Interesting … Getty Images—probably the biggest supplier of stock photography—has updated their submission requirements to ban the retouching of photos for the sake of making the model look thinner or larger. They cited a new french law requiring notification of such changes. But regardless of why they did it, I Continue Reading
This post is about business, so… you know, caveat emptor. Probably the single most common thing I do in business is write estimates. If people are even vaguely interested in a project, I can tell them about how much it would cost to have me do the work. No charge Continue Reading
you gotta love the world sometimes. I send my client proofs over a year ago for some new letterhead. It has been discussed a couple times since then, but nothing was ever finalized. So I just sit on it, and will bill it when it’s done someday. Today, one of Continue Reading
So here’s a bit of what I was working on. My sketchbook is a mess. It would probably mean nothing to another designer. But I just get enough down so I can remember what I was thinking. That way I can get the idea out of my head and make Continue Reading
It’s now a bit after 6:30 am, and I just sent off some art to the client. I promised them something by this morning, and unfortunately I seem to be better working on this particular project in the wee hours of the day. But I quite like the design, (*knock Continue Reading
I felt kinda good about today. Was an overall positive day. And I felt like I accomplished something while working. And Refresh was entertaining, if not educational, tonight.
So it’s unfortunate when I got home that my email was clogged with messages from clients whining about a pile of petty little things. Doubly depressing when, after hadling what I immediately could and filing anything undeserving of a response, I had only 1 email left. So not only did they piss on my mood, but it wasn’t in the least bit productive.
This calls for a photo collage. My recent favorites:
1. Princesa de la Tempestad, 2. Lotsa Colors, 3. light a cigarette, 4. Goddess Light., 5. artrepair8, 6. seawind, 7. tutu, 8. the promised land, 9. zlatna dolina – sarajevo, mon amour, 10. São Paulo., 11. on the drive to Yosemite, 12. Untitled, 13. yellow, 14. Reykjarvíkurnætur, 15. Sojin with Lemonade and Chips, 16. floored
There are a few tricks to getting a good logo. In this case, when I say “good”, I am strictly referring to the technical nature of the digital artwork, and not the artistic merit nor communication capabilities of it. The basic traits of a good logo file are: vector format Continue Reading
As a designer, you tend to be involved with many logos over time, both your own and others. Everyone and their sister’s lesbian roommate’s cousin has a logo, and you will eventually probably use them in some project. And if you have any sense at all, you back up all Continue Reading
I need to be more efficient about tracking what I estimated a job to cost. Whenever possible, I generate a “real” estimate with Quickbooks (QB), so it’s all in there, waiting for billing. And for smaller, “promo jobs”, I’ve taking to creating an empty folder inside the job folder, with Continue Reading
I’d like to thank Hecht’s for making my Saturday, by telling me, when my credit card wouldn’t swipe through the magnetic reader, that they’ll only manually punch in the cards for people with Hecht’s or Macy’s charge cards. So after yesterday’s run-in with Hecht’s payment policies, I had an interesting, Continue Reading
“Don’t fuck the vapid, damnit.” A sage piece of advice that everyone should be taught. It came from an ongoing essay by Kevin Smith, director of oh-so-many innappropriatly funny movies and Jersey Girl. The advice is funny, but the essay is actually interesting. His friend, in the movies and in Continue Reading
Never ask me if I’m busy. It’s a stupid question. The only time you can definitively answer it, is if you’re so busy just contemplating the question is making you late. Tell me what you need and then ask me if I have time. If you’re working in the Washington, Continue Reading
Tomorrow, what is left of the-company-I-formerly-worked-for will undergo what is likely to be one of it’s last transformations. They’re shedding their office in downtown DC, and the boss and his one remaining employee will work from home. Life was never full of peaches and cream there, but this last year Continue Reading
Slowly catching up on work. I’ll still be busy through at least the end of the year. And I’ve had two potentially lucrative referrals in the past week, which won’t kick in until after the holidays. And still a dozen jobs on back burners. No… I don’t have a personal Continue Reading
established June 28, 2004 To be revised and updated many times, no doubt. Last updated Finances Startup Start with the basics: money. The company finances were started with a $576.68 purchase, with personal funds, of an identity package, (letterhead, business cards, and envelopes). This was the first and only outside Continue Reading
In the category of “stuff it took forever to find, so I’m posting a copy here”: How to add ALT tags to images in PDFs You can apply Alt text and ActualText attributes to images to improve the readability of a document being read aloud with screen-reader software for the Continue Reading
I had dinner tonight, in a little “those who survived our old job” gathering., hosted by our former boss. Generally it was okay, for a gathering of people who managed not to kill each other when we saw one another every day. There were just one too many digs, though, Continue Reading
My sister may be suffering from penis envy. Or… wallet envy. Whatever. The basic idea is that I have something at the moment, that she doesn’t. And in a manner that could seem random and unfair. I’ve been in business for a little under a year now. (I’m about 2 Continue Reading
I think salespeople are the last humans on earth who still email people Word files as a default method of communication. As if putting the text in the body of the email, so that I didn’t have to launch a huge, slow, ugly, expensive program just to read it, would Continue Reading
If you’re gonna post a gallery of images on consecutive pages of a website, make sure I can get to the next damn image by clicking on the current one. I so do not want to waste time looking for whatever form of navigation you came up with. This was Continue Reading