December 2006

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Re-developing Illustration Technique

December 30, 2006 in Illustration, Portfolio | 1 comment

After spending many years working as a graphic designer, I’m finding that developing a new illustration portfolio means re-learning my technique. Time to be doing many studies and plenty of failed illustrations, I’m sure, but hopefully every failed illustration brings me closer to something work marketing.

Right now, I’m attempting watercolor and acryllic over the graphite sketches that I enjoy doing. The trick is, not to overpower the sketch, but to build the color appropriately.

As a side note, I’m finding there’s more of a difference than I’d like between what I actually paint, and what the scanner interprets. Someday– a new scanner (not to mention new computer, new software, new house, etc.). That’s where having the new portfolio comes in. Hopefully it starts with that.



What’s next

December 15, 2006 in Business, Personal

As noted in my first blog, I took time off from work beginning in September to work on portfolio projects, specifically, my final project to complete my BFA degree at Brigham Young University. During the past three and a half months, my status of full-time salaried designer was changed to part-time, so I could maintain my employment as well as have the time I needed for my projects.

Last summer, after over two years at Indigo Creative, I was started to get that itch for ‘what’s next’. While grateful for my employment, and happy with my co-workers, I felt the day-to-day work moving farther from the kind of work I enjoyed doing, so I took the risk of taking time off to do the kind of projects I wanted to for awhile, and to complete my degree. I was meant to return to full-time at the beginning of the new year.

Now, during that time, my boss, Michael Hancock, has moved on to pursue contract design work, and I find the studio continually moving away from the kind of work situation I’d like to be in. So I’ve decided to continue the risk. I’m grateful that the studio has opted to keep me on as a part-time employee, but I’ve decided that I won’t return as a full-time designer. Rather, there seems to come a time to look for the next move. Of course, there’s a certain giddy excitement to having most of my time to myself, but also the risk of not having a steady income. I have to hope to stay focused and structure my time to achieve visible accomplishments (i.e. a better portfolio).

Simply, it came down to the option of doing what’s traditionally safe and returning to a regular job, whatever the work; or continuing a risk a little longer to develop portfolio and hope to progress to ‘what’s next’.

A Short thought on Freelance

December 15, 2006 in Business, Graphic design | 1 comment

I’ve recently had some experiences and subsequent discussions about dealing with freelance that prompted me to blog. Admittedly, this is mostly a ‘note to self’, but here goes.

The first thought that springs to mind stems from having a freelance client ask me to reduce thier bill because they hadn’t budgeted for as many hours as I’d taken. I had related to the client how many hours I had taken to complete their first draft, but had failed to update them through three additional rounds of designs. They felt surprised that it took me twice my original amount of hours to complete the additional drafts and urged a reduced bill. I complied in the interest of good relations, as the client was technically a friend’s client, and because I hadn’t kept them updated on the time involved. I relate all this not to bag on clients but to note that clients ought to be updated on the hours each round of additional work are taking. We would have this problem at the studio where I work, particularly with long-term projects, where a client would be surprised at how many hours they were being billed for.

Contracts are another topic of discussion lately. Typically, for a short and straightforward job, I don’t much see the point in requiring one. As the designer, by default, I retain ownership, and invoice the client at the agreed amount. When it comes to something more involved, long-term, or (in the case of recent experience) a spec-work job, I’d like to have something in writing. I was concerned lately that I may have offended a client by suggesting a simple contract, nothing complicated, just a couple points to mutally agree upon to avoid misunderstanding. Twice I was given the advice that contracts are to help maintain a friendship or good business relation, and if someone is offended by using a contract, then they may be a dubious client.

Actionscript maps

December 2, 2006 in Actionscript, Graphic design, Maps

Once again I display what a geek I am as I set out to create a world map in actionscript . Mostly it was the challenge of a designer trying to figure out some programming, and with some late nights, I managed to create this little thing. What it will do is display any location you enter or city you click on in the center of the world, with a measure of thousand-mile rings radiating from it. I originally tried it with the text, as in a previous design but the overlapping text made the cities difficult or impossible to click on. For now it loads centered on my home in Utah, but I think it’d be great sometime to set it up such that the default loading location is that of the visitor, determined via their ip address, but I think I’d be investing more time figuring out that programming than I ought to right now. Every now and then I’m have to do some design, of course.