My favorite graphic designer in the whole world just launched her new website. Take a peek.

http://www.belindayarritu.com

Belinda in Siena, Italy in 1994.

Belinda started her graphic arts career by getting a degree in commercial art from the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. She's worked for a number of large advertising agencies and a fair sampling of Fortune 500 clients, as well as many "mom and pop" clients in Austin, Texas. 

I worked with her in an ad agency in Austin back in the 1980s. She helped us win Addy Awards. She gave our shop credibility.

She's freelancing and doing contract work these days, and focusing on taking work she likes instead of doing every project offered.

Her new website is simple and spare. The copywriting there was done by Benjamin Tuck. 

We have to be careful here; with an award winning graphic designer, an ambitious new copywriter and a ne'er do well photographer/video maker we've almost got the makings of another instant advertising agency. All we're missing is the account executive. But wait; we do have a cute dog. That might work....

In all seriousness, give Belinda's site a look and leave a nice comment. If you have a million dollar logo project that you think she might like by all means drop it by to her; I'd love to retire.

http://www.belindayarritu.com

Something I wrote about using gear, over on LinkedIn a while back.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/use-up-getting-your-moneys-worth-out-gear-kirk-tuck/

Today is "estimate day" around the office. I have three potential projects that need estimates and all three clients would like to have them today. How do we estimate?

I love to hear from clients. Especially clients with whom we already have an relationship. And I like it best when they call and talk to me about future projects. After all, that's what I'm in this business for.  But even if I've been a proven and reliable supplier in the past I still have to provide a gameplay and an estimate or bid for each new project; after all, every ad agency is representing a client and those clients all have budgets they're trying to meet. we have to really sharpen our pencils sometimes  when a fun project is attached to a smaller budget. And sometimes we have to let stuff go because the money is just not there to support the project. The happiest days are when the fun projects directly intersect with ample budgets. We bring out the gold plated lenses for those assignments.

My first step in estimating a photographic or video project is to determine whether it's the right fit for me or not. It doesn't make a lot of sense to spend time photographing something that doesn't interest you at all, even if you are being well paid to do so. You'll do a better job on a subject which holds real interest for you. Fortunately I'm interested in a lot of different subjects and I also find people consistently fun, interesting and entertaining. There are few jobs that include people that I'll turn down, as long as there is enough budget attached to do the jobs well.

Once I decide to commit I grab a legal pad and write notes as I try to envision how the whole project will come together. One of the projects I'm estimating today