SKETCHEE

Here’s a post of the most popular posts in 2008. This site has been a great success compared to year’s past. Focusing more on what people want to read about and where that intersects with what I want to write about has been a key strategy. People visit this site for design, crafts, tv talk and tech and we’ll expect a lot more of this in the year to come. Please keep on commenting about the things you care about and I’ll keep researching and rambling about it. If you really want to support this site, subscribe to the feed and maybe even buy a print of my art.

Now on with the top 10 list, in reverse order for maximum suspense:

#10 12 Social Websites for Artists & Designers

Graphic designers, especially those who freelance, often rely on networking for information, growth and work. These 12 social sites provide great ways to meet other designers in either a professional and amateur context. And there are even more social sites recommended in the comments.

#9 Telefrancais

This post of the Telefrancais theme song five years ago isn’t just about the original post. The comments thread has spawned 80 posts of discussion. Telefrancais was a weird French language instructional video that North American classes were subjected to. The nostalgia of a talking pineapple that hasn’t made it very far in the digital age has driven people here on their quest to discover the truth of Ananas.

#8 Closed Versus Open Source DVD Burning Software

Burning a DVD in Windows is only as easy or hard as the software that you have. Luckily, there are free, open source solutions and people are really looking for them making it number eight on our list.

#7 Embedding Twitter in Your Wordpress Blog

Twitter is a micro-blogging website that has become one of the most watched “Web 2.0″ sites in the recent year. Embedding a micro-blog in your Wordpress blog can add an additional, more up-to-date feed of information in between your larger posts. This tip tells you how to do it pretty easily (You can friend me on Twitter at twitter.com/sketchee)

#6 How to listen to podcasts without iTunes or an iPod

Audio programming is great for a commute or at wor. With podcasts being a free medium, it seems like they’re taking off more and more. This compilation of tips is meant to make the concept behind podcasts easier so you can start listening to free customized radio-like programming even if you don’t have the latest gadgets. If you can read this, you probably have everything you need to enjoy podcasts.

#5 Gifts for Graphic Designers: A Wish List

Whether it’s about the holidays, a birthday, a promotion or a non-event, people are looking for all kinds of gifts for graphic designers. The latest picks quickly became one of this year’s hottest posts.

#4 David Bromstad

This old post still seems to strike a cord with David Bromstad fans. He’s an interior decorator on HGTV. While the post is old, the comments still buzz with conversation about the star. If you’re looking for a place to talk about David, join in the discussion.

#3 Graphic Design Meets Open Source Software

These free open source tools for graphic designers on a budget seems to have resonated with people. Open Source software has taken off in 2008. Open source fonts, web design, illustration software, page design and photo development tools are there for the freelancer, casual use or business. If you’re interested in any of these, check out this post.

#2 Designing Your Own Custom Shoe

Shoe design was once limited to athletes, celebrities, big name designers and whoever is designing shoes for the brands. Now some of that technology has gone to the masses and it sounds like people are loving the idea. Now someone tell Zazzle we want men’s shoes in 2009!

#1 Hemming Jeans Like A Pro

Crafty and resourceful designers really have responded to this tip on hemming jeans. It’s the most popular post on this site. As a shorter person myself, it really makes life easier to have the option of hemming pants. This tip takes a bit of practice, but it can be worth it. Practice on some cheap jeans from a consignment shop if you’re really worried about messing up those designer brands.

The latest episode of the SketcheeBook Podcast is about starting a blog as part of your creative process. Blogging (and podcasting) are great ways to interact with others, solve common problems and use what you’ve learned to help others. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or using the feed.

With everyone buzzing about the economy, these vintage bank ads designs seemed particularly relevant. Vintage Advertisements (via Mint.com)

Chelsea Bank’s ad seemed the most eye catching to me. The colors are great for a bank, which usually one might think of something more conservative. I can’t tell what the heck is going on there.

Google Reader has launched a new interface design. I never really liked the old design of Google Reader. I had criticized the overuse of boxes, rules, lines and terminologies. Most of this has been fixed in the new version. The settings now says “Folders and Tags”, but is it more clear what a tag is and what a folder is? I’m not sure. I guess it doesn’t matter in practice.

The white backgrounds and the more simple design fits inline with usual Google offerings although not as simple as they’ve made search. It looks a lot like Google Docs. You can now hide elements that you don’t want to see and the friend’s shared social feature have been given more prominence. You can even hide the feed counts which can be useless if you have a lot of feeds that you don’t plan to read thoroughly. There are bundles to get you started quickly with the recommended feeds and feed topics to fit your taste.

If you didn’t know, Reader is a way of subscribing to web sites such as this one, news sites, audio and video programming, etc. You can reader more about the new design at the Official Google Reader Blog.

This post is a follow-up to Google Reader’s Design Kinda Sucks

You don’t need expensive courses or book to learn InDesign. You don’t need official experience or knowledge to add your InDesign knowledge to your resume. What you do need is self-motivation, so I’ve provided a few resources here to start you out.

photo credit: stevenvanwel

1 — Adobe’s InDesign website isn’t just a sales oriented site for the latest versions of the product. They have many resources available such as user groups, documentation, event information, plug-ins. Not to mention the comprehensive Knowledgebase articles and forums. You can evenwatch free videos at AdobeTV. Phew. It should definitely be the first place you start.

2 — InDesign Secrets is a blog filled with a ton of information about InDesign from some of the industries leading experts. The podcast has great insights so make sure you listen and watch.

3 — The InDesigner is a blog and video series by Michael Murphy. The videos are very comprehensive. Set aside the time and watch!

4 — The InDesign tutorials section of Layers Magazine has great articles on everything InDesign.

5 — InDesign Magazine has a free tip of the week. The archives have tons and tons of obscure but useful tips for those problem you always have, thought there must be a simply solution, but always end up doing the hard way You can also view a free issue.

6 — VolunteerMatch has plenty of virtual opportunities (as I mentioned in A Guide to Your First Graphic Design Work Experiences) if you’re looking for work experience with InDesign to build up your resume and confidence with the program. Real life experiences are a great way to learn something quickly

7 — The public library has tons of books that can help you learn all about InDesign. If you’ve gone to the book store and were discouraged by the high high high prices of books on the subject, don’t forget that you can check out the books for free. Libraries have advanced and many allow you to check out books or place books on hold right from the web. My public library even has exclusive online content.

photo credit: krossbow

After being asked to send a fax to my insurance company, but not having a fax machine immediately available I turned to the internet. Fax Zero turned out to be a quick solution for the occasional fax. You can send 2 faxes of up to three pages a day for free. Just upload a .DOC (Google Docs anyone?) or PDF. The catch is that the cover letter (which doesn’t count against your page count) contains an ad. I didn’t mind if my insurance company got an ad page along with the cover letter so it seemed like a pretty good solution for this predicament. You can add a custom message to the cover letter too so it’s like free page to send.

If you really really don’t want to send the ad, you can pay $1.99 USD to use the service for free and you still get that free cover page and message. Fax Zero is only available for sending faxes too and from the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. I was worried about security, so with a little research I confirmed that it has been recommended by PC Magazine, LifeClever.com and others. If you know any similar services in the US or oversees, feel free to write a recommendation in the comments.

For other free services, check out this FAQ: How can I send a fax from the Internet? They also mention a few ways to receive faxes for free

More Free Things

Speaking of LifeClever and free, check out 10 Free Web-based Alternatives to Photoshop and Learn 35+ Languages for Free in iTunes

Lifehacker has more free stuff in its articles Top 10 Free Video Rippers, Encoders, and Converters, Free Replacements for Paid Tools and more.

Whether you’re getting ready for the holiday season, a birthday or even without an occasion here’s some graphic design related gifts that are on my wish list.

PRINT Magazine

The gift that keeps on giving. What could be better than a subscription to PRINT: America’s Graphic Design Magazine filled with trends, commentary, reporting and ideas.

“STEP Inside Design” Magazine

Another magazine subscription worth considering is STEP Inside Design which tends to be a topical look at the current state of design. Each issue highlights creative people, design in the business world and hot design topics.

Wacom Intuos3 9 x 12-Inch USB Tablet

The Wacom Intuos3 9 x 12-Inch USB Tablet is an interface made perfectly for designers which allows you to access features and techniques in programs like Photoshop that you can’t access any other way. This tablet includes shortcut keys and a five button mouse.

Pantone 100 Top Colors

Pantone 100 Top Colors is an affordable (under $30) set of colors for quick reference. For the price you get a pretty decent set of 1,114 colors.

“Hillman Curtis Designer Series”

The “Hillman Curtis Designer Series” has short films featuring Milton Glaser, Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, David Carson, James Victore, and Pentagram Design

“How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul”

The book “How To Be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul” by Adrian Shaughnessyis a business guide to being successful in the field. This book isn’t about effects or visual tricks, but the business of being a commercial artist. New designers are often surprised at how important the business side of their career is and how little they learned about this in their formal education.

“Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students”

“Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students”, a book by Ellen Lupton, isn’t about fonts but working with type effectively on the page.

“Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop”

In “Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop” by Timothy Samara the topic discussed is one of the most important aspects of design: grid layout. It seems like many designers are unprepared to deal with the grid and there is always more to learn. It’s essential to learn how to handle the many elements you will be asked to include in your designs. Learn the rules and how to break them effectively.

I have just integrated my Zazzle store into this Wordpress blog thanks to Zazzle’s Store Builder feature. Take a look at the result on the Sketchee.com Art Prints Shop Page. You can include items from any shop, not just your own, and you make the referral fee on all sales. While there is documentation on the Zazzle site, this article will focus on specifically embedding the store builder in a Wordpress page.

photo credit: jelene

First, you’ll want to download the store builder files. You’ll have to customize the files with your identifying information. Open the file configuration.php, in the folder include, using your favorite text editor. You’ll see some fields in quotes marked to be edited. Your contributor name or contributor handle is the name of your gallery on Zazzle.com. Your associate id number can be obtained by logging into Zazzle. Upload the files anywhere on your site that supports PHP using your favorite FTP program. This could be in your Wordpress theme folder, although I installed mine in a root level folder. You can call it whatever you like, for example I called the folder /storebuilder.

In Wordpress, you’ll want to make a copy of the template that you’d like to embed the store into. I made a copy of my Pages template, pages.php, and renamed it shop.php. This is in the wordpress folder under /wp-content/themes in the folder of the current theme. Log onto your site admin panel and navigate to the Theme Editor in Wordpress. In Wordpress 2.6.5 this is located under the Design Tab. Select shop.php and above any other code you will need to insert the following code; the Template Name can be anything you want:

< ?php
/*
Template Name: Shop
*/
?>

Next, we’ll edit the shop.php template to add the shopbuilder code. This can be anywhere on your template. Note that the path must be a full server path as in the example code. There are a ton of customization options to be aware of. The full description of each is available in the configuration.php that we had edited earlier. These variables can also be set there, but it is more versatile to do it from your templates since you could have multiple pages or multiple includes of the storebuilder on one page! The productType variable lets you choose a product (shirts, stickers, etc) by using one of the numbers form configuration.php. If showPagination is true, it will allow your shop page to have several pages of products to navigate through. showSorting lets users choose between sorting by popularity or date added. gridCellSize is the size of the image (tiny, small, medium, large or huge).

< ?php

// configure Zazzle Store Builder display
$_GET['productType'] = '';
$_GET['showPagination'] = 'false';
$_GET['showSorting'] = 'false';
$_GET['showProductDescription'] = 'false';
$_GET['showByLine'] = 'false';
$_GET['showProductTitle'] = 'true';
$_GET['showProductPrice'] = 'false';
$_GET['gridCellSize'] = 'medium';
$_GET['showHowMany'] = '100';

include "/home/FULLPATH/www/www/storebuilder/include/zstore.php"; ?>

Using the theme editor, you’ll need to enter a line in the header.php of your Wordpress theme. This should placed between the <head> tags. Note that if you named your /storebuilder directory something different, you’ll have to change this to reflect that. You may also want to put this css file in the theme’s folder instead and refer to it there; that way it could be modified in the theme editor although you probably won’t need to touch it. This contains the styles that the store uses and are already named so not to conflict with your blog styles:

Finally, create a new Wordpress page (Write > Page). You can write a little bit of intro text as the post itself. The most important thing is to scroll down under Advanced Options for the page. Look for Page Template and set that box to the Template Name you created above. You may also want to disable comments for this page if your theme isn’t already set to do this. Publish the post.

That is pretty much it. The item links in your store even go to a version of the Zazzle’s product page with a smaller header bar to minimize their branding on your store. If you have any difficulty, feel free to post here or at the Zazzle forum.

Trying to put your best foot forward in your portfolio is a task all designers strive to improve at. Here’s a guide to get your started.

photo credit: Unhindered by Talent

Select the best of the best. The number of pieces in your portfolio will vary from person to person. However many pieces you decide to include, make sure they are all great work. The order counts too, make the first and last pieces the best ones to start and end on a good note. The first and last impressions are the ones they’ll remember most. Don’t put in things just because they are your personal favorites. If they are not appropriate for the reviewer to see, they should be removed. In the end, you will be better off having seven impressive and appropriate designs rather than twelve pieces at different quality levels.

Look at the work of other designers; don’t live in a vacuum. We all want to be original, but you need to know the trends of the day. You need to know what’s going on in the world. Be both critical and encouraging about what other designers are doing and reflect on that when you put together your portfolio. Imagine that these are the designers applying for the same gig as you and how you would tell an interviewer that your approach is the best.

Consider something unexpected. I’ve included paintings in my portfolio to emphasize that the computer is just a tool and that I have some insights about composition and scale that other designers might not have. Consider showing a skill you have and be prepared to explain why you feel it’s appropriate to your portfolio and to the position you are applying for. You might have sketches that provide insight to your process. Maybe a very professional photograph that you took. Or just something with such a great concept that you can show off and show that you are just that creative. Just remember the earlier tip that anything in your portfolio should be as perfect as possible. If it’s sketch it should be a great sketch that would hold up to anyone else who had one.

Creativity is good, but don’t let the portfolio itself overshadow the works within it. You want your portfolio to be clean and present the pieces you have to display. Whoever looks at it should feel the clear focus on the individual pieces and not how they are presented. However you choose to display portfolio, make sure you choose something that you can easily edit. You’ll want to add new pieces and take out a few too depending on who will view it and what tasks and skills you are emphasizing.

Everything is more than the sum of it’s parts: each work displayed should show a greater understanding. A piece might show your understanding of a particular business, depth of research and other skills that aren’t directly related to design. If you are showing your portfolio to a medical related magazine that you want to work for, that freelance dentist project might be the one that clinches it.

The perfect portfolio is impossible. Your portfolio is an ongoing and evolving collection of works. Accept that it won’t be perfect, but continue to make it the best that you can.

More information

You might want to check out Building a Strong Design Portfolio, a question and answer session with Nomi Altabef, Associate Education Director at DesignMentor Training.