Resources
The BIG Resource List
You know the feeling that you get when you’ve struck design resource gold? Some of the golden design nuggets that I’ve harvested over the years are here. It’s my way of saying “thanks” to all of those who helped me along the way. Perhaps some of these resources might help you too. This list is for creatives, designers, students, clients, business owners, educators, and mentors. I’ve broken them into categories, update the list occasionally. I’d love to learn your favorites too. If you find this page useful, keep this page bookmarked and share it with your friends!
Branding & Visual Identity
Design Education & Learning
Design Role Models
Podcasts
Books
Media
Design Tools
Assets
Production
Jobs & Community
Branding & Visual Identity
What is branding and identity?
There is a very big difference between brand, identity, and logo. Not quite sure? You can start here.
Successful branding and visual identity design is aligned with the brand at its core. It’s a tricky task, but there are a lot of great agencies, designers, and business people who have different processes and yield great results. Here’s a high level perspective of how it’s done.
How do I create a brand strategy?
There are many approaches for figuring out your strategy. This article is a great read and shares 16 Rules of Brand Strategy to get you started.
What is in a brand style guide?
That’s a loaded question, because depending on your brand, there might be some very specific visual identity components, terms of phrase, or items that might not be in another brand guide. But, here are some standards to get you started.
What kinds of logos are there?
While there are a range of definitions and approaches to logo types, there are 7+ types of logos that all logos are made from—check out this article. And this article claims there are 9 types of logos.
How do I find a name for a brand?
This is no easy task! If you’re stuck or curious, the Spotify blog shares some great tips and resources for naming.
Design Education & Learning
Chris Do of The Futur is an amazing design leader and educator (one of my personal favorite design heroes). He has great tools on TheFutur.com, in addition to an insightful design Podcast that focuses on the business of design.
Super Hi is an online code, design and project management tool. They offer an unlimited membership to all of their courses. They also offer several great beginners guides.
Short for American Institute of Graphic Artists, you can join your local chapter, or check out all of the national happenings. They have a great design educators resource section and student resources.
Adobe Max used to be in person (at a hefty ticket price). It was brought to virtual space in 2020. Featuring a wide range of celebrity speakers, and informational technical workshops, it is a ‘must go’!
Skillshare has many wonderful courses and classes created by professionals. If you want to pick up a new skill, or have a little fun learning about design, illustration, and other artful creative practices, sign up. Many are really affordable too!
Dribbble is not only an online creative community, but offers design workshops from some of the greats. Aaron Draplin hosted a great one on Zoom. I highly recommended you have a look.
Design Role Models
Her work is vibrant and filled with color and movement. Her use of color and flat, graphic, vector-like compositions are beautiful. Follow her on Instagram.
Damian Orellana is an illustrator with very graphic vibes, and his instagram feed is always a treat to see. Beautifully muted primary colorful palettes create a sense of approachable sophistication in his work.
Draplin is a Design Hero classic. His book Pretty Much Everything is a trove of thick lines and simple graphics. He’s hilarious, kind, smart, and you won’t forget his big beard, fun stories, and warm smile.
A thoughtful, kind, and incredibly talented handlettering designer who is famous for his beautifully imperfect and smartly formed handlettering.
Podcasts
Curious about the business of design? This is hands down my favorite design podcast. There are SO many useful, applicable conversations. Subscribe to it here. Below are a few all-time favorite episodes to get you started.
002: How to Start and Run a Design Business
030: The State of Design Education
036: Can you charge to diagnose?
038: How to Charge More for A Logo
060: Contagious Selling
072: Deep Dive: Client Communication
073: Deep Dive: Branding, Sales, and Creativity
079: Why Branding Matters
158: Chat with College Design Majors
A podcast about life’s little curiosities. I don’t have specific episodes to share because they’re all great, and we all have different interests. As they say, being interested makes you interesting!
Motivation, tips, and insights for small business owners and designers.
Design Matters with Debbie Millman
A Podcast about design and culture. Debbie is a desginer and expert interviewer—she is able to lead great conversations with designers, writers, artists, curators, musicians, and other creatives.
Podcast host, Shankar Vedantam (my favorite host!) discusses life questions, complex human problems through some of the best storytelling I’ve had the pleasure to listen to.
Tim Ferriss is an entrepreneur and investor. He wrote The 4-Hour Workweek, and Tools of Titans. Coined ‘the Oprah of radio’, he interviews some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, leaders, creatives, and visionaries.
Books
By Simon Sinek
If you’re a marketer or designer, Simon Sinek is a must follow strategist, and his books are great. You might also love his book Start With Why.
Win Without Pitching Manifesto
By Blair Ens
A short and incredibly practical 12-step guide for creatives to get business and win work in a way that benefits both the client and creative.
By Deepak Chopra
I stumbled upon this book in a cross-country solo trip, and it changed my life. It is a bit dense at points, but the wisdom and lessons shared here will help you become more understanding and accepting.
By Miguel Ruiz
This book shares the wisdom of ancient teachings and makes it applicable to our everyday lives. It gives us the tools we need to find joy, freedom, and happiness.
By Tony Hsieh
The late Hsieh and admired CEO of Zappos shares stories and lessons for creating a culture that elevates its employees and is committed to service, improving both work and life. A great read for current and aspiring leaders.
By Ray Dalio
Dalio founded one of history’s most successful banking investment firms, and shared his principles which can be applied to life and work. He is incredibly smart, driven, and while some of his advice is hard to come to terms with, it is a must-read.
Media
The Futur on Youtube
The Futur is my favorite. Their YT channel is filled with great branding videos, sales, and marketing tips.
Simon Sinek
Sinek’s infamous 2010 TED Talk influences brand and marketing strategy to this day. His YouTube channel is filled with great insights too.
Gary Hustwit Films
Most known for Helvetica, Hustwit has produced many great design films. Check out Objectified and Urbanized as well.
Abstract: The Art of Design
A Netflix Documentary that dives into how design influences every aspect of life.
GaryVee TV
Some may consider Gary Vaynerchuk polarizing, but his YouTube channel speaks for itself with more than 150 million views, focusing on entrepreneurship, social media, and crypto/NFT topics.
Adobe on YouTube
The official Adobe channel has a variety of creative videos and technical design ‘how tos’ for Adobe Creative Cloud applications.
Design Tools
Motion Design School
Want to learn After Effects? Motion design is one of the fastest growing fields, and it doesn’t hurt to have the chops to add motion to logos too. Motion Design School is the best online education you can get in learning all things Adobe After Effects in a very hands-on, applicable, and relevant way. (School of Motion is good too).
Adobe Help Center
If you’re a designer, you have the Creative Cloud and use its tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, XD, After Effects, Substance 3D, etc). If you want to learn about tools and how to do things in an app, visit Adobe Help Center. It has gotten exponentially better over the years and I refer to it often when sharing tools and tricks with students.
Miro
Miro is an awesome visualization app for remote collaboration in real time geared towards creatives. The tool has paid and free memberships, and they offer a free student membership as well. They have many brainstorming and mapping templates to get things rolling.
Figma
A great interface design, prototyping, and design systems tool. This tool is browser based so you can collaborate with others and preview work in real-time. It rivals Adobe XD, and allows the capability to design without the Creative Suite. Figma offers a free 30 day trial, and is free for students and educators.
Adobe Creative Cloud
If you’re a practicing designer or design student, an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription is an industry standard. Monthly fees for full Creative Cloud access are pricy (but worth it) for practicing designers. You can also pay for just one program a month. Educator and student fees offer a reasonable subscription.
Other Favorites
Astute Graphics (game-changing AI plugins)
Lorem Ipsum Generator (fun variations!)
Full Page Screen Capture (snap full web pages)
Procreate (ikyk; iPad/tablet art tool)
Cursor Pro (mouse highlighter)
Shopify (ecommerce site builder and logistics)
Squarespace (website builder)
Wordpress (website builder)
Glyphs (font maker/editor)
Slack (project management; stay connected)
Zoom (remote presentations, teaching, meetings)
Canva (social media content)
Assets
Production
Merchandise
Wizard Pins (pins)
Stickermule (stickers +)
Jukebox (stickers, biz cards +)
Oxford Pennant (pennant +)
Bella Canvas (clothing)
Delusion Mfg (hats)
Collateral
Moo (biz cards, collateral)
Newspaper Club (short run news)
Blurb (short run book)
Envelopes
Brand In Color (boxes)
Specialty Printing
Hodgins Engraving (foil, emboss)
The Pickle Ship (foil, emboss)
WNYBAC (letterpress)
Quality Bindery (bindery)
iprintfromhome (giclee)
Screenprinting
Atmosphere Printing (screen+)
Abaca Press (flatstock, tees)
Family Industries (flatstock)
Oddities (+ riso)
New Buffalo Shirt (tees)
Positive Approach (tees)
Environmental
VSP Graphics (environmental, OOH, vehicle)
Hadley Exhibits (environmental)
NAS Signs (store sign)
Packaging
Niagara Label (labels)
The Dieline (inspo)
Jobs & Community
Behance
Discover other creatives, inspirations, livestreams, and job opportunities. You can also post your own work and portfolio or profile.
Dribbble
A community for all designers. Workshops, inspiration, jobs. You can even find a graphic design salary guide here and search average salaries by area, expertise, and experience.
Creative Mornings
Face-to-face creative gatherings in your community. For all creative people.