Posts Tagged ‘AGn Designs’

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Getting there…

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

I renewed this domain, even though I hardly use it the $9 a year to maintain it s fine by me. I couldn’t give up this domain no matter how much I really thought about it. There have been domains that I’ve lost interest in completely and just let it die – I can’t bring myself to do that here.

I still haven’t started on the new template for this site so I’m going to ask something of any visitor that’s still floating around… If you happen to come across a free theme that blends well with the technology/business kind of a theme – please feel free to comment and send me a link towards it. Hell, if I like it enough I’ll even list you in the credits. I don’t have the time to float around blogs or template sites to see what’s “in” right now. I have to say I’m really out of the loop with A LOT of things. Anyone interested in helping me get back into it?

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Posted in Daily | 5 Comments »

Where are you?

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009

OK… so I haven’t kept up with things the way I’ve intended to but that’s due to the fact that lately I’m working six days a week and I’m just too tired to blog.  I have a lot of plans for this site, I just haven’t gotten around to doing them yet.  I haven’t read up on any new technology, I don’t have any ideas for new business techniques and I haven’t got the time to really sit down and write either.  I randomly jot a few ideas down but unfortunately that paperwork gets lost with the stacks of everything else that I’m working on.

As far as the web hosting is concerned, I’ve completely handed that over to Sean (lepslair.com) so any questions you can take it up with him.  As far as my design business goes, I want to get to work on my portfolio and I know I need to update my resume quite a bit so we’ll see what happens in upcoming weeks.

I won’t have another day off from work until Sunday.  Last week I worked 7 days straight and I’ve gotta say it’s killing me.  I’ve been so tired lately it’s unreal so catching up on any missed sleep has been the first priority.

What’s to come?  I want to setup a new theme and begin posting here again.  For now I think it’s going to be a few random personal updates from time to time until I can get back into the swing of things.  School is coming up too and I know for sure that it’s going to take its toll on me once that happens.

So I guess we’ll see what the future holds.

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Making Changes.

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

It’s been quite some time since I updated this template.  There are numerous plugins that do not work with the newest version of Wordpress and it’s causing some trouble with a few of my sponsored links, as well as the bulk of my sidebar in general.  I’m going to spend some time fixing these problems and when that’s said and done I’m going to then begin working on a new template for this site.  I do like the general look and feel of the sidebar, this is why I’m going out of my way to fix it due to the fact that it may be recycled to the new template.  Either way there will be bits of downtime with this site over the course of the next few hours so if you show up and there’s a huge array of errors showing up – not to worry – I’m working on it!

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Posted in AGn Designs | 1 Comment »

Inspration Required.

Sunday, August 3rd, 2008

Work has been going pretty well lately, it’s proving to be a bit difficult on my inspiration though. I have the stamina to complete the tasks I have, there’s no question about that. The issue is where I’m unable to come up with ANYTHING for the new clients coming in that hasn’t been done before. I know there are some very creative people out there but it’s one of those situations where once you’ve seen it done before, you know it’s wrong to go out of your way to recreate it and then pass it off as your own. Of course, there is an exception to the rule. If a client asks you to recreate a template that they liked (paid or free, or just on someone else’s website) then you have to do what the client wants – without breaking any major copyright laws at the same time.

I’m working on this new site that’s health related. With the way the client approached me I thought I was going to be working on a hospitals website or something. The money from it is great, don’t get me wrong, but I was going in a completely different direction when he told me to slow down and sent me a long email on exactly what the company was. It’s for a new experimental weight loss supplement, something I’m honestly not sure I would try myself, but they seem pretty darn focused on getting it launched and out there for the world to see so of course I need to come up with something that’s not only informative, but matches their brand label and can appeal to 18-32 year old men and women whom would benefit from using their product.

So what did I do? I went out of my way to look at just about every single site that houses a large database of website templates that I could find. During my search I went through the usual sites, ones that tend to pop into your head as soon as you’re looking for new ideas.  Fortunately, I found a new one that’s certainly worth flipping through, that’s for sure.  It’s called DreamTemplates.com.  They have a database of over 300 templates that are completely free, or you can pay them a one-time-fee of $59.95 and gain access to THOUSANDS of templates.

When looking through the premium templates, I have to say that I was certainly inspired.  While the bulk of them look very generic (to me at least) the rest of them are appealing and worth that one-time payment.  They’re all high quality templates, all of the sources files are included (if you’re looking at any Flash based ones) and they’re relatively attractive for just about any business or personal site you’re looking to house them on.  I’d highly recommend them.

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Posted in AGn Designs, Graphics Design, SR, Web Design | 5 Comments »

Happy August

Friday, August 1st, 2008

While it’s only about 1:30 in the morning, it’s officially August.  July went by rather quickly.  I’m still in New York, I’m still searching for a job and I’m still working on straightening out my head so I can figure out exactly what I’m going to do with my life.  Numerous family members are sick, and while Sean and I have been at my father’s house this entire time, my father doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that we’ve both been here for as long as we have.  We’re hoping to figure things out as soon as possible but of course that requires some kind of a call-back from any of the positions I’ve applied for.

Today was pretty busy for me.  I put in a lot of applications and I spent about six hours (straight – no breaks) working on an account for a client.  I want to get everything accomplished with them over the course of the next few days so I can begin putting the finishing touches on things – mainly because right now I’m in the process of converting screen shots to code, it’s time consuming but I’ve half-assed a few things here and there just to get it done.  The finalization of things will look much better, it’s just a matter of changing some CSS attributes around so there’s a better flow with the template.  Right now it looks very pasted together, but the cosmetics aren’t the hard part it’s the conversions.  I’m moving along nicely though so I’m sure I’ll be done sooner than I think.

I have a few pending projects as well.  I need to renew this domain name so any money that shoots into Paypal over the course of the next couple of days will go right to that.  I’m also still working on loading everything to the new AGn Solutions database, it’s all automated but it’s the matter of getting my older clients worked into the billing area.  Time consuming but worth it in the end.

In any event, guess I should wrap up for the night and head to sleep.  I’ve been up for about 15 hours now so it’s definitely time to crash.

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Posted in AGn Designs, Jobs, Web Design | 1 Comment »

Moving things around…

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Sean and I are in the process of moving things around. Not only are we cleaning the heck out of the office but I was also able to locate a new hosting company and I’m going to slowly transfer everything over within the next couple of weeks. I’m getting a great deal on excellent resources and there’s literally no turning back at this point.

I’ve filled out my FAFSA and I’m working on getting things together for admissions at the University of Phoenix Online. I’m going for my bachelors degree and I hope to be able to bring in enough money so I can afford to complete the degree. If I had no student-aid to back me up I’d have to shell out a little over $60,000 to complete the course. Since I don’t have that to just throw around I know that scholarships, grants, and the potential for student loans (down the road) will be the only way. I hope to have all of the technical stuff figured out in the future. I just know that I’m finally pushing for it and damn is it going to happen.

In any event, I reinstalled MarsEdit so I can start blogging again. My only dislike for the program is the lack of ability to add proper TAGS to the entry. I think there should be some kind of an add-on for it in the future. I’ll have to bring it up to support.

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Posted in Personal | 2 Comments »

It’s pretty nice…

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

For the past three days I’ve been working pretty hard on balancing a few different clients.  I’m happy to say that a few of my bids were accepted so this month is probably going to be pretty nice – money wise.  I can’t wait to dump all of the money into the bank account so I can visually see my going up to New York at the end of June being a definite possibility.  It’s been difficult though, it’s hard to juggle so many different ideas and attempt to remember which client they’re connected to.  If it weren’t for the Stickies with my iMac I probably would have everyone completely confused.  I also have to say THANK GOD for being able to choose multiple colors with the stickies.  Each client has their own color and it makes life very easy for me.

I’ve got a new Font database, there were a lot of fonts on my laptop that couldn’t be transferred over to the Mac.  Unfortunately they’re ones that I need to use on a regular basis with certain logos and what not so thankfully I was able to find the Mac version through a huge Google Search day.  Three of my favorites couldn’t be downloaded, but that’s only because I didn’t feel like paying for them again.  I did email the owners and request the alternate download considering I’d purchased them only recently.  So we’ll see how far that gets me.  For now I’ll work with what I have.

I’m patiently waiting on a fourth bid though, that would be the biggest money maker this month.  I hope to hear something before Friday but who knows what’s going to happen there.  Either way there’s still a lot of work left to do on the other accounts so I guess I’ll get back to them now.

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Vista Print – Best Printing, Best Price!

Friday, May 16th, 2008

Vista PrintFor the past six months I’ve been a member of Vista Print. I haven’t spoken about them very much but I can honestly say that if it weren’t for their services, I probably wouldn’t be able to effectively run my design business. I have everything from personalized stationary to business cards and I’m even in the process of creating car decals as well for those interested in advertising for me (which there are a few of, thankfully). Working with Vista Print has been amazing for me and now is the time to give back and let the rest of the world know about them!

You can get absolutely anything you could need from Vista Print. I started with their Free Products which include everything from business cards, rubber stamps and even pens with your name and logo on them. They specialize in full color printing, business cards, car door magnets, logo design, post cards, brochures, window signs, hats, t-shirts, pens, magnets, note pads, sticky notes, holiday cards, thank you cards, self inking stamps, and so much more.

I originally printed my 250 free business cards with them, with $5 shipping I received my cards quickly and then went and dropped them off in stores around the area to gain some business. With a huge thank you to them, I was able to bring in enough clients to afford their premium cards – which are high gloss front & back designs. I typically buy in bulk so I have about 500 left out of the 1,000 I purchased. It only cost me $55 to get the glossy finish that I was looking for in order for my cards to stand out amongst the rest. Yes, the original cards were great but having that extra color really did allow my logo to pop.

I’ve also printed return address labels with them as well. For $24 I picked up 420 customized labels that house my logo and all of my contact information. I go through a lot of paperwork. From sending out bills to payments – you really need to stay on top of things and with a thank you to Vista Print, I’m able to run my business more effectively and couldn’t ask for a better company to work with.

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Slowly but surely

Friday, May 16th, 2008

I’ve spent the last couple of hours working on my portfolio. I’m still in the process of programming everything off-line, it’s easier than constant uploading updated files. I hope to have it completed within the next couple of hours. I’ve broken things down into categories, added the ability to purchase templates through the site without having to come back to this domain and eventually I’ll have everything worked over to that site.

The new template is based off the image I use on the main site to call to the design section. I was able to work it in, in a bold way that gives me the ability to showcase my designs without any excess coding around the site itself, bogging down on the loading time. While I’m not sure if I’ll be able to complete everything within the next couple of hours, I’m confident that it will be up by Saturday evening at the absolute latest.

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Posted in AGn Designs | 2 Comments »

Outages

Monday, May 5th, 2008

With the recent beautiful weather, there was really no question as to when the storm was going to hit. The weather for the last week has gone to at least 10 degrees above the seasonal average so when it was followed by a string of storms I knew that something was going to suffer because of it. I’ve lost Internet three times in the past few days, it was 24-hours before I could get it back at one point and all Comcast had to say about it was “sorry – we can’t control the weather”. Now, I could understand if it was a nasty storm coming through but it was pretty mild in comparison to the ones that I’m used to. I put up a fight and I’m still convinced that Optimum up in New York is a hell of a lot better than Comcast, hands down. Yes, they’re both part of Time Warner but I guess it really depends on where the lines are.

So since the cable was out I was limited as to what I could accomplish. I did manage to get a lot of work done off-line but it’s hard to test things when scripts are being called from Internet based servers and I (at that moment in time) didn’t have a copy of them backed up to my computer yet. I’m convinced that I’ll eventually go out of my way to setup an in-house server but when the cable goes out you can’t access the internal network either so I should probably setup some kind of server software on my laptop. I’m sure I could do it with partitions but I guess I’ll know for sure when something like this comes up again.

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