Wes McDowell got in touch with me to let me know about his great new graphic design podcast called the Deeply Graphic Design Cast. Wes kindly agreed to answer a few questions about himself and what we can all be expecting from the podcast.

Tara: What is your name and your company name?
Wes: I’m Wes McDowell and my company is called The Deep End.

Tara: Where are you based?
Wes: We are now based out of Los Angeles, CA.

Tara: Please can you tell me a bit about your background as a designer and what you do now?
Wes: I’ve had pretty varied experience in the design world since I started back in 2001. I started as a freelancer, mostly doing logos and really really bad websites for local businesses. I shudder to look back at some of that early work. My first “real job” was as part of an in-house design team for a software company where I worked on the user interface as well as packaging for some of the software programs we put out. Then I moved to a different in-house team doing a lot of packaging and printed goods for retail. After that, I moved to Seattle where I freelanced and ultimately started my company The Deep End. My time in Seattle was mostly spent working on web based projects, and I learned a LOT about where the web is now and where its going. I’d say that 80% of what I do right now is web based versus print.

Tara: You have just set up a Podcast about Graphic Design please could you tell me a bit about it and how it came about?
Wes: I have been listening to podcasts for the past few years. I love the idea of walking or driving to work and learning something while I do it. I had a handful of design related podcasts I would look forward to, and the ones I really liked just kinda stopped coming out. That made me think that I should pick up the slack. I called up my old friend and former co-worker Brandon Voss, and asked him if he would be interested in helping me out with it, and he agreed. I was hooked up with Mikelle Morrison through a recruiter that I had worked with and I couldn’t be happier with our team. We have such different experience and viewpoints that it makes for a really interesting show.

Tara: What sort of topics do you intend covering in the podcast?
Wes: We want to do it all! It may take a while, but we plan on sticking around as long as people keep listening. We want to cover the business aspects, such as proposals, contracts, and how to attract bigger clients, as well as the creative side. Things like upcoming design trends, or where to go to find creative inspiration. We also want to cover topics that appeal to not only the freelance designer, but also to those who aim at getting a job at an agency.

Tara: Is the podcast aimed a newbies or the more experienced designer?
Wes: I think on the surface it seems like its more a newbie show, but I think that even more experienced designers will get a lot out of the show. Newbies will listen to get advice on how to do certain things, and pros will listen to get some different points of view on how they already do things. I know that just by having these conversations with my co-hosts that I learn something each time.

Tara: Why did you decide to create a podcast targeted at designers rather than potential clients?
Wes: I don’t think that clients necessarily have any interest in what we would be talking about. They certainly wouldn’t become longtime listeners, if design isn’t what interests them. Generally a client becomes interested in web design and the basic process while the process is going on, but once the site is built, they move on to the next phase of their business. Also, this is just a natural extension of my blog, which was always aimed at other designers. I just love graphic design, and I want to talk about it with other people who love it like I do. We want to build a community of listeners, and we invite them to email us questions that we will answer on-air, as well as tweet us topics they would like us to cover.

Tara: Where can people go to find out more about you and subscribe to the Podcast?
You can subscribe, listen and find out more about us at: http://www.thedeependdesign.com/graphic-design-podcast

3 sets of 100 MOO business cards, for 3 lucky Graphic Design Blog UK readers

Graphic Design Blog is happy to have business card printers MOO.com provide us with 3 sets of 100 MOO business cards, for 3 lucky readers. If you’ve not heard of MOO, they are business card print specialists, and also print Postcards, MiniCards, labels, Greeting cards and more!

MOO’s patented printing technology ‘printfinity’ allows you to place a different image on each card in a pack!

Who Are MOO

MOO was born out of a love of print design. They make creating unique and beautiful business cards, PostCards and MiniCards so easy!

Either select from a range of designer templates to personalise or upload your own artwork to create truly unique products.

Prize details

3 x 100 MOO Business cards designed by you, for you!

How You Enter

For a chance to win one of the 3 sets of business cards – all you have to do is answer this question -

If you could hand your business card to one person in the world, who would it be and why?

Yes, we are looking for fun, unique and original answers – make us smile and win some free cards, easy! Leave your answers in the comments below.

This competition is now closed the winners are: Nathan Dillaha, Andrew Molloy and Joshua. Thanks to everybody who took part

I received an email from Inkydeals about an offer they have on for all their previous deals in a bundle, this included vector graphics, textures, fonts and a WordPress theme. You might want to check it out.

$1384 Worth of Design Goodies for only $49 on Inkydeals.com!

“Inkydeals.com is officially kicking off the upcoming holiday season with a huge Bundle of Design Goodies! Starting this Cyber Monday they are taking the concept of “bundle” to a higher level of awesomeness! So be prepared for a whole week of high-end Design Resources at the fabulous price of only $49!

Save tons of time and money with Inky’s Bundle packed with design goodies such as WordPress themes, web resources, vector resources, Photoshop actions, textures, brushes sets, t-shirt designs, fonts and much more! All the resources included in the bundle are worth $1384! And you can get them for only $49 – you save big time!

So don’t waste this chance to upgrade your library with an impressive collection of top notch design goodies at an unbeatable price! Visit Inkydeals.com today and give yourself a well deserved early present to help you in your design work!”

Check the deal out at http://www.inkydeals.com/ available from 28.11.2011 to 04.12.2011

Disclosure: I was also given a free copy of the bundle

I recently discovered this great little Mac app called Concentrate $29 (free trial available). Concentrate let’s you set a set of actions such as closing your email, Tweetdeck, Facebook etc and won’t let you open them for whatever period you set (of course you can override if you really need to). It will also allow you to set applications to open at a certain time. Concentrate lets you set a literal time of Up to an hour or can just be set to indefinite, meaning you tell it you are done she you finish your task.

I started using Concentrate and set myself an hour to concentrate on my current design task and was shocked to find that without thinking I tried to check my emails twice during that time, which of course Concentrate didn’t allow. It’s strange how much we become unaware of the things we do that all waste time without even realising we are doing it.

Find out more at www. getconcentrating.com/

Concentrate alternatives For PC

I haven’t tried them but here are a couple of suggestions if you are on PC

Cold Turkey – free for pc
Freedom which makes you reboot if you want to stop prior to the time

Podio

Just like Basecamp, Podio allows you to create and cchedule tasks and create different spaces where you can invite other people to collaborate. This is great for scheduling your own projects and for designers collaborating on design projects. Another interesting feature of Podio is that it allows you to create “Apps” and all this requires is a drag and drop of different elements (no coding needed). This gives you the ability to do all sorts of things such as storing contacts for a design job, collecting together inspirational links and much more. You can also attach images in Podio giving clients or the rest of your team the ability to leave comments, which can save you from having to dig through emails, and allows you to remember who said what.

Freedcamp

Although I have only quickly looked at it, another free option for managing your design projects is Freedcamp which is very similar to Basecamp. Check out the video below to find out more.

You can read a full review at the  Pixsym Blog

Wunderlist

If you have ever tried the paid App “Things” by Culture Code Wunderlist looks very similar, if a little more basic, but best of all it’s free. It’s available for Mac, PC Andoid and Iphone and you can also collaborate (though I haven’t tried this). The only thing that bugged me about Wunderlist is that I could only view my tasks by Project and not purely by date.

What do you use to manage your design projects?

This is the second logo design tutorial, which is again aimed at complete beginners. The exercises are designed to break down the thinking behind designing a logo into bite size chunks. Don’t forget to check out the first logo tutorial too.

This logo design exercise will allow you to concentrate on another important aspect of logo design which is to start looking for suitable fonts/typefaces. As with the first logo tutorial we are again going to use the two words we used previously. If you didn’t do the previous exercise choose 2 words which are different to each other (ie. Dog and cat, angel and devil)

Logo Design Tutorial Exercise 2

1. Think about what sort of typeface/font might represent the words well.

Taking the word “angel” for example we might look for typefaces/fonts which are very round, or light weight or simple. The word “devil” on the other hand conjures up a much harsher, perhaps heavier or angular typeface/font.

2. Try out different fonts

You can of course look through the fonts on your machine and test out different fonts, but for this exercise I am going to suggest you go over to Dafont.com which offers variety of fonts free to download. The great thing about Dafont is that it allows you go type in your chosen words (you have to first choose from one of the type categories) and then see how they look in each of the fonts.

3. Always remember as with most things simple is generally best

You can see below some more unusual fonts used to spell out Devil. Some look really interesting in themselves, but remember to use them sparingly. In most cases it’s best to avoid crazy over the top fonts, especially especially Comic Sans and stick with much simpler ones.

4. Download a selection of the best fonts

Once you have found several fonts you feel are appropriate download them and test them out in Illustrator (Inkscape is free vector software you can use and an alternative.) Why not also experiment to see if you can combine them with some of the elements from the first logo tutorial.

Hopefully this exercise has got you thinking more about choosing appropriate fonts. There is much more we can delve into regarding using fonts in future logo design exercises.

Note: If in future you intend to use any of the fonts from Dafont for paid commercial use make sure you check the licenses on the fonts – not all fonts may be used for commercial work without permission.

Business dreams are fantastic; they can fire-up your enthusiasm and make the planning and work feel worthwhile. What’s even better than business dreams? Watching them become your reality.

Studies show that setting precise business goals makes business dreams a lot more likely to become real. That’s because the right goals keep your drive high, focus your mind, and get your creativity flowing.

1 “Begin with the end in mind” (Stephen R Covey, author & speaker)

What changes would you like in your design business? Examples could be “I want clients who really get my style” or “I want to earn an additional £800 a month”.

Note down your answers to the question — don’t analyse them, just let them flow out.

2 Highlight one answer that feels like it would have the biggest impact on your business at this moment

(There may be lots of things you want to do, that’s wonderful — remember you can always come back to this process as soon as your first goal is finished, or on-track.)

3 Make your goal do-able, but exciting

Don’t underestimate yourself with a half-hearted wish like “It would be nice to have one new client by March next year”; you have more talent than that in your little finger! Your goal should be something you’d go for when you’re on a high or having a good day — it should stretch you a little.

4 Get into the nitty-gritty

Make your goal specific, an example could be: “I want four new clients, giving me work totalling £600 per month, by 9am, eight weeks from today”.

Don’t be tempted into fuzzy phrases like “I need more clients”. Put actual dates & numbers in, even if it feels challenging. Dates & numbers will really increase the chances of your goal becoming reality. And remember: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss it you will land among the stars.” (Les Brown, speaker & author).

5 Finally, “Ink it, don’t think it” (Mark Victor Hansen, business coach & entrepreneur)

Write your goal down; perhaps turning it into a desktop background, design or collage. Whatever format you use, make sure you place it where you can see it every day in your work area.

For an extra boost, put a credit-card sized version in your purse or wallet. Studies show that, funny though it sounds, carrying your goal on you really increases the chances of it becoming reality.

I look forward to your achievements — do feel free to share your success stories with me.

I’m Mhairi Gordon-Preston and I help design business-owners & freelancers become more profitable and more fulfilled. Get monthly tips from me, plus a gift ecourse at SuitFreeBusinessHelpForDesignCompanies.com. I worked as a designer for 10 years, have run my own businesses for 10 years and am an Enterprise Champion in my local town, helping small businesses connect with each other

If you are a complete beginner looking for logo design tutorials you probably have found a few different blog posts on the logo design process and even a few walk through tutorials showing the start and finish point of logo design. This is all very well but if you are anything like I was when I first started learning graphic design (years and years ago) it’s all a bit overwhelming. One of the things that could help you is to break down the logo design process into small exercises where you don’t feel pressured and you don’t have to show anyone (including a client) your logo design results.

Here’s one logo design tutorial exercise which could start your mind thinking more in the way a designer does when they are working on logo designs.

Logo Design Tutorial Exercise 1

1. Start by thinking of a couple of words, ideally that are the opposite or very different from each other
For example Dog and Cat or Devil and Angel

2. Quickly brainstorm each word – using mind mapping techniques.
You can do this by starting with your word written in the middle of the page and then spring off of that other related words. So in the case of the word Angel, I might have wings, halo harp etc etc. If you prefer you can use mind mapping software to do a similar exercise. You can also try other creative techniques to generate more ideas.

3. Take these two words and sketch them very basically on a piece of paper or type them in on the computer if you prefer

4. Now by adding just one or two shapes or lines make these words have some resemblance or association to what they are.
These do not need to be polished, they can just be very rough and sketchy as mine are below . You are simply using this exercise to work out the logo ideas for your own benefit, just as a graphic designer would create rough ideas that the client would never see before they moved on to the more polished options they would present

5. Repeat the exercise above to see how many options you can create. As a slight variance try to use just the first letter of the words in the same way.

6. Take your favourite logo options, scan them into your computer and have a go at working them up using a vector program such as illustrator
If you are looking for free vector software try Inkscape.

Don’t worry about using fancy typefaces, just use something basic for now like Arial or Helvetica. This gives you less to worry about and allows you to concentrate on the shapes. When you get more experienced you can experiment with fonts but keep it simple for now and concentrate on one thing at a time. Start in black and white and only when you are completely happy you can choose then to use one or two colours.

If you like this logo design exercise and you find it helps you, let me know and I will put some more together

Beginners may also want to check out the sample logo design briefs I have put together:

Design Exercise: Logo Design/Redesign
Sample Brief: Design a Garden Centre Logo

Posts with Logo Design Tutorials from around the Blogosphere

Smashing Magazine’s 60+ Beautiful Logo Design Tutorials And Resources
Logo Design Process and Walkthrough for Vivid Ways
The Logo Design Process of Top Logo Designers
Step by Step Logo

If you have never set up a blog before this guide will literally take you step by step through the process of setting up your first blog. It also has tips for choosing a domain name that might help you get found more easily.

You can download the pdf guide here (no sign up or email required).

Setting up a WordPress Blog Guide Contents

Step 1 – Choosing a domain name for your blog
Step 2 – Checking domain availability and buying domains
Step 3 – Purchase your web hosting
Step 4 – Pairing up your domain name with your webspace
Step 5 – Installing WordPress to power your blog
Step 6 – General Settings
Step 7 – Setting your permalinks
Step 8 – Choosing a theme for your WordPress blog
Step 9 – Installing plugins on your WordPress blog
Step 10 – Writing your first posts and pages
Step 11 – Setting your home and blog page
Step 12 – Using Feedburner
Step 13 – Backing up your WordPress blog
Finding free and cheap images for your blog

I have just today heard about some free 3D software which allows you to sculpt amazing things almost though you are using digital clay. The 3D software is called Sculptris and unlike most 3D software with this program you start of with a ball of clay and there is a tool set which allows you to push here and pull there and do all sorts of weird and wonderful things. I have downloaded and tried it quickly just with a mouse, although the makers suggest it works better with a Wacom tablet.

You can download free Mac and PC versions at http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/

Check out the two videos below which show some of the capabilities of the software