Adobe Muse

Remember when I said I was using this blog to help me explore transitioning from print to digital design? Somehow I missed the fact that the good people at Adobe have made it really, really easy. So thanks Adobe Labs! Muse is pretty much it—guess we're done here. ;)

I can not wait to use my interactive skillz on this! It's pretty much similar to the web functions and updates on InDesign CS5. I'm exploring it with Lynda.com's quick tutorial right now. If you're a member I highly suggest checking it out.

Oh and since Muse is in Beta, it's free. Onward in exploration and inspiration my friends!

I love learning new things.

Lynda and Adobe labs = Happy Sarah.

Mood Board Nov. 5

I'm trying a new thing out, visual diaries(?) Anyway, fun stuff of this week—and starting with tomorrow's marathon viewing party at the star-studded Dunkin' Donuts*—next week's looking good too.

Click to enlarge

*there are no stars at the 25th St. Dunkin' Donuts just to be clear.

Positive Post-Its

Click to expand my awesomeness.

A nice day today.

HH casual tea

While looking for inspiration for my website (totally perusing Behanced) I came across a thread of people's favorite fonts. And it was only inevitable I watch My Neutra Face one more time. Hey, it'd been like a whole year since I'd last danced to it.

Anyway, in my excitement—aka dancing— I sloshed orange-make-you-sleepy-tea all over my key board!

I'd attach a picture but I freaked out and cleaned it up.

Anyway, if you have a favorite type face...well don't dance while celebrating it by your computer. Heed this cautionary tale.

Snowtober

I'm not one to be all dramatic about weather, only when it's crazy (see Hurricane blog posts). But today is October 29th and it's snowing! Not just kinda snowing, like actually—sticking to the ground—what would Frosty's Halloween costume be this Monday?—snowing.

Front window—Parrots picked off all the tree's leaves

Back window—Green leaves.

This is also weird because I was having a war with a mosquito last weekend until Thursday. Basically she was biting me when I was sleeping and I didn't like it. Now call me old fashioned, but don't we and the mosquitos have some sort of deal? When it's warm outside and you need food to feed your babies, you bite me. This doesn't mean I like it, but I get it. Circle of Life, yada yada. But when it's cold and SNOWING you gotta back off—Just saying.

So it's snowing. And hopefully Mrs. Mosquito is following her end of the bargin and died. But this grody weather brings other good news. To avoid it, I stay inside and and blog work on my elusive portfolio. So I have been! Ya'll should check it, be a fan of it, follow me if you're on Behanced—I'll follow back. Also, leave me comments on it. If you mad hate it, which you should just keep to yourself because if you can't say something nice don't say anything at all. Just kidding, lie to me! Tell me it's great.

But if you really do have suggestions, let me hear 'em. Because I love my work, and I really do want to make it better. Plus if you like kid's stuff, there's just a bucket of awesome for you to flip through. Hooray! Everybody wins!

http://www.behance.net/sarahnicholekaufman

Oh you might notice there's an empty space. That's for Logos and Branding. I've got 3 new logos in the works at work (awkward wording shout out) and as soon as those are approved, I'm complete. Excited!!

Sarah the trumpet.

Organization is not my strongest skill set. If I'm ever in another situation where someone asks me what my greatest weakness is, it'll be very obvious that organization is the main challenge. This'll be clear to the questioner since I'll try to explain roughly 12-60 things at once. Ah, I'm already doing it, so let's back up a second.

Last night I was trying to decide on how to gather my online and print ads, (some trade and some consumer) in one place. I mean it's kind of difficult to showcase an ad aimed at people who would be interested in reading Big Nate next to romantic dystopia. But then to further that cluster by putting an ad aimed at a buyer next to one aimed at angsty teen? As a dear friend of mine would say, "lunacy!" Clearly.

So how do I organize all of this? It's kind of the same thing, but not really. If I were a piano I could play all the parts at once and it would make sense to those listening. Sadly, I can only play one note at a time. So here I am honking on a trumpet trying to figure out where to put the horn section within this marching band.

Oh, I'm getting really bad on my metaphors, time for sleep.

Honk!

Meta Times

A co-worker went to Noble desktop's online portfolio seminar last week and found out about behance.net What a world of difference in online portfolios! Originally I had my work on a site that wasn't cutting the mustard. I had real limited design say and it looked really outdated. But this?! This is awesome! I can upload work easily and add my own html preferences. While I still learn web design, I think this will really work well for me. I have to see if I can finagle some Flash. Oh lord if I can add .swf files it's over. So over!

Take a gander, I just began. If it looks oddly familiar just remember when it comes to branding one self, I'm super into matching. Which isn't to say I'm into matching in any self preservation or expression...just to be clear.

http://www.behance.net/sarahnicholekaufman

In other news, I ordered CS5.5 last week! HH is almost complete. I know he's getting antsy, and I don't blame him, I would be itching to work too if I were just sitting around blogging all day. Lord knows my freelance level can increase dramatically. I think I'll improve my at-home work productivity by a ridiculous percent, let's say 78% faster design time. That sounds impressive.

The funny part is since I bought it from an online retailer to save a little, I have to wait for an actual box with CDs in it to come in the mail. That is just too funny. I have enough technology and power to run a very small country but I'm waiting to use it by loading and installing software via CD drive.

Updates** on my lovely Adobe package TK.* 


*haha publishing joke!
** We're currently expecting an on-time arrival of CS5.5 (best to say this in a airline pilot voice)

Exhibit A: Dorkus Maximus