Do you kick yourself when you see your competition getting all the good luck? They always seem to get the best opportunities, the priceless leads, the ingenious ideas, the great deals and the massive pay-rises. It’s about time you started to get your slice of the action and get the luck coming your way. The good news is that this is more than possible, there is no hocus-pocus involved and it really is a very simple formula. The bad news is that you’re going to have to exert a fair bit of good old fashioned hard work to achieve it. It’s your diligence and determination that will set you ahead of the competition and in lucks path.

Positive Mental Attitude

+

Great Network

+

Self-Promotion

+

Skillz

–

Passive Barriers

+

Action

+ Positive Mental Attitude

This means that you need to have self belief and motivation. If you are passionate about what you do and believe that you are good enough then others will see that too. If people see insecurity or doubt they will not trust you or believe in your abilities and potential. Visualising your success can be a great way of achieving this as it helps you feel what it is like to already have what you want, thus quashing your fears of not being able to get there.

+ Great Network

Build a great network. Everyone knows it’s not what you know it’s who you know, use this to your advantage, the availability of online social networks is a great modern bonus. Be aware and thankful for the closeness of the world and the levelling of the market to those at the start of their careers. Conversely you will also do well to remember that personal face to face networks are usually more concrete and reliable. If you are nurturing a promising online relationship try arranging a real life meeting to strengthen the connection you have and build trust. You should also attend local networking meeting and join organisations within your creative field to build relevant contacts on a personal level. This will give you much better leverage than someone who is only available via the oh-so-wide web.

+ Self-Promotion

Your work may be awe-inspiringly-spine-tinglingly-amazing but unfortunately within the over saturated creative industries your work may not be able to do all the talking. It’s likely that to get anyone’s interest you will have to promote yourself to them. Many people cringe at the thought of this but it is a very necessary aspect of luck creation and you need to get rid of any negative associations you may have with it if you seriously wish to progress. Practice talking to people about your work whenever you get a chance, this will be hard at first but it will become second nature in good time.

+ Skillz

Put in the time to truly excel in your chosen medium. This will help in giving you the confidence to self promote and stay positive even when things don’t go so well. It also means that when you get some good luck you will be in a position to truly impress and go above and beyond expectations. It is always better to be in control and confident of your abilities rather than floundering and gasping for air.

- Passive Barriers

There are often passive barriers that stop you from acting or being in a position to receive, if you can overcome these barriers and be prepared for what you want you will be ready to grasp the opportunities that you are wishing for. There are pros and cons to all your aspirations. You need to be aware of the good and the bad that opportunities could bring with them. Make sure that you are equipped to deal with whatever negative effects there may be and find ways to minimise them.

Are you able to deal with these issues? Take a moment to consider the pros and cons. If you are happy and able to deal with them it’s time to make a move.

+ Action

Make sure you’re ready when luck presents itself, that you’re prepared to act on what you’ve been waiting and working towards. Don’t let your moment pass you by, if you are prepared you will be ready to grasp opportunity. Even if you do not feel fully prepared, you should still take the opportunity, 99% of the time it is self doubt that will hold you back, not your ability. Be ready to act and luck will find you time and time again.

Maelstrom #3 -Kauai, Hawaii

PatrickSmithPhotography

Big Sur – Portal of the Sun

PatrickSmithPhotography

Golden Sunrise

Sunrider007

Exposed – Isla Mujeres Mexico (Near Cancun)

PatrickSmithPhotography

Morning

Sunrider007

Red Storm Rising

Sunrider007

Portal to Big Sur

PatrickSmithPhotography

Point Lobos – Pinnacle Rock #1

PatrickSmithPhotography

Symphony of Colours

Garry – www.visionandimagination.com

Hanalei Bonfire – Kauai, Hawaii

PatrickSmithPhotography

Bandon Oregon Sea Stacks

Stephen Oachs

Zion Cascades

Stephen Oachs

The legendary and much admired David Lynch has produced a series of short interviews, collected across 70 days and 20,000 not so desolate miles of American road trip. It provides a glimpse into the hearts and minds of 121 regular people found in random locations across the states.

The journey began back in June 2009, supplying a new interview every 3 days until it’s finale with the wonderful Spira, a self confessed flower child and truth seeker. The interviews provide interest because of our innate curiosity in other peoples lives and our analysis of how their beliefs and life paths either mirror or differ from our own. Along with the crews ability to find interesting subjects. Some, like Spira, are very wise and happy. And some have had or indeed are having more trying times.

Watch Spira and all the other participants on the David Lynch Interview Project Website. And as Lynch would say; enjoy the interview.

Introduction by David Lynch

Anxiety is worry about the future, will you achieve this how can you improve this. It’s healthy and indeed productive to have these thoughts in small doses however a strong emphasis on these things can cripple you. There are few things less productive than worrying about what may or may not happen. If you can stop this worry you can achieve better motivation, clearer – more efficient thinking along with a happier more care free attitude to your work and private life.

The question is how do you achieve this?

You Must Change the Way You Think

Or find a coping method for when these emotions and worries raise their ugly heads.

When anxiety reaches high proportions you may be incapacitated for several days, seemingly unable to do even simple, small tasks which you normally find easy. At the end of the day your mental state and your ability to deal with it may well be the difference between your success or your failure.

There is no magic switch to get rid of anxiety, rewiring your brain takes time and commitment, it is easy to slip back into baleful yet comforting habits. However once you have mastered it you will find that you no longer need to worry about the grips of throttling anxiety. Situations that would have sparked fear in you before can now be dealt with in a calm and rational manner.

Looking at the object that is causing you worry as a vehicle for improvement rather than a negative experience can transform your view and experience of a situation.

Be Single Minded

When you feel yourself getting worried block out all the unimportant stuff. Chances are that you have 101 million little things to do. What you need to focus on is what has to be done today, right now. Do not let any other task enter your mind, single mindedness causes calmness and gives you control. Deal with what has to be done and you’ll be more able to handle the rest of life’s little torments tomorrow.

Have a Plan but Leave Space to Maneuver

Schedule a time-frame for your tasks, don’t be too specific on tasks way off in the distant future, they’re allowed to be a little hazy. In fact if they are too specific you will end up finding you have wasted so much time planning the next 10 years that you won’t know what has happened to the last 5. Be specific about what you need to do today, and tomorrow. Write out a short list every evening for the following day containing things that need to be done and which will bring you closer to your goal(s). Choose the most important things and remember not to over-stretch yourself, that’s just gunna get you back to square one and gnawing at your fingernails.

Find Your Own Way of Dealing with It

We all work and worry differently, there is no one size fits all when it comes to combating how our brains react to perceived or actual pressures. Some people count to 10, some people take a walk. A good idea is to take moment to ground yourself, give yourself a mental lowdown on why you should not worry about the issue at hand and what needs to be done to overcome it. Then do not delay in taking action, inaction feeds anxiety.

If you find yourself delaying action for any real amount of time it is often helpful to break down what needs to be done into smaller compartments and tackle one of them to get you on your way. Beware that doing other, unrelated tasks may end up taking you off track.

Be Conscious

Being aware of how you are feeling is one step closer to changing it. A truly conscious person can see the anxiety rising within them and calm it with rational thought and conscious decision not to let that emotion control them. They will choose the best route and choose to stay focused and deal with any problems if they occur later, rather than allowing worry to stop them from being able to complete the task in the first place.

Manage Your Mood With Food (and Sleep)

Nothing new here but as true as ever. If you are not well rested and properly fed then how do you expect to be performing at your true potential? No, really. Baggy eyes, yawning mouths, rumbling tummies and distracted minds will help you get nowhere. Your body is a temple, it’s time to treat it well so that it can help you produce those miracles you’ve been asking for.

Image thanks to Ana Filipa Machado

Today the ‘Internet Famous’ winners have been announced for the 14th annual Webby Awards. It celebrates excellence on the Internet in different media categories: Website, Interactive Advertising, Mobile, Online Film & Video.

The Webby Awards were established in 1996 and have developed swiftly in recent years, accompanying the Internet’s growth and its incredible effect on business and everyday life.

These are some of the highlights from this year’s winners selected from within the Website awards section.

The Economist Thinking Space

The Image Collection

Mashable

TED.com

Twitter

BBC Blast

Smile : )

Hand painted advertisements are all but extinct in our fast paced modern times. Hundreds of vinyl adverts are now printed out of industrial printers on mass and pasted up wherever possible. We forget how quickly times move, it was only a few generations back that hand painting was the only option available for mural sized advertisements. It is a precise and painstaking technique not to mention somewhat precarious. Mastering the appearance of a painting that will never be viewed from less than a hundred meters away is quite a tricky business.

This short film has been funded by Stella Artois. Yet despite this maintains an authenticity and rare sight into this dying art and its painters. The techniques will live on through large scale paintings in art gallery exhibitions, but its reign over the streets we walk is well over.

Links
The Ritual Project
Up There Website

Everyone feels down from time to time, feels like they are climbing an ever growing mountain of expectations, tasks and targets. Is it any wonder if you stumble and slip down into the dark land of inertia from time to time? Sometimes we can be our own worst critics. Whatever creative field you are in, you are bound to get disillusioned from time to time and find it difficult to move forwards. It is all too easy to see the failures rather than the successes when you’re down. That’s when you know it’s time to give yourself a break, give yourself a hug. Then check out these top 6 ways to get back on track.

Try to remember why it is you have chosen to commit yourself to your field in the first place, what is it that makes you passionate? What are you aiming for? What drives you to succeed and leave the competition choking in the dust?

Here are some simple steps to help you re-connect with your true creative potential.

Prioritise and Plan

Chaos works for some people, but for most knowing the direction you are headed in and how to achieve it can give you a major feeling of control. And reassures you that what you are doing has a reason and is worth the hiccups you will inadvertently encounter along the way. Always Keeping your end goal in mind will make sure that you are only doing what you truly need to, and not worrying over tasks that are not essential to your success. Anyone in business will be familiar with the 80/20 rule. That 80% of your profit will come from 20% of your customers, and that 80% of your progress will come from 20% of your work. If you can get rid of the 80% of tasks that have little or no consequence and focus on the 20% that will make the biggest difference just imagine how much further you could be in a year from now.

Pump up the Music

There’s nothing like a blast of high tempo beats to get you moving on a project. Let the music focus you and build a consistency in your actions until you have completed the task at hand. You can also use relaxing music to chill you out on an anxious day. There’s even a meditation program designed to increase concentration and aid creative problem solving by inducing specific brain wave patterns within your mind. Whatever floats your boat, or your mood, do it.

Fill your Noggin

Why not watch a documentary or catch up on your RSS reader? Do something to stimulate your brain. Try Current TV for hard hitting documentaries or Ted Talks for engaging talks. And you don’t have to restrain to only learning about your field. Often learning about a completely different issue/subject can have a refreshing effect and get you thinking in a different way. There’s nothing like airing your mind and allowing it to create in its own time, ideas always come when you are relaxed, and like hell will they come when you ask. Filling your noggin can stimulate you in unpredictable ways. Calm your mind and let it call your genius.

Just do it

In the famous words of Nike, just do it! If you are avoiding something, and let’s be honest, isn’t everyone? Then this will cause feelings of guilt which will only further compound feelings of fear and inadequacy, both common root causes of procrastination. Is there one particular issue you are finding yourself stumbling over? Can’t write the first line of an important article? Can’t get the chorus right on your new single? Identify what is holding you back from completing or starting this 1 item. Do not let yourself do anything else until you do something towards what needs to be done. It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work first time, taking action is the first step to completing. Every project is easier once started. And every project is finished more efficiently once looked at it in a new, vibrant and energetic light. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Everyone knows the feeling of relief after completing a much put off task. Imagine that relief, now live it.

Let it Out

A problem shared is a problem halved. Talking about what you are having trouble with may well give you clarity on the issue that is holding you back. Pick someone that’s a good listener for this, you never know when you might get carried away. If you don’t want to talk then why not note down your issues on a sheet of paper or on your computer? This will help clarify any growing issues and help your mind to understand them, thus aiding in focus.

Give Yourself a Break

Ask yourself, would you be this hard on someone else? Don’t stress yourself out, put things in perspective for a moment and take 5. Go on, have a Kit Kat and dip it in a cup of hot cocoa whilst watching your guilty TV pleasure. If you are working to a deadline this may not be possible. But you always have time to remind yourself that you are perfectly capable of achieving your goals, both minor and major ones. And remembering not to kick yourself if you make a mistake or work too slowly, it’s all one big learning curve. Sometimes the curve may seem bigger than others, that’s just the way it is. Realise how much easier it would be if you just gave yourself a break from time to time.

New site created by Swankoid Design. Co-designed with Derelict State Design and web coded by Swankoid Design.

Inspiration can come in many forms and does not have to be restricted to a singular method or aesthetic standard.

A person accomplished in their technique is indeed admirable, but isn’t one who attempts to draw inspiration from many sources even more inspirational? As they draw parallels and connections in interesting and previously in-conceived ways?

People who claim to be original can in fact never live up to such a claim, as we all take ideas and inspirations from other sources and our daily environment. Otherwise we would continue forever in re-creating the wheel and never moving onto bigger things. If one does not use the wheel as inspiration how could you make a clock for example? With all it’s intricate gear wheels inside. You must harness the essence or something and move froward with it, merging and welding it to other ideas.

This has always happened and always will, it is progress.

Alexandria provides a perfect example of this. It was a city founded by Alexander the Great in Egypt during 331 BC. It’s builders would unashamedly copy and combine different styles. They would merge the chubby, cherub like faces of Greek sculptures with the stiff bodies recognizable throughout Egyptian art and vica versa. Nobody complained, although it is indeed a strange partnership. This was a city at the cusp of modern technology and growth for the time. A city made iridescent by its thirst for knowledge and exploration. Here you will find tombs and temples made of a mish-mash of both Egyptian and Greek styles. As though buildings had collided and found themselves co-opting different parts of each other in a fashion not dissimilar to that of a Mr Potato Head toy. Perhaps there is something to be learned here.

Too often we stick to the constraints of pre-defined styles. When it is by merging them that we could move forward.

Could we not create a much abstracted and juxtaposed world if we went outside of the styles that constrain and contain us? Taking inspiration from different styles and different mediums in unadulterated enjoyment.

What beautiful oddities we could create.

Quick Video: GREAT DESIGNERS STEAL by Jeff Veen

New Site released by Swankoid Design. Co-designed with Derelict State Design and created by Swankoid Design.

The new Music Video For ALLFLAWS. Single released Friday April 23rd.

This is the official release date of the Best Info Disc website. It is a fully functioning e-commerce site designed to sell a range of Self Hypnosis CD’s by the much admired Randy Charach. The design is clean and simple yet stylish in order to give the products and information full attention.

Have you ever come across a great font in a book, a magazine, t-shirt, sign, poster, WHATEVER? Imagined how great it would look on your work but have no way of finding out what font it is? Fear not, WhatTheFont! to the rescue. WhatTheFont! is a great little web app that allows you to take a picture of that perfect font, upload it to their server, let their system do some fancy equations, mull it over for a while, then spit out the name of the font pictured in your file, fantastic. If you’re lucky enough to have an iPhone you can get this as a portable app too.

There are some fantastic videos online from TedTalks. It shows talks from some pretty switched on people from the TedTalks Conferences. This one gives a nice insight and some food for thought.

In the video the talker, Elizabeth Gilbert, discusses how we view creative people, and how we ‘burden’ them with their creative achievements by giving them full responsibility for them. She talks of the way it used to be believed that we had a genius rather than being one. The genius in this circumstance being some otherworldly being, so to speak, that comes to give us our inspiration and ideas.

She also broaches the idea that whilst the inspiration or idea is being channeled the receiver may be seen to be possessed. Now, if we can get away from the negative connotations associated with this word we might be able to see it for what it truly means, that they are giving themselves over to something which they cannot quite define, something more than themselves, something powerful, a feeling, a freedom, a synchronicity and a knowing that everything is working perfectly. Does that not also describe inspiration? Even those of us who are not fantastically esteemed artists have had those eureka moments. They come to us all.

A great example of this creative ‘possession’, and one that she gives, is that of a dancer becoming ‘transcendent’ and being in line with some greater force. I couldn’t help but think of these words while watching a singer perform recently, watching her strange abstract movements happening so naturally and her voice projecting so effortlessly in a perfect yet surreal harmony, as though some genius was passing through her and possessing her throughout her performance. As though she was merely a vessel for its expression.

It is a concept that is very well put by the speaker, and even if it is difficult for some to accepted in its entirety it still provides an enlightening and intriguing way of describing the creative process and its instigation.

Ok, so you’ve spent hours tweaking your web code to make it web standards compliant and finally everything seems to be working fine, it’s almost ready to go.. Then unsuspectingly you add an embedded video from YouTube or wherever and whoa, somethings gone horribly wrong. Multiple violations are staring you in the face, what on earth are you going to do now?

Have no fear, it’s not as bad as it seems, actually, the solution’s rather simple..

There is some basic information you will need to take from the embedded code, but other than that the resulting code will be exactly the same from video to video.

Firstly you need the height and width as the dimensions may differ depending on which site you are taking the video from. Feel free to change the height and width to whatever you wish so long as you keep the dimensions the same. You don’t want to end up with a distorted image now do you…

Secondly you need the video location, note that this will not be the same as in the URL bar on the page where you got the video. It’s in the embedded video information and will look something like this “http://www.youtube.com/v/qxbuysNGLOM&hl=en&fs=1″. To test if you’ve garnered the right info open the new URL into a new window, your chosen video should fill up the whole browser window and be viewable. Click for example

All you need to do now is fill that information into the right spaces. Here is the new code:

This will give you fully compliant XHTML code with the added benefit of slimming down your code. There is another option using IFRAMES detailed here. It probably takes a bit too much time to implement if you are going to be adding alot of videos but it is still another option. Personally I like that you can use a chosen graphical piece instead of having the player viewable from the word go. You decide.

So you’ve got a great idea for a new font but don’t know where to begin to make it happen? Well Here’s a concise list of Free Programs and Great Articles to get you started.

Free Programs

• FontStruct – Allows you to build fonts from shapes and structures in an online environment
• FontForge – Probably the best free download program. Gives you all the features you need to create completely original and usable fonts. Good instructions and information given on site.
• Font Creator Home Edition – A more basic option but still a good functional package
• Your Fonts – Make a font from your handwriting. Limited applicability but makes things a lot simpler if this is all you’re after.

Useful Articles

• So You Want To Create A Font. Part 1
• So You Want To Create A Font. Part 2
• How to Design A Font: {Part 1} Get Inspired!
• How to Design A Font: {Part 2} Draw Up a Storm!
• How to Design A Font: {Part 3} Make It Digital!
• How to Design A Font: {Part 4} Finishing Touches
• Helping GeekKids Create Their Own Fonts

With the falling price of recording hardware and the rise of internet communities, so comes the rise of the Interactive Web Series. It has the potential to create truly unique and boundary breaking results. To bring people separated by massive distances and cultural disparity together in creating truly unexpected and diverse results. In my view however, they seem to be falling short of their true potential. Not for lack of enthusiasm or determination, more due to their adherence to the traditions of narrative and lack of experimentation with mixed creative media. This is definitely a trend to watch and anticipate, and if you’re the one who comes up with a truly creative concept, a trend that could propel you into web famedom.

Until then here’s the list of the latest and greatest Interactive Web Series.

Lonleygirl15

This must surly be the most well known and most watched series, it was so popular that it has now reached its third series. Great name too.

Kate Modern

Dubbed the new lonleygirl.

Gravityland

iChannel

A guy starts getting watched, thus starts his iChannel.

Satacracy 88

Thriller series where you decide the direction of the plot at the end of every episode.

Crimeface

Action series using more mixed media than usual.

The Hayley Project

Crime investigation. Too many fake tears in this clip!

Many things have affected the style of modern tattoo design that we are familiar with today. The tattoo artists Sailor Jerry and Hardy where two major players in sculpting its future and bringing it into popular culture.

Sailor Jerry was perhaps more influential than Hardy, he was a tattoo artist at a time when its popularity was confined to a much smaller and seedier social sphere. He used to operate from a section in Chinatown know as “The Honolulu Tattoo District”, the only area on Manhattan island where tattooing was available at the time. This meant competition from neighbouring parlours, also only able to operate from that small area, was fierce. This no doubt served as a constant motivation for sharpening his talents. Tattoos at that time, around WW2, where most popular among sailors on shore leave, looking for a tattoo to augment their masculinity and impress other sailors with. Sailor Jerry was also, as his name suggests, a sailor, both before during and after his tattooing practise. He travelled the world by sea before opening his parlour, during which time he collected his first tattoos and discovered South-Eastern Asian Tattoo Art, along with his admiration of it. His interest in this never waned and its influence can be seen long into his tattooing career.

Apart from his artistic contribution Sailor Jerry also improved the flexibility and safety of tattooing by developing more pigments, finding ways of creating less trauma to the skin and by being one of the first tattooists to be found using proper sterilisation and one-use needles.

The esteemed Sailor Jerry Rum is based on the rum fashioned by sailors on long journeys using rum and spices. There is now a large amount of Sailor Jerry Merchandise sold under the name of Sailor Jerry Ltd. Owned by Ed Hardy and Mike Malone, another of Jerry’s protégé. Related is a growing amount of couture Ed Hardy clothing. It is perhaps sentimental to view this shameless commercialisation as debasing tattooing art, especially to those reaping its rewards. But I find myself hankering for a return to the gritty authenticity of its infant days, rather than its mainstream appeal of providing tattoo designs on t-shirts for people wanting to buy their chunk of the tattooing “lifestyle”.

Links you may find interesting:

A Brief History Of Tattoos – Different influences throughout history
Sailor Jerry Tattoo Gallery – Gallery of Sailor Jerry Tattoos, on the Official Sailor Jerry Ltd site

Video of Ed Hardys Shop in the Meat Packing district:

Ok heres a quick tutorial on installing a favicon [those little icons that appear on browser tabs and when your page is bookmarked].

1. Create a 16px by 16px icon that represents your website
2. Save it as an .ico [icon] file. You can download a plugin to alow you to save a photoshop file as .ico here. Or, if you dont have photoshop, use a site like faviconr.com to convert your picture file to .ico
3. Save the favicon in the root folder of you website [ie in the same folder as your index file]
4. Insert this piece of code in the head tag of your HTML document:

Hey Presto!!

And for a Wordpress.org blog…

1. Create favicon icon as above [1 and 2]
2. Download, install and activate this Wordpress Plugin as instructed by the readme file
3. On your wordpress dashboard go into settings then click on the new MBP Favicon label, you will be prompted to register the plugin
4. After registering you will be able to choose from a selection of preloaded favicons or  to upload you own. Upload your favicon, save it and you’re done!