Mint

As a designer there’s nothing better than holding the printed piece in your hand… this week I was thrilled to get a copy of The Balcony Gardener’s 2011 Catalogue in the mail, which I designed in January (over a two week time span)! Ah, rush jobs. Of course, if you’re going to work on a rush job it might as well be a super fun rush job, right? And what could be more fun than designing for an online gardening boutique?

Etienne Aigner navy & white pumps, Sifted Vintage // navy blue embroidered floral boho dress, Vonlenska Vintage // 1960s blue and white shift dress, Little Orphan Fannie // 1970s navy blue embroidered maxi dress, Becky Drolen // 1960s embroidered linen shift dress, Crafty Crow Vintage // braided peep toe platforms, I Love Trash // 1960s marine dress, Meshka Vintage // 1970s Oscar De La Renta applique dress, Zwzzy

I have such a treat for you today! Photographer and writer Nikki Gardner from Art and Lemons is here with a delicious , easy recipe! This is a great way to re-purpose scraps of chocolate, like chips or bars.

Nikki lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and two year old son. Her beautiful blog Art and Lemons is filled with thoughtful photos, stories, and recipes.

Honey-Pistachio Chocolate Bark
Yield 24 pieces

16 ounces bittersweet chocolate (finely chopped)
6 tablespoons raw honey
2 cups unsalted pistachio nuts
pinch sea salt

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. With a ruler and a pencil, draw a 9×10-inch rectangle on the paper. Turn the paper over so the pencil drawn side faces down on the baking sheet.

Melt the chocolate and raw honey in a double boiler (or a pan with a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water), stirring occasionally. When the chocolate is melted, remove the pan from heat. Stir in a pinch of salt and the pistachio nuts.

Pour the melted chocolate onto the paper and spread to form a rectangle, using the outline as a guide. Set aside two hours until firm. Cut the bark in 1 by 3-inch pieces and serve at room temperature.

Thanks Nikki!

I need more pattern on pattern in my wardrobe! Nautical skirt from Vintage Magnolia on Etsy.

by Kelli Anderson

When people ask me about freelancing, one of the first things I mention is how great it is to have clients choosing me for me, for my work, and not a firm’s eclectic portfolio. Before freelancing, I used to hate getting matched up with a client who just wasn’t a good fit for my style/skills, but may have been a great fit for the designer sitting next to me. I could blame that on a lack of good project management, or communication skills between the firm and our clients, but at the end of the day, things get hectic and designers get thrown on projects. I wondered if a better designer could be more accommodating.

Today, I love that my portfolio is filled with the work I’m proudest of, and those pieces are what bring my clients to me. In the past couple years I’ve designed for wedding photographers, an event planning company, a gardening boutique, an Italian restaurant, design bloggers, a letterpress company, and many brides. A few years ago I would have never had the chance to work with clients like that.

Pietari Posti, via Design Work Life

But there is a down-side to working with highly visual clients. Although I encourage my clients to send me gobs of inspiration photos (usually gathered from various design blogs—love those design savvy clients!), there’s a fine line between having a good starting point or knowing your client’s taste, and having them art direct the whole project. A few times, I’ve had clients complain that after grueling rounds of revision and “move this 1/4″ to the left” and “I found a font that I’d like you to use instead” type art direction, that the project I was working on just didn’t look like other pieces in my portfolio. It’s all I can do to hold my tongue… if you don’t want to let the designer do their job, what did you hire them for?

In the worst of these cases, I have to have copyright discussions with clients to explain that although they sent me an example of THE perfect design solution, we have to use it as a source of inspiration and not a starting point. Not something that can be tweaked with their color scheme and copy. Again I find myself holding my tongue… because if a client has found a designer whose work is perfect, why didn’t they contact them instead of me?

Product Superior, via Oh So Beautiful Paper

Don’t get me wrong, communication is important, feedback is important, and I owe much of my better work to clients who asked for smart revisions, or had a killer project idea from the get-go. I think it often comes down to how I handle the client relationship, and whether or not that client believes I have a talent worth hiring, a professional opinion worth trusting.

I’ve gotten much better at pinpointing these tough clients earlier, and much more comfortable telling someone that I’m just not a good fit for their project. I have enough A+ clients to know that more of their kind will come along. But when one of those micro-managing clients* comes out of the woodwork, I don’t always know how to handle the situation. I asked a few designers I admire to weigh in, and found their responses to be really helpful.

Kristy Martino, HAM:
Obviously it’s a balancing act; keep the client happy and involved but service their audience and create work that you believe in. Ultimately, I think it’s a question of leadership. We are professionals with training, expertise and talent. In a way, it’s up to us to lead our clients in the right direction, help them make informed decisions along the way and at a very base level, develop a relationship that is trustworthy on both ends. That may seem like a lot of variables, but every interaction with your client builds upon them and makes those tenets stronger. If not, we may as well work in a factory, right? Not that that’s the worst thing in the world. They probably get dental insurance!

Courtney Dolloff Eliseo, Seamless Creative:
What I’ve really tried to focus on is preventative measures, in order to avoid getting into a situation where this happens. Because generally it just makes all parties involved miserable and results in subpar work.
Usually it seems that the clients who do this type of thing don’t have a ton of respect for or understanding of the design process—there’s a lack of trust there. So I think that it’s really important to try to gauge this at the first point of contact, whether it’s a phone call or a meeting, or over email. At that time I always do my best to clearly explain how I work, which is especially important if the client has never worked with a designer before. Their business is, of course, really important to them; and how can they trust you if they don’t understand what it is exactly that you’re doing? Then if at that point they don’t seem to get it or agree with your point of view, you know it’s not a good fit. And it’s probably not a good idea to work with them in the first place, unless you want to drive yourself crazy.
Sometimes though, it’s impossible to predict and you run into a situation where a client really wants something a certain way and won’t budge on it. In that case, I like to show them exactly what they asked for, and then show an additional option that is what I believe to be the better solution, and try to give really solid rationale to back it up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t; but it’s pretty much always worth a shot.

*I struggled to hit publish on this post, because I love every last one of my clients and know many of them read Mint. I’m writing this as a way to start a discussion among other designers, not to pinpoint particular situations… I think this kind of thing often arises from a lack of trust and communication, which is most certainly a two-way street.

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Howdy Do It came from “how do you do It,” the question Ellie & Margot found themselves asking about their freelance lifestyles, and so Howdy Do It was born, a column about the things we do to keep ourselves organized, inspired and on track.

A few more favorites, photographed by Whitney Deal for Hello Tenfold!

I really miss my printmaking college days, so when the book Print Workshop: Hand-Printing Techniques and Truly Original Projects by Christine Schmidt of Yellow Owl Workshop came out, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy. Luckily, Potter Craft (an imprint of Crown Publishing, which is a division of Random House) offered to send me a copy to review. As soon as it arrived I started planning out which project to try first, and one of my absolute favorites in the book is the one above (image via poppytalk).

My project (above) was inspired by various textiles we have lying around the house. Potter Craft has generously allowed me to share the DIY step-by-step in this post!

MATERIALS:
Template or your own labels
Clear packing tape
Bone folder (optional)
Bowl of lukewarm water
Clean glass jars
Cloth and 70% isopropyl rubbing alcohol (optional)
Clean rag
Mod Podge Gloss
1″ (2.5cm) flat brush

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Print your labels—in color or black and white—on a laser printer or just photocopy the template. Do not use inkjet print.

2. Cut a piece of tape and lay it over the printed design paper. Burnish with bone folder or fingernail.

3. Cut the paper along the tape’s edges and submerge the tape in the bowl of water for 5 minutes.

4. Remove the tape from the water bath and turn it paper side up. With your finger, gently rub away the paper so that only the ink remains on the tape. If you are making a long strip, start at the top and roll the paper down and off the strip of tape.

5. Cut the tape transfer onto the label size you want and adhere to the outside of a jar (I recommend spending and extra minute and cleaning your jar first with a cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol). Beginning at the center, smooth the label out with your finger to remove any air bubbles.

6. With the rag, wipe away any excess water and paint an even layer of Mod Podge over the label and its edges. The gloss medium will disappear when it is dry, so no worries.

Troubleshooting: If the paper isn’t rubbing off easily, try soaking it longer.
If the inked portions of the image rub off, repeat the process with a longer soaking time and rub more gently.

With my project, I found that a bolder design worked best (the design on the short, round bottle was a little too minimalist for this project!). I also soaked my paper longer and even rubbed the paper off while it was submerged in the water. The labels were still a little sticky after being rinsed/rubbed, so don’t stack them!

This tutorial has been re-printed here with the permission of Potter Craft. Thank you!

For many more easy, at-home printmaking projects, you can purchase Print Workshop right here.