ambermiro

The Lux Life - Designing for a luxury market.

2010-02-05T12:05:00.000-08:00

Luxury brands are associated with the core competencies of creativity, exclusivity, precession and craftsmanship. Designing for these product attributes can be a challenging yet satisfying experience. From golf & country clubs to luxury handbags, the demographic challenges associated with each sector are specific to consumers on the top end of the wealth spectrum.

The Creative Challenge: Understanding your Target Audience:
Your target audience is looking for you – they just don’t know it yet. Your brand can position itself to the front end of their radar through design.

Be Consistent: Crossing Mediums
Websites, blog’s, business cards, brochures, the list of your creative mediums can span across an endless array of mediums. Keeping your brand image consistent, keeps it memorable. That being said, creatively updating your brand image can strike new relationships with your current target audience as well as new prospects.

The Listening Creative

2009-09-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

I am always astounded by the amount of pressure to be creative I am as a “Design Professional”. In my schooling I found myself painting, drawing, doodling, in a seemingly endless bank of creativity. However with deadlines and a variety of clients, I’m constantly challenging my creativity and left to wonder where my inner creative lives. I compare creativity to a bank - sometimes you make deposits – and sometimes you make withdrawals; finding that beautiful balance of more deposits then withdrawals is rare. However here are a few sound techniques I find that help the creativity flow:

Meet the Audiobook:

If you like to listen to music while you work, a nice change of pace may is the audio book. Now you don’t have to treck down to the bookstore and spend 40+ dollars for 6 cd’s of ( insert book title here ) sites like “www.audible.com/ can bring you everything from romance to suspense. Listening to these while creating - help me think of new concepts and idea’s otherwise not apparent. Sometimes hearing a description in a book can stimulate your brain to visualize color, placement, variety, and perception. Not only are you partaking in the arts, but your adding variety and learning at the same time - a little multi tasking that will not only help expand your brainpower, but also jump start your creativity.

Here are a few of my favorites:

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Outliers: The Story of Success

Both by Malcolm Gladwell

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia

Elizabeth Gilbert

Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides

Water for Elephants

Sara Gruen

The Last Lecture

Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow

The Podcast Prevails: Tune in and listen to a variety of creative podcasts, news, music, and stories. Staying informed and an open mind is key to creativity. Podcasts are a series of digital media files, that can be in either video or audio form, which are released through web syndication. The vast market of podcasts can bring you creative inspiration from a variety of angles.

Here are a few of my favorites:

This American Life: You can download each episode for free weekly on itunes or stream it directly from their site http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ where you can also listen to a library of their older episodes.

Radio Lab: Hosted by WNYC this podcast gives an interesting look into science – everything from sleep to the afterlife. http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/

The Accidental Creative: http://accidentalcreative.com/ solutions to creative problems, and several unique perspectives on creatives. This is the best blog to keeping your creative mind healthy and taking responsibility for your work.

CSS Peer Recognition!

2009-04-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to announce www.ambermiro.com has been featured as design of the day on both cssbased.com as well as csschick.com. There is a plethora of amazing inspiration sites and I am incredibly honored to be a part of this unique and elite crowed. I hope that I can lend to inspiring other designers as well as my creative peers as they have done for me for so many years.

Saying connected. “For a Better Tomorrow”

2009-04-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

Every industry should have a board, a way to connect with your fellow peers with a witty repartee. Mine is www.qbn.com. It has been an excellent resource to talk about the creative industry and also share new work. Here are some other great creative blogs to connect and stimulate your inner muse.

www.qbn.com
http://www.makefive.com/categories/news-business/design
http://designobserver.com/
http://www.ideasonideas.com/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/
http://ilovetypography.com/
http://www.swiss-miss.com/
http://www.notcot.org/

Inspiration - I need it, I crave it, I want it.

2008-10-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

Racking my brain and CSS design award winners can land me right back to the age old problem. Staring at a white paper- with no design plan. With this problem on my mind I have compiled a few websites, artists and design work that rattles my brain and gets my creative mojo back.

Break Down http://www.ianwharton.com/
The best part of this design is the design breakdowns. As an art director so much of your work relys on communication. I think this is an excellent example of communicating print, web, and design campaigns to the viewer.

Virgo it out
No sense in viewing the same websites over and over again or saying to yourself. What was that site that the client mentioned? Screen Shoot and organize your favorite inspirations for your sites. You can use them over and over again and see them at the click of an arrow rather then with load times and flash distractions. Its an amazing way to see the bones of a website and combine your inspirations into one place.

Watch
Movie Trailers and Opening Sequences - there is more to them then you might think. I am so inspired by the opening sequence of movies like Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, and Stranger then fiction. Designers like Danny Yount have a way of telling a narrative but keeping intrigue with in an opening sequence. In the end is'nt that the point of design - to tell a story?

Stranger than Fiction: Opening Sequence
by Razorbuzz

Put Wallpaper Up
I am always amazed when i see working design professionals with a standard apple or windows desktop, i know you want to be at the beach right now, but lets be honest that palm tree is'nt giving anyone a "warm and fuzzy feeling". ::yawn:: When i have a new client or i am in a design rut the first thing i do is grab a new wallpaper or make my own. I find it important to put something on my desktop that makes me think and give me a "virtual ambiance" the more whimsical the better. I love these wallpapers from vladstudio : http://www.vladstudio.com/home/ and from desktopography : http://www.desktopography.net/

Get the Info
By Fueling my Starbucks addiction i have noticed an interesting info design series called "Good", each week there is an amazing info graphics piece breaking down everything from fuel to the economy in an compact easy to read chart. Information graphics is the hardest thing in my arsenal of things that a designer has to do (hats off to you!). So when doing info graphics i need more then a kick in the pants to get a great design completed. I am inspired by Edward Tufte yes, but more so but his protege' Megan Jaegerman her work is clever, conveyed and inspirational!

Free CMS!

2008-10-28T06:37:00.001-07:00

Designers near and far know that 2008 and beyond brings a new era for client interactions. Clients demand CMS, and while it may take a few minutes to set up blogging sites like Wordpress and Blogger are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to building incredible blogs, websites, and flexible interactive pages.

I have been testing several free CMS systems and here are 2 of the best, easiest and most importantly free results.

Idiot proof CMS: Cushy CMS
You don't have to download anything, the client does'nt have to touch things they are not suppost to and you can just worry about editing div tags to say "cushycms". This site is intellegent CMS that is both easy for the clients to use as well as the designers.
www.cushycms.com/

Under a rock?: WordPress
Okay so i admit, i have been under a rock with the wordpress phenomenon. A semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. This is blogging software so flexible and easy to use - several top companies and design blogs are using this SQL blogging system to produce up to the minunte updated beauitufl sites. There is some small download time and confusion with the SQL databases. But once your on! your up and running. They also have an incredible user based documentation from other users for troubleshooting. Its well moterated and well documented! Finally - if your feeling a little lazy there is a plethora of incredible wordpress themes out there to get you started. Use em' and tweak em'.
http://wordpress.org/

Colour Lovers Muse

2008-03-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

Is your creativity tapped out? Every designer has had the expereince of your muse seeming to vanish. I found this helpful little site, colourlovers.com where you can view web samples, and umptine amounts of colour swatches to look at to your hears content. You can put your pantone book away, and create combinations at the click of a mouse. Then you can post them to your profile and have people comment. Who knew colour could be this much fun?

Package - You Can Put It In the Ground

2008-02-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

Sustainable Packaging is hitting the market and in a big way. No longer is this for hippies and health food stores, the designs are smart, reusable and in some cases you can even put in in the ground.

"Pangea Organics, a young, “ecocentric” skincare/bodycare company, is the first manufacturer we’ve seen to actually deliver its products in plantable (how cool is that?) packaging. All of Pangea’s product boxes are made “using a Zero Waste process with 100% post-consumer paper and organic seeds like sweet basil and amaranth.” Customers simply have to remove the box’s label, soak the box in water for a few minutes, and then plant it directly outdoors or in a pot of soil. "

Talk about an Easy button - many companies are following in the footsteps of Pangea, but it is important that designers, choose product that are not only fun to use for consumers but are zero impact on the planet as well.

www.pangeaorganics.com

Eco Printing

2008-02-13T12:03:00.000-08:00

An eco friendly print aproach is easier than you think...we can all say a little thank you to mother nature

Recycled paper...
The already high standard of recycled paper today is increasing all the time. The range available is greater than ever before and the standard of print can easily match the quality you would expect from a non-recycled paper... so why not make the change?

A Great Stuido Leading the way

www.studiomikmik.co.uk

Using 100% recycled paper for your print is also a more eco friendly method than using paper made from sustainable forests as it uses up to 10 times less energy to produce. check out http://www.ecofriendlyprinter.com/ Vegetable-based inks... By printing using purely vegetable based inks, rather than oil based inks, you are ensuring that your print is 100% bio-degradeable, so there are no nasty trace chemical elements left behind. http://www.greenerprinter.com/grp/jsp/inks.jsp

Pantone And ME

2008-02-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

Printers and Designers,

We are in a love hate relationship with Pantone. Lets just be honest about it and get it off of our chests. I love their design philosophy and impeccable attention to detail with their website. I don't like that all printers seem to be confused about what pantone book your looking at.

I blended to two together into the most personal of all things a designer could make, my resume.

Pantone is Ready for spring (are'nt we all?) , and here is a little "fashion preview"

The Creative : The Muse : Typeography

2008-02-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

I am always in search of a Muse, and I seem to be finding them more and more from the graphic designers parent painting. I am inspired lately by these large bold graphic prints that I have been seeing in textile prints. It is amazing how fashion has such and influence on graphic design and vice versa, but type? yes type its true its a graphic element that makes you think. San Francisco based artist Tauba Auerbach's ink on paper drawings of letters and embelishments, represent language and communication short-comings. Visually what I think makes these really interesting is the starkness of the black ink on white paper in contrast with the intricate embellishments. I also Have used century gothic to create a Typeography poster to show its simple letter form. I am always in search of a Muse, and I seem to be finding them more and more from the graphic designers parent painting. I am inspired lately by these large bold graphic prints that I have been seeing in textile prints. It is amazing how fashion has such and influence on graphic design and vice versa, but type? yes type its true its a graphic element that makes you think.

San Francisco based artist Tauba Auerbach's ink on paper drawings of letters and embelishments, represent language and communication short-comings. Visually what I think makes these really interesting is the starkness of the black ink on white paper in contrast with the intricate embellishments. I also Have used century gothic to create a Typeography poster to show its simple letter form.

Designers Band Together ! Coroflot !

2008-02-08T12:58:00.000-08:00

Wondering what your fellow designers are doing? - need a muse or even a job? Coroflot is on the market and free to all! Sharing is caring.

I have been Using Corofolt for about a year now, and the ability to have access to your peers, and an endless array of resources is priceless. But what does this mean for the business? Has Graphic Design turned to Facebook?

If you ask me we are moving in the future, get on the bus!

What they say about it:
"Coroflot has just launched a new blog at Coroflot.com, Creative Seeds, which is dedicated to creative work--and both uses of the word "work" to boot! There will be how-to's on finding design jobs and recruiting, advice on what leading designers are looking for, and showcases of great work from Coroflot portfolios. There will also be news from the creative employment industries, so check back often. We'll post highlights here in the Core77 blog, since we believe in creative seeds too."

You can view My Coroflot Profile too!
http://www.coroflot.com/ambermiro

Feirce Javascript.aculo.us

2008-02-08T12:31:00.000-08:00

Yawn, and Panic!

Is there anything worse then Javascript, HTML, and CSS coding? While it can be a blast to view in the end, the troubleshooting and working through, code seems to always have its downfalls, especially in pesky explorer.

It has its bonuses though, the great thing about javascript it keeps us authors on our toes and makes us understand more about how much work successful publishing really is. I found this website that makes my life certainly easier. I also find that some of the top publishers for some of the best websites take much of their script from here.

http://script.aculo.us/