When you’re brainstorming concept ideas for your ad agency’s next campaign, those ideas have to begin somewhere. As brilliant as us creative folk are, we sometimes need help to hone in on a good idea. We need to be pointed in a certain direction. Without knowing which way to go, a creative [...]

It’s no surprise that the advertising industry is full of egos. A company full of creative minds is bound to have some friction from time to time when ideas don’t agree. And of course some of those stereotypes about creative people are true – that they can be overly passionate and attached to their own [...]

Once in awhile, I start feeling just a tad selfish for going into advertising. I have friends who are going through hell to become doctors, occupational therapists, nurses, and friends who just do charity work and volunteer in their spare time. I on the other hand, love to write. So that’s what I do. I [...]

Freelance art direction and design work is a path considered by most designers at some point in their career. The thought of designing work for big clients while in your pajamas just sounds too tempting to pass up. You get the comfort of working from home, on your hours, and you only answer to yourself [...]

When art directors and copywriters work as a team, it’s important that they work well together. But it’s hard to say where one’s role ends and the other’s begins. Of course advertising is an industry full of big egos, and creatives don’t usually appreciate their work being critiqued. As a copywriter, I want to [...]

For art directors and designers, stock photography can either be a friend or foe. There are both upsides and downsides to stock photos, and designers usually have strong feelings towards them. Some ad agencies refuse to use them, and others rely on them completely. Either way, I believe stock photography can certainly be useful if [...]

When you’re looking for a job in design, your design portfolio is your ticket. Well, that or having a connection somewhere. But assuming that you’re on your own in the job hunt, you’re going to have to pack a lot of work, time and talent into your portfolio to show what you can do. In [...]

You may have all the design skills and know how in the world, but all that is wasted if you don’t know how to put your skills to work. There are so many design programs that teach how to create ads and designs, but knowing how to find a job in design is just as [...]

In order for a company to be successful, it’s important that they practice good design in all their work. Their advertising, website, and product design should all be both visually appealing and purposeful. But a company’s logo design is arguably the most important design of all.
A company’s logo speaks volumes about their business. It can [...]

Designing business cards is kind of a tricky area. For those who are trying to network, get their name out, and are responsible for designing their own cards, there is a lot of freedom. The question is what you should do with that freedom. Back when I was in school, the time came for us to [...]

Sometimes when a designer or any artist is searching for inspiration, it helps to surround themselves with admirable work. Looking at clean, efficient designs retrains the mind to produce that caliber of work. As helpful as it is to see what’s great about design, sometimes it’s just as helpful to hear it. Being a copywriter, [...]

The thrill of not knowing what you’ll be doing tomorrow can be exhilarating, and a huge rush for your creativity — except when that unknowing feeling comes to your finances, work, and where you’re going to find your next client.
Being a freelancer puts a lot of unknowns into play, and the first several months of [...]

There are countless websites that the average user has access to. Out of all those websites, how many of them are great websites? Probably a small handful. Below you’ll find my thoughts on the 10 key standards that a great website abides by.

1) Compelling Copy
Yes I’m a copywriter and so this is the first [...]

Everyone in this field is always striving to become a better designer, more unique, and more creative. It seems to be the only way to advance our careers, right? After all, some of our most admired designers have their own unique style, which we often just attribute to natural ability.
Behind every designer, though, is a [...]

As web designers, we build new websites all the time from complete scratch, whether it is for a client or our own project. We know that the best websites take time to create, careful planning, and adequate detail. Yet, as creative people, we don’t like to do a lot of planning and often times jump [...]

Winning over clients is about half the battle when it comes to web design. Of course, without them, we don’t have much of a career at all. Even the best freelancer, company, or web designer can try to get a hold of a client, and only be successful about 10% of the time. However, there [...]

I still remember sitting in one of our Mac Apps classes, with the teacher explaining vectorizing, rasterizing and all sorts of other fun stuff. When I say that I remember her teaching us, I mean that I vaguely recall those words being uttered as I fumbled around one of the illustrator programs. Our assignment was [...]

Inspiration and even motivation can be a hard thing to come by, as long as you’re forced to design something every working day of your life. Working for clients only can also be a motivation killer, by not allowing oneself to express their own design style and talents. One way to kill that loss of [...]

Designers today have a lot of tools at their disposal. All kinds of design resources exist to make the design process as efficient and smooth as possible. As with everything, there are both pros and cons to consider. But first, let’s go over what these resources are.
There are dozens of resources that make today’s design [...]

It has often been said that the most important thing is not what you say, but how you say it. While this rings true in personal relationships, it certainly is true in the world of advertising and design as well. Marshall McLuhan famously said that “the medium is the message”, and even though he was [...]