Best graphic design books according to redditors
We found 2,113 Reddit comments discussing the best graphic design books. We ranked the 708 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 2,113 Reddit comments discussing the best graphic design books. We ranked the 708 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
Ok, now take note of what went wrong with your drawing and try again, and again, and again. Then after a few weeks go back and compare your latest drawings to this one.
The master has failed more times then the novice has tried.
If you want some resources, here are some youtube channels:
And also some books:
You should also check out http://drawabox.com/ and https://www.ctrlpaint.com/.
Edit: Labeled the links.
Edit 2: Just in case anyone saved this post, here's a couple of youtube channels I started watching recently:
I hope things are going well for you. And remember, as long as you keep moving forward you'll get to where you want to go eventually, even if your steps aren't as big as you'd like.
The Non-Designers Design Book. Talks about Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. But in very simple terms and is seriously the first book you should pick up when you have a hard time understanding why or where you should place items in a layout which hopefully, is very early in your education. Its a great starting point for learning good practices with layout and organization.
Welcome to dangerscarf's school of data visualization!
Theory
Although you could just wing it, knowing some of the why's and why not's of data visualization will help put your creations an inch or two above the rest.
I highly highly recommend picking up Edward Tufte's The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. After you read it you'll be able to make jokes about inside jokes about pie charts and be everyone's best friend. On a first read-through it might not make too much sense, but once you start working on projects light bulbs will start going off.
Practice
These days the major thing to learn in the world of data visualization is D3. It's a big hunk of JavaScript code that can help with everything from drawing maps to making graphs.
If you want to learn D3 (which you now should), the best place to start is Mike Bostock's Let's Make A Map. The end result is a pretty boring map of the UK, but it steps you through the hows and the whys of every single piece of code. When I first started with D3 I could have saved myself a lot of headaches by reading it closely.
Once you get your feet wet, [http://bost.ocks.org/mike/selection/](How Selections Work) is great for clarifying some of the concepts behind how D3 deals with data display.
There's also a tutorials page on github, but the shortest and most efficient path to making cool visualizations is just plain copying. How to make great visualizations, in 3 steps:
Since you've already got some coding background you might be all set. JavaScript can be an insane beast at times, but if you start simple and from existing code you should get the hang of it without too much work.
A Brief Introduction To Coding For The Web
OK, so maybe you do need to learn a little HTML/CSS/JavaScript first. But let me stress the little - it's easy to get bogged down in the details, and the skills you need to edit a visualization to do what you want aren't exactly the same as when learning JS from scratch.
Fundamentals: HTML, CSS and Javascript. HTML is the information on a page, CSS is what makes it look nice. JavaScript it what makes it move around or be interactive. JS is the toughest, while HTML and CSS are easy (the basics, at least).
Go ahead and learn HTML and CSS from Codacademy first. I disagree with the way that every single place on the Internet teaches this stuff, but so it goes.
Check out these recommendations or these recommendations for JavaScript. If you don't feel like reading through them I'll just blindly point you toward Codecademy - JavaScript track, jQuery track.
Sidenote: jQuery is a big hunk of JavaScript that makes common web programming tasks easier.
But really, honestly, truly, you should read the links that aren't Codacademy.
What do I make visualizations about?
Any time you hear something interesting or read an interesting article or just think, "could I make a visualization out of this?"
Other resources
Pretend you're a developer for a news organization. Read up on Source, Data for Radicals, and a million other things I'm neglecting. If you want to get real crazy subscribe to the NICAR email list to see how people who do "computer-assisted reporting" think.
But honestly, just do it! That singles map was the very very first visualization I ever made, and 5 years later it's still getting plenty of traffic. Throw a bunch of nonsense up on a site, submit it to reddit, and eventually you're bound to have something work out.
Good luck!
If you're really interested in paneled story telling check out Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.
This little sample gives you some pretty good ideas for telling jokes with simple visual transitions. It's a must read for anyone who really wants to create impactful messages through images.
I am not a designer. But I am getting better, a big part due to this book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-Williams/dp/0133966151/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
Even though it is not aimed at online it is really really good at pointing out some of the very simple and immediately applicable things 'designers' do to make things look better.
e.g. one example if you want two complementary styles of text, make them very different - much bigger, or one much bolder, and a totally different font. Or another could be always making sure things align with something else, you have placed it there for a reason. It all seems very obvious in hindsight.
​
Also checkout https://refactoringui.com/ for a more modern web oriented approach it is pricey for the amount of content IMO but what is there is good stuff.
​
I think it helps with the prevalence of flat/simple sites even as a non designer you can make things look good by striving for simplicity and consistency
I love reading these because it's so off base. No it is nothing like Mad Men. Chances are unless you are upper management you won't be making the industry average in salaries. If you want to take something away from it, watch how defeated they get when a client bitches about something not being right... then amplify that 10 fold, throw in a few "can we make the logos bigger", and put in a little working overtime to meet deadlines and going crazy. Another thing, if you aren't in college yet, you aren't "very good" with psychology or design... you may have gotten a good grade in AP classes and messed around in photoshop in your lab class, but there is much more to learn.
I'm not trying to be belittling, you just need to change your mindset completely on this as it seems pretty obvious you only have a media view of the field. Check out some ad work down by big companies. Check out the CLIO winners for the last few years. Read books on the subject like Ogilvy on Advertising or Hey Whipple, Squeeze This. Also, you aren't going to be doing all of these things, firms are done mostly in groups. You have your Accounts team (Pete Campbell, schmoozing and coordinating with the client), Design Team (Salvatore and Peggy, less copywriting now though) and sometimes Media and Project teams... depending on the agency. Each has their skills and contributions, so in all likelyhood if you want to work in an actual agency setting you will likely have to specialize. Like writing and planning? Take marketing. Like design and web-structure? Take Graphic Design and/or Computer Science. Psychology is not a particularly useful field in itself, as many of the psychological aspects are covered in their usefulness in the aforementioned majors.
Lastly, you won't know for sure what you want to do until a few years in, and that's fine. If you really like the idea of agency work though, DO INTERNSHIPS. There is no other way to get into the field and learn about the ins and outs. There are a lot of great things about the industry, but it's not all rainbows and panache.
Just because someone can open Illustrator and arrange some faces and use textures over them, doesn't mean its being effective visual communication. Proper grid structure, typeface choices, and hierarchy would make this much more effective in getting across the message.
I dislike stuff being posted looking like a photoshop/illustrator online tutorial threw up. ಠ_ಠ
Edit: These will be very helpful, even to those not in the industry.
The Elements of Typographic Style
Thinking with Type
Every designer should read Robert Bringhurst’s The elements of typographic style at least once a year.
Actually I think it's visual innuendo. The comic begins by implying that he's looking at porn, so things are starting to get blue, a bit naughty. The silhouettes reveal less, you can't see clothes (maybe they aren't wearing any), and leave more to the imagination—get you thinking 'what's he looking at there?'.
There's a lot more to comics than 'artistic effects' and the dialogue. If you're interested further, check out this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Understanding-Comics-The-Invisible-Art/dp/006097625X/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=15NXBCDIMJODD&coliid=I3HBL84XK10YEE
Are you a reader? I have a couple suggestions that you may enjoy, and your local library should be able to get them for you--maybe they have them, maybe they get them transferred from another library, maybe they acquire them.
I'm working my way through The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees and it's brilliant. It helps you identify and build your style step by step with a series of really smart exercises. I think what's difficult for a lot of people is that style is about 1) self-knowledge and 2) editing. I can buy something I think I look cute in for a party, but if it's in a color or a style that doesn't match the rest of my closet, I may hate it and only wear it once. She'll help with all that.
The other is Suze Orman's The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying. The ONLY reason I'm recommending this one is because you identified a mindset of yours that it seems like you want to change. This book gets into the emotional crap behind money in a way I haven't encountered before.
Because there are a lot of emotions behind money. My husband and I both grew up very humbly. He had two working class parents and a sister, and they passed down a lot of feelings of scarcity, of not having enough. They thrift shopped and hoarded (not badly, but elsewhere in his family it's much worse). For my husband, it's very difficult to get rid of old things, and he buys the same items over and over.
Me, I grew up with my single mom and brother. My dad had money, but he was incredibly stingy with it. We were never poor in an institutional way--but we were broke all through my childhood. I did not get new clothes during the school year. I didn't have the cool shoes. My adidas were from Payless, and they had only two stripes. All of this was made much worse by the fact that my dad married a woman who dressed her kids in brand-name clothes. They were popular, well-dressed, well-to-do, and my dad was the one who wound up paying for my step-mom's overspending.
So while I don't have a problem getting rid of old things--we got rid of lots of stuff when my mom moved us to a cheaper place to live every year--I know that I have to be careful treating myself, because part of me feels like that very small, very uncool new girl in school with the wrong shoes and no money to make it right.
I like nice things now. It's intertwined with my personality in a way. I want the ability to dress like who I think I am. And that's okay! But if I don't examine those feelings, I can easily wind up overspending, trying to make myself feel good in all the wrong ways.
What I do: Set money aside just for clothes every paycheck. I made it a percentage of my total pay, but for you it might be something else. If I want something nice, I have to wait until the money is in there. If I need something simple, like to replace a pair of jeans or shoes, it makes me really think about what I already have, how much I want to spend, and how it will fit within my existing clothes.
There's nothing wrong with being frugal. But frugal doesn't have to mean cheap. Frugal could mean buying a $300 wool coat and keeping it for 10 years.
Thinking about your style, analyzing your wardrobe and planning for your purchases will help you know when it makes sense to spend more money on an item like boots you will wear every day, or a good bra, etc. And when it's fine to buy something cheaper, like a white tank top you'll sweat through all summer and be able to easily replace next year.
You've got this. I mean, I'm a total nerd, but I always start with books. Best of all, the library is free!
Understanding Comics is pretty much the first thing you should give them. It's a breakdown of the basics of style and structure of comic books. When my freshman-year roommate took a comics course in college, that was pretty much the textbook.
Esquire has an excellent handbook on this. I've kept it in my closet for years. Everything from how to fold a shirt for travel to what to have in your closet at different income levels.
Be a classic man.
https://www.amazon.com/Esquire-Handbook-Style-Guide-Looking/dp/1588167461
Edit: one more thing
Get your shirts custom made. There are many affordable tailors online. Make a list of the measurements they want. Go to a tailor and ask to be measured. Tip the guy $5. Go home and place your order. I buy from tailorstore.com but there are plenty others.
If you’ve never worn a custom cut shirt you don’t know what you’re missing. You look more fit and handsome in a shirt that fits you perfectly. My black custom fit shirts are lady killers. I’m the only man in my office whose white dress shirts actually fit right. Women notice. Believe me they notice.
No problem mate, glad you're enjoying it.
Books I could recommend: Esquire released a great book called The Handbook of Style that I think offers some really solid advice. Alan Flusser's "Dressing the Man" is a great resource if you're interested in suits/dressing with a more refined, classier style.
Otherwise, fashion forms and blogs are a great resource as well. Lookbook.nu is good for street and casual fashion, The Sartorialist is great for inspiration on suiting. I also really like Street Etiquette as well.
Today:
Books :
Micheal Bendis : Words for Pictures: The Art and Business of Writing Comics and Graphic Novel
https://www.amazon.com/Words-Pictures-Business-Writing-Graphic/dp/0770434355
Buddy scalera : Creating comics from start to finish https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Comics-Start-Finish-Complete/dp/1600617670/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1539804620&sr=1-1&keywords=creating+comics+from+start+to+finish
you don't have to buy em obviously - hit your library even the college library and request them. check out "Libby by overdrive" on your tablet or phone and you could see if they're available via online rental. "
This is a copy and paste from a few months ago. There isn't really a "bible," so to speak, because the field is so varied. But this list should get you started. There are also some technical writing textbooks on Amazon that might be useful.
If you're looking for more mechanical things like document structure and organization, I'd recommend the following:
I'm a comic book artist that went to school for it, still aspiring.
For understanding things like panel layout, pacing in comics, etc, check out Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics and Making Comics are pretty good for helping both artist and non-artist get what makes comics comics. Knowing how to create the visual comic, even if you can't draw, will help you direct your script.
Also, there is no official, streamlined way to write a comic script. Just make sure you put in all the necessary details while keeping things clear for the artist. Like if there's a bad guy with a secret weapon, make sure the artist knows that the moment he shows up so the artist can plan for it. And unless you're planning for a particular effect, don't make a guy do more than one thing in a panel.
You are not writing a story or a novel, you are writing a set of instructions for an artist and nobody will really see the script. I've seen scripts say things along the lines of, "The detective removes his hat, revealing a masculine, sexy face, like (insert actor here)".
It's also important to know about comic book panel layouts and whatnot because often it's acceptable for the writer to give the artist a drawing of a suggested layout.
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst is probably the most thorough and well put together book on typography and its history. It's really cheap and I suggest anyone wanting to learn more about typefaces or a general interest in the history and evolution of type to check it out.
The "bible" is "The Grammar of Graphics" by Leland Wilkinson. (link to amazon). The "gg" of ggplot2 stands for grammar of graphics.
Then we go into other books, resources that help with actually showing visualizations:
Then we can look at the "Table of Elements of Data Visualization":
Then, we can look at some blogs to help you see what works and doesn't work:
Finally, some blog posts about other people in data visualization that you can learn from:
Pretty much everything about this graphic is terrible. The idea (comparing Bynum, Shaq and D12 by age) is great, but the execution makes it next to worthless.
Go check out Edward Tufte's The Visual Display of Quantitative Information if you want to know more about creating truly useful graphics.
For starters, this one contains a ton of useless information that only serves to confuse the viewer. Most distracting are the lightly shaded circles that don't refer to one of the three titled players, but the words "Lin" and the box of players NOT included in the graph are bad as well.
Second, it is nearly impossible to glance at a given circle and tell who that circle refers to. In fact, even after parsing it for awhile I can't tell who some of the circles refer to. It would have been better to make each player a different shape. The lines connecting the player-seasons together should be eliminated as well, as they do nothing to aid understanding of the graphic.
There is probably more in there that a more experienced graphic designer or statistician could point out, but suffice to say that this is a really bad graphic.
Edit: It also uses PER, which is a pretty pedestrian statistic for measuring basketball players' contributions. There is a lot you can read out there about why it is bad, but Wikipedia is always a good starting place.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/006097625X?cache=ae911b3558e26d125124340c0e8d2a39&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1414291468&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1
Understanding Comics.
I feel like that is a fair price for new branding and a new website. Assuming the designers are experienced in branding, you are not only paying for a simple logo, you are paying for an entire brand language and how to use it. They are responsible for shaping the aesthetics of your company, and will give you a set of brand guidelines that will help you utilize the logo in context with typefaces, colors, patterns, etc.
You are also paying for the rights to use the artwork... The larger the company, the more expensive the logo because more people will see it. This kind of scale is seen throughout all types of image licensing.
Of course you might be able to find someone who will do it all for $1,000-$2,000 but you would be cheating them out of money whether the client or designer realizes it.
For more understanding about the pricing of creative work, you might want to check out this book which has become somewhat of a standard for designers/illustrators/creators:
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158
Here's really how, rather than reading an incomplete paraphrasing of it:
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Required reading at the Institute of Design, in 1994. (The Bauhaus).
I have some experience with webcomics. I write and draw Miamaska, which has been going on for 2+years, and I'm about to start my second comic next month.
General advice for web comickers!
(or: How I learned things the hard way and eventually stumbled into a good system)
Regarding dialogue and pacing... what I tend to do is thumbnail an entire scene (3-15 pages for me) first and read through it a few times. I'll leave mini-cliffhangers at the end of each page (like a question, or a realization, or a character entering the scene). During this little review process, I'll also make sure the view for the reader doesn't violate the 180 rule too much, that it's obvious which bubble should be read next, and where the reader is going to look first.
I don't have any experience in the print form of comics yet. So no advice there. Just make sure your comics are in print resolution as well (300+ DPI), or you'll be sorry later.
Resource time
I didn't have many resources starting out, but I'm gonna recommend these for you and anyone else interested:
PaperWings Podcast -- podcast and blog on web comic-making (ongoing, good community, regular but sparse updates, good backlog). Has even more resources on its website.
Art and Story -- podcast on print +web comic-making and the comic industry (ended, but a great backlog).
Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics by cartoonist Scott McCloud, worth a read for any comicker. A little more geared towards print, but breaks down comic theory really nicely.
Comics and Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative, by Will Eisner.
Those books are pretty popular, so you can probably pick them up from the library or find them on the web somewhere.
Elements of Style
Stop Stealing Sheep
Grid Systems
Two things that is very helpful is to know type and grids.
On typography my favorite is: The Elements of Typographic Style
Another good one is Stop Stealing Sheep
For grids, I like this one: Grid Systems in Graphic Design
Making and Breaking the Grid
is not too bad either.
I like well-drawn comics, but that doesn't mean they have to be intricate and detailed - just that they match the content very well. For example, I think John Campbell (Pictures for Sad Children) is great because he can get the emotion of scenes across really well with his simple drawings. (Though I equally love artists like David Hellman.)
I like funny comics as well as serious comics. I dislike comics that aren't even remotely funny (but are trying to be). I dislike comics that could have been funny, but they ruined themselves by either going on too long (Ctrl Alt Delete) or by explaining their punchline ((Ctrl Alt Delete) again).
I love comics that are consistently good, or at least only foul occasionally.
I dislike comics that are nothing but essays with pictures added. (I'm looking at you, 50% of Subnormality.) I think the comic form is a unique medium in itself and should not be treated in such a manner.
I like comics that are self-contained to a certain extent, in that either each comic is a unique situation (SMBC) or they only have particular story arcs (Dr. McNinja) and don't just go on forever with no resolution (Megatokyo). This is why, when I go to comics stores, I buy comic books (like Blankets) rather than serials (like X-Men). (There are exceptions to this rule, when a comic book is finished and the entire collection is sold as one, like Watchmen or Marvel 1602.)
I'm sure there's more, these are just my thoughts for now.
Also, more general but still super useful: The Non-Designer’s Design Book
I recommend both all the time. The multiple editions attest to the timelessness of their advice.
Read Non Designers' Design Book (https://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-4th/dp/0133966151) and change the design. Your card looks ugly and unprofessional. You should: (1) use left or right alignment, (2) group items, (3) use contrast (e.g. make titles and important items bigger and less important items smaller / use colors), (4) use sentence case / not use all caps, (5) make logo more visible.
edit: and don't say people to google things. You shouldn't ask "is it legit" but confirm that it is legit and than maybe add a link to a specific site (not Google) that confirms this.
Perhaps try Know your onions by Drew De Soto and How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy.
For what it's worth, the main things I've seen throughout my career that were surprises or turnoffs to new designers when they got out into the real world were:
1) You're not doing work for yourself. It sounds obvious but most people don't even think about the fact that you design for yourself when you're learning, but when you get into the workplace you design for someone else, which isn't nearly as fun. There are clients that will let you have creative freedom, but the majority will just want you to execute their ideas, no matter how bad they are.
2) It's a people job. Some folks are drawn to design because they're introverts and they envision being able to isolate themselves and be creative all day, but that couldn't be further from the truth. If you're freelance, you have to be super extroverted to drum up business for yourself - there's more face-to-face meetings and phone calls than there is actual designing. If you're in-house or agency, you generally will be working as part of a team and there's just as much confidence and extroversion needed to be successful.
3) The hours can be long and the pace can be fast. Design is deadline driven 99% of the time. That means coming up on hard deadlines you may not have a social (or indeed family) life. Most of my work days are 8-5 or 6, but deadline weeks can be 7-midnight and through the weekends. You are the last stop on the line which means you typically inherit everyone else's delays and have to compensate for them by working fast. Working fast often means you don't have the leisure of much brainstorming and concepting. Request like "I need this 18x24 poster in 30 minutes" are not uncommon. You need to be able to handle stress well, prioritize tasks efficiently and be able to turn out work that doesn't necessarily meet your own standards of perfection.
4) They won't always go with your idea. In fact they almost never will. I've seen a lot of young designers deeply frustrated that the lovely draft they sent to the client comes back as a rejection or covered in red ink. You have to be able to not take things personally, to listen and take criticism positively, and to act on alternative ideas quickly.
All that said, it is a fulfilling career if you really have a passion for visual communication, the wage is pretty good (in larger firms and agencies at least) and you can live on it comfortably, and there are upward movement opportunities into roles such as Art Director or Creative Director. Hope some of that helps.
Not sure about websites, but these books are absolute must-reads for learning typography.
Thinking With Type
Designing With Type
The Elements of Typographic Style
I feel like you've been hammered here because of the amateurish nature of your work. Honestly though, I'm pretty sure that's why you came here, knowing that it wasn't up to par, and wanting to know how to change that. Here are some things that I would focus on if I were you:
Typography: By this, I don't mean using different typefaces, but rather the study of how to structure information in a legible manner. I work as a wireframer right now, and everything that I do is Arial. Because of that, I have a maniacal focus on size, leading, value, and block shapes to create a hierarchical system on a grid. A lot of it comes from practice, but I can also recommend some books, Thinking with Type, Designing with Type, Making and Breaking the Grid, and The Mac is Not a Typewriter. Typography is one of the most requested skills by design directors because it is hard and can be very bland, but it is absolutely vital for successful work.
Balance and Rhythm: When you are designing pieces, one of the important things to consider is the structure of negative and positive space. This structure influences the way that the piece is read, and the way that people move through the information. You seem to rely on center aligning things a lot, which is dangerous because it creates no action or movement. This topic isn't as advanced as typography so it's harder to give specific resources, but you can find information on this in any basic design text. I enjoyed Alex White's fundamentals book.
Style and Illustration: The type is amateurish, but what makes the work feel dated is the illustration style. When digital illustration was younger and the tools were rougher, the sort of illustration that I see in your portfolio was very common. The most recent trend has been "Flat", but honestly, anything that can complement or hide the digital nature of its creation can work. If you really would like illustration to be a continued part of your work, I would find some tutorials to really strengthen your Illustrator and Photoshop skills, perhaps stuff from Skillshare or Lynda, or even just internet tutorials.
In General: So to be blunt, you do have a long way to go, I'm not going to sugar coat that. That being said, you do have 2 things extremely in your favor right now.
Ira Glass has a really incredible short piece about creative work that describes the place where you are caught right now. Your taste is not aligning with your skills. You have taken the first step in the right direction, so now you need to go study more and keep seeking critique (Not criticism). Whether that is on design_critiques, or from a colleague or friend doesn't matter. Find a place where someone who is better than you can tell you what isn't working and challenge your status quo.
Good luck, and keep at it!
Books books books!
Some essential reading:
You have probably heard of the documentary Helvetica. This movie inspired me to become a type nerd. The follow-up movie, Objectified, is also very good and focuses on consumer design.
Web sites / blogs:
If you are at college or have a college campus nearby, check our their art library. There are bound to be awesome resources there. Explore graphic design periodicals and get lost in giant bound books of type samples.
Edit: Disclaimer: I'm merely a design hobbyist.
this is something that I highly doubt is available in a pattern. I would highly recommend making this a drape project. Get a mannequin that is close to your size and line out the idea of the pattern you are interested in creating. I would agree, this is really not a first garment project, though. It's important to learn how fabrics lay on the body and just how patterns fit together.
This dress is has to have a lot of structure built in underneath, as well, to get those perfectly triangular cutouts, especially cut on the bias, which i also suspect it is, since there's some mild wrinkling that follows the triangles. I would highly doubt that interfacing is used unless it's very nice wool interfacing, the stuff that's in a good quality tie (also cut on the bias!). So, that would mean you'd need some knowledge in creating structure in the garments. I'd highly recommend checking out this book Patternmaking for Fashion Design before going into this project.
Read Tufte's books on Information Visualization.
I'd recommend Visual Display of Quantitative Information and Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative.
If I could suggest one improvement it would be the typography. Some great places to start:
I would recommend How to Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul. It is aimed at students and recent grads, with information on how to find a job, portfolio organization and presentation, etc. Full of good stuff.
Here's a few I like:
As a person with no education beyond high school, take all that I say with a grain of salt. I'm a pretty successful web designer and front-end developer, having working with four startups and done a year of freelancing.
It is not uncommon to hear industry peers criticize the education system as it pertains to web design because often the practices you learn are no longer the standard or relevant. I've heard of many stories where designers exit college (with no working experience, obviously) and have an incredibly difficult time finding work for the reasons I listed above.
Education has never been brought up at any of the companies I've worked or those that I've consulted with. I believe the reason for this is that I have a body of work to show along with whatever reputation I've garnered on Dribbble, say.
All this being said, it is entirely possible for you to develop your skills on your own, such as I did, and find work. I'm happy to list all the reading materials that I own that helped me get where I am now. I'll list what I remember but I'll have to go check when I can get a second:
Hardboiled Web Design
HTML5 for Web Designers
CSS3 for Web Designers
The Elements of Content Strategy
Responsive Web Design
Designing for Emotion
Design is a Job
Mobile First
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
The Elements of Typographic Style
Thinking with Type
The Icon Handbook
Don't Make Me Think
If you invest your money in those and actually read them, you will be well on your way. Feel free to ping me. Good luck!
I use a contract for everything. No matter how small the job, if it's for a friend, etc. Call it an agreement instead if you feel a contract is too imposing for your client, and be clear that it's to protect and benefit both parties. For smaller jobs less than $1k I like to take half the cost as a deposit. Bigger jobs I take milestones.
I would try to find contract resources specific to your industry. For example I'm a designer so I have a book from the Graphic Artist's Guild and it did a great job of explaining all of my rights and what to look out for.
Anything by Alan Moore. Promethea is a personal fave, but might not be the best place to start. Top Ten is also very good if cop drama overlaid with some super-hero stuff sounds appealing. Watchman is a cornerstone of the form, but you will definitely appreciate it more if/when you have a fair bit of 'capes & tights' superhero work under your belt.
Blankets is just stunning. I've bought it 3 times already and have the new hardcover edition on perorder.
Stardust is another great one by Neil Gaiman. It's also unique in that if you enjoy the story you can experience it in 3 different, but all very good, forms. The original comic, the prose novel, and the film all work quite well and give a nice window into what bits a pieces work better in each form.
Of course no comic list is complete without Maus and Understanding Comics.
That's some really cool art. If you have no exposure to comics and are interested in the creative side, maybe start with Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, which is widely renowned as a nuts and bolts look at how the medium functions.
Try this.
I'm not hugely into comics, but it's seriously one of the most eye-opening, interesting and educational things I've read in years.
Pattern drafting and clothing sketches are two entirely different things. I didn’t get much out of school in terms of sketching but some books that helped me were Illustration Techniques - Takamura Fashion Illustrator - Morris and this one which was a textbook of ours Fashion Drawing - Bryant. When it comes to flat pattern making, “art” and “drawing” have little to do with it, it’s measurements, rulers, curves, tracing paper (medical doctors office paper is my favourite), cardstock “oaktag” paper, mechanical pencils and the foggy kind of cello tape you can draw on. Basically you learn to make a bland sheath to fit the body first (“block”) then you can learn to manipulate the block into different pieces and designs and there you go, you’re drafting. It’s the whole reason I’m in school right now and if they had it on YouTube I would never have bothered enrolling.
The best books for that are first and foremost Patternmaking for Fashion Design - Joseph-Armstrong, Patterncutting/Patternmaking - Chunman-Lo and I’m looking forward to getting The Costume Technician's Handbook (3rd Edition) - Ingham/Covey which a classmate said is great for blockmaking, and Metric Pattern Cutting for Women's Wear - Aldrich which I’ve been told is a staple.
As far as editions, the later ones of Patternmaking for Fashion Design are better for basic block making and they have way more than the earlier ones, and the girl who put me on to the Technician’s book said the 3rd is essential. The rest I wouldn’t really know because I haven’t used them extensively. Afaik Chunman-Lo’s book has only one edition.
There’s also Fitting and Pattern Alteration- Liechty/Rasbrand/Pottberg-Steineckert. We haven’t used it yet but it’s on the curriculum.
With these resources either bought or borrowed from the library you’ll learn everything a fashion student learns. As far as sketching goes, YouTubers are out there and can help, and practice makes perfect.
I hope this helps. Post progress photos so we can see how well you’re doing! Good luck.
Summed that up nicely.
The cartoonist, Joe Sacco, did an excellent graphic novel on the subject, told from both sides of the IDF wall
Oh boy, history of graphic design was my favorite thing in college and during my thesis research. It puts so much into perspective once you go trough all the little things in history. Here are some books i would recommend:
[Graphic Design, Referenced – by Bryony Gomez-Palacio] (https://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Design-Referenced-Language-Applications/dp/1592537421/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467706816&sr=8-1&keywords=graphic+design+referenced)
The Elements of Typographic Style – by Robert Bringhurst
The Fundamentals of Graphic Design Paperback – by Paul Harris
Design Elements, 2nd Edition by Timothy Samara
Thinking with Type – Ellen Lupton
From history, great stuff on: Bauhaus, Dada, Brodovitch,Helvetika (there's even a great documentary on Helvetica), Gestalt principles, Whitespace... You could try and get some textbooks on these topics or just google.
(protip: type into google name of the book and finish the search with filetype:pdf there are many books that you can get free pdfs that way)
Thinking with Type - https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695
Another great book
Of course!
Books:
Graphic Design: A New History
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul
Eye Magazine
Blogs:
swissmiss
Design Envy
We Love Typography
The Dieline
Hey Whipple Squeeze This is a really phenomenal overview of creating ads. It is a very engaging and informative read and is perfect for those looking to break into the industry.
Ogilvy on Advertising delves a bit more into the overall experience of working at an agency like what the account team does vs. media teams and so on in addition to actually making ads. It's a bit dated but I think it holds up pretty well. Sure a few of his predictions about the industry didn't come to fruition and the book primarily focuses on TV spots and longform magazine ads (you can't write about banner ads or Facebook ads in 1985) but I'd say a lot of the concepts Ogilvy touches on are pretty timeless.
I'm gonna disagree with a lot of people and tell you to not buy Understanding Comics. I mean, you can, I don't disagree with most of what he teaches, but I disagree with his results. Perhaps it's one of those 'good in theory, terrible in practice' things. The Sculptor, his latest (?) book uses his UC technique 100% and while it makes for an easy read, it's visually boring and the story is just one unbelievable trope after another, complete garbage.
I'm also not going to tell you to copy other comic artists, that's a very common mistake in comics. When you copy other comic artists you learn their mistakes, or shortcuts, or cheats. I still find after I've drawn a page I'll go back and see where I unintentionally swiped a pose or technique from John Buscema (How to make Comics the Marvel Way had a big influence on me as a teenager, which is who it was made for).
For figure drawing you want George Bridgeman. His figure drawing techniques are the foundation for pretty much every other great illustrator in the last 100 years.
Another good source is Burne Hogarth (Dynamic Anatomy, Dynamic Figure Drawing) his stuff is more action and hero based, but his lessons are sound. He founded what became the School of Visual Arts. These were my first art books when I was a teenager, and they still hold up.
For storytelling, I go for Will Eisner's Graphic Storytelling and the Visual Narrative, Sequential Art Principles and throw in Expressive Anatomy, because, why not?
David Chelsea's Perspective for Comic Artists is great, because it teaches you exactly how to do correct perspective, then in the last chapter he tells you how to cheat at all of it.
For classes, take a look at the horribly designed website for http://comicsworkbook.com/ it's run by a guy, Frank Santoro, who's actually not one of my favorite artists, but he knows his shit, for sure, and he's a helluva nice guy who loves comics 100%. I think his full online class is $500 and he runs it twice a year, I think. Also look in your area for a college or art store that might have figure drawing classes, they are invaluable.
The Elements of Typographic Style
It may be a bit dense for a beginner, however it's been referenced as the bible of typography multiple times to me, by unrelated sources! (And it's cheap!)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881792063/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_2?pf_rd_p=1535523722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0881791326&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=191BS5CQJSX6RBDKACAE
Writing Excuses is a great podcast that covers a lot of important concepts.
I'm a big follower of Sanderson's First, Second, and Third laws of magic.
Stephen King's On Writing is one of the only books that I'd recommend on the subject. There are a ton of books about how to write well, but don't read too many of them, because at some point you're doing the equivalent of buying a bunch of running shoes and never actually putting them on to go jog around the block.
Dan Harmon's Story Circle Method is my preferred method of structuring stories; it's a prescriptivist version of Joseph Campbell's descriptivist The Hero with a Thousand Faces. (Glimwarden's plot is structured as story circles within story circles within story circles next to story circles.)
Also, /u/daystareld and I will be putting out a podcast in the next few weeks, "Rationally Writing", which is about writing rationally, so keep an eye on that.
My number one advice is to read a lot and write a lot, and do both of those with an analytical mindset. Break things down to see how they work and why they work, or in some cases why they fail. If you need help getting into an analytical mindset, try reading some in-depth criticism of something that you like or are at least familiar with. (Though they're not about writing, Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and the Youtube channel Every Frame a Painting were both things that influenced how I think about telling stories.)
Edit: Oh, also TV Tropes, which is itself a form of multimedia criticism.
Even if this is supposed to be a part of something larger, it should have its own arc. You know what's supposed to happen as the author, so maybe to you, it seems like its fine. But you need to look and craft these things from the perspective of the audience.
I'll use, say, Cowboy Bebop as an example. It's almost entirely a series of self-contained episodes, save for a few episodes that touch on this relationship between Spike and Vicious. But, the self-contained episodes are often iterating and riffing on some of the same overall themes that these connected episodes are built on. Or, when they aren't, they're carried on pure entertainment value. They feel good. They're flat out fun to watch. Or they revel in the absurd, which ties into the show thematically and also rides pure entertainment value.
Fallout: New Vegas does this as well. Side-quests seem self-contained, more or less, but they build on your understanding of the world and they often build on this theme of nostalgia for the Old World, or Old World Blues, as the game eventually puts it. All of the companion character side-quests riff on this theme of clinging to the past or moving forward, the factions all follow in this theme (whether its the major factions modeling their selves after Old World powers or the Brotherhood of Steel finding that they don't belong in the world anymore, so they either need to adapt or cling to the past and die). All of these side quests are self-contained, thus having their own arc and feel satisfying to complete, but also they build on the overarching theme of the game and give the player something to think about once everything is said and done.
You can do this with your own work. You can figure out what it is that you want it to be about and make build on those themes, even just from the start. If you have ideas and themes you want to explore, you can explore them from the start in whatever way you want, and tie it all into something more grand later if you're telling an overall story, or just keep riffing on them in different self-contained scenarios. The main, best thing to keep in mind though is that if this is intended for an audience, you need to write it with the audience experience in mind. Your ideas could be incredible, but the audience would never know it if you've written it to be impenetrable to them, or just so boring that it's unlikely they'll continue to read to get to the good parts.
As an example, I love the show Eureka Seven. Somewhere towards the middle of its run, it has a small arc with a couple of characters named Ray and Charles that culminates in some of the best TV I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. But, I can almost never recommend this show to anyone. The first ~10 to 15ish episodes are a chore. The show sort of acts like you should know who all the characters are already, or doesn't give you a whole lot to work with in terms of giving you something to come back for. For this reason, it took me from when it aired back in 2005 all the way until 2014 to finally finish the show from front to back. There was a ton of good there, but it was so, so difficult to get to it through the start of the show.
So, Entertainment value. Have you read Fiona Staples' and Brian K Vaughan's Saga? The very first panel of the very first page oozes entertainment value, while also giving some great banter to help establish the characters and introduce us to the world. This is a strong opening, and even if there is some lull to the comic afterwards (which there may or may not be depending on your tastes), its given you a taste of what it is and a promise of what its capable of delivering. This is a really great thing to have. If you're aware of Homestuck, it's the GameFAQs FAQ that serves as the end of the comic's first Act that suddenly shows you how the comic will format itself: Lots of nonsensical goofing around until hitting an emotional climax that re-contextualizes the events you had just seen. This isn't at the start of the comic, but entertainment value carries the comic until that point, assuming you're into programming jokes and goofball shenanigans. But, this scene comes so comparatively late that it's likely you've already dropped the comic before getting to the "good part" if these jokes didn't carry the comic for you.
Actual Advice and Critique
Comics are hard, because, unless you have a writer or have an artist to partner with, you're doing both jobs, and the quality of the thing depends both on being well-written and well drawn (or at least some balance between the two that makes it palatable to read). I think that if you think in an actual episodic way, you could improve your writing a ton. With this comic, the arc would be "how did Lasereye become Lasereye?" It's potentially a pretty good premise, right? You'll establish a character and have plenty of chances to create entertaining scenarios because... It's your story! Lasereye became Lasereye in whatever way you decide he did. Go crazy, tell us a story! How did some young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed kid turn into some dude in a slum with one eye glowing brighter than ever and the other dim and jaded? Telling this in three pages would actually be a great exercise.
Your art is rough in that it looks like you could use learning some base fundamental things like human anatomy. Your palette and the food stand itself reminds me of Kill Six Billion Demons though, which is great. You've created a good atmosphere in panels 1, 2, and the last panel on the last page, despite the artwork itself being rough. That's great! You know how a thing should feel. That's a great thing to have down pat that will only continue to be a boon as your technical skill improves (and it will if you work at it!). I think that if you buckle down and grind through learning how to draw, you could make very great, visually appealing work.
There's a problem in page flow on Page 2. Here I've shown how your page directs the eye with red lines. The way the page is laid out, you end up reading the fifth panel before you read the fourth panel, which will cause a reader to have to double back to read things in order. You don't want that. You'll wanna keep an eye out for how your pages read in the future. Just give them a once-over and ask where the eye would naturally go following the lines on the page.
So, if you aren't currently, learning human anatomy would be a great place to start placing effort. If you have access, figure drawing classes and the such would be a great way to start working on that. It helps immensely to have others around who can help you if you aren't sure what you're doing at first. Books on comics in general would be a good place to go as well. Understanding Comics and Making Comics, both by by Scott McCloud, are good introductory texts. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative by Will Eisner and Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist also by Will Eisner would be good as well.
For writing, Dan Harmon's Channel 101 guides will be great tutorials as he's one of the best working writers today in episodic TV. I'm aware this isn't directly comics, but the best writing advice is rarely going to come from a comics-focused book. Will Eisner will tell you how to use visuals to your advantage in telling a story, but the nitty-gritty of actually writing will have to come from somewhere else. The Hero of a Thousand Faces by Joseph Cambell may help you understand structure further. This is what Dan Harmon is riffing on and working off of with his Story Circles, but adapted slightly for the sake of episodic television. Film Crit Hulk, an online movie critic/ the Incredible Hulk has a screenwriting book called Screenwriting 101. It's invaluable. I highly recommend it, even if it isn't directly about comic writing. You'll be able to adapt the advice as you work in your own medium.
Scott McCLoud's got two that I enjoyed: Understanding Comics and Making Comics.
They're filled with the basics, but they also have a insight into more advanced concepts. I think what McCloud really captures is that there is not "right" way to make a comic. But he does give you time-tested and proven techniques that usually work. He also presents many methods/intents/techniques as being in trade-off with others, which is an important lesson to learn.
If you're just doing this for fun and not for fame and fortune: I have good news for you. Webcomics are extremely easy to get in to. You start a website or an account on Webtoons or Tapastic and you upload pages. Done.
I'd recommend something like just do it. You say you've been thinking about it for a long time now. I get it. I'm a thinker as well. I roll ideas over and over (and over and over) in my head until I think I've found the perfect solution.
The point is, you always learn the most by doing. Some people write a script, some people write a book. Some just jot down notes and write the dialogue as they're drawing. You won't know what works for you until you start applying different methods and learning what you like and what you don't. Even if you have the perfect method, you still need to apply it to learn how to use it well. This goes both for drawing and writing.
As for some resources to get you started.
For story writing: Understanding Comics, any or all the books by Brian McDonald on writing.
For drawing: have you joined r/ArtFundamentals? Great resources for people starting from scratch.
Also, look up cintematography. Choice of shots makes a great impact on how well your comic reads (and how fun it is for you to draw).
So, my advice is just to get cracking. Have fun, and if it's hard to start at first, plan in some time to practice your drawing/writing. Produce pages as soon as possible so you learn about pacing and the process of setting up a page. Write a short story to begin with. You don't have to publish them now. It's all for you to begin with.
I'd say your strongest point is your ability to convey action. The leaping on page 16 is particularly well executed. You also actually have a pretty good grasp of perspective drawing with the environments! It could use a little work, but I feel like every artist could do with more practice!!
The main suggestion I could give you is to start drawing from life. I know you are heavily influenced by Japanese comics, but trust me when I say that all professional manga artists are able to draw from life. What I mean is, take a figure drawing class, or at the very least pick up this book, or any other figure drawing book really. It will help you greatly with getting proportions correct, as well as help you with understanding the internal structure of the body. By skipping learning how to draw from life, and learning to draw from looking at Manga, you're really only taking the face value. Like, have you ever used a copy machine to make a copy of a copy? The original page looks crisp and clean, but that first copy has a few spots and scratches, and then the copy of that copy has big black splotches on it, and eventually the text is completely illegible. Not to say that your art is really bad! It's actually pretty decent for your first comics! I just believe that doing some observational studies will help your work greatly!
The next major thing you should work on is the writing. I get that his blindfold is what keeps his demons at bay, but by starting the comic off with the central character punching a guy's body in two, and then ripping another guy's arm off... it makes me not care about the character. I feel like if you would have shown the readers that he was a kind person, by like, helping the elderly, or defending his father or something, then I'd be like, "Why is this sweet kid suddenly a vicious murderer?" But since you didn't I was like, "Is this a violent comic for the sake of drawing a violent comic?" Therefore, when the dad was brought in to be killed, he started talking about how innocent the kid was, which is the exact opposite of my first impression. Also, why did they kill the dad? Why, then, did they let evil demon kid live, only to exile him? Wouldn't killing Kai solve all of their problems?
Anyway, I feel like you have potential, mainly because you were actually able to produce this much work! Do you have any idea how many people say they want to make comics but pale at the sight of how much work it is? You are a hard worker, and I know that you will be able to persevere and evolve into something so much better than you already are! On that note, buy Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It will change your life. I'm being 100% serious here. McCloud is not only the go-to comics theorist, but he was also one of the first professional Americans to see the potential of drawing comics influenced by the Japanese! Once you have devoured this book, because you will want more, buy Making Comics, also by Scott McCloud. While Understanding dissects the medium and explains things you never would have thought about before, Making Comics applies those thoughts into a school-like setting.
tl;dr: It's good, but could be much better. Worship Scott McCloud.
Ellen Lupton's book is the first recommended reading for my degree I guess thats a place to start will update when I get home and see the full list if you want to know what a uni recommends?
Link to amazon copy:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1568989695/
I can't give suggestions on hand-lettering books yet as the few I have read weren't good...so I'm trying to find better ones. But check out Louise Fili and Jessica Hische for inspiration and of course Paula Scher and Sagmeister.
There are many other books so I welcome others to chime in and add their suggestions.
I think it's not bad, I would say the biggest things are around typography.
And Finally:
If you can - try to learn more about grid systems and typography, there are some great books out there that if you have cash or can ask your parents to buy you a couple books, here are some recommendations (even to just look at for inspiration):
Grid Systems in Graphic Design: A Visual Communication Manual
Thinking with Type - This one is one of my favorites
The Typography Idea book
I hope this helps :) And keep at it!! Definitely better than I was doing in high school!
For gradients, UI Gradients is your go to
Textures? Download HK's Christmas packs, covers most of the basic texures
Fonts/Typography, dont bother with that dafont bs, lots of low quality stuff on there and the popular ones are overused. Stick to standard design fonts such as these (taken from this video) If you want more info on type check out Ellen Lupton's book Thinking With Type), very helpful stuff.
Presets: The only preset I avidly use and recommend is Google's Nik Collection, very powerful stuff and not only that, its FREE.
I am ~6'3" and 240 pounds so I think we should be the exact same size.
I was always told that it did not matter how big you were, you should always buy clothes that fit you. Well fitting clothing will accentuate the favorable parts of your body while having a slimming effect on those not so favorable. This is really the main idea, the rest will be detail and personal experience describing how to know when clothes fit right and what to look for while shopping.
Pants:
1
2
As a taller person you can wear pants with a cuff at the bottom and vertical stripes. The stripes will elongate your legs making them look thinner and longer but the cuff will break up the line of your pant your legs and make look not look like giant.
Make sure that you get pants that fit in the waist. This is THE most important thing. Here is where I come to a little bit of an injunction. I know that the belt line of my pants should be resting on my hips, about an inch or two below my navel, but due to my gut I cannot realistically put pants there without them looking ridiculous. So I do what I can and put them right under my beer gut. This is where I measure my waist, as I continue to lose weight it will probably change. There should be absolutely no lines anywhere around your waist. This is important. This is make or break for pants. Next if there are no creases or lines, move to the pockets. They should not be folding up on themselves, sticking out, or have any pressure on them. If the pocket opening a little bit that is fine, but no more than 3/4".
The length of the pants was something I did not understand until recently. The pants should "break" or crease 1/3 of the way up your shin. Just one fold. A good point to remember here is that when you are walking, people should not see your socks. I have found that trying to implement both of these ideas turns into baggy pants. So I tend to go a bit shorter (if the next size is too short you can hem the pants) especially in the summer. That has been my personal experience, but I would trust these sources over what I just said.
As a side note, I like to avoid pleats, they have never worked for me but somehow I have about 6 pairs. They are a bit more comfortable to me but they look awful on my body and I never wear them (Remember, you wont wear something that doesn't fit or you dont like). Try some out though, you might be the perfect fit for them.
I have had good luck with Dockers pants recently, so give those a shot.
Shirts
1
2
Shirts are a little bit easier as I find its not as hard to hide your fitting mistakes. Goto a shop and try on about 8-9 shirts and get your size down and memorize it. This will help immensely. The first thing to check for in shirt fitting is the collar size. If I cant wear a shirt with a tie, I won't buy it. When you have the top button buttoned you should be able to get two fingers in between the shirt and your neck. If you strangle yourself getting them in there, it's too small. You should have to wiggle your fingers just a tiny bit to get em there, nothing more.
The shoulder seem should fall right where your arm rolls off. This is a bit tough to understand, but you'll know it when you find it. If you have trouble, refer to the links above. The cuff of the shirt should come down to the beginning of your palm. I shoot for it to hit the base of my first thumb bone or the last skin crease of my wrist.
For a bigger guy I think the length of the shirt is not terribly important for guys our size as long as you can tuck it in securely and it not come out if you happen to stop sucking your tummy in. Though, the fit around the stomach is a bit harder to get right. You don't want much fabric here because when you tuck your shirt in you have to find a place to put it. Just a few spare inches is all you need here. 2-4 inches will do. You wont pop a button, you cant use it as a tent, just right. I highly recommend the "military tuck". Its a nice way to cheat a shirt to do what you want because you probably wont be able to find a shirt that fits you perfectly in all the previous areas, so if you have to forsake one, forsake this one.
Jackets
Use them to cover up any mistake but don't rely on them. They can help to make you look more lean. A good suit jacket will to wonders, sometimes miracles. Use one to cover up that military tuck.
In closing (I'm getting tired haha)
a. Dont fool yourself into buying smaller clothing, you wont wear it.
b. Shop at thrifts stores, you size isn't hard to find there.
c. ^ This also makes it easier to throw out clothes don't fit.
I’ve been reading about capsule wardrobes lately and am trying to move that way with my wardrobe. I realized that despite my over abundance of clothing, there are only certain specific pieces that i wear over and over again and really love. Personally, I don’t think an extremely strict capsule wardrobe would be very realistic for me, but I think there are a lot of good principles that can be pulled out of the concept. I love the idea of focusing on quality, versatile pieces that fit you well and that you feel great in vs. as many fast fashion/trendy/cheap pieces as you can afford (which I realized is how I currently shop and is definitely why i always feel like i have nothing to wear even though my closet is overflowing).
I ordered a book on Amazon called (the Curated Closet. I haven’t finished it yet so I can’t 100% vouch for it, but I’ve flipped through it and read the first couple chapters and I think it will be really useful for me. It’s very functional, it gives you exercises to do to help you develop your personal style and then build your wardrobe around that as a guide.
Good question. Tbh marketing is fairly easy to understand at a conceptual level. Most people I have met in the industry that are good at marketing are able to understand customers and find insights within data, but most of those things are learned.
I would recommend (in order of affordability):
Hey Whipple Squeeze This
Ogilvy on Advertising
Advertising Concept and Copy
Each is more complex than the last so Whipple would be a cheap and easy start to understand marketing concepts. Hope this helps.
Ah, that's one of the more traditional shops.
I'd say that what everyone else here still stands. As a graphic designer, you do have the framework to be an AD, it just means changing your portfolio's focus.
So instead of worrying about kerning and grids, you need to focus more on USPs and brand messaging. Let on pixel pushing and more big picture thinking.
If your library has these books, Ogilvy on Advertising and Hey Whipple are great starters for understanding the creative process.
Would love to add anyone on Goodreads if you use it too :) [Add me](https://www.goodreads.com/thedoerco
)
Second Influence. Getting Everything You Can is good if you are basic in marketing, I would not recommend it for people who are more advanced.
If you don't know what a "business goal" is, you need to read this:
I think there are some subtle perspective issues. I drew over it a bit to point them out.
The most noticeable one, I think, is the central house. Its vanishing points are quite close together, which distorts the field of view and makes it look like the camera is close to it. I'd suggest moving the vanishing points further apart and seeing how it looks. Another issue is the foreground character. His shoulders and the handlebars on the bike deviate from the horizon, and he looks slightly out of place because of it. It feels like we're looking slightly up at him, and slightly down on the rest of the scene. You could change him so he matches the perspective of the buildings, or even change the buildings so they match him, since they're the only thing that enforces where the horizon is (the crops and grass can easily go uphill and converge off the horizon, but houses not so much).
This is stuff most readers won't notice or be bothered by, especially when the art is good. This field of view and measurement stuff is a nasty can of worms to open, since you have to keep track of every element in the scene at once, but it can give it that extra something when all the pieces fit together perfectly. I like the book Perspective! for Comic Book Artists, which goes in-depth on constructing scenes in consistent perspective and field of view, but I'm sure there are other resources.
But overall, it looks nice! You have very nice linework, construction, and anatomy. It'd be cool to see where you head with this.
The Elements of Typographic Style, By Robert Bringhurst is an excellent resource for setting type.
EDIT: Of course, I would recommend purchasing a copy if this sort of thing interests you. It's a great book to keep near your desk for quick reference.
This book will take years off your learning curve.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881792063?ie=UTF8&tag=alldietslowca-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0881792063
If you want to be a web designer and not just a code monkey, there's no way of getting around learning (at least the basics) of graphic design. Composition, grid systems, colour theory, typography. Did I mention typography? Really, visual trends come and go, but good typography is timeless and arguably the #1 factor that decides whether a site's content (the most important part of a site) is consumable.
Then, learn HTML and CSS. Write code by hand, i.e. no WYSIWYG editors. Also, ignore server-side languages (PHP, Python, Java, Ruby, C#, etc.) and even JavaScript at this point. Once you're familiar with the elements of HTML and how to style them via CSS, learn JavaScript, because now you'll have a good mental model of what you're manipulating with JS.
This alone will keep you busy for a substantial period of time, but it's the meat of front-end engineering. Simultaneously, keep refining your design knowledge and skills. Practice on personal projects. Get feedback from peers, it's a very generous community.
You should definitely read up on typography.
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Version-Anniversary/dp/0881792128
Here are some general rules:
Note: These are not absolute rules to live by. While they will generally work for many scenarios, it's better to understand the "rules" of typography and adjust based on your design's specific needs.
Overall, think more about your spacing. Give things room to breathe, as right now some pieces feel a little tight. I'm not going to tell you specifics on what to fix (I think that's a bad brand of critique that happens here), because we should all be able to look and think critically about our own work. Look over your design, see where you can help something breathe, and adjust to your own discretion.
Sorry to say this is very common. I met Erik Spiekermann a few years back, his book is a worthwhile read.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stop-Stealing-Sheep-Find-Works/dp/0201703394
Thinking with Type is a great book, but I'm more of a Bringhurst fan - The Elements of Typographic Style is my recommendation.
I have compiled a reading list to be read in order just for this question.
I strongly believe that these books will make you better than 90% of designers out there.
Level One
Start with Thinking with Type it is a really good introduction to all things graphic design. It focuses a lot on typography and it is really basic. I
Next is Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type This book takes what you learned in Thinking with Type and allows you to develope it further in a grid based system. Its good, basic, and has exercises for you to do to play with composition.
Third on the list is Graphic Design: The New Basics It will take what you learned in Thinking with Type and Grid Systems and open them up a little. You learn about design elements other than just type like scale, rhythm and contrast. It really good, and has some projects to do.
Level 2
Now You can get into more "advanced" stuff. There are a lot of books that can go here, but Ill recommend some of my favorites. Its not as important to do this section in order.
Grid Systems in Graphic Design is the bible when it comes to grids. Its german and dry as fuck, but it is basically awesome. Its expensive, but worth every single penny.
Elements of Typographic Style Not alot about grids in here, but it tells you every insane crazy thing that typographers do when they massage text.
You can look at other designers work too. Heres a list of designers I like a lot:
Stefan Sagmeister
Paul Rand
Massimo Vignelli
James Victore
Paul Sahre
Wolfgang Weinhart
Paula Scher
Tibor Kalman
Most of these designers also have books out about their life and work.
Get a sketchbook and play around in it. Draw, collage, glue bubblegum wrappers in there. Just make it a diary of your visual life.
You could also get into Visual Theory here:
Norman Bryson has a book on still lifes that awesome
JWT Mitchell's What do pictures want is great
After this, its just a matter of making a lot of really bad shit and eventually its just a little less worse and maybe one day it might be good.
Ive got more, but that should keep you busy for a year or two.
The elements of typographic style
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881792063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250821514&sr=8-1
learned more about fonts and font design than i ever wanted to. great book. lots of why, lots of theory, not as many examples.
An Essential Reading List For Designers
Source: www.tomfaulkner.co.uk
All books have been linked to Amazon for review and possible purchase. Remember to support the authors by purchasing their books. If there are any issues with this listing let me know via comments or pm.
Architecture
Communication Design
Fashion Design
Angela ButtolphEditors of Phaidon ?Furniture Design
Game Design
Graphic Design
Information Design
Industrial Design
(cont'd)
I don't actually know why sorry. If I could find my copy of this I could maybe say:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881792128
Best guess it has something to do with the arrangement of our eyes, but that's entirely my guess, and not a very educated one.
Good/quality design is making sure that as many aspects of a design as possible at least look intentional. In Modern/Swiss design (what most design today is based off of) this means keeping spacing/line-weights consistent, either the same, or from some sort of set/sequence. Keeping all of your horizontal lines, in the figure and the implied lines between, the same is very pleasing to the eye, and generally "looks better".
At the moment the thin slash through the middle is different enough from all the other white-spaces that it should maybe be a bit wider, though the designer should take care of that after dealing the the cross-bar on the A, just in case it's just that comparison that looks off.
Does that help?
I'm just out of school and about as far from a professional freelancer as you can be, but my last semester in school they advised us to get the Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. I haven't freelanced much, but its helped me out a lot for the little bit I have done.
Give Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud a read. While writing theory is only so useful, McCloud nicely breaks down some things about comics writing that aren't immediately apparent. The flow of reading on a page, how art can interact with words, etc. I've found it pretty useful, and it's a brief read.
Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.
This one used to get a lot of love in UXville. Obviously the context is allegorical. But it's a good, fun read about the abstraction of visual storytelling and narrative.
I can't really add anything to this conversation seeing as Maxwell Lord left such an excellent and thorough critique. However, one thing I will add is that you should definitely go out and pick up these two books:
I would also recommend that you get the superb art instructional books by Andrew Loomis. Unfortunately, a lot of these are long out of print but - thankfully - you can download some free, digital versions here.
Drafting patterns is definitely scary! This is the book we used: http://www.amazon.com/Patternmaking-Fashion-Design-5th-Edition/dp/0136069347. It's a bit pricey, but the earlier editions would probably be just as helpful! If you get into your project and you need help, just shoot me a PM! I learned a lot of things the hard way, so I'd like to help people learn from my mistakes, haha. I could also take pictures of my pattern pieces if it would help you visualize (the circle skirt especially was a bit weird).
This is the wool I used: http://www.moodfabrics.com/dark-turquoise-solid-coating-fw12295.html When I first looked at it, $18/yd sounded like a lot, but it ended up being the least expensive in my class. As you can tell from my pictures, it's much greener than the picture on Mood!
Use this book (it's free). It helped me out a lot.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007URVZJ6
Amazon has an ebook that walks you through formatting for Kindle. I used this when putting my boyfriend's book up as a Kindle ebook, and it helped tremendously.
I just read The Curated Closet and found it to be very helpful. I didn't do every exercise in the book, but it's SO helpful and sounds perfect for what you are looking for. I got mine from the library.
The book first has you basically brainstorm what styles you love and what you love about them. Then, through a very detailed process, you distill down to eventually curating your dream wardrobe with clothes you absolutely love and fit your lifestyle, including a wardrobe for work, after hours, exercise, etc. The book also include comprehensive selections on how to identify quality clothing and a good fit, what can be tailored easily, how to shop, how to update your wardrobe, how to style, etc.
It was very helpful for me as someone who has worn hand-me-downs most of her life (thanks big sister!) but is almost 30 and never really defined a personal style. I encourage you to take a look at it before going out and making any purchases. You won't regret it!
1: Without knowing what your "45-page nonfiction book" is about, I'm just going to give you the general advice that a good cover moves units. Unless someone is specifically searching for your book, the cover is going to be the first thing he sees and what catches his interest. This may be considerably less true in the non-fiction section.
How you go about getting one is up to you, but I'd personally recommend not skimping on your cover.
2: In regards to turning documents into e-books, this is actually a fairly simple process. Amazon released an e-book of instructions, and there's also a printable PDF you can look at without having to have a kindle handy. The main parts are mostly about letting your word processor handle white space instead of manually inserting spaces, tabs, and extra carriage returns (do so with indented paragraphs, page breaks, and double spaced lines). If your work has tables, charts, or pictures in it, then that might be something else to worry about.
3: Amazon's program is called KDP Select. The biggest drawback is that you can't sell your digital book through anyone else, but you can still sell physical copies elsewhere (unless it's changed since the last time I looked into it). Their website will answer your questions better than I can, but I would say that in general, no, I didn't find that Amazon did much of anything to make it worth it. You're still on your own for marketing and such, they just allow you to do some promotional work like offering your book for free for several days to hopefully snag some reviews.
>I know they will not allow me to price it $0.00 and have a minimum price of $0.99, so that is what I will charge on Amazon.
The common method to get around this is to put your work on other sites like Smashwords that DO allow you to set the price to free, and then report the book to Amazon as cheaper elsewhere. Eventually, they'll either automatically price match it or, in some occasions, pull your book down off their site. I've never heard of this second one actually happening to anyone, but I'm sure it could.
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte is very good for anyone making figures at some point.
I am currently working in a data warehousing and business intelligence role at a bank. Aside from the basics of ETL, SQL and OLAP, I would recommend having at least a basic understanding of financial accounting. I have also found it useful to read The Data Warehousing Toolkit as well as some other Kimball books.
For entry-level work, there are two recommendations of related skill that have served me quite well to get my foot in the door and show added value: Excel and reporting.
Every institution needs reports developed and it amazes me how rare it is to find well-built reports that clearly communicate their intended information. Being able to follow a few simple guidelines for effective layout and design go a long way. Edward Tufte wrote the definitive work regarding this, but I use Stephen Few's work for more up-to-date examples.
Excel has proven itself very useful for quick ad-hoc analysis and manipulations. Also, it is a mainstay application for most financial services companies and being fluent in functions, pivot charts and VBA is quite useful.
When I was in college we had to read the graphic novel Palestine it was excellent and completely altered my perception of the situation.
Amazon link
Thinking With Type by: Ellen Lupton: http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695
This might be what you are looking for, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information By Edward Tufte. The book is a little older, but the principles still stand, and it is considered a pretty seminal work for data visualization.
I really like The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. One of Tufte's principles is that you always want to maximize the data-ink ratio to keep your figures clean, informative, and easy to read.
Personally I use MATLAB for figure generation and Adobe Illustrator to put panels together, annotate, and add transparency.
Another pro tip is that you always, always, always want to work with vector graphics. If a journal requires raster graphics make sure that conversion is literally the last thing you do to your figures.
I took a class in college based on The Visual Display of Quantatative Information that gave me such an appreciation for data and how it is displayed. This sub helped reignite that when I found it. Not all the post live up to it though.
I highly recommend this book.
Edit: We updated the post to add this link.
Just my opinion but I didn't like Blankets all that much...Fun Home is awesome though!!
But, in addition to the others mentioned:
Understanding Comics -McCloud
Stitches -Small
Yummy-Last Days of a Southside Shorty-Neri
Tyranny
Pitch Black -Landowne(sp?)
The Arrival -Tan
Palestine
American Born Chinese
Drinking at the Movies
Unlovable
Another good book that surveys typography and introduces lots of general concepts:
Thinking With Type
A book you may find useful for color theory - it is about the relationships between colors, and was originally a book that came with colored paper to follow along with. It helps with seeing these relationships, not what good color combinations would be (this is some more like Kuler)
Interaction of Color
This is really misleading.
A Graphic Designer can work across fields including (but not limited to) advertising, and:
Just to name a few.
For your instance I would suggest it's worth developing any skills that are going to help you and give your work an edge, and understanding design and how it's made will definitely give you that.
That said, the label 'Art Director' could be used in more than one way. Typically a Senior Designer (so a graphic designer with lots of experience and talent) might go on to become an Art Director, and this role would see her responsible for interpreting the creative given to them by the ad folk. On the flip side, within ad firms there's a term 'Art Director' that doesn't necessarily require design skills, but would almost always require a solid appreciation and knowledge of art and design and the market being targeted.
Check out these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography
http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1292171536&sr=8-1
Ways of seeing by John Berger. A great book on visual communication.
How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul by Adrian Shaughnessy. The title says it all.
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst. My go-to book on typography - covers everything related to typography with beautiful detail.
Into Mind is recommended here a lot, as well as her book, The Curated Closet.
Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics would be a good start.
>A comic book about comic books. McCloud, in an incredibly accessible style, explains the details of how comics work: how they're composed, read and understood. More than just a book about comics, this gets to the heart of how we deal with visual languages in general. "The potential of comics is limitless and exciting!" writes McCloud. This should be required reading for every school teacher. Pulitzer Prize-winner says, "The most intelligent comics I've seen in a long time."
Hello everyone. Have a great vacation /u/tehalynn
Don't forget to update the Public Calendar with your progress everyone.
As one of the new team of Mods helping to take over for /u/tehalyn I would just like to say hello and introduce the mods that are helping out while /u/tehalyn is off having a great time on vacation. Here you can see our Day 1 posts explaining why we love comics and are participating in this challenge.
/u/TeaAndMurder
/u/pixelneer
Recommended Reading: Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art If you have not yet read this book. Consider it your assignment today! Go to your public library and check-it-out NOW. I personally consider this and a few other books the bible of visual storytelling. I guarantee you it will forever improve your comic writing, drawing and understanding immensely.
EDIT Here is a really bad PDF zerox copied version of "Understanding Comics" for those of you who can't go to your library or have $12. Honestly I am not sure how this is remotely legal but, enjoy it while it's there.
> in books, it is just imagination and suggestion.
Don't discount imagination so quickly! There's a great bit in Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics where he explains that, in comic strips at least, a lot of what makes them engaging is the space between the panels, where your imagination fills in the gaps. Books can harness this too, because they can very sharply define what you are and are not told directly.
A lot of consumer-driven media, though, focuses on telling a single story, which is definitely not exploring. You can find less linear games, movies, and books, all of which give you more of that exploration sense. Creating new things (doesn't matter what; art, music, code, LEGOs) can also feel more like exploring, because there's no story aside from what you're trying to tell, much like going on a hike in the woods.
also, if you haven't read this yet, dig into Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics it's a must and worthwhile read. best of luck.
please don't use capitals every other word. [](/derpwizard "It hurts us, it does.")
i'll be frank here and say that your colours are a little lacking. i don't have any bandaids for that, but i suppose some reading up on colour theory or some colour studies will help. they don't necessarily have to be from real life, they can be from other comics as well.
and comics dont have to be vertical strips, but that's up to you. there's a nice book on comics i read recently (and enjoyed). you could take a looksee if you ever feel the want to.
Sure! I've done a bit of research about this topic a while back in university. I don't have my scans anymore, but I'll try to find a few examples! Sorry, I don't really read manga myself anymore, so I don't remember ones with white people in them.
First, here's Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, who briefly wrote about the issue of "The Other" in Japanese comics (I found it a bit superficial, but basically true).
When looking at the links, also note that non-Japanese people often are also drawn more realistic and more detailed. That's exactly how the concept of "The Other" is depicted.
Here's a discussion of the "white"-looking faces (and "The Other" as concept).
Here's actually a picture.
Here are some more examples, also on other races.
Looks like [The non designer's design book] (https://www.amazon.fr/gp/aw/d/0133966151/ref=dp_ob_neva_mobile) by Robin Williams is what you are looking for!
Great book, straight to the point with lots of practical examples and simple steps to improve your designer's eye!
We used "Patternmaking for Fashion Design" by Helen Joseph-Armstrong for our first patternmaking class and reference it all the way through our senior design classes. It's an awesome reference book--almost any project/design I've had I've been able to find the alteration I've wanted in this book, or at least the basic starting point. It has a LOT of information/ideas, so sometimes jumping into more advanced techniques can be a bit daunting if you haven't learned or at the very least read through the basics. I haven't purchased and used them yet, but if you're looking for some cooler patterning techniques I've heard both first hand from classmates and in general online that the Pattern Magic books are amazing.
For draping we used "Draping Basics" by Sally Di Marco. I think this book is a good reference, but my professor thought it wasn't the most beginner-friendly. I didn't struggle with it throughout my classes and think it's great, but it can be a bit dense to read through if you don't have a teacher/person demonstrating the technique in front of you and have no previous draping experience. Again, great reference and has tons of info, just takes a tad more effort if you've never sewn or draped before before you pick up on the terminology/patterns of what they're doing.
The last really good book I'd recommend is "Professional Sewing Techniques" by Julie Cole/Sharon Czachor. newbies to sewing may need to Google some terms now and then, but it's perfect for all the little details--all the different types of pockets and how to sew them, different methods of creating tucks and pleats, etc. Say I know I want a specific detail, like a cuffed sleeve: I can look it up and see all the different ways they do it in the industry (all of which are easily doable on a home sewing machine) and see all the subtle differences those techniques make. For costuming, it can help you be more accurate and it's great to see all the variations laid out in front of you. It also makes a massive difference in how professional things end up looking.
TL;DR The three books in the links above should have you covered for flat patterning, draping, and all the little details that make your costume/clothing look professional and well-finished. Knowing at least the basics of sewing is recommended for the draping book, but the rest of the terminology used in all three beginners should be able to Google and understand no problem!
(Edit: formatting)
The best thing to do is get a copy of Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographical Style and read it. Then read it again. Then reference it regularly.
There is no better resource for learning to set type well.
Get The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst. After you've read it you can check out webtypography.net a site which is going through chapter by chapter and adapting the lessons of The Elements of Typographic Style to the web providing helpful css snippets and explanations of how print and web typography differ by convention and necessity. In my opinion design without typography is nothing. A thoughtfully typeset page with no adornment caries far more weight than a poorly typeset page filled with the fluff techniques demonstrated on the multitude of tutorial websites out there. Understand typography and you are well on your way to understanding design.
If you're looking for something he will learn from, not just a gimmicky "lolol I hate papyrus" gift, I'd strongly recommend The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.
This book was recommended to me by one of my lecturers while I was in university. I didn't purchase it until I had graduated (mainly because I was broke at the time), but I really wish I had purchased it earlier. It is the pinnacle book for learning about typographic history and best practices. I cannot stress enough how much of an amazing resource this is for a young typographer. Even if you don't end up getting it for him, just let him know that it exists so he can pick it up at some point.
The former is widely considered somewhat of a 'type bible,' and was referenced often in college. It's a fantastic resource, however it can be seen as less accessible for total beginners.
That's where the latter comes in. If you're going the self-taught route, you'd probably love Stealing Sheep. However, unfortunately it seems to be out of stock everywhere, with only used or insanely marked up resellers. I wonder if it's going out of print, which would be a shame.
ti consiglio The Elements of Typographic Style, di Robert Bringhurst. Libro leggero e chiarissimo che copre molte basi di tipografia.
My ex is a graphic designer. She used Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. Should give you all the pricing info you need.
Aproveitando o assunto, todo mundo deveria ler um livro chamado The Visual Display of Quantitative Information quando o assunto é gráficos e estatísticas.
Yes! I am catching the 90s vibes too. I love that aspect of it. Maybe there’s a designer out there making a similar inspired dress that’s not so straight across the neckline. If you like, you could sell yours on Poshmark or consignment and put the cash towards the new one.
I checked out The Curated Closet from the library awhile back and it helped me a great deal. I didn’t even finish reading it before it was due (curse of an over ambitious reader!!) and I still got so much from it.
First, I want to congratulate you on losing the weight! I started a new job about six months ago and wardrobe was basically what I wore in college and graduate school. I wanted to step up my wardrobe a little bit, so I picked up The Curated Closet from my local library. It has helped me define my style and helped refine my wardrobe. One of the 'exercises' it has you do is to create Pinterest boards of your clothes to help you define your style and what not.
I've only tried Poshmark and had mostly successes. I've gotten some great pieces (dresses, sweaters, jeans, and flats). But I would agree with u/Truant_Muse, patience is key and knowing measurements.
Good Luck with building your wardrobe! I can't wait to see it :)
In addition to the questions I just want to point out that 2500 words is too short for Amazon. I'd recommend going back and boosting it to over 3000 words at the very least (likely up over 5000 words would be better) before posting it to Amazon. Amazon doesn't like content that is too short and you could get in trouble for 'poor user experience.'
As a final note I'd really recommend reading the FAQ and sidebar on this subreddit and then doing searches to get a lay of the land. This subreddit has a wealth of information on it and spending a couple hours here getting yourself familiar with everything before publishing is really going to help you out a lot.
Oh and congratulations on your first story!
Understanding Comics and Making Comics by Scott McCloud are a great place to start.
There are several things going on here!
One, I think "being high" from pot is actually a learned response, like any other skill, it takes time and practice. It takes several exposures to actually really understand the experience and get a full effect. No doubt, there's something biological to this. Over time, the effects get more noticeable. I've never really met anyone who had it completely work the first time. Everyone I know said the effect got initially bigger the more they did it (and then, past that point, you build up tolerance).
A second thing is that the effects are really profoundly different for each person. A friend of mine was heavily into chronic dope, and he would often smoke with (what he termed) people who were 'beginners'. Like, he'd share a joint, and the person he'd smoke with would be really knocked around, for example they would barf or become so intoxicated that they would be incoherent or non-functional. It didn't affect him nearly to the same extent. He could smoke 10X that amount and not get nearly as high. I've known at least three people who are really weird people unless they smoke dope, and with the dope they seem to become just like normal. Bottom line, some of this depends on how much you smoke, how often, how strongly it affects you and what your baseline state is like. The range of responses is huge.
Then, there's at least one other thing. I've met several people who have a specific drug that simply doesn't work at all on them. A friend of mine could take heroic, death-defying batches of psilocybin and they simply were inert. He would feel cheated or ripped off and it was very obvious he was 100% sober. He once accused me of faking the effects! If I took a tiny amount from that same batch, it was a mystical experience, so it wasn't that the drugs were counterfeit -- he just couldn't get high from mushrooms. That happens to me too, but only during the refractory period...mushrooms (taken all alone) don't work again for a few days duration right after you take them once (but you can ordinarily tweak that by adding some extra substances). I've known some people that get an effect from pot that outwardly seems like it's so incredibly mild it's almost non-existent. I actually think the pot that is available is getting a lot stronger, which makes me think that most people are less sensitive to it than I am, because it's almost unpleasantly strong to me now.
What's funny and interesting is that once you have experienced a drug, you can easily recall the experience/feeling of it, and what's more, you can be in a dream of being actually high while you sleep, which is basically the same as saying that you can repeat actually being high without the drug. In other words, your brain learns to get in the state once it discovers it.
My partner is a lot less experienced with drugs than I am, but I notice when she is high more than she notices. She's all forgetful and not making sense, while at the same time she feels she's not feeling it. I feel that there's a certain amount of inward observation about being high that's different from normal reality. Part of what you learn (with a first drug) is to have a kind of duality that you experience towards your introspection. Here's the sober part of my mind noticing the high part of my mind. This is different from actually just feeling or thinking one thing.
The absolute best drug experience from a first time use is from LSD. It actually works insanely well the first time you take it, it's an unavoidable and very potent experience. The problem with LSD is not the thing that everyone is scared of: bad trips. The problem is permanent insanity -- I really think it's a bit of a dangerous substance. Out of a small handful of people that I know who have done it, I personally know at least 4 or 5 people who became acid casualties and had actual damaging permanent brain changes, and none of those people were doing anything truly weird, just using it the way anyone else would. I don't really recommend it unless you are willing to take that risk. One or two normal trips don't guarantee that something won't eventually happen. To me I don't think the problems/risks are connected to what other people talk about...I don't think you have to be pre-disposed to anything to have a potential problem with it. Perfectly normal people still run risks.
It seems like the psychedelics (like Psilocybin, LSD, Ecstacy etc. and extremely strong pot) are substances that inhibit the thalamus in various ways. Basically, this is the part of your brain that is like a traffic light, which makes you only think one thought at a time versus multiple thoughts. If you soak your brain in enough of the right juices, you can definitely allow a lot more traffic. What actually ends up happening depends on the person. I knew one guy who became a really fluid skateboarder with the same drug that allowed someone else to talk about philosophy.
Drugs have been a really interesting thing for me. I've experienced synaesthesia, visual-, corporal- and auditory-hallucinations, many, many powerful insights into myself and the world. All the normal things like time-dilation, munchies, laughing, whatever. Also lots of mystical and religious experiences. I once made friends with a house cat and we went hiking together for about 3 hours in the forest. I even wrote an exam on LSD once and the professor turned my answer into a class lecture -- I guess I came up with a pithy way of integrating all the things that the course was about. I've entered states where it was like programming my own brain as if it was a computer. I've been an insect on an alien planet, and I've had a UFO encounter and found a successful way to talk a friend out of suicide. I've seen Jesus appear and saw him convince a friend of mine to become religious. I've run from the police while feeling like it was in slow-motion. I also invented a couple of legit mechanical devices. It also changes the way I see/hear and process music and art, where I can suddenly hear through distortion, understand mumbled words and see more symbolically, metaphorically etc. Pot also improved my sports performance, and I actually had some of my best ever competition results while being totally baked. A few pro athletes I know don't race unless they are quite high on pot -- it seems to improve reaction time and endurance.
I once tripped sitting beside a river, and I had every visual element (trees, ducks, kids, dogs et.) map into a very realistic miniature simulation of the overall human superstructure, where I could look down- or up- stream and get a coherent snapshot of the past, present and future. After the high went away, the mental model proved to be durable and rational and the insights probably still affect how I see things. The very first time I dosed on LSD, the drug kicked in while watching the normal TV news. I still cannot watch any TV without seeing the gears moving on the propaganda machine, it literally cured me of the hypnotic susceptibility you need to "get into" watching TV. However, I'm probably even more interested in movies now. The best book about exactly how I see movies is this one, the only difference is that movies are sequential in the same space where comics are spatially juxtaposed, but the book is highly recommended regarding how it works.
However, I basically don't do any drugs at all any more. I probably went through a period of beyond-average experimentation, but I found there are a lot of risks for me personally. I don't particularly enjoy being actually high, so for me, it's a tool only insofar as it helps me direct my life. One major thing is that using drugs turns me into a dreamer rather than someone really living my life -- this happens in a seductive way that's hard to notice. The way that my personality is, I need to actually focus on executing on real ideas rather than coming up with more and more possibilities or being in a state of creative flux all the time. As a professional creative, I have an endless stream of possible ideas all the time even when I'm totally sober, and drugs make that overwhelming to the extent I don't (and can't) get enough done. Drugs are super time-consuming.
Yo, as a fellow aspiring mangaka, I got some tips for you:
Write for yourself, not for your audience (it's fairly obvious when you're intentionally trying to play to your audience [fanservice, super Japanese sugoi nihongo wo hanase dekiru yoooooo] and fans, especially Americans, will NOT appreciate it)
Shounen heroes can range from Ichigo (shatter fate, straightforward) to Yuuhi [Lucifer & the Biscuit Hammer] (brooding and thinking protagonist), this applies to every genre; research accordingly.
Forgive me if I am wrong, but I assume you are producing an OEL (Original English Language) manga. Don't fall into the stylistic trap, take a look at Osamu Tezuka's "Phoenix" and Hiroaki Samura's "Blade of the Immortal" to really see the artistic pioneers of the genre. Even things like word bubbles and panels can change the feel of an entire page. Don't fall into the Nick Simmons faulty thinking that manga is a specific formula.
If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics". No matter how good of an artist you are, there are certain nuances to the comic trade that need to be explored, if not the entire trade of art.
Take a look at the difference between the wildly successful Jason Chan and the sadly less employed Shaun Healey
Jason Chan is employed by everyone from Wizards of the Coast to Marvel Comics. Would I read a comic of his? Probably not. He can establish a temporary narrative (paint a sweet portrait of a single moment) but so far, seems to lack the ability to pace. A crucial element of manga.
Compare Oh! Great (Air Gear) to Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist). Holy shit is Oh! Great's art freakin' amazing. Have you seen how he renders people flying upside down and shit? This guy knows anatomy like crazy! Does his story make sense? HELL NO! He seems to make things up as goes along and abandons character development in favor of explaining his ridiculously complicated made-up physics (Air treks stopped making sense like 5 characters ago). On the other hand, Hiromu Arakawa's characters look like they've been through a steam roller, but hey, you can recognize them, they are fully developed characters, and you can understand their motivations.
Naoki Urasawa is an excellent mangaka. He created "20th Century Boys", my favorite piece of literature, and collaborated with Tezuka himself on "Pluto". They guy who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize pretty much said that Urasawa should've gotten it instead. His art? MEH! But it's a style that makes characters readily differentiable!
STYLE is important. Know what you're trying to say and SAY IT. Ichigo may look like Ikkaku, but their motivations, the stylization of their eyes, and Kubo's backgrounds create entirely unique atmospheres.
Know anatomy, start from ground zero (gesture, proportions), emphasize what you think is important and become unassailable in your knowledge.
DO SOMETHING, even if it sucks, practice, post, copy, learn. Enjoy what you do, manga is awesome.
Well, first off, stay away from Grant Morrison if you're just starting out with comics. Go with writers that have more linear story writing. Additionally, I'd recommend picking up the book Understanding Comics by McCloud. It's a really great guide that will help you uderstand the sequential art that is comic books. Here's an Amazon link to it: http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-The-Invisible-Art/dp/006097625X
The Non-Designer's Design Book
A combination of using old decks as well as content from this book: https://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-4th/dp/0133966151/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486226887&sr=8-1&keywords=Graphics+Design+for+Non+Designers
I'd recommend reading:
https://www.amazon.com/Storytelling-Data-Visualization-Business-Professionals/dp/1119002257
http://www.bdbanalytics.ir/media/1123/storytelling-with-data-cole-nussbaumer-knaflic.pdf
and
https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142
​
The graphs don't follow best practices and could use some work to more clearly communicate your goal.
Bar charts should not be center aligned like that, unless 0 on the x axis cuts directly through them (ie if they show positive and negative values simultaneously)
These charts are complete garbage.
The Y axis for the rental costs is half the scale of the one for ownership. The further obfuscate this by having a yearly income on the left and a monthly costs on the right. This is classic misrepresentation of data.
If you read what it actually shows, it has owner monthly income at $6.7k, with monthly costs at $1,500 (22.4% of income), compared to renter income of $2.5k and rents of $850 (35% of income).
The question then becomes whether we are comfortable with that 13% difference in income towards housing for owners vs renters. I would argue that not only should we be comfortable with it, we should be protecting that gap. The smaller that that gap becomes, the less attractive home ownership becomes. If we closed that gap entirely, there would be no economic incentive to buy a home other than pure preference, while renting brings significant additional freedoms of movement.
-edit: Anyone interested in this topic of data manipulation should pick up The Visual Display of Quantitative Data. I promise it is not nearly as dry as it sounds. It's an entertaining, highly informative, and beautifully illustrated book, and is a sacred text to data scientists.
Essential for Data Visualization: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte.
This book: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte.
A book about charts and graphs? Buddy, Tufte's made millions and millions of dollars with his books and lectures on this topic. This is an amazing book.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0961392142/ref=sr_1_olp_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268289826&sr=1-1&condition=used
I recommend the following books:
Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton.
This book is the essential introduction to typography and probably should be the first type book you get.
Lettering and Type by Bruce Willen and Nolan Strals.
This book provides an introduction to different types of lettering and typographic work, as well as a brief introduction to designing your own typeface.
Designing Type by Karen Cheng.
This book covers the intricacies and design considerations of each letter one by one. It's a great reference when designing your own type, or even if you just want a more in-depth look at letterforms.
I own Making and Breaking the Grid and Thinking with Type. Both came highly recommended.
Aside from making things look nice they also have to function well too. Design should go hand-in-hand with user experience. I suggest reading the book Don't Make Me Think to get an understanding of why things are laid out. You can have a nice website but if it doesn't function well your users will opt out in coming back.
Start going to your other favorite websites and find what they have in common and what's different and keep notes that you could back to and reference; you'll start to notice a common theme in layout. There's Behance, Awwwards, Dribbble (though don't take too much away from here), Smashing Magazine, A List Apart, and more.
Learn color theory and typography -- I suggest Thinking with Type. Like another user said: draw inspiration not only from web design, but take inspiration from other sources.
Typography and layout are the two most important things. You need to understand information hierarchy and how to properly arrange your information on the page. I recommend two little books that will help you immensely.
Thinking with Type
Geometry of Design
You can go deep into the weeds in either subject, but these two books are short and sweet and will give a nice foundation of knowledge.
On the software front, you need a vector-art program. Obviously the entire Adobe Suite would be great, but if you can only buy one, I'd get Illustrator. If you can buy two, I'd then get Photoshop as well. If you're doing a lot of multi-page print work, then you're going to need InDesign.
Good luck.
Grab the typography manual from The Futur for free to start with:
https://www.thefutur.com/resources/typography-manual-vol-1/
Then I'd check out Thinking With Type:
https://smile.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/
Firstly, drawing, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop are just tools. Learn how to use them well but they are only tools. Design is more psychology than it is software expertise. Learning the tools is important of course, just don't confuse the two. Design is the "why" and "what" you are trying to communicate, the function. Art, illustration, type, etc is the "how" you create the form. Form follows function.
With that said. Keep drawing. Everyday. Look into illustration as an art discipline, it's very closely connected to graphic design as far as purpose and mindset. Far more so than traditional studio arts. (painting, sculpture, etc).
Learn typography. Really learn the difference between typeface and font and families. Learn why serifs work for body copy generally better than sans. Learning how to hand render type, and do it well, is an invaluable skill especially paired with illustration.
In my view these are essential to add to your reading list:
There are about a hundred others I could add. Look beyond "Best Design Of The Year" kinda crap and seek out critique and theory. These skills far outweigh the ability to look at what's popular and ape it.
Finally, remember that graphic design is communication above all else. Think about who you are trying to reach, what you are trying to say, and why you are trying to say it. Be true to yourself and your audience, and you will do good work.
Good luck!
Without going into a lot of details, I would really suggest taking some time to study design fundamentals. A lot of your work looks like it stems from quick experiments with filters and various online tutorials. A better understanding of type, space, hierarchy, etc. will take you far.
Books like Thinking with Type, [Don't Make Me Think] (http://amzn.com/0321965515), and Making and Breaking the Grid would be a great place to start. Buy those—or get them from a library—and read them cover to cover.
Get this book and this book
The Bringhurst Bible
James Victore's book is amazing. It's a quick read but is packed with inspiration.
Envisioning Information is great for info design.
Megg's History of Graphic Design
The rest of these I haven't read yet, but here is a list of things I currently have on my amazon wish list:
Some People Can't Surf by Art Chantry
Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design by Jennifer Bass
Seventy-Nine Short Essays on Design by Michael Bierut
Damn Good Advice by George Lois
How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy
How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer by Debbie Millman
The Design of Dissent by Milton Glaser and Mirko Ilic
Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State by Steven Heller
I've been on a total typography book binge recently!
Finally, I strongly don't recommend Type Matters! If you see it in the store you may be tempted - it's a very attractive leather-bound book with sexy black and red illustrations - but I found it to be overly simplistic. It also looks like there's quite a lot of reading to be had, but the vast majority of the text in there is all repeated sample copypasta. (And if I wasn't disappointed enough in the book, the elastic came loose on my copy!)
Your best bet is to learn about the fundamental, and most basic rules of graphic design. Until you know the rules you can't break them, and anyone who is design literate will spot this immediately.
You need to learn about typography (grid systems, type hierarchy and a bit about what makes a typeface), this is a very good starter for ten Stop Stealing Sheep, and Learn How Type Works, then as your knowledge becomes more in-depth check out someone like Joseph Muller-Brockman, who is pretty much the inventor of modern typography. For me solid typography is the corner stone of good design, and luckily is more of a set of rules and guidelines, rather than the ability to 'express oneself' visually (something I feel is well suited to a dev).
In order to understand the 'flair' of design I think the best thing you can do is to immerse yourself in the work of amazing designers, think Herb Lubalin, Paul Rand, Jan Tschichold (the list goes on and on). It is only through a cultural awareness that you will be able to make subjective decisions about your own design work.
A good design forum, or friends who are designers, will be critical in the early stages because it is essential that you review your work with other designers or creatives - it's one of the first things they teach you at college - and it really helps you talk about your work, something most people (even the extraordinarily talented) find extremely difficult.
For me though, good design is a process of reduction, always remove the unnecessary. Keep it simple...
edit: Sorry, I realise I haven't answered your question with regards to links and resources, hopefully you will discover these through your exploration of design... :)
Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works
is an entertaining light read. I would recommend it as a starter before going to Bringhurst
Highsmith's Inside Paragraphs is a great introduction. It's 100 pages and it reads like a comic book. It is very short and incredibly specific: it is only about paragraphs. I make all my typography students read it, working from the idea that good typography starts with good text typography. In other words, if you can master text type, display type is easy.
Lupton's Thinking with Type is a good general beginning text. She has a lot of the info on her website.
I also find Speikermann's Stop Stealing Sheep quite good for an intro text.
Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style is the classic text that is worth having in your library. Mine is fairly well-thumbed with plenty of post-it flags and lots of favorite passages underlined. It is a bit much for the beginner, but definitely worth having as a reference. You'll grow into this one, and likely never outgrow it. It is a reference book that reads like poetry.
Design is much more a "why" rather than "how" sector.
People here will disagree with me, but they're wrong.
You're designing solely for a client, and it drops into so many things, Target market, competition analysis, colour theory. Especially if you want to go into UX, where the thought behind anything is just as important as the end product. We're problem solvers, we answer questions through design, colour and form.
If you're looking to learn the tools, you also need to learn the thought. The "why" behind the "how".
Being able to do a 5 minute job in illustrator because you know the tools doesn't really matter if you don't know why you're placing things and creating things.
If you're doing tutorials, make sure you're reading.
Logo Design Love
How to Use Graphic Design to Sell Things...
A Smile In The Mind
I'd recommend these three, they're primarily logo and branding design books, but the fundamentals that they cover translate into every facet of Visual Communication.
Instead of trying to sum everything up in one Reddit post, I am going to direct you to this book. It is extremely informative, and written by someone who is quite experienced at comic book writing.
It may also help to actually look at some comic book scripts to see how professionals handle things.
You also seem to be asking about how to do the actual art, so I'll also suggest either buying some Blueline paper, or Clip Studio Paint if you want to work digitally.
Your anatomy work is looking nice. Did you draw them from life or out of a book? This is a great comic/book on perspective
These are mostly directed at classical book design, so they probably tend more conservative than you should do for a magazine, but these books actual spell out rules for what you should do (I'm a big believer in handcuffing yourself to rules for the purpose of understanding them, and then breaking them later), which is I think what you're asking for.
My sorta summary/advice based heavily on what I read in the above books:
Don't decorate; be confident. There's definitely an urge to add little horizontal rules above things or boxes around page elements. Tischichold especially points out how young designers can't help but put a thin box around the inside title page of books. He says it shows a lack of confidence. The solution is to have a justification for where you put things.
Basically, if you have a baseline grid for the page, then you can place page elements on it and know that they will be harmonic with the overall page.
Page numbers can honestly go anywhere as long as it's not the inside edge. Putting them there means the publication has to be completely open in order to use the page numbers, which is annoying.
Don't put repeating information on pages. It's annoying to have the author's name or the book title at the top of every single page. Again, this is a demonstration of a lack of confidence. I believe the thinking is that if the pages are photocopied and distributed, then people will know where it came from. DRM annoys.
Usually the font size for notes will be smaller than the main text, so keep aware of the leading difference between the two, especially if you put notes along the side. The leading shouldn't necessarily be equal, but it should be a multiple of the main content, so that every three or four lines the text aligns again.
I hope none of that was totally irrelevant to your project :) Good luck!
Elements of Typographic Style
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Brinhurst is what you're looking for.
Hermann Zapf said “I wish to see this book become the Typographers’ Bible,” and Hoefler & Frere-Jones consider it "the finest book ever written about typography".
If you have never referenced the book, then I think that The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information would be right up your alley. Aside from the amazing content, the book is crafted with excellent material and makes a nice coffee table item.
The reason I learned to sew was because by the time I was 13 years old, I was a size 16. Girl, I feel your pain! I wear a size 20 these days, and many patterns do go to a 22 or 24. With that being said, there is nothing better than drafting your own patterns, and it's way easier to do than you'd think, it just takes some time and patience. My favorite book to work off of is this one. Happy Drafting!
That book has to be good. I'm no big ellen lupton fan but she knows her stuff. Other books that would be good are ones by Erik Spiekermann such as this Erik's stuff is a must read for beginners or professionals, the guy gets all crazy technical about it which is awesome I thought. Another guy that comes to mind is Matthew Carter, if he;s got a book you want that. As for calligraphy I just got started with calligraphy myself and hate to say this but I hate it maybe because I'm using dipnibs and the wrong nibs. However it's a lot of fun, but I'd rather stick to lettering, has more control atleast for me personally.
"Don't Make Me Think" is probably outdated but it used to be the best book on the subject. http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0321344758
The Smashing Books (there are four now) are fantastic. Worth the money every year. You can also subscribe to the entire Smashing Library. https://shop.smashingmagazine.com/smashing-book-4-ebooks.html
"Stop Stealing Sheep" is an excellent typography book: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/0201703394
I remember really liking the book "logo design love" when I was getting started, though I haven't looked through it in awhile (loaned mine to a friend) to remember exactly what was in it haha. But I remember it having some practical advice in it that was presented in an easily understandable way. (https://smile.amazon.com/Logo-Design-Love-Creating-Identities/dp/0321985206/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=logo+design+book&qid=1568948814&s=gateway&sr=8-1)
Could be worth checking out!
Big fan of Logo Design Love by David Airey.
Gonna second this and add in a book on logo design. I like this one for beginners:
http://www.amazon.com/Design-It-Yourself-Logos-Letterheads-Business-Newsletters/dp/1564967689
Then move on to the big one:
http://www.amazon.com/Logo-Design-Love-Creating-Identities/dp/0321985206/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412518028&sr=1-1&keywords=logo+design
You could also use inkscape which is a free vector drawing tool.
I absolutely love and recommend the book Logo Design Love by David Airey.
Yeh there’s just too much going on here. If you have to use an image fill, stick to one i.e. the map or the terrain. This wouldn’t work very well in monochrome either, which isn’t everything but it’s generally a sign of a good, recognisable logo. I recommend reading Logo Design Love, you may find it helpful :)
Ogilvy on Advertising
Truth, Lies, and Advertising
Hey, Whipple
Bill Bernbach's Book
The Book of Gossage
This https://www.amazon.com/dp/039472903X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_-LmozbRFSJV3K
And this https://www.amazon.com/dp/006124189X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_dMmozbWME8S98
And for fun read, get Matt Beaumont's "e" and "e squared": https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s_ss_i_0_9?k=matt+beaumont&sprefix=matt+beau
Also, get this for general knowledge of some of the great work done in particular medium: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118101332/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_0Qmozb5TPRJCS
Check out this book by Brian Michael Bendis: https://www.amazon.com/Words-Pictures-Business-Writing-Graphic/dp/0770434355
It's a fantastic look at the nuts and bolts of comic writing, but it also has great lessons on writing and process in general, as well as devoting a chapter or two to the business of being a writer. It's an easy and fun read, strongly recommend.
So as a writer, there's an impulse to exactingly describe what you envision in a panel--you've got the pacing down, the dialogue, and a firm belief that the comic will go swimmingly if/when the comic comes to life exactly as you've laid it out in exacting detail.
But more often than not, that's miserable for the artist. You're taking absolute control over what happens in a panel, and many artists will feel that you're encroaching on their creative territory. It is the artist's job to produce story in their particular style, and many will hate how restrictive it feels to draw a panel with little creative wiggle room.
Not all, of course. Some artists like very prescriptive directions so they can get on with it. Check out Bendis' Words For Pictures, there's an invaluable section where artists bitch about writers.
As a writer, it's difficult to cede creative territory, but making comics is all about trusting your partnership with your artist. A lot of the time, the artist will come up with stuff you couldn't have predicted.
An artist gave me a list of books to read at a convention after I showed him my work.
Figure drawing for all its worth
Perspective! For Comic Book Artists
Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative
The Classic How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way
The one I've got and like is Vanishing Point: Perspective for Comics From the Ground Up. It's quite comprehensive. I have it on good authority, from artist friends of mine, that David Chelsea's book Perspective! for Comic Book Artists is excellent.
Graphic design is everywhere and at all levels, expect to be paid accordingly. Understand too that $1000 for a logo is completely relative and doesn't by any means reflect the work that goes into it. You may have a someone who whips something together in a few minutes or have a team of designers slaving away iterating on an identity for weeks to make sure it's perfect, to make sure it becomes a household/highly recognizable piece of branding.
Now on the typography I can make a few suggestions, some of these are pretty dry and not so flashy but have very solid fundamentals in them. If you go to art school (and I highly suggest you do if you can afford it, it can be a phenomenal experience) then these are the kind of books you will be reading in the first year or two.
Typographic Systems of Design ~Kim Elam
Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type ~Kim Elam
Thinking with Type ~Ellen Lupton
Elements of Typography ~Robert Bringhurst
Hope that was helpful and I'm sure lots of other people have had very different experiences and will share their stories and opinions. It's a very diverse field.
I'm a type designer, so feel to ask me questions.
To keep the look and feel consistent across the entire font largely depends on understanding the fundamentals of visual communication design, typography, and the relationship between characters.
The process starts with a design with specific parameters, a "skeleton" of a typeface. You need to decide if it's going to be a serif, sans serif, slab serif, display, etc., then move on to the qualities of the typeface. What characters would it have (cold, friendly, fat, loud, etc.)? What purpose would it serve?
Once the design is settled, the work in creating a typeface from scratch involves lots and lots of tweaking to maintain a relationship with each glyph. Drawing glyphs is a lot of work, and yes, a lot of the work is done by eye. Each character could be "generated" and be mathematically accurate as a foundation, but it will be largely optically incorrect and loses an important quality, a human touch.
Extrapolation with fonts can be done with Superpolator and interpolation with RoboFab, but it doesn't make the typeface design better if it is not drawn correctly in the first place.
The best fonts out there, upon close inspection of their glyphs, show that their forms are derived from the written hand. See Gerrit Noordzij's The Stroke for more.
Karen Cheng's Designing Type is another good read. Another book that's coming soon is Fred Smeijers' Counterpunch 2nd Ed..
As glasspenguin mentioned, Typophile.com is a great message forum on type design. You will find a lot of information there.
@OP I second the typography being…default as sitniz said. I would suggest checking out resources like ilovetypography, thinkingwithtype, and the fundamental "Elements of Typographic Style" by Binghurst
On typography:
On grids:
On colour:
On usability:
On information design:
On inspiration:
On theory:
On history:
Monographs:
I'm a type nerd :)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0881792128/ref=aw_ls_5_3?colid=3RG1SRKEB21KE&coliid=I3JBV4YELX1GPP
Every freelance designer should have this book:
Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Designers
http://www.amazon.com/Business-Legal-Forms-Graphic-Designers/dp/1581152744/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
and this book:
Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158
If you are curious about how to charge clients, you should definitely invest in The Graphic Artist Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethnical Guidlines. it has tons of information on how to price your work accordingly.
hallowayillustration and Erinaceous are the only people here that know what they are talking about. If you're looking to hire an illustrator because you think it will help you get published don't bother. Book publishers hate that, and if they liked your writing they would throw away the illustration work and hire someone themselves, so it's a waste of money. I hate that students are willing to work so cheap, here's some advice for any current students. If you want a portfolio piece you should draw for yourself. Craigslist is where illustration goes to die. Don't undersell yourself because you undersell the industry, buy this book and use it for pricing http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
You don't need to specialize right now. Try to learn as much as you can about everything. Go wide and deep.
If you like automating things, tool development is good. QA automation, continuous integration tools, network configuration tools, etc. Lots of demand for that kind of work.
Data visualization is more cutting edge. Huge piles of data out there but humans can only absorb so much. Involves datamining, UI design.
Have you read this? http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142/ref=la_B000APET3Y_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410035830&sr=1-1
It's the classic in the field.
Tools development is kind of corporate and very nuts-and-bolts. Data visualization is cutting edge and will be huge in the future, as we try to grapple with all this data we're collecting.
Between the two I'd definitely go with data visualization. Cross-discipline between datamining and UI design. Interesting work.
Cool. "Know your audience" is important to any map design, and you'll obviously know more about that than me. Like I said, these were just my first impressions.
I don't think the font size for the title is a huge problem.
This has the makings of a slick-looking map. I think the fact that your title text and legend/notes text is the same color as the warehouses is a bad idea. Try this: Close your eyes, then open them. In that first fraction of a second, where do your eyes go? For me, it certainly isn't the data. My eyes immediately drop the the lower left, where the legend and the (hugely over-sized) notes are. Then they jump up to the title. Then down to the compass rose. Only after that do they want to notice the data.
This is off topic, but I suggest you read Edward Tufte's books. This one is my favorite: http://www.amazon.com/The-Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142
His books aren't really about map-making, but how to display and communicate with data. They really got me thinking, and I hope have made me better at making maps. I'm cheap, so I just got them from my local library.
Step 1. LOOK at the art.
It sounds like you're doing this, that's great! The artist probably spent 2–10 hours on that one page, I'm sure they'd like it if people did more than glance at it. You might find it useful if you pay attention to these things in particular: shapes, how lighting works (the shadows, shading, and highlights), line width, composition and layout, foreground/background and perspective, anatomy and proportions (which can be unrealistic and still look good), textures and effects.
Take a look at through the Escher Girls tumblr if you want to see what inaccurate anatomy can do to otherwise skilled artwork.
Step 2. Learn about what goes into artwork. For comics, manga, and other sequential art in particular, I HIGHLY recommend reading Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. It is not a how-to-draw book. It's also well worth your time, and odds are good you can find it at your local library if you live in an native English-speaking country. The sequel, Making Comics, is also really good.
Step 3. Keep looking at the art for multiple series, over time eventually you'll start to notice what works and what doesn't, when rules are broken to good effect and when they really should've listened.
This is called critical theory. Try https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
Do you read comics? If not, head down to the library and check out a variety of them. Graphic novels and TPB's will vary in length, some shorter ones are fewer than 50 pages. Some longer ones are over 1000.
Browse Kickstarter. I'm not a huge fan of most of the campaigns on there, but a lot of them get funded, you can see from those campaigns what it takes to get what you want done.
r/comicbookcollabs is a good place to look for an artist, or deviantart, or comic book forums. You MIGHT be able to work out a partial residual deal, but expect to come out of pocket for your project to the tune of around $100 per page.
If you're not familiar with scripting comics you should get your hands on some comic book scripts to see how they pace a page, a chapter, a single issue, a book, ect. You might be fine publishing your first chapter at around 20 pages, you might want to do a short graphic novel at 50+ pages.
Here's some books you should check out
https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
https://www.amazon.com/Comics-Sequential-Art-Principles-Instructional/dp/0393331261
Nice rundown. Here are some other books I would recommend OP check out:
Any of Scott McCloud's books. Making Comics is good for the technical side, Understanding Comics (the 1st of his series) is also good to break down WHY comics are important.
(One can probably skip his second book, it mostly examines webcomics and since it was printed is fairly outddated now thanks to various internet technologies advancing as it all does)
DC Comics has also published a series of "How-To" books which are good to thumb through , I personally own all of them but the Writing one-
-[DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics] (http://www.amazon.com/DC-Comics-Guide-Writing/dp/0823010279/ref=pd_sim_b_4)
-DC Comics Guide To Pencilling Comics
-DC Comics Guide To Inking Comics
-DC Comics Guide To Coloring and Lettering Comics
-DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics
Since you mentioned the line thickness/thinness- um, the inking one would probably be a good one to start with. It'll show at least American/western methods of going about things, minus anything digital because the book was written before digital was big in the process. The Digital Drawing book somewhat helps on that issue but with programs like Painter, you can pretty much emulate any traditional tool fairly easily. If you have a particular style in mind you want, post it up and perhaps I can help determine what tools were probably used to make it???
This one --> Understanding Comics
You should give her a copy of Comics and Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative, both by Will Eisner. Actually, it might be easier to read them yourself so you can augment your own understanding of the difference between comics and illustrated books. They're prose for the most part (as opposed to Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud), with examples interspersed. Eisner lays down all the reasons why comics, graphic novels and sequential art in all its forms has been, and should continue to be, a serious medium for the dissemination of ideas and stories.
Okay, I'll give a quick sumuppance. Comics and graphic novels rely on images and words working simultaneously to achieve a visual narrative much like a film. If you want to you can consider them the middle ground between books and movies. I suggest those books because Eisner gives a much more thorough explanation than I will. One of the fascinating points he brings up is the use of cave paintings and hieroglyphs as a means of communication (before or, even, as written language) as well as the difference between logographic languages, like Chinese, and phonographic languages, like English (and most other written languages).
Okay, I'm rambling and I'm not even sure I've cleared up what the real difference between illustrated books and comics or graphic novels is. Really, since you're in the business of safeguarding and sharing information, you should read those books, as well as Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud so you can gain a greater understanding of why you like comics and why they should be included in the information which is preserved for everyone.
edit: Gawd, I misspelled achieve.
Don't give it up just yet, and have a talk with your academic advisor and/or favorite professor. They've seen it all before, will not think worse of you (they're more likely to think better of you, actually!), and have the resources and networks to really give you a boost no matter what you choose.
Take classes in subjects you enjoy or find interesting! Your future is never set in stone. The average person goes through three complete career changes, and your major can fluctuate all over the place. Take this time to learn something new and useful and difficult, and don't read too much into your grades.
Freshman year is hardest before you find friends you feel you can really confide in. Taking cool classes will throw you in with like-minded people and potential friends.
I highly recommend Understanding Comics to anyone interested in cartooning.
Ναι αυτό εννοώ. Κρίμα.
Καταλαβαίνω ότι το comic είναι πολύ δύσκολη υπόθεση. Το πόσο δύσκολο είναι το κατάλαβα διαβάζοντας τη σειρά βιβλίων του Scott McCloud "Understanding comics: The invisible Art", "Reinventing comics" και "Making Comics". Δεν είχα ιδέα από comics ως μέσο και μου κίνησε την περιέργεια μία ομιλία (keynote address) του McCloud σε ένα συνέδριο που είχα παρευρεθεί. Awesome stuff!
You might be interested in Scott McCloud's 'Understanding Comics' (and later 'Reinventing Comics'). Possibly a little dated now, but there's a lot of useful information there.
Edit: There are many useful ways to critique non-representational and abstract work- Some of my personal favorite methodologies are Panofsky's three-tiered system, Semiotics, and formal deconstruction.
1). It's a portrait, with recognizable, yet stripped-down features in more or less the right places.
2). it either explicitly references Basquiat as /u/Felix-Is-Dreaming pointed out (and with whom I strongly agree), or it's another crown referencing kingliness - think 'the fisher king' if you want a more psychoanalytical analogy in relation to this piece.
3). Formally, the piece draws much of its strength from a secure composition and from its ability to span between representation and abstraction. It's angry splatter brushwork, dark colors, and broken down form all collude to present an identity in turmoil (or something close to that effect).
4). however, there is a careless amateur approach throughout the painting. In Scott McCloud's brilliant Understanding Comics, McCloud explains how someone who seeks to emulate only the style will only have a surface level understanding. I believe that to be the case in this piece. For example, there is no attempt at a ground on this piece whatsoever; does that mean the titanium white of the gesso sufficiently conveyed your meaning? Or is it a lack of foresight? Similarly, many of the colors are unmixed, seemingly straight out of the tube. Yet does that mean you are having a conversation with pure pigment as someone like Calder or Matisse? Or is the more likely story that you did not refine your intention for the color before application? When your characters crown hits the top of the composition yet the bottom doesn't, is that a conscious choice on your part or did you simply run out of canvas space?
you may be interested (or already looking at) some of the neo-expressionist painters, particularly from Berlin. If so, I recommend Donald Kuspit's: The New Subjectivism. Kuspit's a romantic, but acute critic and you might find some common ground with the artists within. This is to say, you have more experimenting and examination to do, of which I will leave to your own devices.
Best regards,
D
Edit: rephrased my intro for clarity. removed:
>
geez, you other people have no idea how to critique a non-representational piece, huh? You can still use panofsky's 3 tiered method, an expliticly formal approach, hegelian dialectic. Shit, there are tons of ways to approach this.I can tell no definite source for all the stuff I learned. I took art classes in school and also an art class with an artist here in town. I watched hours and hours of youtube videos.
Ironically, the channel that helped me the most in the end with vector art was Alphonso Dunn's channel which is mostly about ink drawing. But some of the things he says about basic lines and the communicative value of lines really spoke to me.
Other channels I found useful would be Proko, Draw with Jazza and if you feel very serious, News Masters Academy.
In terms of books, I dunno. I had various drawing books, anatomy books, etc pp. Very interesting and entertaining and totally changing the way I think about Comics was Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics"
edit: Most importantly: training, training, training. Keep working on it and you will improve. Don't rest on your laurels once you have the first successes, keep improving.
WOOOO! You should pick up a copy of "Understanding Comics". I'm not a great drawer, but I love making stick figure comics that tell stories.
Whatever you decide to draw, this will help your composition and choice in what to draw! I hope you enjoy it.
https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
go buy Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art by Scott McCloud right now!
It will help with all of these issues and more
His stuff on "The Big Triangle" is so clutch
I've noticed a few on my library shelves, but haven't read them all yet:
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. It's Bechdel's memoir about her father, and an excellent read. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0618871713/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_zF8HzbJGXQY79
The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti by Rick Geary. It covers a milestone legal case in 20th century US. https://www.amazon.com/Lives-Vanzetti-Treasury-Century-Murder/dp/1561639362
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It's a text on the nature of comics, in graphic novel form. It's a classic. https://www.amazon.com/dp/006097625X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_sO8HzbDMZF7EJ
The Book of Genesis, illustrated by R. Crumb. He illustrated the entire text of this book of the bible. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393061027/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_8U8HzbZBERQNM
And here's a good list from The Atlantic Monthly: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/comic-books-as-journalism-10-masterpieces-of-graphic-nonfiction/243351/ (I've read and enjoyed a couple of these titles, so I feel safe in assuming the others are just as good)
anyone wanting to make better powerpoints just needs to read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.
All the artistic skill that it takes to craft a well put together story in a series of panels is equally applicable to comics or powerpoint.
Understanding Comics!! amazing book, totally changed my perspective on the medium.
Sure.
Josiah Brooks has an active channel with all kinds of drawing tutorials that are very beginner friendly, so that is one that you should definitely check out.
Sycra has a really beginner-friendly channel as well, with a lot of great tutorials that you'll probably find super useful when you're starting out.
Circle Line Art School has a bunch of videos about perspective that are worth checking out.
Alphonso Dunn specializes in traditional media and shares a lot of tips that will definitely help you out as a beginner and as you move forward and begin experimenting with different techniques.
James Raiz specializes in the kind of artwork I think you're interested in and he shows you his process for constructing characters from sketch all the way to final rendering. Sometimes it might be a bit advanced, but it will give you an idea of the type of process you're looking at.
Ahmed Aldoori has a slightly more advanced channel that is mostly centered around digital art, but includes a lot of short videos with decent tips that could help direct you in your studies.
Joe Cornelius is a painter who is very knowledgeable about colour theory, and so when you begin to use colour in your drawings he's definitely someone you should check out.
Feng Zhu is a master concept artist and teacher who's channel is very advanced and focused entirely on digital painting for video games and movies, and so it might not be particularly helpful for helping you learn to draw comics, but he's a wellspring of information about being a professional artist and it's a joy to watch his process.
Typically you can just type "beginner drawing tutorial" into youtube and it'll give you a ton of other options to choose from. As you move forward, you can refine your searches to learn about more specific things like technique and colour theory.
Also, you should search for comic documentaries on youtube and take some time to learn about the history of the artform and master artists like Jack Kirby and Jim Lee. If you aspire to be a professional then it would be to your benefit to have knowledge about the men that made the artform great to begin with.
Another great resource you should locate is a book called Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. This book will change the way you think about comics as an artform, and I can't recommend it enough to ANYBODY interested in them whether as an aspiring creator or simply as a fan. McCloud's other books are good too, but Understanding Comics should be on every artist's shelf.
Sott McCloud would like to give you a hand
I totally see how it could be used to break down boundaries. It's like how, if your brother becomes an A-list TV actor, he's still your brother who happens to be a celebrity. He never becomes a celebrity who happens to have been your brother for fifteen years. Sites like Reddit give us an opportunity to see everybody like a member of big, adopted family (just like the study group).
The thing is, we know our family are ordinary people we can talk to because we've seen them from all sides. To trigger that revolution, you'd need to introduce a new culture among the upper/creative class, where it's okay to be transparent about yourself. Sites like Reddit could enable that culture, but peoples' inclination to do so would need to be there, regardless, for the site to work. Before Instagram, people were already showing everybody at the table what their food looked like. Until they start physically zapping our brains, computers alone are never going to change people's behavior.
Letting your insecurities and flaws be part of your public persona, letting strangers see you as a fully fleshed out person with depth... that's a pretty terrifying thing. It involves spending several horrifying nights doing nothing but unrelentingly hitting yourself with your own big fuck-ups. Most people are afraid of showing that stuff to one other person, even when they've known and trusted them for years. Showing it to everybody, including lots of people who would have liked you if they hadn't known small parts of the worst things you've disclosed - especially in a field like mass media, where the most adoration-dependant personalities gravitate - is... not an attractive prospect.
Without that culture, our idols seem like perfect points of light and positivity, which is why people feel starstruck if one of them should stoop so low as to say something to them. Closure fills in the gaps that when they're away from us, they're doing what they do in front of us, rather than considering the idea that they're sitting on a bed with their face in their hands wondering if anything about their personality is their own.
\ I'm using "closure" in the Understanding Comics sense, which, Dan, I'm assuming you've read based on my third-hand understanding that you've read the biggest books on the structure of media you work in, and knowing that you wrote La Cosa Nostroid. For anybody who hasn't, you really should, even if you've never read comic book in your life and never intend to.
Hmmm... this is a tough one to answer. I consider myself to be one who oozes confidence, so I feel like I have the authority to answer.
First, body language is a good, simple one to fix. Always walk with shoulders back and chin up. Also, from this TED talk, I learned that you look/feel more confident when you spread yourself out while seated. This TED talk has truly left a lifelong impact on me.
As far as talking goes, always be learning and always be passionate about what you're learning. I guess that's the biggest part. When I speak, I'm very enthusiastic about what I'm talking about, and I try to tailor my conversation topic to link it somehow to what the other person is interested in or has been doing lately. And -- very important -- I make sure to keep my enthusiastic rants short and to the point, always being aware of how long I've been talking. This is all a lot easier when what your learning can be related to a lot of things, or, conversely, if you're learning about a variety of different things.
You also really need to build confidence, which I think is actually easier than it sounds. If you want confidence, you need to build self-esteem. To build self-esteem, set goals and achieve them. And these don't need to be huge, difficult goals, either. For the past few years, as a college student, I've switched majors three times, so I've never been able to really pick something to obsess over and accomplish. But I have been exploring my interests, and during this exploration I've accomplished a lot of small tasks that have made me a more learned person. Even little things: over the past few months, I've gotten really into comic books, and last night I got hooked on a couple of new series (Afterlife with Archie and Trillium if you're interested). I've been reading books and watching lectures outside of school and taking notes on them. Right now I'm taking notes on Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. None of these "accomplishments" will get me any awards, but they make me a more cultured and more interesting person. And I enjoy the experience.
Make sure you're exercising. If I go a couple days without exercising, I physically feel like crap, and my self-esteem takes a dip. Make sure you're exercising, and make sure you set goals for yourself so you can build confidence as you achieve them. I've been weightlifting since the 8th grade, and just last week I was approached at the gym by someone who wanted to recruit me onto the school's rugby club. It's little things that slowly pile up to make you confident.
Lastly -- and this is more along the lines of your question -- teach yourself to be aware of other peoples' social cues. You can only really learn this through experience and/or by deliberately paying attention, but it's something that's INCREDIBLY important. If you notice that the person is "zoning out" while you're talking or that they're barely acknowledging you while you speak, stop talking to them and ask them a question. Most people enjoy talking about themselves, so it's a good thing for people to associate their joy of talking about themselves with the time they spend with you. This doesn't make you a 'beta' male or an interrogator, so long as you make room for yourself to contribute to the conversation.
And don't be a dick. Everyone hates assholes. Golden Rule and whatnot.
Firstly, I wouldn't consider my perspective of the role of art in society to be defined much by my experiences in school (esp. middle school and high school, for us Yanks)... And since I went to an art college, my perspective's further skewed here. Back in school, there wasn't much discussion about the role of Art. It simply was, and you took from it what you needed. No one ever tried to tell me art was meaningless or a waste of time, and for that I'm grateful. Art serves a million purposes. It communicates, challenges, and enriches. It can be a simple demonstration of one person's dedication or a reflection of the experiences shared by a civilization. Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics" is a nice entry-level art theory/critique book. Worth a looksee.
If you wish to learn more about comics, I cannot recommend Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art enough.
As for art style... eh, it comes in all shapes and sizes, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Especially when you do it just for fun and don't go for any other style than your own.
Doesn't seem like you're as interested in getting help with writing as you are in getting help with illustration.
Still, regarding writing, I strongly recommend reading Scott McCloud's two seminal books on comic books: Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics.
I learned as much about comics from reading those two books as I learned about film from reading Story, by Robert McKee.
I.e., my appreciation and understanding of both media forms increased exponentially.
This book was recommended here the other day.
The Non-Designers Design Book
I've seen a lot of RPG designers talk about The Non-Designer's Design Book as a way to learn the basics of layout.
You don't need to 'learn photoshop' - you need to learn design fundementals. Luckily for you the basics can be groked in a couple of hours, so grab some beers and read this https://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.fr/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Robin-Williams/dp/0133966151&ved=2ahUKEwjwpd_o4cLeAhVBgRoKHeElB4kQFjAMegQIABAB&usg=AOvVaw0b1sBWhk6SnyR5MjCHlPR-
And then read Don't make me think and then https://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881791326&ved=2ahUKEwjV1cSU4sLeAhUJdxoKHdOEC8cQFjANegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw03o7FI9eojlwYKvoUQNx0z
A Word of Caution on Inspiration Galleries
Seeking inspiration (ideas) is perfectly acceptable, but it must be done so cautiously. Too often, people fall into the trap of simply copying the sources of inspiration because it looked nice.
Instead, it's helpful to study the source of inspiration. Which components are interesting? Why were they used? What problem was the designer attempting to solve with them? Once you understand why those components were used, then you are better positioned to decide if they help solve your design problem.
It's also helpful to remember that no two design problems are the same. Sure, you're a bank and we're a bank, but we have different needs, target different audiences, have different value propositions, different brands, and so on. Thus, our design solutions will necessarily differ.
Some Helpful Resources
As for helpful resources, I would start with a video from Flint McGlaughlin on the inverted marketing funnel. You're probably already familiar with the funnel concept from marketing, but he describes it as fulfilling a sequence of "micro yes" points. If you have a good understanding of how the user moves through these "micro yes" moments, then it can help you decide where to choose and place elements on a page. For example, should your call-to-action be above the fold? Do you need pictures? Are stock photos okay? And so on.
Going more in-depth, I would recommend looking to The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett. You can find lecture videos from him on YouTube covering the ideas.
Another book on the essential reading list is Don't Make Me Think, Revisited by Steve Krug. It's a fantastic book on usability and user experience.
For a slightly more graphic design bent, although still applicable, I would recommend The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams. It will help you understand the basic components of graphic design which can be applied to web design.
What all these resources do is give you a basic framework through which you can make better design decisions.
Design is fundamentally about problem solving. You are not creating a design simply for the sake of the "design." You are creating a design to accomplish some goal. This is true of graphic designer, web design, user experience design, interaction design, and even industrial design.
Thanks for the reply! I can safely say I would like to focus on web/digital. I've started collecting/bookmarking resources to the principles you mentioned but is there any particular path you would recommend? I don't mind throwing down some money for a learning resource (such as Lynda) and some books. My current list of books I have in my cart:
Also, since you're a designer and developer, what is the ratio of work like for you at your current job? Do you end up doing more development or design?
> Also, go through some RPG books you consider beautiful and look at them as a page designer
I came here to mention this. but also, check out The Non-Designer's Design Book – its advice is much more general than rpg manuals, but the concepts and tools are worth every penny.
The Non-Designers Design Book is pretty wonderful. It breaks down the basic rules and tenants of graphic design in a very easy-to-understand way, with lots of pictures and before/after.
I find that many designers become designers because they were artists when they were kids and wanted to continue making art for a living. This book is great for those people, too. It's sets some structure around making your design easy to look at and/or use. Without getting too complicated, it delves into the neuropsych-based rules that help us make clean and easy designs.
I've purchased that book as a gift more than any other, and make my company buy it for everyone who works in my department.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0133966151/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687622&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0321534042&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0ZA58Z7W2DV09C2C0C6Q
I like this book quite a bit for helping me alter slopers. Has a lot of interesting ideas for designs and features too. Not a ton of info on how to construct, but if you have experience with commercial patterns and finishes, should be ok with some help from google/youtube.
http://www.amazon.com/Patternmaking-Fashion-Design-Joseph-Armstrong/dp/0136069347/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418560325&sr=8-1&keywords=helen+armstrong+patternmaking+for+fashion+design
This one, used at my local craft college in their fashion design program. It's extremely through and recommended by industry professionals.
(as in - I'm in a private forum with garment manufacturers and they say it's good)
Like /u/jereviendrai said,
Helen Joseph Armstrong's Pattern Making for Fashion Design.
It is a textbook and it is wonderful and very thorough. Any publishing year will do. Libraries usually carry it. Also can be found in "easily liberated" formats.
Download the free guide from Amazon on how to format your Word document for Kindle.
https://www.amazon.com/Building-Your-Kindle-Direct-Publishing-ebook/dp/B007URVZJ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483308983&sr=8-1&keywords=kindle+formatting
BTW if you're serious about this business get Scrivener as an investment. It'll make life so much easier for you. Vellum is for advanced publishers. You don't need it yet.
this might help:
Building Your Book for Kindle [Kindle Edition]
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007URVZJ6
What a great post! I want you to dress me.
On a related note, I have this book on my list. One of my favorite bloggers says it changed the way she got dressed.
best coffee table book ever- http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142
Read it, learn it, do it, read it again: http://www.amazon.com/The-Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142
No problem.
Here's a link to the book on Amazon if you want more info.
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but Joe Sacco's Palestine is a graphic novel that covers the history of the conflict from the Palestinian perspective. It's a really interesting mix of art, history, and literature, but is pretty out-of-date unfortunately.
"The Non-Designer's Design Book" and "The Non-Designer's Typography Book", both by Robin Williams (no not that RW). Great starter books for a general introduction that isn't so detailed that it's boring.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic/dp/1566091594'
A great book about some simple basics that help give even the most plain design some polish: http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-Principles/dp/1566091594
> You're using both serif and sans serif fonts. This is very tricky to pull off as they rarely look cohesive together.
This is terrible advice. Every piece of typographic literature I’ve ever read strongly disagrees with this (like this or this). Serif fonts pair wonderfully with sans-serif fonts, but they must complement each other.
If you’re looking for quick-and-dirty examples of successful, free font pairings, check out this guide. If you’re looking for more science / rationale to expand your typographic knowledge, this article is wonderful.
Hi there. You are really asking how to be graphic designer, so there is no quick or easy answer. The first and best advice is to stop looking at "motivation" or "quote" posters. Your instincts are correct, and forgive my gross generalization, but they lack any design standards. The next step would be to look at better stuff. You can search for inspirational sites and the like in this subreddit and get excellent recommendations. A site like typo/graphic posters might not be immediately helpful, but it is the kind of work you should be looking at. While looking at good things you can also read about good things Reddit Reading List is a good place to start. You can't go wrong with Ellen Lupton's Thinking with Type or Kimberly Elam's Typographic Systems of Design.
Specifically with what your are doing now should look at typeface selection and heirarchy. Do all of the words in the quote have the same importantance, the same "weight"? Are "everybody" and "window" the most important words, and of such importance that they drown out everything else?
Hope that answers your question a little. Best of luck.
https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695
This is definitely a good one to start with
It seems like you're interested in UX design but not entirely sure what it entails. The role of a UX designer varies between companies and has changed over time. You can think of UX designer as someone who is skilled in interaction design, creating wireframes & protypes, user research, information architecture, etc. A bunch of skills smashed into one job title. Some skills of a UI designer includes visual design, color, layout, typography, etc.
From what I've seen, what companies are looking for these days when they say what a UX designer is that they want someone who can do both UX & UI to define, maintain, and grow a product with Product Managers. Product Managers are driven by business goals, you are driven by user goals. A Product Designer is becoming a popular term for this type of job. It's hard to find a UX job where all you do is wireframes, user research, and information architecture (as least with the big companies).
First, you need to think like a designer. Time to start reading some material. I took a class on Design Thinking at my university, and it has really helped me put into words what designers do. Link to the course materials.
You can find a bunch of lists of UX design books out there on the web. I started out by reading The Design of Everyday Things, a classic. Other books on my shelf are Design is Storytelling and Value Proposition Design. Not related to design, but during one of my internships I was given Everybody Writes and I recommend it because, well, everybody writes.
After you have a better understanding of what UX design is, start thinking about what it means for you and what you want to focus in. If you ask a bunch of designers why they do UX, you will get different answers.
From there, you need to start practicing. You can look up examples of side projects you can do as a UX designer. The most important thing here is to get critique from other people, learn from it, and iterate on it.
One common side-project is to redesign an app like Yelp. One thing I personally don't like about these projects is that they are typically "blue-sky" redesigns, or designs without constraints. This is fine to do when you're starting out, but to think like a Product Designer, you need to think about the business goals, make assumptions on why it's the way it is, and create constraints for your re-design. What's the user problem? What are the business goals? What are some ways I can solve these problems? What assumptions am I making for these designs?
Lastly, I think all UX/Product designers need to have some visual fundamentals down. Typography, layout, color, etc.--visuals are a huge part of the experience (along with copy, but thankfully I've had the chance to work with great copywriters). To get you started, Thinking with Type is a great book. I'm constantly looking at designs on Dribbble and Medium - Muzli for design inspiration. See something you like? Steal it and make it work for you.
Look at design blogs from big companies like Facebook, Google, and Airbnb. Stay up to date on what's happening like Mailchimp's redesign. Look at works from famous agencies like Collins. Watch YouTube videos from channel like The Futur.
Notice that I never mentioned any tools in this post. You won't become a UX design by learning html or js, those are for front-end devs. It may be nice for you to know, but not critical. You won't become a UX designer because you learned how to use Sketch or Adobe XD. Tools are constantly changing and are easy to learn. It's everything I mentioned above that's hard.
I will post some of my favorite books in a second for you as soon as my computer gets turned on. :)Here are a couple of my favorites from my school "Hey, I actually like these.. I'm going to purchase them!" collection.
General Graphic Design:
Graphic Design: The New Basics
This publication does a great job of showing "relationships between formal elements of two-dimensional design such as point, line, plane, scale, hierarchy, layers, and transparency." If you are looking for a general overview on a lot of subjects within graphic design I think this is a great way to upgrade your vocabulary and general knowledge about graphic design.
Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field
I feel like this book really can help you improve your vocabulary and general knowledge of the graphic design world offering "primary texts from the most important historical and contemporary designthinkers." It's also nice that it offers a bit of history too, analyzing the early 1900s through today.
Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop
Great. Absolutely great publication for all designers showing effective use of the grid system and how to layout your compositions. "Effective layout is essential to communication and enables the end user to not only be drawn in with an innovative design but to digest information easily."
Typography: <3
30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime
I loooooove this book. It gives a bit of history and usage examples of 30 amazing typefaces you should know and love.
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and Students
Another great typography book. This publication was one of my favorites because, at the end of the day, I'm a visual person and this book has SO many visual examples to compliment it's copy it's beautiful. "This revised edition includes ... the latest information on style sheets for print and the web, the use of ornaments and captions, lining and non-lining numerals, the use of small caps and enlarged capitals, as well as information on captions, font licensing, mixing typefaces, and hand lettering."
Typographic Systems of Design
This is a very good resource for learning, as the title states, typographic systems. It "explores eight major structural frameworks beyond the gridincluding random, radial, modular, and bilateralsystems." Overall, I feel like this book helped me to improve my positioning and creative use of type in designs.
I'd say the largest "mistake" I see is not knowing how to use a grid effectively before going without one. Here are a couple of books that helped me figure things out a bit regarding this:
Grid Systems In Graphic Design - Josef-Müller-Brockmann
Thinking With Type - Ellen Lupton
Both great resources for getting started.
Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton is a fantastic little book that teaches the basic principals of typography for use in publication and print design. It's a brilliant guide and is always handy whenever I'm looking for some guidelines.
For more typography I'd also recommend Just My Type by Simon Garfield. It's an excellent collection of stories about typefaces and the history behind them.
Generally speaking, your typography needs work. If you want to get serious about design, I'd highly recommend picking up either Thinking with Type or A Type Primer
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Designer-without-Expanded-Edition/dp/1568989830
I'm partial to Thinking with Type and How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul myself.
Both are very instructional and inspirational
Esquire tends to have better fashion advice than GQ, IMHO. Esquire is more classic.
Here are their online tips: http://www.esquire.com/style/tips/
Here is their book: http://www.amazon.com/Esquire-Handbook-Style-Guide-Looking/dp/1588167461/ref=pd_sim_b_12
Looks like July 9, 2005. So close!
Gonna leave this here.
+1 for the first person to realize it's not about drinking. :)
If you're serious about infographics there's loads of good resources available. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition is a very good read - rock solid theory and an essential for every designer. Once you've read that check out the follow up Envisioning Information for some excellent inspiration.
that's a lot of book money! Like other posters suggested, I'd want something that you're going to enjoy passing the time just looking at.
The Visual Display of Qualitative Information might sound dry and terrible but it's beautiful and so very interesting.
Get this (very old but very good) book: Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Tufte.
Browse https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/top/?sort=top&amp;t=all
and maybe http://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Infographics-2015/dp/0544542703/ref=sr_1_1?rps=1&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1464943088&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=best+infographics&amp;refinements=p_85%3A1 for inspiration.
Consider the coursera course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/infographic-design (it's very basic but a good overview)
Learn basic design concepts like visual hierarchy, white space, type, visual flow, colors, grid layouts, etc.
Edward Tufte as mentioned by micro_cam (http://www.amazon.com/The-Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142) is a very well regarded source for visual display/information presentation.
My simple tips are:
Don't use straight red, blue green, etc. Play with more subdued colors. In Matplotlib this is color="steelblue" or color="darkred", and there are others as well.
If you look in the webdev community there are lots of charts of colors and the corresponding hex code. Playing a lot with blues, purples, and oranges at the moment but I have no real background other than I like the way they look.
Don't ever use the jet colormap (if you know enough to know when it is ok to violate this rule, you also understand why not to use jet in general ;) )
Pretty much anything by Stephen Few. His 2nd edition of Information Dashboard Design is a great start. He's also done some great whitepaper type stuff as well. Google can help you find it.
Edward Tufte is pretty famous in the area as well. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information is a classic and an amazing book on representing data.
To me, telling a story with data is essential to calling something BI. Otherwise, it's just presenting a bunch of data in a different format than it started. You need to guide users to be able to diagnose issues and make decisions. Wireframing out a dashboard that starts big picture and have different paths users can follow to additional focused dashboards is key.
I just did a presentation on dashboard and visualization best practices at my company's conference for the 2nd time, and both times a lot of people told me how it changed their view of how they view analytics, or that they needed their team or boss to see the presentation because they are thinking about things the wrong way. Most of what I know and practice/preach today is a result of the above two gentlemen, plus things learned on the job along the way.
Visualize the data with the best chart type for the data. Not because they are pretty. Not because users want to see it a certain way. Pie charts suck, don't ever use them. I use this tweet in my presentation. Along with an example chart of when to use pie charts. Your dashboard might be KPIs and bar charts, and that's ok.
I could go on forever...
TLDR; Check out a couple of guys who are good at what they do. Tell a story with your data! Pie charts suck. Use the right visual. Feel free to PM me questions.
Well, the most important books that I read when learning design were:
All of those would be a good start.
> Personal opinion:
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> If you haven't read this book:
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> https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142
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> Then you probably shouldn't comment on this topic.
Classic elitist jerk "personal opinion". I will send you my address and you will get the privilege of shipping me a free copy of the book, so maybe one day I can be worthy of a discussion with you. Deal? No? Then please avoid these toxic comments, or save them for a face-to-face conversation so that the other person can punch you in the nose to bring you back to reality.
Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America, but Gary Wills. He completely changed my understanding of Lincoln, the Civil War, and America. If nothing else this short book shows you what it means to really read a text.
Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte. A dull title, an exciting book on how to use pictures to help you understand.
edit: fixed link
GGS might be on my list as well. But Selfish Gene gives you a distorted view of evolution. Dawkins is a hyperselectionists, he really can't seem to grasp that selection is only one of several forces involved in evolution.
That sounds like a great book, thank you. I found it on Amazon if anyone else is interested. It averaged 4.3/5 stars.
Lots of great recommendations in this thread; I've added a few to my reading list. Here are my suggestions (copied from a previous thread):
And, the following two are a look into the lives of two great men that lived in the 20th century; both offer many points worth emulating.
I think i'm not quite following. What exactly is the theme of the essay that you have to write?
Branding for a student festival? "Relevant literature for my practice" sounds like it refers to theatre.
Maybe these books can help you:
Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team, 4th Edition
Paul Rand - Thoughts on Design
If you could be more specific/clear things up, i'd be happy to recommend more books.
I think Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler is a good overview: http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-Branding/dp/1118099206/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1405532860&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=branding
Random people on Reddit will be the most transparent.XD
I have asked the designers, they seemed okay but who knows what's inside?
I do consider to take a short course or at least a proper online course. Right now, I'm learning digital print production using EFI products.
If you can suggest some good online courses?
Some books that I have studied properly:
If anyone can recommend books specifically for print design, that would be great.:)
Basically you brand for an idea, feelings, values or maybe even a story/history .. and not a literal activity or object.
It sounds complicated but think of it this way. What does Nike's logo convey? Speed, momentum, agility. The exact messages are subjective but the overall theme is easily understood by consumers. Athletisism. Theres reasons why thier logo was never a shoe.. same for adidas.
This book will help.
https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-Branding/dp/1118099206
As long as you use elements and compositions that communicate certain (sometimes abstract) ideas youll be fine! Slanted objects: movement. Heavy lines: strength. Leading lines: progress etc.
This one was a required book for a class I took in college. To be honest, I don't remember a whole lot about it, but it might be worth checking out. It's a graphic novel, by the way.
Here you go, it’s a brilliant book
Palestine Collection https://www.amazon.com/dp/156097432X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_0DAiDbS5ZH8E6
I stumbled upon them quite by accident in the library, though I was vaguely familiar with what Maus was prior to that. I devoured both books, and thoroughly enjoyed both. Other than that, I am ashamed to say that anything that could be said seems already to have been said. Kuddos to some of the insanely in-depth and thoughtful points made.
However, perhaps I can contribute in one area: They certainly aren't exactly the same, but if you enjoyed Maus as much as I did, you might also like Safe Area Goražde and Palestine by Joe Sacco. Incredible examples of graphic journalism that you will not soon forget.
A version of this joke is in Joe Sacco's graphic journalism book Palestine. I can't recommend it enough, as well as his series of books on the Bosnian conflict.
Scans of that page: first and second
What do you need feedback with?
The site isn't, like complete rubbish or anything. But there a lot of room for improvement, and I don't know where to start.
I'm guessing that'd you probably want some advice on how to make it look better. So, I'll start there.
If you want to learn how to make websites look nice, start here.
Design is actually really hard. It takes a long time to learn the fundamentals, let alone gain mastery. But there are many resources available.
In terms of coding, start by learning about validation.
Getting a design right across different browsers is hard. Validating your code as you go along will make things easier.
Learn the development tools in your browser of choice. Firefox has firebug, which has an awesome array of extension for helping you craft your pages. Firefox can also be extended with the web development toolbar, which you can use to validate your code as you go.
(Incidently, if you search reddit, you will find threads where developers list their favoured web development tool sets.)
Maybe you might want to pick up this little book. It will give you some hints and tips on type design for paper:
http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-Principles/dp/1566091594
(not an affiliate link or anything; just a quick search to find it online somewhere)
As others have said, you have a lot more room for play when dealing with printed items. Brochures don't have web limitations, so feel free to try out different type faces. Also, keep in mind that printing so much black might lead to costs you don't see with web design, so choose a printer (either the machine, or a company) wisely. You don't want tacky inks making the brochures stick together.
Lastly, some acknowledgements. I like the spacing on the inside view of the brochure. There's enough room at the bottom to hold it, and not cover text (this is often an oversight). You use fore- and background color to break up the questions and notes, which is nice.
Overall, you can use more contrasts with typeface, size, and alignment than on the web, so please do! And, try out that book; if you need to do this again, you will definitely get some ideas there (I did).
So many choices! I've become sort of a typography fan since discovering in high school that different fonts + kerning could stretch my papers out without being noticeable (even if they required a certain font). Thinking with Type is a fantastic book but the website is also good too. I like the more refined look of the characters and not something that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Use Google Fonts to find open source fonts to download and use. There are others like dafont, ect.
On to my personal favorites:
I have a bias towards type that have a wide variety of weights/styles and sans serif:
Segoe UI - developed for "metro" and installed on every 7+ Microsoft Computer
Droid Sans - especially for the Mono variant. Developed for Android. I think large platforms are indicative of having large font families for a wider standardized use and look.
Lato - This is my main portfolio font for descriptions.
Roboto - The Slab variant is my project title font.
Book Antiqua - For a nice refined serif font.
Atipo has some nice fonts. They give you the bold/regular/italic for free in hopes that you buy the rest of the family.
Abduzeedo does free font fridays
I like these books as a starting off point.
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
The Language of Graphic Design by Richard Poulin
Megg's History of Graphic Design
Good book: https://www.amazon.ca/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=thinking+with+type&amp;qid=1566501150&amp;s=gateway&amp;sr=8-1
For the choice in typography, I would suggest doing some research on different logotypes, the designer's decisions to use those fonts, and really what typography is in general. Many people have ideas about it (myself included, I am admittedly a little lacking when it comes to this topic vs branding), but Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton is a great place to start. Another great way of choosing a proper typeface (and this is merely for inspiration) would be to look around for competing brands. If there is a common pattern between other brands and thier then ask yourself why that pattern exists. Is there a reason? Should you go along with it or create something different?
THIS is my current portfolio. It still needs a lot of work, I'm still in college (Canadian college at that, which is not the same as America). But if you want to see some of my works with branding, I suggest looking at Friendly and XABY. Both of them still need to be worked on, but I'm busy with other projects right now. Feel free to criticize me too. Give me a slap in the face, my contact page is in the navigation bar above. :D
Just because something is regularly used does not mean that it is good or appropriate. Besides, free fonts are seldom used in newspapers, television, movies, and music videos (and almost never used by reputable organizations). Free fonts are almost always terrible because of: kerning, x-height, letterforms, glyphs, ligatures, leading, etc. A good typeface has a family, not just a single font. Here's a primer, but I would recommend this book and this one.
My critique remains the same as my initial comments: far too many typefaces, and avoid using free fonts. Buy them if you can, steal them if you have to, or be much more diligent in finding well designed free typefaces. Start here.
I've found all of these books to be helpful. I think you mainly would find the Grid Systems book useful.
Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam is a pretty good reference for using grids and better understanding composition. It has alot of examples of works that are accompanied by transparent pages that have grids to lay over them.
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton helped with just understanding typography better.
Designing Type by Karen Cheng is good for understanding the intricacies of type and the differences between different typefaces by using grids.
I would actually start off with some typography since it's such a huge part and foundation of graphic design. "Thinking with type" is a good little book. Messing up your type is an easy way to break a layout.
https://www.amazon.com/Typographie-Manual-Design-Emil-Ruder/dp/3721200438/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1491666411&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=emil+ruder+typographie
https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Version-Anniversary/dp/0881792128/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1491666331&amp;sr=8-5&amp;keywords=typography+book
https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Systems-Graphic-Design-Communication/dp/3721201450/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1491666365&amp;sr=8-27&amp;keywords=typography+book
https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1491666463&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=typography+book
I have several books actually because they were course material in school. The one I always go back to is Thinking With Type 2nd Edition by Ellen Lupton, which you can find here. If you're interested in learning about print design there's From Design into Print by Sandee Cohen, which you can also find here. Both books are excellent reads and super handy to have on your bookshelf. Hope they help!
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:
Since you want to mainly do logo and branding, focus on Illustrator first. There are tons of YouTube tutorials on everything you need to know.
I would highly suggest checking out Lynda.com and Skill Share. They're paid services, but you might be able to get them for cheap or even free while you're a student. I know my university had free sign-up for Lynda. (My favorite videos are from Aaron Draplin on Skill Share, there are also a few short videos for free on YouTube.)
While learning the technical skill is good, the biggest part is learning the principles and theory of design. Look into the Gestalt Theory and learn as much as you can about typography. Read this book, it's a perfect resource for typography. The Vignelli Canon is also a great read from one of the best designers ever.
If you have anymore questions, let me know.
If you had to read one single book on typography I would say this one
This PDF will give you a pretty basic understanding of print design, and creating a portfolio, and it's free!
http://www.portfoliohandbook.com/PortfolioHandbook_UCID12.pdf
i've grabbed a stack off my shelf, i'll list a few here
[Thinking with type] (http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695) (Typography)
[Layout Workbook] (http://www.amazon.com/Layout-Workbook-Real-World-Building-Graphic/dp/1592533523/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374116370&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=layout+workbook+a+real-world+guide+to+building+pages+in+graphic+design) (Typography & Page Layouts)
[Production for Graphic Designers] (http://www.amazon.com/Layout-Workbook-Real-World-Building-Graphic/dp/1592533523/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374116370&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=layout+workbook+a+real-world+guide+to+building+pages+in+graphic+design)
(This one is more technical, Printing, Final Art Production, Etc.)
[Designing with Type] (http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Type-5th-Essential-Typography/dp/0823014134/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374116474&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=designing+with+type) (Typography)
[Type & Image] (http://www.amazon.com/Type-Image-Language-Graphic-Design/dp/0471284920/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374116510&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=type+and+image) (Combining Typography & Imagery)
[Color & Type for the Screen] (http://www.amazon.com/Color-Type-Screen-CD-ROM-Digital/dp/2880463297/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374116649&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=color+and+type+for+the+screen) (Web Typography)
[The Element of User Experience] (http://www.amazon.com/Elements-User-Experience-User-Centered-Design/dp/0321683684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374116686&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=elements+of+user+experience+by+jesse+garrett) (User Experience/Web Design)
[Don't Make Me Think] (http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/0321344758/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1374116719&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=dont+make+me+think) (User Experience/Web Design)
There are also a ton of threads here on Reddit about Design books alone, and there is still the rest of the internet!
These are most of the books I got from my first two years at well respected design program, some are more helpful than others. But it doesn't hurt to read!
Also if you really want to give this a shot, work your ass off! Know that there is someone out there that is willing to (and probably is) working harder at it than you! Design is just like any other field of business, you gotta put in the work to get what you want.
one of the best books on type out there: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695
These are all really great books:
Grid Systems in Graphic Design
Grid Systems: Principles of Organizing Type
Thinking With Type
Meggs' History of Graphic Design
Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits
Don't Make Me Think
The Design of Everyday Things
How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
I just finished reading this and it's great if you're just learning about type or if you're a few years into your design career.
Hey thanks! I seriously just bought this book last week. Along with these two:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568989695?psc=1&amp;redirect=true&amp;ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300075707?psc=1&amp;redirect=true&amp;ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00
The two by Richard Hendal are really great for some perspective on how to look at a page with a design-eye.
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&amp;colid=VEJ64Y4T0U6J&amp;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
How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul.
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Designer-without-Expanded-Edition/dp/1568989830
How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul - Adrian Shaughnessy
Here are some fashion references that I used and helped. It was also the style bible not fashion bible. lol
http://www.amazon.com/AskMen-com-Presents-The-Style-Bible/dp/0061208507/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372205417&amp;sr=8-3&amp;keywords=details+men%27s+style+manual
http://www.amazon.com/Details-Mens-Style-Manual-Ultimate/dp/159240328X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372205417&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=details+men%27s+style+manual
http://www.amazon.com/Esquire-The-Handbook-Style-Looking/dp/1588167461/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1372205417&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=details+men%27s+style+manual
Dealing with conflict and having long relationships was something I had to build over time, and most of that will come with just working toward being the ultimate man woman desire. Having confidence, good direction in your life, lots of friends, good hobbies, good manners, being gentleman, having boundaries and standards. Don't be insecure or clingy. I didn't just read one or two books I read about 40 and at one point it became an obsession to be this ideal man woman desire.
If you have a little money lying about, you should pick up The Handbook of Style
I'm not sure if MFA likes this book or not, but it has a lot of useful information and one section specifically dedicated to starting a new wardrobe on different budgets. It helped me when I finally decided to stop wearing only black shirts and jeans and instead have at least a modicum of sartorial taste.
One thing that's left off of the graphic (but is shown in the image) is to have a jacket taper just above the waist. That will make it look like you're actually wearing a nice suit and not a suit shaped bag.
Also, sometimes esquire has a lot of stupid/laughable/idiotic male fashion advice, but this book has most of the essential info re: suits and how they should fit and more.
It's worth picking up Eqsuire's book. http://www.amazon.com/Esquire-Handbook-Style-Guide-Looking/dp/1588167461
You'll save more then $10 when you learn to purchase good clothing that actually fits.
My list:
Senior Level Software Engineer Reading List
Read This First
Fundamentals
Development Theory
Philosophy of Programming
Mentality
Software Engineering Skill Sets
Design
History
Specialist Skills
DevOps Reading List
CS/Studio Art double major here.
I would expand your thesis to include the importance and significance of both shapes and composition. Color is a useful tool from both a scientific and design standpoint for a variety of reasons; Red/Orange/Yellow are warm/angry, Blue/Purple is cold/calm, certain colors look absolutely horrendous when put together poorly (neon green on yellow, for example), etc. Shapes and composition are also useful in the same way; a sideways triangle always means play, a green check means yes, etc. Using color, shapes, and composition basically boils down to conveying a thought to the user as simply and elegantly as possible.
I recommend checking out Apple's iOS Human Interface Guidelines. They've been working on this stuff for years and while I don't always agree with them, they have a lot of it figured out. I also recommend Understanding Comics; it's a book about the artistic integrity/history of comics, but it also covers the basics of what "art" is and how to use it to convey an emotion or thought. The chapters about leading the reader's eye from point-to-point and how color and lines inherently carry emotion are especially useful.
Here's the amazon link for anyone interested:
https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
Absolutely! Here's a short list of non-magic books that I commonly see recommended to magicians.
Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud
Purple Cow - Seth Godin
Delft Design Guide - multiple authors
An Acrobat of the Heart - Stephen Wangh (shouts out to u/mustardandpancakes for the recommendation)
In Pursuit of Elegance - Guy Kawasaki
The Backstage Handbook - Paul Carter, illustrated by George Chiang
Verbal Judo - George Thompson and Jerry Jenkins
Be Our Guest - Ted Kinni and The Disney Institute
Start With Why - Simon Sinek
Lots of common themes even on such a short list. What would you add to the list? What would you take away?
Understanding traditional arts will always help you no matter what because it helps develop an analytically eye. I would try to find places around your location that offer figure drawing sessions for like $20. Doing figure drawing sessions will help you come to a greater understanding about shape, form, weight, pose; All of those are extremely important to understand in animation. You don't have to draw well by any means (if your doing 3d), just develop your eye.
If you're not coming from an art background, I recommend reading 'Drawn to Life', 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brian' or 'Understanding Comics' as these will help change the way you think about art. They have to do a lot with Art Philosophy.
Understanding Comics: (a vastly underrated book)
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-Mccloud/dp/006097625X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1319966876&amp;sr=8-1
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain:
http://www.amazon.com/New-Drawing-Right-Side-Brain/dp/0874774195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1319966921&amp;sr=8-1
Drawn to Life:
http://www.amazon.com/Drawn-Life-Classes-Stanchfield-Lectures/dp/0240810961/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1319966942&amp;sr=1-1
I always recommend Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics to friends when they are new to and want to develop an appreciation for the medium.
Copy and pasting artwork from one frame to another is obvious and lazy. I know that sounds mean, but I was a comics major in college and my professor would have said the exact same thing. Avoid shortcuts if you want to get better. Also, the textured frame is distracting. May I recommend a book? Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud was incredibly useful when I first started out, and it's always great to go back to it. You're prolific enough to continue creating, so maybe it's good to develop good habits over bad. If I'm going to keep seeing your comic, I'd like to see you improve.
https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
If I may ask, what's the other graphic novel you've read so far?
I recommend reading Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. :)
My huge post got deleted as I was writing it because I hit some stupid RES command that took me out. So I'll give you the short version.
/u/ManVsMagic this comic is not very good. Go buy Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics". Read it. Learn. Buy the other two. Repeat. Get better.
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-The-Invisible-Art/dp/006097625X
That sounds amazing. If you can, let me know when you finish. You can show me drafts too if you want. This book might help you understand drawing comics/manga better. https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
Even master artists feel like they don't know what they're doing. The more you learn, the more you realize is left to learn. There is no point where you go from someone who can't draw to someone who can. It's just something you keep getting better at the more you practice and study. Copying from reference is a great place to start, keep at it. and don't be afraid to ask for critique if you really get stuck.
Just do what you can now, and as you improve it will get more fun and less frustrating.
If you want some resources, here's some youtube channels that have helped me:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5dyu9y0EV0cSvGtbBtHw_w
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUQTqWAaSzhAKRanOpes1nA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvM8sIthAK1KOQ4nq5mYCTw
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwJheV30gHVOjBps2DU7k9A
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCno-YPZ8BiLrN0Wbl8qICFA
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIGRhqYssT6IGPYOnZBFYKw
https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV
And also some books:
https://www.amazon.com/Figure-Drawing-All-Its-Worth/dp/0857680986
https://www.amazon.com/Color-Light-Realist-Painter-Gurney/dp/0740797719
https://www.amazon.com/Framed-Ink-Drawing-Composition-Storytellers/dp/1933492953
https://www.amazon.com/Animators-Survival-Kit-Principles-Classical/dp/086547897X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;psc=1&amp;refRID=ZNC6E0ET0QNFQAPH01WB
https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
You could also check out http://drawabox.com/ and https://www.ctrlpaint.com/ which both offer a more ridged lesson by lesson approach to learning to draw.
Check out the Dark Horse guide to script format for comic book writers for help on structuring your pages and directing the artist.
Also, read a bunch of comics and check out Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics if you haven't already read it.
You'll find that some artists will have no problem working with your screenplay format, but if you want to submit to companies and/or give artists more direction, understanding this format is a good skill to have in your arsenal. I've just begun to work with it myself, so don't be intimidated ... just jump in and learn as you go!
no prob
it's very common to work at something for a long time and become blind to certain stuff
what works for me is to flip the art horizontally and/or vertically while in progress and you should notice right away the flaws then keep working then flip again. it keep your perspective fresh
also I strongly recommend for you to read understanding comics
despite the comic focus, it teach the whole visual language approach thing and it will blow your mind
...and read this: http://www.amazon.ca/Understanding-Comics-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X .
Along the lines of comic flashfiction, you can work on tiny stories within this larger vision you have and kill two birds with one stone.
Ok, I am being completely serious. I am not trying to insult you. I was floored by this book, and I use it still. It is one of the greatest books I have ever read and teaches people how to LEARN!
I thought I knew, I'm a college graduate, I program for a living. I can read and learn already, right?
No...
Please, please, please, consider reading this book and don't be turned off by the title.
How to Read a Book
[EDIT] Also, you since you like comics, I highly recommend Understanding Comics, it's a mind-blowing view of how comics work.
Comics, man. The scope of what you can convey by mashing words and pictures together goes, in my opinion, beyond that of any other artistic medium. A really good book to read on the subject is Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. I can't even begin to describe the nuances of this medium in the way he can.
There's a ton of advice I could give you - and I'll try to throw a bunch of it at you - but keep in mind I've barely begun this process myself. This is what I can tell you based on what I've observed, take it as you will.
My first piece of advice is to do the thing you said you never do. Put them down to paper. These little scenes and random thoughts you have swimming through your head are exactly where "we all find ideas to start from." It could be a simple scene in the middle of a larger story, it could be the very last words you want to someone to hear. Regardless of what it is, put it down on paper. I always carry a small moleskin notebook with me and have gotten into the habit of just jotting down something whenever it goes through my head. When you're used to just thinking of things, it's a little jarring at first to stop and write it down, but believe me - it will be worth it. This is the fountain of ideas you're looking for.
Arguably the most important thing I can tell you, is to write. Don't worry about whether it's formatted right, if you've structured your characters enough, or if you've done a good outline. Write. Whenever, wherever, as much as you can. You're only going to get better at writing by writing.
That being said, worry about format, structure, and outlines. And what I mean by that, is look back on the work you did, figure out where you could have done better and the next time try to do that. The first thing I ever wrote, I did without thinking about my characters, what they really meant, their back story, the environment they lived in, and said to hell with an outline. After it was finished, I knew for my next project that this had to change.
Consume the media you want to create. Not only should you actively read comics, you should try to consume anything that gives you insight to the business and how other people work. This is a list of books I bought and think have been extremely helpful. They give insight into the importance of creating characters, environments, etc before you even begin a script. I've listed them in the order I personally liked from best to still pretty damn good
The last one is great because you get to see the various script styles of in-the-business writers. For comics, I also actively listen to these podcasts:
In addition to all that, I follow /r/writing and try to stay active on this subreddit. We've done a few writing prompts, which I think are great ways to get you writing - though I wish more people would take part.
JoshLees has compiled a larger list of resources, definitely take a look at that. The above listed things are what I consume personally.
That's all I have for now, and the community can feel free to correct me or add to it, but other than that good luck!
Are you just learning to art or do you have goals?
Dynamic Figure Drawing The early bits of learning to draw focus on correct proportions, but just knowing the facts doesn't mean you understand what you're looking at. Learning about weight and line of action can make figure drawings a lot more interesting.
If you're interested in comics Understanding Comics helps you understand how they work, but not how to draw them.
Do you have access to art classes? Have you done any art history? Art history is pretty great for knowing about the masters and the people that paved the way for today's artists. The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern This book tries to give a short and succinct summary of most of the art movements, but it's worthwhile to get deeper into parts that interest you. The Ninja Turtles (Michaelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael) are icons of the Renaissance, and I imagine the 11 pages for that time period fail to cover quite a lot of the Renaissance. Art is more than the paintings, it's the culture that is responsible for patronizing their work, it's the lessons they learned in pursuit of grander and grander works (The Monalisa represents a lighting choice - twilight hours with indirect lighting; On either side of her is two-point perspective and atmospheric perspective), the men and women that created these works, how these ideas traveled through the regions, and what their work meant to the artists in the time period they lived in.
Scott McLoud's books are great.
>The main problem I have is that I don’t know where to start.
>my anatomy is very lacklustre.
Work on your anatomy maybe? Youtube would be a good place to start off with some free resources. Don't forget about environments and perspective drawing. Also if you're planning to do the lettering yourself take some time to learn the basics of typography and typesetting.
I really liked Understanding Comics. It is not 100% what you are looking for but it is a great book that is related.
There is so much more to comic books than people understand. If you are interested in this topic then I highly recommend "understanding comics" by Scott McLeod. http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-The-Invisible-Art/dp/006097625X
It's very insightful and is a comic book itself.
For 18 years old that's pretty fucking good. But there is always room for improvement for every aspect of drawing. As an artist you should never stop learning.
A lot of good suggestions in this thread, the most important thing is to just keep generating content and finish an issue or a story with your art. It's not going to be perfect or up to your ideals all the time but just getting the work done is great for feeling accomplished and proving to yourself that you can finish something (this is really fucking important).
Then every once and awhile go back to a comic, or a page that you've already done and think about and write down the things that you can do better and ideas on maybe different layouts - and then try it out. Iterate on the same basic concept and you'll start to gravitate on what you like personally and what feels good to you. You do enough of that and you'll eventually have your own distinctive style.
Also getting inspiration by digesting and studying professional work is important too. I'd refrain from copying a style, especially for professional work - but I'd look at other's work and write notes about what this artist did in this book that you like, try it out and see if it's compatible with what you're trying to accomplish.
Some resources:
Understanding Comics:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006097625X/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&amp;psc=1
Strip Panel Naked: (dissecting panels, layouts)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYJAToPH5GSGShP7Yoc3jsA
First and foremost; write a script. Without a script you've got nothing. Let people read the script. Listen to what they have to say. If they can't visualize or understand any parts of it, then neither will the artist who will eventually draw it hopefully and neither will your audience, the readers. If you get defensive about criticism then just stop now, because you're going to hear it at some point unless you only let your mother read it.
Next rewrite it. I think it was Hemingway that said the first draft of everything is shit.
Find an artist. Listen to the artist's points. If your artist says you need more action. Put more action. If your artist comes up with a cool way to reduce 4 pages into one cool layout, let them. Don't let your script be your baby. Comics are a collaborative art.
Maybe before you start writing you should learn about comics. Read some. Definitely read Scott Adams Understanding Comics and Making Comics
Also read some really great comics like;
Frank Miller's the Dark Knight Returns,
Alan Moore's Watchmen,
Kurt Busiek's Kingdom Come,
Garth Ennis's Preacher,
Jeph Loeb's the Long Halloween,
These will let you know what come before, but also what's possible to do with the format.
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is probably the best, most comprehensive book out there about the evolution of comics through history. The Comic Book History of Comics is a really good tour through the history of the American comics industry. The Ten-Cent Plague is another good book about the evolution of American comics.
This is great. Hands are such a pain to draw well and you've done a great job. The story is relatable to anyone who's been high and experienced how weird your body is if you really think about it. 10/10, would read again.
If you're serious about moving from single illustrations to sequential art there are a lot of books and sites out there to help.
Fundamentals
Scott McCloud
Will Eisner
Writing
Jim Zub
Coloring
K Michael Russell
These are just a few. This may not be a popular opinion here but bittorent is your friend. Use it to torrent Photoshop, Manga Studio, and any drawing books you're interested in. Then you need to ask yourself what your end goal is. Printed comics? Web comics?
I've changed my workflow from originally doing everything with paper and pens to involving more digital elements during the process. It's made working quicker and most people want to consume comics on their laptop or tablet which means you'll end up converting to digital at some point in the future anyway.
Here's some examples of my stuff. I'm still learning so there's a lot here I'm embarrassed to show but it might be helpful context.
Web comic done with pencils and inks on paper then scanned. I did this for a year and you can see how much better my art gets towards the end from practicing every day. I wish I would have kept it up.
First try coloring something digitally.
Here's the second try doing a longer format comic. K Michael Russell's videos are awesome for learning the basics of coloring. Here's what the layers look like broken apart.
You can get a scanner relatively cheap, here's the one I use. The downside of a small scanner means you need to draw on paper smaller than 11x17 or draw on large paper and scan it in piece by piece.
I also moved to a Wacom tablet for inking/coloring. My next comic will be posted soon and was done 100% digital. I'm not in love with how it turned out but it helped me learn what you and can and can't do on a drawing tablet.
Hopefully some of this is helpful.
If you want deep design knowledge - https://greatdesignbooks.com/
If you want a TLDR - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0133966151
If you want specific instruction about webpages - just go find inspiration
If you want to learn about web-design teams at larger companies.
The principles described in the book "Non-designer's Design Book" are surprisingly simple and robust. Although intended for non-designers, as the title suggests, I think it's a solid introduction for anyone to learn design.
The author talks about only four principles:
Also makes for an easy-to-remember acronym.
Hey man,
For starters, go pick up and read The Non-Designers Design Book by Robin Williams. It's a great little book that should give you a lot of the mental tools really quickly. Once you've got a good bead, you can expand from there.
Now, you say you wanted it friendlier. I don't see that. The original is kinda clobbery, and the background is no good. It's dark and mysterious and a little menacing. It's also CAPS LOCK shouting. It's all a little much, and it doesn't invite you in. So, in comparison, the white background you used still isn't very inviting; it's more like a form or questionnaire. Colours, okay, use them if you want, but these colours are, like, airport signage. I'd imagine pastels or something might be a little friendlier. Icons: your circles don't match your line weights. Small text blocks like this I would kern. You've done nothing different with the title except used a smaller font which needs better leading. You have lots of negative space, but each individual block needs to be balanced better. If you took the top one out, and looked at it on its own, you can see it isn't balanced. Most of all, you've changed the copy, and you should never do this unless instructed. The diamond in the original "I want to take someone out" does not mean the same as your diamond "Take me out". The original copy is friendlier.
That may have sounded a bit harsh, and I don't intend it to be harsh, but just a rough overview of the things I see that you might consider. If you're going to round your edges -- which is great, make it a bigger move. Also consider not rounding them all for a more contemporary feel.
Two possible resources: the book 'Non-Designer's Design Book', which has a 4th edition out soon: http://www.amazon.ca/Non-Designers-Design-Book-4th/dp/0133966151/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1409784109&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=non+designer%27s+design+book
And the Lynda.com website has a lot of courses if you want more specific tool-based resources. It might fit your need of something more structured but at a lot lower cost...
I'm a full time college student who is getting a graphic design degree, but wants to do full time photography when I graduate. Honestly the best way is to practice making stuff using the programs. Whenever you can't figure something out look up how to do it online. That's essentially the basis of what you'd be doing in classes anyhow (other than learning graphic design principles).
This book is a pretty decent start on learning graphic design principles. It's super short and I found it to be helpful. There is a lot of stuff to learn, but just learning to use the programs and practicing are two important steps you could easily take to improve.
> https://hackdesign.org/
I'd add the "The Non-Designer's Design Book" by Robin Williams as another brilliant resource for programmers trying to make their designs look a bit more professional.
It looks like you're overusing Photoshop brushes/textures in the latter two, and it's not adding anything to the aesthetic. Why the random black spots in Horizon Storms? I'm also not getting any sense of different levels of headings (H1, H2, etc.). Finally, in my opinion, you don't need to combine paragraph indents with spaced between paragraphs. They serve the same purpose. Pick one.
You may want to check out the Non-Designer's Design Book for some introductory principles on graphic design, typography, etc.
This is also some invaluable advice on typography: http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/2014/07/01/18-rules-for-using-text/
And some basics on Graphic Design (but you'll need to Ctrl-+ to read them): https://www.behance.net/gallery/3737327/Rules-of-Graphic-Design-poster-series
There's some exercises mixed in, if I recall correctly. But it's definitely not a book to structure a class around.
And the fourth edition claims "more quizzes and exercises and updated projects":
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0133966151/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1535523722&amp;pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&amp;pf_rd_t=201&amp;pf_rd_i=0321534042&amp;pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&amp;pf_rd_r=12Y57J5GCD2ZW2J8MTYC
Also, I saw the Head First design book on Amazon. I have not used their design book, but I did use their HTML book. According to Amazon, the HTML book is 768 9.3" x 8" pages - and at the end of it, you have a very basic website. So I would not recommend any of those books.
I'm taking patternmaking right now at LA Trade Tech and Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Armstrong is still the standard textbook. It'll go over everything you need to know.
yay! i get super excited when people want to learn pattern making. my ultimate career goal is to be a pattern maker. this pattern making book has helped me a lot. there are a lot of good tips in there and step by step directions on how to make slopers in your specific size (or sizes 2 4 6 8, etc.) ^_^
Definitely sounds like you would benefit from creating your own patterns. Yay! I'm wading through a couple pattern drafting books myself right now, and while developing your own basic patterns can be slow, meticulous, and immensely frustrating, it's also hugely rewarding.
There are a ton of textbooks out there, largely written to accompany pattern making classes. This is a bit hard on the person who's trying to learn this in isolation, since so many of the books assume you'll have the extra resource of a teacher. (Might be worth seeing if there's a local sewing studio or community college that teaches patternmaking-- in-person instruction would be nice.) Don't be discouraged, though-- it IS possible to get there alone!
The standard text seems to be Helen Joseph-Armstrong's 'Patternmaking for Fashion Design.'. Connie Crawford, Donald McCunn, and Winifred Aldrich also come highly recommended.
Since all of these books are textbooks, they can be pretty expensive. To try a book before you buy it, see if your public library (or local university library, if you have access) can use Interlibrary Loan to get you a copy of any of the above. Depending on their rules about renewing, you might be able to get your basic pattern made before you have to give the text back. :)
You could also go the draping route. Since I'm completely ignorant on this subject, I'll only leave a link to Kathleen Fasanella's Saran Wrap Patternmaking Method, which produces a sloper without having to do any measuring. (Everything in Fashion-Incubator's 'tutorials' section is brilliant. If you enjoy painfully/beautifully methodical sewing and patterning instruction, you can lose yourself there for days. But I lose my train of thought. Ahem.)
No matter how you produce your sloper, you'll still want a real textbook to help you manipulate your first pattern into real shirts you would want to wear. The sloper is very basic-- it doesn't have buttons, fastenings, interesting seams, or even much extra room for moving. All that comes later.
It's also useful to have a helper on hand for the first projects in the book. Getting accurate measurements of your body is crucial, so you'll need to recruit someone who can be trusted with a tape measure. It's also useful to have a friend help pin and fit the bodice sloper. Ideally you would team up with a sewing buddy who also wanted her own patterns-- I just bully my husband into helping. ;)
Good luck! It sounds like a ton of work, and it is, but I'm a complete novice and I already have the freedom to look at commercial patterns, shrug, and say, "no, I would rather make my own-- I KNOW it will fit better."
Agreed, you have center alignment and left align used throughout, then the "s" and "t" aren't aligned to the baseline which is a huge no no in Swiss (International) Style.
Edit: Here are some books I highly suggest you read. Study them, learn from them and then practice it. Typography is a very intricate practice, trust me I know, but you'll get there if you're persistent enough. :)
https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Stealing-Sheep-Find-Works/dp/0201703394
https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881791326
https://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-Grid-Graphic-Workshop/dp/1592531253
I don't think there's a big difference, but just to see I did a little experiment. Here are major websites who publish lots of articles.
Serif train:
New York Times, The Guardian, Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Reuters, NPR, New York Post, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, TIME, Bloomberg Businessweek, Newsweek, Forbes, Washington Post, Politico, LA Times, The Boston Globe, Wired
Sans serif boat:
BBC, NBC, Vox, Medium, Buzzfeed, Fox, ABC, CNN, Mashable, Us Weekly, The Onion, People, USA Today, Telegraph, NY Daily News, Fast Company
I think both serif and sans serif fonts can be readable if you pick a nice one. Leading, tracking, kerning, font weight, contrast, hierarchy, and minding characters per line are also important factors in readability.
If you're still font curious and want help making better font choices read Stop Stealing Sheep and Find Out How Type Works.
Nope. Not typography. The organization of information. Everything is dependent on this. Learn to organize and then compose. Think of design like music. You have to be able to put together a series of things to communicate one thing. That's my advice.
If you want a book try this.
this book is a good start.
Logo Design Love by David Airey
Logo Design Love
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321985206
Many people mistakenly think that just because they're good at social media that they will be good at social media marketing. It's an entirely different beast.
Do you have any experience in branding or marketing basics? You need to be able to create strategic briefs, messaging guides, create and effectively track goals that will solve your client's pain points.
Recommended books:
Ogilvy on Advertising
22 Immutable Laws of Branding
22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
After that I would learn more about content marketing. How to create good, compelling stories that not only engages the brand's followers but stores that legitimately helps them as well.
Blogs to subscribe to:
Content Marketing Institute
Hubspot
*CMI also had a podcast called PNR that is a great way to keep up on latest news, trends and predictions. I recommend subscribing to it.
Speaking of blogs, consider including them as part of your content strategy. They make easy fodder for social posts and drive traffic to the client website.
A few final things to note:
That's about all I got for now. Lemme know if you have any questions.
Read both of David Olgilvy's books. Then read them again.
Confessions of an Advertising Man
Ogilvy on Advertising
I wholeheartedly recommend these books:
https://www.amazon.com/Panel-One-Scripts-Writers-Comics/dp/0971633800
https://www.amazon.com/Words-Pictures-Business-Writing-Graphic/dp/0770434355
There are some published:
https://www.amazon.com/Panel-One-Scripts-Writers-Comics/dp/0971633800/
https://www.amazon.com/Panel-Two-Scripts-Writers-Comics/dp/0971633819/
https://www.amazon.com/Words-Pictures-Business-Writing-Graphic/dp/0770434355/
Learn from the masters.
I have a lot of trouble with the writing aspect. Some things that have helped me are 1) taking a creative writing class in college and reading books specifically about comic writing, 2) making clear outlines and timelines of the basic way the plot progresses, and 3) researching the time period/setting to get new ideas for details and where the plot should move. I'm still at the beginner level for writing, struggling through the writing for a big project, but that's what's been helping me.
There are also a lot of prompts and questionnaires that can really help you develop your characters, like this one. Good luck and keep it up!
Anything by Scott McCloud for sure.
And I can't vouch for them, but Alan Moore wrote a book on it, and Brian Michael Bendis so those might be helpful.
Keep working on it. You have a sense for humor and timing that is deserving of the effort to refine not only it, but your art as well.
Some books that may interest you:
ah, still view only. that's alright. couple of pages from my sketch book and i finally got around to posting this thing.
going to work on finishing some pages and sketching out some new ones now.
also, if anyone want any reading material for perspective, check out How To Draw Manga: Sketching Manga-Style Volume 4: All About Perspective, How To Draw Manga Volume 29: Putting Things In Perspective, and [The Art of Perspective] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Perspective-Ultimate-Artists/dp/1581808550). and yes, those how to draw manga book is a god send. I feel like a lot of books get too technical but these book explain concepts pretty simply.
If you do want something more technical, read Perspective! for Comic Book Artists. I liked it but it got confusing and difficult at times, haha.
I just wanted to give a little constructive feedback, and point out that your perspective drawing needs some work, e.g. the paper looking like it's on a different plane from the desk is a bit jarring.
I recommend giving Perspective! for Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea a read. Bonus: It's not standard textbook format, but rather an entertaining graphic novel! Which is good, because it has that many more visual examples (that also showcase Chelsea's amazing skill).
a few things:
-read about design history. It's probably the most important and commonly overlooked aspect of learning design. Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide was a good one.
-subscribe to Design magazines. The quality of articles in print magazines is always way better than most blogs you'll find. Also, it just feels good to flip through a magazine once in awhile. Communication Arts. Applied Arts. Computer Arts. They're all worth looking at.
-color theory books are pretty easy to come by and most of them seem to be the same. So any color theory book is good.
-for type I really liked thinking with type. And the elements of typographic style is amazing but a lot harder of a read.
-also, process is everything. If you can think of design as more than 'making things look good', that helps. Ultimately design is making this work better. Every choice affects how a person will feel/react when they see your design. Color, type, layout, everything, will have a psychological affect on people, even if they don't realize it.
I'd be glad to. To start, here are some terms to look for:
"The Crystal Goblet" explains the aim of print design, which is a good precurser to reading about interactive design media.
As far as books go, I strongly recommend About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design. It's a fairly long book, but it's worth reading to build a strong foundation of understanding in IxD.
A lot of IxD is about effectively using visual design to achieve goals. If you want to understand the visual tools of IxD after finding the theory interesting, you might read the mistitled Layout Workbook (or any other overview book; it's not actually a book about layouts &mdash; nor a workbook), followed by Bringhurst for advanced traditional typography.
Rocket Surgery Made Easy and other Steve Krug books are commonly suggested for more IxD topics, but I haven't gotten around to reading them. It's likely they're lighter reading than About Face 3.
Way too many typefaces, lack of hierarchy, and no attention to typographic style. Try to keep to no more than 2 different typefaces per design, but create hierarchy and variation through size, color, and occasionally by including variations of weight or font style in the same font family.
There are many things I could list that are incorrect or need improvement about the brochure, but until you get the basics of typography down, none of them will really matter. Type treatment is arguably the single most important part of a good design. It defines the design. Good type treatment applied to the ugliest images can be completely transformational - however, no mater how beautiful the images are, bad type will destroy the design.
Read some books on typography to get an understanding of the basics, and then start to apply the new knowledge.
This book is single-handedly the best book you can read to get you headed in the right direction. I would highly recommend starting there.
Then, apply what you have learned to a new design of this brochure and come back for a second round of critique.
But the bible of typography is definitely this.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881792063?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=desi05d-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0881792063
A list of some of my favorites so far..
Interactions of Color by Josef Albers
[The Elements of Typographic Style] (https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Version-Anniversary/dp/0881792128/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1485894924&amp;sr=1-3&amp;keywords=typography+book) by Robert Bringhurst
[Don't Make Me Think] (https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Think-Revisited-Usability-ebook/dp/B00HJUBRPG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1485895055&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=dont+make+me+think) by Steve Krug (More of web design, but I loved the book. It can apply to all design.)
Logo Design Love by David Airey
Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
These are just a few that I have really enjoyed.
In almost every GD class I took at the California College of the Arts this book was required reading. its a great reference for beginners and really reasonable in price compared to my tuition.
> What are some good fonts?
Very hard to answer unless some context ist given.
If you wish to make a qualified decision yourself,
I recommend the Bringhurst for an introduction:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0881792128
I think it might be helpful to start from the beginning and learn the principles and hierarchies behind the bells and whistles of Adobe CC.
Each of these I was instructed to read cover to cover when I first began designing and here I am three years later with an extremely successful design career, large in part due to these readings.
Take the time to do it the right way, and the rest will follow naturally.
The Elements of Typographic Style is a classic, one of the best typography books around.
I can only choose one?!
User-experience design. I'm a web developer/designer, so much my work is to make websites intuitive and easy to use. As it turns out, doing this is quite difficult; UX design is almost a science in itself.
If you'd like to read a superb book on the subject, check out a book titled The Design of Everyday Things.
If you're still thinking "how complicated could it be?", check out this new edition to my bookshelf: The Elements of Typographic Style: a ~400 page treatment on typography alone. Very few notice the good/bad about the typography of a website or publication, if it looks nice, and less do anything more than just notice. Yet if it doesn't look so great, everyone will notice.
The mark of a good UX designer is that the user barely notices his design at all.
Or maybe number theory. If you let me, I'll lecture you about things like information theory, Euler's works, or my favorite math problems all day. :)
If you're serious about typography.
The Elements of Typographic Style
I would also recommend this book , Elements of Typographic Style
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0881792128/ref=mp_s_a_1_9?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1494081534&amp;sr=8-9&amp;pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&amp;keywords=typography
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c
Their guidelines are usually above normal but I think that is their plan. If they say something "should" be 50% higher than it is, and you end up charging 25% more then they succeed in increasing the dollar value throughout the industry.
Seems fair to me. I usually work $20-$30 hr with a $50 minimum. So that sounds about right. You might want to look into buying this http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158 of course look for the most recent edition
Ugh. My sympathies. I'm a freelance illustrator, so yeah, I have first hand experience about how, people, clients, coworkers, even your mentors, can go batshit crazy because creative fields tend to be um, yeah, in general, batshit crazy and cutthroat. For me, it was 4 years of one of the most competitive art schools in the country where professors loved shoving the comment that 'you can't draw' down my throat even up to senior year, and now six+ months of no work and ignorance about what I do doesn't help much either. At least all the abuse gave me such a thick skin so despite I can't even get a job at McDonalds, I can at least say 'fuck it' to the world....lol.
With said mentor- I know you don't really like thinking about it- but- as a thought- If there was a contract in this mess, consider checking it to see if some breech had occurred? Because this sounds like there wasn't a written contract involved in this at all, or, this was spec (speculative work for no pay until work is completed/approved by client?) work which is by far the WORST type of contract to work under. Always lay out the terms of freelance in a contract before work begins, either go full payment before work, or a percentage up front/other percentage when work done... and this sort of stuff will be avoided. Oh, and also, to deter clients who still might try and back out, you can always put what is known as a 'killswitch' in the contract, so they still have to pay you some sort of compensation which could be a percentage of whatever your full fee was (if flat), or for however many billable hours you did before the project was killed.
(for more such advice, this book is freakin amazing for freelance designers involving contracts and ethical guidelines)
-Have you checked out any networking groups for artists+designers like AIGA (Dallas-Ft. Worth chapter's page here)? It might provide you with some actual constructive critique/help on your portfolio (did you not upload anything to a website/portfolio site like carbonmade or coroflot?), and meeting more like minded people locally. (I live in a really small town which has no such organizations- It sucks so much I am considering moving to a larger metro if only for the positive, one on one networking, as well as conventions, because in our field, networking=jobs over all else 80%+ of the time)
See also ConceptArt.org, Graphic Artists Guild, Reddit isn't too bad for the design sections, LinkedIn also tends to have local and national professional groups represented.
Other than that....hang in there. Play creative mode in Minecraft and fool around, like any multiplayer game there will be trolls. Or play a 1 person game. Read some books. Find meetups? I dunno, if you're a designer, I don't know how you are on the drawing side, but, perhaps take a sketchbook and just go sit down at a coffee shop/outdoor area and observe/record the world? It distracts me, but in a good way because I get out, I flex my design/observational muscles, and once in awhile, I get inquisitive eyes who (at least around conservative NW state) tend to tell me I have some sort of "god given talent" followed by a prayer and more kind words. (LOL) One day I hope it'll lead to a job contact to me, too!
This book here has a pretty good standard, and is widely used:
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1334545819&amp;sr=8-1
If you don't want to spend money on a book, I'd recommend coming up with an hourly wage, and multiply that by hours used to complete a piece. So say you think $15 an hour is fair, 15 x 10 is ~$150. you can also factor in cost of materials and framing.
Another way you can do is ask, how much would it cost for me to give these away, what do I feel as if they were worth?
Charge more. Come up with a base fee and then tack hourly on top of that. As an example: $599 pase price plus $30/hr for 12 hours = $960 or whatever works for you.
Get this book: Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines
It explains how to price and what the average pricing is for different types of websites, among other extremely useful information.
Buy/rent/borrow this [book] (http://amzn.com/0932102158)
it has pricing and tons of information about contracts and various other things that will help you immensely. It was required reading for my senior year portfolio class in college and its just a generally good reference to have on hand.
Also take into consideration how they want to pay you. Is it by piece? after you finish the project? At the beginning? You may want to have them pay you part before you start and then the rest in increments. Make sure you get everything in writing.
It's an interesting book.
R's powerful
ggplot2 graphics system has a default output
style which follows many of these principles, and it looks good.
But it's not my favourite book in this area.
My favourite would be (both)
Bill Cleveland's books
After seeing references to Cleveland in the
R documentation
(for example, the
loess
and
lattice
packages),
I read both the Cleveland books, and found them extremely interesting.
There's a classic paper by Cleveland and McGill,
"Graphical Perception: Theory, Experimentation, and Application to the Development of Graphical Methods"
(you can download a PDF)
which is also interesting. (And if you find that interesting, you would
most likely enjoy the books mentioned above.)
The Cleveland books are not widely famous like
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information,
but I found them more appealing in a way that's kind of
hard to describe. But, very roughly
visualisations which are efficiently and accurately perceived.
visualisations based on a kind of minimalist aesthetic. Or
maybe like a philosopher trying to find the essence of a
visualisation.
The conclusions of the two approaches are not necessarily
incompatible. They would certainly agree on the
undesirability of most of the ridiculous
stuff
in the MS Excel plot menu. (So if Tufte stops people doing that, then the more people who read him, the better).
But when there's tension between the two approaches then I'd
choose the first (Cleveland).
For example, the
Tufte (minimalist) boxplots
manage to represent the same information as a box plot, but with less ink.
But they feel like they might not be as easy to read.
(See also "W. A. Stock and J. T. Behrens. Box, line, and midgap plots: Effects of display characteristics on the accuracy and bias of estimates of whisker length. Journal of Educational Statistics, 16(1): 1–20, 1991"
(abstract) )
I will second Kimball's books on data warehouse design in general.
My favorite book on data visualization, Visual Display of Quantitative Information, won't show you in three minutes how to build a great dashboard, but will certainly help you recognize good and bad options and think about the topic.
If anyone is interested in more great examples of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, this is a classic book.
And here's a related webcomic http://comicjk.com/comic.php/796
Have you seen this book? https://www.amazon.com/Curated-Closet-Discovering-Personal-Building/dp/1607749483/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1501584822&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=closet+book
I have so many clothes but find myself only wearing less than 1/10th of my closet. One big problem is we get tempted by clothes that are "good deals" so we end up buying what we don't necessarily love. I am working on shrinking my closet as well but it's so hard to let go.
I read "The Curated Closet" and it really helped me define my style to what i need and wear vs who i would like to be. It also really helped me narrow down a color palette that works for a capsule wardrobe. Typical day to day wear skinny ankle jeans (dark denim & grey), flats, half tucked linen tshirt or 3/4 breton shirt and sunnies with bright red lips as an accent. Crisp white button down for a dressier day with sleeves rolled up. Sometimes I throw on a scarf and heels. I love sheath, fit & flare dresses and pencil skirts. I have no actual changes in seasons just a monsoon season. 🤣 Which sucks because i love layering!!! I like to keep it minimalist and effortless. The bags that work the best for me are Celine trapeze, box and belt and an hermes kelly dupe. When i want to dress up a bit i switch to a Chanel bag.
I feel the same way! The author of The Curated Closet (which I got from the library) recommends putting your favorite images into a separate folder (not just Pinterest). I did that, deleted the ones that didn't match, and was left with a pretty clear winter style. I made a list of key pieces, crossed off the few things I already owned, and then I was ready to check thrift stores. I'll probably ask for jewelry and a jacket for Christmas/birthday, so I'd only have to spend a lot if I buy shoes. Good luck!
Thanks. If you're curious how to format a Kindle book, you can read up on it here: http://www.amazon.com/Building-Your-Book-Kindle-ebook/dp/B007URVZJ6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1377352299&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=building+your+book+for+kindle
It would actually be helpful to browse through it before you start writing. That way, you know how to format your text and chapters ahead of time.
Realistically, I think this would be a total waste of money. Amazon have an entire free ebook devoted to this, and you can find it here. There are a few simple rules, but the biggest one is don't use the tab button. There you have it.
or here if you are in the US.
If you have it in Word, I use this book. It's a little out of date but I used it for making a Kindle book last week. Building Your Book For Kindle (PS it's free)
Grouping would have taken 2 more minutes. You could have just combined "before 5/15" into a single data group and the impact would have been made. I appreciate your work, it's interesting information but if you handed this to me at work, I'd never trust you doing any data analytics ever again.
I highly recommend this book for data presentation in theory and practice.
http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte is a beautiful textbook I used in an economics course in undergrad. It was also rated one of the 100 best books of the 20th century on Amazon.com.
Yes.
Like a
3-d pyramid bar chart
(only have Libreoffice so, sorry, no 3-point perspective etc),
it might look cool, but it's not a particularly effective
way of understanding the data. (Tufte, etc)
The unzoomed view gives an idea of the top ten (or maybe 20) queries.
That would be clearer in a bar chart or dot plot with the categories
in descending order of frequency.
There is only one quantitative variable here - "counts" and the
categories seem to be ordered according to that variable, which is
useful.
This single quantitative variable seems to be mapped (roughly) onto a
spiral. Which means it is mapped onto 2 separate spatial variables -
angular and radial. The angular variable corresponds to the count
variable, so 2 categories that are next to each other in the angular
direction are closest in the number of counts. But which circles are
next to each other in the radial direction is kind of arbitrary - an
artifact of the spiral layout algorithm. So the "second dimension"
(radial) is not really meaningful. Zooming in shows an arbitrary
bunch of chunks of what is essentially one dimensional data.
As an exercise in using the various tools, it's fine.
But as a visualization it's more eye candy (it DOES look pretty - nice
layout and colour palette) but not so much a useful exploratory tool.
Awesome! I kind of fell into the job. I was initially hired as a web developer, and didn't even know what BI was, and then got recruited by one of the BI managers and fell in love. To me, it is one of the few places in IT where what you create will directly impact the choices a business will make.
Most of what I do is ETL work (taking data from multiple systems, and loading them into a single warehouse), with a few cubes (multidimensional data analaysis) and SSRS report models (logical data model built on top of a relational data store used for ad hoc report creation). I also do a bit of report design, and lots of InfoPath 2010 + SharePoint 2010 custom development.
We use the entire Microsoft BI stack here, so SQL Server Integration (SSIS), Analysis (SSAS), and Reporting Services (SSRS). Microsoft is definitely up and coming in the BI world, but you might want to try to familiarize yourself with Oracle BI, Business Objects, or Cognos. Unfortunately, most of these tools are very expensive and not easy to get up and running. I would suggest you familiarize yourself with the concepts, and then you will be able to use any tool to apply them.
For data warehousing, check out the Kimball books:
Here and here and here
For reporting, get good with data visualizations, anything by Few or Tufte, like:
Here and here
For integration, check these out:
Here and here
Also, if you're interested in Microsoft BI (SSIS, SSAS, SSRS) check out this site. It has some awesome videos around SSAS that are easy to follow along with.
Also, check out the MSDN BI Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bi/
Currently at work, but if you have more questions, feel free to shoot me a message!
Sorry, but that image really hits a nerve. Don't take it personally, it might very well be a great idea, but the execution is jarring for us data-as-art people.
The picture you have behind the data is a really nice picture, and I could see how you wanted to use it to tell a story about your day. However, the way you're forcing the data into the picture is completely visually destroying that it.
Further reading: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte. It's a thick book but it's mostly pictures :)
Again, don't take it too personally, but I figured a harsh answer was better than no answer.
I am just going to pick out on some points.
> This should be left up to the user. What looks good is subjective to begin with
This is not true. There are many acclaimed books about topic of information design (The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte for example) that set up many rules about quality information design that matplotlib does not follow. Majority of users tend to not fiddle with setting, as they do not have time for it. Sane defaults go a long way.
> I’d rather you didn't fork!!! The project as it is could use more help. Have you talked to any of the current developers about this.
I totally agree with you, my plan is to develop in parallel and push changes back into iPython. I think significant change like this needs more breathing space.
I have always heard good things about any of Tufte's books
You can also search books by data visualization for more options
For one thing in a lot of places database administration is 75% reporting and analysis, 20% ETL/Integration and 5% Server admin. So no one will be too surprised should a database admin want to become a pure play data analyst.
That said I would A) get a GED (mostly because it will help in B) B) look at wgu or something like it for a degree in databases. You really can't beat hard credentials, and they aren't that expensive.
I'd also consider reading:
That should get you started.
Or you can just read his PhD thesis, Computational Information Design, which covers pretty much all of the same conceptual topics but doesn't go into the technical aspects of project development as much. Other essential reading would be Semiology of Graphics by Jacques Bertin, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte, and Visual Complexity by Manuel Lima.
A recommended read OP: http://www.amazon.com/The-Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142
I've read and some bad reviews of Tufte, basically that his style isn't for everyone. I currently report a lot in Excel, thus two of the choices lean towards Excel use. For Tufte, do you recommend The Visual Display of Quantitative Information as the ideal beginner book? Not thrilled about the $40 price tag, but if it's worth it I'll happily pull the trigger.
Edward Tufte strongly disagrees with you.
yeah. a good gift- the books are beautifully printed. I would get the first one so to get the best understanding of his philiosophies. Anyone who created the term "chart junk" is OK in my book.
I like these books:
As an off-beat addition to all the excellent suggestions already give, I will recommend The visual display of quantitative information by Edward R. Tufte. One of my pet peeves is that figures and graphs in science are often done really badly. The information could be presented clearer, and more information could be included without sacrificing clearness, if people just knew how to and took the time. This would make their publications much more accessible.
It's design... It's art just like any other form, just on a different medium and mixed with technical limitations. You can read a lot of blogs (www.alistapart.com is pretty great) but there is no "book" on web design. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information is a classic, but has nothing to do with actual web design.
There is no single formula to creating a beautiful, persuasive data presentation. It's not a question of choosing the right tool; it's a question of choosing the right means of communicating. With innumerable options at your disposal, your most valuable tool is your brain and your experience presenting to audiences that are critical, skeptical or easily confused.
Here's where I would start:
http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142/
To be perfectly honest, the one book that's "gotten through" to me is The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte. The book has a lot of examples of information design, both good and bad- and plenty of examples of taking a bad design and "refactoring" it so that it does a better job of conveying the information it contains.
My background: I'm a business attorney working in part with small businesses and also an entrepreneur in my own right for a marketing services company separate from my practice of law.
I often see people pursuing startups going after the flashy book titles that are on the less technical side.
While this can be fine, I'd really recommend doing as much research as you can stomach into the nitty gritty, often un-fun things that people don't care for. As a lawyer, plenty of this is fun for me, but I appreciate that it's hard to hold one's attention on legal issues or accounting.
For example, I always hear people say good things about that Lemonade Stand accounting book: https://www.amazon.com/Accounting-Game-Basic-Fresh-Lemonade/dp/1402211864. You may not need to do the accounting yourself when you start a business, but you probably will, and even if you don't, it's better to have some sort of handle on it to oversee whoever's doing it.
So learn the basics of accounting and try to put them in to practice in your personal life. Plot out your personal budget, if you don't already. Practice with tracking and sorting your expenses. You can even do this with the free accounting apps out there like Wave. Fundamentally, business accounting isn't all that different than personal, so read the basics then practice!
I wish I could think of some valuable books that explain some basics of the legal side of small business formation and operation, but I guess since I do it myself I don't really know of any offhand, go figure.
I'm also a big advocate for branding. This isn't just logo design, it's a ton of stuff, and not always the obvious stuff. Branding is especially important for a newcomer, because you don't have the history...so you might as well try and brand like you're established! My go to here is: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-Branding/dp/1118099206
Get Designing Brand Identity. It covers the basics.
Look at other schools for inspiration. Find their brand guidelines, or identity guides. If you can't find any specific to schools, look at other brands guidelines for info/inspiration. Here's a couple.
Find their needs and keep to the essentials. When and if they need branded coffee cups or USB-sticks, you'll be there to add them.
Do they have competition in the area? What's their identity? Make sure you're different from their branding.
I don't have much time to go dig up a ton of links, however, this should get you started with how to go about producing good logo designs. What Aaron Draplin does in this video is how the logo design process should work.
Aaron Draplin for Lynda designing All Base Concrete Foundations Logo
Widely regarded as one of the greatest Identity Designers of all Time:
Paul Rand, Identities
I also highly recommend this book:
Designing Brand Identity
Good luck, and don't design for quantity. Design for quality. If your work is worth it, you won't have trouble finding work.
The second edition of Logo Design Love by David Airey came out relatively recently. It's great. The first edition was outstanding and I was surprised to see that the second is even better.
Also, Designing Brand Identity by Alina Wheeler is wonderful as well.
Check out the book Designing Brand Identity . Its a great resource for questions like this.
I found the The Brand Gap to be very elementary. If you've been in marketing for a while you should already have a solid foundation on branding that that book covers. It's definitely an easy read and a great source for an introduction to branding.
With that said, I'd recommend:
Logo. Design. Love
Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team
It's pretty much impossible to find something that isn't biased. You research something, you have an emotional reaction, and you write about it. Even being as objective as possible, authors and creators are always dealing with their own bias.
Having said that, the Palestine collection by Joe Sacco as well as his Footnotes in Gaza are both fantastic and accessible jumping-off points. To be clear, these are in graphic novel format, but they're brilliant. Some of the best treatments of the subject you can find. They were recommended to me by someone on here when I asked this same question, and then I found out that my good friend has been interested in this history for years and considers Sacco's collections to be the most important material he's read on the matter.
You could also read a book? Complaining that you know nothing and want to know more, then asking for Youtube videos on the subject is like saying you're starving then choosing to feast on a whole M&M.
Shindler's History of Modern Israel is a little dry (feel free to skim the intricacies of Israeli cabinet politics), but it covers the internal but public Israeli debates really well and explains why the Israelis continue to occupy the West Bank and Gaza as truthfully and even-handed as you can get in this subject. Joe Sacco's Palestine remains not just a landmark in comics twenty years after it was written but also the definitive account of the Palestinian experience under occupation, and the drudgery and oppression that go with being unfree in your own land. Both books will help you empathise, in different ways.
This is a rather negative view of what journalism has been at its best and could still be. To name one great journalist I'll give you Joe Sacco and his journalistic comic book Palestine. There are lots of good journalists still out there, but they don't much write for something you'll find in a news stand. They usually are writing books, esoteric blogs, comics, or maybe some other medium. The news is a highly fluctuating state of transition. So people mistake the "news" as the place where all the "journalism" happens. But, you know, only some, and much less than it used to.
Non-Designers Design Book
It isn't for me either. I only know the basic tenets of design as described in:
The Non Designer's Design Book
These principles get me through most of the fine grained design chores. I contract out all of my major design work (like the overall look of the site + assets). If you're strapped for cash, try
99Designs .
Tangentially-related experience will be your game. Get a series of temp jobs. You'll be surprised at the skills you can pick up at these jobs.
From a design perspective, there's too much white space in your resume. That can be a supporting if not sufficient reason to fill up the page more with more detail about your working past, as insomniaclyric suggests.
With regard to resume format, I think you should do some mugging on resume advice websites. It seems very simple, but try to go through the websites over the course of a week and distill the good advice from the bad.
With regard to resume layout, try to buy this book.
http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-Principles/dp/1566091594/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1265645414&amp;sr=8-3
There's a very good chance your library can help you out here, so do ask them first, but I do recommend buying it if possible. Seriously, it's worth the money. You can get it used from Amazon for less than one buck! Given that you'll be applying its advice to your resume, the purchase should be easily justified.
Take a basic design course. If you want to learn design basics, start with the BASICS.
This book: http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-Typographic-Principles/dp/1566091594 will actually get you started off right by teaching how graphic design is more then colors, but about presenting information and solving problems. (And it looks like you can pick up a used copy via amazon for a few bucks)
Design at it's core is the marriage between content and form. Some marriages are calm, stable, and reassuring while others are codependent, paranoid, and toxic. Both can have amazing results when you know what you're doing.
Thinking with Type was my favorite intro textbook in school. It has a straightforward approach to theory with examples that are both beautiful and inspiring.
My advice would be to exhaust yourself of ideas. Put as many quick attempts together as possible with each as different from the previous as possible. Often the best ideas come after this moment of frustration.
Also, think to space god's quote from futurama. Design is invisible, reactions are implicit.
It is an improvement!
If you are interested in learning more about this topic, Thinking With Type provides a useful foundation. I'm sure that, in 2016, there are other publications that have eclipsed the popularity of this one; I just haven't gone book shopping in a while.
DKNG has some awesome videos about poster design process. Check out their Vimeo page You should definitely ditch PowerPoint. Have you played around w/ Illustrator at all?
There used to be a really killer site called gigposters.com that shut down last year. Not sure what the best place on the web is for poster inspiration now. A few good design books to check out:
Thinking With Type
Hand Job: A Catalog of Type
Making and Breaking the Grid
Gig Posters
You have the rhythm in, that’s for sure. What you should learn is a little bit more on how to use fonts, how to pair fonts, and quite a bit about grids. There is no reason to use 10 different typefaces, especially when so many of them are so similar.
I recommend you read the book Thinking with Type, as this book gives great insight into all these topics.
I wish you very much luck, but I sincerely recommend that you take a look at the following books:
Design Basics Index
Thinking with Type
Working through these books, along with creating an actual portfolio site with either Cargo Collective or on your own will make a much bigger impression on potential clients. Sell yourself and the work will come.
http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1320103677&amp;sr=8-3
http://www.amazon.com/Interaction-Color-Expanded-Josef-Albers/dp/0300115954/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1320104020&amp;sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Power-Center-Composition-Visual-Anniversary/dp/0520261267/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1320103713&amp;sr=8-1 (this one can be a bit esoteric but if you stick with it, its good)
There are also roughly 6 elements to keep in mind when making compositions and you will have to read more about them and seek out examples. they vary depending on where you look but this has some: http://www.wiu.edu/art/courses/handouts/princdesign.html
This also has some good material: http://photoinf.com/General/Robert_Berdan/Composition_and_the_Elements_of_Visual_Design.htm
None of those links are perfect, and they are not quite the way I learned it either, but you should just do exercises to work on them. For example, In a 5x5 square, do compositions using just 10 dots of the same size. Make each composition represent a word such as unity, variety, movement, stillness, and others like that. Thats just a quick example.
I guess just chalk it up to making jokes about something you were unprepared for. Shit happens.
Check out this book. Y'know, if you're interested at all. Or even just wikipedia typography. Or look up the names of fonts you've already got installed. Like Copperplate, or Linotype, or Bauhaus. There's usually some really interesting history to them.
You'll probably be able to avoid pissing off a wild bunch of graphics designers next time. ;P
I recommend this one: http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1323405933&amp;sr=8-2
Thinking with type is a must for anyone who wants to improve their typography. It may be a little basic if you have already studied type but there is a lot of good inspiration and tidbits you might not know
If you have "a large amount of time and experience under [your] belt with graphic design," I'm curious as to how you've never learned about bleeds, color spaces, and typography? They're fairly fundamental. You're also going to need to learn more than Photoshop. If you want to seriously do print design, you're going to need to know indesign and illustrator as well.
The Elements of Typographic Style
Thinking with Type
Making and Breaking the Grid
Stuff like color spaces and bleeds I learned in design school. I'm not sure if there would be books that cover it because it's so basic. You're probably better off finding out about that kind of stuff online...or going to school to study graphic design.
Here's a basic explanation:
Bleeds: When you print a document commercially, if you want images to go all the way up to the edge of the page (bleed), you need to set up your files properly. If you're printing a document with "bleed," you're printing a size that's actually larger than the final product will be, then trimming off the excess. This ensures that you don't end up with little white edges on your paper where the trim wasn't exactly precise. The industry standard for bleed is .125 inches, though if you're using a lower quality printer, you may want to use more.
Color spaces: Light has three primary colors: Red, Green, and Blue. Therefore, devices which process light (such as digital cameras, smart-phone displays, computer monitors, etc) do so in RGB. If you are creating a file that is going to be consumed digitally, you're going to want to set it up in RGB.
Printers interpret color in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key [Black]). They do this by breaking images down into halftone screens, which are in essence a configuration of dots of CMYK. From a distance, our eyes perceive these dots as a wide range of colors. If you are setting up a file that you intend on printing, it should be in CMYK.
I'm currently reading Design for the Real World and Thinking with Type and they're both excellent.
Wow, I have no idea honestly. Well you've got to start somewhere and that has to be with graphic design obviously. Knowing everything about typography & design fundamentals is key before moving onto web design. Web Design will help get you introduced to UI/UX design. Obviously there's a lot of things I can't really give you advice on. It's something an instructor or teacher is best suited for.
If you're just starting with graphic design I recommend this book.
This book was definitely my intro to web design years ago, but it's even dated now. So much changes so fast. These guys are super helpful too.
Obviously, these things aren't going to be teaching you coding, but it'll definitely get you acclimated to UI/UX Design. But it's still a very complicated path. Everyone has their own ways. The best way is to learn is through fantastic instructors which I was super lucky to have.
Thinking with Type
Graphic Design: The New Basics
Layout Essentials
Read them. Lacking graphic design history isn't your problem. You're lacking quite a few fundamental skills, and these books are good places to start - they're required texts in many design programs.
Again, read them, don't just give them a 'cursory glance'.
https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695
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&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1418263515&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=ellen+lupton+thinking+with+type
http://www.amazon.com/Making-Breaking-Grid-Graphic-Workshop/dp/1592531253/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1418263563&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=breaking+the+grid
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Workshop-Challenges-Sharpen-Design/dp/1600617972/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1418263563&amp;sr=1-2&amp;keywords=breaking+the+grid
http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Creative-Design-Second/dp/2940411611/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1418263761&amp;sr=1-1&amp;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.
Any sort of design fundamental course will be greatly beneficial (and necessary). However, I think the most useful thing you could do is to develop a good eye for typography. Developers who understand the nuances of proper type are extremely rare and sorely needed.
Learning about type will also teach you about many other aspects of graphic design (grids, negative space, scale, etc...).
Most designers tend to skip right to the flashy stuff and they don't have a sound foundation in typography. There is a reason why you can type something out in Photoshop, set it in Futura, and it looks like shit while a skilled designer can type it using the same font and it looks professional.
EDIT: Almost forgot to link a great resource: Ellen Lupton's Thinking with Type
Gotta ask the extremely obvious question, are you using a grid?
I was designing my (print) portfolio recently, and [this book](Thinking with Type, 2nd revised and expanded edition: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students https://www.amazon.com/dp/1568989695/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_gfAyyb1X1NJWM) has been of terrific help. You'll find useful ideas there for web design as well.
There are also some hard limits on how wide a line is compared to the font size. As in, the maximum number of letters on a single line. I think it's about 45-60 letters, but I could be mistaken. But this is the sort of thing that could be researched when "deciding widths".
La design nu pot sa zic ca ma pricep prea tare, dar domeniul ma preocupa din ce in ce mai mult. Thinking with type si The Elements of Typographic Style, The Design of Everyday Things, Grid Systems in Graphic Design, Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop si Don't Make Me Think sunt cartile care mi-au placut/din care am invatat cel mai mult, dar sunt clasice asa ca banuiesc ca stii de ele.
Course book list from my first year of graphic design, I found them all really helpful and interesting, especially the first one. It explains not just how to make things look good, but WHY certain things look good and some things look like crap.
Design Elements: A Graphic Style Manual
Understanding Color: An Introduction for Designers
Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students
There's another really small, short book that is on the process of design, or rather "how to produce creative ideas." I can't remember the title, but I'll find my copy when I get home. PM me if you have any questions!
Great! Thanks for the quick reply. I also found this book > https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Type-2nd-revised-expanded/dp/1568989695
There are the books I was recommended:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7.
Ellen Lupton has a little bit about the importance of white space and typography in her book Thinking With Type.
Thinking with type is a good read.
There's a few books that are good for understanding how design works; John Berger's Ways of Seeing, Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton, and anything by Stefan Sagmeister, Steven Heller, Michael Beirut, Jessica Hische, Adrian Shaughnessy...
Check out publications like Eye magazine and Creative Review.
No doubt from looking up any of these you'll find oodles more too.
Also, the best way to learn is to work with designers, ask them questions, find out why they do something. Have a critical mind though, there's some awful designers out there.
I'm afraid I don't have many resources specific to UX/UI. I studied graphic design at university so I really just apply my understanding from that, but there's loads out there.
How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul
I highly recommend this book. I'm sure your college or local library will have it, if not you can get them to order you in a copy. If you find it useful - buy it!
How much money do you have to spend on clothes right now? Take that money and spend half of it on a good, comfortable, nice-looking pair of shoes. If you don't have hundreds of dollars, go to a second-hand store or a vintage clothing store or something, but try to buy new shoes. You can buy cheap stuff for every other article of clothing if you like, but don't skimp on the shoes; they are the most important aspect of your wardrobe. A pair of black oxfords would be versatile.
Next, get a button-down shirt (or some shirts) which fit you well in the shoulders and waist. You want your shirt to fit like a second skin. Try to find something that is long enough that you can bring the front and back together at the crotch (more or less). Check the shirt(s) for mother-of-pearl buttons, good stitching, and, if patterned, check to see if the pattern lines up from shoulder to arm. Look up the word "gusset" and try to get shirts with gussets. These are some general marks of a quality shirt. You don't need all these things, but they are signs of quality.
Trousers: make sure they look good in the butt. No frumpy ass for you; no pucker either. Length: around the ankles...no flood, no bunch up at the bottom. Try to get something simple; some nice denim goes well with a dress shirt, a blazer or sport coat and a tie.
Check out the following books:
Dressing the Man
Gentleman: A Timeless Guide to Fashion
Esquire Handbook of Style
The Affected Provincial's Companion--this one is about fashion to an extent, but it transcends it and puts it into a decorum and lifestyle aspect. In fact, also check out Glen O'Brien's new book, How to be a Man if you're interested in a more lifestyle-oriented reason to look nice.
I honestly think the last two books would be a good start for you. Due to your description of yourself, I'd maybe start with How to be a Man. The first few paragraphs are shit, but it gets really good, especially by the time it gets to "How to be sexual". It seems like you need a much better reason to dress nicely than the reasons you've suggested. I think this book could really help you develop a better ethos regarding style, and maybe even help you with decorum (if you need help with that).
Check out this quick video for a great introduction to O'Brien.
Good luck.
edit: clarification
This is a good book to get started
My dad is a graphic designer who does freelance work, and in his business first impressions count. A few years back he realized that he was dressing like a slob, and decided to shape up. When I decided that I was going into the art field as well, he gave me this book and took me shopping for a few essentials. Before that point I always thought fashion was either runway models looking like something out of Zoolander or t-shirts with jokes on them. There's something great about a "trade secret" being passed down from father to son, but even more than that dressing well gave me confidence that I had been lacking (I had a lot of social anxiety and body image issues, despite being skinny and relatively athletic). When my girlfriend first told her mom about me, one of the things she mentioned was that I really "got" clothing, and it felt really good to know that I had succeeded to that extent, having looked like this just a year earlier (for comparison, here and here are me more recently. excuse the dumb expression in the last picture; it was from a not-so-serious photo with a cousin at thanksgiving).
Alright some fun facts for you.
This addresses questions you have regarding dressing (and yes, wear a different shirt, undies, and socks daily), shaving, and such.
Good luck.
I actually know what I've spent exactly since February 1!
I'm a post-grad student who lives at home, and basically my only other expense at the moment is food. I pay for everything out of my savings right now as my program doesn't allow time for a job :(
Clothes: $751. A lot! I bought a pair of prescription sunglasses I was reimbursed for which were included, but I also bought white jeans and a Hillary-esque pantsuit which were both kinda expense, as well as other bits and bobs. I don't thrift as I'm a bit of a weird shape and I just don't have the energy to find things that would fit! I know I like interesting cuts and patterns, so I'm willing to pay a little more for something that isn't basic.
Beauty: $487. Also a lot! I prepaid for eyebrow waxing services for the year, and a haircut. These are basically the only services I pay for. I have nail colours that go with my clothes at home, and I'm pretty into skincare so I spend a bit on that. I'm obsessed with glossier makeup right now so it's a bit of a premium over drug store.
When I was working I had a pretty strict budget for everything. Once I had taken all my money for rent, utilities, groceries, savings and insurance, what I was left with was my fun money which I could use however I wanted, usually on clothes, skincare, and makeup. I had different spending and savings accounts to keep everything separate. It's boring but it worked to keep my spending under control!
My feeling is that you should try to meditate a bit on what kind of look genuinely makes you feel your best. Don't think about what other people wear, just on what you feel good in. Your best tools to get you outta the rut are pinterest for your aesthetic goals, and a trusty excel sheet for the planning and expensing. I also read a book called The Curated Closet that I really liked that I think would be a helping hand in getting you started on actually building a wardrobe.
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud is very informative and a fun read. Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier is excellent as well.
Also for a bit of a laugh (but still informative) see this old show on Youtube:
The Masters of Comic Book Art
To you I highly recommend Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. It's not manga, but it is a comic about the mechanics of comics.
The artist is Scott McCloud. He has a lot off informative books on making comic books.
https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
Looking forward to it!
She might enjoy this by the way (and maybe you would as well). http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-The-Invisible-Art/dp/006097625X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1398072838&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=understanding+comics
It doesn't look like much but it is a really intelligent book about visual communication and a bit of art education as well.
Sup LazyJ507. It looks like nobody's really given you any tips yet, so I'll try, and see if this helps at all.
Work on drawing.
By that I mean draw from life. Often. Get a sketchbook and go out and draw a whole lot. Draw your family, your friends, your classmates, etc. Studying anatomy helps a lot! The real meat for drawing figures is in learning what things are SUPPOSED to look like. Try to find some life drawing classes.
Read a lot.
And by this I mean reading lots of comics. Read lots of comics and read lots of books about comics. See what you like and try to emulate--NOT COPY-- things that you think are awesome. I recommend checking out Scott McCloud's Making Comics and Understanding Comics. Also, check out Will Eisner's books: Comics And Sequential Art, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative and Expressive Anatomy have helped me tons. It's awesome seeing professionals in the comics world give you tips and visuals that help you learn. Also, read novels, watch cartoons, watch movies, play video games. Find the aspects that you like about each and see how you can connect that to making comics. Comics are a pretty limitless medium.
As for this comic specifically, work on size, spacing, lettering, panel layouts, and black-and-white balance. And maybe comedic timing, but that's more in the writing area.
I can't really think of any more tips, but if you're wondering about anything else, go ahead and ask.
(i'm a sequential arts student a bluh bluh bluh)
OK, so there's a fat cat on the window sill. This is the first literal description you've given this entire time. Now, with that, convey an idea.
Please stop acting like you've read these books when you haven't. And please go read them, or at least admit you haven't. You've "read" Vonnegut, but have you read his musings on writing with concepts? You've looked at an Amazon page of a Postman book, but have you delved into a Postman book and looked at how he talks about pictures, words and media? Have you read the grandfather of all these books, "Understanding Media" by Marshall McLuhan, which talks about how people take advantage of our poor understanding or language? Have you read Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," which does a spectacular job of showing us how we can't really convey literal with communication mediums? Have you read "The Phantom Public" by Walter Lippmann, which looks at how words affect public policy? In fact, have you ready "1984" and discussed the use of media by Big Brother?
I'm sure you're a smart fellow, perhaps smarter than I am. But there is an inherent issue you aren't quite understanding with language. This isn't about definitions about metaphor, simile or even our particular version of language. This is about language and communication as a human tool -- its limits and powers.
History and development of art in general? eeeeeeeesh I do not know. there are so many different styles and histories. I would say just encourage and provide opportunities. If she is like me or any of the million art weirdoes out there, art will just become a natural extension of her day to day. If I had to pick one book that was enlightening to my understanding of a small subject but also can be applied to a larger subject, it would Scott Mclouds Understanding Comics.
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-McCloud/dp/006097625X
that actually maybe more relevant than a history of fine western art.
If you're looking for some books to help you with figures or comics in general, I'd highly recommend the following:
Typography is middling, layout is not particularly conducive to easy understanding, you need more "borders" or at least negative space framing around the individual sections, and you need to work on your technical writing a bit, it rambles and under explains at the same time in places.
Neat concept, requires more time fiddling with it.
To help with visual flow, I oddly enough suggest looking at some Scott McCloud books/work, as he's VERY good at flow for most of it, and you can see a long time evolution of his work into flow:
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-Mccloud/dp/006097625X
http://scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/canvas/index.html
Totally missed the one of the most important beginner books:
Understanding Comics
It's required reading for my 1st year students.
Scott McCloud has a couple great books on the matter.
The book "Understanding Comics" is a great book for story writing and world building beyond just comic books. It guides through story development. It's a really good resource for anyone in a field related to storytelling, like gaming or film making.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/006097625X/?coliid=I3PV07BG4PKRHA
As far as visual story telling there's nothing there. It's all just character studies. I'm a huge comics nerd and the medium is so unique and powerful but people think it's simple when it's anything but if you really want to do something with it. Check out this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-The-Invisible-Art/dp/006097625X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1331962588&amp;sr=1-1
It's probably at your local library if it's worth its salt. And read some great comics. Check out stuff by Top Shelf Publishing. I've talked with their publisher before and he really gets comics.
As far as the characters themselves go I think other people made the points I would make but here's another book recommendation.
http://www.amazon.com/Dynamic-Figure-Drawing-Burne-Hogarth/dp/0823015777
Try taking a look at Scott McCloud's 'Understanding Comics' (or the more in depth 'Making Comics'). It probably covers a lot of the same things as the textbook you mentioned, only it's laid out in actual comic form. It's easy to digest, explains the importance of a lot of the different visual aspects of comics, and how they relate to the goal of telling a story.
Good luck!
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-Mccloud/dp/006097625X
Your gut instinct is correct in regards to setting explicit expectations.
However, the onus is typically on the writer to pay for the art. If you build relationships with collaborators, you may eventually decide to split the risk. But there is a greater demand for artists than there are writers and, as such, the writers have to add incentive to make working on their book viable.
Artists don't necessarily need writers to grow in their craft. But writers eventually need to see their work translated into art to better understand the mechanics of the medium, to learn how to best communicate their ideas to the reader via the artist and to have a product to show future employers. By telling potential collaborators you are willing to pay them, you instantly give you and your project a leg up on those competing for your artists' time and talent.
With that being said, paying out of pocket should not scare you off from this venture. Many artists will work for incredibly reasonable rates, especially if you are honest, cool and have good ideas. But offering a rate shows both that you are serious about your art and that you respect the art your collaborators bring to the project. If you're looking to dip your feet in the water, I know /r/ComicBookCollabs occasionally has events that groups creative teams. That may be a good place to start.
Perhaps most importantly, don't let the potential costs of collaboration keep you from writing. While the comic book medium requires art for publication, there's nothing keeping you from learning about storytelling, character development and the basic mechanics of the medium on your own. You may grow fastest with great contributors; but you won't grow at all waiting for them to come to you. All of that aside, if you don't have a script for collaborators, they won't have anything to collaborate with.
***
On a slightly different note, if you haven't read it yet, [Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics](http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-The-Invisible-Art/dp/006097625X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=0DSPZ3H5M9SJ1KSXTNTJ) is a great place to start thinking about some of the nuts and bolts of sequential art. While some of the techniques he talks about may have more direct application for an artists, it is essential for writers to have an understanding of the medium's strengths and limitations. Understanding Comics* provides this in an incredibly succinct, yet thorough manner.
The best book on how comics work, for my money, is Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. That would be followed up by Making Comics from the same author. It's a little theory-heavy but it's amazing. I'd say it's good for 14 and up, or maybe a little younger. This would get him a fantastic background in how comics work and how to create them in general. The first book is literally used as a textbook in some college "Comics Appreciation" type classes. The coolest thing about it is that it's a comic itself, and it demonstrates the things it's talking about right there on the page.
If he's younger, and/or he really just wants to learn to draw superheroes, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way is really good on the fundamentals. It's old-school (most inkers don't use a brush anymore, they use computers), but the fundamentals haven't changed all that much.
Here's a more modern one from DC that looks pretty good and has good reviews, though I haven't read it.
I've just started learning to draw. Actually, I've always sketched a bit, but I wanted a firm foundation in drawing. I'm currently reading and doing the exercises in this book: http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Right-Side-Brain-Definitive/dp/1585429201 It's been recommended by a lot of people.
It's really good, and I already see improvement in my drawing.
And read this book while you're at it (it's not just about comics but about drawing and symbols and how they work on our brains): http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-The-Invisible-Art/dp/006097625X
Nice of sharing this information. When I dabbled in comic books I read Will Eisner's Comics & Sequential Art. A very comprehensive book by one of the greats.
Also the books by Scott McCloud are taking the medium beyond just print and to the web itself.
I do from time to time. I've also been blogging for a few years. I'm taking time off from seminary right now, and am I'm also working with this ministry. We're hoping to create a visual guide to the reliability of the NT, sort of in the style of Understanding Comics.
It's a serious comic book. Also known as a graphic novel. "Comic book" means the artwork and text are in a certain style, not the content.
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-The-Invisible-Art/dp/006097625X
I had an older edition of this book I got in college. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to get into graphic design:
https://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-4th/dp/0133966151
It does a really good job of taking a lot of topics, summing them up nicely and providing examples. It'll help with spacing, colors, alignment, etc.
> An understanding of design concepts is handy, but you don't need to be able to come up with the design yourself.
I think this line really sums it up best. You are likely to be tasked with creating some mock-ups, or adding a feature after the designer(s) have more or less moved on to the next project. In the case of the former, having some basic understanding of layout and design will help you create a usable product, even if it lacks polish.For the latter, being able to interpret the existing design, and extracting a few rules from it will let you deliver something pretty close to a finished product.
Working as a contractor or as part of a small team you sometimes have to wear multiple hats. I'm mostly a backend developer, but have (and still do) work on the front-end. There are a couple of books I have read and recommend for people in that situation. Neither will make you a full-blown designer, but do cover the essentials that anyone working on the front-end really should know.
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability
The Non-Designer's Design Book
I would like to encourage you a little and liberate you from the thought that a good designers must "be creative" (i.e., good at making things look pretty).
Form and function. Web design is primarily about function (i.e., problem solving). Form plays a lesser role and can be highly subjective. As a general principles, so long as form does not hinder function and is not needed to communicate a particular message (e.g., elegance, happiness, anger, etc.), then good-enough form is good enough.
Consider Craigslist. It's an ugly website. It's not going to win any good-looks awards. Yet, people are not leaving in droves because it solves a problem (i.e., post, search, and review classifieds) and does so well.
On the flip side, there are many beautiful websites that are functionally defective.
Good designers solve problems. If you want to learn good design, I'd recommend a few courses:
You can take all of these courses and specializations for free. (Make sure you select the free option if that's your preference.) They will help you learn "design thinking" from three different perspectives.
A really good book on usability (function) with wide applicability is Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. A good book on graphic design basics is The Non-Designers Design Book by Robin Williams.
Sadly, most web "design" books focus on teaching HTML, CSS and JavaScript rather than design, so I can't provide any good resources specifically on web design. (Maybe others can fill that void.)
However, the benefit of approaching design from a variety of perspectives and in a variety of contexts is that it helps you learn how to "think design." Seeing design thinking play out across areas reinforces the basic design principles and practices and makes it easier to apply them to web design.
If you are more interested in form, then I'd recommend looking into studio art classes (e.g., drawing, painting, photography, digital imaging, etc). (Alternatively, you could follow courses on YouTube for these.) While these sometimes focus more on technique, they'll help you learn how to dissect what you see. You'll learn to see objects as shapes, lines, textures, shades, hues, etc. Combine that knowledge with good technique (e.g., drawing, HTML/CSS, Photoshop, etc.), and it becomes easy to make things look nice.
Also, don't neglect creativity. One of the best books on creativity that I've ever come across is Sparks of Genius: The Thirteen Thinking Tools of the World's Most Creative People. While it's a long read, it provides you with some great tools to use to "spark" creative thought.
Hope that helps.
Like mentioned a framework like bootstrap or material design and this book is a great place to start.
The Non-Designer's Design Book (4th Edition) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0133966151/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_6rs0AbSRA52V0
Graphic Design is more about pedantry and font/color/weight/contrast/alignment choices. But a good book for inspiration is 2D: Visual Basics for Designers and a good book to use as reference is The Non-Designer's Design Book
This isn't ready yet, but I'm looking forward to this book on the subject - https://refactoringui.com/book/
I've seen this one recommended - https://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-4th/dp/0133966151
This looks interesting, and developed into a book - https://medium.com/hello-web-design/design-for-non-designers-part-1-6559ed93ff91
There are two I can think of related to UX for developers, which isn't graphics design but should help you design better interfaces. One is due out in January - https://www.amazon.ca/Developers-User-Centered-Day-Day-Development/dp/1484242262 This one is already out - UX Fundamentals for Non-UX Professionals - https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Non-UX-Professionals-Experience-Principles/dp/1484238109
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Here's a pretty well-known book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Non-Designers-Design-Book-Edition/dp/0133966151/ref=dp_ob_title_bk
Some articles to read:
How about the Non-Designers Design Book? http://www.amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-4th/dp/0133966151/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1453765007&amp;sr=1-1
This book isn't powerpoint-specific, but depending on where you're starting from, a few fundamentals could make a world of difference in visual presentations.
https://www.udemy.com/ux-web-design-master-course-strategy-design-development/ (non-affiliate)
It's a paid course, but you can get coupons almost all the time for 10-12 bucks. Everything he teaches is excellent.
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https://amazon.com/Non-Designers-Design-Book-4th/dp/0133966151/ (non-affiliate)
Robin Williams The Non-Designers Design Book
2 solid choices. I am a designer with 0 artistic skill. These will both help you make better design choices. Joe's Udemy course above focuses extensively on UX and UI. He also teaches a Udemy course specifically on UX/UI, though I found a lot of duplicate content between the two. I'd recommend looking at both of them.
Yeah, me too.
Check out The Non-Designer's Design Book by
Robin Williams.Patternmaking for Fashion Design
and How to Make Sewing Patterns are good resources. The first is more of a textbook that addresses specific techniques in patternmaking (e.g. how do I do articulated sleeves? how do I do an invisible zipper?) while the latter is more of a general introduction.
I use a machine for nearly everything and am horrible at handsewing. The most hand sewing I do is for tacking down allowances or for hook & eye closures so I think you could probably get away with mediocre hand sewing technique.
Generally, most pattern drafting books tell you how to draft a sloper (or template of your body,) and then tells you how to manipulate the sloper to get finished designs. You can start with any sloper (from any book or website) that fits you well and jump right to the sloper manipulation part from any book you like.
For womenswear I recommend “Pattern Drafting and Dressmaking” by Dorothy Moore . It’s much, much cheaper than other books, and offers a really good, simplified set of slopers despite the book being so old. When I started drafting, four years ago, I used this book to create a dress shirt with princess seams, as well as trousers, for my wife and her co-workers assumed that they were from Banana Republic. Don’t worry though, the book also has sections on dresses, coats, jackets and even a bonus formula for a contemporary man’s dress shirt.
On a side note, you can draft anything you want, but you have to know how to put it together and most of these books do not give you construction advice. I like Kwik Sew’s instructions because they use simple construction techniques, ¼” seams and teach good habits. If you don’t know how to assemble something you’ve drafted, borrow the instruction booklet from a KwikSew pattern that is similar to what you are trying to make and write down the construction steps. In addition, you’ll see it mentioned here a lot, but "Shirtmaking" by David Coffin offered invaluable tips on how to get the collar, cuffs and yoke assembled in a non-conventional way.
Some of the other books I recommend:
“Patternmaking for Fashion Design” by Helen Armstrong, is an odd book. As a pattern drafting book, I feel that it fails, as it is too big and tries to cover too many bases. But as a reference book, those qualities make it exceptional. This is not something you’ll ever read straight through… you’ll start at the index and jump to the morsel of information that you need, e.g. dart manipulation, or collar variations. Really expensive though.
“The Practical Guide to Patternmaking” by Lori Knowles and “The Practical Guide to Patternmaking for Meanswear” by Lori Knowles are both great. Where Moore’s book looked a little dated, this one has contemporary designs.
i used this at a local CC here in SF and my classmates who went to FIDM already had it because their teachers had already used them for THEIR classes.
Place a dart in a paper pattern. Self-teaching patternmaking and this book (Helen Joseph Armstrong was so annoyingly complex and assumtious that I got this book (Dennic Chunman Lo) and it's easy to follow but hard to understand at certain points, as he just "throws" you the concept with no deep how-to of it or explanation/
New Complete Guide to Sewing for general sewing techniques.
For tailoring men's clothes, Classic Tailoring Techniques (and women's.)
For pattern drafting, Winnifred Aldrich has a great line of books.
There's also Fundamentals of Men's Fashion Design, casual and tailored. As well as Patternmaking for Fashion Design.
For corsets, Waisted Efforts and The Basics of Corset Building are good.
For making shirts, Shirtmaking.
For learning to sew stretch/knit fabrics, Sew U: Home Stretch is pretty good.
And for just having a bunch of fun with patterns, the Pattern Magic series is plain awesome. I think there's three of them out now.
Edit: thought of more!
The Art of Manipulating Fabric is great. And www.threadsmagazine.com as well as the corresponding print publication.
In terms of ready-to-wear clothes that you buy in a store, if, for example, a size L is supposed to fit women sizes 10 to 14, that garment is actually cut to fit a size 14. The largest size in each size range is what the garment is actually cut for.
This is a pricy book, but it is an awesome textbook that covers all aspects of patternmaking: Patternmaking for Fashion Design
Patternmaking for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph Armstrong is pretty much the standard patternmaking text for just about every decent fashion design program in the States. I still have my copy from the 90s which I used in school, and I still refer to it when making my own patterns.
It has a very wide variety of styles/details/silhouettes/etc. And our patternmaker at my work, who has been drafting production patterns for 30+ years, references her copy regularly.
Another good book to look for Type "Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works" (http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Stealing-Sheep-Works-Edition/dp/0201703394). Its been sitting on my shelf for a while now and I always dip back to it when I need it.
Stop Stealing Sheep
A Type Primer
Try this book by Erik Spiekermann.
Herding, Stealing, Shagging, whatever....
>"Any man who would letterspace blackletter would shag sheep."
http://www.amazon.com/Stop-Stealing-Sheep-Works-Edition/dp/0201703394
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Goudy
super relevant
Logo Design Love
Let me preface that I don't consider myself a pro in anyway. I work at a printer and am the in-house designer, which for the most part means I am a troubleshooter that needs to fix your damn files so they can print. But I have found these useful for inspiration/education/etc...
Logo Design Workshop
Logo Design Love
The entire Los Logos series. This is volume 7.
The entire LogoLounge series.
Except for the Logo Design Workshop these are primarily catalogs of logos, but some will go through the design process to give you an idea of what the designer was thinking, discussions with client, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/Logo-Design-Love-Creating-Identities/dp/0321985206/ref=zg_bs_3564965011_3
I have this one and it's fantastic. Check the reviews for it, too.
This one will probably be my next purchase on that same theme:
http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Brand-Identity-Essential-Branding/dp/0470401427/ref=zg_bs_3564965011_7
Link of the book :
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321985206/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=inkbot05-20&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;creativeASIN=0321985206&amp;linkId=b05fbd7ab1b9acec082c4f5f61b362ba
Learn marketing if you hate coding. There are tons of books. http://www.amazon.com/Ogilvy-Advertising-David/dp/039472903X
http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/
Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy, co-founder of Ogilvy & Mather, one of the most important and biggest ad agencies out there. It's one of the best books on the subject that I've ever read.
http://www.amazon.com/Ogilvy-Advertising-David/dp/039472903X
Hey Whipple, Squeeze This is pretty much required reading. As is Ogilvy on Advertising, in my opinion. Sort of old school versus new school insight. Both are advertising legends, and Luke Sullivan is/was a copywriter, so I found his stuff to be particularly helpful. There's a ton of stuff out there to read, but these two are a good place to start.
I bet those days will come back soon. There's so much style in longer form. I recently read Ogilvy on Advertsing, written by this man, and recommend it to anyone interested in marketing or cool old school British style.
Start a little kitty for this one man: https://www.amazon.com/Ogilvy-Advertising-David/dp/039472903X
/u/chaintip
Edit: There's a bunch of other books which are bangers though! Maybe this one too, Niall Ferguson - The Square and The Tower.
Copywriter's Handbook
Ogilvy on Advertising
My Life in Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins
Pick Me: Breaking into Advertising and Staying there - By Nancy Vonk Invaluable to me when I was in school. Read it more than my textbooks
Zag: The Number one strategy for high performance brands
Tipping Point - Malcom Gladwell
> Just because he sells them doesn't make them effective for use
Read "Ogilvy on Advertising" and you'll come away with a different perspective.
These two books are great. Best $40 you will ever spend.
http://www.amazon.com/Words-Pictures-Business-Writing-Graphic/dp/0770434355/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1463121823&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=words+for+pictures
http://www.amazon.com/Make-Comics-Like-Pros-Graphic/dp/0385344635/ref=pd_sim_14_11?ie=UTF8&amp;dpID=61UB9MAkkjL&amp;dpSrc=sims&amp;preST=_AC_UL160_SR125%2C160_&amp;refRID=1D8HQXEZ6V4S2DP6P3Q6
Words for Pictures by Brian Michael Bendis. If you're interested in writing your story ideas as comics/manga, you need to have this book.
BENDIS wrote a book for it
I constantly try to everyone I can about these two books, Drawn to Life Vol 1 & 2: The Walt Stanchfield Lectures. They are super heavy in terms of theory, and took me a few years to read through both volumes fully, but no other book has impacted the way I think about and practice drawing then these two.
https://www.amazon.com/Drawn-Life-Classes-Stanchfield-Lectures/dp/0240810961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1519436955&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=drawn+to+life
Framed Ink has been really helpful for me in beginning to understand the art of sequential story telling, and the thinking behind different framing choices.
https://www.amazon.com/Framed-Ink-Drawing-Composition-Storytellers/dp/1933492953/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
Add into that David Chelseas book Perspective for Comic Book Artists. It explained (and continues to explain) perspective in a way that makes sense and is incredibly detailed. (I alone would buy the book for how he explains the hanger method of sizing characters of the same size but on different planes in the correct perspective.)
https://www.amazon.com/Perspective-Comic-Book-Artists-Professional/dp/0823005674/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1519437238&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=perspective+for+comics
These are just a couple from the top of my head, but if you'd like more recommendations, or ones on specific topics I can see if I have any that would fit your need.
This is the book you were remembering:
http://www.amazon.com/Perspective-Comic-Book-Artists-Professional/dp/0823005674
Good book!
Di libri ce ne sono a bizzeffe.
Visto che vorresti fare i ritratti ti consiglio questo, che spiega quali sono i tratti fondamentali da cogliere per rappresentare le espressioni del volto:
https://www.amazon.it/Artists-Complete-Guide-Facial-Expression/dp/0823004325/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1549019579&sr=8-4&keywords=expression+anatomy
Per la prospettiva poi questo è stato quello che ho trovato più utile, lo ritengo una buona via di mezzo tra il tecnico ed il pratico:
https://www.amazon.it/Perspective-Comic-Book-Artists-Professional/dp/0823005674/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1549019730&sr=8-3&keywords=perspective+for+comic
These days I just drop it into Clip Studio Paint and trace what I need. :D
In my defense I did learn to do perspective by hand back in the day. It can be hard as hell once you get into curved surfaces. I did find David Chelsea's Perspective! book to be pretty useful as a reminder on how to do it.
But even with digital help I still lay out the perspective lines so everything I add to the image, or move around, looks like it's in the right place. Even though I'm fairly confident I know enough nowadays to fake it some habits die hard.
your perspective is off. pick up Perspective! for Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea. its really a shame he titled it what he did because millions of artists probably gloss over it thinking "bah, comic books! that's not what i do." but clearly it is what you do. so get it.
i have read a dozen books on perspective and this book is far and away the best. there are concepts it doesn't totally cover, and there are more advanced books for that. in terms of getting the idea across and learning there is no better book in my experience. and it has a lot of premade grids in the back to get you started.
If you're serious about learning perspective, this is a really good book that isn't too terribly academic.. Nail down perspective, nail down anatomy, then you can draw heads in perspective all day long.
The Elements of Typographic Style, very good book about the fundamentals.
This is my favorite, mostly because it brings in concepts that surround design, and explains things like gestalt. Pardon the Amazon link, but it's not an affiliate link.
http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Principles-Design-William-Lidwell/dp/1592530079/ref=sr_1_56?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1418235901&amp;sr=1-56&amp;keywords=graphic+design+concepts
Edit: forgot my favorite type book, which is dry as hell, but full of great info: http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Typographic-Style-Robert-Bringhurst/dp/0881792063/ref=pd_sim_b_6?ie=UTF8&amp;refRID=1RD40NPJ75KD5V99KXAB
And the version for online type: http://webtypography.net/
"Just doing it" is fair enough and is valuable, but also can only take one so far without understanding fundamentals as well.
What you don't want to be is someone with just a high software proficiency but relatively little understanding of what they're doing, or why. They essentially end up becoming an expert at mimicry. They can build whatever you want, but don't understand why what they're building works.
I've seen enough examples where it can simply delay advancement, such that someone self-taught with 5-10 years experience ends up with skills comparable to a graduate with 0-3 years of experience.
If the goal is to circumvent school, especially if the motivation is to save money, then the goal should also be to replicate the benefits of design education as much as possible without the expense.
> Books are nice but they aren't nearly the invaluable tool that "Just Doing It" is.
I assume you're just talking about instructional books, which relates to what I was saying above. To discredit the reading of a book such as The Elements of Typographic Style would be a shame. I imagine a book like that is required reading in any graphic design program.
holy shit is that comic sans in publishing i think i just shat myself
...
Well, it's pretty creative though. Not a bad job in that sense. Here's a free tip if you're actually interested in publishing.
Ahhh these type exercises bring back fond memories! Typography can be a difficult thing to learn and teach because there is never one answer to a problem. Just learn the few things you shouldn't do and rock out with the rest. It is a skill that has a feel to it and the only way to develop an eye for it is to just practice and observe. I will dig out some of my work of similar projects and share.
Here are some of my favorite reads from back in day.
The Elements of Typographic Style
The Fundamentals of Typography
U&lc : Influencing Design & Typography
Thanks! One of my friends told me I need to read up on typography as well. He recommended me reading THIS and also THIS before I even start college to get a better understanding of it all. Regarding HTML and CSS, hopefully we'll learn that during the Web design I, II and III during the course. Otherwise I know a college in town where you can get a Web Design diploma (2 evening classes per week) in just two months and that is basically ONLY html, css and dreamweaver. It's dirt cheap to do as well so I might do that if I dont get enough html/css experience from college.
If you're having trouble with text and typography, I recommend Elements of Typographic Style. From letters and glyphs to pages and columns, it's a great read (actually funny in places) and will help you know what you want to do with your type. Then it's usually a pretty simple matter of googling how to do that in InDesign.
This isn't directly skills-related, but if you're going to be working as a designer you should read Design is a Job. A lot of really great practical info on working as a designer and the industry you don't usually hear people talk about.
If you're interested in logos and marks, I thought "Marks of Excellence" was a fantastic book. It's one that you need to read, though, not just flip through. For typography, I think "Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works" is a good read for an easy introduction to typography. For a little more serious dig, hit up "The Elements of Typographic Style".
typography has some good rules for this.
see the book The Elements of Typographic Style
or http://webtypography.net/intro/ which is based on the instructions of this book.
Layout + Color
Picture This by Molly Bang
Typography
Second vote for Elements of Typographic Style, excellent book.
Drawing, honestly at the start the biggest key to growth is going to be drawing as much as you can. You're going to suck for a while so start getting those bad drawings out of you. There's a ton of great people to watch on YouTube (Sycra Yasin, Glenn Vilppu, Stan Prokopenko, Steve Huston). I've seen Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain recommended by many. I'm not crazy about it myself but I didn't read as a beginner artist so I probably didn't get as much out of it as I could have.
Some of my favorites. Some are good to skim through for ideas, some of them are more "sit down and read" books. Definitely not a comprehensive list, but all books that I enjoyed reading.
Graphic Style by Seymour Chwast and Steven Heller
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
100 ideas that Changed Graphic Design by Steven Heller and Veronique Vienne
The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
A Short History of the Printed Word by Warren Chappell and Robert Bringhurst
The Posters: 1,000 Posters from Toulouse-Lautrec to Sagmeister
Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop by Jim Sherraden
Well, as an ex-designer that now pretty much exclusively codes, I'd say your time would be best spent around typography. Here's a book that I would highly recommend. :)
Even if it's just a passing interest, I highly recommend 'The Elements of Typographic Style 4.0' by Robert Bringhurst: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0881792128/ref=aw_2nd_sims_1?pi=SL500_SY115
Do you have a good understanding of typography in general? If you have that, you could try searching for specific things you want to learn like adjusting kerning or using ligatures.
If you need to familiarize yourself more with the elements of typography, this book is commonly considered THE go-to book for typography: http://amzn.com/0881792128
If I remember correctly, he said that he had to use it once. If they don't pay, then you can take them to small claims court. Not sure how well that works with long-distance clients... That might fall more under getting a healthy deposit upfront and getting paid as distinct work phases are complete. It they quibble on the deposit or payments at different phases, drop them... they will probably be more trouble than they are worth.
He said he barely edits the contract spelled out in the Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. It comes out every 2 years with the newest being 2010. You might be able to grab a copy at the library to read, but I've included the Amazon link also:
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1299991161&amp;sr=8-1
Getting a good contract and not giving an inch once terms are agreed upon would probably help take away some of that stress of dealing with bad clients (or help avoid them?) and then you could focus on your work. I've only had a few clients so far, but 2 of them have been bad and it stressed me the fu%% out. The other issues that I had were because of things that I needed to learn how to do better. Hopefully that helps.
This book might be of help.
You should take a look at this book if you want to write your own contract, learn to negotiate, etc... Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines
Art School Admissions Rep here. Not here to promote my school. But I will say that its never too late to go back to school. Sounds like you were "a pretty lazy student" because there was no context for your education. A good Graphic Design program would teach you how to function in that creative environment - to communicate with your employer/clients so you can deliver what they want in the style you provide. And there's nothing like the right teacher when you're ready to learn. They can expand your style, stretch your limits, and help you do things you didn't consider.
>I've never taken any art classes, and while I think that art school would be a terrific experience, I can't justify going into debt for a degree that has a pretty good chance on not helping me pay it back.
I would point you to The Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines Go down to Barnes and Noble and just flip through it. This will give you some idea how your training can be paid back through your career. And what options are available for what you do. I will say though that from my perspective, to make a living drawing everyday, you will need to know Photoshop or(but really and) Illustrator.
Here's what I see: you're doing a ton of work! You're working hard on advancing your work, and people are paying for what you do (even if they don't know what they'll get). These are the signs of a professional artist. No matter what you do next - keep doing those things. Your perseverance will pay off.
I say that because I don't think you have to go to school. I think it would be, as you say, terrific (we would also have accepted:easy access to mentors, a safe place to fail, and built-in networking). But the other avenues you listed: tattoos, children's books, Graphic Designer, etc are just as open to you without a degree. You have tons of material for a demo reel: put yourself out there as a freelancer. Define your business, decide what you provide, and go sell that to people who you think could use it. Write a business plan and use it. You seem like an enterprising young man. I think if you give yourself a little more credit for what you've accomplished (Graduating 2nd while Lazy, doing something about your depression, making money from your videos, the successful kickstarter), seek out those who are doing what you want to do, and double or even triple your efforts on your work - you will live a life at 35 that you cannot dream of now.
I hope that helps. If you want some schools to think about feel free to PM me. Good luck.
which is why you would show the -/+ percentages on a graph instead of absolute values.
You could have two graphs:
one that has zero on the axis and raw values.
one that is a chart of +/- percentage relative to a baseline.
Otherwise its intentionally misleading.
Personal opinion:
If you haven't read this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142
Then you probably shouldn't comment on this topic.
Okay, so you've clearly misunderstood what I said. Firstly, your article is thin, at best. If you want some good examples, go to the master. Secondly, my point was that these graphs are cropped to make them more dramatic for visual appeal by business users all the time because they convey what they're trying to get across, but do it in a more dramatic way. If you'd like to believe that it's just Fox News that does this because they're evil, then you need to watch more news. They all do it--MSNBC, CNN, hell, even the BBC. Shit, even Google.
Christ almighty, it's getting very summer in here.
A funny, but confusing graphic. Before you make another: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
This is a fun read. And as someone else here stated you may want to invest in a copy of Illustrator or possibly even InDesign. Trying to work with text in Photoshop will have you pulling your hair out.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1588167461?ie=UTF8&amp;force-full-site=1
lol, comics are just pictures and words. there are plenty of non-fiction comics in the world
by discounting the medium you are making yourself sound ignorant. you should probably buy what i linked you to, it could save your intellect.
also, you didn't address my comment about pitting two (real or perceived) groups against one another.
This book:
http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Comics-Invisible-Scott-Mccloud/dp/006097625X
And the rest of the series are better!
It's a poor representation of data. In pie charts you compare angles. Humans are poor at comparing the magnitudes of angles. Without the table, labels with the actual numbers, etc. it would be very difficult to compare the information.
For instance, it is difficult based just on the visualization if Instinct or Valor has more players. A bar, column, or dot plot will show things much better. Humans are far better at perceiving differences in length or position. That table on the right is necessary - that means the pie chart is useless.
If you are serious about designing visualizations of data, I suggest you read some books by Willilam Cleveland or Edward Tufte.
EDIT: Here is article I often share with people on this topic.
Since you're even tagging Aidan_King:
I'm really extremely surprised by all the positive comments you get for your posters in the different threads. I guess that's the Bernie hype. Sure, it's nice that you do them and it's better than not doing it at all, but they are anything but well designed and would never be officially used.
If you are serious and think about doing more design work I recommend getting a book about typography (for example this one) and start from there.
Edit: Okay, that "would never be used" was wrong. One was already posted on Instagram.
Joe Sacco's Palestine might be worth a look for supplemental material (sorry for the amazon link, but it lets you look inside the book. Had trouble finding excerpts for you). I'm not a historian, but given that not nearly enough people have heard of his work, I wanted to mention it. I have a close friend who's lived in Palestine and has worked most of her adult life for Palestinian rights. She says the book has one of the best "this is the gist"-s of the conflict she's aware of, and recommends it regularly. Sacco is a comics journalist, and I really appreciated how he just let people, Israelis and Palestinians, talk about how their lives were and how the conflict affected them, plus the format might be a nice change of pace from the other material you're likely to find.
I recommend hiring a designer or getting serious and doing some self education.
Thinking with Type
The Non-Designer's Design Book