If design is not your full time job, most likely something else is. And when do you find time to do it?

I have to say for me that time is often at night after everyone has gone to bed. Or in the morning before the kids wake up if I’m lucky. And apparently I am not alone.

I recently talked to a photographer named Scott of http://scottmylerphotography.com/ that said he sometimes only gets 3 hours of sleep when he is up designing. Another friend who has a web design business says she often stays up, too.

One thing is sure, and that is that I am much happier if I can get some creative time in each day. I have noticed that my oldest daughter is the same way, so we are going to start doing that more regularly.

One of our favorite things to do together is to take a portable watercolor paint set and mini watercolor paper pad outside with a plastic cup of water and go to town. I think the set was about $7 at Hobby Lobby and the paper was $3 for a set of three tiny 3×4″ or so watercolor paper pads. Actually I like the small size because I don’t feel intimidated by having to take time to fill an entire 9×11 sheet. With the small paper I can make something creative in 10 minutes! I think that is also why I like making logos. I can be highly focused on a small little thing without feeling overwhelmed.

How about you? When do you find time to be creative? How do you balance with everything else? Are there little tiny moments you could snap up as creative time with your family?

This is a silly little game but if it helps me keep my blog updated better then it’s worth it!

Hi there, ya’ll!

 I’ve been thinking for a while that Chrysalis Logos needs an attractive new tagline that will catch the imagination of all who read it, but my brain is occupied making pictures in my head, so I want your help! If you can come up with a tagline that makes me scream “That’s the one!” then you will score 4 delicious Cookietree brownies (which have been described as chocolate bars with bits of brownie in them) AND a full retail account from SendOutCards, good for one year, with enough credits to send 10 greeting cards through the mail.

All you have to do is write your tagline(s) in the comments section, and I will choose the winner no later than March 25th. You can enter as many times as you want.  I also have a small prize for everyone who participates, so you really can’t lose.

Feel free to browse our site to get a feel for what we do and who we are. I will give you one hint: Chrysalis Logos aspires to be a small business’s best friend when it comes to design.

Good luck!

Jessica Sellers
Chrysalis Logos
www.ChrysalisLogos.com

How to Make a Wacky Greeting Card

Publish at Scribd or explore others: How-To Guides & DIY holiday wacky

Here is the card design I created for this tutorial.

Finally, here is the Inkscape template I mentioned in the tutorial, all ready for you to make your own wacky holiday card !

Inkscape Card Template

Have fun!

I made this flyer for members of the Northern Utah County FreeCapitalist forum to use when inviting people to their weekly meetings (FreeCapitalist logo used by permission of course). What do you like about it? What would you do differently? Do you have any suggestions for making the flyer more effective as a recruiting tool?

Feedback greatly appreciated.

freecapitalist-flyer-draft2.pdf

Enter, the RGB to Color Name chart: http://web.njit.edu/~kevin/rgb.pdf

With this color chart, you can view colors catalogued by their standard name, their RGB description, their hex code, and even a few CSS numbers. So you can get really precise.

Without a color standard, a conversation between a designer and their client might go like this…

Client: I like the logo concept you sent me. I’d like to see it in purple.

Designer: What kind of purple? Red-violet, royal purple, indigo, or fuschia?

Client: Um, I was thinking like grape.

If the client had just viewed the RGB color chart, he could pick out exactly the hue of purple that he was looking for, saving both people valuable time:

Client: I like the logo concept you sent me. I’d like to see it in purple.

Designer: Do you have a specific purple in mind?

Client: Yes actually. I looked at that color chart you sent me and I like the one with the hexcode  8A2BE2, known as blue-violet.

Designer: Perfect! I’ll change the color and send it back to you right away!

Of course, as a designer, I am thrilled to send you multiple color options. But if you already have a specific color in mind, you can save us both time and pick out the RGB or hex code from the color chart.

P.S. Another option for communicating color is to send an image that contains the specific color you want. It will be easy for me to pick out the needed RGB codes and then apply them to your design.

“Let’s do a gradient here, throw in a drop shadow, blur the background, do a neon glow on the font, and make everything beveled!”

Oh no! That’s a recipe for disaster! Sometimes all you need is one color and a pen tool to make everything work. The hardest task of all is knowing when to use which tool to create the visual effect (and the corresponding emotional effect) that is desired for a particular purpose.

That is the art of restraint.

In the printing world, color works just the opposite. Mix Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow and you get Black, or close to it. Take them all away and you ‘re left with a plain white paper. (most printers have an extra color, Black, or Keytone, to help make images really pop!)

The difference between these two color systems is the way light is used. On printed paper, light is reflected. A light beam falls on the paper, the paper soaks up some of the light and bounces back the rest, what you actually see. However, on a computer screen, the light beams directly from your monitor and goes straight to your eyes.

Each system has colors it’s better at displaying. Depending on which mediums you use to display your logo, you should have your logo file saved using the appropriate color system to get the most accurate color. If you use your logo primarily on the web, make sure you use the RGB color system. If you just want business cards to hand out, use CMYK settings. Or just get one of each.  (You CAN have your CMYK and RGB it too!) 

*To be fair, there are other color systems besides RGB and CMYK, but these are the two most common. Fancy cameras and photo manipulating programs often have their own special color systems.