design
Is Drawing A Necessary Design Skill?
The difference between a designer who draws from one who doesn’t. is obvious.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Alvalyn Lundgren
Alvalyn Lundgren
The Great Idea Viability Test
Some ideas look really good in your head but when you get them down on paper and begin to develop a strategy, the flaws become apparent.
Alvalyn Lundgren
The Ink Sniffer
I have always loved books. As an ardent reader, part of the experience I always enjoy is the way a book feels, smells and sounds.
Alvalyn Lundgren
A User’s Manual For Your Logo
No matter who has designed your logo, at some point you will have to put it into someone else’s hands. This might be a staff
Alvalyn Lundgren
How Much Will It Cost?
All too often a business or organization seeks a designer to execute an untested, unrefined idea as quickly and cheaply as possible. A business that’s design-oriented will not regard design as an afterthought but as the basis for its marketing communications and brand awareness.
Alvalyn Lundgren
branding
5 Stages of Customer Loyalty
To be meaningful, design needs to connect on five successive levels of significance…
Alvalyn Lundgren
About Your Logo
A business seeking to brand itself should avoid acquiring a logo or having one created by the lowest bidder.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Job Listings and Special Considerations
If a hiring firm wants to give special consideration to candidates from a specific school, that’s its right. But then it should carry on its notification processes within the sphere of that school’s alumni and career counseling office
Alvalyn Lundgren
Stepping Back
It’s said that design is in the details. Yet it’s the sum total of the details that makes the design. When you’re in the middle of
Alvalyn Lundgren
Does Good Design Matter?
Does it matter if a design is good or not? Before we can deal with that question let’s ask a more basic one: What makes
Alvalyn Lundgren
When It’s Time To Let Go
Being effective involves doing the right thing at the right time in the right place.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Acknowledge the Box
We talk about creativity and innovation in terms of thinking outside the box. Thinking outside the box still needs to remain within the boundaries of the
Alvalyn Lundgren
creativity
Green Scheduling: 6 Tips for Sustaining Your Creative Time
Design your time. Time is wasted when we do the wrong thing at the wrong time. It’s easier to keep your time boundaries and your well-being intact if you plan ahead.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Why Design Is Not Self-Expression
If we approach a design solution as an opportunity for self-expression, we’ll miss the point and risk not solving the problem.
Alvalyn Lundgren
How We’re Remembered: Memorial Day 2011
Practically every business, organization and government has a banner. These are raised in the form of logos, motifs, icons and flags. We wear them and put them on our car bumpers and on signs and travel mugs. Every banner represents something—an identity, a set of values, a reputation, a history.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Loving It: Seduction, Satisfaction and Graphic Culture
To be promoted in our design-driven culture, a product must be packaged in such a way that it becomes meaningful to the person using it, so that they become an evangelist for it. This requires thoughtful planning and execution of a design strategy
Alvalyn Lundgren
Breathing Room: The Role of the Space In Between
Empty space in a design is useful. Think of it in this way: If there was a room in your home where every inch of
Alvalyn Lundgren
design
The Internship Epidemic
It is the responsibility of design professionals, teachers and school administrators to value the next generation of designers so that the profession is respected, appreciated and thrives. Unpaid internships won’t accomplish that.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Drawing The Line Between Art and Design
Where an artist can begin with a blank canvas and pursue a serendipitous route to an end result, a designer begins with a set of criterion and remains within set boundaries from concept through completion.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Alvalyn Lundgren
From the Client’s Point of View
From the client’s point of view, there are two crucial criteria in deciding what designer is awarded the project: 1. Does the creative understand what’s
Alvalyn Lundgren
Creating Lovability
How can you invest your product or service with “lovability” and create devotion in your customers? Here are some options: Love it yourself. If you’re
Alvalyn Lundgren
Design As Your Ambassador
Graphic design represents ideas and values. A design is not in itself the idea, but the expression of it. Design points to something greater than
Alvalyn Lundgren
Design and Degree of Difficulty
Being a designer is perceived by many as a fun job. Designers get to work with colors, shapes and amazing computer programs and be creative
Alvalyn Lundgren
The Importance Of The Big Picture
I am currently working with a playwright to develop graphics to promote his inaugural work. We have had several discussions about the origins of the
Alvalyn Lundgren
Why the Design Process Is Important
The strength of a design lies as much in the steps taken to create it as in the final result. The process — the totality of time,
Alvalyn Lundgren
How Do You Define Design?
Toward the end of my design fundamentals course I generally ask my students how they, having gone through the process of learning design principles and
Alvalyn Lundgren
Unpaid Internships Are A Form of Spec Work
Why is spec work so prevalent in the design profession when it’s not in other professions? Increasingly, companies – creative businesses included – are offering
Alvalyn Lundgren
Drawing the Line Between Imitation and Creation
Imitation is said to be the sincerest form of flattery, but it is the laziest form of creativity.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Aesthetics: In Support of Style
Aesthetics and style are not the same, despite opinions that claim otherwise. It’s popular to think that both aesthetics and style are subjective concerns, yet
Alvalyn Lundgren
business
Alvalyn Lundgren
Using Design to Build Awareness
Once you have made the investment in the creation of a company identity – a logo – how should you utilize that to build a
Alvalyn Lundgren
Why You Can’t Be My Client
Since I established my design studio over thirteen years ago, I have worked with clients large and small, designed for sole proprietors and for publicly-held
Alvalyn Lundgren