It’s finally here! A book that was birthed from a course curriculum I was preparing for a class at the local University that I teach at, has FINALLY been released! And whether you’re a student, a designer or just someone interested in taking the next step with Social Media, this book is for you!

Rather than talking “about the book”, I’m going to include a short excerpt for you to enjoy:

Social Media and You
So you wanna promote your brand? Drive traffic to your site? Get
noticed on the Web? Sounds a little overwhelming doesn’t it?

Well, if you are armed with the proper tools and tasks to get the job done, it’s simply a matter of being willing to put the time and effort into your venture.
When establishing a brand, company, ministry or business in today’s marketplace, one of the primary necessities to success is having a successful Web site. Notice I didn’t say “having a Web site”. The phrasing is “having a SUCCESSFUL Web site”. What’s the difference?

A Mall in the Desert
Today, with the democratization of information and technology, simply having a Web site is NOT enough to get you noticed. Creating a Web site is like building a mall in the middle of the desert. It may be the biggest mall in the world, with tons of stores and something for everyone, but if it’s in the middle of the desert who finds it? but if it’s in the middle of the desert then who finds it?

The first step to getting customers to visit your mall is building an Interstate Highway right beside it. Why an Interstate? Why not a winding 2 lane road? The Interstate offers a “convenient” route to travel. The traffic moves fast and the curves are few. Is that all it takes? Just building a road? The road is a start but it’s not the complete picture. For the road to be successful, there must be road signs, billboards and exits.

Visit the “MarketYourself: The Book” Web site to order your copy today!

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Wow. This time yesterday I was in the middle of an extentsial melt down. I had restarted my machine only to realize in the process of my furiously fast workflow I had inadvertently dragged my desktop and profile files to an invisible folder. Thus when my machined logged in I was met with what appeared to be a fresh installation of Leopard X.

To say I freaked may be putting it mildly. The good news however, is that I’ve been using Mozy Unlimited for quite some time now and have all my files automatically backed up with them. As simply as checking my account online and ordering my back up disks, I had a full backup of over 100 GBs of work being sent to my home. If you haven’t invested in a good backup solution I would suggest you do so before you get that gut wrenching feeling of re-doing your work and disappointing your clients.

Good BackUp Solutions:

• A third party solution like MOZY Unlimited–they are easy to use, incremental backups and reliable.
• Back up to an external Hard Drive. For a Mac you can use Time Machine or Carbon Copy to make this a breeze.

Bad BackUp Solutions:

• Burning to a CD or DVD —the shelf life on these is too small and too unpredictable. Not to mention the fact that you would have to spend ALL your time backing up and very little actually working!
• Uploading to an SFTP site —the server load and time constraints are much to heavy for most web servers and hosts out there and again, all your processing time would go to backing up your files!

We all enjoy what we do, but having to do it OVER again is no fun. Don’t despair! There is hope! Backing up regularly and reliably will keep you from having to go through the pain of rebuilding!

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If your a designer, whether working at an agency or off on your own freelancing chances are at some time or another you’ve found yourself working under incredibly intense pressure. The kind where you feel that if one more task or problem comes your way, you’ll burst from the sheer weight of it all.

If this describes a recent day you’ve had, don’t despair, tomorrow is a new day, but there are things you can do TODAY to keep the pressure under control and keep your sanity.

1. Stop Checking Your Email: If you’re actively working on a project, complete it before checking your email again. Often, checking in to many times, will not only stop your production, but seeing the list of jobs piling up will only serve to weigh you down.
2. Make Lists: When you do check your email make a To-Do list. Committing your work to a list will get it off your mind and allow you to concentrate on the task at hand. There are tons of easy to use Web apps for list keeping and organization. Find the system that works for you.

   Remember the Milk
   BackPackIt
   Toodledo
   TaDa List
   Intuit Task Manager

3. Stay Organized: The more you organize your files and folders when you have time, the less stress you’ll have in the crunch times. Being able to quickly and efficiently find the files you’re looking for is one of the first steps to managing your workflow.

I’m sure everybody will have tips and tricks that work for them, but on a basic level and across the board, following these three basic principles will help to keep you sane!

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Okay, I know this is supposed to be a print design resource, but i think inspiration can come in many forms. I love this advertising campaign that was done by the Washington State Department of Health for their anti-smoking campaign.

Instead of using the typical "stop smoking cold turkey" cliche, they literally show you how to do that. I think the result is truly what Seth Godin refers to as a "Purple Cow" in his book about remarkable marketing.

Midnight Snack from JP Jones on Vimeo.

Dark Alley from JP Jones on Vimeo.

Cocktails outside of the box! from JP Jones on Vimeo.

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Is your photoshop work lacking a little something? Could it be that you need a some new brushes to spice up your designs? Here’s a list of some of my favorite resources for photoshop brushes. The one I use the most? Brusheezy! They  have great stuff! So I made them number 1!

Free Photoshop Brushes at Brusheezy!

Photoshop Brushes – Brusheezy is the a HUGE collection of Photoshop Brushes and Photoshop Patterns to download, or upload your own!

Photoshop Brushes

Photoshop brushes, patterns, custom shapes, tutorials, styles and gradients – all for free – just download and enjoy this great collection!

PS Brushes.net – Photoshop Brushes, Your Number one source for …

We offer over 500 photoshop brushes all for free, with those kind of numbers why would you search for photoshop brushes anywhere else?

Free Photoshop Brushes – Grunge Brushes and Photoshop Tutorials

Grunge Brushes, photoshop brushes, Free photoshop brushes.

Free Photoshop Brushes – Adobe Photoshop Brush DIRECTORY …

Directory of free Photoshop brushes, with information on how to create and install Photoshop brushes.

Top 50 Free Photoshop Brushes Resource Sites : Speckyboy – Web …

Free (cca 50) Photoshop Brushes sets that are even free for commercial use. 

100 Awesome High Resolution Photoshop Brushes

A great contribution to all the Photoshop brushes starving hordes of designers and artists, including myself: 100 Awesome High Resolution Photoshop Brushes. 

Photoshop Brushes: 150+ High Quality Free Photoshop Brushes

Featuring the best Adobe Photoshop brushes on the net and their authors, free PS brush downloads.

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Fonts are the foundation of a good design. Depending on the budget of the project you may need one that’s free or perhaps you can afford "the perfect" font for your piece. Either way, here are some great free and "perfect" fonts.

Top 10 Font Resources:

1. DaFont Great categories and searches.
2. Urban Fonts Select from free and for purchase fonts.
3. 1001 Fonts Excellent selections of categories and styles.
4. Font Diner  Great retro fonts!
5. Veer.com Excellent original typefaces.
6. 1001FreeFonts Free. What more do you want?
7. I Love Typography Blog resource with great information on type and fonts.
8. Typography.com Original and breathtaking fonts.
9. Abstract Fonts Cool collections uploaded by users.
10. My Fonts News and font updates.

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