Starting a Blog

I found this wonderful article, about why you should blog. The writers at Design Shack were specifically speaking to developers, but this applies to all of us. Whatever profession you are in there are good reasons to begin a blog: it requires you to educate yourself, give back to your community, and it helps you improve your writing skills. Yes, blogs take time and you will probably not be one of the few that become famous and become professional bloggers; but it will be beneficial for your well-being. If you have a blog, and you been away awhile there is no better time than the present to pick up your blog and get back to writing. My favorite quote for the article pretty much sums up why you need to just do it!

"First, begin right away. Believe me, you’ll never have time and you’ll never know enough, so toss out those as reasons to wait. If you can’t manage this now, you’ll never be able to pull it off.  "

Coincidentally, I recently viewed this live chat from Joy Cho from Oh Joy! Joy talks about her new book, but most importantly answers questions from other bloggers about how to have a "successful" blog. If you have the time to view it or just listen to it Joy and Naomi have some great pointers for bloggers.

Blank Page

I love looking at a blank page—knowing its potential and the fresh start that it provides every time I pull out a new sheet. I am known for having a piles of "used" paper cluttering my desktop. I tend to keep paper around until I have used both sides of the paper to its fullest potential.

Whether it is a sketch, painting, doodle, or just a lengthy list; the process of filling a blank page is cathartic and stimulates my brain. I can more quickly see a solution and new ideas in the few minutes it takes me to fill a page, and that is refreshing.

So FILL a page today.

New Blogs to Love

I have come across some new blogs that I have enjoyed:

1) The Great Discontent: A blog about contemporary designers and artists. Truly inspiration to read interviews of other designers in the field and what drives them to create.

"Make more. Make as much as possible"
"Don't compare yourself; you're on your own path"

These are just some of the sweet inspiration from the "Team Parris" interview. There are lots of treasures to inspire throughout the site. (and have you noticed that large image based sites are popping up everywhere, that is how you know internet speeds have just gotten so good they can handle the large data)

2) Revival of a Boring House: this blog is written by a former classmate and his wife. I love their little tips for creating a house to a home. It is great to get inspired from others who are trying to livening up a boring home, just like me.

3. What Katie Ate: Not a brand new blog, but I have just found it. Her beautiful photography is one of favorite blogs to go through my RSS feed. Talk about food porn.

Have you been reading anything interesting lately?

Design Morsel's New Look

I have a new look for DesignMorsels. There are important steps to consider when you are re-styling your blog:

1) Color Palette: I recommend staring with a color palette because it can really help you create a mood for your blog. You can either make a color palette based on what you feel is right or I like to find imagery that I gravitate towards and choose colors that appeal to me. As you look through imagery and create palettes it becomes very easy to see what colors you keep going back too.

2) Imagery Board: If you didn't use imagery to help define your colors, you can use imagery to help define what your blog will look like from the header to the photos that you include in your posts.

3) Layout: Pay attention to layout. Make sure everything is user friendly. The more  intuitive the navigation the more likely you visitor will stay longer. Layout also ties in keeping things consistent. Headers, links, and navigation should stay consistent throughout the site. This can occasionally be a challenge if your host site like blogger or wordPress is having server issues. You should also keep things easy to read without lots of background noise distracting from your posts.

4) Content: Content is last on my list, but it is clearly the most important. If you don't have content that people want to read/look at what's the point? Admittedly, I do not have a large reader ship, but if something I say or create can inspire one other person than my blog has fulfilled its goal. Make sure to write about things you are passionate about. It makes writing more fun and less of a second job.

What do you think of my new look?

Learning to Write

There are many skills I would like to become more proficient in; one of these is copy-writing. A wonderful aspect of my job is the variety it enables me to practice. Most of the time I am pushing pixels and organizing my designs. Sometimes I get to venture into photography, printing, data entry, marketing, and copy-writing. I have not developed anything profound, such as Nike's "Just Do it" campaign, but I have added lines that have enhanced a project. Copy-writing is very much intertwined in the design process, which is why I want to gain a greater skill-set in this area. In large agencies copy-writing is its own full-time profession. In a smaller office its just a bunch of creative people talking together to come up with the best idea.

One way that I am building on my copy-writing skill is by using this blog on a frequent basis. Here I am able to collect my thoughts and let my ideas come across in a clear and concise way (hopefully). This may help practice writing, but this does not help me to create liners or tags to pull in a reader/consumer and make them want to participate/buy the client's product or event. How can I become better and delivery concise statements that are attractive to a vast audience? Is it just something you are born with? I have found a few things that improve my writing.

• Writing Drafts: similar to sketching for designers, the best idea won't necessarily be the first one that comes to mind, so keep trying. I do not always write drafts for this blog, but when I do my writing seems better written.

• Think about the audience: the look and feel of any design has to appeal to the consumer/reader; it is the same for writing. I wouldn't use difficult scientific language to write a children's book. In the same respect, I wouldn't want to offend my consumer/reader by speaking down to them. 

• Find a voice, and stick to it. Writing is the voice of any design/brand/company/product so keep that voice consistent.

• WRITE IT OUT: I find this one to be the most useful for me. There have been studies that show that printing by hand improves language fluency, spelling, and have more developed sentence structure and story-line. At the very least writing it out first puts at least two drafts to go through my writing before it ends up on my blog.

Blackout Poetry

Sifting through the many blogs I follow I found this intriguing idea: newspaper blackout poetry. Something creative, but fairly different from what I do day-in and day-out. Maybe it will even help me to be a better copywriter. It is a challenge and a struggle for me to come up with copy on command, that is why a copywriter is its own profession. It wouldn't have to be a newspaper. It could even be one of my own ads, where I was forced to add too much copy. HA!

Do you have any blackout poetry you would like to share? (Since I haven't written a poem since high school, I am a little shy. Maybe your confidence will inspire me to be brave.)

Writing a Bio

A couple weeks ago Behance’s blog the 99% wrote a post about the death of the resume and rise of the bio. I doubt the resume is dead, but having a bio has become crucial in this digital society. This bio should also be “branded” across your social network sites so that you are identified as the same person and you will seem more sincere if all this information matches. The bio across social media sites, does not have to match word-for-word, but it should be similar.

1. A Bio should be short. Too often people tend to overwrite a bio. Keep it short, simple, and to the point 
2. Begin the bio with your name. (example John Doe is the CEO of Apple Computers.)
3. Include your expertise. Include only skills that would be beneficial to a job/career you are working towards. (example Do NOT include that you are an excellent butt scratcher unless that is what you want one of your duties at the office to be).
4. (If you are writing this for a resume situation) Relate how your expertise can solve a goal or problem they might be having.
5. Personality. The reason why cover letters might be going on the wayside is that bio tends to be more personable. Show your personality either through your writing style or mentioning a quirk or hobby. (example Keep in mind to choose quirks or hobby that symbolize you but won't creep out your reader. We do not want to know if you collect dead animals.
6. WARNING be careful with humor. Humor can be very tricky when written and without context. If your humor is taken incorrectly it could rub your reader the wrong way.
7. Contact. Include a means of contact in your bio. This will be the quickest way to link between your name and your email, phone, or website. Choose just one means of contact, otherwise your bio becomes a dense jumble of links. Contact should be the conclusion of the bio, never at the beginning.
8. SPELL CHECK. Always spell check and/or have a friend look it over before you post it online. Sure a bio is short and easy to edit, but it is better to have it correct from the start. Spell check is easy-enough, but it's also easy to forget. I struggle with the spell check button more than I would like. I wish it was more intuitive in Adobe products, as it is in Word.