Ever feel like your following the wrong crowd?

It’s very easy to get this way. Subscribe to several hundred rss feeds, get stuck in a drone like trance with your eyes fixed on twitters status updates while you keep pushing the refresh button in hopes that whoever your following has posted something new for you to look at and get off track.

All in hopes of what, I still haven’t figured out. All of the services mentioned above are great and fun, but like alcohol, may cause dizziness. And please don’t operate heavy machines while under the trance of following. To say that I learned a lot of new things would be pushing things a little much. Yes, I did learn a few things but most of my experience could easily be summed up like going to bed with 10 and waking up with a 2 and a slight hangover to match.

I found that most of the posts that I read were all echo chambers from other people that they follow etc, etc. Also, I was not that impressed with the creativity. Most were just their examples from tutorials and explaining how great they were. I don’t know, could be my age or the words “turn it down!” coming from my mother, from my childhood, (sound that i still hear today)  but it all became noise. Loud noise.

One day while overloading on information, I finally found something that I could take in and use. it was a post from: Tim Hamby titled: “The Creative Process of Coldplay (Take Notes)” , now, what caught my eye was the mention of coldplay, because they were actually playing in my headphones at the time. Anyway, what I took from the interview was something simple but great. It was coldplays frontman stating;

“Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically and people will like it more.”

I was like yeah, that’s it! A few days had passed and I still had nothing. One night I was watching a documentary about a baseball player. He was explaining how, a lot of people can play baseball, but to stand out, you have to be amazing. And again, I was like, yeah, that’s it!

Well, this time, I am going to do it. I am weeding through all of my rss feeds and people that I follow etc. Amazing, that is what, I will follow. Also, I am limiting my channels as to not get easily distracted. I found that after carefully selecting what I am consuming, I can work more on being amazing. I tired of getting caught in the day-to-day, I am ready to create again!

I have a few paid gigs to work on for now, but as soon as these are complete, I am going to rebrand myself, yes I know, again. This time taking it for real,
to be amazing.

]]> http://jamiecroft.com/be-amazing/feed 0 http://jamiecroft.com/my-view-on-acorn?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-view-on-acorn http://jamiecroft.com/my-view-on-acorn#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:20:49 +0000 Jamie Croft http://jamiecroft.com/?p=505

acorn.

I don’t think anything else needs to be said.

via upload.wikimedia.org

Posted via web from jamiecroft’s posterous

Pearl Jam has to be one of my all time favorite bands. I have listened to them since 1990 and have loved them ever since. Below is a collection of posters from their concerts. Ames Bros does the design for their posters. I believe that they designed all of these in this list. If not and you know, please let me know and I will add the credit for them. Thanks and enjoy these Pearl Jam Posters.

Click on image to bring up slideshow of the Pearl Jam Posters.

Enjoy!

[View with PicLens]

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I thought I would put together a list of some non-traditional services that graphic designers can use to make extra income. You may have heard of some of these, but  hopefully you may find some new ideas that may help. Use your imagination & creativity and you may be able to think of some other services as well.

This list is just an idea starter really. Some of the suggestions will go into detail while others will just list and explain the idea.

Scrapbooks ~

As a designer there are several different avenues you can take. Scrapbookers love templates, patterns, and different graphic elements, all of which can be created by designers. You could sell these items on a website or find a local scrapbook store or club and sell your materials to them. If you can find a local group or store, offer to put on a seminar and use the seminar to show them how to use your materials in their scrapbook creations. A good place to start and get ideas is at your local craft/hobby store. In the scrapbook section notice all of the different papers and other elements they use. Most all of these items can be created by a designer.

Birth Announcement Cards ~

Parents will spend all kinds of money on their kids and for there kids. I would start out by going to local baby specialty shops in your area. You could take some samples and see if they would be interested in selling some cards on commission. Offer customized cards that you create by hand for the parents. This would give them unique cards, which would prompt people to ask where they got the cards from. Make sure you put some kind of “made by” logo mark or something on the back so other people could contact you if they would like to order some for themselves.

Interior Designers ~

Interior Designers can always use original artwork. This could possibly be an avenue for you if you also do traditional artwork. Also, maybe you could offer helping interior designers by putting together presentation materials for them to show their clients. They are creative at creating spaces, let them know you are creative in getting attention and helping them sell there services. Most likely, it would be beneficial to create some mock ups of possible presentation materials for them to see how you could help them. Interior Designers also use interior drawings in CAD which could be either done up in 3D or colorized in photoshop.

Specialty Gifts ~

This could apply to almost anything but I will use an example that is a huge seller where I am from. I live in Tuscaloosa Alabama. Home of the University of Alabama, which to some is considered the college football mecka of the world. Everything in this town just about revolves around the college football team. As a designer, you could create all kinds of posters, cards, stickers just about anything you can imagine, and it will sell here. A note of caution: Make sure you take care of any legal issues before you try and sell. You can’t just throw the teams logo on stuff and sell it. Be smart and either purchase a license or think of other creative ways to sell these gifts. I didn’t even scratch the surface here, just be creative and you could come up with all kinds of ideas on this one. It really doesn’t have to be team centered. Find a local shop that sells different types of speciality gifts and see what kind of items they sell and the types that you could recreate.

Invitations ~

This one is similar to the Birth Announcements that you could find local shops to sell them too, etc. Also, this has unlimited possibilities. I think the key to this is offering something very chic and handmade. Make sure you offer customization and your set. Find local women groups that you might could meet or local small art shows to show off your work. Do a good job and the word of mouth should start working for you.

Hopefully this will give some insight on the different types of services you can offer as a graphic designer. Keep your eye out for other opportunities as you go through out your day. You never know what you may come across and you think to yourself, “I could do that”.

Do you have any other ideas? Did they work or not work? Share your ideas and comments.

I was messing around last night, and somehow monsters came out.
Here is the result:
enjoy

This is for my LATE addition to Moleskine Mondays, on Friday – two weeks late, I think.

anyhoo, instead of just one still life, I chose to use things that I see everyday.

enjoy!

Toyota – Scion ~ Newspaper Campaign

This campaign won Best of Show for the American Advertising Federation Awards

Newspaper campaign which consisted of three different ads of the same model Scion xB. I used photography of the Scion xB’s from Toyota. All three Scion’s where white. I used photoshop to add the color to each vehicle. I drew the background elements and placed them behind the vehicles in photoshop, then adding the same color as the vehicle for the background color.

Toyota – Scion ~ Magazine

Ad was used in a publication for support of the University of Alabama Gymnastics Team. The theme for the Gymnastic Meet that week was pink. I incorporated pink into the design by adding the pink color & graphics to both the Scion vehicle and background.

University Station Condominiums ~ Logo Design

Hamner Realty in Tuscaloosa, Alabama needed an identity design for their new development of condominiums. The name of the condominiums was University Station.
The Condos were to be located on campus at The University of Alabama within very close walking distance to the Football Stadium. Also the location of where the condos were to be built was once a train station in the late 18th century, hence the name University Station.

The dark grey and the Red(PMS 201) were used as these are the primary colors of this town and The Universities school colors. The Arch that is over the logo which looks like a football, was taken from an idea I got looking over the plans. I noticed that on the front of the condos there was to be an arched entrance way leading into the main entrance. So I incorporated this into the final design of the logo adding the laces from a football.