Thursday, June 4, 2009

June Ramblings

It's June already! I can't believe it has been almost 4 months since I have posted anything. Actually I have been adding links to my side columns of interesting sights but have not actually posted a blog.

So what have I been up too.
In January the pre-press house I was working for closed its offices in Orlando.
Fortunately, I was hired by another competing company and went right from one job to another. I feel very fortunate for that in today's economy. AND its a great company to work for. People are great to work with and company is appreciative. Still its hard in today's economy. One week you are working 70 hours a week and the next you are working 24 hours a week. Guess it all balances out.

I have to say the time off gives me some time to breath. I have been able to reconnect with my house and my yard, take care of my old springer, Ernie, and catch up on a lot of miscellaneous projects that I really needed to get done and have been putting off.

I keep meaning to post items more relevant to design and publishing but there are so many good sights already doing that already. I just keep copying their urls and posting them here. Check them out there are is a lot of good info on my side columns: freebies, apps, typography, vector sights etc.

Most importantly keep reading, keep learning and keep twittering!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Repost of LInks that I think are of Value

where to find the perfect logo inspiration
20 amazing brochures to boost-up your design skills
The Best 80 Photoshop Text Effects on the Web
15 awesome booklet designs for graphic designers
44 Must Learn Web Design Layout Tutorials in Photoshop
43 Incredibly Useful Collection of Tutorials, Resources, Inspirations etc To Discover The Best Of The Web In February at smashing apps
100 Beautiful Free Textures at Smashing Magazine
51 Creative Business Cards That Will Make You Look Twice at Quicksprout
Inspiring Design Links for Creatives for 2009-03-01 at thisinspires.me
65+ Smoking Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials at instantshift
100+ Free Seamless Vector Patterns Ideal for Web Design and Print Work at Pattern Head
Building/Customizing your own Wordpress theme: Beginners and Intermediate at Desizn Tech
28 of the Coolest Retro Style Photoshop Brush Sets at specky boy 50 Brilliant Typography Designs to Inspire You at Best Photoshop Tutorials
200+ High Quality Free Paper Textures to Grab at naldzgraphics
Readers Pick: 30+ Incredibly Useful Mac Apps for Web Design at noupe
The Coolest Text Effects on the Planet at best-photoshop-tutorials
27 Indespensible Resources for Graphic Designers at freelancefolder
Top 84 Photoshop Resource Sites - Toolbox for Designers at specky boy
The Ultimate Adobe InDesign Toolbox at Deadwings Designs
Blogger Toolbox: 100+ Tools and Themes at at mashable.com
54 Kick Ass Creative Logos Hand-Picked from Logofaves at dzineblog
45+ Free Design Template And PSD Files at 1stwebdesigner
20 Websites Every Apple Fan Must Bookmark at makeuseof.com
21 Typography and Font Web Apps You Can’t Live Without at specky boy
All the Logo Design Resources You Will Ever Need at design cublicle 79 Beautiful and Creative Business Cards Designs at 2Experts Design
Your Bestest Creative, Geeky Posts of 2008 - Part 2 at We are Just Creative
A - Z of Web Design at iampaddy
The Twelve Days of InDesign
from InDesign Secrets
100+ Free Applications for Mac OS X
at Usingmac
60+ Essential Feeds for Web Designers posted at iDesign Studios
Over 100 Free Christmas Design Resources - A Design Bliss Mega-List
29 Most Useful Texture Packs of 2008 at Web Design Ledger
13 Characteristics of Outstanding Blog Design at webdesigner Depot
7 Free Tools to Identify A Font at webdesigner Depot
11 Essential Photoshop E-Books Amazingly Free
posted at specky boy
40 + cheatsheets for Designers at Six Revisions
The Ultimate List of Best Logo Design Resources at Just Creative.
Top 100 Essential Mac Applications. at Mac Tips and Tricks
In the Woods–Our Blog for all things Themey!
50+Amazing Logos on Spoonfed Design
30 inspiring type treatments from I love typography

Monday, January 19, 2009

Ramblings of a Production Artist

Twittering
My previous post asked whether twitterers were just self-serving. Come to find out they are not, but sometimes you have to figure out how to get the message out. I started tweeting about an organization called Pilots and Paws. I tweeted it about 5-10 times, asking people to retweet it to spread the word. Most of the people I follow are in the design field in some way or other. I got real discouraged with the fact that few people bothered to retweet it. Then, I took the more direct approach. I asked for help from people like Jeff Fisher at LogoMotives, Graham Smith at imjustcreative, and Calvin Lee at mayhemstudios. Then things began to happen. They retweeted it and people who followed them retweeted it and by taking a more direct approach to people I respected and followed I was able to pass the word and hopefully at least save one animal.

I do have to give a shoot-out to Paulastudio who was the first person who retweeted my tweet, to Jeff Fisher who took the time to even send me the link for the newreel about Pilots and Paws, and to Graham Smith (and his dog Dylan) who offered to post about Pilots and Paws on Soultweet.

Bottom line is work it. Figure out what you need to do to get your word out. People will help. Sometimes you just have to approach it from a different aspect. At first I was mad and sad that people only seemed to care about what was important to them—it seemed so self-serving. Truth be told, there IS a part of that in all of us. The point I want to make is that instead of wallowing in self pity (nobody cares what I have to say) or getting mad, learn how to get work it and reach out to people for what you want.

The New Year–2009
Lot of big changes for me with the start of this year. Afer 11 years of working for a company, they have closed their doors. Its a hard and depressing thing. You suddenly are no longer a part of a "family" that you have spent the last 11 years with. Saturday I started working for a new company. I was lucky in economic times like this to find a new job. Several people I have worked with in the past are working there, so I have hopes of developing a new "family."

Twittering Addiction

I have spent a LOT of time on Twitter. As you can see from my blog I have collected a lot of sites/links for fonts, vectors, photoshop, typography, logos etc. The trouble is, I spend way to much time collecting all this information and way to little time using it. After all, you never know when these things may come in handy!
What is the real problem with this. The fact is, I am collecting and collecting, reading and reading, and not really doing anything with all this information.

What does this say about me: partial depression with the way the world is turning (or collapsing), partial procrastination, lack of creativity, basically all around lack of motivation. What I think I need is a 12-step program to wean me of Twitterdom. I am finding it much more interesting to twitter, collect, read, and watch TV than to DO. I need help!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Are Twitterers Just Self-serving?

For the past few days I have been tweeting about a cause that is important to me; saving dogs lives (Pilots and Paws). I have asked several times for followers to retweet this for me. Of the 250 followers that I have, only 8 people have bothered to retweet and/or respond: sere_usdesign, Paulastudio, imjustcreative, mayhemstudios, GLHoffman. sharebrain, emtwo, and LogoMotives. Jeff from Logomotives even took the time to locate the NBC newsreel and post that as well.

I have to wonder what this all means. One person said "Also shows you people RT only what they think will promote themselves/is self serving, not serves others/good causes."

I have to somewhat agree, even though I don't want to think or feel that way. I have spent many hours online twittering away with many people and retweeting for many of their causes as well as promoting many of their posts. I really don't expect anything in return (or do I—I have to ask myself this), but I had hoped that when I needed the same that it would be reciprocated. So does that mean we only serve ourselves and self-promote ourselves. I don't know.... I do know that it made me feel sad, bad, and mad that if it didn't promote self and self-interests that it just wasn't important enough to retweet.

I know what twitter is about, but I thought and hoped that it was more than that. I wanted to think that people cared about more than just the things that were important to them. Somehow this experience once again reinforced my perception of human nature. You would think that being 58 years old, and having experienced a lot in my life that I would understand this, not continue to be so naive, and be more accepting of the nature of people.

Help Save Pets' Lives


If you know any private pilots or anyone you think can help save a pet's life, please let them know about this good cause Pilots and Paws.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

2009! It's a New Year!


It's a new year and I think a new way of life globally. I think the world is going to have to rethink what they want out of life.
Following Chris Brogan's concept of 3 words for 2009, my goals for 2009 are:
simplify, positive, humor
I am not going to try to explain them and expound on them. They just came to me. I read Chris's article and thought OK nice thought and then went about my business of twittering and looking at blogs and sites on the web and thought nothing more of it. Then I thought I should start off by adding something to my blog for the new year and started writing and suddenly those 3 words just came to me. Somehow they seem appropriate and right for the new year.