Category Archives: Design Matters

Professional Practice

I’m teaching the Professional Practice class this term at City College of San Francisco and would like to get some input from my graphic design and digital media production friends and colleagues on how you run your businesses. Please share your input here on the blog. The textbook is the Graphic Artists Guild’s Pricing &…More

Learning to Design a Cherokee Syllabary with Mark Jamra

I just caught this very interesting talk on TypeCulture’s Facebook page on designing an indigenous American syllabary via the Cherokee language whose written language is almost 200 years old. Fascinated as my mother’s maternal grandfather was Cherokee. I love looking at writing systems outside of the Western cultures. For this talk, Mark Jamra references the…More

Thanking Mary Thorsby and Nikki May

Thanking the wonderful content strategist and writer Mary Thorsby and  great graphic designer and creative Nikki May for their incredible talk with the Portfolio class today on how to present oneself professionally online and offline.    They covered writing the critical content for the portfolio and resume well and distinctively, and presenting ones best work.…More

Rise of Graphics for Social Justice Issues in the US

Though the production of graphics for social justice issues, primarily as posters or street art has not diminished much in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, it has lost its prominence in the US. Given this fact, it was nice to read today’s The Daily Heller: Triggering Concern About Guns. To see a full array of…More

Nice Talk by Khoi Vinh at TYPOSF 2012

My MM Content + Form students and I were lucky enough to catch the 5 April 2012 livestream of Khoi Vinh’s talk at TYPOSF 2012. He shared some valuable insight into the business of design and where it stands today. Quite interesting. Below are some captured “slides: of his talk. (Please note, they’re in the…More

Updated Post: Film On Charles and Ray Eames and the Eames Office

Charles and Ray Eames are clearly two of the most influential designers of the previous century. This film looks not only at their pivotal work, but also looks at their personal relationship and how they collaborated on some the most important designs of the 20th Century. It can be seen in theaters and on PBS.…More

Design is About Solving Problems | Design Informer

One of my Twitter colleagues, Jan Jursa of Information Architecture Television (@IATV on Twitter) shared this interesting post by James Young on Design Informer (See link below) and I thought I would share it. It is always good to step back and reassess where one is in respect to the design process. This is a…More

Long live the great Sylvia Harris

I just found out late last night about the 24 July 2011, untimely passing of Sylvia Harris. Although we didn’t know each other personally, I was always inspired by and in awe of her wonderful and vital work in the field of design for social good and as a design educator. I’m blessed to share…More