Hello! My Blog Moved!

I switched my blog from emmabauso.blogspot.com to emmabauso.com! Be sure to check out the new site, give feedback please, and add me on Bloglovin'!

Click here to go to the new site. // Click here to add my new blog on Bloglovin'.

I've Moved!

My new site address is emmabauso.com!

Yep! *Insert gritting teeth emoji here* It was sort of a quick decision that I didn't even really think too much about, but I felt like making the switch to a Squarespace site for a couple reasons...

1. I think getting away from Blogger makes me take myself more serious and now that I'm actually paying to have my space on the internet I'll be even more dedicated to writing.

2. I eventually want to move my portfolio site and my blog in together for a more unified brand. So give me a little bit to get that all figured out and together. 

3. I chose Squarespace over other platforms because it seemed to be the most cost effective option at the moment, and it also promised not having to know any coding knowldge, which I am embarassed to admit that I haven't gotten out of the beginner stage of learning yet. 

4. I want to realllyyy simplify things in terms of blog design, and really expose my writing and content and be able to focus on that instead of always worrying about whats in my sidebar and all of that.

5. I'm figuring out more and more of what I like and what my personal style is, as well as what my design style is, so this is kind of an extension of that. A "new me" I guess! More sophisticated, simpler, cleaner, and fresher. (I personally am pretty clean, FYI.)

So, yeah! It'll be interesting to see how I like the switch, and I will probably share more about my experience so far with Squarespace this week!

Have a great rest of your Sunday and an even better Monday!!

Take a quick reader survey!

I'm back quick with a link to a reader survey that I would love for you to take! It's only 10 quick questions, and I promise it's not too painful. I would love to get a better sense of my readers and what I can do to make my blog even better for you. You will even get a surprise for taking it!

Developing Your Brand: Photography Styles

Something that I’ve been really vigilant of lately is the photography styles that belong to my favorite bloggers or designers. It’s funny how sometimes you can scroll through Pinterest and look at a picture and instantly know whose blog it came from. There are tons of people out there that are amazing at this, and it’s really a huge part of creating your brand identity. It’s something that usually develops over a span of time and doesn’t happen overnight. You might not even realize that you have a style or that your pictures are different than anyone else’s because that’s just what you like to look at personally.

I’ve been trying to develop my photography style lately by playing around with angles and paying a lot more attention to what’s in the backdrop- white, wood, fabric, grass, trees, people, darkness, shadows, ect. It’s so important to find your style of backgrounds and stick to it, or stick to a few different ones and that’s it.

I want to show you some examples of blogs/brands that come to mind when I think “specific photography styles” and highlight what makes them unique.

Hey Natalie Jean

Natalie’s pictures stand out to me because they are always really unified and consistent. They have this muted quality that plays along with a lot of other elements of her style. What she wears, what her home looks like, and the angles of her pictures all follow a similar, artsy style that is even carried over to her style of writing. You can tell she knows what she likes and she shows that in every aspect of her blog/life. The filters she probably uses reminds me of some of the filters that you can use on VSCO Cam, which I always love experimenting with!

A Beautiful Mess

How could I not talk about how unique their pictures are? When you see an “ABM” picture on Pinterest you know who is behind that camera! I love that all of their images are original, even on obscure posts that it would be sort of hard to find a relevant picture for. The backgrounds of their food posts are usually varied but they sort of follow one theme- neutral textures- which is definitely a compliment to the subject because it shoes off colors and shapes really well.

Another thing that I like about ABM is that even when they have home tours or guests on their blog, they stay with the style that they have developed. The homes they feature are similar to theirs in that they’re funky and quirky but still have that sense of classic traditional style mixed in. Another thing you are sure to see in every picture they post is color! I think that’s what sets their images apart. If I had to pick a filter that is ABM-esque it would be “Chrome” on the iPhone. Warm, vibrant, contrasting.

Breanna Rose

Minimalist design is very “in” right now and a ton of designers are carrying that graphic design style over into their home design and subsequently, their photographs. The photos that Breanna has on her portfolio website are all really crisp and involve bright whites, luscious greens, subtle hints of colors like yellows, oranges, reds, and wood tones. Her photos are really “clean” looking. (Yes, photos can look clean!)

Two Twenty One

Chelsea at Two Twenty One does a really great job of creating “Pinnable” images. When you have a lot of posts that are tutorials or “how tos” it’s definitely important to write the title on the image, otherwise people will just think it’s a pretty picture of a pretty kitchen. I like Chelsea’s pictures because they’re all really bright and crisp, but they’re different because of the color schemes she has chosen for her home and her blog. Rather than have the earthy tones like Breanna, Chelsea’s color schemes are a little ore preppy- gray, pink, green, white, some blues.

Ok, one last one that’s worth mentioning.

And Kathleen

Kathleen talks about a ton of different stuff on her blog, from her new baby boy, Fox, to building a brand for yourself, but he images all feel like they belong to her. It’s not only because of the style of the photos but because she has the tendency to add a yellow overlay to her pictures. I have never seen anyone do that before to their pictures and I think it’s an amazing way to make oardinary pictures. Love it!

So now that you’ve seen a bunch of different styles of photography that other people use for their sites, have you started to think about your images as well? It means a lot more than you think it does!

**All of the pictures featured in this post belong to their original owners, are used for examples only, and I take no credit for them whatsoever.**

A little bit about education vs. no education.

A friend of mine tweeted that he is not ashamed to have dropped out of college after only four days of attendance because he has accomplished so much since then without a degree and has no debt. It’s something that a lot of young people can identify with because there is so much pressure to go to school and then worry about the money after. But for some people, school isn’t for them, isn’t an option for them, or they just can’t shake the image of paycheck after paycheck being handed over to some loan lender when they haven’t even landed a job in their field of study yet.

College is hard. But so is life.

I’m among those people that will probably never go to college, and I’m trying to be ok with it. It’s hard to be proud of not going to college when all of your friends are graduating and struggling through finals weeks and trying to make friends. It’s hard to relate to them because they think their life is hard, but you think your life is just as hard as or harder than theirs. I was away at college for two semesters (I was pregnant for one of them) and it was hard. I don’t know about how hard it gets after freshman year, but I can imagine that it is. Let’s agree that whether you go to college or not, finding success is hard.

I’m trying to convince myself that not going to school will work for me, and I think so far 95% of me believes it. The other 5% believes that I won’t be as successful (in my case, in graphic design) as someone who went to college to study it.

You can still be educated without an education.

For those of us who have either chosen not to go to college or didn’t have the option, it doesn’t mean that you can’t learn and be just as intelligent as someone who did. It might take a little extra effort on your part to find good sources of information. You might have to seek out someone to have an intelligent conversation about something your passionate about, maybe through a chat room or a blog.

Take advantage of the world around you.

Our generation is lucky to have the world at our fingertips and the ability to reach out to pretty much anyone to learn, grow, and experience. Take advantage of all of the resources out there, and that means social media! If you admire a famous director, give him a stout out on Twitter, because you never know what could happen. If you are so inspired by an up-and-coming calligraphy artist, sign up for her Skillshare class and mention her in an Instagram comment below a picture of your own work.

Be proud of who and what you've become regardless.

Whatever you do, don’t feel sorry that you didn’t get a college education, and do not belittle yourself around those who have. If you have honestly put in effort to make a better life for yourself or have just as much knowledge and experience then you are equals. Your paths have been different, your destinations probably aren’t the same, but if you have reached your own personal goals (or are on the right track, like I am) then you have something to be proud of.

If you really can’t live with yourself any longer because you don’t have that degree that supposedly gives you an occupation, then you should do what you can to go back to school and satisfy that void. I tried it because I thought it would make me better or make me feel better. All it did was make me even more dissatisfied and anxious to jump-start my career. So Iquit. I felt like I knew what I was doing already, and what I didn’t know wasn’t going to be learned through an online classroom full of “students” who didn’t have a clue about art or design.

I'm proud of you!

Everyone is different, and my message to you is to embrace it. If you don’t have a college education and you don’t want one, then I applaud you and wish you the best of luck in your endeavors. (And also ask you for some tips on staying successful!) If you do have a college education… oh my god I applaud you, too. I have no words for the amount of work you must have done to receive your degree. But please, applaud us who haven’t gone to school and are still achieving our dreams. Give us a helping hand when we are struggling with something that you were able to master under the instruction of a professor.

If you opted out of college, what is something that you have struggled with because of it? If you are in college or have graduated, are you glad you stuck with it, or would you have gone a different route if you could? And anyone, please feel free to share your advice for those of us who didn’t go to school!

Thanks for reading- I promise tomorrow’s post won’t be so lengthy!

PS- Thank you to Ben for the inspiration on this subject!

Top 6 Favorite Phone and Chrome Apps

This image was made with one of the apps!

Every time another blogger writes about their favorite apps, programs, or websites I find something new that becomes my favorite too, so I thought I would tell you guys what my favorite ones are! Allyssa Barnes has posted some great lists on her blog that have been such great finds, so if you're looking for some more great dowloads, definitely check over there.

I spend a lot of time on my phone refreshing my social media apps, but there are some other apps that I will never, ever delete from my iPhone. So here they are:

1. VSCO Cam is my favorite picture editing app and if you haven't downloaded it yet, you have no idea what you're missing. I rarely use Instagram filters anymore because the filters and editing options you have with VSCO Cam take my pictures to the next level without another filter. It also has its own little community built into it where you can see the pictures that other people have added to their grid, which is pretty cool. It's fun to see what others can do with their pictures.

2. A Beautiful Mess is a really fun app that I use to add text and little objects to my pictures with. I have even used it to create some quick pictures with text on them to include with blog posts. (Including the picture at the top of this post!) I also tend to use this app when I want to put a white frame around the edge of a vertical or horizontal picture so that I can post it on Instagram without cropping parts of the picture out. I love supporting the ladies over at A Beautiful Mess. I can't wait to see what updates they come out with for this app in the future!

3. One Second Everyday is something I just added to my phone this week and it's already a favorite. Basically you take a video every day and are able to crop it down to one second, and then save it into the app's calendar. Once you have a video for several days, you can export your clips into one video that puts all your seconds into a collection of clips. I only have a few days so far, but once I get a month of clips I want to make my video and see what my month looked like! I'll be sure to share it with you guys!

Those are my favorite iPhone apps, and i believe they're all availible for Android devices, too.

For internet browsing, I've been using Google Chrome for awhile now, and I've found that it's really the only way to go, especially if you use Google already for email, blogging, or document storage. I love having everything so easily accessable. The other thing that I love about Chrome is that I can log into any computer and have access to all of my bookmarks and extensions as if it were the same computer. So my internet browser looks the same on my desktop at work as it does on my laptop at home.

I really love the extensions that you can download to Google Chrome, and right now I have four, just because I don't like things getting too crowded up on the navigation bar. One of them is a gmail extension which refreshes itself often and shows when I have a new email, so I don't have to look at my phone if I'm already on my computer. These are the other three extensions that I use:

1. Pinterest. This extension is the most used one by far. I can go to any website and if I click the Pinterest icon that is up in my browser navigation bar (next to the address bar) it will grab all of the Pinnable images on that page and create a new Pin that goes right to that web address. It makes saving things that I want to Pin that much easier!

2. Bloglovin'. This extension is great because it shows when you have new unread posts in your Bloglovin' feed. When you click on it it opens your bloglivin feed in a new tab so you can read the new posts from your favorite bloggers! If you have a Bloglivin' account, I highly recommend getting this extension. Although, it doesn't do much for my productivity at work when I see an unread post pop up!

3. Evernote Web Clipper. I don't use this one as often as the others, but it's awesome for saving notes for new blog posts and saving articles I want to use a jump-off for a blog post of my own. There are tons of options for writing notes on articles/pages, including highliters, arrows, a type tool, and a drawing tool. It's a really great productivity extension that works great for capturing your thoughts while you're browsing the internet.

So, those are six of my favorite apps/browser extensions. Do you use any of them? Are there any that I might not be using that I need to add to this list? I hope you download at least one of these and love it as much as I do!

Gratitude Journal // 04 and some Bloggy Ideas

I didn’t do a gratitude journal post last week, so I’m back today with a whole bunch of things I’m grateful for! This will include some things that I would have written last Friday, but it was Valentine’s Day and I helped my mom at her flower shop (crazyyy!!).

• I’m grateful for Valentine’s Day because it really helps my mom’s business a lot

• I’m grateful for my creativity because without it Dom would have really gotten no gift for Valentine’s Day. Thanks to creativity I wrote out 20 things I love about him and hid them all around our house for him to find.

• I’m grateful for Julian’s morning screams for me, without which would make me so late to work.

• I’m grateful for whatever tax laws allowed me to get a return that will pay for my car to get fixed (and pay off a credit card!). Fingers crossed for some time next week!!

• I’m grateful for the relatively healthy relationship Dom and I have. In my hometown this week, tragedy struck when an ex-husband tried to break into his ex-wife’s house. I’m glad that Dom and I feel safe around one another, and I hope it always stays that way.

• I’m grateful for Snapchat and Facetime because they allowed me to see my sister while she’s been vacationing in Cancun for the last week.

So, yeah those are some of the things that come to mind when I think about what I’m grateful for. Do you keep a gratitude journal? If you have one on your blog, I would love to see it!

Here are my other gratitude journal posts.

In some other news, I’ve been thinking about some other things I could add to my blog to make it more interesting (I’m talking about content here). I would love to have someone write as a guest here once in a while, so if there is anyone who has a good idea for something that would fit well on my blog, I would love for you to contact me! It’s practically free advertising if you have a blog yourself! I also want to think of a way to really get to know another blogger and make an actual “blogger friend”, so if anyone wants to be my friend that would be so cool! (That sounded like so first grade of me- “will you be my friend?”)

Happy Friday everyone! I’m happy to say that I wrote something here pretty much every day this week, and it felt so good! I think I’m finally starting to gain confidence and really getting comfortable with what I like to talk about. Thanks to everyone who stops by frequently!

I Love These Guys!

I've been trying to be a more active blogger lately by really reaching out to the bloggers that I love and showing them my support. It feels good to cheer on a blogger that you really love by leaving a comment on one of their posts or even Tweeting to them or following them on social media sites. It feel even better when they answer you back or even start a conversation with you!

I especially like to reach out to the bloggers that don't have a gajillion comments on their posts already and show some love to the girls that have less, because that's what I have and I know I get so excited when someone finally comments!

I've also been working on really showing my appreciation for something that someone says by giving substantial feedback and continuing the conversation. I feel like I'm in a classroom again, except this time I'm not forced to give someone positive feedback on something that either doesn't make a lick of sense or that I could care less about. I'm really not faking anything that I say and I love it! It feels so good to be nice and friendly!

I want to tell you about some of my favorite blogs lately, and if you haven't heard of these girls or given them a visit, you should do it now!

Sometimes Sweet

I love this blog. I love that Danielle is such a good writer and that she has so many thoughts about her life. I love how much she loves her family and I'm also a little jealous of all the fun things they do together! She used to be an English teacher, and you can just tell that she loves writing and reading. All of her posts are extremely well written, and she also throws in some sponsored stuff, which I don't mind because they're always coupled with pictures of her cute kids!

Studio 404

This blog is great for designers and bloggers, and Angel always has some great lists, tips, and artist features that always get my brain going. I love posts that can help me become a better designer/freelancer/blogger/businesswoman, and he posts do just that.

The Life of Bon

I've been following this one for awhile now, and Bonnie is another blogger who writes so, so well. She's actually another English teacher blogger! What draws me to her writing is her stories and her sense of humor, which I think is really similar to mine. She's satirical and isn't afraid to laugh at herself. I love when she writes about her students because I like to pair them with people that I used to go to school with. It seems like in every classroom you can find the same mix of personalities! Like everyone has their own role in the class. Bonnie's awesome, guys.

Where My Heart Resides

I literally just discovered this one today, and Ashlee is already easily one of my favorite writers right now. Her posts are detailed and have so many thoughts within them. They're really developed well, and she's another amazing writer who I really admire. I can't wait to learn more about her and read more of her amazing posts!

And of course an old favorite that I always have to mention...

Young House Love

Because who doesn't love them? I love the Clara Conversations and I love their amazing DIYs and house advice. John and Sherry are like the power couple on the century to me, and they're so good at responding to your comments and interactions on Twitter and Instagram, which I love! You can tell they really love what they do and they are just so good at it!

I hope you give some of these a good read and find that you love them too! Are any of you guys already reading any of these blogs? Who should I add to my growing list of amazing bloggers? Do you love interacting with bloggers via comments or social media?

PS- this wasn't sponsored or anything, I just really love these blogs!
PSS- Petersiks need to take family pictures more often! Took me forever to find that one!

Why do you read blogs?

I don’t know about you, but I’m always trying to analyze different aspects of my life and one of the things that takes up a lot of my time is reading all of the various blogs that I follow. So I was thinking about the reasons why I read blogs, other than the obvious reason being that I just like to. Why do I like to, though?

I think the answer to that question is similar for most readers out there, whether you’ve thought about it or not. It’s because you’re hoping that by reading what someone else who is somewhere else has to say, you’ll gain some sort of knowledge or insight to something you otherwise wouldn’t know about. The kind of things bloggers write about aren’t always searchable on the web, you can’t really find in books, and sometimes you don’t even know that you’re looking for information on something until you see it there in front of you!

If you keep your own blog, it’s definitely important to think about your answer to this question, because once you can answer it thoughtfully, you’ll probably think of a few new things to write about.

For instance, my answer has me wanting to think of something new that I haven’t seen on Pinterest/other blogs/Google/Facebook/out there somewhere that readers will stumble upon and be able to learn something from.

Do you think everyone reads blogs for this reason? Do you have a completely different reason for reading blogs? Please share what your reason for reading is!

Happy Hump Day!!

Becoming an Expert // Take Two

There are all kinds of people that call themselves designers. I've looked through probably at least 20 portfolios so far this year (we're only on day 9...) because I love seeing the work that other people are producing. I like doing that not so I can copy or do something similar, but I think it's good to have an idea of what you like, how your designs differentiate, and also to get inspiration to keep in mind for the future. I also like to think of self-commissioned projects that I could create for myself to add to my portfolio.

But, all of them look pretty different, and not only is there a difference in all of the projects I've seen, but there's a difference between designers and their specialties. Sometimes I feel like every good designer knows it all, and can satisfy any client, whether their needs are print based, web based, branding, app creation, illustrating, hand-lettering, coding, ect. ect. ect. But I'm starting to get this feeling that it's not really like that, and if you don't have the know-how to do one thing or another, you shouldn't feel bad about it. You shouldn't apologize for it, and if you truly don't have the desire to learn how to do it, then don't apologize for that either.

As a designer, you have to always be evolving. A designer 20 years ago meant something very different than a designer today means, and those that didn't update themselves probably aren't succeeding today. I talked a few months ago about becoming an expert, and I sort of concluded that it's a good idea to become really good at one thing before moving on to learn about something new. I can't say I've become an expert in any one thing yet, but I still think it's a really good idea to loosely follow that methodology.

I wonder if a lot of designers did it that way. I wonder if the designers that seem to "know it all" did it that way. I wonder if I really have the patience to do it that way.

I do know that I need to stop being envious of the designers that have 85 million things listed under their "Skills" page.

I ran into all of these thoughts last week when I was working on a blog design project for this girl. I don't consider myself to be an expert or even half as knowledgeable as any of the developers out there, but I can do simple tasks and build off of templates, and of course there's handy dandy Google. But as I sat there changing the blog around, I felt like I was an imposter. I don't advertise that I'm a developer, and if someone came to me with a crazy development project I would tell them the truth.

I guess my point is that I feel like I need to learn coding (at least basics, if not more) to be a successful designer, but I don't know if I even want to get into all of that. I'm not the tech-y type of girl, I just like things that look pretty, so maybe I don't even belong in that world. Is that how it works for other designers that choose not to follow the developer path as well?

Obviously I have many years to deveop my skills as a designer, and my thoughts and passions may change, but for now I think I'll stick with the designer side of it, and leave the development side of it to the people that can wrap their mind around all of it. For me, if a quick Google can solve my html problem, then it's good enough for me.

With all of that said, I'm going to bring up another side to this discussion, and that's the side where I consider that there might be designers and developers out there that aren't nice and shut out those that aren't up to their standards. I saw this infographic that someone on Pinterest posted a few weeks ago, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I don’t really know where it came from or what authority the sources have, but I guess it stung me a little bit. It paints this picture that Developers are better than Designers, maybe because they know this other complicated language, and then there are “amateurs” that are beneath Developers and Designers.

Ok, so maybe bloggers that aren’t into blogging to get followers and sell ad space and all that just need a basic design, so they do it themselves. What’s wrong with that? Maybe a designer is just starting out and trying to learn the ropes of the business. Not really an amateur, but they aren’t an expert in design yet.

There’s this Mean Girls “You can’t sit with us” feeling that I sometimes get about the design industry, and I think I feel like it targets those of us who are teaching ourselves. Those of us who can’t devote 40 hours a week to a design job because we have other day jobs.

Am I the only beginner (possibly amateur) designer that feels like this? It can even be applied to any other profession, so I’d love to hear what you have to say about it!

For now, I’ll leave you with a nice little computer and iPhone background with this great quote that I found over at Creative Mornings, which is a great series of “breakfast lectures for the creative community”. I plan on exploring the site a little more to see what I can be inspired by!

Click here to get it in Aqua, here to get it in pink, and here to get it in black & gray.

And get it for your iPhone!

Click here to get it in Aqua, here to get it in pink, and here to get it in black & gray.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Recent Projects

I didn’t really take any breaks from design work for the holidays, mostly because all of the projects I work on are things that I really am excited about. I feel lucky to love all of my projects, and I know that as I continue in my design career, that won’t always be the case.

Anyways, I was up late almost every night over the past few weeks, mostly working on a new blog design/branding project (but also staying up all night working on my New Year's Greeting!) for a fellow blogger who also happens to be a co-worker of mine at Boyle & Anderson. We first worked together with some very basic designs and branding ideas back in September, and it was definitely time to take her blog design to the next level.

So I began to work hard at showing her my ideas and putting together a moodboard, and before we both knew it I has completely re-designed her blog! The new look should be in place later tonight, so be sure to stop by her blog tomorrow, once all the kinks have been worked out.

I’m super proud and excited, because this is my first blog design project, besides my own, and although it took very basic coding knowledge, I did it all by myself and all of the designs are, to my knowledge, completely original and based only on my visions!

So, here is the moodboard and the branding board for Felicia's new blog design! You'll be able to see the full design on her blog and on my portfolio site by tomorrow morning!

Another really great project that was recently completed was a birthday party invitation for a sweet little girl who is turning 1 this month. her mom, Nikki, came to me with her vision of a Mad Hatter Tea Party themed party, so I got to work thinking of the funnest way to convey the theme while still keeping in mind that the party is for a baby girl. It came out amazing- definitely a one-of-a-kind design!

In my opinion, invitations to a party are what sets the scene. If you want to throw a great themed party, having well-designed invitations is like putting a key into a door (which sort of reminds me of Alice In Wonderland haha!). Your guests will know to expect high quality at your party! Some people won't appreciate your effort, but a lot of people will, and it's an amazing feeling to recieve those complements!

These two projects were both a really amazing way to end 2013 and start 2014. I can't wait to see the party that Nikki puts together for Elli- I know it'll be amazing- and I can't wait to start working on putting Felicia's blog design into place tonight! Stay tuned for the final peek at that!

My Manifesto

I was inspired by a post I read over at Braid Creative (sorry, I can't find the original post!) to write down my own manifesto, and so far, this is what I've come up with!

I believe...

You don't have to be able to describe what you "do" in a few concise words. It can be a whole story!

Leggings can be worn as pants.

In making the people that I love feel very special.

You don't have to have an extraordinary life to have a fulfilling one.

What is your manifesto? Do you think it's a god idea to have separate personal and business (or blog) manifestos? I look forward to seeing my manifesto change and grow.

I had so much fun with this cute little guy this weekend. I miss him when he goes to bed- most of the time!

Bear with me...

Ok, so this wouldn't be the first time I've made a change on a whim, but trust me when I say I think I'm in it for the long haul!

And by "it" I mean my blog design.

I started taking this e-course, which I'll admit started out slow because I thought that I had myself all figured out. It's hard to reinvent yourself when you think what you have is working pretty well, but when I took a second look at my blog, there were some things I could admit I wanted to change. So, I dove in, and using some of the tips I learned for the course, I think I've got a design that really works well and is closer to me than any of the last four designs I've had since I started. Lucky for me, I don't think I have many consistent readers yet, so maybe no one has even noticed!

One of the hardest things, so far, about trying to teach yourself about design (web design in this case) is the tendency to test things out on yourself. I'm trying to learn more about HTML and CSS, so who better to try things out on than myself, right? I'd love to design other people's blogs or websites someday, so learning about the things that are important when having a blog is huge when I [hopefully] get jobs in the future.

Another hard thing about being a blogger, budding designer, and a person in general is learning what is "you" and what isn't quite there.

In the e-class I mentioned above, one of our first tasks was to create some moodboards and cut out all of the things that don't "go". I reluctantly completed that assignment, thinking it was silly along the way because I thought I had a clear vision of what my style is. It turns out that my first redesign was soooo off. It was cute, but wasn't me. I revisited my moodboards and it was even more clear that if I didn't fix things right away, I would be kicking myself in the butt until I had time to change it again.

So, I think I got it and I hope this is more permanent! Take a look at the progression of this blog that has taken place between Thursday night and tonight.

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

It's safe to say that my boyfriend and child have felt neglected the last day or so.

Besides working on my blog design, I've been working hard to plan some good posts, so hopefully they will be coming this week! I'm trying to get serious about this blogging thing, so bear with me!

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Becoming an Expert

I tweeted the other day about wanting to become an expert on too many things, and needing to find one thing to focus on at a time. I'm constantly thinking about my next move and the next thing I want to learn more about, which can be great because I always have something I can be doing. It can also be a burden because my mind is never resting. I'm always on the hunt for either something new that I should set my sights on learning, or learning something I've set out to become an expert in.

The purpose of this post is to let you know what I've learned so far about wanting to become an expert in so many things, and I'm also going to make a personal resolution for future reference.

Here is what I've figured out so far about this problem that I'm having. If you agree or disagree I would love for you to voice your opinions in a comment!

1. It isn't a bad thing to want to learn more things. I keep telling myself this whenever I enter my human version of information overload. The quest for knowledge and continuation of learning shouldn't stop after high school/college/grad school. Knowledge is an asset to your future, and it's so valuable- whether you have paid for it or not. 
2. It's not healthy to become obsessed with a lot of different things at once. This happens to me all the time. I'm reading a blog post, trying to gain knowledge on one subject, and then BAM there's this link into another portion of the universe internet and all of a sudden there's this other thing that you didn't even know you needed to know! Before you know it, you have 5, 6, 7 internet tabs open and you're trying to make sense of it all.at.the.same.time. And... youjustcan'tstopuntilyouknoweverythingthereistoknow. UGH.
3. It's ok if you learn slowly and over a period of time. Heck, if you learn slowly, there is a good chance you're retaining the information for the long haul.
4. The best way to become an expert in something is by trying it out for yourself. I love branding boards. I love the way they look and feel, and I love the idea of filling my portfolio with them someday. But I've never really done one myself, until I jumped into it and made this one for myself! It's not terrible complicated, but it looks great in my portfolio, and has actually gotten lots of views on Behance, and some retweets on Pinterest! My point? Nothing is more satisfying than going out and doing. Stop oohing and aahing over someone else's example and make your own! Someday, after I've completed my 100th branding board, I hope to be an expert.
5. Be resourceful. There are so many places to start the learning process. There are classes like Nicole's Classes, which look amazing. There are all types of blog posts out there, and I bet there are at least a handful for exactly what you want to know more about, and you can trust them because the authors are probably experts (or are at least pretty close!) It's all about clicking every link that looks interesting, and knowing where to look. (Ok, don't go clicking all those interesting links. Some are bad!)
6. You don't have to have a piece of paper to prove that you're an expert. There are so many designers out there that didn't go to school for design, or didn't go to school at all! Don't always be wary of someone without a college degree. If you find someone writing about what you are yearning to learn more about, ask yourself if they seem credible, and if what they say makes sense. Even more than that though, did they inspire you? I tend to admire designers the most if their own work or words have inspired me, left me with a greater understanding, and given me the tools to open up Illustrator and start something of my own.

So, now that I've really thought about what it takes to be an expert, I want to put a plan into motion right now. I need to give my brain a rest and focus on one or two relating things that I could get a really good base knowledge of in a small amount of time. (I'm talking maybe a few weeks) The other things will be put on the back burner for now, until I'm satisfied with my base knowledge. Then, I'm going to gather some resources. This might mean buying a new book. (An actual book that I can keep on a shelf or my currently-nonexistent-desk) Maybe bookmarking, Pinning, or "Evernoting" (heads up Merriam-Webster!) some blogs, posts, articles, and tutorials that are relevant? I can take a class from Nicole's Classes, SkillShare, and maybe even my local community college. And finally, I'm going to act. I'm going to physically take all of what I've learned and put it onto action to create something that proves to me, and maybe other people out there, that I know a little bit about something

But wait... it doesn't end. This cycle will repeat- probably for the entire span of my existence- but it will also continue. The thing about becoming an expert is...

There is no one out there to judge exactly what it means to become an expert in anything. You are an expert when you say you are. But a true lover of knowledge will never be satisfied enough to say they have learned all there is to learn.

For this 1850x1150 Desktop Background, click here, and just save the image to your computer! (The link will just bring you to a photo sharing website- no bugs, I promise!)

I'm eager to know what anyone else thinks about this subject! Thanks for visiting my blog!

Working Full-Time to Find Inspiration

There are many ways you can stumble upon inspiration for a project or piece of art. The first way happens when you’re going about your usual internet perusals, and you happen to stumble upon something truly magical and amazing. You have to save it in your favorites, your mind, or- lets be real- Pinterest.  That’s the best way that inspiration comes to you. Sometimes there is a project in the back of your mind, and you’re not looking for anything to kick-start the design process yet, but then you come across that amazing piece of inspiration, and you’re able to start the project.

The second way that inspiration happens can be a much more difficult process that begins with a project that was given to you by a client or a teacher. Some of these projects are self-explanatory and you don’t need inspiration in order to complete it. Many projects that are open ended, or where the client isn’t particular about many things, require some sort of inspiration to get you feeling excited and creative.

It can be difficult to find good inspiration, especially if you’re just beginning to explore the design world. It’s so important to find great websites, blogs, design communities, and resources to feed your knowledge of design. We live in an age where learning doesn’t just happen in the classroom, but through everyday experiences that happen because of the internet. I can honestly say that at least half of what I know about good design and design trends are because of all the research I do in my spare time. You really have to dedicate a lot of time to finding inspiration and knowledge about design. It’s like a full-time job!

Below are four awesome sources of design inspiration:

Pinterest

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I will admit that most of my searches for inspiration begin on Pinterest (pinterest.com). I highly recommend that if you enjoy spending time browsing the internet and discovering new blogs, design communities, and having a place to store all of the things that inspire you, then you need to get on Pinterest. Besides providing pretty much a never ending source of visual inspiration for design projects, it’s a great tool for finding recipes, décor, craft and even outfit ideas. And there are funny things for when you need that pick-me-up that isn’t being delivered by your morning coffee!

I have a special “Pin Board” for “Art &Inspiration”, as well as a “Graphically Pleasing” board and a “Font Snob City” board (it houses my font obsession and is a great place to look for that one special font) and I’m always going back through to see if anything creates a spark for creativity. They’re also resources for when I do have a specific project and I need a color scheme, font, or imagery ideas.

Dribbble

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Dribbble is something I’ve recently discovered, thanks to one of my favorite design bloggers, BreannaRose. It’s an exclusive community of designers, and you have to be invited to have an account to post your work. The greatest thing for a student  to do when we look at communities like these is to look at the quality, style, detail and creativity that top-notch designers are producing. This work was created by real people that you can reach out to, and not by an anonymous design team within a huge corporation or design firm. These are up-and-coming, innovative people that just want to share their work with you (and probably to get a job, obviously). Get inspired by these people and their work. Take the time to search for your favorite medium, style, color scheme, or area of design. Look at what they’re doing, and don’t copy their work, obviously, but take inspiration from it and let your imagination run wild. Don’t forget to give credit where credit is due! Designers love when they hear that someone was inspired by their work.

Blogs

There are probably millions of blogs on the internet right now. Some great, most… not so great. Press “Next Blog” on Blogger, and you’ll see the not great ones. But if you dig hard, you’ll find the good ones. I find some great blogs by clicking through Pinterest images, and they carry me to the artist’s blog. Then you start reading more about the person, read a few posts, and then it becomes as if you’ve been best friends forever. Then you look in their sidebar and click on some of their affiliates and say to yourself, WOW these people are great! I love new friends!

Comment on posts that get you thinking, or posts that have their artwork in it. Make sure to include a link to your blog or portfolio website if you have one, so they can check you out, too!

Some of the design and photography blogs I recommend are:

·         Breanna Rose

·         Ashley Ella Design

·         The Barn Blog

·         Pugly Pixel for web design enthusiasts

·         The Hunted Interior for interior design ideas

·         Design Seeds for color palette inspiration

·         Angie Makes

·         Hannah Mac for photography inspiration

There are unlimited inspirational blogs out there, and I haven’t even begun to explore them  all, but these are the ones I read almost every day. There’s always amazing advice and inspiration floating around. And the best part is, if you email them they may email you back! It’s awesome to form a connection with someone that could be thousands of miles away.

Etsy

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It can be a longer process to find inspiration on Etsy, but if you know what you’re looking for, you can find a lot of great images, quotes, color schemes, and project ideas. You can also see which shops are successful and get some ideas for your own business. You should take note of what sells and is popular, as well as what isn’t. As with Dribbble, don’t take anyone’s ideas and claim them as your own! It’s like window shopping- just look at the things you like and think about how you can incorporate them into your work!

You can also get inspiration from design shops that aren’t on Etsy. These can be harder to find, but a lot of design bloggers also have ecommerce sites where you can purchase their work. It’s a good idea to look at the things they sell, and take note of what you like or don’t like about their work. This helps you discover your design style, too!

The internet is massive, and there are millions of sources of inspiration out there for you to find. And besides the internet, there are actual places to go that may inspire you! It’s all about taking the time to develop a keen sense of what will be useful to you now and in the future. Sometimes I lay in bed and can’t stop thinking about something I saw that was amazing, but that’s a great thing to keep you up at night.

I’m in love with creativity and all of the people that I share that love with. Finding sources of inspiration isn’t hard when you love finding beautiful things that make you want to be a better designer- and a better person.

There are so many more places to look for inspiration, and this post doesn't even cover the places that you find in real life (as opposed to the internet). Where do you prefer to get inspiration from? The internet or in 'real life'?