Connect Yourself
Staying connected with other creative professionals is pivotal for your creative and professional growth whether you’re in a permanent role or freelancing from a home office.
When you’re in an office situation it’s probable you can simply turn left or right to get an idea of whether you are on the right track or not. For a freelancer, it can be more difficult if you have limited contact with people other than your clients. I experienced this myself while working in Central Europe as a contractor, the only contact I had with other creative professionals was online. The good news is there are plenty of blogs and websites that will make sure you don’t become a creative hermit. So if you are working pretty autonomously and you know you need some other kind of creative input it's up to you to face facts, stand up out of your comfy office chair (or you could stay in your chair and do some searching online) and find some creative people you can share with.
Below I have listed some of my favourites and I can personally vouch for the quality of the content. Some of the links are useful for research, some for creative inspiration, some for advancing technical skills, and some I browse when I need to step away from a project to clear my head.
Please share the blogs and sites you find inspirational by adding them into the comments section, I’d love to add to the collection.
Inspiration and information browsing
Practical tools
helpx.adobe.com/au/creative-cloud/tutorials-explore.html Adobe software tutorials
design.tutsplus.com Software tutorials
www.copyright.org.au Understand your copyright limitations and rights.
color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/
blog.8faces.com The ultimate type appreciation site.
snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html#fg=FFFFFF,bg=006F4A This is a useful tool for testing colour accessibility by inputting hex values and checking WCAG fields are compliant.
Professional development
www.forbes.com Be warned, this site contains information on a ridiculously broad range of topics. It helps to have something you are looking for, start by typing ‘graphic design’ into the search field.
bookofbadarguments.com A beautifully illustrated guide demonstrating important interpersonal responses.
Web design
alistapart.com This site has it all regarding web design, it's smartly written and contains a broad range of material that would take years to read.
www.awwwards.com This site showcases inspirational award-winning websites.
webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/typographic-readability-and-legibility--webdesign-12211
Inspirational people and a sweet channel
www.davidairey.com/type-foundries/
www.youtube.com/user/PBSoffbook/featured
Some of my favourites
vimeo.com/60647216 Danny Cooke, The Making of John Mayer’s ‘Born & Raised’ Artwork
www.youtube.com/watch?v=weIQIthC3Ks PBS Offbook, How to be Creative
https://vimeo.com/63008759 Kirby Ferguson, Everything is a Remix
www.artofthetitle.com Film and TV title sequences
Illustration © Julia Nielson 2017. First published April 20, 2017.