Créer son entreprise, c’est un boulot “plus qu’à plein temps”, c’est une envie longtemps mûrie et la capacité à travailler en indépendant, c’est inné, c’est un tempérament… Ca, ce sont des arguments que j’entends tous les jours de la part de mes copains freelances, et je suis entièrement d’accord avec eux.

Alors voir Le Monde s’emparer du phénomène purement marketing de la “mompreneur” en nous resservant du jouet en bois, de la nourriture bio en veux-tu en voilà, et vas-y que j’ouvre ma boutique pour m’occuper de mes enfants et vivre en harmonie avec mes convictions (mais sans salaire, hein, parce qu’il ne faudrait pas en plus devenir millionnaire !), je vois rouge ! C’est encore une façon de “renvoyer les femmes à la maison”, puisque même quand elles créent leur entreprise, ce n’est pas par ambition personnelle, c’est pour garder un oeil sur leurs enfants !

J’ai deux enfants. Le retour de mon premier congé de maternité ne s’est pas fait avec une remise de colliers de fleurs et des chants sur la plage… Mais. Mais depuis toute petite, je m’étais juré que “quand je serai grande, je n’aurai pas de chef”. Et j’ai profité du temps libre que m’a procuré mon deuxième congé de maternité pour réaliser ce projet. Mon choix est purement égoïste. J’ai choisi pour moi, parce que cela correspondait à mon objectif professionnel de toujours, de travailler en solo.

Il se trouve que cela satisfait toute la famille. Tant mieux. Je suis heureuse d’aller (presque) tous les jours chercher mes enfants à la crèche et à la garderie (à 18h30) et de pouvoir passer du temps avec eux (jusqu’à 20h30, parce qu’ensuite, je me remets au boulot !). Mon mari est ravi de ne pas à avoir à gérer une fois sur deux (oui, chez nous, on fait “équitable”, sur  la garde des enfants comme sur les tâches ménagères…) le départ précipité du boulot pour cause de “… a de la fièvre, venez le chercher immédiatement”. Je suis à côté, donc je gère. Avec le sourire, en plus

Il faut vraiment en finir avec cette vision machiste et étriquée des femmes qui se doivent de consacrer leur vie à leurs enfants. Elles ont aussi le droit de faire pour elles leurs choix de carrière.

Alors je vous recommande plutôt la lecture des commentaires de cet article du Monde, parce que si les journalistes perdent la tête, les lecteurs savent le leur signaler !

Hola, este post es para los que utilizan la tecnología “flash” para crear sus sitios web, hay un sitio que se llama: “flashmo.com” que tiene infinidad de plantillas flash (gratuitas) listas para personalizar y publicarlas en la red, las pueden aplicar a sus proyectos libremente, también tienen una variedad de plantillas “CSS” listas para bajarlas y son todas (gratuitas).

Es importante comentarles que las plantillas “flash” están elaboradas en la versión “CS3” de “Macromedia Flahs”, eso quiere decir que necesitan tener esta versión instalada o la última que es la “CS4”, pero yo creo que todos los que trabajan con estos programas, seguro tienen las ultimas versiones de “flash”. Las plantillas “CSS” son muy atractivas y sencillas porque como ustedes saben, están escritas en código solo necesitan un editor para “HTML” o los que son mas expertos en el tema solo tendrán que echar mano de un simple editor de textos como el Notepad o Wordpad.

Aquí les dejo el enlace para que vean su galería y bajen las que mas les guste.

flahsmo.com

Its that time of the year again where hunters grab their rifles and throw on their oranges in hope of seeing the big one. In a total of fourteen days, thousands of deer will be shot and tagged.

This was a poster created for Neutrino (an improv group from New York City). They performed in Edinburgh in 2004 and I was asked to create the promotional material. This was one of the many images used. There is also a really great postcard that I’m very proud of. Once I find it, I’ll post it up.

I am pleased and proud to help announce the launch of JennyNess Designs, the new freelance design business of my incredibly talented logo designer and fellow networking colleague, Jenny Ness Decker!

Here’s Jenny in her own words:

I’ll finally be leaving my day job in January to launch a new career. I’ve published an online portfolio at jennynessdesigns.com. I’m looking for job opportunities (both full-time positions and freelance jobs) so please keep me in mind if you (or someone you know) are in need of design services.

I am more than happy to provide a recommendation for Jenny’s work. She’s the best!

Full disclosure: Her new website features a bit of marcomm direction and messaging help from Movick Marketing. (Glad to help, Jenny!)

This is a logo I created for a small theater company in NYC

Me, Kate Slovin, and Corinna Loo are the co-curators and co-designers of the 2010 UCLA DMA Undergraduate show. This is a poster I made in collaboration with my friend, Gregory Ruben (he took the photo).

It’s been some time since I last posted an entry here.  It’s not that I haven’t wanted to, because I have; I find WordPress to be ingenious in a simple manner.  Despite the numerous social networking websites I’m a part of and my lovely community of gamers on GT, I still like blogging here.  That probably has to do with the fact that this site is dedicated solely to blogging.

Anyway, the reason I haven’t been able to post anything here for a little over a month is due to my time becoming something of a precious resource.  I’ve been playing a bunch of old-school NES games and reviewing them for Suite101.  It’s been fun, but it’s also been hard, and I’m hardly making any money off of this gig.  Still, I’m glad to be earning valuable experience.  My writing on GamerSyndrome tends to fluctuate.  Sometimes I’ll write very few articles (due to dedicating so much of my time to Suite), and sometimes I’ll provide a hefty amount of content to the site.

Last week was a very busy week.  I had to write up this multi-page assignment.  I earned $50 for it, and half of that money has already gone to gas.  The assignment was a total bore, but I was glad to make money for my writing.  It’d be nice to get contracted every week for a job that pays.

School’s been…annoying.  My math class continues to steal my precious time away, and I’ve lost all hope for that class.  I’m looking forward to next semester, though.  I plan on taking a couple journalism courses, and that should be kind of fun.

I’ll try and post another entry on here soon.  I have various things to talk about including video games, trips to the eye doctor, and Global, the company from hell.  If I can stay focused, I can probably get that entry out this week.  We’ll see.

There is a new web resource for freelancers similar to Scriptlance that launched yesterday. Gigapxmedia.com offers the design services you would expect from a collective of freelancers but is also geared toward linking professionals up with clients.

Read more at Gigapxmedia’s Blog

Hi everyone! So this is my first blog post here, I thought I’d just let you know why I’m here and of course, who I am.

My name is Courtney, and I am a graphic design student at the Art Institute of CA- Inland Empire. I’ve loved art my whole life. I currently draw, write, crochet, knit, sew, design, take photographs, paint, animate, sing, dance, talk, and do all kinds of things for creativity’s sake. I love all kinds of art, and I have known since childhood that I wanted to do something creative with my life.  I started attending this school with the intent to go into the book design area, focused on illustration. However, the more I learn about graphic design, the more I fall in love with it! Everyday I see something that makes me love it more. For example, I was watching Ovation TV today, and they are doing a special called Everything Is Art. They showed this store called Muji http://www.muji.com/ And I was struck by the way that they are branded. They brand their products by not branding them. Their branding is the absense of branding… Let me repeat that, they brand by not branding. AMAZING! I wonder how they got the momentum to get away with that. How did they get someone to try their products, trust their products without any symbol to mark them. It’s great, and inspiring.

It’s things like that that make me love what I am doing- or what I am learning to do. I am here, on word press to put myself out there. To show anyone who is willing to see what I do,  how I do it, and what I think about it. In the future, I will be updating about my projects and my process. Can’t wait to share the journey with you!

Purpose: Designed to Carry Polyurethan Injection Mold of Steering Wheel

Number of Components: 50 ~ 75 (excluding fasteners)

Design time: 50 hours (appx)

Drafting Time: 60 hours (appx)

Software used: Solidworks 2007

]]> http://merlinmason.co.uk/2009/11/16/%e2%98%bathe-digital-adventures-of-a-print-designer/ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:15:47 +0000 Merlin Mason http://merlinmason.co.uk/2009/11/16/%e2%98%bathe-digital-adventures-of-a-print-designer/

My role as a freelance in-house designer at Radiowaves has been developing slowly, and is now at the stage where I’m a part time member of staff for the foreseeable future, which is great. I decided to celebrate this occasion by treating myself to a macbook so I no longer have to lug my desktop on the train. I also decided that it would be really useful to set up a preview monitor to have a better idea of what my work would look like in context. Because Radiowaves is mainly aimed at schools, who have a wide variety of equipment and are filled with kids who like to do things like turn the contrast up to full on a monitor I decided to grab the oldest spare monitor in the office and crank up the contrast. It’s really interesting to see how other user will view your work, for example on the preview screen you can’t see anything below about 15% K (sorry I can’t help but think of colour in print separations, can’t get my head round RGB!).

I’ve also been trying to teach myself as much about design for web as possible, here’s a some sources I’d give the thumbs up too if you’re trying to do the same…

Smashing Magazine who also have a really good twitter feed
W3schools
WordPress (forums have some really good for CSS related info)
A List Apart

I’m also looking into various platforms for a website I’m going to be designing for a photographer and have found some really exciting new technologies I’m looking forward to using, more info on this soon!

Debate about using “good grammar” in copywriting – whether for sales, marketing or product labels – will never go away.

_

My take is that different target audiences have varied expectations when it comes to use of punctuation and language. These expectations will  be based on readers’ or listeners’ estimated level of literacy, their personal or professional experience in life, and the media they’re using.

On one brochure writing job I did for a technology company, the agency hiring my services initially thought I’d used too many commas in the body text. It’s not that the sentences were overly long, but that the style employed was “too colloquial”. However, they printed what I wrote, saying they’d discussed it with their client – who liked the less jargonistic and stiff approach that was “the industry norm” at the time.

More recently, the editor of an international magazine for whom I produced a series of business advice articles routinely added countless commas to my copy … to, the point, that the pieces, almost made no, sense, in places.

So(,) there’s flexibility in what is and isn’t acceptable; and it’s just down to individual taste and best judgement of how to reach a target audience with a clear message.

Here is a good guide on this thorny subject.

A new find: A clever cartoonist, writer and blogger.  www.inkygirl.com

Sadly, I can relate to Dan.

Remember Gladiators? Brilliant series screened in the early ’90s and more recently re-created on Sky although I understand without the same level of success. For those that haven’t seen it, it was an adversarial game show where members of the public went up against The Gladiators in various battles such as trying to swing via ropes from one platform to another whilst the gladiator tried to intercept and then bring them down. At the end of the show their score was transposed into a head start time in a race against a Gladiator around an indoor assault course, finishing with the dreaded Travelator, which was basically an inclined treadmill like a down escalator without steps which they had to run up. This took real determination as it was running at some speed and they had to outpace it to the top, whilst of course being chased (or chasing) a Gladiator.

Well the last six weeks has felt a little like that Travelator as I’ve raced like mad to try and learn the many and manifold procedures and systems without tripping and falling, sliding straight back down to the bottom again. And in truth that I don’t feel like I’m off it yet, but as things start to come together I’m able to run a little less hard and still feel like I’m making progress.

I’ve also managed a few days off for a mini-break with The Blonde. And boy, did I need them. A couple of nights away at a very lovely hotel by the coast was just what was needed to recharge the batteries, fall back and re-group. I didn’t realise just how very tired I was till I stopped (I think even The Blonde was surprised) but I felt absolutely drained. Fortunately the weather was perfect, strong winds and persistent rain curbed even The Blondes penchant for walking miles and miles, substituting instead a session in the wonderful spa facilities where the welcoming embrace of a heated pool and a wonderful jacuzzi helped sooth shattered mind.

We came home refreshed and renewed and I returned to the metaphorical treadmill reinvigorated.

In truth, car sales isn ‘t that hard. The challenge has been learning a completely new job whilst being thrown in at the deep end to just get on with it, which can be a stressful approach. In particular there seems to be no instructional process, it’s simply a case of muddling through and relying on colleagues for help and guidance which has, I fear, been frustrating for all at times.

So how’s it going? Well, I’m shifting a few cars, both new and used. And I think that once I get properly up to speed it’ll be ok. Whether I see myself doing it for another twenty years is another matter, but for the moment it’s a job and it’s an income and right now that’s paramount.

What I do need to try and do however is up the pressure on the writing side of things. And with that in mind I’ve been in touch with The Editor again to push on with the big test review I’m supposed to be writing. Like everything it’s proving not to be without it’s challenges. But that’s life and yet again we muddle through.

Muddling through, it seems to be the watchword for the moment…

Homework for the last session was unnecessarily difficult… A reflection of our wants and needs based on Alan Lakein, and a timeline of our lives.

If you ever feel like being morbidly depressed for a week, find out your Life Time Goals using Alan Lakein. This is the sort of thing that should be given to young teenagers before they choose their subjects at school. It’s kind of too late to act on the goals once you’re over fourteen! The crux of the matter is to reflect on what you want to be doing with your life: What activity absorbs you? How would you live if you knew you would be dead in six months? How do you want to be remembered?

It did make me realise that writing is a big part of my life. I always took it for granted that I couldn’t become a journalist, because the school career service made it sound like this torturous journey of working on local newspapers, reporting village fairs, before you one day get your “break.” Besides, you need A-Level English to work on the aforementioned ghastly local newspaper, and I had no intention of enduring that! Over the last week I have, by chance, met someone who is a freelance reporter for scientific journals – his background is in science rather than English. It would appear that you need no qualifications to do freelance work, so I’m interested in investigating this further, perhaps as a part-time money-maker?

I also realised that travel is a big part of my life, and performing/lecturing. I had half an idea that I might like to take a post at a foreign university, do some travel writing, or perhaps get TEFL and teach English for a year?

Once I finished being quite so depressed, I managed to do the timeline. That was actually very useful. We are always being told how old we are: especially women (one minute you are too young to have a family and must concentrate on your career, the next minute you are too old to have children and you’re a selfish career-orientated harlot!) The act of drawing a line on a sheet of paper to represent sixty years of working life, and seeing that you’re only halfway through, is extremely liberating. I have a huge blank white space representing my late thirties, forties and fifties! I had never planned for this before (largely because I was always being told that I would probably have a heart attack in my early forties). Now that I’m slimmer and fitter, I can plan for this huge slice of life. In fact, a diet and fitness business would prolong my quality of life. Discussing this with Parissa, I realised that all my business ideas don’t need to be crammed into the next four years.

As an aside, there was an interesting report in this months’ ‘Elle’ suggesting that the optimum age to give birth is 34, which fits in with the life plan rather nicely. Statistics suggest that the current media-fuelled fertility frenzy is largely unfounded. I just need to find a slightly younger Mr Right.

We also did some work on time management. My current work is flexible, so I don’t worry about time management too much. My only real problem is the interenet. The day after this session, I did a full morning on the computer without looking on the internet (apart from an initial email check) to get a report done. I’m managing to hack my usage back quite a bit.

So, our objectives for the session were:

• Reflect on Lifeline highs and lows
• identify learning goals
• consider time management techniques & strategies
• start to plan for presentations (this is our end of module assessment)

Learning Points

• I have time! Let’s make the most of it!

Action Items

• How do I go about becoming a freelance writer?
• Start maximising time NOW
• Find time for things I enjoy NOW

I am ranking up to be a Tupperware Director in these 2 months.

Cindy Lee
96818251
tuppercrazy@consultant.com

Want a complete catalog? Ask me for one!

Cindy Lee

96818251

tuppercrazy@consultant.com

Hola, como ustedes saben ya he publicado muchos sitios donde pueden hacer sus montajes con solo subir una fotografía, parece ser que esto está de moda porque cada día surge uno mas. Ahora les traigo a “SeeNow” donde podrán hacer sus propios montajes en segundos tiene muchas opciones como portadas de revistas, cine, música, deporte, halloween, y algunos mas.

Aquí estoy yo vestido del “Soldado Ryan”

Es muy sencillo utilizar este servicio, solo seleccionan el efecto que quieren darle a su fotografía y después suben la imagen o foto que quieren y en pocos segundos ya tienen su montaje.

Espero les guste y sobre todo les sea útil para pasar el rato, aquí les dejo el enlace al sitio oficial.

SeeNow.com

Hola, hace tiempo publique una lista de herramientas para todos aquellos que se dedican al “Diseño Grafico”, en la misma lista no especifique de que se trataban estas herramientas, en verdad son muy útiles y facilitan el trabajo para todos. Ahora lo que quiero hacer es ir explicando una por una, su uso y para que sirven dichas herramientas.

Quiero comenzar por el sitio web de “WhatTheFont”, este sitio es muy útil porque nos ofrece la posibilidad de decirnos que fuente es por medio de una imagen. Como ustedes saben, y mas los que se dedican al “Diseño” hay veces que los clientes envían sus archivos y no tenemos ni idea de la fuente que tienen sus diseños, pero gracias a este servicio que es gratuito, nos da la posibilidad de ofrecernos varios resultados muy exactos informándonos sobre la fuente que queremos saber su nombre o familia. Es muy sencillo el proceso solo debemos entrar al sitio y subir la imagen donde dice “Upload” y en ese momento comienza el análisis para que nos muestre los resultados que por cierto son muy acertados.

En la web tienen un foro de ayuda donde nos ofrecen consejos para un mejor resultado y aquí se los quiero mostrar para cuando quieran subir su imagen y que les muestre el resultado de la misma con buenos resultados.

Estos son los consejos principales:

1.-Intentar que el texto esté lo mas horizontal posible

2.-Las letras deben de tener 100 píxeles de alto

3.-Es recomendable que las letras no se toquen entre si

4.-El Mejor formato una extensión TIFF en escala de grises a 300 dpi.

Bueno, ahora solo basta que ustedes mismos prueben el servicio y si tienen alguna duda, no dejen de comunicarse conmigo y yo haré lo posible para ayudarlos. Como consejo les quiero decir que funciona muy bien cuando la imagen es nítida y está invertida con fondo negro y la letra blanca.

Aquí les dejo el enlace que por cierto ya cambio de diseño…

Enlace: WahtTheFont

Hola, casi a la mayoría nos gusta la música y por lo general tenemos instalado un programa de intercambio de archivos per-to-per el famoso P2P como; Ares, Shareaza, Emule, etc. Con estos programas podemos intercambiar y descargar mp3 de nuestros artistas favoritos, pero lamentablemente algunos de estos programas a la hora de bajar música contienen virus y puede ser muy molesto.

En esta ocasión les quiero mostrar un sitio Web de confianza que se llama “Tus MP3 GRATIS” donde pueden bajar mp3 gratuitos, al parecer es un sitio nuevo desarrollado por mexicanos y tiene una base de datos bastante amplia. Es muy sencillo de utilizar, solo escriben la canción o el artista de su preferencia e inmediatamente les mostrará todos los resultados listos para que los bajen y también pueden escucharlos antes de bajarlos. Para escuchar la música tienen que tener instalado “flash player” pero está de mas que se los comente porque la mayoría lo deben de tener instalado en su navegador.

Aquí les dejo el enlace para que lo prueben y si saben de alguno mas, no dejen de comunicármelo para compartirlo con los todos.

Enlace: tusmp3gratis