Back on Solid Ground

Back on Solid Ground

Blogs are always rinsing and falling on the internet, am I right?
Thankfully mine stayed neutral. 
Success.

With this being the final post of this very short blogging segment, it's time to reflect on the overall experience:

I'll start by saying that I'm not opposed to blogging or sharing my opinions, it's just that it's not for me personally. Like I said back at the very beginning, I was raked over the coals in my previous blogging endeavour, and don't care to ever really try again. Although I enjoy reading other people's blogs and views, I'd prefer to keep mine to myself, or at the very most, within my immediate group of friends. 

My current social media presence is very indicative of this belief. As an example: I was recently and candidly, photographed and posted on the Vancouver Instagram feed known as "Man Bun Mondays" (make of that what you will), and due to this posting, my Instagram and Twitter feeds exploded with follow requests. I was averaging around 4 requests an hour for the next week or so; none of which I accepted. 

The reason I have any social media presence at all, is again, to primarily share things with my friends and family. I'm not in it for the "follows" or "likes", and I'm sure not about to accept any follows from randoms. This attitude spilled over into this blogging exercise, and clashed somewhat with the purpose, which was to share as much as possible and get engagement from the posts. Is there anything wrong with not wanting a huge internet following?

At the end of the day, even if no one read these Design Life & Struggle based posts, these blogs did help me to solidify and refresh my own personal love for graphic design and the web, so I'd say "job well done". 

Until next time (which there won't be),
All the best.



—tom

Welcome to January and... the rest of your life?

Welcome to January and... the rest of your life?

New year. New career?
It seems that with each passing year, I re-evaluate my life and second guess the career path that I'm on. Am I doing the right thing? Do I even like it? What else might I be interested in? What do I do?

All these questions usually drive me wonky and, until this year, I've always ended up completely switched my focus. On the bright side, being interested in so many subjects is never a bad thing, or at least that's what I tell myself. The realization though, is that until someone offers me a job as a professional career switcher, I have a feeling I'll have a bad time. 

This past holiday season was especially rocky with major family changes, and heaps of external stress; all perfect conditions for a "life re-think". Surprisingly though, the 2014 to 2015 career blues never came, and for once I actually felt good about where I was headed. Obviously the stress of finding work after school is still lingering...hard, but that being said, I have no plans to change my focus anytime soon. Web design and development is still the game for me.

I also realize that this post is a purely selfish one, and offers no advice what-so-ever, but I guess that's just how it is this time. If there's anything can be taken away from this, it's this: If you're trying to make it in an overly saturated career field, with heaps of tough competition, long hours, little pay, and that requires a small amount of luck; and you aren't having second thoughts, you must be crazy... but you also must be doing something that you love, so it's 100% worth sticking it out.


Happy new year.

—tom

Hosting Your Website on GitHub for FREE

A lot of people know GitHub as a place where you can share your code with the community. But did you know GitHub also lets you host websites for FREE?

There are two kinds of websites you can host with GitHub, Project Pages and User Pages. Project Pages are for individual repositories you have on GitHub and User Pages are for your entire GitHub account. In this article I will cover Project Pages.

To create a Project Page all you need to do is create a branch on GitHub named gh-pages and anything that you push to that branch will appear on www.github.io (the GitHub Pages domain).

Pretty simple, here's how to do it step by step:

1. Create a gh-pages branch

Open Terminal and go to your local project repository. 

Type  git checkout -b gh-pages
 
2. Push gh-pages up to github.io

Type  git push origin gh-pages

3. Wait up to 30 minutes...

Go to [username].github.io/[respositoryname] to see your site.

For example, my GitHub username is af19 and I have repository called typetool. So, the URL is af19.github.io/typetool

And that's that.  

One limitation of GitHub Pages is that you can't have any server-side stuff on there. That means no Ruby, PHP, Python, etc. So just HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

Drop Dead-lines

Drop Dead-lines

Missed the post for last week... which ends up being a perfect segue into this(last) week's topic: Deadlines

Everyone endures deadlines. Whether it's with school, work, your taxes, even library books have them, but following them perfectly, that's a whole other story. We all miss the occasional one, and usually it's not a big deal; but what about those rare times when it is a big deal? 


Step 1: Own up to it.

No one cares about the miraculous chain of events that occurred, causing you to hand in your work late. Excuses sound like just that: Excuses. Own up to your error. Admitting your own mistakes will be a far better representation of character than any crazy situation you were involved in.


Step 2: Fix It.

Take the necessary steps to complete/submit the project. Whether it's asking for additional time, skipping other engagements, or pulling all-nighters, you need to finish and submit the project quickly. 


Step 3: Plan more effectively.

Take more time in the future when planning your schedule. Whether it's being more realistic with your time-estimates, taking on less work, or sacrificing your social life, your schedule is everything. A hectic schedule is far more prone to missed deadlines than an organized one. If you haven't already, try employing the calendar trick mentioned back in blog #2.


At the end of the day, procrastination is a punk and being able to hit deadlines will either make you or break you in the creative industry. No one hires anyone who, 60% of the time, delivers on time. 


—tom

7 Steps for better SEO

1. Relevant keywords

The first step is to research related and relevant keywords and phrases that customers or website visitors would be searching for.

Example: if your your bike shop is in Vancouver BC, Vancouver bike shop would be an Important key-phrase.

Your main focus should be understanding your customers language that they might be using while searching for your company.


2. Optimize the content of your site

It is really important to create rich high-quality content when driving traffic to your site. In todays age, content is extremely critical for internet users and search engines.

Testimonials, customer reviews, and Q&A's are highly recommended, information about your staff is also very useful for users and SE.

Take full advantage of your contact page, for localized business it is said that other than the home page the contact page is second most important page. make sure to include:

• company name
• phone number 
• address
• embedded geo site map

The more content you have the better, making sure it is all valid and useful.

Once you have all your metadata and keywords in place,  now you can start looking for non related factors that will benefit your site.

3. Be consistent 

Inconsistency is a big no-no when it comes to SEO, Google and Bing both have a disliking for content of this nature as it can negatively effect your online presence.

Use the same details throughout your social media platforms, websites and local listings.

4. Legitimate and genuine reviews 

Ask customers who actively use your site for genuine reviews. When I say genuine reviews I don't necessarily mean positive, constructive criticism is highly recommended to benefit services. 

Give your  users several ways and options for commenting and reviewing.

5. Social profile optimization

To reach out to all potential customers its important to stay active on all social media platforms.

Make sure that all your social profiles are linking to each other and include your location and region, as well as your business name and a URL back to your website.

Listing your Facebook page as a local business will improve the chance of reaching the top listing in Facebook search.

6. Mobilize your site

There is over 1 million new users a day accessing the internet from their phone.

For customers in local regions mobile access is highly convenient for users on the go.

Be cautious of software like Flash and PDF that aren't fully supported on more popular devices.

7. Update and analyze results

Once you start working on your local SEO, its important to analyze your results. The best way to do this is to use tools to monitor and analyze.

First off is monitoring your selected keywords. A good tool to do so is AWR Cloud.

Moz Analytics is also a good source for monitoring rank.

Check your rank on a weekly basis and keep note of noticeable changes.

Once you have the previous tools i mentioned set up, now is time to use Google Analytics for a organic analysis of your website to monitor its improvement. 

So if your doing these steps properly you should be able to track and noticeably see an increase in traffic :)

ENJOY!

When Creativity Flatlines

When Creativity Flatlines

Stoked! 3 views last week (instructor, mom, and me). And the show goes on...

This week: How to stay inspired. 

Amid your busy schedule, it is essential to keep the creativity flowing; a feat much easier said than done. When you're constantly designing, the "well" has a tendency to sometimes slow to a trickle, if not dry up completely. Fear not. Here are two of my favourite ways to hit refresh and escape a creative drought.

Pocket Pics.
These days, everyone has a camera in their pockets and it's time you took advantage of it. Use your phone to take quick pictures of anything and everything you find interesting. Like the pattern on your take-out box? Snap it. How about the graffiti scribbled on the side of the bus, or the design of that old sewing machine? Snap those things too. So many of my design ideas come from my phone's camera gallery. I scroll through it from time to time and find all sorts of cool things I've taken pictures of. I recently used a colour scheme that I had seen on a can of peaches, ages ago.

Become a Card Collector.
So much good design can be found on other people's business cards, and usually goes unnoticed. Mind you there's heaps of bad design too, but that's the beauty of business cards. I find myself keeping any cards that intrigue me, even if I don't know why, and I file them away for later. Looking back over your collection can help you identify styles or trends that you didn't know you like(d) or realize that you actually don't like a certain style. Either way, the card comparisons can provide a starting point for a project that you may have never even considered. 

Basically, just try to analyze everything you look at or interact with. Take that extra second to make a mental note on why you like it, or what you like about it. Chances are that, if you put the effort into thinking about it in the first place, somewhere down the line, the thought will pop back into your head when you need it, thus saving the day. Theoretically of course. 


—tom

Portfolio Templates

I thought I was close to finishing my portfolio project but apparently I need to start over.  I got a feedback from our instructor and what he said to me made sense.  When he browse through my portfolio page layout, he thought he didn't know which one to click on first (out of the six icons).   He recommended that I should put my most important piece or the best work I've done first.  My layout right now have three columns in round shapes and all six are equally sized but I explained to him that all my work - in terms of quality - they are equally the same.  I am still unsure of which direction I would like to concentrate on whether web design or print design, etc.  He said I could explain this in class during our presentation but now he made me think of changing my website altogether.  I don't have enough time but we'll see if I can tackle it in a few days...worst comes to worst I'll just have to present the original version.

I looked through this 200 best web design templates and now there's so many to choose from.
http://designm.ag/designer-showcase/200-portfolio-sites-webdesign-inspiration/

Planning For Chaos

Planning For Chaos

One week later: Still floating.

Now, as anyone in my class will know, this past week was ridiculously tight on time in regards to school. Mid-terms, big projects, presentation prep... even the Tim Horton's lines were longer. Add to that, 2 part-time jobs, several freelance projects, and moving; and now you have my past week. This crunch on time though, is a good lesson to anyone starting out in the graphic/web industry. 

Anyone getting into the field has to first learn how to manage what limited time they have appropriately. Example: I have several projects that I'm super keen to work on and develop, but I also have some far less "fun" projects to complete for school... blah. How do I complete everything on top of working 2 jobs? Simple, I don't. I look at everything on my plate to get a sense of what's there, then I work as hard as a can, as fast as I can, and not worry about the rest. Everything that slips through, means that it isn't crucial at that point in time, and just gets pushed onto next week's plate; then just work from week-to week. 

This is all fine in theory, but putting it into practice is another thing. This is where, if you're into graphics, you can have a bit of fun. Design yourself a personalized schedule or calendar and live by it. Whether it's on your phone, or on your fridge, a list will help you to separate those "must-do"s from the "want-to"s and provide a good look at the weeks ahead. 

I know this sounds like something your parents might have told you when you were younger, but contrary to what you may have thought, your parents weren't full of shit and they ACTUALLY knew what they were talking about. Calendars work, and you should try them.


—tom

Time Management

As the saying goes "their aren't enough hours in a day" it really seems like this is true when living a busy lifestyle. Balancing work, school, your social life, eating, and even sleeping, can really start to get you unorganized and exhausted. 

In this blog I will show you a few tips and tricks to make time work for you. 

The first tip and one of the most important is, keeping notes, either in a journal, a white board or even sticky notes on your fridge. it may not seem like its that important but this is the easiest way to stay organized.

the second tip is to prioritize your projects and most important stuff going on in your life. I know it can be a burden and seem like a chore but starting with cleaning your personal environment doesn't only help improve your time management but will help you work more comfortably in your own space which will lead to better time spent. 

The third tip I'm going to share with you is to get a regular routine or schedule. This will come as second nature but sometimes its easy to fall back on bad habits and procrastinate what really needs to get done. Start by creating a daily hourly schedule. this will really give you a great visual representation of what you need to accomplish in a day, enabling you to manage your time in the most effect manner.

If you follow these three simple steps in your daily routine, you will find your time being spent at the utmost potential.

cheers!

Second Post - yay!

This was my mail out flyer project that I created in my Illustrator class in term 2 that I will be including in my portfolio website.  I used all sorts of tools and different typography with different colour scheme that matches with my coffee logo.  There was a 3-d building poster that came with this but I am still revising it.

The stripe orange/white canopy, I used the pathfinder "minus" tool as I needed to make them even on the edge. I also included some vector images (on right) including the vintage background to give it a rustic style.

My First "Official" Blog

Writing my first BLOG

I’m Belinda.  I am a student taking the New Media Design and Web Development at the downtown campus BCIT.  In my Social Networking class, we were asked to create a Story Telling blog.  So I guess this is my first official blog.  I’m not totally sure yet what topic should I be blogging about but this is a start.  Just writing whatever I can think of right now.  Eventually, I may choose a photography or web/graphic design blog topic.  Currently, I am in the process of building my portfolio site so a “blog” page will be on the menu.  To talk about working on my portfolio, it is actually exciting but at the same time it requires a lot of work organizing and gathering all the contents, then eventually making the site live.  I will be putting six our my previous projects from previous terms. 

Here is a photo that I took last July.  Since school started, I haven’t been taking much photos.

Please like my facebook page.  I have not updated it since July but when I get a chance I will.  Will upload more photos soon!

https://www.facebook.com/belindabuphotography

Afloat Once Again

Afloat Once Again.

Hello blogosphere; my old nemesis. It’s been years since my last visit, and for good reason too. Last time around you chewed me up, spat me out, and left me for dead after only a month of what was supposed to be “fun”.  Alas, it seems that I’m now back, reluctantly, for another round of punishment. So, without further ado, let the “Blog Experiment 2.0” begin… 

I’ve learned from my failed past, and this time around you wont see generic photos with attempts at wit slapped on them, but rather just…me. Cliché I know, but in the few short entries to follow, I’ll try and share my own trials and tribulations as an aspiring new graphic designer/web developer. 

Follow along if you wish, or happily choose to never read again. Either way it doesn’t really matter. I’ll still live. If you’re a classmate of mine then I feel your pain and just remember, we’re all on this same blogging-boat together, and there’s only 8 more weeks of paddling.


—tom