Activity

Congrats Pok! I have been wondering for a while why your work has not garnered more attention. 

Thanks Andrew. I do remember him. I’ll reach out at some point, but I think your logic makes a lot of sense. I’m going to think about what you wrote.

I like it,
It supports my suspicion against a criminal behind each bush

One thing that we can’t overlook, and NCA777 touched on it, is that it is one thing to out grow your ability to produce the work all by yourself and another thing to become a manager of people producing your work.
 
The questions are “When to hire? How to hire?” Most of us think that the “when” is simply at the time that there is more work than y…[Read more]

Dear Travis and Andrew
Thank you very much for the support!
It means a lot for TROP, a tiny studio in the middle of nowhere, ha ha.

Its 10pm here and I am just wrapping up my work day, so excuse the shorhand–

I’ve wanted to write a graphics book for a couple years now and have even gotten as far as writing a 20 page book proposal, but it kind of died there. I think you make a great point, maybe work WILL die off and I can dust off that book proposal.

In some ways I fell…[Read more]

“adapt”… you said it! that’s the immediate solution. Know the feeling well as i am also a freelance/design consultant!         
all the best 

Jason,
This list is really helpful.
I will try some on the 30 day trials and see how it goes.
I appreciate all your tips.
Jane

Hi everyone , 
No one has mentioned Marketing and Sales and how you are using all of these tools to promote your business ??   Especially internet marketing and how you have designed and structured your web sites to drive enquiry to your companies/entities.  Or have you ? 
I am really really old and still have lots to learn , but I am up to dat…[Read more]

Thanks. That’s a great site.

Hi Jane , we have been using Vectorworks ( about $1500 to 3000) for years and it allows us to do Landscape Design , Architectural Design , Product Design and it comes with Renderworks that allows us to not have to export to other programs to get a great 2D and 3D result . There are also a couple of hundred training videos on youtube for it , so…[Read more]

I made some of the plant symbols for Idea Spectrums software in 2009 when I really needed work.

these are good problems to have..

1. I like myPantone, although it may be more helpful for computer work/graphics. It lifts the color palette from an image and gives you the recipe to match (RGB, etc) in photoshop, etc.
2. Sun Surveyor is good for plotting sun/shade in smaller scale work. You can look through the camera on your phone to see where the sun will be at different times…[Read more]

Crossvine might do, although the texture is a bit coarser than Jessamine and it wants full sun. Bignonia capreolata. It’s native, climbs by twining and with adhesive cups that don’t damage mortar. Flowers are red-orange, and attract hummingbirds. I have it in my yard, and the species performs better than the cultivar I purchased at the local…[Read more]

I have the same problem as well! I am in a position where I need additional people but afraid to hire because I am afraid the work will dry up. The Spring here in Ga has been a busy one.

It depends on what level of detail you want to get into in addition to cost. Many residential places use software that is designed just for that type of work with lots of plant symbols already in there and 3D objects. Kind of like better versions of the landscape programs you can get at Best Buy…and even those may actually suit your needs for…[Read more]

D’oh! Based on all these responses, all of us newbies (2 years or less) will never be hired, will we? Good to hear there’s enough business that you’ve (briefly) thought about hiring, though.

no software will or should make the design process easier.

Autocad lt I hear is a good, economical option. Then there is vecterworks and the dept store programs. You can do anything in photoshop.

-n

Depends on whats under the hood so to speak–I run a custom machine–win 7 64bit, 16 gb ram, nvidia graphics, core i-7 processor, etc. Also a SSD will make a big difference in a PC. From what I understand this is the main difference hardware wise between a mac and pc–its a $75-150 upgrade.