Here is my first preliminary sketch of the new design… looks a little confusing but my ideas were running wild. Not sure if all elements will make it but this at least gets my ideas flowing.

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Starting from square one again. I starting picking out design elements that would go into this new website design piece and it seemed like I was too literal with my choices and the pieces I was picking were too fabricated. So here we go again hopefully I can meet my own deadline.

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Ha! I set aside 30 minutes to begin my design process for my new layout. Getting really excited about it. I start out almost every design on paper first. Seems it gives me a boundless amount of space for ideas to spill out on the page before I meet any computer restrictions.

Will continue to keep you posted.

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Well here I go putting my foot in my mouth hopefully so I have some sort of accountability. I am looking to launch a new design for this website by February 15th, the day after valentines. The reason I am choosing that date is because on February 14th, 1998 is when I assumed my first business name for doing graphic design. The name was (don’t laugh). Pearly Gate Graphics, then when I moved to Kingsville I joined forces with a video editor and that changed to Nowtyme Graphics and Video. Some time later we broke ways and I started Tri-Omni Graphics (my former website domain, now this site). After learning web design with my current partner we formed Echo Design Solutions (San Antonio Web Design). So February 14th, 11 years ago marks my business beginnings.

Now I had to announce the new design so you guys can hold me to it if it is not done. I am really going to try to get it done by then with a different artsy feel to it. Feel free to nudge me, twitter or facebook me if I am not done by then.

Follow me on twitter: icemancast79

Add me to your facebook: My Facebook

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First let me go over my goals from last year and see where I stand… Yikes!

1. ) Increase the site visits to this website. If I had to give a number I would say 5,000 to 10,000 visits a month. You can help me with this if you have some suggestions or want me to talk on a certain subject or just plain digg and invite peeps.

I did increase visits, though it is not 5,000 it increased from 350 visits per month to 1,400.

2.) My goal for my business is to expand and have at least 1 other employee helping with the workload. I want the business to make six figures this year.

Not six figures, but Echo did make more than I did at my last job, nice! We did add 3 more contractors doing work for us so this is a step in the right direction.

3.) My goal for family is to spend more time with my kiddos and my beautiful wife. We will be searching for a house to buy by fall of this year.

Maybe fall of next year, have to make sure all things are in order first (want to sell our Corpus house, first). Definately have fun with kiddos all the time, working from home gets crazy but plus is that I can wrestle with boys at a moments notice. My wife and I still date!

4.) To become closer to my extended family brother, sister, brother-in-law and nieces.

We text each other a lot and have been able to keep in touch that way.

5.) To pay off as much debt as I possibly can (college loans included).

We had a setback with Benji’s hospital bills but we should have those and a couple of credit cards paid off by February.

6.) To lose about 20-30 pounds (going on a little diet for the month of January).

Ha! Enough said!

7.) I have been reading a lot lately, from a kid who would pick the books with more pictures than words, to reading 2 books a month is a pretty big change. I would like to increase this and absorb as much knowledge as I can about web, marketing, idea inspiration and business.

Still buying books and magazines!

8.) Make good grades in school, SCAD.

Had to quit because of business.

9.) I guess as some point find a church to go to. Enough Said.

We did it is a great church.

What are your goals for the new year? Post them here or post a link to your blog for your goals. HAPPY NEW YEAR AND THE BEST TO YOU AND YOUR PLANS  FOR ANOTHER PROSPEROUS YEAR!

FOR 2009

1.) Be in an office this year.

2.) Lose weight (yes putting it hear again)

3.) Look for our house.

4.) Increase business sales and clientele.

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It is not normal that I do a post like this but because of the holidays and so many changes in our lives right now it seemed to be a must. We went to church this past week and my pastor said something that struck a chord. Yes the old rusted one too that has always been there but I have touched in years. The same chord that gets you to nod up and down to a message, pardon my sarcasm : )

The verse that he shared is below:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (King James Version)

He began by asking us and challenging us to not only thank God for the good times but to also thank God for the bad times as well, “In everything…”. I can’t remember ever thanking God for the bad times. The good times always seem to overshadow those memories or I seem to try and hide them well. They are the wounds that make me who I am. Yes they were painful at the time but all that remains is the memories in the form of a scar. It’s funny our physical scars remind us what happened when we got hurt and we can point out each extra layer of skin that now covers it and say “yeah this happened when I was riding a bike and they dared me to stick my foot in between the frame and front tire”. By the way from experience don’t ever try that at home. Anyways to get to my point here is my post thanking God for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

The Good I am thankful for:

• Breathing!
• My Beautiful Gorgeous Wife (I am the luckiest man alive)
• My wonder strapping boys who seem to keep this house from any dull moments
• My awesome family
• My God given talents and abilities to be able to make money from home (soon office)
• Two working vehicles
• I love my Job
• Living my own dream and not someone elses
• Excellent Clients
• Great understanding business partner and greatest friend
• A great church that I am finally warming up to

The Bad and the Ugly I am thankful for:

This one is a lot harder for me because the two lowest points in my life has to do with churches. See before I list this know that it is extremely hard for me to trust or even like church.

• The first church accused Elaine and I of doing something that I did not do and pretty much cut all the serving I was doing there. Heads were turn when my girlfriend (Elaine) and I would walk through the church. So we stopped going. It was years before we tried another church, but we did in fact move on. That scar was brutal and deep because I grew up in this church since I was 2 years old, 16 years attending!So why am I grateful for that? If this did not happen to me we would not have moved on to the next church (you will see why that was important next). But we did visit the church again after 10 years of not stepping foot in there. Everything so much smaller than I remembered. The whole time there I kept asking God to bless this church because it was where I met Jesus and where I was baptized.
• Not becoming an electrical engineer. I switched my major to art after 3 years of engineering. I will never regret that decision. I worked in an engineering firm for a couple and know for sure I didn’t want to do this, loved art and graphic design.

• The next church we attended was new and hip, like a fad. I ended up working here for several years and I gained lots of technical experiences about web, graphic and video. Everything was running great, it was lots of hard work, more work than family which was preached against. However, I was ready to stay there for the rest of my life. Then like that I was fired! With a lame ass excuse that “my God given talents and abilities don’t match where the church is going”. WTF!!! Tell me where it is going so at least someone would know. This led me to question my gifts from God. Lord am I good enough? Why do you give me talent and desire but yet my talents that are not good enough? The worst part is that I walked outside and of all days my wife had the car so I started to walk down the sidewalk as she was coming to get me… I can’t even say the next part without tearing up. Here I am walking down the sidewalk with some of my possessions on my back and it begins to rain. I know God has a sense of humor because you could have picked that scene out in my life from the saddest movie ever. This was the single most lowest part of my life. I loved these people they were my friends, my brothers and my mentors and yet I am not good enough. N – E – WAYS! If this did not happen I would not be in this beautiful city. I would not own my own business full time. I would probably still be slaving away, and for what?! To accomplish someone elses dream? What about my dreams? I think God has a different way of kicking my ass to get me to do things. He knows me too well. He knows that hurt fuels me to accomplish more. Sometimes it is in a bad attitude but it is definitely forward. He knows that my attitude would be “You hurt me?! Well ‘F’ all you see what I am doing now” attitude.

To tone it down now. If these two lowest parts in my life did not occur I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t be who I am today. God and my family are the most important things in my life right now. Maybe that is what God wanted all along, and sure let’s throw in a dream come true in there somewhere. I just pray that I am finally here at my destination and that God doesn’t use a church to hurt me again, ha! I really want to get close but it is hard to. Because of this I focus on God, his message through the pastor, my family and my business. Will I get involved again… who knows I am still in this chapter in my life and sometimes it is hard for me to turn the page. Sometimes I try to lose the book marker too so I can claim that I am lost.

Don’t forget to thank God for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly!

In everything Lord I give you thanks! Happy Thanksgiving!

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Let me start first with saying that I made a decision to stop schoool at this time in my life. I have been so busy with my business that it has been hard to keep school in my schedule. Before I left I did havea chance to finish two different projects. We had to define graphic design which I posted in an earlier post “Graphic Design Definition“. Our actual project was to try and design the definition of graphic design without using the computer. It was a great experience and after much comments from the professor and student my next project was great.

The process book

The Project

Wait till you see the next project next week. I am excited on how it turned out.

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I was shooting a video for my old job and I didn’t know that my son grabbed the microphone for the camera. In my office all I could here was him chanting some lyrics (in another language). I quickly grabbed the camera, shot and edited this:

They grow up too fast!!!

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I would so drive to Houston for this. I grew up watching this movie and I am still trying to master the glow. See the video below or go the the link Alamo Draft House “The Last Dragon”. This movie rocks!

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My family and I tried a mexican restaurant here in town and I took some snapshots of the movie posters that were hanging. I love looking around for older designs, it just seems to bring you back to the basics. Design before the computer.

Una Gringuita en México (1951)

Trotacalles (1951)

Actor Miroslava Stern

Que Idiotas Son Los Hombres (1951)

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