Category Archives: Graphic Design

App review: Adobe Photoshop Express for iPad

Dear Adobe,

Wow!!! Now i can make my photos rainbow colored!!! (sarcastically) Why don’t you make a FULL touch version of Photoshop for us designers to use?

I want to be able to open PSDs from an email attachment on my iPad, fully edit all the layers exactly as I would on my desktop computer with all the exact same features, and then be able to email it back to my client. I design websites, and that’s what I use Photoshop for. Full on design files, not just rainbow-effect photos.

I’d actually pay a reasonable amount of money for that.

When you release these stripped down apps, they are only going to be used by 16 year old girls adding a rainbow effect to a photo they post on their myspace page. I guarantee you that everyone else will download this and then immediately delete it, as I did. 

You guys are just wasting your time making CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE

Our top 9 Must Read Book list

We’ve compiled our favorite books; essential for design-oriented, creative business and superhuman success. In our opinion, these are the most influential and powerful books we know, some of which inspired us to start Crowbar Studios in the first place, and others which have guided our visual process over the years. Yes, they are all over the lot, but we’ll explain why. Here they are, not in any particular order, collect them all and absorb them deep into your brain:

Read more »

Providing Value in Graphic Design

If you’re a maid, your soul purpose is to provide your clients with a clean house. If you work at Mcdonnalds then you have to get burgers assembled, quick. If you’re a designer, then you have to provide your clients with custom creations that help their businesses do better. It’s business. If your portfolio is good that’s half the battle. Clients want to see that not only can you create value for them, but deliver it. This means creating practical solutions that they can quickly have up and running.

This applies not only to graphic design, but in every field. Creating and then delivering value will get you ahead. Don’t worry about money, just focus on providing the world with value, then you’ll be rewarded. CONTINUE READING THIS ARTICLE

How to be the best designer in the world – 11 rules for success

If you don’t properly plan, then you plan to fail. If you have no guide then you can become lost. At times during our careers we can become complacent and confused. “Why do I still work here?”, “How do I become better?”, “How do I earn more money?”. But if you have a map, all you have to do is follow it, and you can reach your outcome. You don’t ever have to re-invent the wheel, so don’t bother.

As contemporary designers, we follow in the footsteps of those who came before us, and we can easily look at what they did to replicate the process of becoming successful from scratch. The definition of success is entirely up to you, weather it’s critical acclaim and awards in the design community, landing a prestigious design or art director job, starting your own design firm, or simply working on creative projects and being able to support yourself financially while doing it. If you’re still in school, then read this, and begin following these principles now. If you’re already well established in your design career, then use these principles to brush up on lost habits. They won’t lead you astray. Here’s how to become the best designer in the world:

Read more »