Please help a dear friend of mine, and fellow Designer / Art Director, by giving anything you can to the Caregivers ALS Walk. You don’t have to participate in the walk, just give some bucks! Any donation large or small is going to help those in need. I will give a portion of any freelance earnings I make from now until October. Nice logo BTW.
http://web.alsa.org/goto/kristin
August 27, 2011#
Fighting ALS!
August 18, 2011#
Price, place, promotion, and product
What? The four “P’s” of marketing are all parts of an integrated communication strategy vital to success. Understanding MarCom or Marketing Communications is essential to any advertising program from your logo and business card, to your brochure, web banners or video production. Taking creative ideas and transforming them into attention-getting advertisements designed for various media (television, web, magazines, billboards and others) is the next step for business growth. Today’s economy is fierce with hungry competition and you must set your company apart. Reaching one or more of your target audience’s senses; hearing, seeing and touching, while keeping them focused without distraction on the message. And lastly, a call-to-action: getting them to call, pursue and purchase your Product, from that Place you call your website at a competitive Price as a result from your advertising Promotion. A consistent “look & feel” throughout all of your visual communication will convey professionalism, resulting in trust. Ultimately, this all leads to repeat business with a little nurturing of the MarCom process cycle. So the question is… what are you doing about your marketing communication efforts?
August 11, 2011#
The App Alternative for under $100
More and more traffic is coming from mobile platforms and it seems that the smartphone or mobile “Pad” device (Internet in your hand) is something that can’t be ignored by small or large businesses. The growth of mobile device users, especially iPhone and iPad user’s equates to a major target audience. Development of an App (one that can be found on iTunes) is a costly and time consuming task (trust me, I’ve done it). It’s not quick to market, and it takes time. Not to mention, Apple has the right to approve or not approve your App and that approval comes after months of development time and associated costs. My point is this, there are alternatives to “Apps”, and I’ve developed the cost effective solution. Ultimately, an App or icon that lives on someone’s mobile device can be a direct link or portal to your company website. Your website is where you want them to end-up, this is where you sell them your product or tell them about your company. Plus, your website can be updated on the fly, without the approval of Apple. So how do you get an App or an icon on all those user’s devices quick and easily? It’s called a SwatchPix, it’s a custom webclip, an icon that is compatible with all iPhones and iPads that are online. It works like this, a mobile user goes to a custom website address (swatchpix.com/ssm), enters a unique code (1057) and then with a few taps of the finger they download an icon to their device within seconds. This icon then lives on their device and appears just like an App, but it links to your website, phone number, custom page, or in this examples case it links to their online magazine. This is something your company cannot be without, for more information visit SwatchPix.com/custom No Apple approval needed, deploys in seconds, no updating needed, lives on their device until they remove it, and it’s a native Apple function.
July 30, 2011#
Pina Zangaro Presentation Folder
Tablets such as iPads are certainly changing the standard for presenting your artwork these days. Call me old school, but having a hardcopy non-digital presentation folder is a good supplement. Imagine you’re in an interview and your battery is running very low or is dead, sure you charged it before you left home but strange things happen (you were playing games in the lobby). Or what if there is no WiFi because the network is down for unknown reasons? Nothing beats being prepared in style. Having a hardcopy of your work also makes you standout among all the other digital geeks these days. I found the Pina Zangaro brushed aluminum or bamboo presentation folders to be an excellent non-digital choice. At a quick first glance, the aluminum model looks almost like a closed Macbook. They come in various sizes, mine is an 11 x 14 inch. Featuring removable threaded studs, you can easily add and remove inkjet matte paper pages. I also went for the custom laser etching of my logo. Check out PZdirect.com for more info on these cool non-digital portfolios.
July 30, 2011#
Broken Zoom Lens
My Tamron lens that I use with my Nikon D90 recently broke. Yep, the zoom just stopped zooming. You could turn the ring around and around and just hear grinding noises while the lens did not move in or out as it normally would. Naturally I panicked as this was my favorite all-in-one lens and was not heavily used. It is such a versatile lens at 18 – 270mm with vibration control. I Googled the symptoms of my broken lens and sure enough, it appears this lens has seen this problem often. The good news is that Tamron has an awesome 6 year warranty. My lens was only a year old, so I quickly sent it off for warranty repair. Tamron fixed the lens at their NY facility at their expense and shipped it back to me within 2 weeks. I suppose for the original great price of this lens, and the excellent warranty, Tamron will remain on my favorite list.
July 30, 2011#
Product Photography Tent
A recent freelance project has forced me into buying an EZcube Light Box for my home studio. I was a bit skeptical to make the purchase, but I must admit, this lighting tent does the job. They come in different sizes, small to extra large. The one I got was the 40″ model, one below their largest model. I found that it requires a lot of light to really get it illuminated. I set up several compact fluorescent daylight equivalent major wattage lamps. The real trick was to shoot raw image files, then open in Photoshop and adjust then the exposure until the background disappears completely. If you’re shooting a medium to dark toned object, you can blowout the white background and end up with perfect product shots that don’t require any trimming. I also built my own turn-table (using a lazy susan bearing and round table top) so that I can shoot stills and create 360° videos (sample here). Anyway, I highly recommend this product and the good folks at Table Top Studio sent it out the same day I ordered.
July 27, 2011#
3D Z Car
This is a screen capture of my first attempt at modeling a car using Maya. While its not good enough to show in my portfolio, I thought I’d share it here. It just needs some windows, headlamps, taillights, plus rims and tires… geez is that all. I’ve given up on the project at this point, I don’t have enough free time.
July 27, 2011#
Updated Site, Updated Hosting
So last week I decided to switch my Hosting company to a new service and update my website with a WordPress back-end. I won’t mention my old Hosting company by name, but they were terrible, really bad support (only by email, because you can’t understand them on the phone), lots of downtime, outdated server software and the list goes on and on. I’m so pleased with my new Hosting company, BlueHost.com, they are based in the U.S. (Utah). So far they’ve given me excellent phone support in English that you can clearly understand, their server software is up-to-date, excellent speed and performance, the pricing is dirt cheap ($6.95/mo) and the best part is that you can have “addon” sites. This means you can add another domain with hosting to your existing account and pay nothing extra, and it functions seamlessly. Yes, I’m bragging about BlueHost.com, that’s because I’ll receive compensation if you sign-up for hosting using any of the links found here. But trust me, you’ll be totally satisfied with your choice and it doesn’t hurt to help me out at the same time, it costs you nothing more. So if you’re a web designer or a client of mine or just need hosting or want to switch hosts, sign-up today!
November 4, 2009#
Veer – Creative Contest
I came across another creative contest the other day on Veer.com, this one was a bit different in the sense that you were required to step away from the computer -What?! The rules were simple, recreate the”Veer” logo using real world objects, then photograph it. I didn’t have a lot of extra time, and the deadline was very short, so I searched around the house and thought up a few ideas… for one I used light-brite pegs, the other, some play-doh, water and the freezer. I then shot them with my Nikon D90 with a few light sources and sent them in for judgement day. Wish me luck! And yes, the grand prize is huge, a brand new MacBook Pro, CS4 bundle and Veer credit!
August 5, 2009#
Snowboard Design Competition
I received a “notable entry” notice, over 3,000 designs were submitted worldwide for the Nidecker Snowboard Design Competition. Two of my four designs ranked within the top 100. Check’em out here: Design #80, Design #81, congratulations to the Grand Prize winner!
