design

Marketing Motivation

eric — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:20:56 -0600

We've been extremely blessed to have received so much work from word of mouth the past six years, but I've noticed I need to be doing more work on the marketing front to get the type of projects I'm interested in.

I've been working on some new things for my company website. This will include more graphics for the site itself and is something I don't always have the time for, but need to make the time to just get some of my ideas finished to stand out more in a rather flooded market.

Another thing I'm looking forward to doing is an email newsletter. To some, this may seem out-dated, but my goal is to use it to update past clients (and anyone that signs up, really) and keep them in the loop on new things and features that Drupal has to offer for businesses, ministries and organizations.

I've recently created a Facebook fan page for Visual Notion to get info out in multiple channels at once. The main thing I like about this is that I have my Facebook page set to pull in my Visual Notion News & Updates RSS feed which loads it into Facebook and then, for each post, it updates my Visual Notion Twitter account.

Overall I'm excited about the changes, but just need to be able to buckle down and get these marketing items finished. As any other developer + designer could tell you, that is the hardest part.

Stay tuned!

Lord, please help me to get this stuff done.

Typographic Exercise: Baron Batch 25

eric — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:55:13 -0600

Lunchtime Color Inspiration & Quiz

eric — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:59:07 -0600

I've been looking for design inspiration outside of anything online, lately. Lunchtime provided me with great color inspiration for some fall-based designs. Here's my lunchtime color inspiration palette:

There were five main items I've chosen for this palette. See if you can guess which color matches the brands/products I ate that are listed below (alphabetically):

Jif
Orowheat
Smuckers
Snyder's of Hanover
Sun Chips

Vote for Blimey!

eric — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:02:45 -0500

First off, thank you to all who have been voting for my Vitamin Water label design and flavor name on Facebook every day.

Here's how to vote:

1) Login to Facebook
2) Go here: http://apps.facebook.com/flavorcreator/
3) Click on the black and pink "Vote for Bottle" button and search for "eric124" and vote for Blimey.

Voting is open until Oct. 20th. You can vote every 24 hours. Please keep it up!

After tithe and taxes, a portion of winnings will go towards helping Southcrest Christian School purchase supplies. It's a great school and I would appreciate your help in supporting it!

PLEASE pass it along the vote request and share with others.

I Am Not Even Worthy of an Inferiority Complex

eric — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:44:02 -0500

I know I've been gifted with abilities in the realm of logo design, graphic design, layout, web design, CSS, and Drupal. I recognize that part but, I've never fancied myself as awesome or truly great at it, by any means. It's an interesting dichotomy as I know the talent is there, but the vast majority of the time, I don't feel as though I'm truly good at it. (Come to think of it, I've always felt the same way about playing the guitar too, despite playing for seventeen years)

Anyway, I do make my living as a designer and developer (well, I don't even feel I can call myself that even if I do Drupal installs, custom configurations, complex theming and CSS work). It pays the bills and I like what I do, but I've always noticed that I have an inferiority complex about it. It's much more noticeable when I look at the work of others. Now, I know you can be brought low by comparing yourself to others if you're not careful, but I don't think that's always a bad thing. If nothing else it helps keep your ego in check.

I just don't understand why I've always felt this way, though. I can feel proud of a project and a job well done, but I don't typically think it's worthy of submitting it to design publications, gallery sites and the like. There's too many others that are much better at it, and I know this to be true.

I think it comes down to God getting the glory and me not feeling I can lay any claim to it. Not that I am saying I'm right up there with them, but I wonder if this is how Moses, David, Paul and so many others in the Bible felt about their gifts and talents.

Just to be clear, here: I'm not having a pity party about it or fishing for compliments. I'm just being open about my struggles with feelings of vulnerability, lack of confidence and self-doubt in the very things most would consider my strengths.

So, there you have it: I'm a grown man that is a designer and pseudo developer (and guitar player) that is pretty insecure about my abilities. I'm not sure what do to with that, other than admit it and do what this verse states:

"Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you." – 1 Samuel 12:24