Huddy's Design Blog

April 19 - SECURITY

2010-04-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

Back in January I posted a similar update, one from Maxwell's Daily Reader, a book my Brother Will got for each person in my family for Christmas 2 years ago. It's a book about leadership primarily, but also on so many other positive characteristics. Every morning I read it and am glad I do, but sometimes I'm more than just glad- I'm totally amazed and appreciative for the lesson I learn from it. Today was another one of those days. :)

April 19

SECURITY

During the term of President Ronald Reagan, leaders of seven industrial nations were meeting at the White House to discuss economic policy. During that meeting Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau strongly upbraided British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, telling her that she was all wrong and that her policies wouldn't work. She stood there in front of him with her head up, listening until he was finished. Then she walked away.

Reagan went up to her and said, "Maggie, he should never have spoken to you like that. He was out of line, just entirely out of line. Why did you let him get away with that?"

Thatcher looked at Reagan and answered, "A woman must know when a man is being simply childish."

That story surely typifies Margaret Thatcher. She appeared to have no doubts about herself or her beliefs - and she was absolutely secure in her leadership as a result. That is the case for all great leaders.

Secure leaders are able to believe in others because they believe in themselves. They aren't arrogant; they know their strengths and weaknesses and respect themselves. When their people perform well, they don't feel threatened. They go out of their way to bring the best people together and then build them up so that they will perform at the highest level. And when a secure leader's team succeeds, it brings him great joy. He sees that as the highest compliment he can receive.

-The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader

DO YOU BELIEVE IN YOURSELF ENOUGH TO GRACIOUSLY TAKE THE HEAT AS A LEADER?

I think this concept can and should be be applied to everyone's life, whether you're in a leading role or not! Read that last paragraph over again... It can just as easily say "Secure PEOPLE are able to believe in others because they believe in themselves." It's true! It's about taking criticism in, but not taking it personally. And more than that- It's about knowing yourself and your abilities well enough, and TRUSTING in them and yourself, to decide when to take criticism and when to tune it out completely because it's just untrue. Definitely something I need to get better at. But hey I'm trying.. :)

Hopefully you guys found this to be as helpful as I did!

GREAT 8 CREATIVE Final logo concept

2010-04-12T08:29:00.001-07:00

Welp, after lots of great feeback from friends on Twitter and Facebook, I've been able to come up with what I strongly feel is the winning design for GREAT 8 CREATIVE! As always though, I'm open to suggestions and thoughts on the concept and appreciate them all, so fire away if something comes to mind!

See the other concepts and read the full story on this design process here: GREAT 8 CREATIVE logo concepts

The almost-final GREAT 8 CREATIVE logo:

Special thanks to the following for their time and brilliance!
Ryan Weeger
Michael Durwin
Kevin Garcia
Lucas Tetrault
Elizabeth Adams Bean
Riley Dickens
Chris

GREAT 8 CREATIVE logo concepts

2010-04-03T10:57:00.000-07:00

Story time...

As you might know already, I'm starting up a new business called GREAT 8 CREATIVE. To give you some background... I'm basically going to be taking every successful move I've learned through running Huddy Design, and using it to start fresh as a more professional and specialized creative design business. Since I'm no longer a Hudson (got married to Ryan Weeger this past November), the nickname "Huddy" won't catch on to new clients- hence the reason for the business name change. It will aim towards helping small business grow by providing custom website designs at "template" prices, custom logo designs and a small variety of custom Identity design. Ideally, it will also be targeted at athletic businesses and/or people such as coaches, trainers, small gyms and more since that's where my background is... all things sports.

The reason why I decided to call it Great 8 Creative is very personal to me. I'm the youngest of 8 kids and to put it simply, I LOVE my family. And there's an immeasurable impact my role as "the baby" of the Hudson clan has had on me, both as a person and as a business owner. My upbringing and what I've learned from my parents and my siblings is something I'll be forever grateful for. And I definitely plan on using and honoring what I've learned from it all, as the morale of my new company.

In short, my family is honest. My family is so compassionate. It's so unique it's almost weird.. but definitely unique. in a good way. Every one of us is extremely driven. And it's always just flat-out FUN to be around each other. I won't get into too much detail about why or when or how my family is all of those things but anyone who knows us can see that each quality is obvious. The "Great 8" has grown and will continue to grow for years and years to come, but what's so awesome about that is I still wholeheartedly believe that all of these characteristics, all of these qualities that have become our family's backbone, have stayed intact. I know they always will too. And they're exactly what I want to bring to the table with Great 8 Creative.

HONEST. Here to help clients grow their business, no matter what.
COMPASSIONATE. Genuinely wanting to help others find success and just a better situation for themselves.
UNIQUE. Building high-quality products and great client/designer relationships - something that no other freelance graphic+web designer can truly replicate.
DRIVEN. Steam-rolling our way through until we get the results our clients wanted.
FUN. None of that stiff, big-design-firm vibe here. Humor, personality, good relationships, real conversations between client/designer... it's all more than welcomed, it's expected.

So that's what I want to emulate in the new company and that's the look I'm going for in my logo. Maybe not all of these things at once... that's what my experience and brand will nourish over time, but obviously I want my logo to be a good representation of what Great 8 Creative will do and be.

That all said........ I would LOVE your input on these concepts!!! Any comments, good critique, bad critique, ideas, thoughts, anything- it's all greatly appreciated!!

#1) initial concept, monogram of lowercase "g" and the number 8:

#2) a different take on the monogram, combining an uppercase "G" (definitely more subtle in this one) and the 8.. trying to go for something more energetic and unexpected (definitely a rough draft so don't worry too much about the rough lines/points.. I'll clean them up eventually!):

#3) Trying something more off-the-wall/less expected. Replacing the use of the 8 with the 8 circles and focusing more on the "GREAT" part of the company name. I kinda like the symbolism I was going for in this one, with the whole story behind the "Great 8" ..how we've all kinda stuck together to form something great. I also think this one has a lot of potential for when I add color, could really bring it to life:

but what are your thoughts??

Maxwell Daily Reader - January 8

2010-01-08T08:37:00.000-08:00

Last year for Christmas, my brother, Will Hudson, bought me a copy of John C. Maxwell's The Maxwell Daily Reader. And I LOVE it. Every morning, I read the short entry related to leadership, and pretty often, it really makes me think. Today's entry is no different and I definitely want to share it because I think literally everyone could benefit from putting it to use:

JANUARY 8

POINT OUT PEOPLE'S STRENGTHS

People often make a mistake in personal development when they focus too much on their weaknesses. As a result, they spend all their time trying to shore up those weaknesses instead of maximizing the strengths they possess. Similarly, it's a mistake to focus on the weaknesses of others. The self-proclaimed "experts" who spend their time telling others what's wrong with them never win with people. Most people simply avoid them.

Instead, we need to focus on finding people's strengths and pointing them out. Most people have strengths they rarely get to use. Those strengths may be job skills, knowledge, general abilities, personality characteristics, or other attributes. I once read an interesting fact based on research, saying that every person can do at least one thing better than ten thousand people. Think about that! You possess an ability that can't be matched by anyone in your town or neighborhood... or in your college or university... or in your company or maybe even in your industry.

Have you discovered that ability? If so, you are probably well on your way to pursuing your life's purpose. If you haven't, wouldn't you love it if someone came alongside you and pointed it out? How would you feel about that person? I bet you'd be pretty grateful.

Why not try to become that person in someone else's life? When you do, you just might be helping others to discover the thing God created them to do.

-25 Ways to Win with People

POINT OUT A GREAT STRENGTH OF SOMEONE IN YOUR LIFE TODAY.

Taking Care of Business! part 3: MY DOCS ONLINE

2009-10-06T08:04:00.000-07:00

Part 3 of this series (just recapping all the projects we've completed over the past couple months!) talks about the work done for My Docs Online, a secure online file transfer service that's been a success since 1999. Huddy Design created the new logo, redesigned the website, and developed a custom Flash Banner for the new My Docs Online home page.

Steve Campbell, co-founder of My Docs Online, contacted me a while back about a complete redesign of their company identity. As usual, I started with the logo (You can check out the logo redesign process here) and shortly after, moved on to redesigning the website. I'll never forget one of Steve's first comments to me about the original website design: "We don't think our website is old school, we KNOW it's old school!" too funny. TRUE at the time, but funny. ;) So, I knew my plan of action was clear: carefully redesign their website without shocking long-time clients by the completely updated look. Incorporate a modern feel to match the new logo, implementing current trends in web design to reflect their place in the market as a top competitor- bringing modernism and their long-lasting reputation together.

The old My Docs Online logo:

The NEW My Docs Online logo:

So, I got to work on the new design. I knew right away that I wanted to use a custom Flash Banner for the home page, and I'm so Glad Steve was on the same page from the start. They're a huge trend right now for a reason: Flash banners are AWESOME for getting a lot of information across without making people feel overwhelmed, and they can be used to help present the company's biggest selling points in an entertaining and effective fashion, when designed in a sort of tabbed format. And since Flash also gives developers the flexibility to build interactivity into any Flash component, this also gives users the ability to control which points they want to see and when (if developed effectively, of course). This makes any website even more user-friendly because it's just fun and more intriguing! So professional stock photography, catchy taglines for each selling point, and custom controls (pause/play, skip to a slide) and transitions all came into play for this project.

The home page design, incorporating the current trend of using a Flash Banner to communicate the company's best selling points:

concept 1a
concept 1b
concept 2a
concept 2b

Once Steve and his team decided on the new look, I got to work on the development phase of the Flash component. Aside from developing the visuals, I also wanted to build it in a way that the client could easily update himself; an XML file was developed and utilized to accomplish this part of the task, which included the amount of time each slide was displayed, image paths to read in, and all titles and captions to be displayed. So all of these are now accessible to the Client for easy updates to the content the Flash Banner displays... Images, titles, captions, timing of each slide- it’s all there for him to update whenever he wants to. A great time-saver for both of us, and ultimately, a huge money saver for him to be able to make changes himself!

the final design, live on the all-new My Docs Online website:

See the Flash Banner and the rest of the new design in action at www.mydocsonline.com and read what Steve has to say about the new look here, on the MDO blog. (Thanks for the shout out!)

Steve and the rest of the My Docs Online team were so easy to work with, it was awesome. Thanks to them for the opportunity!!! Best of luck with the new look. :)

Taking Care of Business! part 2: STORE-IT

2009-10-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

Soon after the re-design and development of Hudson Shuffleboards wrapped up, Huddy Design signed on Charlie Koeller, Founder and President of Store-It, a large scale storage facility company based in Montana. Store-It was started to give owners of boats, RVs and other large modes of transportation, a place to keep them. Store-It also provides general storage containers as well for everyday storage needs. Given its location (Montana, right by Flathead Lake) and lack of other storage options in the area, Charlie has come up with such a smart, practical solution for a company if you ask me! The only problem he really had was his website. It had no SEO techniques incorporated, which meant the only business he was getting was by word of mouth. And the layout design was.... well, let's just say Charlie and I agreed, a major facelift was past due!! :)

Before:

If you're a graphic/web designer, I'm sure you can imagine how excited I was to completely transform his web presence. :) With Charlie's goal in mind (to keep things as simple and clean as possible), I got to work. We definitely utilized the awesome work of his photographer in the extremely minimalist design of his new website, and kept the overall tone of the design as professional and straight-forward as possible.

The result of which is this 3-page, elastic layout (content scales automatically to fit the size of the user's browser):

To see the Store-It website in action, visit www.Store-It.us.com

All the best to Charlie and the Store-It crew! Pleasure to work with you guys. :)

Taking Care of Business! part 1: HUDSON SHUFFLEBOARDS

2009-10-06T06:50:00.000-07:00

A LOT has been going on for Huddy Design since July 15th, let me tell you. :) All great things, and I am so grateful for that. I'm hoping to do a more detailed review on some of these projects in the future, but I just want to do a quick recap for now... short and sweet!

First up: HUDSON SHUFFLEBOARDS; ECOMMERCE WEBSITE RE-DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT (V2)

As you may know, Hudson Shuffleboards is run by my brother, Will Hudson. Within just a few short years, Will has taken over the shuffleboard market and his boards are now a top commodity to some of the biggest dealers in the market, even Amazon! His tagline is "Quality Shuffleboards at an Unbeatable Price" and his target market is just about anyone who wants to have a good time. :)

So, when Will asked me to take on the redesign and development, I kept all that in mind; "Design something that reflects quality above the competitors, unbeatable but fair and respectable prices, and incorporate an easy-going and entertained lifestyle... something that people of all ages would want to be a part of."

As always, a handful of other specs came into play which I might review sometime later. I'll just say that the main goal of this project, along with incorporating the overall feel I just talked about, was converting Version 1 of the site from being in 90% Flash, into a completely more optimized layout- one that was also a lot easier and just more accessible for Client updates and faster user-navigation.

Before:

After:

Like any piece of art- no matter its form- this project will never be completely done as there are a few items we'd like to enhance a little more. But so far, the response has been great for Will. Which makes me happy too! :)

You can check out the rest of Will's site at www.HudsonShuffleboards.com

Next up: STORE-IT; WEBSITE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Logo Concepts for Jesse Billauer's new clothing line

2009-07-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, my brother-in-law, Mike Cox was browsing around facebook and saw a post from Jesse Billauer, saying he was looking for a logo and clothing designer for his new clothing line. (For those of you who don't know who Jesse is, DEFINITELY check out his bio here because his life story is incredible; Pro surfer at 17 years of age, suffered a complete spinal cord injury after hitting a shallow sandbar, leaving him a quadriplegic, and is now a motivational speaker and founder of Life Rolls On- non-profit foundation dedicated to raise awareness about spinal cord injuries.... yeah, pretty amazing, to say the least!!) After Mike called me up to let me know about Jesse's post, I emailed him no more than a minute after I found his site and read his story. I definitely wanted to help out!

He got back to me right away, and after a totally refreshing conversation with him, I got to work on his new logo within the hour; Jesse told me he wants his new clothing line to not just be directed at surfers but towards athletic, outdoorsy people, both guys and girls... and wants it to have a totally unique and just rad feel to it. I was pretty excited when I heard that because anything athletic is right up my alley. And on top of that, knowing that it would be for an inspiring guy like him, I was totally excited to see what I could cook up for him. So, here's what I came up with:

So we'll see what comes of these. Thoughts and comments are welcome, as always!

Another point I wanted to mention in this post... Jesse also said he's interested in seeing just a ton of people's ideas and that he's open to just about anything... that for him, it's not about limiting his new line to one certain look, but it's about encouraging all kinds of ideas and creativity and seeing what different people have to offer through art. Again, pretty amazing, to say the least... especially from a designer's point of view!!! :) So if anyone is interested in coming up with some designs for Jesse's new line, send me your contact info (email me at sarah@huddydesign.com).

Lastly, big thanks to Mike for passing along the info- I always appreciate a recommendation! :)

Wedding Invitations - a whole new challenge!

2009-07-10T09:01:00.000-07:00

Well, our wedding is quickly approaching, and it's almost time to mail out our invitations. :) From the beginning, I wanted to design the entire invitation from start to finish for a couple reasons. One being I love to design. No doubt about it. 2- It would be another opportunity for me to flex my creative muscles, taking on a new challenge. And naturally, anytime we take on a task, we learn something new. So this time, I'd learn even more about print design. The 3rd and biggest reason: Ryan and I have always been a completely unique couple and always will be. And we're definitely unique individuals (which I see as a good thing, for sure!) so having that said, I was highly doubtful we'd be able to find a template or pre-designed invitation that would suit us perfectly anyway. So there was no question about it- I wanted to design our invitations!! :)

2 months later.... I finally finished the designs. I did NOT think it would take me so long to come up with a concept but at the same time, all designers know that personal projects are always hardest and I guess I forgot about that along the way! It was pretty challenging for me to come up with just 1 idea that felt true to our personalities, that fell within our budget, and that I could expand on easily throughout all the pieces. The number of combinations one can concoct is INFINITE when it comes to just paper alone (especially when you're amped on customization like I am!), and then mixing designs in with whichever combination you come up with just complexes it more. So although I never fell short on ideas for the graphic design end of it, I definitely learned a lot about paper and print design from this process. which I'm now grateful for. :)

The paper source I ended up going with was Mountain Cow, which ultimately provided the widest variety I could find at the most affordable price I could find. I made my selections from their "Envelopements" line... the punny name might have had something to do with my immediate liking of them. :) All in all, it was a pretty smooth process once I found them. I even got the entire order within 5 days of ordering- pretty impressive with all the custom-sized card tocks I ordered.

Anyway, below is the winning design! I have to say that I got the concept from a piece by Mika78 and made some changes to it to match our colors, paper dimensions and personality a little more. And yeah, I know I said before that I didn't want to use anyone else's pre-designed template but the concept of this particular one was great, so I made it our own. :)

obviously I'm a visual person, so I drew up this handy-dandy illustration to see what different colors would look like together. It totally helped as I played around with all the swatches that mountain cow had to offer.

so here's our final paper selection and color scheme Ryan and I decided on:

outer envelope:

backflap of outer envelope:

the invitation!! (will be mounted onto the tan backing, by itself on the side withOUT pocket):

directions card, will be tucked into pocket, behind response card and response envelope (the map seriously took me forever... haha):

response card:

response envelope:

so there you have it, folks.

This week I also did some research on home-office printers since it was time for me to upgrade anyway; I needed to get a fax at some point for business, so I found a really awesome deal on an HP Officejet all-in-one. Printer, scanner, fax, copier, annnnd wedding invitation printer!! :) So now that I've got it all set up and tested (ran all kinds of envelopes and custom-sized papers through it.. and thank god- it took them like a champ!), next up will be printing everything out verrry carefully and then setting up round 2 of "wedding arts and crafts time" hopefully with my mom, sisters and Patti (Ryan's mom) to bring it all together.

Hope you guys like it!!

A Plus Survival Supply... Launched!

2009-05-18T12:23:00.001-07:00

This past week was pretty eventful and very cool. Rich Gates, President of A Plus Survival, and I crammed more hours into our work weeks the past 2 weeks than I thought were even in one to get his brand new business open.

After a total of just 4 months, A Plus Survival's brand and identity, its entire inventory, its look and feel and its fully-developed online store (with 350+ products so far!) were all formed. It has been a truly great experience working with Rich, and because he has one of the greatest, most determined work ethics I've seen, we were able to accomplish all of these things in that crazy amount of time.

Below is the Flash introduction I got to create for A Plus Survival's website (in possibly the worst quality ever, thank you Blogger... :/ haha). See the live version here. It's just a taste of what APS stands for, and is meant to show how vital it is for people around the world to get their hands on APS' products.

To see the live version as well as the rest of the A Plus Survival ID, brand, and product line, check out www.APlusSurvival.com

CONGRATULATIONS TO RICH ON THE GRAND OPENING OF A PLUS SURVIVAL!! All the best!

Ryan's race photos: a fun distraction

2009-04-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

So Ryan had a great race this past weekend at Santa Ynez, and he gave me lots of awesome pictures to choose from to play around with in Photoshop. Below is our favorite, in a couple different variations. Ryan, I hope you like them! You look HOT!! :)

The original

Brighter colors, deeper sky...

almost same as last one, no saturation...

Switch up the composition a little!

my personal favorite

ok one more... for schitzengiggles:

My Docs Online Color Treated Logo Concepts

2009-04-13T16:08:00.000-07:00

Welp, we're getting close to the having the new logo completed!! As you can see, my client chose the concept from last week's post with the lock and envelop merged together. And I couldn't be any happier he did. The others had potential, as I try to come up with nothing but quality concepts, but I can't help always having a favorite, and it's always awesome when a client picks the one I think is best!

Below are the 4 color concepts I've put together for them to decide from. They're pretty similar since a blue and gray color scheme was already determined, so here's what I came up with:

Next up is one more round of revisions to the chosen concept, and if all goes as scheduled, I'll be posting the final logo by the end of the week!

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. -Joseph Chilton Pearce

2009-04-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

Next up on the freelance projects list: logo and website revamp for My Docs Online, a secure, online file transfer service.

I'm really excited to have been chosen for this project because, as you can see, I get the opportunity to completely revamp a brand and turn a great company's identity completely around. Hopefully, its new look will bring in loads of new business and also give the clients they already have an even greater sense of confidence in their services.

We're already about half-way through Phase 1 of this project, which is designing the initial black and white version of the logo. My goal with these designs is to represent the decade-old reputation of My Docs Online (Loyal customer service and secure file transfers) without getting too complex. I wanted to create something strong, something anyone can easily relate to file transfers, and something memorable. Here are the 4 promised concepts I put together this past weekend (+1 more just for personal kicks):

The chosen logo of the group will be modified and color-treated this week and should be ready for next phase by Monday!

"Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known." Oscar Wilde

2009-03-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I have barely even scratched the surface of the craziness that wedding planning can be, and already, I feel an overwhelming amount of small tasks coming on that I didn't quite see coming before I started reading all the books and magazines family members gave me. BUT, my family is awesome. And I definitely won't have any trouble finding help so it's not overwhelming after all. :)

I am really excited to see what all Ryan and I can come up with since I'll be using my design skills to create all of our printed stuff and our website, which has already been a lot of fun. All we've done so far is the website (which actually took me a little more time than I thought it would, but now that it's up, I know it will save us a TON of time and money since most of the info will be posted there AND people will be able to RSVP through it, which is just sweet) and the Save-The-Date design, which is actually what I'm posting today.

The final product is going to be a magnet attached to a card. We saved about 100 bucks on doing these ourselves actually instead of ordering the things online like most people do. Instead, we bought 10 sheets of 8.5 x 11" adhesive magnets, fit 12 of the designs onto each of the 10 pages we printed out, put them onto the magnets, then cut each one giving us 120 magnets total. So it should be pretty cool and definitely unique when they're all done. ....and I might post the final deal with its card and all later. Have to figure out what it will look like first, though. haha.

I have to laugh at the process of designing this project because, completely unexpectedly, my sister/MOH and mom looked at the first draft, said they liked it a lot (and I believed them) but then gave me a funny look and said something like, "Well that's not Ryan... his hair isn't crazy." So, I added some crazy Ryan-volume and got the approval on that. :) They also said, "...and your butt looks huge." haha so after I explained to them it was supposed to be his hands on my back and not my massive booty, I just stopped talking and fixed that up too. Here's version 1 so you can see what they and I mean:

So after that, here's how the final version of our Save-The-Date designs came out (yay!!):

In case you guys are curious about how they were done, I went off of these images that I found online and then edited them in Photoshop so they looked more like us, a little artsy and just... cuter, I guess.

Hope you guys like them! Next up are the invitations. We're thinking of sticking with a "unique, personalized and just a little bit different" kind of theme (not very surprising if you know us, I'm sure..), so we'll see what I can come up with next. :)

Whether we like it or not, our legacy as designers is ugly. We’re largely responsible for fueling a culture of consumption. -— Eric Karjaluoto

2009-02-11T17:17:00.000-08:00

The man's gotta point! :)

Anyway, a couple days ago I had to complete an animation test for a really really awesome company called Ayzenberg. Here were their specs:

Flash Banner Mock up Project Make a 300x250 banner at 150k or less. Most banners are at 50k but we gave extra room to allow you to really show off your skills.

Use the storyboard PSD as reference as the general direction for the banner, but feel free to makes changes to really bring it to life. If you have a great idea that doesn't follow the banner but is way cooler, feel free to do it. Feel free to import video or 3d or anything you want to make the coolest banner possible.

The only requirement is that everything needs to be embed in the 300x250 banner. oh yeah no sound in the banner.

My goal was to take the best of what they gave me (and they gave me a TON of great resources including the storyboard with some really great images from the game and a couple of movie clips from the actual game as well) and really focus on the strongest points of it, which I thought were the details in the characters' costume designs and facial expressions. Then I wanted to tie those images together with a clip from one of the trailers they gave me that had the ring kind of whirling around while coming at you... a pretty awesome shot. So originally, I had 3 images show -1 at a time- with some zooming effects applied. Then on top of them, I added the trimmed-down clip of the ring slowing coming through. I timed everything so that the clip of the ring started playing when the 1st image began to fade away, then ended.. all close up and in-your-face-like right after the 3 image faded out. Immediately following the end of the clip was a chunk of text I got from the storyboard that said "Play the PC Game of the Year for $9.99" which was then followed by an image with the Lord Of The Rings Online logo and a button/link underneath it to find out more info.

Butttttttttt the file size was enormous. I tried everything I could think of to get it down from over a massive 800kb to the 150 requirement. I got to the point where I thought it would be better to basically start from scratch, eliminate the trailer clip and still aim to get the same effect. So, here's what I came up with and although it doesn't have a piece of the trailer embedded, I can honestly say I think it's pretty rad:

http://www.huddydesign.com/SarahHudson_AnimationTest_02.html
NOTE: If you're using FireFox 3.0.6 the second and third images might get stuck but will function properly the 2nd time through, so just let it run... I'm working on a fix! :)

Lesson learned: I seriously need to spend more time focusing on mainting a low file size. That means planning out the design better before I start development so that I don't have to keep my fingers crossed before testing. And, I just need to flat out learn more ways to do that because that hasn't been my focus in training too much over the past 6 months.

Well, the great news about the final version is they liked it and I'll be meeting with them on Monday for an interview. So woo hoo!!! I'm so excited. I'm feelin some good vibes with this company and I'm really looking forward to meeting with them. :)

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. -George Smith Patton

2009-01-28T17:29:00.000-08:00

Welp, I just finished putting together the new introduction to my website, Huddy Design. I got the idea for this intro from an After Effects tutorial on Layers Magazine's website, and right away I wanted to try it out myself for 2 reasons: 1, I wanted to brush up on my After Effects skills (the program I used to create this movie clip) and 2- It just looks rad! I also wanted to show off my new logo, in a way that would give it an intense, "let's get down to business," but totally unique feel, just the way I see it as.

I think my new logo design is pretty awesome and I really couldn't be happier with it. It's actually pretty weird to even be saying that because I very rarely say that about any of my work. But for some reason, I love my new logo. If I had to guess why I do, ironically, it's because about 4 out of the 5 people I've showed it to so far (all family members- so go figure) said they didn't "get it." And to that I say with an honest smirk on my face, "even better." It's different, it's out of peoples' comfort zone in terms of design, it gets people talking, and it's not sacrificing the character of my company; It's staying true to what I think Huddy Design is about and to what I want it to become- a solid resource for design and development. Yeah, I guess that's why I love it. :)

Alright, here it is:

"The last kiss is always sweet than the first."

2009-01-09T09:51:00.001-08:00

Pretty cool little story- Jana Harvey of Jana Winery and Scott Harvey Wines, who I've worked for in the past on some cool projects, RANDOMLY found my last blog post while searching for some quotes related to love and wine for an upcoming project. Extremely luckily for me, not only did she happen to find it, she loved it and asked me to help out with the project!!

The project is an 8.5 x 11" case card or sell sheet for one of their wines, One Last Kiss. Jana liked my idea behind the holiday postcard and wants to implement it somehow on the case card, this time using the quotes she's found to make up the man and woman's profile.

Here's the first concept's rough draft:

Today I plan on playing around with the text inside the profiles... want to to see if alternating word sizes will give it a more interesting and emphasized look (I started to do this in the man's profile) and also, if more quotes or less might look better than the amount that's included in the design now. We'll see how this one comes out!

Here are the other 2 layout designs (also, both very rough drafts):

The possibly final draft, as of this morning (1/13/09):

Hope you guys like it. Whether you do or don't, you should still buy a bottle or 2 of One Last Kiss... just in time for Valentine's Day!! :) You can order it online here.

A Holiday Postcard

2008-12-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

This is my final project for Art 223, AKA Intro to Typography.

ASSIGNMENT: Create a layout for a holiday postrcard by interpreting a poem, song or short story with a holiday or winter theme. You may only use type to accomplish this. No illustrations or photographs allowed! If you must illustrate, use letterforms to do so.

REQUIREMENTS:
-Strong conceptual interpretation of a holiday/winter poem, song or short story
-You may only use TYPE to design the layout. No illustrations or photographs!
-Needs a headline/title, subhead and a text block.
-Must be accomplished using Adobe Illustrator.

SIZE AND FORMAT:
-Single-sided, 5" x 7" postcard size
-Final printed and mounted on a 8 1/2" x 11" black matte board.

COLOR:
-Full color (CMYK)
-Whatever best communicates the concept.

Welp, here is what I came up with:

Anyone who has a decent taste in music will agree that "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (originally written by Frank Leosser) is one of the best duets and Christmas/Winter season songs of all time. :)

My goal here was to keep the mood of this postcard simple and classic, just like the tone of the song, as well as clever, just like the song's concept. I've always thought this song was so simple but so fun to listen to and just really freakin' cute. It always puts me in a good mood. So, I wanted this design to be really clean and easy to understand but with a fun little twist.

I'll let you guys find the "twist" yourself (to my surprise, not everyone sees it right away while others see it the instant they take a glance). I'll give you a hint though: Everything the woman says in this duet is on the left and everything the man sings back to her is on the right.

Hope you like it! If not, well.... you know it doesn't matter TOO much to me. Especially because I'm pretty happy with this one! :)

Designing a piece for ASS.

2008-12-02T10:10:00.000-08:00

Welp, it's been a different type of challenge for me this time as a graphic designer. Never before have I ever had to come up with an idea for anything remotely close to ASS. Yeah, that's right. ASS. As in A+ Survival Supply.

The first round/rough drafts of the logo designs:

You are NOT a professional designer... because there is no such thing.

2008-11-23T14:44:00.000-08:00

While messing around on Twitter, I came across a new follower who listed "professional designer" in their bio, yet again. Seeing self-proclaimed "professional" graphic designers and such is definitely not a rare occurance. People in creative industries who call themselves "professional" just always strikes a chord with me. Honestly, it upsets me. I can't blame them though; It has nothing to do with the person or designer themselves compared to the design industry and those who run it.

It's about damn time they do something about the way designers refer to themselves. It's time someone comes up with some sort of system that adequately and officially sets the crappy, the average, the great and the superior designers apart from eachother. Sure, with research and a little time, we can make a decent guess at who's better than someone else skillwise. But the point is, we shouldn't have to and neither should potential clients when seeking a new designer to hire for a job.

It seems like every other major industry has taken care of this dillema already, some of them thousands of years ago! So why hasn't the design world?? Professional American baseball players usually start working their way up in elementary school, then play in high school, college, then the minor leagues (which, by the way are further broken down into rookie ball, single a, aa, aaa) then the major league. When we go to college, we work our way up to the top and earn our degrees along the way. First we get our associates, then our bachelors, then maybe our masters or even our doctorate, depending on the field you're in of course. Whatever you end up studying, wherever you end up working, or whatever you end up just doing in your life, there's always something to work up to. Another degree, another position, another personal best.

What's so great about that isn't just having something to work towards. Obtaining a certain degree or just being able to give ourselves some kind of label based on what we've accomplished gives the rest of the world an easy way to acknowledge our achievements! The point is, it's not hard to devise systems that rank people within a certain field of work, especially when doing so has extremely obvious benefits. And when they do come up with a ranking system, no matter the field, the exact same attributes are taken into consideration: how much experience, training and education, and how much success. That's really it! The best MLB players are almost always the ones with the most experience, training and success. Same with the best doctors, the best teachers, the best managers and the best designers.

Until AIGA or someone comes up with a way to validate a designer's skill level, I think designers and clients will each face a major problem:

Designers and their clients won't always be getting what they pay for. I'm willing to bet that every designer has under-estimated the price of a project before and I'm also willing to bet that lots of designers (especially those with years of solid experience) have over-charged clients before because they knew they could just whip out an old template to get the job done. Crappy, but true! Either way, if designers had titles which they earned and could have on display, so much of this would stop happening. If I earned the title of "advanced logo designer" for instance, I would charge a certain rate that was in an advanced designer's range and the client would be assured that he or she would get what they paid for. Simple as that.

Sorry if I come off sounding bitchy about this at all but I seriously think that having some kind of way to fairly and consistently measure a designer's success would help everyone drastically; It would help designers get paid what they've worked hard to deserve more often than they do now. And as for clients, not only would they be more likely to get what they pay for as well, but it would be easier for them to see the difference between an average and a truly professional designer if they learn to understand what it takes to reach a certain level in design.

No amount of genius can overcome a preoccupation with detail. -Marion Levy

2008-11-21T14:04:00.000-08:00

I'm always up for a challenge. This, however, is a challenge unlike any other I've come across as a designer. Not saying I'm not up for it, because I definitely am!! But I'm not sure where to start exactly. :) The task: Design a logo for a new company called A+ Survival Supply. "What's so challenging about that?" you ask. Well, YOU try putting the letters of the company together and see what you can come up with. Bet you it'll take at least 10 minutes of valuable time spent wasting away on Twitter, or whatever other site or project you could be spending your precious time on (or should be anyway) to come up with a logo that doesn't scream "ASS!!!" to all who see it. LOL. And no, only playing around with type and using the full company name does not count.

Anyway, here's my first concept:

Before you pick out the details, just know that this is a VERY rough draft and I have a lot of smoothin out to do, obviously. Especially in the S's. Ok, now you may comment. :D

Long Beach State Hall of Fame Poster Design- Final Draft

2008-11-17T17:04:00.000-08:00

There is no such thing as a boring project. There are only boring executions. -Irene Etzkorn

2008-11-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

Val!

Not sure if I told you this or not already, but remember how you wrote out all of those letters for me so that I could use them as a model/my inspiration to create my own font? Yeah, well, our project guidelines turned out to be pretty lame and I wasn't able to use them. Instead, I had to find a stupid picture of something with shapes that inspired me, and create a font that absolutely no one will ever want to use. There are people in class who are going off of pictures of high heels, chairs with odd shapes, office supplies like a freakin stapler, or paperclips, scissors....... whatever. Everyone's font looks like a cartoon instead of a clean, nicely designed typeface. Anyway. That's what happened, and I'm sorry I couldn't use it.

I just finished up my first draft (FINALLY) and still have some major edits to make, but I just thought I'd show you what I've been working on. We had to lay out our font with 4 letters per line, then include the picture our font was inspired by along with what we've named it. Hope you like it sister!!

Long Beach State Hall of Fame Design

2008-11-07T17:19:00.000-08:00

This is my second (and last) pro bono project for Long Beach State Athletics. The final design will be printed on a 40" by 40" poster and will be showcased in the LBSU Pryamid for all spectators to see. The Olympic Medalists poster will be one of probably 4 special edition posters that I get to design; The other 3 will be something like "All-Americans" and "National Champions". The special edition posters will be mixed in with other posters that have pictures the other Hall of Famers of each year- each year gets its own poster. So, they'll all make up the new Long Beach State Hall of Fame wall!

I only used 2 athletes' pictures and copied them a bunch to get a feel for what it would look like, but once I get the concept approved, I'll edit/enhance/crop/trim the other 30 athletes' pictures and put them in the mix!

Hope you guys like it.

Ryan's birthday present is almost done!!!

2008-10-15T15:27:00.001-07:00

On his birthday, I gave him 2 blank canvases and told him I would paint him anything he wanted. Right away, he knew he wanted this to hang in his living room:

Well, only SEVEN months later...... i suck :(.......... here it is:

I'll probably add more vibrant colors to the closest riders, but other than that, I think it's totally done!!

I just really hope he thinks it was worth the wait. :) even though he shouldn't have had to wait so freakin long.

“Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought.” -Lin Yutang

2008-10-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

The Final Monogram:

black and white version:

one to two color version:

"Whenever I hear, 'It can't be done,' I know I'm close to success." -Michael Flatley

2008-10-01T17:36:00.000-07:00

biwerv on Twitter posted a link to a short blog post that I thought was GREAT and something that's been bothering me for quite a while as a graphic designer, especially recently. Please check it out if you have literally just 2 minutes to spare (don't kid yourself, you know you do!).

http://www.eightyonedesign.co.uk/blog/2008/09/why-does-everyone-think-they-are-a-graphic-designer/

“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all.” -Sam Ewing

2008-10-01T17:33:00.001-07:00

Typography Project #2

ASSIGNMENT: "Create a Monogram for yourself using your initials. A Monogram is a motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters to form one symbol. Try to express something about yourself through the monogram logo.

REQUIREMENTS:
-Must use two or more letters interacting with one another to create a unique Monogram for yourself.
-Preliminary roughs will be done by hand using tracing paper and a black marker or black pencil.
-Final monogram will be created in Adobe Illustrator and printed out. 2 Printouts: Black and White version and a One to Two color version.

GOALS:
-To take what you learned about letterforms and their interactions and apply it to creating a successful mark; in our case, a personal Monogram.
-To continue to explore the interactions of positive and negative shapes and unique interations into using Adobe Illustrator.

Alright guys, let me know what you think of what I've got so far! And in case you don't know already, my initials are S.E.H. The only one that has all 3 letters is the one with the cursive font. Most likely, I won't be going with that one, but I love the flow and beauty of certain cursive fonts and had to try one out. My idea was to create that one so that it would be symmetrical- so if you flip it upside-down it still reads SEH. I like the concept, but not really into the elegant design if it's going to be a monogram for me, that's also supposed to express a little about who I am. And most of you know that elegance and flowery curves and what not aren't exactly my style.... :) So take a look and let me know which one you like best. I think I have my pick already though, but I'm definitely curious as to what you think!

click one to enlarge it:

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. -Frank Zappa

2008-10-01T17:32:00.000-07:00

At the first Women's Volleyball home game I went to this year (Thanks Ryan for letting me drag you out there!!, I caught up with Wayne, a really nice guy who's in charge of student-athlete development. I agreed to helping out LBSU and mostly, the athletic department by doing some promotional work for them, some projects paid and some pro bono. I figured, if they have an enormous audience and their mailing list alone reaches out to over 33,000 people, it definitely wouldn't hurt to keep my creative juices flowin' throughout the semester- if I have free time from school work and studying. And Wayne said I would always have the freedom to pass on a project if I was already busy.

So, the first project is done. I think. It's a handbill that will promote the upcoming basketball season for both the men's and women's teams. I had 2/3 of each side of the handbill to design as a coupon, designed by someone else, was to be attached on the bottom. I was given professional photos of the star players, which I simplified by cutting out all of the details of the gym and the court, leaving just their profiles and a clean, more dominant image of them as players. I've never really seen them play, but I think they look pretty dang good pictured like that. For side 2, athletics wanted to list as many of their home games as would fit, so I managed to get all of them on there. I hope people don't think it's too cluttered....

It was a busy week in the athletic offices and I haven't gotten the final FINAL approval, but here's what the end result will most likely be (or be a lot like):

This thing took me a LOT longer than I expected it to, like just about every other project I work on, but I'm pretty excited to see it printed and sent out to so many people. Ryan asked me if I thought doing this kind of work would really be worth it to me and I said definitely yes for a couple reasons. True, not many people ever take a thorough look at the design of something printed, and I'm willing to bet 99% of those people don't know what all it takes to design and develop something usually. I'm aware of this. But for me, an idea or a thought that's created is art in some form or another, and my art is my work. So as long as I'm working, I'm getting better at the thing I've happily let become my job. And most importantly for the business side of it, the longer I work at my job, the more I have to show for it-especially in my portfolio for anyone to see since it's on the web. So that's basically what it comes down to. Yeah, I truly hope more people show up for some basketball games this year because they felt inspired to by my designs. But what's more (and more selfish of me as a graphic designer, I realize), I hope that the people who see my work who also DO look at something and understand what all goes into it, ie other designers, marketing professionals, other digital or fine artists, recruiters, etc..... I hope they see a job well done. That's all it ever comes down to for me, really.

I hope for that now, but my goal is to become developed and skilled and talented enough to expect that from these types of people.

“You can do a good ad without good typography, but you can’t do a great ad without good typography.” -Herb Lubalin

2008-10-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

I'd say about 80% of the people I've told I'm taking a typography class this Fall have asked me, "What's typography?" And when I tell them that in a nutshell, it's the study of lettering and how language is presented, they either give me a fake "Ohhh, I get it" or a "Hmmm..." even though they're still confused. It's kind of funny to me that that happens, but at the same time, it really makes me wish I could explain how beautiful typography can be and how essential it is to good design.

Well guys, here is a small collection of some of my favorite clips of typography in motion. The first of them explains what typography is, just a bit outside that nutshell. I hope that by watching them (or even 1) you get a better understanding of typography and what I'll be learning all about in a couple weeks when classes start up again! I'm really excited.

pulp fiction in typography (so of course.... WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT)

and a great site with some more static examples:
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/12/sexy-bold-and-experimental-typography/

You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. -Al Einstein

2008-10-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

Good point, Al. I agree more and more with that each day I work and try to get better at what I'm doing now.

Today is the day my goal of finishing my website will be achieved!!!! At least to the point where it's completely functional and has no page left with "coming soon" anywhere on it, anyway. Here's the result of a design idea I distracted myself with a few weeks ago:

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -Thomas Edison

2008-10-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a really crappy verson of what I've been working on. Crappy because the quality just isn't good. I thought about enhancing it before posting here, but decided it's probably better that I don't for 2 reasons. The first being that I want it to look a million times better on my actual site anyway, so maybe this will give you guys something to look forward to... haha. and 2- I'm guessing there will be some issues with the file size on here if I make it any bigger than it already is. So, I hope you guys like it so far. There are just a few bugs I need to work out, but so far, I'm really happy with it!

"When you're young, the silliest notions seem the greatest achievements." -Pearl Bailey

2008-10-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

Alright, here's what I've been up to this week!!

For Wah-Tah!:

-The header for the website I'm building for the whole company:

and the newest T-shirt design:

-The latest edition of shelf talkers for Scott Harvey Wines (the rest of the ones I've done in the past are at http://www.scottharveywines.com/html/trade.htm and they're all of the "hand made shelf talkers" and some of the others that aren't linked up as hand made. basically, all of their shelf talkers that have trader joe's style illustrations):

Annnnnnd my last thoughts for the day:

I think Pearl Bailey has a good point and I think she brings up another one that a lot of us overlook sometimes: It's never REQUIRED of us by anyone that we must be young to feel accomplished through something we might consider to be silly. It's only required by ourselves... by those of us who can't feel good about accomplishing something so small. I say, if you want to do such a thing, all you have to do is pick up a box of crayons, doodle around for a bit like you did when you were "young" and feel good about it. Because yeah, I just did all that for part of a job, but you know what? It felt good and I feel accomplished!!

I know that was pretty random, but you all know I'm a big believer in doing things that would prove such a quote totally wrong!! I'm glad I am too because I'm pretty sure it's stuff like that that keeps you young. Maybe that goes back to making her quote right actually...

Nothing will work unless you do. -Maya Angelou

2008-10-01T17:09:00.000-07:00

Welp, I made it. I finished this semester. I can honestly say that it was probably my busiest AND most successful semester at Long Beach yet, and for a few reasons. The reason I say it was both of those is because it was the first time I accomplished more in the past few months than I have in my previous semesters. I'm sure that if a lot of other people who know me actually read this, especially my teammates, they would totally disagree. But here's why it's true: Before the semester began, I changed my plans (and probably some of Ryan's plans) and my life around for possibly the next 2 years so that I could do something this Spring that would be completely me, and just something that I've been wanting to do my whole life basically. I changed my major so I would finally be able to take some art classes, post-poned graduation by doing just that, figured out what my goals would be for these next 2 years so that I could pay for school and other crap since my scholarship ended, and totally had the best time (scholastically) doing 2 things that came from all of that: I came back to my artistic roots and I started my own graphic design business with a great client who I'll have a lasting job with! I know that to a lot of people, that might not be too big of a deal because to them, it's not the most difficult thing in the world (and they're right on this one) to just take some art classes and pay about $80 to start a business. Well listen up punks- it was for me so I'm proud about it! I'm not looking for a huge pat on the back for saying all of this, but I do want to sit back for a sec and be happy about all I've accomplished over the past 4 months because for one, this isn't something I do very much and all and 2, it took a lot of compromising to get there for me. I won't get into it any more than that because I think all the people who are close to me understand what I'm talking about already and if not, I'd rather talk to them instead of write about it here.

Basically, I have huge plans now for this summer now that I've got Huddy Design going.
-At the moment, I'm finishing up my first published website, http://www.hudsonshuffleboards.com/ for my brother. I launched it 2 days ago and have gotten some cool feedback already so that's good. There are a ton of small things I wan to fix and add to it, but for now, it's what Will Hudson, President of Hudson Shuffleboards, wanted.
-I'm also working on some more t-shirt designs for Wah-Tah!, an awesome company I've been working with since it started a few months ago. I've talked about it to a bunch of you guys, but I haven't told anyone really what exactly it is. I'll make a separate post right after this one that tells you all about it. If you have 2 minutes, take the time to read it all because although Wah-Tah! has somewhat of a cheesy presence to it, which is exactly what Seth (the guy who started it) wants it to be, he also wants it to become a hugely powerful and positive concept, which everyone including myself sees its potential in becoming just that. So read on, kids. "Tap the Power Within... Wah-Tah!"
-Scott Harvey Wines has some new wines coming out soon, and I'll be doing more shelftalkers for those throughout this week. I also worked on a new wine label that will be coming out soon for them... it's part of their superhero-themed collection of InZINerator wines, which is very tasty by the way. So I'm excited to see that come out. I hope it's a huge hit.
-Although each of these jobs have helped me build up my business a little more, the biggest plans I've made for this summer are to get my website finished and polished within about a month and a half. I could probably do it before then, but the thing is, I want to grow a really really strong understanding of Flash- one of the most sought after jobs in the design business right now. If I can become somewhat of a master of Flash and object oriented programming (OOP), i'll be golden! There's this huge graphic design convention called Siggraph that happens once a year, and a TON of great companies are there doing their own promotions, and demonstartions and most importantly for me, recruiting. If I can show up as an experienced and knowlegable Flash Designer, I garauntee I'll be hooked up with a sweet job in no time, especially since I'm a female. It sounds weird/sexist/ i don't care what it sounds like actually, because females working in graphic design tend to be totally valued these days since most people working in the fields are males. and females have a totally different perspective on, well, basically everything- on what the designs of the characters, settings, layouts, story lines, etc. in video games, in movies with special effects, in music videos, in websites.. females are totally sought after for those jobs because males obviously dominate it right now. I mean honestly- you don't go to see LOTR or Ironman or some gaming convention without feeling overwhelmed by the nerdiness of all the boys/grown men who think they're boys that day in their favorite superhero t-shirt or better yet their favorite characters costume!! I've totally gone off on a tangent.............

This summer, I'm making it all happen:
-Wah-Tah! will have a sweet website up and running with more t-shirt designs than customers will be able to handle when looking for their favorite style.
-Will's site will be done soon with all the details, so he can start selling a whole boat-load (haaa, literally though) of shuffleboards. then to celebrate, we'd dance and sing, "do the shuffle! do do do dodo do do do do.....do the shuffle!" (sorry, had to throw the corny line that's been in my head a lot lately while working on his site!)
*****-www.HuddyDesign.com finished and responsible for landing me my first big job- hopefully as an art director at a company in OC and not LA.

Last thought for the day- I realize more and more that the creative process, paired with the inevitable process of problem solving (and especially debugging, in terms of Flash and web design work), can literally make you go crazy sometimes.. but what is so important in what I've been doing and what I will do the rest of my career is the choice I make each time a client has a new idea or job for me, or each time I'm creating what I envision. All it really takes is the choice to finish what a client sees in their mind or what I've started instead of giving in to whatever it is that's making me crazy.. the program I'm using, the blank sheet of paper, my over-worked imagination... all of these things and more. That's really all it is- it's just making that choice, sometimes a lot more often than other times, to figure the crap out!! I know for a fact now, after only 1 semester of Intro to Computer Art and Foundation 2-dimensional, that making that one single choice is what categorized just about every single student into those who got an A and those who got a B and so on.

What's great about this realization is that it applies to basically any aspect of your life that you want to deal with honestly. If you want to make an honest assessment of your life and what you want to accomplish anytime in the future, all you have to do is ask yourself if it's worth it to you or not to choose getting through all the issues that will or have already come up within them. For me, I'll have to decide a bunch of times this summer during my training if it's worth it to me to fight off feeling out of shape or tired in order to win my next race. That's what I mean by being honest- it's taking the time out to realize you have a choice instead of playing it off like the choice has already been made for you.

This summer I plan on doing all of these things, finishing in the top of my division- whether it's in designing or in Triathlon and just in life in general- all while being honest throughout all the hours I'll be putting into each job or race. I should say job AND race, actually.