Andrew Clemente, Creator of Devlounge.net

Andrew Clemente is an award-winning site designer / developer and creator of Devlounge.net, a well-known design and developer resource. Devlounge provides original content covering web design standard and usability. Most people that have been in design and development for 7 years are not in high school, but Andrew is. He is 17 years old. We had to talk with Andrew to find out how he founded a successful design resource site with a larger international following before he moved away from home.

Devlounge – Homepage

Q: Andrew, I recently heard that one of your “first-ever” design projects was when you created a site close to 7 years ago for your Little League team in 2000. Can you tell us a bit about the project? (How long did it take? Is the site still up? Was this when you first started thinking about design as a “career”)?

Andrew: The site (if you can call it that) was nothing amazing. I had created a Homestead account (free at the time) and laid out a site using a WYSIWYG editor and various images from around the web. At the time I was so young and I didn’t even think what I had just figured out would be worth something some day. I was really just a kid having fun.

The site is no longer up, as Homestead went the paid road Read the rest of this entry »

There are many things blogging can do for a web designer—it shows your knowledge and expertise in the field, it helps you make new contacts with other designers and developers and most importantly it will improve your own writing skills. I have made several contacts with other designers I admire because of my blogging and being able to bounce my designs off them is an added bonus. It’s always beneficial to get constructive criticism from fellow designers.

When it comes to business, good writing skills can help you in your career as a web designer/developer—especially when it comes to writing Request for Quotes and other client communications. Read the rest of this entry »

Ever considered a career as a comic-book artist? Most people who grew up incessantly doodling have at some time considered this the pipe dream job, but it is actually a viable professional industry into which graphic designers and illustrators often segue. Though the comic book illustrator was immortalized on film as moody, antisocial visionary Harvey Pekar in American Splendor, an article in this week’s Wall Street Journal delivers a less cinematic breakdown of the professional comic book artist’s life.

According to WSJ, the average pay rate per page is $100 to $300, though artists with industry clout can pull down as much as three times that amount. MORE

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From the NoD Sponsor:

Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design is an accredited online graphic and web design school offering design career preparation including Web Design Certificates, Graphic Design Certificates, Multimedia Arts Certificates.

There will come a time when a client hires you and they request a design that is less than “aesthetically pleasing.” Part of the business of web design is doing something you wouldn’t normally do. I have sites that I could include in my portfolio but choose not to because they’re poorly designed by request of the client and it’s my option to not show the site. Unfortunately, we can only guide a client so far but ultimately it comes down to doing what it is they want. Of course you have options—you could give the client their deposit back and say no thanks or you can suck it up and do what they want. Read the rest of this entry »

So we’d love to work with you. Pleasantries and ideas have been exchanged and all the job order stuff has been filled out (?cause we both need stuff in writing, even though we’re friends). You send me (can I just talk like it’s me you’ve chosen to work with? So much easier…) the story or the job brief and we settle on a sketch due date.

Then it’s my problem. I read everything over and let it marinate in my brain for a day or two, if the timeline allows, until small ideas start popping up. Below are a few of my very very loose sketches that I start with. (Note: you’ll never see these… you’ll find out why later in my story.)

Read Penelope’s previous post | Read Penelope’s next post

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From the NoD Sponsor:

Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design is an accredited online graphic and web design school offering design career preparation including Web Design Certificates, Graphic Design Certificates, Multimedia Arts Certificates.

The internet has changed the career landscape for graphic designers in innumerable ways, one of the most profound being the liberation of designers and the design industry from big creative hub cities. No longer do you need to live in a major center of design industry to make a name and career for yourself. With self-promotion and landing distance work made so much easier by the online portfolio, a physical presence in an office is less necessary than ever; designers are recognizing the advantages of having an “office” that requires no more than a laptop, a cell phone, and a steady stream of coffee.

MORE

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From the NoD Sponsor:

Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design is an accredited online graphic and web design school offering design career preparation including Web Design Certificates, Graphic Design Certificates, Multimedia Arts Certificates.

When I first started out in the business an older colleague advised me to “collect copies of any and everything that I was the least bit involved in”. I only took half of his advice, and at first I saved copies like mad but soon I was cherry-picking my favorite projects and leaving the rest to
collect dust in ad agency archives. Read the rest of this entry »

I am not scary. I promise.

I started off my career as a designer at an ad agency and I was a little intimidated by illustrators at first. (Should I admit that?) I guess it was mainly because I was so green, but I didn’t know the first thing about how to work with an illustrator, even though I was used to living with their work (in magazines, on tv, book covers, etc). So I waded into my first project with an illustrator very slowly… and luckily she was nice and walked me through it. (Thank you Sandra, wherever you are!)

So now that I have switched over to the other side, I’d like to speak for my fellow illustrators and say “Hello, I’m here to work with you.” WITH you. Like, collaboration and building on each other’s ideas. And it’s so much fun! (not scary)

I’m happy to be a guest blogger here on Notes on Design and I’d love to be that illustrator who walks you through it (if this is your first time). Here we go… Read the rest of this entry »

In the latest issue of Showroom (http://www.theshowroom.se/ ) Eric Block, the Managing Partner from design firm Duffy & Partners, tells us that design is the future.

“People don’t want to hear what you have to say, no matter how cleverly you say it or how slickly produced your story is. This includes anyone involved in a profession that’s about telling a story – particularly advertising.” The solution he says, is design. He mentions well designed products and brands such as Apple and BMW.

“All of them put design at the forefront. Good design influences everything they do. Design can make things clearer, simpler, personal – all things people want today. Put your money into the design of your product, not into elaborate stories about it no one wants to hear.”

I partly agree with this, nobody listens to a boring person – but, a pretty person with all the right gear won’t hold your attention very long either if it turns out that they have nothing interesting to say. Remember Bernbach “Just because your ad looks good is no insurance that it will get looked at. How many people do you know who are impeccably groomed… but dull?” The solution is not just to design better products – but to not be boring. Boring comes from telling stories nobody wants to hear. So while we hail design as the way forward, don’t forget to pat research and development on the back as well.

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From the NoD Sponsor:

Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design is an accredited online graphic and web design school offering design career preparation including Web Design Certificates, Graphic Design Certificates, Multimedia Arts Certificates.

One mustn’t forget though, that the consumer never really cares to make your brand famous, they want to make themselves famous. MTV style VIP-treatment prizes are a bigger hit than a few bucks and a chance to see their own ad on TV. Heck, put their name in the ad on TV, and I’ll promise you they’ll work harder to win. What wins though?

The best ad from a strategical standpoint, or the one with the popular vote? That’s a rhetorical question as the consumer doesn’t have any interested in keeping the brand alive for years to come.

I don’t think that user generated ads are the end-all solution to the problem of reaching consumers these days, nor will it die soon – like the jingle-contests, it will always be around in some way or another. Right now it’s having a hyped up field day because it is refreshingly unlike the big agency produced big ads for the big client, who have spent the past ten years creating ads for the greatest number of people with the least common denominator. User generated ads are actually oddly targeted, and that is why they succeed.

So we’re back to square one. Why is it so, that when the web can offer pinpoint targeting on specific consumers, agencies like to paint with the big brush still? It’s not shouting into a megaphone that will get you more customers, it’s leaning over at the right time and whispering the right thing in the right ear. Remember kids, advertising becomes information when in context.