Design

2016 has been a year of ups and downs. As always, the events of the world have influenced the world of design. With that in mind, here are five design trends we predict will make an impact in 2017. The return of illustration After being pushed to the side for many years, what with computers taking over…

File formats often aren’t considered until they become an issue. I regularly have clients come to me when they can’t open a particular file, or, after they’ve sent a file for production and discovered that they provided their file in the wrong format. Here I’ve outlined the most common formats you’ll encounter in the design…

I am aging myself when I say that, when I was getting my formal design education in college, digital design was a relatively new discipline. Those focusing on digital design also obtained a completely different degree than those of us studying print. While I’m told that most schools now offer a more integrated approach, I…

Design apps can be great for working on the fly, collaborating with a client or just getting the creative ball rolling. We’ll focus on iOS applications here, as the the iPhone is the smartphone of choice in the design world, but many of these apps are available on Android as well. And while design apps…

Having a project professionally printed can be intimidating. There are many types of service providers from which to choose—from corner print shops to quick-print chains to large scale commercial printing operations—and its an industry full of unique terminology. There is often a lot at stake when printing, and simple errors can be costly. Knowledge of…

Simply put, a brand book—or style guide—is a set of rules that explain how a brand works, all in an effort to keep the brand consistent and recognizable to current customers and attractive and memorable to potential ones. Whether you’re creating a new style guide or simply familiarizing yourself with a client’s existing guide, there is…

While working with a photographer—and setting up a proper photo shoot—is almost always preferable for a creative project, timing and budget constraints (or subject matter) often preclude their use. This is where stock photography, existing, searchable, commercial photography available online for license, comes in. The stock photo world is a competitive one; acquisitions and mergers…

Just as writer’s block is the scourge of wordsmiths everywhere, we graphic designers are dealt our own creative slowdowns. “Design block” is something that happens to the best of us, but never fear. Graphic design inspiration is just a step away from the project screen on your computer. Step away from your computer. Go grab a…

Case studies and white papers—particularly in the tech world—increasingly rely on well-designed information graphics. When looking to articulate your data visually in a paper, there are a few things to keep in mind. What’s the point? White papers and case studies exist to explain and persuade. How will the infographics you include contribute to that…

You’ve surely noticed the increasing popularity of parallax scrolling on many websites, including our own. It’s a visual approach to storytelling that we like quite a bit here at Wordsmithie. Still, a study from Purdue University in 2013 found that although parallax scrolling “enhanced certain aspects of the user experience, it did not necessarily improve…