What's on your shelf?

Recently My wife and I did some rearranging in our game room. We wanted to move some bookshelves around to make some more room and change where the tv was located. This meant removing all the books off the book shelves and going through them.

We removed a few to donate to local libraries and other places which made more room for the books we kept. It made it possible for me to have a graphic design book shelf where I can actually see what books I have.

I have two binders from HOW Conferences which are full of great info I like to refer back to. The next book is Political Graphics which deals with WWI to cold war era propaganda.

I have two versions of the GAG pricing and ethics guides. These are always useful when trying to price work or needing a contract or other form a designer or artist would use.

Next is a Logo Lounge book, I wish I had more of these. These are great reference materials to see what logos are out there and also to see some of the best logos being produced.

Then there are the two books by Von Glitschka. One is a texture book the other a pattern book. Both are great and they come with a DVD of art you can use in your work, not to mention Von is a pretty cool guy.

There are two books by Jeff Fisher one on identity design and the other on how to run your freelance business. Both of which he has been doing for years.

The other two books I will mention are the Caffeine for the Creative Mind and Group. These are great to get you out of a rut. If your stuck and need a fun project that will help you to think differently about things these two will do it. If you work with a team you can use them for team building excersizes.

The rest of the books are ones that I have found interesting or useful in growing myself as as designer. There is also a section of notebooks and sketch books containing ideas from over the years.

So what's on your shelf? What books have helped you in your design career or have inspired you? Leave a comment about them.

Design Community

Design doesn’t happen in a vacuum but in a changing world where ideas are continually growing and expanding. As an independent designer you don’t always have people to bounce ideas off of or brainstorm with. You need to find a community you can tap into, to use, to gain ideas from, put ideas into. With the internet there are many places you can tap into and groups you can tap into.

The first online design community I joined was the HOW forums. Two years ago I went to the HOW Design Conference in Atlanta. It was incredible. Thousands of designers all in one place sharing ideas, the love of fonts, paper and printing. I met many designers and made a few key connections. These connections have inspired me and helped me to get my independent design company off the ground.

The second community I have joined is the Freelance Switch forums. I came across their podcast, Freelance Radio, a couple years ago and really appreciated the information they share on it. After listening to the podcast I checked out their site. They have tons of great information on it for designers and clients who want to understand the design industry.

The third community is Twitter. Yes, the social networking conversation. Twitter is one of the strangest communities but depending on who you follow and who follows you, you can learn all kinds of neat things. Many people who I follow share links to some very cool sites. Everyday someone shares something new or shares some of their work that inspires.

Forums and sites like these also help to inform non-designers about what designers do and the best practices when dealing with creatives. It also helps them to understand the back-end of design and the thought process involved in the creation of a product.

Because of these forums I have started to connect with other designers in my town and have started to build relationships with them to share ideas. Having a group of designers you can bounce ideas off of and collaborate with helps you stay up with the latest ideas,technologies and trends. It gives you design team, of sorts, that can help you get out of a rut or push your ideas to the next level.

First Blog

Well here is the first blog. I sit and ponder what I will write. What foolishness will spring from my fingers. Why am I doing this? Well let's go back a couple weeks to June 10-13, the HOW Design Conference. It was my first designers conference I have been to and it was great. I met many cool designers who have inspired me and I seem to have refreshed my creative flow.

I have challenged myself to do a couple of projects due to the conference and starting a blog was one of them. Why start a blog? Well I figured if I had a good idea I could share it. If I had seen something inspirational I could post it and it might inspire someone else. I thought "A blog would make my brain work in a different way and allow me another creative outlet."

So, here I am doing a brain dump.

Two of the cool people I met at the conference are Steph Doyle and Von Glitschka. Both Steph and Von are very cool and down to earth guys. They had some excellent advice for me as an "in-house" designer and how to deal with some of those issues. Going in I didn't realize Von was "famous." He has written a book called "Crumble. Crackle. Burn." His work has been inspirational to me since I found it. I find it has a quirky fun quality to it and is well executed. Steph has been an encouragement to me as I have been able to email him ideas and thoughts and get good feedback. His work has also been an inspiration. It is clean and well executed in both the idea and concept. Looking at his designs has helped me to step back from the same ol' humdrum at work and try to look at it from a different angle, a new perspective.

Anyway... here is the first blog of many (hopefully) to come. The goal is to update once a week if you start to read my blog and see I'm not doing that email me and remind me. A little accountability keeps us all honest.