I happened to stumble upon this site that shows of all of January 20th’s newspapers. I thought it was rather interesting to see all the different headlines, photographs, and layouts. Arizona Daily Star is one that jumped out to me. I like how it’s so simple with the type treatment, and how they let the photograph and his name tell the story. So many of the other newspapers just look so hectic and uninviting. Take a look for yourself: benwikler.com/news21all.html

I tried watching watching the Inauguration on my computer at work but every site seemed to be crashing a full. I ended up going shopping during my lunch break and got to see it on TV. I stumbled across an amazing collection of photographs from the event, participants, and witnesses from all over the globe. Here are just a few, to see the entire collection click here.

President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office from Chief Justice John Roberts to become the 44th President of the United States on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) #

Barack H. Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States as his wife Michelle Obama holds the Bible and their daughters Malia Obama and Sasha Obama look on, on the West Front of the Capitol January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Chuck Kennedy-Pool/Getty Images) #

Spectators in Times Square watch President Barack Obama take the oath of office during his inauguration Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009 in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow) #

Residents of Kibera, one of the poorest quarters in Nairobi gather to watch the inauguration ceremony of US President Barack Obama in Nairobi on January 20, 2009. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images) #

Cecilia Perez, center, watches the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama with Oscar Rodriguez at her taco stand in Mexico City, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull) #

People gather for the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America on the National Mall January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) #

40 years after their silent protest at the 1968 Olympics, Gold Medalist Tommie Smith hugs Bronze Medalist John Carlos, and their wives Delois Smith and Charlene Carlos after Barack Obama is officially sworn in as the President of the United States. Photo taken in the Smith room at the Sheraton Boston in Boston, MA. (Boston Globe/Stan Grossfeld) #

Pakistani Christian children hold portraits of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama during a prayers ceremony for global peace in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo) #

I have been neglecting to write for a while. With the new job, then a family death and buying a new house — my time was very limited. I’m glad that things are starting to settle back down. Since buying a house, I’ve been obsessed with getting it to look how I’ve always dreamed. I don’t think my husband really understands why I have to design everything I get my hands on. In the next few weeks I should be finishing up some of my recent interior design projects and ideas, and will post them up.

In the meantime, I just wanted to feature some of my best work from my job since I started.

cgtextures.com- CGTextures strives to be the worlds best texture site. Making textures should be about creativity, not about spending hours looking for the right image on the internet. I hope that by supplying good quality textures in an organized manner, your everyday work will be easier and more enjoyable.

stripegenerator.com - Tired of pixel-by-pixel painting, trying to create seamless stripes textures? Here we are! Enjoy using stripe generator! Unleash your personal style, experiment and download the tile. You can use it directly in your css file or as pattern in Photoshop®!

pandora.com - When was the last time you fell in love with a new artist or song? At Pandora, we have a single mission: To play music you’ll love - and nothing else. It’s my lazy way of listening to free music when all I have is a computer.

thinkgeek.com - ThinkGeek started as an idea. A simple idea to create and sell stuff that would appeal to the thousands of people out there who were on the front line and in the trenches as the Internet was forged. From programmers, engineers, students, lovers of open source, to the masses that helped create the behind-the-scenes Internet culture. ThinkGeek started as a way to serve a market that was passionate about technology.

As part of AIGA’s “Meet Your Neighbor” event, I got the privilege of touring and learning about Boone Oakley, a full service out of the box ad agency based in Charlotte, NC. Boone Oakley currently occupies one of the few remaining historical buildings in downtown Charlotte. As soon as you enter the space, you have no choice but to be inspired. Another graphic design firm occupied the space before Boone Oakley; So, Phil Smith, president/partner, explained they could not take full credit. I really regret not taking my camera. I thought it was interesting that they chose to intermingle the different types of staff throughout the building so everyone could be apart of the creative process.

Enough about the building you can’t see to appreciate…You want the dish on the company right?! Just to name a few of Boone Oakley’s long list of clients: Bloom, MTV2, HBO, American Heart Association, NASCAR, Charlotte Bobcats, Visit Charlotte… and the list goes on. Founders, John Boone and David Oakley, also have a long list of awards. I thought it was very interesting how they opened the presentation by stating, “We hate advertising, and we tell everyone that. What we’re after is the response.”

They showed us this billboard they put up in 2000 during the Bush election. One or two days later, they put up a banner along the bottom that read, “Job wanted: Proof-reader, hire.com”. They got so much response, even got on the news. From then on, clients have been coming to Boone Oakley asking them to do they same thing for their company. They definitely have an innovative, bold approach to advertising that never fails to impress their clients.

Their philosophy: “Do great work for people we like. Work with brands that we are truly passionate about. Not take ourselves too seriously. Have fun.” They said they have had to turn down some potential clients due the fact that they were unbearable to work with, even ones they went after because they thought they would be fun to work with, like MTV. And they would have never thought how much fun it would be to work with a grocery store like Bloom.

Be sure to check out their awesome work: Boone Oakley

Bad signage is easy to come across when so many people take the cheap way out and don’t hire a professional. The first time I came across this sign I just laughed. It reminded me of the one time my grandma was trying to tell me the name of this website, she proudly said, “It was www-dot-com!” I just burst into laughter. I tried to explain to her the middle of the domain was the most important part.

With this car dealership, their hierarchy is completely off and I think they have the fear of negative space. A major flaw is the smallest part is the name of the shop. One of my pet peeves is when a telephone number has a word in it, who regularly dials a phone number with letters?! I could easily make his sign look better in under an hour, I wonder if I should contact him?

Bank of North Carolina’s sign just has one major flaw, you can’t read it! The black cast iron on the dark brick makes it really hard to read. Other than that I have nothing against the sign. But isn’t the importance of the sign legibility? A sign can be designed perfectly, but if you can’t read it, what good is it?

topsecretrecipes.com - Ever wonder what the recipes from some of your favorite dishes at chain restaurants? They have recipes from Burger King to Olive garden. Although, you have to pay a small fee to view most of them, there is also a good amount viewable for FREE!

thesurfacestore.com - Interior wall removable vinyl graphics. My favorite, that I’m thinking about purchasing is under garden > Magic Tree.

photojojo.com/timecapsule- With a Flickr account you can setup to get emails of pictures from a year ago. A great, easy way to view those pictures you forgot about.

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My design education in primarily in print and identity design, but I have had a strong interest in web design. Having a website on your business card is almost more important than having a phone number, in my opinion. Landing my exciting new job as a web designer, I am getting to challenge myself in becoming a more creative web designer. Among my first projects, was to redesign three websites for waterfront communities. The print materials were previously outsourced to great graphic design firms in the area. So I had a lot of inspiration to pull from, I was basically transferring the identity that was created into web. I have actually surprised myself in how good things are turning out, and I’m getting great feedback.

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First, I looked in housing magazines to find development’s ads for the web addresses. As I was bookmarking my favorite developments’ websites, I started noticing some trends and items that interested me. These websites are selling expensive waterfront communities, with the general audience being well-off and over 50. So they need to look the part.

I wanted each website to be distinct, but have general similarities. My ideas were for all of the websites to have an area for large interchanging pictures, add a favicon (icon beside the web address, that shows up in your bookmarks), texture/depth/transparencies/patterns, match their print materials, show a forecast for the location, and have a more user-friendly site infrastructure.

I can’t wait to make these sites live! Here are the existing websites: Water Ridge, Summerhouse, Cutter Bay. You can be the judge if they need updated by my new designs.

Does a believable handwritten font exist? I’m on the search. The problem is when you actually write something out, no two letters are exactly the same, like they are with a font. The pressure points and thickness of the writing utensil also varies.

If it’s not that much type, I will find a font I am happy with, type out the text, print it out, trace or write over it on tracing paper, and then scan it in. Tracing the text allows me to keep a fairly uniform size, write in a straight line, and not misspell; while giving it enough inconsistency to make it believable. It makes me laugh when someone asks what font I used.

But in this particular case, there are 10,000 envelopes that need addressed, and I cannot write out all those addresses. So I am sorting through thousands of fonts to find the best handwritten font I can find.

Do you have a believable handwritten font you would like to share?

After searching for two months, I landed a perfect new job. I was starting to feel a little hopeless, and then all the sudden I had four interviews and two offers in one week. I was very excited to accept the offer from Waterfront Communities, Inc. to be their Graphic/Web Designer.

Waterfront Communities has developed and marketed 36 luxury waterfront communities in the southern United States. My primary job will be to redesign/update some of the websites for the communities that they are currently marketing, here is one: http://summerhousenc.com/. They are currently outsourcing all of their print material to design firms, but the hope is to bring it in-house, which I think is a great idea.