Sevenzest
we talk a little nonsense
Babble
Recent Babble
- How I work 24 April 08
- Flying solo - welcome to the world of freelance 14 April 08
- She's gonna have puppies! 19 February 08
- Settling into my new job 11 December 07
- I'm learning Salsa! 25 July 07
Babble Categories
The Full Babble
- How I work
As I grow, both creatively and as a business person I’ve been wondering where my success comes from. What is making clients choose me over another designers or other companies? Is it the price, is it the talent, or is it word of mouth and referral.
- Flying solo - welcome to the world of freelance
This week is my official week of freelance full time! And it probably the best timing really, I had so much to do, and seemed like I’ve been doing this forever.
- She's gonna have puppies!
Hiya all it’s been a very fast start to the year! BIG NEWS – Chowwow, my cute wee jack russell is having puppies (in the next week or so!), and thank god we’ve got flat mates for the first time ever!
- Settling into my new job Wow I can't believe the last post I did was in July! Coming back from my Hong Kong holiday in May seemed so long ago and Christmas is in less than 3 weeks! I thought about what to write today, and I thought the biggest change so far is going into my new job as a web designer.
- I'm learning Salsa! Just had our second 'first' class tonight!! Mat and I decided we'd continue our new found love of dancing after a brief romance with it last term before our Hong Kong holiday. Tonight began light and simple, and once we started to turn and side-step it got a little more complicated.
- Getting out of an uncomfortable situation I've been back from Hong Kong almost a month now. It was a fantastic trip, one which I'm gonna be remembering for the rest of this cold winter! Man, I adore holidays, and a part of me relinquishes the days of endless shopping...
- I'm off to Hong Kong! Yay! A holiday for me at last! It's been over a year since I've treaded the bustling urban city I once called home. And the great thing is I'll be escaping cold NZ weather for 2 weeks to be drenched in hot, sticky air.
- Updated Links to websites I've accomplished
To those who are interested in my website progression in the last couple of months at Istyle I’ve included these selected websites I’ve designed. I’ve developed the majority of them in standards compliant XHTML and CSS code.
- Fly Away BlueBird Yes, it's already happened. In a little over a month, some sorry sod has tried to claim this design for themselves. They haven't just made a derivative of it, oh no, that would be too difficult. In a shameless act of stupidity they've ripped everything, in verbatim, from the markup to the styles and imagery.
- Everyone is growing up (1)It’s weird to perceive all this, since I have already brought my first house, living with my partner and juggling the acts of having a career as a designer. But it’s like I’m pursuing my dreams of 'blank'. Unlike all my friends who are out discovering the world, their dreams of travelling, of marrying, or even becoming a parent, I feel I’m still discovering what's going on inside – of me.
- And we're back... Fresher than ever! Back with a splash! Don't you just love marketing? Yeah, us too. So, back on point - here we are. We decided to have a bit of a spruce up and this is what we came up with. We like clean, usable websites that look exquisite, dazzling, foxy, graceful - attractive is probably the adjective we're looking for - and we believe that this place is an example of that philosophy.
- Salaries on the decline for Junior graphic designers In the three years of my creative profession, I have been many things working for three bosses: I was initially employed by a travel publisher as online services administrator then promoted to a chief graphic designer. I left after a year and freelanced, working for myself where I acted as accounts manager and web designer, then employed under an Australasian publishing division working as an advertising artist.
- I'm still Here! I have been teaching for the first time during the last 4 weeks while still holding my two other jobs - freelance and inhouse. Design animation was the subject and I managed to survive the worst of tummy churning nervousness, and hours sifting through FLASH basically freaking out the night prior to class.
- Where the fear lies Right in the pit of my stomach. I'm on lack of decent sleep, sensitivity to caffiene... I couldn't believe how much was necessary to learn before I could teach this stuff in the coming weeks.
- Far too long A few months back I had been observing design agencies and their offers of employment (after succeeding to make it to the interview rounds!), but was unsatisfied with each one.
- Life's unfair I'm trying to understand life at the moment, how I can create something positive from the loss of my partner's mum. Or whether the loss was a test to live a more meaningful life.
- learning to love The past 3 months of SevenZest journal-abstinance was honestly due to a good excuse - 'self-discovery'... I am only 23 ... yet with a lifetime of carrying stress and feeling unworthy of success
- A lovely finish to the Week Yay its Friday! I'm sitting here mulling the thoughts of catch-up sleep, a lil bit of wine tonight, and mmm perhaps a nice thai meal or gourmet pizza. Why the sudden change to be nice to myself, me ponders?
- I feel like I owe my website... ... a very decent update. So just to scream ‘WELCOME BACK' to my (much treasured) viewers, I'm back, like, a month ago so I must apologise for the slackness. To cover for my tardiness, it took legitimately two weeks of re-establishing the usual DSE routine - Design, Sleep and Eat.
- Take off, please... A real hectic week: Miss little control freak + additional stress from work + off to Hong Kong tomorrow = a lil' crazy designer. tears once in the morning when things weren't going my way ... again in the evening when a sales executive approaches with changes (the 16th change this week)
- Money! Money! Money! It’s amazing how fast a week goes by. I’ve been tiresomely withholding a proposal for pay increase at work. With a demanding increase in work, responsibility and less time for freelance – I’m dying to do it. Yet something keeps holding me back. On the one hand I cherish in the delightful moments which have me feeling career proud and creatively happy. On the other hand 'signs' are telling me my boss couldn’t possibly give me a pay rise: poor computer systems suggesting strict budget within the art department, (what designer could possibly operate on a Pentium 2 with 256 mb of ram on a 17 inch screen).
- Weekends of Joy Friday is a day that can be as unpredictable as walking past a poodle on a leash. Why? You go along your usual pathway of being exceptionally normal – normal tired that is, and then a peak reaches near midway when you spot that fluffy canine in the pink dress.
- Food and Design My diet intake and design skill are accustomed in arousing the other one in very predictable ways. What’s a basic diet got to do with doing fabulous, mind-blowing "big-tick" piece of work?
- A big catch up Wow! The big month of July rolled by and I've been itching to update this site with exciting projects that I've been doing. After submitting some preliminary concepts for Glassons' new seasons swing tag design
- THEFT!!! My baby site is being exploited! I gave them a chance, I did. To my disgust, the designer (or not so much of one, really) took my SevenZest CSS style sheet, and brutally placed in it's use, without even attempting to change the names of my divs.
- Cancelled contract - my first heart-break Have I been neglecting my clients? Maybe I don’t phone/email/fax/message/page my clients enough for satisfaction – or do clients require communication from me to the point of annoyance until it’s considered I appear serious about the project?
- A design revelation I must have trained my subconscious particularly respectful to my conscious self. It even does design work – during my sleep. I woke up thanking my dream that I had done half my research already
- My shocking design Client contacts me Monday, wanting it print-ready by Wednesday. Sure, it was do-able I said, as long as there was no design element involved and no dramatic changes to concepts - if there was even time for ' concept'.
- 3 to celebrate Advertising is not just a pretty picture. I am talking to consumers - ones that exist in multitudinal demographics and psychographics.
- 2 Days till my birthday 7 times I hear down the grapevine, is the time required to make a habit – so I’m diplomatically applying this theory to learning the words of this song 7 times per day.
- Presently here When I pull up my mock up pages on the server I feel all peaceful inside.
- Two, I said two months gone TIME = MONEY. I am a business, and that time is valuable to me- thank you very much.
- Back to work In these past few days I have been so technically fixated I haven’t accomplished any creative tasks for SevenZest. I’m writing much more than I did in tertiary, and I love it.
- Digging the grounds for Sevenzest I use a very bold and curvy font I downloaded called Cream Puff. Zesty colours such as greens, lemon, salmon are on my colour palette
- Why am I such a picky client? I’ve been trying to design my SevenZest logo but I haven’t even written the philosophy, advertising problem or brief behind the idea yet.
- Dear Mother virus! I’ve been having lots of fun with this demonic PC, not. Occasionally panels about Windows errors are popping up so my PC isn’t looking healthy.
- My eyes don’t have Windows Windows XP Pro won’t install on my computer! I tried at least 10 times. ARGH!!!! In madness I contacted Dragon PC for another round of fun. So I dropped it in and prayed to god they just sort out their s**t.
- The start of a nightmarish PC I couldn’t wait to install all the application software on it! Once I took my brand new baby home though I found that none of the sockets
- Fear, the success killer It’s finally dawned on me that I won’t be getting regular income for god knows how long. Part of me is paralysed in fear again of submitting myself to the pool of losers in society
- A break at last I got my act together and finished all my concepts! I will decide the colour scheme for the business cards while on my holiday in Auckland.
- No more cakes… A website that caters for needs of designers, especially young artisans that possess the most creative edge. I’m frustrated it’s taking so long and I seem to be procrastinating
- Two days to Resignation Eve There are books that urge me to establish an adequate clientele for future business survival before resigning my current job. But my Taurus patience has worn thin
- My fear of the foreign is alleviated My replacement started today. Obviously with much more work experience than I have she won’t be as temperamental as I get towards the junior designer
- First Sevenzest client! It must be destiny, as I found my first client! Well actually he found me.
- The big day I was so nervous, was I ready to leave? Did I care still have feelings for my job? I convinced her in our later private discussion that my real motives for leaving
- I’m seriously considering this idea Every time our Editor talks to me about future publications I feel a pang of guilt. I find the perfect PDF named Design Trust business start up guide 2003 for designers.
- Make up your mind, women! “No more pissing around, I’m going to quit – for real.”
- Mixed muffins at work I really want to do something else, do fashion school, back to study art history, or even start up my own business. But when I take a look at my current job my vision through nostalgic eyes
- I’ve had enough This week I’ve been a confused with my job my position seems more burdensome than challenging, and I’m designing without the same enthusiasm.
- WOW I have never seen such an amazing show! I suddenly wished I was part of that same creative flair… stunning outcomes produced by tonight’s designers.
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