I See Pixels Podcast

While we try to make black history every day we will also take the month.  In honor of Black History Month we discuss diversity in graphic design.  We tackle this from 2 directions, using images of diverse people in the design work we do and we also discuss people of color in the graphic design field.  We make as many Kanye references as possible and we discuss the long term effects of not seeing role models in your chosen field.  We also talk about why many people a comfortable with the norm in terms of diversity and don’t feel the need to work to change it.

We cover the 2 main factors that contribute to the low percentage of black designers:

1. Lack of resources or access to resources
2. The “old boy” network and the ramification on hiring

Links:

Why is graphic design 93 percent white?

Black Designers in History

Special thanks to @ChrisHardknocks for the intro music:
@chrishardknocks

Social:
 instagram.com/alienmuffin
twitter.com/alienmuffin
www.facebook.com/alienmuffin/

The post Diversity in Graphic Design Ep 11 – I See Pixels Podcast appeared first on Alien Muffin.

As designers and business owners we have to maintain working relationships with many different types of people. In this episode we discuss dealing with clients and how you can effectively manage relationships with people who can be hard to work with. Communication and setting boundaries are two important factors in keeping relationships and maintaining respect. We discuss what it means to fire a client and why that may be necessary. We also try in vain to remember Keyshia Cole’s name and discuss the evolution of Love and Hip Hop and the movie Passengers.

* No offense to any clients that feel targeted

Special thanks to @ChrisHardknocks for the intro music:
@chrishardknocks

Follow us on Social Media:
 instagram.com/alienmuffin
twitter.com/alienmuffin
www.facebook.com/alienmuffin/
https://soundcloud.com/iseepixels/ 

The post Managing Client Relationships Episode 10 – I See Pixels Podcast appeared first on Alien Muffin.

In this episode we loosen up a bit and cover a variety of topics from the new Star Wars movie, Rouge One to building a photography portfolio and dealing with returning customers. We discuss what it takes to stay consistent and the difference between comfort and stagnation. We also talk more about our resolutions and goals for the new year.

Special thanks to @ChrisHardknocks for the intro music:
@chrishardknocks

Social:
 instagram.com/alienmuffin
twitter.com/alienmuffin
www.facebook.com/alienmuffin/

The post Episode 9 – I See Pixels Podcast appeared first on Alien Muffin.

In this episode we discuss our resolutions for the coming year and somethings we have learned during the past year of business. We discuss 3 main goals we have for our business/lives. But before we dig into all that we discuss why people make resolutions and why many fail to keep them.

1. Organized – Create a plan to better organize plan work and time. Without a plan of action to achieve your goals you are dooming them before you even start. Start small, make them realistic and make sure the results are measurable.
2. Education – Stay up to date on new tools, software, new media.  Staying relvant in the IT world is very important consideruring how quickly things change and evovle.  You don’t want to get so caught up in your work that you look up one day and the industry has changed and you are opsolete.
3. Innovate – Evolve design direction and look for new inspiration.  Design ruts are the worst but many times it you don’t realize you are in one until you burn out.  It’s important to seek out new inspiration and try new things that are a challenge so that your work will not stagnate.

Resources

• Photoshop Training Channel – Good resource for videos on different Photoshop tricks and techniques
• Staying Relevant in Design – This post has several good suggestions on how to keep up with inspiration and design trends.
• Asana – A good task tracking app/ website
• Abduzeedo – Daily design inspiration

Special thanks to @ChrisHardknocks for the intro music:
@chrishardknocks

Social:
 instagram.com/alienmuffin
twitter.com/alienmuffin
www.facebook.com/alienmuffin/

The post New Years Resolutions – I See Pixels Podcast Ep 8 appeared first on Alien Muffin.

In this episode we talk about what works and doesn’t work with Holiday themed promotions and emails the companies send out this time of year. We cover the importance of supporting the creative people you know during the holidays and how it makes finding unique and interesting gifts easier. To close out the episode we talk about what we want for Christmas. Happy Holidays!

Special thanks to @ChrisHardknocks for the intro music:
@chrishardknocks

Social:
 instagram.com/alienmuffin
twitter.com/alienmuffin
www.facebook.com/alienmuffin/

The post The Holiday Episode – I See Pixels Podcast 7 appeared first on Alien Muffin.

In this episode we discuss time management and the way it plays into our work as graphic and web designers and relationships with our friends and family.  We discuss how managing our time and managing creative energy can help make completing projects and dealing with clients easier. We also discuss how we have learned to deal with the distractions that come along with being a parent and how to work around surprises and interruptions throughout the day. The flipside of staying focused is knowing when to take time to relax and we discuss ways to fit that into your day and life.

Special thanks to @ChrisHardknocks for the intro music:
 https://soundcloud.com/chrishardknocks

Social:
 instagram.com/alienmuffin
twitter.com/alienmuffin
https://www.facebook.com/alienmuffin/

The post Time Management as a busy freelancer – Ep 6 appeared first on Alien Muffin.

In this week’s episode of the I See Pixels Podcast we talk about our origin story and how we got started in design.  We discuss early influences and some of the people who helped us see art as a viable career choice as well as how they helped us towards entrepreneurship.  We also talk about how we both changed our plans during college to focus more on graphics and web design.  Finally we talk about some of the terrible jobs we have had outside of design and how they motivated us to do better.

Anthony recently released some new prints so check out his website for more information http://anthonyarts.com

Special thanks to @ChrisHardknocks for the intro music:
 https://soundcloud.com/chrishardknocks

Social:
 instagram.com/alienmuffin
twitter.com/alienmuffin
https://www.facebook.com/alienmuffin/

The post Origin Story: How did we get into design? I See Pixels Podcast Ep. 5 appeared first on Alien Muffin.

In this episode we discuss re-branding and when its time to change up your brand, but first we talk about the many ways a business can underestimate, misunderstand, stereotype, and offend their target demographic. We cover the different reasons a business may wish to re-brand and what effective re-branding looks like. We contrast expanding and re-branding to reach more customers vs downsizing to cater to a specific clientele. David admits to wearing starched jeans back in the early 2000’s and Anthony talks about Matthew McConaughey and Lincoln.

Special thanks to Chris Hardknocks for the intro music:
 https://soundcloud.com/chrishardknocks

Social:
 instagram.com/alienmuffin
twitter.com/alienmuffin
https://www.facebook.com/alienmuffin/

The post Brand New – I See Pixels Podcast Episode 4 appeared first on Alien Muffin.

In this episode of the I See Pixels podcast we talk about how we use (or don’t use) social media for our business. We have all heard about what you should do to grow your following on social media and how often you should tweet or post on Facebook, but do we actually do it? In our case the answer is not really. We discuss our current social media strategies both personally and for our business and how we could improve them and use the platforms more effectively. We also discuss if its worth it for us to use these social media outlets or not. Overall we are not doing great on social media so in a future episode we will follow up and see if things have improved.

Our current social media stats

Facebook – 42 likes

Twitter – 17 followers

Instagram – 86 followers

Connect with us on social media

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

The post Twitterfingers – I See Pixels Podcast Episode 3 appeared first on Alien Muffin.

In this episode of the I See Pixels Podcast we judge the 2016 presidential candidates, not based on their character, policies or hair styles but purely based own their campaign logos. We draw parallels between a person’s messaging and the design they choose and in some cases what it says about them as a person. We briefly talk about orange juice for reasons that will become apparent and we talk about the importance of taking part in the voting process if you wish to have an opinion. In the end we determine who we would vote for in the 2016 election based solely on the design of their logo and its probably not who you would think it is. Tune in and enjoy the discussion. View all the logos we discussed here

Candidates discussed:
Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, Roque De La Fuente, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Rand Paul, Ben Carson, Bobby Jindal, Trump, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, John Kasich

Register to vote >>>

The post Elected by Design – I See Pixels Podcast Ep 2 appeared first on Alien Muffin.