Linking Color to Politics

I am struck by the use of color in two current political events/uprisings: Green in Iran, and Pink in India. Does the message become more poignant, more instantly recognizable with the addition of color itself as a message?

The Pink Sari Gang captured my attention a few weeks ago: http://tinyurl.com/395yns



"They wear pink saris and go after corrupt officials and boorish men with sticks and axes."

Can color now strike fear in the hearts of the oppressor?


And of course we've all seen the internet videos, stills and TV coverage of the unrest surrounding the "election" in Iran:



http://tinyurl.com/kkcx5y

"As the people of Iran take to the streets, a related revolution is erupting on the Web. All week, Twitter avatars, Facebook mugshots, Web sites and blogs have been going green in solidarity with Iranians protesting the results of last week’s election..."

The times we live in are so much more VISUAL than in the past, no longer muted by black type on white paper, our struggles and those of our fellow human beings around the world are colored by emotion -- COLOR for all to see and feel.

Ready for Walden's Pond...

Whew! Big concerns about computer security this last week, seems my "Twitter" account got hacked and because it was linked to my Facebook account, something appears there that I hadn't posted. Got rid of that quickly, but a few days before I'd received a virus in an email from a FB contact and stupidly opened the link. Much mess ensued.

Eventually got a computer security expert in to run more tests on my machines, and of course he found more Malware and Spyware that we eradicated. All of this had my head spinning and I realized things these days are just too unbelievably complicated! I long to escape to a cabin in the woods and live like Thoreau-- if just for a little while-- to clear my head.

When one is basically a "creative type" all this concentration on security and passwords and cyber-wackos is so draining. I need to set aside a block of time when I don't touch the computer at all and give myself some breathing room...

And, PS: I've decided I can live just fine without "Twitter"!

Airline Seats, Website grader... finds of the week!

Just stumbled into this site: http://www.seatguru.com/ via an article about upgrading airline seats to first class. And, although I'm not a frequent flyer, being tall makes flying a challenge. This site allows you to actually put in the airline carrier and type of plane & get a visual of "best seats/worst seats" etc. Very helpful! I'm often guessing about seating so this should come in handy.

Here's another "find" http://website.grader.com/ a free tool from Hubspot, got me motivated to improve the SEO of my own website, and those of my clients. There is always more to learn... fun too, put in a competitor's site and see how they rank in comparison to yours.

Keeping motivated, calm and refreshed

Restarting my graphic/web design biz in a down market has been a challenge! But not impossible, and with the help of my extraordinary friends and extended network. This has become a time of growth and change, re-evaluation and new attention to health. My friend and colleague Sue Elliott just posted a great blog on "Avoiding Recession Depression" with some great tips on staying the course and not falling into the dark hole of depair.

Yesterday my friend and fellow Leads Club member Alys Milner came over for a few hours to give me some tips on organizing and rethinking my creative spaces. Her ideas on making my art studio more "user friendly" were outstanding. Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see how you can improve your immediate surroundings.

For my health and well being I've also utilized the services of my network visiting Dr. Paula Strauss, "The Headache Doctor of Campbell", who is unfreezing my almost frozen shoulder. And attending the gentle Qi Gong sessions of Angie O'Sullivan, also a skilled healer in Acupunture.

More next time... stay tuned!

Some new things...

One good thing about having a little more free time, now that I'm done with my UCSC Certificate in Web Design & Development, is that I can actually think about my own website. I decided to add a section call "Pet Portraits", which is a little sideline for me. A long time friend asked me a few years ago to do portraits of a couple of family pets in watercolor to give as gifts. Apparently they were well received. I also did a portrait of the son of another friend, and his beagle -- this one was in oil. He was actually going off to college when this was done, and it was a way for her to capture that time that slips away so quickly.

These are a lot of fun for me, since I'm such an animal lover anyway -- so now I've got them up and am officially "putting it out there" as something I do! Enjoy. I can work from your photos or digital files, or in certain cases shoot a reference photo to use. Prices vary according to size, generally in the range of $250 to $500. Framing is additional.

Sometimes the little guy WINS!

Gee, this blog should be more about graphic design and art, huh? But lately my theme seems to revolve around consumer issues... perhaps because of the man I'm married to. He's quiet and thoughtful, but when his sense of unfairness or injustice is tapped he's quite tenacious! Case in point, our "fight" with Samsung.

After his bonus at the end of 2007, when the economy didn't seem so dire, Tim decided to reward himself for all his hard work by purchasing a big screen plasma TV. He bought a 58" Samsung model. It was great -- beautiful picture, a nice swivel stand so that it could be viewed from various points in the room. After initial suspicion and unease about the sheer size of the thing, I embraced it too. We even invited my Mom over to watch movies and SHE liked it.

But then, within less than a year, the burn-in set in. My husband noticed it first, and he tried to eradicate it with the programs on the TV to "clear the screen", leaving it on for periods of time with a white screen and gradated bars moving slowly across it. The cats were transfixed, I was slightly annoyed. I was willing to ignore this whole burn-in problem, but Tim was getting more and more annoyed. He'd spent a large sum of money for this "gadget" and it wasn't working right -- it just wasn't right!

First he called about the warranty, but was informed that burn-in wasn't covered. Then he tried the retailer he'd purchased it from, but they couldn't help. A "tech" was called in from the manufacturer, and pronounced that there was, indeed, burn-in on this less than year old product. But there was nothing to be done about it, if those "clear screen" programs didn't take care of it, well then we were just out of luck. Tim didn't like this answer. Escalating the fight further, he sent a letter to the attorney general of New Jersey where Samsung was incorporated. I thought nothing would come of this... a needle in a haystack for large faceless corporations like Samsung, but I was wrong.

Low and behold, within a week we got a call from a woman at Samsung who handled things like this. She was going to arrange for us to return this monster and get (most) of our money back! I was amazed! And skeptical, I didn't believe that this would actually happen. But Tim was convinced, convinced enough to have me help move this 100+ pound monster off the TV stand and out of the way -- and purchase a new LCD big screen TV from the same company! (apparently his research showed that their LCD product was they best in it's class) Ack!! "What if they never give us the refund?"... but they did. Several weeks ago two men came with a truck and took the offending plasma back to dead plasma land and handed me a check. I ran to the bank and deposited it. So far so good.

I really can't believe it, but sometimes the squeaky wheels does win!

Marketing Survey Overkill!

OK, is it me or are we inundated with marketing surveys these days? I took my car in several weeks ago to the dealer for a scheduled maintenance visit. Everything went fine, in and out, no big hassles. All I wanted to do was go about my business, but no, there are the SURVEYS... you can't escape them!

First via email, I almost took the time to fill it out, but then got busy and DELETE! Fine, now I'm done with all that and then...just last night... Whammo! they got me by phone!

I had just been on the phone with my husband and thought he was calling back again for some reason so I picked it up and low and behold it was the X car company doing "a quick marketing survey"... The young woman launched briskly into these inane useless questions. "How would you rate your visit from one to ten"...

I told her, "look, it was all fine, everything was fine, give them all 10's" trying to get off the phone quickly without being totally rude. But then, I added, "...except there was one thing that annoyed me..." "yes?" she said.
"Well they changed the setting on my headlights and I drove off in the dark and didn't realize the auto setting was off -- I had to fumble with it to get the lights on -- they need to leave these settings as they were when people drop their car off!"

"OK Mrs. Oertli, I will let the supervisor know that" and "you will be receiving a survey in the mail in the next week, can I be sure you will fill it out?"

What? Not another one! That would be the third contact, ACK!

"No, I might not" I said... and then "this is really my next complaint, your company does too many surveys and frankly as a consumer this is a real pet peeve of mine"

I believe I hung up after that, I don't remember what else she said. Am I solely responsible for the marketing research at X car company? Where does customer feedback end and customer harassment begin? Can't these companies figure anything out on their own anymore? I've been in and around the marketing business for a long time in the role of a graphic designer and have actually seen the rise in this sort of "device" for "gathering data" and frankly I must say "enough"!

Here's a radical idea -- personal contact. Be nice and helpful when the customer comes in to get their car or drop it off. Ask them as they leave if they are happy with everything, if they have any questions or concerns. Watch to see if their headlights are on as they drive off into the dark and stormy night!