AIGA Eye on Design’s Guide to Self-isolation for Designers

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Support freelance artists, small presses, booksellers, independent type designers, and more

* Support independent foundries, and discover new, cutting-edge fonts. We love getting lost in the list of indie foundries on Type.lol.

* Purchase fonts-in-progress and nurture the practices of up-and-coming type designers and students via platforms like Future Fonts.

* Get under a blanket and order a bundle of alternative comics from publishers like Breakdown Press, Nieves Books, Samandal, and Koyama Press.

* With Printed Matter and other book fairs cancelled, now is the time to order a stack of tomes from your most beloved design presses. We’ve just stocked up from Occasional Papers, Drawdown Books, Co-Co Press, Primary Information, Inventory Press, and Spector Books. Counter Print is offering to send customers videos of books they’re interested in.

* Now’s also the time to order that illustrated print you’ve had your eye on. We’ve been loving the Risograph designs sold via the web stores of Colorama, Earthbound Press, and Tan & Loose Press. And if you’ve had a zine idea in the drawer, why not finally make it a reality and print it with these small scale printers, too?

* As a part of your efforts to support indie bookstores, consider financially supporting booksellers directly—McNally Jackson Books for instance has just laid off nearly 80 booksellers in anticipation of revenue loss.

* Whatever you do, don’t buy books from Amazon (which is deprioritizing book deliveries right now anyway); support your local bookstores by shopping online with Bookshop.org.

* Purchase gift cards from your favorite book, design, and comic shops. Brookyln’s Desert Island Comics is offering 20% off on gift cards this week, or you can spend $30 for a mystery bag of illustrated goodies.

* Subscribe to Stack for ongoing support of independent magazines, delivered straight to your door.

* If you want to go a step further and donate your skills, you could design merch for your favorite bars, restaurants, or small businesses that are currently closed. We’ve been loving the sweaters and tees sold by NYC bar Beverly's to help raise the funds needed to pay their liquor license during the crisis. Or if you’re savvy at social media, lend your design skills and know-how to a local, small business less familiar with online marketing, and help them transition their business to a delivery service.

* Donate your home computer’s down-time to COVID-19 research by downloading and running crowdsourced distributed computing platform Folding@home.

* Art as aid: Support the COVID-19 relief effort in Pakistan by buying art prints donated by Pakistani artists all over the world at Prints for Pandemic Relief.

Find jobs + save money

* Students, register for free access to Adobe’s Creative Cloud through May 2020. Here’s more information on how it works.

* Take a deep dive through this comprehensive artist resource list, which includes opportunities and financial relief options available to artists of all disciplines.

* Scan this spreadsheet by Word of Mouth, that lists interdisciplinary, remote-friendly employers. Here’s another list of established remote companies.

* Follow AIGA’s weekly Design Jobs listings—AIGA is actively sourcing and flagging remote positions, too.

* For designers in New York, this semi-curated job listings doc is being updated with design listings.

* For anyone running your own business, Holly Howard, a business consultant and educator who comes highly recommended by several of our designer friends, is offering a 3-hour webinar called “Master Class in Crisis.” Payment is offered on a sliding scale.

* The fashion label Pyer Moss is offering a $50,000 grant for “minority and women owned small creative businesses who are currently in distress.” If this is you, email them at wanttohelp@yourfriendsin.nyc.

* AIGA Worldstudio Scholarships call for applications deadline April 15. Scholarships are awarded annually and benefit underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students who are studying photography, illustration, and design disciplines in colleges and universities in the United States

* Junior-year design students around the world: Apply for the Type Directors Club’s Beatrice Warde Scholarship, which is $5,000 toward tuition and a year’s membership to the TDC. Deadlines have been extended to April 1st.

* Take a look through the Remote Design Kit google doc, a crowdsourced resource for designers to get work related to the coronavirus outbreak.

* Scan a few jobs boards creating specifically for remote designers, such as Remote Design Jobs, Design Remotely, and Working Nomads.

* If you’re in a hiring position, or are able to commission a freelancer right now, consider hiring an individual listed in this ‘Designers in need of work during the COVID-19 pandemic’ spreadsheet.

* Adobe Portfolio and Adobe Talent on Behance free until May 31 Creative professionals and students can build and host their portfolio sites for free. Companies and recruiters can post job openings at no charge.

Collaborate—but at a distance

* Educators can read the great resources for remote collaboration and learning organized in this handy Google Doc by Teaching Design.

* Educators can also reference this list of remote teaching resources compiled by AIGA.

* Or join the GoneViral Slack started by Zach Lieberman for design educators for sharing resources, tips, and experiences while shifting to remote learning.

* Harvard Business Review’s explainer for collaborating remotely is helpful (and the animation is pretty nice to boot).

* If you’re finding it hard to transition to remote work, take a look at thes

* e tips for setting up a virtual workspace.

* Carly Ayres is organizing digital coffee chats between design students/recent grads and practicing designers. If you’re interested in being paired up (from either side) comment on her Twitter thread.

* This list of ways to maintain productivity and counteract loneliness while working at home is useful, courtesy of Lecture in Progress.

* Tune in to IxDA’s ‘The Shape of Remote Design Work’ panel discussion on Thursday, March 26th.

* Or join one of The Great Discontent’s online Potlucks: A great way to connect with other creatives while practising social distancing.

* The Coronavirus Tech Handbook has extensive resources for working from home, including a guide for remote managing. You can even join the handbook’s WhatsApp group for deep dives into the resource.

* Adobe Creative Cloud Integrations to Collaborate Better and Stay Productive When Working from Home—blog post

Teach yourself a new skill

* Learn how to design typefaces with Type Design A-Z, an adorable and comprehensive online series on type design that just launched on Kickstarter.

* Learn all about variable fonts and how to design with the new technology with this very handy Variable Fonts Primer.

* AIGA’s members at the Sustaining level will receive 40% off an annual premium subscription. New AIGA members, at any level, receive 2 months free.

* Proof, generate, and animate fonts all night with Dinamo’s Font Gauntlet.

* Discover new design tools to play with via this and this and this are.na channel.

* Watch live talks by designers and creatives that are streaming on Instagram via @LiveTalkFrom, a new design handle intending to “fight quarantine, boredom and, most importantly, to instill hope.”

* Tune into Adobe’s Creative Summit on March 31, which will now be online and free.

* Or sign up and tune into the IAM Weekend conference today and this weekend, for its live conference stream.

* If you’ve been itching to get into animation, why not submit a clip to Hellavision Television? The video-zine’s current call for entries asks for animations themed “Cursed/Blessed.”

* Brush up on your business know-how: Online business coaching service The Role Model Way is offering its “Artist Business and Goals Roadmap Course” for free during the COVID19 period. https://www.instagram.com/p/B9yzHNRnDDj/

* Create your own artwork encouraging others to stay at home, wash their hands, stop hoarding at the supermarket, or keep a 1.5 meter distance to others. We've been highlighting some of our favorite designs on our Instagram—stay tuned to see more!

* Sharpen your art history skills with this free “textbook” with almost anything you’d want to know about design history described at great length, not only about graphic design but other mediums as well.

* Go to Moritz Kleinsorge’s corporate-typeface.com to learn all about custom & corporate type and how you can use it effectively to improve your client’s branding. You can read it online or download a free PDF containing all chapters.

* Improve your small talk and critique skills with this online course: “Queen of Critique | King of Conversation.” It’s designed to help non-native English speakers share their work with more confidence to advance their art and design careers. It’s free for the month of April on Teachable. Artglish.teachable.com

* Grab your crayons, It’s coloring time! Relax and connect with your inner child with Free printable coloring pages. Colorabl.es

Entertain yourself

* Join the Quarantine Book Club, where authors jump on Zoom to discuss their latest release. Michael Bierut did one. So did the book club’s founder, Mike Montiero. Every session is $5 to join.

* Tune into Design Observer co-founders Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut's Design Observer Studio Sessions on Zoom this Friday 20th, featuring Harry Stevens from The Washington Post and Alissa Walker from Curbed.

* Follow along with Wendy MacNaughton’s Instagram Live drawing class