Having a baby a little over a year ago had a certain effect on my work life: it got cut in half. Not the amount of work I had available, mind you, but the amount of time I had to devote to it.
Obviously I wouldn’t trade my son for anything in the world. He’s a rockstar. And I’m lucky enough to be able to do what I do from home, which means that I get to spend plenty of time with him. But managing work and being a mom is by far the toughest hurdle I’ve had to overcome in my life. Granted, it’s not hurdled yet, but I’m making headway. So I thought I’d share some of the decisions I’ve made that are making it possible. (more…)
“Valentine’s Day is Sunday. That means tomorrow is the kiddo’s last school day before VD. Wonder if I should still try to make cookies like I’d thought about earlier in the week? What are the odds I can get away putting it off until next Tuesday AFTER the official day? Probably not. Well I’ll just skip it this year and worry about it next year. One year olds won’t notice anyway.”
I met the president of my husband’s company today. She’s about five feet tall, maybe 110 soaking wet. And in five minutes I was fascinated with her. (more…)
So I’ve decided to choose a new name for my business. Why? Because I’ve never been in love with soulrinse. It was chosen haphazardly, back when my portfolio consisted of design AND art. The soulrinse name refers more to the art side than the design. (more…)
Ten years ago I was in art school at Auburn and working as a staff designer at the alumni magazine. I would have been a sophomore, taking figure drawing (I loved that class) and looking forward to drink specials on Wednesday nights.
I’ve been using the Shopp plugin for Wordpress on a site I’m developing. There are a lot of great things about Shopp; I’m planning a post in the coming weeks comparing Shopp and WP-ecommerce.
The latest problem I’ve been working out is how to add custom form fields for each product. Rickrackbaby.com offers custom monogramming, so I need a place for visitors to type in their custom text. To make it trickier, I actually need two custom fields for each product.
Last week I had the chance to speak to 6-8th graders at Prince of Peace in Hoover about how I use math in my job. One of my great friends is the math teacher, and has had several speakers over the course of the semester. She was particularly interested in showing the kids that even creative careers involve math on a daily basis.
So, inspired by Dick Hardt’s Identity 2.0 presentation I put together this little group of slides. If you haven’t seen the video of that presentation it is very much worth a watch. At any rate, the final product has little in common with Mr. Hardt’s presentation, but it was fun to throw together at midnight the night before and the kids got a kick out of it.
Lately I’ve been getting annoyed with my email clients. For one reason or another, none seem to perfectly fit the bill. Even Gmail has it’s issues. So when I ran across Threadsy I was interested. Billed as a way to “pull yourself together,” Threadsy aggregates all of your email accounts plus Facebook and Twitter in one place.
the challenge: Amy creates handmade, custom embroidered baby items that she wanted to have available online, with the caveat that she didn’t want to accept payments over the internet.
the solution: We used ecommerce software to build an order and email it to Amy, allowing her to communicate with and invoice customers at her leisure. The design reflects the fun patterns and colors that Amy uses in her pieces.
Jared Spool over at Johnny Holland Magazine has an article out this week about why making design recommendations is a bad thing. It’s true that critiquing a client’s existing materials, be it print or web, is a touchy situation. I for one am slow to judge another designer’s work. For all I know, he could be dealing with an owner telling him he MUST use purple if he wants to keep his job. Sometimes you do what you gotta do.
But when someone asks your expert opinion, you gotta say something, right?
Is it too late for ‘09 lists? Yes? Well, tough noogies.
Here are some resources that became indispensable to me over the last year. Not necessarily all design related, and not necessarily new in the grand scheme. But things I have come to depend on in my quest to create badassedry.
Man, I have been trying to figure this out for ages and stumbled across it tonight.
When saving for web, I’ve always had trouble with my images being lighter and more washed out once saved than they are in Photoshop. Well here’s the solution:
View > Proof Setup > Macintosh RGB
Simple, right? This means you’ll actually viewing your files in RGB originally, so no color variation when you save them as such.
the challenge: To fill a domain I bought for the heck of it, without violating any copyright laws or committing trademark infringement.
the solution: The website profiles a public figure, and serves as a repository for news articles concerning him. The graphics were intended to be clean, professional and spirited. The site uses a basic Wordpress installation plus abundant widget customization.
I know, I know…you already have an inbox overflowing with eBay, LinkedIn, Google, Twitter, and Facebook messages. So why should you register to get emails from me? Couple of reasons.
I’m on the hunt for a plugin that will allow existing clients to request and approve a job quote. If there’s a support ticket plugin out there, it could probably be modified to suit my needs. (more…)
the challenge: To convey Cullman’s geographic, industrial and employer assets quickly to businesspeople interested in the north Alabama area.
the solution: A prominent map of interstates and nearby cities, a rotating header highlighting available real estate and developing projects and modular links ensure the visitor will get the big picture as quickly as possible.
the client: Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce
the challenge: The Chamber needed a site that made a large amount of information easily accessible.
the solution: A sidebar puts important info at users’ fingertips. The modular layout allows content to change regularly while keeping the clean appearance.
the challenge: Introduce a hip, upscale shopping/living/entertainment complex to North Alabama.
the solution: Each pair of photos combines two aspects of life at Bridge Street to form a bridge between work, home and leisure. Vibrant colors, a playful attitude and famous quotes speak to an educated audience with a zest for life.
the challenge: Introduce a hip, upscale shopping/living/entertainment complex to North Alabama.
the solution: Like the print portion of the campaign, each pair of photos combines two aspects of life at Bridge Street to form a bridge between work, home and leisure.
Ordinarily my thumbs are black as coal. For example, last summer I bought a beautiful palm and it lived happily for months in my den. And then we went on vacation for a week, and my palm died a slow, parched death.
I got mine at Smith & Hawken. The best part is that you use a wine bottle to dispense the water…as though you need another excuse to down a bottle of wine.
For me at least, logo design is one of the most time and thought-intensive things I do. I’ve got to represent an organization with one mark that is both visually strong and technically flexible, as well as sell the client on the rationale. This article on Freelance Switch is a great look into how a logo is designed, especially if you’re the client. My process is extremely similar, including the part about how I usually start off with WAY more logos than the client actually sees. The thing is, just because there are hundreds of variations I COULD create for a company, they’re not all going to be the best. My job is to weed out the weaklings and give the client several strong options to choose from. If you’ve ever wondered why a professional, unique logo design costs what it does, here’s your answer.
A few pics from the nursery. I’m trying to keep things relatively spare at the moment because I know once there’s actually a kid in there, the toys and colors and craziness will get overwhelming.
Surely someone I know could manufacture these. I’ve been looking for something to hang in my hallway, and a series of green plants would be very cool. Of course, I’d have to learn how to keep them alive.
In honor of the new season of 24, I give you Random Jack Bauer Facts. My favorite so far is: My husband doesn’t wish he was Jack Bauer. He wishes I was Jack Bauer.
Have I mentioned that designing for myself is stressful? Well I’m having a kid sometime in the next month, and people keep asking me if I’ve picked out birth announcements. The first level of difficulty is that we don’t know what flavor Cletus the Fetus is going to be, so I can’t really make a final decision yet.
I also feel like I’m not very good at getting things focused correctly. If you’ve got suggestions on how to improve on that or retouching tips, they’re more than welcome.
Great article at Design Observer about what happens to creative business during a recession, and what you can do about it. As a freelancer with very little overhead I’ve been fortunate so far; but there’s no telling what ‘09 will bring.
the challenge: A new children’s consignment sale in North Alabama needed a website to provide shoppers with information and consignors with tools to make the selling process painless.
the solution: The fun graphics combined with great photography keep it upscale and funky. Consignors can log in and print tags for their sale items. Potential shoppers get a first look at what types of items will be available at the sale.
Recently I spent a week working from the beach. There were a few reasons for this; the two biggest were that I was offered a cheap trip, and I’ve been in the middle of a huge project for weeks and needed the change of scenery.
I noticed today for the second time since the relaunch that my site was loading under the default WordPress theme, and nothing worked. My first thought was that it’s a bug; my second was that someone was hacking it just to annoy me.
But then a little Google informed me that this guy had the same problem I did, and figured it out over a year ago. If you have this problem, here’s the solution.
I spent last week working from a beach house on Dauphin Island. My family had originally planned a beach trip back in September, but it was postponed by Gustav. So instead we had a beach Thanksgiving.
Unfortunately, the rescheduled trip was a terrible time to take vacation – the week before the actual Thanksgiving holiday, when everybody would be off, and right in the middle of a huge project. So instead of taking off, I just took work with me. The beach house had wireless internet as a feature, so I was counting on everything running smoothly.
And…it did. And as soon as I’m caught up on everything that needs to be done today, I’ll do a real post about it.
It has been a hell of a week. I’m working on one of those complicated projects that takes as much time to wrap your head around as it does to actually design the pieces. It will be exciting when it’s finished though.
Just now, on the radio, I heard a guy talking about Charles M. Schwab. Not the investment guy; the first president of U.S. Steel in the early 1900s. He Apparently he was a superb businessman with a wild streak and a willingness to take risks.
Disclaimer: I am not a programmer. I know just enough about coding to get things to work, but not enough to make it pretty or even usually be able to explain it to someone else. However, I thought this might be helpful.
I am my own worst client. I’m an indecisive, know-it-all procrastinator. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all of the choices when you have no one to please but yourself. So designing, or in this case redesigning, a website is an arduous process. (more…)
When I was a kid, I had a theory that you could make more money by selling pencils for $.75 apiece than for $1.00, because more people would be attracted to the lower price and you’d sell more pencils.
I got to Mad Men late—missed the first season completely. AMC is one of my not my usual Sunday-night-channel-surfing stops. But after the Emmy’s, you couldn’t spit without hitting a blog post about the great period advertising drama.
At first I was unimpressed. Maybe because there was so much hype; but also, all the characters just seemed so stereotyped. Sexist men who cheated on their wives with anything that breathed. Flighty secretaries who seem perfectly happy to file their nails and nail their bosses. Everyone drinking and chain smoking because life is just so hard.
But it seemed like everybody loved this damn show. (Although I searched diligently for a review by a female, and came up empty.) So I kept watching. And after 12 of 13 episodes this season, I’m not so frustrated by the sexism as I am plain bored. (more…)
the challenge: FBC wanted a new site design that reflected their existing congregation, while inviting new members. The new site needed to make information about their activities easily accessible to all ages.
the solution: Texture and warm oranges make inviting graphics, and the sidebar prominently features important links. The pages have been restructured based on the church’s discipleship plan, which will be intuitive to church members.
the challenge: The new owner of Red Rain wanted a set of business cards that conveyed the hand-made, earthy feel of the establishment, while incorporating Art Deco elements. She also needed the card to serve not only to publicize the store, but her own endeavors as well.
the solution: A two-sided card that displays the store info on the front, and the owner’s personal talents on the back. The woodcut feel of the Red Rain logo, combined with the deco-style font suited the client perfectly. The cards were printed at twice the height of a normal business card so they don’t blend in with the crowd, but can easily be folded in half to fit in a wallet or pocket. Recycled, FCS certified paper was used.
the challenge: The Scene restaurant located in Monaco pictures needed to attract the lunch crowd, as well as evening movie-goers.
the solution: A series of ads that use a vintage look and clever copy combined with sumptuous food photos to make Scene stick out as a dining destination in its own right.
the challenge: Monaco needed a visual and conceptual identity that could be used to in the local paper to advertise the theater, restaurant, and lounge.
the solution: Classic movie quotes are updated with clever endings. The black and white film panels coupled with rich colors convey both elegance and luxury.
the challenge: An advertising campaign for a church geared towards young families, particularly men, to be placed prominently in a local mall. These flyers were to be placed alongside large backlit Duratrans displays for viewers to take home.
the solution: 4″x6″ postcard sized flyers encourage visiting The Bridge’s website.
the challenge: Raising $15 million is never an easy task, but that’s exactly what Catholic High School needed to do to build a new facility to accommodate their growing enrollment.
the solution: An 8.5” x 11” brochure with a tri-fold center spread that displayed the architectural renderings of the proposed building project. The school’s existing brand was updated with subdued colors and clean typography. A full day photo shoot at the existing school facility provided images of students that helps the reader connect on an emotional level to the project.
the challenge: As Huntsville’s oldest and only not-for-profit hospital, Huntsville Hospital needed to remind citizens of who they are and what makes them unique and an integral part of the community. Within their brand message, they also wanted room to highlight individual departments.
the solution: Copy that ties the past to the present and resonates with young and old in the community. Images from historical archives combined with images from a photo shoot onsite reinforce the then-and-now theme.
