What I'm working on...

This is a site to that I use to experiment with ideas, try new code, (so expect odd items from time to time) post design ideas and roughs for feedback, and comment on things that interest me about design, including the work I do at UCLA Extension.

 

Questions?

E-mail and I'll be happy to respond. -- Scott

 

Design News:

An experimental feed:

 

Design 2.0

Designers must once again take a leap of faith and prepare themselves for the new demands of the next generation of the web.

Designed for Business

Playing the role of producer and designer can be a hard act to juggle.

art Vs. design

This is a short essay on the fine line between an artist and a designer.

AIGA's New Positioning: Focusing on the Future

Recently, AIGA officially began positioning itself as “AIGA, the professional association for design.” What does this mean for AIGA membership and the design community? AIGA’s storyteller, Alissa Walker, spells out the thinking behind the shift in positioning, and why it’s still AIGA.

Identity Matters

This article draws from the book Worldwide Identity published in October 2005 by Rockport in partnership with Icograda.

Spec Can Be Beaten

Understanding why clients ask for it is the first step to understanding the powerful alternatives to spec creative

Design(ing) Network(ing)

Networks, magnified in importance by technology, have become an important factor in the life of the graphic designer.

New Challenges from the Lowballers...and What to Do

Creative industries are under threat from lowballers and companies that exploit them. Some suggestions to fight this trend.

It’s good to be a graphic designer

This article was written to remind designers why it's good to be a graphic designer in this day and age.

Designing for a Design Hero, Homage to Rafael Vinoly

As a designer, teacher and information architect I have been working for the Uruguyan Rafael Vinoly.

Design's Glass Ceiling

Designer's in corporate America face an issue of being misunderstood. Can this problem be overcome?

What Should Designers Study?

Think that studying advanced mathematics isn't relevant to a design career? Think again!

Survival of the Fittingest

The design world is changing once again. It is now in the midst of the network economy evolution and Neumeier offers his Darwinian view of design, business, and brand.

The Process of Setting Fees

No matter the size of the organization, it is most likely to enjoy long-term success when there is detailed, up-to-date information available on its consumption of resources translated into financial terms.

The Design Firm and Its Suppliers

In this age of ever-changing design, what applies to one kind of company may not fit another.

The AIGA Standard Form of Agreement

In those days, whenever you started work for a client you simply reached for an RIBA or AIA standard form of agreement, scribbled in a few numbers, and away you went.

The AIGA Standard Terms and Conditions for Designer/Client Relationships

To satisfy the need for a friendlier and condensed alternative to the AIGA?s existing Standard Form of Agreement for Graphic Design Services, the AIGA is pleased to launch a new, shorter document entitled The AIGA Standard Terms and Conditions for Designer/Client Relationships.

Formal Feedback Programs

Do you have a formal feedback program in place? It?s critical to know what your clients think about you and, even more important, what they say about you, since this will inevitably spread to prospects and other clients.

Inspirational Leadership

How is it that certain leaders motivate you and others do not? This is particularly an interesting question within the marketing communications industry, which tends to attract independent-minded leaders...and followers.

Payment Strategies

Although the professional flexibility can be rewarding, devising a consistent payment strategy can be another matter altogether.

Legal Structures for the Design Firm

Every graphic design business has an optimal structure that will provide it with the maximum possible benefits. These may include tax benefits, protection from liability, continuity of existence, and the like.

Copyright and Licensing

This chapter on copyright and licensing is an appropriate introduction to the section on rights. This section tries to cover the most important intellectual property issues that the graphic designer may confront.

Scenario One

Take the spec work challenge and put your two cents in as to whether grub and ethics can really live in harmony.

Trademark and Trade Dress

Trademark law was once thought to be important and relevant only to a select group of persons or corporations whose legal interests were handled by specialists

Principles of Design Firm Management

Professional design firms present unusual organizational and management challenges. How do we support something as intangible as creativity? How do we stabilize something in constant motion?

Transition

Most design firms whether graphic, product, or architectural, have grown from the creative and entrepreneurial energy of an individual or two or three partners. Historically, only one or two out of thousands of firms have ever continued into a second generation.

Use of Fonts

Fonts are creative, intellectual property, similar to designers' creative work or a proprietary business product. Since type seems so ubiquitous and fonts are so easy to share among computer users, the legal and moral issues of the simple process of using a font are often overlooked.

Use of Illustrations

AIGA is interested in encouraging the use of original illustration in design solutions. Illustration can provide a unique sensibility to certain projects.This brochure offers insight into professional practices and ethical considerations within the illustration community.

Managing Health and Safety in the Design Studio

Processes used in graphic and commercial art include computer graphics design, illustration, and photo processes, and paste up of mechanicals.

Common Struggles in Firms

Using a database of 280+ firms in 84 different metropolitan areas across North America, what are the three things that these principals struggle with the most? You might recognize yourself.

Common Traits of Successful Firms

Wouldn?t it be interesting to know what personality traits are common to the principals of those firms that are successful?

A Dozen Common Mistakes

The reason firms fail is not creativity, location, or the marketplace. It?s management ability. Here are the most common 12 mistakes we see creative service firms make.