Comic, Creature and Character Illustration: 4 Pro Tips

Dei G of Deisign is a master of comic design. A provider of unique character and creature designs for the entertainment industry, as well as a generator of character driven covers and promotional illustrations, Dei has won numerous awards and has produced work for Paramount Pictures, Stone Circles Pictures and ToonBox Entertainment, to name a few.

His work is captivating, his characters jumping off the page with a refreshing sense of life, movement and vitality.

Just how does Dei animate his illustrations so exceptionally? Here are some of his pro tips:

Want to create a customized rock and roll tee (minus the lengthy design hours)? We can help.

Life as a designer can be completely overwhelming. With projects constantly coming through, work piles up and never-ending revisions make for long days and late nights. It isn’t like we’re not completely thankful, but let’s be honest:

Sometimes we just need a break.

Thankfully, there is a little shortcut sent from heaven that lets us do our job while cutting our hours, saving us money and making us look like a rock star.

Introducing the t-shirt design pack.

On Developing a Dedicated Sales Team

One of the best part of our jobs here at Go Media is connecting with fellow creatives. Recently, Jeff Gapinski, Co-Founder and Creative Director at Huemor Design in Commack, New York, reached out us. Jeff had some great feedback about Drawn to Business, as well as some questions about developing a killer sales team.

We thought we’d share the exchange with all of you. Enjoy and please feel free to continue the conversation with us in the comments below!

Become a Master Typographer: How to Choose the Perfect Typeface

A critical question we often ask ourselves and know other designers contemplate when working on any given design is, “How do I choose a font?”

So many factors go into this decision, however thanks to the help of some friends, including Creative Director Michael Prewitt as well as Art Directors Craig Weiland and Harley Peddie, we’re here to share with you ways you can choose the perfect typeface for every project.

You’ll never buy big bolts the same way again

We had the opportunity to collaborate with the Umbrella Collective, providing planning, web design and front-end web development for BigBolts.com, the web’s first & only site for large-diameter bolts, screws, nuts, and washers and the first of a fastener family that, together, will form an online fastener purchasing destination!

It’s Here! Introducing the Technology Mockup Templates Pack

How to Make (and Save) Money as a Graphic Designer

One question we get asked with great frequency is simple, yet profound: “How do I make money as a graphic designer?”

Jeff did a fantastic post about this very topic in September of 2012 called, “Side Income Strategies for Designers.” Check it out. Awesome, creative tips there.

We thought we’d take a different slant on the post this time, with wisdom coming from Go Media President William Beachy’s book, Drawn to Business. While Jeff went into side strategies, we’ll discuss strategies directly related to your growing business.

If you haven’t been introduced yet to the greatness that is Drawn to Business, it’s a nuts and bolts guide to how Bill built Go Media from the ground up. In it Bill outlines a 15 year journey, including years of struggle and growing pains, all bringing him to create the best agency in Cleveland web design, custom branding and print.

If you haven’t picked it up yet, what are you waiting for? It unlocks all the mysteries of our success.

How Go Media makes their amazing mockup templates, Hamster Style!

Here at Go Media, we’re custom template creating machines.

Between our mockup sites Shirt Mockup and Mockup Everything, the mockup packs on our Arsenal and custom templates for clients, we’ve got our system down to a science.

Disclaimer: Creating these nicely organized and layered files, for ease of mockup, is far from easy.

Follow along with me as I create a custom template, from high resolution photograph, to clean and crisp PSD file.

20 Excellent Examples of Retro Logo Designs

The logo is the visual face of the company. It doesn’t just tell you the company’s name; it helps to give you an idea of the style, tone and personality of the brand behind it. The way in which a logo is designed can affect how the company is perceived – even on a very subtle level – and great designers can make use of that brilliantly.

I’ve always been impressed by logos that manage to create an elegant, stylish and retro look. A vintage style logo can be such a difficult style to pull off, and usually involves a tremendous amount of work around getting the typography just right. This is where hand-drawn scripts come in really well, as retro logos often make use of custom, hand-written lettering – or heavily adapted typefaces. Other elements that are common to retro logo designs include the use of textures to add a level of grain or noise to the artwork. Often, shapes such as ribbons and circles to create a badge effect can help to add a nostalgic air to a design.

65+ Free Textures for Designers: Vibrant, Gritty and Otherwise Great

How to Create Your Own Vector Pack – and sell it!

Go Media’s 100+ Must Have Design Resources

One of the top questions we’ve been asked recently is: “What tools, resources and programs do you use in your everyday lives over there at Go Media?”

Our creative studio here in Ohio City is filled with awesome, handy tools that keep us cranking out creativity, programs that keep us organized, and treats that keep our energy pumpin.’

Here’s a list of our favs.

Tutorial: The Making Of An Editorial Illustration with These Are Things

Flip through your favorite newspaper or magazine and you’re bound to find a lot more than just words on a page. Alongside many articles, you’ll find art that helps to illuminate key concepts from the text. These pieces are called editorial illustrations.

From tiny spot illustrations to multiple page spreads, these informative works of art are sprinkled throughout each issue. Political cartoons are a classic example of editorial illustrations, but today’s publications use the work of contemporary artists to visually interpret a wide range of topics.

As editorial illustrators, our job is to create an engaging visual that both supports and explains the accompanying text copy. A successful piece carefully balances the art director’s vision with our own ideas, all while clearly communicating the article’s core idea to the reader.

These projects an exercise in creative problem solving. From the super-quick turnaround to the varied subject matter, each assignment is a new visual puzzle for us to solve.

Today, we’re going show you how we created an editorial illustration for Southwest Airlines’ in-flight magazine, Spirit. We’ll walk you through the entire illustration process, from our first client conversation to seeing our work in print.

Stunning Album Artwork

I do a lot of website design work, but I often find that looking at different mediums can help to fuel my creativity a bit further. I find that looking at product packaging design, physical print design and posters can all help to improve how I look at and work on design for the web, and helps me to come at design decisions from a different angle. Album artwork is one of my favourite things to look at when I need to give my creativity a boost. There are so many different design directions that you can go in when crafting an album cover that it’s refreshing to see how different artists have done it.

Clients who want the logo bigger: FUNK YOU!

5 New WMC Fest 4 Speaker Videos Released

In the chill of the Cleveland winter, we’re riding on a wave of WMC Fest 4 Speaker videos to keep us warm. Hot chocolate cheers to the release of the next five! Speeches include the talents of Kern & Burn, Jacqui Oakley, Nick Disabato, Jon Contino and Grace Dobush.

Watch them here or for free on our vimeo channel!

Graphic Design Podcast: Welcome to the Go Media Podcast!

The Go Media podcast is dedicated to tips, tricks, and tales of the business-minded artist and designer. How can you be more profitable? More creatively fulfilled? It’s our way of letting you inside our studio to learn about the ups and downs we face here at Go Media and how we’re dealing with them.

Our podcast archives can also be found on Soundcloud!

An Open Letter to Design Students: Learn to Code (Part 1 of 2)

How to Charge For Your Graphic Design Work (& Get What You Deserve)

Earn Your Worth! To meet the author and learn more about pricing, contracts, collections and more, attend our design retreat: WMC: Off-The-Grid this October 5 -7th. For more information, head to wmcfest.com. Over the years, we’ve had so many designers…

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The Adventure of Art with Jon Burgerman

Jon Burgerman is not just an everyday artist. Armed with Amsterdam paints, Posca pens and Sharpies, Jon can be found at the spot where art and improvisation collide. On any given day, you can find Burgerman on the streets of New York City, doodling, drawing and delighting in art and life. Recent works including Hot Girls and Hot Dogs, Tumblr Girls, My Great Movie and Hungry Games, illustrate a sense of humor and talent as sprawling as his imagination.

I chatted with Burgerman, of whom I am a huge fan, about life, craft and the adventure of art.

Modern Gigposter Design: 100 Stunning Examples – Volume II

Two years ago we put out a post showcasing some of the best posters of the previous few years before that.

Today we are doing the same thing. This article contains 100 stunning posters made in the last two years.

This second collection highlights the trends and changing styles in the gigposter world. If you go back and compare the previous selection to the ones I have gathered today, there are some clear differences. Now I know that there are still posters that get produced in the same styles as they would have two or more years ago, but overall, as a scene, and as a group of designers and illustrators, you can see the evolution of the gigposter. It might not be a dramatic and sudden evolution that is crystal clear to everyone, but for the most part it is slowly and subtly changing. There are certain dynamics that have changed or appeared which you will be able to see if you go back over the years and see this evolution in play.

Handmade Love: Update

I received many kind words in regards to my recent post, Homemade Love, about my mother’s annual Christmas cards.

These cards were completed each and every Christmas beginning in 1972, the year she and my father were married, up until last year. This year, my father, brother, sister-in-law, nieces and nephew finished the Sakai family Christmas card on her behalf, as she, the glue to our family, passed unexpectedly on October 22nd.

Freebie: Mockup Everything Templates from your friends at Go Media

Hello Go Media Faithful!

I’m here with an early Christmas gift…some free mockup templates sponsored by the very best site for Realistic Mockups for Designers like yourself, Mockup Everything!

Just click the link following each photo and get to steppin’ my friends.

Build An Engaged Social Media Following Now: Tips for Designers

Entrepreneur and Marketing Connoisseur Kumar Arora knows social media like the back of his hand. Fellow Clevelander and start-up wonder for ventures including Rogue Eyewear, iLTHY, Black Rose Entertainment Management Group and ICTech Ltd., Arora has an impressive history in the field. A few things in Arora’s backpocket? Developing campaigns for Coca-cola, Verizon, Redbull, Live Nation, Puma as well as starting on grassroots and viral campaigns for performers like Machine Gun Kelly, Jay Sean, DJ E-V. He is no stranger to growing communities at a rapid-fire rate.

Arora has a few suggestions for designers, like himself, who yearn to gain a following too. In an age of #followme and #tagforlikes though, he reminds, “developing a community that cares is always better than having a group of people who don’t engage.”

Not only buying “likes” bad practice, but will also get you nowhere fast.