Zeven Design is a blog dedicated to graphic design with an emphasis on the fundamentals of design.

There are a lot of awesome inspiration sites out there. And a lot of great tutorial sites. This one is neither of those things, although you’ll find some inspiration and some tutorials here. But mostly, you’ll find articles on the fundamentals of design. Color harmony, composition, typography, grids, templates—these are the things that you have to learn regardless of what software you use, what style you prefer or what client you have.

And this site is your key to the kingdom.

Take a look. Hopefully you’ll find something interesting. And maybe even learn a thing or two.

History

The site started back in 2010. I originally created the site as my freelance design website. The blog was its own small section. And I added to it when I had some spare moments. The blog grew but the site really did nothing to get me any business. I was working in England at the time and then moved (back) to the US in 2012. At that point I decided that I’d change the site to just be a blog. And that’s what it’s been since then.

The Author

I’m currently the sole author of the site.  I’ve been a designer for more than 15 years. I started in a darkroom, color correcting photos the old-fashioned way. From there, I worked up the ranks in an internal design department to become lead designer of an international organization before co-starting my own design company.

I have worked in almost every field of design and studied extensively the fundamentals of design—color, composition, typography, et al. I’ve learned through getting my designs reviewed by designers more skilled than me, marketing managers more savvy than me and prepress and print professionals more detail-oriented than me. And I’ve also learned the field by working with some of the top professionals in the various graphic design crafts.

This site is a personal project for me to share knowledge with my fellow designers.

You can check out my portfolio site here.

You can visit Tethos Creative here.

And you can check out my twitter here.