Wow! I am SO glad I participated in Thing-A-Day this year. It was a whole new way of challenging myself, and I feel like I have gained a lot out of it!

One thing I’ve definitely learned is that I don’t want to waste another year until I decide to be creative again, so what I’m doing right now, for my final T-A-D is setting up my very own WordPress blog, in which I will document work projects (I’m a website designer), personal projects, or, heck, just use to talk about my day and how I’m feeling.

But I’m gonna keep this one much less personal than what I do on MySpace. I’ve gotten way too personal with MySpace since I started that horrid habit in January of 2006. So personal that I really have no choice but to keep my profile private, either that or go back through each of the hundreds of blogs I’ve posted and set private ones to Friends Only. And I seriously do not have the time to devote to that.

So I’m starting fresh on WordPress. I may not necessarily quit posting MySpace blogs, but I really want to shift my blogging habit to a more mature, more customizable, more blog-focused, less profile-focused format. And I’ve heard many people in my industry sing WordPress’s praises for a while now, and since Thing-A-Day, I’ve gotten to know and love the inner workings.

So here I am, to stay! On WordPress.

Now, the only problem is…. my entire blog audience resides on MySpace. Which means, I’m going to have to finagle some readers over to this direction somehow. And, while I’m at it, I’d love to make some new friends who are already on the WordPress train. So if you blog via WordPress, will you connect with me in whatever way WordPress does that? (So far, I only know how to post blogs.)

Now, I absolutely HATE to complete my Thing-A-Day journey with a post that doesn’t even have a picture!!!! So here’s a screenshot of my blog:

Yes, I know I’m a web designer using a default WordPress theme. I just started, K? I’ll design my own theme soon as I figure out where to go to insert custom CSS. (And soon as I have a few free hours to spend in Photoshop & Dreamweaver.)

So won’t you go read my first post? It’s about a website I’ll be working on this weekend. *Sigh.*

amandathomas.wordpress.com

Title: De-vine
Description: Floral collage frame for an ecard
Inspiration: Today is Floral Design Day

this is a big seller here in queenvanna-land, and this is just a slight variation.  i love that this paper looks like fabric.  very natural, neutral and pretty!

fresh in the etsy shoip this a.m.!!

Created this page tonight and then scanned a bunch more and added them here.

-Robyn

Working out a bookplate idea. These are still rough, but I wanted to try to work in my antler-craze:

Cross-posted to lekkercraft.

Haven’t been slacking. Update is here, because am too lazy to just repost it.

Comments on the entry are much appreciated.

I wanted to make some sort of Aspergers related design so this is what I came up with for now.

February is traditionally a time for fertility celebrations. In the spirit of this, I made earrings (via a lasercutter) that act as a physical hyperlink to the wikipedia article for the Fertility Goddess. Taking a photo of these earrings using a qr code reader on your phone will take you to the mobile version of the page. I generated the code using Semapedia.

Unfortunately, the ones I made without writing “Fertility Goddess” (so just the code) didn’t turn out dark enough…but this works to show the concept.

I’ve been obsessing over antlers and design that features them recently (as design, not taxidermy, like in ceramic or mirrored, etc.) so I thought I’d make some more patterns. The first was a mistake, but I ended up liking how it looked (doesn’t that always happen?), and the second is just repetitive. I’d love to find a better-resolution image.

cross-posted to lekkercraft.

I created some patterns out of my illustrations to be interpreted on leather bracelets. For this particular pattern, I used this illustration. See it large.

Some months ago, I ordered the deluxe Helvetica film DVD pack. It finally arrived this week, oh joy! We watched it on Saturday night and wow, it was good… It’s a full-length feature documentary on the Helvetica font, it has a great soundtrack, some bits were slow, but altogether informative and refreshing. I truly didn’t realise how ubiquitous the Helvetica font really is. I enjoyed the different perspectives of various designers; geez, some of them are really font-geeks to a level that I don’t understand, yet admire at the same time because the work produced is so… beautiful, rhythmic, visual poetry really.

My Helvetica film DVD pack is a limited-edition package with the retail DVD, three letterpressed mini-posters (I think I will frame them and hang them in a row), a color C-print of a still from the film (street scene of a LADIES toilet sign in helvetica) signed by director Gary Hustwit, two love/hate Helvetica buttons, and the letter n/u of actual Helvetica metal type.

Pictures below of my Helvetica DVD pack

I couldn’t resist trying another CD cover (here’s my first one, with the rules of this meme). This time, it took me, like, fifty tries before I got a CC-licensed photo that gave me permission to alter it. I lucked out, though, finally getting this photo of a new Apple //c by dansays / Dan Budiac.

After I posted this on Flickr, a kind commenter pointed me to a page he made which shows only CC-licensed random “interesting” photos from Flickr. It’s just what I need, because this game is totally addictive.
(more…)

I picked up this meme from my friend Cindy’s blog:

“The CD Cover Meme group has only three rules: (1) The first article title on this random wiki page is the name of your band, (2) the last four words of the very last quote on this random quote page is the title of your album, and (3) the third picture here, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.”

As Cindy points out, you really ought to make sure that the image you’re using is CC-licensed, with remixing allowed. I refreshed the image page three times until a usable image came up as the third item.

I think it’s funny how in sync my random band name and photo are; the image was even square! The album title? meh, but I can live with it. I’ll probably try this again at some point when my Internet connection is less floppy. It’s fun, and I never get to use blackletter at work.

Photo: Martenmount by Éole; some rights reserved.

Type: Albo and Musée by Dino dos Santos.

Feb. 9: Finished my Design I work.

One of the things I enjoy most about selling on Etsy is the camaraderie. Which makes it pretty natural that I love my street teams (organized groups of sellers who work together for the greater good of all). My favorite group is the one I started nearly a year ago. Although I have since handed off mod-ship, the group still has a large piece of my heart.

Today at work I was struck with the idea of creating and printing a second buisness card which declares me a “Proud Member of FAE Etsy” (FAE stands for Fantasy Artists of Etsy). I would stick this in with orders and in my promo packs that I give out at shows. Hopefully, people would check out our website (and our other members!).

I left the post-it at work (d’oh) so I redrew it in more detail at home. I envision a plain white background, some pretty lettering, and brightly colored little dragonlings.

The one in the middle needs some more work as he is a bit…odd right now. (Also, the actual web address is http://fantasyartofetsy.webng.com/ , I just couldn’t write small enough (!) to fit it in where I wanted to in the mockup.) I’m really digging the idea. I just need to get a fully complete sketch and then find a digital designer to work their magic.Then off to overnight prints!

I thought about making my buisness cards double sided, but I think I will stick to two cards, since my flowers have nothing to do with the FAE group.

saturday’s things-to-do list.

mission accomplished.

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/2252693639/

WHY, 6, WHYYYY???

http://flickr.com/photos/23386160@N08/2250179766/in/set-72157603837145031/

I made this in my page a day book today and I scanned several more older pages to add to the page a day set on flickr .

-Robyn (robayre)

Another quickie today. A valentine made out of 2s, kind of like my patterns from this post.

cross-posted to lekkercraft.

ok so i’m doing identity/business cards for a class, and eventually they’ll be for reals. i really like the idea of cards like these being interactive. so i created a sleeve for the card, with a window cut out to see the design inside. it’s a handcut chipboard sleeve and card, and i printed out the sticker/contact info myself. i had fun doing this.

see the whole thing up close and personal RIGHT HERE! at my flickr page.