.

Do I go off topic with my personal opinions about the new President of the United States? The outgoing President of the United States? Or even the loser?

Or (tempting) break back in with the Life and Death Masks posted from the Graphic Arts Division of Princeton University?

But while the subject of the new President is hot hot hot, and the death masks fascinating, a google alert arriving five minutes ago settled it for me.

A special thanks goes to Dracula Vs. Eisenstein for the MFA Designer as Author SVA Podcast Series.

The SVA Podcast series has an impressive guest list, from Ellen Lupton to Milton Glaser to Rick Poynor and more (be sure to check out the individual catalogs).

About the MFA Designer as Author program:

In recent years, new media have changed the role of graphic design in various ways. Graphic designers are more in demand to develop a client’s branding, identity, and packaging programs.

But with the means of production on their desktops, designers are also becoming glorified production “artists.” The danger, of course, is that graphic designers will be edged out of the creation process, relegated to only the mechanical follow-through.

The “MFA Designer As Author” is predicated on the growing need for content providers throughout the visual media. Drawing on ones’ fluency with the graphic design language of type and image, this program is the first designed exclusively to encourage authorship and entrepreneurship in a broad range of media.

The purpose is to create products of value that are both responsible to the needs and wants of the society; the goal is to contribute objects of worth that integrate the best design in the smartest product.

Again, if you are interested, grab the MFA Designer as Author SVA Podcast Series.

And does the the School of Visual Arts Graphic Design have a blog?

It sure does. It’s the :: ( CRIT ) :: DESIGN BLOG ::

Enjoy…

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Amit and Kelly sans Susan

Photojojo

Photojojo is just, well, darn good. Even when I’m not in the mood to take snaps, I’m in the mood for their newsletters coming into my inbox.

About: We publish an insanely great newsletter on photography.

More specifically, we scour the internets, rip pages out of magazines, ransack our friends’ closets, and go through dumpsters to find the very best Photo tips, DIY projects, and Gear.

And then they send it all on to us. Nice!

Psst.. if you are a huge Photojojo fan, then follow them on twitter. I do.

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