Lolalu Design

Print & Web Designs for March 2010

Anita — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 01:24:04 +0000

The following are print & web design projects that I have worked on during the month of March 2010.

Sesame Communications – Beaupre web design
Home Resource Network – eNewsletter design/layout
Parent Support Group – Pro bono layout of 11 different insert cards

Print & Web Design Projects for February 2010

Anita — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:19:41 +0000

These are print & web design projects I have worked on during the month of February 2010:

Africa Easy – Quarter page ad design
Sesame Communications – Howell web design
Sweet Lily Organic Salon – Various design of marketing materials
Rodgers Law Firm – Logo comps
Sesame Communications – Alba web design
Sesame Communications – Williamson we design
Sesame Communications – Vadecha web desogm
Emerald City Lights – Pro bono brochure layout
Sesame Communications – Rodriguez web design
Sesame Communications – Rosen web design
Simply Efficient – newsletter banner
Sesame Communications – Cook web design
New Project News Magazine – IGBS ad design
Rodgers Law Firm – Final logo design and business card layout
Just A Call Away – logo design
New Project News – Magazine layout/design
Simply Efficient – CD label design
Just A Call Away – web redesign
Rodgers Law Firm – PowerPoint template design
Home Resource Network – half page flyer design

Charities

Anita — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:40:32 +0000

Check out the charities I sponsor!

–> Click Here

January 2010 Projects

Anita — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:35:00 +0000

The following are projects I’ve worked on during the month of January 2010:

McBuzz – Blog header for Michael Powell
McBuzz – Blog header for Scontrino & Powell
Sesame Communications – Reed web design
Jim Allen – Letterhead and business card design
ANSWER – brochure
Sesame Communications – Chen web design
Sesame Communications – George web design
Sesame Communications – Wadhwa web design
New Project News – Magazine layout
Sesame Communications – Frankel web design
Sesame Communications – Gifford web design
Sesame Communicaiton – Thomas-Blair web design
Sesame Communications – Nissenbaum web redesign

December 2009 Projects

Anita — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:15:24 +0000

These are projects I worked on during the month of December 2009:

Sesame Communications – Hedstrom web design
Media Services – BottomLine Business Consulting logo design
Elizabeth Green – Christmas card design
The Mountaineers – Rack card for Seattle Photo Committee (pro bono)
The Mountaineers – Generic business card for Seattle Photo Committee (pro bono)
Sweet Lily – Letterhead design
Media Services – BottomLine stationary
Sesame Communications – Decoteau web design
Sesame Communications – Rowan web desig
Sesame Communications – Thomas web design
Sesame Communications – Beckett web design
Media Services – BottomLine web design
Sesame Communications – Morra web design
Play & Talk – logo and business card design
Sesame Communications – Richardson web design
Sesame Communications – Weiss web design
Sesame Communications – Fields web design

Fools Rush In – A tale of a girl and her computer upgrade

Anita — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:55:45 +0000

I made a lot of mistakes this week that cost me precious time and money. The thing that led me down the path to severe stress was Windows 7. I (mistakenly) listened to a friend who said he had been running Windows 7 (beta) for months and it was very stable. I thought that since he usually distains anything Microsoft (in spite of working there), it must be pretty good. I had no real reason to upgrade from Windows XP…I just thought I’d go ahead and take my friend’s offer of a company discount to get it ($40) and install it now. I didn’t do any research, so I’m writing this as a precautionary tale so others don’t follow in my footsteps.

I did a custom install of Windows 7 Professional, as directed by the upgrade advisor. What I didn’t know is that it wasn’t a clean install and took up a good portion of my hard drive. All my other files and software were still there on the hard drive taking up space, but I wasn’t able to access them. I tried installing my Adobe products first since it was a priority to get up and running again for my freelance business. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough hard drive space left to do so.

Frustrated, I decided to go to Best Buy and get a new computer. I needed more memory anyway and they had some good deals. I settled on an HP p6230y…750 GB hard drive space and 8 GB DDR3 SDRam, and quad-core processor. Perfect for my graphic design work. Cost: close to $750.

When I got home, I quickly set up my new computer and started installing software. The MS Office installed without a hitch, as expected. The problems began when I tried to install Adobe CS3 Design Standard and Web Standard. They installed fine, actually…it wasn’t until I tried to run them that I had problems. They would never open up even though the task manager showed them running, and eventually would give an error message and crash.

Ok, so now I did a bit of research. Seems I would have to upgrade my Windows 7 64-bit Home edition to the Professional edition. The upgrade was necessary because it was the only way to be able to run applications in Windows XP mode in Virtual PC. But here’s a kicker…I couldn’t use the Pro version my friend purchased for me. The only way Microsoft would allow me to upgrade was to use the Upgrade Anytime option and purchase the upgrade to get the install key (which is different from the product key one usually gets with the software). So, another $89 spent.

I also had to purchase upgrades to some of my business software (Quickbooks and Extensis Fusion (for font management) because my current versions didn’t runn on Win 7 (another $100, roughly).

I installed the upgrade, followed by the software for XP mode and virtual PC. Then I had to install the Adobe software (again) while in XP mode. Ok, I can do this…not that big of a deal, right? Wrong! Once I was in XP mode, the resolution was only 16-bit with no way to change it to anything higher. I just can’t have that considering the type of business I’m in! Even worse, I couldn’t access files on the Win 7 part of the computer from XP mode. In frustration, I contacted Microsoft support and got an “expert” in Win 7. I gave him control of my computer and he started trying things I had already tried. He wasn’t any more successful changing the resolution or setting up a network for file sharing than I was. Almost a whole day wasted to find this out!

Oh, I forgot to mention the waste of time chatting online with someone from HP and Adobe…useless to the point I wanted to scream!

I finally went to Adobe’s site and download CS4 versions of the software I use most and installed it on Win 7. It worked! But, in less than 30 days, I’ll need to buy the upgrades for the two suites to the tune of $898 plus tax!

One final straw in this whole fiasco is that I run a backup of my files every night to an external hard drive. I checked to make sure all the folders were there before ditching my old computer. What I didn’t check is the contents of each folder. Many of the files are missing, which is really weird. That will teach me not to thoroughly check my backups before switching computers!!

When I finally purchase the Adobe upgrades later this month, I will have spent around $1900…and that doesn’t count the time I could have been billing clients (about 2 1/2 days worth).

Lessons learned:

1) Research OS upgrades and new computers before rushing in hastily

2) Never buy a new computer right when a new OS has been released…allow time for the bugs to be worked out.

3) I never thought I’d say this, but…I’ll be buying a Mac in the future. (I’m now a real believer of those Mac commercials – see video below).

November 2009 Projects

Anita — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:22:17 +0000

These are projects I worked on during the month of November.

Sesame Communications – Lamb web design
Sesame Communications – Kawatta web design
Sesame Communications – Adams web design
Sesame Communications – Kemp web design
Sesame Communications – Pazios web design
Sesame Communications – Elliot dental web design
New Project News – magazine report ad (making use of lots of the same word “leads”)
Sesame Communications – Oberg web design
Serene Coaching – New design & blog
Sesame Communications – Rey web design
Seattle Reproduction – flyer design
Sesame Communications – Lindenhurst web design
Sesame Communications – Alter web design
New Project News Magazine – Magazine layout
Sesame Communications – Paventy web design

October 2009 Projects

Anita — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:09:09 +0000

It’s a new month and these are the projects I’ve worked on during October 2009.

Sesame Communications – Skrapits web design
Bal-Mar – Brochure Design
Sesame Communications – Warren web design
Curvine – Emerald Services web design
Sesame Communications – Nettune web design
Curvine – Northwest Physicians Network web design
Clear Source Marketing – Backstreet Hair Design rack card design
Sesame Communications – Paciorek web redesign. His current site is at http://www.celebrating-smiles.com/
Sesame Communications – Gregg web redesign. His current site is at http://www.greggorthodontics.com/
Sweet Lily Salon – logo design
Sesame Communications – Spencer web design
Seattle Reproductive – Various flyer design/layout
Steve Hirsh – a few of the splash pages I’m working on
Sesame Communications – Engibous web design (I also converted their hand drawing of the logo into vector)
New Project News – magazine design & layout
Sesame Communications – DeBeradinis web design
Sesame Communications – Pincofski web design
Sesame Communications – Dietrich web design
Sweet Lily Organic Salon – business card design
Sesame Communications – Metaxas web design
Sweet Lily – a-board design

September 2009 Projects

Anita — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:41:48 +0000

These are projects I have worked on during the month of September:

Sesame Communications – Roth web design
Sesame Communications – Wright web design
Sesame Communications – Pratt web design
AMV – VanSkyhawk web design
Sesame Communications – Wiggins web design
Stritmatter – Print ads for Bar Bulletin and Trial News
Stritmatter – Postcard for speaking engagement in 2 spot colors
Sesame Communications – Mortensen redesign
Sesame Communications – Woods web design
Sesame Communications – Kim web design
Curvine – Waddell Properties web design
New Project News – Ad design for placement in magazine
Sesame Communications – Harrison web design
Sesame Communications – Fowler web design
Sesame Communications – Marxen web design
Sesame Communications – Hilgers web design
New Project News – Magazine layout
New Project News – Pinnacle ad design
Sesame Communications – Alter web design

August 2009 Projects

Anita — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:07:15 +0000

These are projects that I have worked on during the month of August:

Sesame Communications – Kayne web design
Rachel Whalley – flyer
Sesame Communications – Rankin web design
Sesame Communications – Atkinson web design
Sesame Communications – Martin web design
Sesame Communications – Koppel web design
Sesame Communications – Frydenlund web design
Sesame Communications – Faulkner web design
Sesame Communications - Emanuele web design
Natural Village – Massage Schools Chicago splash page
Sesame Communications – Poidmore web design
Sesame Communications – Ungerleider web design
Andrew Chin – carp design to create metal stamp (stamped onto leather creations by Andrew)
Sesame Communications – Keenan web design
Sesame Communications – Faber web design
The Phoenix Studio – Numerous Publisher file edits/layout revisions for Akonni
Vacations By The Sea – Ad design for the Seattle Magazine
Sesame Communications – Taylor web design
Sesame Communications – Guyer web design
New Project News – magazine layout
Sesame Communications – Podhouser web design