Life
Imitating
Design

I graduated from the Alberta College of Art with a major in Painting. But don’t call me an artist.

When I’m not working as a graphic designer, I practise, write and record music. I play a number of instruments and enjoy making stuff that is a little off-centre and away from the mainstream. But don’t call me an artist.

Not while I’m at work!

Why? Because graphic design isn’t art. Let me tell you why. » Read the rest of this entry «

Looking your best and and presenting a professional appearance is easy. Here is how to do away with all that silly nonsense. » Read the rest of this entry «

When you need a copy of your logo, you probably have it in a folder somewhere on your hard drive. You might have a bunch of formats or different sizes. But what if you need a large version for a tradeshow or vehicle graphic? Is that little JPEG big enough?

What you need is a vector of your logo. A vector is not made up of dots, like a JPEG or other bitmap image. Instead, it is a file of data that recreates the logo at any size. You could literally enlarge your logo to the size of a blimp without losing resolution or quality.

If you don’t have your logo in a vector format, give me a call. Most logos can be recreated within a couple of days for a reasonable price. I’ll even create a kit of a variety of formats and sizes so that you won’t be stuck for the right logo ever again. You can even just hand over the entire disk or zipped file to the printer and let them take care of it for you.

Know someone whose logo could use a redraw? Let me know and you’ll get a surprise gift for the referral.

Call (403) 680 1968 to get your logo redrawn, or email contact@nburmandesign.com for more information.

Sometimes, you just have to use stock images. I know it’s not ideal, but budgets and time restraints are what they are. But if you find an image you really like, how can you be sure that it isn’t being used by everyone else? You don’t want your website or brochure to look like it uses stock images, you just want it to look good.

» Read the rest of this entry «

My wife and I like wine. We don’t have a cellar full, a winery with our name on it, or call ourselves connoisseurs, but we have found a few labels we like and have started a short list of favourite varietals.
» Read the rest of this entry «

As of December 1, 2011, Brandstack, the logo farm that sold clipart, is closing it’s virtual doors for good.

On their website, CEO Wes Wilson says it was because of credit card fraud – “it’s ripple effects have caused serious waves.”

KO in the Third Round.

Brandstack was only in business for three years, and to see an entrepreneur’s dream die is sad. But what is sadder is that there are designers caught in the middle of this who will not be paid for their work. I truly hope that this is the first time the creatives (the ones actually doing the work in this venture) got ripped off, as it’s the first time that always spurs one on to hone business skills and do better next time. Everyone gets ripped off at some point, but when it’s your business it’s like having wages taken out of your pocket. It devalues what you do.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Web design is a young industry. But like most things young, it’s growing rapidly. With each new full version of HTML (the language used for building websites) come more and more features and interactivity. The latest version, HTML 5, now offers animation, video and a host of features that makes a web designers job easier and pages load faster. » Read the rest of this entry «

If you want to give your brand some personality and broadcast your expertise to a busy audience, recording your own podcast is an often overlooked and easy-to-do medium.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Used with permission: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Allan_warren

When I took up the violin at the age of 12 I started listening to other violinists. There were two that stood out at the time – Yehudi Menuhin and Stephane Grappelli. Menuhin was master of the classical realm, while Grappelli had no match in his world of jazz. But between the two, is was Grappelli’s singing tone, lyrical phrasing and unbridled creativity that caught my ear. » Read the rest of this entry «

Some things stay the same and never change. Good manners, what people really want, red wine with steak and how much the Rolling Stones rock. But some things change no matter how many books are written on the subject.

For example, sales.  » Read the rest of this entry «