So to be fair, I want to expose the laundry list of stuff that I am planning to do this year:

- Get the motion graphics section running. I know this isn’t your typical cup of tea you want from my site but it needs to be done
- Collaborative wallpaper with Kjell-Ringstand
- 2 wallpapers are on the works here and there
- Version 15.3.5. There are certain things on this site I am not really keen with in terms of design and content.
- Tutorials, both written and video
- “Hana” book. I know I promised Q1 of 2010. I am going to try my best to do this, although April is likely. And April is already Q2 2010…

So again, sincere apologies. I promise to deliver some of the list I mentioned above within this year.

Portfolio Site 2010

New portfolio site has been loaded up for the year 2010. You can access some of my latest work now. You just have to click on the PORTFOLIO link above if you are interested. I know post counts have been seldom the past month and a half, but I have been busy with lots of things unrelated to this site. But I already have loads of tutorial contents prepared as well as some new wallpapers in the works. Hopefully this year will not be crazy and will allow me to do wallpapers as much as last year.

Self-confidence or rather the lack there of. This is a tough one and the one I find hardest to write about, but I’ll try my best. Sometimes you have a great idea, but when you do get creative it doesn’t always turn out the way you wanted it. And this can happen because of lot of things. Maybe there’s a skillset you don’t have but need, maybe others don’t seem to fond of the idea, maybe you actually made it but it doesn’t make people respond the way you’d wanted. We could keep going, couldn’t we?

I have been in the situation more than once. The one where I felt like giving up, started questioning myself if what I was doing was right for me and the one where I simply thought I wasn’t good enough. These are thoughts I know others than me have had. But here’s the kicker; There’s no skillset you can’t learn, there’s no idea that everybody will love, there is no ideas that makes people respond or feel exactly the same, taste differs to much. If this is what you really wanna do, there’s no such thing as not good enough. There’s only time. Get dedicated, learn the things you need to learn. Your idea may not be right for this particular project/client, but it might fit another one. Brace yourself, not every work and idea will amaze and get people to feel the same way you do, it’s just not the way people work. It may take a long time to get where you want, but you just gotta keep trying. A wise man once said: Nothing is worse than regretting the things you didn’t do

I might sound like a dreamer, in many cases I am and I’ll allways be, but my point is; everyone earns, everyone grows and the only thing that can stop you in that is yourself. I can’t promise that everyone will make it to the exact spot they want to be, but you have to try because in my experience; all the hard work usually pays off for something. So my best tip is this: Just believe in yourself. Give it another try. Never give up!

Creative block is probably the most common “nightmare” for us. You’re working with a project and usually you have somewhat of an idea thought up in your mind. This thing is gonna be totally awesome. But then it happens; the idea is gone, you can’t come up with anything good. You doodle around on your sketchpad or whatever and nothing is good, you get bummed out and angry with yourself. - ARGH, ain’t I suppose to be a creative artist??. We’ve all been there.

My best tip is; Stop what you are doing. Just trying and trying equals failing when you are in that spot, at least in my experience. Go do something completely different. Go take a walk, make yourself a cup of tea and read a magazine or something completely else. I usually get away from my sketchboard and computer. If I stay in front of the computer I just randomly surf alot of stupid websites and spend my time really doing nothing. And that doesn’t fire up your creativity at all. People probably have different things they do in this certain situations, but I think doing something rather different, but somewhat productive, fires up your brainjuice much faster than keeping on or doing some mindless activity when you’re in such a situation.

Distractions are also a common creativity-stopper. And there are alot of them. The TV is on and suddenly there’s a movie that seems great; – Hey I oughta watch that! I’m not saying that you shouldn’t watch movies or take breaks from working, just keep in mind at which point you do it. If you’ve been working for several hours straight, fine, take a break. You really should. But if you just started up and actually are in a pretty good “zone” that distraction, if you let it distract you, will most likely kill your “zone”. And from that distraction there might be others and then you keep postponing. I speak from experience, because I used to be quite easy to distract and by the time I got back I often had to start from scratch because the creative flow was gone and filled up with other things.

The best thing to do is usually just turn off or remove everything that can distract you, put on some good music that keeps you in the zone and carry on. I know it’s hard with the easy access to everything these days. You have the internet and then a friend suddenly tells you about this reeeeaaaally funny video on youtube that you just MUST see right now and your on your way. But if you really set your mind to it, these things are fairly easy. Keep focus, it’s your mind that get’s distracted, but you just gotta not let it.

So I hope you found this somewhat usueful. It’s more a rant on personal thoughts than anything, but I think that, along with a thousand other factors, these are some points that alot of creative artists struggle with so I felt like writing up my thoughts about the subjects. Now go be creative will ya?

Check out the article.

LG Photography

I’m also getting torched by my second year in law school and this semester will be more difficult than ever. Hopefully, I’ll be able to hang in there and survive. Hope all of you had a great start to this upcoming promising new year!

Either way, sorry this post is short, but more news soon as things get revealed and close to final.

A decade is soon ending and musically it has been quite the adventure. Ten years is a long time and the music trends have been evolving (at least changed) quite alot. The past decade has been amazing and there are so many great albums to choose from. It has been hard making this list and I’m sure there are vital albums I probably have forgotten, but these are some of the ones that have had the most impact on me. Many of you will pherhaps not agree with the list, but some of you might even find some bands you never have heard. But that’s kind of the beauty of it. Some will agree, some will find albums they had forgotten, some will even discover music they haven’t heard before. I love music, I am a music junkie (oh how cliché), so here you are; my top 50 albums of the decade.

50. Burial – Untrue (2007)
49. Eels – Souljacker (2001)
48. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain (2006)
47. Be Your Own Pet – Be Your Own Pet (2006)
46. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (2005)
45.  syntaks – awake (2006)
44. R.E.M. – Reveal (2001)
43. Bring Me the Horizon – Count Your Blessings (2006)
42. Casino Versus Japan – Go Hawaii (2000)
41. Justin Timberlake – Future Sex / Love Sounds (2006)
40. God is an Astronaut – The End of the Beginning (2002)
39. Infected Mushroom – Vicious Delicious (2007)
38.  Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth (2005)
37. Kent – Vapen och Ammunition (2002)
36.  The Postal Service – Give up (2003)
35. Fightstar – Grand Unification (2006)
34.  M83 – Before Dawn Heals Us (2005)
33. Depeche Mode – Exciter (2001)
32. Sigur Ros – () (2002)
31. Ulrich Schnauss – Far Away Trains Passing By (2001)
30. Deftones – White Pony (2002)
29. KiD CuDi – A KiD named CuDi (2008)
28. Familjen – Det Snurrar i Min Skalle (2007)
27. The Roots – Tipping Point (2004)
26. Circa Survive – On Letting Go (2007)
25. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles (2008)
24. My Precious – The Fine Line (2008)
23. Dominic – Dominic (2006)
22. Gorillaz – Demon Days (2006)
21. Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)
20. Daft Punk – Discovery (2001)
19. Band of Horses – Everything All the Time (2006)
18. röyksopp – the understanding (2005)
17. Mew – Frengers (2003)
16. Mastodon – Crack the Skye (2009)
15. Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head (2003)
14.  Jimmy Eat World – Jimmy Eat World/Bleed American (2001)
13. Suis La Lune – Quiet! Pull the strings (2006)
12. The xx – xx (2009)
11. … And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – So Divided (2006)

10. RuRuRu – RuRuRu (2006)

RuRuRu is simply put an amazing album. The japanese has always been really good in making “sonic” music and this album simply just proves that. But RuRuRu also have a unique sound that you won’t find anywhere else. The many layers of sounds are really well composed. There are four people in the band, but sometimes you could think it’s a few more. Their sound is huge. It’s easy, it’s heavy and it’s dreamy, all at the same time. And I’m yearning for the day they release more material, but until then this still holds up pretty well.

9. Tubelord – Our First American Friends (2009)

There’s just something about this album that literally makes me happy. The lyrics are sometimes quite metaphoric, but it’s lovely. They keep changing their rythm and breaks in each song, so it sometimes surprise you. It’s really an easy listening, but with a really interesting take. I simply just love this album, and it’s an amazing debut..

8. Explosions in the Sky – The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place (2003)

In my head these guys are the kings of post-rock. And this album is really their best. The first track “First Breath After Coma” is breath-taking. There are alot of people making music like the type on this album, but nothing sounds like this album. I work listening to it and I fall asleep listening to it.

7. Moby – Hotel (2005)

I’ve heard rumours that people have been complaining that Hotel was a bad album. That Moby never could surpass the previous album; “Play”. I disagree. Hotel contains alot of really good tracks. Moby has alwaysed produced music that’s always had a great impact on me. And to this day it’s still a album I really enjoy. It doesn’t rank higher than “Play”, but it definitively deserves it spot among the best albums of the decade.

6. snöras – heart of weakness (2006)

When it comes to screamo you usually have to be specially interested. But Heart of Weakness isn’t such album, it’s just so great I don’t think you have to be really into screamo to like. Yngve usually plays in Norwegian pop-rock act Lukestar and goes way heavier and faster than he’s used to, but it works. Oh my, how good it works. It’s full of energy and it pumps you up. Heart of Weakness is also very melodic compared to many other screamo albums. Worth a listen, I promise.

5. Amusement Parks on Fire – Amusement Parks on Fire (2004)

I like dreamy music. I like distorted guitars. I like soft vocals. Thus I really enjoy APOF. This album got me into the shoegaze genre and I still think it’s amazing to think that this entire album was written and played solo by a 16 year old kid (at the time).

4. Tycho – Sunrise Projector (2004)

Graphic designer Scott Hansen (iso50) has created some of the most inspiring electronica I’ve ever heard. Under the name Tycho he creates dreamy ambient electronica. Tycho has a distinct sound that I haven’t found anywhere else. My mind wanders off into a inspiring dream world when I listen to it. It’s one of my top albums to listen to when I need to be creative.

3. Architects – Hollow Crown (2009)

There are only so much metal and metalcore I listen to. But Architects completely blew my mind when they played at the Hovefestival this year. And after giving Hollow Crown a… well I have no clue how many… listens they still do. The energy in this band is amazing. And I have to give it to Sam Carter, because both his scream and his clean vocals are really amazing.

2. M83 – Saturdays=Youth (2008)

I’ve been a fan of M83 for some time and I long awaited this album. He blends electronica with shoegaze and soft spoken vocals. Bringing along vocalist Morgan Kibby was the key to this album and it would never be the same without. There’s great diversity on the album and it’s hard not to enjoy all of the musical aspects.

1. Blood Brothers – Young Machetes (2006)

This album changed everything for me. I had been locked into a certain type of music for awhile and this opened it up. It was amazing, it was heavy and fast but it was different. Blood Brothers did go in quite a different direction on this album, compared to the earlier more fast-paced and heavier albums, but lucky for me I hadn’t heard them before. So I wasn’t prepared for what was about to hit me or the difference from earlier works. But this album opened up my eyes for alot of different genres of music and in a way probably got me digging more into music in general. An amazing album that I’m still proud to have in the collection.

Heavily inspired by the luxury look of Las Vegas, I have put up a unique tutorial on how to achieve a gold text effect that looks luxurious. This tutorial covers layer effects, using gradients on text and stroke effects and how to create a sparkle effect with the use of brushes. Read Tutorial…

1. First contact (e-mail, phone, or in person)

You know that phrase “1st impression is everything?” Well it’s true. Whether you don’t hold true to that belief or not, or whether you are the nice guy/gal that don’t judge people on 1st impression, most human psychology is hard wired to judge and feel the new person they meet the very 1st time. If you do not believe this, you are in absolute denial. This is just the nature of who we are as human beings. With that said, it is very important to reflect professionalism to the fullest the 1st time you get in touch with a client. First off, the most important thing is to greet them with a nice hello. If your contact is over the phone, make sure you are in an environment that is quiet, where you sit and talk by yourself. Do not have music playing in the background, do not have people chatting in the back. If you do happen to pick up your phone in a noisy area, tell them that it is not a good time to talk and you will call them back as soon as possible. DO NOT try to listen to what they say over a noisy environment. If the first contact is over e-mail, be polite and professional over text. ALWAYS use spell check before sending out an e-mail and ALWAYS make sure that your grammar and sentence structure is correct. Read your e-mail response over to make sure of this. If the contact is in person, make sure you greet them with a hand shake. Make sure your hands are free to do this. Make eye contact, hand shake, smile, and start your conversation in a professional manner.

2. Meeting

After your brief conversation about a possible project from the clients end, sometimes a meeting happens where they want to meet with you in person. Although we are in an electronic age where telecommuting and long distance clients happen all the time, you will eventually get meetings with people in your local area. This is a very good thing and if you never had a local client, you might want to think about marketing yourself locally. The reason this is a good thing is because it helps you build your social skills in a professional manner. Don’t be afraid. There is no reason to be afraid or nervous because honestly the worst thing that can happen is you not getting the contract. Obviously you want that contract to make some money, but the truth is, you will always not land the contract and it’s about the experience and social practice that still comes in hand.

The first rule with client meetings in person is NEVER be late. When I say never, I mean NEVER. Mapquest, Expedia, or Google Earth your destination and see how long it will take you to get there. If you are meeting the client on a rush hour time zone, seriously leave an hour or so early PLUS the time driving direction websites tells you. So if it will take you 40 minutes to get there, Leave 90 minutes early or even more if you can.

Calculate your travel distance and time and be there 15 minutes or 30 minutes ahead of the planned time. You will be surprised at how long it may take to find parking in certain businesses or area’s. After you find parking, go grab a coffee, a drink, prepare yourself, make sure your suit (or dress for you ladies) is at it’s best. Fix your hair, make sure you don’t have anything in your teeth. Even practice what you are going to say, or how you are going to present your portfolio. You can do all this in your car or a public restroom. 30 minutes or more is a good time to do this.

3. During the meeting

When you are finally in the meeting, be straight forward and to the point. Be confident and know that the client is looking for someone who has a “can do” attitude. Now there are points in our freelance lives when a client asks us if we can do something we really do not know how to do. This is a very difficult thing to answer because in reality, we really can’t do it (i.e they ask if we know how to program a language we don’t know). There is a difference between having a “can do” attitude and being honest. This is where you really gauge yourself really fast and think if you can do it or not. We all know that learning a programming language is very difficult and time consuming. Of course when you come to this point in the meeting, you tell the client that you do not have the experience. Do not lie about it. If there are alternative solutions that you can think of right away, propose that and maybe the client will go for that route. It is a good practice to network yourself with programmers and other creative individuals to sub-contract, where they can do things you cannot do. On your spare time, try posting an ad for a freelance programmer for possible works in the future. A lot of the times, people who are looking for jobs will take that opportunity, regardless of there being a working relationship in the future or not. You will always get someone that will respond to your inquiry because they too have a pro-active, can do attitude.

During the meeting, make sure to keep eye contact and stick to the subject most of the time. If the client goes off about their pets, house, wife, children, let them. But you, the designer, should never ramble off into something that has nothing to do with the meeting subject. Of course if the client asks “do you have children?” or “do you have any pets” you can answer them and keep the conversation to a minimum. Do not ever go off into tangents. You widely express that you do not have focus by doing this.

As designers, we are the experts with what we do, not them. But do not ever shoot down your clients idea’s even if its not possible to do so. Do not criticize them for their lack of knowledge or bad taste in design. Keep all conversations to a systematic default of facts. Do not bring your opinions into certain matters if it arises. If the client asks you for your opinion, give them a friendly critique without making them feel stupid. Do not express your opinions that relate to religion, politics, philosophy, etc… If you ever get a client that asks you what you believe in, or what political party you belong to, it’s almost best to say that you do not belong to any social group. This is the best approach, although awkward of a question. If the client has requirements of who they hire based on their desire to work with someone in the same belief group, you probably do not want to work with them. I’ve had a client turn me down long ago after viewing one of my motion graphics video’s that had an anti-president bush message written all over it. I honestly didn’t lose much, if at all.

MAKE SURE to ask questions. There rarely is ever a time that a meeting covers all grounds. Even if its as simple as “do you have a deadline?” or “how long have you been in this business” will do. It shows the client that you have been paying attention and that you are interested in their business or project that they propose to you.

Let’s not forget that we are freelance designers looking to get paid in the end. But do not talk about money, your rates, and your payment plan till the very end of the meeting. It is important to get to this subject, but the first thing you want to talk about with your client is the project itself and the scope of it. I promise you that you will give a really bad impression if the first thing you say is “well, I am a designer, and I work at so and so dollars an hour.”

All the rules I mentioned above applies for phone meetings. Although you cannot keep eye contact with someone over the phone, it is very important to pay attention to every word he says.

4. Finalization

During the finalization process, or when the meeting is coming to a close, most of the time the client will ask you for your rates if he or she didn’t already. This is where you discuss your payment plan, hourly rate, and how your production system works. This is also a great time where you bring out your contract (that you better have), and have them fill it out in front of you if they desire. If they desire to fill it out later and mail it to you, tell them that it’s okay and give them your mailing address (although your mailing address should be on the contract). Do not shove a contract into their face and tell them that they need to fill it out. You can say “You can fill this out now if you’d like and I will wait and explain in detail if you have concerns with the contract. Or you can just read it over, and mail it to me or call me for any concerns.” Now if this meeting happened over the phone, you have no choice but to have them mail it out to you. Make sure to send the contract over e-mail or (regular mail if you must for some reason) that SAME DAY. Do not procrastinate with this.

After you get through that process, make sure to let them know when you will be able to deliver your first rough concepts and idea’s. Make sure to let them know about your 1st deposit plan during this process. I require a 25% security deposit after my 1st cycle of rough idea’s for that clients project. When you tell them the time frame of the 1st delivery, make sure it’s realistic and not screwing yourself at the end just to impress your clients. Going back to the “Before the meeting” process, scope your schedule out and see how many clients you have besides them. Be realistic about your skills, production speed and when you can actually roll out your work. If you are sending out a rough idea for a website, think about how long it took you in the past. If it took you 3 days to roll out a rough idea for a website in the past, give yourself 5 days. It is better to be on time then not be on time to deadlines. Be realistic with the time you give yourself. Do not tell them it will take you more than 20 days just for a prototype. Be reasonable for your clients while you are being reasonable for yourself.

After the meeting is complete, shake hands again, and make eye contact with a good smile. After this is complete, MAKE SURE to follow up with them with a thank you e-mail and how delighted you were to meet with this client. In the e-mail, again, remind them of when you will deliver your 1st prototype and that you will look forward to the partnership of the project. Again, spell check, grammar check, and sound polite and professional.

Of course over time, if you keep working with this client, your relationship will go from business to casual in some cases. This all depends on the client and you have to follow your best judgment to see how far you can be casual with your client, make jokes, strike a conversation about their family and their life and how they are doing.

5. Extra

While you work for this client, it is important to keep constant communication with them and where you are in the project. No communication is not a good sign and it shows that either you are lazy and have nothing done or you are not taking the project seriously.

Another important thing to note in this digital age. A lot of my clients for some reason look me up to see if they can find me through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and so on. Be careful about how you approach this. It is probably at your best interest to add them as a friend or accept their friend request AFTER the project or contract has been fulfilled. Believe it or not, people out there in the world are not open to your opinions or your personal life without judgment. Again, impression is everything, and the last thing you want is your client to see your bar hopping pictures on Facebook.

This post takes a deeper look into social media, what it is and how to use it. I’m gonna talk about facebook and twitter in this post, but most of these tips does apply to other forms such as blogging. I don’t consider myself an expert in the field, but I jumped on the wagon quite early and have a keen interest in the subject. So the post is based on my own experiences and what I’ve learned from attending a few seminars. Read on for the full post.

What is Social Media?
The definition is quite wide and still not really set in stone. But in general social media is something most people use everyday, like Facebook. Blogging, Twitter and Flickr is also under the definition of social media, it’s a way to share information to many people and giving them the possibility of interaction around the information published.

«Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many)» – Wikipedia

What use do I have for it?
As a creative artist (designer, photographer and so on) you most likely already use some form for social media. It’s been around for along time, but it’s only lately the term has become more apperant and we’ve seen an explosion in it’s use. Many of you are most likely on Flickr, which is a highly regarded image publishing media; Photographers use it to display their work and others are publishing their photos from a recent vacation. The beauty of it all is that people can discuss your photo, give comments and critique. And on the way you might learn something from it or even salvage some glory from other users.

As an creative artist it’s a great way to get your works out in the wide open, besides your portfolio. Services like Facebook and Twitter is often a good way to reach out to the people you want, even potential clients. In this day and age the use of social media could be defining for you as an artist. It will never replace the face to face interaction between you, your clients and people who appreciate your art, but it will help you reach them in an easier way.

How?
There are several services out there that soon is a platform to reach, well, almost everybody. I’m gonna give you some tips and some does and dont’s on two particular services in this article.

Facebook
Facebook has over 350 million users, which means if it was a country, it would be the worlds fifth largest. Larger and smaller companies early saw the potential, they started advertising immiedately. When people say «Everyone I know is on Facebook», they’re in many ways not far from the truth. That’s why Facebook is a good way to market yourself, as many companies have done before you.

Register yourself a Facebook Page, for yourself or your company (some freelance, other dont). Put up every information you feel is necessary and what you provide. Since Facebook is quite personal  it’s a good idea not to have a to static language. I’m not saying you should try to act like someone your not, but speaking on a more personal level is more approriate. Then start inviting people on your facebook to become a «fan». Some people will decline, some will join. But in my experience your friends will support you or your company and from there others might add your page as well (my own page got alot of «fans» I have no idea who is.)

Twitter
At the moment Twitter is the fastest growing social media on the web. It’s called microblogging because of the limited space of each message. But this way you’ll get faster to your point, which is good.

Creating a twitter account is easy. Adding people on your list is easy . And if you write about the right things getting followers is not to hard either. And the glory of it all is that there is tags that add you’re message to what you can call a «tag». If for example you’re writing about a new design, you put #design in the message and everyone that is interested in design can find your message by checking out the tag #design.

I mostly use twitter to follow people in my field and interests. Some of those will follow you back, but other people, including potential clients, will follow you too if they find you interesting. Twitter is still growing and you might find that the core is mostly, for now, people like yourself.

Do’s and don’ts
-As with everything, don’t spam. Both on Facebook and Twitter people get feeded your message directly. It’s quite annoying reading the same thing over and over again
- If people decline you, they decline you. Don’t bug them with another invite.
- If people asks questions and comment, answer them. It’s important to show that you care.
- Act as you would in any proffesional manner, if people make stupid comments, don’t start an unecessary discussion. You’re a proffesional, never forget that.
- Talking about other great artists, bringing tips and sharing experiences is important. It also percieve you as somewhat an expert in your field. And talking about the occasional great movie you saw or great new band you’ve been listening to isn’t a bad thing either.
- Because; talking about only yourself and your work/products might not be that entertaining in the long-run. But of course; you’re also there to promote yourself!

Many of these tips also apply to other social media such as blogging on your proffesional site. Blogging is a big aspect of social media and a good way to reach out, but it also require alot of work.
As with every social media service things won’t just be done in a flash. It takes time building up credibility and followers. So don’t expect a take off right away.

With this I wish all of you good luck. Some of you might already be a social media junkie like myself, some of you might just be getting into it. Just take your time, it’s totally worth it.