I remember being 13 years old and just learning the joys of Photoshop 5 and 6. Looking back, I was so terrible, but in that moment you couldn’t you tell me a thing. That was when message boards and online forums were extremely popular, and you were not cool at all unless your signature (affectionately referred to as ‘sig’) was in top trendy style. I remember downloading brushes and patterns daily and fooling with every filter.

I decided to call myself a designer then, and fortunately, I stuck with it—I had my hands in a bunch of other things I sucked at at the time, one of which was softball. I’m glad I eventually cultivated my design hobby and got serious about it.

It seems like when kids (and some adults) get their hands on some version of Photoshop or Illustrator or what have you, they automatically deem themselves designers. Now, I’m not one of those people who get mad at the newbies coming in and ruining stuff because I’m all about community and I want to see everyone succeed—but I will say, you can’t just jump right in and think you know everything. There is A LOT to learn when it comes to graphic design and not just about what programs you use, but how you use your skill.

Whether you’ve been designing for 10 minutes or 10 years, there’s much to be learned and figured out. Depending on your path with design, some things will vary, but for the most part, there are three main stages of realizations/characteristics most designers go through. Read more

Life as a web designer can be insanely busy. We have multiple clients, each making numerous demands on our time. We work in a fast-moving sector in which we have to constantly relearn our skills. We also read endless posts that encourage us to network and develop our “personal brand.”

With so many demands on our time, and things set to only get worse, all we can do is put in more and more hours to get things done. Unfortunately, there are still only 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. If things continue at this pace, most of us will simply run out of time or collapse from exhaustion.

If we want to be successful in this highly competitive world, we will have to work smarter rather than longer. This is a lesson I have had to learn from experience since starting as a web designer back in 1994. As I got older, pulling the all-nighters that defined my early career became impossible. Eventually, the pressure overwhelmed me and led to sickness and depression.

This forced me to reconsider the way I work and helped me discover five secrets that enable me to get as much done as possible without burning out. My hope is that by sharing them here, I can help the next generation of web designers avoid the fate that befell me and many of my peers. Unsurprisingly, the secret to getting more done in less time begins with being organized. Read more

Maybe you’re already one of the 85 million users on LinkedIn, or perhaps you’re just getting started.

Regardless of where you fall on the social networking spectrum, LinkedIn has a number of new applications and features to enrich your experience.

In this post, we’ll look at ways to beef up your profile as well as use new applications and sections to optimize your networking with clients, prospects and others in the design community.

We’ll also cover how to find design-related groups on LinkedIn, exploit the new features of company pages to showcase your design work and keep up with developments on LinkedIn.

Please let us know in the comments area about other ways in which you could harness the power of LinkedIn in your web design business.

Read more

If you’re like most designers out there, the economy has affected your life in some shape or form and buying design products at high prices is either no longer an option or has been greatly impacted.

But don’t despair! Today we have some amazing news for all of you….as we take “one small step for WDD but one ‘mighty’ leap for designers”.

Meet our new family member: MightyDeals.com Early next month, we’ll be launching this new website which will be offering incredible and hard to believe discounts on the best products and services for creative professionals. And we mean cheap… dirty cheap!

We will have a maximum of one awesome deal for every 24 or 48 hour period. There are no fees to become a member or anything like that and no registration required either. Just one quick and easy way to get the best products at the best possible prices, instantly! Read more

It’s been nearly five years now since the redesign vs. realign debate began.

Many designers are still approaching website changes as redesigns, with little thought to whether they should be redesigning or realigning the site for their clients.

In fact, many designers are still a bit confused about which one is appropriate for which projects, or even what the difference really is.

Understanding the difference between redesigning and realigning can result in happier clients who are better reaching their website goals.

There are times when redesigns are appropriate, and there are other times when realignments are appropriate. It all depends on how the client’s current site is working for them, and what their goals are.

Read on to find out more about the differences between redesigning and realigning, and how to determine which one fits your current and future projects. Read more

We recently published an article covering 20 reasons not to become a freelancer.

The idea was that there are already a ton of articles out there talking about how great it is to be a freelancer, and all the benefits, but there are very few posts that talk about the flip side of all that.

Freelancing is not for everyone. It’s an important decision that not only affects your career, but can also affect your personal life and financial well-being. Of course, a lot of readers thought we were being way too negative about it all.

So here’s a follow-up to that article, covering ways you can overcome the potential pitfalls of freelancing if you’re still sure it’s a career move that’s right for you.

The good news is that virtually all of these things are manageable if you’re willing to put in the time and effort it takes to deal with them.

Read more

We all know that as web designers, we should market ourselves both online and offline.

For online purposes, a great portfolio website or blog is a perfect way to spread the word, but for offline purposes, nothing beats the traditional business card.

We’ve partnered with UPrinting to bring an amazing contest to WDD. One week from today, we will be awarding 10 prizes of 500 free business cards each!!!

You can choose from a variety of business card styles, such as the traditional US Standard, square, slim and specialty shapes. Let your creativity flow and design the cards any way that you want. We will ship them to you worldwide absolutely free of charge.

Read on for more details on how to enter this contest… Read more

“Spec work” stands for speculative work. It’s a term used to refer to any job for which the client expects to see examples with no guarantee of payment.

The Internet has accelerated its growth in the form of “design contest” websites, and these businesses have advertising machines that draw in thousands of unsuspecting designers who think it’s normal to give away their intellectual property for nothing.

With the increasing prominence of “spec work” businesses, we’re witnessing more and more about the downsides of the practice, and there’s one initiative in particular that’s documenting what goes on — SpecWatch.

David Airey, a well respected graphic designer, has approached WDD with this important issue and we felt it was necessary to bring light to this important subject.

Here’s the exclusive interview David conducted with SpecWatch for WDD readers. Designers take note… Read more

You often hear designers say, “Good designers copy. Great designers steal.”

Well, anyone who says this is one of three types of designers:

One who copies, one who steals or one who admits that not copying and stealing is hard but still tries not to anyway.

For some reason, a lot of web designers believe that there’s nothing truly unique left to create and that there is no such thing as originality.

I disagree, or at least I don’t want to accept that notion. You shouldn’t either. Read more

In these tough economic times, many designers find themselves applying for jobs and freelance gigs on a regular basis.

So, how can we stand out from the rest and grab the attention of a design agency when they’re usually bombarded with hundreds of applications?

The best way to do this is in the design of your resume. Assuming that you have the skills that they’re looking for, a striking and visually appealing resume will go a long way at getting you the creative job that you want.

In the worst case scenario, it will at least buy you a few seconds by catching the eye of a recruiter and may become the difference between getting hired or not.

In this article, we’ll take a look at 30 creative resumes that can inspire you to think outside the box when designing your own resume. Read more