To The Moon And Back

Every year, my company joins trade show exhibits to gain more leads. This is always the busiest time of the year for me because of all the planning, presentations, business card designs and banners for the trade show exhibit. As I check my designs last year, I realized how outdated they are. Our new application has been re-designed for web 2.0 so I need something more fun yet sophisticated, corporate but not boring.

Thanks to the Internet, I have unlimited supply of inspiration. A few visits to websites designing trade show exhibit banners just gave me an idea on what to do this time. Colorful banners are so out, minimalist is in. Well, for our software application, that is. I noticed that most banners use photos as backgrounds too, unlike before when the company logo and a couple of swirls and swooshes would be enough. I want to try that approach too but it wouldn’t fit our theme. Plus I need to make sure first how much our budget for the printing will be before I create any artworks.

My design portfolio is so outdated that I rarely show it to my new clients. I’ve decided to come up with a design now while I’m free. And when I say now, it will probably take me more than two weeks to finalize the first mockup. I am after all, my worst critic.

The design however will be based on these brushes from Brusheezy.com

Wish me luck. I’m planning to create a special artwork as well so it will definitely take longer than one month. And that’s if I don’t slack off.

I came across a new web design blog today called Stylish Weblog. As a designer myself, I make it a habit to view other web designer sites and blogs because you always learn new things. The first thing that I noticed when I saw this design blog is the wordpress theme. It’s so stylish, very web 2.0 and unlike any other themes that I’ve seen. I scrolled down immediately to check the name of the theme but there wasn’t any info about it so I’m guess this is a customized one. The flickr photos on the right panel give the page the color that it needs, making the overall look and feel not only stylish but very professional. Of course, if you call your blog ‘Stylish’, then you absolutely have to walk the talk.

Atila, the author talks mainly about design, custom web design, web development, design technologies, etc. I enjoyed reading the design articles especially this one - Why do you need to redesign your Website? This article is what every website owner, client, web designer should read. Some of the clients that I’ve worked with ask me to re-design their sites but they are not willing to let go of the styles that they’ve accustomed to, ten years ago. Back then, optimizing your site for better search engine placement may not be as important so you can do what you want (or not do anything at all) but now, hundreds of web sites are being created daily so keeping up with the latest trend should be a top priority. Aside from design, you can also read about finance, health, Internet and technology from this Stylish Weblog.

I received another call from my friend today and asked if I’ve already decided to pursue overseas work. I haven’t really thought about it even with so many options to choose from. The company where I telecommute just recently opened up a physical office in Chicago, and asked me if I see myself moving there in a year or so. I honestly don’t know. Aside from the fact that I can’t leave my daughter just yet, I’m still happy where I am that I don’t see any reason why I should move. But we’ll see what happens next year.

Just in case I accept the offer and find that I didn’t like it, there are tons of Chicago Web Site Design companies that I could check out. That’s the good thing in finding a job these days. You can spread your resumes all over the web in just a matter of few clicks. In fact, I’ve been receiving lots of design requests from potential clients who “found me” online. I’m starting to think that I can afford to go solo with all the side design projects landing on my lap. I’m just hesitant because nothing beats having a steady job and paycheck even if you don’t have a lot of projects.

If you need sideline projects, do check out: sitepoint.com,getafreelancer.com, guru.com, and the one that started it all, e-lance.com. I honestly believe you’d never run out of job online if you just know where to look.

In the old days, before I can publish my artworks online, I do the following:

1. Make light sketches using a pencil

2. Scan using 200 or 300 DPI

3. Trace the artwork in Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash

4. Color using any graphics softwares above.

The artworks below were done exactly that way. The tracing was done using an old Wacom graphic tablet, which was a gift from my previous boss. Although tasking, it works and it’s cheap.

If I have $999 though, I would love to have a direct pen-on-screen tool like Wacom’s Cintiq 12WX. Using the outdated graphics tablet is alright, but it gets a bit confusing when you can’t see your hand while drawing. With Cintiq, it will be exactly like drawing on paper, except you’re doodling on a monitor.

At only 4.4 pounds, it has the advantage of a wide-format LCD monitor and can be rorated however you want. I can draw on my lap, on my desktop or upright. It workes on multi-monitor laptops and desktops but can also be used as a stand-alone display too.

The Cintiq 12WX delivers a highly sensitive pen-on-screen experience so you can work directly on your images and applications in the most natural way possible. With “pen-point” accuracy, fast cursor control, and 1,024 levels of pressure-sensitivity on the pen tip and eraser, the Cintiq 12WX gives you increased control, comfort, and productivity.

One cool gadget. Definitely a must for illustrators and manga artists. I know a Filipino webdesigner from Singapore who bought one recently and just can’t stop raving about it. I’m green with envy of course.

Exactly June 12, 2007 when I received an email from my boss telling me that Safari is now available on Windows. Since I don’t have a mac, (see previous posts), I immediately downloaded the beta version with the hopes of being able to test my designs on Safari. To my disappointment, the browser crashed and won’t load anything else aside from apple.com. After that incident, I’ve totally forgotten about Safari.

After writing my post on how I want a MAC, I realized two things. One, there’s no possibility that I can get one in a couple of months and two, I can just search the net to see if there’s a tool that allows you to remotely browse on a mac platform. While searching for that tool, I came across the keywords ‘Safari on Windows‘. So I was like, WTF? Could this be true? I clicked the link and voila! I got a nice page with the headline Safari 3 Public Beta - The world’s best browser. Now on Windows too. Don’t you just love their taglines, btw?

I realized at that exact moment that I’ve already tried to download Safari before and it didn’t work. Still, with the needs of a poor designer who can’t afford a MAC just yet, I downloaded it again to see if something has changed.

Tons have changed. It’s fast, it’s wicked. The interface is very apple-ish, simple but full of punch. Even the starter page is amazing, full of javascripts and div coding to show you how efficient the browser is. I checked all my website designs and surpise, surprise, (well, not really) most of them are not working as it should. I’m not exactly pissed, I’m just bummed because I know I’d have to re-do and fix all of them. I mean, how great can you be if your coding will not work on the world’s best browser? Not very much, I’m afraid.

As a designer, I try to move away from printing projects because one, I don’t have a printer to see what the color looks like, and two, I’m just not comfortable working on huge banners or tarpaulins. But when a client asks for one, then do my best to deliver. The first thing that I ask is where they are planning to print it. Knowing which printing company is a huge deal because then I can get to their website and download one of their templates if they have any. Once I have the template, all I need to do is draw the designs that I have in mind using the specs provided. After that, it’s just a matter of approval and minor changes then the final work will be sent to the printing company. It’s now up to them to match the colors so it will look as nice. Plus I don’t have to worry about unnecessary details / steps (unless they pay me extra to handle it) like account setup, credit cards, deliveries, type of paper, etc.