Design from different perspectives is a series of short video interviews detailing the different kinds of jobs and environments that are available to designers and the pros and cons of each situation. In this video interview Kevin from Robot Monster Ghost shares his experiences on the the good, the bad an the ugly of freelancing and running a small studio. Stay tuned and grab the RSS feed for more interviews with other freelancers, creative directors, in house designers & more!

A bit more about Kevin…

Twitter: @RMGco
Website:RobotMonsterGhost.com

Kevin’s Scarbrough in 2 paragraphs or less:

I’ve designed for a steady diet of unusual clients (a fashion designer in Italy, a Bolivian wine bar, a New Zealand boat manufacturer, a Russian hosting company, etc.). I’ve learned project management the hard/best way.

I’ve hiked to the bottom of the grand canyon, I briefly owned a snarky t-shirt company based on mad science, I helped set up a rave to raise money for Unicef, as a kid I used to try to improve ads on the radio and TV, and on vacation I make up wild stories about who I am.

What do YOU think?

Do you freelance full time or run a small design studio? Wish you could? Want to be interviewed? Feel free to chime! I’d love to hear your take on some of the same questions I asked Kevin!

Check out the other videos in this series

Design From Different Perspectives Part 1: Kevin M. Scarbrough – Freelance Designer

Design From Different Perspectives Part 2 – Stephen Olmstead – In House Designer

Design From Different Perspectives Part 3 – Chad Engle – Agency Designer

Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

I’m excited to be giving away some sweet stuff on my blog this week! I’m giving away 3  canvas prints of my Space mouse illustration along with 2,000 business cards.  Big thanks to Canvas on Demand and Print Runner for giving away their products!

About the Canvas Prints:

I’m sure you guys know that I dabble in illustration in my free time. I’ve illustrated my mouse charter in several different settings, but I’ve only seen my illustrations on a computer screen. This is why I’m super excited to be giving away 3 prints of my Space Mouse illustration! Canvas on Demand specializes in canvas prints in custom sizes. They also print photos on canvas as well in any size imaginable!

The prints are 11×16 with a 1.5inch gallery wrap. The illustration wraps around the sizes of the canvas that adds a nice touch and dimension to the piece. I was initially impressed by the thickness and sturdiness of the frame. The quality of the print is also really nice. I wasn’t sure what kind of quality to expect as I have never worked with printed canvas before. The frame is also easy to hang on a wall as it comes with one of those… uh…hangy things on the back!

About the Business cards from Print Runner:

Every designer needs business cards! (If you don’t think so you are crazy!) Print runner is offering to give 2 Readers 1,000 business cards each! Cards are printed on a 14pt card stock with a durable UV coating. They also have handy templates with bleed lines and safe areas set up for you!

How to enter:

Tweet about this post with the hashtag #spacemouse and then leave a comment below linking to your tweet Also let me know if you want a canvas print or the business cards. Thats it! Oh… and a few more things – to enter you have to be over the age of 18 and live in the US to enter.  Deadline to enter is midnight EST October 17th 2009. I’ll randomly select 5 winners and contact winners via email afterwards!

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Need some cute little birds to cheer up your dull desktop? You are in luck! I stumbled upon some of my old illustrations the other day and decided to wallpapers for your desktop or iPhone. Click the read more link to download and enjoy! Stay tuned fore more in the future!

Let me know what you think!

I’m always open to feedback on my illustrations!

Visual Hierarchy

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Visual hierarchy is the grouping of elements arranged according to emphasis.

Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919) This is one of the most famous examples of El Lissitzky’s work. The design of this poster utilizes direction, movement and hierarchy. Through the use of geometric shapes, color, and size your eye is directed from left to right in the poster. Your eye is first drawn to the large red triangle, and then to the white circle and then the remaining black area surrounding the circle. After this you notice the text and all the secondary elements of the poster.

When designing consider the placement of elements in your composition. Do you want your viewer to see this element first? Consider placing it in the top left. Is it the most important element? Consider making it bold, or large, or using a color that stands out from all the other elements. In the same fashion consider the importance of secondary information.

Not sure if the hierarchy in your design is working? Print out your design, take a step back and squint and see which elements stand out to you. You can also ask others not involved with the design to tell you the order in which they see things.

Visual Punctuation

For the Voice 1923

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Suprematicheskii Skaz (About 2 Squares) 1922

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Visual punctuation can include space intervals, rules, or pictorial elements to separate, connect, and emphasize words or lines.

Another design element Lissitzky is known for is visual punctuation. In the book and magazine layouts above Lissitzky uses large type, horizontal and diagonal rules to direct your eyes around the page.

When designing consider where you want our users eyes to go and pause within the composition. Add visual elements to direct your user and make sure the direction is clear. Make them stop and read important information with design elements.

Texture & Depth

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Texture and depth are another way to add visual interest and direct your users attention.

The Constructor (1925) is a photo montage that features movement, contrast texture and depth. (Can you believe this was all created BEFORE Photoshop?)

Depth adds detail to composition and draws a user in. The users eyes pauses at the illusion of depth created where the hand intersects with the eye. The strong lines and texture of the graph paper also cause the users eye to be directed in a vertical or horizontal motion.

When designing consider adding depth by layering photographs using blending modes in photoshop or through some other means. Add texture that directs your users eye around the composition and directs them towards important design elements.

Looking for more Avant Garde inspiration?

I know I know! I can’t seem to get enough of the dymanic geometric design either! For more inspiration from Russian Avant Garde artists visit: http://www.moma.org/interactives/exhibitions/2002/russian/

Also check out this flickr photoset of avant garde books: http://www.flickr.com/photos/migueloks/sets/72157612436281954/

What have you learned from designers that came before us?

Share what you have learned from designers past! Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

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If you’ve been following me on twitter you are well aware of what I’ve been up to the past few weeks. Today I’m launching another (mini) blog called Daily Design Bits. This blog will feature frequent short posts of all the ‘shiny things I find on and off the interwebs’. Hop on over there and explore (and grab the feed so you don’t miss anything)! You can also submit cool things that you find if you want them to be featured!

Daily Design Bits is powered by Tumblr – which so far has been an AWESOME platform to work with! I’ve got some great content queued up for your viewing pleasure! I’m still tweaking things and setting things up – so if you find something that’s broken shoot me an email and let me know!

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think!

Sometimes brilliance hits us in the middle of the night (or early evening in my case). Yesterday I had the brilliant idea of  creating a new social voting site where designers could vote on their favorite Graphic & Web Design articles. Since i’m obsessed with little cheese eating creatures (also known as mice) I thought I’d give the site a mouse theme.

So here it is guys. Click the link and go try it out. Submit your articles and let me know what you think!

Design Squeak: http://design-squeak.com

*note i’m just poking fun at Designmoo. I had a random idea last night and decided to run with it. In all seriousness it was nice to do something completely unplanned and fun in the realm of design. I forget that design can be fun. So go ahead…give yourself an hour and make something instead of browsing blogs for ‘inspiration’. THE END

In this quick tip I show you how to make a simple gear illustration using the transform tool. Let me know if you have any requests for quick tips!

Leave a comment and let me know what you think! And don’t forget to subscribe via iTunes.

Also follow me on twitter (@nikibrown) to stay tuned and participate in future posts like this!

Daan is inspired by Collis Ta’eed

To me, Collis is a godlike creature. He makes these awesome designs, and he also knows a good lot about the business side of freelancing, and I love reading hist posts at the Netsetter, which are very good use for a starter like me.

Another thing why I love him is that he has created the whole of the Envato network. It is a collection of sites I happen to use on a daily basis.

And although he is such a successful man, he remains normal to the crowd

Bre is inspired by William Dodson

I haven’t met William in person but I have been in correspondence with him over the last few months, meeting through Twitter. He inspires me because he is running his own web design/development business. Not only that, he has so much passion about his work that he takes time to encourage others like myself. He answers my questions about anything web! Not only is he passionate – but his work is BEAUTIFUL and clean! Between his passion and skill, his advice is very valuable to me!

Michel is inspired by Stefan Sagmeister

Saw him talk at a Design Conference in Rio de Janeiro and just felt like the stuff he does is out of this world. He has great ideas, writes really well and he is a brave person. He once made an Ad for Adobe where he photoshopped everything and them told he would need time to reproduce that as a real photo, they said he didn’t needed, it was perfect the way it was. He said no way, photoshop is crap. Gotta love the guy.

P.s. – the file is the best version I found of the Adobe ad made entirely of coffee cups.

Mariusz is inspired by Frank Miller

Film Noir style, that Frank Miller’s comics are held in, is based on old detective/gangster movies where good and bad was more than obvious. It is using few colors and strong light and shadow to show everything. It’s dark, spooky and shady, just like the ’30 gangster movies. Great inspiration when it comes to illustration and design.

Brad is inspired by Scott McCloud

I think every industry needs one person who questions everything. Scott McCloud is a comic book illustrator and writer. In the early 90s he turned the comic/graphic novel field on its head with his book “Understanding Comics” where he analyzed the medium in a way it had never been done before. Web geeks are probably familiar with his recent work with Google, he created the comic that introduced the world to Chrome.

His TED talk is fantastic. Even though he’s not a web designer his ideas and enthusiasm for exploring the ways people communicate in different mediums can be applied in any creative field.

Elisa is inspired by Mika Nakashima

She’s a japanese pop singer. I like her unique sense of fashion, and the way she presents herself. She’s always changing and leading the trend. A lot of her photographs in the magazines really inspire me in many different ways. After all, we all love pretty girls, right?

Ben is inspired by Meta Lab Design

Theres really too many companies and designers out there to mention! Metalab stand out to me because of the way they run their business, with the courage to be different and unique! I love all the subtle details they put into their work, with simply, lightweight typography. Just stunning!

Nikki is inspired by Nick La and Dave Shea

I had been doing web design work for awhile before I came across N.Design Studio and its creator Nick La. At the time, I had only just begun attempting to code validated designs that were eye-catching (before that, I was still new to the whole collaboration of beauty and CSS). His designs, so full of colors and his beautiful vector illustrations, became a large inspiration for me. Shortly after, I came across CSS Zen Garden and I was hooked. Dave Shea had made CSS and web design an art form and I knew that that was the type of work I wanted to do. While I doubt I’ll ever come close to the masters, my own style has become a combination of art and validation and I (and my clients) are very thankful to the inspiration from these web design giants.

Sam is inspired by Dustin Curtis

I tend to be inspired most by people around the same age as me; Dustin is an 87 kid too and not only is he a recent entry to the design circus (starting in 07) he’s really doing some interesting and forward-thinking things in regards to art-direction on the web. It’s half inspiration half jealousy, really.

Travis is inspired by Akira Kurosawa

Ok ok…Akira Kurosawa is probably not the first person you would think of when it comes to design inspiration, in fact he’s not even a designer (he’s a movie director)..but you said “you name it”, and I name Kurosawa as my inspiration.

It was said that whenever you see a stormy scene in a Kurosawa film, you can bet that Kurosawa brought his own wind and rain. As a director Kurosawa wasn’t afraid to experiment with his art and his actors, and for that reason his films stand out as cinematic masterpieces.

Kurosawa also took painstaking efforts to refine and improve his visual art. I like to think that I display a similar spirit when it comes to improving my art as well…and when that fails, I fake it.

Preston is inspired by Chris Spooner

Well, I’m sure you’ll be getting this a lot. Chris is just so well known and respected throughout the design community. The real reason he inspires me is because of his status among other designers. There are few real designers out there who have never read Chris’s blog or dont follow Chris on twitter. The true success of a person, in my mind, is measured by how his peers feel about him. Chris is admired and respected for his great skill both in web and graphic design the world over.

Antonea is inspired by Chuck Anderson

Of course many designer’s like Massimo Vignelli and Sagmeister inspire me, but I also like to find inspiration in the modern day designer. Chuck Anderson of No Pattern (http://www.nopattern.com) has amazing work. His work is very abstract and surreal. I love the fact that he uses popular trends and colors in all of his pieces. I find a simple and organic beauty in all of his abstract work.

Megan is inspired by Ashley Wood

I’ve always loved the beautifully formed and energy packed impressionistic style of Ashley Wood. He’s able to construct an entire story from a few raw brush strokes and sketchy lines, pushing the edge of mixed media illustration. The vividness of his imagery has always inspired me to break down my own work to convey a bold message with the simplest of means. His bridge between traditional and digital techniques reminds me to never let go of my old skills when I learn a new one, but to create from the culmination of all of my experience.

Jared is inspired by Ross Lovegrove

His organic forms and great new approach in design for all of his products is just aesthetically brilliant. I love his work in furniture as it provides a very fluid and nature inspired design which also provides great functionality. His supernatural chair design is my favourite piece of his design work, and very comfy aswell when i had the chance to sit on one of them!

John is inspired by Shaun Inman

Because he builds entire web apps by himself, and gets all the details perfect. His user interface design is always clean and cutting edge, allowing you to take in all the information from the backend with ease.

Austin is inspired by Shane Mielke

It all comes down to future vision and detail. His work is awe-inspiring and incredible. Any designer coming into the industry needs to start by admiring the best – and someone with over a decade of excellence. Good Job Shane – You set a positive example for designers everywhere.

Bella is inspired by Heebok Lee

Heebok, with whom I had the privilege of being in Graduate School at CMU, is a master of Kinetic Typography. He is making his mark in Hollywood: he has the title sequences from Spiderman 3, Superman Returns, Iron Man, Speed Racer, The Incredible Hulk, Marvel Knights, to name just a few, under his belt. His perspective of the world is, of all things, other-worldly, and his sense of timing and the use of surprise as a design element is masterful. Whenever I need inspiration, or just need to be reminded that there is still beauty in the world, I just visit his website, sit back, and enjoy. To my endless dismay, he is also one of the world’s most beautiful souls. A piece that I love, takes William Butler Yeats’ love poem, “Tread Softly” and sets it to music, calligraphy, and kinetic typograpy. The image is a screenshot; beautiful as it is, it does the short film no justice.

John is inspired by Jason Chan

Since I was a toddler I was brought up with a pencil, crayon or something to express myself through a visual medium. Now that I have turned my passion into a career I find myself like many other designers, asking “where do I find inspiration?” in truth I disagree with the full, look at other designers and carbon copy their work and tweak it slightly – I mean what self respecting designer does that… I think the best places are the ones that are close to our hearts, climb a mountain, have a laugh with friends, go to the city and marvel at the buildings and scope of the design all around us. One of my favourites is to visit art galleries both online and off, and look at the vibrant colours used to catch your eye and dazzle you. The design industry still has a lot of scope to grow but we need to look back at the older styles of expression to find it. This is just my opinion – I’m sure I will enjoy reading the other designers views on inspiration.

Ryan is inspired by….ME?

Because she has a work ethic that is fucking unrelentless. She is always doing like 8 projects at once and they all end up rocking. *editors note…i only count as half a designer

Who are YOU inspired by?

Leave a comment and let me know who you are inspired by! Inspiration can come from anyone and anywhere.

It all started out with a harmless tutorial made by another designer. Which then prompted me to tweet this. I know I tend to rant about things on twitter from time to time, but I think I hit a nerve here. Some of the tutorials I have seen lately have been reducing design to a step by step ‘process’ that removes creative thought and problem solving.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that (most) tutorials are wonderful and beneficial to the design community. I know of several amazing and talented designers *cough* @collis *cough* who have sprung into the design world this way.

Tutorials should focus on skills and technique, not ‘cool’ end products.

I have no problem with tutorials that show how to create a ‘smoke effect’ or a text reflection. This is what I try to do with my quick tips. I show you how to do something, but its more about the PROCESS than the end product.

Tutorials tend to minimize the design process.

Its my gut feeling that certain styles of tutorials may lead young or inexperienced designers to think that design is a straight forward 10 step process.  This could not be further from the truth! Design is a difficult and often frustrating process. However this is all made worth it to see a well polished design.

Design is redesigning, and redesigning, and redesigning again!

Design usually happens in rounds of iterations. This process can be driven by client feedback or your own internal feedback. Design is a process that involves refinement. This is another aspect that is commonly missing from tutorials.

What happened to creative and conceptual thinking?

A large part of the design process is creative and conceptual thinking. What emotions does this typeface express to viewers? What does this symbol communicate? How do these colors relate to the products target audience? These are all important questions to consider when designing. These questions are often ignored by tutorials and superseded by ‘coolness’ or design tends. Design without meaning or concept is merely decoration.

Using applications for appropriate uses

While researching for this article I came across several tutorials on how to design logos, brochures, posters, anything in photoshop. While I understand how familiar some people might be the the ever popular application, this is not the correct app to use! Photoshop is for photos and rasterized images! Illustrator is for illustrations and vector images, and indesign is for print layout. Granted there are huge gray areas between the applications but they each have their distinct purpose.

What do YOU think?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Do you love tutorials? Have they benighted you immensely? Do you hate tutorials and wish they would be banned from the interwebs? Chime in and let me know what you think!

Images from PSD TUTS and Tutorial 9