thislifeisnotpretend-blog

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This Life is not pretend Grayling Design Holiday Sale for Christmas Cards and Logo Design! 989-350-5548 www.freelancegraphicdesign.org

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The laptop every designer or gamer needs! Buy here: http://amzn.to/2yd2npa

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Should I learn how to code really well?

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The internet was very popular for a long time, and still is today. Should you code or not? Remains a charged topic with strong opinions on both sides. Web design has come a very long way. Their is ridiculously specialized roles now days such as user experience analyst. Its never only one designer working through the full development stack on their own. These days better tools and efficient best practices exist. So I am going to tell both sides of the debate.

Why you do not need to learn code: If a designer has the right tool they do not need to know how to code to build a great website. Any how most designers prefer not to code and nothing is wrong with that, because that is called specialization. In history, there was nothing designers could do to get around the required development work because it was necessary. But these days its not the case because it was necessary. But these days its not the case because drag and drop tools exist now. As a designer you are not limited to creating wireframes and mock ups. Tools like macaw, designers can very easily create websites. Web flow generates clean html and CSS which is actually better than what most developers hand write. No designers are limited what so ever in terms of functionality. The argument against learning how to code goes beyond having the proper tools, and is a matter of facing emotional facts: you are not lame for not learning how to code, its simply realistic and time efficient. If you are a pro designer  you need to be the best designer you possibly can. The trends of design are changing constantly and new techniques are endlessly being paraded around In design there is lots to be staying on top of that which will keep a designer busy. Most people cannot code well enough. Why do I need to learn code anyway? Because it is better to know what you don't already know. You need to learn the basics of coding at least so you can understand developers needs that is developers that you work with. Doing so will definitely make you better at design. Designers really want to create their own websites without necessarily coding them. The two factors behind this are: offering consolidated services to clients and gaining more control over their work. So its up to you if you really want to learn coding and ask yourself as a designer should I learn coding, well yes and no as you can see this is totally up to you. If you have any questions please contact me and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

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Is the Static Logo Dead?

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Static logos were normal for decades, but now they have become extinct. Static logos rarely changed format and bore the standard for design and branding. Now days static logos are not welcome. This is why logo systems came into the picture. Logo systems has became a "cool" and a normal symbol of well established brands. So one may ask, what exactly is a logo system? Well let me answer this question for you. The news of the death of static logos has been news for a while. Recently though it was confirmed that static logos are dead. So designers adopted logo systems so they could make unique logos. A logo system is a graphical framework which reshapes to different situations. Logo systems are not synonymous with dynamic logos though. Dynamic logos change their shapes and their colors and also their wording based on the situation they are used in. Logo systems use a series of marks or iterations of a mark to communicate a specific part of a brand. The logos main structure remains the same but will look different. So static logos are dead and logo systems are here to stay bottom line. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. I would be glad to answer any questions you may have.

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Is there a way to make a virtual flip book or catalog? Or do I need a software?

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Interactive flipbooks include links ,animations , and videos to keep it's readers interested. Interested readers are more likely to purchase from you. People enjoy the experience of flipping pages and interactive features of a flipbook. Interactive flipbooks are used in multiple ways: -DISPLAY PRODUCTS IN A CATALOG FORMAT,- DESIGN A BROCURE TO SHOW CASE YOUR SERVICES,- PRESENT PDF'S IN A NEW AND EXCITING WAY, -ACCELERATE B2B SALES WITH AN OPTIMIZED SEARCH FUNCTIONALITY, - CREATE CUSTOM BROCHURE'S AND PROPOSALS, -TO SAVE TIME,- TO EASILY UPDATE PRODUCT CATALOGS, - CREATE AN EDUCATIONAL FLIPBOOK, -ENSURE RESPONSIVENESS, -CAPTURE IMPATIENT CUSTOMERS, -TO ENSURE A FASTER LOAD TIME, -TO COLLECT LEADS. You can use a flipbook to present your products or services to save the user time no matter what your industry is and your readers can benefit from it. So this is how to make a digital flipbook: STEP 1- CREATE A PDF: The first step to creating a digital flipbook is to create a PDF which contains all the important content of your publication. Keep in mind that it is very important that your work looks attractive across all the screen sizes and devices and that it maintains faster loading times and also remember designing for an online publication is very different than designing in print and your publication will be displayed on screens so size matters. SIZE- 210-280 mm will be good on any device and 280-280 mm will utilize more screen space on laptop or desktop monitors but might not on mobiles. You can make as many pages as you'd like and I also recommend exporting your PDF at 150 pixels per inch. READABILITY- Choose your font wisely so it makes it easy to read I recommend a serif or sans serif font, just make sure the font is the right size. LINKS- Links are very important for digital flipbooks. All underlined text in a different color should be marked as a link especially if it is blue. WHITESPACE- Make room for engaging elements like videos and animations when making your PDF. WHITESPACE- Make room for engaging elements like videos and animations when making your PDF. BE VISUALLY CAPTURED-Use bullet lists to break up texts. STEP 2- Convert PDF to flipbook- Use a digital publishing platform to convert your PDF to a flipbook, you may also want to embed your flipbook into your website. STEP 3- Add interactive features such as: -Links, -Pop-Ups, -Forms, -Animations, -Videos, -Ecommerce. STEP 4- Promote it: -Embed it directly on your website., -Email it to your e-mail list., -Share it on social media and embed it on your face book page with a 3rd party app. STEP 5- Optimize your flipbook and evaluate- Ask yourself and check, If/ Do people click on in clickable items? If they do make sure to make those items clickable with links to your next catalog. Use the following tools to analyze and optimize your publications: -Google tag manager, -Google Analytics, Facebook tracking pixel. In conclusion, Creating a digital flipbook is a very great way to engage audiences and keep them on your site and is very simple. Also I want to mention, Use a digital platform such as I-paper to create your first flipping book, If you are an experienced graphic designer use the Adobe software and Adobe creative cloud. I use Adobe creative cloud and the Adobe software myself. If you have any questions please contact me.

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What are some of your favorite questions or ask, or be asked during an interview?

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To Be Asked: 1- What are your qualifications aHere is a list of the top ten questions I believe to be the most important to be asked during a graphic design interview and to ask the employer after being interviewed:

nd do you have previous experience being a graphic designer for any company? 2- If you were asked to design a logo for our company what would it look like? 3- What graphic design software do you most commonly make use of? 4- (If the candidate mentions the name of a very basic kind of software) isn't this a very basic graphic designing software are you uncomfortable using a more advanced one? 5- Are you comfortable being told what to design? 6-Are you open to criticism? 7-Do you prefer to sketch your designs first before converting them into a digital format? 8-If you do work with us, will you be using your own hardware? 9-Are you comfortable working on a team? 10-Are our policies and standards in keeping with your own?

Here is the top questions I believe to be the most important to ask an employer after an interview as a graphic designer: To ask the employer: 1- What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the company right now? 2-What motivates you to get out of bed and come into work in the morning? 3- Would you join this company if you could do it all over again? 4-How many friends/family members have you recruited to work for this company? 5- Thinking back to people who have been in this position previously, what differentiated the ones who were good from the ones who were really great? 6- If the interviewer is an executive or senior manager: "What keeps you up at night when you think about making this business successful? 7-For anyone: "How would you describe how decision making gets done at this company? 8- What are a few things that really drive results for the company? 9- What are the common attributes of your top performers? 10- If I get the job, how do I earn a "gold star" on my performance review? And do you see me as a good fit for this position?

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WHAT ARE THE ABSOLUTE MUST READ BOOKS ON GRAPHIC DESIGN?

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Once in a while Graphic Designers need to refuel their mind. Although there are a ton of great books out there that offer words of advice and wisdom, inspiration on design and refreshers on key design principles and techniques. This is the list of the top 8 books I think every graphic designer should read:1.) LOGO MODERNISM By: Jens Muller- This book brings together about 6,000 trade marks which were registered between 1940-1980, Jens Muller examines the modernism of graphic design and how imperatives have given birth to corporate identity. Jens Muller examines a wide variety of logos organized within 3 chapters, Geometry, Effect, and Typographic in order, to educate you but also provide you with an index of logo designs to help inform your own work. 2.) TWO DIMMENSIONAL MAN By: Paul Sahre- Paul Sahre which is one of the most influential Graphic Designers of his generation, In his book combines personal essays that discuss the reality of living creativity through out his 30 year graphic design career. 3.)- SHOW YOUR WORK: 10 THINGS NO BODY TOLD YOU ABOUT GETTING DISCOVERED By: Austin Kleon- In this book Austin Kleon gives a lot of helpful tips on how to get found as a graphic designer and how to network and be appealing to the community as a graphic designer. 4.)- THE GRAPHIC DESIGN IDEA BOOK:INSPIRATION FROM 50 MASTERS By: Steven Heller and Gail Anderson- This book covers what the key elements of great graphic design are featuring work from well known designers such as Paul Brand, Neville Brody and Gail Anderson and will refresh the knowledge you have about color, narrative, illusion, humour, simplicity and much more. 5.) HOW TO BE A GRAPHIC DESIGNER WITHOUT LOSING YOUR SOUL By: Adrian Shaughnessy- In this book Adrian Shaughnessy gives advice on getting employed, setting up as a freelancer. Building a company, dealing with clients and much more, about graphic design. 6.) JUST MY TYPE By: Simon Garfield- This book will get you to look at graphic design even closer past just the typefaces, giving you the history of fonts as well as looking at fonts powers. 7.) THE LITTLE KNOW-IT-ALL: COMMON SENSE FOR DESIGNERS By: Silja Bilz- This could be the most useful book as a graphic designer and covers everything from colour, perspective, law and marketing. 8.) ILLUSTRATION PLAY-By: Victionary- This book takes a closer look at new ideas and different ways to realise different concepts within contemporary illustration. Please fell free to contact me if you have any questions.

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Choosing a career in Graphic Design?

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Graphic Design students dream frequently of a job laid back working from home. Those jobs maybe do exist in some fields but the reality of graphic design is creativity which is on demand, constant deadlines, demanding clients, and an office work environment, which can be very stressful. The graphic design field is a integral part of the industrialized society. Anything that incorporates words and images or conveys an image a graphic designer is there. Your opportunity as a graphic designer depends on the level of education you receive. It is much easier to get your foot in the door as a graphic designer with at least a bachelor's degree in design. Graphic designers use computers to put together color palettes, images and typography to visually convey and communicate a message to solve a problem. It is important as a graphic designer to have classic drawing skills and a background in art. Graphic designers typically work along side of copywriters, photographers, illustrators and printers. I recommend as a graphic designer myself to check out the American institute of graphic arts website. There is a wide field of graphic design career opportunities that exist, all of them utilize the use of computer software. Graphic design employment is expected to continue to grow which means jobs will be available. Graphic designers typically work for newspaper, book and directory publishers, as well as advertising companies and agencies and other similar services. Some of a graphic designers responsibilities include: -Developing layout and production design of magazines, newspapers, journals and other publications. -Production of marketing materials and brochures, promo displays, logo design and signs. -Developing websites and web pages, computer interfaces and multimedia projects. - Also producing the credits which appear on movies and TV shows. The more valuable you become as a graphic designer to a company the more money there is to be made. Employers will always be looking for a graphic designer, although the graphic design job market is saturated and may be tough to break into, a good strong portfolio showcasing your best work and your graphic design education will definitely open more doors. A lot of graphic designers are self employed. Networking along with self promotion will be a very important part as well for opening more doors to your career. Whether you are working in house, self-employed, remotely, or under contract, if you are good at communicating well through visuals than you could go as far as you can imagine with a graphic design career, the sky is the limit. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

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What is Abstraction Art?

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https://www.reddit.com/user/chrscdesign/ This Design/Artwork is Called Abstraction Art because Abstraction Art is art which indicates a departure from reality in the way art is represented. Abstraction Art is unconcerned with the reality of the real world. However Abstraction Art can refer to an object or image from the actual real world. ABSTRACTION: In the beginning decades of the 20th century as it unfolded in America and Europe, art grew less and less realistic. Abstraction is all about painting the essence of a subject and how the artist interprets it, instead of the visible details. Artists may reduce the subject to it's dominant colors, shapes or patterns the way Pablo Picasso did with his famous mural of 3 musicians. All the sharp lines and angles of the performers do not look real, but there is no doubt who they are. Or artists may remove the subject from within its context or enlarge its size. Please contact me if you have any further questionsÂ

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HOW DO YOU BUILD A GRAPHIC DESIGN PORTFOLIO?

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A portfolio is the first impression of you on potential clients. A portfolio is a great and easy way to showcase your strengths and expertise and will also let your clients know what interests you the most. It is ok when you are starting out not to have much work in your portfolio. This is how to build a graphic design portfolio: STEP 1- GATHER TOGETHER ALL THE PROJECTS YOU ALLREADY HAVE AND FIGURE OUT YOUR FOCUS- First put together all the projects you have worked on during your graphic design education and look at it all together. Is there any major themes or similarities between your best or favorite work? You will not be using every piece of design work you worked on in your portfolio, So you need to figure out your strengths and the design work which most interests you to pursue later down the road. To figure out which design work you should place front and center in your portfolio, you need to think about what aspects of graphic design are the most interesting to you and which are your highest quality work. Hopefully a theme will emerge when you consider the works in this context. Based on these guidelines choose several of your best quality graphic design works to put in your portfolio. If you are hired by a client they are going to want to know you have experience working on similar projects in your past. STEP 2- IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH PROJECTS THAN CREATE MORE- If you need more projects for your portfolio then make more, a really good way to get inspiration for new projects is to think about problems that bother you as a graphic designer and design solutions for these problems. It is good to think about some problems that coincide with your skill sets. Another awesome way to expand your portfolio is to ask your friends or family if they have any design projects they need help with, This will also give you practice working with a real client, hell you might land your first client by doing this. STEP3-ORGANIZE YOUR WORK AND PUT YOUR BEST WORK FIRST-Focus primarily on surfacing and showcasing your best work. STEP 4-BUY YOUR DOMAIN THEN BUILD YOUR PORTFOLIO- Spend time with your personal branding. Use a platform such as SQUARE SPACE, BEHANCE, OR DRIBBLE. SQUARE SPACE I would recommend along with one of the others.- Create a personal logo, a personal logo, will help you stand out.- Organize your work appropriately by putting different types of work in a group together on separate pages of your portfolio site making everything easy to search from the drop down menus and navigation bar. STEP 5-PICK A FEW SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS- Such as Instagram or Pinterest to showcase your best graphic design work on. Make sure you link your portfolio site to your social media accounts. Announce your new portfolio site on social media platforms and post new work when you have it using hash tags and always link back to your site.

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This Life Is Not Pretend Grayling Design is happy to feature Phillip Vandusen on our blog!

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Phillip Vandusen is an amazing Graphic Design professional that offers very good advice to other graphic designers and educational videos on YouTube. Phillip gave This Life Is Not Pretend Grayling Design permission to feature him on here and give him a shout out on YouTube Phillip is providing value to other's. So please check out his video's on YouTube.

Sincerely,

Christopher Michael CooperÂ

CEO of This Life is not pretend Grayling DesignÂ

Providing value to Michigan graphic designers and people all over the world.

Phillips video Â

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Is Wire Framing Tecnical And Does it Require Coding?

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IS A WIREFRAME TECHNICAL AND DOES IT REQUIRE CODING?Hi I am Christopher Michael Cooper CEO Of This Life Is Not Pretend Grayling Design, I am A Certified Graphic Design Specialist By Trade. To answer your question, A wireframe which is also known as a schematic or even a screen blueprint is a skeletal visual guide of a website's framework. Wire framing is a very important step in the design process, and allows you to define the information hierarchy of your design, making it much easier to plan a layout according to how you would like your user to process the information. Wire framing is basically an architectural blueprint. You cannot start building layers in photo shop, or begin writing blocks of code, if you do not know where the information is going to go. Also note a wire frame is very useful to determine how a user interacts with the interface. Wireframes can include various states of button or menu behaviors. Wire framing is important because it will let the designer plan out the layout interaction of an interface without the designer getting distracted by colors, typefaces or copy. STEP 1- DESIGNING YOUR PROCESS- Find the right process that you are most comfortable with, different designers approach wire framing and it's translations to visuals or code in different ways. A well known process by 37 SIGNALS is to use sketches and go straight to code. Some people are not really good at sketching and prefer not to use a wire framing tool at all. Other Graphic Designers want to have as many steps as possible to minimize deviations or so they can think through every single iteration as the design takes shape. Eventually you will develop your own process. Designing a wire framing takes using Illustrator first to create your wire frame, Than you create a visual in Photoshop and last you do the code using CSSGRID. This is the typical wire frame process. STEP3-PICK YOUR TOOLS- SOME TOOLS COMMONLY USED ARE: -Axure,-Omnigraffle,-Keynote/Power Point, -Adobe CS,-Fireworks,-Illustrator,-Photoshop,-InDesign,-Protoshare. STEP 4-SET A GRID-There are a lot of regards to Grid Systems but simply put a Grid is a structured and simple way to layout elements. Adobe Illustrator is commonly used for setting a grid.STEP5- DETERMINE LAYOUT USING BOXES-Draw boxes on the grid. Think about the order of information you want to present to visitors, top to bottom is easiest followed by left to right. STEP 6- DEFINE INFORMATION HIARCHY WITH TYPOGRAPHY-When you are satisfied with how the boxes are laid out drop pieces of your content to get a feel of whether the information is being well structured. Never be afraid to experiment. STEP 7-FINETUNE WITH GRAYSCALE-Turn your wireframe to a grayscale to determine the visual strength of your elements before you have to pick a color palette, It will help you with the visual design process in the next step. STEP8-TURN YOUR WIREFRAME INTO A VISUAL IN PHOTOSHOP-EXPORT IT INTO A .PSD.STEP9-CODING-Last you need to translate your wireframe into code using CSSGRID