I’m just feeling sentimental and it’s probably silly, but it’s been a weird day and I wanted to share with other creatives who might understand.

This was my dad’s desk/art table when he was a design student in the 80s. Then it was mine when I was a student in the mid 00’s.

I’ve spent thousands of hours at this desk, as a student developing ideas, sketching things out and fine-tuning concepts.

As a post-grad I was broke for years, and couldn’t afford practical furniture — but this desk always worked out just fine. I started my freelance design business from here. Lots of late nights, early mornings, afternoons, I took a lot of calls, arrived at some big ideas, and even won some awards with some of the work I did here.

Over time, it became a bit warped and janky (so to speak), I eventually started a family of my own and the desk made its way to the basement where it saw less and less use. We just don’t really have room for it.

Today I made the decision to set it on the curb. Hopefully it’ll serve a purpose to another student or somebody in need of big ideas.

It’s just a desk but I’ve accomplished a lot on it. Off to your next adventure.

Maybe I’m just realizing my age or something, I don’t know. Anybody else have something like this?

This is the second dradft of my portfolio, I'm a college student seeking work and I would love to hear feedback on my portfolio and what I can do to better it :)

First draft was initially posted on r/portfoliocritique and r/Design. Some of my job and contact info is blocked out for privacy.

I tried this swiss style poster. I’m new to this style so any feedback is welcome.

I posted something similar couple days ago which I claimed it to be swiss style but not quite… So this time I actually tried to do it better following more principles.

As for hanging punctuation for quotation marks… idk I tried it but it seemed a bit odd with the quotation marks sticking out.

The name Ballenato ('Bye-e-nah-toe') means "little whale" and harkens to Galicia's strong maritime history.

The branding is steeped in Galician identity, with colours pulled from the region's flag paired with illustrations of regional and cultural symbols, both contemporary and historical.

The restaurant is based in hip, gentrified East London so the demographic skews towards young creative professionals. It serves regional specialties (lots of seafood), small plates and has an extensive bar.

Part of the identity hinges on this raw, paired-back typographic style, using just a singular monospaced font throughout.

One of the weirdest things about the present is buying stuff on Amazon where we have no idea who the manufacturer is or sometimes even the name of the product, this is obviously different than buying video games, but hear me out. Video Game packaging used to have to do a lot of heavy lifting. The actual graphics of the game weren’t impressive until 16 bit started to come out in the late 80s & the games themselves were fun - but not objectively impressive if you just took them at face value - my imagination would get so set off by these covers that the internal games would necessarily be a let down. I decided at a young age that the cover of anything i make should match at least the emotions created by the interior. But now, after looking at all these, I’m not sure. x SEAN

Hi everyone,

I've been tracking how local vendors, restaurants, and food brands are increasingly shifting toward generative AI for their food photography, menus, and advertising campaigns.

I'm really interested in the creative community's perspective on thus shift specifically wether this is an inevitable business tool or if it's actively eroding the market for food styling, photography, and authentic design.

If anyone has a few minutes, I'd love to know your thoughts on a few shifts happening right now:

1. Has the rise of AI tools changed the volume or type of projects you get from local food business lately?

2. In what ways do you see AI generated food imagery failing compared to real food styling and professional photography?

3. What is your biggest challenge or wory right noe as a creative because of this specific automation?

4. Have you actually had a client opt for a cheaper AI placeholder over your custom work? If so, how did you handle it?

Feel free to sound off in the comments!

I am a junior graphic designer, and trying to expand my portfolio by doing more branding/packaging work. I am currently reimagining the can packaging of the brand Cha Cha Matcha. I am trying to go for a playful, expressive design while still having a modern look and the feel of a matcha "wellness" drink. The first design was my original idea, but as time went on I started to feel like the cream stroke, green gradient, and flower icons were too much on the brand logo. The second design was my attempt at making something more simple and clean, while keeping some of the playfulness by keeping the same font. I usually have trouble making designs that look simple and effortlessly cool because I am a maximalist and never know when to stop adding. I would love feedback on which one you think works better. I am also open to criticism on the overall designs. Thanks!

I build a small color picker extension, and to test its "grab the whole palette" feature I ran it on the homepages of 15 big brands. The results were more interesting than I expected, so I put them in one image.

What I noticed:

• Amazon's buttons are not the logo orange (#FF6200). Add to Cart is a yellow, #FFD814, under a navy header (#232F3E).
• Starbucks uses three different greens on one page: #006242, #00754A and #008248.
• Most of them use a near-black (#121212, #141414, #23272A) for dark areas instead of pure #000. Home Depot and TikTok are the exceptions.

How it was done: the colors are read from the live pages on 16 Oct 2026 and ranked by how much of the screen each one covers. So read it as "what the site looks like today", not as official brand specs.

The full list with RGB values and a note on where each color is used (buttons, backgrounds, text) is here: https://pigmo.app/brand-colors/

The tool is Pigmo, a free Chrome/Edge extension, if you want to do the same on any other site. Happy to add brands if you tell me which ones you'd find useful.

… if you interviewed for a senior graphic designer position which has all the “usual” designer-side responsibilities, but also includes scheduling projects, assigning projects and (in their words) having to sometimes have “tough conversations” with the junior designers re: coming in late, or getting rambunctious and needing to be refocused or make sure they’re doing things on time and correctly / properly etc.

To me that sounds more design / studio manager sort of responsibilities (but also staying on the tools)? And I also don’t know how I feel about designers acting what sounds like quite unprofessional? Should I be having to tell professionals to show up on time and stay focused etc.? I’ve never encountered that in any of my workplaces. People are grown adults in a professional workplace and behave accordingly.

Do senior graphic designer roles usually come with these more people-managing responsibilities or just some?

I’m just trying to figure out whether I want those responsibilities or not. If it’s not a standard part of senior roles then honestly at this stage probably not. But if it is, then it’s unavoidable and I should just get used to it lol.

If it provides any context, this would be my first senior role. So I’d graduate up into the manager-esque duties but if I get offered the role I have to consider whether I want them.

Those who use recruitment agencies. Are clients wanting to interview you for short-term assignments lately? Is this different to in the past? I’m finding it really odd (and irritating) especially because then they decide they want extensive niche experience (like packaging) but they didn’t say that to the recruiter and then it doesn’t end up happening.

Isn’t the whole idea of hiring a recruitment agency that you don’t have to go through the hassle of interviewing freelancers because you trust the agency to find the right person to solve your problem? Where has this distrust come from?

And why are they not giving the recruiters clear briefs about what are absolute must-haves and only deciding after wasting everyone’s time? I have 10 years of experience, I can do most if not all things. None of the assignments I’ve been put forward for that didn’t happen, I wouldn’t be able to do. It’s silly.

Took inspiration from this reddit post. https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/s/krrV9Z4akk

Thoughts?

Hi everyone! I would appreciate some feedback on my portfolio! I’ve been working as an UI designer for two years (aprox.)… if I can have an extra pair of eyes to look at my work and give me advice and feedback, it would be ideal! Thank you
My portfolio

1. Currently in a marketing program.

I've always loved graphic design since I was a kid pirating Photoshop or being editor in chief of yearbook in high school. When I'm on the bus i look at ads and think of how I'd go about making one and even with the thought of not having much creative freedom excites me.

If money and job stability were not an option and I imagine what a perfect future for me would be it'd be working for clients or potentially opening up a print shop. Anything where I can even have an ounce of creativity and see that come to fruition excites me.

The marketing program I'm in is stressful and it's super technical so it focuses on sales and the psychology behind purchasing decisions. I'm not interested in program whatsoever especially compared to what the people in my class are interested in. I get panic attacks going to class, I'm dreading my future in the program, and I can tell I'll struggle in it. There's no creativity, only business, which I should've seen but I was young and naive when I applied.

The reason why I applied for marketing was because I didn't think I'd be able to make it into graphic design because it's so oversaturated and because of the AI takeover. Also, money is a concern of mine. I just want to be able to live comfortably.

There is a program called Graphic Communications that would really suit me and they're both two year programs so it wouldn't be the end of the world in terms of switching over.

Hi fellow designers. I'm looking to upgrade my work laptop and between the eternal debate between Windows vs Mac. I found this one. Do you guys think it is suitable for the Adobe System/Graphic Design/Photography/Video Editing?
Thanks for you help!

Psychedelic horror movie logo for a lettering style challenge, todays style is psychedelic.

I wanted something that had that 60's look with distorted letterforms and exaggerated serifs with a hint of horror injected into the design elements and color.

Made using a mix of sketching, scanning, Illustrator & Photoshop.

How to get out of it?

10 years experience, vast majority in-house production side for big retail brands. Print, digital, motion.

I’ve been applying for strictly in-house roles, getting through to screening calls (why that’s the trendy term at the moment for a first round interview I have no idea, they’re not chats they’re whole ass interviews lol) but then not going further with the feedback unanimously being they’re choosing to go with candidates with more relevant industry experience.

I don’t even know what this means.

They’re in-house, mostly retail but a few corporate… what more do you want from me?!

A couple I think were more brand identity leaning as they want someone to come in and develop it more, okay cool, a couple were senior roles so I guess maybe candidates who have already held senior positions (this would be my first).

How the heck do I get someone to give me a chance to branch out a little bit, some career growth, instead of people only being willing to hire me for EXACTLY what I’ve done previously, to the letter?

I’m so ready to challenge myself a little but companies don’t want to take the tiny risk of someone without extensive experience in everything they’re asking. Which okay, if you have equal candidates and some do and some don’t, that makes sense.

It’s just leaving me feeling a bit stuck.

Let’s not even get into the fact that when I’ve gotten the chance, I’ve really enjoyed brand design and packaging and even concepting, but they’re another example of if you don’t get lots of experience in it early on, people aren’t willing to hire you to do it. So, I don’t.

I walked by this display in Macy's today, and I honestly thought it was boxes of macaroni and spaghetti. While the boxes are smaller than pasta packages, nothing about this design says "men's skin care" to me. Just me? Maybe I was just hungry?

this was mostly just a quick warmup i wanted to share! funny story this was originally gonna be an eyeshadow palette brand but i couldnt find any good mockups that suited my vision and didnt cost money LOL so i went with nail polish but i think it still worked out! i wanted to aim for something witchy and cute and of course slightly inspired by sailor moon. i had a lot of fun with it!

just started taking an interest in graphic design.
i created a poster for a fictional pop up store. target audience would be fashionable women (but the masses are welcome as well) skewing from late teens - mid 20s.

this was done before any prior knowledge of things like visual hierarchy, contrast, etc.

looking for any advice on how to improve in general but also any things that i may have missed that could make this work better!

Am I being too picky or expecting too much when it comes to graphic design portfolios from university graduates?

I’ve been researching different schools because I’m trying to decide where I want to study, but so far, none of the programs I’ve looked at have really convinced me, especially the universities that aren’t specifically focused on design. The schools that are more design focused do seem to have really strong student portfolios, but unfortunately, I can’t afford those programs

I’ve been looking through portfolios from recent graduates at some of the other universities, and honestly, a lot of the work doesn’t look like what I would expect from someone who studied graphic design for four years. A lot of them look more like the work of someone who is still fairly new and learning the fundamentals

I usually compare these portfolios to the work coming out of more design focused schools, and the difference is pretty noticeable. The portfolios from those programs tend to look much more polished, professional, and attention grabbing

These degrees aren’t cheap from what I’ve found, they can cost anywhere from $60K to $120K for graphic design. If I’m going to spend that much money and four years studying, I feel like it’s reasonable to expect to graduate with a strong, professional looking portfolio or am I expecting too much from universities?

I built my portfolio back in college, and it shows. I thought it was still ok until an interviewer, without me telling her I'd made it in college, basically identified it as a college project. I'd like to update it with all new design and projects that better reflect my skills as a designer today.

Problem is I'm not sure what sorts of projects I should go about building, how many of them to build, or how long to make my portfolio. In college we had a structured course that just had us taking work from our previous classes over the past 4 years. Without any guidance like that, I'm not sure what to include.

I should also add that my only job experience was with a magazine company. I was there for about 4 years and gathered a few pieces I liked, but the entire department was unceremoniously let go right before Christmas with no time to gather anything else, so I'm limited on what I can pull from that experience. Plus, being that it's for a magazine, it's all in a similar "genre" of design, mostly being ads for local businesses, advertorials, etc.

I'm a 20 year old architecture student (5th semester) and I've been thinking about switching majors since I'm not very passionate about it anymore.

I've always been attracted to design and creative careers, and thought architecture was my calling but I haven't find my place in it.

Another option for me was graphic design- but I opted out thinking that architecture was more economically estable but it's taking quite a toll on me.

The thing is, I have graphic design as a career very idealized, which happened with architecture too. So I want you to tell me the reality of studying and working on it.

I took some graphic design optatives in high school, and since I'm halfway in architecture I'm already familiarized with universal design concepts, I can pick up how to use diverse softwares fairly quickly, and well, I have had to deal with very harsh criticism and that hard work=/=good grades, so I think I'm prepared for that aspect of design careers.