HOW Magazine is great! It is a fantastic reference and guide for graphic designers and artists. It is on the cutting edge but also appreciates the early designers. The advice is from first hand successful designers and is informative and true to life. I highly recommend the magazine to anyone wanting to stay ahead of the graphic design game.

Of all the design magazines, Print, CA, and HOW, HOW is the only one that has continued to match good business articles, print AND web. The only one I need every issue of.

As a freelance graphic designer only 6 months out of school, I would recommend this magazine to anyone else who is in the same boat. Not only does this magazine site books that may help designers, but it also gives advice on what works - the profiles of top design studios would give anyone ideas on what they need to do to keep business flowing.

I come from an entire family of designers, illustrators and art directors, all whom love Communication Arts - but that one is far too boring for me. HOW is more exciting, and for only $30, it is at a very reasonable price.

I ordered HOW for a graphic designer friend's birthday in January and it is near the end of March and she still has not received anything...

so we have no idea how the product is... we have not seen it.

This would be a great magazine for someone who either owns thier own design business, a pro freelancer or an art director who is high up on the food chain in an agency. Not very good for an entry-level design student such as myself. This magazine is first and foremost about the business of graphic design: how to promote your business, attract and retain clients, how to deal with a team of designers.

There are very little, if any, how-to's or design theory covered in this magazine. There isnt even much in the way of showing off of good design examples. Only some examples of "best-of" works that you have to really search for, and there isnt much in the way of advanced critiques of said works.

The "Guide To Self-Promotion" special section for subscribers was probably most benificial for me, because there was a nice little section on resume's and interview tips. However, you will find that most of that info can be found for free on the internet anyways.

As with many other reviewers, I'm a tad disgruntled at shelling out $29.99 for a bi-monthly magazine, 70% of which contains advertisments for different stock-image houses and specialty paper manufacturers. It is very difficult to "flip" though this magazine as every 10 pages or so you will find a paper manufacturer's ad printed on a thick card-stock sample. It is hard to stay concentrated on reading the articles when you are constantly fighting and struggling with the pages to stay open and flat.