Two hours later, I was a blonde. (Actually, this isn’t true. It took more like the entire weekend and six boxes of bleach to get there, which ultimately destroyed my hair and left me with no option but cutting it all off, eventually, but that’s another story.) For me, it was a massive change, as I’ve always been prone to identify myself by my haircolour. People often know me as the girl with lots of bright red hair (admittedly, I’m still working on getting the “lots” part back), and all the varied preconceptions and stereotypes people have about redheads tend to apply to me, too. (Whether that’s an issue of nature or nurture, I’m not quite sure, but let’s assume it’s irrelevant.)

So going blonde was definitely an impulsive choice, and part of my desire to do so was to play with my own sense of self. It was fun for a while (mostly because I’d show up places to see friends, and they’d look quite shocked), but eventually I went back to something akin to my natural colour (after testing out almost every other colour combination available to me. Seriously, it’s no wonder my hair ended up destroyed).  The experiment led me to realize just how much of who we are—both how we see ourselves, and how others see ourselves—is encapsulated in our appearance. As much as we may try insist on silly maxims like “don’t judge a book by its cover” and “it’s what’s on the inside the counts”, what’s on the outside is almost invariably a reflection of what’s on the inside.

Sometimes people try to tell me that design isn’t important, because if you sell a product or service that’s good enough, people will flock to it regardless of how it’s packaged. To some extent, this is true; however, to a more relevant extent, it isn’t true. Good design translates the “what’s inside” stuff and puts it on the outside. It extracts the notable elements of whatever you’re selling and displays it in a visual form, in much the same way that my having red hair says “I’m energetic and a little bit mad”. Design is always relevant—not because it falsifies a product, but rather because it presents it in an optimal light.

Part of the reason I love working with startups is because we get to develop branding from the ground-up—start with a clean slate. Typically this will start with logo development, which is the central axis of the overall brand, and thus a highly important element. I find that, regardless of the service or product being branded, invariably elements of the person behind it become tangled into the message: their colour preferences, their fondness for certain elements, the fact that they like cats. In the past, I’ve typically tried to direct people away from this kind of thinking (just because you like lilies doesn’t mean that your sewage-treatment company should use a lily in its logo) but I’m beginning to believe that this is no longer as valid an argument as it once was.

I had my logo tattooed to my shoulder blade a few years ago, when I was just starting out. People kept asking me: “What happens if the business fails?” and I’d respond with “well, I’d have a reminder of a crazy venture I undertook!”. Of all my tattoos, it’s the one I’m the least likely to ever regret. Also note that my own branding was based, in part, out of a fondness for sparks, ampersands, and and Old-West aesthetic.

Invariably, as trends shift towards a focus on the person behind the business, rather than a corporation as a faceless identity, who you are is an integral part of who your business is, and thus it’s relevant that you like cats. (And I’m sorry for saying it wasn’t!)

Starting a business is such a personal venture anyway, and you put so much of yourself into the process, that what results is inherently ties to who you are anyway.

So: dress like your website. Dye your hair the colour of your logo. Throw your cats in there, so long as you can find a way to make it relevant. Embrace the parts of yourself that your audience will respond to, and make your business, and your brand, a part of yourself.

So, to follow up on last week’s post about design in transit systems, I thought I’d post a little tidbit I came across in Dubrovnik.

I’d just landed in town, ready for a new language, new currency, and new adventures. I’d had about four hours of sleep, stretched out on a bench in the neon-lighted bar of the ferry from Italy to Croatia, and I was wandering about, trying to orient myself, with a backpack the approximate size and weight of a bear strapped to my back. I head toward what looks like it might be a cash machine and I come across this delightful sign:

Don’t play with guns, alright, kids?

Okay, so who designed this logo, and what is HVIDR-a? The handicapped gun club? A grim warning against playing with guns? An aggressive claim to the juicy parking spots? Doesn’t being in a wheelchair get you out of conscription?

After a bit of a Google-hunt, turns out it’s the Croatian Disabled Homeland War Veterans Association, which is an awfully long name for a rather serious organization. Civil war is still a fresh wound for countries in the former Yugoslavia—in Dubrovnik, you can still see where shells hit the walls, and you still can’t go off the marked paths in Sarajevo in case you accidentally set off a landmine. (Apparently you can also find Sarajevo Roses on the streets, but I didn’t actually see any while I was there.)

Given all that, I really do suspect they could do with a slightly more… tactful logo.

Your resume looks fantastic! One of the best I’ve ever seen!

So, if you find yourself facing unemployment (I’m not going to use the “R” word, or even the “D” word, but do feel free to ruminate on the current economic climate in whatever manner you’d prefer), you should invest in a custom-designed resume! It’s cheap, it’s fun, and it may even get you a job. And I get that warm-and-fuzzy feeling that comes from helping someone out.

I’ve been using WordPress for everything lately, and have totally fallen in love with it. I seem to always be a little behind the curve on web trends (as a side note, I’m now on Twitter, though I still don’t really understand the point entirely) due to my general distaste for trends (if everyone likes it, it can’t possibly be any good, right?). But I really wish I’d discovered the power and flexibility of WordPress earlier on—it’s brilliant and I’m beginning to use it for more and more of my client projects.

I was first introduced to it earlier in the summer when I did a website and serial novel page for Lilith Saintcrow. I used it for another Orbit Books author website, Brent Weeks. Most recently, I’ve used a highly customized version for a community website for Maplewood on the Lakes. I’m developing a few more sites using it, and have discovered that, generally speaking, it’s actually much faster, simpler, and more powerful that creating my own customized administration panel (though I’m still doing this for more complex database-driven websites).

In non-Wordpress related news, I’ve also added the design work I did for Sebastien’s Bistro, and the identity materials developed for the Walker Inn.

And that’s all the updates for now! I’m going to keep trying to make my updates happen on a regular basis, but I’m like the chef who comes home and eats frozen dinners (and I’ve met a few) in this case.

I’ve had the chance to work with a huge range of companies and people over the past year, producing a range of different projects. I’ve done newspaper ads, illustrations, resumes, and a whole slew of websites, logos, business cards, and brochures. I’ve learned how to use Quickbooks, I’ve streamlined my processes, I’ve learned some AJAX techniques, I’ve rewritten my CMS code base, I’ve read about grids and typography and golden ratios. I’ve lost out on contracts, and I’ve taken on projects that thrilled and challenged me. I make an awful lot less money now than I used to, and I probably work harder. But it’s just so much fun.

However, my one-year-mark is a time for serious consideration. What’s my goal here? Where am I going? How is my little business going to grow up? And, most importantly, how can I keep doing what I love, stay sane, and make enough money to keep me in chocolate and red wine for the rest of my life?

I am coming to realize that:

1. Delegate, delegate, delegate. I am a creature of many talents, but I am not any of the following: Salesman. Accountant. Programmer. Mechanic. Stop thinking you can do everything, and start spending more of your time doing what you are good at and do enjoy.
2. Nothing comes quickly. Projects will take longer than you expected to reach completion. A two-minute fix will turn into a two-hour session of slamming your head against the wall. Sometimes you’ll put an inordinate amount of time into researching an estimate for a project you’re not awarded, only to be handed a bigger and better project a year down the line. A lot of what I do is investment.
3. It is great to be a workaholic, but make sure you get at least three seconds of fresh air every day.
4. Stop taking things so personally. Not everyone can think you’re the next coming, and some days, you will just suck. This does not necessarily mean that you are a total failure in all areas of your life, and it is certainly not cause for a mental breakdown.
5. Nancy Reagan was right, sort of. Sometimes, you should “just say no”. As a small-business owner, it’s easy to fall into the trap of jumping at anything that dangles a cheque in front of you, but that’s not really why you’re in this business, anyway, and it’s certainly not the most important factor to consider.

These are my monsters. I’m hoping that, by this time next year, I’ll have massacred at least half of them.

I’ve been busy moving into my new studio and working on things here & there. A few new additions to the website: smugglerscoveinn.ca, harrisonmackay.com, and a logo for Triple R Tack.

Up next? More websites, more logos, illustrations, a PDF book, and a resume design special. More creative just-for-me work (I hope!), a quick cleansing trip back home, followed by my (much-anticipated, though probably only by me) official launch party! Mark May 19th on your calendars and keep your eyes peeled for details.

Vector (EPS): Vector files are infinitely scaleable. You could take an EPS and print it on a grain of rice, then scale it up and print it on a billboard without any loss of quality. If you need to print your logo, whenever possible, use an EPS. Any print shop should be able to handle an EPS.

Raster (GIF/PNG & Tiff): Raster files lose quality when scaled — as a result, these files are provided at three different sizes. If you need a different size, scale down whenever possible. If you need something larger or substantially smaller than the files provided, open the included EPS file in any image processing program and create a larger version directly from this. GIF/PNG files are provided for use on websites and on any on-screen presentation — they are compressed for speed of download without any loss in quality. Tiff files are provided for print purposes — use these if you can’t use the EPS and need to print your logo.