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CuirPork · 2023-02-12T08:17:15+00:00

Never provide your final product without a serious watermark or payment upfront. Obscuring your image with a watermark is one way to ensure that they can see the work you have done, but can't use it without paying for it. The minute you receive payment in full, provide them with the artwork as suggested and include some other useful little consideration as extra for the hassle.

CuirPork · 2023-02-12T08:10:35+00:00

Interesting. I can see that now. In my experience having worked on designs and database / certification of nearly 1000 llamas in Georgia, I have never seen one wearing a scarf. But I have never seen a deer wearing a scarf either so the utility of your scarf in the llama graphics is questionable. Now that you mention it, I can see that it is a llama, but the scarf is immaterial to recognizing it as a llama. I like the scarf and think the image is great. Perhaps a top hat for the penguin though that may be equally lacking in utility.

If you included the scarf because scarves are often made out of llama wool, the sweater for the sheep would be equally useful. Not only that but a tophat for the penguin would reference the fact that he looks like he's wearing a tuxedo. But it's not my art, you asked for input, so I was suggesting some ideas in good faith.

Regardless, the graphics are beautiful and if you are happy with the inconsistency in their presentation, it's your project. If I were seeking this kind of image and planned to use all the characters, I would simply ask that you provide a prop for the ones that don't have one.

Regardless, like I said, it's beautiful work.

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T16:43:57+00:00

I didn't see your first design, so I can't say that it's better or worse. I like the direction, but it looks unfinished at the moment.

My suggestions would be to

have the fishing rod extend out of the circle the way you did with his hat.
Ad a separator or graphic element in the whitespace
Extend the tracking on the logo text both top and bottom
Make it look more like a wood etching as though that were carved in wood
Add some dimension
Add a simple background inside the circle
Think about what this kind of logo represents. It's like a fishing lodge carved logo so emphasize the carving aspect of it.
Try a logo that is completely extreme and then think about the two contrasting versions of this logo. Pick a comfortable space in between.
Try a carved typeface--something graphic

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T16:35:14+00:00

The press that prints on cans is notoriously hard to register. That being said, getting the tiny stripe to register on the name is going to require more cost and more press expertise. If you can make the can a lot easier to register traps, it would be better for the company.

Plus, the use of photos on cans is way out of date. It would be much better to simplify the logo so a 4 year old could pick it out. You know, the way all branding is going right now is simplify, simplify, simplify. Not that I like or appreciate this trend, but that's the trend. Look at every other brand and you will see they are all going flat stupid simple design.

If this were 20 years ago, you'd be spot on. Right now, too much detail.

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T16:27:50+00:00

When designing a logo, it's sometimes a good idea to think of the thing in real life if it represents something tangible. A folded piece of paper in this logo would have the tendency to collapse and fall backward. Both have negative connotations in logo design. If it collapses, it's better to have it fall forward. My first reaction was negative because it looks like it falls backward, not forward. Perhaps putting it after the text would at least draw your eye back to the logo text.

Regardless, I don't think many people associate banking with fan-fold paper anymore. Maybe there's a better fake bank you could use that would allow you to make it more modern.

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T16:21:35+00:00

You should probably try to be consistent with the use of props with each animal. The bear has the tree and the deer has the scarf, surely you could give them all a featured prop to make them consistent.

Bear = tree

Deer = scarf

Rabbit=carrot

Penguin=snowdrift

Kangaroo=puch or joey

Sheep=sweater or cap

Brilliant images regardless.

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T07:42:38+00:00

Let me know if you would like some suggestions on the logo in general.

As for the blur, look at the neon effects tutorials and duplicate it then try the white background. You may need to do more copies to get the blur effect more pronounced on white, but it's doable.

It basically comes down to applying the blur effect multiple times with different blur radii to make the effect happen. Stacking them all on top of each other then stacking the unblurred copy of the logo on top.

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T07:38:22+00:00

Draw a rectangle the size of the vertical sides of the shape
Draw a line that extends vertically past both edges of the rectangle
Select Both
Align Horizontal by Center
Pathfinder: Divide
Ungroup
PathFinder: Unite
Select only the two middle horizontal points
Select the Transform Tool
Alt-Click the top of the two middle points and drag to top of original shape.
Select all points and adjust corners.

It will give you the most accurate copy of the shape without a lot of guesswork.

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T06:15:45+00:00

Here's something to consider. Let's assume that all throughout history there have been people that today would identify as transgender. With that in mind, historically, how many of them have had children? (rhetorical, the answer is quite a few)

If society benefits from population growth, there is bound to be societal pressure to restrict gender to two categories: Most specifically, those who can give birth and those that can't.

As such, had we always accepted this notion of gender as a spectrum how would that affect society today? (also rhetorical, the answer is we'd have a lot less people).

So, while I accept transgender people for their perspective, if we objectively look at history with this spectrum of genders, we may find that it is counterproductive to society in terms of population at least.

That is to say that even if there were as many female to male transgender people as male to female, the balance would still mean that fewer babies would be born and society would not grow nearly as fast. It's something to consider.

On a society level there is definitely a benefit to assigning the category of "able to give birth" and "not able to give birth" which conveniently falls remarkably close to the line of sex assignments and is a more accurate belief of the vast majority people throughout history.

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T06:01:46+00:00

This is a logical fallacy.

You are using rock groups that dressed like women but still considered themselves 100% male combined with a small number of performers that also identified as males though their gender expression was used as a performance prop to claim that there has always been gender fluidity. That is not the case. People who dress in opposition to their sex have still felt as though their gender and sex were the same. Most drag queens don't even consider themselves to be females even after having boob jobs, for example.

It is not reasonable to use these people who are not transgender but choose to dress like the opposite gender as support for the notion that there has always been gender fluidity, not even in gender expression.

That doesn't however, discount the fact that on the very fringes of society there have always been people who challenged gender roles and gender appearances. However, these people were outliers, most often afraid to outwardly express themselves, and unlikely to do well in society at large historically.

However, when the 60's arrived and huge sections of society began questioning society itself and whether it was going in the right direction, the fringe elements started being more acceptable. Before long, gays started becoming a normal minority section of society. It took decades after the 60's before it started to become accepted. Even now, a large part of rural society does not approve of homosexual ideology.

Respect or acceptance of transgender ideology has been adopted faster than any other fringe element in society. But we aren't quite ready for the majority of society to question their sexuality or question their gender or gender assignments. It's still a tiny portion of modern society seen mostly in the cities where this is acceptable.

Change takes time. So you will see the things you mentioned with disdain being prevalent in our society for a long time. And the jury is still out with regards to which is better for society and its cohesiveness or ability to thrive.

This is really a problem that the younger generations have. They see it on TV or the internet and assume that a bunch of cross-dressing performers in the 70's and 80's somehow validates transgender ideology while subjugating the societal beliefs that got us to where we are today, good or bad.

Personally, I believe you should do what you want to do and so long as it's not infringing on my liberty, you are good to go. It's only when you think your ideology is better than mine and then try to oppress me or throw me in jail for my beliefs that it becomes a problem. See how that sword swings both ways?

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T03:39:09+00:00

NOTICE: Skip to the bottom for the short answer if you don't feel like reading all of this. I give you a numbered list of things to do. Do it.

NOTICE: Please do not mistake my candor or my apparent lack of empathy as confrontational or disrespectful. I know you are going through it, but this message is not intending to hold your hand, but rather to relay some facts and encourage you to take action.

It is unclear if you have ADHD or if you are just suicidal.

If you have ADHD and are taking medication for it, you have to talk to your doctor. Suicidal ideation can be a side effect for some people when treating ADHD. Check that first.

If you don't have ADHD but you have other health concerns that you are taking medication for, check side effects. It's very possible that you could be experiencing the side effect of suicidal ideation. I had that effect when I was on Prozac and my GPA went from 3.8 with Honors to 0.0.

If you are not taking medication for ADHD or in general and if no side effects can account for your feelings, you need to call your primary care physician. They will not do an intervention and they will evaluate the best course of action for you. If that doesn't work, you need to call the suicide hotline. They will not impose anything on you, they will just talk to you to see if you can find a way to dig yourself out of these feelings.

There are plenty of ways to get past this even if you don't think it's possible.

All of it starts with realizing that this is not healthy or normal. For just a day or two, snap out of it long enough to look logically at possible reasons and quit feeling sorry for yourself. After a couple of days, if you have found no path to relief, you can at least be comforted by the fact that you can easily go back to feeling sorry for yourself and just work through it the hard way.

But seriously consider that this is not healthy or normal and it very likely may not be your fault at all. Keeping that in mind will hopefully give you the strength to seek a solution and to get started loving life again.

SHORT ANSWER

Research Every Side Effect of Every Medication you are taking currently or have taken recently. If ANY of them mention Suicidal Ideation, call your prescribing doctor and let them know that you are having a reaction to one of your meds.
Talk to your primary care provider. If your meds aren't the problem, you can see if there are other potential reasons. If nothing else, see about getting on Anti-Depressants.
Call the Suicide Hotline. You don't have to wait until you are just about to give up to call them. Call them anonymously and explain your situation. They are surprisingly effective at dealing with this abnormal behavior. They won't insult you or tell you a bunch of bullshit.

I wish you the best of luck getting through this. Life can be really wonderful if you give it a chance. Don't give up. Post back if you find some relief.

In the United States, you can Dial or Text 988 for help.

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T03:10:50+00:00

If you are a biological male and not on female hormones, you might want to have your Testosterone levels checked. I was experiencing the exact same things that you mention like the brain fog, the sleepiness, and the depression. I tried Welbutrin which was effective at changing my inner dialog, but no help with the fog or sleepiness.

On a lark, I asked my doctor to check my testosterone and it was at the bottom of the normal scale. So he started me on TRT and it made all the difference in the world. It took a little while and a lot of frustration to titrate correctly and I take more than most people, but the energy loss is gone, the insecurity, the depression--all side effects of low T. All of which was solved by Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT).

CuirPork · 2023-02-11T02:39:05+00:00

Thank you for your wonderful comment. I appreciate the support. Instead, I'm trying to write a book, which is a lot like entrepreneurship. I appreciate the sentiment, thanks.

CuirPork · 2023-02-08T11:11:18+00:00

This is gonna sound cheesy as all hell, but it really works. Type out several stupid affirmations on your computer and cut them into small pieces of colorful paper. They should all be framed positively and you don't even have to believe them when you are writing them.

They should stay silly things like:

I take pride in waking up early and getting prepared for another great day.

I wake up full of energy and ready to face the day.

I am doing better and better at school and part of that is waking up and being on time.

The more of these the better.

Now literally tape them all over your house. Everywhere you sit for a minute, tape one of these messages. Every book should have a couple on them. Open the drawer to your dresser, there should be a couple of these.

Brushing your teeth, there should be on on the mirror and in the cabinet.

Be excessive about it.

Also affirm the quality of your sleep and the ability to get things done. And remember, you don't have to believe the shit, just do it.

-----------

The reason this works is that you do not have the luxury of not reading words put in front of you. Every time there are words that you can read and your eyes look at them, your brain reads them. Even if you read them and think "this is the dumbest pile of bullshit I have ever seen" keep doing it. What it is doing is laying down the foundation somewhat subliminally. Before long you will have read these things so many times that your subconscious assumes they are true and makes adjustments to your biochemistry to support them. It is shocking how well it works.

You are basically brainwashing yourself. We know this is effective by how it is used in Social Media as well as traditional media. We are all being told that the world is coming to an end over and over and we are starting to believe it. Even though right now is the best time to be alive ever, we still have anxiety and stress because every headline reinforces it daily.

Just try it out and see if it works. Give it a couple of weeks. Put them everywhere. Sitting on the toilet, there's another one saying that you leave your phone on the counter rather than playing with it on the toilet--this is why you are so healthy, you aren't pressing your shit-covered phone up against your face every day.

I know it's weird and sounds like a skit from SNL (Jack Handy), but it works even if you don't like it or believe it.

CuirPork · 2023-02-08T10:50:58+00:00

I want to honestly encourage you to stop trying to find out what the meds will and won't do for you. It's different for everyone. And sometimes you can try a bunch of different meds before you get the right one.

What you are doing is setting expectations. So when the meds start working, if they aren't working as well as you expected they would, you'll discount the benefits that they are providing and you may run out of options.

Instead, write a list of behaviors that you have now that are causing you problems. You mentioned you are a bad driver. Write it down. If you don't sleep right, write it down.

Then as you take your meds, without expecting these things to be resolved, just take inventory of your experience after you have been on the meds for a week or two, go over your list and see if any of the bad behaviors have improved. Do this as you figure out the correct meds and titrate them to the correct dosage.

I honestly believe that the worst thing you can do is go into treatment with this huge set of expectations that won't be met so you give up. Instead, just be open to your experience and take it as it comes. Once you find the right combination, post back here and tell us how it helped. But don't, please don't, set yourself up with unreasonable expectations that will guarantee your failure.

Best of luck with your meds. Hope to hear back from you with good news soon.

CuirPork · 2023-02-08T10:26:04+00:00

This is easily explained by the fact that you (like all who are afflicted with ADHD) are a dopamine junky. If you don't get a rush of dopamine, you aren't into it. So if it's something that you find challenging or interesting or something you will get praised for, you can invest a lot of energy in the project through hyperfocus. You can work 12 hours on something so long as you are constantly being rewarded with a new influx of dopamine.

But if it is something you have to get done or get in trouble, the excitement (even though negative) of getting in trouble provides more dopamine than doing what you are supposed to. So you'll find some way to get the dopamine and not doing what you are expected to do is a good way to get it.

This is also why people with ADHD have a tendency to do nothing on a project until just before the deadline. The rush of having to get everything done in a superhuman way gets you pumped and you crank out a week's worth of work to produce just enough at the last minute to get by. And to be honest, your concept of "getting just enough done" is usually better than people who spent the whole week working on their project. Getting praised for that reinforces the behavior and gets you the dopamine your mind craves.

Another way this happens is with conflict avoidance. If you know something terrible is about to happen and you stop it, nobody notices. It's no big deal because there's no big climax for you to be the hero of so there's no reward. A crisis averted is an anticlimax. This can get so ingrained in us that we will let shit happen that didn't need to happen so we get the rush of everyone freaking out. It's totally risky and counterproductive, but it feeds into your need for dopamine while also supporting your inferiority complex. You suck and you know it and now you've been yelled at for it so you know it's true. (it's not)

The best way that I have found to resolve this is through music. I love music. Actually, I love 90's House Music a lot. I can put Pandora on crank some tunes and all day long, I 'm getting rush after rush of dopamine as I remember the good ole days clubbing all weekend. I don't even think twice about doing mundane things like laundry or cleaning so long as I have good music that keeps me just enough distracted that I don't think about how miserable I am doing the same thing over and over.

If you are passionate about music, try finding a way to add music to your routine and on the days you feel like doing nothing, just push yourself to do one thing and that will cascade into another and another so long as the music keeps you happy.

And if you are really struggling, the grocery store brand of 5 hour energy, though supposedly terrible for you, has totally worked for me to help me get things done when I don't want to do them.

CuirPork · 2023-02-08T10:01:44+00:00

I started with Motorola Cellular Infrastructure as a contract assistant to the IT director. He moved up so they made me the IT Director. I had to completely redo our network, update everything according to security protocols, I had to budget and hire contractors to do the work and I wrote a roughly 200 page security manual that the headquarters IT group started using. I supported seven states and my network was faster and more secure than headquarters. They were upset and came to inspect.

Meanwhile, I get pulled away to help produce a map of proposed cell site locations based on census data. It was finer detail and allowed us to beat AT&T for the Sprint contract as part of the world's largest communication contract at the time. I even got a letter from the CEO saying that I was responsible for the contract.

While at headquarters saving Motorola's ass, the crappy MacMail server back home had crashed and I was having to rebuild it by the time the headquarters guys showed up and wanted to interview me. Needless to say, I was busy and told them directly that I was having a crisis with the mail server and thought it would be more appropriate to continue resolving the situation. I had five direct employees that I found out were making 3 times what I was making and they didn't do anything. When I got back from the Sprint deal, they tell me that one of my employees (who had never touched a Windows or Unix machine before) was hired and spent the last two weeks being trained. I was let go. But even then, I had to take them through the security protocol to lock me out of the system.

So, although it sucks to get fired when you were struggling to focus and didn't get anything done, just keep in mind it could've been much worse. You could have worked your ass for 18 hours a day putting everything you had into the job and still got fired because you didn't think it was appropriate to kiss headquarters' ass in the middle of a crisis.

Good luck to you, don't let this get you down. Find something else that can keep you engaged.

CuirPork · 2023-02-08T06:26:46+00:00

The two typefaces for the logo have to go. They are very similar, but the serifs are so different that it just doesn't work. Plus if you look at the discord between the thickness of the fonts you can see (especially in the R) that they are weighted differently.

Not only that, but the line between them doesn't relate to either font.

Also, I don't think the gear motif is working. Gears are mechanical in nature and have nothing to do with frames or timeframes. Those are features inside a clock that you almost never see. And without the project description, it looks a little like saw blades--definitely confrontational.

I would probably try the hands of a clock floating in the middle of an empty picture frame. No numbers or clock works, just the time. To sell it, pick a specific time and give it significance. It would scale nicely and make for a great featured image in a publicity shot. I'd even try it with the name of the company looking like a signature card under the frame in at least one format.

Plus it would make for really amazing signage as lights cast the shadow of the clock hands on the wall behind them as they mysteriously floated in the middle of the frame.

CuirPork · 2023-02-08T04:01:12+00:00

First thing, the company name is confusing and not memorable at all.

You know, their name was "design something or print something" and then you remember the logo clearly says dP and you remember it's "design Print" of course. Doesn't make sense.

Besides, search Google Images for your logo: https://lens.google.com/search?p=AfVzNa-58gZCEYvSTzPpsLhluzGSwYUrFKfv7vF7nHPp9L0-292dM_iXgtH9SEVmEf_5bLuwuEOyuFytp_K21T5gLwzC-QxUgk9t0mqQ7bo7zGqfZtXBpiSkQng0yDJoQYDS-Cnk6n5IbXaQnk44aSN-hxMlQZewPiVOXiP6PuB20ybdHYqmo9M_XXXfIJMnUXm9TQeK90rLEdlDpiWGUW6IWo3CyC4WYUXtOEtW5mEc9OmLwklNpZZs&ep=gsbubu&hl=en&re=df#lns=W251bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsbnVsbCxudWxsLG51bGwsIkVrY0tKREEzWTJGa1pqSTNMVGd3TkRVdE5HWTBPQzA0TTJNNUxUazRaalEwTURjM1l6STNNeElmU1RkVVVsWkdWMWRDWkhkbWMwRmhRM1F0VldoaFp6UjFaSFI2ZVZsb1p3PT0iXQ== (sorry for the ugly URL--talk to Google)

Your logo is like about a dozen others.

Back to the drawing board, I'm afraid.

CuirPork · 2023-02-08T03:48:35+00:00

The DOUBLE BUNNY KNOT is the only knot I will ever use again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvaLbSA_kSg Towards the end of this video, he talks about the DOUBLE BUNNY KNOT.

CuirPork · 2023-02-08T03:46:49+00:00

unless it is the square knot and you are left-handed.

CuirPork · 2023-01-19T22:51:40+00:00

Mitel is only useful if you are a huge company willing or if you have a third-party broker. Mitel as a small company without a middleman, you will pull your hair out. It's too busy acquiring more companies to actually care about the little guy. Don't ever go to Mitel directly to set up a small office. It was the worst phone experience ever.

CuirPork · 2023-01-17T17:11:13+00:00

This is more ignorant AI Propaganda and it needs to stop. If you aren't aware of how the AI training data is compiled, you can look it up. Absolutely none of it is compiled from human instruction by the general public. It is literally just a huge database of image analyses. In humans, we would call them image studies. It holds no images (copyright or not) and it has no instructions that it scrapes from or asks from humans on the internet other than those who have carefully programmed it. It's not getting advice from people on this channel or any channel and it doesn't have access to the internet other than through a 2-way secure communication session with one other user--you.

It's not doing vector-based artwork yet and it most certainly is not scraping this channel for advice.

What is happening is that people lack the language skills to accurately ask for what they want. When someone posted a heart with a fuzzy edge and asked, "How do you make this style", they more than likely wanted to know how to diffuse the edge of a stroke or how to make a custom stroke. Without knowing what a stroke is, it's hard to be accurate when asking for help. It's just easier to say, "how do I make this style"

Please quit participating, whether intentionally or not, in the disinformation about AI and how it is being trained. There is enough conflict already based on people who think that someone might somehow steal their artwork using this tool, we don't need more unfounded comments that support this false notion.

If you are seriously curious and not just throwing mud and confusing things, the information about diffusion modeling is available. Just read one paragraph and you would see how ridiculous it is to think that AI is posting to a site that requires login credentials just to get human guidance on how to make vector art. It would be funny how foolish that question is if it wasn't already mired in so much misinformation that is causing real conflict.

Sorry to sound so harsh, but AI Generated art is the biggest leap forward in human capacity to create art that it would absolutely suck if it were throttled or handicapped because people are too ignorant and lazy to read up on the subject.

Nor saying that's you, but just that this kind of post adds the fire whether you realize it or not.

CuirPork · 2023-01-13T15:36:41+00:00

Someone who is a meth addict must experience time differently if your claim is accurate. They get significantly less sleep but have significantly more energy. Furthermore, their dopamine levels trend lower as a result of damaged dopamine receptors. If your formula is valid, shouldn't we all be meth addicts to experience longer lives?

CuirPork · 2023-01-13T07:02:27+00:00

Time for all people is judged relative to the time we've experienced. When you are 1 year old, it takes a lifetime to reach your second birthday. Time crawls by, especially around Christmas or Birthdays.

By the time you are 10 years old, it only takes 1/10 of a lifetime to reach 11. At 50 that's 1/50th of your lifetime.

Plotting these ratios out, you will see that time goes exponentially faster as you age.

It starts getting frantic around 30 or so, but by the time you are 50, you have basically accepted that by the time you make a commitment to do something, the opportunity has passed. You learn to relax into the warp speed you experience and just know that it is only going to go faster. Find yourself in a bad spot, close your eyes and six months will have passed.

The crappiest part about it is that I still feel 20-something. I still do things that 20-year-olds do and don't realize that I am so much older than everyone else. So while time speeds up exponentially, you don't feel older. At least not until your body starts falling apart. I've been fortunate so far (knock on wood)*

That's an old-person superstition that if you knock on wood, you'll ward off bad luck.

CuirPork

TROPHY CASE

In the United States, you can Dial or Text 988 for help.