Happy Fall, Yes its Halloween Month! Fun!

HERE IT IS! A light launch of our new site, there are still things I need to tweak and update, but its here, and you get the gist of what I'm doing. I plan to update weekly personal illustration projects and all the work projects that I'm currently in the midst of. I also will incorporate some design, art, & business education as well. Its just not a portfolio site, (I think I show off and rant enough on Social Media) so I hope the education part of this site will be useful and pretty. Currently I just wrapped up some illustration work with Flavia Fiorello, from http://mamaesabetudo.blogspot.com/. She has created a awesome, stylish, new mothers guide book thats coming out end of the month. My Illustration work will be featured in it. Her blog is absolutely adorable, I drool at all the cool kids rooms and artwork on her blog. It just makes me want to go ALL out for my daughters room. My little Ellie now is two and four months, full of energy, her personality can be described as pretty SASSY w/ a monkey tail. She's really into owls like her mother, and lately grandma Helen is sending her all this crazy awesome clothes from the city of Hong-Kong for her to sport to daycare. Her mommy is still styling with modern yogi gear from lululemon Atheletica, after completing a Art/Canvas/Install Mural at the new showroom here in VA Beach. The new show room is at the shopping strip on 17 str & Cypress Ave. Go check out some amazing art and yogi gear. Mira Boykin, the manager will assist all yogi fashion needs! Plus there are free yoga classes on saturdays, check their facebook for more info. I'm ending this post with so much love and passion, mostly making things happen despite all of lifes bumps and set backs. We are off to vacation in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina next week more to follow as the fall leaves drift me into an inspirational state of rest and fun..

Help spread the good energy by purchasing a launch poster print over at Society6 or for larger prints in my Shop Space. 

It's finally here.

I've included a option to purchase my digital poster during this launch period printed on Fine Art Archival Paper 13 X 19 inches. Please Make $35.00 payment through PayPal, and we will print it out and mail it to you in a shipping tube safe and sound. Allow 1-2 weeks for delivery, $3.50 for shipping. If you are local, email me, and we can meet up. You can also purchase smaller prints through my Society6 link,  http://society6.com/rainyowl/Spread-The-Love-DBv_Framed-Print

Thank you so much & Spread the Love! 

Re-Branding Reasoning..

So Why Re-Branding? 

When I first started Weiss Design, it was simply to get the design business rolling, I really did not have the luxury of time to get in touch with anything in order to sort out my studio name. I knew I wanted to work for myself, because my new location at the time was not offering the kind of art and design career that I was looking for. So with a family background full of entrepreneurs and creative crazies, it helped catapult me a bit and I found myself at the court house sorting out my business license for Weiss Design. 

After a few years living here came the birth of my child Ellie, she's now 2 years old. Full of wonder, playfulness, joy, and imagination. Being with her I realized what childhood meant to me again. Sadly, Weiss Design became a 7 day job, it was stressful and boring for me to share it with people. My old design business model was trying hard to bridge the gap on what was going on in todays design trends, that are important for local businesses to progress with. The results have been interesting, and simply I've learned from those experiences that you can't please everyone. And if they really care about how their brand is going to look to their audience they will work with me and pay me the value that I ask for. It was then that I realized that if I'm running my own design studio and I'm not having fun with it. Then what am I doing? Then I found Firestarter Workbook with Danielle Laporte, on her blog: White Hot Truth, and the adventure began. 

How did the name Butterpop came about? 

When I think of words for a design studio or creative business, I'm always thinking of actions, verbs, objects, taste, scents, plants, textures, landscape, music or small creatures of habit. Sometimes when I'm conversing with a close friend, I'm mindful of accidental word play. Lately, the word "butter" resonates with me, it evokes taste, richness, simplicity, and I like that you can spread it or melt it. "Pop" resonates, energy, child like, imagination, instant, inspiration, gold, glitter, pink, noise. I love the way the letters look in pop. The circle in pop draws the eye in, and all these things came into play and Butterpop came about. When that name started appearing, visuals for products, posters, website, ideas,  and inspiration start to fly left and right. Mostly when I say the name of my studio to people, it gives me energy, and I get a visual of my daughter with her big pink, Elton John glasses. So I thought this is it!

The art of each project, work process, and connecting with your client..

I like to thank sandboxpm, Anastasia Valentine, for inspiring this post today. I'm also charged up on her compliments with my work. I met her at the Selling Your Soul Event, NYC, with Danielle Laporte and Marie Forleo. Its been a really interesting road getting my design work to this caliber, and all I have to say is like my old cello teacher would say: "practice, practice, practice!" Yes I have contracts, deposit requirements, time deadlines I follow to get any project done. Though today I like to just slow down a bit and share how it all happens. When I meet my prospective client, I usually have an instant intuition how we will work together. Here is where the art start. It starts with the art of conversation with my clients, I listen, I try to get clear, I do the research. The research is at times online, or offline, at moments organic. Organic meaning there could be a leaf, a feather that falls from the sky while walking my dog on break. It could be the shadow forming from a tree, that unconsciously taps the new shape or background, to a logo forming abstractedly. It could be a song, or during my yoga practice something gets cleared and a solution presents itself for the client or project. It may pops out of my bookshelf once in a while, or a color that day vibrantly talks to me like a game when I'm out and about. Then it is the orchestrating part, usually if the website project scope is small, I will design and program it myself. Though I currently work with a selective group of subcontractors locally and the world, to get a site launched to its fullest potential. This post about art and web design development also brings me to when I was in NYC recently. I made it to see Alexander McQueens Exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was amazing, absolutely gorgeous. It was so natural for me to want to touch the garments. It just astonishes me the amount of dedication, passion I see through the veins and threads on all of the dresses. There was all kind of materials, from wood, to leather. The presentation was theatric, dramatic, and sci-fi in some moments. Choice of classical music, lighting, ambience, and holographic video display of a dress in flight acts as a small movie box for the viewers.The exhibit is still fresh in my mind, and entered my creative soul quite interestingly. I plan to contribute it back to updates on this website, my art, and my writing. Here's just a few pics of the book off my desk, it will come out on amazon soon. But yes wow, thats really what its all about, owning the experience of inspiration, whether its from travel, art exhibits, food, scent, and the engagement with nature and family. We just need to take action to get the most of our happiness in line. I miss NYC dearly, but the more I miss it, the more I plan trips back to my home. I'm going to leave this post today with one of Mcqueens Quote, based off a gown he created from feathers. I think its a good reminder for us to always look at the sky, whether for a skyscraper, or bird. Its always ever so possible to reach your dreams..

"Birds in flight fascinate me. I admire eagles and falcons. I'm inspired by a feather but also its color, its graphics, its weightlessness and its engineering, its so elaborate. In fact I try and transpose the beauty of a bird to a women." --A. Mcqueen

(Funny my new signature this past couple of months have been a feather..interesting ;-)

Current projects

Here are some screenshots of current projects I'm working on. I'm pretty happy with the foundation development of these new sites. First project is for an Interior Designer/ Feng Shui Expert, Its been such a pleasure working with Peggy lately. She has a good knowledge of Chinese Culture and Philosophy as well as extremely well rounded in the Arts. Her old site is here: http://designsforharmony.com/. Her biggest issue with the old site is she is unable to update a lot of her content her self. So I suggested squarespace, to her for simple easy access and future manage ability.

Another project in the works, is Hatfash ltd, new squarespace site. We are still waiting for new photography, but the foundation of building the site is pretty solid. I threw in a customized illustration for their facebook icon, which was a fun little addition. Old Site: http://www.hatfashltd.com/ The client was pretty happy with the old site, though a new more accessible site for mobile browsers and ipads can increase better traffic for their company.

WD service page is up, check it!

HI there, I'm just copying and pasting here for all my subscribers, but my serivce page is definitely up and hopefully you can now get a glimpse on how we manage things these days. There will be Illustration, and Design Services Coming up too. So Stay tuned! Clarity here we go!

Weiss Design Services & Design Process

1.Our First Meeting: We usually will either have a in-person meeting via phone call, skype or depending on where you are located, I prefer to have a official meeting in person if you are close to vicinity to my studio. Again I've worked with clients overseas via skype successfully so whatever works, lets just make it happen.

2.Foundations of A Website: We probaly have already looked at your current website that needs help and gave an introduction assessment of what can be done. If you do not have a website, we will ask questions about what you are trying to do, sell or create. From there we will help guide you further, through research and consulting with a handpicked group of industry experts and subcontractors in programming and social media that weiss design solely deals with, this is how we craft your site mindfully from beginning to end. Together we can further customize a quote that fits pretty close to what you need. We will also present some pre-liminery design layouts and ideas to start igniting this process.

3.Quotes & Contracts: This is pretty important for us and you the client. It will help keep us on track with timeline and expectations. We require a 50% deposit when you agree to working with us.

4. Style, Competition, Emotional Impact, and Social Media: WD has a versatile digital and raw style that can help with creating an unique, meaningful, and authentic feel of your site. Inconsideration to functionality, information architecture, audience, and organizing content. This artful combination helps with competing with your competitors, along with clean programming, on platforms such as squarespace, or wordpress. When the site is near complete, we then finalize a social media package for you that will help set the site off, finalize and go.

5. Content Writing: Again, We usually deal with clients that have content ready for us to integrate, though there are content writers that we work with specifically that has a background in online writing that can help you further. The writing is extremely important on your site. It helps with search engines, traffic, and the audience your are trying to reach. We will ask you this usually during our intial meeting.

6. Pricing: If you are looking for a starter site, (which is like a brochure business page kind of website) with about 3 to 5 pages, It is set at 1000.00 which will include any help you need with your domain name set up, url, email trouble shooting so forth. So ask away this is a great deal! For all medium sized sites, 5-7 pages there will be a packaged price set at 2500.00 to 3000.00 and will not include the social media package. Larger sites that will or may request customized design and illustration, content writing, blog set up, datatbase development, eccommerce , and social media package will have a starting price of 5000.00. We accept credit card payment and check. Prices set here is to give you an idea of what you can expect. Every single business entails very different needs, we prefer to get clarity on that when we meet to better the quoting process.

7.Conclusion: Passion is driven in the veins of all that Weiss Design deals with. Less intensely we absolutely love what we do, and enjoy the harmony between client and work process. We are a small operation, though BIG on communication. Getting your site out there beautifully and working great is a simple, yet powerful message for us and you.

Being normal is boring. 99% talks about eccentric creatives..

So I read this article from 99 percent today, and it talks about: Why creative people needs to be eccentric?

My Favorite was this one, novelist:

 Orhan Pamuk:
"In the mornings I used to say goodbye to my wife like someone going to work. I'd leave the house, walk around a few blocks, and come back like a person arriving at the office"


So I answered this after the article read:

How eccentric are your creative work habits? Do you have any little rituals or props that look strange to others, but feel essential to your creative process?

I have to have be in an amazing space or outside when I'm cranking out work. What I mean by an amazing space, is that my little studio of goodness for example is pretty decked out with books, paintings, art, and I've had a friend that does interior design with feng shui give me some tips on how to arrange my studio and office space up for prosperity and more stimulation and creativity. Lately I have been trying to imagine how it would feel like if my studio felt like fantasy forrest land, so when I walk in the morning I can get in the feel of that vibration with my work. But I do not mean decorating it so its a mess or it looks like a nursery. I'm also obsessed about organization. functionality and getting to everything quickly. No matter what applications out there I've tried to organize my todo lists, I still find working in my sketchbook and listing out my todos/projects at hand in writing, more powerful. It helps tremendously for me to start the week. I'm also really into Bikram Yoga, it helps keep my energy level going from morning to wee hours of the night without need of much stimulants except some tea and water. Most people think I'm crazy to do yoga in 100 degree room but I feel fantastic, and its great for creating amazing work I think!

And what are yours?


Clarity, Focus, Simplicity, Value, and Creativity, Yes this is it!

I feel like I have been on a super long journey to get to where I am with my art, illustration, and design studio. For the most of us, I think the journey of trial and error is inevitable, it just makes it clearer, and it is so very important to somehow document either through journaling or case studies of past projects, to understand where we are presently, and how we can offer services to our clients and people that love our work in the most gratifying way ever. Basically, you, the person that desire my art work, or you, the person that desires a logo for their company that will sing, or maybe your the one that need an artistic flair to your web development, with ease of functionality and managment. You desire these things from our studio because it is true, authentic, and not your cookiecutter style way of living your life or your business representation. So there it is, the more I organize my work, share it, and get involved with my creative community, the more this is clear, I have a lot of work in my portfolio, though currently the only thing I am focused on is creating logos, illustration, and web design and development on squarespace. And if you need an awesome, sexy illustration and/or logo for your wine label, Lets talk. I will also continue to take on catalogs and book projects and can include an interactive pdf version and guide you for online upload and access to gain traffic and momentum. So there it is. It feels good, nice and clear dont you think?

Design as a Vehicle

I just recieved a wonderful newsletter delivered to my actual mailbox from AIGA, and I really enjoyed the big bold b+w simplicity of its presence sitting at my desk so I thought I share some insights here as to my response to some of the questions addressed. 

The one question that came up in the newsletter was "What do you think the public thinks of when they hear "design?" "What should they think of?"

I think it is interesting to ask what the public should think of design, it poses the intention of what is the purpose of design, and meaning behind the purpose. As a design business owner, I'm interested in using design as a vehicle, what that means for me is when I start a project with a client my design process involves exploring specific content related to the brand, in the process inspiration comes on board, resulting the work to evolve. For the public it could mean many different things, from objects to furniture I think, therefore it is important that design education addresses the clarity and empowering aspects of design so that it is not just to decorate, and I like to think of good design as both beautiful and functional. To address what is functional has always been a challenge in design history, certainly all of our individual takes on beauty and function varies in so many interesting ways..

Today I'm meeting with a lady Peggy Cross, A Feng-Sui Expert that has worked with many local businesses on the interior design of offices. Feng-Sui in chinese culture has been a prominent force in asian architecture for thousands of years, I'm interested in talking to her today about how Feng-Sui and Graphic Design can work together as well! Should be a great coffee meeting, Follow up soon!

Project Management Tools

As much as I love basecamp, I think it is still a little pricey for me, and I'm just not doing cartwheels yet with the way basecamp has designed their interface. My custom invoice templates, emailing, dropbox app, we transfer are all ghetto fabuous. I use paypay for credit card payments, and I have a hidden link on my site, designated for my clients when they need to pay me with a credit card. If I'm more of a product based business, getting a credit card account set up would be ofcourse essential.

I've been watching a company called http://www.projectbubble.com, and I'm working with a book-keeper, that has helped me tremendously with managing my money. Recently, I've also discovered some cool little widgets thats been helping me here and there, a free program called sidenote, and this is free to download, if you have Evernote on your iphone, this is similar as a stickies version for your laptop, (site to download: http://www.chatelp.org/?page_id=5 ), also another application called: http://www.potionfactory.com/thehitlist/ has been great with managing my todos, and delegating tasks. It's also free to download.

On the philosophical note about this post, my new business management model has been interestingly challenged this past couple of years due to a southern husband, child, and a dog that belongs in the circus. This link not sure if its related to this conversation thread or not, but surely will help anyone that owns a business, speaks more of time management, which I think is core of all this: Dan Sullivan, and his blog post here: (http://srfinctr.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/the-entrepreneurial-time-system) talks about a way to divide owning your business in three sections: Free Day, Focus Day, Buffer Day. I haven't really initate this system yet, but its essential that I start soon.



Hope, prayers, and love to Japan

I'm hoping that as much as nature has the power to destroy, it also has the power to heal. It has been crushing my heart these past couple of days seeing this madness of debri and destruction in Japan. Here are some resources and links for donation and assistance.

  •  American Red Cross
  •  Doctors without Borders
  •  Action Against Hunger
  •  United Nations World Food Program
  •  Direct Relief International
  •  Salvation Army
  •  AmeriCare
  •  Shelterbox

Recent Updates + Projects

Ahavah Inc | Non- Profit | Hampton Roads, Virginia

Another project we have just completed, is for a local, non-profit, global charity intiative site and movement, called AHAVAH. Weiss Design, together with Client: Josh Rich, Graphic Designer: Lael Moreland, Circa79, and many more volunteers to help get this site off the ground. There will be much more updates coming from the team at Ahavah, and I'm more then confident that it will be super  simple to manage because we are using Squarespace! 

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Elite Marine Divers & Marine Services | Chesapeake Virginia

Currently wrapping up this project with client Paul Wood. A master diver, has been doing expert, life risking dives for commerical and government contracted projects for the past 30 years. His online presence needed an update to reflect a better brand presence, photo gallery, and information on what projects he has worked on. The new site now, provides more visual and detailed information for future contractors. 

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Shameless Self Promotion Event | AIGA

Time to time, and whenever possible, I help out with event graphics at AIGA monthly events. Here is the most recent turn out design created for the email and web header. Come and check out our monthly AIGA events at: http://www.aigahamptonroads.org/

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Prevent Child Abuse | Hampton Roads, VA

This was the second year in a row, that prevent child abuse hampton roads, requested weiss design to create another logo for their yearly celebrity restaurant charity event taking place in March of 2011 restaurants all over Hampton Roads.