In all their tight-type, neon-colored, advertorial glory  Words by Elizabeth Goodspeed A New Balance advert from October 2021. What are you seeing? Layered, type-driven design inspired by 1980s advertising is on the rise, and along with it, a worthy opponent (finally) for the sleek, buttoned-up visual world of the last decade. In its purest iteration, the throwback ’80s editorial trend is text-heavy, with layouts comprised of a single, often silhouetted or gradient-backed image, a punchy headline, and supporting narrative copy. The most recognisable component of the trend is arguably its ..read more

I don’t think there’s a single designer out there that thinks he or she can’t get any better. Design and designers are constantly changing, growing and evolving. Some of it is technology, some of it is trendy; but all change starts with you. If you want to be a better designer, you have to do something about it. Whether that’s learning something new, trying a different type of project, or thinking about feedback and criticism. Let’s start getting better, today! 1. Learn a New Technique or Skill Growing as a designer starts with continued education. Whether formal or on your own, there are plen ..read more

A logo is not your brand, nor is it your identity. Logo design, identity design and branding all have different roles, that together, form a perceived image for a business or product. There has been some recent discussion on the web about this topic, about your logo not being your brand. Although this may be true, I haven’t seen any clarification of the differences between ‘brand’, ‘identity’ and ‘logo’. What is brand? The perceived emotional corporate image as a whole. What is identity? The visual aspects that form part of the overall brand.
 What is a logo? A logo identifies a business in ..read more

I have a little side hobby thing going on where I can be expressive with characters, illustration, sketches and drawings, it’s called ‘The Attic Design Studio’. With ‘Attic’ I can let go and create all sort of exotic and colourful imagery. You can see some of my work from Attic on my little Etsy shop. All the artwork is sold as Giclée prints. https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/AtticDesignStudioUKIt is always great to be recommended or appreciated in some way. But it is quite special to be chosen to feature on the front of a popular online magazine! So this happened… a few months back now, still I ha ..read more

1. THICK SKINYou need to have thick skin if you’re going to be a successful designer. If you don’t have it, that’s okay. It’s something that can be developed. Criticism helps me grow as a designer. What I mean by this is, if someone (be it a client, another designer, or someone else) criticises your work, you’ll be much better off if you learn to handle it and take the positives from the criticism (as opposed to putting up your guard and claiming that they “just don’t get it”). But how do you develop thick skin?The successful designer needs to be able to separate themselves from their work - t ..read more