Daily Post – v3.0 is coming!

It's coming

That’s right, brianhansondesign.com v3.0 is coming. After recently signing up for Google Analytics I have found that the bounce rate on my website is pretty high. Also, my page views are very low. Basically what that means is, people are finding my site, taking one look at my home page, and gettin’ the hell out of Dodge. I’m not sure if a simple redesign of the home page will get the bounce rate down and the page views up, but I want to go beyond that anyway. I’ve never been completely thrilled with where my social links are, and I have more to add now too. Plus, I think I need to do away with the Weekly Sketch session and try to figure out something a bit more relevant to a potential customer. Now, I’m hoping that in the next few days I may get some side work, which would obviously put a redesign on temporary hold, but I wanted to let you know that it’s coming. Get ready for sketches, screenshots, thumbnails, and mock-ups coming over the next few months.

Daily Post – Business cards

Now I feel like I'm really in business

This weekend I finally received my first batch of business cards. I ordered them from VistaPrint about a week ago and, I have to say, I was very pleased with the way they came out. Especially considering that they were free. That’s a great thing about VistaPrint, they are constantly running deals where they give stuff away for free. All I paid for was the shipping.

I kept the design fairly simple for this first batch. At the moment, I just wanted something that I can hand out to people that lets them know what I do and has all of my information on it. Eventually, I am going to work my way towards a more elaborate card, but for now, this design works fine. If I do run out of these soon (although I think 250 cards should last me a while) I will order the glossy finish as opposed to the matte finish. The matte kept the cost at $0, but I think it’ll be worth the upgrade to get the glossy next time.

Daily Post – Golf logo entry

I will be posting a version with color soon

Today I took one of my sketches from yesterday into Illustrator and worked it into a pretty nice logo. At least, I think it’s a pretty nice logo. I’m really hoping to get some feedback from the contest holders. This competition still has almost 5 days remaining and I really think with some good feedback about what is good and bad about this logo I have a real shot of winning. There is already some stiff competition for this contest, but I would honestly put my logo in the top half of what’s been submitted to this point. Let me know what you think. Do you think this logo works? Is it “edgy, yet subtle” like the contest holders asked for?What colors do you think will work best for this logo?

Daily Post – Golf company logo sketches

I found a logo design contest today on 99designs that I think is right up my alley. It is for a new golf tchotchke company that is trying to change the character of the game of golf. As much as I love golf, I do believe that at times it can be too stuffy and stoic, so to find a company that is looking to change that, and to have a chance to design their logo for them, I think is great. You can see the name of the company in my sketches. I’m obviously not taking the obvious route with my logo designs, I’m trying to think a little bit differently about what the name means and how it can be portrayed in a logo. Let me know what you think. Do any of these concepts work? Should I keep going with all of them? None of them?

Daily Post – Craigslist ad

Click here to see the final ad

I posted my second ever craigslist ad today. My first attempt was really very boring. Just text, no images, nothing fancy. Today, I decided that I needed to try to do something to differentiate myself from all of the other people that post their design services on craigslist. So, I sketched out some stick figures in an attempt to do a short comic strip-type ad. As you can see from the sketch, I was going to do a strip where the steps to a great website were numbered and step 4 would be to get Brian Hanson Design to do the site, but I changed it at the last minute. I like the idea, though, and I think I’m going to go back to it in a future ad. Also, I sometimes have a difficult time translating the energy in my pencil sketches into the illustrations I do on the computer. This ad is definitely a case of that. The end product didn’t exactly have the fun energy that the sketches had, but ultimately, I do like the way it came out.

What do you think? Would you click on this ad if you needed a website?

Daily Post – Discussion – Are design contests spec work?

As someone who checks out at least three different design forums daily I’ve read many opinions from people about design contests. Many designers feel that these contests cheapen our profession, that participating in these contests is tantamount to spec work, and believe me, designers hate the idea of spec work. Obviously, considering that I have entered multiple design competitions, I feel differently.

First, I would like to point out that I am against spec work. Doing a job for free for a friend or family member is one thing, building a website or designing a logo for someone simply to have work to add to your portfolio is something else entirely. As I’ve read someone else say, try asking a plumber or an electrician to do their work for free with the promise of giving them credit for their work when people ask. Chances are very good that you’ll end up sitting in the dark with a running toilet.

On the subject of design competitions however, I disagree with many of my colleagues. I relate it to a professional golfer. Are golfers giving away their work for free when they compete in a tournament? I don’t believe so, yet many of them don’t make the cut and therefore receive no money. I still don’t think this means they gave their work away. This is how I look at design competitions. Not only does it get your creative juices flowing, but you can also learn from them. You get to see the different ways other designers attack the same problem with which you’re faced and maybe you learn to look at things a bit differently.

What do you think? Are design competitions spec work or a respectable way for designers to hone their craft?

Daily Post – Character Sketches

The one on the right is closer to what's in my head, but still not 100% there

These are just a couple of very rough sketches of a stuffed monkey that I want to incorporate into a children’s book. My sister has been bugging me for years to write a children’s book that my brother-in-law can illustrate. Well, I figure that maybe if I start sketching out the characters it will give me some motivation to write their story. That’s the hardest part for me, finding the discipline to sit down and write out the ideas that I have in my head. Hopefully, by working on perfect the character sheets for the book I can push myself to do it. That’s the plan anyway.

You can check out the second stage sketches I have of two of the other characters here.

Daily Post – Short rant

Yikes! You broke the internet.

I’m pretty busy today, but I wanted to post a quick rant explaining why I was unable to post anything yesterday. What happened was, I left work early due to not feeling well and figured I would have most of the day to find something to write about and get it posted. Just so happens that yesterday the internet broke in my hometown of Northwood, NH. According to our lovely service provider, Metrocast, the internet for the entire town is screwed up and they are working on fixing it. In the meantime, our internet access will be spotty at best and we probably won’t be able to get online. Well, isn’t that special? It drives me up a wall that I pay these people for a service and they can’t provide that service to me on a consistent basis. What would be their response to me saying, “I can only pay my bill sporadically for the time being. Some months you may get it, some months you may not.” I have a sneaking suspicion maybe that wouldn’t work too well. Anyway, enough complaining. I’m feeling better now and I should be able to get some new stuff posted up tomorrow. Thanks for reading my rant.

Daily Post – Quick note

Today I entered the contest to design a logo for Webset Media and today, I lost that contest. I found it with only about 15 minutes remaining and whipped up two quick ideas, neither of which won. They were both decent designs, I think, but they needed a lot of tweaking that I just didn’t have time to do. I would have posted them here, but I am having trouble uploading images to my Blog account at the moment. Hopefully, I can either post them later today or put them in tomorrow’s blog. In other 99designs news, I lost the Cari Cole logo design contest from last week, but am still in the running for Entropia Digital. There is still over a week left for the people at Entropia to pick a winner, so I’m not sure when I’ll hear. As soon as I do, though, I’ll post the results.

Daily Post – Contest update and new designs

I like my chances with the Entropia logo

So, my Big Richard logo design lost. They haven’t selected a winner yet, but my entry has been eliminated. I have to say, of all the contests I’ve entered so far, this is the one I for which I am most curious to see the winner. There were so many raunchy designs in the competition it’ll be interesting to see what the final winning logo is. In other contest news, I entered three more logo design contests today. I’ve already lost one (the three HealthySoil logos in today’s image) one is complete and I am still in the running (caricole) and the third (Entropia Digital) still has a little over two days left. I think these contests are helping me with my logo designs, but I’m not sure. I still don’t feel as if I’m spending enough time on them and getting little to no feedback from the contest holders doesn’t help me in figuring out what I am doing wrong. I do feel as though I am getting better, though, so that’s what I’m going with for now.

In other news, I have updated my profile on 99designs and Styleapple and want to link to them here. Adding these extra sites to my repertoire (not the right word, but I’m brain-cramping on what is) is making me think I am going to have to do the social links on my website. Maybe I’ll do something in the footer with them. I’m not sure what to do. This makes me think that version 3.0 of Brian Hanson Design may be coming sooner than I originally expected. Stay tuned.