e-Newsletters

Logos for 4 great design newsletters

Four sites with great content delivered regularly

Newsletter subscriptions are an invaluable design resource that achieve maximum output with the least amount of input. E-newsletters from art and graphic design websites provide a great service, in that they bring interesting content and helpful articles, tutorials, and ideas to your email without you having to lift a finger (well, practically effortless except for opening the email). Below are some of the websites I am subscribed to that may help you in your art and design career.■


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Three: The magic number for Color Resources

Navigating the world of color can be difficult at times. So many choices. So many directions to go. Here are three websites with applications and tools that can help you sort through the myriad of directions you could go when trying to decide the right scheme for a particular project.

image of Adobe Kuler main page

Adobe Kuler Interface

First up is Adobe Kuler, an excellent web application that lets you create palettes, choose palettes from their community, and has a handful of links that provide some good references to color usage. Second in the lineup is a site called Colour Lovers. Colour Lovers offers a wide array of methods to select colors, create / browse palettes, and  tools to help you along your chromatic journey.

Finally there is Pantone’s myPantone, a place where you can access Pantone’s various apps, help center, and color community. These sites represent a drop in the bucket, the tip of the iceberg of what’s out there to help you in your quest for perfect color schemes and immaculate color implementation. You could always go old school with one of the these if you don’t have one.■

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Designers Toolbox

Main page of Designers Toolbox

Don't be such a tool! Go use some.

Every designer who is working in the field knows that at one point or another they will forget the dimensions for a certain type of print project or quite possibly the correct HTML code for a particular symbol / glyph. With the wonders of the World Wide Web, we now have such wonderful little sites such as Designers Toolbox. Designers Toolbox provides an essential reference of printed and web document sizes, folding guides, binding styles, templates, dummy text generators and more. I keep it in my quick toolbar in my internet browser for a quick reference on projects when I’m not 100% sure I am using the correct method, format, etc. Give it a try!■

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