Because this is the first time I’ve been away from home for Christmas with no plans to go back, I thought it would be nice to send my Mother a handmade Christmas Card, with a review of all the things I’ve done this year. It ballooned, of course. And if you were on my Christmas Card List you probably got one.

Well, Mum liked it, anyway. It was a fun, small thing that I did. Do any of you create yearly reviews to send out with your Christmas cards??

If you’re reading this in a feed reader, you probably haven’t noticed the nifty new redesign. I took an unintentional week off last week. Mostly because I was sick and miserable, but it also gave me some time to implement the shiny new theme.

It’s been a while. Rarg’s grown and changed a fair bit over the last two years. It needed an upgrade.

v1.01

v2.0

What do you think??

A friend of mine has the most gorgeous little daughter, who is turning one this month. She asked me to whip up something, and goodness, I got so excited about it I got all into the details. But check it, its cute, right?

I’ve also finished a few other site-type projects in the last little while. The first was my best friends blog, and can be found at lizandrob.co.nz. Loving the simplicity + bubble gum colours. Also, since they’ve moved to London (and I miss them terribly) I’m glad that they are updating fairly regularly – their posts nearly always crack me up (no, seriously. Like in the last post? They CYCLE their furniture home – how awesome is that??)

The other project I’ve finished recently is my portfolio. I wanted something super super simple, super minimalist. *shrug* It works for me, anyway :)

Looks good, right? I’m seriously loving the design projects I’ve got going on at the moment. Huzzah!

I need some help, guys. I agreed that I would design posters + flyers for a bar. But you know what? I generally design for web. Web sites? Easy, no problem. I can design you a sweet little pretty site without too much stress.

But graphic design? This is a new fangled beast which I don’t overly understand. I don’t have any training in design, I figured out web design by trial and error. Yes this works, no it doesn’t. And I have an okay eye, I think. I can tell when a site isn’t as tight or as clean as it could be.

But poster design? *pulls face* I don’t know what I’m looking at. I don’t know how to achieve the look I’m going for. I don’t understand why it feels wrong, why it doesn’t look right. I don’t know what I should be changing, what font weights I should be using. And I don’t know how to do it better. Someone, please, tell me why it looks more like a book cover than a poster? Why my flyers are lopsided and wrong?

As you can see, I’m pretty much using texture to get me through. Texture is the way, apparently.

Anyway, what I need from you, dear internet, is critique. Tell me what I’m doing wrong, tell me what I’m doing right. Tell me what I can do better, and how to do it. Point me in the direction of graphic design/poster/flyer design principles site that tells me why I’m fucking up. Something that isn’t ask.com or a site with a yellow clipart 90s design.

Help me be better, internet. What should I do?

As some of you know, I work part time as a Web Designer. I design pretty sites. And the blogosphere has been a huge help with that. Our Hosting Guy (from the brilliant CatBytes) is a guy I meet through a blogger friend (who I did a blog redesign for). I’ve donated my time to charities, and blog movements (Love Harder, anyone?) and designed blog headers for a few amazing people. My best friend and I actually own a company, Sinter Design and Development.

Okay, I can’t fib. I’m basically pimping us out. We’ve just redesigned the site (like the little robot guy? I do too! He’s one of my cuter designs), so go check it out:

We do websites, set up blogs, design custom blog designs. We also take care of any hosting, so you don’t have to worry about it. We do email too, if you need. We’re a pretty easy going bunch. I feel a bit weird pimping out my company on my blog, so I’ll end with if you need anything, or know someone who needs anything, then send them to the website to check it out. If we can help, we will. :)

I’m a web designer. I design cute websites, like loveharder.org, or custom blog designs, like justonemiss.com, and even sometimes blog headers. While there was alot of designing going on, I definitely didn’t consider myself a graphic designer. So when a Osborne Street asked me to design a poster for their Sunday Jam Sessions I did that Tall Poppy thing, and said I couldn’t. Wouldn’t. I wasn’t a graphic designer, it wouldn’t be any good. Perhaps I could TRY but they shouldn’t expect greatness.

And then I gave it a shot. And now I’m a little bit proud of what I’ve done.

Pretty, right? I still wouldn’t call myself a graphic designer, but it’s nice to know that I can produce something visually pretty if asked. :)

Every month smashingmagazine.com does a monthly calendar wallpaper, and I entered one my daily design doodles (that ended up being an etsy banner) in the July 2009 version.

I wondered why I was getting more hits than usual, and it’s because the July 2009 calendars are out!

Mine is a little more simple than some of the others (perhaps not so suited to a wallpaper . . .), but I’m pretty stoked to have something up there, and to see that some people liked it in the comments was pretty nice.

In terms of design I feel that I’ve got a craazy long way to go to be where I want to be, but the only way to get there is to keep trudging forward, so trudge on, I say! :)

I appear to be on a design kick at the moment. Designing cute little logos, or mocking up site ideas. The other day I came up with this:

He’s super cute, right? Sometimes its the little little jobs that make design so much fun.