Today in Design - Top Articles RoundUp 8 October 2015

The day’s best and most impor­tant design- and design business-focused arti­cles, tuto­ri­als, and resources hand-picked by Pariah Burke.

  • Thoughts on Becoming a Writer
    Do you want to be a writer? Are you in the process of becom­ing a writer? Maybe you’re already a writer!People often ask me how to become a writer. It seems like a sim­ple enough ques­tion, until you start con­sid­er­ing the seman­tics of the word w…
  • Freelancers, Are You Prepared for the Worst?

    But the good times don’t always last. In the future I may get sick, I may be in an acci­dent, I may be unable to work, or I may face finan­cial cri­sis. All of these things could hap­pen years from now or hours from now, or per­haps, if I’m lucky, nev­er. But one thing’s cer­tain: one day I’ll die, and so will you.

  • 3 Shakespearean Insults
    Great insults pep­per the come­dies and tragedies of William Shakespeare. (Though the Bard of Avon is known for his terms of endear­ments as well.) From A Midsummer Night’s Dream to King Henry IV, here are a few of our favorites.
  • Creating a Hobbit-like text effect in Photoshop [Video]
    Deke McClelland shows you how to cre­ate a type treat­ment sim­i­lar to the one used in the logo for The Hobbit
  • Title Play: The Progression of the “Graphic Designer” Designation
    Steven Heller explores the pro­gres­sion and cur­rent state of the “graph­ic design­er” designation.
  • Title Play: The Progression of the “Graphic Designer” Designation
    Steven Heller explores the pro­gres­sion and cur­rent state of the “graph­ic design­er” designation.
  • Showcase of Incredibly Realistic 3D Neon Sign Designs
    Admire the detail of the mod­els and beau­ty of the light reflect­ing mate­ri­als as you browse through this show­case of amaz­ing 3D neon sign designs.
  • 20+ Awesome Chalk Fonts to Download
    Think of chalk and you prob­a­bly would­n’t think of it as a font you would choose to use in web design. But you might be sur­prised at how endear­ing chalk can be.
  • 28 Graphic Design Podcast Homepages

    Those who love design are will­ing to fol­low in the foot­steps of greats who came before. Podcasts are an excel­lent way to pick up infor­ma­tion from these greats – but the pod­casts them­selves are only audio. As design­ers we care deeply about the pack­ag­ing and its shiny lit­tle red bow.

  • 10 Great Stories Behind Famous Works Of Art

    Art is unique because it speaks to each indi­vid­ual on a per­son­al lev­el. Whatever a work of art might mean to you, it won’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean the same thing to the per­son stand­ing behind you, and both could be com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent than the mean­ing intend­ed by the artist. That being said, art also has plen­ty of sto­ries to tell. These sto­ries are accrued over decades, even cen­turies, and are there for those will­ing to look close­ly enough.

  • Should Clean Reader Be Allowed to Censor eBooks?
    Clean Reader, which automag­i­cal­ly cen­sors eBooks, has kicked up a firestorm of ide­o­log­i­cal debate, and nei­ther side is back­ing down. So, who’s right? And what’s at stake?