Weekly Inspirations: September 15th, 2017

Here are the things that I think are worth reading and checking out this week:

How to Make Sure Your Day Job Doesn’t Extinguish Your Creative Soul

If you’re a creative person who also holds down a noncreative or “businessy” job, then you’re familiar with the constant balancing act required to get your (paid) work done while keeping the artistic fires stoked. You only have so much mental and spiritual energy to use up each day, so how do you keep a “regular” job while still honouring your creative soul? For Shannon DeJong, integrating her business self as CEO of a branding agency with her artistic self as an actress/performer is all part of the journey, and the new podcast ArtistCEO is devoted to capturing her journey in the hopes of answering the question: can business and art live in harmony? When asked about her best tips for anyone struggling to balance their professional working lives with their artistic passions, DeJong identified four main ways to blend these different aspects of ourselves. Check out the ArtistCEO podcast, and keep reading for DeJong’s advice.Read the article

120 Photoshop tips, tricks and fixes

Photoshop is an easy tool to use and a difficult one to master. Fortunately, help is at hand with our comprehensive list of tips, tricks and fixes for Adobe’s showpiece software. Whether you’re looking for tips on using layers, advice on mastering the pen tool, a guide to using RAW, or ways to improve your brush work, it’s all here. Most of these tips were originally published in Practical Photoshop magazine – now part of Digital Camera World. If you’re a photographer, we recommend making DCW a rest stop on your travels around the web. Here are the best Photoshop tips, whether you’re using an older CS version or the very latest Creative Cloud software. We’ve grouped them by category to make it easier for you to find the stuff that’s the most relevant to your work right now, but be sure to check them all!Learn more

Why good leaders make you feel safe – Simon Sinek

What makes a great leader? Management theorist Simon Sinek suggests, it’s someone who makes their employees feel secure, who draws staffers into a circle of trust. But creating trust and safety — especially in an uneven economy — means taking on big responsibility.Read the article

How Code and Theory stays publishers’ favorite design firm

With technology moving at warp speed, publishers increasingly need to update their websites. And there’s one design firm they seem to turn to the most: Code and Theory. The New York-based design agency has helped publishers migrate to digital for almost exactly 16 years, when Dan Gardner and Brandon Ralph, who met as kids at sleep-away camp, left Draftfcb to strike out on their own, perhaps naively (they had no clients or real agency experience). Since then, the firm has done digital design work for a who’s who of publishing, including Vox Media’s The Verge, Bloomberg Media and Hearst. Today, Code and Theory has about 400 people spread across five offices, including New York, San Francisco and London, and it’s worked with around 75 newsrooms and growing. The firm has branched out to doing traditional ad agency work and has Burger King, Maybelline New York and New York Life as clients, but it’s still best known for designing websites for publishers. (Its New York offices are something of an homage to media: Code and Theory is based in the former, wood-paneled offices of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, complete with Interview’s massive library of art books; the two companies traded offices after Code and Theory did Interview’s redesign.)Learn more

Designing for iPhone X

iPhone X features an all-screen Super Retina display, providing more space to display content and create deeply immersive experiences. Learn how to design your app or game to look and feel great on iPhone X, and all iOS devices.Learn more

Here are the things that I think are worth reading and checking out this week: How to Become More Self-Aware Alan Mulally,...

Stephen GatesNovember 17, 2017

Creative Director, Designer, Brand Builder, Speaker, Podcaster, Crazy One.
As a designer, I have 20+ years experience creating the strategy, concepts, and designs for award-winning integrated global advertising campaigns, building multiple global Fortune 500 brands and creating innovative digital experiences. As a leader, I have 15+ years transforming agency and client-side teams using a mix of creativity, business strategy, process and political skill to create innovative, world-class work and cultures that change industries and companies. My clients have included American Airlines, W Hotels, Disney, Citi, ExxonMobil, Acura, Old Navy, Nationwide Insurance, Verizon, Subaru and many others. My work has received over 150 international awards, my app designs have been named as one of the World’s 100 Greatest Apps, Apple has featured my work in 9 keynotes, 4 TV commercials and more.