The donkey, the cock, and the lion.

typography scavenger hunt

  Which is the story my book of Aesop's fables fell open to this morning as I was taking a pictures of the interior typography.  I pulled out several examples of decorative & text type from my bookshelf.  My last couple of weeks have been type-heavy as I designed a couple of logos and a New Year's greeting card & have a few more custom cards in the pipeline.  (By the way, I'm available for any photoshop/illustrator projects & whims you may wanna throw my way.  Just for fun/my portfolio.).  My choices of font were not more informed than, "I think that looks good."  I spent some time studying typography for a letterpress printing class I took in undergrad, but I feel like I don't have a great grasp of even what I learned then.  I'm constantly astonished by the amount & impact of cleverly designed posters, business cards, websites, book covers etc. with type (unsurprisingly, i suppose) at its core.  My instinct is to find a book or two with some history of typefaces, and then of course to just look at what other people are doing online.  The web is overwhelmingly full of examples though, so I guess I'm going to reel my attention back into focus on a refresher on the basics, maybe head to the library...

By the way: a lion stalks a donkey near a farm, but is scared off by the crowing of a rooster.  the emboldened donkey chases the lion until they are far from the farm, and the lion turns around an eats him.  According to this book...


The moral of the fable: Don't take advantage of people's weaknesses.

The moral of the post: take advantage of public libraries?

Lost...in space!

Having time on my hands has been crucial in my learning the various tools and tech to grow into what I guess is called a "web professional." At the moment, however, with the distance growing between my feverish 9-5 work life (it was really 8-6/7) and still quite a bit of time remaining before I have to start really generating income (lucky girl!) my daily enthusiastic productivity has degenerated into sleeping late and doing anything but advancing toward my career goals. It is, after all, lovely perfect October out there. Originally, I left my job thinking I was just leaving unfair job demands & compensation. I knew I was stressed and frustrated, but I didn't realize the scale or scope of it. I've seen the tension dissipate and am finding a steady, increasing infusion of interest & enjoyment in many things I didn't even realize I had become insensible to (people in general, for example). Perhaps I'm afraid taking steps toward employment will necessarily involve a personal loss of ground.

But! A girl/woman must make a living. I have the skills now to haltingly patch together a complete website (contact form! shopping cart! twitter feed! now even with a CMS!). Perhaps I set myself up to freeze up the moment I posted a launch date on my web portfolio. Shame on the dread I feel when presented with deadline. Of course the point is for me to gain proficiency & synthesis, so I guess I just need to set my sights on smaller bits of the big scary portfolio (&ostensible ticket to my first freelance jobs). From a freelancing article on sixrevisions.com, "Combine studies with practical experience by taking on personal projects, volunteering, and accepting small easy projects before moving onto bigger, more demanding ones." I'm lucky in that I have a number of projects of my own and others, I just haven't known which to work on first. I'd been dismissing the simple ones, and trying to force my way forward on the more prestigious ones. Now I realize I should just start with the easy ones and gain my footing & (hopefully) momentum. I suppose whatever I accomplish by the time the portfolio is launched will be all the more honest a representation for it.

So, I guess it's time for lunch, and then work on my idea for a community blog (potagers and pans) for my friends, family, & acquaintances to post pictures and recipes from their kitchen & kitchen gardens. Very simple, but there will be writing, photo gathering, some time getting to know tumblr and its theming, and then campaigning for contributions & readers. I'll be sure to link the results.

Web Design Goals

It's been almost two months since I quit my job to study web design. I'm writing this post because, I thought I would be close to launching a portfolio website and beginning to score freelance jobs by now. In part, I haven't been as diligent over the last three weeks as I was to begin with. Also, I'm beginning to flounder as to how to structure my learning.
I dived into a pro bono redesign with what I thought was an *almost* adequate skillset, only to realize it was more accurately characterized as woefully inadequate. After a few sessions of hours spent in painful css trial and error, I feel like I need to give up the project and go back to the drawing board/study hall. So, I'd really like to do a few more projects with a smaller scope before I take the training wheels off.
To be frank, web design is attractive to me because its elements are interesting (languages both human and computer, visual design, information design), it doesn't require a bachelor's degree to practice professionally, and, in time, it can become a well paid career. Of course, as my savings are dwindling, the paid aspect is coming to the fore. So I'd like to have a portfolio ready to launch by early November.
On top of becoming really proficient in HTML & CSS, I would like get comfortable with Javascript, and learn about utilizing CMSs like Drupal & publishing with Wordpress. I hope by the launch of my portfolio, I'll be able to readily take on a variety of freelance/contract work in order to support myself. I have a few ideas for websites, that would be fulfilling to develop from scratch. I'm hoping that participating in a few peer to peer learning programs will help keep me on track!

phase ii

something in the works

daily candy claims...

"And if you’ve got a more ambitious green thumb, it’s not too late in the year to plant the Summer Crop (corn, green beans, tomatoes, carrots, and radishes) or Rainbow Root (two types of beet, two types of carrot, and turnip)."

Vegetables are new territory, but they'll officially upgrade my container garden to "potager". I don't want to grow tomatoes, but green beans, carrots, radishes, and beets are all beloved to me belly.

Having fun with ink and paint.