N: New Work

I'm new to the world of social networking. I've watched my daughters blog, facebook, twitter, etc. for several years and marveled at their ever-growing network of virtual "friends." Since I spend 85% of my working hours on the computer, I was resistant to jump into the viral pool. But I have enjoyed the exercise of My Visual Vocabulary, I've had some fun interactions on Facebook, and--now--I have made a connection through LinkedIn that has resulted in an opportunity for new work.

A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by an friend from my college days out of the blue. We shared time in the painting studio at Mount Saint Mary's. For some reason, I thought she would enjoy seeing my work, so I gave her my list of sites. She came back saying she thought she had some projects that we could work on together. Her site, http://www.500bc.com/ is incredible--VISIT IT.

I've really enjoyed working with her. She is creative, collaborative, and understands her side of the business while appreciating the "artist" side. I rarely get the chance to work with a person like this, and it has really made my other creative work energized.

The illustrations you see here are a progression of part of a marketing plan for Ready Price, a mortgage information tool website. Most of the time in my current job, I have to crank out work at such a high rate that I rarely get the opportunity to revisit or retool an illustration. Although, I don't really like to redo work too many times, this has been a lot of fun. The first version was too perfume bottle-like, but she loved the lightning. The second was from a bottle that would have been a give-away--more flask like. The third is based on client feedback. I like them all!

I attended a HOW Conference a few years ago where one of the speakers (sorry, I can't remember who) was talking about the concept of allowing Good to prevent Great. I am always stopping at good, because there isn't time to let things percolate on the back burner. My rekindled friend has been great for pushing further. Here's to doing great work once in a while.