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The Design Center / Creative Networking / January: "Best of the Best" / February: "Planning for 2005"  

Have you entered yet? Enter this month's door prize drawing... there's always a new promotion next month! We invite your comments

February: Designer Planning

... getting 2005 off on the right foot

During January we invited readers of the Design Cafe list and DTG to write in and relate a comment or suggestion about how they plan to make 2005 the best yet... what new plans they have; how they'll attack the year... here's what just a few of them had to say:

Update the Site... no simple chore

Sue writes:
      "Design Plans for 2005: Update the farm site. OK, sounds simple eh? It was exactly one year ago that I took a deep breath and commited to taking an intro HTML course to make a "little" site for our farm U-Pick. A self-esteem booster more than a real marketing strategy.
      It took me 2 months to make it through a 2-week course and another 2 months to get the basic, primative site up YaY! I *did* something :)
      Himself-Farmer-At-Large (the "Boss") was less than impressed with the map pages but was forced to eat his words when 5 days in a row, 5 groups of women arrived with the printed maps extolling the virtue of the easy-to-follow directions. Hmmmm - directions for women made by a woman... we might have something here!
      OK, so now I really need to update the site, "I have all winter" is scurrying by, crikey, New Year's is past. Time to immerse myself in that code again. Now I've signed up for an intro CSS course "You can change the look of your entire site without re-coding all the pages" - sign me up! Even if this 2-week course ends up being another 4 month adventure for my challenged body, I'll still have the site updated in time for Spring :)
      Unbelievably to me, I won some software with my little site last spring and have an appointment next week with another local FarmWoman who saw my site and wants to learn how as well. She's signed up for the basic course and is coming over for some real-life hands-on intros.
      Wish us luck I'm a WindowsXP prisoner playing with PaintShopProv9 and WS-FTP Home."
[END QUOTE] Sue computer user from Stonewall, Manitoba, Stoons & Stuff

Editor's Note: You deserve the prize this month. We enjoyed reading the comment and visiting the site. Perhaps if Stoons & Stuff doesn't keep you too busy, you can take up writing on the side!

Pursuing a Photographic Journey

Carl writes:
      "In December of 2004 I decided to pursue a photographic journey. So I started by adding my newly formed studio to the local Chamber of Commerce in Delray Beach.
      Since then I have made some great contacts and was asked to record a couple of events for the Chamber. I was requested to compose an add for an upcoming Valentine event for the Chamber, all were very successful. Last week I accidently found a Framing store after walking out of a local eatery and the owner is putting up a flyer and some business cards for restoring old photographs. With the way things have started off thus far, I am looking forward to being quite successful by years end.
      I thoroughly love photography and the opportunity to edit my work on the computer instead of a darkroom, which I used and learned from many years ago. Presently I use an IBM computer with Photoshop and Paintshop Pro v.9.
      Hoping all who read this will find great rewards in their 2005 endeavors."
[END QUOTE] Carl is a photographer from Delray Beach, FL

Editor's Note: Thank you, Carl! Which reminds us of a famous entrepreneur's saying: "If you love what you do for a living, you'll never work a day in your life!"

Changing with the times

Stephanie writes:
      "I lost a major account in the last year due to cutbacks and now am looking into possibly changing some of the services I provide. I was wondering how others have dealt with a situation like this."
[END QUOTE] Stephanie is a design professional from Belle Vernon, PA

Editor's Note: Losing a major source of revenue is never any fun. But if there's one thing you can be thankful for, it's the fact that when a business upheaval does occur it forces you to reevaluate what you're doing and where you want to go -- which is always a beneficial process. Best of luck Stephanie; we know you'll do all right!

Elvis' Birthday

Mark writes:
      "I don't do New Years Resolutions (who keeps 'em?); rather, I choose to celebrate Elvis' Birthday a week later...I mean, think about it, would YOU break a promise to the King of Rock and Roll? He wouldn't break a promise to you...but I digress.
      I've already started planning my year, and I am currently one project ahead of myself. Since my design work goes on the website as well as gets mailed out to various patrons and interested parties, I've simplified my efforts by creating a single image or cover or design that will serve both ends. It's cut my graphic design work in half, freeing me up to concentrate on other side projects, like newsletters, packaging, and the perennial website redesign project that never quite finishes. Also, it reinforces particular shows and logos when people see them in print and also on the site."
[END QUOTE] Mark desktop publishing professional from Austin Texas Violet Crown Radio Players

Editor's Note: Darn! We missed it. Elvis's birthday that is.
      Mark, we really enjoyed poking around the 'Players' web site! Too bad we're not in Texas. But we LOVED all the sound clips in your audio department -- not to be missed, folks!

Back to School

Pat writes:
      "I am actually a student at Texas State Technical College, studying for my AAS in Graphics Arts. Be advised my website is a project under the process of construction. I am applying for this contest because I would really love to be a part of this webMag and the prizes are very tempting for a student who sorely lacks funding for more than the bascis and her schooling.
      I hope to accent my AAS in graphics arts this next fall by studying how to program RPGs. This I feel will place me in a very lucrative invironment for the future. I am an avid gamer as well as an artist. I hope to show more of my canvases soon.
      thank you for the opportunity to place my dibs in for the prizes you offer, I hope to be reading more of your webArticles in the future.
      I do have a request for one, The history of desktop publishing or electronic publishing. I'm running WinXP and My Fave Software progs are adobe Photoshop and Acrobat."
[END QUOTE] Pat is a computer user from Harlingen Texas

Editor's Note: Whew! What can we say. As for that history of desktop publishing or electronic publishing article -- too long for DTG, but you can get the full story in Phil Meggs' fabulous book Typographic Design: Form and Communicotion, or in Pamela Pfiffner's wonderful Inside The Publishing Revolution, our 2002 Book of the Year book.

And, that about wraps it up for this month. See'ya next month.

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