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Commercial Art

A guide to resources in the commercial art specialties of advertising design, digital rendering, gaming development, and photography.
Databases for Commercial Art

The databases below are your "best bets" for commercial arts research. Consider searching business, psychology, and biography databases as well in our A-Z databases list. Here are a couple examples from the Hobbies & Crafts Source database:

Questions to Consider:

  • What business models are important for freelance work? What should you know about your client's business needs?
  • How can psychology help you understand which advertisements are the most effective, and why?
  • Who are the big names in commercial art, and what can you learn by studying their careers?
Database Search Flowchart

Flowchart outlining five steps for conducting a library database search: 1) Start with a question or topic you'd like to learn about. 2) Determine which library database might have information on that topic. 3) Use the main parts of your topic as keywords or search terms. 4) Limit your search to the type of material you need. 5) Run the search and review the results. A decision point follows: If you found what you needed, save your results; if not, try the steps again.

Finding Print Journals & Magazines

The print journals and magazines (also known as periodicals), are located to the right of the entrance to the library and contain both popular and scholarly articles.

Browse the stacks to explore the use of advertising design and photography in print media.

Prominent Popular Magazines
  • Communication Arts - current 5 years
  • Forbes - current 2 years
  • National Geographic - current 10 years
  • Outdoor Photography - current 3 years
  • Sports Illustrated - current year
  • Southern Living - current 2 years
  • Time - current 2 years

Infographic comparing scholarly and popular articles. The left side describes scholarly articles as written by scholars or researchers, presenting original research or theory, specific to a niche field, peer-reviewed, using specialized vocabulary, with minimal ads or graphics, and including footnotes and bibliographies. Examples: Journal of Adult Education, Journal of Emergency Nursing. The right side describes popular articles as written by non-specialists, covering general interest topics, possibly biased, reviewed by editors, using less technical language, often containing images and ads, and not always citing sources. Examples: Time Magazine, National Geographic.