Vicke Cheung's Posts

Has there ever been a time when you’ve realised you’re a day away from a big pitch, but you forgot to book any design time through your creative department? Or perhaps there’s that last minute blog post that needs some images and banners, but there’s no way of roping in a designer at such short notice! It’s easy to become reliant when you have a Design team at the ready, but when push comes to shove, slightly unwillingly, you sometimes have to don that faux-designer’s hat. The trouble is, where do you even begin? To help you out in such hours of need, I have compiled a list of my favourite design resources for non-designers and designers alike. Oh, and did I mention they’re all free?

Just a quick disclaimer: this isn’t Graphic Design 101 (I’m definitely not ready to declare myself redundant as a designer at Distilled). Instead, think of this as more of a design directory if you will. Whether you’re after a nice font to spruce up your Word doc or you really need some images to dress that presentation to impress, if you’re going to find a fast, free solution anywhere, start here.

Back in March, I spoke at BrightonSEO on the not-so-SEO subject of design. Slightly taken aback by the love I got from Slideshare and Twitter for my speaker deck, I thought it time to do a quick refresher, focusing specifically on the often-overlooked research and analysis stage in these easy-to-digest dos and don’ts.

1. DO participate in the design process as much as you can. Yes, it is primarily the designer’s job to deliver, but good communication between the both of you can mean reaching a solution quicker.