If you look up emailmarketing online you’ll see lots of people talking about why it is so effective and why they use it. What you won’t see much of is people talking about the types of emails that they send and why they send them. When it comes to any type of marketing or advertising a lot of it will depend on your industry and who you are trying to target. Realistically you will need to monitor what you are doing and see what is actually working. It is all well and good reading and guide to see what works for other people, but your business is different so you need to check what you are doing is working for you.
So, what email sending strategies and topics should you be looking at sending?
1 – Educational
People want to buy from a company that they trust to be an authority figure. When you send out emails don’t always send them out as a way of generating sales, sometimes you need to just give people information. You want to give people a reason to read your emails so if you fill them with relevant and useful information they are more likely to want to open it and have a read – especially in the future. Of course by showing them that you know what you are talking about and are knowledgeable in this area you have a better chance of encouraging them to buy from you in the future because if they trust you then they are going to trust your products.
2 – Informational
If you have an event coming up or you have heard of something that might be useful and relevant to the people on your mailing list then send them an email with the details. This should be done in a way that simply tells them what is going on, rather than encourage them to buy – remember emailing marketing is about building up your reputation as well as sales! Of course sales are good, but if every email you send out is trying to get money out of your customer then the chances are that they will stop reading. Make sure that you send out informational emails too, so that they see you as a helpful figure not just someone who wants them to buy something!
3 – Promotional
Of course an element of email marketing as to be about generating sales and this should not be forgotten. One of the best things you can do is send out emails to your list to let them know about special offers and sales that you have happening. Remember these are users that have signed up to your email list so they are already interested in what you have to say – this means you have a good chance of turning this around and making it a sale. What a lot of companies do is opt to tell mailing list users about a sale first or give out exclusive mailing list voucher codes as this will also encourage people to stay on your mailing list long term which is always a good thing!
4 – Newsletter
Depending on the industry you are in or the nature of your business you could look at sending out email newsletters. Generally speaking you should look to do this no more than once a month. You can use this as a news roundup of what has been happening in your industry and at your business. You can even have fun sections such as introducing the team or running a competition. Try to keep the newsletter relevant as well as fun, because after all people have signed up to your mailing list for a reason and that is to receive news and information from you.
A big part of the emails you send will vary on what is happening with your business and even the time of year. Make sure you monitor the success of any emails you send so that you know what has worked well and what type of emails you could be looking to mimic and send again in the future.
My name is Nicola and I have a keen interest in social media, SEO and internet marketing.
If you ask any web designer then they will tell you that they are currently programming websites while keeping HTML5 and CSS3 in mind. It really is the way to go in this day and age. Just what are they though? Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
Now, every single website is constructed from HTML and CSS code. There may be a few more programming technologies behind the site (PHP for example), but it is only HTML and CSS which has the capability of displaying information in your browser. JavaScript can do this to an extent, but it will still need to be used in conjunction with one of the other technologies.
HTML is the technology behind the layout of the page. CSS is the technology behind the aesthetics. There is a degree of overlap which you will see if you learn the languages. However, if you are employing a Phoenix Web Designer to carry out the programming for you, you will not need to know about this in too much depth.
Now, just like any programming language, HTML and CSS are regularly updated. New pieces are added into the code to make it far easier for them to create certain features. HTML5 is the 5th incarnation and CSS3 is the third incarnation. The idea is that these are the new standard. If you want your website to display properly in modern browsers then you will need to use both of these technologies.
HTML5 and CSS3 are modern standards. They have been designed in such a way to be much cleaner code. This ensures that sites that utilize them are very fast to load. Some of the features found in these new technologies, HTML5 especially, replaces items on websites where you would normally need a special plugin to display them. Take Flash for example. With HTML5 this has pretty much been ruled old technology. You can do everything that you want to do in flash with HTML5, and it does it much more effectively without the need to install any plugins.
Amongst the many features, both HTML5 and CSS3 have made it far easier to create websites that look fantastic on mobile devices. In fact, if coded well, you will have responsive design built in as standard to your site design. As mentioned before, HTML5 and CSS3 have ensured that old technologies with needed installation of plugins are now defunct. As a result, almost every website that follows HTML5 and CSS3 protocols should look fantastic on mobile devices. You are going to most likely need to wait until the mobile browsers are fully updated though.
As you can see, this is a very brief guide to HTML5 and CSS3. Sadly it would take up a whole book to go into depth on these. However, I do hope that the information here is more than enough to give you a nudge in the right direction and start to understand why your web developer is going to utilize them in your site design.
Author Bio: Kory Chesier is a professional blog writer, writes for HireaWiz a leading Phoenix web design specializing in custom web design, PHP development, Pay Per Click Marketing and SEO services.
How to create gradients was always the domain of photo editing software and vector creating programs, but now with modern technology and css3 you can create gradients with some coding that is fairly easy to learn. This is a brief guide on what you need to know on how to create gradients in css.
Where might I use gradients?
Gradient code is most likely to be used in buttons and backgrounds of websites or navigational system but don’t restrict yourself to just the common places that they are found, if you have a good idea for use of a gradient then go ahead and try it out, there are no limits to experimenting with code and creativity, the only limits to design is your imagination and maybe a bit of technical understanding.
Selecting colours in the Hex code for your gradient
When creating gradients it is useful to know the hex codes of colours. A hex code is short for hexadecimal numbers which are as follows : –
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 being obsolete of colour ( or we know it as black ) and F is white. Combining a set of these numbers together in how monitors display colour ( RGB, Red , Green & Blue ) we can create over 16 million colours. I have shown below how numbers choose the intensity of each colour, it does help if you have a little understanding of how colours mix.
#ffff00
I have shown above that two numbers given in a 6 digit hex code make up a screen colour, so for instance the first two digits, ff equals maximum intensity red followed by two more ff’s which equates to maximum intensity green but I have finished this code with 00 in the blue which means there will be no blue displayed in this code.
Do you know what colour this makes? If you are a painter you will think brown but actually we are not mixing paints here, we are mixing light together so the colour returned is in fact yellow! Watch this video below of RGB to see how light mixes, it’s quite insightful.
If you want to select colour easily then w3schools have a colour picker on their website here or if you want to understand computer colour theory further please visit this informative link from htmlgoodies.com.
I’m more a visual person, I want to be able to see the gradient
The difference between coding a gradient and visually creating one via editing tools is great and sometimes a few numbers on a screen is a little hard to understand for the novice css coder or simply for the general human being, but there is a solution! Colorzilla.
Colorzilla this is how to create gradients in css
Colorzilla allows you to play with gradients till you are blue in the face, pardon the pun, till you find the perfect visual combination. Just like major photo/illustration editing tools you have oodles of options like adding more colour stops, selecting preset designs, the orientation of the gradient, opacity and other things you can find in major applications for editing visual elements.
What is even better about Colorzilla is that once you have created your gradient
the code is also generated so you can easily copy and paste the gradient code into your css style sheet for the relevant element of your site, it even applies webkits for browser compatibility! It’s a great tool but it is also important to understand the code rather than simply cutting and pasting. You can find many reasonable tutorial websites and I recommend spending at least an hour a day on advancing your skills, the thing with our profession is that it is ALWAYS evolving so it’s important that you don’t decay when new technology comes about.
To play with the gradient website please follow the link below and secondly, please leave a link in the comment box below on how you have used gradients in your designs. Happy digital colouring in!
LinkedIn is the ‘business’ social media platform and is used directly for business purposes rather than just being ‘social’. Being able to connect with fellow professionals in your industry as well as potential clients, LinkedIn is the perfect social media platform for startup businesses to gain insightful knowledge from leading experts and for those company’s that are B2B ( or in another words , businesses that do business with other businesses. E.g Service providers, commercial builders, Lawyers etc ). If you sell a product that is more inclined to be a B2C ( business to customer ) such as retail outlets then LinkedIn is possibly not the perfect platform for you.
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If after reading the introduction you think a LinkedIn Page will benefit your business then you have to ensure your current LinkedIn Profile meets the requirements.
Before you even start to begin to consider adding a company page for your business to LinkedIn you MUST have all of the following as stated on the LinkedIn Website :-
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You can add a new Company Page only if you meet all of the following requirements:
You must have a personal LinkedIn profileset up with your true first and last name.
Your profile strength must be listed as Intermediate or All Star.
You must have several connections on your profile.
You’re a current company employee and your position is listed in the Experience section on your profile.
You have a company email address (e.g. [email protected]) added and confirmed on your LinkedIn account.
Your company’s email domain is unique to the company.
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Now if you are happy that you have all of the above then we can move on let’s get down to business!
Create a LinkedIn Company Page
To start you will need to navigate to the tab Interests > Companies and you should be greeted with a similar page to that below. Design Milk is one of the companies that I follow being a designer it is something I find particularly interesting, don’t worry if your screen is slightly different all you need to do is click the yellow button in the right sidebar ‘Create’.
Once you have clicked the magic button you will be greeted with a new screen where you need to add your company name and ‘professional’ email address. Once you have done that you will be greeted with several more panels, this is where you place your company information.
Company Description
This is where you should put your company description. Think about giving a basic overview of your services and possibly previous clients you have had as well as the kind of people who would find your services most beneficial. Consider your target audience as much as possible.
If you do get confused or get writers block when you create your LinkedIn Profile I suggest researching and looking at other LinkedIn Company Profiles for ideas, particularly competing businesses in your industry. Take the best elements and of course, remove the not so good ideas.
Designated Admins
If you have more than one employee, possibly a social media manager then you can have more than one admin which can be useful to prevent updating the channel taking up unnecessary periods of time that could be spent doing other things. Pleaser note, you have to be connected on LinkedIn in order to be able to suggest the other admin.
Image
Image appears at the top of your company page so is an opportunity to brand up your LinkedIn Page and create a call to action. Make it clear what your services are visually or maybe consider using a recent project. However you decide to communicate with your potential followers make sure the size of the image you create is 646 x 220 pixels or larger, a jpg, png or gif and the file size is no bigger than 2mb.
Standard Logo
Lets cut to the chase! The standard logo size Is 120 x 60px
Square Logo
Just like the above image it has measurements you must adhere to which are 50px x 50px
Company Specialities
Of course this is elf explanatory but you should put the things you are best at and well-known for first and your other services towards the back as viewers will naturally think the order has some relevance.
Company Type, Company Size, Company Website, Main Company Industry, Company Operating Status, Year Founded
All these things are pretty self explanatory so I won’t bother wasting your time just go fill it in! Go go go!
Company Location
This is the place where you put your registered offices and contact details. Maybe you don’t have an office as such because you are a freelancer or for some other reason, don’t worry, it’s not a compulsory section of the page.
Alternatively if you are a fairly successful global company and have over 10 offices then you will have to be chose your most prominent offices in the world as LinkedIn allows up to 5 locations to be added.
Products and Services
To add your products and services to your company page there is a tab near the top of the LinkedIn Page ( seen in the image above ) click it and it will reveal some more new panels to complete. Below are examples of ideas provided by LinkedIn.
Examples of what you can spotlight:
Products: The printers you sell or the book you wrote.
Services: Your financial consulting packages or a list of your marketing services.
Other: Events you’re organizing or your company’s mobile apps.
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So that’s it, pretty simple really isn’t it, if you do have any trouble with your company page or images please do feel free to contact me and I will do my best to help you. Do you have any suggestions what makes a good LinkedIn company page? Please leave your thoughts in the comment box below and if you create a company page please feel free to link to it from this page.
P.S. Don’t forget to visit my new LinkedIn Company Page and follow it, I will be posting all my future posts so you’ll have easy access to all my future tutorials, creative pieces and thoughts. Click here to visit my newly created page, I look forward to connecting with you.
Free fonts for use on web are quite useful for the professional or student web/graphic designer using font face css and knowing where to find free fonts to use in your designs is even better! As a man who believes sharing in knowledge with others I have compiled a list of websites with varying free fonts for use on web below. I have also added a few where you have to pay and a couple of other tools for those who are wanting to develop websites to the latest html5 and css3 standard. If you know of any others please feel free to include it in the comment box below the post.
Free fonts websites
Please check that the fonts you are downloading are suitable for web before you use them, I know most of you will understand this but for those just starting to learn about web design check that the font will be a) compatible with all browsers and b) not slow down your site considerably.
So you want to download fonts for free, well then fontsquirrel.com is a great starting point! A font on this site range from the fancy fonts, handwritten fonts to sans serif fonts. You can type in some text to their website and see font examples with each type face.
Google web fonts are totally free and really gaining in popularity. When choosing a font from the google fonts website make sure that its size isn’t going to effect the performance loading speed of your site. Google have also gone to the trouble of comparing different fonts with the google fonts making it easier to see google font combinations as not every font will match easily and it might look quite strange if too different but also if they are too similar this can be a problem also. google fonts google fonts download google fonts
NOT free fonts for use on web
Although its great getting free fonts sometimes paying a little fee can help you get fonts that really perfect the look and feel of your website’s brand image. Obviously there is is only so far free fonts can go and sometimes paying just a small fee for a custom font may not be so bad especially if you have many clients. The following websites are fee based but still worth a look.
Webtype is another place where you can download fonts for a fee.
http://www.webtype.com/
Other things to consider when selecting fonts for use on web
There are several things you must think about when selecting the fonts you use in your design and these are as follows : –
Readability
The mood the fonts give
Font Compatibility
Tracking/letter spacing
Vertical Rhythm
Readability
Readability is all about how easy it is to read the font. At the end of the day it is important that the user feels that they can read the font easily, if they can’t then its kind of defeating the object of the task at hand. Make sure the free font you choose is easy to read.
The mood that the font gives
Even though readability should always be the number one reason for choosing a font ( in my opinion ) different types of typography give a mood or feel. Ask yourself is the font you have chosen given the appropriate mood or should you keep on looking for an appropriate typeface?
Font Compatbility
Font compatibility is also an issue, the modern way of typography expects two or even three different fonts to sometimes be used on a website. Making sure these fonts are compatible is really important. When I talk about compatibility I am talking about how they blend together. It is said that two font types shouldn’t be too different but at the same time they musn’t be identical either, there needs to be a good balance and on the likes of the Google Fonts website they give some suggestions of how you can pair certain fonts together.
Tracking/letter spacing
Tracking or letter spacing of a font is also important, if it is too close together it can look too cluttered and if it is too exposed it can be hard to read. I suggest that having a large space between each letter should only be used in titles if possible.
Vertical Rhythm
Vertical Rhythm is the hidden lines that make up a composition in a piece of writing. By using a vertical rhythm you will create a better UX and more likely to get the user to read your text. To find out if your website has vertical rhythm you can use a free bit of code from this website basehold.it
Earlier last year I did make another blog post about free fonts for web. Please visit the blog post here for more suggestions. I hope you find this post useful, please do share it and feel free to leave a comment in the box below.
Strategies and techniques used in marketing today have almost taken on a life of their own, especially with the use of the Internet as a substantial tool in any company’s marketing arsenal. While you are worrying about effective link placement, properly designed landing pages, lead generation, blog content, and how to increase your visitor-to-customer conversion rates, don’t forget about the often underutilized marketing tools that still pack a powerful punch.
As a part 1 architect student we were asked to develop a collage that depicted our area we had been given to design an architectural masterplan, not one to stick to the rules very often I decided to develop an art installation instead.
I designed an installation that tried to explain that Toxteth, an area given a bad name since the 1980’s riots, still had hidden beauty and gems that not everyone thinks or knows about when they think of this particular area of Liverpool.
Being from the region and my mother being born in this part of the city in particular I knew the area fairly well and wanted people to see that there were good qualities about the area that must be preserved when in the redeveloping the area.
History covered up
When I visited the area for the site analysis one particular row of 19th century terraces had been bordered up with metal shutters to keep squatters out. These houses had been bought by the local council from its tenants in order to replace them with new designs that the architects in mind had planned.
Noticing that one of these metal boards was leaning against a wall I had an idea. Using the metal sheet project the hidden beauty of Toxteth through it using projectors, filling a space with dots of light from pictures of the area.
Exposing the beauty within
It is quite a symbolic design, a metal shutter that had been residing on these hundred year old terrace buildings with aeons of history behind them, abandoned but with many stories to tell, are now telling new stories through pictures, light and the thing that were once covering them up in the first place, showing viewers that beauty exists in the places they didn’t expect and sometimes the only way to see the beauty of something is to actually go in to the space and see for yourself whether you deem it bad or not bad at all.
Above a fellow architect student helps set up the installation.
The light of the projector starts to shine on the metal boards borrowed from the Toxteth Region of Liverpool
Other students visit the space to experience the beauty within
Light projection starts showing the images of the Toxteth Region and starts showing people the beauty of the area through light and colour.
Making our own perceptions
Sometimes when we look at something we consider what people have told us in the past instead of making our own perceptions, Toxteth has a lot of history as well as hidden gems like Toxteth.TV (visit the website here ), a great community, a varied cultural background and a lot of green space for an inner city suburb all things that should be preserved when regenerating the area.
The installation formed the basis of the idea behind a masterplan for regenerating the Toxteth Area, preserving the historical artefacts of the area when adding new architectural designs to the space already being used. I will include the masterplan of Toxteth that I ( along with two other students ) created in the near future.
As you may already know, long before I became a graphics and branding designer I attended a BA Hons degree in Architecture at Liverpool John Moores University, graduating in may 2008 when the recession was at its peak and the building trade had all dried up, even worse in the north of the UK so a part 1 architect position was not exactly oozing out of every crevice.
I have decided to include my past works in my blog as I feel this was a stage that did develop my creativity and led me on to where I am today.
This project was called the Kente Locus based around fashion and dedicated in memory to the African connection Liverpool has. The concept was that everyone who was on the boulevard had to pass through the building so that the fashion designers who reside in the building can people watch and get inspiration from the varying cultures of the area and also be a multifunctional space that could be used for catwalks, fashion pods, lectures, a research space, a meeting place and an exhibition space on the top floor. The below plans were drawn using AutoCad 2008
Depending what event was on at the Kent Locus the lighting within the Locus would inform the passer by what was happening. One colour may be a fashion show, another for general creative use and another for an exhibition etc.
The facade of the building is clad in reflective metal and glass for two purposes, firstly to reflect the surrounding georgian buildings that the dockers of Liverpool used to live in thinking of the past that created the wealth and history of the city, the long form of the building like a piece of cloth that Africans make to fabricate a cloth together and secondly so that the building can get passive solar gains from the internal concrete walls of the building to ensure it can make the most of its sustainable credentials.
In this section it shows how the central space can be used in various ways. From a lecture being conducted, to a catwalk etc
This is a closer look of a lecture being conducted with light tunnels filling the space with natural light. This was not the final design as it was decided that bridges should cross the space on the third floor so that observing others fashion was easier.
These 3d pictures were created with the use of 3ds max 9 and photoshop, the largest image is the entrance to the Kente Locus, a space made of concrete and plain metal so that the colours of the people would be the features of the building rather than the building itself. The two pictures on the right of the large picture show two people observing people as they enter the building and below shows that there are many different angles you can observe people no matter where you are in the building.
This shows the OMAA DA boxes, boxes that can be place together to create seperate private spaces and be used for different purposes. In this illustration you can see the space being used as a pop up shop, an art class, a changing room or even a meditation pod for quiet reflection.
In this section it shows clearer details of how the building is constructed and how both the passive solar gains would work and should there be a fire how the smoke could be removed from the building as quickly as possible due to smoke being the main killer of a fire rather than the fire itself.
Unfortunately I don’t seem to have taken pictures of my model or I have mislaid them but in my next post I will be showing one of my most popular models that I constructed which was a book shop that sold radical books on a bridge. The Architecture course was a great experience and I don’t regret any of it, the subject will always hold a place in my heart and I am still a fond studier of construction and buildings. Please feel free to leave any comments below
As my Twitter following has slowly began to gain in size in 2013 I have been connecting with people of all business varieties and from all corners of the world, one of whom was two lovely American ladies who were in need of an identity for their new business.
Fran and Hannah work in construction and wanted a logo concept and design, they already had a good idea what they wanted to call the business ( a combination of both their surnames) so they simply required a way of putting their startup idea into a visual form and that is where connecting on Twitter led to me helping with their logo.
International connection
This was my very first international design proposition I had ever been given but any hesitation to work for someone thousands of miles away was blown away with just how easy it was to communicate and work with Fran and Hannah.
Beginning the design
Once we had discussed the brief, I’d understood their business and background and discovered what they were looking for I set myself to working on creating some Identities.
To begin the logo design I created over twenty variations of a logo, I didn’t include any colour at this stage as it is important to not let colour influence design decisions. Above is the very first stage of playing with shapes and concepts. Being contractors communicating this in the logo seemed quite important, so a font that was quite bold and structured looking was the initial decision.
Also, with the business being owned by two ladies the idea to differentiate the typography would help re-enforce this message clearly, in the fourth column this message is further enhanced by the inclusion of two stars.
First Response to initial logo designs
After a few days Fran and Hannah gave some feedback about the ones they liked the most and four in particular where the ones they wanted to take further into development ( see four images circled below).
Their responses where always very positive and they were very pleased at how many different varieties of logo they had to choose from and this was only the first stage! I could tell this was going to be one of the most enjoyable freelance jobs I’ve had thus far.
Stage 2 : Developing the logos further
Once I knew which logos to experiment with, combine and explore I asked Fran and Hannah if they had any idea what colours they liked as a work around. They informed that green and charcoal are the colours they envision their business in and thus I began stage two redeveloping the logos with these two colours in mind.
Below is the results of stage 2 and again the logos have been circled that the client liked best, their response was humbling…
[quote name=”Fran and Hannah” ]….I wanted to attach the logos that were our FAVS!! As always, you TOTALLY OUTDID yourself! We love them all!! HAHA [/quote]
The client really liked the second stage logos, they liked them so much they wanted to use three! Obviously having variations of the same logo is quite a common occurrence when designing an identity, but I advised them although they could have three logos that they need to be slight variations of each other to maintain a clear brand.
They agreed and so I moved onto stage 3 of refining the design.
Stage 3 : Refining the logo design
What my international clients wanted was now becoming clearer. So I played around a little more sending two variations of the house within the moon and the two stars.
I had also decided that including trees within the moon would also be appropriate as on further research Ibarra can mean meadow and with the client based in an area that is very wooded it seemed quite appropriate and made a more welcoming feel to the design.
Even though the logo was developing I didn’t feel it was quite hitting the right mark, maybe there was too many gradients and in the logo below, too many colours. Using the feedback given I further developed the logo and took elements from each of their favourite ideas to make it into one consistent branded logo…
Stage 3 : Finalising the design
This was the final stage, bringing it all together in different file formats for both print, screen and vector for enlargements.
The charcoal and green I felt were good choices for the logo, charcoal for a nights sky and part of the gradient for the moon and the green for the meadow, building mostly out of wood and green is symbolic of growth which is perfect for erecting new properties.
Looking at their favourite logos rather than having a moon literally how it looks in story books by putting it on its side it looked less like a story book and more conceptual as well as having the double edged concept of also being similar to a smile.
Hearing that the client wanted to use three logos , one being the text on its own for letterheads and the others for their vans and uniform I adhered to their requests and below is the finished product.
It was an absolute pleasure working with my first American clients, I learnt a lot from the job and I wish them all the success in the future.
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Please feel free to leave feedback in the comment box below. Thank you for visiting this blog and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog by leaving your email address in the box at the top of the page! Many Thanks 😉
For the last three years I have been entering some of my paintings into major competitions in the hope of making a living out of my art rather than just as a hobby.I have developed a style that is unique to me and maintains a conceptual theme about personal life experiences as a 2008 graduate from the worst economic recession in history.
My latest entry was ‘money talks’ for the 2014 exhibition but alas, again, out of over 2000 entries I didn’t get through stage 1. It does not dishearten me as one of the reasons I enter is to keep my creative/philosophical side of my brain active and to express myself in a way that I seldom do in any other way. In this blog post I discuss the concept behind my latest piece ‘money talks’
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When I was 21 back in 2004 I was ambitious and enjoying the art foundation at Liverpool Community College. My works as a graphic designer and artist were quite appreciated and my tutors often commented about the works I was producing. One tutor’s comment had always stayed with me and that was ‘have you ever done a life drawing before? That is really good if you haven’t’ and another occasion when they asked me to explain a life-size drawing I did of myself that exposed all the chakras of the human soul and how they related to myself to the whole of the art foundation class.
It was a very proud ( but slightly embarrassing ) moment to be standing in front of over 100 other art students discussing my piece but obviously they were trying to encourage me into the right direction. Stupidly, instead , I applied for architecture because a) my father was a building contractor and I did occasional labouring for him and b) the prospect of lots of money when I graduate and my work standing the test of time when dead and gone rather than graphics that tend to change from day-to-day and you don’t earn as much.
Building a dream
Architecture was great fun, very tough but up my street (pardon the pun) as it allowed me to be conceptual and use my artistic skills in my family background of building maintenance.
I completed my degree with an extra course in Autocad & 3ds max in May 2008 but unfortunately, it was possibly the worst time to graduate as an architect in the history of the modern world and I was quite disappointed, actually…I was very disappointed by the lack of opportunity, particularly in the north-west of the UK, especially after trying so hard to have the skills required to do a good job as an architect.
At the time I was with a long-term gf who had a job in the area so couldn’t look anywhere else in the country for an opportunity and so in need of a wage and knowing you get a bursary to train as a teacher I tried that even though I never in my wildest dreams saw myself as a teacher but I needed the money.
Teaching me a lesson
As already stated I never really considered myself a teacher, even when I was doing the course I knew my heart wasn’t in it as much as it was when I was doing architecture but I needed a profession and I guess teaching didn’t seem a bad second choice on reflection.
Receiving a fairly good wage, a good pension and inspiring others to achieve their very best seemed quite beneficial but then I started teaching and found it to be a bitchy bullying environment…and that was just the staff room!
I had to attend three schools, the first an all girls school but I only taught maybe 10% of the time so it gave you a taste of what schools are like, the second school that I attended in 2009 I got sent to was a school that was shutting down due to an amalgamation proposed by the labour government so the tutors who were meant to help where loosing their jobs and firstly they admitted they didn’t want me there and secondly they really didn’t like me even though all I did was tried to do a good job for the children…
…they made my life very awkward, being unprofessional, informing me to tell lies to the children, shout at them, playing inappropriate music and didn’t want to help me learn when I was struggling with certain parts of teaching and then…behind my back, contacted my university saying i wasn’t coping even though I was doing three times as much as anyone else in my university!
These are just a few of the terrible things they did whilst I spent my time with them, there was a lot of mind games…
Eventually, towards the end of the placement, they made me feel worthless, I couldn’t pursue architecture, my first choice as a career and now they made me feel I couldn’t teach either… I couldn’t carry on, I had a bad break down…a very very bad one, so bad that when I had to return back to the school environment I was very low, lacking confidence and always very anxious, I didn’t want to be in that industry after what I had experienced but I pushed through to get the course finished as I wouldn’t let anyone stop me doing something I really wanted to achieve and maybe, just maybe I might use my teaching degree in another form or venture abroad to teach those with very little in the future.
The good news is that I completed it and thus beat those wicked women who tried to make me quit! I was finished!
Money holds the answers
A couple of weeks passed after graduation, relief fell over me but then I collapsed on the floor. I was mentally exhausted.
It was summer 2011 and I had given everything I had to give, I was hugely in debt after two degrees and no opportunity or understanding what I was to do, my relationship was not good either and aiming to make lots of money had actually put me in a large negative spiral in the hope of a good profession on graduation and now I knew I didn’t want to teach and I hadn’t done any architecture for over 2 years so I didn’t feel that wasn’t an option and even worse now with my qualifications taking smaller jobs was virtually impossible as I was over qualified…
what was I going to do? How was I going to repay my financial mistakes and begin my career so much older than I expected?
Dreams collapsed
Feeling totally lost and extremely low I drew away from the world, hardly going out. All my dreams of a fulfilling career and happy life had crashed and burned in my 20s’ and mostly due to things out of my control, I didn’t want to be here any more. I’d been so driven by money and dreams of high positions that I had lost my health in the pursuit. Due to how a bad state I was in I phoned my family and told them how terrible I was feeling and how I want to end it all…thus they came around to my flat and took me the doctors.
Doctor diagnosis
I got asked a questionnaire by a doctor, a standard questions sheet that they ask everyone who is ‘depressed’ or ‘low’ and if I was playing bingo I would have surely won the main prize!Instead I was informed I was at high risk of suicide, the only thing that stopped me considering it as a viable option was the fact I have my family who care for me otherwise I may have taken the next step, I felt so hopeless…
I was put on a very high dose of Citalopram, offered cognitive behavioural therapy and was looked after by family rather than live with my ex…I wanted to be back where I felt safe, in my childhood home with my parents and my relationship was one of the reasons I felt pressure into trying a profession I didn’t really want to do.
Flipping coins
Back at my parents I was sleeping a lot, even if I wanted to be awake my body didn’t want me to, my mind needed rest. When I was awake I wrote in a journal to keep my thoughts in. It was a suggestion of my family so in time, as I improved, I could see how I got better.
A technique I chose for myself was flipping coins…
From a very young age I had been interested in the unexplained, spirituality & more recently I studied the basic theories of quantum psychics and alternative universes. At the time I believed that if everything was connected to each other as ‘one energy’ and if alternative dimensions existed where there are other possible outcomes dependent on the decisions made in the mind then it is possible to predict the future through flipping a coin to receive the answer to my dilemma as the coin would connect to my thought to the correct reality of thought, a scientific ‘theory’ gone mad.
Looking back now with a healthy mind of course it seemed a strange thing to do but that is how ill and desperate I had become, I had reached the lowest point in my life and I needed answers or a helping hand from someone or somewhere, quite ironic really considering that the reason I chose Architecture over Graphics was to earn more money and here I was flipping a coin with no money in my bank account!
Getting well again, lesson learned
Eventually after 6 months rest, my ex left me and I started trying to enjoy life again and I found the will to start going out again by walking our new family dog around the locality and studying something with all my free time that I knew I loved doing, web and graphic design.
My hometown unfortunately didn’t seem to have opportunity for me ( later I found out the area was one of the worst effected in the country) so I applied for jobs all over the country. If I didn’t get a job in the UK I was preparing to apply abroad, I had to start my career somehow, I was ageing and I had already lost too many years stupidly wasting my money and time in further education training to teach.
Working on improving myself
After applying for jobs all around the country the response was much better than before and I found a job the other side of the country. It was the best thing that could have happened to me!
I still wasn’t 100% well, I was still taking Citalopram on full dosage but I knew working was one thing that would help me find my confidence again as well as begin my career long over due!
Things continued to improve when I found this job opportunity and a year after moving away from my hometown I was off Citalopram as well as meeting a woman who helped changed my life even further, so really I am already a rich man, maybe not in monetary terms but I have a lot of love in both my family and my wife as well as a job I love doing.
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The Painting
The painting measuring 2 metres x 1.5 metres, is painted entirely by hand/finger. I don’t paint my paintings with brushes as I want my emotions to come across on the painting and by using a paintbrush the accuracy would obviously be there but my technique and concept is to express emotion of the experience I have had and without the direct contact I feel I can achieve this.
Flipping coin on hand
The hand is my own and represents the stage when my mind was at its deepest darkest lowest point. Within the groove of the hand is lacking any form of detail for a reason. I did not want to show anything inside to represent the feelings of emptiness that I had during that time due to the pursuit of money and graduating at the recession…I reached a point where I felt nothing but despondency.
The technique of painting shows the sweeping of the paint across the hand representing the scars and wounds of bad past decisions and that although you heal the pains of the past they always remain regardless of new circumstances.
The thumbnail is a different colour to the rest of the fingernails to represent looking for answers in the coin I was flipping as though the coin/money was going to give me the answers to my problems.
The coin
The coin is not recognisable as any currency in the world, the reason for this is that sometimes when we focus too much on money as the main objective for all our decisions we begin to lose our identity and thus the coin itself is loosing its recognition and its purpose in the reality that is created by focusing solely on monetary gains.
Background
The background is half red and half green. The red side for the negative thoughts, actions and decisions that money can persuade us to make and the green side for growth, positivity & enhancing actions that money can also have the power to give.
Negativity Background
It could be said that money has been one of the main reasons to blame for lots of the plights of humanity. For example, removing funding from the north in the 1980s in the industrial sectors of the north UK destroyed many generations of families stability as there was no replacement just a cut to jobs in the north and most new investments going into the south that still can be seen having a ripple effect in the north/south divide to this very day.
The recent war in Iraq was without question to gain the oil reserves of the country and financial gains for the west. China’s supremacy as an economic super power allowed them to invade Tibet without any interference from the West as they knew interference would result in less investment and trade would have been impacted so vastly it could have destroyed our way of living so humanity was forced to watch as many native Tibetans had to flee their land, those who stayed suffered greatly and still do.
Others want quick financial gains and those who travel to South America may be tempted to try to smuggle large amounts of drugs from one continent to another in the pursuit of vast amounts of money but no regard for where the product is going to go or ruin the lives of the consumer and the family that care for them when it reaches these shores and some of the super rich avoid paying taxes to the respected countries they trade in exploiting the lower working classes in the process.
This is just a few examples of the power the coin has in a negative stance of the human psyche…
But thankfully money can also be a force for the positive.
Positive Background
Money when invested into the right places can alter the lives of normal people quite drastically so much so that it bring about bliss.
For example when humanity is faced with natural disasters the world comes together and gives what it can to help others give what they can to charities to help those they have never met.
Taxes are paid by the majority so a free health service and benefit system to those struggling can be provided to everyone who lives in the UK. Others may invest in great business ideas generating work and careers for normal people benefiting society as a whole.
New buildings can be built and fantastic carnivals can be created. Money can create great changes in our lives and can help us make good decisions as well as bad ones, it is whether we think with greed and selfishness or love and morales that is what makes the difference on whether its one side of the coin or the other.
Flowing thoughts
At the base of the hand is water, the water represents the unsettled mind of decisions based around money. Money can quite easily flow in or out depending upon the thoughts and actions of the person holding it so whether the negative or positive energy falls into the pool it will continue to have a ripple effect and either increase in size or pull the owner into a pit of despair.
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Main message
We should never let the pursuit of money come into our big decisions of life such as choosing a career for the sole purpose of monetary gains.
When I was 21 I was much better at fine art and graphic design than I was at 3d and spatial design but regardless I pursued Architecture mainly for the purpose of money ( as I knew Graphics wouldn’t earn as much ) even though I’d never really made models and my artwork was not technical, I was more expressive than Architecture appears to be.
Be driven by the love of things
What should drive every decision we make is…
love.
It may sound cliche but John Lennon got it right, all you need is love! If you love a subject or topic then usually you become a master at that topic. Thinking with the heart makes life experience a lot more positive, having money and lots of it is of course great but as long as it isn’t your main goal in life otherwise it is likely that you will not enjoy life and possibly destroy yourself in the process.
This painting is a reminder to me and anyone who views it that I/you must always choose the love of something rather than love of material gains as love will always bring more joy and satisfaction in life than the pursuit of financial wealth…this does not mean that financial wealth is not achievable but…
Love what you do and everything else will flow to you.
This painting will be available as prints on society6 and various other products, if you are interested in buying the original please contact me directly for details.
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