Reality TV (for real?)

Those of you who know me know that I am a reality TV junkie. This is not something to be proud of, but I'm hoping by letting it out in the open it will be the first step towards healing.

Let's start with THE BACHELOR--OK it's clear to me now why Jake is single--Mr. Roboto has baaaad taste in women..and he has been programmed to say all the right things at the right time..I wish he would just say what he's really thinking instead of saying things like "my heart was crying"..ew. No girl wants to hear that under any circumstance. Allie--you dodged a bullet.

KEL ON EARTH—my new favorite show..barely edging out Project Runway. Refreshing to see a smart, tough, working woman on Bravo for a change. And the best thing about her is seeing how much she and her daughter love each other.

HOUSEWIVES OF NY, ORANGE COUNTY, ATLANTA, BUTTE—

Wait, Butte hasn't been shot yet..in the works. Lips, boobs, bad kids and bad marriages sums it up.

PROJECT RUNWAY—I love pretty much everything about this show but the best part is Heidi's occasional Turrette's moments like "that is butt-ugly". And I defy you to dislike Tim Gunn.

TABATHA'S SALON TAKEOVER—I secretly want Tabatha to yell at me and make me cry.

7 Graphic Designer Pet Peeves

1. Poorly prepared/proofed text

This has to be the biggest across-the-board pet peeve of designers. How often do you have a piece all laid out, only to then go through 3 and 4 rounds of adjustments/corrections to the text? While designers generally accept text changes as part of the territory, major text changes while deadlines are looming must account for the biggest spikes in blood pressure among designers. Last minute text wrangling also makes it much easier to miss typos and layout mistakes from reflowing text.

2. Design-by-committee

Often this results in a convoluted, watered-down or at least, compromised design. While input from Sales/Marketing committees and other creative personnel should be expected and welcomed to a certain degree, you must still trust your main designer or designer team to take the recommendations from the team and implement it best. If you don’t trust your designer(s) to this degree, maybe your designer isn’t right for the job.

3. “Everyone’s a designer”

Hey, we don’t pretend to be able to fix the leaky faucet or understand basic accounting principles so please don’t assume that you comprehend what we do and can do it just as well…and faster.

4. Deadbeats or payer-complainers

This is what makes me want to sell off my fancy computer some days to be a hot dog vendor. You want a hot dog? Great, but you gotta pay for it first. I like that kind of simplicity.

5. Asking for gradients

Please don’t ask your designer to incorporate a gradient into your design, that goes for a beveled edge as well.

6. Papyrus and Copperplate

Yes, I thought they were cool when I first used them too. But now, when you see these fonts around town doesn’t it make you cringe just a little?

7. Jpg vs. EPS

Just trust us when we ask for an .eps of your logo. We really don’t want to extract that blurry, pixilated piece of crap that you pasted into your word document to run in your print ad.

e-trade commercials

I never get tired of these commercials..love, love, love the new "father"one:

https://us.etrade.com/e/t/jumppage/viewjumppage?PageName=etrade_super_tv_ads

egad!

My friend Mark sent me the link to this blog a while back and I just love it..it's hilarious going thru the archives.

this is one of my favorites:

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/2009/04/gillette-reveal-deformed-freak-in-you.html

(the art director must have called out sick that day..)

a worthwhile design link

I got a kick out of this. This website is a great resource for designers and anybody thinking of hiring a designer:

http://justcreativedesign.com/2007/12/06/bad-graphic-design/

(thank you for the 1 space after a period thing!..)