Archive for the ‘misc’ Category
Ready, aim, FIRE! Consider yourself formally invited to the launch of my new website www.triggersandsparks.com!
The new year is fast approaching, and Triggers & Sparks will be meeting it fresh-faced and bright-eyed.
A complete redesign of the old website was long overdue and now it’s time to lay my beloved, but clunky, Ruby on Rails site to rest and move on to a faster, cleaner, more user friendly website. It’s been three years since I designed my old website, and I’ve learned a great deal in that time, so it’s about time I had a website to represent as much!
In keeping with the whole, “out with the old, in with the new” theme going on, and to celebrate the launch of triggersandsparks.com, I am offering 15% off any of my services purchased between today and January 1st.
The times, they are a-changin’ here at Triggers & Sparks, and some fabulous top secret projects are in the works for the coming year. Get your orders in now and have yours be one of them!
Keep up with promotions and news by signing up for the Triggers & Sparks mailing list, or following me on Twitter, or joining my Facebook fan page, or subscribing to my (new!) RSS feed.
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Thank you to everyone who responded to my hiring notice; I’ve selected a candidate and am looking forward to being able to tackle new projects in the very near future, including the much-anticipated (by myself) and much-required overhaul of my website. More details to come soon!
I received an absolutely phenomenal response, and was able to meet with a number of really fantastic people. (I wish I could have hired everyone!) That said, it was interesting being on the other side of the hiring process, and I think if I’m ever in the position of applying for a job again, I’d do things a little differently as a result.
(continue »)
Tags: business, industry, jobs
Posted in diatribes, misc | No Comments »
So, having noticed it’s been nearly six months since I last updated my website, I think it’s about time I took the plunge and hired someone to help me keep this business running better. I’ve considered this a number of times in the past, but my general inability to relinquish control, of anything, to anyone, has always prevented me from going through with it. Time’s come to grow up, ditch the narcissism, and realize that I’m not the second coming, and I need some help from time to time.
That said! Here’s what I’m looking for. (continue »)
Tags: business, jobs
Posted in misc | 2 Comments »
About 95% of the work I do tends fall into the “logos and websites” category, but every now and again I’m given the opportunity to work on something a little different. One of my favourite “little different something” is the resume. I’ve designed a number of them, and I always enjoy them. They’re challenging from an information hierarchy point of view, and people really notice them. I’ve heard all kinds of comments, in part I think because people are so used to seeing the same boring MS Word templates. Julie Smith is a Toronto lawyer whose resume I recently designed. She sent her resume out to two different companies one day, and was given an interview on the second. Later, she passed along this comment from a headhunter:
Your resume looks fantastic! One of the best I’ve ever seen!
So, if you find yourself facing unemployment (I’m not going to use the “R” word, or even the “D” word, but do feel free to ruminate on the current economic climate in whatever manner you’d prefer), you should invest in a custom-designed resume! It’s cheap, it’s fun, and it may even get you a job. And I get that warm-and-fuzzy feeling that comes from helping someone out.
Tags: design, information, interview, logos, websites
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The Good: Digsby is gorgeous. I love the gigantic fluorescent “download” bar that gets OS-specific after you click on it. I love their coming soon page, too, although I might have preferred to find an actual download.
The Bad: No more Digby. I’m trying hard not to think about it because it makes me sad. Why aren’t there more beautiful & clever, highly saturated things around? (I am happiest in technicolour). I don’t understand why “reality” is so interesting. There’s enough reality right outside my door; I’d rather the fantasy when I’m looking to get out of my head.
and the Ridiculous: Minggl thinks “b3k 4w5″ isn’t a valid postal code. It took me three tries to figure out they wanted me to capitalize it. Seriously? Canada Post will deliver my mail if I forget the majority of the address and scrawl it upside down with a six-inch-wide marker, but some web app that isn’t ever going to send me mail can’t validate a lowercase postal code?
Also, why are all web apps named by dyslexic five year olds now? I miss real words.
Tags: colour, life, pretty website, style, trends, websites
Posted in diatribes, misc | 1 Comment »
Have I mentioned how much I love my clients? I checked the mailbox yesterday and found a box full of delicious chocolate muffins (thank goodness customs didn’t open the box!), accompanied by this note:
Hi Sarah,
So sorry to hear that you lost a considerable amount of work when water spilled on your computer. While chocolate zucchini muffins (no nuts–in case you’re allergic) won’t bring the material back (wouldn’t that be great), perhaps they can fuel the recreation process. Just want to let you know that we can be patient for an ultimately high-quality product.
Cheers!
ACT
How utterly sweet & lovely is that? I am an incredibly lucky girl to get to work with such fabulous clients.
Tags: business, chocolate, design, process
Posted in misc | No Comments »
Oh, come on, everyone Googles themself at some point, don’t they? I do it mostly to see what (if anything) the internet has to say about me, and if any of it will come back to haunt me. I have, at times, been known to disclose too much online.
A Google search for “sarah semark” yields this hilariously erroneous newspaper article from last year, in which my cat is actually referenced as a business partner, and this similarly hilarious and out-of-date portfolio site, which I should really take down, but I’m far too absorbed in my own personal history to do so.
Tags: business, design, SEO
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I think I really like Instapaper, when I actually remember to use it. I have a tendency to look at something long and tedious, then either bookmark it and forget about it, or print it and have my cat turn it into long-winded confetti. Instapaper is a really neat way of storing these “things I mean to read”, not like I need yet another form of to-do list. (My current system involves a primary handwritten list, in my notebook, which then references my “email to-do list”, or sometimes my “rss to-do list”. Sometimes one day’s list will reference another day’s list, or a list specific to a project, as in, do one item from said list, or do entirety of list.) (continue »)
Tags: design, SEO, zen
Posted in misc, zen | 2 Comments »
Point taken.
I have hated the blog thing for so long, despite having spent a good deal of my formative years keeping online journals. But if I buckled to Facebook for the pursuit of fame and fortune, I can buckle to the weblog world.
That is, if I can actually do it consistently.
Tags: business, consistency, design
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I have a total love-hate relationship with Valentine’s Day. (Yes, I know this comes a little late, but I’m about a week behind on everything else right now, so it seems somehow fitting.) Yes, it’s trite and silly and you should be nice to the people you love all year long, and not just when you’re obligated to. Honestly though, I know I sometimes need a little extra push. And the girly side of me is always disappointed when I don’t get flowers (I’ve had a lengthy string of boyfriends who’ve committed this sin, thinking that I’d dislike being given them. Seriously, who dislikes being given flowers?)
At any rate, every year, I have the best intentions to lovingly handcraft gorgeous cards for everyone, and every year, I never get around to doing it. (I guess at least I have my traditions, even if they involve disappointing myself!) This year heralded a near-success, as I threw together a card at the eleventh hour (literally, it was eleven o’clock):
Aren’t I adorable?
It’s amazing how good it felt to spend just ten minutes drawing for fun again. Ten minutes! You’d think I could get into this habit, no?
On a side note, I’ve been insanely busy. Added two new projects: a logo and a website.
Tags: design, projects, websites
Posted in misc | No Comments »
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