Milton Glaser threw me out of his graphics class at the New School
My loss is your gain. I think for not much money you can use new tools to create better than average work.
Lousy work is now unacceptable!
YES! You need a world-class professional when you need design worth paying for. But lots of time, you need design you can't pay for. That's when you need to be really good.
Start with this simple book
Before and After Graphics for Business
Amazon Price: $23.09 (as of 11/22/2009)![]()
Not a lot of theory, not a lot of rules, just useful approaches to common problems.
Typography is the window into the soul of business graphic design
Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works (2nd Edition)
Amazon Price: $26.40 (as of 11/22/2009)![]()
This book will change (forever) the way you think about type.
Death to ugly presentations!
slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations
Amazon Price: $23.09 (as of 11/22/2009)![]()
Do you spend more time and money on your suit than on the design of your slides? Shame on you.
Another classic
The InDesign Ideabook: Over 300 Ready-to-Use InDesign "PrePages" for Marketing Your Products, Your Services, and Your Organization
Amazon Price: $59.95 (as of 11/22/2009)![]()
Shortcuts, shortcuts, shortcuts.
There are versions for different programs.
Sites worth checking out
Presentation Zen
13 points
Before & After magazine
Before & After, How to design cool stuff, is a more...10 points
The Non-Designer's Design Book
4 key principles of design - 2 hours flicking thro more...6 points
Slides that stick
Blog with ideas that improve your PowerPoint prese more...6 points
Graphics | Smashing Magazine
Graphic inspiration.4 points
GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program
Free, Open Source graphic design software, similar more...3 points
slide:ology
A distillation of Duarte Design's 20 years of expe more...3 points
I love Typography (iLT), devoted to fonts, typefaces and all things typographical
The typography and fonts blog. Typographic inspira more...2 points
TheDieline.com
The Dieline covers the world's best packaging desi more...1 point
Inspiration | Smashing Magazine
Pictures and more pictures.1 point
Alertbox: Jakob Nielsen's Newsletter on Web Usability
User research findings, Design guidelines for Web more...1 point
Lovely Charts | Free online diagramming application
Lovely Charts is an online diagramming application more...1 point
Design Reviver - Web Design Blog
Web Design Blog - Web Design Tutorials, Inspiratio more...1 point
The Grid System
The ultimate resource in grid systems.1 point
http://fontfeed.com/
Font blog.1 point
Royalty Free Photos, Download Stock Photos and Images Stock Photos Royalty Free Downloads
Cheap stock photo download royalty free - high res more...1 point
dafont.com
Archive of freely downloadable fonts. Browse by al more...1 point
Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop: Timothy Samara: Books
Amazon.com: Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphi more...0 points
Coghead, Inc
RIA Forms Generator.0 points
http://www.hongkiat.com
Design inspiration and freebies.0 points
http://www.justcreativedesign.com
Tips for designers.0 points
Better Posters
A poster presentation resource.0 points
MOO | Custom Business Cards, MiniCards, Postcards and Stickers | moo.com
Create and customize premium Business Cards, MiniC more...0 points
Reader Feedback
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byjerrymcvictor says:
I just got started with my own lens today and looking for inspiration. This is a nice one, well done!
Posted September 17, 2009
Garant says:
We need you to add more tutorials please - I loved the fontfeed link.
Thanks
Posted July 04, 2009
Alpinefolk says:
Thanks for this great info Seth. Though I worry what it will fill some, with missplaced confidence (many a lousy designer, think they are a good).
I can design a little and have a resonable eye for layout etc. But for me it is a time issue. A designer friend of mine can do in an hour, what it takes me two days to achieve... It took me a long time to realise, but I now value my time more than the cost of the designer.
Posted May 01, 2009
SecondhandSerenade says:
I've got to agree, I really like the lay out of this lens Seth, it's given me inspiration... :0)
Posted April 22, 2009
bkalok08 says:
Great lens Seth! I m bookmarking this. This lens is a good example of excellent presentation. The lens is simple yet very well presented.
Posted April 13, 2009
giselediaz says:
Thank you so much for sharing, Seth. Seems like a lot of hard work this article...or Squidoo is bug free when you repost. I'open my profile here and posted a note about remembering that Design means planing. Soon in a lens! http://bit.ly/designp
Posted September 22, 2009
taliamurphy says:
You are so incredibly generous about sharing great information. Thank you so much!
Posted July 13, 2009
DivineIguana says:
Thanks for the insight. I work for a small company...and run my own small company...and we rarely have the money to pay professionals. Learning to do EVERYTHING well enough to get by is tricky, but it is often the only way to get a small venture started. Eventually I hope to be able to outsource some of the tasks at which I don't excel. For now, I've got a nice new reading list to help me improve.
Posted July 10, 2009
Thomas Hawk on photography
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