1.     Make a summer bucket list
2.     Visit Hamilton Pool Nature Preserve
3.     Rebrand The Aesthetic Me
4.     Study Marketing
5.     Begin creating and selling my artwork on Society6
6.     Complete Untitled children’s book
7.     Write
8.     Attend Warped Tour
9.      Attend the San Antonio Film Festival
10.    Blog regularly
11.     Complete the Photography Book (Nearly a year in production.)
12.     Design my own t-shirt.
13.     Complete a short film

If you know me personally, you are probably aware of the amount of time I spend complaining about how things simply aren’t working out. And often they aren’t working out, at least financially. But as I said before, things end up working out somehow.

This is a very important thing for anyone to keep in mind, but especially those that are creatively driven. I often find myself in such a good mood, pursuing every one of my artistic goals and when I am reaching my peak productivity levels something doesn’t work out as planned. (That’s another thing, the creative like to plan and hate when those plans don’t work out.) In that moment I am drained of all momentum.

For the similar-minded, here are some things that I use to get myself back on my feet.

1. Call a reliable friend. Then bitch until you can breathe easy.
2. Pick a list of 15 songs that pump you up.
3. Upload those songs to your iPod or similar sub-par portable music listening device.
4. Run until you vomit.
5. Get back to work.

Seriously, try this. Your lack of momentum is your biggest threat, not paper.

I also included some of the songs I run to in a widget. And here at An Aesthetic Discourse we don’t judge guilty pleasures.

And I feel their pain, one of the main reasons for buying the iPhone was for Instagram, which is the top, most successful, and most useful photo sharing app. But, taking a step back, I’ve realized that all it means is more viewers, more hits, more likes, and more photo love. Who doesn’t want more love?

This morning big news from Instagram came again. Facebook has acquired Instagram for $1 Billion. Anybody hearing Dr. Evil in the back of their minds when they read this? I know I do.

What does this mean for Instagram? What does this say about Facebook? Are we entering into a world where Facebook becomes a monopoly on everything good? I mean who can argue with $1 billion when saying no may mean Facebook just creating something better anyway?

Luckily Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook will keep Instagram independent:

“…we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.

That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.”

Let’s hope this remains true.

What do you think about this?

Well, I’m coming back. Content has been written and I am currently working on the new website design to go with the more friendly and creative feel I have wanted for quite a while.

With the new web design came a new logo. Currently both of these logos are used on the site, but I am working on choosing one for print or locations where it would need to be static. Also, I wanted the logo to incorporate my interests in photography, writing, film, and design.

I have been studying web design and development for the past few weeks with Treehouse. Their tutorials are actually very interesting and informative. I am leaps and bounds ahead of where I was just two weeks ago. Also, they have a student discount plan, so it only costs $9 a month. If you are a student, jump on that. You pay just as much for Netflix.

So being a designer – and not an artist – I created the rough sketch of what I wanted the site to look like in InDesign. I chose the colors and brought in my design from Illustrator.

I kept a lot of the elements I had from my original blog and incorporated things that I always desired in a blog but could never quite find the layout that had just what I wanted.

Then I went into coding. There are few things that didn’t quite work how I wanted them to at first, but with a little tweaking, it’s looking VERY close to what had originally intended. I only have the main page created but for one day, my first day, I’m pretty proud of this one.

So give me a head’s up as to what you think of the new layout!

Also, once the site is up I think I’ll break down some of the stuff I learned and the resources so you could do this if you desire as well.

]]> http://anaestheticdiscourse.com/2012/02/designing-my-first-website/feed/ 2 http://anaestheticdiscourse.com/2012/01/required-reading-freelance-graphicweb-designers/ http://anaestheticdiscourse.com/2012/01/required-reading-freelance-graphicweb-designers/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:59:41 +0000 Christopher Mathew Burt http://anaestheticdiscourse.com/?p=2359

I have always been one to self-direct myself toward my goals. Granted, I am not as organized as I would like to be, but who is?

Since I was younger I have always created. I loved designing books, newspapers, and literary magazines. The further I got involved in creation I realized there was much more to the field than just designing for fun. Right after high school I began attending a liberal arts college in Minnesota. They didn’t offer graphic design, advertizing, or any sort of course dealing with web or print production. I settled on film and assuaged my creative side with cinematography.

Now a third-year I realized that I am heading in the wrong direction. If I continue at my college I will have a prestigious degree but absolutely no formal knowledge on the field I have been dreaming of since I was young.

Two Steps Back

I decided to take some time off of school and begin educating myself on the possible avenues for a graphic designer. Yes, I am living at home again, but I am building knowledge on the field and starting a savings. Luckily my mom is more than happy to have me here, she was nearing empty-nest syndrome. I am reading, researching, and educating myself constantly.

I want to share this process with other students looking to break into graphic design, specifically freelance. I am not yet sure if I will succeed or fail, but either way my experience will be useful for others. One thing I’ve learned thus far: we are not alone.

Every week (and sometimes more-so), I will post a “Required Reading” post. For this week it is a book, but some weeks will be a website or blog. Sharing is caring. 

This week’s required reading is Neil Tortorella’s “Starting Your Career as a Freelance Web Designer.”

I have recently begun working with a magazine company designing layouts and various other resources. I had no clue whated to charge, what an invoice looked like, or really what I was doing at all on the business side of things. Tortorella’s book assists graphic and web designers from the beginning in every aspect, including taxes which is one thing I was worried about.

So pick up this book at your local bookstore or buy it for cheaper by clicking the link to the left (it’s $19.99 at a bookstore before tax). Also, Amazon lets your read the first chapter for free, if you want to preview it first! It’s a must-read and a good motivating book to jump-start a professional freelance career.

Have other books that have inspired you? Leave me know!

Following are 10 graphic design resume samples that can inspire anyone, graphic oriented or not. It’s a dog eat dog world and standing out in a sea of bland cookie-cutter resumes is a good thing for anyone to do.

10 Resumes after the jump. 

Pau Morgan

Melissa Washin’s sewn resume

Jonny Rocket’s curriculum vitae

Tudor Deleanu

Alexander Parker

Michael Farrow

Kate Renner

And some examples of Branding

Chuck D. Lay | His resume comes inside of his comic, “The Designerd.”

Riccardo Sabatini curriculum vitae and branding

About a month ago I was wondering around the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota browsing for Christmas gift ideas and eagerly wanting to spend my paycheck. Barnes & Noble has become my default location to pleasurably kill a few hours, but rarely do I ever make a purchase. Until that day when I picked up a book that accidentally altered my life path.

Tuesdays with Morrie is about a man who, facing death, outlines what it means to live. “When you learn how to die, you learn how to live,” Morrie says. Mitch Albom transcribes the philosophies and important life events of Morrie Schwartz as recorded during his last couple months of life after Morrie was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The novel is full of quotes, but I have a few to share that inspired change within myself. And to effectively explain these changes, I have to present myself bare.

Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied, you won’t be envious, you won’t be longing for somebody else’s things. On the contrary, you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back.

I have spent a considerable amount of my life coveting the belongings of others. And if it’s not the car, clothing, or general lifestyle I am drooling over then it is someone’s talents, abilities, and nature I want to emulate.

Every month I buy GQ and flip through the magazine admiring the near-perfect men. I want their clothing, their jobs, their bodies. I want to be them. And for the month leading up to the next issue everything I do is with their image in my mind. But this is not true to myself or my own nature.

First of Morrie’s philosophies I have taken to heart:

1) Be yourself.

The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.

Love. Love. What the fuck is love? Until recently I have been terrified of the word and only used it meaningfully with a handful of people that I have been blessed to know. I am known to easily become apathetic at the first hint of intruders, people who have gotten too close to me. But I’m tired of running and this mentality will only leave me a bitter old man with no one by his side.

2) Give love and let love.

If the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.

My mom pointed out the other day that she spends quite a bit of time on her phone, always talking to someone else somewhere else. Sherry Turkle argues in Alone Together that we have become beings that exist always alone, but always connected to others through cell phones and similar technologies. Our relationships have become shallow and devoid of intimacy. I agree, and I often think life would be better without technology. It isn’t working.

 3) I will use technology as a tool and not a lifestyle.

So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

This feeling – being half-asleep – is the way I have felt for the past few years while attending college. Yes, I realize I am only Twenty and young and naive and whatever other adjectives you may use to disregard my current emotions BUT I don’t want to wake up in 60 years and realize my life has had no meaning. This is where my biggest life change has come.

I currently attend a liberal arts school in Minnesota. The college is fantastic and I have met so many amazing people but far too often I am not happy. I walk around half-asleep, getting things done but never doing, looking but never seeing. Unless you’ve broken through the every day blur that was my life, I probably never noticed or gave much care to you. It’s a sick and sad way to live. When I wasn’t doing massive amounts of school work I was drinking myself sane. Because while intoxicated I didn’t have to process tomorrow’s to-do list. I could act impulsively and passionately. I could live.

I am a creative. I see and I love and I do. This is who I was meant to be. Anything that pulls me from that is meaningless and therefore worth not even a second.

 4) Live and be meaningful.

Where these four philosophies will take me, I am not entirely sure. But I know that I am excited and motivated and alive. I have never been so present.

I sincerely urge you to pick up a copy of Tuesdays with Morrie. Now I don’t think everyone will have a life change as I did nor will I start praying to Morrie, but the book allows a healthy self-reflection that we all need.