Four years ago, when I started out my business (or whenever it was—I always get fuzzy on the dates) I was charging all of $10 an hour (sometimes less, as was the case in my first job). Looking back, it’s no surprise, really, that by the end of my first solo year I was so […]
Stories
Think before you ink: a treatise on decision-making
I get asked questions about my tattoos a lot. It sometimes strikes me as strange—I have seven of them, which I suppose is quite a few, but they’re all really tiny black symbols—so it’s hardly as though they’re at all surprising. A few years ago, before I quit my job to launch a business, I […]
How to win your designer’s eternal love
Bad clients are notorious among designers. We complain about them constantly, we’ve devoted a hilarious-yet-heartbreaking website to them, and we swap horror stories like badges of honour, rolling our eyes in empathy and disgust. We spend so much time complaining about the bad clients that it’s sometimes easy to overlook the good clients. Lately, I’ve been working […]
On the importance of getting away and taking a break
It’s super-important. Seriously, though, I’ve spent the last five weeks with my dominant arm in a giant cast. (Although after week two, I regained the use of my elbow and some fingers and by week three was able to use an extra couple of fingers on my right hand while typing, which has helped. My […]
For the love of shoes
Please note: this week I’ve been totally swamped with work-work-work-work, and since I’m still in a cast and typing the four thousand emails a day that run my business often makes me frustrated and dizzy, I am utterly exhausted. I wrote this article some time ago, and while it doesn’t have anything to do with […]
One-handed girl seeks extra set of hands (or, I’m hiring!)
I’ve really been focusing on trying to build my business these days, and I’m lucky in that it’s been working, for the most part. Of course, this means that I keep running out of time for all those fancy things I like so much, like sleeping and drinking martinis. It’s reached the point at which […]
My love affair with WordPress
Yesterday, I received two emails from different clients, both inquiring about building WordPress-based websites. I responded, as I usually do: “WordPress is awesome! I love building sites with WordPress! Let’s do it!” I’ve found that I’m using it as the backbone for a lot of my websites these days (including the entirety of this one!), […]
What I’ve learned from broken bones and painkillers
Thanks mostly to a potent mix of stupidity, tequila, and my own interminable love of over-enthusiastic wrestling matches, I’ve managed to break a bone. (I did tempt fate that night by saying I’d never broken one before, so I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised by the outcome, really.) Not being one to ever do […]
Let’s talk about text, baby
I love type, but I find that most days, I don’t get much of a chance to really play with it like I like to. I miss the luxury of school (anything that costs more than a pair of Louboutins is a luxury), where we’d be given typography assignments that let us play around with […]
5 reasons I don’t pick up my phone (and neither should you!)
So my poor telephone is on its last legs, and I’m finally breaking down and getting a shiny new iPhone, for a wide variety of reasons. (It’s pretty! It does “smart” stuff that my StupidPhone Blackberry can’t! It can play music and take photos that don’t look totally terrible! Designing iPhone apps will be easier […]