I’ll be back

To posting regulary and making videos on thursday or there after. Because currently as I type this I am in a business center with free wifi. Also I have relocated from Miami Florida to Hollywood Florida. Another thing that was kind of disheartening was to lose my day job. The day job I had was my use of the overlap technique. Also to allow me to continue pursuing my design career. But me personally I did not just go there and do the work and go home.

Day by day I gave it my all. But at times that is not enough. But anyhow in the meantime feel free to check out the 500 other posts on here.

Pixel Albums from Chris J Davies

Recently I was contacted about some very interesting work from Chris J Davis. The style and approach to taking away as much as possible from an album cover but keeping it legible. The other thing that I enjoyed about this was learning that Chris used a certain type of code to achieve these effects.

I for one had no idea such a thing even existed to achieve such an effect. The only other place I thought you could do this was in photoshop or illustrator. Below here is another album cover from Chris. Also there is many many possibilities I could see this working as. Even for a poster design and having a certain effect when you pass by and even pasted on the street for the concert. It would be nice to see how this would turn out when they get printed.

Check out the rest of the collection here

Be Your favorite designer

Being your favorite designer is what you should strive to be. When you have a favorite designer you try to emulate them. In that way you tend to copy their style and various other things. I will be the first to admit that I used to have favorite designers. Instead of saying they are my favorite they are more so people whom I look to for inspiration.

When I look to them for inspiration I learn how they think and approach design. Then I apply those tactics to my own work. More so instead of looking at a piece of work and saying wow that is beautiful I wonder how they did it. I learned that you have to go to the core.

Being your favorite designer takes some time to get used to. Being a copycat is not going to help you win any award or get a freelance gig. Copying someone may last for a while and then it will eventually die out. A good example is when I heard Paula Scher talk about how the typographic poster designs for the public theater was copied and killed by New York it shocked me.

So inclusion do you best to apply what you’ve learned from other designers to your work. Don’t try to original just try to be good. Also believe that the work you do is good. Because whether you feel your work is of top quality or not always strive to continue to improve and be positively influenced.

Good design should never be used to

The designer is not always right. The researcher is not always wrong. Profit is not always the motive; market research, whatever its outcome, should never be used as a good excuse for bad design – in the same sense that good design should never be used to promote a bad product.

— Paul Rand

Happy with the New Design and a few new things

I am so happy that I was able to find a template that would allow me to have my site designed how I felt would be the strongest. Also to have a template that can stand the test of time. Because there would be no reason for me to change my site every couple of months.

Anyhow there is something else that I am going to start doing here. I am going to start selling posters that I make. Right now I have a society 6 But I am looking into other alternatives for selling my work. Also doing limited runs of each poster and other possible items. If you have any that you’d recommend please let me know. (Would big cartel be a good alternative?)

How it feels to be a Graphic Designer living near Miami

Living near Miami is very interesting for me. The designs that I have seen have been ok and nothing spectacular. It’s almost like you see a website and know the company did not put much time or effort into it. I’m still you can say learning the way of life here. I have met some designers from here thankfully.

Then another thing is I was getting a bit frustrated with applying to Jobs and not getting any responses. Also following up with a phone call and not getting a callback. So I said to myself keep applying and Never give up. Because I am following the Job search marathon guide.

Because its so easy to just give up and quit when things are not working out. I have also been keeping busy with learning how to draw better. Keeping with designing everyday even though I do not have a client or junior design position will prepare me for when the time comes. There’s other designers possibly going through the same thing as me currently. If you are reading this keep designing even though you do not see any rewards yet and continue applying and networking.

My Review of Codeacademy So far

Ihave been doing a class on Codeacademy.com so about a month or so. The reason why I decided to start learning coding is that I want to be more then just a graphic designer. If you are not taking advantage of many of the free products to learn I do not understand why not. The lessons are very helpful and easy.

Before starting Code Academy I had done a course that I found on youtube on how to code and etc. But over time I did not use what I learned. So eventually I ended up forgetting a majority of everything. Code Academy helps you to learn by actually doing projects.

When you are doing a lesson you code from scratch and you are able to see the effects. Seeing what you are learning being put in use is remarkable. One thing that I do is to do at least one lesson daily from Codeacademy. You have to remember that if you are learning something knew you are not going to retain learning so much in one day.

The Course that I am doing is web fundamentals. After I finish that one I plan to move onto another and continue learning. Whether you are a graphic designer, fashion designer or whatever nowadays knowing just one skill will not be as valuable as it once was before.

Continue learning and definitely check out Codeacademy.com if you get the chance and want to learn how to code.

Made it

To Florida safely thank goodness. The drive down was pretty long and I must say enduring the long drive I know have more respect for truck drivers.

Well I just had to let you all know what happened and that I made it here to Doral Florida safely and getting all settled in. I also uploaded a Vlog of the drive down and how it went. In the meantime check it out below while I get the blog posts coming back.

Currently in the process

Of Relocating to Florida. The posts will resume next week and I’ll definitely have a Video showcasing the trip and how it went. So in the meantime you can keep up to date with me on twitter,instagram and you can even send me a lovely email

What Would you like to me to Blog About?

Are you enjoying what I have been posting? or is there something in particular that you’d like me to start doing? leave some suggestions in the comments below. I’d appreciate you taking the time to do so.

Thanks

Josten