A Designer's Mind

Click here to see some of the thoughts that go through a designer's mind.

I can relate to all of them. The more sarcastic, the better. :)

Life Design

This is an email from a family friend who has had a long battle with cancer. Feel free to pass along to people you love, like, respect, or even dislike. Show compassion to everyone you encounter.

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. That's why we live smart.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop & dull living.' Experience new things...get out.

4. Enjoy the simple things...

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love , whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER :
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

And if you don't send this to at least 8 people - who cares?
But do share this with someone.
We all need to live life to its fullest each day!!


Worry about nothing, pray about everything!!!

♥

A quick read

I read this great book to my great-grandmother who I am caring for part-time to make ends meet. She and I went to Seattle to visit extended family in 2005 with a slew of our other matriarchs and loved-ones. It was a wonderful trip, and one of the highlights was visiting the Pike Place Fish Market. I kissed a fish after it was thrown over my head!!! And loved it!!! (There is a great photo of the scaly smooch that I will try to dig up and post.) It was an experience filled with fun, excitement, and character... over FISH!!!

This book is a very quick read, but it is JAM PACKED with great business advice about motivation and inspiration. It's a great realistic fiction based teaching the business philosophy in action everyday at the Pike Place Fish Market.

I highly recommend it and so does Monnie (my great-grandmother who is the smartest lady I have ever known)!!

♥ G

"Chaos is Hard"

The title of this IIDA blog post caught my eye. While most of the article is about the current legal battle in Florida, the introduction stresses how smart design reduces chaos.

Maybe that was part of what drew me to design. I love to organize, I love everything in its own place, I love clear information, I love when everything functions as it should. However, my experience in the design industry so far has been far from chaos free.

I perform well under pressure. For example, these are some tough things I can handle well:
-Time constraints
-Deadlines
-Limited resources
-Learning skills quickly
-Speaking in front of a crowd
-Constructive Criticism

These, not so much:
-Mind reading
-Deciphering unclear instructions and non-existent goals
-Total recall of every number or name of every price, product or manufacturer I have inquired about or looked at in the past 8 months on half a dozen projects
-Accomplishing tasks that require knowledge, skills, instruction or information that I do not have

Yet, somehow I find that I am repeatedly asked/told to perform in this manner almost daily and then criticized when I do something incorrectly. (Oh, also, this pays me less than minimum wage for more than full time hours).

An illustration maybe?
I am not making light of these situations. I am only trying to use them as illustrations.

Pressure is like what the folks along the Mississippi River have been going through with the floods. Although potentially destructive and scary, the residents had warnings, time to collect their wits and resources for preparation before the flood waters came rushing in.
Chaos is more like the tornadoes that affected so many residents of Alabama and Georgia. The tornadoes ripped through and all the people could do was duck and cover.

Chaos freezes productivity.
Pressure, if handled well, can multiply productivity!

Chaos is hard, and I would like to find ways to minimize the chaos. Suggestions? Please leave me a comment!

DESIGN IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE CHAOS IS SO HARD.
Jules Feiffer

Scary Chairs

Via: Medical Billing And Coding


I found this informative graphic on LinkedIn's news. I think the message is fantastically startling and the design is terribly good! You already know that I love Halloween, and this taps into my love for all things that go bump in the night. But notice the ingenious use of positive and negative space!! The font selection is so very effective. It reminds me of graphics in a story about friendly monsters.

Where have you seen eye catching graphics with a great message??
♥-G

Trying Something New

I have had issues in the past with uploading and attaching my portfolio samples. The files are large because I want a high resolution when they print. Well, instead of attaching a massive Zip file to every email I send and having half of them kicked back, I am trying this:

http://www.slideshare.net/GingerLaw/law-portfolio-samples

Hopefully it will be well accepted. I figure as Internet Communications Chair I should be utilizing these types of things!

What do you think? Comments welcome♥

Tooting Your Own Horn

Part of my Sunday has been spent working on an article for the NEWH Atlanta magazine. I was given the assignment of writing an article about a particular Atlanta based design firm and a hotel project they completed in San Diego, CA. As I jotted down notes on the audio recording I took when interviewing one of the owners and read the press releases about the hotel, I began to think about just how much these designers/firms talk about themselves and their work. My own boss has a tendency to relate any topic of conversation to past projects or a unique solution he came up with. It's frustrating to his employees because he prominently uses "I" instead of "we". But does it frustrate the other people involved in the conversation? Do they see it as bragging or marketing?

Where should a designer draw the lines between pride, ego-stroking, bragging, self-promotion, and sharing experiences? How do you know when tooting your own horn is getting too loud?

Creating the correct dynamic for self promotion is very important to me right now. While I am trying to establish myself as a capable designer and I have gained more hands on experience than most first year designers, I know that I am far from being able to find solutions for all of the issues that arise in a project's scope of work. Like I said in my last post, I have a learning curve, but I know that I have the ability to pick up skills quickly. I know that I will one day be a competent, efficient, effective designer. Skills like confident public speaking and being comfortable meeting new people have always come naturally to me, but expressing how and why I am a step above has not.

Basically, I don't have the gene that makes me toot my own horn voluntarily.

Growing up I was taught to be humble, don't beg for compliments, you shouldn't have to tell people how awesome you are because it will show on its own. I was taught to always give credit to the group because "if you ever see a turtle on a fencepost, you know he did not get there by himself!" This makes things like defining skills, composing a coverletter and resume, and answering questions about my work difficult. I don't want the content of my coverletter to read like an Oscars acceptance speech.

"First of all, I would like to thank The Academy... (pause for effect).. And I would like to thank my dad for helping me move furniture in my room so often as a child and HGTV for giving Candace Olsen a show. Thank you to all of my professors and classmates, especially when I had not slept in days and looked like the walking dead and they still acted like I had good ideas even though I was speaking gibberish..."

How absurd!

So my challenge for the upcoming opportunities is to get into a "moi mode" and come up with some really great self-selling points. I feel that with my current position and hang ups, it might be most advantageous me to toot my horn in a way that will show how I will benefit other designers, projects, and efficiency in a firm.

Here goes...

TOOT TOOT!!