Wow! How Time Flies

Photo from http://www.esourcingforum.com

Well, It is what it is. I took a job just after school to help get some income rolling into the household again. My wife is amazing. She not only encouraged me to pursue school and rooted for me and boosted my confidence when I was struggling with school, but she supported me financially as well. So, immediately after school ended in 2014, I had every intention of lining up my ducks and getting all of my t's crossed and i's dotted and portfolio polished so that I could apply to positions within the field of graphic or web design.

Work, is work. That's just all there is to it. You come home and you're whooped. Before long, you settle in (or I did anyway) to a routine and get comfortable doing what is working while continuing to keep the cars on the road and the roof overhead and the lawn mowed or driveway cleared of snow. And, there you have it. Three years have passed since I graduated school.

Well, enough is enough.

I recently experienced yet another challenging moment in my "job" where they decided to change my schedule . . . . . AGAIN!  This isn't the first time that they have decided to do this. In the three years that I have been employed there ( and for the sake of anonymity I won't drag my employer's name into this here ) I have had my schedule altered . . . . this would be the fifth time in three years (not quite 3 years). I started on 2nd shift because it worked for my household. Then I was moved to 3rd shift. Then back to 2nd. Then 3rd, then 2nd. Now!!! 1ST!!!  So, long story short, I decided at one point in this last challenging moment that I was being forced to search for alternative employment, and if I was to do that, well then, I was going to search for Graphic Design or Web Design work.

Well, getting into the graphic design field is challenging at best. There is a lot of fantastic talent out there. I'm good. I had excellent instructors in college. I learned a lot, and I feel that I know my stuff. But, then there are the gifted. Wow! These people have a natural skill that is just amazing. But, I know there is room for me. I know that I have skills. It's very  stressful to decide after 3 years to get your portfolio polished up and ready for applications.

The stress of job change is incredible. Insurance interruption. 401K transfer. Wage difference. Schedule arrangement. Uuuuggghh! If I hate anything in this life, it's searching for a job. I don't want a job. I want a career. I want a career that I have mastered and feel comfortable in. I want, once and for all to feel what it feels like to be the master of my domain. For far too many years I have been a Jack of all Trades.

I can literally do anything, aside from mining, fishing and being a pilot. I can weld, I can do auto body work and paint cars, I can troubleshoot and repair automobiles mechanically and electrically, I can rebuild engines, I can drive just about anything on wheels from lawn tractor, city buses to Semi–Tractor–Trailers. I've delivered pizza, I've washed dishes, I've been a cook, I've raised hogs, I was in and out of the Landscaping field all through my 20's. I've moved very large machinery in the Millwrights as an apprentice. I later operated that same Injection Molding machinery for many years. I've been in and out of that manufacturing world for 20+ years.   I have been fascinated with computers and their capabilities since my first programming class in HS in 1986. I met my wife in an AOL chat-room back in 1995. I put the roof on our home. I installed the new sewer pipes that used to be going to septic. I have upgraded the entire plumbing system in our home. I have upgraded the entire electrical system in our home.  But, I am a comfortable MASTER of absolutely nothing.

So, podcast after podcast and book after book, article after article. . . I learn that to "Freelance" you must put in the time and effort everyday doing "What You Do" every single day. I have been wanting to build my website, so that I can post to my blog, so that I can create and maintain digital visibility and illustrate my interests. But, I keep finding new frameworks and  methods to building the website. So, I'm just going to blog here on Blogger for the time being while I sort that out and at least get this ball rolling.

This is the official first post of the rest of my life.

Betabrand

I stumbled upon a Facebook advertising post by a company called Betabrand. The logo caught my eye because Bissie was looking at doing a similar mirrored B concept. The more of these that I see and find, the less I like them. I'm so glad that Bissie changed her logo.

MMR Studio

I checked out Design Matters // PORTFOLIOS — An essential Primer for Today's Competitive Market by Maura Keller. There were many great ideas an examples in the book. One that caught my attention was this branding ebrochure that MMR Studio created for their own marketing purposes. I found their website and looked around there too. They have an impressive website and have done some fantastic design work.

They created a great fold-out jacket for their e-brochure on disk. The card sized flip-folio is a great concept!

Communication Arts — Jan–Feb 2014

The Typography Annual is out now. I found some great samples of logo design in there. I love looking at what others have been done and sometimes I find something that is perfect at the time. Currently, while searching for typography examples for my Typography class, I found these logos that inspire me for my identity and branding efforts in my Portfolio class.

I love this "S" logo. The leaves integrated into the design is fantastic and I love the colors.

I'm always looking for an interesting "b". This is nice. My only concern is printing in black and white. 

This "WINK" logo is fantastic. The repeating of the same direction strokes that overlap looks like a pattern at first, but then you can also read the letters once you look at it closer. Again, a black and white issue though. 

Taylor Studios

News-Gazette

Michael Witte

In my recent research for holiday card illustration, I found this illustration done by Michael Witte at theiSpot.com.

In further searching, once I found his work at the iSpot, I found that he does have other portfolio sites like Workbook and Rappart, as well as his own domain name at michaelwitte.com . His style is very caricature based, humorous, and witty. No pun intended. I really like and appreciate the style in many respects. I don't think that it is a style that I would pursue though. I have always had a very difficult time imagining how a caricature artist chooses the features of a person to exaggerate. I tend to see thing very literally and feel the need to reproduce things as true to real looking as possible. Perhaps that is why I've always been so discouraged with my drawing skills, because what I end up with is rarely as close as I would like it to be to the real object or image. When I do create something that closely resembles my subject, then I'm happy with it. I suppose I need to either broaden my horizons, or learn to accept my own flaws.