Believe it or not, it takes work to create a post, and it doesn’t help that I’m incredibly nit-picky when it comes to all the minor details and I like to proof read everything at least eight times. This last month I have been finishing up some big projects with urgent deadlines, and I just wasn’t able to get to the blog. But now that they’re finished I am back to a balanced schedule and my free time has returned. Woooohoooo!
So now that everything is back to normal, I wanted to share the finished result of the vinyl wall decal I designed for Weddingstar. There were some final changes and rearranging to the finished design, and ever since we sent it off I have been anxiously waiting to see it in application. So when we received the images this week I was pretty excited. Here is what the finished product looks like and the final artwork:
I have been inspired by so many things lately and I can’t wait to share them with you next week. But in the meantime, enjoy the weekend! I’ll be spending mine relaxing and organizing cupboards – I know you’re jealous! What will you be doing?
1 / Colorblocked Fedora – Forever 21, 2 / Jersey Dress by Orly Shani, 3 / BCBG Max Azria clutch, 4 / Fluro Wrist Bracelet, 5 / Patent Belt, 6 / 4 Evz platforms by Jeffrey Campbell
INSPIRED BY: Bright colours that used to be considered a huge fashion faux pas when paired together (but not anymore!), and the bring back of florals.
I used to spend far too much time trying to design a logo for myself only to hate it two weeks later, when I would decide to go in an entirely new direction. What I’ve now learned is that the reason I was failing repeatedly at branding my own business, was because I had no idea of what exactly it was I wanted to achieve. And if I take a look at the brands I’ve developed and why they seemed ‘easier’, it’s because each and every client came to me with a clear and precise business plan already prepared and thought out.
These days, everyone and their uncle call themselves a graphic designer, which makes it extremely difficult to separate yourself from the crowd. And while it’s good practice to dabble in different areas of design, eventually you need to find your niche if you want to be successful. Now, I’m not saying to give up working on projects that don’t fit into whatever your niche may be, because it comes as a great asset to those who can work with different styles/themes, and work across different mediums. But, you do want to fine tune your business goals and focus on the areas where you really want to excel, and in turn this will help define who you are as a brand.
What really helped me in discovering my brand, came first and foremost from my inspiration sources – blogs I followed, articles I read, designers I admire, and of course my own personal style and taste. One day last year when I was asked the question, where do I want to be in five years?, is when it hit me and everything became crystal clear – I finally knew where I wanted to be (from a business standpoint, not physically), and how I was going to get there. Hallelujah! Now, if you haven’t heard of the five year plan, basically it’s a planning tool where you take some time to think about where you want to be in five years, and you develop a step by step plan (complete with goals and milestones) of how you’re going to get there. And until last year, I’ve honestly never had a chance to really sit down and think about my own five year plan. I tried asking myself this question time and time again, but I never could settle on a definite answer.
So to sum things up, if you’re anything like me and are struggling with your own identity, a good place to start before determining your long term goals is by asking yourself the following questions:
1 / Where do my strengths lie?
2 / What is it about design that I love the most?, and
3 / If I could wake up and work on any project, what would it be and who would it be for?
If you start with those basic questions and really give yourself honest answers, then you will have a solid starting point in fine tuning who you want to be as a brand, and where you want to go as a business.
It’s funny how you can get so frustrated one year, and then the next everything becomes crystal clear when you realize that THIS is what I want to do for the rest of my life and THIS is the direction I want to head in.
Have you ever had a similar struggle? I’d love to hear more about how you got to where you are today.
My Roaming Gnome comes with me wherever I go.
Last week I touched briefly on some of the activities we embarked on while we were in Fiji. This week I will expand on our River Rafting adventure, because it turned out to be a once in a lifetime experience.Before the trip started, this was one of the things we had already set our minds on doing. It was an all day trip that would take us to parts of Fiji we wouldn’t otherwise get the chance to see. The trip started early in the morning when we met up at the River Rafting offices just outside our hotel. While enjoying a hot cup of coffee we signed the waiver, were then given our wet bags and off we went!
It took us about two hours to get to the starting point of the river, but the drive, as bumpy as it was, was gorgeous. As soon as we turned off the main road, we ventured into the rainforest for another hour, driving up some pretty steep switchbacks that I’m not sure any other bus could handle. We stopped at one of the high points on the road for a quick break and some banana cake, which is where we were divided into our rafting groups and assigned a guide. We were lucky enough to be in a group with some new friends of ours who we had just met that morning at our hotel, so it was just the four of us and our guide – which made the day just so much better! Here are some of the pictures from the trip to the river:
This is where we stopped for our break and banana cake.
Once we got to the starting point, we geared up and set off on the twenty minute, extremely steep and muddy, hike to the mouth of the river where our guides and boats were waiting. After a quick lesson on what to do when you fall in, because apparently it was guaranteed, we were on our way. At this point I didn’t even care about the rapids, I was so excited to be surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen:
The time we spent on the river was about 5 and a half hours with a lunch stop in between. We didn’t really know what to expect in the way of ‘white water’, but we knew nothing could be as bad as the class 4 rapids we battled in Ottawa a few years ago. As we got going down the river through steep cliffs and rainforest we hit a few sets of rapids here and there, but nothing too challenging, which made for one of the calmer adventures of our trip!
After lunch we continued down the river, and as we were getting closer to the main town, we started rafting through some of the local villages. At this point there weren’t really any more rapids, so we spent the final few hours on the river just taking in the real life that surrounded us. There were kids playing and waving, people relaxing, cows grazing and it was just inspiring. Every person you passed would wave and smile, and you really got a sense that we were surrounded by genuinely happy people. Unfortunately some of the pictures came out a bit blurry, but I’ve posted them anyways in hopes that you can get a sense of what it was like:
If you look closely you can see the cameraman in the kayak – this goes to show how full and lush the forest was surrounding us.
She wanted to go swimming too like her brother (above).
If you meet someone from Fiji and they say they’re no good at volleyball – don’t be fooled. We made that mistake and lost miserably almost every day we played.
Local transport to and from the main town.
All the local kids were showing off by seeing how far they could jump into the river. They were having so much fun that we were tempted to jump out too!
In the end, our entire trip to Fiji turned out to be a really cultural experience. When we planned the trip last October, we were hoping for a hot, sunny, tropical getaway. Well, we didn’t have too much of that, until the day we left of course! But we left with friends we didn’t have before and people to visit when we return to Fiji. Because of that and the experiences we shared, the trip turned out better than we could have ever expected.
Your packaging is the most crucial part of your product because it is the piece that comes face to face with your customer, and in that brief moment that you get their attention while they’re scouring the shelves looking for what they want or need, your packaging is responsible for whether or not they buy your product. The bottom line is:
Now, depending on what your product is, this can be a tricky task. Simply going to the store to pick up a bottle of wine for example, can be extremely difficult. For me, at least. When it’s my turn to go to the store, my friends know that I will come back with a selection of wines simply because I love the labels. And if they turn out to be good then I will buy them again. So that being said, we can revise our previous statement:
When you’re industry is saturated with hundreds, if not thousands, of similar products, it makes it extremely difficult to break through the noise and be seen by your customer. This is where your packaging needs to serve it’s core purpose – to sell your product – so that your customer picks up your product as opposed to your competitors’ that could be sitting right next door.
Which brings up another thing to take into consideration – where and how will your product be displayed in retail locations? Unfortunately, you can’t really control this, but it’s another reason why your packaging needs to pack a punch and get noticed.
Now, there are many elements that need to be included on your packaging. The basic and most necessary ones are your Product Identity, Net Quantity, Product Description (optional and usually depends on the product), UPC Code (or Barcode), and Second Language Translation, which applies mostly for us Canucks up here in Canada. Not only do you have to incorporate all of these elements into your design, but you need to do it in a way that the brand messaging of the company is prominent and in line with their branding guidelines, while creating something unique and different that will stand out from the crowd.
There are so many reasons why your packaging needs to be well thought out and you can find much more information on Wikipedia, and there’s a really good article here on brandchannel about Packaging your Brand’s Personality, but the one thing I really want to emphasize is that the one crucial part to creating effective and attractive packaging material is to DO YOUR RESEARCH.
This is hand’s down the most important step to take before you even start designing. What I like to do first, is draw up some preliminary sketches and get my initial concepts on paper before I start my research, because once you start looking at what’s out there you might get side tracked and your initial idea may morph into something else without you even realizing it. Once you’re done that, go out and research similar products. Go direct to the retail stores (if you can) and ask yourself the following questions:
1 / How are the products being displayed?
2 / What part of the packaging do you see first?
3 / How high/low are the shelves and how will that affect the visibility/readibility of the packaging?
4 / What trends do you see happening in the designs?
5 / What is the competition doing?
As long as you take the time to do some proper research and ask yourself the right questions, taking into consideration the wide range of product display techniques, you will have the basic information you need in order to start designing effective packaging material that will sell the product. Here are some examples from my own inspiration gallery:
Reference: Brand, Sartorial by Penhaligons, Pareje de los Bancales, Stiegl Haus Beir, Hot Dang, Good Co Cafe, The Bitter Chocolatier, Level Ground Trading.
When you work inside at a desk all day it’s sometimes fun to get out and do something different, and possibly a little crazy, and with all this springtime weather we’ve been having it was the perfect day for an adventure. In order to keep the creative juices flowing I find it helpful when I get away from the computer screen and become creative in other ways. Whether it’s working with a different medium like painting or making a collage, or driving to random places and hiking through the woods in three inch wedges while carrying a stuffed sea turtle that’s twice the size of you, it’s always a good time and I find it extremely refreshing for the soul.
So, we packed up the sea turtle I won at Canada’s Wonderland, a retro owl piggy bank, and my Travelocity gnome which I’ve been obsessed with since 2004 when “The Roaming Gnome” was first introduced in their advertising campaigns, and we drove around Medicine Hat looking for photo-ops. Here’s what we found:
You won’t find Rice Crispies in FIji, instead you will find Rice Bubbles.
While I was hoping to share our Fijian adventures in sequence, it turns out that we cannot upload the video of our diving, which should come next, so I am jumping ahead for now while I prepare my home made video of our video- classy.
After we checked in to our resort, we had a quick lunch and went straight to the dive shop where we had arranged all of our diving for the trip. The problem though, was that because we were supposed to be there two days earlier we had missed a lot of it, and in order for me to do the shark dive, I had to finish my certification. The only problem now was that the shark dive we booked was for that Saturday and I wouldn’t be finished my certification until Sunday. Luckily for us though, someone cancelled the following week so we were able to go, but more about that later.
For the most part, our mornings were bright and sunny with a bit of rain in the afternoons. After we finished our final dive, we spent a few days relaxing at the resort because thanks to all the rain, every trip that we were supposed to go on was cancelled. Every day, even if it was nice out. This was because the whole time we were there the weather kept calling for cyclones, and even if it was nice weather on land the seas were still really rough. So, we didn’t get to do the jet ski safari or any of the other trips to the islands that we had our hearts set on. But that’s okay, because we ended up having an incredible trip and it was all worth it in the end.
So in the week that followed our diving we relaxed, went zip lining, river rafting and snorkeling, we ate some good food, and played beach volleyball everyday rain or shine with the staff. We were also extremely lucky and were invited to a local village one night to play guitar and drink their local drink, Kava, which pretty much tastes like muddy water. Here are some of the pictures:
A taste of the amazing scenery we had while we were zipping through the rainforest.
Our zip lining group.
Weeeeee!
Looking good in our helmets.
Practicing my monkey skills.
Please be prepared this video may make you dizzy. This is nothing compared to what we saw on our dives and we couldn’t get to the best snorkeling spots because of the weather, but we still got to see a bit of aquatic life and we had an amazing surfing resort all to ourselves.
This was the first time we found our tropical blue water. Apparently if you want to see this colour water everywhere you go in Fiji then you have to come in our summertime.
After a rainy grey day it finally got sunny and beautiful! Since we had finished snorkeling and were done getting bitten by sea lice, we spent the rest of the afternoon kayaking around the bay getting sunburnt.
The boat that got us to Yanuca island. We tried to get here before but it was disastrous. See below.
One day we got fed up with not being able to go anywhere. The weather seemed fine from the shore and all we wanted to do was get to the other island and go exploring. So, against everyone’s warnings we rented our own boat and hired a local guy to take us there. Boy was that a mistake. The boat was small and not exactly equipped for those kind of waves. No life jackets, no seatbelts. Only us with our white knuckles gripping on to the bottom of the unattached piece of plywood we were sitting on, while battling waves that were five times the height of the boat. Not fun. The good news is that we made it there. The bad news was that we had to go back again! This video doesn’t do it justice at all, but we thought we were in White Squall.
The aforementioned boat.
Relaxing for a bit before making the even rougher trip home.
This was one of the small coral islands we passed numerous times and were never able to get there because of the wavy weather.
During our stay at the resort, Mark made friends with the band that played every happy hour. They were incredibly talented and actually invited us into one of their homes to play guitar and just hang out. This is what traveling is about for us – being presented with opportunities to dive into the culture that surrounds us, taking them and soaking up every single moment. So many people go on vacation and never leave the resort. I don’t consider that traveling at all, so we were extremely excited to experience this and we took our friends who we met at the resort, James and Whitney, with us.
Making and passing around the Kava.
Jamming with the band.
New friends.
Every time I start one of these posts about our trip I feel like I could go on forever. I still have a lot more stories to share about our diving and river rafting adventures so be sure to check back soon!
This weekend I took some much needed time off. No computers, no cell phones. Just beautiful weather, random road trips, and two handed euchre. Here’s why:Last week, I wrote about graphic design being a “real” job, and how rewarding it can be. Well, just like any other job, it can be exhausting, and, to say the least, I was exhausted. Both mentally, and physically as a result. Working long hours and weekends had finally caught up with me, and I was ready for a break.
(I guess this is why we have weekends in the first place – to re-charge after the week.) But sometimes you get so caught up in projects or are so excited about an idea, that you are constantly thinking about it, even if you don’t realize you are. And just because you’re not physically in front of a computer, doesn’t mean your mind isn’t still ticking away on whether you chose the right font, or if that text should be kerned out a bit more.
It’s often incredibly difficult to turn your mind off and simply relax. But this weekend, that’s exactly what I needed. You can usually feel when you’re ready for a break, but sometimes you don’t notice how much you’re working and it just sneaks up on you. Then all of a sudden, you get sick or your body just shuts down.
When this happens to me, I know it’s time to take a day (or two) off, and with the beautiful weather we’ve been having, it was the perfect opportunity to get outside, go explore, and be re-inspired by the world around us.
Here are a few things that really help me find my motivation and re-charge my body and mind when I need it:
1 / TURN OFF THE COMPUTER
Even when I’m not working I find myself drawn to a screen of some sort. And unless it’s a tv screen and I’m watching a favourite movie, then I’m not relaxed. In order to take a break from working, you need to change your environment and get away from the computer screen all together.
2 / GO FOR A WALK
Fresh air will do wonders for your health. When you feel the weight of projects bearing down on you, and if it’s a nice day, take a quick walk. Even if your mind is still on work, this can be a good time to assess everything on your to-do list and set small attainable goals that will help break up the tasks.
3 / EXERCISE
Maybe a walk just isn’t enough, or perhaps it’s raining. Don’t let that stop you! Throw in a workout dvd, do yoga, go for a run or head to the gym. It will help to clear your mind and you’ll feel calmer once you do.
4 / TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT
No matter what our job is, we often follow a certain routine throughout the day, which can get a bit mundane day in and day out. By changing something, and it can be as small as drinking tea instead of coffee (I’m sure some people would curse me for suggesting that), we are therefore breaking that routine and trying something new at the same time. Who knows, maybe you’ll like it.
5 / DE-CLUTTER
This can be a daunting task for some, but by putting it off you will only end up collecting more stuff. Everywhere. For me, I have a difficult time relaxing if I know there are things to be done, and physical clutter often represents a cluttered mind. So set it straight by tackling the small tasks that may never get done, bit by bit. Take an hour, half hour, or even just fifteen minutes a day to clean up and organize. Before you know it, that clutter will be gone and you’ll be breathing easier because of it.
6 / GET A PLANT
I’m not really the greatest when it comes to caring for plants, but I do like having them around. I’ve started buying fresh flowers once a week to bring some of the outdoors in, and I’m proud to say that our latest tropical tree is doing quite well!
7 / PEOPLE WATCH
One of the greatest ways to do research for anything is to people watch, and you might be surprised with what you learn. When do we ever have time to simply watch other people? Never. I find it fascinating to watch what people are doing, constantly wondering what they’re thinking about or where they’re going next. You might catch a glimpse of someone you think is perfect having a not-so-perfect day, or someone who might look angry performing a random act of kindness. It’s all these things that bring us back to realize that everyone is human and everyone has their own problems. Just because you feel overworked, tired or upset, doesn’t mean you’re the only one. It can be inspiring watching pieces of other peoples lives in action, and it can make you think about what’s really important.
8 / GO ON AN ADVENTURE
This one’s my personal favourite and is something I try to do often. As time permits, just go. Hop in your car and drive – anywhere. Sometimes you just need to “get away”, so, get away! I love the thrill of going somewhere new and exploring. Even if you’ve been there before, maybe you’ll see it in a new light. If you live in a city, drive to the country. If you live in the country, drive even more into the country. There is something about the feeling of escape that is so refreshing. No matter the scenery, just being away from the noise and congestion is necessary, and the silence that nature can provide puts everything into perspective. I’ve had some of my best ideas and life realizations when I’ve “gotten away”. Because sometimes, when we’re constantly surrounded by familiar things in our “routine”, we are blinded from what we really see on the inside. Getting away from everything gives your mind a chance to think. Not about whether to have milk or cream in your coffee, but about everything else – life, goals, aspirations, etc.
My husband and I took our own adventure this weekend, and we are lucky enough to be surrounded by some of the most incredible land I’ve ever seen. We went from frozen lakes and people ice fishing, to coulees in the middle of nowhere and herds of antelope crossing the road. Here are some of the photos:
What do you do to stay inspired?
Our “pumpkin” last Hallowe’en. We’ll do better this year, promise.
Some people assume that as designers we have such an easy job. I mean, all we do is sit in front of our computers and design all day, right? And how dare we proclaim ‘I’m tired’, because we don’t have physically demanding jobs, so how could we possibly be tired?!
Well, there is a lot to being a graphic designer that is often overlooked. First of all, we’re multi-tasking GENIUSES, especially when you run your own business. You’re the one in charge of conceptualizing and designing projects, sourcing printers and other materials, organizing and scheduling multiple projects in order of priority, setting timelines and milestones for each one, and of course all the administrative duties that come with it. Not to mention trying to make time for the other stuff like eating, sleeping and walking the dog!
I can’t stress enough how important it is to love what you do, and I’ve always been envious of anyone who knew exactly what they wanted to do with their life right out of high school. I find it hard to believe that at 18, you know what you want to do for the rest of your life. I sure didn’t. I was one of the ones who took a few years off and worked a few different jobs in completely different industries (dirt bike shop, anyone?) before I knew exactly what I wanted. And when that moment hit, I made a few phone calls and started looking for the right school. A bit later than my former peers yes, but why would I waste my time (and money) studying something just for the sake of getting that little piece of paper? I wanted to be sure I knew what I was doing.
To sum up the years after I graduated, I started working in the industry right away, but, in my restless youth I could feel I wasn’t ready to settle down just yet. I was in my early twenties and I had the travel itch. So, I traveled. Which is something I highly recommend before getting too settled anywhere, because let’s face it, the next time you’re going to have the freedom to do whatever you want is when you’re retired.
One of my favourite teachers once told me that if an agency were to hire a designer, and they had two candidates both with the same education and skill level, but one had more “life experience” than the other, then it would be he/she that would get the job.
Good advice, an amazing cause, drool-worthy editorial bliss, and the cutest puppy I’ve ever seen.
So we were finally on our way to Fiji, all we had in front of us now was the ten hour flight! So we thought…Once we landed in Nadi, Fiji, we were faced with yet another adventure. If you missed the first part of this story you can read it here.
As a result of the multiple flight cancellations and delays, our arrival time was obviously pushed back. Instead of landing in the early morning and catching our taxi to Pacific Harbour (where our hotel was), we were now landing late at night. And because it’s too dangerous to travel long distances by road (it’s a three hour car ride to our hotel) at night, we were stuck. But hey, that’s okay, because since it’s the airlines fault, it’s up to them to accommodate us somehow at their expense!
As excited as we were when we landed, we walked right into unorganized, hot and humid chaos. You’d think that with the ten hour flight they would have a solution for all of the stranded passengers by now. Not to mention the hundreds of passengers who have now missed their connections to New Zealand and Australia!
Well, they didn’t.
There were maybe five airline representatives in charge of finding hotels for just about every passenger that came off that Boeing 747, and let me tell you it wasn’t pretty.
We decided to find the company who was in charge of our transfer, and thankfully they let us relax in their air conditioned office, while they tried to figure things out for us. It turned out that we should have been waiting in line the whole time like everyone else, in order to try and get a hotel, but because all the hotels were filling up fast, they told us to go and find one on our own, and then send the bill to Air Pacific. Yeah, right! First of all, as if we’d get our money back and second, like we’d find a hotel!
Anyways, they managed to find us a hotel, after they had put all the connecting passengers up first. So now, we were finally able to start enjoying Fiji!
Before we left the airport, we arranged for our taxi to pick us up from the Wailoaloa Beach Resort in the morning so that we wouldn’t be stranded with no transportation. So now we were really excited. Everything was re-planned, and we were on our way to what sounded like a beautiful hotel!
Well, we had definitely assumed incorrectly. There’s no need to go into detail, but let’s just say it wasn’t the Hilton. In fact, the tiny motel my Dad and I stayed in in Homer, New York, with cracked windows and drug deals happening outside was preferable.
When we eventually arrived at our final destination, The Pearl South Pacific, we were in heaven. It was everything we could have asked for, and, being my first resort experience, I will definitely be back!
Our first Fijian wildlife just so happened to be this bird that would wake us up every morning with its’ not so delicate song.
The first thing we did once we arrived at The Pearl? Beer and fish n’ chips.
Front entrance.
The most amazing lobby I’ve ever seen.
Lining the hallway to the upstairs restaurant were these super somfy couches and booths, perfect for playing games on a rainy day – not like we’d know or anything!
Our first candlelit dinner. This was the ambiance every night and I was in heaven.
Not that you can see it well, but this is quite possibly the best curry I’ve ever had. We ordered it multiple times.
There were fresh flowers all over the hotel, everywhere you went.
The lounge style ‘game’ hallway by night.
Poolside strangers.
View from the pool to the resort.
Same view, just further right. That’s our happy hour restaurant for lunch and dinner on the bottom, and the breakfast and fancy dinner restaurant up top.
View from our breakfast table. Almost every morning was bright and sunny so we sat outside.
From the breakfast table again.
The pool!
Immaculate grounds.
The ‘unreachable’ island. Yes, from our breakfast table. So blessed.
And again.
We still have many stories to share, so be sure to check back to hear more about our adventures in Fiji!
