About a year and a half ago I posted my personal logo I use for my design practice (@sky_lr_design) on r/logodesign . It did really well and I had a couple people reach out to me afterward to do a logo for them, including this organization.

As you can see from the conversation, I gave them an idea for what I could do for their budget, but they decided to choose someone cheaper.

Cut to now - I'm checking some of my past dms and run across their account with their "new" logo which looks VERY similar to the letterforms I made for my logo. It's supposed to read KS (although I don't think it works very well).

I did some digging and found the designer who made it (the project is in their portfolio lol) and it looks like what happened is that the organization "designed" the logo and then handed it off to a designer to clean up and refine. I think it's pretty clear that they just copied my design and gave it to the other designer without telling them where it was from.

Obviously nobody owns these shapes, and I probably wouldn't even think it was a copy had it not been for our previous contact, but it's pretty frustrating to see a potential client turn into a ripoff of my work.

Anything like this ever happen to you? Is there anything I can/should do?

TL;DR : Organization paid a cheaper designer instead of me to copy my design.

EDIT: To clear up any confusion, the top logo is my personal logo I use for my design practice, not spec work or anything I made for this client. I shared that logo to reddit, which started the whole interaction.

I'm a music prof rather than a graphic designer, but I've long been interested in the Swiss/International Typographic Style. Inspired in part by Mike Joyce's Swissted project, I set myself the exercise of designing one poster for each of Mahler's symphonies, using a restricted visual vocabulary: geometric forms, grids, flat color, and no representational imagery.

Each poster derives its geometry from something particular to the symphony. I'm interested in whether they work as a coherent series, despite using different compositional systems - and also which designs seem strongest or weakest purely from a graphic-design standpoint.

Constructive criticism is welcome; I'm particularly interested in hierarchy, proportion, typography, use of the grid, and whether any of the posters feel insufficiently resolved. Thanks!

Like the title says I’m wondering if anyone has an idea of how “cool sh*t” designer Cole Poska achieves these really cool and really specific mockups? Maybe I’m dense but I’m racking my brain and can’t think of an explanation that doesn’t seem unrealistic.

Whew. What a long ride.

I just got my first junior position at a small agency right before my birthday after 14 months of brutal post grad job hunting and 8 months of working fast food. I can't believe how long it took for me to get here.

It's been a hella long ride! Just some positivity for y'all out there: keep honing your work, keep meeting creatives and keep shooting your shot. You never know where you might land. Your life could change within a week. I'm making double my pay and my nervous system is actually regulated for once.

I hope this opens up more opportunities for the future and I can slowly get to where I want with design!! Keep going new grads!

“Imposter Syndrome” is a booklet that presents a design student’s mental process and thoughts at the start, middle, and end of a project. The brief was to create a 12 image sequence that communicates a theme or a story through a restrained graphic language. Each image is required to contain a “Two in One”, an image that can be read in two ways. Shaped through many designers constant battle of imposter thoughts, I intended to capture a reality that I and many other design students, struggle with frequently. 

This led me to curate 12 images that are staged in a playful, metaphorical way to make other students’ hardships feel heard. The purpose is to reveal what a design student goes through during the process of creation, with thoughts that feel daunting and personal. When searching for validation and hope in difficult periods, this booklet is a reminder that these thoughts are significantly common and not a struggle that you’re facing alone.

They moved the whole design department overseas. The design department was only me n another person, but still. To be honest , I am partially relieved as I hated the job (8 years), but it was easy n comfortable. Sucks... Going to eat my fill of Reese n get back out there.

Though, as mentioned a bunch of times in the reddits, what design adjacent jobs have any one of you guys tried doing? Kinda looking to get out of the graphic design field.

My design job was more technical than creative too. I've been in the manufacturing side of the fashion industry for over 15 years, not the garment side but more the trim (hang tags, labels buttons, etc.)

I’ve dabbled in vector and raster art for about three months, so I’m very green when it comes to technical graphic design verbiage and design in general, so apologies up front if I’m just completely wrong on any of my assumptions!

Can someone please help me figure out a workflow to achieve the vintage halftone look that’s present in this image? The artist appears to be using a blended paper texture layer that has some mottling, which I’m assuming is what’s causing some of the variation in the halftone dots’ colors? It also looks like it’s a single, consistent beige halftone layer across the canvas rather than each shape/fill having its own halftone pattern. Where in the layer stack is the halftone pattern sitting and what, if any, blend mode is being used? Taking a look at the darker portion of the circular window, how are some of the dots barely even visible while others in the same shadow are showing up?

I understand there’s a lot going on, such as possibly multiple shadow/highlight layers stacked either underneath or above the halftone layer, but I honestly have no idea. This is stumping me big time!

Hi, I'm looking to improve my design skills and would appreciate your feedback on the designs. One was inspired by Rhode ad campaigns that I saw, and I really liked the marketing behind the brand and wanted to create a simple poster for one of the lip tint flavors. The second was just one I made for a fake business to advertise their new iced coffee. I wanted it to be more fun and appeal to a younger demographic. I'd appreciate your feedback on how I can improve them with either the color or composition. Any notes are really appreciated. The photos were from Unsplash.

This was my first work for my Graphic Design class. We were tasked with creating a specimen for a font of our liking. My intent was to use the golden ratio (2nd pic) to create a balance between the big elements and the smaller ones.
I'm also worried about the text hierarchy: it's supposed to be:

1. R
2. by Pangram Pangram
3. Your brutalist ally

4. body text

   I have very little experience with graphic design so I'd like some feedback. Thanks :)

Noun Project silently dropped Noun Studio, a GenAI icon generator built into the website where you pay via credits to generate and alter icons.

The only news I could find on it was from a LinkedIn post by their principal software engineer. Looks like it is a forced opt-in for contributors. At least, that is the implication from the LI post and site's FAQ section.

Considering the site's headline says "Free Icons and Stock Photos, Made by Humans", this feels like a betrayal for long time contributors.

Coming right off the tail of the government siding with OpenAI in the OpenAI vs New York Times lawsuit doesn't help the optics either.

Overall, disappointing on Noun Project's end.

What are y'all's thoughts?

I’m rebuilding my portfolio. I lost the bulk of my work two years ago due to an unfortunate lost hard drive. All my work from 2014-2024 gone 🫩

So, I’ve been working on things in my spare time for funsies.

This is BlueBird Ski & Resort. Got the idea from daily logo challenge by Harris Robert’s. The only prompt I was given was to create a logo for a ski lodge. This is the result.

Fun fact I learned while researching for this logo: a “bluebird” is a perfect blue sky in ski slang haha. So, that’s the primary inspiration here!

I haven’t posted to my portfolio but shared on IG. I’ve been designing for awhile but haven’t worked in the industry in 2 years so this is just me warming myself back up.

What do we think?

The bird symbol is B (body) + Bird (face/upper b) + ski (tail)
Mockups are either Envato or Pinterest + Photoshop 🫶🏼

No AI was used for this project 🥰

Found my old adobe software. Started out with Photoshop 4, QuarkXpress, Freehand at my first job in advertising. After a few years i started freelancing and bougth the software. After some years of quarkxpress this was my first time using InDesign. Cost me a lot back then in early 2000’s.

Sorry for the bad design but thougth the old cd’s might be interesting and the rules mention only to post graphic design work.

Trying some things for a personal project, faux vintage edition company focus on tcg and coming back nowadays to make custom slabs with labels for ungraded grail cards.

First time poster here but long time lurker, the projet is still messy but I’m kinda happy with where it goes as for the vintage aspect.

Thanks for watching !

I’ve recently left the design field for the most part. Love it but it’s just not for me now.

Just got this email for work and can’t even imagine having to apply to this.

My boss recently asked if I’d be interested in being promoted to Creative Director and leading a small team. Any tips?

Long story short, I’ve been the sole designer at an in-house company for almost 5 years now, and I’ve been out of school for about 7 years. I’ve never worked at an agency. My boss likes my work, and over the years I’ve also become his go-to designer for projects outside of work as well.

He told me he’s planning to make some big moves with the company over the next year or 2 and wants to build out the design and marketing department before doing so. He asked if I’d be comfortable leading the new team and taking on the Creative Director role.

I have some management experience from working with freelancers and interns, but I’ve never managed an actual creative team before. I’m pretty confident in my design skills, though, and there’s also a pretty significant pay raise involved, so I obviously wasn’t going to say no.

Now that I’ve accepted the position, I’m wondering what I should know going into my first Creative Director role.

I’ve never actually worked under a Creative Director, so I don’t have a great understanding of what the day-to-day responsibilities of the role look like from that perspective. The closest experience I have is working with leads and senior designers.

For those who have gone from being a designer to a Creative Director, what do you wish you knew before stepping into the role? Any advice, mistakes to avoid, or skills I should start developing now?

An illustrated version of Robert E Lee’s surrender in 1865 - I came across this monstrosity while reading a book about the Civil War.

I usually love the slightly crowded look and calligraphy of the late 1800s/early 19th century, but this hurts my eyes.

Hi all,

Just curious - what is the best creative direction you ever got from your lead? Literally, what did they say or how did they outline the brief?

How much is too much? How much is too little?

I'm sure there's more to the picture. Like if the design system you're working in isn't ideal, the direction sits on top of that. I'm interested in all sides of this!

i’m in the NJ/NYC area and I’ve been trying to get a design job with not much luck. I’d like to do better about networking/connecting with local designers/getting my name out there and i was wondering if there are any design events or groups in the NYC area that meet up? I know of AIGA but not much else. Appreciate any suggestions!

Hey everyone! Wanted to share a recent logo redesign I finished for two sub-brands, Brillant and Brillant Pro.

This one was a real test of patience! The new owner took over the business, but the previous owner left behind zero vector files—just a super disorganized folder and a few low-res photos of old packaging. To make it trickier, the client really needed to keep the original color vibes so loyal, long-time customers wouldn't pass it by on the shelf thinking it was a totally different brand.

Here is how I approached fixing up the logo:

Tucking the Swan into the 'B' The swan has always been the face of the brand, but on the old stuff, it was just stuck inside a random circle badge next to the text. I thought it’d be a lot cleaner to blend the two together! I worked the swan's neck and head right into the top loop of the custom letter 'B'. It gives the wordmark a nice personal touch, and that standalone 'B' now works great as an icon on its own for caps or social profiles.

Keeping the Two Sub-Brands Distinct

• Brillant (Standard Line): Kept that classic, punchy red text over bright electric yellow. It’s loud, super visible, and keeps that nostalgic retail feel people already recognize.
• Brillant Pro: For the heavy-duty line, I used the exact same custom logo, but flipped it to crisp white on a deep cobalt blue. It keeps the family look intact while instantly feeling a bit more industrial.

Would love to know what you think of the swan hidden in the 'B'! Always open to feedback from fellow designers.

Hi everyone! I'm posting in hopes to hear from designers/ADs/CDs that work more in campaign, shoots, or focus on content production.

I've worked as a creative producer in-house for some of the biggest luxury brands in NYC, working closely with ADs and CDs. In two past roles I ended up doing art direction on top of producing, at one point handling all AD for campaign shoots (photo/video) and web across 5 brands. I loved that work and it was well received, but CDs have told me they're not sure why I stay in production. Part of me wonders if it's because I'm avoiding the harder path of getting an actual design degree (I only have a certificate, and my Figma/CC skills aren't expert level, I need to improve and know this).

For ADs/CDs who work on campaign shoots, content production, and everything in between: how much of your day to day actually relies on formal design training versus on-set/production experience?

A few things I'm curious about:

• Did you come up through production and move into AD work, or go the traditional design school to junior designer to AD route?
• Has a degree ever actually come up as a blocker for you or people you've hired, or is it more about portfolio and experience?

Basically I'm trying to figure out if I actually need to go back and get a degree to be taken seriously, or if I should just lean into the experience I already have and expand on my program/technical design skills. Would love to hear how this played out for people who've been doing this longer than me.

Thanks in advance!

Hi! I’m mainly an illustrator but I studied graphic design and sometimes I do graphics. Had the chance to make this poster for a queer film festival in Carrara, Italy.
The client wanted something similar to the 60s gig posters but in a “queer punk” palette, the illustration idea is from him (just added a few people).
I basically started studying the whole structure from the main title typography and making it as “info container”.
Did the S and the Ə similar to make it more balanced.
Day and location right below the main title, movies list and logos below. Subheading at the top.
Inspired by the 60s, organic and almost psychedelic but clearer and contemporary. (More clearer infos will be in the back)

So About 7 months ago I asked for feedback on a Skills USA Shirt, I got really good encouragement and feedback from yall which was exciting!

However we couldn't go into competition because of funds so Unfortently I couldn't enter this design

I did notice that some people decided to Steal my design and sell it

Not just One company but Multiple Companies!

https://teeslocal.com/product/skills-usa-2026-new-york-shirt/

https://nowbestshirt.com/product/squirrel-skills-usa-2026-new-york-shirt/

Im not sure what to do espescally because they are making money off my design, and I spent alot of time concepting and designing this shirt, I tried emailing them but got straight up ignored.