I recently read an article over at The Artistic Outlaw that reminded me what designers go through when freelancing. For those of you that are graphic designers out there, or provide some kind of a service, these 5 ways would come in pretty handy if they were actually honored by your clients. James made a valid point when he said that plenty of people write about becoming better at your job, but nobody writes about how clients can become better clients.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the people that hired you actually let you do your job most of the time, and paid on time? Yes, it would.

Head on over and check out the article.

Here is a tutorial that shows how to get a nice looking shadow behind the text, and a simple reflection below it. Albeit being a very simple tutorial, this skill can be applied to many advanced techniques for a very impressive outcome. Apple is notorious for their reflections on pretty much everything, but it’s no secret how they do it!

If you have any questions on how to do something, a suggestion, or a general comment, don’t hesitate to post in the comments section or contact me directly.

View the tutorial after the jump!

The worldly renowned Word Wide Developer’s Conference by Apple is right around the corner. Beginning on June 9th and extending through the 13th, there will be a lot of things going down in the Apple world. The iPhone 2.0 software is due for release alongside the App Store, and judging from what we saw from the iPhone Software Roadmap, things are looking pretty bright!

I’ve been an iPhone owner since day one, and I don’t think I would ever settle for anything less if I were to change phones. For my interests in the software and all things creative, I started working on an iPhone related web project. I can’t say too much about it at the moment, but I’ll be talking more about it as it develops. I am sure many people will find it a very helpful resource, and hopefully a nice place to hang around. Stay tuned for more info! =)

Every since the Master Collection was announced by Adobe, I told myself that I just HAD to have it, and now, I do! Every application that comes with this master suite, I will try to learn and use to their fullest extent. I’ve been meaning to get into video editing and production for the longest time, as I have a high end HDR camera at my disposal. I think After Effects would be pretty awesome alongside video and flash animations.

There are a lot of new features in the whole CS3 suite that have intrigued me to make the grand purchase. Just the fact alone that I can work so easily between all the applications seamlessly makes it worth it for me. On top of that, performance improvements from CS2 to CS3 running on Intel Macs is great, too!

I always hear from people that Fireworks is a good alternative to Photoshop for creating web templates and layouts, and now that it’s even more powerful, I’m stoked to give it a shot! Dreamweaver’s new features supporting advanced WYSIWYG, CSS, and Javascript functions look promising and I’d love to discover the all the possibilities. I have a feeling I’m going to be spending A LOT of times with my new toy this summer.

Web design can be approached in many different ways – some creative, and some just plain and simple. It takes a lot of work and experience for a designer to see web design as an amazing form of expression. In other words, there’s so much that can be put towards a design of a website, it can be near obsessive.

Theme based web design is one of the types of design that can either go really well and be successful, or just go terribly wrong and be all over the place. The result, of course, is solely up to the creator’s imagination, goal, and desire to achieve something awesome. I have come to the conclusion that web designers with a niche in Illustration have the upper hand in theming, but it can also be done just as well by others with a little bit more effort.

Here are some examples that I believe have successfully managed to portray a “themed” look. I searched through my bookmark database of about 5,000 links (the most tedious thing ever!), as well some CSS Galleries online and found some worth showing: More after the jump…

Here is a tutorial on how to creative fancy looking text on a nice base and a background. One can use this technique for things like advertisements or layouts, or to just simply grow their Photoshop skills!

If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments in general, don’t hesitate to post in the comments.

View the tutorial after the jump!

I went to the MoMa (Museum of Modern Art) for the first time a couple of days ago, and it was great! I spent most of my time on the 3rd floor where all the photography and architecture & design areas were. Naturally, I was impressed, so when it was time to leave, I spent a few more minutes in the design store where I chose to purchase this book over the others.

Everything from the Post-it note to the Condom is covered in this book. With short historical descriptions of how each product came about, you learn about the fact that almost everything we use on a daily basis today was invented within the last century. If you’re ever in the need of starting a conversation, you’ll get plenty of ideas from this book. Everybody loves interesting facts – why else did the Snapple Facts under the caps become such a success?

Featuring 100 different items, this book is definitely something every designer and non-designer should own for the reason that you learn to appreciate it all in a whole new way. Come on, who wouldn’t want to know that the amount of wire used to make Slinkys since 1943 could wrap around the earth 126 times (and growing)? More after the jump…

In the first part of this article, I discussed things including creativity, technical skill & knowledge, and the business aspect of design. Now, I will cover gaining work experience, finding a good job after graduating, and staying productive as you go about your journey towards design success.

First, I want to start off by saying that succeeding in any field can be difficult without determination and love for what you do. I have seen all too many times people getting degrees in whatever field that and end up doing something completely different. If you’re young and still in the decisive stage, good. This is the perfect time to figure out what career path to choose, and what’s right for you. The Design field is very competitive. It requires lots of communication, ongoing desire to learn, and the ability to push yourself to new limits. More after the jump…

Web Design, Graphic Design, and any other field of “design” can be studied in schools these days, but there lies one question: Will a $30K yearly tuition make a you a better designer than a tuition of $5K? The conclusion of this answer is mixed, and can be somewhat relevant.

These days, everybody knows that going to a prestigious Design School, rather it’d be for fashion, web, print, or multimedia, will probably land you a better job at an agency. Now I am questioning the validity of this “basic knowledge,” and exploring how far perseverance can take you, especially in today’s quickly advancing world.

Throughout my experience with studying design in school, I have come to a number of conclusions on various ideas, including: Creativity, Jobs after college, Experience vs. Diploma, and Success in general. Basically, it all comes down to who you are, and what kind of a person you develop yourself into. More after the jump…

Web Applications seems to be the only thing people are talking about these days. Designers, back-end programmers, or just people somehow involved in the world of web design most likely have heard about this. Yes, the current stage we are in has been dubbed “Web 2.0,” but what the future holds for us is still pretty vague, even though we’re already seeing the “Web 3.0″ term jumping around.

Okay, down to business. We’ve got Web 2.0 packed with technologies like PHP, MySQL, AJAX, and Ruby on Rails. These are the technologies that have existed for a long time, yet they still make up an entire majority of what these online/web applications are comprised of. We’ve got the plethora of items over at Google’s side, Flickr, Digg, and a whole bunch of things are worthy of the Web 2.0 title.

Not too long ago, Adobe debuted its “AIR” framework for creating and distributing applications that would work seamlessly on all operating systems including Windows and Mac OSX. These applications are developed using, once again, current technologies of the web such as AJAX and Flash. This makes it easier than ever for many developers/designers to take advantage of this type of a platform and be able to reach mass audiences. More after the jump…