Design Resources

Web Designer Wall is designed and maintained by Nick La, who also runs N.Design Studio and Best Web Gallery. Web Designer Wall serves as his public blog where Nick posts his design ideas, tutorials, and talks about modern web design trends.

In an effort to educate Visual Communication Designers and those who use their services, on the damaging effects caused by spec work and spec-based design contests, a group of designers from all over the globe banded together, fueled by passion and a lot of caffeine, to bring NO!SPEC to the public. With legitimate design opportunities turning into calls for spec work at an alarming rate, it is our goal to arm designers with the tools they need to take a stand against this trend, as well as provide businesses with resources and information on why spec work harms our industry, and alternative solutions to their design needs that do not involve working on spec. The NO!SPEC initiative includes contacting designers, educators, businesses and organizations, creating NO!SPEC promotional materials, protest letters, and writing petitions. In the future there will be NO!SPEC material for educators to use in classrooms, and more.

Where to come for practical design business advice. Maybe you’ve already made a range of expensive mistakes. Maybe you are trying to avoid the possibilities. No prob, your-mistakes-are-us. BoDo is grass-roots-get-down-and-dirty-love-yo-mamma. We’ll talk about serious subjects such as “When to bring in a PITA clause,” “How to keep your clients” and “How to fire a client.” As well as lighter fare like “Working in your undies” and “How to tell when your down time is up.”

The idea started as a way for a couple of designers to get better visibility for their sites. That idea was discussed on the About.com Graphic Design forum and, eventually, evolved into Creative Latitude. From two people chatting about an idea, we grew to over 100 founding members from across the globe. Pretty neat, eh? And boy, can we calculate time zones! The discussions about how to proceed was a democratic process. Everybody had (and still has) their say - positive, negative, good and bad. We hear 'em all. We've kept it that way throughout the development process and it remains a core value for Creative Latitude. Having feedback from people in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, etc. was important too. The Net's a global thing and we're a global thing. Creative Latitude is about promotion and education. Nope, we're not talkin' readin', writin' and 'rithmetic. We seek to find ways to educate people about the creative process and the business value we, and our particular discipline, offer. Creativity, whether visual or the written word, affects people. It influences their thinking. Savvy enterprises understand this and use it. Creative Latitude is a place for sharp business people to find collaborators for their projects and learn about various trade practices, ethics and processes.