Check out women in design etc! and Check out Aiga’s blog by designers on design-excellence!
From webheroines.com
Web Heroines is a website and not-for-profit cooperative that formed out of concern for the lack of women in IT. Based out of the UK, they’ve done tons of research and came to the conclusion that women find the tech industry both nerdy and masculine (duh). They also heard stories of discrimination and got the overall feeling that women in tech felt isolated. Later it came to their attention that it wasn’t only IT that was lacking ladies, so their mission evolved to include increasing the number of women in industries such as web, mobile, programming, design, UX and UI.
Instead of ranting about the topic, Web Heroines set out to create an online community where women could post information about their current projects, get feedback, and find potential collaborators and startup partners. The site is still underway, but scheduled to launch late September. It will serve as a great tool to everyone on the web, as they are planning to offer free online workshops (starring experts on topics voted on by the community) and podcasts featuring positive female role models in the land of nerdery.

They also plan to run a blog which will address, highlight and seek out gender discrimination issues surrounding women in tech. Topics will be open to the public for discussion and debate via social media, so log on and sign up if you want to be informed when they launch in September.

“Sometimes us ladies just want to chat to other ladies about our careers, things we like and to hear inspiring stories. This is a space for women to connect, listen and share.” — webheroines.com

From webheroines.com
As a woman of the web, it’s extremely exciting to see a site with this kind of focus come to life. Not only will it encourage and inspire women, but also serve as a great source of web and tech information to everyone. 

–Victoria Pater

50 Illustrator Tutorials Every Designer Should See

Adobe Illustrator can be a little tricky to get your head around, particularly after getting used to the workflow of applications such as Photoshop. The differences between layer use and the creation of objects and shapes can be really strange at first hand. Luckily there’s a range of help available for free online in the form of tutorials. Here is my collection of hand-picked articles from various sites that every designer should see, whether you’re a beginner or advanced user, there will be something here for you!

Vector Tracing a Photo

Create the Photoshop CS2 Splash Graphic

Illustrating a Summer Field Landscape

How to Turn Glasses into a Great Geek Icon

Create a Vector Film Slate Icon

A Guide to Illustrator’s Paintbrush Tool and Brush Panel

A Guide to Illustrator’s Blend Tool

How to Create a Cute Bunny Vector Character

Design with Swirls and Flourishes

Swirl Mania in Illustrator and Photoshop

Designing a Sleek Pencil Icon

Illustrator Watercolour Brush Tutorial

Creating a Vector Folder Icon

Adobe Illustrator Cartoon Snail Tutorial

Creating Vector Graphic Circles

How to Make a Map in Illustrator

Creating Convincing Characters

Creating a Crazy Cool Logo

Draw Your Own Vector Self Portrait

Create a Vector Cartoon Character

Guide to Illustrator’s Pen Tool

From Sketch to Vector Illustration

Create the Design Float Circle Icon

Illustrator 101 – Opacity Masks

Create a Vector Home Cinema Design

Creating a ribbon in Adobe Illustrator

Recreate the Obama Logo in Illustrator

Create the Perfect Diamond in Illustrator

Old School Type with Line Gradients

Simple organic shapes the Illustrator way

Learn Illustrator CS3 in 30 Days

Creating a Friendly Green Type Treatment

Blueprint-Style Text in Adobe Illustrator

Building a Website Wireframe in Illustrator

Create an envelpe icon with a satin feel

How to Create Anatomy Illustrations in Illustrator

Illustration 4 Pt Series – From Sketch to Finish

Create Sketchy-Style Vectors

Create Vector Japanese Style Tattoos

Create a Tasty Skate Deck Graphic

Just in case you didn’t know, I also have a collection of Illustrator tutorials right here on Blog.SpoonGraphics, to finish off the last 10 here’s some shameless self promotion of Illustrator turorials of my very own!

Create a Vector RSS Icon with Illustrator

Create a Vector Pirate Cartoon Character

Vector Monster Character Illustrator Tutorial

Create a Colourful Abstract Wavy Ribbon

Translucent IM Style Illustrator Icon Tutorial

Create Your Own Spoof Airplane Safety Illustrations

How to Create a Vector iMac Graphic in Illustrator

How to Create a Vector Safari Compass in Illustrator

Illustrator Tutorial – Create a Blissful Vector Scene

Create a Themed Repeating Pattern in Illustrator

Written by Chris Spooner. 

We need more people like Sylvia Harris. RIP. 

 Sylvia Harris (photo: George Larkins)

Sylvia Harris—an accomplished information design strategist, former director on the AIGA national board and active member of the AIGA community—died this past weekend at the age of 57. She was the principal of Citizen Research & Design, a communications firm balancing “policy and design in order to serve people.” Through her private practice, her involvement in initiatives such as AIGA Design for Democracy and her role on the U.S. Postal Service’s Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee, she was a “champion of good design for the public realm” for more than 25 years.

In 2010 AIGA celebrated Harris’s achievements in the exhibition “Design Journeys: You Are Here,” in which her personal and professional path to becoming a designer was spotlighted. Her passing comes as a great shock. AIGA Executive Director Richard Grefé comments, “Sylvia was a touchstone at each shift in the direction of AIGA and the profession. She was supportive, active and deeply committed to AIGA and the entire profession, to the potential of the creative mind, and to design as a calling, not simply a vocation, in which we all could contribute to a higher purpose. To say Sylvia will be missed is an understatement.”

Jessica Helfand was with Harris in Washington, D.C., for a Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee meeting when Harris was taken ill. A brief notice is published here. A longer remembrance will be published on Design Observer later this week. Most recently Helfand and Harris worked together on the “Pioneers of American Industrial Design” series of commemorative stamps, recognizing the contributions of designers to American life.

When Harris was interviewed for the “Design Journeys” project in 2007, we asked how she would like to be remembered 100 years from now. Her response: “A citizen designer who made a difference.”

Harris is survived by her husband, Gary Singer, their daughter, Thai, and her sister, Juliette Harris