Long and frustrating day. That's how I'd describe today.

We had 2 simple projects to create and edit html invites then send them out as an email. I explained what needed to be done to my designer and I made sure that he understood… well I thought I did. I did that by giving him step-by-step instruction and then confirm that he knew what I was talking about by asking "Do you understand?"

He replied "yes."

So I gave him more directions to take care of the project and deliver it. He said "ok."

Few hours later, I got a call from my boss telling me that the projects were not done and we're having a big problem. 

The designer who was supposed to get the projects done have left for the day and the designer who continues the work doesn't know how to handle it. So we had to start over from scratch again. Projects that were supposed to take 2 hours max, took us over 10 hours. I don't even know how that happened.

What I do know is, DO NOT ask the question "Do you understand?" to assess if your employee or student understand. Having someone with authority ask that question is intimidating and the expected response is to nod and say "yes". If you really want to know, ask the person to rephrase what s/he understand and ask questions based on what they say. 

“We need this done ASAP!”

I’m sure this sentence is not foreign to anyone who’s ever done work.

The phrase “As Soon As Possible” is supposed to create a sense of urgency.
The project that needs to be done ASAP should be the top priority and push everything else down the priority list.

But what if everything needs to be done ASAP?

In a sentence, we use bolded text to emphasize a phrase or word so it stands out from the other words in a particular text block. But if we make every single word is bolded, then there’s no emphasis. None of the words stand out anymore.

The same principle applies to management. When you tell your employee that everything needs to be done ASAP, none will be prioritized.

If you’re looking for Javascript that can expand and contract a div menu/element, Dustin Diaz shared his script on his site: DHTML expand and collapse div menu 

Pretty simple really. In a nutshell, you just need to find the correct element (use id) then make it invisible by changing the value of style.display to none.

When you feel like you’ve been running for too hard and for too long.

Underappreciated. Underpaid. Overworked. Exploited.

Slow down. Step back from what you do.

Don’t worry, your world won’t stop turning without you.

Realize that you always have a choice. No one owns you. You were born with your very own free will and it’s always yours.

Realize that you don’t work for your boss. Ultimately, you work for yourself. You’re responsible for your own growth, both in character and professional life. Your boss is a catalyst for your growth. S/he provides the challenges to push you. It’s your own choice on how to deal with those challenges that matters.

Stop.

Drop all your work-related burdens.

Take a walk.

Clear your mind.

See things in your life objectively.

Think about the people in your life.

Think about what you believe.

Think about your deepest heart’s desire.

Take a deep breath.

Smile.

Work is not your life.

Work is part of your life.

Live your life. That’s why your work. So you have a ilfe. Don’t let it be the other way around.

“Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.”

-Charles Mingus

Today I played around with a new style of illustration similar to the tatoo-like organic illustration style that I’ve been doing, but more plant-like.

If you like what you see and would like to use it for your own project, you can download the eps file of this illustration from here.

If you do use this illustration for your project, please credit me (this site) for it.

Another photo tracing work with some organic pattern added.

In this piece, I tried to mix up the colors to create a dramatic effect instead of choosing ordinary skin tone colors.

I was not sure about the text in the background, but after  Itried it, I think it adds to the composition by breaking the space in the background.

An illustrative piece inspired the Wind character from a book by Paulo Coelho’s the Alchemist.

I’ve been intrigued by the wind because to me it represents the force in life that we cannot see or control. It can either create great distruction and blow us to the opposite direction from where we want to go, or if we recognize and make peace with it, we can see its beauty that can fly kites and push sail boats.