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Graphic Design magazine

hatehereyes

hatehereyes

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 18, 2008
843
2
Moreno Valley, Ca
I'm just starting out in the graphic design/media arts field and am looking for ways to further my knowledge.

I've looked at a few different magazines that i would like to subscribe to but only want to subscribe to one.

Anyone have any advice on what magazine has the best information to offer out there?
I've looked at LAYERS and Before & After Magazine
 
Layers and B&A are not design magazines, they are software/tips+tricks magazines and are worthless. i would recommend

Print
STEP
Baseline

do NOT subscribe to

HOW
Commercial Arts
CMYK

Print or STEP are probably the best, but remember that with most graphic design magazines you are really seeing a narrow sample of what is going on in the design world RIGHT NOW so a lot of it is what is hip/cool/happening - but not necessarily good. you should really be looking at as many books as possible.
 
Graphic Design

I have planned to have a website for my company with specialized graphical effects. Can anyone suggest me how to find design firms in the internet?
 
You have no idea what you're talking about. These two magazines are not worthless. Layers Mag is great for point-and-click tutorials, but mostly eye-candy stuff. Before & After magazine is by far the best design magazine out there. Comm Arts showcases good-looking designs, Before & After teaches you how to make design decisions like picking colors and typefaces, etc. Go download their free PDF articles and tell me if you know of anyone else in the design industry that do what they do. If you want to learn the software, subscribe to Layers, or sign up to Lynda.com. If you want to look at nice designs that have no practical applications, subscribe to Comm Arts. If you want to learn how to design, you can't go wrong with Before & After.
shecky said:
Layers and B&A are not design magazines, they are software/tips+tricks magazines and are worthless. i would recommend

Print
STEP
Baseline

do NOT subscribe to

HOW
Commercial Arts
CMYK

Print or STEP are probably the best, but remember that with most graphic design magazines you are really seeing a narrow sample of what is going on in the design world RIGHT NOW so a lot of it is what is hip/cool/happening - but not necessarily good. you should really be looking at as many books as possible.
Click to expand...
 
Then explain to me what "good design" is? Using fancy filters and drop shadows? Yeah, sure. Again, if you can point me to a design magazine that teaches you "why to pick this typeface over that, here's how to cool a warm image, etc.", then I'll listen to you. Before & After teaches you how to be a great designer, and not how to copy someone else's work, or pick random colors out of the blue. They justify their design decisions, which is a skill that you need in order to sell your designs to a client.

Client: Hey Joe, why did you pick that color combination for my logo? Why a serif face? Why is it all caps? Why did you center it?

You: Well . . . because it looks good that way.

Not going to cut it.

Again, go download their free articles about picking typefaces and colors. If they're not teaching graphic design, then I don't know what graphic design is. And just so you know, they were the first ever desktop publishing company.
shecky said:
keep believing what you want, but if you think that b&a really "teaches design" then I assure you that you have got a lot to learn about what design is.
Click to expand...
 
Since you mentioned being new to the field, why not take a look at some tutorials aimed at new software? tv.adobe.com has great tutorials on how to use industry-standard software. I didn't see where you specifically mentioned design ideas versus software training, so this might help....
 
I think there is a lot of confusion on what design is. To me, design has nothing to do with producing...which is what B&A teaches. Design is about theory, it's about concept. That's why a magazine like print is such a good book. It goes into theory and concept more than it does on warming an image up.

I do disagree about HOW though. I love HOW, because it's not Print. It's a how to magazine, done from the concept and theory side. It's written pretty well, and usually has useful things in it. I also honestly like GDUSA. For being a free mag, it's got a lot of useful tips. They are more on the business side though and it's overly polluted with advertising. I.D. is a good magazine. From an advertsing side, i love Luerzer's Archive. CommArts is ok, kind of boring and WAY over rated. Grafik is a great one too, though very hard to come by in the US and crazy expensive. CMYK is alright too, just nothing great in it. Though in my opinion, subscribe to all of them, plus magazines that have nothing to do with design. Always good for inspiration.

-je
 
yes.... i like computer arts mag as well!

www.computerarts.co.uk

i like both the monthly computer arts as well as computer arts project which normally focus on a specific subject/topic of design

i also like web design magazine which is international based as well as australian
 
I have planned to have a website for my company with specialized graphic effects. Can anyone suggest how to find design firms on the internet?
 
Josephlee said:
I have planned to have a website for my company with specialized graphic effects. Can anyone suggest how to find design firms on the internet?
Click to expand...

There are many forums which talk about web designing but there are only limited firms which do graphic design on the net, so just search the design companies based on your requirements or just visit this page http://si-r-usdesign.com/.
 
I used to just love "Mac Design". Then they changed it to "Layers" and they specifically started focusing on Adobe programs.

Since then I have kind of stepped out of design and have not kept up with the latest. Mac Design was the best though.
 
My favorite magazine is Communication Arts, http://www.commarts.com/. They don't have tutorials but it's great to see what is going on in the industry. The annuals are absolute greatness! They have separate issues for the advertising, design, illustration, photography, and interactive annual.
 
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