Happy New Year!

Here it comes... every year I make a vow to be more active on my blog and social networks and fail miserably. The truth is I've been falling behind because over the past 5 months I've been caught up in some kind of whirlwind that has kept me away from my blog and working on other things.

In my last post I said I had been accepted to take part in the Gen Up Programme, well that has been and gone now and I have to say I enjoyed every minute! I was forced out of my shell and made more aware of the fact that I am actually good at what I do, something us creative folk have a bit of trouble owning up to! I met some great people and networked with industry folk and most importantly ended up with a job.
In my work placement week I spent time at Raise the Roof Productions helping out with release forms and press releases which was really quite interesting. I learned a lot in the short week I was there and really enjoyed it. I also worked on their social media networks and outlined a plan for them to try when I left and they must have liked it as they asked me to come back the day after I finished Gen up!
So that's where I've been since the 7th of October. I was supposed to be there until November, but got extended until December and then on my last day I was told I had been extended until March. So really it was a Christmas and birthday present all in one.
I suppose that now that my job title is Social Media Coordinator I have no excuse to be lacking in my social media endeavours and this blog should be more active and hopefully more interesting as I share my thoughts, works and interesting stuff I've found. At least, that's the plan!

In other news I finally passed my driving test this week after 2 previous attempts and almost 10 years of learning (on and off) what a relief it was to finally pass. I was gutted I failed in December - I had 3 minors and pretty much a perfect drive, if it hadn't been for the cyclist approaching the zebra crossing...
I'm now waiting for my lovely pink licence to arrive although I would have preferred to get a new picture. I am apparently to be stuck with the monstrosity that is my 16 year old self at a time when I was known to my friends as Claire "I HATE my hair" Glasgow for the next ten years, not to mention a signature that looks nothing like how I sign my name now. In fact this licence could possibly get me investigated for some sort of fraud! Let the fun begin :D

Over Christmas I managed to get the rebranding of Daisy*B Design off the ground. Still putting the finishing touches to it all, but overall I think it suits me a lot better than the floral designs I had before. I got rid of the name Daisy*B Design as it turns out there is at least 3 other folk on the net using it and have decided to just stick with DaisyBisley as my working name. Still trying to figure out how to go about changing the Facebook page though. Any thoughts?


Thanks for reading
DaisyB

Exciting news and Nervous Days!

Haven't posted in a while due to many reasons. The main one being stressing out about an application for TRC Media's Gen Up Programme. I had to write 2 essays and spent ages on them due to the fact I hadn't written an essay in 3 years. I worte sooooo many drafts of each one and was so nervous when I handed the application in.
Anyhoo, I was called for an interview and sat in a corner rocking back and forth for the 4 days after it waiting for an answer. (Just a bit of an exaggeration!)  In the end I got a place and couldn't be more excited about starting on the 5th September. It's going to be great fun and such a great opportunity, woot!!  I've wishing for an opportuinty like this for ages now and it's finally happened, so happy! (cheesy I know, but it feels great!)

Will post a few wee bits and pieces about it if I have time over the 5 weeks the programme runs, I'll be taking up my driving lessons again at the weekend and doing some freelance while I go so it will be a busy month, but I'm not complaining :D

Another reason is due to creative block, well sort of. I've been suffering a bit from block for the past wee while, so I decided to buy a good book to help me over come it. I found The Creative Workshop by David Sherwin and from the reviews figures it was the best one. I gave the intro chapter a good read and about 2 weeks ago gave the 1st challenge a shot.
Well.....  it worked! The first challenge is to brand yourself/your company and as I was looking to redesign the Daisy*B sites I thought it was the best way to start. The book limits your brainstorming to a certain time and it really does challenge you. I came up with a new logo and font style for Daisy*B and haven't been able to stop.

 

 Some sketches from my 30 min brainstorm

New Daisy*B Design logo

 I've been redesigning the site for the past week and doing it all myself. I've learned how to use Serif WebPlus, furthered my knowledge of Illustrator and, most importantly, started desgning and drawing for myself again! It feels great and it couldn't have come at a better time, right before going on the training programme.

You might have noticed the new blog layout too, well this is based on the new site I'm desiging. I was going to roll out everything at once, but today I got too excited and had to get the blog done to go with this post. Properly Geeking out about it lol!

Feeling really positive about things today, which I hope will last. I also hope that this is the start of some good things for me, my business and for me & my other half... Fingers crossed

Thanks for reading

Daisy*B

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