Time for another inspiration post! I always find it interesting the places I find myself inspired in finding new and great ideas. I will grace you with sharing my experience with these places, or times that I find myself most inspired to discover fresh creative ideas, but also want to hear where others find their inspiring moments! Shall We?

I think most everybody can agree that the times or places that we find ourselves most inspired or capable of being focused in finding new ideas is placed where we are relaxed. These are environments where we can actually free out brains of daily clutter so to let it be filled with new things. It only makes sense right!

There are two places or times that I find myself at when my brain seems to effortlessly be pumping out some great ideas. Unfortunately both of these places seem to not be the most convenient place in terms of access for jotting down or recording these great ideas. The first place is the shower. I find this very strange for multiple reasons but mostly because I am usually in the shower in the morning. I am not exactly what you would call a morning person, However, like most of us find, a nice hot shower can get you started for the day. The challenge however is how to quickly record these things that come to me? I guess I need to invent water proof note paper! Thanks to steam on the glass I am not left without any means of jotting down sketches or notes if I feel my memory wont serve me well enough.
The second place is when I have my eyes close and am close to dozing off. This seems not so bad as you can easily make sure to have a note book by your bed for these crazy inspiring times. The challenge is making sure your dozing doesn’t go all the way before you have a chance to record your ideas.
The good thing for me is that I usually find that my memory serves me well enough that I am able to remember my great ideas that are birth during these circumstances long enough to record them in a safer place.

Now how about you? When do you find yourself most inspired. Dont be shy! Heck I just admitted that I am a shower thinker.

The New year is finally here and I cannot express how excited I am. I am very optimistic about 2010 and have many exciting hopes and goals. What are yours?

I am excited to continue in working hard to offer my passion and love through creative problem solving. I want to meet new people and form new relationships. I am ready to explore new ideas and watch them come to life and full fill their purpose. A Whole new year, a clean slate, ready for something big.

2009 holds a special place. I am so thankful because I can come out of 2009 feeling good. I met the goals that I set for myself and for Link Creative. All within a very challenging time. In fact, I look back and see what I accomplished and wonder how!? I am certainly not tooting my own horn here. I’m counting my blessings from above.

Goodbye 2009, Thank you for the opportunities and growth you brought. Hello 2010, I’m ready to Rock!

Happy New Year everyone. A special thanks goes out to all of my wonderful client, friends and family.
 

Naturally with Christmas time come some fun holiday projects. I had the opportunity to work on some fun custom lettering for a Christmas event. I thought I would show some snippets of the lettering process. This was actually a pro bono project I did that I was happy to help out with. With that said, I was given the project to complete quickly, and while trying to squeeze in around other paid project on my plate!

I had a specific tall curly font style in mind but was not able to find what i was looking for within “budget” or time. This is a good example of where custom lettering comes to the rescue! I can usually come up with a custom lettering treatment faster than it takes me to perform that agonizing search. I have the freedom to get as specific to the creative need as possible! These are some of the great advantages not mentioning the lack of worry on right of usage.
 
 
Here are the somewhat refined rough sketches. I say that because they are kind of in the middle. Usually I like to go a few steps further with line refinement in paper but with the crunch in time I chose to refine from here in Illustrator
 
 
Tweaking the raw vector lines
 
 
In this case, (again with the quick turn around) I created a custom brush in illustrator to apply and manipulate on the vector lines of each letter. These turned out pretty well with some cleaning up on some corners and twists. Brushes are a great quick way to achieve a certain looking you are going after if you know how to work with them right. If I had all the time in the world, I would naturally prefer to control every twist turn and curve of this ribbon effect by hand.
 
 
Lastly, I Expanded my brush strokes when I cleaned them up and then exported the piece into Photoshop for the subtle shadow effect on the overlapping of the ribbon lettering. Wala!
 
 
I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!
 

So they are a bit late in the season but here are some fun seasonal twitter icons! Download the complete set. The set also include .jpg and .png file versions of each.

Having a seasonal icon on your site or blog to promote your twitter page
is a great way to grab the attention of new followers!

Enjoy! Oh, and don’t forget to follow Link Creative on twitter! http://twitter.com/LindseyLinkC
 

 
So you need to hire a designer (aka freelancer) to help you with the branding and design needs of your business. I am naturally a strong believer in this being a good choice because of my passion for what I do. I can confidently say this is a great step to take as I see the value of great design time after time.

Starting a new project can however be overwhelming, especially when it involves aspects that are outside of your abilities. That is why you are hiring a professional right!

In order to make your project a success the first and most important step is building a solid working relationship with your contractor. A good contractor should be working to do the same with you. As a Solo designer my first step of the project process kind of works hand in hand with building this relationship. I take time to learn all about your business and your needs. In that I am also learning how you function professionally so that we can work together effectively.

It is good for you to also learn a bit about your contracted designer so you know how to maintain this healthy working relationship as the project progresses. Some of the information that would be good for you to know about solo designers is either not overly obvious or is easily over looked. Here is a quick list of things to keep in mind when working with a solo contracted designer or illustrator.

1. Respect the policies that are presented and you agreed upon.
They serve to help you and the designer both.
 
2. Respect our profession and trust our expertise.
Reputable designers are worthy of respect just as any other professional. They offer a fine service at a fair price. Designers are open to your input but micro managing is restricting and usually very ineffective. You hired a professional, allow them to show you their expertise.
 
3. Communicate clearly and in a timely manner to help the project progress.
Clear and organized communication is always key!
 
4. Please pay on time.
It has to be said sometimes unfortunately. Your designer worked hard for you and deserves to be compensated in a timely manner.
 
and last but not least..
 
5. Know that reputable designers want to take care of you. A reputable designer not only has genuine talent and skills sets, but passion and pride for what they do. They work hard and are thorough in learning about you so they can meet your creative needs. In additions to everything else, this is our lively hood! We give 110% to maintain a reputation so we can continue to making a living doing what we do best.
 
I am always eager to build great working relationship with old and new clients at Link Creative!