January Revisited

This year at the end of each month (or beginning of the next) I’ll be providing a run down of the the past months activities. This means of summary of all the work I’ve completed (even non-portfolio stuff), favorite music of the month, favorite sites, and whatever else I may feel like including on a month to month basis. The is simple – to give you an inside look as to exactly what I’m up to and to capture my thoughts and ideas each month. Let’s get it moving.

Quick Hits

A few basics for the month:

• Number of individual clients – 2
• Number of items added to portfolio – 1
• Main Client – Allstate Fire Protection, Inc [Local]

Work Wrap

My first project of 2010 was for Rhode Island based fire protection company Allstate Fire Protection, Inc.web

They had been looking for a simple first-time web presence just as another way to advertise their services and connect with clients. In just over a week the site was completed. I stayed away from WordPress or php for this project because it only needed to be very basic. I’m also hosting and managing the site on my server (provided by Holdfire). Take a look at the portfolio entry for more.

In addition I’ve picked up some side work for Think! LLC once again. They’re working on a couple new things down in Destin, Florida and I’ve been helping out. I have helped code and clean up a design for Coastal Cabinets and Countertops, made some minor tweaks to a localized (Louisiana) Rhino Shield branch, and have been working on finalizing the design, layout, and code of Think! Loves to Print based off a partial design Think! provided me with at the beginning of the project.

Entering & Exiting

With the purchase of my tablet I decided to jump into the logo field. I entered a contest on 99designs for a preschool out of the Chicago area called Griffin Early Childhood Center. After reading the brief the first thing that came to my mind was alphabet blocks. To me it could capture all of the elements they were looking for — a simple logo that would convey education value and be fun. I wanted to stay away from cliché school symbols like pencils, apples, and school houses.

My initial entry was only the third or fourth in the contest. I went with a color scheme of green, yellow, red, and blue. To my surprise, the design was rated 4 out of 5 stars upon its first review. It was very encouraging, and after exchanging ideas with the contest holder I submitted a few more concepts with slight tweaks. Eventually I was notified that I was one of the final three logos being considered by the group of philanthropists behind the school (the school is being funded with grants from some big universities). In the end my logo was not chosen, but it was a nice learning experience.

From this point on I won’t be using 99designs any time soon though. This experience was a reminder why I hate contests – they restrict creativity. Essentially every entry after my own used a nearly identical color scheme. There was very little variation in many of the entries. This is prevalent on nearly all 99design contests. While there is an option for contest holders to make entries completely private (DO THIS!), the majority of them are not. This means that everyone else can see what concepts are rated the highest and build off of them. Am I the only one who thinks that is a severe problem?

Random Bits

Will the Boston Bruins ever win another game? That’s all I got for now.