Hopefully this area will be filled with some good information down the road. As for right now I'm just trying to get a website put together, make it look good and work smoothly. This is no small task since I also work full time, have kids, a wife, a great house to take care of and on top of all that I still have the dream of being a studio artist who sells and shows off his art.
So we will have to see what I can do to keep this going. As an "art" creative director I spend more time putting graphics together than putting words together. I have fantastic people I work with whose job is to craft wonderfully worded works so maybe I can get some much-needed help. I'll need to find out how much booze this will cost me, since most writers I know will work for liquids.
New Year, New Website and More Art!
January 15, 2012 | Posted by:
Scott
This year I've set a goal to create more art, not the corporate day to day stuff but some real art. Heck, not even like that crappy art I've been making lately, I'd like to go back to the old days and when I made the art for myself. I wanted so bad to sell my art back then I'd do anything, since I thought it would make me a really artist.
Looking back over the past 25 years of my life it makes me smile how much of my life has been driven by art. The bad part is that I feel that the work I was creating early on was some of my best; it is almost like I'm going in the wrong direction. You're supposed to get better with age, right? I wish I felt that way. In my early years I had no money but lots of time and inspiration, not I have lots of money but no time and no inspiration.
What I need to do is go back to the old days, make art for myself and if people like it then cool; maybe they'll buy it and if not who cares, it will make me better. This is cool, I'm putting this down so I have to do it…. Right?
I'll start out slow, maybe a new drawing or painting sketch a week. Nothing too crazy, I have no plans to get back into doing gallery showings in the next couple months. I should also start finishing off the tons of art that I've already started; I've got around 10 things going right now.
I'm stoked, this is what I need to change things around, making art is what truly makes me happy and when the fat guy is happy… everybody is happy. Man I suck at this writing crap!
Creating a creative place to work
December 20, 2011 | Posted by:
Scott
I believe it is true that you don't need to have an expensive designer inspired space to be creative in, but it sure is fun to make a space your very own. So, what happens when you give your employees freedom to redesign their space to make it more creative? This fall our owners and the whole staff at Infinity Direct found out the hard way. And it stunk.
We didn't want to just throw on a new coat of paint and call it good; we wanted to rip the whole ceiling down, trash the ugly green carpet and go industrial with a polished concrete floor and lots of metal.
We employ some pretty handy people, so volunteers of Infinity Direct (one of them can be seen on the DIY Network fixing up his kitchen – funny part is his wife did most of the work) were open to tackling this project in-house. Like every home improvement project "challenges" seemed to pop up at every turn. Cleaning and polishing the floor was the only thing we contracted out, so the toxic fumes that shut the office down for two days really were not our fault.
Miles of network and phone cables were unleashed from their hidden spots far away behind a drop ceiling that had provided cover for more than 10 years. Wire cutters and blowtorches were the preferred method of removal, but in order to maintain a functioning office, some MacGyver (or MacGruber) like snipping was employed. Now was it the blue or the red?
Cleaning up all the cables took a ton of time but had a huge impact on the space. With all that out of the way we were cleared to paint and change out all the ugly flickering ghostly fluorescent lights for warm barn lights and track lights.
Chalkboard paint, big black bookshelves and corrugated metal wrapping the workstations helped set the new vibe of freedom and creativity. As we continue to evolve the space with artwork, eBay purchases and a few more surprises if you look in the right spot, the Studio is sure to inspire our designers and probably distract our account staff with all the shiny objects.