Sketching
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
iPhone App Design Resources
There are numerous resources out there with design elements for the iPhone and iPad. I’ve looked through quite a few and selected a few of my favorite and a few that I believe will be of greatest value to anyone designing an app. You should have just about all you need to get started on your own app.
Enjoy this collection.
iPhone GUI 3.0
Free iPhone Toolbar icons
Glyphish
Free Vector Icons
Hand Gesture Icons
Weekly Town Crier
After a long hard week, enjoy this list of random links that we feel you may want to check out. Some may involve design, some may involve small business and others may just be something random we find interesting. Keep checking our site each Friday to find out what inspires or interests us. Feel free to email suggestions.
Follow us on Twitter.
Join our Flickr group.
WooHoo it’s up and running!! Yagla Engineering
Some cool free HTML resume templates.
Get a load of that BOP Valve! (Matt=NERD)
It’s as easy as 1,2,3,4,5,6,…
Feeling guilty of taking time off?
More free WordPress Themes.
They’ve read Matt’s mind, at least the descent stuff.
Whole new meaning to a “Pool Room.”
Typography Tools, 50 of them.
Pretty cool eye glasses that can help EVERYONE.
20 Questions to ask before starting a new business.
Matt enjoys the cinematography and choice beats…whatever that means.
disconnecting
This post talks about when it’s time to stop all the connectivity. Halt the txts, e-mails, facebook, twitter, linkedin, and whatever else that keeps you engaged in the moment.
Disconnection
When I started social networking, it began with linkedIn. Next, I got into twitter and soon after, facebook. I was connecting, updating, sharing, learning, reading and “listening” all day and night.
It was fun. Who am I kidding; it was amazing. So many old friends and colleagues that I lost. Now, they were all here. I could talk, catch up, and share my life.
I soon learned that keeping up with my digital life was a lot of work. And, I tried my best. I jumped into the 21st century and got a “smartphone.” Receiving e-mails came almost instantly. Day and night, it didn’t matter.
Then, I got tired. It became a chore. I burned out.
Enough is Enough
Since I’m writing this post, you can safely assume I found a way to balance the digital connection with my life. Around the beginning of the year, I made some key changes.
All my online networks are connected to one e-mail address. That e-mail address gets routed to my phone. My phone e-mail app now checks for new e-mails every 30 minutes during the week and once an hour on the weekend. I used to have it set to check every 5 minutes. No more. Also, I set my phone to stop checking when I go to sleep. In the morning, it starts checking once I’m ready to go. I control the e-mail, it doesn’t control me. Unless, I want it to… ;-P
Sites
My notifications from the various websites all go to my e-mail. They stop when I want them to stop. I limit my time visiting facebook, linkedin and twitter to when I have or make time. Notice how I only name three? These are the only three I focus on for social networking. Google Reader is my online newspaper. It’s ready to read when I’m ready to read it.
Whatever you do, keep yourself focus and sharp so you don’t burnout!
Please share any strategies you use to disconnect!!
photo credit: bondidwhat
Ink Tycoon
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.
Weekly Town Crier
After a long hard week, enjoy this list of random links that we feel you may want to check out. Some may involve design, some may involve small business and others may just be something random we find interesting. Keep checking our site each Friday to find out what inspires or interests us. Feel free to email suggestions.
Follow us on Twitter.
Join our Flickr group.
A whole new meaning to skyscraper.
Forcing IE to play nice with CSS3.
Find your writing/blogging niche.
What a great watercolor. Matt loves old buildings.
This kinda makes the phrase “Playing with Fire” to a whole new level…
Huh. Using nature to clean our water. Nice!
Wow, Matt wants one for the backyard.
Why branding is important.
Freelance…Moonlight, looks like this might help.
A couple nice WP hacks.
This is one inspirational dude when it comes to drawing. Here is a link to his FREE e-book on sketching.
Some cool B&W Websites.
Seriously, Doug Burr is about as good as it gets. Listen and Enjoy!