Any serious graphic design student or graphic designer should subscribe to at least one graphic design industry magazine. Graphic design magazines give graphic designers and graphic design students the ability to keep up with current graphic design trends, learn about new or coming graphic design technology, and discover new graphic design opportunities. Graphic design magazines can also give graphic design students information about graphic design scholarships and graphic design compeitions.

One of the best graphic design magazines is HOW Magazine. This graphic design magazine allows graphic designers to find information about graphic design technology, freelancing as a graphic designer, and graphic design career opportunities. Students of graphic design will find this graphic design magazine helpful in its showcases of graphic design career opportunities, graphic design schools, and graphic design events. Of interest for all graphic designers and graphic design students is the stress that this magazine puts on not just the how, but the why and the creativity of graphic design.

Graphic Design USA is another fabulous graphic design magazine. This graphic design magazine has technology information for serious graphic designers to keep up with industry news. Graphic Design USA magazine also has resources for students of graphic design, as well as contests and scholarship programs. The online version of Graphic Design USA magazine also has opportunities for free graphic design stuff, and a graphic design online newsletter that can be emailed to your inbox weekly.

Print Magazine is yet another great graphic design magazine. This graphic design magazine seems to tend more toward the creativity side of graphic design. With regional and nationwide graphic design contests, student graphic design contests, and other graphic design competitions, this graphic design magazine is a must for students of graphic design or those just starting a career in graphic design. The online version of Print Magazine offers graphic design forums, a free graphic design newsletter, and other free graphic design stuff.

DT&G, (Design, Type, and Graphics) Magazine is an online only publication for graphic designers. This graphic design online magazine offers the option to read on the web site, or on a text only email edition that is sent out around the first of every month to subscribers. Not only does this online graphic design magazine offer industry news, graphic design technology information, and other graphic design features, but it also offers reviews of graphic design software, graphic design books, and other graphic design resources. Anything graphic design related, big or small, might be included in this online graphic design magazine.

There are many other graphic design resources and graphic design magazines that can be found both on and off of the internet. Serious graphic designers and graphic design students should subscribe to at least one graphic design industry publication in order to keep up with the latest graphic design industry news. If you would like to find more graphic design magazines and resources, do an internet search for graphic design magazine and be amazed at the wealth of graphic design information available to you in this type of graphic design forum.

The multiplicity of graphic designs and the elements that make up the designs themselves sometimes seems overwhelming. How can you make your graphic designs stand out and shout. Yes! Shout! Shout to the customers they are supposed to reach! If your graphic designs shout, then they attract attention in an already over advertised world. Today every prospective customer sees at least thousands of messages a day. Which one will they remember? The one that rises above the others, the one that has be most to say, the one that speaks the loudest to them. And once it has their attention, the one that engages them the most.

Shout it out! Use visuals that make a lot of noise! The human brain is visual, so visuals are crucial to making graphic designs that have a built-in megaphone. The best visual megaphone is color. Wild vibrant color attracts the eye. Use visuals and color to make a statement that is loud and bold.

Visuals come in a lot of forms – original hand done illustrations, stock illustrations, original digital illustrations, stock digital illustrations, original photography and stock photography. The first question to ask yourself when choosing visuals for your graphic designs is, “Is it bold?” The Second, “Does it say what I need it to say?” The third is “Does it stand out?” Be careful of the use of Stock Photography and Illustrations and don’t use images that have been overused. Be aware of what looks and images are being used in the graphic designs you see around you in books and magazines and on the web. Try to stay away from those looks and images, or you’ll blend in with the rest. And you want to Stand out, Shout it out!

Ask bold questions in your graphic designs. Questions engage the mind, pull people in, and bold ones stay in the memory. Loud, memorable, engaging – that’s what you are going for. Engaging questions often remind the potential client of their pain, the problem they need to solve. Of course the solution is the product or service for which you are designing.

Speaking of what you need your graphic designs to say, be sure that your end statements are benefits, benefits, benefits. What’s in it for the customer or viewer. That’s what the whole game is about. If you don’t speak to how you can solve the customer’s problem, how you can bring the client value, then no matter how loud it is, they won’t remember or pay attention. It just won’t interest them.

And use bold and relevant type to ask the questions or provide solutions. Make it easy to read, and be sure that it visually and emotionally matches the message, the audience you are attempting to reach and the product or service that is being sold. Don’t use garbage type in graphic designs intended to speak to a more sophisticated audience, and don’t use sleek elegant type to talk to the younger crowd.

So in summary, design to have your graphic designs Shout to their prospective audience. Make sure they can be heard above the visual and verbal din of today’s commercial world. Be bold, use color to make noise, engage the mind and talk benefits, benefits, benefits.

A graphic design portfolio is the best way to display and showcase your past projects, creativity, and talent. A graphic design portfolio is vital when trying to pursue opportunities as a graphic designer within a company or as a freelance graphic designer pursuing clients. The graphic design portfolio can contain any number of items, in several different formats.

The first important step in developing a graphic design portfolio is deciding what work to include. You should only include your highest quality work in your graphic design portfolio. If you include mediocre work in your graphic design portfolio simply because you are concerned about not having enough pieces in your graphic design portfolio, you will lose important job offers and clients. It is better to have a few pieces in your graphic design portfolio that really showcase your talent and creativity than have many pieces that do not help you build a solid reputation as a graphic designer.

The next step in developing a graphic design portfolio is deciding what type of graphic design portfolio you want to create. There are four main types of graphic design portfolios: printed pages in a binder, an online graphic design portfolio, images placed on a graphic design portfolio CD, or a slideshow of images placed on a graphic design portfolio DVD. Really, it is best to create one of each type of graphic design portfolio so that you are fully prepared to offer whatever your prospective employer or client is prepared to look at to judge your talent and creativity as a graphic designer.

To create a graphic design portfolio of printed pages, you should choose only your best work, and only the best quality printed copies. If you are unsure of the quality of your home printer, put the images on a disk and have them printed for you at a print shop. The best quality and most creative pieces can look mediocre if not printed with high quality printing. You should then present the pieces in a professional manner. The best color for a graphic design printed portfolio is black, and the most professional style is leather. This should be something that is spiral bound, a book, or a case so that you can add or remove pieces from your graphic design portfolio easily as you progress in your graphic design career.

To create a graphic design portfolio online, you will first need web space. Website hosting and domain registration has become very cost effective. Most websites also give you free website building tools so that you don’t have to know HTML. However, make sure that you sign up for website hosting with enough bandwidth to handle all of the images and potential traffic. Once you have your website set up, you’ll want to choose your pieces carefully. Display them as thumbnails on one page, with each full scale piece appearing on another page when the thumbnail is clicked. This will give people with slower internet access easier access to your online graphic design portfolio.

To create a graphic design portfolio on DVD or CD, you must have a computer with a DVD or CD burner. To make really professional DVD or CD graphic design portfolios, you will want to get a CD or DVD burning kit that allows you to burn images onto the top of the CD or DVD and create labels for jewel cases. You can either save individual pieces on the CD or DVD, or you can simply save a copy of your website on the disc.

“I need a professional graphic design firm to do my logos, stationery, web design and brochures. I’ve met several graphic designers at networking groups. I’ve looked at a ton of web sites. How can I be sure I’m hiring a professional graphic design firm that can meet all of my needs?”

A professional graphic designer will have a full range of services available to meet your needs. These include print and web design, Flash and video work, photography and illustration, resources for quality and affordable printing, and other marketing services. The professional graphic design firm also uses professional tools, like Adobe In Design or Quark, Photoshop, Dreamweaver or Cold Fusion to just name a few.

Look at the firm’s clientele. What size firms are they servicing? What services are they providing for those companies? Do the services they provide cover a full spectrum of graphic and marketing services? Professional graphic design firms will have access to and be using a wide variety of resources. You can ask for the full list of their services if they aren’t already included in their on-line web sites.

Once you’ve narrowed your list down to two or three firms, ask for references and call each one of them personally. Getting your business off on the right foot is at stake here. Take the time to really understand what their clients think of them. Here are a few questions you might ask. This is not an exhaustive list, so before you start calling add any additional questions you can think of to it.

Did the services they provide include the following: logos, stationery, business cards, marketing post cards, advertising concepts and print advertising, brochures, newsletters, press releases, marketing CD’s or DVD’s, web design, web optimization and market research.

For each of the services that were provided ask how happy the client was with the end product. Was it delivered on time and within budget? Did it produce the desired results? What were the downsides of working with the firm from this client’s point of view? What were the upsides? All in all, how happy were they with the products produced? Would they call this firm a professional graphic design firm? Why or Why not?

Once you’ve made the reference calls, take the time to look at the results of each interview. If you rate each of your potential firms on a 1 to 5 scale on the above elements, you’ll find on that a leader begins to emerge.

Then ask yourself some additional questions as well. Which of the professional graphic design firms you are considering has experience in your field? Which one does work that you like and feel is effective? It’s time for your personal taste to be brought into the decision making considerations. On a more personal front, which of the people do you think you’ll like working with more?

Once you’ve considered all of these factors, a clear decision should emerge. If it doesn’t, take the top two and – flip a coin because you’ve done all the relevant homework.