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artandhuddle · 5 years

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Artist Interview with Daphne Hutcheson

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with Daphne Hutcheson, an artist I’ve admired for quite some time. Her work and knowledge in the arts has helped me, along with many other artists in the online community.

Daphne Hutcheson, also known as @paperwick on social media, has been creating artwork from a very young age, with works in both traditional and digital media. Her work covers a broad range of fandoms, original content, and client based works along with some very useful and resourceful tutorials.

K: I wanted to first ask about your experience attending SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design)?

D: My experience at SCAD was tepid at best. The teachers were good, but I mean very specifically the professors who were teaching in my major, which was sequential art. SCAD is really not a great institute for anyone who isn't rich enough for their parents' to cover the cost. That's my biggest issue with it, they will cripple you with debt, so if anyone is lower-income, I would highly suggest learning via some of great online courses or using a state college's art program to sort of direct you if you need direction and deadlines. I know I need them. SCAD's loans are no joke. The college itself was very good my first year, they do a lot to make sure incoming students feel heard and welcomed, and then after that they really don't try for you. As soon as you're a sophomore, they could care less about how you feel to be there. Their class attendance requirements are grueling and there's no room for accidents--you miss four class sessions and you fail the course. It's wild, and even if you're in the hospital, those absences will not be forgiven. If you're late, it counts as an absence.I don't recommend it. At all. All the learning I garnered there is online accessible these days, one just has to hunker down, find it, and put it to practice. My professors were great, but no education is worth that price tag. Depending on your major there, you will be treated differently by the school. For example, their fashion and fibers majors are doted on, whereas a major like animation is ground hard into the dirt. There were unrealisitc deadlines to meet for class projects and kids would be in the school buildings overnight trying to meet them. Some fell asleep in their chairs and Paula Wallace (the owner) saw that one day and had them replace the chairs with far less comfortable chairs. Some kids had heart attacks from staying up to meet deadlines. Such a bad work culture of "all-nighters". In part the students' fault, but none of the faculty really stopped it or discouraged it, save one teacher in a different major, and that being said, that teacher still gave ridiculous deadlines so we'd "be prepared for the industry". That's not at all what the industry is like (discluding the game industry right now). It is truly a hard place to thrive and everyone I've known who has graduated had months to years of burnout after finishing, including myself. I'd hazard real caution when choosing to go to a private art college, art institutes included.No education is worth that amount of debt.

K: Wow, that’s unfortunate to hear. I wonder if students are having similar experiences at colleges such as CAD or RISD?

D: I have heard very similar things about places like RISD and CAD where it’s all about the money, but I can’t point you towards any of the specifics. I really just want people to go into it with a clear head and know it’s going to be hard exiting. They really don’t prepare you for business.

K: What would you have done differently? Would you have signed up for online courses?

D: If I was to do it over, I would have liked to dive straight into developing personal projects, just making the work. Watching and reading free youtube videos and blog posts by artists. That would not have flown with my parents, they’re very by the book “go to college or get a job” type people. With than in mind, I would’ve gone to the local college I was within biking distance of as a sort of clean, and done fairly half assed studies by full assed my artwork.

K: That sounds like what a lot of artists, particularly those interested in digital art are doing. But, have you ever considered going back to school, or enrolling in a program or an atelier that you think would be beneficial to your art career?

D: Not genuinely. If I had time, I wouldn't mind enrolling in something that would teach me puppet animation, but between freelance and my day job, it's hard to find time to produce personal work and then also learn. I am pro-learning, always learning because that keeps your work fresh, keeps your mind sharp and ready to switch up on a dime. But course work is something I'm not super fond of, to be honest.

K: I understand. So, you've graduated and are currently doing freelance work along with your other day job. In your freelance work, what kind of work are you taking from clients?

D: Mostly I do storyboard animatics for a few advertising agencies, but I do some card art for games here and there, like Companion's Tale. I just signed on to do some tarot card artwork for a company called Legacy: Fables. I'll take anything that sounds interesting and that I have time for. It's all digital; traditional art is way more personal for me so I almost exclusively make traditional artwork as gifts for friends.

K: Are there any particular fandoms or genres that you tend to work more in?

D: As far as fandom work and commissions, it's Dragon Age all the way BABY! It's a good community and I owe a lot to them. I'm planning on reopening my tarot commissions here soon once I finish up a few of my freelance projects. I am an old hat with fantasy stuff and most comfortable there, but I really want to start working on robots and mechanics and cities. All that sci-fi goodness.

K: Wow, that's great to hear you've got very steady work, and they’re with industries and agencies! I hope you'll get to share that work once it's gone down the production pipeline. Have you ever considered applying for work with a company like EA/Bioware?

D: Yeah! I've lucked out a lot, it feels like all of this sort of dumped itself in my lap. My biggest resistance to applying to Bioware or any gaming industry position right is rooted in how they treat their workers. Bioware, specifically back when Anthem was released, had a nasty report come out on how management had run their workers to the point of many having mental breakdowns, and several just leaving and never coming back. They refer to those who have breakdowns while working during their months and months of crunch as "stress casualties", and I'm honestly quite disgusted by what I hear. I think once the gaming industry unionizes I'll consider applying, but the things I hear, not just about Bioware and EA... It's horrifying. Riot, Blizzard, Activision, Treyarch, Rockstar... the list could go on. Not to like tank the conversation into a dark place, I just have such strong feelings about it.

K: That's ok! It's good to hear different perspectives, especially when talking about the industry. Alright, on to the next question. Looking at your work, from sequential narrative to tarot artwork, I’m really impressed by your storytelling. When you’re creating stories and characters, do you pull a lot from your own experiences and emotions, or more from other sources such as music, film, or literature?

D: Ahh that's a hard one. I think I pull far more from outside of me than inside of me.The way things are shaped comes from my own experience, but I think a lot of my content comes from outside influences, like movies, books, music, and art.Howls Moving Castle, the book not the film, had a huge affect on me and how light I want the stories I tell to be, but I think I have a long way to go when putting stories together.I am super empathetic so it's easy to take outside influences and really feel them, but also it's hard to tell where I start and those influences ends.

K: Very well said, and the comment about the novel, I can really feel that in your personal work, especially your recent animated landscape piece.

D: Thanks!

K: The first time I came across your work was one of your Dragon Age tarot works, but also the tutorial on how you created them. It was incredibly helpful to me and I know to lots more artists. Your tutorials and words of advice have proven very successful, but have you ever received any advice or tutorials that really switched gears or level upped your techniques?

D: The answer is yes, absolutely. Let me see, I don't seek out tutorials anymore, but there was something I saw recently that was good. Sinix's head from any angle is a great approach to drawing faces at crazy angles. Also, check out Bunabi on Tumblr. Bunabi is so fast and her work is beautiful, and has great tutorials also, just incredible.

I unfortunately can’t link to any specifics, but tutorials like this one do me a lot of good.

People can just screenshot process stuff that reminds me that there are a million ways to approach art, like sketch up, grids, freehanding. I think I benefit from understanding that there are a million approaches more than following the tutorials super hard.

K: Great,thank you! I wanted to ask a few more questions, one about your Patreon. It seems like the next big wave for digital artists. How has it been creating one and keeping on top of the awards, and is there anything you would want to do differently with yours?

D: So Patreon is kind of a basket you can fill with prizes, maybe some of the prizes for money (probably prizes for money), and that works for a lot of people. I have a more of a "here's content I don't put elsewhere if you'd like it" approach to it cause I'm inconsistent with patron pay-outs. Patreon for artists with chronic mental illness is a struggle. Hands down. I started one hoping it would iron out my discipline issues a year or two back, and it didn't. It made me feel hella guilty cause I could not keep up with what I said I'd keep up with, and then I felt worse. It was disastrous. I refunded most of the pledges I got during the three months I had it open. Then I closed it for a year and brought it back online recently. Now all my content is free, it's still inconsistent, but if people want to support me I welcome it. I think Patreon is a good platform, but I will never be able to use it is intended. I respect the people who can keep up with it all, that kind of discipline takes a crazy amount of strength of character, but I don't motivate with money very well. In the end, I motivate through helping others as best I can, so it'll always be free content. I have very few plans for it, other than I want to put together a brush pack and share it there with brushes I made. I just need a moment to sit down and make that happen. I've got a tutorial for using photos to make quick painted backgrounds too, and I just have to organize that sucker.

K: Thank you for being so open about it. I think what you're doing is so insightful and helpful in what you're offering to your followers, especially those who may also be struggling with anxiety and depression.

K: Can you share what your process is like from a sketch to a finished piece? Do you thumbnail a lot before, use references to build from, and so on?

D: I like to do throw away thumbnails on notepaper.

And then I take those thumbnails and do a more thought out version digitally.

K: Wow, these are both beautiful. If you don't share these with patrons already, I would! I also like that you've given each one their own color, a good way to organize!

D: Thank you! I'll make sure to share these, I forget about them genuinely. I'll diverge in two directions from here depending on need. If what I'm working on is simple, I hop straight into color. If it's going to be complicated, ie crazy armor, specific architecture, I will do a line pass first and then launch into color. Either way, this is where most of my references come into play. Once that is solid I add detail work.

K: Reference can be so important in art; it really can bring work to a new level if used properly!

D: Yeah reference is king. I use it constantly, even when doing the most stylized thing, cause there's always stuff you forget. The waves I did for my last card, I had reference of barrel waves up constantly, and it helps a ton.

K: My last question is where do you see yourself in five years? I know this can be a challenging question, but if you had any goals or plans you’d like to see come into fruition, what would they be?

D: Five years? These questions are always a struggle for me. I try not to look past a week at a time because it's all so BIG. And my life has undergone so many huge changes in such a short period of time SO MANY times that it's hard to make long term plans. Especially when dealing with mental illness. So I try to think less about where I'll be in any amount of time, and more about what I want to progress towards achieving, it's a little easier and sets up less expectation. So this is not necessarily a five year plan, and more an eventual future plan. I want to have enough tutorial work to put together an art resources book/pdf online. I want to develop my freelance work further and create my own studio, ideally for illustrative style work, smaller animations, and maybe some classes for people interested in color and storytelling. I want to put together a small guide of sorts also for artists and people who need healing, since there's so many of us. That one is harder because it's an amorphous subject, but I think there's a lot of room for commentary there and a lot of people wanting to hear it, and I think it'll have to come from all those hurting. It's just a matter of how we'll organize that.I am a huge sap. That's my way. So in 5 years I'm hoping I'll be a better and more helpful sap.

K: Well, I hope you're able to make a lot of this happen, we need more empathy and help in the world. Thank you again Daphne for your time, this was really informative and an honest interview which I know others will appreciate.

D: Thank you, Kallie!

You can find more of Daphne’s beautiful works (and tutorials) here:

Patreon

Twitter

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kmp78 · 5 years

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DISCLAIMER AND RULES

These are the UPDATED directions/guidelines for all who want to participate/contribute to this blog. Our topics of conversation revolve mostly around 30 Seconds to Mars/the Leto Bros, but we have been known to also discuss various other current events around the world.

By reading, and especially by contributing, on what goes on around this blog, you are willingly agreeing with all guidelines and directions I have mentioned below - no exceptions.

I am willing to give a space to those who wish to discuss Mars (or other topics), and I am washing my hands from any and all fuckery that may ensue from other people´s opinions.

Also worth mentioning: I am fully aware that some people who publicly and very vocally denounce any interest in either this blog or Mars gossip lurk around this blog and then spread shit elsewhere on the internet.

By doing that, you are essentially outing yourself as a quiet kmp78 admirer, so to speak.

Or a fangirl, if that suits better. 🤗

Alright then... READ.

1. This blog is laced with sarcasm, jokes, stupid and often very dark humor and PERSONAL OPINIONS - both mine and the people who participate in our conversations. This is not CNN, BBC or even Fox News - this is a personal blog run by a (sort of) fan. Not someone with inside information, and not someone whose opinions and views should be taken too seriously, and definitely not as gospel. I have no direct access to anyone in the Mars organization, and I do not work for them.

2. Nor do I work for YOU. This may be a blog which is mainly used for discussions about all things Mars and all opinions and topics are welcome, but the only one in charge is ME. I decide if a message gets published, if a message gets edited, if a message gets deleted - and if the sender gets blocked.

And not that it really needs to be said, but here goes anyway: I do not work for any Leto troll either.

3. And speaking of blocking:

those who send threats or offensive messages will be blocked, as will anyone who I deem block-worthy. Rest assured, I never block anyone without a reason, so if you should discover that you have been blocked, that means I had a reason. I may or may not inform publicly when a person has been blocked, depends on my mood.

4. Everyone who sends messages is responsible for their own words - I do not accept any blame for other people´s opinions. Misunderstandings by accident or on purpose are not my headache. If I suspect a message will potentially cause unnecessary problems or annoyance for me, I will not post it (or will edit it), and I don´t owe anyone any explanations as to why I´m not posting it. I may explain, or not - that´s up for me to decide.

In any case, as I said: I will not take responsibility for anyone else´s words other than mine, and screaming at me over here or elsewhere online regarding comments someone else made and I posted...

Well, that´s just infantile. 🙄

5. All opinions are welcome, positive AND negative. A positive opinion does not automatically make you a sheep, and a negative opinion does not automatically make you a hater.

Readers to this blog should be adult enough to handle both sides.

6. Calling women sluts or whores is not ok here.

You also need to be able to tell the difference between calling a woman a whore and calling a Leto a whore. If you can´t understand the difference, then get out immediately.

SPECIAL CLAUSE:

the term “YACHT GIRL” when used in connection with an actually legit model who YOU ARE JEALOUS OF BECAUSE SHE GETS TO BONE A MAN YOUR FLABBY LOINS BURN FOR, actually is the equivalent of you calling her a whore, so kindly DO NOT.

Use whatever brain cells your parents genes bestowed upon you and make them at least somewhat proud. That should hopefully partially make up for the disappointment they most probably are already feeling knowing you actually read and participate in this shit.

7. What is also not ok is accusing people of crimes, calling them psychopaths, or threatening others with physical violence etc. - not even sarcastically or as jokes.

Think of it this way:

when typing your message, if at any point you think that what you are writing might come across differently or more seriously to the person reading it than to you while writing it - then do not write it. Any innuendo about people´s potential “social diseases” is not welcome either, and neither are accusations of “obsessions” and people “stalking” the men this blog is focused on. Be VERY careful when using these terms.

YOU are responsible for your own words. I cannot stress that enough.📣

8. We use a lot of initials and nicknames in our conversations - for a reason.

Do not use people´s real names in messages.

If you do not know who a particular person is, please come ask via chat (directions on how to use the chat feature can be found here). I may or may not blur out a name in a message if I think it´s necessary.

9. I post a lot of pics, gifs - and most of them are found from Google using various search terms, and sadly have no tags or indications as to who is the owner/maker. I don´t own any of the pics or gifs, or videos for that matter either (except the ones I have made and labeled as my own). If you find something of yours posted and prefer not to have it up or to have your name added as credits, please let me know and I will remove it.

As for links to either newspaper articles, IG accounts, other blogs or the like: you can find credits to the sources by either clicking on the links, or if I have decided to post screen caps, in the pics themselves. Again, I do not write articles or make videos and very, very rarely post anything other than other people´s comments - after all, this is prominently a discussion blog now. Opinions/messages from other people represent THEIR views and thoughts, my views/thoughts can be seen in my answers (in case of submits or multi-part messages, you will find my contributions to the message after this sign: ***).

To make this very clear: we don´t make news here, we discuss them.

10. When sending submits, if you are unsure of others potentially seeing your “ID”, please mention in your message that you want to remain anon and I will post it anon. Also please remember tho that there is no such thing as complete anonymity - so be careful when writing down your thoughts. Censor yourself if necessary - don´t make problems for me or others, or yourself.

11. I use Statcounter on this blog, which means I can see IP addresses from people visiting this site. However I choose to use that information is up to me, so if you are scared shitless of being outed due to your own actions/words, then DO NOT COME HERE.

If I out your IP, then there is a reason for it.

Don´t give me reasons if you want to remain in the shadows.

(And same goes for chat messages btw: don´t pretend to be my friend in private, but then turn your back and stab me in it in public. More often than not I WILL find out, and if I choose to then out your bullshit by posting private messages, THAT´S ALL YOUR OWN DOING, KIDDOS.

Play nice with me and you have nothing to worry about.

Start kicking dirt in my face and...🤷‍♀️

12. If you are addressing your message directly to someone (= other than me), please say so CLEARLY in your message, for example by starting your message with “For anon who said...”, or something along those line. I have had it with misunderstandings and unnecessary messes due to unclear messages! BE SPECIFIC!

13. ONLY write either in English or Finnish. I won´t waste my time on Google Translate, I have enough on my plate as it is and your weirdo mongrel lingos are boring as hell anyway.

14. DO NOT SEND MESSAGES WITH THE SOLE PURPOSE OF STIRRING UP SHIT - OR TO INSULT OTHER COUNTRIES OR NATIONALITIES. That would rank quite high the PATHETIC categories...

15. I won´t post content from so-called private/non-celeb accounts such as Leto trolls (= VK for example IS a celeb so whatever she posts is most deffo getting posted, but anything posted by Lesser´s harem probs won´t be).

16. READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES!

I´m beyoooooooond bored answering the same questions over and over again, sometimes in the space of just a few hours! The archives and search option are available on my blog for a reason! USE THEM. 😠

17. When sending messages containing info or “receipts” or whatever it may be that you think we should be made aware of, either clearly state WHERE that info can be found and WHO you are talking about. Do not simply send a message a´la “VK can be seen on Monica´s/Richard´s/Beatrice´s IG”. We don´t know who these people are! You may, but we don´t! I do not follow a single model or fashion industry creeper on social media so FIRST NAMES mean fuck all to me. GIVE FULL DETAILS OR SHUT THE FUCK UP.

18. IF I SAY A TOPIC IS OFF-LIMITS, THEN YOU WILL RESPECT THAT.

19. I usually try to post messages in the same order they have been sent - with a few exceptions:

If a situation arises which calls for “immediate attention” (new troll pics or other sudden Mars-related activity, for example), I may leave older messages for later and focus on newer ones first. Also when I am operating on my mobile, I am often unable to post certain messages (videos etc.), so those will be left for later when I am back to an actual computer.

20. More often than not, tumblr fails to deliver messages to my inbox. If you suspect that yours has not been delivered, please send it again. I don´t mind getting duplicates.

21. If I feel that a message offers no relevant or needed content, I won´t post it. For example, a message such as “JL & XX in Japan bang bang” is unnecessary and pointless and not worth posting. I only have 250 allowed posts per day, and on busy days I have to make judgments on what is worthy of posting and what is not. I apologize if I therefore have to skip some messages.

When I run out of allowed posts here, I will let everyone know that I am switching over to use the secondary blog which can be found at @kmp78secondaryblog

(PLEASE NOTE: That blog is ONLY used when we run out of room here, and I never go there unless I have to so please don´t send any messages to that blog unless I inform we have to move there!)

AND FINALLY PLEASE REMEMBER:

THIS IS A FANDOM FOR A BAND. NOT A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. ACT ACCORDINGLY.

Creating hater accounts dedicated to POSTING PICTURES OF MY BLOODY EYEBALL (that btw actually happened because of course it did! This is the echeLOOOOOON after all! 👍) won´t make me quit this blog, so...

Yeah.

Anyway, for further information, please contact me via private message here, on my IGs, or at [email protected].

Thank you. 🙏

PS: In case you run into accounts/comments made under my tumblr “identity”, or otherwise unauthorized “kmp78″ activity outside of tumblr which you recognize as being linked to this blog in any way (such as my posts being tagged with JL´s tags etc.), please report them immediately, both to the admins of the sites you found these accounts on, and to me directly so I can take appropriate action, thanks.

Any of my personal pics taken from this blog have been taken without permission and I have never and will never give permission to post them anywhere. And when I say I “appropriate action”, I mean just that. If need be, I will be contacting the authorities, like I did when I received public death threats.

Be very aware that my tolerance for that is less than zero - and also be aware that these guidelines and my rules may change whenever I feel the need to change them.

#DEAL ✌️

#updated rules #updated regulations #read and learn #think you can?#i don´t have high hopes #dumbfuckchelon

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killian-whump · 6 years

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@doodlelolly That other post is getting way too long, so let’s at least fight like civilized people with “Read More” cuts, yes?

I’ve quoted the portions of your post as I respond to them, since the initial post isn’t here. Also, for those who wish to see what has occurred before (and to prove I am not trying to “hide” anything in there and truly am just trying to save my followers’ dashboards) the post is here.

Ok. So here’s what I’m getting from your repeated condescending tone and aggressive responses. You believe you’re in the right and nothing is gonna change your mind. It kind of seems to be a trend that I’ve ignored until now because, as you mentioned before, it’s only a small percentage of your actual content. But we’re this far in already so I’ll continue to throw my 2 cents in cuz, hey, why not.

Of course I think I’m right, as do you. That’s literally the foundation of every single argument in the world. BOTH sides believe they’re right, otherwise they wouldn’t be arguing. So please don’t point a “You think you’re right!” finger at me as if you’re making a profound point about my character. It takes two to tango, and YOU are the one who asked me to dance tonight.

So let’s break down the responses you gave as mentioned above. To the first anti Jen sentiments, you expressed outrage and disapproval immediately, and then when someone disagreed, as in the case with Jen’s two defenders, you tried to maintain that air of neutrality. What does that say to your followers?

It says exactly what my words stated. My initial reaction is to think what Jen said is rude to the cast, crew and writers of the show, but I am withholding official judgement until I see a video for myself. That is what I said, in full, in my initial response - and what I continued to state, in part, in my further comments on posts I made explicitly to amplify the comments made in Jen’s defense. Had my response to those comments been the impetus for posting them, I could’ve put them in the replies portion of the post. I POSTED them, with a simple response of my stance on the subject, to GIVE VOICE to the positive interpretations of Jen’s words.

Honestly, I’m curious what you would’ve preferred me do, instead of what I did. Should I have ignored the positive comments entirely, as I ignored the negative ones? Should I have made sure my response to all three comments were identical by adding the part about thinking the comment (as reported) was rude? Either of those options seem like they would’ve legitimately given the impression that I was being “anti jen” - and, frankly, the options of me either not sharing my opinions at all or lying and saying I was convinced by the defense when I hadn’t yet seen the video I’m waiting on aren’t things I am willing to do.

And I never once said that your anti Jen tag inconvenienced me, not did I allude to it. I simply pointed out that if you use that tag, you’re probably going to find something anti Jen. I’m not asking you to change it. I wouldn’t expect you to. I think it’s absolutely appropriate.

You stated that by USING the tag, I knew there was “anti jen” sentiments within the post. I explained that I use the tag, even for mild criticism or what might be construed as criticism, out of respect for a follower who ASKED me to do so. Polite, civil, valid, and/or respectful criticism is not “anti” anything, though I have a strong suspicion you probably think it is - and perhaps that’s where our problem lies in communicating with each other. We seem to have wildly different ideas of what constitutes “bashing” someone.

And for you to be so ready to discuss the so called “ammo” for season 7 antis and shut down the asks about whether or not this is the right place for one if your followers is another huge red flag that you are playing favorites. Why is an ask that someone flat out calls Jen out in “well thought out” and someone looking for information on the content of your blog (with a compliment to you, no less!) “dropping bullshit”? That seems very biased to me.

It IS biased. I answer almost all of my asks, and I will answer one asking my opinion on something one of Colin’s former co-stars said about the project they worked on with Colin MUCH differently than I will answer an Ask that perfectly fits an established pattern of trolling asks I receive whenever a specific catalyst occurs - and said catalyst has just occurred.

I’m sorry that you’ve gotten hate for your opinions in the past, but neither of the anon responses to this subject, to me, appeared hateful. The first anon was expressing their opinion (which I didn’t agree with either, for the record) and the second was concerned on whether or not they should remain a follower. I don’t know this person, and neither do you, so your assumptions that they are not a follower and trying to stir the pot are only assumptions, just as mine are that their intentions are genuine.

However, MY assumptions are based on a pattern of events that have continually and predictably occurred for MONTHS now. Jen gets mentioned on the blog, or some non-CS ship gets attention, or I make a critical comment about Jen/Emma/CS... and I receive two rapid-fire Asks in my box: the first one a pro-Jen/CS/Emma rant about whatever topic set them off, and the second some “I’m a long time follower, but this concerns me!” nonsense. Sometimes (as tonight), there is a third one that goes on with the pro-Jen sentiments and adds some anti-Colin ones for good measure. I didn’t post that one, but it DID arrive - as expected.

Also, it bears mentioning that an Ask doesn’t have to be “mean” to be trolling. Some of the asks this individual sends ARE mean, yes, but it’s the repetition, insincerity, and lack of relevance to my blog’s subject that offends.

YOUR assumptions are based off of seeing two random asks on my blog and coming to your own conclusions about them based on the Asks themselves. I’m sorry, but in this case... this isn’t just a difference of opinion here. Your assumption is being made without the full picture, and I understand that, but I am GIVING you the information that led me to make the assumption I made - and as I said before, I am standing by it unless someone wants to admit they SENT that Ask and I made a mistake in interpreting its source/purpose.

And I’m sorry you misinterpreted the way I worded my hypothetical. Allow me to rephrase. Simply take all of the instances where Jen’s name is mentioned and replace them with Colin’s. Would your response be different? I expect st least your initial one would be. You would be much more likely to take an immediately neutral stance instead of rushing out the gate with a negative comment. So no, they weren’t completely different questions. Just replacing one actor’s name with another.

My apologies. It was my misunderstanding. Allow me to adjust my answer.

I am being 100% honest when I tell you my initial response of saying it’s RUDE and that I am withholding judgement until I see a video would be the same. Although, in the interest of full honesty, I probably might have expressed a disbelief that he ever WOULD say such a thing, as I genuinely don’t think I’ve ever heard the man utter anything (in seriousness) that is even in the same ballpark as that kind of comment. However, I know this from having followed his career, interviews and comments for some time. I do not follow Jen’s, and therefore have no reasonable expectation of what she would/wouldn’t say.

As for the rude comments from others... I would have ignored them, just as I did tonight - unless they got excessive. In which case, I would have pointed out to those making them that the OP is a Colin fan and could they please have their conversation elsewhere than on my post. As I said elsewhere, I do not “police” people’s opinions, unless they’re based on something proven to be false or seem grossly misguided in a way I feel I can help them with.

I tend to believe people who are eyewitnesses to the occurrence. Eyewitness testimony stands up in court so I mean, it’s a huge shove towards the truth in my opinion. But I intend to watch the video when it surfaces as well and I will continue to support your decision to do so.

The problem here is that someone directed me privately to the Twitter post from someone at the panel where they quoted Jen as saying she carried the show. You’re assuming that all we have here is heresay and the comments from two people who were there - but the initial “quote” that started all of this is FROM someone who was there. Hence, I am withholding my judgement until I see the video, myself, and know EXACTLY what was said and can determine from her face/tone how it was intended.

And you know the same could sentiment could be said for your accusations and assumptions of me. I disagreed with your post. Vehemently. And you have willfully misinterpreted most things I’ve said as evidenced by the clarifications, redirections, and explanations I’ve given above to support your argument as you see fit. It’s absurd and I don’t appreciate having my words twisted or ones I never said put in my mouth.

Ah, but I am the one being accused of “bashing” Jen and being hateful towards her. The onus is on YOU to PROVE these accusations, and you have not done that. I stated an initial, honest opinion - that I admit is critical of Jen, but not overly so - and then did my best to AMPLIFY the defense of her and IGNORE the harsher criticisms of her - and yet you STILL persist in insisting you’re right and that I somehow acted hatefully towards Jen tonight. I haven’t. I said her words were rude - and, if it turns out she didn’t say what she reportedly said, I will take that criticism back.

And you are correct, this time you aren’t bashing Jen, either directly or indirectly. You’re clearly coming for me directly and I don’t think anyone thinks otherwise. I’m totally fine with that, bee tee dubs. But I agree with the tag once again. Doubly so this time cuz, hey, my name is Jen too ;)

Need I remind you once again that it was YOU who began this fight and YOU who is making baseless accusations against me without any actual evidence of them? Tell me, what have I “come at you” for? What have I accused you of? I think you’ll find I’m merely defending myself here.

Honestly, seeing the things others ARE saying about Jen, both on Twitter AND Tumblr, over this supposed statement... I am truly confused how my simply saying such a comment is “rude” and the way I handled someone who I sincerely believe has been trolling me off and on for over a year warrants the sort of attention this is being given. I mean, there’s literally dozens of other people you could be “calling out” for bashing Jen right now who are actually bashing her quite horribly... Am I truly the hill you want to plant your Jen Defense Squad banner on? XD

#responses #doodlelolly #fandom drama #off topic

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ux-projects · 5 years

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Capture. – Ironhack technical interview

THE CHALLENGE

One thing every creative professional has in common is that they are always observing the world seeking for inspiration. There are many ways to organize information and there are various types of input that can trigger innovation and creative thinking. Create a tool for designers and creative people, so that they can safely save pieces of inspiration and trace them back in an efficient way when they need to.

MY APPROACH AND MY PROCESS

User People-centered design Designers are observers. Their sources of inspiration are everywhere: specialized blogs, social networks, video platforms but also what surrounds them in everyday life, their peers and their activities. Their creative monitoring is therefore not only digital, it is also part of real life. To create the ideal tool and provide them a holistic experience, I must consider designers as complex human beings, not just as future users.

STRATEGY

Project vision Before I start building my tool, I need to understand its context of existence. The vision and mission of my product will help me to define what I build but also what I don't build. They will also serve as a common thread throughout my thinking process.

Mission statement: Collect, organize and share. Vision statement: Full of inspiration for unique ideas.

Project definition The second step was the definition of my project. This personalized canvas gave me a "big picture" of the objectives and challenges of creating my product. He also helped me to define my UX process for this exercise.

RESEARCH

Competitor analysis Unfortunately, I didn't have time to make a complete benchmark. Nevertheless, I had the opportunity to test several desktop and mobile applications such as Pinterest, Evernote and Dropbox.

Primary research My primary research focused on how designers criticized and recommended tools for collecting pieces of inspiration. To do this, I searched through design-oriented platforms and reviews section of the App Store and Play Store. The objective was to understand how they use them, but also their expectations and frustrations with these products.

Here are some interesting facts:

people don't want to burden themselves with too much functionality, they're looking for fast, simple and straightforward tools to use

there are very few tools on the market today that support the video format

people seem to use several tools according to their needs and functionalities (e.g. one tool to collect, another to organize)

the most common methods to collect information are screenshots and browser bookmarks

people seem to prefer visual organization methods (lists, boards, etc.)

Secondary research My primary research had already provided me with valuable information about the needs and frustrations of my potential users. But I needed to do more research: I wanted to understand people's behaviours when they were looking for inspiration. Why do they do it? When? With which devices? Are they aware that they are doing it? How do they organize their findings? Do they share them?

I decided to do a little survey that I sent to 5 of my contact designers ranging from age 19-34: a motion designer, a 3D designer, an art director, a web design student and a social creative.

ANALYSIS

Personas Based off my research findings, I created personas to personalize the data and better understand creative people. I therefore worked on two profiles of people taking into account their environment, their personality, their objectives and the motivations that drive them to seek inspiration.

The problem(s) The research and analysis phases allowed me to identify the main problem: frustration comes when people need to find their content due to disorganized information.

But I also detected another problem. As we have already said, creative people find their inspiration everywhere: in digital as well as in their daily lives. However, most of the existing tools are only intended for sources from the web.

So the high level goals are :

Create a platform for users to save and organize content they can access anywhere

Create a simple yet intuitive dashboard design with visibility in navigation

Saving, simple notes, images, videos, links and sharing with others should be quick and easy

IDEATION & DESIGN

The solution After an intense ideation phase, I opted for a double solution: Capture.

Capture. is a cloud storage service that allows you to collect and organize your pieces of inspiration easily and quickly. This application supports many formats, including gifs and videos, and can be used on both desktop and mobile devices.

As part of this exercise, I decided to focus on the mobile application because it includes an additional feature: capturing any source of inspiration, wherever you are, with the camera mode and the audio mode.

Sketching & wireframing I sketched on paper first to get an idea of the general layout of my application. I really wanted Capture. to be simple and intuitive. This is why the application has only 3 main screens: the home screen, the content screen and the camera mode.

Then, I created wireframes on balsamiq to see the functionality of the product.

Finally, I made a small interactive prototype with Invision to give an overview of my product. This prototype shows how Capture. works with its 3 main screens but also how the application interacts with the user if he wants to save a file.

View Invision prototype

TAKEAWAYS & LEARNINGS

How does my product help designers and creative people? Designed on mobile or desktop, Capture. adapts to all uses. At work as elsewhere, it allows its users to capture any source of inspiration and share it easily. Thanks to its highly visual organization in boards and tags, this app allows users to instantly organize each file or link and find them very quickly. Finally, with its online storage technology, Capture. is a fast application that does not clutter devices.

Takeaways The primary function of Capture. is to collect, organize and share sources of inspiration. But here are some other ideas of features that could be added:

a Discovery mode that works like a link aggregator so you never run out of ideas

a business offer to allow companies to create their own private space and boards for their teams

an extension like Evernote for web browsers to capture information and store it directly in the right place

a voice control system to organize your sources of inspiration and find them even faster

What I learned This exercise seemed intense but very interesting. I had already had the opportunity to experiment with some UX methodologies but I hadn't really tested those of UI design yet. This exercise allowed me to take in hand some tools that I had never used before as Invision. I simply regret not having had more time to go further in my user research and above all, not having had time to test my ideas and prototypes. However, I hope to have the opportunity to do so soon;)

#ironhack

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bambiguertinus · 6 years

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Transformation of Search Summit roundup

This past Friday we held our inaugural Transformation of Search Summit here in NY. Let’s just say, we’re already looking to book our venue for next year! On a scale of one to success, it was smashing.

Firstly, thank you (yet again) to all who came out to sponsor, speak at, and attend the event — couldn’t have done it without you.

As frequenters of many events ourselves, we did our best to ensure this one was full of high quality, fluff-free content. None of those talks where you get the end and think, “okay, but take out the buzzwords, and what did they say?” We asked for the moon, and our wonderful speakers delivered.

Some particularly rich (dare we say featured) snippets from the day:

Where search is heading

Siddharth Taparia, SVP and Head of Marketing Transformation, SAP, kicked off our morning speaking on the future of where search is heading. Social is the new storefront. The top 500 retailers earned 6.5 billion from social shopping in 2017, up 24%.

With the rise of voice search, position 0 is the ultimate prize. Over half of search queries will be voice based by 2020. A quarter of US homes have smart speakers. 92% of 18-29 year olds have smartphones. 90% increase in capabilities for voice search with only 8% error rate

Protecting privacy is a big deal. Alexa is coming to the office, the hotel, healthcare, the car, even learning. When you put a chip in everything, the whole world becomes a security threat. Even Google and Amazon are not immune to these.

New research: The Era of Ecommerce

Kerry Curran, Managing Partner, Marketing Integration, Catalyst & Clark Boyd, Research Lead, ClickZ, presented our headlining research report for the day: The Era of Ecommerce. Among many things, this research found a notable gap between how consumers browse, purchase, and behave online, and where advertisers put spend to reel those consumers in. Hint: not the same places.

There’s a lot more we could (and surely will) write about this report — not to mention that it was already 50+ pages long. For now I’ll direct you here for more information and here for the free download — enjoy!

How blockchain will affect search

Jeremy Epstein, CEO, Never Stop Marketing. For those who have never heard Jeremy speak, he is the best kind of fireball on stage. Spirited and smart, with the perfect sprinkle of self-deprecating humor. Jeremy speaks often on blockchain and the decentralized economy, and at this summit he focused on what those will mean for search. There’s a new sector — still in its infancy — of decentralized content that poses unique challenges in the search world: hard for search engines to index, curated by the audience, and where revenue generated goes directly to the creators of that content.

Panel: ClickZ, Adobe, Microsoft, Google

Panel discussion: Clark Boyd, Research Lead, ClickZ. Pete Kluge, Group Manager, Product Marketing, Adobe, Christi Olson, Head of Evangelism, Microsoft. Juan Felipe Rincón, Global Lead, Trust & Safety Search Outreach, Google

This was an interesting panel discussion on what awaits us in the future of search — things like connecting content and searches over several days, and more gender equality for women who search in emerging markets. They of course touched on types of search, and how Amazon is affecting the industry.

Visual search, which starts to answer the long-held question of “how do you search for something if you don’t know what it is?” and which particularly rings true for retail: this person has a nice scarf, where did it come from, where can I get one?

They also discussed how the input:output exchange of search is changing. It used to be only text:text. Now it can be image:voice, voice:voice, or any number of expanding options.

We need a bit of a mindset shift. We do a lot of our planning in terms of old paradigms, but more and more searches are being done by default, through lots of entry points.

They voiced how the future of search is no search, because search implies uncertainty. Instead, it will be about how you populate something before someone knows what they don’t know. In the future we won’t be searching, AI will do it for us. The experience of a user going through search is not here’s a keyword, here’s what I need. Sometimes we actively search, sometimes we want to be kept informed about things interesting to us.

And finally, bringing us a bit back to our feet — they reminded us that while we talk a lot about the future and transformation of search, a lot can be done now. Particularly around visual search, there’s still a lot of basic groundwork that people aren’t doing, such as using alt tags on images and making sure our visual content is properly described. As Rincon put it, “Look at the web as if you didn’t have eyes.”

Mobile search

Jason White, Director, SEO, Hertz. Fun fact about Jason: he started off doing SEO in 2003 because he competed in cycling races and worked at a bike shop to get discounts on parts, and the bike shop wanted to sell excess inventory in the winter. Fifteen years later, he’s Director of SEO at Hertz. Yet another quintessential example of great, self-taught SEOs who stumbled into the field and were pleasantly surprised to find it stuck.

Best quote from Jason? “You’re going to have a smart toilet bowl at sometime in your life. What will it say about you?” He talked about the future of IoT and security. We learned our data is worth $250 per year, and it’s going up every year. And finally, that billions of queries are made every day, 15% of which are completely new — ones Google says people had never searched for before.

Amazon and Amazon Marketing Services

John Denny, VP Ecommerce & Digital Marketing, Cavu Venture Partners (formerly Bai Brands). Luis Navarrete Gomez, Head of Global Search Marketing, LEGO

This was a particularly hands-on session with 7 excellent tips for leveraging Amazon and Amazon Marketing Services, i.e. both paid and organic search. And it was certainly from a trustworthy source — John Denny helped lead Bai beverages to be named 2015 Vendor of the Year by Amazon.

They related how running search campaigns on Amazon has been a struggle, one which many compare to what it was like running Google search campaigns in 2005. Happily, there’s been some rapid development of ad tech platforms changing the game of late.

They also talked about the tangible nature of Amazon campaigns versus elsewhere on the web — marketers selling physical products. As John put it, “A lot of execs hear about Amazon ads and think great, let’s rock and roll! But the reality on Amazon is that you can’t rock and roll anywhere if your product is out of stock. Build your foundation first.”

The full-funnel search approach

Claudia Virgilio, GVP of Strategic Partnerships, Kenshoo spoke to us about the importance of taking a full-funnel search approach. Amazon advertising has 197 million monthly unique visitors, and $4.6 billion spend.

How to optimize for voice search

Melissa Walner, Director, Global SEO, Hilton led another particularly practical session, coming from a brand that certainly gets asked a lot of questions — everything from “what’s the address of my hotel” to “what are fun things to do in Maui with kids?” Melissa had great insight into how to optimize specifically for voice search, and viewing SEO these days as not just search engine optimization so much as search everywhere optimization and search everything optimization.

She pointed out that 1 billion voice searches are made each month already, and that by 2020, 30% of all searches will be done without a screen.

In a voice search world, position 0 is queen: 80% of google home responses stem from a featured snippet. She then gave great tips for securing those featured snippets, on both high-level strategic and in-the-weeds technical levels.

Visual search and ecommerce

Clark hopped back up to cover visual search and how it affects ecommerce. One key quote from this session was pulled from our research report, from Amy Vener of Pinterest: “Shopping has always been visual. We’ve just been taught to do the opposite online.”

93% of consumers consider images to be be key deciding factor in a purchasing decision.

61% of consumers aged 18-34 discover new products through social media. If consumers start purchasing directly through these social platforms, that could pose a big problem for someone like Amazon.

We also learned about structured data to help search engines understand content, and the importance of always marking up price, availability, image, and product name. For the curious, the Pinterest engineering blog is quite open on how their visual search works.

Panel: UPS, Codecademy, Heineken, Condé Nast

Panel: Andrew Spikes, Head of Global Paid Search, UPS. Kunal Arya, Performance Marketing Manager, Codecademy. Nikolai Zeinikov, Ecommerce Director, Heineken. John Shehata, VP, Audience Development Strategy, Condé Nast

To close out the day, we had a final panel discussion on strategies for search transformation. Panelists from UPS, Codecademy, Heineken, and Conde Nast carried us through with light-hearted, quippy, down to earth thoughts on how they strategize search at their organizations.

They reminded us that almost 80% of successful add to baskets happen through search, and that people use search because they can’t easily find the products.

They also exemplified how SEO teams are still very much “lean beasts.” One of them mentioned that even at such a large company, their “search” team was a mere four people — and two of them were UX/UI. “When I first started, it was a huge mess,” he said. Further proof that a lot can be done with few hands on deck, and that strategy has a lot to do with choosing what not to do.

All in all, it was an excellent, enlightening day. We’ll have some more in-depth video content to come on specific sessions. Until then, another s/o to those who joined us!

from Digtal Marketing News https://searchenginewatch.com/transformation-search-summit-roundup

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oscarkruegerus · 6 years

Text

Transformation of Search Summit roundup

Firstly, thank you (yet again) to all who came out to sponsor, speak at, and attend the event — couldn’t have done it without you.

Some particularly rich (dare we say featured) snippets from the day:

Where search is heading

New research: The Era of Ecommerce

How blockchain will affect search

Panel: ClickZ, Adobe, Microsoft, Google

They also discussed how the input:output exchange of search is changing. It used to be only text:text. Now it can be image:voice, voice:voice, or any number of expanding options.

We need a bit of a mindset shift. We do a lot of our planning in terms of old paradigms, but more and more searches are being done by default, through lots of entry points.

Mobile search

Amazon and Amazon Marketing Services

John Denny, VP Ecommerce & Digital Marketing, Cavu Venture Partners (formerly Bai Brands). Luis Navarrete Gomez, Head of Global Search Marketing, LEGO

The full-funnel search approach

How to optimize for voice search

She pointed out that 1 billion voice searches are made each month already, and that by 2020, 30% of all searches will be done without a screen.

Visual search and ecommerce

93% of consumers consider images to be be key deciding factor in a purchasing decision.

61% of consumers aged 18-34 discover new products through social media. If consumers start purchasing directly through these social platforms, that could pose a big problem for someone like Amazon.

Panel: UPS, Codecademy, Heineken, Condé Nast

They reminded us that almost 80% of successful add to baskets happen through search, and that people use search because they can’t easily find the products.

All in all, it was an excellent, enlightening day. We’ll have some more in-depth video content to come on specific sessions. Until then, another s/o to those who joined us!

from Digtal Marketing News https://searchenginewatch.com/transformation-search-summit-roundup

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sheilalmartinia · 6 years

Text

Transformation of Search Summit roundup

Firstly, thank you (yet again) to all who came out to sponsor, speak at, and attend the event — couldn’t have done it without you.

Some particularly rich (dare we say featured) snippets from the day:

Where search is heading

New research: The Era of Ecommerce

How blockchain will affect search

Panel: ClickZ, Adobe, Microsoft, Google

They also discussed how the input:output exchange of search is changing. It used to be only text:text. Now it can be image:voice, voice:voice, or any number of expanding options.

We need a bit of a mindset shift. We do a lot of our planning in terms of old paradigms, but more and more searches are being done by default, through lots of entry points.

Mobile search

Amazon and Amazon Marketing Services

John Denny, VP Ecommerce & Digital Marketing, Cavu Venture Partners (formerly Bai Brands). Luis Navarrete Gomez, Head of Global Search Marketing, LEGO

The full-funnel search approach

How to optimize for voice search

She pointed out that 1 billion voice searches are made each month already, and that by 2020, 30% of all searches will be done without a screen.

Visual search and ecommerce

93% of consumers consider images to be be key deciding factor in a purchasing decision.

61% of consumers aged 18-34 discover new products through social media. If consumers start purchasing directly through these social platforms, that could pose a big problem for someone like Amazon.

Panel: UPS, Codecademy, Heineken, Condé Nast

They reminded us that almost 80% of successful add to baskets happen through search, and that people use search because they can’t easily find the products.

All in all, it was an excellent, enlightening day. We’ll have some more in-depth video content to come on specific sessions. Until then, another s/o to those who joined us!

from Search Engine Watch https://searchenginewatch.com/transformation-search-summit-roundup

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alanajacksontx · 6 years

Text

Transformation of Search Summit roundup

Firstly, thank you (yet again) to all who came out to sponsor, speak at, and attend the event — couldn’t have done it without you.

Some particularly rich (dare we say featured) snippets from the day:

Where search is heading

New research: The Era of Ecommerce

How blockchain will affect search

Panel: ClickZ, Adobe, Microsoft, Google

They also discussed how the input:output exchange of search is changing. It used to be only text:text. Now it can be image:voice, voice:voice, or any number of expanding options.

We need a bit of a mindset shift. We do a lot of our planning in terms of old paradigms, but more and more searches are being done by default, through lots of entry points.

Mobile search

Amazon and Amazon Marketing Services

John Denny, VP Ecommerce & Digital Marketing, Cavu Venture Partners (formerly Bai Brands). Luis Navarrete Gomez, Head of Global Search Marketing, LEGO

The full-funnel search approach

How to optimize for voice search

She pointed out that 1 billion voice searches are made each month already, and that by 2020, 30% of all searches will be done without a screen.

Visual search and ecommerce

93% of consumers consider images to be be key deciding factor in a purchasing decision.

61% of consumers aged 18-34 discover new products through social media. If consumers start purchasing directly through these social platforms, that could pose a big problem for someone like Amazon.

Panel: UPS, Codecademy, Heineken, Condé Nast

They reminded us that almost 80% of successful add to baskets happen through search, and that people use search because they can’t easily find the products.

All in all, it was an excellent, enlightening day. We’ll have some more in-depth video content to come on specific sessions. Until then, another s/o to those who joined us!

from IM Tips And Tricks https://searchenginewatch.com/transformation-search-summit-roundup from Rising Phoenix SEO https://risingphxseo.tumblr.com/post/179326859220

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evaaguilaus · 6 years

Text

Transformation of Search Summit roundup

Firstly, thank you (yet again) to all who came out to sponsor, speak at, and attend the event — couldn’t have done it without you.

Some particularly rich (dare we say featured) snippets from the day:

Where search is heading

New research: The Era of Ecommerce

How blockchain will affect search

Panel: ClickZ, Adobe, Microsoft, Google

They also discussed how the input:output exchange of search is changing. It used to be only text:text. Now it can be image:voice, voice:voice, or any number of expanding options.

We need a bit of a mindset shift. We do a lot of our planning in terms of old paradigms, but more and more searches are being done by default, through lots of entry points.

Mobile search

Amazon and Amazon Marketing Services

John Denny, VP Ecommerce & Digital Marketing, Cavu Venture Partners (formerly Bai Brands). Luis Navarrete Gomez, Head of Global Search Marketing, LEGO

The full-funnel search approach

How to optimize for voice search

She pointed out that 1 billion voice searches are made each month already, and that by 2020, 30% of all searches will be done without a screen.

Visual search and ecommerce

93% of consumers consider images to be be key deciding factor in a purchasing decision.

61% of consumers aged 18-34 discover new products through social media. If consumers start purchasing directly through these social platforms, that could pose a big problem for someone like Amazon.

Panel: UPS, Codecademy, Heineken, Condé Nast

They reminded us that almost 80% of successful add to baskets happen through search, and that people use search because they can’t easily find the products.

All in all, it was an excellent, enlightening day. We’ll have some more in-depth video content to come on specific sessions. Until then, another s/o to those who joined us!

from Digtal Marketing News https://searchenginewatch.com/transformation-search-summit-roundup

0 notes