Tag / adobe
Scott Belsky: How to Navigate the Messy Middle of a Creative Venture
The middle stretch of a journey is when the exciting moment of idea conception gives way to the long, slow, trying slog to the finish line. The promise of a fresh start is behind you, and the end far, far away. Volatility feels like the only constant. Each high—Yes! Champagne! $$$!—seems to be met by a heart-breaking low—Ouch! Rough! What happened?!
It’s this part of the journey where investor, entrepreneur, and co-founder of 99U and Behance, Scott Belsky, has directed his new book, The Messy Middle. Belsky’s insights are meant for people embarking on a creative project, whether they are founders, entrepreneurs, designers, or artists. The Messy Middle is a guidebook for navigating the time when you start to lose hope and become overwhelmed with self doubt.
Belsky, now Adobe’s Chief Product Officer, sat down with 99U to discuss what we misjudge about the middle part of a journey, the two most important characteristics for building something, and to share his lessons from The Messy Mid..
From Designer to Founder: Two Entrepreneurs Share Lessons From Building their Businesses
From Airbnb to Pinterest, more and more designers are launching and leading companies, and many are doing it without traditional business experience or backgrounds. Instead, they’re learning how to build a business while building their businesses. Two such entrepreneurs are Design Army co-founder Pum Lefebure and Jesse Genet, the CEO of product packaging company Lumi, who will share their experiences during an October 15 Adobe MAX session hosted by 99U.
Ahead of the panel, we’re reflecting on the lessons Lefebure and Genet have shared with us about becoming savvier entrepreneurs.
Don’t quit your day job too soon. Lefebure started Design Army with her husband Jake at their kitchen table with Lefebure also working her full-time job, so they could maintain their health insurance. Both regularly stayed up until 3 a.m. to get Design Army off the ground. They anticipated it would be two years before Design Army took off enough for Lefebure to leave her day job. It took four months. The tak..
Checklist for effective logo design
Satisfy your client and give them their money’s worth with this effective logo design checklistRockstar logo designer and overall great man, Aaron Draplin, has designed a ton of successful logos. Looking through his book, Pretty Much Everything, you’ll see all of the logos that Aaron has created from his initial sketches to full blown billboard spreads.
Whether it’s a humble logo for his friend’s hot dog stand or the audacious Nike Air Max 360 logo, Draplin has produced some fine logo designs. Each is an exercise in restraint, intent and efficiency.
Logos are powerful. They pack an emotional punch. A good logo can make you feel a sense of achievement or bitter to your stomach. It’s said that we see around 4000 to 10,000 advertisements a day so one can only guess how many logos we’re exposed to.
Paul Rand, the man behind such logo classics as IBM, ABC and Ford, believed that “the only mandate in logo design is that they be distinctive, memorable and clear.”
Thousands of logos are made b..
Wireframing Tools for Beginners
Wireframing is a key skill for UX design and often used to show layouts or visualize ideas to clients, stakeholders, and developers. Today’s wireframing programs can make it quicker and easier to develop these deliverable. Sketch, Figma, Codepen, Invision, Mindmeister, and many more are available and widely used.
It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of available design tools when creating your wireframes. I haven’t even mention Adobe, PowerPoint, and good old pen and paper. Sometimes a sketch on a piece of paper works just as well as presenting digital wireframes. As beginners, many UX professionals get caught up in software – Which ones are the best to use? What will look best on my resume for future jobs? The design stage, project requirements, and even the client or employer will influence which tool to use.
Wireframes range from low fidelity, with placeholders for elements, text, and media, to high fidelity versions that look, and may even function, like the finished ..
Free Adobe XD Icon Sets Made By Legendary Designers
(This is a sponsored article.) Our friends at Adobe unveiled a very special goodie at the Awwwards Conference in Berlin today. A goodie which is too good to miss: They asked three renowned designers to create exclusive free icon sets to use in Adobe XD. And, well, we are very happy to feature them here on Smashing Magazine, too. The icon kits were created by design legend Lance Wyman, award-winning design studio Anton & Irene, and the Swiss design group Büro Destruct.
A Comprehensive Guide To User Experience Design
(This is a sponsored article.) Having undertaken initial user research and analyzed your research findings, the next phase of the design process is to apply what you’ve learned by developing a series of designs to test your assumptions. In the fourth article in my series for Adobe XD, I’ll be focusing on the initial phase of the design process. Within this overall series of ten articles, this is the first of three that tie together the design process.
Live Stream From Awwwards Berlin 2018: Showcasing Trends In UX Design
Designing the best experience is a challenge, and every designer and developer has their own way of tackling it. But, well, no matter how different our approaches are, one thing is for sure: We can learn a lot from each other. To give you your dose of UX inspiration, we are happy to announce that our dear friends at Adobe, are streaming live from the Awwwards Conference which will take place in Berlin on February 8th and 9th.
Using Gradients In User Experience Design
(This is a sponsored article.) Color has the potential to make or break product. Today you’ll learn how to use gradients for a website in Adobe XD through a very useful tutorial. In the last Adobe XD release, radial gradients were added so that designers can easily create unique color effects by simulating a light source or applying a circular pattern. Designers can add, remove and manipulate color stops with the same intuitive interface as linear gradients.
UX in 2018: Content
In the first part of our UX in 2018 series, we explored trends that will change the priorities of developers and designers. Today, we look at what fills those designs and makes them work for users. Content has often been an afterthought in UX design, but in recent years it has taken a leading role in creating a great experience.
While nearing a graduate degree in user experience design, my professional specialty is content strategy. I have seen a rise in teams and projects using content design, structured content, or content-first approaches to ensure the development of content that can adapt to devices and new designs. Karen McGrane introduced up to COPE and adaptive content in 2012 and today Mike Atherton and Carrie Hane are teaching us about connected content. 2018 will be a year where content has a seat at the table from the beginning. It is the beginning of the end of content being an afterthought.
Two of the newest lead voices in content strategy, Scott Kubie and Andy Welfle, a..
A Comprehensive Guide To UX Research
(This is a sponsored article.) Before embarking upon the design phase of any project, it’s critical to undertake some research so that the decisions you make are undertaken from an informed position. In this third article of my series for Adobe XD, I’ll be focusing on the importance of undertaking user research. Your job title might not be “design researcher”, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t at the very least inform yourself of your users and their needs by undertaking at least some initial scoping research before you embark upon a project.