Quote | Helen Keller

I saw this quote today and thought it was so beautiful...

Designing for a Political Campaign

I have had the honor of designing and setting up a website/branding for a very special politician...my husband.  He is running for City Council in our town and I couldn't be more proud of him.  He was made for politics!  I believe he was created to make a difference in government and I am excited for this new chapter of our lives.  I could go on and on but, I wanted to talk about the design process for creating his branding.

I always like to start with the color palette when starting a project.  The color scheme has a huge impact on the overall feeling that your branding can convey.  It was a no brainer for this particular project since we needed to keep it "American"...red, white, and blue.  I played around with a few options but, my client wanted to stay in the realm of classic.  Here is the color scheme we landed on:

Before I sat down to create some concepts and worked on design, I did some research on fonts, design, and colors used in political campaigns.  Did you know that the font used for Obama's campaign is called "Gotham"?  I read a ton of articles like this one and this one.  I'm not sure why but I was actually surprised at how many people have analyzed this stuff...does a font really change your opinion about a candidate?  A font is probably not the deciding factor when you vote but, it does matter!  Your branding represents you and it might be your first impression to a potential customer.

When I felt confident to begin my creating, I worked on a few different design concepts and these were a few of the final contenders:

After getting feedback from a few trusted friends, I went back to the drawing board to fine-tune and tweak the design a bit more.  Designing for a political campaign is way more difficult than I imagined.  I love a good design challenge and of course, I couldn't let this particular client pass me by so, I stuck with it.  When you look at branding for political campaigns, they look so simple and straight forward but, there is a whole lot more that goes into creating a simple yet, dynamic appearance.  So, here is the look we've landed on:

I will use various versions of the above design concept across his marketing but, the elements will stay the same.  So, here it is, my very first political campaign design!  Feel free to check out Eric's website that we just launched, www.ericpostma.com.

I hope this article will give you some insight about what goes into the design process when you hire a graphic designer...its not just clipart and comic sans, my friends, there is a great big world of fantastic design out there!

Technology Tickets

I'm all for encouraging the free-spiritedness of summer except when it comes to technology.  We have to limit our technology time (this includes TV, Wii, computer, etc.)  Have you heard of Technology Tickets?  Well, I decided to make my technology ticket system a little different than some of the ideas I found online...like HERE.

Here is what I came up with:
The kids can earn a technology ticket for completing an extra chore or when they "go that extra mile" (being kind, helping Mama or Dad with a project, obedience, sharing, etc.)  They can redeem them anytime they would like to extend their technology time.  Right now they are allowed 1 hour of computer time a day and 1 hour of TV time per day.

Click the image above to enlarge. Save to your computer and print.

I sat down to design the tickets and decided to leave the amount of time redeemable as a blank space.  Then I could decide on the amount of the ticket based upon what they did to earn it.  For example, let's say my son decided to wash our van.  That would earn him a 15 minute technology ticket.

If this idea sounds like it might be something you would like to try with your kids.  Feel free to click the image to save to your computer and print it out.  I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this as well!  Please come back and share with me.  This is new for us too so I will try to update on our progress with this new system.  Happy Summer!

Chore Charts

Raise your hand if you use chore charts.  We do and we love them!  They are a great tool for motivating, teaching responsibility, and helping kids learn basic household tasks.  Over the years we have gone through a variety of charts and lists, each one helping our kids learn at different stages.

These charts have also been a great way for us to teach our kids about financial responsibilities.  We choose to call their rewards "commission" instead of an "allowance".  The real world does not give you a paycheck just for showing up to work, you need to earn it.  We learned some very good tips from Dave Ramsey in his Financial Peace University program about raising financially responsible kids.  In the end, teaching our kids household tasks and responsibility is a win-win, wouldn't you agree?

I sat down today to work on our "Summer Responsibility Charts" and decided to share our most recent Responsibility Charts with my blog readers.

This is our current "after school responsibility chart".  This worked so well!  The kids knew what was expected of them each day after school.  Once they completed their responsibilities, they were able to have free-time until dinner.  Adding in the "extra chore" choice was to give them a little more control over their tasks.  This made the dinnertime/bedtime scramble a lot less chaotic.  It left us with more family time at night for reading together or playing games.

I printed it out and stuck it on the fridge.  Everyone knew where it was and checked it everyday (until they had it memorized!)  Another idea is to put it in an 8x10 frame and use a dry erase marker to cross off the tasks as they are completed.  Then you can see which chores are being done and wipe it clean for the next week!

The following  will be our chart for this summer.  This is completely flexible, it IS summer after all!  If we are gone for the day, then the responsibilities don't get done, plain and simple.  This at least gives us a tiny bit of structure during the break and keeps their brains learning (workbook, reading, etc).  It will also make the transition back into the Fall schedule much easier.

I hope these charts have been helpful and inspiring!  I have many other versions that we have tried in our family and that I have made for other families.  If you are interested in me developing a chore chart for your family, please feel free to contact me through ink & mouse!  Comment in this post and let me know if you use a chart system in your house and what has worked well for you.

Heroes For Hope

I. Love. My. Job.

One of the many reasons I enjoy what I do is because I get to use the talents God has blessed me with and apply them to help people like this: www.heroesforhoperace.org

Heroes For Hope is a marathon event being established in Vancouver, Washington.  Their desire is to raise funds for pediatric cancer research and raise awareness for this awful, heart shattering disease.  Did you know that every 4 hours a child will lose their battle with cancer?  That means 6 children lost their fight today and six families had to say goodbye to their precious Babies.  That fact feels like... a huge punch in the gut.

There are so many organizations, charities, foundations, and people like Heroes For Hope that make it their mission to raise funds to support those that can find a cure.  I am so glad to be a teeny-tiny part of helping to erase pediatric cancer.

This project was quick!  They already had an idea in their minds of what they wanted, they just needed someone to make it digital.

[enter stage right: ink & mouse]

I was sent a few sketches of the design they were hoping for and I went from there!  You can see the logo on their newly launched website and on t-shirts coming soon.  If you are in the Vancouver area, check out more information on the race to help raise funds for pediatric cancer.