Design Guidance

We help organizations build brands with design.

WE HELP DESIGN SCHOOLS PLAN PROGRAMS.

WE HELP STUDENTS LEARN THE INS AND OUTS OF DESIGN.

Latest Articles

- Self-Promotion Identity in the covid-19 Era
  August 6, 2020Askey Studio Activities / Branding / Creativity / GD-Courses-AStudio / Self-promoIt’s been a while since I have written a post here on the site. In that time, well, everything changed. I have been busy busy. A lot of teaching, remotely, of course. Today the subject of self-promotion identity came up – always a difficult activity at the best of times. I have begun thinking about how self-promo might be changing during the pandemic. In class, we looked at business cards, as best we could through the webcam. Are Business Cards Dead? Design Student Business Cards The usefulness of business cards may have been on its way down pre-COVID. Now, there are limited conferences and face-face meetings for the foreseeable future. The nails seem to be on their way into the coffin of the venerable name card. Self-Branding Process We may need alter how we deliver our brands’ identities to our contacts. Yet, the process of self-branding remains relevant, and largely unchanged. I first went through the process of designing my own identity ten to fifteen years ago. My style has evolved since then, but it was interesting to return to the origin of the process. Early Art Direction Option Process Sheet for Askey Studio. The first part of the process involves getting “introspective.” You need to look inside yourself and try to honestly synthesize “who you are.” Personality and values are important. This is because we live in a connected world and want to work with people and brands to which we can relate. From your introspection and synthesis, you develop a “theme,” which summarizes your deep self-analysis. Next, you use the theme to guide you as you gather visual components. These are options you may use in your designs. They can include colour schemes, fonts and typography, symbols / objects / inspirational images, patterns, textures, etc. All this can be difficult for many reasons. But, avoiding the tug of perfectionism is key: There is no perfect solution. Just start anywhere. Put these things on a page and see what sticks. Finally, you will have to narrow down your options. You will begin to create brand identity components and deliverables. These may include a logo, and graphic approaches to social media, your portfolio and website. Maybe even a business card for the sake of nostalgia. A Self-Promo Giveaway? So readers, I am thinking of putting together a Self-promo Template. This would get you started on your own self-branding process. Maybe you haven’t done it yet, or now is the time for a brand-refresh. Let me know if you are interested through the contact page, Facebook, or Instagram.…
- Download a Vector Maze
  November 12, 2019Downloads / Education / Graphic Design / IllustrationHere’s a tool for budding vector illustrators – or those out of practice and wanting to get back into it! Test your vector drawing capabilities. It’s a Pac Man shaped maze. You just know he has mazes on the brain! This one is more twisty than those we see in the video games. But that’s because I designed it to help students master the pen tool in vector drawing software – like Adobe Illustrator or Affinity Designer. The challenge is to complete the maze with as few anchor points (or nodes) as possible. Don’t go over the lines! I just did it with twelve. Can you beat that? Download the maze here ……
- Learn Photoshop Online this Fall!
  September 9, 2019Courses / Creativity / Education / Graphic Design / MediaOnce again, Daryl will be teaching an introductory course in Digital Imaging through LaSalle College Vancouver E‑learning. There is still time to sign up! It begins October 7th. The eleven weekly sessions are 1½ hours long. They will include everything you need to get up and running with Adobe Photoshop with some fun, practical projects. All of this from the comfort of your own home — anywhere in the world! Course Details Times: Mondays 7:30 pm — 9:00 pm, Pacific TimeStart: October 7, 2019Technology needed: Computer with internet access, Adobe Creative Cloud Subscription, Adobe Connect. Get more details from LaSalle College Vancouver E‑learning. Learn Digital Imaging Testimonials Quotes from former students It was nice realizing Photoshop can be fun. Thank you. You are a great teacher too.Amanda Lucia Thomas Marmolejo Thank you Daryl. It was a pleasure to have classes with you. Thank you for everything.Paula Ribeiro Amorim Bezerra Thank you so much for your advice and teachings!Stan Gerard Palisoc Daryl Askey is a design educator and has conducted software training sessions for image editing, layout and illustration applications for more than fifteen years. Find out more ……
- Brand New: Downloads Page
  April 11, 2019Askey Studio Activities / Downloads / FontsIntroducing the new Downloads page on the site. So far we have our Tait Note font available, and more resources will be coming for you. Stay tuned!…
- Top 6 problems for new web development learners
  December 18, 2018Education / Tips & Tricks / WebIn graphic design, we are called on to perform all sorts of tasks. Some are artistic; others are technical. You may find yourself needing to learn web development basics. This falls on the “technical” end of the scale. For many students, this is a completely new way of thinking. Learning HTML, CSS, and code-editors seems pretty far removed from the end-product (websites). It is also quite different from the “What You See Is What You Get” applications you may have experienced to this point. Web development technically is not a part of Graphic Design, but designers work with developers. They do need to understand some of what goes on in that world. Here then are six ways learners go wrong when learning development. And, I’ll illustrate it with a minimum of code. Avoid these, and you might avoid a lot of the pain of learning this stuff. #6: Overlooking HTML structure basics Structure is important. Computers are picky. Your browser needs to understand the code you are giving it. This requires you to be precise. You will probably have to go back and check to make sure that your code follows the rules. We tend to “borrow” code here and there and paste it together into a finished page. But you need to be sure that you “close” tags and you are pasting things in the right place. Be methodical. Think about what order different elements need to be in, and what goes inside what. Use elements that make sense. You can find a very good summary semantic markup and HTML structure on HTML.com. #5: Using inline CSS Once you find out about the power of CSS, the last thing you want to do is format everything on the site locally. It is possible, but not practical. Work with an external style sheet and link it to all your pages. This will make editing so much easier. If you want to change the colour of all the main headings on the site, simply change one rule. This is much better than hunting through all your pages to make changes. It is more efficient and will result in a more consistent design. #4: Using absolute paths or links What is a site anyway? Well, it is a collection of interrelated files. When referencing those files in your code, find the shortest path to them. This will be the relative path. If you are on a page and want to put in an image located in the images folder in the same directory, write: <img src=”/images/my-image.jpg”> On the other hand, an absolute path takes you to an exact place in a network or individual computer. The problem is that you may not have control over these images. They may disappear at some point out of the blue. If you must link to external places (such as in the example below) then just know the risk. If your link is a long path within your own computer disk, something is definitely wrong. <img src=“https://i2.wp.com/pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/675021767384035329/tzxhzHS8_400x400.jpg?zoom=2&resize=400%2C400&ssl=1”> #3: Displaying distorted or pixellated images Horribly distorted spring photos. This usually results from poor planning. Plan out your layout. Know how big your images need to be. Adjust them – proportionally. Use image editing software (like Photoshop or Affinity Photo) before adding them to your layout. Learn to optimize images manually. Yes, you can adjust sizes using CSS, but be mindful if you do. #2: Not keeping your directory organized Keeping organized. O.K., this one follows on from #4. More generally, you need to keep your site files organized. Don’t just pile everything haphazardly into one folder. Don’t keep your site materials and pages all over your local drives. This will help you when linking to the various files in your code. Follow proper naming conventions for files and folders (keep them lowercase). Start as a neat-freak, and your hard work will pay off with fewer headaches later. #1: Forgetting the <title>. Don’t forget the title! This is by far the most common mistake by beginners. It might not seem like a big one, but users need the title of the page to bookmark it. You want people to bookmark it, don’t you? It is also used by search engines to display your site in search results. You want people to find your site, don’t you? It is easy to forget, because it is in the <head> section of your HTML document. Everyone wants to jump into building that website and making it look great in the browser window. Just make sure things are all set up there in the <head> before you get ahead of yourself! Conclusion So there you have it. There are many ways to go wrong when learning development. Most of the solution comes down to having the patience to plan, organize and check your work. If you can think of more examples or questions, feel free to discuss.…

Featured Work

Graphics for indie pop band

Transparent Subtitles — design for subtle indie dream pop-rock band

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Geometric Pattern Pack 1

Geometric Pattern Pack 1