Comments on: Know Good Design

By: R.L. Brooks

R.L. Brooks — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

You nailed it Kevin, design is an important ingredient to any busines marketing plan, especially the branding aspect. Great branding with the use of great design can change a company from a nobody to a somebody overnight.

The design field mostly hangs out online at Newstoday (http://www.newstoday.com/). This great community has an influx of links daily, as well as, an online forum (to the right) for any questions you might have about design/branding/etc.

Some other portals to check out:
http://www.k10k.net/
http://www.pixelsurgeon.com/
http://www.surfstation.lu/

Some blogs to read:
http://www.designobserver.com/
http://noisydecentgraphics.typepad.com/design/
http://typeforyou.blogspot.com/index.html
http://blog.pentagram.com/
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/

Hope that helps!

By: Jodi Kaplan

Jodi Kaplan — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I recommend two books: 1) Looking Good in Print by Roger C. Parker; and 2) The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams. Both are easy-to-follow, full of useful advice for both print and online designing, and are readily available on Amazon and elsewhere.

By: John Jantsch

John Jantsch — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Great list all – keep sharing!

John

By: Eric Stewart

Eric Stewart — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think that Before and After magazine is a great resource for business people who wish to understand design a little better, they have tons of great articles that will give you practical ideas about how to improve your marketing materials.

http://www.bamagazine.com/

By: Image Marketing Consultants

Image Marketing Consultants — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for the great blogging, keep up the good work!

By: Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Design is important. I recently visited a Ducati/BMW motorcycle shop. I was impressed by how on the Ducati bikes, it was so apparent that the elements of design played a huge part in the construction and planning of the bikes. Every bolt and nut seemed to matter. Everything Ducati in the store reflected that mindset, even the clothes. This is not to say that BMW’s aren’t fine machines. They just didn’t hold the slickness of the Ducati line. Design definitely communicates a lot about your company and product.

By the way, as a designer, Communication Arts is a great magazine that covers a wide variety of commercial design. It is a great source to see what the big agencies are doing. If you don’t want a regular subscription you can subscribe to the annuals which are the standouts in categories for the year.

By: Dave C.

Dave C. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think to assert that a designer needs guidance sounds a bit like we’re unruly if completely untethered. If he’s truly a quality designer, he will ask the right questions to understand the company he’s working with. If a company is not familiar with creative aspects, it shouldn’t necessarily be up to the company to decide how to use the creative elements. The designer, being the educated consultant, should be the one instructing the company how the design elements will work for the company. Do we need to know things about the company first? Of course, but I get paid to have the answers, not to be a lap dog to a corporate honcho who’s idea of creativity is “make the logo bigger.”

I agree with Chris. Communication Arts is the most relevant design magazine out there. I also enjoy PRINT and STEP. HOW is also decent, but truly more geared toward designers specifically rather than people connected with designers.

Sites I recommend:
http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/
http://www.underconsideration.com/quipsologies/
http://www.mediabistro.com/unbeige/
http://www.alistapart.com
http://www.gigposters.com
http://www.thelittlechimpsociety.com

By: John Jantsch

John Jantsch — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dave,

Great point and thanks for the recommendations – you’ll note that one of the primary points I intended to make was that the buyer needed to know good design – I’m hopeful that will help them start to get over the make the logo bigger syndrome. Clearly, working with a designer who can ask the right questions and balance that knowledge with the essential knowledge the owner of the firm has about their ideal client is the best of both worlds.

By: Jill Barringer

Jill Barringer — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A great site for all things design is:

http://www.creativepro.com

It contains Before & After articles (mentioned above) and covers all issues ‘creative’.

By: daniel

daniel — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

hi, John, how are you?

What a great topic – one I think about a lot!

I have to say, I think the absolute biggest blunder business owners make regarding web design is to forget that it is not just about the ‘look’ of pages: websites are meant to be ‘used’. Aesthetic is great, but don’t forget the other half of the equation.

I wrote a little entry about that here: http://www.omstrategy.com/41/heres-the-key-difference-between-web-design-and-graphic-design

I hope that’s of some use,

daniel