I often tell business owners just starting up that good design is a "shortcut to professionalism." With the right branding and consistent application of styles, a company can appear more established than it actually is. Well-designed business cards, a sharp website, and sleek marketing materials can give the impression that...
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I have been seeing these words a lot lately at Instagram... generally incorrectly used. I know it can be confusing because they are all pronounced the same (they are homophones*), but these words are not interchangeable. Each has its own spelling and meaning. Here's a quick reference guide: *An earlier...
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I have had an, ummmm, "interesting" life of dramatic events and circumstances. But if I'm known for anything, it's optimism and a calm belief that everything coming my way can be managed--even the tough stuff. This resilience is just part of my personality, but we're all different... so it might...
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...these linen cocktail napkins from H&H Collective, which come accented with great fashion-inspired colors--Yuzu, Kumquat, and Cara Cara. From their site: "We feel our generation is more of the 'cocktail napkin' type of entertainer. You may not have the time, budget or space for a five course dinner party but...
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Franklin Bruno is a music critic for The Village Voice and Time Out New York. He's also a writer, musician... and mighty-fine fella. A while ago, I was flattered to receive an email from Franklin inquiring about using my photography on the cover of a forthcoming book. Once the deal...
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The web development section has been updated with a few screen shots of recent projects. Updating my portfolio has been a low priority, since I am spending most of my spare time on a few personal projects. I don't want to share all of the details yet, but I can...
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September 6 is Fashion's Night Out, the industry's global initiative to "restore consumer confidence" and "bring the fun back to shopping." Fashion is a tricky thing: We all want it, but we can't all afford it. When I hear people talk about how expensive clothes are or how they get...
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James Mollison has created an enchanting series of photographs about where children sleep. With a simple premise, taking photos of children and their sleeping areas (not necessarily bedrooms, tragically), Mollison has provided a global glimpse at our cultural differences and the real disparity between the haves and have-nots. I wish...
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One of my photos of Christian Filippella on set was used as the main image of a recent profile of the filmmaker in Flair Italia (a leading fashion magazine). Congrats, Christian, on being featured!...
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I recently ran across an unfortunate web article called "How to Design an Awesome Logo" by Gary Simon. In it, Simon suggests that an "awesome" logo design is as easy as: 1. Opening Photoshop (mistake #1) 2. Typing some fonts (ugh) 3. Vector-tracing a raster image (are you kidding?) This...
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SEO (search-engine optimatization) is the process of making your web content as "friendly" as possible to search engines so they can a) find it, and b) determine its bottom-line message, and c) deliver it to users looking for it.I have found that one element of successful SEO is creating page...
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I recently took a class at Writing Pad, which offers seminars and courses for all kinds of writing in a hip pad with gourmet treats. The owner, Marilyn, generously offers free writing prompts at her blog, which is a goldmine for writers who want to practice, practice, practice but don't...
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im @ coffee w/1 of my BFFs discussing new media + its effect on language. its srsly interesting 2 me... While part of me is bothered by the butchery of "proper" English, another part knows that this is a natural element of communication throughout history; however, it's never happened at...
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I just finished a big project and am looking forward to a freer schedule to concentrate on my own projects. It's time to open up the ol' brainstorming notebooks and dust off the when-I-have-time to-do lists and make my own priorities. I am partially inspired by this article, which is...
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Sometimes it's hard to convince a decision-maker that design is a good investment. For some, "adequate" is enough. This weekend, while in Las Vegas, I saw a couple of examples that may illustrate the difference good design makes on a product's perceived value. We started our evening at a smaller...
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I guess one could argue that the title of this post is The Worst Blog Title of All Time, but I thought something flimsy and superlative was appropriate to the content. A common obstacle small-business owners encounter is a desire to serve more than just a target audience, in the...
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I don't know if this will be funny to anyone else, but I recently was driving on the 101 when traffic unexpectedly slowed. The culprit was a slow-driving brand-new Honda Ridgeline truck weighed down with what must have been around 30 cases of Tapatio hot sauce. It made me wonder...
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One of the things I love about my street is its columns of sky-scraping palms on either boulevard, which wrap around the block. I might not like the seedlings they drop onto our patio, but the sound of fronds receiving the breeze can immediately remind me of relaxing times in...
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It's easy to get lost online. You can look up nearly anything and find tons of inspiration to get things done. For creative types, I think the Internet is a blessing and a curse. Sure, you can instantly find (debatable) answers for any questions, and you can look up reference...
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One pillar of effective marketing is consistency. Presenting a business or product in the same way serves two purposes: First, it repeats the image made on the viewer to increase brand recognition; secondly, it provides an impression that the business is established. How often have you seen a business card...
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Every once in awhile, design becomes a dreaded chore, because nothing seems to work or everything feels uninspired. Most people expect designers to be creative at all times, but just like any occupation, there are peaks and valleys to project navigation, skill level, and attitude about the work. Every designer...
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For the first three years we lived in Los Angeles, our home was on a hill in Los Feliz. Since we both worked from home, we often would go out to lunch or run errands during weekdays to avoid weekend congestion. (I don't know about you, but I'd much rather...
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From Matthew Hittinger's blog: Grace Cavalieri and April Carter Grant have edited a wonderful anthology from writers and artists who have been published by Didi Menéndez in MiPOesias magazine, OCHO, Poets and Artists (O&S), or individual books. Each piece is about or dedicated to Didi in celebration of her long-standing...
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At the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday, Amazing was crowned the Most Overused Internet Phrase for 2010, knocking Awesome from the top spot it's held for the past seven years. Finalists were selected from aggregated anonymous data supplied by Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, and Bebo and verified by the accounting firm...
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The web is atwitter this week with yet another change to Facebook's privacy practices, which will allow your information to be shared with third parties. The examples being provided are things like: - If you go to imDB to research a movie, you'll see which of your Facebook friends have...
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One of the hardest parts of managing long-term projects is making sure the elements--which may include copy, images, data acquisition, editing, approval, quality-assurance--come together in a logical and efficient way, especially when others are in charge of generating or claiming responsibility of those elements while your role is assembly and...
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...there's a weekend like this one, dreary and cold and misty. I recently wrote about being happy about springtime, how the brighter colors of the season were getting sprinkled into my wardrobe and the temperate weather was making walks and out-of-the-house tasks more appealing. This morning, as I passed a...
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When you're trying to gauge the traffic to your site and its growth across a period, Alexa is one tool. This information--traffic rank, growth or loss of traffic, and sites linking in--is available to anyone with Internet access, so it's easy to rely on for a quick overview of a...
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Instead of holing up in the office tonight, I'm comfortably working on the laptop on my sofa with the Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1 providing background entertainment. If you're interested in animation or digital illustration or painting, check it out. The first short of the collection, The Adventures...
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In previous episodes of Crazy Bad Photoshop, we've dissected newsstand images of Demi Moore and Drew Barrymore. Today's subject is Kimora Lee Simmons, who this month released an ad for her Baby Phat line's "Dare Me" fragrance. My, the web is atwitter with talk about her body's resemblance to the...
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Currently, a business partner and I are developing an iPhone app (and boy, am I getting antsy for its completion). My husband and I discuss ideas for widgets, apps, and games all the time. The problem with techie ideas, of course, is that development can be expensive: There's the labor...
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I don't like clutter. Junk mail and empty envelopes are my least favorite form, and rubber bands, paper clips, and other idle office supplies are a close second. (Third: Recycling build-up. Fourth: Disorganized/outdated browser bookmarks.) There's a certain amount of clutter that comes with an artist husband--illustration board scraps, pencils,...
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Although I've lived in mostly temperate California for five years (and lived in another sunny state for a few years before that), I'm a child of the Midwest and to this day find myself tuned into the seasons. Instead of a fluctuation in mood that commonly accompanies really strong seasonal...
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As you may have guessed from recent posts and new additions to my portfolio, I currently am really focused on custom lettering (in my free time). Following are links to some of my favorite lettering design artists, who should provide plenty of inspiration to kick-start your creative ideas.Jill Bell: I...
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...I dream about work. The first time I remember dreaming about work was during the summer between eighth and ninth grades, when I labored my little butt off as a corn detasseler. (I love how happy the detasselers pictured in the Wikipedia photo look... I think of it as miserable...
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In Kindle Formatting Tips: Part 1, we talked about why you should format your book in HTML and explored some principles to get you started. This segment deals with images. I am going to stick with references to Kindle 2 for now, since it is the most widely used device....
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Unfortunately for the publishing industry, there are many options today that make self-publishing a viable alternative to securing a traditional publishing contract. That doesn't mean it's easy or inexpensive: Expect to shell out time and money to find the right combination of solutions to fit your plan. Also know that...
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I am always trying to do everything work-related faster, and somehow over the years, I've become a pretty fast typist. Every once in a while, I'll get a little obsessed about my typing, wondering how fast I am and whether it's pretty accurate. There are tons of testing sites around...
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A lot of people have built themselves websites for personal or small-business use, but they don't understand how to get users there.Have you ever Googled yourself and tried to figure out why some old webpage shows up high in the search results? Are search engines a mystery to you?(Side note:...
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LetterCult.com, a site dedicated to "highlighting artists and designers doing remarkable work with Custom Letters," includes me on their Letter Makers list. Cool-wee. "It's nice just to be nominated," but seeing the variety of high-quality competition serves as fuel to innovate. (For instance, I could stand to broaden my hand...
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"Don't forget to stop and smell the roses." That's a tired old phrase, but I've been relying on it a lot lately. My adult life has been a pattern of making my way along the career path at too quick a pace, then suddenly needing rest because I've tired myself...
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Automaker Mazda's website has a good article about rebuilding their brand and making it globally consistent. In addition to addressing their own company's efforts, the piece offers solid general information about the importance of branding and what it can mean to your business. Namely, personality and emotional connection with consumers...
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When I sit down to work, I need a clean desktop: The physical desk where I'm sitting should be uncluttered, and the virtual desktop of my computer should be neat and organized. Clutter in all its forms paralyzes me, so when it accumulates, I find that taking a few minutes...
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Right before Christmas, I did a product photo shoot with the fine creative team at ferroconcrete. I was anxious to see their office, since a) I'm always curious about the spaces in which other designers work, and b) the work on their site shows a sleek, modern aesthetic. Indeed, their...
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The last edition of this game showed Drew Barrymore getting her back hacked off for the (?) beauty of a magazine cover. A Boing Boing article last week paints Demi Moore as the newest victim of bad high-end Photoshopping, this time for the cover of W. Skip over the enlarged...
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I have so many projects going on... the very worst time for medical problems to arise. However, I am having some urgent health issues that are affecting my work, so please bear with me as I deal with the madness that is HealthNet Insurance and Regal Medical Group. I apologize...
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So, yesterday, I went to a lighting seminar presented by Holly Randall. She's an adult photographer--which I am not interested in being, though I'm not a prude--but since she takes photos of people on a full-time basis, her knowledge of lighting (models) is applicable to the fashion and portrait photography...
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So, for probably about a year, I've been seeing people using post images they created with the "Mad Men Yourself" feature at AE.com. Since its inception, the avatar generator has been improved with added features, and some of the most recent images I've seen include new backgrounds and larger sizes....
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Designers and other creatives are often stereotyped as lazy slackers with diva attitudes .There's a new commercial (for Intuit's build-your-own-website service) that shows one dissatisfied customer saying, "I hired a designer to build my website... five months ago..." with a been-there-I-can-relate overtone. Strangely, though, it's been my experience that many...
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We all know that change is the only constant. This law applies to our relationships, bodies, and business lives: Friendships (and loveships) wax and wane, our health fluctuates, and industries come and go. We can keep relationships happy by improving our communication skills and working to establish friendship "rules" and try...
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If you're tempted by the prospect of requesting free work from someone or participating in a spec relationship, take a moment to fill in the blanks of this paragraph and read it back to yourself. _________ is a gifted _________. He/She is good at what he/she does, so skilled at...
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What is "spec work" and why is it bad? "Spec" stands for "speculative." Spec work is "work done prior to engagement with a client in anticipation of [possibly] being paid," according to AIGA. (Boiled down: Spec is knowingly working without a guarantee of compensation.) Spec work can be disguised as:...
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Some movies are visually memorable because the director uses a limited palette (or applies a filter to mute colors). Here are three favorites: Swept Away: Yes, everyone knows what a crapfest this movie was, but no one can confidently deny the beauty of the cinematography. And when it comes to...
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What makes a great logo? It's hard to say, since there's such variety to successful logos. Nike's swoop is recognized worldwide, but it doesn't exactly represent the name--and the glut of logos that have used a nondescript "swoosh" since are fodder for mockery among designers. Some companies use an icon...
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CNN has a story today about a man who, since 2001, has been falsely claiming to have survived the 9/11 Pentagon attack and a couple of tours in Iraq as a Marine. Before being caught, Richard Strandlof formed the Colorado Veterans Alliance to bolster his lies. He also toured as...
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An episode of Planet Earth ("Caves," March 2006) re-running today has a short focus on the glowworm, whose phosphorescent silk threads hang from cave ceilings. The threads are "decorated" with perfectly spaced globules of sticky mucus that glow to attract and ensnare prey. (Moths and other small insects get stuck...
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I just saw the new issue of In Style at the grocery: It immediately looked weird to me, but I asked Dan, and he didn't see the strangeness of the image. So I quickly roughed in what SHOULD show for comparison: Someone hacked off half of poor Drew's body! Help....
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A friend of mine is having a problem at work. In the past few months, he has helped his firm secure a new client and has worked directly with the client on a few successful projects. In fact, the success of this ongoing work has created the opportunity for his...
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Why must everything be a work in progress? I have so many projects going on, and I can't wait to wrap up something... anything... everything. Updates are coming soon....
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I'm a big fan of documentaries--I'd rather watch one than a "regular" movie, although there are admittedly lots of crappy ones--and probably watch a couple per week on average. Between my doc picks and Dan's Blu-Ray eye candy selections, we definitely milk our Netflix account.Last week, we watched Word Play,...
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One of the perks of getting oil changes at the car dealership nearest us is the array of local luxury-living magazines in the waiting area. Whoever stocks the magazine table has totally overshot the mindset of a Ford owner by providing the kind of publications that considers hard-hitting journalism ten-page...
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The end.*Update: A couple of people have asked what's up with this. I'm not mad. I met someone who I later found out is a pathological liar. People, you might want to make your blogs private......
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"I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them." -Pablo Picasso So says Didi Menendez's art blog. In addition to being a prolific publisher, my friend Didi is a prolific painter who uses an unusual palette and a dash of cocked perspective to create her striking acrylic...
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