I need your opinion. Your help, your je ne sais quoi. I'm looking to get some Business Cards made up, since I'm not a full-time employee at Mayo Clinic, and therefore do not get any Business Cards. I wanted to go with something simple, and bold. The "M" is the logo I'm rocking right now on the website and blog, and with the back, you get all the pertinent information in one shot.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments. Thanks! And I'm looking at you +Jamie Sundsbak , +Nelson Soken , +Anouk Moulliet , and +Mike Fallenstein . You got "the eye."

In the world (or should this start with a deep voice saying "In A World..") of working as a freelancing contractor that I find myself in, trying to get work is sometimes a delicate dance of convincing a client you're worth the price you ask, and that you have the skills to pay the bills. There are too many horror stories that you can find around the web about expectations and communication breakdowns.

Where I find myself right now is pondering the works of a local "designer" that has produced some work that is past the point of questionable. In fact, some examples of the work break every graphic design rule in the books (unreadable fonts, 6 different fonts on one slide, questionable composition). Over the last few months I have been thinking of how to illustrate my feelings about this particular individual that I have come to know. Here's my take:

Just because you can swing a hammer doesn't mean you can build a house.

I think we all know the person that has downloaded Photoshop or Illustrator, and figured out a few things, maybe learned what a Quick Mask was, and now advertises themselves as a Graphic Designer. Just a quick look at reddit finds you great examples, and one of my personal favorites is this glorious photography site.

These type of "designers" and "photographers" are never going to go away either. Their services will always be offered at next to nothing, and that's exactly what they provide. The best thing that we can do (and I am by no means an expert at design or photography myself) is continue to challenge ourselves to be better with our skills each day, and I truly believe the better clients will see and appreciate what you have to offer.