Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design is a regionally and nationally accredited leader in online education and has prepared art and design professionals since 1997. Schools include Sessions Online School of Design, Sessions Online School of Game Art, and Sessions Online School of Fine Art.

Notes on Design ( NoD ) and Notes on Game Dev ( NoGD ) are both publications of Sessions Online. They serve to inform the curriculum, faculty, and students of Sessions as well as a global base of approximately 40,000 subscribers.

By Brockett Horne

Design Goes All Conceptual

Beau Bergeron’s video (link via swissmiss)

I used to describe the objects I make as a graphic designer as “artifacts.” I really enjoyed the sound of it: verified and notarized with the word “fact” wedged right in there. And of course, it had connotations of being museum-worthy, since all museums are full of artifacts. In fact, I imagine the graphic design canon (of paper objects, mostly) displayed in well-lit gallery vitrines with labels underneath, for all to behold. But I believe the reason I most identified with the word “artifact” was because design both responds to and changes culture. And I still believe that. Firmly. (more…)

By Jean Perwin

You asked your legal, copyright, and trademark questions, and Jean has answered! All questions are culled from the comments section attached to the original ‘Ask Jean’ post. We invite you to ask more questions

Hi Jean,
I recently sold a package of CPA review materials to a private party. The package was from the year 2005 and I sold it for $500. It has been two weeks since the sale and now the private party is asking to return the package and that I refund his $500. He is threatening to take me to small claims court and file an ‘injunction’ if I do not refund the money. He is claiming that the package is “not what he was looking for”. Personally, I believe he may have just read/copied the pages that he needed, and now he wants his money back to get out of the deal. What recourse do I have if he files in small claims court?
Thank you!
Katie

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By Mike Weikert

Sipping coffee in the Birmingham Airport, I reflect on the past thirty-six hours in Alabama and my third time as an advisor to Project M. For those not familiar, Project M is an initiative founded by John Bielenberg whose purpose is to “inspire graphic designers, writers, photographers and other creative people that their work can have a positive and significant impact on the world.” Project M 2006 was in Baltimore, Maryland working with the community of East Baltimore, and 2007 in Hale County, Alabama working with the residents of Greensboro. (more…)

Image from Trollbäck designer Paul Schlacter’s short film.

When I was in second grade, my teacher once asked the class what our favorite activities were. Most of us came up with typical 8-year-old answers like playing, drawing or eating ice cream, but my best friend Ulle replied “sleeping”. I remember being completely befuddled by this. Sleeping was a state of nothing. How could that be her favorite thing to do? Now I realize that Ulle was just ahead of her time. With every passing year, I treasure sleep more and more. Now it is without question my favorite thing to do. And, to my great dismay, it also seems to be something I do less and less.
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By Mark Wieczorek

This month in Copenhagen, more than 55 international economists, including five Nobel Laureates, will assess more than 50 solutions and assemble a list of priorities for everyone involved in solving the world’s biggest challenges. Will a group of experts come up with a better answer than a handful of experts or a single expert? What about the influence of group think - the kind of collective decision making that led the Kennedy administration to the Bay of Pigs fiasco? Is there wisdom in crowds or are crowds as dangerous as the economists tell us? (more…)

The Beatles stamps by Johnson Banks

We all know how important it is to stay in touch with what’s new in design and we all know how hard it is to keep track of it all.That’s when I.D.’s Annual Design Review comes to the rescue. The magazine gives you a short cut to the most innovative design of 2007 in their 54th (that’s right, they’ve been around that long) Annual Design Review issue and real-life exhibition. The list features 130 outstanding examples of work in a variety of design categories, selected by prominent experts in the field. The current categories include consumer products, graphics, packaging, environments, furniture, equipment, concepts and interactive media. (more…)

By Justin Ahrens

Illustration by Justin Ahrens

This past June, I had the privilege of going back to speak at the HOW conference. My talk was entitled “Designer Sobriety: Life is crazy, so how do you balance life, joy, and great work?” My point was to share my thoughts on running your firm as life throws its inevitable ups and downs at you. I was excited about this topic because it’s on my mind daily, and it’s more fitting than ever for me right now. I’m running my second design firm, which is in its eighth year, soon to be nine. My studio is home to anywhere from seven to nine wonderful people, depending on how busy we are, and I’m also a dad of four. Our firm is now at the point where I can count on a certain amount of work flow, but recently some of my clients have slowed down significantly. Now, that little alarm is going off in my head signaling that I need to speed up the new-business horse a bit. (more…)

By Kate Andrews

Scanning the pages of GDi08, the graduate graphic design and illustration showcase from Brighton University (UK), I found a number of design projects that intelligently approach the world’s ecological crisis.

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By Mike Madaio

Mike,

Why do all of the coolest technologies have such major usability problems?! I’m pretty much an entry-level coder (HTML, some PHP), but I want to learn something higher-end like ActionScript (Flash coding) or Ajax. But then users seem to have such issues with Flash and Ajax. Which one should I focus on learning if I’m pretty concerned about usability?

Thanks!

Diane

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