Earth Day 2010, Time To Reconnect With Nature

Posted on January 10, 2010 by itees

I have always tried to show, by design or blogging, that people need to reuse, recycle, plant, not tear down, and just plain care more about this place Earth, we all call home. I love the outdoors, gardens, beaches, forests, and have plants, nice green living things in every room, and every Spring into Summer, I have a small outdoor space which is full of flowers. In warmer weather, I ride my bicycle, so I can see and photograph the beautiful gardens around New York and New Jersey. When I travel, I see what I can of the landscape and enjoy it.

However, I’m really beginning to worry about the state of our planet (more than usual). This Winter has been quite frigid, and the snow in some parts of the world, has been at record proportions. The weather in general has been from one extreme to another, and if anyone still doesn’t believe we have global warming, just look around.

People generally live selfishly and don’t think “green,” so I think with Earth Day coming on April 22, and it being the 40th anniversary, it’s a great opportunity to spread the message, that every single person needs to reconnect and realize they are part of nature and do more to help save the planet.

Yesterday, I went to see Avatar, like millions of others, and I was blown away by the story, and the 3D effects. It was so visually stunning and 3d glasses enhanced the natural beauty and made you feel like you were really there. It made me feel so good and I wished everyone felt about our planet, the way the “Na’vi” people felt about Pandora.

I have been thinking about ways to help spread the message of Earth Day and will be designing posters and t-shirts for both i-Tees and the FROGS ARE GREEN sites. Look for more of them in the next week or two. I’m also looking for anyone who’d like to collaborate with me, by donating an illustration or photograph, for this purpose.

Let’s all do our part and show we care and want to save this planet. To learn more about Earth Day, visit this website: Earth Day Network.

Below is my first poster design idea collaborating with photographer, John Crittenden. This poster is 24″ w x 18″ h and we’re offering it at $12.00, along with FREE Shipping.

Poster design © 2010 Susan Newman Design Inc.
Photograph by John Crittenden.

Knowing When Your Website Needs A Complete Redesign

Posted on December 10, 2009 by itees

A few years ago, I started another website, so I’d have a vehicle for self-expression. Ideas that just come to me and a place to show them. I already had a portfolio website with a body of work, and as I complete projects, I add more and more to it, but this new site would be different.

This would be for logos, and t-shirt ideas, about conservation, being a “green” person and designer, and assorted other ideas. So I created the site, put the images up there, and waited. Well, 2 years later, it got minimal traffic and after much thought about why, I realized it wasn’t because the imagery wasn’t any good, it was because the site wasn’t content rich, and no one could find it.

This taught me a valuable lesson in not just naming pages or posts, which I’d already known about, since earlier this year, when I took a series of online webinars in SEO content and tagging, but how the pages need to be content rich, and have the right keywords or tags, and categories. The web is a big filing system and it not only files your content by the title of the page, and the tags it has, but the date it was published. So, when your searching for something, it’s going to show you the most current as well as closest match to your query. This is why blogs are usually more effective than regular websites. Most websites are built, but rarely maintained, and just sit there, getting older and more out of date, unless you’re an artist, of course, and updating your work often.

So, I dumped the old site, created a new custom designed, (of course) WordPress blog in it’s place, and started posting articles, galleries, and made sure everything was linked and tagged. I’ve posted almost 50 times already and have all sorts of galleries from gardens I visit while riding my bicycle, to going to the Yankee Parade in NYC.

I’m also quite good at publicity, so I’ve been pushing the blog’s address, articles and galleries through social media.

Well, I’m now going to report that the new blog, has surpassed what I imagined and now gets comments, has followers, and the traffic has improved by 1,000% or more.

When you put information out there that someone might find useful, it’ll always draw more more traffic than just showing off work. If they find the resource interesting, it may send them to your portfolio site as well. So, when you want to start a new website, consider carefully what the usage is, who’s coming to it and why, and maybe it should be a blog.

New Jersey Waterfront Bicycle Ride

Posted on October 10, 2009 by itees

Since today it’s grey outside and raining a bit, I’m not sure yet if I’ll be riding my bicycle. They said it’s going to clear and be sunny by noon, so for now, I thought I’d write about where I usually ride on the New Jersey side and what I’d see.

When I get ready to ride, here are some of my rules and/or safety tips. Sneakers, close-fitted pants (many times I see women wearing skirts, blowing in the breeze and I’m hopeful they won’t get caught in their bicycle wheel spokes), comfortable and/or warm top, hair back, water bottle, power bar, bicycle clip-on bag, lock and helmet. READY!

Starting out on Central Avenue in “the Heights” of Jersey City, I ride down Congress Street till I get to the elevator at the 9th Street (Hudson Bergen) Light Rail station. It connects Jersey City with Hoboken easily and has been there since 2000 when they built the Light Rail system. Down the elevator and across the tracks, crosstown and north a bit, till I reach 11th… then across 11th to the waterfront.

Now, the big decision, should I go left (north) towards Weehawken & Port Imperial, towards the George Washington Bridge or right (south) towards Jersey City with lovely views of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty? Either direction the length of the waterfront walkway is about 5-6 miles. This is as far as you can go given they haven’t built or connected all the walkways yet; eventually it will be much longer.

Going south along the Hudson River there are some new piers in Hoboken, small parks, even a tiny beach created at around 11th street. Riding downtown there are a few construction obstacles when approaching Frank Sinatra Park, and since part of the pier fell into the water due to decay and not being built with steel reinforcements, that whole area is blocked. It’ll be interesting to see how long it takes to repair, now that Fall is upon us. Below is a photo I found of the collapsed pier taken by Hoboken411.com.

Frank Sinatra Park pier collapses in Hoboken, photo by Hoboken411.com

Approaching the Hoboken (Erie Lackawana)Terminal I must ride through the terminal (where people walk around and board trains) to get to the far end and the entrance to the walkway, newly opened last month that connects Hoboken with Newport. Below is a photo of the new walkway.

walkway-hoboken-newport

I can finally just follow this “greenway” as it weaves along the coastline, around buildings, hotels, and condos. There are a few spots that have wonderful views and are worth a stop.

Going in this direction you can ride safely till the “Colgate” sign which is where the walkway ends for now. At this point you have a beautiful view of Battery Park in NYC, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

battery-park-from-jc

*A day after writing this post, I did a 20 mile ride from “the Heights” of Jersey City, down to Hoboken, following this route to Jersey City, then turned around and rode back, continuing on to Weehawken and north to Edgewater. I’ll write some more about the northern direction, soon. In the meanwhile, enjoy my photos (gallery).

**Also, inside of Hoboken terminal, they now make everyone walk their bicycle through.