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.

Great Links

If you want to see how Apple has so much style check out this tutorial page:

http://psd.tutsplus.com/articles/web/40-apple-themed-photoshop-tutorials/

Samples of great typography:

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/design/design/very-inspiring-uses-of-typography.html

Digital Drawing TAblet MODBOOK

The Modbook is something to drool over. It is a modification of the macbook. You can have your own macbook converted or buy a new one already modified. Amazing! You draw right on the screen.

The Graphic Design Wormhole

So I was thinking about it today when I saw this painting in a window of a palm tree how working as a graphic designer, web designer, and a programmer removes you from reality. I have often come up with the dilemma that if I spend my life pursuing a career in graphic & web design I will be working within a browser and the majority of my life will be spent doing things that 80 percent of the world cannot relate to. That browser will become my window to life. It will become my area of specialty, however, I will become so engrossed within it that reality will no longer be reality. The path that most walk down of consumer goods and entertainment I will become distanced from. Disturbing thought really.

Programmers live within the code they are typing. Designers live within the restraint of their project.

Photoshop Stuff, Icons backgrounds and more!

Great Site for photoshop brushes Icons and backgrounds! I found the most elegant icons at this site.

3D Text

Gimp is a great program for creating 3d text effects. The filter motion blur helps to create the 3d effect and then by copying the layer over and over, merging and setting it to an angle. I explored the beauty of 3d yesterday with my logo. Hoping to find a good effect for my flyer.

International Convention

Where in the world can you see 42,000 people assemble peacefully from all nations showing love to one another. Such organization can only be devinely inspired. Normally you witness beer cans strewn across the stadium along with trash and cigarette butts. Instead you might find a random bible or song book left behind.

Afterwards there was african dancing. A short clip is below.

Graphic Design interview

http://ucsfhr.ucsf.edu/index.php/staffing/article/samples-of-appropriate-interview-questions/

This link is to a list of potential questions you could be asked on a graphic design interview. Very informative. check it out.

Video Final

Final for Digital Imaging class was our sale sheet, self portrait and the video I presented sampling all my work. Below is the sale sheet. I created the video in After Effects with still frame images and music last night. I wanted to give the still images a form of interactivity. I'll be adding the video to a page on my website.








Class as a whole: The presentations were excellent. Several slideshows, one video, and one student Anton Duong presented his packaging design from another class.

Self Portrait

So its finals this week and I'm crunching for math. This is the self portrait I came up with for digital imaging. It represents the flow of creativity coming out of my imagination. Its steady and always changing. My background in music has always been an inspiration along with my passions, horseback riding, illustrating and writing. The verse at the bottom is a line from one of my poems.

Finals week

PHOTOSHOP CLASS:  Finals this week involves a movie poster. The title "What's left when clouds have passed." Is a book written by me and typographically designed. The pages were printed in Typography class a year ago. The book is based on a true story. The poster is thoughtful and grainy like the memories. 

The credits at the bottom of the poster are embodied by the shape of the figure in a non traditional style. I was very happy with the design because the elements fit so well together with the theme. Credits idea for the bottom are Eddie Cervantes idea. 

DIGITAL IMAGING: The final for digital imaging is very extensive, dvd jacket, digital and printed copies, flyer, web page and self portrait. The self portrait I embarked upon was not quite what the teacher was going for as far as a visual representation of ourselves. So I will be redesigning it this week. Below is the self portrait I created last night before class. 

I also have a dvd cover I design and an After effects video that I'm working on for my final. Next blog will have the video. 

GWC Art Show

Yesterday was my first official showcasing of my graphic design work. Golden West College was hosting an open house for all design students to put up their work for viewing. I spent 4 and a half hours working on an illustration of a Mustang 71' for the show.

Adrianne Sotto, my mother was also a part of the show. Her two landscape paintings were displayed on the ground level along with some
other students from Ebert's Painting 1 class. An article biography of Marilyn Sotto who was present at GWC Student Show : http://livedesignonline.com/mag/show_business_marilyn_sotto/

One of my clients, music artist Natalie Womack was also present at the show. http://www.myspace.com/nataliewomackmusic

Today we will be exploring Santa Monica and attending the AIGA inside the industry event. Last year I attended one of their events and was sorely disappointed. They talked about CS4's new features and went over each program. The people were snobby and not social. I didn't meet anyone worth remembering. I left early and my friend stayed to see out the rest of the event. Vendors lined up and met designers. The only redeeming thing about the event was the bag that they gave us with goodies in it. A few note pads and accesories. Other than that it was a bunch of 5X8 cards promoting different companies. There was an exhibit of package design and books for students and different designers at the entrance to view. A few of them were worth noting. I wrote them on the small notepad they had given me, to review later. Today we will take pictures with my new canon 30D with 50MM lens. I'm excited to take some pictures of the local and utilize my california roots.