the last ice

last Saturday - warm air, a light breeze, a cloudless bluest sky & the end of the harbour's ice

Gearing up for my new & tres exciting 29 Black Street web site, rebranded blog + portfolio blog
Working on a fabulous new jewellery design project.
Beginning final colour collage illustration of new challenging & thrilling custom banner design !
Listening to CBC & audio books - Steve Jobs biography & Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food
Also listening/watching America's Top Model cycle 18 + Fashion Star
Had a long, fantastic chat with my own personal genius bar & IT specialist - my nephew Mike

Another busy, happy & content week here at CE* headquarters - the hoppin' teak topped desk

* Creative Empire

beiges

20 of 487 - my most recent upload into the hallowed & overstuffed halls of my mac's iphoto

mostly muted - a series of predominantly beige's.

I love taking photos. I love looking. I love making collections & groupings of very different images ... finding that one common thread. This time les beige's. Happiest Sunday !

good enough part 2

Another favourite ...

My objectives

to create a simple logo or branding that expresses fairly subtly the handcrafted-ness of what I do (both illustration & typography), keeping the colour palette online (web-site & blogs) quite neutral so as not to compete with my posted artwork or photography. The current deadline is for the branding of 29 Black Street's online presence - new web site, my portfolio blog & this blog.

I've included my existing business card & mailing label on the thumbnails page. You can see they match the current banner of my blog - which was meant to be all about the fact that I was blogging daily form this little village on the coast of Nova Scotia. I was smart in choosing the name 29 Black Street because it's the perfect sub brand of me Susan Black Design but the map imagery - blog banner, etc... has nothing to do really with my handcrafted collage illustration & typography which is the business (the creative empire) I aim to build. Hope this is interesting.

Thanks Sara ! - I will be using more vibrant colours with my business card & mailing labels, etc,
those more stand alone items won't have to conflict with my artwork or photography. I'll be pondering these options for a few more days ... & then I'll probably ponder it all some more ;-)

Happy Weekend !

good enough

la new 29 Black Street logo ?!? almost there I think & definately a new business card logo

"good enough"

2 words you'll never ever hear a perfectionist utter because in our world - there is no such thing.

tweak, tweak, fix, ponder, scan*, ponder some more, oh boy a new idea, tweak, tweak, tweak, ponder, ponder, oh boy another new idea, scan ... oh, oh my time's up. Les Deadline has arrived. I am learning as part of my role of actually really & truly being my own boss that occasionally I have to come down hard on myself. I have to tell myself Susan, it is good enough ! (like a knife through my heart) You can always make changes down the road (said slowly & well enunciated). Relax, take a breath, you've reached the finish line- it's over (this particular challenge anyway but get ready 'cause there's a brand new challenge/game just up ahead).

I'm re-branding, revamping & finally, finally having a web site due to launch some time very soon (April 1 our goal). I'm doing a trade with sweet Halifax designer gal Sarah Hart (I'm illustrating her banner the big, thrilling & tres challenging project I've been holding my breath over). She keeps emailing me ... do you have your logo ready Susan ?? gently always as is her way. It's coming ! I've replied way too many times ... this week, promise. Well the jigs up. I had to be my own boss. Time's up girlfriend. it is Good Enough !! I sent her things last night. Many, many things. I think this is one of my faves however. Bottom version with the cat, is cute, but likely won't make the final cut. Your thoughts ?? keep 'em coming please, we love to hear them!

Check back later today when I'll post les gamut of thumbnails & sketches, la process & alternate potential winners in this logo re-branding competition. I'm off now to the post office for one of my casual/part-time shifts there oh boy - parcel/packages input my first lil' job ;-)

* one of my secrets/tips - scan, scan, scan - scan as you go every stage of an illustration. That way you can never really screw up because you're always able to go back to an earlier step.


les 29 Black Street logo avec les chat le Noire - big, fat, black velvet Bleetito

hills & valleys

Flo's Pitcher No.2 - lovely 400 gm watercolour paper giclee print 11x14 & 8x10 available now

Courage is not the absence of fear,
but rather the judgement that something else
is more important than fear

Ambrose Redmoon

I'm traveling at top speed these days, faster & more furiously then I can ever remember. I hold my breath way too much, I feel that heaviness of anxiety at the bottom of my throat, fear I think that's similar to musicians, actors, athletes - it's the fear that gets you going - it's the fear that makes you compete with yourself - to try harder, better, faster. The fear that makes you want to win this next big challenge you've placed in front of yourself. I'm rushing from one great thing to the next. It's hilly country we're racing through - I plummet down some of those hills into a pit like valley (one of weakness & nojo) and then suddenly, just as quickly, I'm shooting back up the next big mountain, confident, excited & peddling as fast as I can.

I realize now I used to be self-employed - a relatively passive position of waiting for clients to tell me what they wanted me to do for them. Now I am a business woman and an entrepreneur. I'm in charge, I'm the creative director, sales & marketing, promotions, I'm the purchasing agent, a sourcing specialist, the shipping department (with Oliver) & I cover both accounts payable & receivable - it's a ton of work - it makes my head spin much of the time but ...

Hullo ! I'm having mostly ... the best time of my life.

Who am I kiddin' - I'm on Fire !

+ my favourite horoscope site - today for Cancer's ... see told ya ... on Fire ;-)

A new moon in Aries, your tenth house of long-term goals and success, motivates you to make that extra effort to achieve your dreams, Cancer. Where do you want to be sitting (and how much money do you want to be making) by the end of this six-month cycle? No matter how daunting a task it may seem to climb up that professional ladder, it’s time to make a plan and start taking action. Identify your goal and create a framework for how you’re going to achieve it—and for bonus points, take a baby step or two towards the finish line today.

& somethin for the cat fellas

Cat Man - 8 x 10 giclee print available, right now ;-) in my etsy shop

Somethin' for the cat fellas
inspired by the campy Batman TV show of my childhood

Hey Norman ... psssttt

every thing reminds me ...

more cat stuff - ya huh !! Every Thing Reminds Me of My Cat - 8 x 10 giclee print available here

Thank you to Andrea from fabulous Halifax tres cool shop Inkwell (& stockist of 29 Black Street wares) for this fabulous idea. Crazy about dogs ... crazy about cats ... spiders, birds, sharks .....

cat lady + a bit of process

And one more change ... bear with me, I didn't like those big eyes - this is more "me" ;-)

Cat Lady - 8x10 giclee print of original mixed media collage available here

Who am I kidding ?

Are you a cat lady ?
I know I am ... there's no doubt about it !!

& of course, dog lady also - big time

Bottom illustration is the actual finished collage I wasn't really happy with the painted kraft background so in Photoshop I painstakingly removed it all (hence the late blog post). I like the white background better ... your thoughts ?? Then ... later stewing & brewing, Miss Picky Picky the eyes were bothering me so I made them small & cuter (I think). Top image is the final winner. Thanks for all the comments, votes & opinions. I know there are many cat ladies here.

brilliance & pinning

Graphic design pure brilliance - book cover by Jamie Keenan & more Lolita covers here

This is the kind of simplistic design genius that makes us graphic designers ooh & ahhh & swoon & secretly flush with pure envy. So smart, so simple, so perfectly bang on. Thanks n. for the link.

No mojo, nojo, woes or thoughts there of today. I've put things on cruise control & I'm gonna groove on through this week's to-do list best I can while listening to more Pema Chodron (my new guru she's so sweet & funny live) interspersed with occasional episodes of The Daily Show

On Pinning & crediting the source. There has been some recent controversy regarding the ethics & morals behind Pinterest, serious issues of copyright & ownership which when I first heard about them I did cry out loud here at the TTD* Oh No !! 'cause I sure do LOVE ma Pinterest, it is the answer to my prayers. The prayers I never could quite seem to articulate. I used to save jpg images of inspiration to my desk top & then I'd never know where they came from or who the artist was who created each inspiring piece. What's the point in that ?

Not to mention the amazing free advertising & marketing Pinterest is giving me & my own blooming creative empire as people all over the world Pin my things with links back to this blog or my portfolio blog. Now that's a very good thing. As the hub bub of Pinterest controversy dust settles I look to my mentors & leaders the who's who of the design/creative blog world & none of them have stopped Pinning. Phew !! I say. But ... New rule - please instead of trying to come up with some cute catch phrase to write underneath your new Pin - cool craft for the kids, too sweet birds, etc...

Pin the source. The artist & where you found it ie Susan Black - 29blackstreet.blogspot.com Come across a Pin you want to Repin & there is no source use this fantastic google image search. Thank you graphics-fairy for this useful link & I'm gonna keep on Pinning & always with credit.

* TTD - Teak Topped Desk

Click HERE to for instructions to find the source an image or Pin

oh no, nojo

I take too many photos, I take too many photos ... another assortment 15 more from this week

Mojo is the positive spirit toward what we are doing now that starts from the inside and radiates to the outside. To help understand mojo, contemplate the opposite nojo.

You need a firm handle on your identity to understand why you gain - or lose - mojo. The issue is not how others perceive you, but how you perceive yourself. To alter behaviour, we often need to change our identity - our self-perception. Keepin' on, keepin'on

Marshall Goldsmith from his book Mojo

Oh no, it's nojo ! (with dramatic spooky organ music playing in the background)

Yes I've misplaced my darn mojo ... again. & of course she always leaves at the most inopportune moments & even though I know in my heart she always comes back - it still freaks me out a little, that niggling* small seed of doubt that maybe, just maybe, this is the time she won't be back. I was just saying to the Prince last night, who so patiently listens to my nojo-mojo-woes, that when this dark & stormy mood sweeps over me it is all about confidence & about how I view myself. Changing one's perception of oneself ... wow ... I think I'll file that one under daunting as well.

*niggling - a new favourite & slightly overused word ;-) Have you noticed ?