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.
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Friday, January 8, 2010
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Whether we like it or not, our legacy as designers is ugly. We’re largely responsible for fueling a culture of consumption. -— Eric Karjaluoto
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. :)
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. :)
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. -Frank Zappa
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.
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.
Nothing will work unless you do. -Maya Angelou
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.
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.
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