Comic Relief: Graphic Design Edition

Designing for Open Source

Let’s be honest. Most designers don’t like working for nothing. We rally against spec work and make a stand for contracts and getting paid. That’s totally what you should do as a professional designer in the industry. It’s your job. It’s your hard-working skill. It’s your bread and butter. Get paid.

However, I’m going to make a case for why you could also consider designing for open source. First, I should mention that not all open source work is free work. Some companies hire open source contributors to work on their projects full-time, usually because that project is used by said company. There are other companies that encourage open source contribution and even offer 20%-time for these projects (where you can spend one day a week contributing to open source). These are super rad situations to be in. However, whether you’re able to land a gig doing this type of work or you’ve decided to volunteer your time and energy, designing for open source can be rewarding in many other ways.

PORTFOLIO BUILDING

New designers often find themselves in a catch-22 situation: they don’t have enough work experience showcased in their portfolio, which leads to them not getting much work because their portfolio is bare. These new designers often turn to unsolicited redesigns to fill their portfolio. An unsolicited redesign is a proof of concept in which a designer attempts to redesign a popular website.

GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY

Going open source work also gives others a chance to look at the code that they may be having trouble with. This then turns into a learning experience that will help benefit other designers to gain a better understanding.

HOW TO GET STARTED

So are you stoked about getting into the open source community? That’s great!

Initially, you might get worried or uncomfortable in getting involved. That’s okay. But first consider that the project is open source for a reason. Your contribution (no matter how large or small) can help in a big way.

If you find a project you’re interested in helping, make sure you do your research. Sometimes project team members will be attached to their current design. Is there already a designer on the core team? Reach out to that designer first. Don’t be too aggressive with why you think your design is better than theirs. Rather, offer some constructive feedback and a proposal of what would make the design better. Chances are if the designer cares about the project, and you make a strong case, they’ll be up for it.

Are there contribution guidelines? It’s proper etiquette to read these and follow the community’s rules. You’ll have a better chance of getting your work accepted, and it shows that you take the time to care and add to the overall quality of the project. Does the project lack guidelines? Consider starting a draft for that before getting started in the design.

When contributing to open source, use your initiative to solve problems in a manageable way. Huge pull requests are hard to review and will often either get neglected or rejected. Work in small, modular, and iterative contributions.

Comic Relief pt 5

Japanese Barcodes

In today’s world barcodes have become universal, present in every product packaging used today. Bacodes are expanding being used to encode music, images, URLs, and emails. Barcodes encode data by using different widths and spacing of parallel lines. Japanese group Design Barcode has been creating custom barcodes since 2005. Asking themselves “Why has the barcode never changed?”, the group began innovating a process of integrating design elements into the barcode. Some of the designs the group came up with are below.

Design Exercises to get your Creative Juices Flowing

Like the human body, the creative mind should be exercised and trained daily or else it would get out of shape. Doing creative exercises will ensure that your brain remains sharp so you can keep doing your project effectively. A couple mini design projects that keep your creative juices flowing are Quote Typography, Sketching, Logo Design, and photo manipulation.

Mini typography design exercise

1. Choose a quote from the most recent movie/TV show you watched or the last book you’ve read.

2. Allot a specific amount of time, say thirty minutes, and see how many ways you can design a quote typography study within the timeframe.

3. Submit it to the respective fandom for profit.

Mini sketching exercise

1. Look for kindergarten monster doodles online.

2. Create your own version of the monster.

3. Use Photoshop to bring it to life.

Mini logo design exercise

1. Check crowdsourcing sites like Kickstarter for startup companies.

2. Use their company and project summary as a client brief and sketch as many logo concepts as you can.

3. State reasons how each logo could or couldn’t work.

Mini photo manipulation exercise

1. Subscribe to the Photoshop Battles subreddit. Here, users submit interesting photographs that you can manipulate to your heart’s content

2. Use your Photoshop skills to create the most hilarious pic you could think of.

3. Submit for that precious karma.

CANEZ EXPRESS Gas Station Logo Design

Here is a logo I did for my dad, who lives in Mexico.  He owns a gas station and wanted to re do his previous logo, which was very plain and not designed at all. The gas station is in a small border town of Mexico and the population is only like 5,000 to be giving. So in overall I didn’t want to design a over the top logo and make it seem like this gas station didn’t fit in with its surrounding. To me, that could possibly hurt is cliental. So I came up with this style of logo and colors to make everyone who lives there comfortable and when they notice the logo, its simple and easy to their eyes. It’s a slight and respectful upgrade to their business community. Basically the logo fits in with the town itself.

THE BACKROOM GOODS & CO. Logo Design Concept

This is a logo I did for a client that is starting a clothing company and he had the idea of calling it “the backroom”. The metaphor for the brand is that all the good stuff is always in the backroom no matter what kind of product it is. After doing some research on “the backroom” I found a lot of political people use the term for meetings and also the mob always had a backroom, whether it was for meetings, drugs/alcohol (prohibition), or for their goods that fell off the back of the truck. Overall the terms for the backroom had many varieties, but still maintained the same concept. I kept it simple with only using black and white. And I kept it a bold logo to stand out on its own. Overall I think I captured the look and feel of what the customer wanted and more. 

LOGO/BUSINESS CARD CONCEPT FOR RENEA'S SOL PREP: Meal prep Business

Here I have a logo design I did for a client that runs a food prep service for people who are on the go and need to maintain eating healthy at the same time. I wanted something bright and eye catching, easy to say, and something to run off the tongue smooth as you were explaining or telling someone about this business. I went with a rustic but fresh color choice for the logo and of course I wanted to imply the Hispanic culture with the logo while at the same time trying to appeal to all people, not just Hispanics.  Overall I think I accomplished what I intended to do and most importantly my client is happy with the end result.