My New Project - Monsterously Fun!

Monster Monster!

I have a new project. It's Monster Monster! I've been needing a creative outlet with absolutely no seriousness whatsoever. You'll find the origins over there, as well as a plethora of cute monsters, with more added every week. I'll be at Last Thursday next week, with a variety of monsters looking for new homes. Hope to see you there!

Time for a New Identity?

A possible new look for StacySix Design in business card format.

I'm pondering an identity update. My current visual identity isn't quite as sophisticated or as illustrative as I'd like it to be. As I reach out to new client, I'd like to be able to hand them something a little bolder.

Graphic designers are notoriously bad at designing for themselves, or so I was told by numerous design instructors while I was still in school. I can see why. Given the time, we'd probably want to change personal logos at least as often as we change shoes.

My current logo.

My current logo is cute, clean, and makes a subtle reference to the crafty side of my interests with the stitch-like type. But maybe it's missing something. A little extra oomf, for lack of a better word. I'm going to be playing with different ideas this month to see what I can come up with.

Plastic vs. Authentic

Spring flowers. Very real.

 Over at The Simple Dollar, Trent wrote something that I wanted to share:

My sister-in-law is a florist. She can take a few hands full of ditch weeds and dandelions and make them look amazing in about five seconds.


On the flip side of that coin, many department stores sell centerpieces stuffed with plastic flowers consisting of perfectly-arranged imitations of beautiful blossoms.


Sit them side by side and the arrangement of ditch weeds and dandelions looks far more impressive.

The same is true with people. I find a person whose life is full of genuine dandelions and ditch weeds to be far more compelling than the person whose life is full of plastic roses, and I’m far from alone in that conclusion.

There are lots of people who say "be yourself" but then offer a laundry list of how to be more like them, which frustrates me to no end. This really is saying to just be yourself.

There's room in the world for everyone to march to their own beat without either stepping on other people's toes or making themselves into imitations of other people. Yeah, I have my issues, but in the end, I'm glad to be me.

Comme Ci Comme Ça

Or, as one former associate used to put it, "some days, chicken pie; other days, chicken s---."

I've started entering designs over at 99 Designs. It's a website where clients can go to request design work. Designers submit their work, the client picks one, and the winning designer receives a payment. It's quite good practice, especially in working with a variety of clients and their various specifications. It's frustrating, however, when the clients offer no feedback and I'm left wondering where I fell short. Take the two designs below:

I'm very happy with these two designs (especially the one on the right), but the client wasn't. I read the spec sheet pretty closely and there are no radical departures from their stated desires. I was disappointed not to have made it into the finals, as it were. Nonetheless, it was a good experience. I tried one new thing and was delighted with the results. 

So basically, it's back to the drawing board. What do you think?

Warm Wood Desktop Background

This is my current self-designed desktop background. If you like it, feel free to take it for your own use.