New Work: Business Cards for a Good Cause

When I was laid off a couple of months ago, there were about 14 people who lost their job during that round of layoffs. After commiserating over coffee for a bit, we immediately started sharing resources. There’s nothing like hard times to bring people together. For my part, I offered to create business cards free of charge for anyone who needed them. So far, two people have taken me up on my offer, with a third in the works. Above are the two cards I created: if you know anyone in need of a PR consultant or Executive Support, I know two highly qualified and amazing ladies to recommend.

Of course, it was also an excellent opportunity to update the existing design to my own card:

Once I run out of my recycled stash, I’ll be passing these babies out. A very special thanks goes out to Jeannette over at Burns Printing who did her part to make these cards possible. Without her help, we’d all be reduced to writing our numbers on napkins. Ha!

Tags | business cards, job hunting, pro bono, promotion

AIGA KC Launches Weekly Blog Series

Well, I feel horrible for neglecting my blogs of late: both here and my entries over at Stickers and Donuts. (Sorry, Maria!!) To tell you the truth, between blogging, starting a personal twitter, and keeping up AIGA KC’s twitter, Facebook, and Linked-In pages, I’ve just gotten a bit overwhelmed on the social media front. So this past week I (inadvertently) cut back, but I think I’m getting back into the swing of things.

On the whole, this was for a good cause. I spent the better part of the last month gearing up for the Grand Re-Launch of a new blog series on AIGA KC’s blog. Last week I launched it with a tour of our national offices: AIGA’s National Design Center in New York City. While job-hunting there last month, I was able to set up a tour with George Fernandez who is in charge of Membership. I was also able to meet both Jennifer Bender (who heads up the Social Networking Task-Force that I am a part of) and Lydia Mann for a lunch to discuss social media tactics for AIGA. This week’s post in the Series (I’ve yet to come up with a good name…) is an interview with Michael Bierut of Pentagram. Head over there and check it out. Next week, I’ll be posting Part One of my interview with Brand New‘s Armin Vit of UnderConsideration. We had an excellent chat during my trip to NYC: so much so, that I’ll have at least two posts out of our discussion once I’ve finished transcribing it.

Tags | AIGA, Armin Vit, blog, blogging, job hunting, Michael Bierut, Pentagram, Twitter

Wednesday’s Weekly Reader: Busy, Busy, Busy!

Whew! What a marathon 2 weeks again. I have been hard at work on both a freelance project (an annual report) and on getting AIGA KC’s blog ready to launch a new series of interviews and articles. Unfortunately, the combo of the two have zapped all of my time the past couple of weeks: hence, the lack of posts. On a related note, I also didn’t have much time to scour my feed-reader of late. The little bit I did get to look at it, however, led me to the miscellaneous links below:

Rainbow Brite is Redesigned

Ok, this subject is very near and dear to my heart. With the exception of Jem, I doubt there was a doll I carried around by the neck more than my Rainbow Brite doll or her Color Kids, nor was there a show that I watched more. Some guys can name every Nintendo game ever made, and some chicks can tell you the backstory to the entire Rogue-Gambit story arch, but I can rattle off every detail about Rainbow Brite. There. I said it. (What? We all know I am a closet-nerd.)

Anyways. Just recently, Hallmark announced the redesign and rerelease of Rainbow Brite along with the launch of 3 dolls (Rainbow Brite, Tickled Pink, and Moonglow). I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, I have always wanted to own the Moonglow doll. (Quite possibly one of the most rare of the original toy series…and only available in Germany.) But on the other hand, is nothing sacred?? I don’t like how they redesigned her at all! Must they bring back and ruin all of our childhood cartoons? (CareBears? Strawberry Shortcake?? The upcoming Smurfs movie???) And I’m still waiting for them to release the entire original cartoon series on DVD in the US. (Why does Germany get it first??) Ok, enough of my rant. (But on the other hand, if they do continue to bring back all of these cartoons, then maybe there will actually be a good Saturday morning line-up again…)

Wall•E Computer Case

I saw this on Coudal’s feed: how awesome is this desktop computer?? Over on English Russia, they have the entire process photographed.

Gold Leaf Rocks…Literally.

You know, I’ve always wanted to work with gold leaf, but have never really had a good project for it. Then D*S pointed me to this awesome How-To. Wouldn’t they be great on a shelf next to a couple of antique books? Or maybe just next to a vase and some flowers… Definitely on my to-do list!

Mucha Window, St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague

I love Mucha + I love Stained Glass = This Window is Awesome! (Be sure to check out the rest of his Prague photos: beautiful city!) I can’t believe I was right next to St. Vitus when I was in Prague and I didn’t go in! I had no idea this window even existed until I saw it on Coudal’s feed. *Le Sigh* I’ll just have to add it to my list of things to see before I die.

Tags | Czech, diy, German, Hallmark, How-to, Mucha, Rainbow Brite, stained glass

In Love with Martha Stewart’s DIY

Over on Stickers & Donuts today, I blogged about my “current obsession” with all things Martha Stewart. I’m particularly in love with these:

Aren’t these Pom Poms cute? I’m really tempted to buy the aqua pom pom craft kits to decorate with…but then I saw that she has the instructions right there on her website. It has me wondering what they would look like if I used a bunch of old plastic sacks a la the recycled pom poms found on Creature Comforts that my friend and I used for gift wrapping. I have a feeling that many of the tissue paper and crepe paper crafts featured on her site could be adapted for plastic bags…

In any case, if bags would’t work right, I have plenty of tissue paper left over from holidays, etc.

Tags | diy, sustainability, Think Green

Recycled Business Cards Featured on The Design Cubicle

I just saw that my recycled business cards I posted about last week are currently featured on The Design Cubicle! Brian held a call for entries for his post on 50 Creative Business Cards of 50 Graphic Designers, and mine was chosen as one of them! I’m in excellent company too: among them is former classmate, Colin Wright. Check out the article for some great business card inspiration.

Tags | business cards, diy, graphic designer, job hunting, sustainability, Think Green

BBC Book Meme

I don’t usually post memes, but I saw this on Celestina Carmen and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Mainly because I’m adding more books to my book list now that I have more time to catch up on reading: it looks like a great list of books to choose new titles from. (But also because I need a break in-between concepting for an annual report.)

So apparently, the BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? Instructions (if you want to play): Look at the list and put an ‘X’ after those you have read once. Enter a number for the number of times you read something. (Make sure you delete my X’s!) When you’ve finished put your total at the bottom.OK, fellow bookworms, let’s fight dirty!

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen: approx. 3x
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien: at least 4x
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte: at least 3x (one of my favorites)
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling: x (too many times to count)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee: 2x (once in English and once in German)
6 The Bible: (unless you count in church?)
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte: x
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens: x
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott: x
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy: maybe?…
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien: at least 4x (once for each time for LotR)
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger: x
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald: x (loved it!)
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens: x (highly recommended: my favorite Dickens)
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens: x
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis: x
34 Emma – Jane Austen: 2x
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen: x
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis: x
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hossein
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code -
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery: 3x
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding: x
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen: 2x
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zifon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas: x (waaay better than the movie…)
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens: x
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnet: 6+ x (too many to count: was my favorite as a kid)
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens: 2x
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White: 2x
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: 2x
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery: x
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas: x
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare: x
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factoy – Roald Dahl: x
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo: x (I think? Was a looong time ago…)

TOTAL :: approx. 44 out of 100 if you count the multiple reads…approx. 30 if each book counts only once

Tags | book list, German literature

Wednesday’s Weekly Reader: April Fool’s Day Edition

For the longest time, April Fool’s Day has been my favorite holiday. (Much to the dismay of those around me…) When I was little, I used to plot months in advance just how I could trick everyone in my family. This year, for some reason, I don’t really have any pranks ready to pull. Not wanting to let this day go by without celebrating, however, I thought I’d share my expertise and some links with an early post…just to make sure YOU have all the tools you need to get back at that person who put salt on your toothbrush this morning…

Need Prank Ideas?
Believe it or not, innocent-looking Martha Stewart has a wealth of prank ideas both in her current issue of Martha Stewart Living and on her blog. I liked this one from the magazine the best:

Solid Milk
Transform milk into an unpourable mass. Stir 1 packet of powdered gelatin into 2 tablespoons of water, and let stand for 5 minutes. Warm 2 cups of milk in the microwave. Stir the gelatin mixture into the milk. Transfer to a glass pitcher or bottle, and refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.

Courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

Classic Pranks I’ve Pulled
Yes, I’m going to share some of my trade secrets…so use them wisely!

• Spider-web Doorway — This one tends to work better if you do it the night before. Generally, you need a lot of string and some painter’s blue masking tape (so it doesn’t take the finish off of the walls or doorjam). Weave a web across the doorway, taping the string to walls and wrapping around other surfaces as you go. The end result should look something like this:
  
• Stuffed Shoes — This is an oldie-but-goodie. Take a tissue or a bit of toilet paper and stuff it down into the toes of someone’s shoes. Make sure they can’t see the stuffing when they pick them up to put them on. When they do go to put them on, their feet will be rather cramped!
• Packing Peanut Doorway — This is perfect for a dorm, etc. Unfortunately, I don’t have any handy photos to illustrate. First off, your victim needs a doorway that has space between their door and the outside frame. The door should also swing open to the inside. Tape a bunch of old newspapers together flat so that they will cover the doorway from side to side and to about 5 feet tall. Cover the entire doorway from wall to wall by taping your paper on the edges using duct tape. You should start at the bottom of the door and stop about every foot or so to fill the space between the paper and the door with packing peanuts. (We used about 4 cubic feet of peanuts when we did this to a friend.) Once you get to the top, you’re done. When the person opens the door, the peanuts will cascade down on top of them: classic!

Zoologic (Animals Play Pranks on a Zookeeper)
The below animated short is hilarious! I just saw it this week over on Drawn! and thought it fit in perfectly with April Fools Day. Not only is it well-animated, but it’s also the winner of a Student Academy Award!

Tags | Pranks, Weekly Reader