really helpful web links:
  blogs / forums
  conferences
  design firms
  design organizations
    and initiatives

  design periodicals
  design publishers
  illustration interests
  graduate programs
  paper companies
  sustainability
  typography: foundries
  typography: web
  what is graphic
    design?

  web design resources
  writing resources
  artists and designers i
    respect and admire

some good reading

blogs / forums:
    a list apart
    design envy
    design observer
    the die line
    the elements of typographic style (applied to the web)
    the living principles: creative action for collective good
    felt and wire
    friends of typography
    i love typography
    ladies of letterpress
    life craft
    parse
    type culture
    typophile
    typotheque
    underconsideration / speak up
    we love typography

conferences:
    atypi
    how design conference
    how interactive design conference
    international symposium on electronic art 2011
    next: aiga national design conference
    sxsw

design firms:
    carmichael lynch
    charles s anderson design
    eden design & communication
    ham in the fridge design
    hornall anderson design works
    lpk
    marc english design
    methodologie
    modern dog design
    Ralph Applebaum Associates
    sagmeister, inc.
    skolos wedell
    skyron
    studio dumbar
    tenazas design
    the designers republic


design organizations and initiatives:
    aiga
    aiga cincinnati
    art directors club of cincinnati
    association typographique internationale
    design can change
    design council, uk
    graphic artists guild
    icograda
    international society of typographic designers
    society for environmental graphic design
    
society of typographic aficionados

design periodicals:
    adbusters
    baseline magazine
    communication arts
    design issues
    dot dot dot
    eye magazine
    graphis
    how magazine
    id magazine
    metropolis
    print magazine
    step inside design
    uppercase
    visible language
    voice: aiga journal of design

publishers of design books:
    allworth press
    chronicle books
    f+w media
    gestalten
    hyphen press
    joost elffers books
    lars müller
    laurence king
    mit press
    peachpit press
    pepin press
    phaidon
    pie books
    princeton architectural press
    rockport publishers
    rotovision
    taschen
    thames & hudson
    verlag niggli
    yale university press

illustration interests:
    society of illustrators
    the illustrators' partnership of america
    the illustration conference


graduate programs in graphic design:
    art center, pasadena
    school of the art institue of chicago
    calarts, valencia
    california college of art & crafts, san francisco
    carnegie mellon, pittsburgh
    cranbrook, michigan
    copenhagen institute for interaction design, denmark
    kent state university, ohio
    minneapolis college of art & design
    north carolina state university, raleigh
    ohio state university, columbus
    rhode island school of design, providence
    royal college of art, london
    school of visual arts, new york
    university of the arts, philadelphia
    university of cincinnati
    university of hawaii, manoa
    university of illinois at chicago
    university of minnesota, twin cities
    university of washington, seattle
    virginia commonwealth university, richmond
    yale university, new haven

paper companies:
    french
    international paper
    mohawk
    neenah
    sappi
    scheufelen
    strathmore
    wausau

sustainability:
    design can change
    forest stewardship council
    french paper company
    leed: green building certification system
    the living principles: aiga center for sustainable design
    recycled paper printing
    sappi paper company
    soy inks
    story of stuff
    sustainable forestry initiative
    terracycle
    transmaterial
    treecycle

typography: foundries and distributors:
    adobe
    bitstream
    chank company
    international typeface corporation
    emigre
    fontboy
    fontshop international
    hoefler & frere-jones
    house industries
    letterror
    lucas fonts
    t26
    thirstype
    type culture
    type kit
    typotheque
    underware

typography: web:
    font deck
    google web fonts
    typekit
    webINK / fontdropper 1000
    the elements of typographic style for the web

web design resources:
    a list apart
    css zen garden
    html dog
    responsive web design
    smashing magazine
    web monkey
    w3c

writing resources:
    the chicago manual of style
    nku writing center

artists, designers and visual arts professionals that I respect and admire :
    judy anderson > artist, arts advocate
    ralph applebaum associates > interpretive museum and exhibition designers
    peter bil'ak > typographer, multi-disciplinary graphic designer, writer
    kate bingaman > designer, artist, educator
    blaine brownell > architect, alternative materials + processes researcher
    anne burdick > designer, educator
    dan cederholm > web designer, author
    julie chen > book artist
    cyan> visual communication designers
    sara diamond> art/design/media researcher and educator
    leslie dill > visual artist
    dave eggers > editor, mcsweeney's; artist
    patricia failing > art history professor
    kate gilmore > video/installation artist
    tim hawkinson > visual artist
    jenny holzer > visual artist
    connie hwang > visual communication designer, educator
    barbara kruger > visual artist
    local projects > experience designers
    ellen lupton > designer, curator, writer, critic, educator
    steven mccarthy > designer, author, artist, educator
    martin meersman > visual artist, waffle-maker extraordinaire
    elsa mora > visual artist
    modern dog > multi-disciplinary graphic design
    christopher ozubko > visual communication designer, educator
    bern porter > artist, poet
    emma powell > designer, researcher, visual artist
    mark rothko > visual artist
    robert rauschenberg > visual artist
    second story interactive studios > interaction designers
    jim sherraden > printer, letterpress shopkeeper
    jayme stone > musician
    studio on fire > letterpress designers/printers
    thonik > visual communication designers
    henk van assen > visual communication designer, eduactor
    douglas wadden > visual communication designer, eduactor, administrator
    renée walker > writer, poet
    carrie mae weems > photographer, installation artist
    lawrence weiner > visual artist
    sharon werner > multi-disciplinary graphic designer, illustrator
    rachel whiteread > sculptor, visual artist
    why not associates > multi-disciplinary graphic design firm
    piet zwart > graphic designer, typographer

 

some g o o d reading
    (book titles grouped by topic)

general graphic design:
    the graphic design reader, heller
    the education of a graphic designer, heller
    a smile in the mind, mcalhoune & stuart
    visual function, mijksenaar
    mixing messages, lupton
    marks of excellence, mollerup

graphic design theory:
    design, writing, research, Lupton
    looking closer: critical writings on
         graphic design
, (vols. 1-4), beirut
    the idea of design, margolin
    what is a designer?, potter

history:
    A History of Graphic Design, Meggs
    graphic design in america, walker art center
    twentieth century type , blackwell
    a short history of the printed word, chappell
    pioneers of modern typography, spencer
    high & low: modern art & popular culture,
        moma
    graphic design: a concise history, julier
    the twentieth century poster, ades
    bauhaus, könemann

typography:
    Thinking with Type, Lupton
    Unjustified Texts, Kinross
    an essay on typography, gill
    typography: macro+micro aesthetics, kunz
    typography now: the next wave,
        why not associates
    stop stealing sheep, spiekermann
    explorations in typography, de Bartolo with Spiekermann
    type & typography, baines
    the new typography, tschichold (mclean)
    grid systems in graphic design,
        müller-brockmann
    typographic design: form & communication,
        carter