While at the art and performance event that is Burning Man, I was inspired into 3 more art projects to have completed by next year. 2 of these are now listed in the right menu on this site.

Some people reading this might already have their mind made up about Burning Man, seeing it as a naked hippy drug fest in the desert… but naked hippy drug fests do not produce and display art like this:

And there were many other projects including my own piece. My Monotropolis project was simple and a direct homage to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey from 1968.

I had several favorite including a piece by Syzygryd

So stay tuned as I begin a rendering of my next couple large scale projects and begin my wind-up for next year’s Burning Man. I hope I find inspiration in these through the year. Only time will tell.

As we get closer to Burning Man and my ability to finish this art project, the sculpture is getting smaller and further away. My partner on the project has been non-existent and left me pretty much on my own. I was warned to be prepared for that.

My partner on this project was the super-brain that was going to make it interactive. The plan was amazing. It can still happen, but probably not this year.

It was designed to be something special, because I was using the 2001: A space odyssey and 2010 as the inspiration because it is 2010 after all.

Well, as it turns out all my art pieces have landed in the dirt and not the playa dust which is a huge disapointment.

1. The sticker was turned down*
2. The WDYDWYD art piece looked like amateur crap when I finished
3. Monotropolis was a beautiful piece that I could not get enough support on….

Sad as it is… it is what it is. I have been working in the last year to prove myself as an artist. All the people I tried proving myself too have been supportive in my local community, but I have to prove it to myself first.

*got an email from Marian Goodell from Burning Man this week who gave me a very nice compliment on my design. When her and her team reviewed the entries they were anonymous. Mine was cool… but I bet they got something awesome. I’ll see what they chose in 30…

More to come! Here is a new rendering I did. Still waiting for one done by someone else.

I went to a client’s house yesterday and took a look at my web site on his computer and it was jacked up. The menu was in the wrong place, the there was some distortion, and I was taken back. Yesterday, I got a crude email from someone complaining that the site was looking distorted and unprofessional… yest with every browser I can find I am not seeing the same problem.

I have asked fellow designers and people in the industry to take a look at my site – for what I was hoping for – some real critical feedback and got nothing back.

I have actually begged for feedback. …and nothing.

The sites you see were checked in Explorer, FireFox, Safari and Chrome. The layouts look good in all of them. 1 minor problem with Firefox, but am working on it though it is – very minor.

Feedback for any creative person is vital. Critical feedback is great. A blast to the face is not feedback; nor does it provide details as to what you are seeing versus what I am seeing.

At the client’s house he was using Explorer 8; the same or close to the Browser I check it with from my office. I can see an error in the site from my computer, but it is in a Javascript that has something to do with flash in the framework of the WordPress theme I customized. An answer is still looming.

So, oops I did it again. For the 4rth time in 4 months I have revamped this web site. I have been trying to find the groove along with the story that tells it right. Just about there… as a client I suck for myself.

One of the things on the previous version I had a problem with was that the menu was making less sense than I was comfrotable with. Navigation is everything on a site. SEO is important, but if someone cannot find anything that makes sense it all unravels.

Now I am going to work in showing work a little better too.

A web site should tell a story. It should be a consistent tale, right? So let’s use Little Red Riding Hood as an example.

So you know the story, ol’ Red is hopping down the path and stops in front of the Bear’s house and smells the pourage. But she is distracted by a fifth wheel for sale and can sleep 8 people. It’s been to Yosemite 6 times.  WHAT??? That pourage smelled good, but this billboard made her forget about visiting the house so she kept going where she was eaten by the 3 pigs.

What’s the point? Recently I talked to a couple of clients who had a service to sell and as we discussed what the web site was about, he noted he wanted to sell his motorcycle on the front page. Which let to an RV he also wanted to sell. My advice – save those for eBay. Keep your story consistent.

Another case in point: A young woman approached me saying she needed a web site. One service was massage, but the other was gardening… my immediate thought was these were two different stories. I recommended having two different web sites.

Any web site should be engaging, otherwise people will leave. As a designer and a User Experience trained professional I can only make recommendations, but the person with the checkbook will make the ultimate decision. Eventually the Bounce Rate will begin telling it’s own story.

One client has an 80% bounce rate and for reasons he knows about. Is he willing to change, no. One client has a 26% bounce rate, should anything change. Hell no.

The point is that en engaging story will bring people back, and that really is the key. Search engines have become smarter and much more sophisticated in how they make their rankings so the old tricks really do not work. Bottom line… offer people what they need and be engaging. Keep the story consistent and not convoluted.

What do you think? I added my kilt designs to this site… should I have?

So, I tell many of my clients with Twitter to keep their profiles active and engaging. This is especially truthful for those seeing a service. Like my client Engine1Pizza.com, there was a reluctance to embrace the technology offered. However, since seeing an article on how well social networks can help they jumped right on.

Here I am advising clients to work  the social networks while I have been neglecting my own! Shame on me.

So I pose the question for those who might answer, “for reals?” My twitter pov shows me every-one’s point of view for the best articles out there or directing people to their own blogs. Are we just feeding each other? Is this ultimately the goal?

I saw one posting that caught my eye on Twitter today: “The Dudes Blog“. Having a sense of curiosity and half expecting the blog of a 45 yer old car enthusiast. Instead it was a designer touting his blog on design. …uhm I think…. still not sure after visiting it again. But with the mentioning of being a MAC snob and touting CS5 I’ll conclude he is a designer of some kind.

But I digress, how much is this social network hooey working. Well, it got me to check out The Dude’s Blog and visit Razvan’s Twitter profile. It got me to scan for the latest Smashing Magazine articles and more. So I conclude, it’s pretty good. Go viral!

As of today (4/20/10) I am working on another major update to the site. I have not received a single ounce of critical feedback though I have been asking for it. So, I decided to add WordPress to this site and give people easier opportunity to present any feedback they wanted to. Plus, by importing my blog I am now more centralized.

Earlier today, I decided to be so clever as to accidentally delete the whole show. But, in the process I learned a lot of things about managing WordPress and some hosting issues for future knowledge.

My timing could not have been any better. I was scheduled for a phone interview this morning at 10a.m. and wanted the employer to see the updated site. Uhm, yeah. That turned into a fiery picnic basket to hell, ha ha ha. 2 hours later all is well again. I love my hosting company.

I got a restore from them, plus some files I had backed up… wazzooo! All is back now. It is still a work in process, but at least it is coming together!

Any freelance clients I have ever had… if they have not already obtained hosting and/or their domain I tell them to buy them separately. But I have a couple clients who were sucked into the goDaddy commercials. This has to be the worst hosting I ever had to deal with.

If you want good Hosting, hit me up. I can host you on my shared account and do your maintenance. Or I can set you up on a separate Hosting where you can maintain your own. Unless you are using a CMS anyway.

Either way, it is smart because if you end up hating your hosting company for any reason; poor up-time, poor service, etc… you are not married to the two services.

One friend/client did that and had a billing dispute with his hosting company. He ended up losing his domain and his hosting only to be left high and dry. Hmph!

A couple small Freelance projects have come up, one of them for a political initiative. Choosing not to say anything about it right now, but interesting background on it.

Design-wise, since this is a California issue I am doing a deconstruction of the California flag for color and design elements. Personally, I am not a politically minded person. I would rather stay out of it, because there seem to be enough “know it all’s” out there already.

It’s hard to stay on the side lines these days given all the insane issues right now. Between unemployment, personal liberties and health care atom bombs tossed through the air… it is a little crazy.

The web site design I have here on art23design (StudioSK) has received almost no feedback. Of course, the purpose is to feature the design work. Feel free to make comments please either here or via email.