With or Without You

On my commute home today I had an interesting conversation with some ladies about technology and the good ole days of rotary phones, snail mail, and plain old meet and greets. We also touched on how much closer families would be without Blackberries, how much more book-savvy young ones would be without computers, and we even went as far as imagining a society without it all; Simpler times where there was every opportunity for people to be or do what they wanted without a wall of technology to climb in order to get there. In some aspects I think it's tougher for people now to fulfill dreams with so much more to learn.

Are those not keeping up, getting left behind? Is that how it should be?

I wonder what would it be like to get back to the root of it all.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned but I remember the days of sitting down to dinner with family each night without tv to watch or a Blackberry in hand, going to the library with friends to write book reports instead of copying and pasting from Wikipedia, getting a job with little to no experience.

I think it's interesting to see where this technology is taking us and how we are all evolving with it and how we would evolve without it.

Are we better off? Or worse off?

Leave Behind Your Criteria

I've been so delinquent in my blog posts, I almost feel criminal. It's funny how that happens. You get so wrapped up in being 'active' at all times that it feels weird to step away. You wonder what it is you may be missing or what you're leaving behind.

But a leave-behind was exactly what I was aiming to do as I've been productive designing one - you know a 'leave-behind' portfolio?

When I first thought of designing one I had no rules, boundaries, or limitations. Creative freedom right? Errrr! Wrong! At least for this project so I thought it best to write out a quick creative brief on what I wanted to achieve with this leave-behind piece. I designed a mock-up last night and have a few more pieces that I might want to include in the final package.

Now that I have some ideas, maybe my reading audience would like to outline some criteria for me too, just as if you were my client, and I'll incorporate them into this project. Not only would it be interesting to see what everyone has to add but it would challenge me to come up with something really creative and fun. The criteria can be related to function or form.

Here's a quick description of a leave-behind portfolio:

A leave-behind as the name suggests, is a part or sampling of a portfolio that is left with a potential employer or exhibitor after a meeting or interview. Leave-behinds can be anything from brochures, self-promotional flyers, creative packages with key portfolio elements, or printed images. Some leave-behinds are more elaborate and interactive, depending on time and budget allowances, such as an interactive and custom designed and packaged CD or DVD or a nicely printed color brochure with pockets for accompanying CDs and business card.

Leave-behinds are typically used in advertising, design, photography and fine art, and is most often a single printed piece that depicts either a single piece from the portfolio or a collage of several portfolio pieces.

The goal of a leave-behind is to help the interviewer(s) remember the candidate and his/her work in the days follow the meeting and/or spark more interest from a potential employer or client one meets briefly in an elevator or at a party, for example. It also works in the same way a business card does, providing contact information to follow-up with.

As an alternative, a leave-behind is sometimes mailed to the potential client, employer, or interviewer(s) as opposed to physically leaving work with them.

So...give me one guideline for this leave-behind project based on what you see here.
Leave your comment below.

Desktop Wallpapers : September

I can't believe it's September already.

Man...did summer ever go fast!

And with a new month, comes new desktop wallpapers to keep your desktop looking alive.

The one I chose this month was reminiscent of my bookshelf with the inclusion of falling leaves and birds flying south. The colours of burnt oranges, deep yellows, and umber keep things warm on those cool breezy nights.

Speaking of which...time to close my window. It's a cold and rainy one out there.