Tip #1: Bookmark. Bookjim. Bookjody.

You might say that undiscovered, talented photographers and illustrators are to Art Directors, what high-school, "I scored the winning touchdown" football stories are to Al Bundy–they keep the latter young and relevant.

Establishing a network of creative resources is key to doing good work. But what if you don't have the luxury of working with an art buyer? With all the options out there, not to mention their reps' tear sheets, cold calls and gallery/museum openings, it can be overwhelming to keep track of them all. And without fail, the second your project calls for a one-handed finger painter to program your web site, you will forget which one of your friends dated her– ultimately losing all access to her many talents.

It is for this very reason I bring you Tip #1:
Create a "virtual network" using Safari (or Fire-fox's) Bookmark's menu bar, thereby bookmarking, organizing and keeping track of all the creative disciplines you work with, or wish to work with in the future. It's the poor man's version of CP+B's art buyer. For starters, I recommend the following categories:

1) Designers
2) Photographers
3) Illustrators
4) Production Companies
5) Programmers

Click here for a closer look.

Please comment with any helpful advice, tips or shortcuts. It's my hope to create a database of experience for us all to pull from. On that note, anyone know the keyboard shortcut for "transform" in Corel Draw? The more you know, right?

Comments

[brian hurewitz]

Tip #2: Get with the programs.

Thanks Jeff. I've honestly heard so much about de.licio.us. but my loyalty to using Apple's products and all things "Steve Jobs endorsed" kept me hooked to .mac and its computer to computer sharing capability. So I naturally stayed with Safari bookmarks. and until yesterday, I actually never even tried de.licio.us.

But after playing with it for about 10 minutes I realized how great it is, and gave in to signing up for an account. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to attempt importing my bookmarks to de.licio.us and see if it is actually easier to use during my day-to-day search for talent at work.

For all who are interested, follow the creation of my de.licio.us database at http://del.icio.us/brianhurewitz

[avisualperson]

um, I think they call that newdangled system de.licio.us. but in any case. I will say that most folks don't use the folder systems available in most browsers' bookmark systems, which is a huge feature and, nicely shown above. It kills me to see a set of bookmarks with 864 entries but no organization at all, or have bookmark overflow that scrolls for pages and pages. Call it the muffintop of URLs if you will, or perhaps bookmark vomit.