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Storykraft Kreative 3.0

November 2, 2009 | in Private | 9 Comments

Can you believe the last time I posted here? Back in APRIL? Are you KIDDING me??

Okay, okay, to be fair… I’ve been a very, very busy redhead. No, seriously. You ever had that problem where you’re so busy tending to clients’ projects, you don’t have time to even glance at your own? Well I have that problem. And let me tell you… it’s a very good problem to have.

“For the last few months, though? Since April? Seriously,” you say? Yes. Yes, for the last few months. Our services have expanded, our client roster has expanded, our portfolio has expanded and– good grief, my site is SO far behind the times now. It’s positively embarassing. There’s not even really a thing on this site about the non-design services portion of my business, you know? We’ve expanded blissfully into ghost writing, copy writing and editing, public relations and marketing, social media marketing… and a whole bunch of other “stuff”.

And, oh my god, have you seen my portfolio on here?? Ya’ll, that thing is PUNY! Heck, most of that stuff is from the very first couple of months or so SKK was in business, starting back in… oh wow! October 2008!

STORYKRAFT KREATIVE HAS BEEN IN BUSINESS A WHOLE YEAR!

Okay, actually, I kind of already knew that. So it’s not too much of a huge surprise on my end. In fact, it’s because SKK is now celebrating its one year anniversary that the SKK website is about to undergo a very radical shift… and a brand new, sexy outfit to match! When I started this company, folks, I honestly pretty much intended to have a part-time way to indulge the graphic designer in me, earn a bit of an income (momma needs chai tea, after all!), have just a small portion of my life that was mine alone (so essential when you’re a fulltime live-in caregiver) and be able to take care of my parents’ needs at the same time.

You can kind of see this line of thinking in this site, can’t you? The whole “I’m just a redhead doing my lil’ thang, taking care of my lil’ family but earning a buck or two on the side” totally NOT professional setup over here yeah? Right? Yeah, I figured.

But a year has gone by, and while I’ve been busy keeping my head down and “doing my lil’ thang”, SKK has gone and GROWN UP on me! She’s expanded, diversified, spread like wildfire and turned into an amazing fulltime business that has… get this ya’ll… grown up like a weed by word of mouth only. AHH!! So meanwhile this little toddler of a site has been sitting here gathering dust, being all kinds of neglected, and the Redhead has been bustin’ her butt putting out stellar work (iffin I do say so myself, darlin’), working with the most FANTASTIC clients, indulging soooo much more than just the “graphic designer side”… did I mention I have a “writing side”, a “publicist side”, a “brand development” side, an “marketing and advertising side” and a “brilliant product ideation side” too? Actually, I’m still discovering all these so-called “sides”.

I’m also starting to get really accustomed to hearing “wait, you do that too?”. I’m… really liking that part.

But I’m rambling! Let’s back it up. So, the site’s going to be getting a complete overhaul once more. It’s time the Redhead gives this grown-up business a grown-up look! Therefore, we’ll develop complete sections for our services, our previous-and-current client list, our portfolio and work samples, a few case studies (hey, I like sharing what I do!), a much better contact system, etc. And finally, the blog side of things will get redeveloped so I can share with you darlins’ not just the neat little things I come across, as is the case right now, but what I and the company are up to, with whom, what’s happening on the personal front and also my other busin–

Oh my word! I haven’t even said anything about my blossoming business, Ask and Allow Online! Well, that’ll come in due time.

So, right, this is just an “FYI” that chaaaaange is a’comin’, so keep your eyes peeled. I’ll throw out some announcements when things get done and ready to release. In the meantime, remember you can find me on Twitter, on Facebook, on Skype as “storykraftkreative”, Skype Phone at 601.741.5990 or you can contact me directly via the Contact SKK page here on the site!

Bountiful blessings to you and to yours… and stay crafty!

-Jessie

A Different Way to Look at Feelings

April 15, 2009 | in Private | 3 Comments

My life is all about emotion these days. It’s where I turn when using Law of Attraction in manifesting new experiences, what I tap when doing an intuitive reading for others, where I focus when developing written content meant to influence or sell, and it’s what I examine creatively when it’s time to begin a new client project. It should probably come as no surprise, then, that when I happened across the “We Feel Fine” project, I reacted with total delight and creative wonder.

"We Feel Fine" Home Page

The “We Feel Fine” project is all about emotion too. The site is designed to scour blogs around the web, searching for lines and fragments containing emotional indicators, and then harvesting those bits and pieces it finds. The pieces are then examined, the emotions identified and tagged, and then the results are displayed in the most interesting interactive presentation.

"We Feel Fine" Display, "Madness" Movement

The mission statement of “We Feel Fine” is an interesting one. “We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale.” But what is even more interesting is the possibilities of what can be done with the results of this global exploration. With the data the project collects (roughly 15,000-20,000 new entries added daily), the results can be compared and analyzed:

offering responses to specific questions like: do Europeans feel sad more often than Americans? Do women feel fat more often than men? Does rainy weather affect how we feel? What are the most representative feelings of female New Yorkers in their 20s? What do people feel right now in Baghdad? What were people feeling on Valentine’s Day? Which are the happiest cities in the world? The saddest? And so on.

"We Feel Fine" "Mob - Location" Movement View

With the output able to be displayed in six different methods (called “movements”) ranging from highly dynamic and interactive chaos to highly dynamic and interactive charts and graphs that makes comparison research (or idle curiousity) an entertaining breeze, “We Feel Fine” provides a visually engaging, inspiring and intriguing way to look at feelings. The voyeur in you will purr with delight. The creative in you will revel in the inspiring possibilities.

And the redhead in me? The redhead in me is simply enchanted. Le drool. Delicious!

"We Feel Fine" Feeling User Gallery

Latest Design: “Learning Law of Attraction” Teleseminar Page!

April 15, 2009 | in Private | 1 Comment

I’ve been knowing Hemal Radia for some time now. We first crossed paths a year or so ago, on Facebook, and again crossed paths a few months ago when I noticed a friend of mine sending Hemal a @tweet. Hemal is a fabulous, high-energy, fast talking, “tapped in”, intuitive Law of Attraction coach, fun to bounce ideas with, and these days he’s also an exceptionally well-loved, well-adored (what other guy do you know whose audience based started up an appreciation group in Facebook just for him??), in-demand guy.
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Wordpress: Calling All Graphic Designers!

April 14, 2009 | in Private | 2 Comments

That’s right, folks! The fabulous people behind Wordpress have officially blogged their intention to involve the online graphic design community in the development of the online blogging platform and CMS solution. According to one of the latest Wordpress development blog posts, this is primarily due to the overwhelming success of Project Icon, an icon design contest concluded in November of last year.

Because of that success, says the recent dev blog post,

We realized we needed to create more ways for graphic designers to contribute to the WordPress open source project. Our community is chock full of talent, and this talent is just itching to get involved. So, we’re trying out a few ideas.

Two primary avenues of contribution are already slotted for the graphic design community. The first is a call to get involved with quality control. Volunteer designers will be asked to take note of any missing, broken or otherwise malfunctioning graphical bits and report them, as well as review open tickets for small graphical updates (such as making a new Wordpress mark to coordinate with the new blue admin theme) and graphical fixes (such as a “Favorites” menu button to coordinate with the aforementioned new blue admin theme).

Tickets will be trackable, PSD files will be provided where necessary and interested designers are encouraged to also consider looking into the CSS-related issue tickets as the CSS and graphical issues may often overlap.

The second call is of a much larger scope and encourages designers who are more interested in “contributing to the evolving visual design of Wordpress”, says the blog entry. Whole portions of the Wordpress platform will be up for redesign, such as a new admin theme or new media upload process. For these tasks, which often involve a complete “screen” design, necessary resource materials will be provided, including specs for the design. Designers will be encouraged to submit comp designs, or mockups, for the project. And, if multiple submissions are received, votes from the community at large will be collected, helping to decide the final design decision or winning design comp.

At this time, Wordpress states they are not actively seeking participation of the latter sort from the design community, as Wordpress v2.8 is already nearly at an end, but it was stated that, once v2.9 development begins, “there will be more opportunities to get involved.”

Dressed to the Nines

April 13, 2009 | in Private | Leave a Comment

Can you tell what I’ve been up to lately? That’s right! SKK now has a brand new look, special thanks to Nick over at ElegantThemes.com for providing some of the loveliest, most elegant WP themes with which I’ve ever had the pleasure of tweaking.

SKK, now in its third full revision (so that would make it SKK v3.0, yeah?), has been based off the fabulous template “Earthly Touch” over at the Elegant Themes site. The template itself was a breeze to modify and enhance, and redesigning it seemed to take no time at all to complete. I’m still not completely sold on the particular color scheme I’m using now; it may prove to be just a touch too dark for my presentation intentions, but right now I’m just so happy that I was finally able to work on the site at all, that I hardly have any room to complain, now do I?

Once the site itself was pretty much revisualized, I started building the important missing sections. First up, the site now has an piece-o’-cake contact form, found under “Contact SKK”, that will allow you to get in touch with me, on the fly, regardless of your reason for contact.

Secondly, the twitter widget was put back. Yes, I know, I know, nobody cares to see a lil’ ole’ redhead’s crazy, random tweets, but I’m on Twitter nearly the entire time I’m in the office at all, and so it seemed like the only logical thing to do was to include a glimpse of that activity.

Thirdly, the portfolio gallery has finally gone live! Courtesy of the NextGEN Gallery WP plugin, finally there is no more need to house the work portfolio offsite, at places like Flickr, Indiepublic and such. Let me know what you think! The gallery itself is in need of a bit of an update, needs to have some of the latest material posted, but it’s a darn good start.

I also finally got ’round to replacing the Google Analytics code that mysteriously went missing several weeks ago. ‘Nuff said!

Lastly, for now, the Services section is now currently being built and fleshed out. SKK offers such a large variety of services that I’m going to be splitting things into smaller sections to make finding the specific services-related info that you need – and without a lot of banging your head ‘gainst the wall too.

That’s it for now! Anything missing from the current build that you’d like to see developed, or fleshed out? Click on the “Contact SKK” link above, in the top header, and send me a note letting me know what you think!

It’s way past time for bed, so I’m finally off to get some sleep. Have fun, folks! Bountiful blessings to you and yours… and stay crafty!

Smack Dab in the Middle of…

April 9, 2009 | in Private | 2 Comments

My goodness, it’s been awhile since I’ve bothered to write, huh?

Truth be told, folks, I’ve been super busy. Super. Freaking. Busy.

Let’s start with the family. Some of you already know that I’m a fulltime live-in caregiver to both of my parents. And if you don’t, well… now you do. Both of my folks are in their later years, and as time goes on, their needs get more demanding. And these days, it’s a delicate balancing act. More of my time has shifted into extended responsibilities where they’re concerned, and so I’m having to get more resourceful, more imaginative, about how I manage my time in general. It takes patience. It takes forgiveness – not of anyone else, but of myself for the fact that I’m a human being, and a lot of this is still now, and will always be, a learning experience. There’s no instruction manual, no “how to take care of two end-of-life patients, run a business, pursue your dreams and leave time to sleep!”

Not even a dummy guide, folks! I mean, come on!

Ah, but really? I have better. I have SO much better. Patience, forgiveness, love and adoration, loyalty, determination, joy, balance, understanding, family, friends (and cats!), passion, creativity… and a Universe (or God, if you prefer) surrounding me that absolutely adores me, come what may.

This last one, in particular, I am incredibly grateful for.

And work? I’ve actually asked for a bit of a respite, and like always, the Universe (which out of habit I’ve started simply referring to as “U”) has responded lovingly. I’m the middle of plotting the next redesign of the site. There are so, so many things lacking from this place – entirely my fault. I’ve gotten so accustomed to simply asking the U for my business, that at least to the outside world it looks like I run things in a way that is almost completely contrary to how any typical small business, especially a design business, runs. And not that I can’t simply carry on the way I’ve been carrying on – and I will – but I’m feeling the craving now to flesh out my outside presence. And the timing is perfect, because right now I’m in a luxurious spot where I can afford, quite literally, to shift my focus and work on my own things a bit before it becomes more necessary again to focus on pulling in more work and starting up the engine of commerce again.

So then! New site design, portfolio, some articles, resources, plotting out the next 3-6 months worth of direction and specific plans, etc. It’s exciting! So all that is coming very soon.

And yes. I promise, promise, promise, I will be more active here in the blog over the next few weeks. In fact, it’s absolutely necessary!

See the World in a Grain of… er.. Drop of Water!

February 12, 2009 | in Private | Leave a Comment

Have I got a most interesting, intriguing and inspirational little amusment for you!

While downloading the new F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin from Steam.com (my beloved lil’ sweetie oh-so-graciously bought me the game last night, knowing my absolute love for the first one, yay!), I took a quick stroll through the Casual games section and came across a most delicious and unexpected jewel! Considering my obsession over taking any opportunity to see things from an entirely different perspective, and being the certifiably batty creative that I am, I nearly shouted with glee when I saw it. And if you’re anything like me, you will get a huge kick out of this. Get all the dirty details after the jump!

To “Be” Genius or “Have” Genius?

February 11, 2009 | in Private | 2 Comments

Recently on TEDTalks, Gilbert gave a speech on the subjects of creativity and inner genius which is a MUST see for absolutely anyone pursuing creative fields, especially those wrestling with the issue of dealing with creatives surrounded by more “normal” folks who make the mistake of linking creativity with mental health issues as well as creatives dealing with success in their pursuits and how that success affects them and the expectations of those around them.

Reverse Lookup… for Images..?

January 20, 2009 | in Private | 3 Comments

Yes, it’s true!

When I opened my iGoogle browser homepage at a most ungodly hour of the morning, I saw a Digg/Design link waiting patiently for my attention. A couple of clicks later, and I am staring at a most curious, most interesting, most potentially geeky-cool little web application. From a little poking around, it looks like this little gem is nice and simple, pleasingly stripped down to a good, minimal design interface and, most importantly..? It’s free!