oratia design :: the graphic design studio of pam golafshar

personality type

2010-01-26T08:39:00.003+08:00

I spent the morning doing online research (i.e. multiple tests) to determine my personality type. Not that this is anything new for me; I go through this every so often, and have ever since high school. I've noticed a pattern, that whenever we go through a big change and the dust and the quietness settles, I feel the need to take a step back and re-evaluate myself, to find my identity. Because after every major life change, every move, every new environment in which I find myself, isn't it necessary to adapt to my new situation/surroundings and change a little bit of myself in the process? Through this thoughtful analysis (something my personality type cherishes) I realized this is a normal and necessary part of living.

ISTJ - "Trustee". Decisiveness in practical affairs. Guardian of time- honored institutions. Dependable. 11.6% of total population.

But a new personality altogether? If you follow the link above, it describes my apparent personality (which came up the same way in several different tests today), and it says right there: an ideal career for someone like me would be a statistician, a data analyst, an office worker! Aaah, aaaah and aaaaaaaahhhh!

My personality seems to have changed drastically from a few years ago. I used to be this light, somewhat sociable idealist, ready to take on and change the world (whatever that means), and now it seems I'm nothing more than a pragmatic realist, rushing to get from place to place and check things off her list. What happened? I do find beauty and yes, actual peace in being organized – guilty – but that's always been the case to some extent. It just seems that this trait has been slowly moving itself to the forefront, along with a host of other, non-creative, non-intuitive functions.

What happened to the girl I once knew?

I guess the results of this new round of tests sort of sadden me. I don't recognize this new person. I get more accomplished now than ever before, and I have become a business person, owning my own design studio – but at what cost? And speaking of design, how does personality type figure in to my working habits? Creativity? Has my right brain, with its creativity and intuitive feeling power, just shriveled up with its (ostensible) non-use?

I've always been interested in the study of right brain/left brain function and how it relates to the field of graphic design. I personally feel that a good designer is made from a balance between the two hemispheres: the ability to think outside the box and be a creative artist (right brain), with an understanding and appreciation for order (left brain). But of course, my opinion could be tainted a bit because I've always tested straight down the middle; I'm constantly in battle between the two.

Anyway, I don't know what this says about me, except that in my quest to start thinking like a man – my secret formula for becoming a businesswoman – I may have altered myself significantly. Or perhaps this is a temporary change because moving overseas for the enth time requires vigilant organizational skills to keep the world from unraveling... I don't know. I just know that I want to get my other secret formula back – dreaming.

I'm shutting off my email

2010-01-21T08:25:00.001+08:00

I did something appalling today. I shut down my email program.

It all started because I am perpetually running out of space on my hard disk, and until I can afford to get a bigger (yet another) external hard drive and move some things over, I am forced to operate on an as-needed basis, rather than my personal preference of having a million applications open all at once. It makes my working method of impatience more effective, if I don't have to sit and wait for Photoshop to open up every time I need it.

So I reached a point early this morning when I was unable to function due to low disk space, and there seemed to be just one thing that was eating up a massive quantity – not sure if it was email or not, but at this point it doesn't matter. As soon as I closed my Mail application, I just sat there, sort of staring at my screen with a quiet curiosity.

Oh, is this what freedom is like?

And a thought hit me. What if I... ah... left it off? I have my most important account coming through on my phone, so it's not like I'm cutting myself off cold. (Please.)

It would just give me some breathing space, so my eye isn't flickering to that screen every 30 seconds, just in case a new email came in and I didn't hear the ding or didn't see the new highlighted line come up in my peripheral vision. You know. I'm actually thinking this might be a good thing, to be unplugged from this obsession, for the sake of productivity. Perhaps?

In the meantime, I've discovered the root of my space woes, and it's not Mail, but maybe I will keep it off for a while. I think I may just survive.

What about you, dear readers? Has anyone else experienced such an epiphany, and if so, how is it going? How do you handle your stream of incoming information? Curious to hear other people's experiences.

zoe organics: handcrafted organic skin care

2010-01-13T17:01:00.004+08:00

OK, time for a shameless self-promotion here: I've branched out a bit in recent months, and am partnering with a friend of mine to start an organic skin care company. It's actually been pretty eye-opening for me; I've mostly been doing research about package design (and some web design, though I'm a bit timid to admit this, because I'm just clueless when it comes to the subject!), and I've been learning a ton: how things are made, where the materials come from, what the printing options are, etc. etc.... and I feel like I've only just seen the tip of this iceberg.

But some of the things I've been wanting to do (if I ever did start a company) turn out to be pretty hard, if not impossible. Using recycled glass to make the glass jars and bottles for the products – this I thought would be a piece of cake. Turns out, if you can only order small quantities of things and don't have the budget to custom-make your containers, you're actually very limited in your options. Oh, there are options – don't get me wrong – they're just not what I'm looking for, stylistically or aesthetically. (And what's more important than that??)

I read a book last year called Cradle to Cradle, and I feel like there's been a giant shift in my perception of what it means to live sustainably. Seriously – like what it means to recycle, and how being good by recycling isn't really good enough when it comes to preserving our resources. But what I love the most about the book is that it's not really a guilt-inducing, finger-pointing type of manifesto; it's actually pretty inspiring, and makes me want to try to create totally new ways of making things. (Try! I said.) The sweet spot here is to find a way to manufacture your product so that no waste at all is produced (or, I should say, the "waste" that is produced can go back into the system as a benefit for something else). It's all a system, after all, this world we're living in, and currently severely out of balance.

I'm paraphrasing here, and pretty awfully I might add, but that's kind of the general sense of the book. Anyway, it's become quite a buzz phrase, "cradle to cradle," and not to jump on the bandwagon or anything, but there are companies out there who are making major changes in the way they manufacture products – and how amazing would it be to actually initiate change on this level? Hm.

All that to say, I've been inspired by this book. And I hope to have the chance to do some things differently, when it comes to the making of our packaging and products. There are lots of things to consider, of course, and believe me it can get overwhelming, but I've finally accepted that this is a process, and I'll just continue on this road, and see where it leads.

Change is hard. But often, a very good thing.

Oh, and by the way, here's the link to Zoe Organics. Cheers.

a cardboard cup and a laptop

2010-01-04T09:28:00.004+08:00

So I'm sitting here in a coffee shop* drinking my tall quad Americano (2 decaf) on this bright (i.e. still dark) and early Monday morning, grateful that they've put on some non-Christmas music and taken down, well, most of their decorations – and all of a sudden on comes this country, I repeat, COUNTRY song. What the what?? Come on, people. This is Hong Kong, for heaven's sake, and who even likes country music outside the States? I suppose I should be happy it's not Bob Marley or Jack Johnson, which seems to be the staple coffee-shop music anywhere outside of the U.S., but still.

Anyway, um, good Monday morning to you, and I hope everyone had a good break, for those who were fortunate enough to take a break. And now it's back to the grindstone. Caffeine-laden am I, and therefore now ready. Ta-da.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

*I strongly hesitate to admit that I am indeed sitting in a Starbucks** – but the thing is, along with my phone and water bottle, I also forgot to bring my coffee mug this morning. So I had the choice of either putting my head down and getting on with the day while continuing to be grumpy and slovenly, or making the most of this opportunity to have a nice hot cup of loverly, while simultaneously putting a stop to the impending headache that will come if I don't.

**Not that I hate Starbucks in its entirety, mind, I suppose it's just the whole corporate-world-domination thing that gets to me. You know. But as much as I openly despise Starbucks, Wal-Mart, et al. (and increasingly IKEA) – the cold fact remains that I do visit these places on occasion. My mantra, for the new year and beyond, is "do what you can" (and when you really get down to it, that is actually a rather freeing statement). And that, honestly, is all I can ask for.

appearance vs. functionality

2009-12-14T09:16:00.000+08:00

I've always been a firm believer that design – print, web, interior, architectural, horticultural, whatever – is nothing without functionality. All the style in the world can't make up for a design that doesn't in some way improve the life of the user.

Here's an example: I just moved into my own office space, a tiny, tiny room (with a window!) in the heart of the city, here in Hong Kong. The rent's a package deal, including high-speed internet, air conditioning and a tabletop and chair. Sweet, right? Except that the chair – the stylish designer chair that's featured in all the ads for this place – is really a lounge chair, designed to be set in front of a coffee table. Not in front of a desk. Sitting in it is worse than anything I've ever experienced, comfort-wise; without the emergency pillows I stole from home, I would have had to raise my hands above shoulder-level in order to reach the keyboard. Yeah.

So needless to say, by the time I was able to order my own real office chair and get it in here, I had complained and moaned to just about everyone I know. And the thing that bothers me the most is that the people who put together this whole office rental package and signed off on the marketing plan KNEW it wasn't an appropriate chair for this setting. But hey, it's much more attractive than a black foam thing that swivels, right? It looks better in the pictures. And here I come to my point: in this case appearance was more important than functionality. And that, my dear readers, drives me absolutely crazy.

So to get to my point of this post, there's a book in the works that I'm really quite excited about. It's called "Cadence & Slang," and it's about interaction design – the art and craft of making technology easier to use. Not something that I have a whole lot to do with as a print designer, necessarily, but something that's fascinating to me nonetheless. And besides, I fully agree with the author when he said in this lovely book review that good design is universal, and that everyone experiences and benefits from it. Here's some more info about the book on kickstarter – which I'm brand new to, but it looks like they've got a really great thing going.

So as I sit in my comfy, well-designed office chair, I am grateful that there are some things in this world that are well thought-out. My sanity (and my back and shoulders) are safe once again.

poster design series

2009-12-03T10:10:00.000+08:00

My bread and butter usually comes from pretty basic, utilitarian projects, but every once in a while I'll get a chance to work on something that's artistic, truly a form of visual expression. And because I'm still working my way up toward the goal of being able to hand-pick my projects, my regular source of inspiration comes from other designers' work. Specifically, posters and book covers.

There's something so pure about the limitations of posters and book covers: all of the meaning, the message and the beauty have to fit into one panel of space. Simplicity is a forced rule. And as a result, the good ones are really, really good.

I came across a beautiful series of posters done by Simon Page, a self-taught graphic designer from the UK with an emphasis on typographic art, illustration and geometric design. His recently published posters are featured on David Airey's blog. Great stuff.

here we go

2009-12-02T15:24:00.002+08:00

Alright, my peeps, after a long summer/fall trip to the States to visit family, including having unexpected knee surgery, I can finally say we've arrived in Hong Kong! Our year in London was great in so many ways, and I'm grateful for that experience, but because my husband was in graduate school during that time, it's nice to finally move on to a place where we can have two incomes again.

That being said, what an amazing city we got to live in for a year... and what an amazing city we get to move back to now. There are certain things I definitely missed about Hong Kong (we had lived here for two years before London), and it's good to be back. And the most exciting thing of all: I now have my very own office space in the city! Hooray for having to commute for an hour and battle the crowded sidewalks and bus exhaust to get to work! No, actually I'm totally serious. I couldn't be more excited about getting out of the house (the kitchen, to be exact) that I've been working in for a while now, and nothing yells importance like your own office space on the fifteenth floor in Causeway Bay. Ask me in a few months' time if I'm still excited about the commute. I bet you I will be.

And... one of my goals for Oratia is to start blogging, on a reg-u-lar basis. (Something, as you can see, that is outside of my comfort zone.) I hope this blog will eventually become a resource for fellow designers out there, in Hong Kong as well as around the world. Not that I'm a great writer or anything – far from it – but there are plenty of great writers out there who have some great things to say, and I'd like to point out the places that I've personally gleaned some knowledge or inspiration from, in the hopes that others will benefit as well.

So stay tuned, and thank you for your support.

new identity!

2009-08-05T06:39:00.002+08:00

So yes. I haven't written ANYthing since the beginning of June. My loyal readership (of approximately two) has had to find some blogging elsewhere to fill their screen time, and for that I do apologize. But I'm happy to finally say that I officially have a new logo!

More about the design process later; for now, let me just re-introduce myself and my little blog, and say thank you for hanging in there.

And yay! New logo! New identity! Our little Oratia is indeed growing up.

re-branding time

2009-06-02T17:58:00.003+08:00

Alright, so as a freelancer in these economic times (yes, we've heard it all before), it's not easy to get new work coming in. Pretty straightforward. And I've never been truly satisfied with my logo/identity for Oratia Design. It's always been on the back burner, for years now, and every once in a while an idea will pop into my head and I'll sketch and/or play around a bit in Illustrator. Well, nothing during this time has stuck. And, to be honest, I already have something, even if it's not what I'm happy with, so it's been pretty easy to let it slide and remain in the background.

Until now. I'm feeling the pressure to get something new out there, some sort of self-promotional piece/printed portfolio that I can send to prospective clients. Really start the promotional push that I've been lacking so far in my business. I've been fortunate, actually, that all my clients have come by word-of-mouth, so I haven't really needed to do any sort of organized self-promotion. But now, it's time. I need a new logo/identity package for my studio, as well as a printed piece that's first of all cheap, and despite the price limitation, well-designed and effective. Because that is always the bottom line, after all, isn't it? Good, cheap and effective.

So lately I've been poring through design annuals, best-of compliations and other design books, spending hours in Borders with my piles of books and Americanos, trying to take it slow and really trying to dissect what other logos are made of – how they became what they are. I'm really inspired by the process that other designers go through, how they get from a blank piece of paper to a printed piece of letterhead, complete with logo, colors, paper choice, printing options, everything.

And through all this, one thing has remained perfectly clear: designing a logo for yourself is probably the most difficult thing of all. I know it is for me.

I'll post more of the process when I have something semi-solidified. And until then, I'm off to make some more coffee. Nose to the grindstone! Off we go!

grid calculator

2009-05-21T22:05:00.009+08:00

I just had my mind blown away. I've heard rumors lately about a grid calculator, a software program that works in tandem with InDesign that saves hours and hours of time (okay, a little exaggeration) at the beginning of a project, during the crucial setting-up-the-grids stage.

This is the part that always takes me longer than I know it should. Partly because at the very beginning of a new project, I'm still warming up to it and I don't know exactly what I want the layout to look like, column- and row-wise. But also because, apparently, I've been doing it all wrong.

I guess, to be fair, "wrong" isn't exactly the right word, since if you end up with a document in which the lines all adhere to the baseline grid, and it somehow works with the leading and all four margins, you must have set it up right – but still, the way I have previously gone about this set-up has almost nothing in common with the way the guy in the demonstration video does it! (Grid calculator or not!)

Let's just say I've found yet another toy that I Simply Must Have. And here's to the hope that I, too, will one day be able to start my new projects just like this. (It's so beautiful!)

Side note: the video is a bit small here, so I'd recommend going to their site to see it normal size: designers bookshop.

off to a good start

2009-02-24T19:42:00.003+08:00

Yes, I know. I am being pretty pathetic at keeping up with my blog here. But I'm a newbie blogger! I'm a freelancer! I have too many other things to do! Yeah.

Basically, what it comes down to is

a. I need to get over the fear that I'll just be one of gazillions contributing their mindless chatter into the nethersphere, adding to the matrix of incomprehensible jibberish that is steadily and exponentially contributing to the downfall of collective humanity's intelligence,

and

b. I need to stop being lazy about posting, and – as that most famous of branders once said – just do it.

So here's my question for today: what's the "correct" percentage of time in any given week that should be allocated to keeping up with the business side of business? For all you freelancers out there, how important is it for you to keep building the brand image that is, essentially, you?

And why is this so difficult to do?

the freeze-out

2009-01-23T18:40:00.001+08:00

I've finally come up with it: the answer to unlocking that hidden ocean of creativity that's been in hibernation all this time.

1. Make sure the place is relatively clean, so you don't have that stress getting in the way.
2. Get up, make some fresh coffee, turn off the heat, and open up all the windows. Preferably on a cold, rainy, windy day (and if you're in need of those, I suggest moving to London).
3. Stand in front of an open window for a while, staring off and doing nothing.
4. Then go back to your desk, crank up the Radiohead, and let loose, baby.

Works like a charm. Of course, there's a limit to the amount that can be accomplished when the fingers start becoming numb and unable to type, but that's one of the few downsides to the method. Usually the freeze-out works best when there's a space heater available to put under the desk. Now THAT is a thing of beauty right there. Not the most environmental or fiscally conscious, but MAN it's a good kick in the a** to get the flow going.

web screenshot project

2008-12-30T18:22:00.018+08:00

Last week I had the chance to take some (badly needed) time off, for a short Christmas/anniversary trip to Prague with my family. And before that, work had been as busy as ever (when it rains...). Thus the lull in blog postings so far. I haven't even had a chance to keep up with my fledgling blog yet! We're off to a good start, then.

Anyway, the latest project I completed was a single entry page for a website – not my usual thing, being a print designer and all. But I thought, well, it's really not even a layout or template for a website; it just has to be a single page where it can be unstructured and just... well, if you'll excuse the arrogance... art. Not that I'm asserting my work is art, mind, it's just the frame of mind I had to be in to tackle a project like this, being out of my element. And this suddenly became an exciting challenge.

I was given a page as a sample, that my client really liked and wanted theirs to be modeled after (yozzan.com):

Of course, I couldn't just swipe this designer's idea, even if I brought original images into it, because a. that would still be stealing, and b. that wouldn't make me a very good designer. So I had to come up with a similar idea but still with its own look and feel. My client loved the idea of a door as an entry way, and she mentioned having a coffee-shop feel, being warm and inviting. She also loved the grunge look (which, after lots of small self-prescribed experiments through the past recent months, turns out to be much harder than it seems). So these rules of guidance, along with some specific lines of text to be included, were more than sufficient to get me going on my way.

My first mistake, as happens more than I care to admit, was that my excitement over the project outweighed the practical need to start with a pencil and paper. So I gathered some images, fruits from my labor of web-trolling and scanning, that I thought would work nicely, and just dove right into Photoshop. Here's what I came up with originally:

I only added the diagonal lines in to give it some sort of anchor, but the overall effect was pretty bad, and I think you'll agree this was far from the finish line. But after several hours of work and not lifting my head up, I felt pretty good at this point, so I sent the first draft over to the client (cringe). She did like it, but mentioned it was a bit too feminine – something I had failed to see myself. How right she was. Way too feminine, no anchor or balance, and just a plain mess to the eye. Time to take a step back.

I worked on this a while longer, taking out the most feminine aspects of the piece, and adding in some hand-drawn elements. The image was still a big mess, but at least I got all my ideas down on the page (or screen, to be literal). Keeping that in mind, I'll show you where it now stood:

Yep. A GREAT big mess. So finally I did what I should have done in the first place, which is to put pencil to paper and start sketching out ideas. Here is one of those sketches:

To be fair, I did take quite a few notes actually, as the first thing I did, even before opening Photoshop. But that was a close second.

The sketch provided me with the answer to my dilemma: some sort of balance to the page. I opted to give the feeling of a third dimension; instead of the flat front-facing door, I thought a diagonal horizon might provide an anchor point, as well as a little movement and energy. I ended up skewing the door image and pathway a bit in Photoshop as well, which gave it that little bit of extra dimension my first two drafts were badly lacking. Anyway, many hours later, here's what I finally arrived with:

The door was actually taken from a photo I took while on holiday in Prague (oh, the paradise of beautiful doors!), and as you can see I dropped the idea of the arrow; it just wasn't working. There's a balance here between making it visually interesting and original, yet making the piece have simplicity and meaning as a whole (ie, you can't just throw things down randomly and hope they work, without having a reason for them to be there in the first place). Oh, the endless struggle... what else sucks time down the drain like this noble pursuit?

Of course, at some point there has to be an end to the endless abyss of tweaking, and it always helps to give myself a final hard deadline for this reason. The client was happy, and I could finally say I was happy with the final outcome as well.

So this has been my process for this project. I always enjoy seeing other designers' layout of the process they use to get from point A to B (and all the bits in between), so I thought I should share as well.

And in what other career are there new challenges all the time? I love my job.

vintage colors

2008-12-10T18:51:00.004+08:00

I'm having to take it slow today because my 2-year-old son is home sick, so I'm taking this opportunity to indulge in one of my favorite time-spenders: building up my collection of design goodies. You know what I'm referring to: Photoshop brushes and patterns, vector illustration elements, fonts, etc. – and there are mountains of freebies out there in the virtual world. It's just a matter of sorting through the masses to find the real, high-quality ones (which is why I can't justify the time normally).

One of the areas of design I've always found difficulty with is that of color. There are loads of resources that offer view on color theory, samples of two- and three-color combinations and so on, but when it comes down to it, choosing a color palette at the beginning of each project takes time and effort. And the importance of color is not to be underestimated.

So as I sat here this morning with my son on my lap watching a Christmas show on the second monitor, I've been leisurely browsing away, building up my happy collection one piece at a time. Which brings me to the point of this post: today I came across a page of vintage advertisements (which is always fun), and I realized that many of these samples have such great colors. And frankly I would have never thought of these color combinations myself.

After all, that's what inspiration is: looking at something and realizing you never would have come up with that on your own. And it's such a beautiful thing.

holiday jpeg

2008-11-25T21:16:00.008+08:00

So I wanted to see what I could do in terms of a holiday card-type of jpeg, in this lull between projects, and for the moment I'm really into trying to hone my grunge-look skills. Here's what I came up with; the tree is solely made up of type characters. And thanks to Brän/Fractal Eye for the use of their free "The King and Queen" font.

graffiti animation

2008-11-24T18:26:00.002+08:00

Just discovered this clip from the How magazine blog. It's totally amazing.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

creative pause

2008-11-21T19:03:00.004+08:00

I've just finished reading an article about different ways creative people find inspiration, a chance to block everything else out and focus on a specific problem or idea. From reading the comments, it seems most people find this in the shower (which is what the post was based on). But for me, my time in the shower provides a necessary respite from daily life and the creative problem-solving that runs in the back of my mind all day. And night, for that matter. But in the shower, it's probably one of the few times I can force myself to relax, breathe in the steam, clear my head. And not have to think about anything.

Even when I'm doing other things outside of my work hours, it seems I'll always have a "program" running in the back of my mind, wheels turning to work on whatever it is I'm designing during the day, to find more and better solutions. Honestly, I don't know what other designers do, but especially when I have the clock running on a project, I want to make the most of my time by actually working on something concrete, rather than sitting and thinking... or maybe that's my problem. Sitting and thinking is such an important part of the creative process, especially at the very beginning of a project – even before the pencil and paper come out. I shouldn't discount its importance as part of the billable process.

But maybe I enjoy this multi-tasking; maybe my mind works best on the creativity part of things when it's not in the forefront with all the accompanying pressure. Hmm. Well, at any rate, that seems to be how I work best. Some of my favorite ideas have come during the night, or in that magical time right before I slip into sleep. That's when things slow down enough and the restrictions loosen up in the mind, giving way for creative freedom that's hard to justify during the day. And hey, maybe that's why I love sleep so much!

welcome

2008-11-20T17:57:00.004+08:00

Hello, and welcome to my first official post for the oratia design blog. I set this up in order to share some of my struggles and triumphs in setting up a new freelance design business in a new country, since I have just recently moved here to London with my family.

I have been a self-employed print designer off and on for almost ten years now, and having also lived in mainland China and in Hong Kong, I can tell you that moving and having to start over each time doesn't get any easier the more you do it!

So we've been here for almost two months now, and what I've been able to do so far is to finish setting up a website, and send out a lo-res portfolio to several businesses in the hopes of getting some new work. But ah. No one seems to need a new freelancer on their payroll at the moment. I know it's not easy to break into a new place where no one's ever heard of you, and the economy isn't exactly helpful for new creatives at the moment – well, to be fair, it's not real helpful to anyone right now – but this is turning out to truly be an uphill battle.

The good news is that I've still got some projects going for a couple of existing clients in Hong Kong, so those are sustaining me (us) so far. And I may have a brand new client to do some work for that was based on a friend's recommendation. Yay for friends! That's always nice. They say networking is the best tool, and I couldn't agree more for my line of work, but it's not easy to network when you're almost starting over knowing no one. Oh, poor me, right? That's why it's so important for me to get myself, my business, out there and get known somehow. (And that trail of thought about how my business IS me is something I'll need to flesh out another time, because that's an interesting one...)

Anyway, all that to say welcome. Thanks for tuning in, and here's to the hope of some two-way communication in the future. And to more work for all of us.