Simplified Living

As I mentioned in my last post, I have good things to discuss! Since my last post I have seen the release of a collaborative project between myself and my studio partner Melissa Anwatin of our first magazine, titled "Simplified Living." In it we discuss health, home and living. It's all about slowing down and taking things slower, eating and living healthier and enjoying life in general in our local communities. Our hope is to eventually cover between Manitoulin Island all the way down to the Muskoka region and many places in between. Our first issue met with resounding success and we ran out. We are contemplating a second printing before our next issue comes out.

Here are a few screen-caps of our first issue.

Long Time No Post

Well, I'd say this is long overdue. Seems like ages since I have blogged, and indeed it has. I have been very busy of late, both with my day job and with a very large side project that will be revealed soon.

It has been a very enjoyable fall so far, spending lots of time with family and friends. I definitely missed that over the last three years while I was in school. Even though I'm almost as busy these days, by being able to set my own deadlines it is much easier to fit in social times.

Well, I guess that's it for now. I'll have a lot more to post soon so stay tuned :)

TR

Finished But Not…

Happy October everyone!

The month seemed to come in like spring, with unseasonably warm weather and lots and lots of sun, rather than like autumn with cool weather and rain... well it seems to be making up for it now. We're on the second or third day of rain, with reports of rain persisting through the weekend. Not that I'm complaining at all, it was very dry and we needed a good dousing.  As fall continues, so to do the freelance projects. I've completed, well almost, the large job I was working on this past summer. I say "almost" because I never got to the website, my clients have put the site on hold until spring. For now then the project is done and I'll attach some screen-caps of a few of the finished products at the end of this post. I have another project that is up and coming but on the down-low right now so I'll talk more about it on a later posting, probably closer to the new year.

My job is going well these days. I received my first raise two weeks ago and I know do estimations, invoicing and printing on top of design work. It remains a nice starter job to get some experience under my belt.

Well that's it for now. I'll post again soon. Take care everyone, and be well.

These were pieces I did for a proposed local retirement living complex.

Just Another Day

Thanksgiving weekend is almost upon us, if you're Canadian that is. A family holiday that isn't really feeling like one this year. I realize that life changes, that things happen that we don't always like, what this means for a holiday with the name "Thanksgiving" is that it becomes a misnomer, at least to me. There are certain things that I am not thankful for currently. Things that make me think more than thank, and pray, a lot. I'm not going to be an Ogre about it (no offense Ogres), I will still definitely enjoy the time with friends and family (that are here), and be thankful for what has been provided.

TR

The Next Stage

Always keep moving forward

If there is one thing that I have learned in my short tenure here on planet Earth, it is that we must never stop moving forward. Experiencing new things, learning, developing, changing; these are all things that help propel us to new points in our lives. There are moments though, some of which seem to take years to get through, that are painful, these too help us to grow and move forward.
I will admit that I am still in one of these "painful" moments. It is taking much longer than I thought it would to rebound from the loss of a child we were going to adopt. This child didn't die, but due to an Ontario policy, children up for adoption are almost always placed with a blood relative of which we are not. So even though we raised him for almost a year, we lost him to a distant relative by marriage, not even a blood relative. I am still reeling from this loss so day by day I deal with the emotions and the stress it has put on my faith.
Life continues to move forward and new possibilities move in to grab at our attention, one of these possibilities has cropped up and in the months to come I will share more about what that is, but not today. Today was/is a great day, a day spent getting closer to my wife and children. We took our yearly romp down to the French River Trading Post for an ice cream, then enjoyed a leisurely drive through the back roads. All in all a great day.

First post using Blogsy

Little bit of a learning curve to this app but so far its a better app than the Blogger one. The Blogger app is really designed for iPhones and works well for them. I don't really count this as a "blog" post since I'm just fooling around with my devices to make sure I can blog from any of them. I would usually post a link on my Facebook page to my blog, this time however, I think I'll make a link to my Facebook page.

Here's a photo I took when my daughter was in the hospital. It's a beautiful hospital in North Bay.

Blogging on the Go

Trying this out for the first time. Google's new blogger app, we'll see how it turns out.

I've attached a photo I took on my iPhone last night at my son's birthday supper.

Busy

Hello everyone,

I know it's been a few weeks since I've posted anything, sorry. I had a few moments at work to stop and breath, so I thought I'd pop on here and say hello. Work is going quite well, I've been employed as the lead designer at a print/sign shop for the last 3 months and I've really come to enjoy it. There are quite a few different things that we do: vehicle wraps, business cards, posters, flyers, booklets, prints, signs etc... it's a nice mix.

Can't say I'd want to do this for the rest of my life, but it's good to get the experience for the first couple of years out of College. I continue to work on freelance projects as well so that keeps me involved in other aspects of the Graphic Design industry that I don't do at work, such as Web design.

Well that's it for now, guess I better get back at it, those prints won't print themselves... oh wait, yes they do :)

TR.

Weekend Hi-jinx

This has been a great long weekend. I took Friday off so that I could go to my daughter's country singing competition. It was awesome. She did really well for her first year. She placed 10th out of 15, which in my book is great. She was in the 13-18 year old category. The contest took place at the North Bay Heritage Festival, over three days. It was great to take the kids there, it was the first time that they had ever been at a midway, they loved it. The rides freaked them out a bit, and the games were a ripoff of course, but we all still had a lot of fun. Finally something cool as a family this summer, it's been such a fast summer with lots of work, we just haven't done much together so it was a lot of fun. Work shall continue tomorrow, it's still a holiday but I have a website that is itching to get underway.

I leave you with a couple of Instagram photo's I took with my iPhone.

Approved

One week and one day ago, I had my semi-comp meeting with my clients for the freelance project I'm working on. I have to say it went amazingly well. They started off with some of the mundane priorities that they needed to cover for other things to do with the project and then I was given the floor. I showed them all the pieces that I had prepared and it was nice to hear some "wows" as we went through them all. I did up three versions for each piece and then we had a discussion of which ones they preferred, in the end there were only a few minor changes to be made and they were very happy. Now I need to get the website designed for proofing, and then code it and when they are finished with all the final copy I'll have to place it all in and then this project will be done. It has gone very smoothly so far and I am very happy with my clients, even thanked them for being such good clients, to which the chuckled and said "no, no, thank you for making this so easy". Have to thank all my professors at school for all the advice and training in how to prepare and deal with clients, it has certainly helped. I'll definitely be posting the pieces when the project is all over with... 

                             ...for now you'll just have to wait in anticipation :) 

TR

Firsts

Only six days until my second meeting with the committee in charge of the project I've been freelancing for. I was able to get all my semi-comps ready with time to spare for a little more tweaking. I'll be working on the design of the website for them this weekend, it wasn’t on the agenda to be done yet but I'm ahead of the game so why not. As our Prof's said in school, go into every project and over deliver, it doesn't hurt you any, makes a great impression and probably lands you repeat customers.

It is within my agreement with the committee that I can use everything that I've done for them for self-promotion, so I leave you with a snippet of one of the pieces I've put together, semi-comp of course... no idea if it will stay this way or go in another direction, I'll keep you posted.

On the Go

Well, as of yesterday, I am officially employed as a freelancer. I was approved as the designer for the FRHH (French River Health & Housing) media package and website. The first cheque should be in the mail.

I've realized that this project will involve a fair amount of research and copywriting on top of the design work, although I may not have quoted enough for that on my approved estimate, I will definitely remember to estimate more for that on future projects.

I will also have to break down the business plan that I was presented with in order to develop the copy for the brochure and website, focusing on the benefits and features to showcase for the target audience. I love that every process we, designers, undertake requires us to learn new things and create different solutions. It isn't about the skills we have with software, although that doesn't hurt, it's about the idea, the communication, of our client's service or product to their designated audience.

Many times, maybe even all the time, it's also about the bottom line; clients want to know how much this is going to cost them. Tony Jurgilas, A teacher I had in school, once said, "There is a big difference between Canadian and American clients, Canadian clients want to know how much something is going to cost them; American clients want to know how much they are going to make."

I was lucky, I think, on this project. I didn't have to haggle over the estimate, which intrigues me and scares me at the same time, perhaps I didn't charge enough. That being said however, I priced my estimate on how much time I figured this project would take... and charged accordingly, so my conscience is clear.

Sunshine

Well it's Monday again, that means the start to another glorious week, my seventh in my new career. I've noticed a trend, I suppose one that is prevalent in many industries, that of the highs and lows of projects. The first 3 - 4 weeks I was here we were very busy with projects, but the last 2 weeks slowed down quite a bit. It was nice in that I was able to work on advertorial pieces for ourselves... one of which I gave you a teaser of last week. Today I'll post the full version of it. A selfless plug for where I work at Printer's Paradise.  A big thank to Pamela Carls, for the use of her photo "Safe".

Enjoy,

Closeup

Another close up of an ad I'm putting together for work. Stay tuned for the full ad.

A little more headroom « The Tenfold Collective Blog

A little more headroom « The Tenfold Collective Blog

Just an amazing design space to work in. Takes away the stagnation of an "office" looking area. I'm always impressed when studios/companies take the time to create a creative/inspirational atmosphere to work from.

Six Weeks of Separation

I was thinking about it yesterday, this is the 6th week at my new job, six weeks of separation between myself and unemployment :) Loving it!

I sent all the required paperwork: copy of my diploma, and copies of my receipts, that prove I spent all the money that was given to me for my last year of school. I am now, fully, out from under the eyes and hands of the Ministry of Universities Colleges and Training. My file is officially reconciled and closed. Great feeling to be done jumping through their hoops.

Now back to my previous comments about being employed, it's hard to believe that I am in my 6th week with Printer's Paradise already. I finally feel like I'm working and not just on a placement or something. I had my second paycheque last Friday and I was able to pay all the bills on my desk, in total, for the first time in over 3 months. Usually they just sit there until I can pay them... yes I'd miss some of the due dates but they still got paid all the same.

I have had a hand in quite a few projects here already: 4 vehicle wraps, approximately 20 signs, and 1 flyer for various clients. For ourselves: 1 mailer, 2 flyers, and 1 brochure so far. I guess that's a pretty busy 6 weeks. All of this time, of course, has it's ups and downs, some days are really busy and other's not so much. Much of the time I am fielding questions by clients via phone or email, which is part of why I am here, to interact with our clients and meet their needs.

On another note, I have my first "official" meeting tonight with a couple members from the committee that I am doing some freelance for. I'm a little bit nervous but very excited to get going on it. It's funny that these things start out with conversations that lead you to believe there is a big rush, and yet it can take so long to get them going. It's been over 2 months now since I first started talks with a member of this committee about their needs, over a month and a half since I submitted my estimate, and another 2.5 weeks since I found out I was selected to work on this project (which came 2 weeks after I was selected). So, needless to say, there doesn't seem to be a rush on it at all, unless of course this process is fast compared to what other designers have experienced? After tonights meeting though, I'm sure that I will have a fairly quick turnaround on some of the creatives that they have requested in the media package. This is definitely going to be fun :)

Well that's it, for now, I leave you with another amazing post from a great blog I follow by Fabian Barral, http://www.graphic-exchange.com/

Technology

So this is officially my first post with my new iPad, loving it! It's an amazing piece of technology fir sure. Faster and more capable than the first laptop that I owned back in 2004. It will be even better when the next iOS comes out, looking to be pretty impressive so far. I've downloaded some pretty cool apps for illustrating and for productivity. I highly recommend both sketchbook pro and notes plus, but of course it also helps to have a stylus. I'll attach some images soon.

Getting Designy

Well, I did it, I survived the first week of my new job.  I'm enjoying the hours for sure. It's a strange workflow though, as I'm in the office myself all week as my employers have other jobs as well. I guess the idea is that I can do the designs during the day and then all they have to do is print and mount for a few hours in the evening, since the longest part of a project is usually the design and layout stages. I'm sure I'll get more used to it as the weeks go by, it almost feels like I'm a contractor. I'm definitely up to the task though and it's a great starter job with new things to still learn that we didn't touch in school. Seems like I may be the whole marketing and design departments, which is fine, I'm up for the challenge... I hope :)

Anyway, I leave you with a piece I did today, it's going to be a promotional mailer for the place I work at.

First Day

So today was the first day at my new job, wait, did I mention I found gainful employment? I may not have. Well I did, I'm now part of the official working-class-citizens club and honorable-tax-payer's association. I was hired on at a sign-shop/printing business as their lead, or senior, or only graphic designer as it were. Which is great for job security I dare say. I will be responsible for translating clients ideas into workable designs for print. My boss (who I shall call Alphonse to avoid privacy issues) has a full-time job elsewhere, so not only have I been hired on as the lead-graphic designer but I am also: phone service, email respondent, sales representative, and any other title I can think of to give myself, while I hold down the shop during the day. It should provide for some much needed experience while putting to use my newly acquired skills from school.

                       

These are two close-up screenshots of a logo I'm working on for "Alphonse" my new boss. I purposely made them close up shots so that I was keeping it as much under-wraps as I can, but still show you what I'm up too. I haven't signed any "non-disclosure" agreements and I don't really expect to be given one there, but still it is for my boss and not my own freelance projects which I'll have no problems showing you here as it will be in my contracts with my freelance clients... well that's all for now. :)

Yeah!

It finally happened. Over 4 weeks of serious job hunting and I finally captured a prize. It's not high on the rungs of designdom, but it is a great start. I've been hired as a designer at a sign/print shop, and I already have a couple projects to do… although that is the reason I got the job lol. It's only 35hrs a week so I'll still have time to work on freelance projects that will be coming up shortly :)

Getting Started

One full week out of school already, where does the time go? I have applied (sent resumés) to many many places the last 3 weeks. While waiting for replies and continuing my job search I've been keeping busy around the house getting projects done in preparation to sell. 

I keep thinking that if I don't keep up with what I've learned the last 3 years in school that I'll start to forget it, but I suppose that's just the irrational mentality of not finding work in the industry right away. I have many, many ideas to incorporate into my website still that will keep me busy. I also really want to get out and do some photo-shoots, but I'm so tired of just being in the middle of rock and trees ( I live in semi-northern Ontario), I want to get into a town and do some gritty, urban photography, or an old, abandoned settlement someplace. 

My ideal position right now would be to work Freelance gigs. In a little different position than the rest of my class-mates, I've already worked for 20 years for other people and I'm definitely ready to get my wings spread and move on my own business. 

Well that's all for now, I know it's not a major posting but I didn't want to get out of the habit of posting at least once a week... be patient, I'll start posting more design related posts soon :) 

It is Finished...

I successfully completed my 3yrs of Graphic Design! Final grades were released today, 3rd semester in a row with straight A's :) After a 3 weeks of submitting resumés I finally had a productive call back, it's not for graphic design yet, but hey, one has to pay the bills... I can't afford to wait for a call back from a studio. I have an interview set up for May 10th. I also have a quote out on a job that will be my first post-graduate freelance job :) Times, they are a changing...

Student Awards

Finished my final assignment today, not sure why I was procrastinating so much since it only took me about half an hour tops. After I was finished that, I received an email from my program coordinator reminding me (the whole class actually) to submit some pieces to the RGD Student Awards. This is a chance to win a $1000.00 bursary and a free registration to this year's Design Thinkers. The award winner will also be featured in an upcoming edition of Applied Arts. Hopefully I'll be writing about this in the future and I'll be letting you know I've won... keep your fingers crossed :)

The Future

The future is almost upon me. April 29th will mark the last day of my 3 year program at Cambrian College. I have been diligently pursuing job listings and submitting resumés. I didn't realize that finding a job is just like having one already. So many phone calls, emails, follow-up emails, resumé submissions, portfolio submissions and so on and so forth and etc... Today, however, was a bonus. I was contacted by a local committee to attend a meeting for a building project that is being undertaken. Out of that meeting I have received a media package, including a website, (just mock-ups at this point), to put together for presentation at the end of May. I'm really excited about this, it may not be my first freelance gig, but it is certainly my highest profile piece to date. Wish me luck!

I leave you with an Ad I did for a local art community.

Procrastination

Procrastination: to delay or postpone action; to put off doing something; 


This is what I am doing today. Only two small projects left to do for my final year of Graphic Design and I am finding an endless supply of “other” things to do... I guess I'm at the point now where I just don't want to do anything. A mini-break if you will. What I have been doing though, is looking intensely at a multitude of sites posting jobs. I currently have 18 resumés out there in the wilds of the job market so hopefully I'm able to trap something. So for the next... however long it takes... I'll be working on those last two projects. I'll keep you posted :) 

The Infinite Possibilities

Over my 3 years of schooling I have been asked time and again what do Graphic Designers do? My usual quip back is, “What don't Graphic Designers do?” That is to say, we do so many different things in our pursuit of communication for our clients. Indeed if I was to distill into one word everything that we do in our field, it would be COMMUNICATE. Our sole responsibility is to communicate the message given to us by our clients in the best possible way to suit their needs. 

I leave you with one of my poster pieces for my Creative Thesis Project - my thesis took on the current social issue of literacy in Canada, and how it can and does affect everyone. 

CBC Books - The future is now: Harnessing our green tech past for a cleaner present

CBC Books - The future is now: Harnessing our green tech past for a cleaner present

Sounds like a very interesting book, I'll have to pick up a copy. I do believe that the “saying” that this reviewer is referring to is not actually a saying at all, but a biblical reference made by King Solomon over three-thousand years ago. It reads as follows and has very sound ideals, even for today:

Ecclesiastes 1

The Vanity of Life

¹ The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
² “ Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher;

“ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.”
³ What profit has a man from all his labor
In which he toils under the sun?
⁴ One generation passes away, and another generation comes;
But the earth abides forever.
⁵ The sun also rises, and the sun goes down,
And hastens to the place where it arose.
⁶ The wind goes toward the south,
And turns around to the north;
The wind whirls about continually,
And comes again on its circuit.
⁷ All the rivers run into the sea,
Yet the sea is not full;
To the place from which the rivers come,
There they return again.
⁸ All things are full of labor;
Man cannot express it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor the ear filled with hearing.
⁹ That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰ Is there anything of which it may be said,

“ See, this is new”?
It has already been in ancient times before us.
¹¹ There is no remembrance of former things,
Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come
By those who will come after.

Not that I'm trying to preach here by any means, I'm merely quoting the more accurate account of what the reviewer was alluding to. This is also a similar idea that was brought out by Adrian Shaughnessy in this year's "Lateral Thinkers" conference. Adrian alluded to how designers of today are really not creating any new content, and therefore everyone is “copying” at some level since we all make our choices in design based on things that have already been done. I don't think that he was meaning that there are not new ways of making things look, but merely that the content of what we are designing has probably already been addressed. Anyway, all that is to say that this new book “Powering the Dream” will probably be an interesting read.

SpiekerBlog » Blog Archive » Nokia sans character

SpiekerBlog » Blog Archive » Nokia sans character

Just goes to show you that clients don't know what they have until it's gone... and sometimes not even then. Beautiful typeface by Erik Spiekermann. If Nokia doesn't want it anymore I'll sure take it :)

Long Day

Definitely a lot of travelling done today. 100km to the Doctors office, then 120km from where my Doctor's office is to the city my school is in. Then 96km from my school back home, so as I said, a lot of travelling. Finally got all the quirks worked out of my website at www.timricher.com I tightened up the lines, and added some more links, there will be more changes to come as I decide what to add to it and change out my portfolio pieces with new, non-school projects. Check back often, both here and there. 


Can't remember if I'd posted this piece before or not. It's a wallpaper I made for my son a couple of years ago.

Almost time

It's almost time, only 4 more days of class left and I'll be finished school for good. I've started the long, hard process of finding a job now, currently I have 11 resumés out and have contacted 16 business' in total. I know I will get something I just hope it's in the design field right away. There is a great feeling of accomplishment, 403 days of school finished (yes I counted), I should achieve the distinction of Cambrian Scholar as well (maintained an average GPA of over 3.89 for the duration of the program). The future is looking very very good. 

I leave you with this awesome rendition of a SteamPunk Yoda, from Bjorn Hurri a favorite illustrator of mine.

New site

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have a new site up now www.timricher.com go check it out.

Final Stretch

Seems like it's been forever since I posted on here. In fact it's been months. Things have been very busy, in fact it's hard to believe that I am down to the last 7 weeks of my 3 year degree in Graphic Design. This semester has not been overly stressful, but it has been demanding. The end is near and I can't wait to be working full time again. Here's a sample of the web design for my creative thesis.