Demonstrate the richness and complexity

Heading out to vote in the primary election should be the top priority for Americans, but taking photos of your polling place should be the second priority for designers. In a campaign called Design for Democracy the AIGA - the professional association for design - is working to “demonstrate the value of design by doing valuable things.” Working with different government agencies to redesign the voting experience, the AIGA hopes to improve the interactions between US citizens and their government. Designers across the country can contribute to the cause by documenting their voting experience and submitting photos to The New York Times Polling Place Photo Project.

"The Polling Place Photo Project is a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that encourages voters to capture, post and share photographs of this year’s primaries, caucuses and general election. By documenting local voting experiences, participants can contribute to an archive of photographs that captures the richness and complexity of voting in America."

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday and I plan to vote and document it and submit the results!

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Polling Place Photo Project: how to participate.

A little yelling never hurt anyone

When you're the youngest of a family I think you either let thing happen and quietly observe, or you're like me where you observe situations then just start yelling. Not screaming, but yelling. Yelling because nobody would listen otherwise. I always hated it when people used to ignore my input because they thought I was too young. I have really good ideas, damnit, and I don't bother talking unless it is a really. good. IDEA! So when people don't listen that just makes me YELL.

This passion toward being listened to is something I've had to set aside in my professional career. I understand that people running their own business may not necessarily agree or even want my input on every aspect of their marketing plan. I can respect that however hard it may be. But for the select few that are close to me, the yelling will never stop. I am not so young anymore but habits are hard to break, and this one is especially difficult because I'm not even trying. It's not very often that I get to combine the yelling with my passion for graphic design because I mostly freelance for other companies and yelling at them that their logo sucks is just not good business.

The only time I can really yell until my heart's content is when it comes to NobleKnits, my sister's yarn conglomerate. Nancy is a designer in her own right. She is a published knit and crochet author. She refashioned her clothes before 'refashioned' was even a word (think Molly Ringwald circa Pretty in Pink.) But when it comes to print and logo design she takes a step back and lets me take over, but not at first. Nancy always has a million ideas circulating through her head and so when she sets her mind to a new business concept, all best watch out. I try to get her to be patient while I design a logo or a business card, but she can't sit still. Within an hour of a phone call I'll have an email with 20 ideas attached to it. I clench my teeth and open the email always fearing what might be inside.

It's only been bad one time. The other nine years of stuff have actually been pretty decent. I just want them to be perfect. In our symbiotic relationship we achieve logo, website layout and merchandising perfection by yelling. For some reason I can't help it. Maybe I quickly revert back to all those years of standing in the kitchen with two adults and three teenagers all discussing a topic and me, age 4, expecting to have my opinion count just the same. I'm not sure. I just can't help but yell about Nancy's new ideas. "What is this? Why did you put this here? Why that color? What kind of look are you going for? There's no balance to any of this!"

Apparently I've done this so much that Nancy is scared when she makes a change to her website. Not being able to resist the ideas circulating through her head, she now makes the changes then deals with the wrath of Heather. Except this time? THERE WAS NO WRATH! She changed her whole website around, redesigned her logo and (WOW!) did a great job.

All because she says she can hear me yelling if she doesn't.

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In honor of the new look, NobleKnits.com is offering 15% OFF any order over $50. Use the code NEWLOOK at checkout. Promotion ends Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008 11:59 pm EST. Enjoy!

A little pat on my back

It's exciting to get up one morning and find your work selected as 'good design' by a group of your peers. I regularly read and sometimes post on the Estetica Design Forum, which is about graphic and web design. In the Logo Design & Brand Identity Forum I found a thread titled Heather Walpole - Print & Identity Design, here.

The piece they found was an identity I did for a local interior design firm, Three Arch Design. I like it, the client likes it, the printer even liked it, but to have it found on the world wide web and posted by a group of my peers is another treat all together! Thanks Estetica!

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Estetica Design Forum, here.

Happy Holidays

I've spent the last two days up to my eyeballs in ribbon and wrapping paper. The last few years I have made a lot of the gifts we give to people, but this year I was not so motivated. Instead, I've had a lot of fun collecting gifts along the road of life.

I'm actually looking forward to the holidays this year. It's the first year in nine years that I am not working retail in some capacity and it feels great. Yesterday I poured over my wrapping paper collection and chose two coordinating papers, then I hauled out my rubber stamps, pinking shears and glue stick, made hang tags and bound each package with lots of twine.

Of course, once I sat down on the floor to commence my wrapping festivities, I was joined by two furry not-so-helpful helpers. Henry came and and wedged himself in the tightest burrow he could while still monitoring my every move.

Lola went for a more active approach. First she started on my left...

then she made a full circle inspecting every gift, paper choice and scissor making sure to step on each before moving on to the next.

Finally I made some headway. I call this year "2007, the year of the GIANT gift tag." I like how they look and I'm excited to give them!

This is Susan's gift. I've very excited about it.

Oh, and look, Jenny's gift got some special stamping treatments!

New portfolio piece

I just delivered these business cards to a new client. His logo was clean so they were a lot of fun to design. I had them printed at Will Copy & Print in San Diego. They did a beautiful job as usual.

I am putting them in my portfolio. I really like them.