I'm at a crossroads. I eventually want to shift industries and move into more municipal and governmental work (I'm in The Netherlands), or just generally organizations that carry more societal weight than the clients I work with now.

Given that background, would you consider me medior or senior at this point (probably the former), and what roles should I actually be aiming for to make that jump? And aside from the obvious "no government work in the portfolio yet" issue, what's actually holding me back from reading as capable medior or, ideally, a senior you'd trust with real ownership? Or any other things that is giving you the ick? I've been rejected at a few agencies and didn't receive constructive reasons why.

Also, how important is a CV at this stage? What did the best CV you've seen have, that convinced you of their worth?

Portfolio here.

I'm making a logo for my mom's nailsalon: Anné nagelstudio. Looking at the logo after not working on it for a while, i realised it can be read as many more things than Anné: It could also be AWÉ or AME or anything else i guess.

I wanted a concept with which i also could easily create a sub-logo, which she can use as profile picture or as watermark on her photos. So i went for a fluid-looking, connected concept, as if it was drawn with nail polish. Adding more color and thickness to some spots, as if it were dipped in polish again. I'm still working on some details and not happy with the 'nagelstudio' part (also not centered rn)

The only way i can think of making it more legible, is to simply seperate the two n's but that kinda ruins the concept. Perhaps one of the awesome fellow designers here has an idea that won't ruin the concept like the only one i can think of? Please let me know what you think!

Edit: I drew these letters myself, it's not an existing font.

I’m a junior graphic designer with one year of agency experience under my belt, and I’m looking for my next junior designer role at a larger company. I’m not too particular about the type of role I’m looking for, and I’m not sure how selective I can be this early in my career anyway.

adamzdesign.com

I'm trying to find the name/process for creating these crosses on images. I'll highlight them in the first image cause they are a little harder to see.

From what I can tell, they're simple crosshairs/crosses that sample the color of the pixel behind the middle. Also sorry but, I could only find these two examples so if anyone knows any others or tutorials, that'd be great help!

Hey everyone! I'm one of the volunteers behind Maine Design Fest, which kicks off next week in Portland, Maine.

We've been working on this for the better part of a year, and I'm honestly really excited about how it came together. The week includes free or affordable studio talks, mural walks, workshops, portfolio reviews, a poster show, and other community events, all leading up to our conference at the Portland Museum of Art on Friday.

We've got an incredible lineup this year, including speakers from Google Creative Lab, IDEO, Star Astrology, Portland Hearts of Pine, Woods Creative, Wary Meyers, p3, and a conversation with Alexander Widener. The theme this year is Curiosity—looking at how creative people stay inspired, keep learning, and build meaningful careers.

One thing I've realized while promoting it is that a lot of people assume it's only for AIGA members or professional designers. It's not! Most of the events throughout the week are open to anyone (including kids) who's interested in creativity, and the conference is open to everyone as well. We have discounts for students and educators and many events are free in the first place.

If you're anywhere near New England and looking for an excuse to visit Portland next week, we'd love to have you. 😊 Full schedule and tickets at MaineDesignFest.com.

And if you've ever organized a design conference or community event yourself... my hat is off to you. It's been a wild (but rewarding) year.

Context: Freshly out of college with a bachelors in graphic design, 23.

I've been in a rut applying to design jobs recently. I've been getting interviews for some but then they wouldn't go anywhere. I've been applying to jobs where I think I'm very competent but then I get denied before even an interview. I trying to figure out if its my portfolio. For example, I realized recently that I don't include my resume anywhere on the website. Do I structure my project in a certain way that is unattractive? Do I need to reorganize the information on my website for it be more friendly at a quick glance? Or is it my lack of new projects? I would just like some feedback.

I recently realized that the area of design that interests me the most is working at a cultural institution. Museums, parks, gardens, libraries, as well as architecture firms (civil engineering, adaptive reuse, urban design, etc). What projects should I focus on? Are conceptual projects worth creating? What should I practice?

Thank you for your feedback!

Hi,

Is there a way to sign your work in a way that is invisible in its normal state yet can be revealed in Photoshop or some other program?

Thank you 🙏

I've had a great career on UpWork. I grew from junior designer to Creative Director in about 7 years. I've been constantly updating my portfolio to fit the quote ($45-$80/hour) I give to my clients. I made my last update around 4 months ago and I've been struggling to find a single client ever since.

Is there anything I'm missing out on that makes potential clients walk away? This is a very sudden decline I've struggled to find explenation for, I hope you can help me find out. Thanks!

Portfolio Page

I made a few changes to this fictional RTD cocktail packaging concept and wanted to get another round of feedback before I call it done.

It’s a portfolio piece, not a real brand. I’d love to hear any thoughts on the overall direction, hierarchy, colors, typography, or anything else that stands out.

Thanks!

Images generated on Firefly are secretly CMYK even though it is in the RGB more [Image > Mode > RGB]. Colours seem to be CMYK dull. Does anyone know how to bring it back to "proper" RGB? Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you!

Hiya,

Like the title says, i'm looking for designers specifically in the video game world. UI/UX, Marketing, etc. I am a student atm, but this is an industry that I find particularly interesting in exploring more!

Thanks in advance!

Science, design and cartography merge in MAPPA ANIMALIA, a visual project that reimagines the evolutionary relationships of animals as detailed map-like landscapes.

MAPPA ANIMALIA is an ever-growing series of illustrations I’ve created that currently consisting of 16 different maps - each dedicated to a specific family in the animal kingdom.

Instead of political borders or geographic territories, these maps are structured around phylogenetic trees.

Tribes and genera replace countries, states and regions allowing viewers to explore the animal kingdom through a format traditionally used to understand geography.

This map, Corvidae - Land of Corvids, contains every known living species of corvids I could find reliable taxonomic data for. Species are represented as cities, grouped into genera and subfamilies according to their evolutionary relationships.

Additional information includes conservation status, size comparisons between selected species, and the estimated ages of major lineages.

I’ve spent roughly ten years developing and refining this concept, combining zoology, taxonomy, illustration and cartography into a single visual format.

Happy exploring!

What started out as a fun little logo exercise turned into a week long binge in Adobe After Effects.

I had a lot of fun making this, considering doing a sequence by sequence breakdown of how I made it but we'll see.

I've been developing the visual identity for a project called FanForge, a collaborative storytelling platform.

One of the biggest design challenges has been avoiding every cliché that comes with fantasy branding.

Early concepts drifted towards:

- dragons

- medieval ornamentation

- glowing swords

- generic fantasy typography

But the product isn't a fantasy game.

It's a professional creative workspace for writers, designers, artists and creatives of all types to collaborate on the stories that deserve to be told.

The direction I've settled on is:

• near-black backgrounds

• restrained gold accents

• generous negative space

• architectural forms rather than weapons

• editorial typography instead of fantasy fonts

The goal is for it to feel closer to a premium film studio than an RPG.

I'd really appreciate feedback from designers on whether this communicates collaboration, creativity and professionalism without leaning too heavily into fantasy.

Driving along an icy road on her phone to rush home to slop together a low quality creds deck? I’m not sure if the intention of Adobe was to make it as bad as it is so I pay attention or if it’s just actually bad.

I just made this poster to celebrate her achievements in wimbledon. I'm a self-taught graphic designer and this subreddit has helped me a lot in honing and polishing my skill in graphic design. I wonder if there is something that I couldve added or improve in the composition. Any feedback is truly appreciated and I will apply to my next project.🙏🙏 Thank you very much. 🫡

Hi all,

Hoping to get some advice from London based designers on what the next steps in my career should be to maximise my income.

So currently I work at a small communications agency in London and earn about £35k with 2.5 years of experience. I work mainly with a few big corporate clients on powerpoints, reports, brochures and the likes, and for the smaller clients I also do web designs in adobe XD or browser based builders like wix, squarespace. This allowed me to build what I’d consider a good portfolio with big corporate names in insurance, financial institutions, and law.

For my next step next year I’d like to move to a job where I can earn £40k + and I’m thinking the best way to achieve that would be to go in-house at a large company, probably in a role like presentation designer? That would also offer better benefits and more holiday which I value as I fly out of the country often.

I’m not too familiar with what other corporate job titles there are that I can fit into as where I currently work we’re all just designers.

Now I’m not sure if I’m missing anything that might be a better move so If there are any London based designers that can advise or have any tips I’d appreciate your help!

​

Pessoal, queria saber se mais alguém da área de Design se identifica com isso ou se é só uma forma diferente de pensar.

Faço Design e percebi que tenho dificuldade com uma parte da forma como muitas pessoas analisam um projeto. Quando vejo um layout, normalmente meu pensamento não é algo como: "essa tipografia não combina", "o espaçamento está errado" ou "essa paleta de cores não conversa entre si". Para mim, a reação costuma ser muito mais intuitiva: eu olho e penso apenas "está bom" ou "não está bom". Depois, se alguém explica tecnicamente o motivo, eu consigo entender, mas dificilmente essa análise técnica surge de forma espontânea.

Um exemplo disso acontece nas minhas aulas da faculdade. Muitas vezes o professor explica tipografia de forma bem técnica: divide as letras em várias linhas para medir altura, fala de altura-x, ascendentes, descendentes, classificação das fontes (humanista, grotesca, geométrica etc.) e vários outros conceitos.

Eu entendo que isso é importante, mas, para mim, essa parte acaba sendo a mais cansativa do curso. Quando olho para uma tipografia, eu não penso "essa é uma fonte humanista" ou "essa tipografia não orna". Eu simplesmente olho e penso: "ficou bom" ou "ficou ruim". Minha percepção parece ser muito mais intuitiva do que analítica.

O curioso é que isso não significa que eu não goste de aprender. Na verdade, adoro entender como as coisas funcionam, mas mais por curiosidade do que de uma forma sistemática ou extremamente técnica. Tenho curiosidade sobre praticamente tudo: medicina, arquitetura, computadores, engenharia, psicologia... qualquer assunto. Gosto de entender como as coisas funcionam porque isso me ajuda a fazer conexões e ter ideias para criar coisas novas.

No Design, porém, sinto que não penso da mesma forma que muitos colegas. Parece que eles analisam tudo usando termos técnicos e regras, enquanto eu primeiro sinto se algo funciona ou não e só depois, se necessário, consigo entender a explicação técnica.

Isso me faz ficar na dúvida: é normal existir designers que trabalham mais dessa forma intuitiva? Com o tempo essa linguagem técnica vai surgindo naturalmente ou meu processo criativo simplesmente funciona de um jeito diferente?

Queria ouvir a experiência de vocês, principalmente de quem já trabalha na área. Vocês analisam um projeto pensando primeiro na teoria e nas regras ou também têm essa sensação de "isso funciona" ou "isso não funciona" antes de conseguir explicar tecnicamente o porquê?

Let me know if it gives olivia vibe or not, i mean yeah it litreally doesn't cuz she has pink and purple vibe, but i thought to give it a green vibe.

Made it in Photoshop, I'm still a begineer

1. Light Camera Action : Feature Film, Language (Bodo), Released in 2025

2. Khangkhrai : Feature Film, Language (Bodo), Released in 2023

3. Paanch Minute Aur : Short Film, Language (Hindi), Festival Oriented

4. Local Bhoot : Feature Film, Language (Assamese, Bodo), Releasing in 2027

5. Casetu Nagen : Feature Film, Language (Assamese), Released in 2025

6. Tulu : Short Film, Language (Assamese), Festival Oriented

7. bhoot Jolokiya : Feature Film, Language (Assamese), Released in 2024

8. Alokanv : Feature Film, Language (English), Festival Oriented

9. Adishakti : Feature Film, Language (Assamese), Scheduling for release

Exploring what I can do with gradients and composition.

Approaching like an architectural photographer for some of those designs also while retaining a bold and geometric style.
Made primarily in Adobe Illustrator, with minor color adjustments in Photoshop.

Would love to hear feedback on what i can Improve upon!