Hi, I'm Allison, a graphic designer based in Western Massachusetts. I work with entrepreneurs who are passionate about what they do. My goal is not only to provide effective graphic design, but be a valuable business resource to my clients.
I was just introduced to a new site that essentially allows you to make an online inspiration board. And not only can you create your own inspiration boards, you can peek at other people’s as well!
On Pinterest, you can set up several inspiration boards, one for fashion, art, interior design, whatever it is that fluffs your peanutbutter. After you’ve created these boards, browse the web as usual. When you see something that strikes your fancy, you can “pin it” by simply clicking on the Pinterest button on your browser, and it adds an image of your item to the appropriate list.
This is brilliant not only for inspiration, but also for cataloging. Planning a special project, designing a room, and need a place to keep all your sources and images in one place? Pinterest is perfect for just that.
I like to go poking through other people’s boards. By doing this, I find new shops I’ve never been to, blogs I’ve never read, photographers I had not yet discovered. Take a poke through my board here.
You need an invitation to join Pinterest. If you are seriously interested, I have four remaining invitations. Pop me an email. The first four people to request an invitation will get one!
Most of my friends know me well enough to know that once the Borders coupons come around, it’s difficult, if not down right impossible for me not to buy new books– whether I need them or not. So I know that no one is surprised to know that when my Borders coupons arrived in my inbox this morning, I was buying books this afternoon.
Today I picked up How to be an Explorer of the World, a book I’ve been meaning to pick up for quite some time, and now that I have it, I’m pretty excited about it. It’s filled with endless exercises in creativity. Not art projects, but projects designed to make us mindful. Most of creativity, after all, is paying attention.
We all need a little time to refill the creative well and I love Sagmeister’s idea of taking a year long sebatacle once every seven years. Of course this isn’t just time off, but time spent observing, and being inspired. It is not time wasted, but time invested, giving you more innovative, fresh ideas.
Pay close attention to the furniture concepts and typography towards the end. I’ll gladly take a year off to come up with such great ideas!
Very shortly I will be joining a group of creatives in making my way through the book “The Artist’s Way”, by Julia Cameron. It is a 12 week program that helps artists rekindle their creativity using self assignments and exercises that force you to discover who you are as an artist, and possibly what is holding you back. The book is for creatives of all kinds, whether they be visual artists, writers, or musicians. It is also for people that have always wanted to be an artist but never thought they had what it takes.
I’m looking forward to the challenge, and the new and interesting people and perspectives that I will meet along the way. If you are in the Western MA area and would like to join us, comment on this post with your email and I will send you more information.
This is my very first post in my new design blog, In the Works. So allow me to introduce myself. My name is Allison and I am graphic designer based in Western Massachusetts. I am also an adjunct professor at a local state college, sharing my computer wisdom with the next generation (ok, I’m not going to lie, I’m only a few years older than them.)
The blog title “In the Works” has several different meanings for me, which you will see why they each apply equally. My graphic design portfolio site is www.amdesignworks.com, see the wordplay? Next, I intend to share current client projects on this blog, in progress, or as I like to say, in the works. And finally, this blog will serve as a place for me to share my design inspiration and appreciation, whether that be references to things other designers are doing, my own photography, my current, non work related creative endeavors, or basically what’s running through my mind, or again, as I said, what’s in the works.
I look forward to sharing with you several times a week. My first posts will most likely allude to the transformation of my new apartment (and when I say new, I mean new to me). I just moved into a great place, in a house that was built in 1890. Wood floors, big windows, and tons of, um, charm.
