I had the chance to fly over the bushfires last week and it really was an eye opener. And then today I read that 80% of the Blue Mountains in Sydney has been scorched. The Guardian have some decent before and after photos too.If you're a creative you could do something about it rather than popping on a face mask and complaining of a day or two of poor air quality on Instagram.The Design Business Council is asking for for submissions for their poster exhibition to make climate change data more understandable.Put your communication skills to the test. Enter today....

17 January, 2020 /

Because clients today want awesome work for next to no money, you can shortcut your design projects by standing on the shoulders of giants. In other words, by learning from the superstars you can adapt their creative styles, ideas and innovation to your local clients and you’ll be able to achieve more with less hours.While this is not a substitute for originality and paving your own way, sometimes the budget you have defines the direction you need to take and rather than stretching yourself to breaking point, you should implement some emotional intelligence and learn to not be too precious....

08 November, 2019 /

The End of Financial Year has been and gone and it gives us an opportunity to set some goals in much the same way as New Years Day. (Such as sending my very sporadic newsletters).But as an alternative, maybe July 1 should be a day for specifically setting career and personal development goals and coincidently, last week I picked up a book on the moon landing. The book is all about the mindset of the people behind the moon landing. It’s a psychology book with a few strategies you can apply yourself.So today I’m sharing a small portion of chapter one,...

30 June, 2019 /

Have you seen Free Solo? Its the new documentary in cinemas about Alex Honnold's epic desire to rock climb El Capitan… without a rope. Rock climbing is tough. I’ve been doing it for 20 years and watching him attempt a 3000ft (nearly 1km) of vertical granite without any safety gear was palm sweating insanity – and I was only watching him do it. It got me thinking about what excites me right now. Few people could compare to Honnold's desire to achieve the pinnacle of human endurance… but this in no way should lessen what it is that's exciting you right now....

12 February, 2019 /

Someone needs to go firstSmaller screens for surfing the web seem to be here to stay – at least for the next few years. During this time I'm campaigning for a hamburger revolution.In the last two months I've designed and built three new websites. All hugely different in their design approach and business need. And each one got me thinking about how we're all following the same mobile patterns without really questioning whether they're actually the best solutions.Why I don't do mobile firstI don't adopt a mobile-first approach to web design – and the reason for that is that I...

05 July, 2018 /

I've worked in busy offices for 17 years. Clocking in often well before 9 and putting in 8 to 11 hours a day, 5 days a week. Occasionally I could get a full hour for lunch but more often that not I'd be eating aldesko. So my new adventure in life to being free from the office and pursuing a contractor lifestyle has been an interesting transition. I realise now that the structure and routine of having an office and working in larger teams helped create the motivating force to get me to knuckle down and get shit done. I'm reading lots of differing...

13 June, 2018 /

This is something I try to do every day – Take a pen and paper, wacom and tablet or anything and just play for 20 minutes. You have to have side projects that take you away from the paid work otherwise you'll probably go insane. Mine is undenk.com. I really should post there more often! I post most of my stuff on instagram because its so easy.They really need to make a better mailto function for wordpress...

20 March, 2018 /

Design can be both a benefit to society and a scourge on our senses. Think the useful design of an emergency exit sign or anti-smoking campaign then compare that to a giant red hand screaming at you on TV telling you the prices are down down. As a graphic designer which would you prefer to do? Did you know that back in 1964, designers in Britain were having the same feelings. Ken Garland along with 20 other designers, photographers and students wrote the First Things First manifesto. This was a response to the the "fast-paced and often trivial productions of mainstream advertising." Their hope...

11 March, 2018 /

I just wanted to do a quick shout out to a group of people I met during Sydney's Design Festival.  The people from The Rizzeria, in Sydney, were hosting an event on how to Risograph print… and what the hell is that?Risograph printing is a fast, affordable way of producing high-quality prints much like screen printing. It uses spot colours on plates to create a wide variety of print results.I won't go into the details because you can get super nerdy about it here at Wikipedia. I just wanted to say how much fun it was and also what an amazingly...

08 March, 2018 /

Without a doubt, one of the most important parts of being a successful designer is organisation and this starts with an organised job folder and file structure. Imagine this scenario: You're finishing a job for a client, they give you the approval to send it to print and in the mess of your "filename v8.6.indd" or "filename v9 old.indd" or "filename - this is the final version.indd" you package up the wrong file and send it to the printers and boom – waste $20,000!You now owe the client a lot of money!I've often picked up work midway through a job and...

06 March, 2018 /

It's an amazing feeling to begin afresh. I try to do this daily and I think it's a technique you can apply to any situation. I don't like to see it as 'starting over' because with that comes the baggage that before this there was something to regret. I always prefer to 'begin again' which to me means that you acknowledge everything that came before with no bonds and simply move forward with more understanding. You can start small by clearing your computer desktop of folders or go one step further and erase and reinstall your whole machine! In design, you often have to...

02 March, 2018 /
Loading new posts...
No more posts