I take pictures for a wide range of clients. And the people I work with seem to like the fact that I shoot from the perspective of an experienced designer since this tends to result in images that look good, communicate well, and apply themselves smoothly to both printed and posted media.

Got a project in mind? Let’s talk. And if you’d like to see more of a particular kind of photo from me (portraits, architectural shots, or healthcare-related photos, for instance) let me assemble a set for you to look through. Meantime, feel free to take a look at both the samples shown here and on my somewhat less formal Instagram feed.

As some of you know, I’ve already got two color-idea books out there: Color Index and Color Index 2. These are very popular and globally available books that offer hundreds of ready-to-use color ideas for designers, artists, illustrators, and anyone else who uses color for professional and personal projects.

Well, the big news here is that I’ve recently finished putting together an all new, bigger, better, and faster addition to the series, and it’s called Color Index XL. The “XL” in the title stands for this new book’s greatly enlarged format, but that’s not all that’s new here. Color Index XL features a super-useful new layout where each page displays a five-color palette in four different versions: bright, dark, light, and muted. I’ve found this to be a highly practical setup since it allows users to freely borrow colors from any or all of a page’s palette-versions when working on layouts, illustrations, or works of art. Another new feature of this book is that each of its 5-color palettes extend all the way to the edges of their page—which makes it easy to hold a specific palette up against other illustrations, photos, or layouts for quick comparison. And, as with the earlier Color Index books, every color in the new Color Index XL is presented with its unique CMYK and RGB formula for easy entry into the computer.

And did I mention that Color Index XL has over 1,100 color schemes along with an enlightening intro chapter on color theory?

You can check out the book on Amazon, and here’s the first video in a series of quick (and free) vids that demonstrate the features and functionality of Color Index XL.

Athletes often cross-train by participating in sports that are different than—but also complementary to—their main activity. They do this to expand their range of skills; build muscle and flexibility, and, very importantly, to give themselves a mental break from their usual routine.

Creative people, too, can benefit from cross-training. Or, more specifically, through what I’m calling creative cross-training in my new 12-chapter course on LinkedIn Learning. In this course, we take a good look at how creative people of all kinds (designers, illustrators, fine-artists, and photographers, to name a few) can cross-train to expand their skillset, build and maintain their creative muscle and flexibility, and also to give themselves a mental breather from their usual creative outlet(s).

And this course does a lot more than just talk about the benefits of creative cross-training: it provides viewers with a wide range of real-world, hands-on projects that deal with photography, sketching, doodling, painting, writing, 3D assemblages, making mini-movies, watching real movies, brainstorming, and much more. So, no matter what’s the focus of your main creative passion, you’re very likely to find all kinds of creative cross-training ideas and outlets in this course. And who knows… one or two of these outlets might even lead you along the path of an entirely new career trajectory (and I’m speaking from personal experience here, by the way…)

How about taking a look at the first episode or two (or all twelve) and seeing what you think?

This comprehensive 28-chapter video course on color is aimed at anyone involved in the creation of layouts, logos, illustrations, paintings, photographs, and crafting projects. I had a great time working with the awesome people at Lynda.com (a.k.a. LinkedIn Learning) to create this online course, and here’s a sample chapter that you might want to check out.

Below are just few of the nice comments I’ve received from viewers of this popular course.

“I was thoroughly inspired! I can’t wait to apply all of this to every piece I do from now on!”

“While watching I became more and more impressed with the instructor's style, knowledge, expertise...etc. After seeking out his name I saw that he was Jim Krause, an author from whom I’ve purchased several books of his over the years. I just never knew what he looked like!”

“The instructor was really organized and easy to follow - I appreciated his simple delivery and enthusiasm. The information that was covered was helpful and engaging. Thanks for the color wheel PDFs and the paint supply list!”

“Practical, easy to understand, excellent instructor!”

“I enjoyed this course SO MUCH! My favorite subject above all things is color and color theory and I felt this really helped me brush up on subjects that were beginning to wane a bit in my mind.”

“I have read some of Jim Krause's design books and the books have always been helpful Great to see a course where he explains topics in more detail.”

Okay, first things first: This is a course aimed at designers, artists, illustrators, and pretty much any other kind of creative person who’s interested in shooting high-quality photos.

Here’s a link to a quick, informative and idea-generating slideshow about this course; and right here is a link to a free sample chapter; and if you go here you’ll find the full course on LinkedIn Learning.

. . . . .

So, I’m a graphic designer who also takes pictures. I shoot lots and lots of photos for clients, for my own books and video courses, for other designers, and, very importantly, for fun creative projects of my own. And based on what I’ve experienced while learning to take good-looking photos, I've come to strongly believe that the aesthetic, conceptual, and communicative skills that many creativity-minded people already have can be easily applied to the art of taking pictures. All that's really needed is an improved understanding of how cameras function, an expanded definition of a photo opportunity, a better awareness of both natural and added light, and a decent set of skills related to programs like Photoshop and Lightroom.

And that's exactly what my 31-chapter course on photography talks about, teaches, and demonstrates.

The first half of the course covers the basics and encourages viewers to use whatever camera they can get their hands on—cellphone, pocket, DSLR, or mirrorless—and try out a series of confidence-building photo projects (the kinds of hand-on activities that not only tend to be a lot of fun, but are also likely to produce all kinds of images that can be proudly displayed at your home, office, or online).

The course’s second half takes the skills covered in part one and shows how they can be elevated and applied to both real-world client work and upper-level personal projects.

There’s plenty to look at in this course (I've counted something like 1500 photo samples and video clips), and, given that the course is taught from the perspective of a designer who shoots pictures, I think its look and its approach to teaching are quite a bit different from that offered by other online photo classes.

Got a desktop scanner? Know someone who does? Did you know you can capture amazing photographic images with these things? That’s right, and a lot of people refer to this as the art of scanography.

I’ve gotten together with LinkedIn Learning to create a super-fun 27-chapter online course about this growing art craze, and I’m telling you, if you have access to a desktop scanner and are looking for a highly accessible and extremely unique art form to fill your evenings or weekends (or even to add to your professional bag of tricks) then I hope you’ll check it out.

In fact, you can take a look at a totally free video-chapter right here.

And if you’ve got a few extra minutes, I think that the super-quick, 15–20 second scanography videos on this page will not only entertain you, they might also get you pretty darn amped about the kind of creative output you and your scanner could be generating.

The course itself covers basic scanner knowhow, scanning software, ordinary scanning techniques, highly out-of-the-ordinary scanning techniques, digital finishes for your images, getting your scans out there for others to see, and the possibility of including scanography in your professional repertoire.

Already a member of LinkedIn Learning? See the full course here.

Creative Core is a set of three books that are aimed at both new and experienced designers. All three are packed with imagery, ideas, and real-world info about the art and practice of design.

Learn more about the set’s latest title, Lessons in Typography, through this deluxe slideshow and this detailed 4-minute video.

All three Creative Core books can be found online:

Lessons In Typography

Color for Designers

Visual Design

Logo design has always appealed to me. I’ve created designs for companies of all sizes and sorts—and have also written an entire book on the topic of logo design. Get in touch with me if you'd like to talk about a branding project for your company or organization. Here are a few samples of my designs.

I work in a wide range of illustration styles. My goal with every project is to uncover and apply a style that connects with the audience being targeted in a way that catches eyes and intrigues brains.

D30: Exercises for Designers is a collection of thirty hands-on creative projects aimed at designers, illustrators, photographers, artists, and anyone else involved in the creation of visual art. The book’s exercises will sharpen your ability to evaluate aesthetics; awaken your hands-on skills using pens, pencils, inks, paints, and paper; expand your digital savvy through fun and instructive computer-based projects; extend the range of talents you’re able to bring to both professional and personal works of design and art; and leave you with a sweet collection of ready-for-display artwork.

Find D30 at Amazon

The Logo Brainstorm Book is a stout 300-page volume with a true real-world purpose: to help designers come up with intriguing and attractive logos. The book does this by putting an abundance of custom-crafted visual and textual prompts in front of designers’ eyes in a way that can hardly help but launch all kinds of idea-producing chain reactions. The Logo Brainstorm Book was created for designers of all levels—from raw beginners to seasoned professionals—and its content invites readers to use whatever skills they possess to come up with effective and memorable logos.

Find The Logo Brainstorm Book online

These are my two best-selling books, and designers all over the world keep copies of one or both somewhere within reach of their desk. Both Color Index books have hundreds of multi-color palettes that designers, illustrators, and artists of all kinds can use when choosing color schemes for their creations. Each palette is presented with its corresponding RGB and CMYK formulas, which makes these books extremely practical desktop tools for both print and Web projects.

Find Color Index and Color Index 2 online

Find out more about Color Index XL—the latest in the Color Index series.

It all started with Idea Index in 1999. This short, fat, vinyl-bound book turned a lot of heads when it first came out, and before long it had been translated into five languages and was on sale around the world. After Idea Index came Layout Index, Design Basics Index, Photo Idea Index, Color Index, Color Index 2, Type Idea Index, Photo Idea Index: People, Photo Idea Index: Places, and Photo Idea Index: Things. All of these books are available on Amazon.

Looking for photos that capture the look and feel of life in (and around) southern Idaho? Here are a few of my favorites, and I’m also available to head out and shoot the kinds of images you’re interested in for specific projects. Send me an email if you’d like to get in touch.

All this work I do as a professional graphic designer, illustrator, and photographer got going because I love to paint. Just for fun. Always have and probably always will. So here’s a mini-gallery of some pieces that I’ve done during the past few years. Some are paint-on-paper, and the others were done with a stylus and pixels.