Welcome To The Smashing Design Section

• 3 min read
• Guides, Design, Graphic Design, Typography
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About The Author

Alma Hoffmann is an editor at Smashing Magazine, design educator, and a freelance designer. You can find her on Twitter @almahoffmann and on her blog … More about Alma ↬

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Hi! So glad you are here! My name is Alma, and I am the editor for the design section at Smashing. And you know what? I absolutely love it! I enjoy editing very much, and it makes me very happy when an article I have worked on gets published.

Let me tell you a little bit about me. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico. I moved to the continental US to pursue an MFA in graphic design. Since then, I have been teaching design at the university level, wrote a book about sketching, maintained a freelance practice, and I aim to create daily to keep my juices flowing.

As a designer, I have been fortunate to work with interesting people doing things to change the world they live in. You can see some of that work on my site. As an artist, I have had the opportunity to show my work in different venues, and my work has been recognized, which makes my heart very happy.

And now, a little secret: I am a former ballroom dancer. So, it comes as no surprise that when I see type, I see dancers on the page. My graduate thesis combined type and dance to create alternative layouts on the page based on dance forms. My hubby is a physicist who helps me with my writing and work. And my teen kids are ready to take the world on to make their mark. Lastly, my little beauty, Sunny Pie, is our cute dogo.

Now that you know something about me, let’s talk about this section. Design is an invitation to create, to inspire, to provoke, to initiate change, to transform others, to change others and ultimately to make the world a better place.

“Design is a verb and like a verb it is always moving, changing, transforming while the processes and stages remain constant.”

We all need to find inspiration. We all need to process our ideas. We all need to sketch. We all need to do research. We all need to go to the computer and create several iterations. We all need to revise and refine our ideas, and we all need to deliver the now tangible products or applications to the world. This makes our profession one of great responsibility and commitment while it is full of excitement and energy.

I want this section to be the place where we all can find that topic or question answered.

• Design ethics and culture, design education;
• Design process and research, sharing various creative processes;
• Cultural awareness and its importance for designers;
• Macro and micro aspects of typography;
• Ways of keeping up to date as designers;
• Good typographic practices, design thinking;
• Alternative methods of printing;
• Graphic design/typography history;
• Good productivity practices for designers;
• Using photography in design projects, ways to incorporate photography;
• Share easy and simple research practices in the design process;
• Importance of looking at detail and craft as designers;
• Good working habits designers should have;
• Dealing with clients as designers;
• Career advice for designers;
• Interviews with typographers and/or designers.

If you’re interested in writing about design and the topics mentioned above, please don’t hesitate to send me your ideas and proposals or reach out to me via Twitter anytime. Let’s make this corner the place to go for great design content!

(il, nl)