16 Great Graphic Design Blogs and Sites

What are your favorite design blogs and sites? There are so many design blogs now, that your top list is sure to be a bit different. Here we’ve collected 16 great design sites that consistently bring high-quality material to their audience. They are filled with great resources, original material, thought provoking articles, or well constructed design tutorials that keep you growing as a designer. Add these sites to your feed reader, if they aren’t already in there!  More...

5 design rules everyone should know

There are hundreds of great graphic design posts – and endless lists of tips and tricks. But, most of those lists are for graphic designers that design for a living, or for people who need advanced tips and ideas. I have found that while helpful, we often forget some of the basic design rules that everyone should know. Regardless if you design for pay or just for fun, these rules will help everything you do look more precise, professional and powerful.

A Matter of Taste by Fulvio Bonavia

In 2008 Fulvio Bonavia, award winning photographer, published his book "A Matter of Taste".
The idea is : “If you do not want to eat it – wear it!”
Clever and effective use of food result with blackberry purses, aubergine ballerinas, artichoke hats, kiwi watch, fruity necklace, sardines belt...
The most amaizing thing is that all items captured in photos are the work of author's hands, not Photoshop!!

In a Perfect World

 

What would be different in a perfect world?  A young designer Catrina Dulay found an original  way to answer that question. These simple and smart  illustrations talking about annoying little things that we all know well.

Learn the elements of graphic design

Seven basic graphic design principles by Garr Reynolds
Unity, Gestalt, Space, Color, Dominance, Hierarchy, Balance

Learn the principles of graphic design

The best way to start is understanding the basics. Sounds boring? It doesn't have to be. I gathered some links here to proove that graphic design basics can be realy easy to learn. Drink this, and come back for more!
Digital Web Magazine: The principles of Design by Joshua David McClurg-Genevese 
Balance, Rhythm, Proportion, Dominance and Unity. 

  

How to use Illustrator's Pen Tool

If you use Adobe Illustrator, then it’s almost certain that you use the Pen tool. It is one of the most useful tools in the Illustrator tool pallet, but it can also be one of the most frustrating tools. When you first start using the pen tool, it's always pretty confusing, it is hard to get the points where they should be. This issue is something you really have to figure out on your own, but it is worth every minute of effort. The shapes you end up with are economical, clean and precise. Once you become comfortable with this powerful tool you will rarely use the Line tool again.
I probably use it everyday or close to it, but still it isn't easy to explaine,  because you need to feel and see how it works. Also when you are using Illustrator's Pen tool as long as I do you tend to forget how difficult and confusing it can be for beginners.
I hope these excellent tutorials will help people understand the tool a little more.

Adobe Illustrator - beginner tutorial

Adobe Illustrator is the right tool when it comes to graphic or web design. But it is a quite hard to learn if you don't have any experience ( it is hard even when you coming from Corel-world). Illustrator is capable of creating stunning effects, it offers many advanced tools for producing impressive pictures and design, even with basic knowledge of this program. Here are tutorials for everyone who just start with Adobe Illustrator.

Trendovi

Na području grafičkog dizajna stalno se nešto mijenja. To čini grafički dizajn jednim od najuzbudljivijih poslova, ali u isto vrijeme predstavlja i rizik. "Pratiti najnovije trendove i stalno biti u toku" može zvučati kao puno radno vrijeme. Evo nekoliko stvari koje možete učiniti kao grafički dizajner, kako bi bili u korak s promjenama:

1. Pratite najnovije medije

Danas mediji dovose najveće promjene na području grafičkog dizajna. Sve se više miješaju razni mediji: internet,video, glazba, print...
Pratite časopise za dizajn i blogove dizajnera - na taj ćete nači vidjeti što drugi dizajneri rade.

2. Putujte kad god možete

Mnogi dizajneri ne shvaćaju da je važno putovati kako bi osvježili kreativnost, pogledali stvari iz druge perspektive, dobili nove ideje i ostali u toku. Teško se održati na vrhu ako ste stalno na istom mjestu.

3. Ako ne možete putovati - možete učiti.

Bez obzira koliko ste napravili u svojoj karijeri, uvijek možete naučiti nešto novo.

4. Surađujte s drugim dizajnerima

Mnogi grafički dizajneri ograniče se na jedan dio posla ili rade stalno na istim projektima, pa im je stoga teško pratiti što se događa u drugim područjima. Zato se treba povezati s drugim dizajnerima; pomoću njih ćete moći pratiti trendove u područjima kojima se ne bavite toliko, ali i čuti s kojim se problemima oni susreću i kako ih rješavaju.

Grafički dizajn

Gotovo na svakom koraku našu pozornost privlače radovi umjetnika koji putem slika, boja i oblika žele izraziti svoje misli, osjećaje i ideje.
Ilustratori i grafički dizajneri umjetnici su koji svoj talent stavljaju u službu komercijalnih klijenata i prenose poruku koristeći kombinaciju tipografije, ilustracije i fotografije, te tiska, a u svrhu informiranja ili educiranja.
Grafički dizajn je djelatnost koja pozdravlja originalnost i dočekuje kreativnost raširenih ruku.
Vi ste možda jedan od mnogih pojedinaca koje pogled na logo, reklamu ili možda web stranicu navodi na pitanje kako je to napravljeno.
Iza svega toga stoji grafički dizajner