Resources
Websites & Blogs
- The 99% - It's not about ideas. It's about making ideas happen.
- Ad Sneeze - An involuntary burst of advertising
- Boing Boing - The world's greatest neurozine.
- Mashable - The largest independent news source dedicated to covering digital culture, social media and technology.
- Smashing Magazine - Delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers.
- Motionographer - A source of inspiration for filmmakers, animators and designers
- Ads of the World - Advertising archive and community showcases fresh campaigns daily from around the world.
- Logo Pond - Identity inspiration.
- Creattica - A gallery of great design and inspirational imagery.
- Stardust
- Typedia - A community website to classify typefaces and educate people about them
- Typography Served - Fresh works from leading creative professionals.
Networking
- AAF Houston - American Advertising Federation
- Ad2 Houston - A forum for communications professionals between the ages of 18 and 32 in Houston.
- AMA Houston - American Marketing Association
- ADC Houston - Art Directors Club
- HiMA - Houston Interactive Marketing Association
- AIGA Houston - American Institute of Graphic Arts
- OiH - Only in Houston
Tutorials & Learning
Online Portfolio Tools
Graphics Templates
Books & Magazines
- Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads - A searing, very funny cross between an insider's guide to writing great ads and a sendup of all that's heavy-handed, dim-witted, and ineffectual in advertising.
- Universal Principles of Design - The first cross-disciplinary reference of design.
- How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul - A no-holds-barred manual for being a graphic designer.
- Communication Arts (CA) - The premier source of inspiration for graphic designers, art directors, design firms, corporate design departments, advertising agencies, interactive designers, illustrators and photographers—everyone involved in visual communication.
- CMYK Magazine - Create. Showcase. Inspire.
- HOW Magazine - A practical mix of essential business information, up-to-date technology tips, the creative whys and hows behind noteworthy projects, and profiles of professionals who are influencing design.
- Advertising Age - Ad & Marketing News
- AdWeek - A regional focus on the advertising industry’s creative process, account changes, and decision makers.
- The Art of Client Service - A book about client service that is so practical it's almost embarrassing.
Major U.S. Portfolio Schools
- Chicago Portfolio School - A year of your undivided attention working on a year’s worth of great assignments. A year with the latest software comping up the best of your ideas. A year of showing work to award-winning instructors.
- Miami Ad School - The School of Pop Culture Engineering.
- Portfolio Center - A small Atlanta school with an enormous heart.
- Creative Circus - Founded in 1995 in Atlanta, Georgia, The Creative Circus is an accredited, two-year, portfolio-building, educational program for the creative side of the Advertising, Interactive Development, Design and Photography industries.
- Parsons The New School for Design - Leading new approaches to art and design education.
- The School of Visual Arts - New York, NY
- Brainco - The first school to integrate creative, strategy and technology across so many different disciplines.
- Art Center College of Design - Offers a rigorous and transdisciplinary curriculum, a faculty of professionals, strong ties to industry and a commitment to socially responsible design.
