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Archive for the ‘Creativity’ Category

Weekly roundup: week 13

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013

vegan easter
A cute Easter gift I got from my friend Sarah.

 

This week has been a lesson in patience, that’s for sure.

Not only did I choose to skip on going up to see my family over Easter to prioritize finalizing as much work on the book as humanly possible since it’s taken more time the expected. Unfortunately things didn’t work out and I didn’t get what I needed the most to work on (cest la vie – I wasn’t able to foresee that) and I was alone over Easter missing my family and my sisters birthday.

To add to the destitute I’ve had no friggin internet for days. I finally got it back TODAY after 5 days!

I always try to think how I can get forward and further with my work even though I have roadblocks, but this time there was nothing I could do about it. Except to wait and see what else I could get a head start on.

We are all doing our best – it’s going to be awesome when the book is finally out. But the most stressful thing for me – and what makes me freak out -   is that I’m back to full time at my day job and wont be able to be as available for this project as I’ve been before. My heart is really in this and I want it to be the best book ever, not only because it’s my baby but also for the rest of the lovely people I’m working with. I want to see this succeed.

What else? there was a fire on Easter Saturday close to my building and I was up at 7 in the morning preparing small bags with dried fruits in small bags with purple bows – did I get any kids knocking on my door? No, not a single soul. (In Sweden kids hand out Easter letters and get candy, dressed up to small witches and wizards).

And without internet, I was not able to work on the website for Elegantly Vegan, I was unable to get further with this as well.

I’ve felt incredibly frustrated and sad this weekend, a bit depressed to be honest missing my sisters birthday and family time. On Friday morning I was so sad I had to go running at gym. Good thing is I ran like a bad ass biatch.

vegan easter

My goodie bags for the children that never came knocking :P

 

But I try to focus on the positive. So here is my cone to balance up the crap:

  • I got three recipes published in Pinto Magasin, together with three photographs I’ve taken to accompany them.
  • I learned the hard way to take responsibility for my own choices and that I need to balance my life a bit more when it comes to seeing both family and friends and not prioritize work before them so much. Even if I do, it wont always work out.
  • Elegantly Vegans Facebook page now got over 100 fans already and I have not even had time to promote the page yet! I’m so grateful for all the support! It really means the world to me. Thank you! <3
  • I got the cutest gift from my friend Sarah. She also helped me snap some bio images for me to use that looks more professional then the self-snaps I’ve taken with my iPhone.
  • I’m penciling in a long weekend at my moms house up north in May. I need family time. It’s a priority.
  • I got the opportunity to do my recipe newsletter for April. It’s both delicious and good for ya!
  • Sarah teached me how to smile with teeth.
  • I got some gym and walking time. This ass is getting in good shape.

 

veronica-stenberg

Smiling with teeth, for someone who used to have braces, it’s not something I like to do. This is one of the photos I wont be using, I just liked it because its blurry and I smile. (Sarah takes much better photos then this when I goofed around!)

The new professionalism

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

The new professionalism
IMAGE OWNER: Vogue

I briefly touched this subject in my post covering Webbdagarna because I though that Tine Thygesen encapsulated this beautifully in her speech about how she runs her company – Everplaces. The term the new professionalism was something I first heard in an interview with the dazzlingly fabulous Molly Crabapple describing the back then emerging way of working. The new professionalism isn’t just applicable to freelancers or people who are their own business owners. But to all of us, emerging young professionals taking over the world. It basically comes down to the following:

Passion – people pursue their passion, and inevitable they become really talented at what they do, if not already, at a very young age.


Being a decent human being
– that means showing respect to others, when working in a group, i.e not interrupting or being an a**hole “talking over” people or running people over, elbowing them out of the way or engaging in any similar disrespectful behavior.


Having a positive outlook
– on life and everything. That means not to be the person who can come up with 10 reasons why something cannot be done or shooting down others ideas. Be the person who can come up with 10 ideas why something can in fact be done.

Staying true to oneself – be yourself, that’s your point of differentiation and ultimately don’t hide your personality for the sake of a job. That doesn’t mean you can take it to the extreme – it means being yourself in the workplace. Dress the way that is you and not in a stiff grey suit to try to fit in, if that’s not you – that is!

 

Keep on learning – in today’s world we work more then we did say just 15 years ago, we seldom have nine to five jobs anymore. Since the line between work and personal life is blurring out. We now learn quicker then before. And we need to adapt and learn new skills in terms of software, development, features, theories and practices, as we go along in our career but also our life. The new professional embraces change and learning new skills, something that in some cases are needed  on a daily basis.

Standing up and by for what you believe in – the new professionals don’t work with brands or companies  that don’t resonate with their beliefs or ethical standpoint.

Stress less – that doesn’t mean the new professionalism are embraced by a bunch or slackers. Quite the contrary, they are of the more ambitious lot. What this means is that they recognize that negative stress is uncool and that they want to stay away from the negative effects this have on the human body and mind to be able to be a top performer within their field.

Eustress on the other hand – the tummy tickling positive stress that are produced from a challenge, something that you know will make you grow, and push you further in knowledge and experience – where you come out the other end, high-fiving the air out of sheer happiness. Pursuing and being pushed forward by your passion. That’s what it’s all about!

Work are enjoyed everywhere – the new professional is not tethered to a desk in some office. Work can be performed anywhere and everywhere. Technology is a great tool for the new professional to enjoy having an office in the local coffee shop to jacking up on an airplane- to being able to balance an ambitious career with a rewarding personal life.

Giving back – the new professionals are thinking about the planet and the people around them. How can they give back by being involved in charity or using sustainable office supplies? what can be done for the community around them? The new professional is more conscious and thinks one step further.

Not wasting their time – either at a workplace where they don’t feel is right for them, to having too many meetings for the sake of meetings. The new professionals get things done, in less time. And do not waste time on bug ridden software or slow and heavy software packages. They recognize software as the tools and time savers they should be.

This is what the new professionalism means for me and what I have observed, do you have any other thoughts or observations?

Weekly roundup: week 7

Sunday, February 17th, 2013

vegan photosession number 2

(Photo by Sonja Dahlgren)

This week flew by. I cannot believe I’m sitting here curled up in front of my macbook  doing a weekly roundup already. We got further then we thought on these two days of photographing the recipes. I’m quite pleased we have already gotten this far. I think a lot of this was due to the fact that we have a kind of process now with pulling up props beforehand and a way of working together. However the biggest contributor was that we had the help of a skilled chef in the kitchen that kept the kitchen in order, the food prepped and delivered dish on dish to shoot. It was a huge and welcome relief for me, since I need to wear a lot of hats during the photography sessions.

vegan photosession number 2

This is le awesome chef! (Sorry for the awkward photo Martin but this was the only one I had of you! :) )

However I’m feeling a bit stressed out about the actual text sections. Since a lot of them are still drafts and I have had a challenge mustering up the energy in the text that I want to convey in them. I do think this will release as soon as I can focus at one thing at a time. I will nail it.

I started this week with a visit to the secondhand/vintage/charity shop again. I left some cookies for the staff and picked up some more stylish props for the shoots. It was quite a relief to take out some extra hours off work, and start the week with looking for beautiful treasure. I had time to go back home afterwards, meditate and eat a nice lunch reading a glossy magazine. Before heading in to the office.

vegan photosession number 2

Vintage and new items mixed. The perfect combination.

I’m going through a bit of a dark patch in my private life at the moment. Which effects me, but I try my best to stay focused at the task at hand and get this beautiful book created. While I’m working on this project my subconscious mind the has time to work on my private challenges. I am re-evaluating everything in my life at the moment. Big changes are needed. From where I live to what I do with my time and what I can do better with my life. Those are a couple of pretty thick nuts to crack in the midst of this process. But I think, when I’m on the other side of a few things, I will be so much more stronger.

 

On a closing note, I’m really grateful for this project and all the people who has and are contributing and helping me with this. Thank you so much for your time and energy. You have no idea what it means to me.

 

Weekly roundup: week 6

Sunday, February 10th, 2013

This week I have learned a lot. Not just about arranging food photoshoots. Which are more demanding then fashion shoots in my opinion and experience. But also about myself. Which is always good.

I’ve spent two intense days shooting I would say almost half of the recipes for the book together with the rest of the team. Which is sooo awesome.

At the moment I feel a bit all over the place still trying to recover from my cold/flu thinge (it’s not in my timeplan!)

So before I sum things up in a few lessons learned from the week. Here are some pictures from the set:

vegan-photoshoot

Ironic that I still use pen and paper so much. But I have a need to sketch things out to help me think and get my ideas together.

 

vegan-photoshootTwo amazing women getting cheered on my my twitter followers without knowing it ;)

vegan-photoshoot

One of the collection shots. Beautiful hey? :) I’m pleased!

3 big lessons learned:

  • I need to become better at delegating and dare to ask for help.
  • Collect and arrange props by the start of the day in piles, so that you just can pull them out before each photo.
  • Set the picture first and get it right with the porcelain and cutlery before adding the food.

 

 

 

 

Weekly roundup: Busy V

Sunday, January 27th, 2013

Watching the sunrise at breakfast

It’s been a couple of incredibly busy weeks. I haven’t had time to do my weekly round-ups on this project I’m working on now nor my weeks in general, and I can assure you, they will continue to be intermittent for a while ;)

It feels like I’ve run a marathon this week. Both at the “ordinary office” and with the book project. I felt due to all the overtime I’ve worked in the “office” I’ve not had all the time I wanted for my book. So I barricaded myself in the flat, and shut off emails, limited phone time etc and got some serious work done.

 

My mauscript!

Drawing photoshoot layout ideas

Proofreading and editing takes more time, then I could ever imagine. After printing out all my recipes and supporting text I ended up with 100 pages. When you have everything on your computer, you don’t thinks it’s that much. When you see it IRL, suddenly it dawns on you :)

I have tons of more text work to do, but I feel a lot calmer now when I’ve sorted out the heart of the book so to speak. Now I will cuddle up on the sofa with a big cup of tea and rext for the reminder of this weekend. Happy Sunday everyone.

 

Love,
Veronica

 

Poster design thoughts

Friday, December 14th, 2012

A while ago pitched for some design-work, sadly it didn’t lead anywhere but I still think that the material I produced and my thoughts around the whole assignment are worth to share. The brief was short and sweet and consisted of the following:

  • Use material from the company website
  • Produce a poster, in A4 format promoting a product
  • To be displayed in salons and spas

I did a suite of three to illustrate my concept and this is how I interpreted the assignment – I focused on 3 strengths I could find:

1. Color - each product has their own color coding. This is used on the product type themselves as well as on the website in each section these are displayed. To enable the potential customer to recognize the products and find them in the store or on the website, I used the products color coding on the actual poster as well to make this prominent and a lasting impression.

2. Awards – many of the products are award winning and I picked up at least one award to call on credibility for the brand outside Murad’s own brand domain. Chances are that the potential customer is flipping through a magazine in the spa waiting area, which has awarded one of Murads products for its benefits.

3. Testimonial – Murad’s website has a lot of great customer reviews and I chose to lift up one great review on each poster, highlighting the benefits and how the product has helped them. Customer reviews are renowned for influencing purchase decisions positively.

Veronica Stenberg thoughts on Murad Skincare     Murad Poster

 

Check out my gallery at ADA Sweden!

Tuesday, November 20th, 2012

I’m superduper happy to announce that I’m now included in ADA – Association for Design and Advertising-  Sweden’s gallery for graphic designers, illustrators and various creative artists in west Sweden.

ADA Sweden

 
If you live in the west part of Sweden I recommend to pay ADA Sweden a visit, they have regular seminars on tending topics, write about creative happenings in this region and you can find jobs to apply for or find studio spaces.

My vintage armchair

Sunday, November 18th, 2012

My vintage armchair

I got this photo sent to me the other day from my mom. It’s of an old armchair that I’ve had forever. It first cam into my family when my grandparents bought it and have been reupholstered twice for me by my mom. This time I opted for a lush and rich purple fabric with medallion patterns in velvet. The armchair is finally done, but still at my mothers house. I can’t wait to get this down to my flat :)

Follow me on Pinterest

Monday, November 12th, 2012

Have a peak at my Interior Design board from Pinterest. If you want to follow me, true to form, I’m Veronica Vain.

Where to find inspiration for well executed digital design

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

When I need a bit of inspiration, I usually look at all kinds of things to get some sparks of creative inspiration flying in my mind. Art, illustrations or just something completely different all together, such as interior design. Just to get away from what I am doing on the screen. However, if you want to look at some great digital design, and get some inspiration to either design a newsletter or a website – I have two hot tips for you:

 

Beautiful Email Newsletters

This is a collection of newsletters updated about daily where you can browse newsletter designs in infinity. Knock yourself out.

beautiful Email newsletters

 

Best About Pages

This is a great source to view different layouts of content pages, but also an awesome source of inspiration for creating an about page which is not dry as wood! Go on, have a looksie.

Best About Pages