Last year Jennifer McBrien was voted the Art Teacher of the year. Not a small feat for someone in a public school system that has whittled down art offerings and budgets to make getting stuff done tougher and tougher for educators. Jen joined us for our holiday dinner party and we see her and husband several times a year.

On a recent visit to their art studio, my eye was drawn to mini tapestry, drawn freehand on Jen’s sewing machine. This is the art that she makes when not in front of a classroom. After wine, conversation, and several visitors coming through the open studio tour hubby and I had to buy this piece—as a Christmas present to ourselves.

Dedication and Development

As an artist, Jen is completely responsible for her production, self-promotion, event scheduling and planning. It really is a full time job—in addition to full-time teaching. As we talked I was surprised by the dedication and self- control that it takes for one to be ones own production staff. What I love is seeing her development through the years. She creates birdy-birds, from the cartoonish abstractions to advanced ornithological accurate sewing machine drawings.

The piece we purchased took something like 7 hours(over days) to create—from idea, to sketches, to inception, to finishing. It’s amazing. But Jen also takes evenings and weekends to produce wares and art for craft shows, fares and juried online exhibitions

Shameless Self Promotion

Jen’s blog is regularly shared on social media, her Etsy Store is another stream of content that appears in my facebook feed. She applies and for and attends sales events around the country and enters online juried exhibits on a regular basis. Since we’ve met I’ve visited Jens booth at the east coast’s largest arts festival every year. Hubby and I have purchased four of her unique and beautiful pieces so far.


We’re still looking for the perfect home to hang our Christmas present

In doing some research I found several fantastic leave behind ideas for graphic design inspiration. If you opt for professional finishing or taking the handmade route, the leave behind is definitely worth it:

Late last summer I got the proclamation from on high that my team was entering the mobile app business. After purchase of DPS we’d be tasked with creating a digital mobile app to distribute to our various constituent groups. And I’d be in charge. It was an exciting prospect and the time has finally come for this work to begin.

This community technology mobile app—that drops in a few months—will be written by me, designed by me, tested by me, and marketed by me. Sound like fun? In the past week I’ve created a rough outline, listed existing and necessary assets, and worked out an editorial schedule; that’s right, I’ve got to create copy for a couple dozen articles of varying lengths. My calendar has already been blocked out and the editorial process begins next week. Following that, I’ll visit our marketing department to scour their image database for photogenic people interacting with technology to liberally pepper the app pages. Then the real work begins.

Also in the last week I checked out some fantastic DPS apps for inspiration. That was a fruitful endeavor. In addition to seeing how developers market their completed creations, I also downloaded several of the design and played with the functionality. Skylife is my absolute favorite!

More to come!

Washington Post just tweeted this and I had to share. The Animated GIF has gone from unsophisticated cartoons meant to distract on early websites to  an art form.  The winner of the Inagural Motion Picture prize is shown at the top of the WP Style Blog article. However, these runner ups are my favorite:

Finalist, night category (Matthew Clarke/Image courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London)

Finalist, action category (Micaël Reynaud/Image courtesy of the Saatchi Gallery, London)

As a new teacher I am privy to the highs and lows of the profession without that much commitment. Early in the semester I realized that my input, critique, and idiosyncrasies color the way that these budding creatives approach future design challenges. That realization took me back to a conversation I started last year with some of my professional peers.


Me: I had to chuckle when I came across these poster designs done in Max Boam and Bert Smith's classes... those two challenged me to grow as a designer.

A. Scott: I love Max Boam 

C. Ono: love max. He was so straightforward but helped me grow a lot. I asked him about a piece one time and I asked "does this look like crap?" and he said, "yes, yes I'm afraid it does." and ever since then, I ask myself that question all the time when reviewing my work and think if he would give me the same reply…

A. Willard: I can imagine Max saying that in his Brit accent...

C. Ono: That's what made it so polite 

Well, I've been doing responsive site designs for clients in recent years but have neglected to update my site with the proper code and functionality. earlier this year I took the time to rectify that issue and also added higher quality images; owing to the mobile move toward retina displays (more about that in a future article).

The redesign also has to do with my current work in teaching, training and academia. One website reviewer said that she noticed that my site was much more academic than in previous iterations. I'm happy with the result.

With out much more ado, here's a preview of simonejenifer.org:

Thanks owwwlab!

Retailing for 24,150 yen (about $235), the glasses will go on sale at the end of this month. Check out the Website...

Earlier this week, a recent graduate asked me to review her resume. It was well-laid-out and used typography quite effectively. I loved her clean, cool color palette. So, I didn't really have much to do by way of crit.

Here's a draft of my 2-column resume. Click image to see full sized.

The only real issue for me was the length of her resume. The 4-5 years of professional experience that she listed was spread across 10 positions and took up the majority of 2 pages. She showcased internships and volunteer posts in the same category as her professional experience. Were I reviewing her application for a job, I would expect to see a more seasoned designer; just going on the amount of text.

I suggested that she omit some non-relevant content and that she make her body copy fit in a single-page format. Here are a few examples of some two column resumes that allow designers to present themselves succinctly.

On a more personal level, I made the decision to have a one pager for my resume but kept my CV a multi-page document. Besides personal preference, there are other reasons to consider a single-page, 2-column resume format: 1. you only design the first page, 2. reviewers only need to keep track of one page, 3. you get to showcase your ability to prioritize and layout several chunks of content in the single page, 4. you skip the necessity to create a complimentary layout for subsequent pages (this is something I had to do for my CV... as I generally create 3 viable design solutions, this was a time-consuming process for me).

Design by bobgun

Layout by jessiLenz

Inspirational Quotes are relevant in both work-life and life-life:

1. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication Leonardo Da Vinci 2. Less is more - Mies van der Rohe 3.   Design is a response to a specific problem. You are given a problem to solve, and then you let the problem itself tell you what your solution is. - Chip Kidd  4. The real issue is not talent as an independent element, but talent in relationship to will, desire and persistence. Milton Glaser 5.    “GOOD DESIGN IS OBVIOUS. GREAT DESIGN IS TRANSPARENT.”JOE SPARANO   6. God is in the details. - Mies van der Rohe  7. If we do our jobs right, and get a little lucky… great art can be great business. Chip Kidd 8. If you have no intuitive sense of design, then call yourself an “information architect” and only use Helvetica. - David Carson9.   Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works. Steve Jobs 10.  I love what I do. Simone Jenifer Christian

I wanted to share with you a series of graphic design quotes that have stuck with me through my design education and throughout my career. My list got to about ten quotes before it got sidetracked.

I came upon a quote from one of my favorite designers, Chip Kidd. According to the autobiographical Cheese Monkeys—a book that inspired me in school, he sort of fell into the study in school. Since school Kidd has worked as a designer for Knopf, Random house and other publishers. He continues to inspire me.

Eclectic and inspired; this designer and illustrator makes me glad to be a part of the community. Pieces from his Behance portfolio has been shared and re-shared all around the design community. Check him out:

Editorial: European Patent

Infographic for Casa

GQ Germany

Check out his awesome illustration on his website, www.goranfactory.com
His Behance portfolio also includes some other graphic pieces, www.behance.net/goranportfolio

Through color we express and experience emotion. Effective branding uses color to effectively reach the consumer, market and audience.

If typography is high art, then letterpress is the best of paint, brushes, and canvas. Moxie Press & Co., the brainchild of Maryland designer Chris Undi, does it so well. This one-man shop offers design services, illustration, and printing. Not only is Chris a fantastic designer/pressman, he's also a good friend. Check out more of his work and see Moxie Press on Facebook: