And, while we're on the subject, can we all agree that Tasers are going to be viewed by our great-grandchildren as a completely barbaric tool that "fell out of fashion" sometime in the early 21st century?
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Um, the BBC needs to check its Adsense...
And, while we're on the subject, can we all agree that Tasers are going to be viewed by our great-grandchildren as a completely barbaric tool that "fell out of fashion" sometime in the early 21st century?
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Rebirth of the Cool
I don't know why this title jumped into my head. I've always associated with some half-remembered/half-imagined photo of Miles Davis. Plus, I found some interesting results when I searched the title one of which you can see here. (bonus points if you can actually navigate this site)
Anyway, I've been busy, really busy, but still kind of freaked out when I saw the date of my last post on this blog. Around mid-March, I started to really experience the trickle-down effect of the current economic cluster-F*%k and every day became a dogged hustle for new business. I learned a lot and have tried to keep a positive spin on things. Clients dropped off the radar due to being downsized, others became so pre-occupied with trying to keep their business afloat that they didn't respond to emails asking for feedback on projects. What's a good way to cope with MIA clients? Keep trying to contact them. I kind of feel like a cyber-stalker sometimes, but it's worth it when someone compliments you on being proactive.
What work I did get tended to be labor-intensive and a real exercise in customer service. An email at 6am frantically asking for help in figuring out a webmail dilemma? I'm on it! Wordpress-based site that needed to have 8 mini-sites all utilizing the same stylesheet? No problem, just let me brew another pot of coffee.
So why go back to this now? I guess the main reason is that I felt like I was starting to get stale. Even when the client is a company that makes low-impact stress gaskets for the aluminum packaging industry, I hate to feel like I'm just "phoning it in". Of course, surfing around the web for the latest design news is easy, but unfortunately I suffer from a deep-seated uncertainty of the line between "inspired by" and "slavish ripoff". So, I have been trying to turn away from the monitor and find inspiration elsewhere.
Unfortunately, when I did turn away, what I saw was a big alcove crammed with all kinds of clutter: programming books, cd-holders, project notebooks, binders full of downloaded articles and about 20 different varieties of kids' art supplies. The visual impact was one of messy, paint-splattered, stuff-I-wish-I-had-time-for, chaos.
So, after a week of 14-16 hour workdays, my husband knew it his turn to occupy Chloe for a few hours before mommy started buying Vicodin by the metric ton. I took a good long look at the disaster area and started to do triage. What was going to stay? What needed to be easily accessible? What was unused and creating clutter? I waded in. There was a deep bookshelf that held all my design books, cds and notes. That could go up to Chloe's room to hold toys and games and the contents could go in the shelves on top of the fishtank. The only problem was that removing the shelf exposed a big gap between the tank shelf and the wall that had been hiding 4 boxes of boxing videos (I'm not kidding). Luckily, I had some composite boards from an old enlarger stand that had been dis-assembled and between the boxes and one of the sides, I was able to create a little shelf-table that fit perfectly under the tank and could function as a holder for paint supplies and play-do. I pulled a couple of baskets of toys from upstairs to fill up the gaps and there it was, a bright corner for my daughter to play in that could also hold some non-essentials without clutter!
Anyway, I've been busy, really busy, but still kind of freaked out when I saw the date of my last post on this blog. Around mid-March, I started to really experience the trickle-down effect of the current economic cluster-F*%k and every day became a dogged hustle for new business. I learned a lot and have tried to keep a positive spin on things. Clients dropped off the radar due to being downsized, others became so pre-occupied with trying to keep their business afloat that they didn't respond to emails asking for feedback on projects. What's a good way to cope with MIA clients? Keep trying to contact them. I kind of feel like a cyber-stalker sometimes, but it's worth it when someone compliments you on being proactive.
What work I did get tended to be labor-intensive and a real exercise in customer service. An email at 6am frantically asking for help in figuring out a webmail dilemma? I'm on it! Wordpress-based site that needed to have 8 mini-sites all utilizing the same stylesheet? No problem, just let me brew another pot of coffee.
So why go back to this now? I guess the main reason is that I felt like I was starting to get stale. Even when the client is a company that makes low-impact stress gaskets for the aluminum packaging industry, I hate to feel like I'm just "phoning it in". Of course, surfing around the web for the latest design news is easy, but unfortunately I suffer from a deep-seated uncertainty of the line between "inspired by" and "slavish ripoff". So, I have been trying to turn away from the monitor and find inspiration elsewhere.
Unfortunately, when I did turn away, what I saw was a big alcove crammed with all kinds of clutter: programming books, cd-holders, project notebooks, binders full of downloaded articles and about 20 different varieties of kids' art supplies. The visual impact was one of messy, paint-splattered, stuff-I-wish-I-had-time-for, chaos.
So, after a week of 14-16 hour workdays, my husband knew it his turn to occupy Chloe for a few hours before mommy started buying Vicodin by the metric ton. I took a good long look at the disaster area and started to do triage. What was going to stay? What needed to be easily accessible? What was unused and creating clutter? I waded in. There was a deep bookshelf that held all my design books, cds and notes. That could go up to Chloe's room to hold toys and games and the contents could go in the shelves on top of the fishtank. The only problem was that removing the shelf exposed a big gap between the tank shelf and the wall that had been hiding 4 boxes of boxing videos (I'm not kidding). Luckily, I had some composite boards from an old enlarger stand that had been dis-assembled and between the boxes and one of the sides, I was able to create a little shelf-table that fit perfectly under the tank and could function as a holder for paint supplies and play-do. I pulled a couple of baskets of toys from upstairs to fill up the gaps and there it was, a bright corner for my daughter to play in that could also hold some non-essentials without clutter!
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