Peeps I Dig – Dec ’10

It’s that time of year again to light the fireplace, pour a cup of hot chocolate, and hang-up all of those sparkly holiday decorations that I so love. I’ve often wondered throughout the years who these mysterious merry makers are making the world around us transform into a jingling winter wonderland. So in celebration of, well celebration, I thought I’d try to shed some light on these festive peeps.

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Christopher Radko

Starting with the sad destruction of his family heirloom ornaments in the early 80′s when his Christmas tree fell over to the horror of the Radko family, Christopher Radko went on a quest to replace them. With no avail, Christopher decided to pull-up his sleeves and get the job done with the help of a European glassblower. Twenty years plus later, the Christopher Radko company has been designing and producing European glass ornaments that are extremely collectible. Who knew?! Ornament collectors I guess…

Each ornament goes through a week long process before coming to fruition. Although the artisans aren’t named individually, the Radko site does lovingly explain the delicate process in which each ornament is made and clearly respects the talent of its people.

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Celebrity Ornaments

Every holiday season, celebrities design some cheer for charity. The very city slick ornament pictured left was designed by none other than Sarah Jessica Parker. Her and a few of her fellow Hollywood peeps participated in the heART HSN 2010 designer ornament collection which benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

You can take a peek at the other designs here.

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Mainly what I found in my quest to unveil these bringers of cheer was a big, fat nothing. Tons of distributors, retailers, and wholesalers surfaced but not the ones who design the actual decor. So if you know of anyone who dabbles in cheer, tell me about it. I’d love to learn the stories behind the rarely celebrated artists of the biggest celebration season of the year.

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Be sure to check back for more Peeps I Dig. Who inspires you?

Peeps I Dig – Nov ’10

The weather is getting chilly and the holidays are upon us! It’s November and because you’ll be spending more time inside this month’s inspiration is about sites that I dig. So grab a cup of hot chocolate, snuggle up with your laptop, and enjoy.

Abduzeedo

Abduzeedo.com is “a collection of visual inspiration and useful tutorials…The blog is run by design junkies for design junkies, always striving to provide the community with the latest and hottest of what the web has to offer”.

The site is Brazilian born but has expanded it’s workforce to the USA and has readers from across the globe. I enjoy a majority of the inspirational posts and actually comment on quite a few of them. There’s daily, weekly and monthly themes ranging from illustration to architecture. They even have an iPhone app!

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COLOURlovers

COLOURlovers is a global, creative community where people who are tickled by color gather, share, and discuss colors, palettes, patterns and trends.

I have often used this site to light a fire under my color creativity.

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Yahoo Directory

The Yahoo Graphic Designer’s Personal Exhibit Directory is simply a listing of portfolios.

It is a fantastic place to spend a bit of time for inspiration. There’s a wide range of talent from all over the world and I find it very exciting and extremely inspirational to peruse this listing.

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Graphic Design Blog

Graphic Design Blog is “a podium giving professional insight on graphic designing, graphic designers, logo designs, typography and much more”.

I frequently enjoy GDB’s posts and they’ve recently added a forum that I’m sure will become a valuable resource.

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Toxel

Toxel is a design, inspiration, and technology blog.

I love this sight for the sheer variety. It examines inspiration from everything. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. It’s a really cool site to peruse but make sure you have time because you’ll definitely get lost in the world of Toxel.

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Be sure to check back monthly for more Peeps I Dig. Next month’s theme: holiday designers that inspire me. Who inspires you?

A Freelancer’s Guide to the Pros and Cons of Freelance

Freelancing is a fine balance of variables that can create success if juggled correctly or spell disaster if not juggled well.

I’m often asked “What’s it like to be freelance?” Well, ladies and gents, it can be amazingly hard and stressful but at the same time as equally rewarding. Like anything in life, it takes patience, attention, some elbow grease and tender loving care.

Over the past few years, I’ve learned to ride the ebb and flow of the tricky waters of freelance. Here’s a quick list of pros and cons for those of you thinking about jumping in:

PROs
1. You’re on your own clock—it’s great to be on your own schedule. I’m flexible enough to be able to be spontaneous with my days and can work at any hour of the day instead of clocking in and out for someone else.

2. You’re your own boss—it’s all about me and no one to tell me differently.

3. Being fed—following your dream to be your own boss and doing what you love leaves your spirit and soul completely fed.

4. It’s on you—when in an office full of talented people, it’s sometimes hard to get recognized leading you to feel under appreciated. When it’s just you then all of the glory is put forth upon you and you get to beam with pride when your client falls in love with you and your work.

5. Fundage—when the juggling act is going smoothly cash flow can be excellent.

6. Uncle Sam—there are loads of organizations and municipal and governmental programs who love giving money and resources to small businesses.

7. Renaissance Woman or Man—when you’re out on your own you tend to become educated in a plethora of other subjects that have nothing to do with your actual trade but are vital to running a business. This education challenges your boundaries and ultimately helps you grow as a person and business owner.

CONs
1. You’re on your own clock—when all of your time is YOUR time, it’s hard to manage it effectively. You have to be really disciplined with your time. It can be really tough on those lazy summer days but it must be done.

2. You’re your own boss—when you’re the one making the rules it’s easy to give yourself a lot of leeway to do what you want and not what you need to be doing.

3. Being fed—the paychecks don’t come in a nice bi-monthly pattern so budgeting gets difficult at times and sometimes you might not be fed.

4. It’s on you—usually in a work place when something goes wrong the blame can fall in a variable of ways; however, as a freelancer, that blame sits solely on top of your shoulders when things go awry. Disclaimer: Murphy’s Law—things will, at some point, go awry.

5. Fundage—when the juggling act is not going smoothly cash flow can be non-existent.

6. Uncle Sam—if you thought taxes were high when you were employed by someone else, brace yourself for the beating you’ll get being a freelancer.

7. Renaissance Woman or Man—when you’re out on your own, you’re really out on your own including  auxiliary tasks that you might not know how to do like accounting, billing, networking or even customer service. So you either have to get yourself schooled or you have to shell out money to have someone do it for you.

So there it is. My pros and cons to freelancing. If your a little confused as to why the pros are the same as the cons, just from a different perspective, well that was on purpose. That little paradox is the essence of freelance. It can be absolutely rewarding in every way and it can also be the bane of your existence.

My best advice to those of you thinking about taking the plunge is to really look into your heart and be honest with yourself. You have to know your potential as well as your limits. Going freelance is the best thing I’ve ever done spiritually but I have to be honest and say that it isn’t the best thing I’ve ever done financially.

You have to be willing to work twice as hard for twice as long to get to where you want to be. It’s much easier said than done especially since Life likes to throw curve balls. However, if you can ride out those rough waters then I would have to attest that going freelance is just awesome. Even the cons aren’t so bad because really it just comes with the territory.

So my vote is, DO IT but do it with a plan to avoid as many cons as you can. You might regret it or you might not but at least if you try, you’ll never look back and say “What if?”