My Brief History of Backups
I am always surprised that many of my fellow freelancers do not bother to back up their computers. (Most do, but a lot do not.) I have always been a fan of backing up my files. And although I have not had to rely on it often, when I did, I was really glad to […]
Of Computer Mice (and Men)
I try to make sure my computers and software are kept up to date and not neglected, but even when I think I am doing everything right, something will inevitably go wrong. Sometimes the best-laid plans, well, you know how that goes…. Christmas time for graphic artists can be either slow (as in, nothing is going […]
Typography, Twitter, and Trump
I spend my day thinking about typography. Well, maybe not all day—but I do think about it a lot. That is what designers (are supposed to) do. The general public, not so much. But like good editing, and good writing, well-thought-out typography makes everyone’s life a bit nicer and a bit easier. And if copy […]
Meet Luna, My New Assistant (and Lap Cat)
With three cats in residence, you wouldn’t think there could be any neglected feline household duties. But like any group, my kitty org chart had some unassigned responsibilities. For example, the lap cat function had been ignored for some time, and none of our current crop of cats was interested in expanding their job descriptions to take on that additional task. […]
4 Years and Counting
My website has been live for just about four years with over 98,000 unique visits. In that time, one long lost colleague and one potential client emailed me through my contact page. I also received a lot of junk emails about Russian brides and hot stock tips (among other things) that I eliminated when I […]
Street Graffiti
When I first enrolled at the University of Delaware, my major was “Graphic and Advertising Design.” Not exactly the most elegant title, but people pretty much understood what it meant. (Which was I was an art major who actually planned on making a living.) Sometime during my four years at U of D, the name […]
A Font of Their Own
Where do alphabets come from? Some alphabets were developed by committee. The Cyrillic alphabet was produced by what was basically a medieval think tank and it used by languages with a Slavic origin or a strong Slavic influence. According to Wikipedia, it is one of the most-used writing systems. And the Korean alphabet, created during […]
The Future in 3-D
Several years ago, I worked on a magazine for customers (and potential customers) of a company that created software for infrastructure engineers. The editor who hired me is a good friend (proving once again that it is not necessarily what you know, but who you know) and she tried to fill each issue with a […]
The Internet… Even More To Love
FedEx started back in the early 1970s, but it wasn’t until the mid-1980s that it became an indispensable business tool. Next-day delivery was at the time faster than fast. Being able to get a package delivered overnight was a game changer, and it changed the way a lot of us worked. Lead times got a […]
Where Did Easter Eggs Come From?
Easter is almost here, and lots of children (and more than a few adults) will be occupied with the search for chocolate Easter eggs. But what about Easter eggs of the non-chocolate, computer variety? Finding those can be a bit trickier (and equally rewarding and, as an added bonus, calorie free). The first (and I […]