i-tees

On the CBS evening news tonight, they featured Erik Proulx, who has created the film, “Lemonade.” After Erik lost his job as a senior copywriter he started a blog called, “Please Feed The Animals“ to help other advertising professionals reinvent themselves. Erik is the creator, executive producer and writer of the movie and he interviewed various creative people who had lost their jobs and shows what they are doing now. These creative people realized they now had the time to do the things they’d only dreamed about. Credits include: Directed by Marc Colucci, Directors of Photography are Peter Nelson and Will Van Hazel, Edited by Andre Betz. Producer & Executive Producer, Jennifer McKenzie, Producer, Carrie Jacobson, and Producer, Scott Burtnett.

It takes a lot of courage to set out on a new path and I look forward to seeing and hearing their stories.

I am remembering the year 1993, when I was an art director for Macmillan Publishing. After working with them for three and a half years, the company went bankrupt and once the banks took over, they found that the only solution was to tear the company into two pieces, and sell those pieces to Prentice Hall and Simon & Schuster. Almost all the employees working for Macmillan were let go, and yes, I was one of them.

At the time I panicked, as most do, when they find themselves out of work. I tried to find a job, but it soon became clear that it wasn’t going to happen. I’d say the reason was because there just weren’t enough art director jobs to go around, and no one was leaving to make room. So, the only solution was to start my own design company. I had the good fortune of friends and colleagues who helped me get going.

As time marched on, I knew I needed to expand my design skills and added website design/development in the late 90s. Knowing both graphic and website design has helped me through the toughest of times, after September 11th, and today with the economic crisis.

There is nothing in the world like being your own boss. Having the freedom to plan each day as it comes. For creative types, it takes a very serious commitment to be freelance. It’s also a truly rewarding life to be able to do what you love. I can’t imagine my life without design and meeting new people each day.

I look forward to the start of this new decade and will welcome all the opportunities that come my way with enthusiasm!

Now when is this film coming to NYC or NJ?

I’ve always thought that it took just the right amount of genius to be a caricaturist. Whenever I see those illustrations of celebrities, politicians, intellectuals and athletes, they’re not just recognizable, but clever in the way they’ve been portrayed.

On Tuesday, one of the greats, David Levine, died. For nearly a half a century his work could be seen in The New York Times Book Review and so many publications, such as, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and The Washington Post.

To read a full biography and to see some of his work, visit these links:

New York Times Obit by Bruce Weber

Associated Press Obit by Karen Matthews

I’ve written before about my bicycle rides along the Hudson River in both New Jersey and New York.

I first moved to Hoboken in the mid 80s and at that time I had a car. I’d drive my car along River Road to go shopping and many times on my way to New England, I’d go by way of River Road to avoid the traffic to the George Washington Bridge. Many others have this same idea, and due to the overdevelopment, the traffic has been growing larger. Over the years, as they built more and more condominiums, and the Light Rail was extended, the road was widened. Considering all the effort given to making room for the Light Rail and widening the road, I’ll never understand why they didn’t think of the thousands of cyclists and paint in a simple bike lane.

With all the people now living and shopping in that area, a bike lane would be a wonderful and much needed addition, and would have helped with the traffic and congestion.

In the December 10th issue of “The Midweek” Reporter, Tricia Tirella wrote about the problems with getting a bike lane built on River Road in NJ.

“The problem is that right now River Road is not wide enough for a bike lane plan”, said Hudson County Spokesperson, James Kennelly. He explained that a long-term capital project is planned for the next three to five years that will include a dedicated lane. He said that the road will be widened and resurfaced when it is funded by the New Jersey Department of Transportation.

I ride my bicycle during the Spring, Summer and Fall seasons and just to get from Jersey City to River Road is a challenge since there are no bike lanes in Jersey City either. They have “share the road” and “bike route” signs posted around but no lanes. They have put some bike lanes on a few streets in Hoboken so that does help. The worst of all, is riding in Weehawken where it meets River Road, to get to the walkway on the other side. This intersection has never been altered and is dangerous to bicycle riders. We sneak along a short dirt path where the cars are merging from two roads and for about 50-100 ft they are too close to us. Something has to be done with this intersection to make it safer for riders. There is no other way to get from this area of Weehawken to the waterfront walkway along the Hudson.

Why does it take so long for something that we need so badly, to get built? Maybe something will change before Spring 2010 comes and I’m ready to ride out there.

After publishing this post, I read about the first meeting of an advocacy group which took place in December in Jersey City to discuss safer streets/better biking. You can be sure I will be attending the next meeting in January and have written to one of the group members, Daniel Levin for more information and whether I can help build them a website, which they don’t seem to have. It’s time the city realized how many cyclists there are. Read the full article here.

Yesterday, a friend and I went into NYC so we could see a movie, have lunch out, and visit a gallery. First stop was the film and when we arrived we were told the theater only accepted cash. We couldn’t believe it, but walked over to an atm, got some cash, and bought our tickets. This theater was the Film Forum in lower Manhattan, so now you’ll know to bring some cash, if you’re headed there.

After the wonderful movie, “My Sister Eileen”, we were planning to head further uptown and stopped in at the Waverly Restaurant (diner type place) for some lunch. It was just fine and we went over to pay, and yet again heard, we only accept cash.

What is going on? It is almost 2010 and yet these places cannot accept a credit or debit card? Or due to the economic climate have stopped accepting them?

Today, I had an even worse experience. Because I was out yesterday, I missed a UPS package. Something I had ordered from a store about 10 days ago. They left me a door tag, the usual way and I waited around all day for the package. At 4 pm I decided to look online and track the package. Someone had written ,”AS REQUESTED BY THE CUSTOMER, THE RECEIVER WILL PICKUP AT A UPS FACILITY WITHIN 5 BUSINESS DAYS / CUSTOMER HAS CONFIRMED AND WILL PICK UP PACKAGES THIS EVENING.”

I never said anything of the kind and was waiting for his (UPS) return. I called UPS and this is what they told me. The way the store had shipped the package, they only come to the house one time, if you’re not home, it goes back to the UPS facility near you and you have 5 days to go get it or it’s returned to the sender. They are not coming back a second time. So??? Why leave a door tag?

This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard from a company. You have one shot to get your package or you’re out of luck?

I’m starting to feel like it’s olden times and companies are moving backward in their policies, rather than forward. Guess I’ll do it the old fashioned way and buy the product at the store instead of online.

In my last post, I wanted to highlight that in many cases I’ve seen websites and print marketing done by individuals and small companies without hiring a professional designer. In various group discussions on LinkedIn, artists from all over are commenting with their experiences. In these comments, some artists have brought up a few very important points, which I’m going to pass on now.

As designers, many times, friends and family ask us to “help them out” with a project. Depending on who this is and the scope of the project, we may decide to help. One artist reported that after creating various materials for a friend and gratis of course, the friend didn’t use any of them and instead got a family member who just happened to have a computer and “Word” & “Photoshop” to create something.

Now, I suppose the big question here is, why wouldn’t you use the materials created by the professional designer, and instead use the amateurish piece by the family member. Instead of using a professional printing company, it was printed out on their home printer. The end result did not look professional. Secondly, wouldn’t the friend realize how rude that was, after asking the professional to invest time and effort in the project.

In addition, they have said that it always seems to be the non-paying, non-profit clients who they’re “helping out” who send the most changes or edits. It’s interesting how when someone has to pay, they understand the rules a bit better.

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Clients change their look and their logos. As artists we understand this, we do as well. I had changed my company logo a few times over the years, until I settled on the (sndi) I have now and the current color palette. I also previously wrote about how I changed this (i-tees) site into a blog, and I’m sure at some point, I’ll change the look again.

One thing an artist just reminded me of,  is when you’ve created a wonderful website for someone and they seemed to be very happy with it… then a short time later it has been replaced with a totally different design. The most important part to remember, is not to be too disappointed. With the web, this is bound to happen, hopefully not often, but face it, it will. I suppose what bothers us most, is that it happened and the client didn’t tell us or come back to us for the new design. We wonder about whether they really liked the original or just said they did, so they’d have the site up, (urgency again, content over design and style) who knows? I always wonder about this. I remember a magazine site I did a few years ago, and about one year later there was a new site up. It didn’t really have any new features, or e-commerce, it just had a different look.

It’s also important to realize that if they do create a new website with new features, they may not realize you can do what they want. Always be sure that your clients know about all your capabilities. I have a current client who’s website I update and he never knew I designed books, good thing I mentioned this, and was able to design his book cover.

What you need to do, is check all the links you’re featuring on your portfolio website, perhaps once a month. I sometimes forget to do this, but will this week. You don’t want to have an image or link up and a potential client goes to see it, and it’s a different site. I’ve also had sites disappear or go down for one reason or another. So be sure to update your portfolio and site often.