Your logo cost you HOW much??!

I swear, I ought to go work in Britain; they pay a ridiculous amount of money for logos over there. First, the London Olympics logo (cost: £400,000). And, by the way, it's a bad logo.

Today, in doing some research for another logo I'm working on, I came across this article on the Southampton University logo controversy. Not only have they paid upwards of £360,000 (about $705,132 American dollars--apparently this figure includes replacing signage, stationery, etc. But still!), but now the university is talking about cutting jobs to get itself out of debt. Ummmm... is this not making sense to anyone else out there?

The logos, as seen below (the top is the new logo, by the way), aren't even anything to write home about. I mean, the dolphin one looks dated, but the new one... well, it certainly doesn't look like a logo worth over a half million bucks. And in the face of layoffs? That's just silly. I'm sure there are plenty of other logo designers out there that could have delivered something just as good--if not better--for far less of a price tag. Um, me, for starters!

stationery show!

So last week I went to the stationery show in NYC. I know, I should have posted this sooner, but it's been a pretty hectic week, capped off by the long weekend, and, well... Ah, I know, excuses, excuses.

Anyway, here I am, back to blog about my stationery show experience. If you're just tuning in, I'm trying my hand at branching out into custom event invitations. I'd love to specialize in letterpress. So a few months ago I figured I'd get my feet wet and go to the stationery show and see what's out there, and maybe meet some vendors.

First, the show itself was so cool--IF you're a stationery buyer. Which I am not. And it said so on the nifty little name tag they gave me, that got me in the show. So people immediately looked at it, saw I wasn't someone who was going to make them money, and stopped being interested. Really.

There was so much beautiful design. Stuff I would love to have the time to think up and do (originally, the plan was to launch my own stationery line, but that seemed like a big jump into who knows what. Custom invitations seemed more like baby steps). Of course, with the good comes the bad (hello, 80's mirror display? 1985 called and wants you back). But there was a lot of small independent little card companies with some pretty gorgeous stuff.

Then, at 1:00, the doors to the vendor side of things opened. I figured this would go much better for me, since that's what I was looking for. I figured wrong.

Don't get me wrong, the 10 vendors that were there were very helpful. It's just there weren't many of them, and none of them did letterpress printing. But they all knew someone who did.

All in all, it was nice to take some time off (sort of, I was tethered to my Palm all day long) and devote it to growing my business--something I don't get to do often. Would I go back? Probably not next year, but maybe in the future, depending on how custom invitations do...

In the meantime, once I get my stuff together, be on the lookout for tracieinvites!

Next!

My goodness, it's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that folks, I've been trying to finalize a couple if different projects, and everything has come to a head all at once. But I've finished up some stuff, and now it's onto some new projects.

One of the sites I just finished was Home and Hearth Interiors--a home staging company in Westport. Kellie is super nice, and talented at staging homes! Try guessing how many kids she has when you walk into her home (I'll give you a hint: yes, she does have kids. Funny, when you walk into my home, the reaction is more, "You only have three? There must be more, it certainly looks like it!").

The other site I launched today is Lush Floral Designs. Zoe is so cool, and her arrangements are breathtakingly beautiful. Zoe is actually a client I have only spoken to on the phone and via email. We have a date to meet in person next week, and I can't wait!

Those are just 2 web clients; I've actually just finished up some print work for the Hospital for Special Surgery, and I'm working on finishing up a psychiatrist's site this week as well. Oh, and there's that little project I have designing the packaging for a cookie company (I know I've said this before, but yes, it is just as fun--and delicious--as it sounds. No wonder I can't get these 5 pounds off!)

So now that I've had 5 whole minutes to breathe, it's off to the current/next round of projects. Oh, and tomorrow, I'm super excited because I'm actually taking the day and spending it at the stationery show in the city (what, most people don't get excited over paper??!). It's all research for the next phase of traciedesigns: custom invitations. More info soon...

Yay Mac!

This story rocks my socks:

Laptop (which happens to be a mac) gets stolen. Owner uses remote login technology to not only log into stolen computer, but take a photo of the thief as well, using built-in camera.

Read the whole account here (although there's not much more to it, other than details, and mugshots).

Bloody brilliant. Just brilliant.

Happy Mother's Day!

Just a quick shout out to all the moms out there who read this... Happy mother's day! I hope you all end every day as I did tonight: a smile, a hug, and "I love you, mom."

The best present out there.

I am a supah-stah!

So I've blogged a couple of times about my involvement with Fairfield's Earth Day Celebration (it's tomorrow! yay!); I was fortunate enough to work with the chairman, Larry Kaley, and design the program that's going to be handed out; and on the side--you know, in my spare time--I've done some PR for the event.

Now this was my first foray into public relations, so I made some phone calls, googled some media, and started writing and sending press releases. I had 2 versions--print and radio--that I would send out. Of course, I had all my local bases covered, so naturally WICC--out of Bridgeport--got a press release once a week when I sent them out.

As it happens, one of my press releasea fell into the hands of David Smith, afternoon host of the Exchange. He called me last week: would I come on the air for a few minutes to talk about Earth Day?

Er... no. But my Earth Day colleagues will!

Long story short, it was going to be myself, one of the vendors, and Larry. I didn't really want to be on the radio, I just thought the experience was cool, and wanted to be there for it.

Well, it was a crazy rainy day here at 1:45 when I ran into the WICC offices, and unfortunately, the weather was holding Larry up. We needed a pinch hitter, and I was there.

So guess who was on the radio this afternoon, plugging Earth Day?

Oh. My. God. I was so nervous!!! I felt like Molly Shannon, in the classic SNL sketch, "Schweaty Balls" (also one of my all time favorites). I would lean into the microphone every time I was asked a question. It was only 6 or 7 minutes--tops--but it was crazy. There was so much going on, and throughout the whole thing, David Smith (who, by the way, has such a voice for radio) played it cool--you could tell he was a pro. Me, on the other hand, I was like a baby, distracted by every flashing light and sound (and there were tons of them). I tried to play it cool, but I was totally blindsided by the fact that my voice was being broadcast throughout the Bridgeport region.

I definitely got my experience, that's for sure. For a brief 6 minutes, I was on the radio. So my 15 minutes isn't up yet... I still have 9 more. I'll just direct you to my agent for those.

PS. Talk about 6 degrees of fame... the vendor who came on with me was Dan Delventhal, of mowgreen.us (a "reel" mowing service--reel as in sweat, not gas powered). Dan also does work as an extra in area films--he will be appearing in the upcoming flick Confessions of a Shopaholic. But more importantly, he was telling me that he was working just yesterday on the new Sam Mendes film (tentatively titled Farlanders), and he had to react to an actor swearing in the scene he was in. The actor? Office hottie John Krasinski!

PPS. I've said it before, I'll say it again: Fairfield's Earth Day Celebration is tomorrow, at Fairfield Warde High School, from 9:30 to 3:30. It's going to be an amazing event, so come on down, if you can! (I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't mention it one last time :)

Ecojustice 08

My pals Becky and Marcy both pointed me in the direction of this blog, Ecojustice 08. Since I have joined Fairfield's Earth Day Committee (event plug: it's happening this Saturday, May 10th), I have learned so much, and wanted to do so much. This challenge seemed a great way to springboard into action.

I have chosen 2 items from the list to start, #2 (one blackout night per week--going to be difficult, but I'm willing to give it a go), and #5 (read a book about the environment). Unfortunately, some of the items on the list were not exactly conducive to our lifestyle (I know, I know, it's a challenge, it's not supposed to be easy, but with three kids we are constantly on the go. I will, like Marcy, try and adapt some of the tips to our lifestyle).

That said, I've also asked for a composter and a clothesline for mother's day (and a zoom lens for the Nikon, but I digress...). I've also taken an active role in Fairfield's Earth Day Celebration (event plug again: please come down this Saturday, it's going to be not only informative, but fun!). To learn more about the Earth Day fair, you can go to fairfieldearthday.org, or tune into WICC (AM660 in fabulous Bridgeport, CT) on Friday, at 1:45 to listen to perhaps myself (I'm not quite sure if I'll actually be on the air--I've been invited to be, but in this case I think I prefer to be behind the scenes) and others talk to David Smith on his "Exchange" show.

In any event, I strongly encourage you all to at least visit Ecojustice, if not take part. There's all kinds of great tips and tricks to "green" your life, even if it's just a lighter shade of green.

PS. Oh, and did I mention Fairfield's Earth Day Celebration?

Kismet

OK, I have to confess: you know that stupid saying? About the shoemaker's kids having the worst shoes? Well, that applies to me sometimes (OK, bad analogy, I know. Cause I totally don't have the worst shoes).

I mean that I don't always have the time to make my own stuff pretty, because I'm too busy doing it for other people (but I'm not complaining!). So for the past few years, I've had business cards--nice, pretty business cards--but they weren't fancy schmancy professionally printed cards, they were digitally output and, quite frankly, the less than stellar printing quality showed (to the trained eye, at least).

So a few weeks ago, I was at Baker Graphics in Westport, picking up some invitations I designed, when the owner approached me. Long story short, we got to talking, and I gave her one of my cards, which just happened to say, "because her favorite color isn't orange, it's Pantone 167."

Well. It just so happened that they were printing business cards the next week, with Pantone 166. On top of that, the cards were the same off-size that mine were. Would I be interested in ganging up and getting some cards printed?

Does the shoemaker's kid have bad shoes?

So yesterday, I picked up my brand new, fancy schmancy, professionally printed cards. And let me tell you, it was like Christmas. I walked out of the printer's, and wanted to hand my card out to every person I came across.

Oh, and my new favorite color is Pantone 166--which is still orange, just a shade darker.