Major progress!

I made some major progress today with my portfolio. I was getting hung up on a design concept so I decided to focus on content first and design last. For now I created a very basic layout, selected several logos to feature and wrapped them in FancyBox jQuery code. I'll be adding more samples in the coming days, including websites, animated banners and print pieces.

The Ellipsis

While checking some rules of punctuation today, I came across an entry about "the ellipsis".

Basically, an ellipsis is this:

. . .

I engage in pretty heavy use of ellipses (the plural of ellipsis is ellipses) and was quite surprised to learn that it has an official place in English grammar complete with extensive usage rules (many of which I routinely break). One rule that stood out is this: if you end a sentence with an ellipsis, you must also add a period after that for a total of 4 dots....

Wikipedia has a great page devoted to ellipses...

Are pop-ups dead?

I couldn't sleep last night. I lay in bed, my overworked mind heating up my pillow. (I really need to buy a chillow. I know, I know... I'm such a nerd.) Here's the conundrum... how to showcase my work on a one page portfolio website in a world where pop-ups are blocked due to malware risks and flash scripts are disabled because they slow bandwidth. Surely there's some sort of acceptable technology I can use to make my pop-ups accessible.

I do have a couple of options. Basically I can hard code the effect using z-index and layers with html and css - or - I can go with JavaScript (jQuery).

• CSS & HTML (z-index and layers) Click here for a sample. Click here for how-to.
• jQuery - such as lightview, lightbox, Prettypoppin, jQuery lightBox plugin or FancyBox

I like the look of the jQuery stuff and, best of all, most of it is free with an optional donation. It looks pretty straightforward so I hope the implementation goes smoothly. More on that later....

Home schooled...

Before I go any further (lest my heading mislead you) I do have a degree. I have a BFA in Graphic Design. I'm also a self-taught web designer with 'old school', pre-WYSIWYG roots. However, the truth is I have spent the last several years devoting most of my time and energy to my two young children. I still managed to do a bit of consulting during this time so all was not lost - but I would be fooling myself if I didn't admit that I am in desperate need of a SERIOUS refresher course. So I stopped by Barnes & Nobles & picked up a few 'school books.'

Here's the plan:

• I'm ashamed to admit that although I dabbled in it, I never really learned how to use Fireworks and I think it's about time I did. During a recent discussion with an industry friend, she mentioned she had bought two copies of CS3 for her business - one for the pc and one for the mac. Turns out she never installed the pc copy and offered it to me - brand new - at the bargain basement price of $20. (CS4 retails new for $299!) I also picked up the "100 Essential Techniques" book to assist acquisition of this new skill.
  
• I'm proficient in Dreamweaver but there are many features I have yet to explore. I purchased the "100 Essential Techniques" guide to further my knowledge.
  
• Another book, "Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver", should streamline the creation of standards compliant style sheets within Dreamweaver.
  
• I haven't used InDesign too much; I've always used Quark. Sadly, Quark is losing the war against InDesign so if I am to compete with the many job hunters out there I really need to list both on my resume. Read more about the battle between Quark & InDesign here.
  
• I've done a couple of small Flash projects but am still quite the novice. I hope the "100 Essential Techniques" book & lynda.com training video will take me to the next level. I have future plans to attend professional Flash training once a basic foundation is in place.
  

My online portfolio...

I bought a domain name a couple of weeks ago which I plan to use to showcase my design work. It's actually my name... (thankfully I don't have a common one.)

The trend these days is to design a one page portfolio. There are three main benefits to this approach:

• easy to code
  
• simplicity of design and layout make your portfolio really stand out
  
• user friendly and intuitive

Having been a graphic designer for the past 14 years, I have a very extensive and impressive print portfolio with pieces ranging from logos and corporate brochures to covers of leading industry magazines. Coming up with a dozen or so examples to highlight my abilities will be easy to do. I've also been a web designer for over a decade and have coded my fair share of top notch websites over the years. The problem is, companies tend to turn over their sites on an annual basis and most of my web work has been lost to the ravages of time. All that remains are screen shots and in some cases, archived code - but that won't cut it. Potential employers want to see your stuff in action. The solution? I need to design about a dozen new websites to beef up my portfolio and that's going to take some time. In the interim, I've decided to get the portfolio site up and running with my existing print pieces. I'll add the web stuff gradually to that...

As a side note, years ago I worked with an amazing web designer, "Nelson." He shared with me his secret to landing the job. His entire portfolio consisted of web sites for fictitious companies. He actually made up several companies, bought and hosted the domain names and designed the sites. As he explained at the time, using pretend companies enabled him 100% creative control. It was brilliant. He was a huge fan of director Michael Bay and designed the most amazing fan site. As it turned out, Michael Bay stumbled upon it one day and was so impressed that he flew Nelson out to meet him, adopted the site, and hired Nelson to moderate it.

Quotes are trickling in...

I emailed several local daycare centers to get childcare quotes for my 2 & 5 year olds and the quotes are starting to trickle in.

The results so far:

Next Genearation Children's Centers (http://ngccenters.com/) has quoted $647.60 per week total for both children, while Andover Children's Academy (http://www.acapreschool.com/) has quoted $500 per week total. Bright Horizons (http://brighthorizons.com/) came in at $768/week plus a registration fee.

My opinion? Ridiculous! It is painful to think that $2-3K of my monthly income will be lost to daycare. In this economy, I'll be lucky if I'm left with $500. My daughter will be in Kindergarten next year which will eliminate some of the burden, but I will still need before & after school care at a cost of nearly $700 per month plus full time care for my son. If I hire a private sitter, the going rate according to nannypoppins.com is $12-$20/hour plus an annual placement fee of $2,950. At that rate my weekly cost will start at $716. Another option is hiring an au pair. According to my research, they average about $17,000 a year plus a $4,000 finders fee to the agency.

Now I get it!

I was placing an order for a gift card on amazon.com this evening and paused to reflect on their logo. I'm sure you're familiar with it... the word "amazon.com" in black with a yellow arrow beneath. Although I've been shopping their site for years, the concept behind the logo has never been clear to me, so I decided to do a little research on the matter this evening.

Thanks to Abhijit Nadgouda of ifacethoughts.net, I finally understand. Abhijit explains "The arrow serves a dual purpose – it indicates Amazon has A to Z of everything and represents the smile brought to the customer’s face."

Personally, I don't think the logo succeeds at conveying that message. I always thought the arrow looked like a devil tail...

Ground Zero

Ground zero. I am an artist. I am both a graphic and web designer. I have been home for the last few years raising my children. Life threw me a curve ball. (I got divorced.) Here is where my story begins. I have a plan. Update my skills. Update my portfolio. Find a job. Pretty simple, right? Not when you toss life into the mix... Follow me as I embark on my journey back to the cubicle jungle all while keeping a great big smile on my face!