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Have you submitted your portfolio yet? Our Designing Women feature happens each year in March and April, in honor of Women's History Month! We invite your comments

DESIGNING WOMEN 2009 continues

... this month's designers show their talents

These are selected discoveries from the submissions of DTG readers, and participants in the Design Cafe Forums. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did...

Trish O'flaherty

Trish O'flaherty on GREEN DESIGN:

I'm a Green Designer..You can be Too!
Here are the some easy steps that designers can take to be
"Environmentally Creative"
* Encourage clients to proof on screen via PDF
* Encourage clients to read e-mail on screen rather than print them out
* Employ targeted promotional e-mail mailings rather than mass mailings
* Promote through an online portfolio rather than mailing printed material
* Use scrap paper for sketching & brain storming
* Use local vendors who are committed to the environment
* Encourage clients to print on PCW stock (Post Consumer Waste)
* I will explore the use of chlorine free paper and vegetable based ink products
* Minimize ink coverage on printed materials
* Encourage the use of PayPal rather than having clients mail check through postal service
* Be environmentally conscious when setting up meeting locations
* Recycle all ink cartridges
* Turn off studio lights during the day
* Embrace green lifestyle outside of studio life
* E-mail quotations and invoices when ever possible
* Encourage clients to be environmentally conscious too!

Tofy Design

Excellent list, thank you Trish!
Trish is a self employed freelancer from Orangeville, Ontario Canada.
We liked quite a few of her portfolio samples -- and you can catch up with Trish at
Susan Kare designer of icons www.tofydesign.com

 

Ruth Elayne Kongaika: Spring Colors

Ruth Elayne Kongaika: dreams in Spring colors

Ruth Elayne Kongaika is a design professional located in Laie, Hawaii -- and it's no wonder much of her work is simply beautiful! When you chose to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, that sublime beauty gets in your blood. Elayne writes:

The world is at its finest in spring. We gladly bid farewell to dirty, unsightly snow banks and the predominant colors of winter and depressing grays and browns. The earth delights in a new season with vibrant greens and pastels which symbolize the innocence and hope of warmer and brighter days. Humans are attracted to newly born creations by nature.

Ruth Elayne Kongaika is a design professional located in Laie, Hawaii

Elayne continues with color palette suggestions:

My favorite spring palettes include sky blues, purples and various shades of green. Many of my artwork include these colors as you can see on my website.

favorite spring palettes

Elayne creates most of her artwork on a Macintosh OS X by scanning sketches or photos into Photoshop CS2. She confesses: "My dream would be to have the latest computer with the latest Photoshop software." But we say she seems to be doing fine on the current set-up!
You can catch up with more of Elayne's work at:
Susan Kare designer of icons elayne.imagekind.com
 

Shirley Beaqgle: soft pastels for Spring

Shirley is a printing industry professional in the Huntley, IL area and she writes in with:

Less is more, use soft pastels for Spring, keep colors to a minimum with 1 bold color for accents. Water color style is always a Spring time pleaser. Soft, subtle, yet very cheery and uplifting. The lighter color palette literally lifts the heavy, dark winter colors from you. Don't try to put too much into the design, a few elements will have more impact than an overcrowded design.

Shirley uses a MAC G4 and loves anything from Adobe.

 


Designing Women Gallery Designing Women continues on the next page ...

Designing Women Gallery Don't forget to visit our Designing Women Gallery


 

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