I’m currently taking charge on this project and it’s going 150% better than the first go around. Why? PLANNING FOR RESPONSIVE DESIGN. Taking an old email with fixed widths, random images and multiple columns and making it responsive is HARD. Plain and simple. I didn’t have a ton of time to sink into the all important planning stage, but the fact that there is any time for this at all is crucial. I sketched, I took notes (that resemble the ramblings of a mental patient) and consulted the expertise of colleagues who are far more experienced than me with responsive email design.

So what the hell is responsive design? Here are some resources that will help:

http://blog.exacttarget.com/blog/email-design-4/email-design-for-all-the-mobile-inbox

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/guides/mobile/targeting/

http://blog.lyris.com/us/email-inspiration-six-great-responsive-email-designs/

Bottomline kids, plan your responsive email designs. You’ll save yourself a ton of heartache and time. You’re welcome.

Fall, or autumn if you will, is my season. Summer is a close second, but this summer has been brutal this year with its 100 plus degree temps and humidity. Just take a look at my garden, it’s struggled all summer, it’s time for a change. I have a closet full of jackets screaming for air.

I find myself sitting outside on my porch swing a lot more in fall. I feel compelled to doodle and capture the scenery and the feel of fall through my scribbles. Yes, I know how pretentious that sounds, but still, fall is when I feel most creative and when I’m ready for change. Change like the leaves…okay enough of that.

In the spirit of fall, I always make a list of activities I HAVE to accomplish during the season. A crispy leaf landed on my windshield yesterday while I was driving and I took that as a sign (perhaps misguided) to start compiling my list. Yes, I’m aware we’re still in the beginning of August (yeah, this is how long ago I started this).

The List (in no particular order):

1. Brew an autumn inspired beer (already started).
2. Go on a hayride, haunted or otherwise.
3. Freak out my neighbors by decorating the house with fake cobwebs, dollar store skeletons and poorly carved pumpkins.
4. Drink cider, lots and lots of cider.
5. Drink/make pumpkin spiced lattes.
6. Make many batches of chili.
7. Watch lots of football (already started, Go Colts).
8. Watch The Shining and Pieces (look it up, people).
9. Fall crafts, fall crafts, fall crafts.
10. Dress up my dogs and post copious amounts of photos online (yeah, I’m one of those people).

Here’s a little preview. It’s a snippet of the footer and part of the portfolio section, which was probably the most challenging part of the whole thing so far. Each step of the process and everything I learned felt like a victory, much like a runners high. I know I still have a lot of work to do before it’s ready for the interwebs, but I look forward to every frustrating and rewarding moment. Unlike client work, I can do whatever I want with it. And that’s the sweetest part of all. Who knows, maybe its true destiny is to be the website for my dream design studio someday.

I need to chill.

I’m EXTREMELY hard on myself in all aspects of my life. I’m self-conscious that I’m never doing enough to better my life and the lives of those around me. I worry about how people perceive me. Do my friends think I’m successful? Do they think I’m lazy? This is what I put myself through daily because I want to be the best person I can, so far I think I’m succeeding.

I’ll never be content, I always have to be changing and learning. I’m always looking for the next thing, I love planning for my future but putting my plans into action is terrifying, but when a plan comes together…it’s amazing. As John Nolan writes, there’s nothing I’m supposed to be doing, I just have to keep doing something. That’s a liberating idea!

So what am I getting at?

Basically, don’t sweat stuff that doesn’t matter. Do work you enjoy and if you’re not, take comfort in the fact that you can always change jobs and careers. You can always make changes to better who you are once you figure out who that person is. There isn’t one thing you’re supposed to be doing, always be evolving. I’m at a crossroads in my life where there are changes brewing and I’m figuring out who I want to be. It’s an exciting time. Take comfort in the fact that if you feel like you don’t know where to go next with you career or personal life, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. Reading posts like John’s, solidifies that we all share the common bond of trying to figure out who we want to be. It’s a marathon. Not a sprint.

On the job training is great because A) you’re getting paid to learn and B) you will hopefully have people or a team to learn from as well (and vice verse). Reading books and doing tutorials is great, but I learn best when I’m talking with people and through trial and error. Take on challenging projects and use the real life resources around you. You may not know the answer to a tricky HTML situation, but your coworker might. Learning from your peers is easy and whatever information they have to give you will stick like a Post-It Note in your creative mind. I can read ten blog posts about a topic I’m trying to figure out and still be confused, but if I have a flesh and blood person show me how to do something, I’ll remember it forever.

Conclusion

Ask questions. Use your professional network to progress as a creative individual. I’ll admit, I’ll try and try to figure something out on my own before I ask for help, but in the end it’s the people around me that help me solve problems. Never forget that if you’re having an issue in Photoshop or with some code, chances are a colleague or fellow freelancer probably has too and will be happy to help. Questions are your friend, grasshopper.

The Holiday Penguin says “Happy Holidays!” Everyone have a safe and happy holiday. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. ;)

I’m excited for the future! During this transition I’m updating my marketing materials including my resume, portfolio and business cards. It’s important to maintain your marketing materials even if you’re working full-time and it’s vital if your freelancing. In addition to marketing, maintain your networking chops. Meet new people, join creative organizations and use your resources. Social media is a powerful tool when looking for work, but also utilize your friends and family. Let everyone you know what kind of work your in the market for, and it never hurts to ask your creative friends for a referral!

Luckily I’ve made some great contacts at this contract job and I’m optimistic that I’ll only grow and build on my career from here. When things like this happen it’s easy to get discouraged, but look on the bright side. There’s always more work out there, be creative!

I’m keeping these suggestions in mind:

• Changing the design of your blog or website is one thing, changing the vision is another. Changing your look can invariably change the attitude and audience of any blog, which are two areas I’m not interested in altering right now. Rule #1 is, don’t overtly confuse your users. More on that below.

• When making a drastic redesign of your site, do it swiftly. If your blog has a high readership, broken links, busted navigation’s and 404 errors will not be well received by your readers. Let readers know your blog will be down or undergoing maintenance via blog post and/or social media, they will appreciate it.

• Don’t change the design a million times. Do your research and find the best design solution for your blog or website. Rushing into one redesign after another until you’re satisfied will not only confuse your readers, it will piss them off. Keeping a consistent web presence is important.

• Have fun! Refreshing your website with a new design or snazzy feature is exciting and the more fun you have with it the more satisfying the process will be.

Wrapping it up

As you can see, I’ve updated my site with a new theme and I love it! I’m still working on a few details, but that’s all part of the process. The theme is simple and has the similar style of the old design while fitting in with my personality. I’m entering into a whole new re-branding process for myself and this is just the first of many changes I’m making to my personal brand. Reason being, I’m probably going to be making a job change (more on that later) in the near future and want a fresh look to my marketing materials. Re-branding yourself or company is a big deal, but have fun and keeping the above suggestions in mind will help ease the process.

Another option is Envato. Selling digital art and making a passive income is a no brainier. No printing costs, no real overhead, it’s perfect. However, the competition at Envato is steep and getting your file accepted seems like an act of God. These thoughts held me back for awhile, but if you’re reading this, one of my files is now for sale on GraphicRiver! Yes, I finally told my brain to can it and created a small collection of Twitter backgrounds to sell. Was it challenging? Yes. Figuring out what I wanted to do was. I first thought about doing print materials like business cards or newsletter and brochure templates. However, when it comes down to it, if I was going to gamble and spend the time designing something that might not even get past the review process, I had to design something I would enjoy. Something web related seemed to be the way to go. Twitter backgrounds don’t seem to be an overly saturated market on GraphicRiver, so I sat down and got to work one evening and really enjoyed myself. Being in more of a production role at my 9-5, having total creative freedom felt awesome and reignited a spark for design that I haven’t felt in awhile.

You can view my file on GraphicRiver here, more to come!