Reddit reviews Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills
We found 19 Reddit comments about Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Northlight
I'm not sure about a subreddit, but there are books that will help you with this. I bought this one and it's pretty cheap!
The resumé as everyone has pointed out already. TL/DR is what the employers are going to think as soon as they put it in their hands. Yes, you stuck to one page which is key, but it really is too much.
You have hyphens on things that really can just soft-return to the next line. Hyphens look bad.
The typeface that you chose. The 't' at the end of "current" keeps looking looking like an 'r' to me and I am wearing my glasses. Just not a very flattering face for my personal aesthetic. Also for important, must read body copy details (not headlines), you should try a serif face.
Organizations and Recognitions does seem reversed (already said).
Numbers that are under 100 should be spelled out. "Two time candidate for the “Best in Show,” a faculty judged competition." Change the 2.
Just to reiterate, I want to punch that typeface in the face.
Colors are fine, just used improperly. Seem sporadic and not thought out.
Under "Experience", you don't really need to put graphic designer or freelance. You put under your name that you are a graphic designer. Experience should be X Band :: Dates; Detail • detail • detail. The details should be single to a few words like "Branding", "Album Design and Layout", etc. Fellow designers know what that entails. You don't need to write it out.
Seriously I hate that typeface.
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Portfolio:
--Pearls of Wisdom--
Correct term is Brand Identity Manual, not systems manual.
The app icon doesn't have good contrast. Rework the background color behind the logo.
-- Dogtown Pizza Re-Branding --
Not doing yourself any favors, imho. There wasn't really any re-branding. Logo just doesn't have a gradient or drop-shadows.
Could take or leave the rest of the marketing stuff. Generic but designed alright.
-- Prelude --
I think this is well put together. Website gradient in the header is hit or miss. Outside of that, pretty strong. The vector of the violin however has extra anchor points and should be reworked. The last photo with the light up piano isn't doing you any favors though. Looks too hacked together.
-- Ramsey --
Good all around from a quick glance.
-- Milton --
Good.
-- Whiskers --
W(h)iskers is misspelled. Not really my style but it's good.
-- Beer --
Generic. Passable but nothing special.
-- Book Cover --
Decent. Pretty original.
-- Pawned --
Okay. Quick glance.
-- Theater Poster --
Good. Centering at the bottom of the poster is a little amateur.
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Pick up the book Creative Workshop: 80 Exercises ... long title: http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Workshop-Challenges-Sharpen-Design/dp/1600617972/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372860486&sr=8-1&keywords=design+exercises to give you some more stuff to add to your portfolio.
Read Ellen Lupton's books on typography.
Edit(s): Spelling, grammar.
I recently bought this book I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, but the point of it is to wire your brain to kick into creative mode much more quickly and efficiently. I mean, for $15.35 at the very least, it'll give you some fun projects.
Practice. Every. Fuckin. Day.
For a slightly different approach, allow yourself a few projects for the pure joy of your design process, without concern as to whether they'll be usable pieces in the end. If you need some prompts to get you started, the book Creative Workshop isn't amazing, but is varied in its projects that there's bound to be something there for you.
Goodluck!
I'm going to edit this with my actual post in a minute, but when you said 3 items, $20 or under, I'm assuming you mean in total, or did you mean 20 each?
EDIT:
Okay so here is my real entry! I'm creative in all sorts of areas! I was in school for music for a year but have more recently decided to pursue my passion for art/design! I love drawing, design, and music!
Here is me singing with my friends.
Here Is a skull I drew a while back!
Here Is a poster I recently designed for a local event!
and Here Is a flyer I did for my church!
I'm still never satisfied with anything I make because I know it's not how I want it to be, or as good as I'd like it to be. But I'm hopefully going to school again soon!
I forgot to mention I love calligraphy too! I've just started learning so this would be awesome!
I enjoy painting as well and have been meaning to do more, so this would be so handy!
Annnnnd I've wanted this book for a while to help get some projects going!
Welcome to RAOA and thank you for the contest :) I'd love to see some of YOUR work!
So what I'm gonna give you is something I pulled right out of this book. It's a pretty solid book to get the creative juices going, so I recommend that you buy it sometime if this works out for you.
Shoot a photograph of an item that you always carry with you, then design some print ads showing that item in a positive, negative, and metaphorical way.
That reminds me. If you are looking at some work to practice what you learn I highly recommend this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600617972/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I bought it about a year ago and its been great to give me something to do in my down time and really makes me rethink how I work.
nice colored pencils, or really nice drawing pencils. I'm sure she'd also like cool books on graphic design to read herself and then share with her students, like this or this. Lastly- I'm going to go against the grain and advise you to not get her 'teacher-y' things like mugs, as a teacher, I can assure you we get plenty of those.
Awesome! I'm not sure what your budget is, but here are a few ideas for various price points.
-Your brother will undoubtedly have to use the adobe creative cloud suite while he's in school. It'd be nice to pay for that expense for a year!
-Graphic design content takes up a lot of room fast, so he will definitely need this. It's small enough for him to carry around, and Seagate is a great brand.
-If he has a tablet, this digital stylus could be great for sketching, rendering, or taking notes.
-To give him some inspiration for design ideas and projects!
Creative Workshop
I seem to get asked this a lot, but here is my list, posted here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/1uq58s/good_graphic_design_books_for_a_beginner/ceklj3y
> These are all books that I absolutly love, and bought for either personal use or to accompany different courses while I was getting my BFA in GD. I have seen some of them both are brick and mortar book stores, and college book stores. If you get a chance to see them in person before buying, leaf through them to get a feel.
>
> Megg's History of Graphic Design, absolutely essential to understanding where graphic design comes from historically. IMO the best GD history book on the market, at least the most encompassing. One of my favorites, was very helpful writing different papers and researching historical styles.
>
> Graphic Design School. Another great book, focuses more on design process and stuff like that. This one more walks you though being a designer. Gives tutorials on different things too, which is useful.
>
> Graphic Design Referenced is a really great book that is a bit of a hybrid. This book describes a lot of design terms, styles, and general knowledge while referring to historical and modern examples.
>
> Those three for me are really essential books for new graphic designers, I learned more from those three than I can express. Below are a few more books I really like, but might be a bit more advanced than someone just getting started might want.
>
> Another book I have used a lot, and almost included with those three is above. Thinking with Type. Really great intro into typography.
>
> More advanced even.
>
> How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul
>
> A Graphic Design Student's Guide to Freelance
>
> Hope this helps!
>
Keep in mind this is just a starting point. There are tons upon tons of inspiration books out there for graphic design stuff, not to mention educational books on all sorts of specialties. I love graphic design books, the hard physical copy of them. When I'm stuck on a project I like to flip through them, read a bit, and then revisit my work again.
Here are the books currently in my amazon wishlist, so I can't vouch for them, but I do plan on eventually owning them.
Wish List:
Uncategorized:
Thoughts On Design: Paul Rand
Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design
How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul
100 Ideas that Changed Graphic Design
Paul Rand
Paul Rand: Conversations with Students
Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design
Bauhaus
The Vignelli Canon
Vignelli From A to Z
Dieter Rams: As Little Design as Possible
It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World's Best Selling Book
Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!)
Josef Muller-Brockmann: Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design
Popular Lies About Graphic Design
100 Ideas that Changed Art
100 Diagrams That Changed the World
Basics Design 08: Design Thinking
Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965
Lella and Massimo Vignelli (Design is One)
The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice
History of the Poster
How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer
The Design of Dissent: Socially and Politically Driven Graphics
George Lois: On His Creation of the Big Idea
Milton Glaser: Graphic Design
Sagmeister: Made You Look
Victore or, Who Died and Made You Boss?
Things I have learned in my life so far
Covering the '60s: George Lois, the Esquire Era
Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
[Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration]
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0812993012/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=VEJ64Y4T0U6J&coliid=I1WMMNNLTRBQ9G)
Graphic Design Thinking (Design Briefs)
I Used to Be a Design Student: 50 Graphic Designers Then and Now
The Form of the Book: Essays on the Morality of Good Design
Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills
Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference
Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Envisioning Information
The elements of dynamic symmetry
The elements of content strategy
Corporate Diversity: Swiss graphic design and advertising
Book Design: a comprehensive guide
Meggs' History of Graphic Design
You've already taken the first step (i.e., reading books about typography and teaching yourself) the only thing you have left to do is put what you've learnt into practice.
The best way, and probably the most fun way, is to just create stuff. I know how unhelpful and nebulous this sounds, but it's hard to put into words. Design posters, or books, or anything. Illustrate. The best bit of advice I can offer in this regard is to use your interests and hobbies. Anything you're into could be turned into design work. Music, TV shows, practically anything. Are you into Jazz? Jazz has a particular visual style associated with it, create a album cover for your favourite jazz band/musician. Like a particular show, or genre of show? Study the visual identity of it and create something that fits. Maybe a poster, or a promo image. The important thing is to just practice, on whatever.
The second way is easier, but I would also consider it less fun. There's plenty of free resources on the net for a budding graphic designer. Specifically, there's lots of free exercises, where they tell you what to do, and you create along those lines. A lot of them are really informal, though. I used to do this when I was studying Graphic Design, for practice. It felt like just more uni work to me, so I wasn't massively enthused. It might be different for you, who knows.
There's lots of free exercises available if you just google it. However, if you want something more in the form of a textbook, I can suggest this book: Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills. It's not cheap, but I found it really useful, and I'm not ashamed to say that I definitely stole some ideas from that book for some of my work.
So yeah, do some designs with heavy emphasis on Typography, and get feedback. /r/design_critiques is a great little community, and people will be more than happy to help you refine your skills as you progress. Just go in there with a thickish skin, sometimes people can be a little bit raw with their criticism, but it's all a learning experience.
I got a job through a friend who worked for a company that was looking for an illustrator... they hired me on a contractual basis, and when I was finished with the work they wanted, they hired me on as a junior graphic designer. So I think unfortunately it's often about who know know.
What have you been designing in the last year? Have you tried to work on your portfolio at all, or do unpaid work for friends (to avoid gaps in your resume)? I just recently bought this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600617972/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i02 and I find it's really helping me improve my portfolio.
I am in almost the same situation.
I have also been looking for books for motivation, inspiration and so on.
Here are some stuff that keep getting recommended as well as other books that I think are interesting judging by their description and reviews (note: I haven't read anything yet I am just sharing my searching results from the past 2 or 3 days):
For creative problems
For Inspiration
And this one seems to go into depth of the business itself:
Like I said, I haven't read any of those but maybe this will save some time for you or for other people searching for books.
There is also Thinking with Type, The Elements of Typographic Style, Universal Principles of Design, Deign for how people learn, How to be a Graphics Designer without losing your soul.
Edit: I was actually going to make a thread similar to this but I am gonna post my similar question here anyway,
Does anybody know of more books for people who are already involved in the medium ?
A lot of recommendations I see around the internet seem to be for someone just starting graphics design or still in school but rarely is it something for a higher level.
This would be a good book, as would this one.
Sorry for the late reply.
Here is a short list of books I keep around for reference (some better than others).
http://www.amazon.com/Forms-Folds-Sizes-Details-Designers/dp/1592530540
http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418263515&sr=1-1&keywords=ellen+lupton+thinking+with+type
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-Grid-Graphic-Workshop/dp/1592531253/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418263563&sr=1-1&keywords=breaking+the+grid
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Workshop-Challenges-Sharpen-Design/dp/1600617972/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418263563&sr=1-2&keywords=breaking+the+grid
http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Creative-Design-Second/dp/2940411611/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418263761&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Fundamentals+of+Creative+Design
For HTML, CSS, and Javascript, the O'Reilly series of books is a good teacher / skill sharpener.
See if your boss will spring for a subscription to Lynda.com. There are just bazillions of things in there that can not only teach you, but provide exercises and practical lessons. I can't commend this highly enough.
For UX:
'Don't Make Me Think' by Steve Krug. --> This is a great book for UX and design fundamentals
Link to purchase
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321344758/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=33857011795&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5285549020583777492&hvpone=22.79&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_9tu6h5g71k_b
For Graphic Design Fundamentals:
'Creative Workshop - 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills'
Link to purchase
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Workshop-Challenges-Sharpen-Design/dp/1600617972
For Design as a whole!
'The Design of Everyday Things'
Link to purchase:
http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0465067107
The UX book and Design as a whole books are shorter and will be quick to complete. However, the graphic design book will be quite challenging, especially if you aren't familiar with Adobe CS. But I assure you that you will be a much stronger designer afterwards. (When I first started off doing graphic design, I wish I had this book to give me projects to work on)
Overall, expect to spend ~$40 on all this, but these would be a great place to start I think. 1 month time to finish reading the books, and 3 months to finish all the graphic projects.
Hope this helps, good luck!
Another book recommendation: Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills.