Intermediate

The Deeply Graphic Design Podcast is a fairly new show from The Deep End Design Studio.

Here is a quick interview I made with Wes McDowell, who leads the podcast.

CB: What prompted you to create this podcast?
I have always been a fan of the talk radio format, and over the last few years I have subscribed to a number of other design-themed podcasts that I really enjoyed. Over the past year, I have noticed that many of them have started going away. I don't know if its because they got too busy to keep putting them out, or if they just weren't getting enough listeners to justify spending the time doing it, but in either case, I thought that I could fill the void left by them. Also, I find myself giving design advice to others in person, or on forums, etc, so it seemed like a natural fit to start a podcast.

Here is a cool poster designed by Julian Hansen that helps you find the right typeface for your project. Click image for a high-res file.

Adobe® Creative Cloud™ is a creative hub where you can explore, create, publish, and share your work using Adobe Creative Suite® desktop applications, Adobe Touch Apps, and services together for a complete ideation-to-publishing experience. The vision of Adobe Creative Cloud is to turn previously difficult, disparate workflows into one intuitive, natural experience, allowing you to create freely and deliver ideas on any desktop, tablet, or handheld device.

2012 will be the year when most businesses will finally make the move to the cloud. Email, calendars, documents and other files will all reside in the cloud on services like Google Apps.

1. No need to maintain servers or hosting packages, thus everything becomes simpler and cheaper.
2. No need to update software or synchronise data on different devices, therefore less time spent on tech support and more time spent on design.
3. Significantly less spam, thus you not only save time with a leaner inbox you're also safer as you will get less malicious code in email.
4. Collaboration with you colleagues and clients is much easier in the cloud. You can share presentations with your client and they can annotate it live.
5. Most designers do a significant part of their non-design work on mobile devices, which works much better in the cloud. Tablets great work not only for presenting your work, but also to get stuff done while on the road.
6. Easier upgrades and downgrades of the system according to business needs. If you have to hire new team members you can get their accounts ready in minutes.
7. Less chance of losing data due to hardware failure or other disasters like fire or theft. Upload your graphics files to the cloud too, not just documents and presentations. Keep everything safe automatically with services like Insync for Google Apps, Dropbox and Carbonite.

Possible Downsides of the cloud

1. It is possible the cloud is not accessible at certain times, but so far Google and other cloud services demonstrated a very reliable service.
2. If there is no Internet connection, the system may stop working unless you enable offline mode in advance.
3. Theoretically the data in the cloud can be compromised, but the chance of this happening is very low.

Have you already made the switch to the cloud or are you planning to? What is your experience and do you have any advice designers should be aware of?

Our critique section here on creativebits is really popular thanks to you folks giving great advice every day to all the guys posting their logos for feedback. I wanted to take this platform further, so we created a new Critique section on our sister site Brands of the World. Check out BotW Logo Critique.

In addition to the ability to upload your work I added a couple of special features that are designed to help the process more effective. When posting your work there is a special section for the brief, so designers can explain the objectives. Once you get feedback you can post the next version of your logo and it's all kept together as variations on the same job helping everyone see the progress.

When commenting on the posted work you can give ratings in different vectors, such as Idea, Symbol, Typography and Colors and these show up together with your comment. If the poster of the critique likes a comment, he can mark it as useful and this generates points for the commenter.

All the ratings are averaged and shown next to the logo so the critique poster will be able to see what needs improvement and what areas are generally liked.

After posting your work you can also invite member to give you comments if they allowed this option in their profiles.

Hope you will like it and please let me know any bugs you find. Cheers!

Your business card says a lot about both you and your company. While boring, standard-size cards are the norm, using a unique design can help you make a lasting impression. Here are ten ideas you can implement to make your business cards stand out from the herd!

10) Spoof a Famous Logo. Why go with a boring font? In the example below, 'TedEx' is both memorable and slightly humorous. Using image manipulation software and some creativity, you can create your own custom logo spoof that potential clients are less likely to forget. To avoid legal trouble, spoof a company that has no overlapping clientele. This avoids the issue of misrepresentation.

In OS X 10.7 Lion by default the Library folder under your user is hidden in Finder to avoid new users accidentally deleting or modifying one of the files.

If you ever need to access the files you can do so by pressing and holding the Option (Alt) key and clicking the Go menu in Finder. You will find the Library folder there.

Dyslexia is a broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and spell.

The font Dyslexie is especially designed for people with dyslexia. When they use it, they make fewer errors whilst they are reading. It makes reading easier for them and it takes less effort. The Dyslexia font is used by several schools, universities, speech therapists and remedial teachers. Independent research undertaken by the University of Twente, proved that the Dyslexia font improves reading results.

The study at the University of Twente showed that people with dyslexia made fewer reading errors when they use the Dyslexie font compared to using standard font.

Learn more on Project Dyslexie.

Also, check out another special font called Ecofont for sustainable printing.

If you've ever signed up for a loyalty card, given in to your kid's plea for a brand, or used Foursquare or Facebook…you've been "brandwashed."

In a shocking insider-account called BRANDWASHED: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy (September 20, Crown Business), Martin Lindstrom, the New York Times bestselling author of Buyology, exposes the very latest and most sophisticated techniques that even the most trusted companies are using to learn everything about you-and get you to buy.

We all know the old saying, “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus”, but are the two sexes really that far apart when it comes to what online advertisements they both view?

Surprisingly, with only a few differentials, both sexes look at various online ads in the same manner, according to EyeTrackShop, creators of the world’s first eye tracking technology.

In a recent study conducted in Norway, EyeTrackShop enlisted 100 participants, over 2 days, using test ads from the H&M website, Reebok and Saab in hopes of finally answering, does gender play a significant role in the way consumers look at ads, packages and other stimuli.

Below, find EyeTrackShop’s visual attention patterns and visual fixation order for the H&M website test. You can draw your own conclusions.