So, I know you’ve hired us (designers) for a reason. And we really appreciate when you’re super specific about what you’re looking for in a layout, and send us your recommendations in the best way you know how – whether it be in PowerPoint or Publisher. While this is definitely a courteous thing for you to do, I’m gonna go ahead and recommend that you export those things as PDFs. Most computers come PDF-export ready these days, and you’ll be keeping your designer happy if they don’t have to open yet another application on their desktop just to have a look at what you’re thinking. If you’re on a Mac you can print to PDF or take a screenshot. … If you’re on a PC, I really can’t help you (maybe these articles can). But sending a PDF or a screenshot will a.) keep your and your designer’s inboxes on the lighter side, and save everyone time waiting for unnecessary applications to start.
Read MoreThe lovely Alison posted a query on her Facebook status that got me driveling a lengthy reply, so I thought I’d post it here rather than subject all of our non-mutual friends to my inanity.
Query: Does everyone have a constant feeling of wanting to get more done, or is that just me? I don’t know whether to wish to actually get more done or wish my expectations were lower.
I have simultaneous feelings of wanting to get more done and wanting to do less – or do more things that don’t feel like they need to “get done” … like hang out with my family or you know, enjoying life or non-work-related life-activities. However, having been consistently over-extended for the last 10 years, I feel like I have an incomparable level of comprehension, speed and endurance (for relative tasks) which I’m kind of addicted to besting.
I took some time “off” this week to enjoy the holidays, and I feel like I lost some momentum and reveled in the doing of less since I told myself less would get done. So, I don’t know if expecting less of myself is really the right way for me to go about it. I’m quite happy to expect less of myself! But I’ve signed up for things that require a certain amount of effort from me, and perhaps I signed up for too much. (Biting > Chewing, etc.) It might be more about getting done what needs to get done and understanding the difference between what is necessary, and, well what the value is of everything else.
More calculated consideration is what I suggest to myself as a resolution this new year. No definitive demands. No starting or quitting, just a minor alteration to the way decisions are made, so my actions can affect my life in a more positive way.
That is all.
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I spent all of last week working on a presentation with pwg for the possibility of acquiring a piece of an account for a multi-billion-dollar corporation. While I don’t miss the late-nights, and hurry-and-waits, seemingly endless revisions, and all that potential of presenting a concept it felt good to work with a team of incredible designers both 2D and 3D rather than working with my raster virtual clients. I can’t remember laughing as much as I did while working with them — at least not in several years. It did, however, re-iterate the particular qualities of my mood or behavior that come from working in the presence of people where I’m truly thankful for the advances in technology that allow me to have those moments in the privacy of my home office.
Anyway, above is a crappy phone pic of part of the cover of the presentation, printed by @proof7NYC. 12×12 perfect bound, 4/4 digital, 100# text, 14pt cover duplexed + 14pt gloss lam UV coating tipped onto covers. I thought it wonderfully apropos to receive the final books with their gloriously glossy spectrum on the evening the vote to allow gay marriage in NYC came through. I guess, somewhat unrelated, but a lovely dovetailing nonetheless.
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Finally embracing the whole re-mix theory of re-mediating music via visual art, I was practicing line control with India Ink by scribbling song lyrics from Snowden’s Anti-Anti, and Bloc Party’s Weekend In The City. There may also have been something about decadence, and glamour, and the fleeting. Maybe I’ll post my thesis at some point, too.
Read MoreWhile studying at MCAD for my MFA, I fell into a drift where the current was all about making work that was “about” something. I look at these posters over 5 years later, and while they’re formally engaging to an extent, I’ve had no interest in telling anyone what they “mean” because they really didn’t mean anything. They were experiments in making forms, and a feeble attempt at trying to apply meaning to them. The truth about them is just before that semester my dad died. I had literally no idea why I was 1200 miles away from my family pretending to be an Artist (capital a), and going through an MFA program that was, at the time, weird and unstable, and not really made for graphic designers. In retrospect, I might say that this series was just about immersion, and naval gazing, and giving in to the “dark gloomies”. 5 years, a boatload of therapy, and a daily fistfull of pills later, it’s hard for me to remember being in that space, but I feel like I can more resolutely identify what that space is, and where it came from in my life. That’s for another time.
I found this image of Four Gowns by Robert Motherwell while searching for “mood board” images for a project. Apparently it was on the website about to this guy, who I’ve never heard of before but now I shall learn. Thanks google!
I completely forgot about Robert Motherwell in relationship to the miasma of art history I studied over 8 years of college. But I should probably look further into his work as from what a quick image search tells me, it’s totally relevant to what I want to be doing.
It’s no secret that I’ve been a fan of So You Think You Can Dance since (roughly) Season 3. Mia Michaels was the first choreographer to really change the way I responded to contemporary dance routines, as well as, of course, Sonya Tayeh. Over the last few seasons, the show has (not unknowingly) been showcasing the work of Travis Wall. In the first episode of live routines, Travis’ routine to Ingrid Michaelson was genius, but I’m certain it was not without the brilliance of my pick for Season 8 winner, Melanie Moore. Travis’s choreography really shows an inherent grasp of the rise and fall of music — but from his repertoire of routines, it’s obvious we have similar taste in the good stuff. Anyway, this genius of this routine was how primal it was, formally. Hopefully I’ll report back soon with some work inspired by the sculptural forms created by @TravISova, @d8melanie, Marko and the Costume & Make-up team SYTYCD.
Last month, Likeletter Projects designed and launched Chicchild.com for pwg. It was probably one of the most fun projects I’ve had the chance to work on in a while, and can truly call my own. While I have essentially no interest other than pure aesthetics in the content of the website, I supplied them with a repository of hand drawn illustrations and hand drawn type / words, so hopefully more of that kind of work will come in from that.
The site was built using WP Shower’s Sight theme as the base framework, and was customized with the unique Chic Child brand elements. The site required membership registration, recent posts, related posts, and live links to product purchase click-throughs so of course there was a seemingly endless ensemble of WordPress plugins utilized to achieve all of the functionality.
Plugins Included:
- WP Favorite Posts
- Profile Builder
- Register Plus Redux
- Theme My Login
- Thinglink Official
- Members
- JQuery Collapse-o-Matic
- cbnet different posts per page
My favorite functionality feature of the website (which was, of course, the most difficult to produce) is the Favorite Posts area. We used the WP Favorite Posts plugin, customized to include post_thumbnails.
I’m still trying to figure out why we needed three plugins to make the registration process and profile management pages exactly the way we wanted it. Does anyone else have problems remembering everything a plugin actually does? or why you’d need to activate three similar plugins? That’s why I started this blog. It’s more like a journal for me to figure out some working functionality of the sites I frankenstein. Maybe you’d like to share your strategy for keeping your plugins straight?
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