Matt Cram

Comfort’s Cost

We speak of freedom as if it were flight, but forget that wings come with wind, and the sky offers no shelter. We crave a trail…

Student questions: AI in design

Artificial Intelligence is reshaping many fields including (especially?) graphic design. It brings a lot of important questions for anyone…

Business card mockup

Show off your business card designs in a clean, realistic mockup completely built in Figma. No photos, just vector work that looks sharp and…

Simple Guide to File Formats

Source files are the editable versions of your work and the most important to save. They let you make changes, updates, or reuse designs in the…

Thinking about agency owner vs. solo designer

I saw a post on X from Oykun comparing agency life to freelancing, with freelancing appearing to have the edge. My gut tells me freelancing fits me…

Invoice Template

This is a straightforward invoice template to simplify client communications and requesting payments. It includes essential fields such as client…

Design services rate sheet

A student approached me, curious about how to work with clients and price their projects. One tool I suggested was a simple rate sheet, much like a…

Student questions: Design career

Recently, a student reached out to me with some thoughtful questions about what it’s like to be a graphic designer. While these questions came from…

Creating a design resume

Download: Sample Resume Docx Creating a resume as a graphic designer is your chance to show off your creativity while keeping things professional…

Figma teams admin

Do you miss how teams were displayed pre-drafts update? Miss being able to quickly and easily move between teams or drag files from one team to…

Figma’s New UI

Note: since posting this, many/most of my concerns have been addressed or have fallen away as I begin to see the value of the updated UI. Maybe…

Computer Recommendations

Students applying for the Game Design Arts or Graphic Design programs will have access to high-end computers in the art computer studios. These are…

Most common interview questions

These are a bit general but don’t go into an interview without having a solid answer to each of these. Tell us a bit about yourself? Best…

Fourty things

by: Mark Manson Your relationship with others is a direct reflection of your relationship with yourself. If you treat yourself poorly, then you’ll…

Mood Boards

In graphic design, a mood board is a visual tool used to convey the overall aesthetic, mood, and tone of a design project. It serves as a curated…

Letter to a Junior Designer

By Elliot Dahl Originally published Aug 14, 2017, at Medium I moved to San Francisco in 2013 as a junior designer with only a few years of…

Planetary Fact Sheet

This information is presented for the benefit of students doing the solar system poster design. Also, it is just cool. All of the information is…

Pantone to CMYK to RGB

There is a non-zero percent chance that this information may become difficult to find in the future. It is posted here for easy reference.…

Figma wish list

Hey Figma, here is my wish list for my favorite design tool. While I believe that all of these additions would make Figma a better product, my…

Colophon

Largely this site is simply a collection of TXT and DOC files stored on Dropbox and served by Blot.im. A lot of care has been taken to make the site…

Sketchbook Drawing Ideas

Drawing in your sketchbook is a wonderful way to develop your skills, explore creativity, and document your experiences. Here are some diverse…

An Incomplete Reading List for Graphic Designers

These are all books that I have read and can personally recommend. The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams Thinking with Type by Ellen…

Living expenses by state

From MIT’s Living Wage Calculator which estimates the minimum income necessary for a single person to cover their living expenses and stay above the…

Site Disclaimer

For full clarity, this site is NOT an official publication of any university. While I do work at a university, this site is a private enterprise.…

UI for games research

Pacing the flow of information in AAA games https://uxdesign.cc/pacing-information-flow-in-aaa-games-ad68f0745627 https://interfaceingame.com…

Gestalt Theory of Organization

There are 7 individual principles commonly associated with gestalt theory: similarity continuation closure proximity figure/ground simplicity…

Basic art principles

Color Color is the visual property of the pigment of an object that is detected by the eye and produced as a result of the way the object reflects…

Should I work for free?

Here’s the brutal truth about working for free: generally, it’s a firm “no” from me. But, if you’ve got something non-monetary that really sparks my…

Akin’s Laws of Spacecraft Design

Engineering is done with numbers. Analysis without numbers is only an opinion. To design a spacecraft right takes an infinite amount of effort.…