kaylandesign.com

Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 03:56:32 GMT

Through friends, I was given the opportunity to design the logo and website for a new nonprofit organization, Women's Entrepreneurship Initiative, the brain child of Heather Murphy. You can find out more about it all on the website, www.weicreatechange.org.

I must say the project went very well. With a time crunch, I was able to help get the website up and running in less than two weeks time. Of corse I don't think this would of never been possible if Heather, herself didn't have a very clear idea of what she wanted. She had all the copy and photos ready for me to use, which rarely happens.

After finishing the site, we've been working together to get emails, donations, and contact information working for them. The photos used through out the website were taken by Heather's friends, Edan Caine and Efrat Talmon.

wimpy for not doing this sooner

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:03:40 GMT

I just got back from my Easter Vacation and I'm glad to say I made it through the first of the Wimpy Kid books. It didn't take long and I was sad when I realized I only packed one of the books to take with me. I think I'm a bit to go, go all the time to sit down and actually read the books that I buy.

Now, I that I'm back, I have a couple of side projects I'm working on in my free time. Hopefully, I'll have something up and ready to show everyone soon.

In the meantime, I've been working on helping my friends involved in Toastmasters with their new website. I've been learning through them what and how to use Joomla. And I can't believe how easy it is and all the things it can do. Changing a template was pretty easy, especially once finding a nice one.

Cutie Robots

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:30:04 GMT

The other day I was looking for Robot images to do an illustration and I ran across these little cuties. I have no idea how small or big they are and what they are really capable of doing, but they sure are a sleek design. I think the round smoothness of the machine helps it seem more friendly that other robot versions.

But the thing that scares me about these robots, is the purpose of them. Apparently, they are suppose to be to help take care of kids. Really people?! We can't take care of our kids. Purhaps, if we can't take care of them we shouldn't be having them. You think? I don't know maybe I'm crazy. And yes I don't have a kid, but I do have a dog and I take good care of her. And unlike a lot of people, pick up after her. Yes, picking up after your dog is part of the responsiblity of having a dog. I'm not a fan of having to dodge the land mines left behind by other dogs.

Wimpy Kid - I will read you soon

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:45:01 GMT

I got my Wimpy Kids books. I was so excited I started reading the first one the night I bought them. It's an easy read and goes fast, but I had to force myself to put down the book so I could get some sleep.

If I didn't have to sleep I could get so much more done. All the book and projects I planned on reading and doing might actually get done. Since the night I brought home Wimpy Kid, I haven't been able to read the book again. Mostly what is taking up my time is my new dog, Slobby.

Every time I sit down to try to do some work. She's in my lap and she is not a lap dog. She's a slobbery bulldog, but I love her. My after work plans to work on this blog have been well interrupted.

Now tomorrow, I'm meeting with some friends to work on a website, and I need to get my ideas together for that project. Mostly just my ideas on ways the site can be improved with design. At this point, I haven't really even had time to think about it so I guess I will be doing that tonight while trying to entertain my sweet puppy, who is dying for my attention right now.

deceptively delicious.

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:23:31 GMT

I’m such a sucker for books with nice covers. A well-designed cover more than likely will make me buy a book. How do I know this?

Well, I don’t know how long now I have been looking at the cookbook, “Deceptively Delicious”, but I finally broke down and bought it. Even though, I have numerous healthy cooking cookbooks and I don’t intent to ever have kids. So when the whole point of the cookbook is how to sneak the veggies in so kids don’t realize they are eating them, it seems kind of weird that I bought it.

But I just couldn’t help myself. It is the best-designed cookbook I’ve seen in ages. The use of a retro color palette and illustrations makes for the fun look that got me thinking if it looks this fun then maybe it’s is fun to make and eat. Haha, I can be so gullible.

Throughout the cookbook book there are delightful colors, wonderfully photographed food and spot illustrations that really make it more than just a cookbook.

Well anyway a lot of the foods use veggie purees, which I don’t intent to keep laying around for use, so many of the recipes are kind of a little too much for me. But there are some good ideas in the book, but ultimately I have to admit I bought it for the cover.

happy VD day, what did you get?

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 05:29:31 GMT

Okay so this really doesn't have much to do with design, but in honor of the horribly dreadful VD day, I give you a site I found the other day, Bad Gift Emporium. Almost every bad gift imaginable is on the site. I'm sure more can always be added. Stop by and take a look at this well designed site, sure to make you chuckle and remind you of the bad gives you may have received.

One featured gift is . . . the herpes (folks you could of used a more graphic picture of this, but just the words give me the shakes). I believe they even say in honor of the horrible VD day. For my present, I would just like to get through the day free from VD. And I hope the same for all you nice people out there that don't deserve any case of VD.

And in case if any of you are wondering if I got anything. I did get a tulip from one of my coworkers, but that's it. It was sweet of her to do. I guess one could consider my new dog, Slobbucca, a VD day present, but it was really before that day that I got her. She's so cutie! I'll post a pictures later.

creativity 9 to 5, now that's a joke

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 03:01:28 GMT

Thinking creatively is not a 9 to 5 job. You don't just come up with great ideas sitting in front of a computer all day. But currently I am working the 9 to 5 and it has wrecked havoc on my creativity. The combination of having to think logically working with HTML and CSS coding from time to time and the in-house nature of my current job position hasn't help with this struggle.

In my search for ideas for drawing a small graphic button for our website, I found some interesting websites I thought I would share. I'm sure many of you already know about them. But here they are...

Liquid Treat - Mostly just links to other stuff, but none the less helpful in sidetracking you from your work which may just get the creativity going again. And as a side note i think the illustrations and colors used are fun.

Make My Logo Bigger Cream - Bwahahaha. I loved this. I don't know what else to say but this is a must visit site especially if you know what is good design and what isn't, this will have you rolling around laughing and cry. Or at least wanting too.

Why Graphic Design is the Worst Brand Ever - Interesting article about the lack of appreciation for good design. Yep, I agree. Everyone thinks, they can do this. I know I'm far from being an expert and I still have much to learn mostly, cause I'm only two years out of school. In my experience, so far people want to get everything for nothing and they want it their way. It seems like a downward spiral for us designers. What are we to do? I have no idea, but I may need to have a career change some day. Yikes!

Freelance Switch - Some great info on here for freelancers. I need to read more of this myself.

Free Fonts - Who doesn't love the occasional free font? I ran across this site long ago, but found it again in my email drafts, so here it is. Enjoy!

wimpy kid books are here, somewhere.

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 08:56:12 GMT

To my delight, today I learned of the Wimpy Kid books. There it was looking back at me from my Borders Rewards email. So I decided to check out the website, wimpykid.com. Turns out there are two books and there are more planned. Which leaves me to question, where have I been? I must go get these books. This will be one of my missions for this weekend along with hitting the Renaissance Festival. I think it's good to have things to look forward to, keeps you looking head.

Anyway, back to the book, I love the simple style of illustration and it looks hilarious. I've always been a fan of simple illustrations, perhaps because my own illustration skills are limited but none the less I love it. There's just something about that sketchiness (is that a word, well it is now) and you kind feel like you are part of the thinking process. It seems like it maybe of been possible that these ideas were sketched and waded up and then found again later.

A similar book I found at a Bookmans one day is The Moe Chronicles: Tales of a Young Urban Failure. Which then reminds me of Odd Todd. If you haven't seen the Odd Todd videos, you are missing out on some funny stuff and you need to go check it out at oddtodd.com. The illustration styles are all somewhat similar, but there is one more thing that ties these characters together. Their demeanor. They all seem to have a defeated attitude that draws me in and makes me want to read more. Maybe I like these guys cause they make me feel better about what I have. I don't know, but they seem like they would be fun to be around cause they are so sarcastic. Oh sarcasm, what would the world be without you.

superbowl ads revisited

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:53:09 GMT

Sorry for the delay in writing about the superbowl ads not that I have any subscribers yet anyway. But enough of that. I wanted to mention that as price of these ads keeps rising, the ads themselves seem to be losing something.

I'm not saying that any are bad in particular, but with all the build up to them being so great, I always seem to get disappointed when they aren't. You can watch the videos from several places online. Check them here @ www.myspace.com/superbowl if you haven't already.

I would have to say this year my favorite ads were the etrade baby ads. I seriously wanted to get on etrade and start buying some stock because it sound so easy and if it is that easy what I'm a doing not on etrade doing that. Oh because, I'm pretty sure it isn't that easy, but the commericals were funny.

Then there was the sunsilk commerical. I like the way this ad was done graphically, but it didn't make me want to go out and use the sunsilk hair products. So I think it was an interesting idea, but not really what they needed. I'm not sure what they needed, but it was kind of too mellow to stand out amongst all the commericals it was drowned out.

Next there was the talking stain in the Tide commericial which was funny, once you found out it was a stain talking distracting the interviewer. Why would you ever interview with a stain on your shirt? Crazy guy didn't even notice. What?! But if you have ever used that Tide to Go, you know it leaves a spot where the stain was until washed.

Of course there was the slew of typical beer ads, which are always good for a laugh, but ultimately nothing was as amazing as I thought it would be. And there was Coke's heart felt commercials - yes we can all get along, bs. Yeah, in a perfect world, but guess what this isn't a perfect world.

I guess it's just selling that idea of perfect, but I think maybe it's time we start to sell real. We are all smarter consumers these days with practically unlimited resources to find information, so why lie. Just a thought.

motivational posters - what a joke

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 03:47:25 GMT

We are all fully aware of the cheesy motivational posters that line walls at many school and corporate offices. These posters are simply designed with a standard stock photo that somewhat pertains to the topic at hand, then a thin line of color bordering the image which is surrounded in black. Beneath the photo is a word such as accomplishments followed by a supposedly motivational line of crap that supports the large word.

So my question is . . . Have these posters ever motivated anyone? Are you really that easily motivated? I know I’m not. To my delight, I was recently reminded of the wonderful alternative to these motivational posters, there de-motivational predecessors at Despair.com.

After indulging in all, the site has to offer and absorbing myself with these wonderfully sarcastic versions, I was inspired to create one of my own from my own life experiences. The photo I used I found on http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu. The idea was to have an image of something we can’t see with just our eyes, which is why it is a microscopic image.

A note for Despair.com . . .

If it were possible for me to love something, it would be your products. Yet nothing in life that I have loved has loved me back thus making me incapable of loving, since I fear more of this rejection.

If I thought it was at all possible to work for you, I would happily send my resume to you. But I cannot happily do anything and I’m not sure I have any real talent. I do thank you for increasing my despair and keeping me from thinking too much of myself.

Since I am single, as I believe I always will be, I purchased myself your featured bittersweets so I would have a treat on Valentine’s Day, which should be erased from all calendars since it excludes over half of the world’s population. But I think it exists as a reminder to us all of how lonely and miserable we all, just incase we forgot.