A little over a year ago I wrote a post venting about the overuse of the font Papyrus. It hasn’t gotten much better, in fact since I wrote that article my hatred for the font has multiplied tenfold. I cringe whenever I see it, and the people who I’m with either understand or they don’t. I categorize them in two way:

A. The people who have been around me long enough to know my devoted hatred to the letter form. This includes fellow designers who feel the same way, or friends and acquaintances who have grown to hate it along with me.

B. The people who wouldn’t know comic sans if it bit them in the foot and certainly didn’t realize people actually cared about fonts. They look at me funny, label me the “font police” and think I’m meticulous to small detail. Eventually in enough time they become a part of the first group.

People that are fighting the battle with me:
I know I am not alone and with just googling “Papyrus must die” I actually came across a “PapyrusMustDie” on Twitter. http://twitter.com/PapyrusMustDie he often @replies a fellow by the name of “PapyrusFail” http://twitter.com/PapyrusFAIL
He actually dedicates a whole blog to the subject.

Is there a way to officially banish a font?

Some New Work for you to enjoy

I didn’t mean to go so long between posts. I’m working on updating my website and portfolio. I’m getting closer and closer to the reality of publishing the 3D-alphabet postcards. Yup, that year is up! it was back to school, learn new skills, and now its a few ridiculous required classes and thats it. Am I in a different place then I was last year? Absolutely. Have i learned several invaluable lessons about work an life? Without a doubt. Are my skills improved? Can I code out a web site without thinking twice? Have I had my fill of Actionscript? Yes, yes and yes! Going back to school during the lowest point of our economic downturn was the smartest thing I could have done for myself and my future employer.
Its tough when you’re chugging along to see how far you’ve come. Its easy to get frustrated and easier to get fed up. Everyone around me, that I’ve met in the past year has come miles. I’ve seen people’s skills improve, attitudes heighten and a general understanding of what it takes to be in the industry. It doesn’t matter about out prior experiences, and preconceived notions about where we should be. Its a tough world out there, filled with sharks just waiting to take down the young eager designers - just a notch or two. I know, only because I’ve been there.
Your closest friends, or colleagues aren’t always out for your best interests. The sooner you learn this the better. It was only a short year ago that I was going around handing out my hard collected resources, stock photo library, vector collection and .psd files to anyone who seemed interested. They didn’t think twice about the time I put into collecting them, and like most one-sided relationships - I got nothing out of it. Call me bitter, sure. Its easy to get that way when you start to feel under appreciated. It passes, I promise and you come out the other side wiser.
The same goes to donating your precious time into working for pro-bono projects. Its all fine if you feel appreciated, but if in the end you feel chewed up and spit out. Move on. Theres no point in getting frustrated about the people who started out below you that are now threatening to kick your ass. You think they stop to give you a second thought on their way up? No. They really don’t. This will happen your whole life. Especially being a female designer, working in a male dominated workforce. It will be hard to get acknowledgment for your work and ever harder to get praise. The male ego isn’t about to let some “girl” come in and show them up. It may be harder to succeed, but not impossible. Let your work speak for itself. But also remember “Nice girls don’t get the corner office”.
I started out on my own. My own goals and aspirations, my own path, my own thing. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if you are lucky enough to meet someone that happens to be traveling on a similar path as you, more power to you. Someone who inspires you, and takes inspiration from you - someone you know would be there for you no matter what design decisions you make, or where it takes you. I’m lucky enough to have found that individual who challenges me, and I wouldn’t change it for anything in the entire world.
I’ll be posting soon, maybe another theme or perhaps a catch-up of some current work.

A little microblog here: to give mention to a cool site I came across.

Meomi is dedicated to the creation of compelling visual experiences and narratives. We create work for numerous mediums and strongly believe in design that delights, entices, and inspires.
MEOMI is Vicki Wong (Vancouver) and Michael Murphy (LA). Meomi’s artwork has been featured in numerous illustration and design books, while their characters have appeared on clothing, toys, merchandise, and magazines worldwide. Meomi has created art for such clients as Google, Electronic Arts, Girls Inc., Time Out Magazine, Cyworld, Nick Jr., Bang-on Clothing, and CBC4Kids.

Besides client work, Meomi also moonlights as the authors and illustrators behind the Octonauts children book series. Meomi spends much of their spare time, sitting around in the attic, making up silly stories, drinking tea and drawing strange creatures. (Many of which are available for licensing.)

The site is just plain awesomeness. First of all : “Cloud house”! How fantastical, how promising, you know a mysterious twinkle lay in the eyes of the creator when that name appeared. Second of all; way to be original with the Japanese inspired characters by making them original in a sea of imitators. The cute little touches all around the site:
The piano, enclosed in its own cubby:

The bottom:

And my personal favorite, the little dog in the pink sweater

Its the little things, the personalities that come out with the pages especially since they dedicate their “brand” (/”movement”?) to the creation of compelling visual experiences and narratives in all different mediums. To me, this shows a willingness to be versatile, even though they established their brand, at the current time with a “look and feel” - they come off as having the creative energy and talent to rock-the-pencil (if you will…) at any style a client could ask for.

So, as tangents often do in writing - this one has led me to branding…the idea of creating a personal aurora to your business, or to you (as freelancers often do). A consistent look, something clients can come to expect from you; therefore drawing out reliability. Absolutely necessary for the survival of any law or business firm. I still strive for the same dependability as they do, but how can I define my own style, and still want to stick with it as trends die?

“Real life”
The site was created with no purpose other than to display my work. Everything else was just fluff. A year ago - school wasn’t even in my possibilities - and i needed a self-hosted website to post my work to Aquent and other job boards for show. There was no pressure on how to present myself. I officially decided to give HTML one final shot at this time, after battling it for a while. Once I got started, I wanted to keep going. Try out all the things I loved in design collectively. I had no official experience with usability at this time, and it was all about showing off what I could do design wise. I fumbled around with the code, as i went - but not my main concern. The result was quiet humerous, as you would imagine someone not having used HTML and CSS for over two years, I was impressed that i could translate things i loved about the print world I was so familiar with, into (slightly obtrusive) code. Each page had a completely different look and feel ( a big no-no for personal websites, and web know-how). I still looked at the site as a fancy way to display my work, and in essence it really is. I decided to narrow all my choices down, until I came up with one cohesive mis-match heaven of all the styles I’ve taken influence from…ever. It changes, sure. All the time. Five times a day. Every time something makes me look twice, analyze and decide its to my liking. How I present myself to the world in this fantasy, fairy-tale like, light effects, slightly girly way isn’t how I choose to always be seen, but in coming to terms with who I am as a designer, its something i don’t mind being known for, as long as its clear I can create any style on demand - essentially the very core of being a designer.