Design information

It has been my mostly unsuccessful goal to get better at composition and design. For the past year, I've relied mostly on intuition and hoped for the best. Because of that, I've focused more on classical forms of art such as figure drawing, portrait painting, still life, and so on. And I've hit a wall. Big time.

While I was discussing my frustrations with some friends of mine, who are very successful in terms of good design and composition, the question arose: How is that working for you? Relying on intuition, that is. Not studying good design all of the time, that is. So I realized in my general ignorance I was looking at some design work that was incredibly advanced, beating myself up for not being there, but not doing the research and work required to get to that point. Not having an understanding basic elements of 2D design and relying wholly on intuition. What I really appreciate about my friends and boyfriend is that they're incredibly honest. I'm talking "punch you in the face with the truth" kind of honesty. They are logical enough to see weaknesses, and point out processes to correcting those weaknesses. Sweet.

Change can be painful, right?

Nothing ruins a print quite like bad design. So in addition to thumbnails, and going through my work from the past and having it critiqued by my friends, I have been studying design and layout. How can I make my pieces look complete? What is missing? How do I use negative space effectively? What about typography? These processes are logical (meaning, they have rules), but because they are new to me, I will be experimenting much more than I anticipated this semester.

I thought I would post some links for you guys who might be struggling in the same area.

Design Blog
Friends of Type
Sagmeister
http://blog.iso50.com/

One of the best ways to learn a language is to immerse yourself in the culture. I think the same holds true for visual communication-to immerse yourself in good art and try to understand why it is good, and why you're attracted to it, and what is being successfully communicated is the best way to become better at what you do. These are not my influences, by the way. Just something helpful (well, let's hope so).