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I Know I'm Productive When...

March 31, 2010 1:25 PM | filed in:

...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 work now, but then it didn't seem horrible.) My whole life that summer was about corn (not by choice). I would wake up, pack a lunch in my L'il Playmate, fill a cooler with water, put on sunscreen, and walk the half-mile to the school to be on the detasseling...

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A Year of Custom Letters

March 29, 2010 11:38 AM | filed in:

Lettercult has started an "Alphabattle" that will last a whole year. Participants create custom versions of each character of the alphabet, with the submissions being released every two weeks. The only rule is that the work should be made from scratch (and not with a font base). There have been some cool entries, and I'm looking at it as an exercise to practice character construction, proportions, etc. We're three characters in. Check out my custom A and custom B and custom C.

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Kindle Formatting Tips: Part 2

March 28, 2010 11:26 AM | filed in:

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. The Kindle 2 (viewable) screen dimensions are 520px wide by 622px high. Introduction: Kindle shows images in black and white. Even if you include color images, they will show as grayscale images on Kindle. For best results, when you resize your images, convert them to grayscale so you can make...

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April's Blog-a-Day Month

March 25, 2010 10:19 PM | filed in:

My sweetie-pie friend Sophia has participated in NaNoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month - November), and this year, I want to do it. I registered, and within a couple of weeks, I had received tons of emails from the site about a newly launched side venture, ScriptFrenzy (30 Days, 300 Pages of a Screenplay - April). I was interested for about two days (and even hit up Sophia to ride along), when I realized that I am not a screenwriter and probably have no business trying to conjure a script. Fortunately, Sophia offered up a better suggestion: Let's make April Blog-a-Day...

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Kindle Formatting Tips: Part 1

March 24, 2010 11:16 AM | filed in: ,

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 you won't have the marketing power, reputation, and connections a "real" publisher has--and that, as more people accept self-publishing as a normal mode of publishing, you'll have to be smarter about competing in a sea of similar content. One of the simplest favors you can do for your book is...

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Shout-Out on the Radio!

March 22, 2010 11:08 AM | filed in: , ,

When my client Tuck Self interviewed another of my clients, Nikki Nokes, about her book Maybe It's You, somehow I came up! They called me "amazing" and "a mind reader." Cool. About Tuck: Her show, Claim Your Voice, Own Your Life, features women who live with bold self-expression. Topics are centered around personal growth, alternative health, and spirituality. Check out this radio talk show for women!About Nikki: Maybe It's You is a book of advice (based on research) about how single women can become successful daters--and get "unsingle." She includes videos and blog entries with dating advice for women.Want in...

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Tips to Improve Typing Speed

March 21, 2010 6:57 PM | filed in: ,

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 the web that assess you based on raw words within a minute, the completion of an essay excerpt, or a block of text within a certain block of time. You may find that you're better at one than the other: Succeeding at a raw-word method or flailing on an essay...

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Case Study: The Rebel Belle

March 19, 2010 12:44 AM | filed in:

Do you wonder about the process of creating logos and other promotional materials? Exactly how do graphic designs come together, and how does a site get built? I decided to add a series of case studies to Sugarsock to illustrate the steps and collaboration required to complete creative projects. For my first case study, I put together a short presentation, a boiled-down version of the workflow I used with Tuck Self when we established her logo, character design, and website. ยป Case Study: The Rebel Belle

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Working on a Case Study

March 18, 2010 11:24 AM | filed in:

When I recently redesigned my site, one thing I was sure I wanted to include was case studies. Potential clients who contact me about my services often seem skeptical when I tell them I can do virtually everything in the creative-print-web-media-writing-&c. realm. I think this is because so many dabblers master one type of mechanical task, then try to sell themselves as full-service designers/developers. I am not putting down self-education; on the contrary, when it comes to creative careers, I think college is... er, a questionable use of money. What I mean is: There are some people who will get...

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Sweetyswank Martini

March 13, 2010 9:41 PM | filed in:

Tonight, our guests brought the makings for a cocktail that was a lovely, fragrant departure from the usual. Based on the French ginger liqueur Domaine de Canton, this drink was so pretty (think hyper-Cosmo with an embedded flower), I had to take photos. Taste-wise, it was a nice mix of dryness from the bubbly, peppery tang from the liqueur, and sweet perfume from the hibiscus. Here's the recipe. 1 part Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur 1/2 part syrup and 1 flower from Wild Hibiscus Flowers in SyrupChampagne Float one flower in the bottom of a martini glass or flute. Pour...

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Better Google Rank: Tip #1

March 10, 2010 10:22 AM | filed in: ,

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: I am concentrating on Google, but the same principles apply to other major search engines. Although people do use Yahoo, Bing, AOL, Ask, and ISP search tools, Google covers the overwhelming share of online searches. Bing is moving up a little, and sadly, Yahoo is dwindling away. I say "sadly...

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Thank You for Trying, Las Vegas Art Scene

March 6, 2010 4:05 PM | filed in: , ,

This weekend, I am in Las Vegas for some family stuff. For once, our visit has coincided with the city's First Fridays gallery night, during which a normally super-sketch neighborhood becomes a welcoming stretch with open doors for art patrons. We decided to check it out while we had the chance, since our impromptu gallery visits here have always resulted in a disappointed "Oh, they're closed. Again. Or still. Or for good." The first stop was an old, two-story factory building that has been converted into a maze of mini-galleries. There must be close to 50 vendors in this building...

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Custom Lettering Inspiration

March 1, 2010 7:25 PM | filed in: ,

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 lettering work with more modern, rustic, and purposely rudimentary styles. I also should improve precision to compare with some of those surely mad calligraphers!) Working on new hand-lettering samples will be a project for me in the coming weeks, and I'll post some pieces that pass muster, as well as...

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