Growing your business. Literally.

Published by Armand Frasco on Arts and Culture

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"For this project I set out to design a business card that a prospective client would want to keep on their table rather than in their pocket.

The result was a business card that worked like a miniature house-plant, growing alfalfa or cress when dipped in water - a business card for ‘another bloomin’ designer’…"

Growing Business Card
By Jamie Wieck

LINK

Now there’s an idea for composting those undesirable journals…if you can wait that long to get rid of those words.

Featured Artist: Lisa Cheney-Jorgensen

Published by Armand Frasco on Uncategorized

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I am a Graphic Designer by trait. Up until recently, I only drew and painted when it was required for a job or requested by a family member. Somewhere between working full time and being a mother full time, I lost time for me and "my" art. I missed drawing for the pure sake of drawing.

It just so happened that at the beginning of this year I started a new sketchbook. With no intentions of starting a visual journal at the time, I started filling the first few pages with some portraits of family and friends. Then on Jan. 1, while watching a football game with my husband, I drew the first page of my journal and added a bit of my memories from the evening so I wouldn’t forget… The next day another object and idea jotted down… And so on…

At that time, I had sent away for the book "The Creative License" by Danny Gregory. When it arrived I tried some of the ideas in the book to get myself to loosen up a bit. My "style" has always been very controlled, tight and above all time consuming. I knew that if I was going to continue to "draw a little each day" then I needed to draw faster. So I abandoned my beloved pencils and took up the waterproof Pitt pens.

Using the pen for the past 5 months has very enlightening. It has forced me to accept imperfections in my drawings. It was the fear of imperfections that has always prohibited me from drawing regularly in the past. Adding color always seem to make the drawings come alive, as well as helping me to look past the imperfections. I use Winsor & Newton traveling watercolor set and often times touch the drawing/painting up with Prismacolor colored pencils.

When I first started my journaling I debated including my thoughts on paper. I have always been teased about my illegible handwriting and I had a fear of writing my thoughts on paper. Who would really care what I think or have to say…hmm. Can’t the picture say it all? With the gentle urging from some new friends on Flickr, I continued to include my thoughts and memories in my often illegible handwriting. Now after 5 months my family and extended family are all interested in my journal. My husband has also asked that I make copies for both of our children so they don’t fight over them later on… Who would have thought…?

It is very rewarding to go back and actually see and read what was going on in our lives. Those things we take for granted and forget too soon. I am not sure how long the "habit" will last, but for now I am enjoying the process and miss the days that I can’t add a new entry into my visual journal.

Lisa Cheney-Jorgensen
Boise, Idaho

Lisa Cheney-Jorgensen is an artist and graphic designer living in Boise, Idaho. A graduate of Boise State University with a BFA in Graphic Design and minor in Illustration, she has 13+ years of experience working as a graphic designer and art director for local agencies. Her experience includes traditional print media (direct mail, promotional, POS, POP, corporate identity, direct response, packaging, and illustration) and some web design. Recently she went out on her own and now enjoys freelancing and consulting from her home office. Her client list includes local advertising/design agencies, start up-companies, large corporations, and the University.

View her works on FLICKR
Copyright © 2007 All Rights Reserved

Atoma

Published by Armand Frasco on Products and Updates

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"Atoma notebooks have been fascinating entire. The phenomenon has been frequently imitated but it remains unrivalled. The 90 g /m² long fiber paper guarantees impeccable quality and the rings ensure that pages can be removed or added without difficulty.

What has now become a household name started out once upon a time - in 1923 - as a modest family firm, Papeteries G. Mottart. The original Atoma notebook was first produced in 1948. Three generations later, Atoma has thrived to become one of Belgian’s crown jewels in the area of custom linked design, both at home and abroad…. "

Products link

[watch out for jarring sfx on main page]

Thanks Chris!

Blank Page # 44

Published by Armand Frasco on Blank Page Open Threads

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Every Wednesday at Notebookism we open a "Blank Page" - your chance to ask,
answer and discuss anything notebook-related. Keep it nice, keep it
relevant.

Blank Page, an Open Thread.

Accidental colour-coordination

Published by Armand Frasco on Personal

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As far as can remember I was just moving things around in my
apartment and found this box full of my 1991/2 journals. (I’ve got a
*lot* of boxes with my notebooks/sketchbooks/journals) I noticed how
the green and purple colour-coordinated with the room and piled them up
for a quick photo. I’d forgotten about notebook number 5 which was
still sitting in my scanner.

The books themselves were remaindered Batman film tie-ins - and very
cheap, and had surprisingly good paper - so as you can tell i bought a
few of them.

Groc, UK

Making a Multi-threaded Bookmark

Published by Armand Frasco on Products and Updates

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From the D*I*Y Planner:

"Picture this, you’re reading a book and you come across a passage or
page that you want to recall for later. Maybe it’s for your college
studies, or maybe it’s a recipe you want to cook up later in the week.
As you continue reading, you find YET ANOTHER passage you want to mark.
What do you do?

So, you hunt down for a slip of paper, maybe you remove it from your
planner or notebook. Or you grab a sticky note and start jotting down
notes and comments about the pages you’re bookmarking. Then the nagging
starts. Slowly and silently at first… appearing in the farthest
corner in the back of your mind. That environmentalist guilt trip that
reminds you that all this paper, those sticky notes, will do nothing to
help the environment. That using more paper just creates more waste.
That you’ll lose the slips and lose your place and never find it again.
There, you sit… paper in hand, wishing there was a better alternative
to keeping track of multiple spots than using junk mail, index cards or
sticky notes.

One bookmark cannot possibly hold two places, right? Wrong. Instead
of ripping up valuable sticky notes that you’ll trash or recycle later,
why not create a multi-threaded bookmark to save your places in those
books…"

Check it out

[via Bibliophile Bullpen]

Journal Inspirations

Published by Armand Frasco on Projects

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From a family history point of view, creating a treasured keepsake
alone is worth the effort. But today, we will go much deeper. There are
many other reasons why you should be keeping a journal of your own.

Are you scared to start? Are you not exactly sure what to write? Doreene also shares a quick start way to start journal:

“On a piece of paper, write your answers to the question, “Which
three words best describe how you are feeling right now?” When you are
done writing, you have just journaled.

Writing about whatever is important to you right then and there is
journaling. Tracking what you have planted in your garden is
journaling. Writing about the family holidays together, or coffee with
a friend is journaling. There is no set amount of words or pages that
constitutes a journal. There can be a set theme or topic in your
journal, but there does not have to be. I have written about soup, the
weather, myself, my friends, and my dreams for the future, in my
journal. A journal, which is the same as a diary, is a place where you
choose to store what is important to you.”

"Inspiration For You to Keep a Personal Journal"
Treasure Maps Genealogy Blog

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