Flash class.... learned something. Getting big brains. ♥

The Design Bible - And not a collection of designs

I'm currently writing a book with all the design resources a person could need to be effective at being freelance. It will be a compiled notebook of links, lists for marketing strategies, and design references. Its designed to help small business and designers get their startup going. I hope it becomes helpful for the masses. It has taken me two years to collect all of my findings.

Trifold Brochure

Today I designed a Trifold Brochure for Dr. Bar. The briefing was given to me last night and deadline was noon. I'm not sure how the delivery went but the client loved it.

The concept was to give the feeling of childlike pastel, and the tiles were an expression for the background that was inspired by the idea of having the jewelry images laying on a baby blanket. The front cover has an illustration and the logo was created from a font I picked and transformed in illustrator. The idea for the logo was to have a pacifier extending from one of the letters. I also authored the biography on the left panel. Over all it turned out well and I'm happy with the Brochure design.

Front

The Freelance Fad

ALL the UK design magazines have articles on how to go freelance and how to start your own design business. One must wonder how many people graduate from college hoping to start their own freelance career and then move to business status. I noticed as I scanned the articles with approx. 10 suggestions in each, that all of them shared one suggestion. They said "work 2 years in the industry before you jump in head first."

You always find the 19yr old out of high school that was raised on Photoshop with his own section displaying his portfolio. You drool over his dual monitor setup and large wacom tablet, or read about his large studio apartment that he is moving out of and into one closer to the ocean for inspiration. His first word was pixel. Then it hits you like trying to pull through the last evening before you meet with a client to review your work, are you cut out to be a graphic designer? Do all designers have as many doubts as you?

I have summarized the suggestions for Freelancers into order of importance from my experience and knowledge struggling through college and out of it in the real world.

1. Your Portfolio - speaks the loudest, and by the way is it online?
2. Networking & Connections (online and in person) Create a list of your professional contacts and create a mailing list. Which leads to keeping in contact with them. Send them a postcard or E-Newsletters with images of your newest projects for other clients. Remind them that you exist and that your still working in your field.
3. Education
- Do you have the knowledge to provide quality service? Do you talk to fellow students? Check out what other students are doing as far as design, what unconventional avenues they are going down.
- I once asked a friend of mine in Prepress what her cards were going to be for and she said a pastry design company. How unique is that? Find your niche.
4. Expenses
- Can you cut costs for clients and yourself?
5. Working experience
- It definitely matters who you have worked for.
6. Integrity
- If you don't show this you wont get good reference.
7. Finding a place to be creative
- Often I have muddled through stacks of scribbled notes in my books hoping that an idea would miraculously come to me. It didn't, I had to uproot and find new ground like the pilgrims. Spread out at a coffee shop or better yet Borders. One very inspiring place that I have discovered is Huntington Library in Pasadena. It is a great place to grab a sketch book and hang out in the Chinese and Japanese gardens.

8. Ask for work
- I have found that teachers are your best mentors and want to help you find work. If they are working professionals and teach during the day time, they may even pass on work to you. This is given you build a relationship with them and get noticed. Ask a lot of questions.

9. Scheduling
- Allotting time to be creative when your naturally creative. A lot of us are not aware of our inner creative clock that keeps us on an unnatural schedule with the world. Just be aware of your feelings.
And I will probably add more to this list over the course of the evening.

10. Design Events
- What are they? AIGA (which I did not find successful, its a lot of students grappling at professionals attention and slumming over coffee wishing they were successful while in school) and then we have the big time Adobe Max and Photoshop World, where you will be bumping shoulders with professionals in a good setting. Think about the setting you will be in. Is it social? Or is it business and learning oriented? At a convention you will be bombarded with great association because the people there shelled out a lot of money to be at it and are not just there to get chummy. Real world advice is great in a lax environment, but connections and work are better.

The Nature of FACEBOOk

The nature of Facebook is controversial. It attracts masses of people that comment word vomit blurbs of nonsense information to get attention. The only real purpose for a facebook is to either 1) Attract attention to your portfolio and make professional connections or 2) gain self centered attention on your page to boost self esteem. During a debate about the purpose of a seemingly self centered site, people heartily argued against the idea that they are only on the site to compete for attention. There have been many times that my husband and I have talked about how the "questions game" that facebook passes around that are intended to create drama between networks of friends on the site.

The game goes as follows, answer questions about your friends from really bad to moderately easy to answer, the worse the question the more points you get for answering it. Once you achieve 50 or 25 you get to a certain level and get to unlock a question that one of your friends answered about you. = creation of drama. Then after the public outburst because it has been posted on your page that you unlocked a question AND/OR you got angry about it and posted something back, others have their opportunity to post in response. Which creates a real live tv show where its interactive, visual, and engaging.

The heat is a killer on the brain for the most part. However the beach has its inspirational advantages. Last friday I went to Huntington Beach and came back sun burned, inspired and ready to work. I whipped out a new profile page and splash design for OC-Networking. A few clients I have taken on within the last week.

Another on going project is VWHUBUSA which will have a design very soon. The process has been daunting and difficult since they are not sure which products will be put on the site. However I am happy to finally have a suitable design for my site. There will be kinks to work out but not that many since its a stable frame.

Gigapets, Crunch bars, and FF9

whatever happened to Gigapets? During high school they were all the rage and the online virtual pets that everyone maintained through a website. The craziness just like the emo dolls faded away. The uprising of the mac frenzie with the ipods overshadowed some of these popular toys.

There was also a crunch bar that became popular in junior high. The choco birds in Final Fantasy 9, before the later versions made us loose confidence in the quality of the game. Nothing compared to FF9.