interning has always played an important role as a career stepping stone, and in recent years it’s been booming due to the economy. don’t be so quick to write off interns as simply young and less-experienced, though they may be, they are also driven, career-minded individuals with a fresh perspective who have been tasked with vital roles in their companies. trunk’s article about ways to befriend the interns you meet is a good list of reminders that great people are everywhere—and they won’t be interns forever!

[image: theeastsiderla.com]
i’ve been seeing this more and more in different areas, but i wasn’t aware of how much it’s happening right in echo park! echo park urban farmers take to the streets, from theeastsiderla.com. if you’ve got some public space with sunlight, you might be overlooking an opportunity to grow food!

[image: greenlagirl.com]
if you’ve ever taken 4th street as a cross-town alternative to busier streets, you know it’s a great thoroughfare for traveling east to west by bike. there’s been an ongoing campaign to convert it to more of a bikeway, and greenlagirl has an update on the progress: turn 4th street into a bicycle boulevard: moving beyond sharrows.

food

zucchini season keeps going strong, here’s a great idea i’ve never tried before: sicilian sun-dried zucchini! salt it, season it and dry or roast it. what a fantastic snack!

melons of all kinds are everywhere right now too, and the idea of sweet and tangy makes me want to try this one: perfect picnic recipes: watermelon & feta salad.

if you’re starting to get an abundance of tomatoes and can’t get to all of them in time, whip up & chill some of them in this delicious gazpacho: chilled gazpacho andaluz.

while it’s not as hot as usual here in LA this summer, you can still get your ice cream on, now in some really unique flavors: carrot orange ice cream with caramelized ginger and maple syrup [links to a pdf at the bottom of the article]? or maybe avocado & jackfruit ice cream? or hey, how about this twist: roasted lemon sorbet!

diy projects

[image: instructables.com]
once you’re done with all that ice cream, you might want some options for tooth brushing. i’ve been curious about this and it turns out it’s pretty easy to make. check out homemade toothpaste, from instructables.com for a basic recipe and flavoring ideas.

[image: underconsideration.com]
admittedly, i don’t drink miller high life, so i’m not sure how long before i noticed their packaging redesign. luckily, we have miller high life overhaul from underconsideration.com with copious photos and reviews. i love the cleaner look that doesn’t deviate from the original, and more prominent use of their poster-girl, lucy, which is a lovely illustration featured on the sides of the 6-packs above. nice work!

packaging

[image: fastcodesign.com]
a hilarious look at what might happen if packaging could deter smoking merely by being totally annoying! can annoying cigarette packs make smokers quit? from fastcodesign.com. brilliant!

design industry

[image: howdesign.com]
i love the concept of project never, an awards show to showcase great work that never made it to final. thanks to the how design blog for showcasing the 2010 winner, an identity system for chop shop, by ptarmak, inc.. i’m loving this typography they did.

michael beirut takes a look at advertising personalities after the season premiere of mad men for design observer jerry della femina, mad men, and the cult of advertising personality.

i thought this photography post was worth sharing: the showcase of beautiful pinhole photography from smashing magazine. i haven’t taken pinhole photos since my high school photography class!

need some help talking money with clients? don’t let “you” get in the way of price negotiations, from creative freelancer blog has some possibly-familiar suggestions you might see in your own experience on how to improve.

linkswitch 28: choose a domain name, hire a designer, from freelance switch is a pretty awesome list of all kinds of things you might want to do but just don’t know how. take a spin, maybe tackle some if they’re on your list!

a few weeks ago, at the end of my 4th of july wrap-up i mentioned that i was starting a new work schedule involving co-working with a group of designers. from the minute we all got on board, we were excited about coming into a social workspace where we could maintain our independence as self-employed designers, but still get the support of working with other creatives. it’s been 3 weeks since my first day and it’s been a very welcome shake-up to my routine.

the backstory
thanks to our awesome friend, spencer cross, who started the kernspiracy listserv for designers to connect, share advice & referrals, review software & hardware, and generally discuss our industry, i met all these great designers through ongoing comments on this list and was familiar with them for years before we decided to work together. 2 designers from this group, stuart silverstein of fetch! creative and ben thompson of studiofluid have taken on a partnership to combine and multiply the efficacy of their services in e-commerce design and branding. they got an office space that had plenty more room than they needed, so they decided to ask a few design colleagues if we’d like to set up a co-working arrangement, whereby we rent desks and access to office services, bring our own workstations, and work together. at first i thought i don’t really need to do this, i have an office at home, but the more beth goldfarb and i talked about it, the more we thought it could be a great thing to help us get on track with everything we wanted to implement from the creative freelancer conference, help each other, network more regularly, and add a social aspect to our work we hadn’t had before. so, we decided to do it on a part time schedule. stuart & ben filled the other part time slots with melanie orndorff and dave waite for a really well balanced set of expertise in the room.

what’s it like?
we all have a basic schedule, but on any given day you could be working alone [though stuart and ben are usually in the office] or with 2 other people. when someone has a technical question, just shout it out and you’ll probably get it solved in a few minutes. if someone wants feedback on an upcoming project, there are usually a few people to ask about composition, usability & first impressions. we started out having lunch as a group on fridays, but we’re already talking about doing much more.

at least once a week, in the middle of a conversation, someone will say “that gives me a great idea!” and run off to write it down. someone else will need to partner with a compliment to their skill set and pair off to work together. or sometimes, one person is busy and checks with the group to see if anyone can take on extra work. i’m also surprised with how self-directed we are. we take breaks to talk, but we also have hours of headphone-fueled clicking & typing where we’re all cranking out work. it’s a really great environment of creative support with fantastic people.

also, there are dogs. dog-friendly office!

there are ways to make this happen in your own group as well. while i think it would be really cool if design firms or often-partnered vendors made room for a few extra desks and offered them up to independent designers, if an arrangement like that is hard to come by, there are ways to do it yourself. you can always put out feelers in your network for like-minded designers and sign on with a co-working space like blankspaces and arrange to meet there on the same days and work together. if you’re more into a collaborative startup environment, idyllic nerd commune might be more your thing. and hey, if you don’t need office equipment and are happy in a coffee shop with wifi, maybe see about one with a bigger table in the back and take a group mobile day.

however you might want to work it, with freelancing and small businesses on the rise in the current economy, i think picking your co-workers for a more supportive & collaborative environment is a great way to work. for me, the perk is that this is on a part-time schedule, where i still get the refuge of the home office for the more quiet, more intense, more cats & pajamas days i still need.

tuesday, july 27, 7:30-9am the LA area chamber referral network. my bimonthly breakfast to connect with my fellow chamber members is FREE to chamber members, but you can drop in as my guest if you’d like to check it out.

thursday, july 29, 7-9:30pm stimulatte [one drink minimum]. Come out and join us for a cup of coffee and some stimulating conversation at the Zephyr Cafe! This Month’s StimuLatte is being hosted by CSULA’s AIGA Student Group GAUGE. Thanks to Aileen Garrido! StimuLatte is a monthly networking event for held during the school year for Los Angeles area Design Students. come out, design students!

other events for this week

tuesday, july 27 – friday, july 30, 7-11pm each day Information Design: Transforming data into information, information into knowledge, and knowledge into stories, a week-long class at machine project.

another great piece on branding and why it’s so important to put together a strategy from the beginning. ross summarizes it best herself here:

Hiring unqualified people or designers who don’t ask you anything about your value proposition, differentiators, or target audience is not the way to save money. I talk to many people that threw away money because their brand strategy was not baked yet. Good design is a skill: it’s a skill that involves taking a message and communicating it visually, not just creating a pretty picture. You will lose more in lost sales by getting this part wrong than you will save on cutting corners.

And guess what? That brand strategy will do more than just inform your visual identity. It will serve as a compass for other marketing investments: partners, advertising, events. Basically any decision your company makes will be a smarter one if you start with the brand strategy first and use it as a compass. This helps you avoid throwing away money on what I call “random acts of marketing” and ensures that you only invest in activities that move your business forward.

[image: fastcodesign.com]
as a native of a city notoriously greenspace-poor, the idea of a large civic park in downtown LA is really exciting. exclusive first look at LA’s civic park: will it create a center for the city? from fastcodesign.com shows you some of the models and plans.

speaking of parks, our dear little echo park lake is scheduled to be drained to reroute the sewage system as part of a water quality project. this had a lot of us locals worried about the water foul that make the lake their home. city engineers make room for bird baths during echo park lake rehab project, from eastsiderla.com gives a little hope to the situation, reporting on some pools that will be set up in the interim.

if you’re pressed for LA visitor’s ideas of the green variety, being visited by greenie friends, or just want to show some love for your city, my friend emily just published a green city guide to los angeles, for re-nest.com.

food

[image: mattikaarts.com]
i pretty much fell out of my chair when i saw this recipe for citrus-cured copper river salmon, and reading about it confirmed that my instinct reaction was appropriate. my mission is to find the cut of salmon that can live up to this amazing preparation, today!

it’s zucchini season, and thekitchn.com is ready with this curious-sounding baked treat: zucchini and olive breakfast cake, french-style. french or not, i have the zucchini and my interest is piqued by this flavor combination.

it’s also a great time of year for a healthy chicken and pepper salad. roast chicken and yellow pepper salad, from lacucinaitalanamagazine.com is simple and delicious!

finally, if you’re looking for something zinger-fresh for your summer dishes, try lemon and olive oil sauce (Ladolemono), from saveur.com. yes, this is one of those times to whip it.

drinks

[image: lifehacker.com]
For all of its wild popularity, caffeine is one seriously misunderstood substance. It’s not a simple upper, and it works differently on different people with different tolerances—even in different menstrual cycles. But you can make it work better for you. what caffeine actually does to your brain, from lifehacker.com [thanks to @josh_ross for the link!]

[image: fastcodesign.com]
apparently, the idea that when a client asks for a logo, what they probably really need is a brand strategy is gaining ground. if this is you or someone you know, get familiar with what goes into brand development with six tips for designing a memorable brand from fastcodesign.com.

once you work out the brand strategy, you’ll want to create a style guide so you can keep everyone developing artifacts for your business on point. to get a good idea of what goes into a style guide, check out designing style guidelines for brands and web sites from smashingmagazine.com

logos

[image: logodesignlove.com]
more than a logo, a currency denotation is an international symbol that comes to be synonymous with a country and its people’s well being. the indian rupee underwent a redesign [via, of all things, a design contest] and a final has been chosen. i like the shape of it, almost futura-istic. read more here: indian rupee symbol selected, from logodesignlove.com.

typography

[image: fastcodesign.com]
i have been an emigre fan for my entire design career. it was just yesterday that one of many awesome creations of rudy vanderlans [brothers typeface] rescued yet another in a line of countless layouts for me. join alissa walker in her interview with this amazing type design icon and his new showcase for his typefaces, historia: type master: an interview with emigre’s rudy vanderlans, from fastcodesign.com

design industry

[image: greenlagirl.com]
i wasn’t able to make it to the pasadena museum of california arts biennial this past saturday, but you can take a spin through the greenest features here: discover green design at pasadena museum of california arts biennial, from greenlagirl.com.

we talked about it last week, we’ll talk about it this week: print cant be dead if people are still starting up new magazines, especially in these new niche markets for printed rag fetishists. steven heller profiles vintage magazine for print here: print ain’t dead yet, continued.

three for the marketing department. first of all, drop the “us vs. them” mentality, marketing and design do their best when they work together: the creative vs. the marketing team: yin and yang, oil and water, from smashingmagazine.com. then, take 2 marketing-smart tips from ilise benun: does your email say “open me?” and keywords made simple, both from marketingmixblog.com.

compliment the size of this zucchini if you must, but it’s not necessary, as it’s already quite secure with itself. this is what happens when you forget to check behind that one big leaf in your zucchini garden. the ahi cuts of this specimen will be cut in rounds for marinade and broiling, while the tenderloin will be chopped for curry. oh—if all my zucchini could feed us for 2 days!

tuesday, july 20, 5:30-7:30pm super summer valley business mixer at bokado in studio city. FREE!

thursday, july 22, 6:30-10pm moving from print to web, part 3 a three part How-To seminar series on demystifying the web for designers. free for aiga members, $15 for non-members.