Lynda & Tokidoki

We’ve recently re-subscribed to Lynda, an online training library. It has been a while and I am quite excited about their latest releases. They’ve added everything from Quickbooks Pro training to a fabulous series called Creative Epression featuring Simone of tokidoki.

In a series of short videos, Simone Legno takes one from sketching a character through preparing for production. His examples range from character, event, shirt, shoe and skate deck design. How does he handle these various projects? By never thinking of himself as finished and always striving to learn and improve; in disucssing a recent proejct, he says, It was a great experience for me because it is always good to learn.

Not only is the series full of technical information, but Simone also imparts some getting started advice. When asked what you should start designing on, Simone replies that Most easy and important for a brand item is a tshirt because a tshirt is a great canvas item and generally people are looking for new graphics to wear.

One of my favorite collaborations on the Tokidoki site is tokidoki for Hello Kitty, where Hello Kitty becomes a cactus friend. What is a cactus friend, you ask? Watch the series!

Creative Expression is dramatically different than any other release I’ve seen from Lynda thus far. Here’s hoping they continue with more videos in this niche.

Kandace Brigleb

Producer, co-founder of Needmore. Currently residing on the left coast.