I designed this logo for my website in web design bootcamp class. I used Berkshire Swash and added a couple of extra swashes, modified the apostrophe and illustrated a fan. My audience is quirkly and young. I wanted the logo to convey a sense of play and pseudo-elegance, like kitsch and costume jewelry. The L’opera Shmopera brand is accessible and fun.
I made this acrylic painting yesterday after I became frustrated with coding a website. I love art because sometimes there is no “why.” In graphic design, people will ask, “why is it blue” or “why is it three inches tall?” In art, there sometimes is no other reason than “I just was compelled to do it.” I am experimenting with painting. I lost the third installation of this painting video. I need a new camera. My goal is to eventually create an animation effect using paint and video. I have a lot of dreams relating to visual art. A lot of them look like this. I am trying to solve a design in my sleep. It revolves: I am hoping the solution is as easy as turning it on its side. I wake up feeling like I’ve done nothing.
Music: Tekno Crazy by DoKashiteru. I got the music for this video from http://dig.ccmixter.org/ It is licensed under creative commons.
In this morning’s meeting, I’ve been given the task of researching a company’s competitors’ social media efforts. This is a way to go back to the client and tell them where the holes are in their armor and offer to fix them for the company. We had a lively discussion about Facebook. Because Facebook changes so often, their “like” feature also shifts in functionality. By the time companies have figured out what to do with the “like” button, it becomes irrelevant. But, worse, they don’t know it yet. The website they are working on ends up promoting the Facebook brand more than themselves.
Not to say that all what Facebook does is bad. The link-sharing feature of taking a url and posting it as a status seems to have not changed in the last few years because it is awesome. It posts a thumbnail, the link and a little summary of the linked page. That’s curating, which is Social Media’s primary function.
That being said. The latest event (that seems to still be rolling in) is Timeline. Facebook Timeline has been called “the worst interface change ever made in the history of human-machine interaction” among other things I wish not to repeat. There are simple graphic design rules not followed. Okay: You’ve indexed posts according to year. Okay: you have a two column layout. Okay: It shifts when new information is added. Not Okay: posts shift from left to right to create a zigzag eyesore.
Timeline is interesting because you can back-post. This is where you manually put in stuff in the proper year of events, etc. This is crazy because this is not an arbitrary log anymore. It’s not a series of links and statuses that you wrote when you were nineteen. It’s a curated, glamorized facade of yourself. The self that you want to present to the world. And unless you are a meticulous mo’ fo’, you are not going to have a full timeline. To a completist like myself, suddenly I find Facebook full of holes and needing more information. That’s frustrating because what will happen to that hard work and that time spent when Facebook changes again?
Sorry, Facebook. Though a lot of people feel like they need you to be connected, you are not reliable, not easy to use and not my friend. Dislike!
(My website for this class in its current state.)
During yesterday’s review session in Web Design Bootcamp, I was recognized for having a website that was more advanced in styling in CSS than the other students. This kind of recognition is unwarranted in my opinion because I am a terrible coder. I don’t have a system. I don’t pay attention to how I label my files and when something works, I don’t ask why.
I added :hover states to my nav bar successfully, but when I tried to add hover states to my “read more” buttons, it failed. I couldn’t see my page upload because I had renamed it and I can’t really do that because there’s already a connection between my server and the file name I had before. One could imagine my frustration when I made all these changes and didn’t see them upload to the Internet. I checked my code over and over trying to put things in different divs that were showing up before I realized my error.
I added pictures by creating new divs for the posts. Erik Fadiman, my instructor, said that blog posts were a lot more complicated to code and this is more of a formatting crutch until we advance in skill. I learned a lot about the differences between Class and ID and a tags. During the critique of my website, Erik pointed out typographical and stylings that could be massaged. (Designers say to “massage” a design when it is a little horsey and unfinished.) He also noted that I had used an h tag when I should have used an a tag. I should have zigged. It was so easy to zag. Why can’t we use h tags all the way down? Seems simpler than introducing an “a.” P means paragraph. H means heading. What does “a” stand for? A is for ask your teacher. (It actually stands for “anchor” but I have to wonder. Is my site going to float away if I don’t use one?)
I realized that none of my images were in my image folder, so I put them all there and then I had to relink them all. It wasn’t like using InDesign, where there are cute little warnings and helpful dialog boxes. It was more of a “poof: no more background.” And, I am supposed to figure that out. I might be new at DreamWeaver and not realize where all of the buttons are, but I want my layers panel back. I like seeing my changes in little boxes that I can click on and off to see the differences. And forget Command+Z. It doesn’t work. No one told me this. Or is it common knowledge?
Coding in html and CSS is a lot like painting a watercolor. At first, it is the cleanest it will ever be. Slowly as you add more structure, more div tags, your painting will appear faintly. It starts to look really good and then you add more div tags and then forget which a tags go to what. You try rearranging the style sheet and before you know it, a glob of brown has soaked into the page and you cannot salvage it. It’s easier to start over than to rearrange everything to accommodate your new brown smudge.
I am not the type to know how to ask for help. Partially because I have too much pride. When it finally works, there is an immense satisfaction because it was through my own resourcefulness. Also, when I succeed, especially in DreamWeaver, I only succeed in one way. I learn one thing. When I fail–and that happens often for me– I learn all of the traps one can easily fall in.
This is for people that don’t really know anything about social media. A lot of books I’ve read about social media don’t start with the the idea of the brand being the hub of your social media strategy.
I wanted to explain the initial planning which is in the branding stage. Social media is just a platform for what you want to say. Don’t get intimidated.
Get people to share your stuff: Here are some tips to make it easy for people to spread word about you.
http://www.fireflycoaching.com/secrets-to-getting-people-to-spread-the-word/
Track your mentions: These sites help you keep up with Internet conversations about you.
Learn More about Internet marketing: Here’s an annotated list of Internet Marketing blogs
http://www.moosylvania.com/blog/15-internet-marketing-blogs-that-rock/
Where do blog ideas come from? Stuck for ideas? Get inspired.
http://www.moosylvania.com/blog/8-ways-to-get-blog-post-ideas/
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/11/29/20-types-of-blog-posts-battling-bloggers-block/
Improve Long-term blog traffic: Still feeling disconnected? Try these techniques
http://smashinghub.com/15-tips-to-improve-long-term-blog-traffic-that-you-must-follow.htm
http://smashinghub.com/extreme-exposure-for-your-blog-posts.htm
http://smashinghub.com/quick-tips-to-increase-facebook-page-fans.htm
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2012/06/04/social-media-is-a-part-of-the-user-experience/
Getting into Twitter: Still feeling disconnected? Try these techniques
http://smashinghub.com/10-must-have-twitter-tools-and-apps.htm
http://wp.smashingmagazine.com/2012/01/19/facebook-twitter-google-wordpress/
Coding: use html to get an edge
http://designfestival.com/add-rich-snippet-support-in-wordpress-and-dominate-your-personal-brand/
Specific Marketing Strategy: Look up approaches for your specific niche
http://designfestival.com/creating-marketing-strategy-for-ux-skills/ specific niche: User Experience
http://sixrevisions.com/web-applications/10-great-tips-for-using-twitter-as-a-designer/ specific niche: Designer
http://designfestival.com/best-promotional-tips-for-web-designers-and-developers/ specific niche: web designers and developers
http://www.logodesignlove.com/self-employed-designer specific niche: freelancing/self-employed designer
Just now, I had a very lovely exercise in using InDesign.
One of my coworkers/supervisors, gave me the task of designing a stationery system for a law firm. After going through two rounds of critique for layout on their envelope, business card and letterhead, they decided to stick with the one they already had. It’s very simple. Text in the upper right (Gill Sans), logo in the lower left.
My coworker/supervisor has a newer version of InDesign, so I couldn’t directly edit his file to input the names of the individuals for the business cards. So, he sent me the logo and told me the font and made a pdf of his InDesign file. I placed the pdf in my business card size document, centered it and locked the layer. Over it, I typed the same text and placed the .eps logo until they overlapped. I adjusted the leading, font size and font thickness (most of the type was in the “light” version of Gill Sans). I used that as a master-page and applied it to my one page. Then I hit the “add pages.” And then I had 9 pages. I shift-command-clicked each text box to paste the different names. Exported as a pdf and voila! You have semi-individualized business cards. The whole process took me 30 minutes from getting the email to sending the email with the attached pdf.
For my current internship project, I am learning about Social Media. I am to give a report on it this coming Monday. I’ve read a few articles and some books on it and I am planning on compiling a small free downloadable e-book in the next few weeks. Until then, I will be eeking out snippets of my learning.
A commandment that transcends media is “Be Consistent.” Social Media is about gaining an online presence. You do this by being a “regular” of the Internet. Someone that is around. Becoming a familiar face on the Internet means having the same face whereever you go. The above image describes my attempt to maintain my personal brand on different platforms. (Note: I am just a starting student of design and I haven’t really cemented my brand. So that will probably change and when it does, it will change consistently.) A rule in advertising, as we’ve seen in the Aflac commercials, is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be good design to be memorable.
I’m excited to be working with a company that is just starting. All of these social media sites have been rolling out sporadically since I got my first hotmail account in 2004. Now, if I were to do it all over, I would make sure that I use the same username for each site. The usernames have have adopted over the years are like tattoos on my online presence that I want to scrub off. They are not me as much as my Facebook me is me. It’s hard to get something off of the Internet.
After exploring Pinterest this morning, I thought about how there are so many platforms that have very narrow scope and great use. As Internet Literacy increases, its users are going to have a virtual toolbelt of apps to deal with all the information that they want to track.
Here’s my toolbelt so far:
(note: I still haven’t figured out what makes Tumblr and Google+ useful for my particular goals, but it’s good for exploring.)
Pinterest
Wordpress
Facebook: Timeline
Twitter
Tumblr
Google+
LinkedIn
What sites are you on? Can we be “friends,” mutual “followers” or G-buddies?
This is my Pinterest Profile. I was curious about Pinterest because a lot of my graphic design peers were talking about it. This is my very first internet thing review. Today, I investigated it and can definitely see the appeal. I was lost in Pinterest for an hour or so, gathering up some images. It’s a very visual social media app. I recommend it to people who love eye candy. People that want to make a scrapbook of all the visual lovelies on the internet, from fave celebrities to clothing I wish I owned and art that I like.
It’s an interesting app because it goes two ways. You can discover an overarching theme to the things you like, color, mood, etc. as well as exploring your friend’s aesthetics as well. It’s a visual way to see personal taste.
On vacation with some friends, we went to get our auras photographed. (I’ve lost the pictures, but I imagine they are somewhere in my mother’s house.) Yes, there’ s apparently some kind of aura photographing device and it seemed to be relatively accurate, which is surprising. The point is that afterward, I felt very enlightened about myself and my friends that I wish everyone could have an aural photograph to know themselves and to have others know them better in a very visual way. Pinterest is like that. I recommend it, certainly as a way to past time like those personality tests of the oughts(the 2000s) were.
