Lately I've become ridiculously obsessed with ankle books. Really, it's ridiculous. This morning (just for fun) I went to Gucci's website to see what they have for ankle boots - big mistake. Until this morning I have been completely content with boots from Piperlime, Endless, and a couple of other online stores; alas that contentedness has vanished. Unfortunately, a pair of $40-60 shoes doesn't really stack up to a pair of shoes that costs well over $1,000. See it for yourself.
Drooling over every single piece of work from J Fletcher Design. This guy is genius. (Not to mention that he's done work in the fashion industry which makes me insanely jealous.) From the looks of his project portfolio, he gets all the good gigs in town. ...is it considered theft if you steal someone's portfolio?
As a print designer at heart working as the team lead at a web design firm, I grab every chance I can to design print materials. Every year Aptera hosts an open house shindig and our gracious owners pull out all the stops - food and drinks that make you drool just thinking about them and even a red carpet! Last year we had just moved downtown, so in keeping with the moving theme, I designed a grunge-style invite printed on chipboard. Cool and very inexpensive.
This year my challenge was to design an even "cooler" invitation that was right around the same cost. While I did go slightly over budget, I can say with confidence that this year's design made the cut for "cooler". My goal was to create an elegant, red carpet-style invite that was visually gorgeous and tactile.
Paper stock: Curious Skin Collection Inks: Silver metallic with a spot varnish Quantity produced: 1,500 Dimensions: 5" x 7" Type credits: GeoSans Light
So I'm a slacker. I'll admit it. It's time to get back in the groove and start posting again, because I've been working on a lot of great projects and have participated in a lot of great opportunities lately - taking wedding pictures for friends, speaking at the ExactTarget Connections conference, participating in some really cool design projects at work and for family and friends.
Unfortunately, I'm not able to post everything right now, so in the meantime, here are a few sites that made me smile today.
MixMyGranola.com - a great place for foodies and non-foodies alike. Make your own custom muesli or granola and get it shipped to you for free if your order is over $40!
Windrock Lodge - a site designed by Designsensory out of Knoxville, Tennessee. Seventy-two thousand acres of prime ATV and bike trails nestled in the hills of East Tennessee are a big enough draw for thrill seekers, nature lovers and rugged, outdoor types. 'Nuff said.
Lilly's Table - featuring brand new seasonal recipes each week. Yes, another food site. I've been obsessed with cooking with seasonal foods and ingredients lately - what can I say?
Nearly 8 months ago we moved downtown. One of the most best aspects of living downtown is that I get to walk to work because it's an easy way to get a little exercise, save gas money, and be eco-friendly at the same time. Lately we've been using a great application called Daily Burn to track our nutrition and exercise in an effort to become all-around healthier people.
Today, one of the blogs I follow featured a really neat study from Stockholm to see if more people would take the stairs if it was fun. Incredibly, they found that 66% more people will. Found out how.
This weekend while we were visiting my family in Kansas, I had the opportunity to snap some shots for my cousin and his beautiful family. Their youngest daughter is turning 1 soon so I also took a few extra shots of her lovable cuteness. Everyone was energetic, cooperative, and a blast to hang out with for an hour. Thanks guys!
I found this post on the blog at Crestock.com. Enjoy! ...although, I wonder if they could make the font bigger and put a thicker border around the most important works. ----------------------
If you’re a designer, you’ve probably had to deal with lots of annoying client feedback throughout your career. Let’s face it, a lot of clients have no idea what good work looks like. In fact, I reckon that if the average client was presented with classics of Western art, they’d probably still try to offer up some constructive criticism. And it might look something like this...
Client feedback:
We think it would help communicate our superior customer service if we make her a call-center employee, so please give her one of those headsets. Further to that, since she's just helped a customer solve their problem, why isn't she smiling?
Client feedback:
We love this! So profound, and it really makes you think. But just a couple thoughts: Instead of a shark, can we make it a couple of rabbits? And instead of being dead, let's make them alive. And throw some grass in there so they can frolic.
Client feedback:
From his expression, it's not totally clear he's screaming. We showed it to one of our HR girls and she said "It looks like he's really tired and having a yawn." So let's add a voice bubble with text that reads "Nooooooo!" (for the text, use Comic Sans).
Client feedback:
Is this even finished? And we'll have to check with legal and get back to you about her being unclothed.
Client feedback:
Our customers are both men and women, from a wide variety of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, and we feel this doesn't quite reflect that. As such, please adjust your choice of models to include one MILF-type with a baby stroller (young, urban mothers are one of our biggest demographics), a man in coveralls with a hardhat, an Asian (doesn't matter what type), and a Native American. Oh, and make that long haired metal dude in the middle black.
Client feedback:
We have two words for this: Not hot. Let's see some skin. Try another revision, with her in a red lace bra and thong.
Client feedback:
We appreciate your hard work and dedication as you worked on this these last four years. Unfortunately we only budgeted 20 hours of design for this project. So we'll have to ask that 35,043 hours of your work be pro bono.
Client feedback:
We like the direction you're going with this sketch, but we thought you were presenting finished mock-ups today.
Client feedback:
We want to improve conversions by making things more interactive. So please add a poll question to this, with the following text:
What's he thinking about? a) Who's going to win "So You Think You Can Dance" b) Where he left his pants c) Whether there's any more toilet paper d) That Venus chick is amazing - wonder what line I could use to pick her up?
Client feedback:
Make the logo bigger.
