Random. Ethics in blogging?

Basically Im in love with Pandora, that is until it cuts me off at 40 hours a month. Im suffering from having to let someone else be in charge of the web department soundtrack. I require at least an hours worth of phil collins and rush a day. Things go downhill if I dont get my Genesis fix.

Found a pretty nifty blog today about ethics.

Worthwhile checking out. Definitely an interesting point.

Its funny to think about ethics when it comes to documenting anything, especially in a society that is so hell bent on having an opinion about everything, and especially as an artist, who relies heavily on criticism to fuel my creativity. It would be great to be able to trust that whoever is blogging has some code of ethics with their criticisms or judgement, but its more than likely that they dont.

In other news, I got the go ahead with the spice monkey website layout. He loved the design and the entire site is ready to go,we are just waiting for new picture of the spices with the logo. Im pretty proud of it, it was really nice to have someone be so excited about my work. I dont get to be too creative here sometimes. There is just so much client work and other random stuff that needs to get done, I tend to delegate most of the creative stuff Id love to be doing, to someone else. This was the case with one of our more recent websites, for Radio Gallery Kent,
www.AntiqueRadioCollectors.com
The idea came out of my head, "Lets make it look like a radio!" Then I got called to work on another local deal and had to hand the design over to Sam. Who is an amazing artist and way better graphic artist than I am, but I am so happy with how it turned out. We really do have a great team here. Check out their sites,
www.SamuelMiller3d.com
www.IamVietnamese.me
As for me, I really need to get my site up and running again, I have a lot of new work for it, but its just been on the back burner for some time now. It is nice to have the opportunity to keep my portfolio growing.

Alrighty, enough rambling.

Thought for the day: Should there be an ethical code for blogging, similar to that of journalists?

The coast this weekend! We were going to go salmon fishing, but we're saving that for the next trip. Im excited! Ill post pictures later.

Vectors

I am really excited to have had the chance to work in After Affects this past week, something that Ive really missed out on since I moved out here and finished school. Its just a few little "How-To" videos.

A few of the guys at the office and I have been discussing the opportunities behind the artwork and basic web layouts that we've created on our own time and the search engine advertising opportunities. It seems like the sites that get the most traffic are those that create communities of artists that are always uploading artwork. We use them all the time. Speaking of these sites.... I think I might ramble a bit.

Its funny how my ideas behind creating artwork have completely done a 360 since I started in this industry. I know that people are usually looking for a specific style, one that is not necessarily my own. Ive become more accustomed to really pulling inspiration from sites that I see and trying to use the ideas with my own flare. Apparently this is a tactic I should have been utilizing through much of school, instead of trying to be as original as possible all of the time. I actually like exploring new styles that Ive seen and making them my own. Its not necessary for me to start from a scratch idea every time. Though I do find it obnoxious when people simply change the anchor points on vector work and claim that it is now their own work.

It is nice that we have had some very interesting clients come into our midst in the last month. One of our clients, Spice Monkey is a guy we've been working with for a while now, but has been struggling to decide on a design. We originally had a lot of fun with the layout of the site and the idea of a monkey, with rich "spicy" colors. This wasnt exactly what he had in mind. Apparently he didnt have the same fun mentality that we did. Well, after a while I finally sat down and sketched out a few logo ideas, because he had never received his original design from a different artist. He decided on the TIKI! Which was super exciting. I had just thrown the idea in there and I honestly thought it was the most random and obscure and was positive he would not choose it. To my surprise I have had the chance to work on it for a few hours today and this is what Ive come up with so far.

We've kind of come to a happy cohesive blend between my obvious cartoony background and Sam's shiny and corporate styles. He has the ability to create things in all different styles, but has definitely mastered the art of the "shiny button" (something that I forced myself to learn.. oh how I hate chrome)Its nice to find someone who I feel comfortable asking for critiques. Haha.


Ive been digging some great vector sites lately. Vecteezy and Vector Jungle The vector jungle one isn't as extensive, but has a few more options when it comes to complete illustrations of humans and characters.





My Linked Profile
I am currently working on the logos for IAMVIETNAMESE.com, Idle Hands Designs, and Spice Monkey, which I have posted.

We are taking over....

Haha, we are taking over, on the internet anyways. I think Im in a very good position. As I start into the "industry/industries" I am getting the opportunity to work on many many different projects.

Personally things are going great.
I have finally completely moved into the apartment on Hawthorne, in an awesome Southeast district. This move is going to be big for me in many ways. I am going to have to rethink my ideas about living with yet another extremely different person. Mind you that Charlie and I were complete opposites in that he doesnt have much of a social disposition, while Jesse is extremely outgoing and forward. He works nights and usually doesnt go to bed until I am leaving for work at 7am. We will see how my sleep schedule keeps up.
The neighborhood is amazing. I am living just 10 blocks down from the entertainment district, filled withb theaters, venues, clubs, shopping, and markets. Its a slightly "urban/trendy" area. Haha, nobody seems to worry if their clothes are matching. But I think it will give me an excuse to get out of the house and walk, no drive. I want to buy a bike, and make it a point to use my sketchbook daily. I feel like this is something I have been neglecting for some time now. The apartment in Milwaukie was a decent size, but my bedroom was extremely small. With me, Charlie, the dog Obie-Wan, and usually Charlies girlfriend, it was way too crowded. I kept finding myself leaving the house just so I could breathe. But I wasnt leaving to places that were going to be creatively stimulating. I think being in walking distance from this community will change things a lot.
My life is changing as usual, pretty rapidly. I love the continuous change, but am also excited to see myself settle into my new home. Im not so afraid of the huge boxer dog, Martian, I tried to walk him yesterday, and he basically dragged me ten blocks instead. But it was fun. Now we just need the weather to get a bit cooler.. ugh 107 degrees!! Things are going good with Nate, a guy I have been seeing lately, who has his head on straight, good job, bills paid, opens my door for me, the works!! Im going to post a bit of work that we have been doing and soon will post some of the personal stuff Ive been playing with, once I get the computer set back up.

Basically... art art art...

The fact that I do so much social networking for SEO purposes, its good to see what kind of issues that those websites are having.

There has been some serious heat in the facebook world.
lawsuits

It is crazy that the entire empire of facebook is actually based on a lawsuit from a similar site called ConnectU. The legal battle seemed to never end, until finally in 2007, about the same time that facebook really took off.

Then there are the lawsuits that stem from abuse of facebook. Many of the issues come out of sheer ignorance to the number of people who have access to all of your information, while there are more serious cases. Read further about some here.


Ill be posting some new vector art that we have been working on. I am considering building a new site for myself. I am in serious need of an easily manageable site, without having to deal with the coding. I can code, but I tend to be horrible with procrastination. Of course, I am an artist.

Art Art Art!

Sam and I are making art!

I wonder how many links I can get away with in regards to citing things to Wikipedia. We are updating some of the definitions of things right now. Random terms like "conversion rate" and "impressions" "IDX" all sorts of things that relate to this industry. We will have to see how much we can get away with before we get flagged as spam.

We are enduring through the heat wave, barely. It reached 106 yesterday in Portland which was horrible. Luckily the city is surrounded by rivers and lakes to keep everyone slightly cool. We also reached record highs for the amount of electricity that was used. Which is sad considering that we try so hard to conserve energy, but to no avail. It is freezing in this office, but only in my departments area. It stinks to go from such extreme cold to such extreme heat. It doesnt do me much good, health wise.
I am moving to the Hawthorne district in the South East of Portland. I am extremely excited about it and am really looking forward to being able to walk to the store and being able to do my laundry in my apartment. I am moving this saturday and have yet to see the bedroom I am moving into. I think I should probably do that today. Nate is getting a truck for us to move with and it should go pretty quick. We are going to move in the morning to avoid the heat as much as possible. But I am accepting volunteers to help out. Haha. Its ONLY? supposed to be the upper nineties. Which is still ridiculous. Im supplying the beer and food for the day.
MY sister and baby brother were going to visit in late august, but that has been pushed back to november for thanksgiving, or possibly even december when I am planning on visiting Michigan.

Huge Deal In the Works.

Some quick sketches for one of clients logo, Spice Monkey. Site released soon.

Interesting fact-
Did you know that Google and the search partners dont count any hyphens when they crawl your site for relevancy? This includes the URL destination. Hence the name of our company website at Google-Placement.com and we have been abusing this info for our SEO sites and all other clients since we realized it.

The trick is to acquire URL's that relate directly to the search phrase that clients are purchasing. Then we place one of the other sites. With the click through rate improving drastically from placement and linking the sites together, it allows the site with the related URL to move forward organically faster. There are many more tricks to the process. But that is one of the best tactics for SEO and placement.

I love Terry. He is one of our number one salesman. He is an older guy who cant even email. He gets on the phone and asks for a credit card number within the first 30 seconds. You would never believe the number of people who give it to him immediately. It is ridiculous.

My job now and what I thought my job would be.

So Im out of school. Ive been out for a little over a year and my career is in full swing. I got the awesome opportunity to work with a company in Portland Oregon, a long way from home.

With all of my schooling, Ive realized that each and every bit was as important as the other. Some things I never thought I would be using are now so important to my success. I feel truly blessed to be where I am right now.

I will be posting a list of popular social networks that everyone should be taking advantage of.