Studying Graphic Design

[BodiesOfLight]

PS - graphic design was once done without computers...some people don't seem to undertand this!

[BodiesOfLight]

Getting a job at a good design firm is *extremely* hard, and even the students who have been in design school for 5 years only have maybe a 10-15% chance of landing a creative design job in a firm soon after graduating. I've seen a lot of portfolio's that are so humbling in their beauty, that took hundreds of hours to make, and still couldn't land a job.

It has come to my understand with talking to art directors that you can have and awesome fucking portfolio, but if you have a shit personality, it's a no go.

Your portfolio is just the step in the door.

You can have a OK portfolio, but an awesome personality, gets along well with people, etc, but maybe their art director didn't push them enough creatively in their last job(s), however you still need great attention to detail and good eye for type, line, flow, direction etc, etc.

[Yardsale]

oh yeah, cosign on the soul-sucking.

[BodiesOfLight]

speaking of which , anyone know some good sites for free fonts..

im trying to compile some good ones just for easy quick design use

i already have adobe fontfolio

What.cd has some fonts, not as much as oink though.

I've picked up some great font families (opentype).

[Clockwork_killa]

speaking of which , anyone know some good sites for free fonts..

im trying to compile some good ones just for easy quick design use

i already have adobe fontfolio

Free fonts are for the most part not worth it, they nearly always end up cheapening a good design. That having been said there are still some good professionally designed fonts out there that you can get for free, In fact theres a whole blog dedicated to good free fonts somewhere (ill post the link when I find it).

As for good books to read, definitely find some good books on typography, as it is such an important part of design. I would reccomend 1001 Type Treatments and The Fundamentals of Typography

If youre looking for books on specific design software, then I highly recommend the friends of ed series.

Also, even though its been mentioned already, I would just like to stress the fact that graphic design is not about using photoshop. Yes photoshop/illustrator are common tools of the trade these days, but if you are more interested in using photoshop etc then perhaps interactive/new media design is more what youre after.

Edit: Fontleech is the free font blog I was on about.

[fuhq]

A textbook that I would recommend is Practices of Looking by Marita Sturken is an awesome read about different issues raised by graphic design and related image producing jobs in terms of semiotics.

Ha, I've been studying this book all day for my visual studies exam. I'm in first-year graphic design. I've been on the lookout for internships for the summer, but it's much harder than anyone would think. In fact, if anyone is aware of any opportunities like that, holler at me.

Typography is definitely one of the main areas I've been focusing on improving in. One book on that topic I would definitely recommend is "Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works."

Mind you, I don't by any stretch of the imagination consider myself a designer. But other than reading up on certain topics though, I've really learned the most teaching myself Photoshop from a fairly young age, as well as applying techniques and the like from other areas, such as graffiti. What's essential to improving is to do what YOU want to do, and not worry about making mistakes.

At least until someones paying you to do what they want you to.