Recently, I finished reading The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s an excellent book. As usual, David McCullough doesn’t disappoint. There’s a good mix of encyclopedic knowledge and great storytelling.

I’m not going to pretend that I’m some kind of book reviewer. The book was great. I found it absolutely fascinating how the foundations were dug and built. It’s also interesting to note that the Brooklyn Bridge is a one of a kind engineering masterpiece. The likes of which don’t exist anymore. The combination of masonry and steel cabling are one of a kind on such a large scale.

Purchase the book here: The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge

Banking with Chase just got a whole lot better.  The only thing that could be better is if I opened up my account online and it was loaded with millions of dollars.  What I’m speaking about is the new improvements to the Chase iPhone app.  You now have the ability to deposit checks from your wherever simply by using their app.

There are two rules.

1. The check can’t be more than $1000
2. You can only deposit a maximum of $3000 per week

The app is extremely simple to use.  All you do is take a picture of the check (both sides) with your phone. The camera is built into the app and is proportioned for the rectangular shape of checks.  On the next day, the money is magically deposited in your account without ever leaving home. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Here are a few screen grabs I found online of the app in action.

Today’s post is a book review of Freehand Sketching An Introduction.

I really like books that are compact. Ones that can travel with me. Don’t get me wrong. I have my favorite coffee table-architecture books, too. But, if I’m going to get something out of it. The book needs to travel with me. Freehand Sketching is compact and thin. It gets right to the point in the first few pages. I love it.

The writing style is purely instructional. Everything to get started sketching simple line drawings is the name of this book’s game.

I like it how the author, Paul Laseau, emphasizes the art of sketching. He doesn’t suggest you purchase some expensive pens or sketchbooks. He concentrates on the importance of practicing, training yourself to DRAW what you SEE. I admit, this is my biggest challenge. It’s difficult for me to not fill in the gaps, by drawing what I THINK I see.

I appreciate all the samples and exercises that are found throughout the book. Using found object to practice sketching. It reminds me of our drawing class, back in college.

Please check out this book. I first took it out of my local library, but it’s inexpensive and worth every penny!

Link to Freehand Sketching: An Introduction

photo credit: Tattershall

Getting printing done cheap and good can be tough. Getting printing done for next to nothing and good seems impossible. There is a solution and you’ll find it over at uprinting.com. Admittedly, my experience with this company doesn’t cover a large variety of printed projects. I’ve had several sets of business cards made and a few posters printed.  I must say that for the price and for the overall quality, you may not be able to find a better option. They’ve had one mistake, to this day I’m not even sure how it happened, but they quickly fixed it, discounted the price and provided new prints quickly.

More often than not, some sort of special promotion or discount can be found for whatever type piece you need printed.

If you’re a small business and operate on a tight budget, uprinting.com is a great solution. Follow this link to find out all the different printed products they can create. Professional templates can be found in a wide variety of formats to help get you started with the layout and design.

Do you have experience with uprinting.com or any other online print shops, both positive and negative? We’d love to hear them and we’re always looking for other alternatives for printing.

Something I haven’t made time for is sketching. I used to sketch in college. Maybe I was forced to in a watercolor class, but I wish I got back into it. Since college, it’s been pretty infrequent. I hope to change that. Maybe I should be more rigorous and force myself to sketch? Not sure if that will keep me interested in the long run.  But, I did stumble upon Michael Nobbs. He’s a great artist and is very inspirational. He just published a FREE e-book that I would recommend checking out!

Here are some of my thoughts regarding sketching.

Why Sketch?

Honestly, I don’t know the answer. Maybe it’s good for the soul? Sketching is definitely therapeutic.  But, you have to LET yourself sketch. You have to hold back your self judgments and just take it for what it is…sketching. It’s not an exact art. The colors may not be just right. That tree you sketched may only be a tree…to you.  Who cares!?! You know what my seal of approval was? I sketched my shed and my three year old said, “Oh, look at the shed!” Case closed, another satisfied customer.  And, you don’t need anything fancy. Just start with a writing instrument and some kind of paper.

Keeping Record

Sketching is a lot like journaling. In fact, it IS journaling. If you don’t like to write, then sketch. Or, sketch and write a little summary of your sketch. What’s the date? How’s the weather? Anything particular happening, or going to happen?

Get Involved

I follow an incredible group of sketchers online called Urban Sketchers. The guy in charge is Gabriel Campanario. He’s a great artist and a really nice guy!

Also, you should find out about your local sketchcrawl. This is similar to a pubcrawl, minus the pubs…unless you want to sketch in a pub? Huh, that could be fun, especially after a few. But really, this is a regular event that happens all around the world. Check it out.

It all starts with that first line. Happy sketching!

photo credit: nancymaewi

This post is a review and a follow up bundled in one neat little package.  The follow up portion relates to a previous post I did about knowing your limits. In it I discussed how you can become a better designer and business owner by knowing when to seek help. In turn, you help the client by delivering a better product. Below is the project and a review of the company that helped me illustrate the lesson.

Now for the review. Rhyolite Design was hired to create the packaging for a product that is in development by Progressive Solutions called Protecshine. It’s a cleaning/protecting solution designed for automobiles. Specifically, it protects and shines metal. Through the initial development I came up with a conceptual logo. After the project started making some headway we decided it was time to seek help from an illustrator to polish it up and create something unique. After seeing some of their previous work, we settled on the company Ink Tycoon.

We couldn’t have been more pleased with the results.

The project involved 3 stages. 1. Providing us with an initial sketch 2. Computerizing our selected option 3. Final Delivery of the product. It really was that simple. The sketching proved to be pretty important. The first concept, while he was nicely drawn, wasn’t exactly what we were hoping for.

So, we talked it over with the Ink Tycoon and requested another concept. In no time at all, we were provided with sketch number two. This was much closer to what we had hoped for and resembles the final drawing.

With a couple of revisions to the sketch and a couple of days in between, we were presented with the final logo concept. Ink Tycoon comes highly recommend from me. Very professional and a pleasure to work with.

The First Sketch.

The Second Sketch.

Final Design.

Recently, I’ve been introduced to the world of Skype and I must admit that I wonder what life was like before it. The route I took was purchasing a local phone number, which is now my business number, and purchasing a phone plan that includes unlimited calling to all of the United States and Canada.

For me, there were a couple of major advantages to using Skype.

1. It’s significantly cheaper than our local phone service provider.  In fact, two months with our local phone service equals the entire one year plan I purchased with Skype.

2. Call forwarding is simple. I give people my business number only. It rings that, I don’t answer so it sends the call to my cell phone. This way I am available all the time and only have to worry about checking voicemails in one location.

3. I work on my computer, Skype is on my computer, plus there’s an iPhone app.

4. Video calls, screen sharing, text messaging, and traditional calls can all be done through a Skype account.

Skype is free for Skype to Skype calling and text messaging.  Give it a try. I even bought myself a nifty USB Headset.

Thumbnail image by elaininspired

Today’s post carries on with the topic of listening. I wanted to share a program I use daily to help organize all the different websites that I follow in attempt to make me smarter.

Listening

Before talking about Google Reader, I want to discuss a key reason to use the program. That reason would be to improve your online listening skills.   I wish I could take credit for the idea, but this guy is The Man when it comes to online listening. Please go here to check out his post after reading this one.

Traditionally, we would read the newspaper every morning, read trade magazines once a month and have as many conversations with others to keep us up on current events.

Now, the rules have changed and the way we listen needs an update.  Perhaps, that prospective client has their own website, writes in an online journal (blog), shares photos and other information in web based communities and is a member of many different social networking websites. Besides that, they’re mentioned across the web in other places we can’t begin to imagine.

How do you keep up?

Here’s a web-based program that I frequently use to keep me informed to whatever RSS feeds I subscribe.

(A quick video on what an RSS feed is.)

Google Reader

My RSS feed reader choice is Google Reader. It’s part of the Google family and it’s FREE. You can subscribe to any site that has a feed,. (Actually, they just added a feature that allows you to subscribe to any site and it will do somekind of mystical majic to keep you updated.  I don’t know how it works, but it does, rather nicely.

I subscribe to local newspapers, architecture magazines, business websites, and friends’ blogs and websites.

(A quick video on Google Reader.)

I would encourage you to give it a try and please share your thoughts!!

Earlier this year I did a post introducing my usage of Basecamp and to get some feedback from other users.  After about two months of using it, I wonder what my life as a freelance designer was like before it.  Interestingly enough, I have partnered with two other design companies to help them with some work and they both use Basecamp for their project collaboration.

For me, it was all about getting organized with my largest client who provides me with the most work.  It has been an effective way to centralize communication with team members.  For one of the other design companies, it’s a way to organize all their projects (10-20) and have the various team members communicate.

For the iPhone app, I use Groundwork.  I tried a few and ultimately chose this one because I was able to log into multiple accounts easily.  I have a list of the different Basecamp accounts to choose from on the home screen and can quickly view and communicate on any account.  It has proven to be a great purchase.

According to the website Why Basecamp Rocks,
here are the top ten reasons why Basecamp Rocks.

1. Basecamp focuses on collaboration and communication. It’s especially great for remote teams, and companies who want to share information with their clients.

2. Basecamp is easy to learn and use because the design is intuitive and simple. It effectively merges aesthetics with form and function.

3. It’s a web-based product, which means that you can access it as long as you have a web browser and internet connection.

4. 37signals makes it a top priority to keep your data secure.

5. The pricing is reasonable, no-strings-attached, and pay-as-you-go. You get your money’s worth, really.

6. There’s a Free Plan that gives you a whole lot: 1 Project and unlimited users, along with to-do templates, color customization, and your logo display.

7. There are a lot of cool extensions to Basecamp that you can pick and choose to enhance the experience.

8. The Help & Support section is well documented, and email support is fast, friendly, and professional.

9. The user forum is active and helpful. Users care about Basecamp. When you sign up for Basecamp, you become part of an established community.

10. It’s a proven product. There are over 3 million Basecamp accounts across the globe and 94% of Basecamp customers surveyed would refer it to others. Individuals, small-to-midsize teams, and many of the world’s respected brands use Basecamp to get projects done.

http://whybasecamprocks.org/

http://rankreviews.com/project-management/basecamp-review

http://www.businesscomputingworld.co.uk/?p=1064

This post will contain the first official book review on blueprintfordesign.com. I’m sure this review might ruffle some feathers.

The book I chose to review is Rework by Jason Fried and Heinemeier Hansson.  These are the fellows who created Basecamp and are the founders of 37Signals. I had heard quite a bit about the book amongst the design community and was excited to read it.  Once I received the book and started reading the “reviews” from so called “famous people” my opinion began changing.  Here’s the quote that amused me most.

If given a choice between investing in someone who has read Rework or has his MBA, I’m investing in Rework every time…a must read.
- Mark Cuban, co-founder of HDNet and owner of the Dallas Mavericks

Quoting Wendy’s father from the movie Peter Pan (it’s my daughter’s favorite right now), that’s “absolute poppycock.”  If I’m going to judge this book by it’s cover, which I’m not ashamed to admit that I do, I wouldn’t have read this book. But alas, I did.

The opening to this post may have seemed a little negative.  That’s not entirely the case in my opinion of this book. I would say that I’m split in my decision if I like or dislike this book.  For me, most of the content in the book seemed kind of obvious. It was nice to be affirmed that my thought process is similar to a successful company such as 37Signals.

The book is simple and short. It reads like a bunch of emails or short blog posts that have been compiled into book form. This mildly annoyed me. They claim to be writing in a conversational style (just like this blog post I guess). They also claim in the book that they cut thousands of words during the final edit. Due to the shortness and the lack of much explanation on their various topics, I felt like maybe they cut out too much. I actually think more would have been better in this case.

Much of the content in the book is their views on how to be a successful “starter” (their word for entrepreneur) in this postmodern business world we live in. I can think of a few of my past colleagues and bosses who are the antithesis of the concepts in Rework. There is talk of how meetings are toxic, business plans are rubbish, and that resumes are useless. They also write about the negatives of being a workaholic. This, I agree with wholeheartedly. Companies that expect you to work insane hours all the time and have unrealistic expectations of their employees annoy me, too. Recently, I was offered a job in which the person who recruited me informed me that my hours are 8am – 5pm. BUT, I would NEVER leave work before 6pm and that most likely I would work till 7pm each night. Who do they think they are? They are the kind of people who would keel over if they read this book.

Some good quotes from Rework.

• What do you really learn from mistakes? You learn what not to do again, but how valuable is that? You still don’t know what you should do next. (pg. 16)
• Interruption is not collaboration, it’s just interruption. And when you’re interrupted, you’re not getting work done. (pg. 104)
• They often include at least one moron who inevitably gets his turn to waste everyone’s time with nonsense. (pg. 108 – talking about meetings.)
• When good enough get’s the job done, go for it. (pg. 113)
• If you merely replicate competitors, there’s no point to your existence. (pg. 149)
• Accounting is a department. Marketing isn’t. (pg. 193)
• A lot of companies post help-wanted ads seeking “rock stars” or “ninjas.” Lame. (pg. 253)
• Inspiration is a now thing. If it grabs you, grab it right back and put it to work. (pg. 271)

If you’re looking for a quick read that may inspire you some as a business owner, check out Rework. It might not be earth shattering, but it’s certainly worth checking out.