I Want My Life Back

in response to the infamous Tony Hayward
(photo found on google)

pin up zombies

So i'm thinking bout doing 11 more and making a calendar for x mas gifts : )

New logo

I've been working at MOS for four days now, and I've gotten a few projects. Recently I did a logo for a place that comes to you to fix your car that I rather enjoy : )

40 tips and tricks

I found this on one of Ellen Lupton's student's projects, thought it was worth posting..mostly for myself : )

40 Tips & Tricks for Getting in the Mood to Get Ideas

The content by Ellen is quite useful and I thought I would reprint it here.

1. Triangulate. Identify three sides of the problem, such as “audience,” “voice,” and “message.” Collect and organize ideas in these categories.
2. Make a cube. Take an idea or problem and describe, compare, analyze (break down), associate, apply, and argue for and against it.
3. If working in a team, assign a different side of the cube to each person.
4. Think like a journalist. Ask who, what, when, where, why.
5. Make a word salad. Write down every word you can think of that relates to the problem. Sort the words to discover patterns and ideas.
6. Do a Google check. Who else has solved your problem?
7. Go to the library. Books are packed with information and inspiration.
8. Rewrite the problem. If the problem is “X,” change it to “Why?” Then Imagine the obvious solution. Now, imagine its opposite.
9. Look for solutions you admire. Analyze why you admire them.
10. Think like an interior decorator. Create a mood board with magazine clippings, fabric samples, snapshots, key words, etc.
11. Find a place where you can pin up your ideas and look at them as a group.
12. Apply thinking from another field to your problem. (“How would a zoologist design a backpack?” “How would a chef choose a color palette?”)
13. If your problem is overwhelming (“end global warming” or “design a universal typeface”), break it down into smaller parts (“get people to walk more” or “design six letters”).
14. Make a word map. Write down the problem on the middle of a piece of paper. Diagram everything you can think of about the problem (context, history, similar problems, competing ideas, available resources, etc).
15. Write down every obvious solution you can think of in order to clear your mind for something new.
16. Think like a curator. Collect everything you know about the problem. Display your data and look for meaningful patterns.
17. Think like an anthropologist. Observe people doing an activity related to your problem (using a product, completing a task, taking the bus, etc.)
18. Ask people what they like and don’t like.
19. Ask people what they wish for.
20. Ask people about their personal experiences.
21. Find a place to think where you won’t be distracted by other tasks.
22. Take a walk or take a shower.
23. Go shopping.
24. Drink tea.
25. Eat less food. Digesting a big lunch consumes energy that your brain could be using to get ideas.
26. Chew more gum. Research shows that chewing gum not only cleans your teeth but loosens up your mind and makes you smarter.
27. Put all your ideas on index cards. Compare them. Sort them. Rank them.
28. Think about your idea while falling asleep or waking up.
29. Wear five hats. Evaluate an idea from five different perspectives. White=information (What are the facts?). Red=emotion (How does the idea make you feel?). Yellow=optimism (What’s great about the idea?). Black=pessimism (What’s wrong with the idea?). Green=growth (What are alternatives to the idea?). Blue=process (How is the evaluation process going?).
30. Sketch. Make quick, simple diagrams of different ideas.
31. Sketch in 3D. Make models with cardboard and tape instead of pencil and paper.
32. Visualize the competition. Make a map showing where your problem, product, client, or concept sits in relation to similar or competing problems or ideas.
33. Visualize the bigger picture. Make a diagram showing how your problem fits into larger systems. For example, a shopping bag relates to how people shop, how bags are manufactured and shipped, and what happens to bags when people are finished with them.
34. Design a system or tool instead of an object or artifact.
35. Compare and connect. Find metaphors for your problem.
36. Empathize. Imagine yourself as the user, reader, or client.
37. Simplify. Explain your idea in a single sentence.
38. Set constraints. Cut down on brain clutter by limiting yourself to a particular material, size, vocabulary, etc.
39. Recycle. A bad solution for one problem could be a good solution for another.
40. When you hit a dead end, try again later

Senior Proj

finally done, check my website ilenelundy.com to see the entire project

the essentail list of logo design tips

found on http://imjustcreative.com/the-essential-list-of-logo-design-tips-and-advice/2010/05/11/:

The essential list of logo design tips and advice

1. Always use default system for your typeface choices. For example : Arial and Times. Bonus points if you use Times for the logotype and Arial for the tag-line.
2. Feel proud when using the most obvious and cliché visual associations because no one likes a hard logo to decipher.
3. Put your new client logo project on 99Designs because you haven’t got time to design it yourself.
4. Put your new client logo project on 99Designs because you don’t like designing logos.
5. Copy one of your clients competitors logo in the hope they don’t notice.
6. Don’t ask the client for a brief because you don’t know what to ask.
7. You set up a online quote form using Google Doc’s to streamline your logo design business. That’s just how you roll. However, you forget to specify a notification email address when potential clients fill in the form. Three weeks later you wonder why no new work is coming in. Three weeks later you loose 10 clients.
8. The client requests a ‘cutting edge’ logo. You design a logo that says ‘Cutting Edge’… with the top edges cut off the letters because you are so damn original. The company is called Diamond Consultants.
9. Use Microsoft Powerpoint to design your logos. It makes sense. You can then use Powerpoint to present these ideas to the client. Great time saving tip.
10. Don’t research the clients competition because you have a great idea for a logo but don’t want to be upset if you see it’s already being used. What you don’t know won’t hurt you. Anyway, seemed to work for Nike.
11. What happens if a client doesn’t like your logo design? No problem. Name and shame them on Twitter, that should even things up nicely.
12. Copy your clients competitors tag line because it seems to work for them.
13. Use a very ‘old’ logo inspiration book to see if there is a old logo you can copy.
14. Specifying colours for your logo? Ensure you ‘only’ use RGB or Index values. When you are presenting your ideas to the client on your iPad, the colours will look so pretty. CMYK is ’sooo’ yesterday.
15. If you did get a brief, ignore it anyway as your client clearly has no idea what they are doing. You are the logo designer, therefore you know more than your client.
16. Recycling is so ‘now’, so when you design a great new logo, a design that has everyone talking, keep that dream alive. Change the colour and use the design for another client.
17. Research phase. If the logo doesn’t show up in Google ‘image search’, then it just doesn’t exist anywhere. You are now free to proceed with that great new original idea, mindful that your logo will not be like anything else out there.
18. When presenting the logo idea to your client, you have to make the logo the full width of the A4 sheet. It’s the only way anyone can make out the company name.
19. Feel free to change your clients unique brand colour if you don’t like it.
20. Advise your client that their company name sucks and should be changed, even though they have been around for 2o years and are hugely successful. The reason being is the name is hard for you to design a logo around, but mostly, it just sounds cack.
21. Ignore the clients one stipulation that their brand name remains in lowercase. It has a awkward descender in the middle of the name and it makes the placing of the new tag line awkward for you.
22. You’re chronically colour blind and don’t care. You’re new client is Pantone.
23. Change aspects of the brief to make it more interesting to design around.
24. Been informed that your logo design infringes on an existing Trademark? It’s OK. You can change the colour and horizontally flip it.
25. You realise that many logo designs on Brandstack are mostly conceptual and not yet used in the real world. This means you can copy them for your client and get your foot in first.
26. Looking to save time and increase your profit margin? Buy a cheap logo on Brandstack, change the colour and add your clients name. Job done.
27. Your client doesn’t understand that a logo design doesn’t make a brand. You therefore promise your client that with your ‘mad logo dezign skillz‘, you will turn their dull boring company into a famous and popular brand.
28. Your client stipulates that a new commercial font should be used for the logotype. The client even suggests possibility of creating a custom font. The client will foot the cost. You head to Dafont.
29. What’s typography?
30. Company name too short for the tag-line you have just come up with? Add ‘.com’ to the end of the company name to help you add a longer tag line. However, not helpful if they are ‘.co.uk’.
31. Post a new logo concept on Dribbble after signing an NDA.
32. A prestigious new logo job comes in and your logo designer is on holiday. You hear great things about 99Designs.
33. Fire your logo designer because you have now found 99Designs. FTW.
34. An Apple Mac helps you create better looking logos than a PC.
35. Logo design sizing advice. Need to design a small logo for a business card? Use a 13″ laptop. Need to design a logo for a poster? Use a 27″ iMac. Or better still, hook up your laptop to your 50″ Plasma TV for really big f**k off logos.
36. Need some Intellectual Property advice? Well, it’s tricky, depends on how intellectual you are.
37. Don’t have time to create your own logo design portfolio? Or just don’t have the talent and too ashamed to show your own work? Hey, don’t sweat it. Find a logo designer whose logos you like and borrow theirs.
38. The client refuses to pay. Likely a result of you not fully understanding sarcasm and humour. See above.

redesigning "vote"

Redid my 'vote' tags, think they are much nicer : )