New Work

Some major changes happened in our department a while back and we're all still recovering from them but we've pumped out some good work lately, been to TONS of meetings, and hopefully the dust will all be settled soon and we can really get back to being creative, what we're actually good at. I'm trying to get used to all of these new processes and managing a "team" (of two - meaning myself, and Jon) while still keeping the creative things in my schedule. Teeeam work is definitely a must!

Erin, Jon and myself went on a brainstorming trip to get a little inspiration... we perused the magazine aisle for some ideas to build upon. I think we got some really solid concepts going now... a few tweaks here and a few changes there, Erin the copy-master will need to help us a little with the verbiage but... maybe some new ad concepts will be in the works in the next week or so. We reeeeally need something fresh! Hopefully these ideas will produce some good results.

So, tomorrow I'm going to start on "sketching" out these ad concepts as well as starting on some new up-sell projects, which should be fun. I'll be sure to post the results. Good times!

For now, a shower and sleep... g'night.

First Illustration Anyday

I decided to post this illustration that I did of myself. I started drawing on post-its the other day just because I actually had a single creative thought in my head. This is how I feel after lunch at Moe's on a humid day in May... me, with frizz-head and fully tummy! It wasn't exactly all that creative but it was enough to push me to draw... SHOCKER! I've been sooo slack lately about doing traditional artwork. I can't even remember the last time that I picked up a pencil to draw something. I've become so dependent on my mouse as my drawing tool. It's a little bit embarrassing.

Obviously you can see that my skillzzzz aren't as great as they used to be. I'm slightly rusty. So excuse the crappy post-it drawing. BUT, it's a start. And it's something that I actually did a follow up post-it drawing... not related to this drawing in anyway but a it's a second piece to this series that I hope to do. The second is to be posted later!

As I promised myself before, I'm going to actually try to do Illustration Friday from now on but because I'm slack and draw on a very sporadic schedule, I've created Illustration Anyday. I'll try to remind myself that it really doesn't take very long to do a drawing based on a topic, especially when given a week to produce a drawing. Illustration Anyday will be just for me, when I feel the urge. I'll probably stick to post-its because they are readily available to me on most days. Hopefully this won't be something that I drop before it's even begun. Wish me luck!

Well well well...

This lasted a long time.
A whole week!

Hopefully I'll pick it up again soon.

UGH!

This is getting ridiculous.
I'm so tired... worn out...
I can't take this much longer.

Last Week

Last week was a totally.... MESS.

We finally got the Macs in... I'm so excited to really start using them. In fact, it's SuperBowl Sunday... and I'm getting ready to start my very first design project on it. I've been setting up the email all weekend and last week I transfered all of my files over. I think I can actually be productive this week, at least more than I was last week. So hopefully I can pick up this blog where I left it last week... but with a fresh start, showing work produced on my new apple! Thank goodness!!

Back to work. I hate working on the weekends.

Still up... Still working.

It's Monday night / Tuesday morning and I've been working since 10am... and it's now 3am. That's what? 17 hours straight. I didn't even take a lunch. I did however stop working for dinner and I just fell asleep at the computer while I was waiting for something to process. I don't remember the last time I looked at the clock before I fell asleep. I'm getting kind of tired of these late nights. All work and no play makes Danielle a very cranky girl!

Well, no Daily Design for Friday. No Daily Design yet today... will post one in the morning, as in after I wake up, which means no Monday post. Boo for me.

Today was one of the most frustrating days I've had in a while and it just won't end!!

Daily Design

The designers at SchoolDude now have Macs in the mail.
WOOOOT!

Daily Design

Here's some work from today.




I'm totally not all here today.

Daily Design

So... I haven't been very productive the past few work days because of computer issues. But here's some work that I started on... an IT postcard, dude-style!

Not much work done on this...
but it's something!

Why won't they get Macs?!?

Since the week I started at SchoolDude I've been trying to convince my bosses that I need an Apple to do my work efficiently and without interruption. My immediate boss, Martha was in total support of the idea from the get-go... I just had to convince the President of the company before anything could happen. Well, I got a new computer, still a Windows PC but a laptop this time so I could work from home, if needed. ACK! I don't know if that's always a good idea or not but... I've got it... and I've worked with what I was given for over a year. I didn't complain too much but I've mentioned how many issues I've had with it. It's true, I'd be a LOT more productive on a computer that could handle running more than two applications at a time without crashing. I've tried so many time to convince the IT guys that it's not going to be too hard to network the computers and that really, they aren't going to need to learn a whole heck of a lot to get us functioning. None of our IT guys are mac-savvy... little do they know that I pretty much was the IT person when I worked at my previous job. I networked the computers, upgraded the operating systems from OS8 to OSX, upgraded all of the software, set up a backup system over the network and was general "tech support" whenever we had a problem in the office. Macs are extremely easy to keep up and after you get them up and running, treating them with the respect they deserve, they never give you a hard time. Really, it's time that we get Macs in the office... after all, I think Jon and I are the only designers in the RTP who are working on PCs.

So... after convincing the president that it's time for Apples, the meeting with the IT guys comes. THIS is what's holding up the process. They are so against getting Apples, it's insane. I understand that it's going to take a lot for them to accept this and incorporate this into the system and to learn how to start this up and network the new systems... but... uh, if I can do it, computer geniuses can do it with no problem. I don't understand why they are so afraid of this!

Friday, I had another memory error. A crash of sorts, JUST before my meeting with the IT guys. Perfect timing! Whenever I work on a project that is slightly strenuous on my system, it crashes with the same "memory can not be read error" and the application closes without warning. This time it just so happened that I was working on a big project and I got the error. I took a screenshot of it for the guys, printed it as proof, and told them that this is the memory error that I continue to get. Glad they got to see it. A visual aid is always helpful.

The decided that the best course of action was to reinstall all of my Adobe applications in case the memory error was being caused by a corrupt application. I told them that Adobe doesn't design their software to be for Windows systems and that it was more of an afterthought to create the software for Windows because the bulk of their consumers are Apple users.

So, after getting my software reinstalled, the error was something different. I tried to so a simple function in Illustrator and I got a Not Responding application error and then the application crashed. THIS is not acceptable. It took me about an HOUR to get my system back to working order. Uum, not so good for productivity. I sent the error to the IT guys via my crashing email application. They'll probably think nothing of it but from now on, I'm going to make a log of all of the time lost to crashing applications, restarts, memory errors, restarting applications, and time lost to applications freezing over SIMPLE tasks.

It has to be a sign that I'm one of the two people who have systems that are as good as the executives (the best in the company) and I'm having problems with my memory not being read and computer crashes on a daily basis! It has to be a sign that this computer system is NOT working. They just don't understand the strain that this is taking on my daily tasks. I could get sooo much more work done, if only I had a system that ACTUALLY responded when I gave a command. UGH! SO... I didn't get much work done on Friday. And... I didn't get much work finished today because of constant computer problems. It's become more trouble for me in the past few months as we bring on larger and larger projects and I don't know if this computer that I work on day in and day out can handle it. I'm getting frustrated.

So... after that long rant, I have no work to really show for Friday or today but I do have an error message!

Hopefully tomorrow will be more productive.

T-shirt Complete!!

I stayed up until 3:30am this morning working on the design for the SchoolDude University T-shirt. I FINALLY finished it. Thank goodness! And... it has been approved by Sprint and I think it looks pretty good. I think once it's printed and I see the final product, actually printed, I will feel my two days of work with only 7 hours of sleep total will actually be worth it.

So, here it is. YAY!

SDU T-shirt...

11.40am

I'm starving. It's 11.40am and I'm reeeeally hungry. Martha, Jon and I just had a conference call about what's left this week as far as tasks go. We have a LOT on our plate but thank goodness Jon is back to help me out. Whew!

!To Do TODAY : FINISH SDU Shirt!

I will post a new design once I get one that's significantly different from my previous design post.

12.40am

Just for the record...
I worked until this morning.

12.40am

Goodnight.

10.40pm

It's 10.40pm and I'm still working.

I worked late on an ad that I forgot to submit. It's late already... I work and work and work. It was supposed to be a SIMPLE edit from an ad that was already previously created. SIMPLE! Well, I'm about to submit it and I decide to look at the specs sheet... and ARGH! It was a horizontal ad, not a vertical ad. So... I worked until 8pm last night... tonight who knows how late I'll work. GRR! I'm so mad at myself right now. I just want to sleep!!!

First Design-Related Post

I've been working on the SchoolDude University T-shirt design. Sadly, Jon (the newish designer here @ SD) is out of the office with kidney stones (yuck!) so I have been working on this design pretty much solo. He did get a chance to make SchoolDude into Captain Dude... so that was helpful.

Anyway, the FIRST of what I hope to be MANY Daily Designs. Right now, it's just a digital sketch of what I hope the finished design could look like. Much of the design is simply placeholder until I get the other pieces designed to finish the puzzle. Tell me what you think!

New Blog!

I've decided I'm going to try to start a design / art blog. I don't know how long this will last or if I will even remember to keep up with it but I want to try to upload a little something everyday or at least weekly. Maybe I'll do some Illustration Friday work or maybe I'll find an outlet sort of like it for design work. I guess I can design according to what the topic is over at Illustration Friday... either way, I want to keep up with what I am doing everyday and be able to map my progress and get my creative juices flowing. I feel like I've lost that and I want those delicious juices back in my head!

Consider this the beginning!