Tonight's moral: Never Give Up. I made this one for myself tonight. The illustration of the bird and the frog is one I drew a while back for a client to use in her verbal presentations. She hands out the cards and says, "Remember, it ain't over til it's over!" I hope you look at this and chuckle too, remembering that no matter what you're facing, keep fighting and you can get through it. You can download it here. __ Smashing Magazine issued a challenge to designers for the new year, and I’m on board! I tried to decide what type of design I’d want to do and could stretch my boundaries as a designer. So in answer to this Challenge, I will be designing and posting a new Bookmark design each day on this blog. The Designs will link to a downloadable PDF that you can feel free to download, print out and share as desired.

Simple yet profound.

As you finish up your design today, take a moment and ask yourself:

"If I had another hour, another day, another week to work on this, what would I do differently?"

Then write that down. Is it possible to incorporate those ideas into your current design? If the deadline doesn't permit any additional changes, you might want to consider keeping these ideas on the back burner in case you need them for future concept updates and changes.

In today's deadline-driven society, we as designers must struggle to avoid falling into the "production" rut that can easily occur when we feel rushed or too busy.

Sit down, relax and think through your next assignment!

It always amazes me the beauty in simplicity. My designs often tend to be on the stylistic and simple side but tonight as I was approaching this design task ahead of me, I was tired. So rather than starting out to design something with a clear direction in mind I decided to simply use what photoshop offered me and began to play with it. You'll see in the background I used a dark blue gradient and layered a "ray" brush over it. Next I began to use the "thought" bubble custom shape in photoshop to represent clouds in various sizes and colors. Something was lacking— to finish off the design I added a yellow-orange butterfly, the perfect complimentary color for the blue-violet background. So there it is, simplicity in action. You can download it here. __ Smashing Magazine issued a challenge to designers for the new year, and I’m on board! I tried to decide what type of design I’d want to do and could stretch my boundaries as a designer. So in answer to this Challenge, I will be designing and posting a new Bookmark design each day on this blog. The Designs will link to a downloadable PDF that you can feel free to download, print out and share as desired.

Season Four is going to be Fall. Probably my favorite of all the seasons because of the bright colors associated with the season. Smashing Magazine issued a challenge to designers for the new year, and I'm on board! I tried to decide what type of design I'd want to do and could stretch my boundaries as a designer. So in answer to this Challenge, I will be designing and posting a new Bookmark design each day on this blog. The Designs will link to a downloadable PDF that you can feel free to download, print out and share as desired.

Here it is. Day 29. Enjoy! You can download it here. __ Smashing Magazine issued a challenge to designers for the new year, and I’m on board! I tried to decide what type of design I’d want to do and could stretch my boundaries as a designer. So in answer to this Challenge, I will be designing and posting a new Bookmark design each day on this blog. The Designs will link to a downloadable PDF that you can feel free to download, print out and share as desired.

I've talked a lot here about budget smart ways to 'fake' different techniques within your design. Today's #365 Days of Design Bookmark is a perfect example of that. Using a woodgrain texture for the background, I've added several wood cuts that include a soft inner shadow to give the illusion of being pressed into the wood. You can download it here. __ Smashing Magazine issued a challenge to designers for the new year, and I’m on board! I tried to decide what type of design I’d want to do and could stretch my boundaries as a designer. So in answer to this Challenge, I will be designing and posting a new Bookmark design each day on this blog. The Designs will link to a downloadable PDF that you can feel free to download, print out and share as desired.

Day 32! The second month of the design challenge begins. And tonight I needed "A Bright Idea".

Dum-de-dum . . . Ok, since I posted about posters tonight, I'm not going to do any fan fare. Day 13! Here's the bookmark for one of my clients (book available at www.LookingInsideOut.com)–Enjoy!

Here is tonight's design. It's just a fun Retro rocket design I did. Enjoy! Smashing Magazine issued a challenge to designers for the new year, and I’m on board! I tried to decide what type of design I’d want to do and could stretch my boundaries as a designer. So in answer to this Challenge, I will be designing and posting a new Bookmark design each day on this blog. The Designs will link to a downloadable file that you can feel free to download, print out and share as desired.

Have you ever really thought about pink flamingos? I mean REALLY? Now, I'm not talking about the ones at the zoo. I'm sure they serve a great purpose on Earth. I'm referring to the plastic ones that were very popular as yard ornaments and may still be in some parts of the South. But what do they do? Do they really ad to the aesthetics of a home or do they simply distract from the bricks and siding? I'm gonna let you answer that one yourself. But the same principle can be asked of your designs. Are the elements in your design actually ADDING to the look or are they distracting your audience from your message? Be aware of these pink flamingos. They may LOOK pretty, but if they aren't adding to your pieces then you're probably just adding useless pink flamingos. Be sure you think before you add. Remember that a simple design can be much more powerful than a yard full of ornaments. You can download your own Flamingo reminder, here. Smashing Magazine issued a challenge to designers for the new year, and I’m on board! I tried to decide what type of design I’d want to do and could stretch my boundaries as a designer. So in answer to this Challenge, I will be designing and posting a new Bookmark design each day on this blog. The Designs will link to a downloadable file that you can feel free to download, print out and share as desired.