So if you read my last post, though if you didn't I don't blame you (it was a bit of a rant, kind of), I mentioned that I was planning on starting an "etsy-like" shop, although I might not use etsy to host it. Anyway one of the tasks on my list of things to accomplish in order to get the ball rolling is to come up with a fantastically great name, or at least one I will like to use years down the road from now, just in case my shop really takes off.
In my search for "the" perfect name I came across some articles and helpful resources that made me a bit more optimistic, and even a bit giddy about starting this task.
How to Pick the Perfect Brand Name: A great article that talks about how one brand/product naming company goes about finding the perfect "home-run" names, with great examples. Great inspiration.
Techniques for Choosing the Perfect Brand Name: Lists and explains different styles of Brand Names with great examples of each.
Naming a Business: Gives you some tips for how to get started, as well as a little "Do's and Don'ts" of naming.
How to Name Any Brand: A few more tips on how to get started, and some "Do's and Don'ts" as well.
Now since this will be an online shop, and it's pretty hard to find any business that doesn't have a web presence in this age, you'll need to pick a name that will lend itself to becoming a good domain name as well. Since a lot of domain names are already taken.
How to Name Your Domain: Gives you some tips on how to get around already staked domain names the right way, and a few things you shouldn't do when coming up with your domain name.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Past, Present & Future
So it's been a while since I've posted anything. I thought I would try to remedy my neglected blog by putting down some thoughts. After graduating last May I didn't try very hard to get a job in my field. I guess I'm not ready for a big girl job yet. That's not to say that I haven't been doing design work, I've actually been doing a little freelance/contract work. Though I'm not too impressed with the work dynamics of freelance for the most part. Now I'm not a very outgoing person whose strives on being around others and loves to socialize with new people, I'm a little bit the opposite. I find it a little difficult talking business with people I don't know and get very uncomfortable talking money.
So I found it a little frustrating in my freelance experience that the clients didn't really know what they wanted in most cases and that I had to do a little pushing to get some decisions made, and clearly I am not a pushy person.
For example I was doing a website redesign for a business that had two live websites up on the web. Both sites were pretty elementary and far from professional or real looking. The client didn't really know where the domains were hosted and didn't even have the file transfer protocol login information for one of the sites. In short it turned out to be a real mess, which I guess part of it was my fault since I'm still pretty new at the behind the scene web development part of web design.
Before this last web redesign project, when I was still in school I tried a volunteer freelance "internship" that didn't really go any where. The client also had a real elementary website that was kind of a tangled mess. Now this client considered themselves very artistic and wanted to do all of the visuals for the site but never gave me any to work with. I ended up doing several little projects for them such as tags and flyers which turned out great, but we never really got to work on the website redesign. Whenever we met to talk the client would talk about the big picture, the direction they wanted to go in as a business and where they wanted to be in the future, nothing really about the site. I tried to ask questions that would guide them in a design direction about what they wanted and didn't want on the site, but it didn't really help. When I showed them one directions they could go in for the site they said they wanted to redo all of my graphics, so I waited and waited but never got any. Eventually all communication dwindled off. I wasn't going to keep pressuring them for the site redesign if they weren't ready to commit to a redesign. It would have been a great portfolio piece too.
I'm not saying all freelance is going to be horrible experiences, on the contrary, I got some good portfolio pieces from them as well as learning experiences. I also did a few design projects for individuals that turned out to be great projects and were good experiences too. But since I'm still not comfortable with the client designer relationship I guess I need to get some more practice. In the mean time I've been seriously considering opening up an online shop for my designs and crafts, either on etsy or a similar site. But I've realized if I really want to make a go at this I need to do some solid planning an get some real good ideas down. The hardest thing besides trying to decide which site to use is a name for my shop and what kind of products I should make to sell. I'd like to open my own shop for two reasons: one I don't think I'd be happy accepting just any design job offered to me, especially if it wasn't in a field I'd enjoy, and two I really like to create beautiful things and it would be great if I could find a market for myself.
Sorry if this post felt like I was complaining a little too much, I don't want any one to be dissuaded from trying freelancing out, you'd probably be better at it than me, if not more confidant in your abilities than myself. I thought I would just put down a few of my experiences that I had to get them out of my system and put my future plans down so I'd feel like I'm taking a step closer in making them a reality.
So I found it a little frustrating in my freelance experience that the clients didn't really know what they wanted in most cases and that I had to do a little pushing to get some decisions made, and clearly I am not a pushy person.
For example I was doing a website redesign for a business that had two live websites up on the web. Both sites were pretty elementary and far from professional or real looking. The client didn't really know where the domains were hosted and didn't even have the file transfer protocol login information for one of the sites. In short it turned out to be a real mess, which I guess part of it was my fault since I'm still pretty new at the behind the scene web development part of web design.
Before this last web redesign project, when I was still in school I tried a volunteer freelance "internship" that didn't really go any where. The client also had a real elementary website that was kind of a tangled mess. Now this client considered themselves very artistic and wanted to do all of the visuals for the site but never gave me any to work with. I ended up doing several little projects for them such as tags and flyers which turned out great, but we never really got to work on the website redesign. Whenever we met to talk the client would talk about the big picture, the direction they wanted to go in as a business and where they wanted to be in the future, nothing really about the site. I tried to ask questions that would guide them in a design direction about what they wanted and didn't want on the site, but it didn't really help. When I showed them one directions they could go in for the site they said they wanted to redo all of my graphics, so I waited and waited but never got any. Eventually all communication dwindled off. I wasn't going to keep pressuring them for the site redesign if they weren't ready to commit to a redesign. It would have been a great portfolio piece too.
I'm not saying all freelance is going to be horrible experiences, on the contrary, I got some good portfolio pieces from them as well as learning experiences. I also did a few design projects for individuals that turned out to be great projects and were good experiences too. But since I'm still not comfortable with the client designer relationship I guess I need to get some more practice. In the mean time I've been seriously considering opening up an online shop for my designs and crafts, either on etsy or a similar site. But I've realized if I really want to make a go at this I need to do some solid planning an get some real good ideas down. The hardest thing besides trying to decide which site to use is a name for my shop and what kind of products I should make to sell. I'd like to open my own shop for two reasons: one I don't think I'd be happy accepting just any design job offered to me, especially if it wasn't in a field I'd enjoy, and two I really like to create beautiful things and it would be great if I could find a market for myself.
Sorry if this post felt like I was complaining a little too much, I don't want any one to be dissuaded from trying freelancing out, you'd probably be better at it than me, if not more confidant in your abilities than myself. I thought I would just put down a few of my experiences that I had to get them out of my system and put my future plans down so I'd feel like I'm taking a step closer in making them a reality.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Designers and the Ampersand
Why do graphic designers worship the ampersand so much? It's almost surprising to look through a designer's type portfolio and not see a recreation of a overly large ampersand. But why all the fascination with a symbol thats really just filling in for and?
Some say it's because it is the most unique character in our typographer's arsenal, while others say it is because of the ampersand's beautiful structure. I think it is because by itself it represents a world of options and choices, like asking "and what will follow?" Creating or using the ampersand by itself allows viewers to attach anything they want to it, before and after, what ever they can imagine. Like . . . and they lived happily ever after.
But there is still the question of why the ampersand is like a rock star in the design world, there are several websites devoted solely to the ampersand and I would like to hear what others' thoughts are on the matter.
Just in case you wanted to have a look at a few of those Ampersand Websites:
The Ampersand
Bluefaqs: living and breathing design
The Web Designer Depot: the history of the ampersand
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Type Project X.2
For this next part the goal was to use our letter (J) as points, a sentence/phrase (a single quote form the beginning narrative of Disney's Jungle Book) as lines, and text (the narrative from Jungle Book) as planes to be composed in a composition that illustrates the visual interaction/contrast between the design principles of typography: texture, rhythm, structure, kinetics, and tonality.
First step was to pick a typeface that had a large family, since one of our limitations was that we could only use one typeface for all of are compositions. So again I found typefaces that fit the requirement and typed them out and selected one that had more visual variety than the others and I still liked; I believe I ended up with Adobe Caslon Pro.
Next step, two inch by two inch thumbnail sketches/computer rendering of composition ideas and contrasts that we were trying to illustrate.
After small group critique, this selection was narrowed down to half to be refined in composition and concept for the next critique. I took the ones chosen by my group and made them full-size (7.5 x 7.5), of course I changed things within the composition as well, if some one mentioned a change that fit with my concept I tried it out. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depends on how you look at it) I didn't save most of my in between drafts.
New groups, new critiques, different designs, which finally led to the finished set of four compositions.
First step was to pick a typeface that had a large family, since one of our limitations was that we could only use one typeface for all of are compositions. So again I found typefaces that fit the requirement and typed them out and selected one that had more visual variety than the others and I still liked; I believe I ended up with Adobe Caslon Pro.
Next step, two inch by two inch thumbnail sketches/computer rendering of composition ideas and contrasts that we were trying to illustrate.
After small group critique, this selection was narrowed down to half to be refined in composition and concept for the next critique. I took the ones chosen by my group and made them full-size (7.5 x 7.5), of course I changed things within the composition as well, if some one mentioned a change that fit with my concept I tried it out. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depends on how you look at it) I didn't save most of my in between drafts.
New groups, new critiques, different designs, which finally led to the finished set of four compositions.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Type Project X.1
Basically the goal of the assignment was to take a letterform, in my case I was assigned the unimpressive "J," and compose it in any typeface and orientation to emphasis the character of the letter, what makes it a "J."
So I started in Illustrator and typed out an upper case and a lower case "J" in every typeface, in the whole family of the typeface. So I had italic and bold, and extra bold. More than a whole sheet of just "J's." The next step of course was to go through them all and select ones that looked interesting and delete ones that weren't.
The first draft we had to think about how many letters were necessary to illustrate our concept. We also had to keep in mind that we were not making patterns or images with our letterforms, harder than in sounds.
At this point group critiques come in very handy. My drafts were discussed, I was told which ones they liked right away, which they thought were interesting, and which seemed like they were to much like an image or pattern. So the refinement stage began, with several versions that have been tweaked over and over again, even tried white on black.
Now the weeding happens, where you pullout the not so good ones and really perfect the so-so ones or just keep the good ones. The final was to be presented in a concertina format book so that the final four designs you chose could be viewed all at once or in a spread, and they should look united like a series. Oh, and a cover and colophon needed to be designed as well. The cover needed to have some background information on your letter, where it came from, how it got started and so on.
Well, here's the final product, craftsmanship wasn't as precise or as high quality as I would have liked but I can't be more than human.
So I started in Illustrator and typed out an upper case and a lower case "J" in every typeface, in the whole family of the typeface. So I had italic and bold, and extra bold. More than a whole sheet of just "J's." The next step of course was to go through them all and select ones that looked interesting and delete ones that weren't.
The first draft we had to think about how many letters were necessary to illustrate our concept. We also had to keep in mind that we were not making patterns or images with our letterforms, harder than in sounds.
At this point group critiques come in very handy. My drafts were discussed, I was told which ones they liked right away, which they thought were interesting, and which seemed like they were to much like an image or pattern. So the refinement stage began, with several versions that have been tweaked over and over again, even tried white on black.
Now the weeding happens, where you pullout the not so good ones and really perfect the so-so ones or just keep the good ones. The final was to be presented in a concertina format book so that the final four designs you chose could be viewed all at once or in a spread, and they should look united like a series. Oh, and a cover and colophon needed to be designed as well. The cover needed to have some background information on your letter, where it came from, how it got started and so on.
Well, here's the final product, craftsmanship wasn't as precise or as high quality as I would have liked but I can't be more than human.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Senior Year: Part I
It's about half way through the first semester of my senior year and I thought I should bring my blog up to date, so I am pretending that today actually took place in September and that I have been religiously keeping this blog. :D
Well it is going to be another busy year. Not only am I taking five classes, but I have to wake up at 6:30 every morning to get to class before 8:30, and I am not a morning person, as the time of post for this very post gives proof to.
I start my week off with Interactive Design, which should be quite interesting as well as informative in the workings of creating Designs and interactivity in Flash. Looking forward to this class. Then in the evening I am talking Graphic Design IV: Integrative Campaign, which sounds like it is an extension of Graphic Design II, the class that initiated this blog, and is in fact taught by the same teacher.
The next morning starts off with Advanced Type, which I heard is the exact same as Typography Design and is taught by the same teacher as well, just with less introductory exercises and the added project of using an actual letter press. After this classes is my credit filler, Fleeing Hitler: German Film makers in Hollywood. We watch a film every week starting in Germany with the silent films moving to Hollywood before and during WWII.
These two days repeat themselves again. Moving to Friday I am talking another photography class, this time through the College of Design (before I took it through the College of Arts), it seems this time we are going to make and use a pin-hole camera, and we are also encouraged to use our digital cameras off the pre-programed settings.
That's the jist of my fall semester, I am hoping it will go by smoothly, and the early mornings won't kill me.
Well it is going to be another busy year. Not only am I taking five classes, but I have to wake up at 6:30 every morning to get to class before 8:30, and I am not a morning person, as the time of post for this very post gives proof to.
I start my week off with Interactive Design, which should be quite interesting as well as informative in the workings of creating Designs and interactivity in Flash. Looking forward to this class. Then in the evening I am talking Graphic Design IV: Integrative Campaign, which sounds like it is an extension of Graphic Design II, the class that initiated this blog, and is in fact taught by the same teacher.
The next morning starts off with Advanced Type, which I heard is the exact same as Typography Design and is taught by the same teacher as well, just with less introductory exercises and the added project of using an actual letter press. After this classes is my credit filler, Fleeing Hitler: German Film makers in Hollywood. We watch a film every week starting in Germany with the silent films moving to Hollywood before and during WWII.
These two days repeat themselves again. Moving to Friday I am talking another photography class, this time through the College of Design (before I took it through the College of Arts), it seems this time we are going to make and use a pin-hole camera, and we are also encouraged to use our digital cameras off the pre-programed settings.
That's the jist of my fall semester, I am hoping it will go by smoothly, and the early mornings won't kill me.
Monday, April 27, 2009
start on facebook application
The last image is still in progress, but the buttons and frame I think I will keep as they are, so all I have left to do is draw in the "map" of cultivaitve of the places a player can go, similar to the sorority map a few posts ago.
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