Author Jad Limcaco

August 5, 2011 — Jad Limcaco raises the question: Is there such thing as a talented designer? Or is good design a skill? Or maybe to be a great designer, you need a combination of talent, skill, and experience? Read more…

July 19, 2011 — I’ve been meaning to write this post but just haven’t had the time to do so. I’ve received several messages and emails asking me about fonts that I use on some of my design projects. I have a pretty large font collection. Some of them are paid, but a lot of them are free! First of all, I suggest investing in some of the best typefaces out there but I also suggest that you take advantage of the free resources that can be found online. Read more…

July 13, 2010 — This is the most exciting “Ask the Expert” interview that we’ve had so far on Design Informer. A few months back, I had the opportunity to speak with Milton Glaser thanks to one of his assistants, Scarlett Rigby. [Links checked January/17/2017] I was able to ask Milton Glaser some questions about a few different topics such as art, design, education and more. If you’re not familiar with Milton Glaser, he is a world renowned graphic designer who is probably most famous for creating the
I Love New York logo. Read more…

June 11, 2010 — I’ve been receiving a few emails lately asking me for some of the web design resources that I personally use. Well, I’d like to start sharing my resources with our readers so today, I’ve gathered up a collection of the icon sets that I have personally downloaded and use on a daily basis. One thing that I’ve emphasized before is to have a collection of resources at your disposal. There are a lot of different icons out there and choosing which ones to download and save in your resources can be difficult. I used to just be download happy and download every icon set that I found and I found that to be very ineffective as I would still end up having to sort through hundreds of folders looking for the right icons. Read more…

May 9, 2010 — It’s been a while since I’ve posted an inspiration post and I thought I would do one today. Well, I have something special for this post. As we all know, today is Mother’s Day (in the US, not sure about other countries). Mother’s Day happens once a year and it’s a day when we celebrate and recognize mothers and motherhood in general. In this post, I’ve gathered up some awesome Mother’s Day designs for your viewing pleasure. Read more…

May 6, 2010 — I’ve always stressed the importance of practice and experimentation. If you want to get better at something or if you want to learn something, you have to keep on doing it over and over again. This is very true with web design as well. We’ve even published an article here on Design Informer about the benefits of experimentation. I’m very busy as I work a full-time 9-6 job as a web designer, then I go home and work on Design Informer, soon to be Coding Informer, and I also do a variety of freelance work. With all these on my plate, it’s very hard to find time to relax, open up Photoshop and design, or open up Dreamweaver (code view of course) and just mess around with some code. Read more…

May 4, 2010 — I’m not the best web designer or graphic designer out there and I don’t claim to be, but I do have experience in getting jobs in the industry. I’ve worked for all kinds of companies since graduating from high school. I’ve worked as a web designer, graphic designer, and also a front-end developer. In this article, I’d like to share with you some pointers that have helped me in my job interviews. Read more…

March 16, 2010 — While trying to balance the different areas of our life, there are things that we often forget and neglect to do. With today’s fast-paced society and the busyness of our every day, we tend to overlook some important things. I would like to remind every designer today about some of these tasks that we often put-off but are so important and necessary to get done. Read more…

March 2, 2010 — Ask the Expert is a popular and on-going interview series here on Design Informer. In this edition of Ask the Expert, I had the chance to email Collis Ta’eed and ask him some questions regarding Envato, the popular web startup. Collis is one of the founders of Envato, which originally started with just one website selling Flash files. Envato now has over twenty websites and they are still constantly growing. Collis provides general vision, design, marketing, and new business ideas for Envato, where he is the CEO. Read more…

February 27, 2010 — This is the tenth edition of Wallpaper of the Week. This design was actually created as part of my daily designs. This wallpaper is entitled KISS, which is short for “Keep it simple stupid!” It’s been one of my favorite quotes, especially in design. Go ahead, start keeping it simple and download this wallpaper. Read more…

February 16, 2010 — CSS3 makes a designer’s work easier because they’re able to spend less time hacking their CSS and HTML code to work in IE and more time crafting their design. It is the future of web design and can be used today. This article will hopefully show you to care a little less about making everything pixel perfect in IE. It will inspire you to spend more time making your designs exquisite in the rest of the browsers while serving up a working and perfectly accessible website for IE. Read more…

February 8, 2010 — Design is everywhere. We see it in on billboards as we drive down the street. When we go to a restaurant and look at the menus, we see it. When we sit down on our couch and watch television, it’s visible on the commercials, advertisements, and even the movies and TV shows. [Links checked March/10/2017] It is all around us and it stimulates and motivates much of our decisions subconsciously every day. The encyclopedia refers to graphic design as, “the process of communicating visually using text and images to present information. Graphic design practice embraces a range of cognitive skills, aesthetics and crafts, including typography, visual arts and page layout. Like other forms of design, graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.” Read more…

February 3, 2010 — I’m always observing graphic design in different things. The other day, while I was watching something on TV, the design of the title screen caught my attention. I figured that this would be a great idea to post on Design Informer. I quickly got to work and started researching. Come to find out that there were some great sites that have already collected hundreds of movie title stills. Read more…

January 27, 2010 — The showcase of Conan O’Brien’s and Jay Leno’s artwork. When designers get passionate about something, they can get really creative about that subject. Here’s a fun post for a boring Wednesday. Read more…

January 18, 2010 — A wonderful collection of fonts and designs from Letterhead Fonts created by Chuck David himself. Read more…

January 4, 2010 — “Ask the Expert” is a popular series. This time in our round of “Design discussion”, the theme for the interview is with James White, the renowned graphic designer from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Read more…

December 29, 2009 — Companies spend thousands upon thousands of dollars every year in advertisement. Some companies even spend millions of dollars. Print advertisements take up a large portion of those advertising dollars. There are different types of advertising techniques that these companies use in their campaigns. One such technique is to use a series of advertisements to promote a particular product or brand. Today, we will look at 10 clever and effective series of advertisements as well as the reason why I chose to include each of them. Read more…

December 27, 2009 — This is the seventh edition of Wallpaper of the Week here at Design Informer. The wallpaper for this week is entitled Love Color. I designed this wallpaper about 3 months ago for my personal use. I was trying to do something creative with a quote by John Ruskin and decided to make a wallpaper that exhibited a lot of color. Read more…

December 24, 2009 — The Holidays are finally here. The hustle and bustle of Christmas is very obvious as the malls and stores are packed out with last-minute shoppers searching for presents to give away to the friends and loved ones. Christmas is in about 24 hours (here in Long Beach), and the new year is just around the corner. Read more…

December 22, 2009 — As designers, we’re all trying to get better at what we do. We surf the Web daily for hours trying to find useful tips and tricks to enhance our design skills. But what if we spent less time surfing the Web looking for inspiration and more time creating and designing things? Read more…

December 17, 2009 — Everyday, we go through hundreds of different websites. With Twitter and RSS feeds, we are able to see an excessive amount of sites in just a short time. Most of the websites that we visit are forgettable, they don’t leave a lasting impression. Read more…

December 13, 2009 — As promised, here are some amazing outer-space tutorials for your learning. This is part 2 of the “Out of This World” series. I’m sure that you have seen some of these tutorials before, but hopefully, you will find a few that are totally new. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and choose a few of these tutorials and try them out for yourself. Read more…

December 13, 2009 — As promised, here are some amazing outer-space tutorials for your learning. This is part 2 of the “Out of This World” series. I’m sure that you have seen some of these tutorials before, but hopefully, you will find a few that are totally new. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and choose a few of these tutorials and try them out for yourself. Read more…

December 11, 2009 —

“The true method of knowledge is experiment.” - William Blake I spend a fair amount of time working on web design. After a full day at the office, it’s not uncommon for me to come home and work on my own site, blog or other personal projects. It’s also not uncommon for people to ask me how I “find the time” to do this type of personal work. My response, especially to other Web designers, is this. How can you not find the time to do this type of work?

December 10, 2009 — On the last type-inspiration post, we showcased some incredible black and white typography. We’ve also gathered the ultimate collection of nature-inspired typography. Today, we will be showcasing outer space typography. This is probably my favorite style of design. There is so much that you can do with the outer space, galaxy style. While it is not really appropriate to use in most client projects, it is a very fun effect to implement on your own personal projects. Read more…

December 8, 2009 — Ask the Expert is a weekly series here on Design Informer. For this week’s theme, we will be talking about typography. Brian Hoff is this week’s expert. Brian is a graphic designer from the always-sunny Philadelphia. He collaborates mostly on corporate identity and branding, but is also experienced in building all kinds of quality, strategic design, both in print and on the web. In addition to his design services, he also writes for the popular graphic design and creative business blog, The Design Cubicle. The blog not only teaches, inspires and helps other designers, but also focuses on client education and design awareness, while showcasing his work, creative processes, and personal practices. Read more…

December 4, 2009 — I love the use of different colors in design. Designs that use vibrant colors really attract my attention. I’ve definitely done my part in showcasing colorful designs. Today, we will be focusing on black and white. In the world of design, black and white definitely have their place. Using black and white can definitely add a touch of class as well as a classical element to a design. Just take for instance, black and white movies. Because of the lack of color, these movies automatically generate a classic feel. Read more…

November 16, 2009 — Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the whole year. It’s a time when our families get together to have some food, fun, and fellowship. During Thanksgiving, there are some things that I try do as a graphic and web designer and I would like to share those 5 things with you. Read more…

November 15, 2009 — We all have our favorite designers. One of my favorite designers happens to be Michael Heald, the founder of Fully Illustrated. Michael Heald is an award winning graphic and web designer. He has won multiple awards, as well as being featured in some top web and graphic design magazines. Heald’s work is spectacular. The thing that impresses me about his work is the variety of different styles that he has mastered. Not only is he a master of illustrations, he is a great web designer as well. His web designs are beautiful. That is why he has had the opportunity to design websites for the biggest games out there, including the top iPhone game, Fieldrunners. Read more…

November 13, 2009 — From time to time, designers struggle with inspiration. What we need to realize as designers is that inspiration can be found all around us. One great place to find inspiration is nature. If your creativity needs a jolt, go outside, take a walk at a park or beach, and just observe the beauty of nature. Claude Monet, the world renowned painter, said this; > “The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.” Today’s showcase is all about nature. These designers have used nature as their inspiration. So I present to you, the ultimate collection of nature-inspired typography. There are a lot of these that are new, so make sure to look at all of them. Read more…

November 12, 2009 — The Behance Network is a platform for the creative professional community. The greatest designers in the world post their artwork and portfolio on Behance. I have compiled 15 impressive case studies for your learning and inspiration. Read more…

November 10, 2009 — While there are a lot of beautiful and well-designed blogs out there, most of them use a single template for each of their blog posts. Today, I would like to showcase 20 extraordinary blogs with unique post designs. > “While, yes, this is a redesign of sorts, I’m considering much more a rethinking. You see, what you’re looking at isn’t the design so much as the plan for design.” - Jason Santa Maria Looking at the designs of these sites will make us all rethink the way we design our blogs. These designers have all managed to think outside the box in their designs. Let’s take a look at these 20 extraordinary blogs with unique post designs. Read more…

November 8, 2009 — I recently ran into a site called Prom Night Fist Fight,which is the illustration, color, & typography experimentation playground of Joshua Blankenship. I was amazed at the awesome typography that I saw. For the next 30 minutes, I browsed his site, 1 awesome typography work after the other. If you need some typography inspiration, then you definitely need to check his site. He has over 200 pieces of awesomeness in his website. Not only does he have a lot, but each of them has its own unique style. Read more…

November 7, 2009 — Once in a while, I’ll be browsing the internet and would run into an artist that would just make me say, “WOW!” Well, Anthony Hare is one of them. This man has mastered the art of black and white illustrations. You absolutely need to see his work. I like his work very much. It is very clean, and the lines are sharp and crisp. Another thing that amazes me is not only the quality of his work, but the quantity of it as well. Anthony has tons of pieces in his portfolio and they are all really nice. You need to check out his portfolio site here. Anyways, enough of me talking and more of you viewing. Go ahead and check out 20 of his illustrations that I have included here. Read more…

November 3, 2009 — Adobe Photoshop is my favorite software. One of the reasons why I love it is because asides from being able to make a living creating designs from the software, I can use it to have a little fun as well. In this tutorial, you will learn how to use Photoshop to mix people’s faces or put a person’s face on another person’s head. Anyway, let us get started right away. Read more…

October 31, 2009 — The other day, while browsing some logo galleries, I noticed the trend of using stars in logos. I saw all kinds of different companies and organizations who used a star in their logo. It used to be that the main companies who used a star were only entertainment companies or Hollywood companies, but now, I even saw pharmaceutical companies and medical companies using the star. I think that this has quickly become a fast growing trend in the design community. Here is a compilation of 50 star logos that I gathered to show you this up and coming trend in logo design. Read more…