Remember near the end of school, you bought that sexy black portfolio case that was so expensive you were forced to subsist on ramen noodles for months afterwards? Along with the box, you picked up the 3-foot sheets of Letramax and meticulously cut them down to uniform rectangles and adorned these with the best of your student work.

I met Tracy last night at a pre-turkey day show at the metro gallery. I heard her interview story while outside smoking and knew I had to blog it.

Tracy, the lawyer, showed up for her initial interview with the department of Health and Human Services. She was professionally coifed, dressed appropriately and more than prepared for the probing questions that the interviewer would ask.

She arrived in the office and sat for an hour. The interviewer never showed up.

Happy Thanksgiving all.
-Simone

Sure they are.  Logo redesign is the wave of the present.  These corporate  giants moved from authoritative type in bold uppercase characters to lighter weights,  lowercase, sans serifs.

The jury seems to be out on the GAP logo redesign.  It has a few striking differences that hit me immediately. Readability: dark on light is 15% easier to read than light text on a dark background. The gradient square looks like part of a whole.

Corporate logo redesigns have also added greater levels of tactility and depth to their upgrades. UPS designers brought their signature brown into the 21st century by sketching the shield and giving the previously mechanically sterile design a hand-tooled look; it puts me in mind of sitting next to the artist at his drafting table and being part of the creative process. Again, we see an added gradient.

This tactility is very evident here:
Another prevalent technique used is the breaking down of personal space.  By this I mean that we are closer to the character of the logo. We are now face to face with 'Carmen Miranda' when we bite into our Chiquita bananas. And the 'face' of LG is more human and more closely cropped..Take a look

I'v almost got the hang of it.
The highlights of my Sony Vaio is the full keyboard, sick speed, and the new upgrades to MS Windows, I guess I have W 2010; it offers a more intuitive UI than previous versions.

The drawbacks are--well, they're more my problems than actual hardware/software issues--it takes way too long to shut down ans start up, I'm trying to be okay with the widget add-ons and I just can't (I only use WeatherBug because I trust it, but I miss having my dashboard).

Finally, I know why Windows machines are so susceptible to virus attacks--they're always communicating with the web--whether you ask them to or not.  With an Apple, you have the option to allow programs to constantly scan the Web for updates or no-You're never surprised by a program update on shutdown.

That's all I got, I'm well behind on a work project.

-cheers

Right now every professional designer I know is busy as hell. And no wonder, companies have tightened belts and expect small creative departments to do more with less. Unfortunately, the trend is increasing. As a graphic designer, you have a few options that can be employed:

• Hold your breath until you turn blue.
• Threaten to quit until you get some help.
• Look for a new job with a company with greater resources
• Delegate more work to your subordinates (as if)
• Get an intern, and create opportunities for students to learn on-the-job and increase their skill base, while you get a helping hand.

That’s right, consider hiring an intern! You have options for skill levels and knowledge; there’s no rule that sayS your intern will be a novice who only knows the rudimentaries of Photoshop. Undergrad and Graduate programs promote internship throughout the length of the programs, and you can easily end up hiring a gifted designer with mad Adobe skills, aptitude for typography and a passion for the visual arts.


One problem that you’re sure to encounter is making time in your too-full schedule to interview prospective interns. Take a tip from me, schedule them all on the same morning—preferably the one that the mandatory staff meeting fallS on—and then keep your afternoon free to tackle your ever-expanding ‘work’ pile.

• Job search and the job market
• Interview questions, answers, and tips
• Life of an intern
• Meet Creative Entrepreneurs

The default browser is Google Chrome. I know that I should’ve tried this out a year ago, but I just wasn’t thinking. Chrome auto-populates as you type, and when you hit enter, you’re there baby (just like Safari, actually)! It took me a while to figure out how to get my bookmarks in there, but I’m on a roll now.


The first problem I've encountered is this; I've been spoiled by the Fetch FTP Client! The GUI is simple intuitive and easy to use, period.  On day one of getting my Vaio, I downloaded Filezilla and got the shock of my life. Where the hell are the "Get" and "Put" buttons, dammit! I ended up having to use my MacBook to plop a new site onto my ftp just so I can work directly from the server.  
From now on, I'll have to do the one thing that I always advise others to do when working with unfamiliar software, RTFM.

Today’s my 2nd day telecommuting on the Vaio, wish me luck.

• Buy a new Mac desktop  
• Replace the new desktop that arrived at my house cracked 
• Cancel the replacement 
• Get my money back (after over a month with no computer) 

The customer service experience was terrible. Based on weeks of being treated like garbage while attempting to spend thousands of dollars, I chose to move away from Apple. I opted for a Sony machine. 

In undergrad, I was surprised to learn that while we graphic design students swore by Apple Macbooks and Imacs, the game design students all programmed on Vaios. The high-end professional machines are sleek, light and fast as shit! Picking the Sony brand was a no brainer for me. 

When my F-series laptop showed up I had no idea how to work the damn thing. All I knew was that I’d need a bigger briefcase to accommodate the larger screen. In older Windows machines, font management was not intuitive; I had to suppress my initial freak out when I went looking for fonts in the "Control Panel". I probably shouldn’t have freaked out. Font management is much simpler, and there are previews like with Fontbook. 

Granted I haven’t opened MS Office on it yet--but the commercials on Hulu all claim it's awesome, functional and intuitive--we'll see.  I will make another update when it’s been a month.

This is my new favorite breakfast cereal. It's a knock off of a more expensive brand, and it's healthy as hell!! I started eating fiber select 3 weeks ago after picking up two boxes of the stuff on my bi-weekly grocery run.  

Bad job interviews happen. Sometimes it's the interviewee's fault, sometimes there just isn't a good fit, and sometimes the forces of nature conspire against a positive outcome. Whatever the reason, bad interviews happen. Look, here comes one now.

This past summer--also known as the hottest summer on record--my buddy Lisa* went on her first job  interview in over three years. The night before her appointment, she picked up a new pair of shoes to complete her interview ensemble. Little did she know that this purchase was to be her undoing.

The appointment took place on the Johns Hopkins campus. Her first stop was the Human Resources department, where she met the director and learned more about the position. The second stop was to be held across campus, with the department head and her potential, future boss.

The day began with a mad dash for public transport, followed by a painful walk to HR--the new shoes were binding, pinching, and burning. During the first Q &Q session, Lisa's feet howled in pain. When the meeting was over she felt down by the heel that burned the most and drew back fingers coated in blood. The too-small shoes had rubbed her feet raw and--before her actual  interview was even under way--she was already wounded. Before her 2nd trek across campus, Lisa stopped at an on-site pharmacy and bought a box of plastic bandages to cushion the friction and staunch the flow of blood. This was pointless because the humid atmosphere made it impossible for the cushioning to stick to her feet and the high heat made her feet swell; further exacerbating the problem.

By the time she got to the main  interview, she was consumed with worry and physical pain. She half answered questions and was uncahacteristically laconic. When it was over, Lisa walked out, removed her shoes and headed for the bus. Needless to say, there was no second interview and no job offer was made.




*Names have been changed to protect the innocent