New Logo revealed!

Had an opportunity to help out a friend of a friend recently and to dust off the art tools in graphic design.

The company, Essential Cleaning, is based out of NW Indiana; and having witnessed some of their work first hand, can say it was a pleasure to help redesign their logo. The logo went public this past week. 

I wish them well in their continued success!

Two weeks in...

Well, it has been two full weeks now at the new job, and a few extra days prior to that. I cannot help but chuckle at the thought that as I enter into the world of plants again, we are experiencing one of the worst droughts since 1988. Now perhaps that doesn't seem chuckle-worthy; however in 1988 was one of my first jobs dealing with plants.

Aside from the horrific lack of natural water, what happened in '88 is happening now - losing lots of weight!  Hey, 43 is coming up fast...so I'll take the weight loss program any way I can at this point. Working outside all day long, and getting paid to lose weight - it's a win win!

And so, the next chapter begins...

Well, in the last post, I was wondering where life would take me. It looks like - back to plants! Although the Director of Media was fun, and I was pretty instrumental in increasing ratings, the call of the outdoors and plants has become too strong to resist.

This past week, the Director of Media job ended, and now I am working with a company on a more horticultural level. Very excited, but dang if I chose bad timing. Going from 66 degrees AC to 90 degrees outside has been a HUGE change.  It's been about four days at the new job, and slowly my body is remembering what it is to be outside during an Indiana summer. Weee!

The great outdoors

So, it's been a year since leaving the landscape nursery for a job offer as a director of media (graphics, videos, website, and social media). Ya don't know what ya got til it's gone I guess...  hmmm...in some ways I am very glad for the shift. It has been quite the dramatic change going from working outside, teaching people how to care for plants and what would work best for them - to working inside all the time on a computer in a cabinet. Talk about stepping out of a comfort zone. ha ha ha

There are times I miss working outside. For one, is it just me or do people that work indoors become ill more often?  I also miss the connection with working a more tactile job.  Maybe it's the slower pace, or maybe it's the lack of sunshine...dunno.

Don't get me wrong. The new job was an opportunity to sink my chops into a new area, and I am happy to state that working alongside some great people, we managed to turn out numbers that would make any small company proud.  And on top of it, this job is to connect people with financial education - how to put their money to work for them, instead of the other way around. Trust me, it is no easy task! So yeah, it's definitely a feel good moment. I've learned AdWords, AdSense, the ins and out of YouTube's advertising and ever evolving analytics, Facebook's changes over the past year, as well as becoming more efficient with using LinkedIn for a networking tool for the business.  What is interesting to me is that my crew taught ourselves these tricks, and the constantly changing formats of social media only enhanced our abilities to constantly change with them. And it is nice to know that these skills can be applied to many other types of businesses as well.

Although I've not gotten to do a lot of art per se, this past year has been a valuable learning experience!

Financial Boot Camp - coming soon!

In case anyone was wondering, this is the link to the promotional video for Financial Boot Camp.  Yes, I already know the sound is off in several spots, and we've rectified that in the filming of the first episode thankfully.

I am happy that although there are a few bumps, the video has been received with average to above average audience retention through the majority of the video. YAY!  Enjoy the bloopers at the end!

New appreciations!

So this week has been a bit divided, but most of the time has been to edit the initial Episode of Financial Boot Camp. I've discovered that even the best planning goes right out the door when you are faced with the actual footage, and the need to think on your feet much faster than before.  Even with slight bumps in the road, the project is coming along well.

I have a new appreciation for film editors and animators who create pieces longer than 5 minutes.  Having done editing for online videos for work, they are normally around 3-5 minutes long, primarily quick cuts and transitions, and very little motion graphics. With the new piece however, it's been nineteen layers and counting in some spots!  Very happy to see results, but noticed I have about an eight hour window each day right now until the brain is totally fried and inspiration is reduced to "annnnnd quick cut, and quick cut, fade, transition...annnd looks like I need to step back."  After a night of rest, those last cuts usually get zapped and some better ideas emerge, which is great!  I've made sure to note where the slacker moments occur, so that the following days are easier to start right up again.

Perhaps the subject matter of financial education is what has become a bit daunting. Trying to come up with new ways constantly to make the footage fresh and add motion graphics that add and not distract is a huge challenge, especially when you are trying to teach people about concepts like 'risk tolerance', 'diversification', and what the heck a risk tolerance pyramid IS, exactly. Perhaps the toughest challenge has been to not get too 'cutesy' with the work, as it is a very fine balance.

Back to the throne

Ok, been a little sidetracked with the job, but on a bright note - recently did an illustration for a friend who wants to nail a landscape bid. I've not done much stone illustration (as you can tell from the stone throne pics, lol), so this was not only a great challenge but also a much needed experience.  I am looking forward in the coming weeks to redo the stone throne picture and use some of the techniques to make stone actually look like stone. Yahoo!