world mental health day 2019
“Why fit in, when we were born to stand out?”
Category: Spraymie Sprayu
Don’t judge a designer just by his cv
Don’t judge a designer just by his cv. The name is Jamie, I’m a Kent lad through and through. So I started my career here, at home, some 17 Years ago after gaining my qualifications. I’ve been broadening my experience in that field ever since and also learning new marketing skills along the way.
You should look at the variety of design jobs I’ve had and not see it as a negative. If anything each and everyone has helped me become a more rounded, and experienced designer.
Initially, you’ll see my early work was that typical of a junior designer but it wasn’t long before I was given the task of designing banners and merchandise for exhibition and trade shows. Right up to re branding and modernising the face a very popular and well-known TV broadcasting studio. In between those you’ll see I’ve done a variety short contracted roles that have required me to modernise, bring up to date small businesses into the digital spotlight and compete with the big boys of marketing and advertising.
I suppose my skill set speaks for itself in what you see in front of you. I’m a stickler for detail. I believe that if I can see a glitch in design then EVERYONE can. I’m old school in believing that if a job is done it’s worth doing right. No quick fixes, no short cuts. My eye is keen for second best I don’t settle for that. Not on my watch.
The key, I believe anyway, to my success certainly is DIVERSITY and adaptability.
I’ve had to learn in this business that I love, that you wear the guise of a caped crusader. You’re employed full time often by a company. You see what they need visually and how to market their brand. You might even just polish what they already have. You set them up with the right social media. THE right web site. You create the right pulse that will attract THE right attention and boom you’re away.
I’ll tell you now my work is what drives me. I survived cancer as a teen starting my adult life and doing that has made me the man I am today. I work quickly and efficiently. I’ll be perfectly honest with you, that hasn’t always worked in my favour!
I try to brand myself, make myself memorable. The CV is seen to be seen by a creative, not an accountant. I try to ‘Wow’ you. I try to be more than a sheet of paper.
I want a project and I’m so eager to get started.
www.linkedin.com/in/jm-designer/
Google Maps adds Snakes game for April Fools’ Day
Google is temporarily adding a version of the classic game Snakes into its Google Maps app for April Fools’ Day this year.
The company says that the game is rolling out now to iOS and Android users globally today and that it’ll remain on the app for the rest of the week. It also launched a standalone site to play the game if you don’t have the app.
LinkedIn for designers
LinkedIn for designers and other creative professionals it’s the most overlooked and probably the most powerful tool you can have in your personal branding/digital marketing toolkit.
I first joined LinkedIn when I was a designer at KHL Group 10 or so years ago. At the time it was little more than an online phonebook that allowed you to add contacts and your work experience; for a couple of years, I simply treated it as such.
Whenever I exchanged business cards with someone, the first thing I did was simply transcribe the information to my contacts and send an invite via LinkedIn. Over time though, LinkedIn has evolved to become the professional profile of record for most white collar professionals and became the primary means for me to credential myself to prospective clients and showcase relevant work, experience, and expertise that set me apart from the competition.
In recent years LinkedIn has incorporated many features that makes it a perfect platform for designers and creative professionals. The ability to add visual polish to your LinkedIn profile and incorporate various types of media formats to showcase your work gives you an unparalleled opportunity to market your skillsets directly to prospective clients.
It only takes a few minutes and keeps the professional relationship positive, keeps you top of mind, and generates goodwill.
Check out my Linkedin page and follow me.
Social media… The dark side
Social media… The dark side. Does anyone still remember a world without social media?
It is hard to believe that only a little over a decade ago, our way of life was really different from the way it is now.
I am not a huge fan of social media myself, partly because I prefer to live life in the real world, and partly because am naturally a private individual. And yet here I am, using social media to let you hear my opinion on social media. The benefits of social media are very hard to ignore.
The social media of present is of enormous risks for individuals, communities, firms, and even for society as a whole.
Examples to this “dark side” of social media include cyberbullying, addictive use, trolling, online witch hunts, fake news, and privacy abuse, and now today promoting the most horrific violence.
People are on social media because they think it enhances their lives. I used to be on Twitter and I did a persona of a Graffiti artist and looking back it’s a nonsense.
Are people really getting on social media to socialize or are they surveying other people and their posts to see what goes on? Are they venting about their dislike of politics or government entities in the world in general?
The fact is: to be a hyper-connected millennial today is to exist in multiple realities. To be both present within and outside of your own experiences, living them while simultaneously observing them; and assessing their shareability.
People are producing daily content to the point that we’re almost convinced that our feeds are a truer representation of ourselves than who we are in real life. It’s smashed the walls between public and private, edited out the messiness, embraced a self-regarding gaze of constant surveillance.
How many likes will this get?
Am I funny enough?
Does this look too edited?
Or too real?
A man who I have followed for years and who is a true genius sums it perfectly – Black Mirror Charlie Brooker with the episode Nosedive If ever there was a message to show how the world is going is this.
But could we turn these examples on their head and use such social-media activity to foresee horrible real-world events? That might seem unlikely, given that such attacks appear to come from out of the blue, carried out by “lone-wolf” individuals with no criminal record. And with billions of online users, detecting who will act sounds like looking for a needle in a haystack – especially as, prior to any attack, each “needle” may be effectively indistinguishable from any other straw of “hay”.
I think as I type this it’s looking like a bleak time and I hope there is a change and soon. As you read this, there are undoubtedly individuals online who are developing the intent and capability to carry out further violent attacks.
Conclusion
No doubt that social media is changing and will continue to change our society. This change is permanent because the upcoming generation won’t even know a world where social media does not exist. This has its advantages and disadvantages, but like everything else, it’s up to the user to decide whether social media can enhance their lives or not and this all depends on how they decide to use it.
Client Designs
Client Designs
I had recently done a Logo design and had given over as a first draft 6 logo design options with 7 items designed for the brand, for X amount of money ( what I charge a day ).
I am starting to think I should say 50% of payment is due after agreeing to the logo, the other 50% after full work is done.
I had worked long and hard on X brand for a whole day just to have 0 level payment and a walk away faster than Usain Bolt.
I did everything X stated in the brief “simple, logotype, very simple twist in font, clear and works on all mediums”.
I am finding that my design work is almost being seen as simple and easy and will take no time or money to do. I feel this is devaluing me as a designer.
What do you think? Please leave a comment I would love fee back.
Am I the only Brit who is sick of all this Brexit business?
Bloody Brexit this and bloody Brexit that. It’s getting now so that if I even hear the word “Brexit” my head automatically slips into autopilot and delivers Goldies – Timeless into my brain.
“I’d just like to talk about Brexit for a minute….”
Dum Dum Dum. Boom Boom Boom!!!
“Negative connotation….,.”
Dum Dum Dum. Boom Boom Boom!!!
If they start using words like “backstop” It goes straight to the loud and Bass bit where the Drum and Bass got its Doctor Marten’s boots on and is banging it out tremendously.
Look, it doesn’t bloody matter in the long run.
It’ll just be a dusty reference in a chapter of a textbook that only the bloke or woman at the front trying to teach it to Kylie and Wayne has any real interest in and they’ll forget it immediately they get on the school bus (or quadcopter, or teleport, or hover Board, whatever they’re using rather than walk home).
Reasons to stay are bollocks. Reasons to leave are bollocks. All that’s fact is the vote went to leave. We’re leaving and that’s it. No need to get hysterical about it. Just bloody well get on with quietly packing our suitcases so the shirts don’t crease too much. But no, because every bloody politico from everywhere has now found a grandstand from which to display their amazing lack of talent and form opinions based on abstract thoughts learned in either economics or social sciences degrees.
29th March 2019, to steal a line from Churchill, is not the end, nor even the beginning of the end. It isn’t even the end of the beginning. It is the beginning of a beginning that will cause, over time, untold upheaval to our lives, especially among the poorer and more vulnerable members of society. Churchill also said “when you’re going through Hell, keep going” but forgot to add “unless you have the option to get out of Hell without keeping on going.”
MONDAYMOTIVATION
People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.
A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere BUT the internet helps a hell of a lot more.
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!!
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!!
Be the Queen of your own Queendom
Spraymie YouTube Channel
Did you know Six out of 10 people prefer to watch videos online rather than surfing channels on the small screen? And YouTube is the second-largest search engine next to Google.
So it, of course, makes sense for brands to build their video presence on the platform. The only problem? It’s not always easy to get views on the content that you put so much time and resources into.
This is my SPRAYMIE Youtube playlist, this has some of my favourite design music. It’s great for design, reading, and generally getting crap crossed off my many checklists.
I’ve been working on this list, and it contains music from a wide variety of genres and sources.
At the moment, it’s got about 619 songs for you to choose from.
Tell me what you think and follow me.
© Copyright Jamie Melville 2019 – All Rights Reserved