Last night at AIGA Charlotte’s Meet|Market event was the re|THINK poster exhibit. It was a poster competition for a way for designers to do their share to help save the earth. Posters were focused on inspiring the Carolinas to care more about their environment. There were many different styles, approaches, and ways to help the environment. It was hard to pick a favorite, but I like the picture of the tree with the thermostat the best; I think photography has a very strong power to make things seem real and true. You can view and purchase ($10 ea) all of the posters at rethinkposters.com.

I got inspiration from one of the posters, to put a bucket in the tub while I take a shower. It cuts down on half the amount of water I need to water my outdoor garden each day. I also like using my reusable bags to go to the grocery store, if I don’t have them on me and end up having to get plastic bags, I use them as my dog’s poop bags. I feel a little silly telling people I do these things, but doing small things not only helps the environment but it also makes you feel good, and hopefully it rubs off on others. What creative ways do you reduce, reuse, and recycle?

Some people may not see the point of helping the environment by reducing, reusing, and recycling, but I found two inspiring quotes:
“The choices we make as individuals are important, if only because I think humans work by example. What one person does, another will follow, and then we begin to see the numbers that will make a real difference.” Clare Harris, editor of New Consumer magazine.
“When the tipping point toward green shopping behavior is reached, when enough people change their behavior, then collectively we will make a difference.” CNN.com

Click image to see it at 100%

The current College of Computing at UNC Charlotte’s website was created about seven years ago, so it is in desperate need of a redesign. I searched around to find out what other universities were doing with their subpages for colleges and departments. Blogs and newsfeeds are becoming hot, so I knew I wanted to have that in there somewhere (they also help webpages come up higher up on the search engines). Another trend is having large images that change every few seconds with a short description. Movement and images are the main things that catch someone’s attention right away.

I started by reorganizing the site’s infrastructure to be more user friendly. I tried to keep it in line with the main UNCC’s web design and colors, so you can still tell you are at UNCC. It will be a definite improvement to the current CCI’s webpage, which a technology based college really needs to be up with current standards.

My friend had a bet with someone that she couldn’t find a fast food logo that doesn’t have yellow or red. And we thought for sure Whitecastle was the winner, until I looked it up online, and found it has yellow. It almost makes me want to start up a chain and not have red and yellow, and then it would probably fail, because it wouldn’t catch anyone’s attention! ha

There are color theories that red and yellow are used to catch attention. So it makes sense that fast food chains want to catch our attention and stop to eat there. Red is used on stop, exit, and wrong way signs; yellow for danger and caution signs. Being dangerous colors, others might say they should warn us not to eat at fast food chains since they are dangerous to our health.

I found an interesting more in-depth article on red and yellow color theories on aiga.org.

411fit is a free website dedicated to providing tools and information needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle that will go live to students and faculty of UNCC near the end of August.

They wanted some banner ads to go in the website to advertise the 411fit features, UNCC benefits related to health/fitness, and a green tips section.

The 411fit web design is photography based, so I grabbed some free stock photos to work with. I wanted each section to have a distinct design while keeping a general theme and fit nicely with the existing web design. Since the 411fit and UNCC sections had logos, I thought it was appropriate to create a simple logo for green tips.

I find so many awesome websites, sometimes very random, but I feel the need to share! I will come up with a list few of my favorite finds and post them near the end of each month. Enjoy!

stumbleupon.com - StumbleUpon discovers web sites based on your interests.

bubblecalendar.com - a poster-sized calendar with a bubble to pop everyday

weheartstuff.co.uk - an online lifestyle magazine dedicated to spotting the latest trends and hunting out the coolest new products, places, events and exhibitions.

charlottecultureguide.com - is the Charlotte-Mecklenburg region’s comprehensive, up-to-date website featuring arts and cultural events and attractions.

webdesignerwall.com - a wall of design ideas, web trends, and tutorials.

designmeltdown.com - design Elements, trends, and problems in web design

I have a love for big art. But it can be expensive, and I’m on a budget. Solution: Make my own.

First, I figured out what size would look good above my couch with keeping what I was going to paint in mind, took the measurements and headed to Lowe’s. I found some great cheap wood that was 2 x 2 x 96”, I used 2 to create my 30 x 60” frame, and had them cut it of course.

I found a photo of a tree in Charleston that I wanted to recreate with a modern look. I traced the photo in Illustrator, so I could easily simplify the photo (like color by numbers). Since, what I would be painting would be simple, I wanted to add some texture and depth. I found a nice ivory raised patterned fabric (I also used to recover my dining chairs). The paint came from what I had left over from painting other rooms and projects.

I would guesstimate that I spent about $3 wood + $19 fabric + $3 brushes = $25. I don’t think that’s too bad! The cheapest I’ve seen in stores is usually around $500; and it is not just about the price difference, but I got a personal piece of artwork I am proud of and it ties all of the colors of my place together.

I will upload the finished painting when I finish! ha