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DF Book Cover Competition

Posted 30 Jul 2009 - 3 Gratefully received comments

Design Forums have carried on from the success of their first competition by launching a new one! This time the challenge is to come up with a book cover design.

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My Life as a Cartoon #5

Posted 28 Jul 2009 - 7 Gratefully received comments

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Follow me on Twitter

Posted 24 Jul 2009 - 3 Gratefully received comments

Last week I finally crumbled and signed up to Twitter. I’ve been putting it off because I felt as though it was merely the latest fad that would work itself out, and be replaced by something else as wonderfully titled. Perhaps “blather” or “waffle” would come along and stage a coup, (if any clever web developers see a future in these great names, get in touch, we could be rich!).

Now I see how foolish I’ve been, a proper twit, if you will. After just a short while I’m beginning to realise the potential in it all.

In one of my previous posts I highlighted the seclusion that freelancers sometimes feel, working alone. Twitter is another way to connect with the wider design community. This is an advantage in itself, but it breeds others.
With access to this community, you can find a wealth of information to help find solutions to your problems, to inspire you, or just raise a smile when you need it most.

There are other more selfish advantages too, it’s a nice big platform for me to promote myself, my work and my blog.
In the future I hope to interact further with my followers. I want to be able to ask for feedback or a bit of brainstorming to help me when I might be stuck.
In return I will strive to post links that might be of interest to others, be it inspirational work, or excellent articles that I find useful and insightful.

As usual, I’m far to late to the party to be labeled “fashionable” but fashion sense is over-rated. I’ll take common-sense any day.

Follow me @kreynoldsdesign and I’ll tweet you later.

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Backup (Beep, Beep, Beep!)

Posted 17 Jul 2009 - 3 Gratefully received comments

I’ve evolved a useful little mental trick. About 15 minutes before the end of my work day I hear a little alarm go off in my mind: Beep, Beep, Beep. Just like the sound of the warning sirens a lorry uses when it reverses. This is my reminder to backup all of my work before shutting down and forgetting about it all for another day.

A warning siren is an apt analogy to use, especially if you have ever lost work without a copy in the past.

It is a gut-wrenching experience. When you turn on your machine to find (depending on your preference), a flashing folder icon, a spiralling beach ball or of course a blue screen of death, the first thought that flashes through your mind is of all the work you have done since your last backup. Then you progress to wondering if the time you took to complete it all was wasted.

Having a rock solid backup system is beneficial on so many levels.
First of all it gives you piece of mind. Nobody likes to imagine that their machines will rebel, but it does happen, usually at the most inopportune moments.
Another valid benefit is the amount of time you can save, by investing small chunks of it each day. By giving 15 minutes of your day over to backing-up you can saves days worth of artwork time if you ever have to remake any lost files.

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My Life as a Cartoon #4

Posted 15 Jul 2009 - 2 Gratefully received comments

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How to climb out of a Creative Rut

Posted 10 Jul 2009 - 9 Gratefully received comments

Ever sat down to work, faced with a blank screen, holding a brand new project then find yourself staring into space all day without a single idea popping into your head?
Anyone with a creative job always works under the pressure of generating ideas. This is particularly awkward when a tight deadline is approaching and you’ve got nothing.

I can’t imagine I’m alone on this one. It’s common to hear of authors getting “writers block,” but a lot of designers seem to deny the fact that they have trouble with inspiration. A lot of designers I know try to tell me they are staggeringly prolific and that they never struggle when responding to a brief.
Obviously telling a client that you struggled for inspiration while working for them is a silly move, but it is important to admit a lack of inspiration to yourself. If you don’t there is a risk that you will toil for very little reward, and the quality of your work can suffer. Not only that but you can find yourself getting frustrated and making the situation worse.

I’ve never had a problem admitting that I have days, sometimes weeks, where the ideas just don’t surface.
I have a few approaches to staving off the effects of a dry spell. Some methods are preventative and others I use to battle those inspiration-less periods while I’m stuck in the middle of them.

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A Smile in the Mind – Book Review #1

Posted 03 Jul 2009 - 6 Gratefully received comments

I find great pleasure in the written word. Great books can become firm friends for the rest of your life. Just like your real lifelong friends, they can entertain you, teach you and at times comfort you.

Professionally speaking, there is also a small group of books that help me more than most. There are those fantastic books that inspire.

My oldest friend is: A smile in the Mind: Witty thinking in Graphic Design, by Beryl McAlhone & David Stuart.

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© Ken Reynolds Design