Interviews Are Real

Last week, I took a little time off of school because I had scheduled a few job interviews. Real, live, adult people, job interviews. I met some really great potential bosses, and learned about really great companies and opportunities that I could grab right after graduation. I haven't had any formal offers yet, but I really have a great feeling for my after graduation plans.

Until then, though, I have this pile of omega work that unfortunately won't complete itself. I have orders to place, websites to design, and profiles to streamline. I can so do this.

Web Presence Makes a Professional

This weekends goal was to establish a web presence for myself outside of Etsy and Blogger. Yep - a real website. I first started building one using the free editing system - Weebly. Halfway through playing around with that, I caught wind of a website called Virb - which has an app specially developed to work with Etsy. So, naturally, I started building a site on Virb.

Now, Weebly is free and is easy to use with a great building feature. But, you have the Weebly ad on the bottom of your page. Virb is $10/month (but free for a year if you sign up with a valid .edu address!) but requires no advertisement on your page. I find the user face is a bit clunky and difficult to learn, but better to use once you get the hang of it.

I followed through and completed a rough draft of both sites. At this point, I'm leaning more towards continuing my Virb site and deactivating my Weebly site. But we will see! For now, they are both very basic. They need some color, that's for sure.


Virb Website


Weebly Website

A is for Alphabet

I've been focusing a lot on the different components of my shop because it aligns with my current marketing research project. In my project, I'll be learning what others in the same market from me are doing similarly or differently that makes them more successful than I. Obviously - this is a for-profit shop, and I think a side-project solely focusing on the business aspect opposed to the artsy aspect will be extremely beneficial.

A few days ago I was experimenting with an art referred to zentangling. It is essentially just a fancy term for doodling, but it sound much more prestigious than "doodling". There are a bunch of different patterns, and of course you are welcome to create your own. This is what I drew up in my sketchbook:



It gained a bunch of likes on Instgram (just a doodle - imagine that!) so the other day I started the painstakingly annoying process of turning it into a vector image. I suppose if it were easy it wouldn't be considered an artform...



I have toyed around with the idea of making an alphabet series. But honestly, I have so many unfinished projects that I want to complete before I present this on MAY FIRST! It is definitely imperative that I sit down and make a list of all the things I want to finish and decide which ones are most important.

Tea Series

I had to draft a rendering of a tea kettle for one of my classes. Being the savvy, resourceful business woman I am, I threw a quote into it and post it up in my Etsy shop. The final result was this:


Tea & Books Typographic Print
I sold one the day after I posted it for sale, so that's a good sign! I'm in the process of making it into a series, with the idea that I could sell them as a group. If I can sell prints in multiples, I could easily boost revenue. Since my overhead cost in this business is fairly low, adding multiple series would be a great idea.

Here's an idea of the next print I'm working on to go into the series:


I'm thinking of adding an option where customers can order multiple prints at a time and get a discount.

Last week, I had a spike in orders (I sold four!) and did a bit of experimenting.

I'm starting to have enough orders that I'm realizing which prints are most popular and where I need to better focus my attention in the future. Additionally, there are prints I have yet to sell copies of. I'm beginning to wonder if I should even bother to renew some of the prints or just retire them altogether.

Last week, I spent some time hand-lettering quotes into my sketchbook and trying to turn them into vectors by taking a picture and converting it in Illustrator. However, I didn't use a smooth enough paper or a smooth enough pen, and the vector that created was very uneven, hard to work with, and useless.

I was just doodling in my sketchbook and created this. I posted it to Instagram and it was mildly popular.


I thought that maybe it could be a great jumping-off point for an alphabet series, if I could convert it to vector or even recreate it myself through my tablet.

Dreams By Design Re-Branding: Banner Design

Being a modern-day art student, I spent the greater part of my Friday night designing. It was miraculous, really. At 5 p.m. I was laying on my couch feigning off a nap, and next thing I knew it was five hours later and I had completed 3 logo designs and 4 banner designs.

My color palette began as:
Coral: #EECDB9
Teal: #DCEFE9
Grey: #CBC3BE

But as I was designing, I dropped they grey and stuck with black because I preferred the way it popped.

       






What's really frustrating about uploading for Etsy is that they only support 72dpi. No matter what format or how I save my images, the banner and logo will always look terrible and pixelated.

Omega Master To-Do List

My ideas for my omega project are all over the place, so I decided I need to put them all here haphazardly and then come back and reorganize them into a proper ordering. I do terribly apologize for the craziness about to follow.

Create New Designs: All the prints I have posted in my shop are black and white and boring all over. I'm making sales, but if I were to make them more eye-catching I think I could sell many more.

Find a Printer: It is difficult to find time to print orders and run them off to the post office. If I were to suddenly begin to get even more orders, it would be much more difficult to keep up with. If I can use an off-site printer to process the orders for me, it would exponentially cut down on my work.

Experiment With Different Papers & Sizing: I've been printing on bright white matte photo paper. I'd really love to experiment with other types of textures and see what works and what doesn't. I'll need to find an off-site printer that offers different paper options.

Dreams by Design Complete Rebranding: the pink & creme and chevron isn't really working for me anymore. DBD needs a clearer logo and a more effective banner and color scheme.

I can do this!

Social Media Clean-Up

As part of my omega and my official transition into the "real world," my social media sites will need a bit of a check up. I did a quick google search of my name and my social media aliases to find where I am. In addition to making sure all the sites are clean and free of inappropriate content, it's important that all my social media profiles contain the same information and work together to cast me in a positive light.

Facebook
Deanna Crone
Dreams by Design
Chloe + Isabel by Deanna

Twitter
@dontpanicdeanna

Instagram
@dontpanicdeanna

Blogger
Don't Panic, Deanna
Everything's Temporary

LinkedIn
Deanna Crone

Pinterest
@dontpanicdeanna

Etsy
Dreams by Design

The Sampler

This semester, I interned with an up-and-coming music blog called The Sampler. The Sampler is great, because instead of having to browse a bunch of different music blogs to find new music in your favorite genre, you can get them all in the same place!

I worked as a marketing / PR intern. My responsibilities were mainly across social media networks; working on keeping the Twitter account updated, raising the Instagram following, as well as scouting out graphic design interns, advertisement space for promotional materials, and collecting and organizing artist and venue contact information.

The Sampler, based in Los Angeles, was a remote internship for me. This came with multiple challenges - mainly the fact that I was unable to physically meet with the other interns and collaborate with them on projects face-to-face. Although social media positions are easily done remotely all over the world, there's something left to be said about working collaboratively around a big table. Additionally, it ensures the whole team is on the same page working towards the same goals.

Working with the Sampler, I learned about keeping deadlines, making appointments with my supervisor (and how hard the time difference can be!), working under pressure, and how to contact artists and artist management in a professional manner.

Since I was younger, music has always been a major part of my day-to-day life; and it was great to be able to work with The Sampler this semester and get a rare behind the scenes look into the music industry that I've looked up to my whole life.

Fall Semester: Mission (almost) Accomplished

The fall semester of my senior year in college is coming to an end... quickly. Wow - I never thought I would say that statement. Considering I had never planned on attending college until my senior year of high school, I am extremely proud of myself. I accomplished a whole lot this semester... although I will admit I took on way more than I could appropriately handle. I have big dreams, and a lot of ambition - but I have to remember that I'm not superhuman, and if I spread myself too thin then I will not be able to produce my best work.

That being said, here are a few things that I designed this past semester:






In addition to working at my computer, I worked for The Sampler as an intern. I learned how to contact artists' management in search of things such as media passes, and had the opportunity to watch a little music blog really blossom over the course of a semester.

I had a little bit of additional income through my Etsy Shop. I design a variety of typographic prints and sell them for a small profit.


Passion Typographic Print by dontpanicdeanna
I also did some marketing for Spotify and Adobe Creative Cloud. Follow the links to try a free trial of Spotify and Creative Cloud, respectively. With a part-time job at Old Navy on top of all that! Oh, wait - I own a direct sales business as well over at Chloe + Isabel by Deanna.

I can't really say that I'll miss this semester! Though I accomplished a lot, I also wish I could have focused on classes more. Next semester I have a really great schedule with a great set of classes and teachers. It'll be much more conductive to learning, and I'll be sure to not take on too much!

Omega Idea Master List

I'm going into the early stages of planning my capstone project for college. Every time I have an idea, no matter how silly it is, I'll be sure to record it here. Some will go into more depth than others.

01. JLMenard Photography Marketing Plan
My mom is a photographer, and the work she does is stunning. But by no means is she a marketer. I have an opportunity to go into business with her after I graduate, running the business aspect. Doing a complete marketing plan for her company, would benefit us both - and would additionally make a great capstone project. It's a great example of taking a good business and reworking it to work on a deeper level.

02. Incubator Business Plan - Design Shop
I've been working with the Avery County PRIDE (Professional and Retail Incubator Development Enterprise) doing social media marketing for a class. A lot of townspeople hate the project, and want to see it fail. I, however, see the potential. And would love to be a part of it. The second I walked in, I envisioned myself having my own little shop there and getting forever sucked into the small town of Banner Elk, for better or for worse.

03. Grandfather Home for Children
I have a friend who has been working as a youth care worker at the Grandfather Home for Children here in Banner Elk. I'm always hearing amazing stories about how kids' lives are being changed for the better literally every single day. They already have a similar video on their website, but it mainly focuses on what the Home does for the children. I would love to work on a documentary that gets the kids' perspectives and stories about how the Home is changing their life.

Animal Logic Visual Effects

Animal Logic is a digital visual effects company that was founded in 1991. Their main studios are located in Sydney, Australia; but they have additional offices in Santa Monica, California. The majority of their business comes in the form of high-end clients looking for TV and commercial work. Recently however, they have been getting work in a number of large budget films such as The Great Gatsby, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and 300.

Animal Logic's main draw in Santa Monica is the feel of a boutique-sized VFX studio, with the power of over 450+ talented artists back in Sydney. They're able to deliver quality, high-end projects. Since expanding their Santa Monica studio, they were able to grab accounts with Toyota and HBO.

In 2012, they worked with Coca-Cola to design 3 commercials for their Super Bowl campaign... affectionately dubbed the Polar Bowl.



It seems like Animal Logic has been out of the game recently, but that could just mean they're working on bigger and better things to blow the competition out of the water! I'm excited to see what they have to bring to the table for Australia as well as the States!

"The Great Gatsby" Special Effects

The Great Gatsby VFX from Chris Godfrey on Vimeo.

Over the long weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing The Great Gatsby for the first time. I was amazed at the lavish buildings, outfits, and parties that seemed to teem through the entire movie. However, it didn't occur to me at first that a lot of what I was seeing was likely a special effect.

After stumbling across this video, I learned that Chris Godfrey was the visual effects supervisor for the film. He worked with 7 different vendors to complete all the special effects in the movie.

While I was disappointed that Gatby's beautiful house didn't exist somewhere in real life, I did learn that many of the pieces were in fact real, just from different places. For example,

• The gates to Gatsby's mansion where shot in a park near the studios.
• The front facade of Gatsby's mansion was a school with 3d extensions.
• The garden was 3d.
• The hallway, ballroom, organ, stairs, breakfast balcony and dance area was stage 1.
• The wharf was stage 3, 4 and then 2 at various times.
• And Nick's Bungalow next door was stage 3, Centennial Park and Mount Wilson.

Overall, The Great Gatsby includes over 1,500 visually enhanced shots throughout.

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Kurt Halsey

One of my favorite visual artists is Michigan-based painter Kurt Halsey. Halsey earned a bachelor's degree in painting from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2000. His work is largely driven by emotions and typically relates to the topics of love and relationships.

Drawings





Paintings

"Influenced by my hopeless romantic and super sensitive mindset, I pay far too much attention to the little things in life and in the relationship between two people. In constant need of reassurance, explanation, closure, and attention, my paintings are made."

By no means is Halsey a "famous" artist; however, those who follow his work do so in a cult-like fashion. Fans of his work show their appreciation often in the form of tattoos. A quick google search brings up hundreds and hundreds of Kurt Hasley doodles and quotes on the most devout of fans.


In today's society with vast technology, it is all too simple for Halsey to upload his work in droves. Since the early 2000's he has been sharing his work with the world on the internet... and it's hard for even his biggest fans to keep up with all of his work. It seems each time you're looking through collections, you see a piece that is completely new to you. It's a blessing and a curse, never running out of new pieces to see... but always wondering if you've seen them all.

If you want to see more of Kurt Halsey's work, feel free to visit his official website. If you'd like to look though a larger selection of his work, I encourage you to do a google search or look through the tags on tumblr such as #Kurt Halsey or #Kurt Halsey Frederiksen.

Everything's Temporary

Work hard to make something as meaningful and beautiful as you can and when you're done, pack it in and know it was all temporary.

- Yoga Jones, Orange is the New Black