Thursday, January 21, 2010

Staying focused.

Still not a morning person, i was up before the sun rise to make J his coffee and pack his breakfast so he wouldn't be late for work. Just so you know, we're on better terms with each other now. Let's just say we kissed and made up after our big fallout over the weekend and i'm more than certain both parties are making an extra effort to show the other they're doing their part for the relationship.

I realised believing in myself is much harder than painting a smile on my face.

But i'm trying.

The other day i purposely missed the bus that comes every 2 hours, to see if i could walk to the city centre on my own. The fresh snow melting air helped cleanse my thoughts and lungs. My doctor recommended that i continue to move that way i will heal faster. And although most of the serious pains have gone, i do occasionally cramp up and feel nausea but i'm thinking that is still part of the post-operation recovery process. Unfortunately, i can't properly lie on my side without support as my abdomen is still slightly sensitive but i am making progress.

So today instead of crawling back into bed at 7am, even though i could do with a few more hours of shut eye, i sat down and scribbled on a scrap paper my To Do list for the day:

  • Do Laundry
  • Iron shirts
  • Upload photos
  • Tidy up
  • Clean the dishes
  • Vacuum
  • Work on logo design
  • Write invoice
  • Create work time-table
  • Rearrange living room
Tomorrow our new super comfy, micro fibre, corner sofa bed that we ordered 2 weeks ago from Porta is finally being delivered!

It's similar in design and price to the one we saw in IKEA, however the material and colour of Porta's sofa is far more superior. Plus the mechanics of how the sofa turns into a bed is also much better.


So after much thought and taking into consideration that it originally was 300€ more than the advertised price, we decided it was a great deal. At last our days of sitting/lying on the spare mattress whilst watching TV/having dinner will soon be over.

...

Moving on, as i mentioned before, i've also taken on a 2-part project [a logo design + stationery and a corporate identity manual] all of which has a deadline of April. So the last few days i've been trying to build a momentum and get myself back into the swing of things.

And this coming Monday my German classes start up again so i predict the next month is going to be super challenging trying to juggle it all. I'm trying not to stress myself out about it and not get overwhelmed, so i keep my fingers crossed that i can get this job completed on time and one that i am satisfied with.


And to help with my inspiration, the other weekend i received two 12-kilo boxes stuffed with 24 graphic design books, courtesy of my parents. They're my old design reference books that i had bought a while back. But it's been about 2 years since i've flipped through their pages as they have been sitting in boxes in my folks place. So having them with me brings back memories and i'm hoping they'll reignite the Spark of Love i once had for Design.

And in another attempt to boost my design motivation i declared i needed a Pantone Formula Guide. For those of you who have no design background knowledge it's basically a booklet with 1,114 solid PANTONE Colors, including 14 base colors each with a particular code known as a PANTONE Metric System [PMS]. Each PMS colour is known to each printer worldwide and guarantees that no matter where you print the artwork, the colours will be the same. Icons are shown beneath each color to indicate that that particular colour can be reproduced in CMYK and/or RGB.

Believe me, it's much more exciting than it sounds.


So i made my first bid on eBay - yes i know, i'm a bit slow in this whole eBay business but i've never really had any interest to buy anything until recently and guess what? I WON! So now i am a proud owner of a new [still in shrink wrap] Pantone Formula Guide for Uncoated stock.

Including the shipping it cost me 28€ which saved me about 10+€ should i had decided to order it from a store. So yes that's something to be happy about.

I feel so Designery already.

And although i have yet to get my head around doing my website or being satisfied with my corporate identity and personal business card, i at least will know when my FA goes out to print my colours will be accurate.

3 comments:

Duke said...

Hey man send me your mobile number and address please!

Anonymous said...

How about a different sort of design? It's based in Germany.

http://www.grohe.com/p/25_8620.html

winkris said...

Duke: Why? Should i be expecting a singing telegram or a present? =)

Anon: Thanks for the link. I had a look but the offices are either in Düsseldorf or in a town that's a bit too far from where i live. I may just end up doing something totally not related to Design.

We'll see how my stress levels are and how much hair i have once i'm done with my current project ;)

But cheers for the heads up.