May 22, 2013
Look what Gimmie Graphics has been up to!!
We just finished working with Suspect.tv on SAP's big convention in Orlando last week! It was long month of hard work but it all paid off!
Check out the video to see all the graphics designed by Ashley Cromwell.
*Special thanks to Suspect!!
May 16, 2013
As freelancers, we tend to get in a rush. We get busy. We’ve got deadlines facing us. We don’t have time to waste… but we end up getting stuck in an efficiency rut.
I love to save time as much as the next person. One of the ways that I save time (and you’ve probably read about it here on FreelanceFolder) is by using templates and other automated time-saving methods.
Automated techniques can really help a freelancer become more efficient with his or her time. If you’re repeating a similar task very frequently, it really pays off to create templates or systems to help speed things up.
I have one client that likes to see their work formatted in a very specific way. To save time, I’ve created a blank template especially for this client’s projects. Using the template reduces the time that I spend on this client’s work by over 30%.
There are drawbacks, however, to relying too much on templates and other time-saving tools. While you may be saving time, your work could be losing out in innovation and creativity — and that’s where scheduled brainstorming comes into play.
Source: http://freelancefolder.com/why-every-freelancer-should-slow-down-and-brainstorm/
May 15, 2013
The type of work you make, is the work you'll get hired to do. Good idea to love the work you're making.
May 14, 2013
No matter how fulfilling your work, there’ll be days when you just can’t summon any enthusiasm for it. What makes the experience of undermotivation especially frustrating is that the solution seems as if it ought to be obvious: what you need, you tell yourself, is more motivation.
So you scour the web for motivational tips (visualize your goals! reconnect with your ‘core values’!). You remind yourself about the mountain bike you want to buy, or the family you’ve got to feed. Yet it’s rare that any of this works: instead, undermotivation digs in its heels, making progress harder than ever.
Sep 24, 2012
With all this iPhone 5 talk crowding headlines, we couldn't help but put our own design spin on the popular topic. Did you know that Apple has released the official design schematics for the iPhone 5? These blueprints provide every detail and measurement needed for cases, connectors, and other iPhone 5 related accessories. For manufactors, this means the process of selling new and innovative cases has begun. For designers, this means the process of sketching and submitting colorful ideas to companies like CaseMate is now! Want to get your graphics on the phones of thousands? Here is your chance. Hop on the bandwagon before everybody else weighs it down.
Sep 7, 2012
The Invisible Bicycle Helmet | Fredrik Gertten from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.
“If people say it’s impossible we have to prove them wrong.”
Design students Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin took on a giant challenge as an exam project. Something no one had done before. Something that most believed was "impossible." If they could swing it, they would become millionaires...
Aug 23, 2012
In our attempt to inform and educate our audience to the best our ability, we thought we would put some time aside for a little vocabulary lesson. Listed below you will find some basic terms that are commonly associated with graphic design. If you’re interested in pursing a career in design or just want to sound a little smarter at the next dinner party, these words are all MUST KNOWS:
Bevel: Commonly used in typography, bevels are shading and artificial shadows that emulate the appearance of a 3D letter or number. This is achieved by adding highlights and shadows to an object’s edges.
Copy: Also known as body, copy refers to the main text used in an image or presentation.
DPI (dots per inch): Simply put, DPI is the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch. It represents the resolution of an output device like a printer. The higher the DPI, the more pixels fit into each inch of the image and the better it will look.
Gamut: This term tends to confuse people. Gamut (or color modes) is basically a range of available colors. Each mode consists of a certain amount of colors. Another sense, less frequently used but not less correct, refers to the complete set of colors found within an image at a given time.
Ghosting: Also known as screening back, ghosting is when an image is made transparent so that the background shows through.
Gradient: A gradual transition of colors. It refers to a function in graphic software that allows a person to make an image contain a gradual change of colors (such as purple turning gradually into a blue). Think of a beautiful sky or even hair color.
Hickey: Hickeys happen when foreign matter like dust, blobs of ink or bits of paper make marks on a print piece. Love it or hate it, the word is pretty amazing!
Kerning: Used a lot in typography, kerning is the horizontal spacing between a pair of letters. Certain letter pairs need to be moved closer together or further apart to produce a pleasant result.
Render: A draft of a project or the appearance of the work at its current state.
Stock: If you hear the word stock, they are most likely referring to Stock Photography. Stock refers to a large selection of pre-taken photos. They are usual very general scenarios with a large variety of people and emotions shown. Illustrations and icons can be in stock as well.
Tracking: Commonly confused with Kerning, Tracking is the adjustment of space between a group of letters or entire blocks of text. A change in tracking can result in easier to read text.
Typeface: Simply a design or look of letters and numbers.
Wire frame: Commonly used by web designers, a wire frame is a basic layout without any added design elements. This frame is usually used to plan where navigation and content will sit on the final page.
Aug 21, 2012
I usually have a difficult time writing short entries for this blog. You see, the thrill of elaborating on exciting design topics is what gets me up in the morning. This week however, I finally have a reason to keep it short and sweet. Type Worship is the official blog of 8 Faces magazine and my newest obsession. "Featuring inspirational typography, beautiful lettering, reviews, interviews with leading designers, and exclusive content from the coveted bi-annual publication," this site will honestly take your breath away.
If you love design, if you care even a little about typography, or maybe you just appreciate quality websites... this is the perfect site for you. Stop what you are doing and go check it out at TypeWorship.com!
You can thank us later. :)
Aug 10, 2012
It has always been a desire of us here at Gimmie Graphics to educate you as much as we can through our blog. We don't just want to be an aggregate of information; we want to introduce you to new people, exciting news and fantastic articles that will better your business, your brand and yourself.
Big fans of graphicdesign.com, we came across a recent article that we couldn’t help but pass along. Social Media has changed the way we look at brands, interact with graphic design, and even getting jobs. Articles have been circulating for years now naming the multiple season why authors, advertising agencies and brands should use social media. But where are all the ones directed toward graphic designers. Matt Cannon, a Freelance Graphic Designer & Creative Director, interviews author Steve Nicholls about the importance of social media in a graphic designers world.
Looking for advice on how to better use social media? Interested in leveraging your talents to the best of their ability? Well, this is the PERFECT article for you! Click the Gimmie Advice title above to be directed straight to the article, or check it out here: The Importance of Social Media for Graphic Designers!
Aug 3, 2012
With the 2012 London Olympics dominating our lives, it only made sense that we focus this post on the fantastic Olympic Google Doodles being uploaded daily to the popular search engines main page. If you're an avid Googler, you've noticed that for each day of the Olympics Games they have altered the popular logo to include a new Olympic event. That got us thinking: What is the history of this unique logo change?
According to Google themselves, "In 1998, before the company was even incorporated, the concept of the doodle was born when Google founders Larry and Sergey played with the corporate logo to indicate their attendance at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. They placed a stick figure drawing behind the 2nd "o" in the word Google, and the revised logo was intended as a comical message to Google users that the founders were "out of office". While the first doodle was relatively simple, the idea of decorating the company logo to celebrate notable events was born.
Two years later, in 2000, Larry and Sergey asked current webmaster Dennis Hwang, an intern at the time, to produce a doodle for Bastille Day. It was so well received by our users that Dennis was appointed Google's chief doodler, and doodles started showing up more and more regularly on the Google homepage. In the beginning, the doodles mostly celebrated familiar holidays; nowadays, they highlight a wide array of events and anniversaries from the Birthday of John James Audubon to the Ice Cream Sundae.
Over time, the demand for doodles has risen in the US and internationally. Creating doodles is now the responsibility of a team of talented illlustrators (we call them doodlers) and engineers. For them, creating doodles has become a group effort to enliven the Google homepage and bring smiles to the faces of Google users around the world."
The Doodle team has created over 1,000 doodles for the companies homepages all round the world. A group of Googlers get together regularly to brainstorm and decide which events will be celebrated with a doodle. The ideas for the doodles come from numerous sources, including Googlers and Google users. The doodle selection process aims to celebrate interesting events and anniversaries that reflect Google's personality and love of innovation. There is a team of illustrators and engineers that are behind each and every doodle you see. Interesting, huh?!
Aug 1, 2012
Finding inspiration for personal design projects, particularly while living in the digital age, isn’t very difficult. You can google graphic design or design inspiration and find thousands of websites dedicated to inspiring creatives. However, even with the abundance of helpful information available, it rare that you find a site whose author showcases their own work, publishes their inspirations and educated the users at the same time. It has been my goal for months now to find aggregates of inspiration, and I think I have finally found three goodies that you all should check out!
Veerle is a design superstar. She lives and breathes the world of creativity and her website is a perfect reflection of that. She focuses intensely on inspiring and educating others, so don’t miss out on her Inspiration Steam.
RuggedFlair is a unique site that focuses on the male(ish) approach to crafting. A huge Gimmie Graphics fan, Sean Joseph shares his personal Inspiration Book on the site each week, taking the user on a visual adventure through his creative process. On this site you will find interesting color palates, beautiful people, intriguing designs, inspiring photographs, doodles, experiments, notes and whatever pops into his head.
Designspiration is a way to discover and share your design, architecture, photography and fashion inspiration. It reminds me slightly of Pinterest, but Designspiration is focused on creating the best and most fun to use resource for viewing design related inspiration. It’s goal is not only to help inspire you, but to also share great design around the world.
Jul 26, 2012
A company’s logo is the all important visual tool used to link their services or products to the public. This tool, used in a variety of mediums, is considered to be the most critical aspect of a companies brand. If designed successfully, consumers begin to link a specific color or design to the product itself. When searching the aisles of a supermarket or wandering a mall amlessly, a logo becomes of sign of comfort. Recognizable logos increase the likelyhood that a consumer will purchase a product. This is obvioulsy the main goal, so designing a fantastic logo is absoluetly critical. There are a million different characterists of a great logo, but today we are going to focus on color.
Working with its database of more than 1.2 million logos dating back to 1884, Emblemetric, a graphic design custom research organization, examines patterns in design over time and across industries, including those related to the births of new styles, deaths of old trends, color use, and geography. This Emblemetric Infographic showcases the logo's use of color and how they can be addressed in terms of particular industries. Colors obvioulsy represent and communicate very different emotions. Red evokes aggressiveness, passion, strength and vitality, while blue evokes authority, dignity, security and faithfulness. See why so many beverages would use red and insurance agencies blue?
Find below the rest of colors meanings, and be sure to check out this interesting Infographic. Did you learn anything? Have any questions? Gimmie Graphics has all the answers, just ask away!
Jul 20, 2012
In the present-day job market, having an online resume on LinkedIn has become about as important as having a resume at all. With the popularity of the interest and online communication, it was inevitable that a majority of business would begin to utilize this popular site for recruiting, hiring and vetting future employees.
Christine Medley, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Marywood University, recently wrote a fantastic feature article on GraphicDesign.com. The article highlights, much like the current resume trend, the importance for Graphic Designers to build and host online portfolios.
Outlining which platforms to choose from, questions to ask yourself, details on Content Management Systems and must have features, Medley makes sure you that you walk away feeling confident about starting your own portfolio.
Check out the article and remember that this portfolio is as important as the work itself, make it your own and show them exactly who you are.
Jul 16, 2012
Thinking outside of the box in this business is the name of the game. If you can outthink or reinvent basic ideas, you become apart of something way bigger than the message itself. Viral successes for example come only when the consumer is surprised enough to want to share the story. Think about every big idea you’ve heard in the last decade. They push the boundaries, take you by surprise or simply combine two great mediums in an interesting way.
Take a look at German ad agency Kolle Rebbe's edible cookbook for inspiration. They took promotional advertising to an entirely new level by combining cooking, great design and an incredibly innovative idea. This is thinking outside the box.
Jun 20, 2012
If you follow Gimmie Graphics regularly, you know that we take our brand pretty seriously. Our Facebook, Twitter, website and blog help us define who we are and also aid us in strategically connecting with you. We’re consistent, active, responsive and honest; that’s Gimmie Graphics. Jacob Cass, a prolific graphic designer in New York City, spoke this past April at TEDxCMU about this exact subject. Though design is his passion and profession, social media got him out of some interesting life debacles and helped him define his personal brand. Hope you enjoy!
Jun 15, 2012
As part of a new Gimmie Graphics blog feature, we are going to give you the gift of knowledge. We get a lot of questions about graphic design, advertising and marketing, and what better way to answer them then in a detailed blog post.
The first feature is a Mood Board. A type of poster design that consists of images, text, and samples of objects, designers and other creatives use these boards to develop their design concepts and communicate their vision affectively to other members of the team. Mood boards are often used by the Design Director to enable a specific employee to illustrate visually the direction of style with which they hope to pursue. If a client is hoping to convey a specific voice or technique, a mood board helps to solidify that voice and force consistency among a team.
Creating mood boards in a digital form may be easier and quicker, especially for graphic designers, but physical objects often tend to have a higher impact on people because of the physical connection the mood boards offers. A lot of people believe graphic designers to be stuck behind a computer all day, and mood boards prove that notion to be completely false!
Mood Board by Sean Joseph Gallerani
Jun 12, 2012
Touch - In My New World from Molho Filmes on Vimeo.
If you had a chance to create a new world, what would it be?
Well, with the inmynewworld.com website you now have the opportunity to share your answer with the world. This site is offering the chance to have your video message aired on national television, and maybe, possiblly, the very idea could become a reality. The video above is enough inspiration to begin thinking - what kind of ideas do you have?!
Jun 7, 2012
Jim Williams is a senior lecturer at Staffordshire University in England. A typographer and graphic designer by trade, Williams spent a majority of his career passionately focused on advertising. Utilizing that very experience, he segwayed into teaching, compiling an excellent series of student handouts about typography that generated interest from designers and publishers alike. Looked at to most as a work of art itself, the handouts have now been published in book form as Type Matters. This book isn’t necessarily for the working professionals, but instead is an ideal read for the beginners. An introduction to the finer points of type, Type Matters was designed to offer basic instructions to amateurs by way of example.
Published this May, the book is gaining popularity and well worth our recommendation to you.
May 30, 2012
In the advertising industry a ‘pitch’ is the all-important meeting/presentation that essentially defines the future relationship between the client and the agency. Trying to win the business to represent a product isn’t easy, and some agencies prepare weeks to refine that perfect introduction. Pitches in general are feared by most advertisers, and if you’ve made it even a few years in the business, you have stories to tell. Whether it’s an unexpected victory or a colossal fail that blew up in your face, Gimmie Graphics wants to hear about it. Inspired by the new AMC show, ‘The Pitch,’ we’re in the process of designing some fantastic illustrations and we want your story to be the star.
Send over your fascinating story to hello@gimmiegraphics.com or write them directly on our Facebook page. We’ll narrow down the best options and let you help decide which story we should turn into an illustration and show the world! Tune in and watch ‘The Pitch’ this Sunday night at 11:00pm for a chance to see Ashley Cromwell, the founder of Gimmie Graphics, hard at work with the amazing team at Womenkind. Like the stories we hope to get from you, this Pitch is one we will never forget.
May 25, 2012
Being good is simply not good enough. To become great you must change what you do well so that you can take the chances to become what your potential promises to grow beyond. - Qridget
