Happenings at Meyer

I wanted to take a little time to talk about the work I do for Meyer Corporation. My official title is "Website Coordinator". A lot of my job involves maintaining and updating our websites, monitoring analytics creating reports, and other things that most of you might find boring.

Fortunately, I like what I do and a lot of my job involves designing things for our websites or other miscellaneous jobs. I've done a lot of work on anolon.com. Namely, the flash animation on the home page and the little boxes you find around the site (which we call touts).

I did the headers for the following pages:
Delicious Future
About Delicious Future
Slow Food USA
Farm to Table

I also do the the same type of work for circulon.com. I can't take credit for the flash on this one though. Obviously I can't list everything I do, the list would never end. The main thing on these sites though is the touts and other promotions. The rest is setting up products or other miscelanious things. My boss Dan does a ton of work on these sites too.

Another site I work on is potsandpans.com. I change the design on the main page a couple of times a month. Currently there is a Christmas theme displayed. Not my best work ever but hey, I was pressed for time.

I did some random things on kitchenaidcookware.com. I created most of the home page that exists now. I had to work within the confines of the existing design so there wasn't a lot of freedom there. Basically I modernized it. Trust me when I say that it looks a lot better now! I'm particularly happy with the buttons I created on the right hand side.

Currently I'm working on FarberwareCookware.com. I did some work on the existing site, but the whole site is undergoing a complete redesign. I'm finishing up some of the final touches (I didn't design the site). The new site will be launching next month.

Anyways, it's late and I'm tired so I'll stop here. I'm sure people are just dying to here about my job =P I'll write more about the working life of Joe Buchmann again another time =)

3rd Place Entry on W1K

Just wanted to share my recent 3rd place entry on worth1000.com. I really feel that it deserved at least second, but I'll take it.

Portraits

In this section I'm going to start posting my Photoshopped portrait layouts. My goal is to come up with several print worthy layouts to frame and hang on the wall. Of course the version I post here will be much smaller than the original file.

I started tonight with a layout for Avery

Who's the Tank!

I'm a huge fan of "Who's On First" and of course.....World of Warcraft..... and this is just too freakin' funny!


Who's The Tank - Watch more free videos

W1K Winner!

Freakin' Awesome! I just won my second contest on worth1000.com!! I'm totally stoked! Here is a compressed version of the winning entry:



And here is a link to the contest itself http://www.worth1000.com/contest.asp?contest_id=22136

Worth 1000

I wanted to write a post about a new obsession of mine. It's an awesome site called worth1000.com (http://www.worth1000.com). Basically they give you a theme and you create a piece of photoshop work around it. It's really fun.

They keep track of all your stats for everyone to see. First through third places get either medals or trophys (all virtual) and first is awarded 100 credits. The medals are for beginners and trophys for advanced entries. You use the credits to enter more contests.

So far I've gotten 1st once and 2nd once in the beginner's categories. The highest I've gotten in the advanced category is 6th (twice). They also have paid contests running most of the time. These are usually companies that are paying around $100-$300 for their top pick in logo design. I have yet to enter one of these. I think I might try one pretty soon though.

My gallery of images is available to view at http://www.worth1000.com/search.asp?search=artist:jbuchmann55

Where is Joe Buchmann?

I know....it's been a REALLY long time since my last post. When I started this blog I had intended to post at least once a week. Then life came along and said "um, not right now." lol. Actually it's more of a combination of new jobs, moving, family, .......and.... World of Warcraft. What can I say. I'm an addict. Well, not as much as I use to be though.

Since the last post referring to icon design and a job possibly doing that, I've actually obtained two completely unrelated jobs. The icon thing fell through. Probably for the best though. I started working for Motorola as a Senior Web Designer in July (which was the 5 week contract I posted about on June 20th). It turned in to an indefinite contract since they were very pleased with my work. That was a great job. I got to design all sorts of different web sites and had a lot fun doing it. The only drawback was that it remained a contract position, which meant no benefits, no guaranteed raises, no vacation, no.....well, you get the point.

So I continued to look for a permanent position. In September I interviewed for a position with a company called Meyer Corporation. (Read about it here http://www.meyer.com/). This turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. After 3 interviews I was offered the position as a website coordinator. Naturally, I accepted.

This position came with a great benefits package, 401K, immediate vacation time, and not to mention a very nice starting salary. Right from the start the people in the company welcomed me with opened arms and are quickly becoming a second family. This is a place that really cares about it's employees. The employees in turn really care about each other. At least they do in my department anyway.

I work in the Marketing department and I don't think I would have ever chosen otherwise. The marketing staff are by far the coolest and most fun people there. Not that there aren't others....they're just the best group all together.

So here I am today, enjoying my job, getting my life back together financially, and just doing better in general. In October my family and I moved to Benicia and we love it here. It's a great little town that reminds us of home (Spokane, WA), without the snow.

I guess that's where Joe Buchmann is now...in a nutshell. 'til next time.

Icon Design

Recently I had a phone interview for a position designing icons and logos. The person who interviewed me is now on vacation and will get back to me in two weeks to let me know if I get an in-person interview. In the meantime I decided to do what I seem to be good at. Learn the job!

Icon design is different than web design and things of that nature and there are rules that need to be followed. I researched the topic and found a lot of information on how to correctly design icons (as well as how not to!).

The biggest things I took out of it all were:

-Do not use text. Text has a few problems. One is that when the icon is scaled down the text is usually impossible to read. The other is that you need to consider the language barrier. If your icon is going to be seen by people that do not speak English, the text won't make any sense.

-Do not use too many images in the icon. I think a big part of icon design is to keep it simple. Too many objects in the icon will confuse the user.

-Keep a theme amongst your entire set. For continuity purposes you need to have some theme that ties your icons together. This could be color, style, angle, etc.

-Do not use unnecessary objects. If every icon in your set has the same picture in it, then you don't need it. For instance, if every icon in your set is dealing with a database, you don't need to have a database image in it.

-Don't use puns or plays on words. These won't make sense to people of other languages, or maybe even your own language. Some of them could be offensive to other cultures.

-Don't use hand gestures to point at items. Some of them could be offensive to other cultures.

There are more things to consider, but those I think are the main ones. At the top of this blog are some that I created for the company I currently work for. These icons will never be used anywhere but this company so they are very specific and wouldn't make sense to a larger audience.

That is all the time I have for now.

Song: Fade by Joe Buchmann

(Verse 01 and Chorus)
Here I thought I'd add something different. Besides being a designer, I'm a rapper/writer. Rap use to be the biggest part of my life for a lot of years. It's really a hard game to get into and be successful. It's all about connections and hoping you find those doorways that lead you to a stage. I was fortunate enough to get to perform in front of about 500+ people once. Won a DVD too =P

After having a family I decided that I needed to go to school and focus my efforts on building a career. At this point in life I realize that I won't ever become a famous rapper. The passion for writing still burns in me though. So I figure I might as well share some of it with people. I think I might somehow put my recorded songs on my website. We'll see. Anyways, this is the first verse of the most recent thing to come out of my head. Hope it comes across ok. I have no idea how it reads since it flows with a rhythm in my head.

Up here in Cali
Livin' up in the Bay yo
And I'm workin' so hard
Still I don't got no pay, no
And I'm workin' so much
Day and night drive me crazy
Yet I got no money
Pay the bills for my babies
Now I'm thinkin' maybe
It's time that I go another road
Gotta do it now
There's a better place that I better go
But I gotta find it, where
How do I get there right
Open up my eyelids
Provoke myself with a better sight
With the way I feel
I feel I got the wings to take me high
Just gotta use 'em
And get my mind into takin' flight
'Cause now I've learned in my life
As I feel I'm growin' old
That the only one that's ever
held me back is me alone
God help me now
Help me find my way and see the light
Am I doin' one thing
Anything just a little right

Cause I got this pain
(Let go)
Just wanna see it gone
It's in my brain
(My soul)
Just wanna move along
And it's such a strain
(So hard)
How do I make it right
Wanna catch a train
(Be gone)
And fade into the night

My First Contract!

So I finally got an interview! On Tuesday, I went in to interview for a 5 week contract job with Motorola. It was great 'cause they didn't ask me all the hard interview questions we all know and love. She basically told me what the job was and asked if I was interested. The job is to create simple 3-4 page websites based on companies Yellow Pages ads. So the main part of the interview was for me to create a mock up of a website in Photoshop and write an introductory paragraph about the company. This was so they could evaluate my writing skills as well as design skills. I had an hour and a half to do it. Well guess what? I got the job! Here's the mock up I came up with.



I was happy with it. I guess they were to. =P Especially since they are going to pay me a dollar an hour more than I was originally quoted!

This position is at night from 5:00pm-1:30am. I've worked out an arrangement with my current employer where I am now paid hourly so I can work both jobs for the five week duration. It's going to be a rough 5 weeks, but well worth it. I'll get some great experience and have some extra money for once! Also, I get to keep my benefits. That's pretty huge.

I'm wondering what the web authoring software is that I'll be using. She said it's like a cross between Dreamweaver and Powerpoint. Can't imagine how that works, but I guess I'll find out. If it's at all like Dreamweaver, then I should have no problems.

This is definitely a positive turn for me. I'm excited to see what other job opportunities await me in the near future.

SILVAFUG And Other Cool Stuff

A lot has been going on since my last post. It seems that things are starting to go the direction I have been looking for!

Last week I attended my first SILVAFUG meeting (thanks to Tom). It was nice to be around people with the same kind of interests as me. The information was a little over my head at the time, but it was still great to be there for the experience. I met some new people who gave me more great direction to follow.

One in particular is Doug Mccune. Tom had told me about him prior to the meeting. He is definetely an interesting guy. Particularly because he is the only person to attend a 360 Flex conference and be so successful that he became a sponser! I have to mention for him too that I will be buying the Adobe Flex 3 For Dummies Book since he is the author. Apparently he is a "Flex Machine". lol. He's done the work to prove it too. Besides being smart and successful, the guy has a great personality. Who else would you want to get advice from?

After the meeting, Tom gave me and a few others a ride back home. They were talking and joking about the "dumb" experiences they had when they first learned Flex. You know, the kind of errors they saw and the simple mistakes they made. It's sounds kind of funny at first. But then I realized, "Hey! That's the kind of stuff that happens to me right now!" lol. At least I know they all started in the same place.

After my last post I realized that it made more sense for me to go back and refresh my HTML and XHTML skills, so I did that. Being refreshed in that will help out in my MXML usage. Now I'm teaching myself Javascript. I figure that AS3 is so similar to Javascript (both being derived from ECMAScript) that I should have no problem transitioning. Plus, knowing Javascript increases my chance at finding a job now!

Well, that's all the time I have for now.

Hopes of Designing

So who is Joe Buchmann? I'm a creative designer with aspirations to find a job doing what I love....design.

I graduated from ITT Tech in Spokane, Washington in 2006 with a BAS degree. I brought my girlfriend and two lovely children to California in hopes of finding my perfect job.

For the past two years I have been working at a company called Seasonal Reflections. Currently I am the Marketing Manager there. I've realized that this is not the direction I planned on going in life and decided to find out what I need to do to get into a design position. So here I am, hoping to introduce myself to the design community through blogging!

I met Tom Ortega. What a great guy! He opened my eyes to the kind of potential that lies in the Bay Area and gave me some great direction to follow. I now realize that I have my work cut out for me in order to make a name for myself, but you know what.....I'm gonna do it!

So what do I want out of life? Well, what does anyone want? To be happy, of course. To have a job I love and be able to spend time with my family. At home, I'm a very charismatic, fun loving type of person. I enjoy taking my kids to the park, on a trip, or just having fun with family and friends. I look forward to making a trip back to Washington once a year to visit my parents, family and friends. At work, I'm a very focussed and organized type. I'm really big on keeping my work station spotless and arranged neatly. This helps to keep me efficient on any projects I'm working on. I tend to find the best way to do a job after sizing up the situation. If I can simplify processes, or create new and better ones, then I will. Efficiency is the name of the game.

So this is my introduction. I will be writing again with updates on my progress into the wonderful world of design. In the meantime, I am happy to hear anyone's suggestions on things I should be doing.