Our editorial colleagues who work on sister publications in the design, craft and fine-art fields are also buzzing about this: the Orphan Works Act of 2008, which passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee in April. Orphan Works are works whose rightful copyright owner cannot be identified. According to a recent release from the Craft & Hobby Association, the Orphan Works Act of 2008 does the following: 

• It changes the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act, and makes it virtually impossible for artists to protect their work.
• It allows anyone to use a design without the copyright holder's permission.
• It requires artists to attempt to protect their work by registering it with a digital database system (presumably for a fee, in addition to the copyright filing fee) when no such system currently exists.
• It eliminates statutory damages wherever an infringer can successfully claim an Orphan Works defense, thus eliminating the only tool the law provides to prevent deliberate infringement.
• It allows for an infringer to create and copyright a derivative work from the original design.
• It leaves infringing works (and products incorporating them) subject to seizure in other countries.

CHA and the Graphic Artists Guild have joined forces to hire a lobbyist to advocate against the new law as it makes its way through the legislative process. If you want to know more, or want to take action, visit GAG.org.

After sorting through 27,000 logos to prepare LogoLounge 4, designer Bill Gardner started to spot a few trends. He's collected them into an interesting article about what's going on in logo design right now.

There is a certain childhood joy associated with the perfect cleaving of these orbs that is akin to discovering hidden treasure. The 70's op-art quality of these marks is accomplished with little regard for a reserved palette. Generally, brilliant color is a must and often cross-sections are as unique as Technicolor snowflakes.

Posted by Megan

The Design Management Institute is offering HOW readers a special summer deal on its seminars in June and July. Take advantage of the summer slowdown to learn the DNA of design and business success and take your design career to the next level. Visit the DMI's webpage for details on the offer, which runs through the end of June and is only available for first-time registrations.

Back by popular demand, frequent HOW speaker Jeni Herberger is joining us to present a series of webinars this summer. If your design career could use a tune-up (especially if you're looking to make yourself indispensable in this uncertain economy), sign up for HOW's Professional Growth Webinar Series.

Jeni will help you outline your career goals, successfully balance your work and professional life, and develop the strategic-thinking skills you need to get ahead in the design field—all in three one-hour webinar sessions.

All sessions are archived, so you can register and view them any time. (If you registered for the live event, you'll also have online access to the webinar for 12 months afterward, so you can watch it again and again as a refresher course.)

Register now for the first session on Thursday, June 19.

About the presenter
Jeni draws on her 20 years in the creative field, including her experience running a creative staffing firm, Big Fish. Her engaging and informative presentation style has earned her big props at various HOW events.

The brand new HOWBookstore.com offers up to 20% off every day. And if you sign up for the email newsletter, you'll recieve special offers like up to 40% off new releases, bargain basement clearance sales and more.
 

Posted by Megan

So, you're running your own solo creative gig, and you love working for yourself. Awesome.

But my bet is that you're finding it a bit more challenging than the romantic notion you had about freelancing before you started. (In my brief stint as a freelance writer, I hated the business-development side of things.)

We've heard more than a few of you say you wished there was some way you could learn all the business and marketing stuff you need to know when you're on your own. That's what the new Creative Freelancer Conference is all about. HOW and Marketing Mentor are teaming up on this first-time event, August 27-29 in Chicago. We've just launched the conference website, where you'll find info on sessions and speakers (most of them seasoned freelancers themselves), plus some helpful resources and a blog.

This conference isn't just for designers: if you know any freelance copywriters, illustrators or photographers, let them know about it, too. It'll be a place where designers can network with other creatives whose services they might need.

Like HOW's very first conference for in-house designers 3 years ago, we expect this event to fill up fast. Interested? Learn more and register now.

I was bummed that I had to miss Justin Ahrens' session at the HOW Conference, but super excited when he emailed us today to let us know he's posted the videos he collected for the session online. My personal favorite, is the designer Pash explaining what he loves about his job while dressed as a hotdog.

You Gotta Love It! from Rule29 on Vimeo.

Posted by Megan

Find type, color and layout inspiration in this growing collection of bottle caps by artists Maura Cluthe.

via box vox

Posted by Megan

I can't believe it's over. Really. This time last week, we were all in Boston, juiced up on caffeine and creative energy, and here we are now back at our desks.

A huge thanks to all of you in the design community -- nearly 4,000 of you! -- who attended, making this the biggest HOW Conference ever. It was such a blast being with ALL of you in Boston last week.

As I was digging through the mountain of email that came in last week, one message from a conference attendee stood out: She sent in a request for tips or advice for keeping that HOW vibe going strong now that we're all back at work. So in lieu of a session-by-session recap, I'll share some ideas for extending that creative energy in the coming months.

• First, unpack. Remember all the paper samples, photo catalogs and print brochures you picked up in the Resource Center -- the stuff you spent an hour in line waiting to ship home? Yeah, that. Unbox everything, and place your conference binder on your desk beside your Mac for more inspiration this week.

• Schedule a show-and-tell. Set a half-hour meeting this week to share all the goodies you collected in the Resource Center with your team. If you chatted with a vendor and got scoop on a new product, be sure to pass that info along to your colleagues.

• Relive the experience. If you purchased the registration package that included all the MP3s (from sessions whose presenters gave us permission to audio-record), you're all set. If you didn't, then check the conference website this week and purchase select sessions you want. Schedule brown-bag lunch meetings with your team once a week for the next several weeks, cue up the audio and get an hour's worth of instant inspiration. A few of my fave sessions that would make great post-conference listening:
Bill Strickland's inspiring keynote
Justin Ahrens' Designer Sobriety
Maggie Macnab's Decoding Design
Von Glitschka's awesome Illustrative Design
Erin Sarpa and Steven Morris' session, Lovin' Your Job
Joe Duffy's A Designed Life

• Make your own presentation. Last year, a design firm here in Cincinnati scheduled a meeting where two designers who attended HOW in Atlanta gave a casual presentation about all they'd seen and learned. They put together a simple slideshow of photos and shared the key ideas they brought home to the office.

• Do your homework. In their session, Lovin' Your Job, Erin Sarpa and Steven Morris asked the audience to complete several worksheets, and then gave everyone a homework assignment to work on when they got back to the office. If you were in that session -- or even if you weren't -- do these career-affirming exercises.

• Review your notes. While the information is still fresh, go back through the notes you took in your conference binder. Jot down new thoughts that come to mind, use a highlighter pen to mark key ideas that you want to remember, fill out any worksheets or checklists provided by the speakers. Make notes on handouts for sessions you missed, too. Keep the binder as a resource you can refer back to six months from now.

• Stay connected. If you were in Steve Gordon's Networking Lunch, you heard his advice on this topic: Don't let that stack of business cards you collected in Boston lie in a pile on your desk. This week, send emails to people you met and want to stay in touch with. Encourage a longer-term connection and build your network.

Stay tuned this week for more post-conference goodness, including links to photo sets, other blogs and more.