Showcasing Illustration at its Best

High brow, low brow, check out 

An independent publishing platform for emerging graphic and illustration artists, Nobrow has the most delightful prints and fascinating publications - printed on quality paper. If you are keen to get into print you can send your submissions to Nobrow at nobrowsubs@gmail.com 

Take a look at the Dicephaly Brothers by Ben Newman. Love it!

I did it myself!

Following on from Branding Your Arts Business we continue to explore the world of marketing and branding your business with a book review. And the book is.....
D.I.Y. Design It Yourself.



Described as a manual for anyone wanting to design their own branding and publicity materials, Design It Yourself covers a wide range of different visual media and packaging ideas. The book is a collaborative project by post graduate students from the Maryland Institute College of Fine Arts and edited by graphic designer and author Ellen Lupton. This is a soft back book bursting with graphic design ideas from Books to Zines, Blogs to Websites and everything else in between.
Who is this book for? This book is aimed at anyone who is not a graphics or design graduate but has basic idea of design and layout. Primarily, it is a book about IDEAS and is written in a style that makes the reader think "yeah - I can do that".
What about the content? The first three chapters: Why D.I.Y? D.I.Y Theory and Basic Design are a Must-Read as they delve into the Why Who and How of design - why we need design to get our "message" out, who we are targetting with our message and how we are going to create a strategy to get that message to those people. The subsequent chapters are alphabetical from Blogs through to Zines. Design It Yourself covers media design and old fashioned illustration with great promotional ideas such as making books, printing on textiles, designing logos and my favourite, making and decorating envelopes.
The layout of the book is clean and clear (which you would expect from a book created by design students) with great images and photographs. It is not a book to copy designs from - you can buy books and CDs for this from Dover Bookshop - but a book about cultivating your own design ideas and creating your own branding and marketing campaign.
So, is this a great book? Not exactly. Some of the chapters are too basic - these are the ones about on-line tools such as blogging, web design and, most disappointingly, Presentations. The ideas and advice were fairly sketchy and, if you are a total novice, you would be better advised just to follow the templates direct from the blog site or use a website package such as Websites for Artists. Plus the examples of websites, blogs and presentations weren't particularly inspiring. However, the chapters on Press Kits, Postcards, Logos and Books had plenty of information and great ideas to start the reader thinking about how they can stamp their own design style onto these promotional tools.
Oh, and check out the chapter on Brands. Mike Weikert takes the reader through the processes of branding and brand identity, using his company, Small Roar, as the example. A whole book of different companies talking about branding and marketing of their products would make a great read.
Am I glad I bought it? Yes, as a book on design and style it sits alongside The Laura Ashley Book of Home Decorating and my Habitat catalogues from the seventies and eighties, although Design It Yourself is not a design classic (and didn't set out to be one). This book was first published in 2006 and, with all books covering technology and design, will date fairly quickly. Design is about selling a life style and addressing how people aspire to live and current design trends lean more toward the hand made and vintage rather than slick design and CAD.
Jo Whitehead

The opinions and views in this book review are solely that of the author and not the general opinion of Artists in Business. Neither the author or AIB has received any payment or sponsorship in exchange for the review nor has the content of this review been influencedby any third party.

Branding Your Arts Business

Any good business knows how important branding is to a marketing strategy and we can even recognise some brands without seeing their name (Nike is a good example). Identifying your unique selling point can help you develop your brand and make your on-line arts business instantly recognisable.


Aleximo Croissant

One way to get noticed is to have a recognisable Banner or Heading displayed on your website or on-line "shop". You can also add an avatar to represent your business and reproduce it on all your marketing materials such as: business cards, compliments slips, letter heads, invoices, postcards and shipping labels.

But if, like me, you are clueless about computer design, help is at hand. Rather than displaying a badly designed, graphically messy banner, with blurry images and poor colour, you can now buy a banner or entire marketing package on-line.


Rufflemedia

What are you looking for in Branding Design? Well it all depends what you want. Retro? Vintage? Hand made? Slick? There's a design for everyone. It is cheaper to buy an off-the-peg design rather than custom made but, with custom made you can include images of your work. You can also go back to the designer and request changes until you are happy with the results.


Busy Bree

Working with a designer. If you are going to purchase a custom made design you should be clear about your requirements before you purchase. I usually approach the designer with a few questions before I buy such as, how long will it take to design? How many changes can I request? (3 is a reasonable number) and can I see examples of the designer's work?
It's quite difficult for a designer to visualise something that's in your head and you are describing with words. It's a good idea to send a link of your website and/or some images of your work. I also give a description of the kind of customer I am trying to attract which helps the designer pin-point exactly what you want from the design. Remember - a designer won't want to invest time and energy trying to create the perfect image just to have the customer renege on the deal.


Jennitoo

Don't buy and complain afterwards. If you are not satisfied with the designer's work then walk away but don't mess them around - be honest. You get what you pay for - so if you are looking for the perfect marketing material don't expect miracles with an off-the-peg image. And finally ... copyright. The designer owns that design, even after purchase. You do not have the right to use the test or rejected designs that you did not purchase and you cannot credit the design as your own.

In this post I have shown the work of four designers. They are just my personal taste and not a representation of all graphic design that can be purchased on-line.

Design Social

DesignSocial >> 52 Projects >>52 Weeks

"Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and the pupil are the same individual" - Arthur Koestler

I am Andrea Eaton, a twenty-something South African creative based in London. DesignSocial is my creative project for 2010.
Over the next year I plan to complete 52 separate creative projects in 52 weeks. DesignSocial was inspired by a 2009/2010 course offered at Central Saint Martins “100 Design Projects” and, from what I understand, its core concept is exercising and diversifying creativity. I have morphed this idea into a project of my own which I hope will also help to broaden my own creative horizons.
I have invited friends, family, colleagues and creative peers to submit briefs from which I will select projects for each week of the year to follow. Each effected project will be displayed on the DesignSocial blog alongside its original brief and notes on how I devised each concept.The project is intended to be social and fun, with 'pretend' briefs that may or may not include real companies/events/situations etc. As a freelancer, it’s not in my interest to do 'real work' for free through the DesignSocial challenge, but my aims here are to learn, to inspire, and to share my findings along the way. I try to encourage other creatives to submit ideas for projects that they themselves would love to work on.
Having received some interesting and challenging briefs so far, I am still hoping for more submissions during early January 2010, after which I hope to have at least secured a schedule for the first few months of the year.

Support the DesignSocial challenge by submitting your own creative brief! I also encourage anyone who is keen, to join me in tackling these briefs - I will gladly display any creative work submissions alongside my own - I think it would be great to share ideas and outcomes!

In the words of the late, great Paul Arden, "Do not covet your ideas. Give away everything you know and more will come back to you".

For more information please visit the DesignSocial website: www.designsocial.co.uk , or email Andrea on: emaildesignsocial@gmail.com
Follow DesignSocial on Twitter: @DesignSocial52 and join the DesignSocial Facebook group.