Dara Weinberg

Sprucing up my portfolio for the first time in quite a while. I've added a bunch of new things, including some work I did at Petco and a The Beachbody Company logo and app concept that I created when I was leading UX and Product Design for them. If curious, this is how the logo concept was born: The heart is the hardest working muscle in the body. Fun fact: if you rotate a heart 90 degrees clockwise, it magically turns into the letter "B." Outline this "B" and, voila, a second "B" appears in the negative space, giving you "BB" for Beachbody. Finally, adding a circle around this design creates a sense of community and belonging. Bonus: it looks sweet as a mobile app icon. 👍 More here > https://cottonblend.com Did I mention I’m currently open to consulting and would also consider full-time opportunities as well? Let’s talk! #design #productdesign #ux #branding #creative #iOS

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Many times a layout requires multiple headshots for an about page, annual report or article listing important people. The problem: designers will get a variety of submitted headshots, some wonderful editorial-style images, some standard year-book style, some low resolution, and even selfies. Trying to create a professional, cohesive look, becomes a challenge with differences in photograph lighting and colors. The solution: A popular go-to remedy is the “make them all black and white” technique, but when dealing with low resolution issues, the solution has to be, “hire an illustrator.” As an in-house designer with a limited or no budget, I created this fun graphic style and found it an excellent solution to an ongoing problem. When you need something a little more artsy and out of the box, be bold! And it works well in both black and white and color! #artlover #digitalart #artmarketing #corporateportraits #portraits #illustration #illustrator #popart

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Did you know it's perfectly legal to discuss your salary? Companies often discourage this and may try to intimidate you if they find out. So here goes. 15 years experience. Sr Art Director, 163k year, left with 125k/RSUs vested and about 80k unvested. In a tough job market, it’s crucial to ensure you're negotiating what you're worth, not just what they say they can afford. Often, they can pay more. Don’t settle out of desperation. Your pay is significant—I didn’t even get a raise this year, so I understand how important it is. I was shocked to learn that some, women especially, I previously have worked with made nearly 40-50% less than I did. While there are reasons for different pay scales, the pay range for the same roles shouldn’t have a $60k-$100k disparity. Pay disparity remains a significant issue, particularly for women, with black and Latino women facing even greater wage gaps. On average, black women earn about 63 cents and Latino women about 55 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men. This disparity is influenced by systemic biases, discrimination, and limited access to higher-paying jobs and opportunities for advancement. Addressing these inequalities is crucial, not only for achieving fairness and equity but also for fostering economic growth and stability. Ensuring transparency in pay and advocating for equal compensation are vital steps toward closing this gap. Go get your money. Don’t let a company gaslight you. If it takes nine interviews, you’re worth it.

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Mechs. So many mechs and so many styles. I started exploring --sref again looking for additional good graphic novel/comic book styles. In my testing, I would bounce from mechs to some of my weird west prompts to see how it handles humans and creatures. Some work great for both, some not so much. #aiart #aiartwork #aicc #aicccreators #midjourney #midjourneyart #midjourneyai #illustration #nijijourney #NIJI #characterdesign #characterart #generativeart #generativeai

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Cross pollination/Multitask It takes what it takes. If I am to multitask---my visuals can too. To illustrate: Here’s “BRUTUS” my Chevy G/10 from 669’s “Respect the Van” series. He was re-dressed and branded for another group’s application. “WHY?” They were looking for something different, yet they needed wiggle room within the budget. To accommodate those efforts, I offered up one of the RTV vans to play assist. No creating from scratch—the boat (in this case a van) was already built! Multitask/Cross pollination is not a water-down---- It’s stepping UP and stepping into possibilities and opportunities. In business, wiggle room and redirect are vital. Afterall, it’s more than a van in a visual—it’s a “team player” and a visual that will speak to their avatar audience. It also hit a price point that was favorable for all involved. That’s a WIN. You’d be amazed how many different scenarios happen within the studio. Every project has its own needs, and no request is (EVER) off the table. You don’t know unless you ask! ----------- I’m Scott Fisk---from Studio 669, I create visuals that knock DOWN the doors of “normal”, making YOUR audience scream for more. DM me “Go Time” -Let’s discuss getting YOUR brand next level. It’s a (FREE) no obligation conversation.   💥 If you enjoyed this post, give me a follow! And I’ll drop cool into your feed on the daily. That's a promise. #designwork #branding #strategy 

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While it's been somewhat of a "nice to have" for quite a while now, it increasingly seems like recently the expectation for director-level graphic design positions is expertise in Adobe After Effects. It's perplexing, because on the one hand, AE (and its competitors) is part of a completely different discipline and industry (video production and animation) than graphic design. I understand hoping for candidates with a multitude of wide-ranging talents, but this seems akin to hoping a video production professional has expertise in InDesign publication layout. They're not really in the same career sphere. Or are they? Is this a case of being too stubborn in defining what a graphic designer's expertise should cover? I'm always willing to learn new software, processes, and skill sets as the industry advances - that's a core requisite of being a creative professional in such a technology-bound career. Is proficiency in After Effects and other elements of video production/animation the natural evolution of graphic design as a profession? Feel free to share your thoughts, whether you're on the creative side, or the hiring side for these positions. I'd love to get the pulse of the industry and of hiring managers writ large on this topic.

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Do you really need a PDF? PDFs have their place—legal requirements, large reports, brochures and whitepapers. And while they can be made accessible PDFs, they are a bit of a pain since any update requires you to re-do all the accessible edits from scratch. But if you have access to the HTML code of the site, then you have a better option. An accessible HTML page can be read by Screenreaders, navigated by keyboard, AND it will scale and be readable on a mobile device. Best of all is if the user truly needs a hard copy, a proper print stylesheet will allow them to print out or export the page as a nicely formatted PDF. #yesterlearnings #PDF #accessibility #a11y #html #webdevelopment #tips

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😅 When your client wants more changes but you're on the brink of design death... 💀💼 Ever felt like you're running out of time and ideas, and suddenly your client hits you with more changes? It's like designing on borrowed time! ⏳💣 But hey, who said we designers aren't up for a challenge, even if it's a race against time? 😅 Embrace those changes, they might just breathe new life into your project! 💡💀 #DesignLife #ClientChanges #graphicdesigner

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Color gradients can be such a beautiful way for your viewers + potential customers to enjoy color. 🌈 {however - I think this was WAY overused in 2022/2023} The key is mixing the colors + making sure they have equal hue, value + saturation. They need to be in the same color family! That means if one color has a gray undertone - the second colors needs to have a gray undertone as well! Have you been using gradients? If so, how has it worked for you?

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Can we please stop using white and beige studios with zero set design/art direction that do nothing to help you stand out visually. Sure, they look modern and clean, but if everyone uses the space in the same way as your brand/product.... how do you stand out? I was trying to find my wife some new activewear recently and loved the idea of using a local brand. So I'm scrolling through an IG hashtag and found a great option. Then me being me, I promptly forgot the brand name an hour later, so when I went to actually order I went back into the hashtag and ordered from the WRONG brand 🙄 who had also done a photo shoot in this studio space. I only realised this today going back through IG! Thankfully, the activewear I did get is awesome, wife is happy, but this reminds me why you've really got to take a step back and think beyond the photo/video shoot on the day itself, making sure that: - You've planned out how your content will look once absorbed into the newsfeed, not just silo'd against your brand portal. - You're always iterating and taking the next step. Pay attention to trends of course, but build on them or give them a new spin. 'On brand' should not mean 'bland brand'. Thoughts?

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We're building out this promotion where we wanted to give sweeps entries for a Watch or a Like on a YouTube video. Unfortunately, that appears to be a oneway ticket to getting our client's page taken down. In an attempt to ensure video engagement is authentic, YouTube's Fake Engagement Policy prohibits you from exchanging things like that for compensation (i.e. an entry). I always recommend checking with Legal first, but also, just come up with a more creative way to grab those eyeballs. #yesterlearnings #youtube #engagement

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Tethered Closures on Bottles are the New Hot Trend in Beverage Packaging Design

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Have you listened to The Design Imposter Podcast? Monique and I have some remarkable guests in the coming weeks and the conversations are 🔥 Actually, our pre-recording vibe checks have been 🔥🔥🔥 We really need to start recording the vibe checks for b-roll. ---- Here's one of my favorite episodes which discusses the benefits of working in a corporate environment over freelancing and entrepreneurship. https://lnkd.in/eYKW3sTA

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Always have a backup. Legal departments require detail and can sometimes take a longer time that you want to come to a decision. Deadlines don’t change and at some point you may need to pivot. Communicate to the client you have a way to keep users engaged even without the idea everybody loves. #yesterlearnings

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Looking for someone to do your video production? Not quite sure who to use? Look no further. With our extensive video production experience, we have just what you are looking for. Still not quite convinced? Here are a few reasons you can entrust us with your passion project. - Read More

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Swipe 🆙 Join me next week and learn how to convert Adobe InDesign projects into a mobile flip book with vertical swipe effects. #adobeindesign #indesign #digitalpublishing #publishing #mobile

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Why typography has a lot in common with architecture. The term typography does not only describe how type looks, such as typeface, point size, letter spacing, etc. It also describes how type is placed on the canvas. Designers work with gray boxes that reference elements on the page, such as type, images, or graphic shapes. Looking at these block-ins, they appear very similar to floor plans, views, or sections. It is about designing and arranging elements in a defined space. That’s why architects can get a ton of inspiration from good typography, and vice versa. The Image shown is a page of the book „Die Neue Typographie“ by Jan Tschichold

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