Choosing colors for my personal brand

In: real world

15 Jun 2009

This past week I decided to tackle the first task on my list: exploring color theory and creating a color palette for my new personal brand.

Palette Requirements:

  • should consist of 4—5 colors
  • must include 1 or 2 colors that are subtle enough to use as an accent color within my resume (yes, I want to use color in my resume, how bold of me!)
  • must be web- and print-friendly

Past Color Schemes

Old portfolio color palette
This is the color scheme from the very first iteration of my portfolio. I thought it was pretty nice, but received several comments from friends and colleagues suggesting that the pastel colors weren’t very representative of my personality. To be honest, I chose purple and green because I like them and pink because it complements the other 2 colors. This is actually a fairly “correct” compound color scheme but I eventually chose to abandon it in favor of a bolder color scheme.

Current portfolio color palette

This is the color scheme from the current iteration of my portfolio. As you can see, I tried to get away from the pastel shades, but somehow green managed to stick around (what can I say, green is my favorite color!). Yikes. When I put these colors next to each other, they look pretty gnarly. Maybe it’s just the goldenrod, but I’ll be the first to admit that this palette needs to go!

…but where to start as far as choosing new colors?

Selecting New Colors

Golden apricot I typed “what is my color” into Google and the first site I found was COLORSTROLOGY. I navigated to my birthday (June 8) and discovered that my color is golden apricot. It’s really a lovely color, and its description is rather nice as well, so I decided to start there.

I checked my Delicious bookmarks for some color resources I could use to make a palette.

Using Adobe’s kuler, I generated some color palettes, which I then posted to both kuler and COLOURlovers so that other users could vote on them and provide me with feedback. I made some palettes that included the golden apricot color and some that didn’t.

Verifying Printer-Friendliness

One of my palette requirements states that the colors must be both web- and print-friendly. I knew that the colors are web-friendly, but I have not worked with print documents a lot and wasn’t sure how to verify if colors would be printer-safe. A quick Google search informed me that in order for my colors to print accurately, I must choose colors that are in-gamut.

So I consulted my good friend Photoshop to see if my palette was indeed printer-safe. I learned a pretty easy way to do this:

With your Color Picker menu open, use Ctrl-Shift-Y to see which of the colors in the selected range will be printable.

The grayed-out areas will not print accurately. Hit Ctrl-Shift-Y again to exit this view.

I had to tweak a few of my colors to make sure they were suitable for both web and print documents, but this Photoshop trick made the tweaking pretty easy.

Proposed Color Scheme

One of my highest voted palettes was a palette I affectionately named “Not So Subtle.” It’s a bright set of colors and reminds me of fruit, something a company like Jamba Juice might use. Without further ado, I present to you my proposed color scheme:
Not So Subtle

(Once again, green made the final cut.)

I would love to hear your feedback on the new color palette. Good, bad, or otherwise. I’m still open to revising my color choices since nothing is set in stone.

Next up, I will be tackling typefaces. I’m a big typography junkie, so I’m looking forward to it. If you have any resources to pass along to me, feel free to do so!

Current Mood:Accomplished emoticon Accomplished

The beginning of a new era.

In: real world

1 Jun 2009

My summer project is to craft a personal brand. I want to create an identity for myself that can be carried across both digital and print mediums. This includes, but is not limited to, the following items:

  • blog
  • digital portfolio
  • resume
  • Twitter avatar
  • business cards

You can check out my previous attempts to brand myself in both my old portfolio and my most recent site. As you can see, right now my blog design does not match my portfolio design. When my old portfolio design was live, a friend noted, “I never thought of you as a pastel person.” However, I think the new design is too dark. I’d like to avoid extremes in my next iteration and stick to something that truly represents myself.

….but what is that, exactly?!

I am expecting this to be a pretty arduous process, so I’ve sketched out some tasks I will need to accomplish:

  1. Explore color theory; create a color palette
  2. Peruse typefaces; choose 3 fonts (decorative, sans-serif, serif)
  3. Consider designing a personal logo; will this be a banner? my full name? my initials? some other symbol?
  4. Research SEO; consider merging my portfolio and blog into a single site
  5. Brainstorm some audience engagement tactics
  6. Decide how all of these elements can be applied to the items I mentioned above
  7. Execute

Current Mood:Optimistic emoticon Optimistic

My post-college life is boring, so what?

In: real world

27 May 2009

If my lack of blog posts says anything about me, it’s that my post-college life is pretty boring. So what have I been up to? Well, the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference (09NTC) was a blast. I wrote up a guest blog post about the conference for beyondwords.

This weekend I will be returning to San Francisco for TWTRCON. I’m super excited to dork out with a bunch of other folks who love Twitter as much as I do.

new glasses

This past weekend I got new glasses for the first time in about 4 years. My new frames are Chanel (2118HB in burgundy to be precise) and I forked out extra for glare reducing lenses (which they always recommend for me since I spend so much time on the computer, but I have never been able to afford them). I paid for the glasses with money from my flexible savings plan. Best $500 I ever decided to put away; I managed to pay for new glasses AND a year’s worth of contacts!

Speaking of money, I have become pretty obsessed with managing my finances as of late. I have been using mint.com to set a budget and automate my savings. I have also been listing loads of stuff on eBay in order to make some extra money to spend entirely on myself (because of this, my plug collection is becoming quite stupendous).

The big news is that I paid off my private student loans from American Education Services (AES), so I now have 2 student loan payments instead of 3. My goal is to pay off undergrad debt before I start grad school. Which seems reasonable, except for the fact that I can’t wait to go back to school! And of course I work at a graduate school, which only makes it worse. I am so excited by the possible fields of study: human-computer interaction, interactive communications, design…I don’t know how I will ever decide! Good thing I’ve got at LEAST 2 years before I can even think about going back.

Nigel

In other news, Nigel turned 2 years old this month, and he has officially been my dog for 1 year. I guess time flies when you are a super cute pooch!

Current Mood:Anxious emoticon Anxious

Getting ready for the Nonprofit Technology Conference

In: real world

24 Apr 2009

I’m getting ready to attend the 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference (09NTC) this upcoming Sunday through Tuesday. I will be participating in the Day of Service on Sunday morning and then attending some pretty sweet sessions:

Monday

10:30am
Mission First: Achieving IT Alignment

1:30pm
Building and Sustaining Vibrant Online Communities

3:30pm
Your Website as an Experience of Your Brand

Tuesday

10:30am
Nonprofit Radio: How to Make Podcasts That Promote Your Brand and Engage Supporters

1:30pm
Effective Online Communications

3:30pm
We Want Usability! (But We Don’t Want Ugly): Marrying the Best of Design and Usability

I will be tweeting about the event and blogging some of my reactions in my work blog. Will I see you there?

Current Mood:Bouncy emoticon Bouncy & Energetic emoticon Energetic

Stretched Ears: My Personal Timeline

In: real world

22 Apr 2009

One of my most distinguishing features is my stretched earlobe piercings. I often wonder why people seem to remember me after having met me only once, and my friends tell me, “It’s because you have huge holes in your ears, DUH!”

My parents have never understood why I got into body modification. I’m not sure I know why, either. Maybe it was because the Spice Girls had tattoos and body piercings and I was FASCINATED by them. Then I discovered BME and it was all over. I fell in love with stretched lobes and decided I had to have them.

I started stretching my ears when I was 14, about halfway into my freshman year of high school. At this point, my parents were unwilling to sign for any additional piercings (probably because I was convinced I needed my tongue pierced…glad I changed my mind on that one). I figured I could stretch the lobe piercings I already had.

My lobes were pierced when I was an infant with a piercing gun at some random place in the mall (I know, for SHAME! Blame my parents, not me). Luckily the placement of my holes was decent.

And now, I present to you my pictorial ear stretching timeline, which spans approximately 7 years.

I have been sitting at 5/8″ for about 2 years now. I have quite the collection of plugs in this size, which you can check out on Flickr.

Perhaps I should add a disclaimer here indicating that ear stretching is, for the most part, permanent. I can’t imagine life without my stretched lobes. People often ask me what I’m going to do when I’m older. Well, let me tell you, I CAN’T WAIT! My ears are going to stretch out on their own without me doing any work — it’s going to be awesome. I’m going to be old with saggy 2″ holes in my ears, and I am totally okay with that.

Read the rest of this entry »

Current Mood:Amused emoticon Amused

I am now sans wisdom teeth.

In: real world

6 Apr 2009

So on Friday I had my wisdom teeth removed. I was having a bit of a panic attack beforehand, considering I’ve never broken a bone, had stitches, or undergone any type of surgery before. Luckily, everything went according to plan. I showed up early to fill out paperwork and ended up having to wait about 15 minutes past my scheduled appointment time. The receptionist was apologetic and offered me a $5 gift card to Jamba Juice (I had a feeling that might come in handy later…). Then I was led back to a room and an assistant started getting everything ready. She hooked me up to the heart monitor, which started going nuts the moment the doctor walked in the room. The IV was the worst part, but still not as bad as I expected.

Afterwards, I couldn’t eat much except for yogurt, sorbet, and applesauce. Friday evening I finally gave up on the cold soft foods and ate some chicken noodle soup. Nigel snuggled with me on the couch all day. What a cutie!

On Saturday I even felt well enough to venture out to watch the MSU vs. UConn basketball game. Corner and I went to Crown & Anchor and it was so deserted. The bartender actually turned the game on just for us. I managed to eat some cheesy chili in a bread bowl. And Michigan State won! We’re playing in the championship game tonight. I’m off to watch it with Corner and some of his coworkers over pizza. Go green!

Current Mood:Blah emoticon Blah

The gifts drum corps hath given me.

In: real world

28 Mar 2009

Efficiency. I am now so fast at showering and/or getting ready to go somewhere, it’s unbelievable. I’ve put boyfriends to shame. Drum corps also made me a firm believer of getting it done right the first time (although I’m pretty sure that if you did this in drum corps, you would still have to do more reps…just to make sure that right time wasn’t a fluke).

Appreciation for convenience stores. Have you ever paused to wonder what life was like before there were stores like Wal-mart, the one-stop shopping solution? You can pick up almost anything you need here. Or at least, anything you need to survive in the drum corps world. This includes, but is not limited to, sunscreen, bathing suit tops, musical electric toothbrushes, deodorant, tampons, and candy.

Appreciation for two-ply toilet paper. Do you know how many high schools in this country only use single-ply toilet paper? And how many public restrooms only use single-ply toilet paper? Let me tell you, almost every single one. I will never again take for granted the feeling of double-ply toilet paper.

Hatred for shoes. In drum corps, when you don’t have to be wearing tennis shoes, you don’t. You wear flip flops (or Crocs, but those aren’t my style).

Friends. Yet I curse Glassmen for giving me friends all over the globe who I can never see. Everyone from the years I marched will NEVER be back together in one place. That’s a weird feeling. So to you Glassmen-folk who read this, know that I love you dearly and I wish it was possible for us to talk/hang out out more. Please come to California and visit. Kthnx.

The ability to quickly articulate what I want to say. You learn to talk and get your point across fast when you’re not supposed to be talking. Oops, I mean….I would never talk during rehearsal.

Multitasking skills like whoa. Have you ever tried to march 4 to 5 at 200bpm AND play your horn at fortissississimo AND not run into the colorguard girl spinning a flag 2 inches from your face? (Do you even have any idea what I’m talking about?) Yeah, it takes brainpower.

A sleeping disorder. I swear I’m still catching up on missed sleep from the 2 summers I marched…

A giant collection of athletic clothing. I probably own 30 sports bras, 12 pairs of running shorts, and 20 pairs of dri-fit underwear. Oh, and 6 bathing suit tops that don’t have matching bottoms (or they DID have matching bottoms but the tops have faded from the sun so much that they no longer match the bottoms).

Abs. No amount of frequenting the gym will ever leave my torso looking as good as immediately following tour.

Current Mood:Nostalgic emoticon Nostalgic

22 is the new 40.

In: real world

20 Mar 2009

Maybe this is silly, but I’m 22 years old, and I already feel like I am running out of time.

If I were Britney Spears, I would have already released 4 albums. If I were Bill Gates, I would have already dropped out of Harvard and started my own computer software company.

What happened to famous people being older than me? Like when I was 12 and was totally in love with the Backstreet Boys even though they were way too old for me (like 18-26)? I would be the perfect age for them now! But of course not — now we’ve got Miley Cyrus, Kristen Stewart, the Jonas Brothers…all younger than me. Lame. Bring back the 20-somethings so I can feel like I am at my prime; 22 year-olds should not feel middle aged! At least Katy Perry and Kelly Clarkson are on my side.

Although, speaking of celebrities, I have the urge to join the hundreds of other folks who have recorded their own versions of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” music video. Will someone buy me a black one shoulder long sleeved leotard and a pair of heels? That song is just so damn catchy.

….then I remember I can’t dance. Much less dance in high heels. But it would still be fun.

Current Mood:Drained emoticon Drained

So Saturn might be disappearing…and that makes me sad.

In: real world

17 Feb 2009

I read the following article this morning: Saturn near finish line.

I have only owned 2 cars in my life (so far), and they have both been Saturns. My first was a silver 1991 SL2. It had over 238,000 miles when I passed it on to its next owner (although I last documented it at 237,500 miles in this entry. I have photographic evidence somewhere, but I can’t find it at the moment. I’ll add the picture of my odometer if I can find it.

I now drive a blue 1999 SL. It has NO options (literally, this car doesn’t even have power steering), but I love it. I fully intend to drive this car into the ground.

Saturns are cheap, economical, and relatively well made. I hope GM doesn’t make the mistake of taking them off the market.

Now, to buy a Sky before Saturn goes under. Who wants to pay my student loans so I can make a car payment instead?

Current Mood:Sad emoticon Sad

WeAreMedia workshop

In: real world

16 Feb 2009

Things have been a bit of a whirlwind lately. I just got back from a workshop in San Francisco this past Thursday & Friday; I attended NTEN’s WeAreMedia 2-day intensive workshop with my colleague Rob. We learned a lot about social media, especially when it comes to crafting a strategy to use social media to benefit an organization. I have a lot more questions now, especially since the workshop really stressed that all social media initiatives need to be in line with our organization’s overall communications plan….which we don’t have. It’s a little frustrating but I think it will help others see the importance of such documents and hopefully speed up the development of said documentation.

I did get to attend Twestival on Thursday night while I was in the city. It was a very cool event. Many web/tech geeks like myself. Lots of iPhones and Blackberries floating around. I got free swag (including a GIANT mousepad, a TwestivalSF t-shirt, and a pair of shoelaces made from 100% recycled materials).The only downside is I spent $43 on drinks and $12 more on a la carte sushi afterward. It was worth it though, especially when the sushi chef made me an extra spicy salmon roll.

Speaking of Twestival, I fear I am becoming addicted to Twitter. I wish there were tweetups in the Monterey Bay area (or are there, and I just don’t know about them?).

Anyway, I arrived home from San Francisco around 6pm on Friday evening and promptly crashed. I didn’t wake up until 9am on Saturday. Corner and I acquired a (free!) futon from his coworker and then we were off to the Monterey SPCA to meet some animals. We’ve been thinking about getting a companion for Nigel, but I’m afraid the next animal I acquire won’t be nearly as well-behaved/self-sufficient as Nigel. It’s like doggy karma — the next one I get will probably be a huge pain in the ass and I’m not sure it’s worth taking the chance. So I’m still on the fence.

As far as festivities related to Valentine’s Day, Corner made chicken mango stir fry and we ate dinner by candlelight while watching The Happening.

The rest of my weekend consisted of eating meals at home and playing Silent Hill: Homecoming. Creepy game. What kind of game makes you decide between killing your mother or letting her endure tremendous suffering while you watch? Yet I keep playing. The original Silent Hill gave me nightmares when I played it (I think I was like 12 or 13). I completely understand why this series carries the “M” rating.

Current Mood:Sleepy emoticon Sleepy

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