6 Designer tips to follow!!

The following 6 Tips are ones that I need to follow, (courtesy of Logo Design Blog). I heart post-its!! They are the best, I always have a handful in my pocket when I come home from work.... good ideas come at strange times, so I need to sketch or write them down before I loose them!! ...... Enjoy!  (this is good stuff, that's why I decided to repost) 6 Cool Tips for Logo Designers to Stay Focused! Generally, logo designers get so engrossed when working on a logo design project that they can’t be easily distracted by any extraneous factors. But at times, while working for long hours, the logo designers get so stressed out that they completely lose focus. Moreover, the fast moving work environment and technological gizmos are always a source of interruption. We always blame family, friends and colleagues to be the real distraction but nowadays it’s the internet and social media that takes away most of the time. This is how you lose your productivity and eventually fail to meet project deadlines. And then you get really strained and lose your focus while trying to cope up with the nearing deadline. Now comes the question that how can one manage to stay focused and composed? How to avoid indulging in extraneous activities while making a logo design? Facing these distractions myself, I have devised a few simple yet effective techniques that will enable logo designers to stay focused on their work.   1.Use ‘Stickys’: One of the best and easiest ways of staying focused is to use stickys. A sticky note, also called post-it note is a small adhesive paper attached on top of objects that act as reminders. Being a logo designer, use your computer monitor to paste these sticky notes listing all your prioritized work so that you always remain focused on your core tasks.   2. Have a Break, have a ‘Kit Kat’: As I said earlier, logo designers are so involved in their work that they don’t realize the amount of energy they consume in the logo design process. So the next time you feel out of focus or drowsy, take a break and increase your sugar levels with a bar of chocolate. You will notice that the sudden boost of sugar will rejuvenate your mind and bring back the lost focus. Although I eat Kit Kat, you can have your favorite one.    3. Ctrl+Alt+Del: There are times when you wish life had a restart button. You think if you could just press ‘Ctrl + Alt +Del’ to reboot yourself up again. Well, there is a way of doing that…take a quick nap. When things start getting stressful, don’t panic. A short nap will contribute a lot to the logo designers to rejuvenate their focus back.   4. Food + H2O = Refreshing: Did you know that the human mind is made up of 80% water? Yes folks, whenever you brain stops working, drink lots of water to freshen up your focus. Keep a water bottle near you while working. Also if you get any snack along, your mind will reboot more quickly. It’s not necessary to have a 3-course meal, because even a bag of chips can do the trick for you.   5. 5-minute ‘yoga’: Another routine practice that can give you back the lost concentration is ‘exercise.’ Now it doesn’t necessarily mean that you perform the yoga. Just a few simple exercises in the workplace like moving your neck and flexing your back muscles can release the pressure. Get up from your seat after every hour or so and stretch out to avoid any spasms.     6. Enjoy good ‘Music’: A handful of people consider it to be a distraction, but I believe music is a wonderful stimulator for the human mind. Listening to some soft and good music helps in relaxing the mind. Although my preference is soft music to relax my mind but some people fancy hard rock music to be a motivator as well.   So, all talented logo designers out there, whenever you find it difficult to concentrate on a project…try any of these tricks. With my experience, I assure they all really work  and if any of you have other interesting ideas on “how to stay focused” do share with us.

3 Great CD cover designs!

These are three of the greatest CD covers I've seen designed!

Not only is this CD awesome, with positive lyrics and good stories, but the cover is great too! I love the simplicity. It's clean, classy and fresh. The black, white and yellow color combination go together perfectly. I love the Rehab logo, it translates well on this CD, shirts and promo material as well. By far on of my favorites.

This CD cover is pretty sweet too! Trip Lee also has great music and Ministry. This CD cover is very futuristic, clean and very cool looking. The warm blues, turquoise and purples were definitely a good choice. The cover alone attracted me to this CD, and his great music made it even better. Definitely one of the best CD covers I've seen!

Michelle Bonilla's CD was long anticipated, but totally worth the wait. This CD is full of uplifting and encouraging songs. One of my favorites is "Our Generation", a theme song for all of us who believe in  1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."

Not only do I love her music and ministry, but I love the CD cover as well. Her picture depicts that she is in deep thought, the city background to me represents the world she continues to impact and the gradient in the title is a cool touch. This cover is very classy, and its simplicity speaks for itself.... proving once again, that simple is better ♥

A simple card for a special girl

This card is simple and chic for a special little girl. She loves being girly but classy. The girl holding the cake on the card is from a stamp, I colored her in and added powder pink card stock behind it and glitter around it, and finished it off with the 'make a little wish' sticker. 

Tarjeta para mi abuelita

I made this simple card for my Abuelita in Puerto Rico just to let her know that I love her! I cut out a heart from textured paper, for the bow I used fancy black ribbon and to put them together, I cut out a double whole with the long reach puncher, than tied them together with the ribbon. It says "Te Quiero Mucho Abuelita" -'I love you very much grandma'. -- I hope she likes it :-)

Simple & Classy

When making handmade cards for friends and loved ones, simple is most often better. These simple and classy cards were designed with the intentions of telling my old coworkers "Thanks" or "Gracias" in spanish, for the opportunity I had to work with them. I wanted them to know how special they are to me, with a quick glimpse. The materials used were card stock, ribbon, a stamp and a flower cut out punch, along with some TLC of course ;)

Christmas Cards!!!

Here are some of the Christmas Cards I created for family and friends. Making these cards was so much fun and though I saw a lot of nice ones in the stores, I enjoy making personalized cards with a handmade touch! Hope you enjoy them as well. Good feedback on the Facebook Fan Page.  Will be ready to take orders for next years cards. Happy New Year 2011!!!

Thank you cards

Card making is one of the crafts I enjoy doing the most! I enjoy making personalized cards for family and friends birthdays, weddings, thank you's andd other events rather than buying some at the store. I create the cards from left over scraps I have saved from other projects.

For these thank you cards, I used textured paper as the background of the top of my card. I like the idea of using left over ribbon (the white one with hearts was used in my wedding) on the bottom of cards to give the card a sophisticated look.

I cut out flowers using the Martha Stewart  flower punch, added diamond stickers. Behind the flowers I used pop up stickers to give the flowers a 3D look. The green stems on the flowers are cut from the edge of my sheer ribbon.

I hope those who received these cards enjoyed them as much as I had fun making them :)