The Project: Hydrocarbons & Jet Engines

Out of the blue, last Spring, I got an email from a local gentleman, who wrote,  “I need about half a dozen power points prepared of aviation turbine engines and chemical formulae.” I responded by letting him know, I’m not very experienced at PowerPoint and also wondered how he had heard about me. Turns out, when he was in our local print shop, Old West Press, he inquired about designers that could help him in this area and they referred me. I love a small town.

After meeting with him, very little involved PowerPoint—except for making sure the images I provided would import and display correctly. The project was straight forward, he had several jpg images of turbine engines and chemical diagrams of Hydrocarbons that were very low-resolution and needed something of better quality to use in his presentations. I was ecstatic to tackle this project on several fronts: graphic design, science and Bezier curves.

As I mentioned in The Designer, I started my journey as a Graphic Designer after taking a class at the local Vo-Tech. The main thing I learned in the time I was there was how to draw and trace using Bezier curves in Adobe Illustrator. I’ll explain in a moment how I’ve used this valuable skill in my career.

Click on the images below to see the ‘before’ and ‘afters’ of turning a low-res, jpeg, raster image into scaleable, high-res, vector graphics.

The Story: Designer or Artist

So here’s the other half of the story. I typically refer to myself as a Designer, not an artist (not that I don’t aspire to be one).

If I look as far back as my High School career, I was on a path of mathematics and science. AP courses in Calculus, Physics and Biology. I was (am) a geek in many areas of interest. I continued along the track  into college with a Biology degree.  But at the same time I nurtured my artistic side with personal arts and crafts projects and a long tenure playing trombone in pep, concert and jazz bands. About the time I was learning about Bezier curves, I played in the Trojan Pep-Band at UALR.

When I was offered my first job as a Graphic Designer, it was with Sportsrug.com to place collegiate logos on rugs. We also designed rugs for High School fund-raisers. Often the artwork we received from the high schools was a very small jpg image. The software we used to RIP the files to the printer, preferred the vector graphic that we could scale up to exact proportions. I did a lot of tracing (using Bezier curves to produce simple and clean images) and looking at stock artwork images (clipart) to figure out either how to trace it or use the layers to change the coloring and shades.

Is she 'right-brained' or 'left-brained?'

I’ve also talked before about my work at Parelli, and the Art Director’s comments when she hired me, about my portfolio being more technical than artistic. I believe this still applies today. People are baffled by ability to stretch my brain for tasks in either direction, like how I design layouts for websites and then build them from code—and enjoy each equally as much! While I continue to work as a freelancer, I did entertain a few interviews for in-house work last year. Interviewers commented about the very equal balance in my technical and creative skills.

I’ve obviously had some time to reflect on this Hydrocarbons & Jet Engines project that crossed my path. Here was a project that combined my skills as a Graphic Designer and my love of science. While not entirely a creative project, it was a good one that reminded me how much I depend on this skill; and it was a good chance to practice it. Not only was I very happy with the results, but so was the client, which is the most important part.

Happy little birds make the best ornaments!

I attended the dinner Monday night to conclude the first annual Christmas Bird Count conducted by the local Weminuche Audubon Society. The event was a great success with around 50 volunteer counters who are eagerly awaiting for the data to be compiled and reported.

It was while working on the website for the Christmas Bird Count that made me think about the birds…or actually a tree for the birds. Our home is very small, and a point of contention each Season is if we can have a tree and how big. I dreamed up the brilliant idea of a full-size tree on the porch and decorated for the birds. So in November, I picked up a permit from the Forest Service and we went the day after Thanksgiving to find the perfect specimen. I set it up in a stand, tied it off so the wind wouldn’t knock it over, decorated it with lights and treats…

Every time I thought about photographing the tree, the light was behind it. Which isn't ideal, but I still got some nice photos.

My ideas for ‘ornaments’ came from Wild Birds Unlimited. I first had tried to make my own version of the Grapefruit feeder. My idea was to use tangerine rinds which I’d juiced and used in the Thanksgiving cranberry sauce. I thought I could dry the rinds and hang them with birdseed in them. Unfortunately, not even  a week into drying, they showed major signs of mold and I literally had to toss that idea.

Here was one of the later 'refills' on corn cobs. The wind and huskies also did a number on the lights which I'll have to do a better job stringing next year.

I had bought the two clear, globe-shaped feeders and some corn cobs at my local Feed Store. I also picked up a few pretty pine cones when we cut down our tree. After the birds picked away the corn from the cobs, I slathered them and the pine cones with peanut butter and rolled in seeds. I’ve had to ‘re-fill’ the ornaments about every week. That is, the ones my huskies didn’t eat.

The jays really liked these globe feeders. Now that I'm taking the tree down, I've moved them and no one has tried to eat from them. I'll have to rethink where I hang them.

Another decoration that did not live up to my expectation was the popcorn & cranberry strand. I popped 2 bags of old popcorn and strung them with cranberries. This didn’t make a very long strand, but I placed it on the tree to see what the birds would think. Never touched it. I think a husky tried to swallow it, broke the string and that was the end.

I’ve started to take down my decorations and put them away. I’ve left the tree for now, and I think I’ll refill it once more as I love to watch the birds: chickadees, jays, juncos (but the nuthatches won’t touch it). I really enjoyed it and may have started a new Christmas tradition. Next year, I would like to find more non-edible ornaments that will weather outdoors. That way I can decorate down where the huskies can reach and put the treats up high for the birds. Maybe I’ll look at making some sort of ornament out of recycled materials (like old plastics & metals…plenty of time to daydream for next year).

Disclaimer: This post has very little to do with Subalpine’s business. I must confess, I haven’t found the time yet to build a personal blog, and have a lot of neat ideas, projects & pictures to share. I’m hoping by posting this, it will kick start me to get something going in that direction. Call it a New Year’s Resolution.

I've photographed these little pygmy nuthatches for years.

I can’t talk about this project without talking about the person behind the project. I met Beverly Compton over three years ago through my work with the Southwest Land Alliance. Since then, she’s volunteered for my projects as I have hers. She even helped me have one of the most awesome summer jobs I’ve had in a long time when I worked with her at Pagosa Feed & Nursery.

Beverly’s asked me to help with web projects before, and for one reason or another the timing doesn’t always work out for the depth of work requested. I know I can always say no. And she knows she can always tell me that the project has found another avenue.

The timing was just right for me to spend my *Stay-cation slapping together a classic TwentyEleven theme packed with content and links which Beverly did a fantastic job of gathering. Checkout the site hosted by Subalpine Design.

*Stay-cation: While a storm moved through in October, we holed up in the house with the dogs for almost a week without ‘work’ obligations. Then Hubby and I took off a night to spend his birthday in Taos, NM.

Because they usually travel in groups, they were the perfect featured image for the Weminuche CBC website.

The site features a rotating slideshow and Google Earth maps to pinpoint the property. Visit the site www.1500usfs628.com or click on an image below to view it larger.

or learn more about the Pagosa Estates project here.

This website featuring million dollar homes in Pagosa was launched in October 2011. Using WordPress as a Content Management System, an administrator to the Pagosa Estates website can easily add and delete listings and photos.

I added a photo from a trip to Silverton in 2007. Somewhere around Durango Mountain Restort - upper Limecreek Road which is a spectacular drive this time of year all the way to Ouray.

Fall around here also means lots of things to do. Things to put away in the yard and on the deck that will be covered in snow before we like it. Deciding which plants can be transplanted indoors, while the rest are sacrificed to the frost. Time to gather firewood, call the chimney sweep, clear out the clutter around the woodstove, etc. etc. It’s a busy time. The summer was busy too. We spent a lot of time traveling around and celebrating outdoor time.

And work has been busy. I’m so excited to report that it has been work that has really kept me away from this blog. It was still spring when I last made  a post to this site and so much has happened since then. I decided I should blog about my to-do list for this website (kinda like the one I’ve got going for my fall chores). Here’s the short list:

I completed two new projects and have at least two more in the pipeline (and that’s just the work that’s related to Subalpine that’s worth talking about—I’ve been doing my usual wearing all the hats I can get. I like hats.). In July I published a site for a For Sale By Owner home in Pagosa Springs www.1500usfs628.com. And just this week I published PagosaEstates.com. Look for posts and additions to the portfolio about these projects.

A new play on an old subject, has been the landscape with our VW Single Cab in it. I'm looking forward to sharing some galleries from our trips.

I also plan on adding a Photo Gallery section to my Services page. I’ve always wanted to add my candid photos of landscapes, dogs, etc.; but have also recently been hired for some product and real estate photography and would like to share some snippets of those photo-shoots. I know a lot about photography and editing photography, but I consider myself an amateur photographer and am often surprised what comes through the lens.

…And actually the list is much longer than that, but I think I’ll start with baby steps. My best idea is to stockpile content through the winter so when I start spending a little less time around the computer in the summer, I’ll have basic stories collected and almost ready to go. See it all comes full circle back to the season. Fall. Enjoy it while it lasts; and gather and stockpile everything you need for the winter to settle in.

Another Fun Fall Foliage from the Archives is this one from 2005 on the East Fork which is also featured on PagosaEstates.com homepage.

or learn more about the Cruise-a-Thong project here.

Some projects are just fun, and there’s not much too serious or not fun about the Cruise-a-Thong. A race for the Average Jo(e), we gave their site a facelift and an easier to update WordPress based site.

As a freelance designer, it has been convenient and economical to work out of our home office. While we still make house-calls, one of the perks of the new office is a large conference room for client meetings. The necessity of a quiet, professional office-space with access to the best internet capabilities to support The Partner in his telecommute was primarily why we chose this location. The growing demand for Subalpine’s services is what allows us to share this office space. Time to set down roots.
Photos of the home office and the new office in Aspen Village:

To find us, locate the Sears in Aspen Village. Straight across the parking lot from the entrance to the Sears, you will see a glass door marked ‘Technology Suites.’ Enter this door and we are located upstairs, through the second door on the left, Suite 207.

or learn more about the Alpine Design & Build project here.

Launched in April 2011, Alpine Design & Build’s site uses WordPress as a Content Management System while organizing and displaying new content related to green-building industries with its blog features.

The aspens in my yard are starting to get fuzzy catkins but have not started leafing out yet. I think we still have a few weeks, and it will probably be May/June before the aspen groves up high are accessible and look this lush.

With the aid of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), it’s very quick and easy for me to change elements of my site. The changes today probably took me about an hour—and most of that time was deciding what photos and colors I wanted to use. I think writing and organizing the content for this post took me at least that long! I use Firebug to tweak the colors and opacity and to preview background image choices before I update the final version that you see. It’s a very handy web tool. I wouldn’t be able to design and test CSS sites without it.

Updated (March 22, 2011): I really like the green changes and have every intention of changing the color theme throughout the season, but I’ve been looking at my site since I added the green and feel like something’s still not quite right. Something’s making it too busy. Maybe too difficult to read?

Today I decided to tweak it a little bit more. I changed the background to another image I have of aspen trees on our way to Poage Lake. You can see other photos from this area in my post about The Name of our company. I also decided to flip the background color to purple and accents (like on my portfolio page) to green. I think this is a little easier on the eyes and isn’t quite as intense. It is only March anyway and things aren’t THAT green yet.

Click on an image below to enlarge my photos from the Buckles Lake trip and the screen shots of the site transformations: