Posts Tagged ‘how to’

The Creative Process

Posted on: November 9th, 2011 by Shaun Hensher 34 Comments

In the last couple of posts, we’ve been talking about how to be creative. In The Creative Mind, we covered the mindset required for creative production. In The Creative Space, we talked about how our surroundings can help us foster our creative thinking. Now let’s talk about the actual creative process.

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The Creative Space

Posted on: November 1st, 2011 by Shaun Hensher 14 Comments

Creativity Room

In the last article, The Creative Mind, we discussed the mental aspects of fostering creativity. This week, we pick up where we left off. If you haven’t read that article, I recommend checking it out.

Now that we’ve got ourselves acting like kids and thinking like crazy people, let’s talk about some of the external factors that help foster creative thinking.

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The Creative Mind

Posted on: October 27th, 2011 by Shaun Hensher 24 Comments

Creativity

It’s one of the coolest things that make us human. It’s what has allowed us to become what we have become. Creativity is the driving force of innovation. It’s what keeps us moving forward as a society. It’s also bloody hard. In a connected world of nearly 7 billion people, it’s sometimes easy to think that it’s all been done before. How can there possibly be any new ideas? Even if new ideas are possible, how the hell am I supposed to come up with them?

Well, it is possible, and while it’s never easy, with the right mindset and the right tools, it’s not as hard as it might seem. It can also be a lot of fun.

This is the first in a series of articles on the subject of developing and fostering creativity. I’ll be talking about what makes us creative and how we can foster our innate creative abilities. I will also share some processes that will help you unleash your creative potential. I hope you enjoy the series!

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How to Choose a Graphic Designer

Posted on: September 22nd, 2011 by Shaun Hensher 12 Comments


Finding a good graphic designer is not as easy as it might sound. There are a large number of people out there offering graphic design services, and the quality ranges dramatically from “oh-god-why-did-you-bother” to “holy-crap-on-a-stick-that’s-amazing”.

So how do you separate the pros from the folks who should probably just take up a different profession? There are a number of things that point to a graphic designer’s qualifications.
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What the Heck is Kerning?

Posted on: September 7th, 2011 by Shaun Hensher 8 Comments
Kerning grafitti

Image courtesy of Justin Henry / flickr

So, what is text kerning all about anyway? Well, before we answer that question, let’s talk about why typography even matters.

A thorough understanding of typography—the art and process of setting and arranging letter forms—is one of the primary things that sets the professional graphic designer apart from the less skilled practitioners of the graphic arts. To many, the fine details of quality typography may seem like minutia—unimportant details that nobody will ever notice. This could not be further from the truth. A careful consideration of typography, whether on a book cover, a storefront sign, a poster, or in the body text of a book, can make or break your image. Poor typography can lead to being seen as cheap, unprofessional, of  low-quality and disorganized. On the other hand, good typography can give you the appearance of being professional, elegant, organized, and of high quality. It may be finicky and a bit time consuming, but it’s a bit like sculpting. Anyone could rough out a basic statue of a man, but it took the careful hand and patient mind of Michelangelo to make David.
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