Stop following directions and start designing

"Of course it is totally understandable to take the ideas of those that pay our bills as gospel. But we should also be reminded that those same people hired us for our expertise. If they just wanted someone to follow orders, they’d probably have hired someone else."

Read the entire article.

Good, Great, Greatest

Lately I've been thinking a lot about what goes into being good, great, or greatest at something. So I came up with a few ideas. The tricky part with this is how the words, "good", "great", & "greatest" are very relative in their definition. What I mean by that is, the definition of all of these will vary dependent on the person and their given experience with whatever they are applying the word to. You also have to apply the element of opposition, you can only know sweet by also knowing bitter, but then your degree of what you consider sweet will vary dependent on the amount of sweetness you have experienced. So yeah, this is a pretty complicated subject as you can see, but let's just take this little journey, and feel free to chime in with your comments and we will see if we can come up with something memorable in the end.

GOOD:

To be good at something I feel that you first need to learn the fundamental aspects of that something. As an example let's use basketball, although this can be applied to almost anything. So to be a good basketball player first you must learn the fundamentals of the game. Once you have a solid comprehension of the fundamentals I feel you are well on your way to being good. The next step is to actually practice, and by practicing you slowly begin to make progress. The more you practice the better you become.

GREAT:

To be considered GREAT, I feel you need to not only have a solid foundation of the fundamental aspects that govern whatever you are striving to be great at, but you also need to have an added degree of focus. This focus involves a higher degree of practice. You also must begin to find people who are already great or even greatest and begin to emulate them. I remember as a kid I began trying to play like my favorite basketball players, as well as my older brother. I would see him (or them) do different moves and then start practicing them. Gatorade didn't chose to use "I Wanna Be Like Mike" as their marketing campaign for no reason you know? Thats also why people wear "WWJD" wristbands as well. Trying to emulate Jesus is never a bad thing.

Even applying this to web design, I am always looking at the people who I feel are great or even greatest and then I try to emulate them not as people, but as designers.

GREATEST:

I think to get to the greatest category it comes down to your level of commitment, focus, and most importantly the details. The majority of guys you see in professional sports or the Olympics eat, sleep, and drink their sport. Just look at how hard Michael Phelps trains for example:

"Bowman actually started training Michael Phelps when the Phelps was still 11 years old. He pushed Phelps to swim at least 50 miles each week. According to him, kids at that age, is able to increase the size of their hearts and lungs in ways that no longer possible later on. The larger the heart and lungs, the bigger the aerobic engine. Phelps has been training almost 5 hours a day and 7 days a week without any rest day. Bowman admitted that he has trained the star to the extent that Phelps has little time or energy left at the end of the day for anything except to eat, sleep or occasionally watch the television. Phelps has to swim on his birthdays and Christmas too. He probably has missed some of the things he should have enjoyed at his age, but he has probably gained much than what he has missed. By the way, Bowman was a college swimmer before he became coach and he has a degree in child psychology. That helps, I guess.

Click here for the full article

The thing to be worried about when you are looking to be in the greatest category to me, is you really need to think about your priorities in life. In all reality the only things I want to be greatest in are being a father, & a husband. When you chose something like a vocation to be greatest in, you really are sacrificing a lot of other aspects of your life in order to become greatest. Most insanely successful individuals go through countless divorces, and have poor relationships with their children and family. It's all due to the amount of focus and commitment you have to have to reach the level of greatest.

If your vocation, sport, or hobby is that important to you, then I suppose it is all worth it. To me I would much rather be considered the GREATEST dad, or the GREATEST husband. So to do so, I believe I have to stay focused on what it is that makes a person the greatest dad, or husband.

CLOSING REMARKS

That is why I am more than happy with simply being great at designing websites, or basketball for that matter (if I can even be considered great that is). I am not saying that ALL people who are in this greatest category don't have great relationships with their families. I'm also just not confident that you can truly be greatest at more than one thing. Perhaps this only applies to me, and my capacities.

I do feel like in regards to web design I am at that stage where I am constantly trying to analyze what makes other web designers great. I have also changed the way I look at the world in general. When I go to the grocery store I am constantly looking at package designs, posters, and displays for different aesthetic aspects, and how effective they are. When I drive down the road I pay close attention to each and every billboard, as I sit in the mall while Hannah is playing I sit and stare at the Dillards logo and get irritated by the poor kerning of the letters. When I watch TV I pay very close attention to most commercials and the little details involved such as the fonts used, colors, music, camera angles, cinematography, and more. Similar things happen to me when I watch a movie, even my basketball watching experience has changed since I now over analyze the graphics on the screen. How they display the score and other statistics throughout the game. I flip through magazines not only to read the articles, but also to enjoy the layout and graphical elements of the magazine in general. I try to figure out what type of grid was used in the design of the magazine. There are countless other ways that my attempts to become a better designer has changed the entire way I see and interact with the world. Like I said, that to me is the only way to become great at it.

I am also constantly looking at web galleries, and almost stalking each and every web designer I feel are some of the best in the world. I visit their blogs on almost a daily basis. I subscribe to different design related magazines and do my best to read them from cover to cover.

I just hope I never allow myself to focus more on design, or basketball than I do my daughter, soon to arrive son, and wife. I think back to my youth, and how I did similar things in regards to basketball. My junior year I began shooting at least 100 three pointers a day, as well as 50 free throws. If I would of known what I know now, I probably would of gone the extreme route of Michael Phelps, because at that time in my life basketball and being successful was almost everything to me. At least I told myself that, I didn't have the focus and work ethic to quite back it up. I think many times people want to be great so bad, but don't want to actually put in the work necessary to obtain it. Mostly because they see someone that is already at that level, and don't pay close enough attention to see what that person actually did to get to that point. They just see their fame, money, & talent and covet it.

What are your thoughts?

Don't Chase Money

"Don't go after clients because of the money. Be sure the client fits your culture. Angelo says, (of David&Goliath) "We look at our client partners as an integral part of the brand. They're as much a part of our place as anyone here."

words by: Julie Prendiville Roux in an article published in the Communication Arts Interactive Annual 15

I don't think anyones primary goal in business or in life should be money. When you REALLY think about it, everyones primary goal in life is to be happy, so why not make that your primary goal in business as well. If you are thinking, "money will make me happy." Well that is a sad and slippery slope to be on, because you will never make enough money for that to REALLY happen.

Proud

When I first got hired on as a designer with the wonderful team over at Practice Cafe I'm not even sure their website showed up in a "Google Search" for anything BUT a search for "Practice Cafe." Well a little short into a year of working their I was privledged to be able to take on the hefty job of redesigning their website. Well two more redesigns later and it is the beautiful site that I LOVE to inform people that I was a part of producing is now on the infinite abyss we all call the interweb (or is that just me?).

Well it quickly became a business goal to get ourselves ranked as high as possible in Google for a number of relevant searches. The main one being "Dental Marketing." So we set out a little over a year ago to improve our ranking in "Dental Marketing." So I dove in head first at researching "Search Engine Optimization" (SEO), and best practices in improving your ranking in Google. I quickly realized this was a very tricky little task. There is no solid formula or solid answer. Infact the more time went on it was almost as if, right when I got to the point where I was saying, "Hey I think I got a handle on this SEO business" I would quickly get a reality check of how much I DIDN'T know.

However with the help of a WONDERFUL team of copywriters in Angie Liddiard & Amanda Fuller, and some helpful hints and tricks from my good friend Noel Datko, we have successfully been able to implement a lot of tender love and care over the months and successfully reached page one in google in a handful of relevant and very competitive searches. In fact our visitors to our site per day has doubled if not tripled since I started working back in November of 2006.

So as you can see from the beautiful screen capture above we are currently residing in the NUMBER 5 out of 9,120,000 in a Google Search for the term "Dental Marketing."

Click the picture above for an enlarged image, or you can just go ahead and do a quick Google Search yourself right now for "Dental Marketing" and take a VERY short scroll on down to "Practice Cafe" and go ahead and click your way over to Practice Cafe to see how we are VERY capable at handling any and all of your Dental Marketing needs (ZING!)

Although I still feel like an amateur when it comes to SEO, I am also very happy and proud that all of our work over the year has REALLY paid off. So I am anxious to continue to learn, grow, and develop these skills and to continue to improve both Practice Cafe's website and the websites of all our clients. Each and every year the internet is becoming more and more important when it comes to a marketing budget, and how people want to market their company or business, and search engine optimization will continue to play a HUGE roll in the future of marketing in the world. So we are happy to be a part of this.

Keywords and Terms Practice Cafe ranks well in:

Dental Marketing: Page 1 – #5
Dental Practice Marketing: Page 1 – #10
Dental Marketing Services: Page 1 – #3
Dental Marketing Companies: Page 1 – #2
Dental Marketing for Less: Page 1 – #5
Professional Dental Marketing: Page 1 – #10
Dental Marketing Firms: Page 1 – #5
Dental Marketing Postcards: Page 1 – #5
Custom Dental Marketing: Page 1 – #2
Affordable Dental Marketing: Page 1 – #1
Dental Office Marketing Budget: Page 2 – #5
Dental Marketing Campaign: Page 2 – #1
Dental Logos: Page 2 – #7

A Winter Wonderland!

The lights have been hung with care
All the festive hats are snug on our heads
With a friendly little snowman to bring in good cheer!
It’s a winter wonderland at PracticeCafé.com (snow included).

Welcome To My Life

This is what I go through on almost a daily basis.

JCS Branding Website

I recently designed a website for a friend & business partner of mine. His name is Jake Starr, he owns and operates JCS Branding along with his father. He approached Joel and I a few months ago about redesigning his website for him as a favor. He was nice enough to meet us in San Marcos and buy us lunch as he shared his rough sketches, ideas, and expectations for the redesign. We had to make a few changes to his original plan after evaluating his budget and primary goals as a business.

From that point on until Monday I spent my free nights and weekends at home working away on designing and coding his website. My friend Joel offered up a bit of help and designed some great links of featured areas of the website that run down the left side of the website.

JCS Branding is based in San Antonio, so we tried to translate both the name of the company, and where it is located into the design of the website, to help reinforce the services Jake offers his clients. Practice Cafe does quite a bit of business with Jake, he delivers great products and competitive prices along side top notch customer care and service. Jake is an honest down to earth guy and it shows in the manner in which he conducts his business. He's constantly helping us find the best products to exceed our expectations and goals for everything from pens, chap stick, coffee mugs, magnets, & more. He helps us know what materials, and merchandise will be best suited for our particular needs. So it was an honor to be able to work on designing a brand new website for him.

Please click your way over to his website by clicking on either one of the images or here. Also if you ever need your name or logo placed on ANYTHING and when I say ANYTHING I literally mean ANYTHING don't hesitate on contacting Jake Starr.

I hope that the website has exceeded his expectations and will help reinforce the values of his business while also facilitating it and reinforcing his company brand and identity. I also hope that his current customers, as well as future customers will also enjoy his website.

Let me know what you think about the website by leaving me a comment.

Practice Cafe 2008

If you recall in April 2007 I wrote a post mentioning how I had helped redesign the Practice Cafe website. Soon after that site was launched we quickly began to realize that the site had many limitations and flaws. The way the site was designed, was not conducive to a lot of growth and there wasn't much flexibility. At the time I was still learning how to design webpages and I did the best I could with the knowledge I had. One of the main flaws of the old site was that it was not very accessible as a website should be. not only that but we realized their was a lot of things we as a company wanted our website to do and say that it wasn't doing, and it was too hard to get it to do those things without redesigning it all together.

So back in July 2007 we decided to start refreshing our site. The last time we tried to do it way too quickly and therefore the site had far too many mistakes. so this time we decided we were going to take it slower and really think it through. After discussing the specific goals we needed the site to achieve I came up with a rough design for the site, shown above (click on the image to view a larger version).

However after further discussion we realized that I wasn't looking at this opportunity as giving myself a blank canvas. This design was only a slight modification of the old site, and I think I was trying to hold on to too many elements of the old flawed site. Another flaw to this design was that we wanted to have the entire waitress still standing to the side on every page of the website, since she has become one of the ways many people recognize our company. So I decided to start fresh, and I came up with a second idea for the website, shown above (click on the image to view a larger version).

Still this new idea didn't seem to really accomplish everything we had in mind. So we began to start to make several tweeks. One major problem was that we wanted the waitress to be one of the first things you saw on every page without having to scroll. We also needed her to be standing on the red checkered floor. So we finally came to a solid design which met all of our goals, at least on a graphics level.

So then we had a team meeting during lunch where we came up with a strong sitemap for the site. In the meeting we discussed in detail the goals we had for our site as far as content was concerned. We came to the conclusion that we wanted our website to be more educational, and informative. We wanted the site to be extremely user friendly, and accessible. Another goal was for our site to be better optimized for search engines.

At the end of that meeting we set a goal to launch the new site in April 2008. So 47 pages later I am happy to now say that the new site has been launched and is happily in it's natural habitat on the world wide interweb here. Please feel free to follow the link and visit the site, and please tell me what you think of the site?

I have to say that this website was very much a collaborative effort, so although most of the design and coding was done by myself, it was only after a lot of brainstorming and other discussions with Joel. Also Angie took on the job of writing and preparing almost all of the copy for the website, and I have to say she did a very beautiful job. She really turned the site into a very educational and informative site. Shara also helped write and prepare the case studies, and all of the partner pages of the website and did an equally fabulous job. Then as a team we all took turns reading, re-reading, and searching the site to catch as many mistakes as we could find and fixing them all the way up until the last moment when I was given the "OK" to set the refreshed site FREE on Thursday April 17, 2008.

Frustration

I HATE Internet Explorer, and Microsoft which specifically means Bill Gates. Seeing as how Microsoft and Bill Gates are the reason that the majority of people use Internet Explorer, not necessarily as a choice but more out of laziness and convenience. You buy your computer and Internet Explorer is already on the computer with your nifty little buggy Windows operating system. You click on the icon and it opens up and appears to work sufficiently. Mean while the web designers in the world are having to spend too many hours trying to get their websites to behave the way they do in EVERY other browser known to man, but for some retarded reason it won't work in Internet Explorer 5 & 6. I'm not really sure why this should even be a problem since Internet Explorer has already been readily available for free to the world for a couple of years now. Internet Explorer is set to be released sometime this year or in the near future, but for some reason their is a large quantity of people who still use an in adequate browser.

The other question is why every other company that designs browsers has created a browser that reads and interprets code the way the code is written. It is only Internet Explorer that decides to interpret the code differently, and decides to ignore different aspects of code, which forces web designers to come up with all types of tricks and shenanigans to make the browser understand and cooperate.

So this humble message from a young frustrated soul goes out to the vast and infinite abyss of the world wide web, that everyone viewing this post at this time, if you are viewing it with internet explorer please follow this link to enlightenment and together we can eradicate this horrible disease that has been plaguing our computers.

CLICK HERE TO HELP SAVE A WEB DESIGNER TODAY

Career Designs by Andrea

Friday I finished up the last few tweaks and took another website live. both of you reading are prolly thinking, "who cares," Which is a very valid thought, who does care. Well besides me, I guess the client cares. Other than that the only real reason I am posting about it, besides the fact I think I did a mighty fine job is because this is the first site I finished designing that isn't for a dentist.

Enjoy.

Learned.

"We get better design when we understand our medium. Yet even at this late cultural hour, many people don’t understand web design. Among them can be found some of our most distinguished business and cultural leaders, including a few who possess a profound grasp of design—except as it relates to the web."

JEFFREY ZELDMAN.

This past year I have been able to learn quite a bit about designing web pages, this is not to say in any way that I have perfected this skill, just vastly improved. I began learning how to design websites briefly in high school in 1998. I took a Computer Arts course, which basically covered any and everything the teacher herself could get her hands on regarding art on a computer. The class first started with simple exercises in a program called PC Paint. From there she moved us to learning a basic understanding of Photoshop, and the class seemed to learn along with the teacher. So we would usually start a project, and never finish them, because the teacher would learn something new and want to share it with the class. At the end of the year we lightly touched web design, and it was all done in Word. Which I look back now and find it hilarious, because I was super excited about it, and really would talk to people as if I seriously knew how to design a website. The site I did build was like filled with scrolling and blinking text, and I thought it was so sweet...

Moving forward the real lesson on the web came in my Intro to Web class in college. This is where I learned the basics of HTML, and tables. I even learned and built a site totally in frames. However I was more sold on the idea of designing sites using tables. The reason I enjoyed tables (I think) was because of how similar it was to the grid. The grid is something that was taught to us in all of my other design classes, as far as designing anything in the print world. Seeing as how my degree was in Print Graphic Design, and not interactive. I quickly became obsessed with typography and learning to design in the Grid system.

Print is wonderful because as a designer you have complete control over every aspect of the design. You have complete control over the text, from the font, to the kerning, letter spacing, leading, and basically the entire presentation is controlled. All throughout school I continued to expand my knowledge of the web on my own. It wasn't until this year that I finally broke away from the table comfort zone of web design. Whereas now I have been fully converted to the Web Standards movement.

It wasn't until recently meaning this year that I realized one of my biggest road blocks in progressing as a web designer was that I treated the web the same way I treated Print. I designed my websites as if I was designing something that would be printed. I would design a site but only focus on the design of the actual content area, ignoring the rest of the screen. I would then build the sites so that it would look exactly as my "ai" or "psd" file. Sometimes that meant the entire site was almost completely made out of images. Which was great for me personally, but the end user I was not so friendly to. I never took in mind designing for the end user, nor did I take into consideration that not everyone had the same computer as me, nor the same browser that I had. I also didn't take into mind the different disabilities of people, and because of this none of my sites were accessible. I also never took into consideration the entire screen regardless of what resolution or screen size the end user would be viewing the site. The background was always a last minute thought and something just thrown in. Now I take the entire screen into consideration and make the website one fluid design.

This past year I have learned that designing for the web is NOTHING like designing for print, they are two totally different aspects, however they do share some basic design principles in making them successful. However when designing a website you have to think past total control of context, and think more about the end user. You have to take into consideration that a website needs to be optimized, and search engine friendly, as well as easy to navigate, which means each page will load quickly and efficiently. Every action of the site should be simple, and virtually effortless. When working with the web you have to remember that the end user has so much control and also NEEDS a lot of control so that the site will function best for them. So for that reason their are quite a few limitations to web design. At first these limitations used to discourage me, but it was really my print design mentality of needing and wanting that total control over my work.

I find designing for the web challenging in a beautiful way. I enjoy the limitations and find that the limitations are greatly out weighed by the benefits they bring the end user. Designing a site to Web Standards makes a site much more highly accessible by various users. Why would any business owner say no to more visitors? The site will also be faster, and function in a timely manner regardless of weather someone is still in the stone ages of dial up or not. It will improve search engine rankings as well, and who wouldn't want that?

It's funny because most of the benefits to the sites I have designed lately go totally undetected to the client and whoever is viewing the site. Only the people that take a look at the site under the trunk, and are able to comprehend what is happening under the trunk truly are able to appreciate it. For example, for the most part edits on the site are done in a much more timely and efficient manor. This is one of the HUGE benefits that goes unnoticed.

The web is a completely different world, for this purpose I believe that is why most great web designers primary focus is designing web pages. Some web design superstars started out as print designers and have since almost completely left the world of print and now only work with the intraweb. I think that is almost a testament to how vastly different the two mediums are. I think if you really want to grow and develop yourself as a web designer you need to focus solely on web design. I think having a background in print is definitely beneficial because a lot of the principles of design in general are a huge benefit and give you a very strong foundation, but first you have to accept the fact that it is a different world and you have to accept the fact that you can't have total control. After you are able to accept these facts you are well on your way to being teachable and ready to grow and develop as a web designer. I am just starting this process myself, however I am still unsure of weather I want to totally leave behind print, and focus on web. I really love the world of print, and I'm not sure I am ready to give up the control just yet...

For better information on the subjects spoken of today visit these sites:
If you click on only one link to better understand what I was trying to say here in my post please make it this one:
Understanding Web Design

These other links are also better written, and well worth any ones time.
Ten Reasons to use web standards
What Every Website Owner Should Know About Standards
Why Use Web Standards

Premier Family Dental

My most recently designed website went live this past week. I'm really proud of what I have been able to accomplish in the ways of web design. I've been designing websites off and on for the past 5 years now. I wish i was able to somehow get all the websites I've done online as an archive so I could truly show you my progression from the beginning up until now. Actually I think I just may be able to do it. It will take some digging, and I think it may be worth it.

It even features such beautiful things such as this coupon which was drawn by me and tweaked by my creative director and friend Joel.

Anyways go ahead and click on the images to see the site Live & direct and In Full Effect!!!!

In the near future we should be able to add some actual pictures of the Dentist, as well as her office. Personally I feel this is the best site I have designed that is currently live and in it's natural habbitat.

Enjoy.

Elevators

Fresh off the presses, I turn 27 on Sunday October 14th, so mark your calendars and hit up your local Nike store, or good ol' fresh cash is always accepted as well. As a default I am always satisfied with a good ol' fashioned card, if it can make me laugh that will gain you extra bonus points. E-cards are also accepted but frowned upon unless they evoke a solid (not a courtesy) laugh.

In other news, I was recently, and by recently I mean Friday around 3:30, informed that I am getting a significant and also sufficient raise that went into effect October 1st. Not too shabby indeed my good friends out there...

I was looking back on a few old entries from blogs I have kept in the past, and came across this beauty that caused some beautiful memories to flood my brain.

"We both arrived on time...
which is good, I'm usually never on time.
I sat down as she approached the window to sign herself in
I began to read, It's a book I have been trying to finish for a few months now
I'm pretty weird when it comes to reading,
I enjoy reading but I go through spurts where I actually set aside time in my day to read...
It's really a matter of turning off the TV long enough to pick up a book.
Everyone who showed up after us seemed to get called in before us.

Finally I found myself all alone in a room sitting in a chair in the corner,
My wife was urinating in a cup...
I was left to my thoughts as I held my book in my lap.
Soon the silence was broken, and it wasn't long before the lights went out..
The only thing lighting the room was the screen, and the little amount of light that the crack between the floor and the bottom of the door would let pass through.
Before I knew it my little baby was on the screen in a very abstract way.
I struggled to be able to make sense of what was being shown on the screen.
The doctor tried her hardest to make sense of all the madness...
After staring into the screen long enough it finally made sense, and I saw her...
It's a girl!
It's so amazing to think about me being a father...(and scary)"

Reading through some of those old entries it's nice to remember the road I've traveled to reach where I am. That bumpy road has made me into who I am today. The crappy night time job I had taking catalog orders for Lane Bryant, Lerner, Chadwicks, and Brylane Home, as I was going to school full time. From their I got an internship that led to a more enjoyable job with low and painful pay. Then Hannah blessed our life and I kept pushing myself and pushing myself learning and growing through each and every bump in the road. It's fun to read my thoughts, and the different stories I shared. I really need to take the time and print all of it out or save it on a CD or my computer, maybe even all of the above.

"We moving on up in the world like elevators."

Landmark

I recently finished up a project for a dentist in Littleton, Massachusetts. I first did a Direct Mail campaign for him, which was followed up with a website. This in itself isn't that unusual at my job. In fact I have designed 10 direct mailers and 4 websites since I have been working with Practice Cafe. With two more Direct Mailers in the process of being printed, and another 3 Direct Mailers still in the design stages. I also have 4 other websites I am currently designing.

There are a few things that make this project different and special:

1.) This is the first website I hand coded in valid XHTML, & CSS. It is the first time I designed a tableless site solo.

2.) It was the first time I did the design of the site on the fly as I was coding it.

What do I mean by that? Well usually I would design a site in Photoshop or Illustrator. Then after I came up with how the site will look, I take my design and use it as a blueprint as I create the actual website.

So this time I just started designing and creating the site on the fly all in the code. I tried to rely as much on the power of CSS, and as little as possible on slices and images.

My only help in creating the website was this wonderful book called, CSS Mastery.

3.) I touched on it a bit in number one, however I believe this deserves it's own number. This is the first site I created that is valid. I'm sure there are quite a few readers out there that have NO clue what I am talking about. Well if you click on the link "valid" you will see that it takes you to a website that has a green bar that reads, "This Page Is Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional!" So this basically this is the first time I created a site on my own that I got a GREEN bar. Which means my code is correct, and should be understood by most if not all browsers.

Anyways I hope that Stephen Gianino is as happy with the results as I am. Also anyone living in and around the Littleton, MA area feel free to visit Stephen Gianino, check the website for a list of services, and any other info about his practice.

Preston Ridge

Accosionally we get clients that come and go as far as communication is invovled, so some projects seem to just linger. This project was rather intresting for me in paticular because of how much personal growth was invovled as the project was happening. the first project I ever did for this doctor was an advertisement he was putting in the yellow pages. From their I started designing a direct mailer that would be mailed out to around 10,000 people in his general area. After that I did a general design for a website.

The doctor approved the yellow page ad within a few days of me finalizing the design, after that we didn't hear from him for a month about any of the other projects. The next time we heard from him was because he was ready to print some business cards with the logo that Phil designed. Then he disapeared again. During that time I progressed a significant amount in HTML, XHTML, & CSS, as I jumped on the intellegent bandwagon of "Web Standards" which was started by Jeffrey Zeldman.

So I decided to totally redesign his website from the original design trying to impliment some of the new skills I had aquired. Today the website has finally gone live for the whole entire intrawebs pleasure.

Enjoy.

Defined:

"Graphic design is an archaic description of the current practice of design. When design simply involved issues of form, it was graphic design. When the designer was responsible for both the form and content of messages, it became communication design. Today, the designer is responsible for communicating complex messages clearly, considering the form and content of a message and also the context in which the message is received by audiences over time. We consider this experience design. Design is the intermediary between information and understanding; its role is to make the complex clear and useful. Great design does this in a way that elevates the spirit."

-Ric Grefe, Executive Director, AIGA, New York.

I myself consider myself a "Communication Designer" but when I say that most people look at me wierd, so I say "Graphic Designer" they still are confused but atleast they have heard of that term before. Then I still ahve to explain what exactly I do.

Basically I design communication in whatever format that maybe ie logos, brochures, direct mailers, magazines, websites, advertisements...

The Office

My Desk
Originally uploaded by shaneguymon.

We've been in a bit of a transition stage right now, but we are moving along, and I am really enjoying the work. I've been able to see four of my direct mailers printed, and their is an indescribable feeling of being able to see something you created on paper in mass quantities. Then to know that a couple thousand people will be receiving it in their mailboxes three times in a year, is also a very unique feeling. On top of all that you then take in the humble thought that 90 % of those people will most likely throw your creation in the garbage 20 seconds after viewing it is just mind blowing. Do you realize that my creations will literally be decorating the earth for the lifespan that paper has before it bio degrades or is recycled into someone else's trash.

Of course there is that very rare possibility that someone will like it so much that they will actually hang onto it, hang it on the fridge for a month, and actually give my hard work somewhat of a home and a life. At least I am able to grab a few out of the box, and keep them safely tucked away from the dust in my portfolio to have a lifetime of possibilities. They could win me a prize at a competition, impress another employer into giving me a job with even better pay, or they could one day be the reason for a promotion in this company.

I have a few websites that are in the works as well, that should be hitting the world wide inter-web in the VERY near future, as well as some potential logos in the works, those two things have much longer lifespan then the glorified garbage I create in the direct mailers and postcards.

The Shimmy Shake with a twist....

No matter what moves I try to do I just can't seem to shake whatever viruses and bugs are out on the market these days. I seem to be getting them all. I usually try to stay ahead of the game and get the extra edge on the opponents.

In High school you could find me in the gym every day after school shooting 50 3 pointers on each side of the court which would equal to 100. Then I would play pick up games until around 5:30 - 6:00pm. (of course that also didn't REALLY work since I spent my senior year sitting the bench)

While in Brasil I never set my barefoot on Brazilian soil, I took my worm medicine every six months, and took a shower every morning.

Lately I have been washing my hands like Melvin Udall (bonus points for anyone who can tell me who he is.) and frequently rubbing hand sanitizer gel stuff on my hands as well, yet somehow this weekend I still ended up with a low grade fever, my stomach twisting and turning as if I had some small alien living inside me (perhaps I should call up Tom Cruise) and spending the majority of my time either laying in the fetal position on the couch or sitting on the toilet (I won't go into too much detail with that.)

This all started on Friday, and for some stupid reason I chose to lead my church team to a loss. So evidently I'm not Michael Jordan, but I definitely would of appreciated Scottie Pippen draggin me off the court after the game.

RANDOM BASKETBALL UPDATE:
Speaking of Scotty Pippen the latest news is saying that he may be returning to play for the Lake Show with Phil Jackson, I have always been a Pippen fan, even in his years at Houston, and definitely his under-rated years with Portland, and even when he decided to go back to Chicago to finish out his career. (Although I secretly wished Jordan would of gotten him to come and play along his side when he came back to the Wizards.)

RANDOM OTHER NEWS UPDATE:
In other news I was listening to my favorite morning show on the way to work, and because of their guest I tuned into the remaining portion of the show via the World Wide Web, because they had my main man Timbaland on, which he helped create a phenomenal album for Justin Timbalake, and now he is promoting his album which is going to drop on April 3rd, which includes a song he did with Fall Out Boy! How insane is that? They played the song on the air, and it is a good song. Although I HATE what he did with Nelle Furtado, just because it sounds exactly like Furge, (who I also HATE) who sounds like Gwen Stephanie (who I also dislike) So as you can see it's an inevitable chain reaction that can not be stopped. Of course I've never been a fan of Justin Timberlake either, until "Cry Me A River" came along, and now this album, and BAM I'm a fan and I got his album on my ipod shuffle, and I'm listening to it just about everyday as I work, and even as I type this post...

RANDOM MOVIE:
In entertainment news be sure to rent "For Your Consideration."

Practice Cafe

So I can officially say I finished my first week now. I was supposed to start on Monday, and showed up to move into my apartment on Saturday with a Uhaul, and the Inlaws ready to get everything sitiated, and I was made aware that the apartment was never approved for us to move in. (although we had been told a week earlier that it was ready, and they were expecting us.) It was a giant fiasco that ended in us staying the weekend with my new fantastic, and totally awesome boss, Rebecca Palmer. Hannah got sick, and Monday at around 12:00pm we were finally given the ok to sign the contract and move into our apartment. By then it was only me, and Jared (my boss's husband) so we moved everything into the apartment, and slowly we, by we I mean Heather, have begun putting everything in the right places, and getting it into a livable/homey condition. We have our Christmas tree up, and decorations are placed sparatically around the rooms, and it has been rather nice.

I finally started work last Tuesday, and I pretty much just hit the ground running, with a few trips on the way. They were already pretty busy, so they kinda just threw me on some projects, and I just worked my way through them asking TONS of questions along the way. I have a huge desk, my own phone (with my own extention & voice mail,) a G5 MAC with a dope flat screen monitor.

their are 3 designers that work their, two of us (including me) are brand spanking new, and whenever a new logo is being designed everyone gets to take a stab at it, then as an office we pick the best 6-8 of everyones, and send them to the client, then whoever's get's picked they pretty much take over the rest of the file. So today we heard back from the first Logo I took part in designing, and one of mine was chosen. I have to say I was quite shocked, and at the same time I was giddy as a school girl.

My desk has slowly become consumed with projects, and I find myself having to force myself to go home, one day I just totally skipped lunch working straight through...

It's madness, but it is so much fun, I'm LOVING it!

Newness!

Well around two weeks ago on Thursday after lunch I was notified that I would be laid off and my last day was October 31st. So I spent the second half of my day sending my resume out to as many places as I could find for a new job. I even sent it out to three or four places in Austin just to give myself more of a chance. By the end of that day two places contacted me, one is Austin, called Practice Cafe, and another in San Antonio, not sure what the name of it is. Friday I recieved another response from a diffrent company in Austin called Practice Cafe. They invited me out for an interview last Wed. So I put together a small book of different logos I have designed as something they could keep to remember me by. They were planning on hiring one person. The interview went great, and they told me they would know who they would hire by Friday. So Friday rolled around and my phone rang around 1:30pm my heart was pounding and they informed me that they had already hired someone but they were now contemplating hiring two people and I was the second person. The only thing was they wouldn't know until Tuesday (Today). So today went by very slow, tense, and stressfull. There hours past without a single call. Soon 3:30pm rolls around and hope was beiginng to slowly fade from my system. I decided to make a call, where I recieved an answering machine and I left a very brief message. Three hours rolled by without a single call. That was until 6:00pm when my phone finally rang, and it was them...

I GOT THE JOB!!!

I start on November 27th...

So now Austin will be our new home!