When I lived in Oakland, I always brought Vinnie to the dog boarding kennel Citizen Canine whenever I traveled for work or pleasure. Seattle doesn’t have a reasonable facsimile of Citizen Canine which is fine because friends (or family) often volunteer to look after each other’s animals. My friend – let’s call her Kajagoogoo – watches Vinnie whenever I travel, she has two dogs of her own but doesn’t mind looking after him. Kaj (her friends call her Kaj) has never traveled outside Seattle until Monday night when it came time for me to look after her dogs. Rather than keep three dogs in my apartment, I decided to take Vinnie with me and look after the dogs in her house. Observations result.
Jhames
Hello, I’m Jhames
designer, writer, activist, muse, bodhisattva
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Meta
Most everything in my blog is based on Hearsay
Pictures of You (or Someone Like You)
written June 27th, 2009
Note: see first entry in the series for more information.
Last Saturday I received an e-mail from one Robert Burns, the subject line read “Fwd: Re: Fwd: Re your pictures.” I hadn’t the foggiest clue who this person was or what the message entailed, so I opened the e-mail and read the following:
What I am currently absorbing
written June 26th, 2009
Back in the day (puff) a friend of mine* started an online project called 5 Things New York, based on the original 5 Things in Washington, D.C. Now it seems everyone has a 5 Things list of some kind. So, naturally, I have to jump on the bandwagon.
Here is what I am currently absorbing on the world wide web:
- Richard McCoy is a freelance designer in the UK who wrote a rather brilliant post how The 10 Commandments apply to design. I like how Richard blends advice with a healthy dose of affirmation in this post, and I would love to see it as a poster.
- Ian Stewart is a graphic artist that is presenting a 12-day/post course How To Create a WordPress Theme. I’m willing to overlook his grammar and syntax for what, so far, has been an incredible resource. I only wish Ian published this series well before I created my WordPress theme (after many hours of swearing and wanting to throw my computer across a room) (I didn’t).
- Building an Animated Cartoon Robot with jQuery by Anthony Calzadilla doesn’t have me asking Why? rather How soon can I implement similar technique on a client project? Of course, I already know the answer. Also? I love my clients if only because they let me take chances with their websites.
- When I write absorb, I also mean obsess. And my free time has been spent working on 5 font designs in FontStruct. I liked the progression of Quagmire until I realized I’ve seen similar designs in Verve™ and Greenbriar AEF, both by Brian Sooy. Well done, Brian.
- I should tag this last one with “guilty pleasure” and “no shame”: Vinnie doesn’t walk as quickly as he used to, so when we’re rounding corners at 5 m.p.h. I like to pass the time reading Michael K at Dlisted. Michael’s writing and point of view entertain me to no end. I don’t always know the celebrities he references in his posts, but I don’t feel nearly as disconnected to pop culture anymore.
What are some of your current reads? What am I missing on the web? Tell me.
* Said friend still owes me a signed photograph. Ahem.
In which I solve my own Identity Crisis
written June 19th, 2009
During brand discovery, the client answers a series of questions about their mission and company values which the designer uses to produce myriad design directions. A visual identity (or brand) will take shape and eventually form somewhere between the client’s personal investment and the designer’s professional objectivity. When designers are tasked with creating their own brand, a challenge arises: how can one remain objective when the designer and client are one and the same?
I certainly was not immune to the situation, it was only yesterday that I created my visual identity after working as a designer for 12 years.
Look at me, I’m a Fontographer!
written June 11th, 2009
A tweet from Paul Mayor brought me to Just—My—Type™ where one can download various typeface designs in Illustrator format. The site brought back memories of college and how I would constantly draw letters in my sketchbooks & notebooks. Classmates would look over my shoulder and remark, “that’s cool!” I wanted to intern with a typeface designer during my senior year but, alas, my department chair wasn’t able to make it happen. For two years I bought graph paper, sketched as many letterforms as possible, and then recreated the sketches in Adobe Illustrator. I used a lot of ruler guides.
Ms Miriam Aarons: Patron Saint of Freelance Design
written June 4th, 2009
Charging by the hour tells your clients that you mean business. Time is money and you’re keeping the meter running with every meeting and phone conference. No matter how many times I set limits on design iterations or halted work when clients didn’t respond in a timely manner, I learned (the hard way) that flat-fee bids gave clients license to extend projects well beyond reasonable deadlines. Yes, I had client work, but I wasn’t making any money on my projects and found it harder to line up future work with project milestones that slipped often.
I took a look at how I managed my projects. Communication with clients was always good and I provided changes to the work in a timely basis. I couldn’t figure out why so many of my projects were taking forever to complete. Cue Miriam Aarons.
Shimmering, Warm and Bright
written May 31st, 2009
This weekend was made for walks along the waterfront and relaxing in the park. Seattle may get its fair share of cold, grey skies, but we citizens (Vinnie included) are handsomely rewarded when the sun shines brightly on this fair city. Hard to believe summer is 21 days away.
The Vendor-Client relationship
written May 27th, 2009
…in real-world situations:
The stylist’s story is particularly telling and can be better understood at NO!SPEC.
Web Design: A Primer
written May 14th, 2009
Last Saturday evening I received an e-mail from a friend:
I wonder if you have already developed, from lots and lots of years of cohorts asking you stuff like this, a primer à la So You’re Thinking of Freelance Web Design for Weensy Could Be Micromanager Clients! laying around.
As it just so happens… no. Mostly, my friends/cohorts ask questions about contract language or how much should they charge for their services. Project management is one of the many hats a freelance designer must wear whilst working but, to date, no one ever asked me how to manage a project. I had to think about my friend’s request: I have an approach to project management but nothing officially captured in a formal process. So I sat at my desk and typed a response to my friend—and a mutual friend who works in print for her advice.