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Joshua Johnson

Joshua Johnson

Equal parts editor, writer, designer, and photographer. Hit me up on Twitter, or check out my photos.

Business / 6 Dec 2010

12 Brilliant Direct Marketing Pieces You Have to See

Direct marketing is all about connecting with customers in a real way. To accomplish this effectively, you often have to come up with some crazy unique and inventive ideas. The next time you’re in a meeting where people are ideating about direct marketing ideas, use these as inspiration to wow the group!

All of the examples below are from Ads Of the World, an excellent online source for all kinds of real and conceptual advertising and marketing examples. This is a truly invaluable inspirational resource for anyone involved with printed marketing deisgn.

Business / 3 Dec 2010

5 Ideas for Earning Money Beyond Web Design

Freelancing is an interesting profession. The flow of work is referred to by many as “feast and famine,” meaning that you can generally expect periods of complete overload followed by extended periods of little to no work at all.

With much of the world still attempting to rally from a global economic crisis, many freelancers have taken a serious hit or have even been forced to give up their ventures altogether. Today we’ll go over a few ideas for opening up your horizons and finding sources of income outside of web design.

Graphics / 2 Dec 2010

Design a Rockin’ Band Website

Earlier this year, we put out an article outlining 5 Reasons Band Websites Suck. Today we’re going to follow up that post by creating a band web page design that steers clear of the problems encountered by most sites in this category.

We’ll create the mockup in Photoshop and learn about a few features as well as some solid design theory along the way. Let’s get started!

Business / 26 Nov 2010

Building Your First Professional Portfolio: Thoughts and Considerations

After graduating from college, how you present yourself to the job market can have a huge impact on your future career. If you’re sending potential employers to a portfolio website, you want to make doubly sure that you’re putting your best foot forward.

Today we’ll be looking at a real portfolio site and trying to see how we can improve upon not so much the design but the strategy in place to leverage the resource. You can use these lessons to analyze your own portfolio site and gauge whether or not you need to make any changes.

Business / 25 Nov 2010

20 Outstanding Tools to Maximize Your Time

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I’m off stuffing my face with copious amounts of poultry and mashed potatoes but I planned ahead so that you don’t have to miss out on your daily dose of Design Shack!

If you’re like me, the holidays drastically cut in to your work time. You don’t get the luxury of having less to do, only less time to do it! If this sounds like you, check out the 20 amazing tools below to help maximize your time. Dedicating yourself to using just a few of these will boost your productivity levels to an all-time high.

HTML / 24 Nov 2010

How to Build a Website With Adobe Project Rome

Adobe recently launched a project called Rome that is meant to be a sort of all-in-one content publishing platform. You can use this innovative application to build websites, print projects, interactive PDFs and more.

Today I’ll give you a super basic beginner’s introduction to Rome so you can see what it is, how to use it and whether or not it’s right for you.

Graphics / 19 Nov 2010

How to Revive an Outdated Design

Today we’re going to examine a real-world issue that frequently faces designers. Updating and old design can be a daunting task, whether it’s your own or someone else’s. Once you see a design presented in a certain way, it’s hard to break out of that mental box, even if you don’t like the original.

The article below will tackle a number of touch issues for designers. We’ll be dealing with outdated graphics, readability on a dark background, information overload, working with textures and more. Keep reading to see how we tackle these problems.

Typography / 18 Nov 2010

Ode to Ampersand: 30+ Inspiring Images of Our Favorite Character

Did you know that the ampersand comes from the phrase “and per se and?” Or that it originated around 1st century AD as a combination of the Roman cursive letters E and T? Even more interesting than its history and origin is its fantastic shape, which designers are constantly using as a muse for a new piece of typographical art.

Below you’ll find over thirty excellent inspirational images that feature ampersands as a primary element. Looking through these will help you learn to take advantage of what is arguably the most attractive character on your keyboard.

Graphics / 17 Nov 2010

Design and Mail a Custom Postcard Without Leaving Your Desk

Have you ever browsed through the postcards at your local grocery store and nearly gagged at the horrible design or cheesy photography adorning everything on the rack?

Fear not, the world need not live with poor postcard designs. Today we’ll walk through the process of designing and sending your own. You won’t even need a stamp!

Competitions / 15 Nov 2010

Winners Announced: Win 250 Free Business Cards From Inkd

Congratulations to Andy M and Harryplusk, you’ve each won 250 free business cards from Inkd.com! You’ll be receiving emails shortly with more information on how to claim your prize. Thanks to all who entered, be sure to stay tuned for more giveaways and awesome design content.

We’ve partnered with Inkd.com to bring you some awesome free stuff! Two lucky winners will receive a 250 card pack of printed business cards. Read on for more details!

Graphics / 12 Nov 2010

Unlikely Inspiration: A Sushi Menu From Norman Rockwell?

Today I’ll attempt to demonstrate one way (of many) that you can use inspiration to create your own truly unique designs. This method allows designers to maintain integrity while still getting a little creativity boost when they need it.

To find our catalyst we’ll travel outside the world of commercial design into the world of art. Want to see how you can use Norman Rockwell to create an interesting design for a sushi restaurant? Read on!

CSS / 11 Nov 2010

Holiday Wish List: 15 Web Design Books You’ll Want for Christmas

As the holidays quickly approach so does the obligatory and awkward question always asked by friends and family: “What do you want for Christmas?” This year, rather than shrugging your shoulders, a gesture which always leads to you receiving ugly shirts that don’t fit, why not ask for something you’re actually interested in?

Below you’ll find 20 awesome web design and development books to add to your 2010 holiday wish list.