AC Vent

I get many different reactions when I tell people that I’m a freelancer. The title apparently comes with a lot of preconceptions, not all of them accurate. I run into these preconceived notions when looking at project and job postings as well. So I thought I’d take a few minutes to clear up some of the main myths about freelancing.

Freelancer ≠ employee. I do business as a small business, because that’s what I am. That means any work relationship I have is on a business-to-business level, not employer-to-employee. What does this mean? Well, I do not have a boss, other than myself; I have clients. Read the rest of this entry »

It should be noted for the record that I am using the Adobe Creative Suite 3 of programs. I have not yet upgraded to 4 or 5 because it is a) expensive and b) Adobe seems to crank out new versions at warp speed even if it’s unnecessary. BUT, that aside, it is a wonderful batch of programs that they’ve developed, version number aside, and I wanted to take a moment to highlight what I think are some of their more brilliant tools.  So here are my favorite unsung toolbar heroes, one from each of the design programs I work in. Read the rest of this entry »

If you want a website that you can manage yourself with relative ease, and without having to know any sort of web coding, a CMS (content management system) like Wordpress is definitely the way to go. Contrary to popular belief, Wordpress is not only for blogs. It’s one of the better blog management tools out there, for sure, but that’s not all it can do. It helps manages pages as well as multiple users, has plug-ins for things like photo galleries and mailing lists, and has one of the most intuitive user interfaces out there. Even better, if you have a designer in your corner (ahem, me), you can customize the theme to any style you want. Read the rest of this entry »

Having covered color profiles and website lingo, I will now move on to the wonderful world of print. If you’ve ever had to deal with getting something professionally printed, and are not yourself a printer or designer, you’ve probably been befuddled by terms like DPI, and possibly worried about mention of bleeds and stocks and crops. Not to worry; taking something to print is, usually, a painless and bloodless process if you’re properly prepared. Read the rest of this entry »

I have reawakened my Flickr account and will be using it to showcase any future photo shoots or photography experiments. Also check out my photography portfolio on the main AC site for info on specific photo shoots.