Look at any “Web Competition” or “Award Winning” website and you will notice something strange about them. Chances are you have never seen anything like them or they are so simple and strange you wonder why they work. The thing is, they were probably created via design over status quo. What I mean by that is, most people use another person’s website as an example of what they want theirs to be. What this does however is it limits the creativity of the designer. The project yields  a version of the example website, which was actually a version of another person’s site. This leads to the clones we all see in web design throughout the world wide web. Not necessarily a bad thing, but are websites even designed to be logical to the western brain? Probably not, they were only designed to work. Continue reading »

In the competitive world of Graphic and Web Design, one of the most important things to learn is when to divorce onseself from the craft. Artists by nature can become very attached to their work so this is probably one of the toughest things to accept when working professionally.

What you have to realize is the difference between working for an individual and working for oneself is the ownership of the craft. Take for example an instance where a painting is being done for a family. While doing said painting you want to do it to the best of your abilities since you were hired based on what was shown as your quality work. During the painting, a family member may ask you to leave off his/her acne or make his/her nose a tad different. It is their painting so you oblige. This is different however if you were doing the painting as a portfolio piece and the family are paid models that are at your service. Continue reading »