Today’s article is a subject I feel strongly about and part of the reason I started writing this blog. That’s why when Sarah Cowley approached me about sharing her first hand experience with teaching others about design, I was so excited to allow her to share it with all of you. For more great articles by Sara be sure to check out her new blog: Hello deer! I GOT SCHOOLED BY TEACHING Being the Principal and sole designer for Sara Cowley Design has been a wonderful experience, albeit challenging at times. I can say whole-heartedly that I love running my teeny-tiny, home-based agency, but it can get lonely. See, when I say teeny-tiny, I mean just little old me. Don’t... 

I am happy to share the sixth installment of the Amazing Websites series. Originally when I started this series, the main concept was to showcase sites that were well designed, interesting, and most importantly did not look “2.0ish.” Luckily for us all the common traits that were shared amongst the majority of web 2.0 sites has begun to fade. This was the easiest time for me the assemble a list of sites so far. That being said, I am left contemplating where this series will go from here? If you have any ideas for the future of the series or just want to remark about the included sites (try to be positive please) then lets hear it in the comments below. Davrok http://www.interiors.davroc.co.uk/ Tennessee Education http://edu.tnvacation.com/ Josh Smith http://www.joshsmith.ca/ Dual Ride http://www.dualride.com/ Study... 

The best career advice I’ve ever received came to me from a direct supervisor when I was in my first management position. I had been working for the organization for almost two years when I was promoted to lead a team of four. My manager pulled me aside at the end of what had been a very long, hectic day dealing with a challenging client. She said to me, “Tough day, huh?” I agreed and began to lament the trials and tribulations of my experience, assuming that was why she had approached me. PROJECTING THE APPROPRIATE MESSAGE To my surprise, she cut me short and let me know that she was sorry for the difficult situation I had faced, but more importantly she wanted to... 

I and I am sure that many other designers believe that there are a number of misconceptions surrounding exactly what being a creative entails. How many time have you heard “well you’re the creative, use your creativity.” It is funny how when a problem is really tough and no one seems to know how to solve it they call in the creatives. But what actually is creativity? CREATIVITY IS THE ABILITY TO THINK DIFFERENTLY In my opinion creativity is the ability to see past a problem, it is being able to assess a situation and see past conventional thought. Some people think that creativity lies within personal expression, and that artistic talent is a determinant. The truth... 

Today I received an email from one of the readers asking what would be the correct path to pursue a job in web development (including back-end programming). I originally started out on this track taking a number of computer science course, however I ultimately decided that I enjoyed design more and switched fields of study. Since I never completed this program, and I am not officially a developer I am hoping that the community can help answer this question: So I think I would like to go into web development as a career, what would you say are some valuable courses and degrees to get that would be most beneficial? How much will the degrees and courses vary upon what I want... 

I wanted to share with everyone this great conference that is coming to Chicago on October 7th and continues until the 8th. Personally I find it hard to justify attending conferences because of their steep prices, unless they are really niche based offerings that focus on one key area of design. The conference looks to be focused on topics that will actually reach a level of sophistication worth your investment, not to mention that the lineup of speakers is also very impressive. Just the short description on the IDEA 2008 Conference website shows that not only are the presenters aware of the challenges facing designers today, but in the near future as well. I am making plans... 

Lately my inbox has been filling up with questions and comments, no doubt a result of Positive Space’s continued rise in popularity. I love reading all the great comments the readers have given, however a common trend amongst the emails has developed. These have been questions from design students in regards to starting their careers or finding internships. Rather than just email the responses individually I thought that it would be worthwhile to share my answers in greater detail here. Because of this I have created this new series “Graphic Design Curriculum” which will seek to answer these questions and foster further communication and opinions from the readers. If... 

When I started Positive Space I may have been a bit naive, I thought that Adsense could result in some decent pocket change, if only I could get a couple hundred unique visitors a day. Boy was I wrong, but at that time I could really care less I was more interested in blogging for the sake of self-education and personal development. While my reasons for blogging haven’t changed much, my faith in online advertising has. The truth is that as an online publisher, you can expect horrible pay unless you really have a lot of time and resources. While it is possible to “optimize” your ad placements to obtain better results, what this really boils down to is making them extremely... 

Jason Santa Maria recently posted an interesting article about blog comments that I found intriguing and really had me thinking. In his article Jason explains a very common occurrence in which a blog article has received so many comments that new responses get lost in the clutter. The time necessary to read through such a large number of comments and then respond is so great that most people would rather not, or they might respond without reading. Jason has a devised a hypothetical solution, however I can’t help but draw a different solution. SUGGESTIONS FROM JASON’S ARTICLE/READERS Jason believes that periodic summary comments, which he is calling “milemarkers,”... 

I am happy to share with you all the insanely creative portfolios that I have been frequenting lately. This is another great grouping of work that continues to impress me. Aegir http://aegir.me/ AllofUs http://www.allofus.com/ Destill Florent Guerlain http://www.zukunft.fr/ Matt Judge http://www.designjudge.co.uk/ The Luxury of Protest http://theluxuryofprotest.com/ Matt W. Moore http://www.mwmgraphics.com/ Sid Lee http://www.sidlee.com/ Swear Words http://www.swearwords.com.au/  More →