Nicole Schneekloth is Recipient of the RRCA National Running Awards "Outstanding Club Website" of 2011

The winning site can be viewed at www.gardenstatetc.org.

Back in December when I first found out that I was nominated for this award, I was flattered. A nomination alone says so much. In my experience, web design is a very unthankful field when compared to Graphic Design, so being recognized for my efforts really is a self-esteem boost.

When I learned that I had actually won the award in February, I was shocked. The news amazed me so much, I actually looked into this to see if I had actually won - how could I win a nation-wide award? Thinking of how many clubs in each state are associated with RRCA gives me butterflies when I think of how many websites must have been nominated.

Being that I've only been in website design for about 5 years, it was even more surprising. Some of the previous winners posted on their site have some beautiful designs. You can view previous winners here.

A more in-depth description of Website Award can be viewed here.

I will be unable to attend the 2012 RRCA National Conference in Memphis, TN where I would receive the award. I would really like to thank Charlie for letting me go ahead with my proposed design for their new website, and I'd like to thank whoever it was that nominated our site.

Friday, January 20, 2011

Outlook for the Print-Based Graphic Designer

I've secretly been noticing a trend in the available Graphic Design positions available in the New Jersey area. I would venture to say that close to 80% of the design positions available are for Web Designers, or Graphic Designers who have at least some experience in HTML and CSS coding.

Even though I've been aware of this trend myself, I couldn't help but research it to see what other people had to say about the Graphic Design job market. I found this article from highersalary.com, and was not surprised by the Job Outlook section that explains there will be less and less room for print designers in the industry.

This is okay news for me, since I've always been interested in web design. I currently maintain four websites, and never received any formal training! You can view screenshots of my website portfolio in the Assorted Works section above.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Amazing Web Design

As I was climbing around on the inter-net today, I stumbled upon this website:

http://stuffandnonsense.co.uk/blog/

How amazing is this page? It morphs itself into the most aesthetic position as you contort your browser window. No Flash is used, so when mobile devices access the page, there is no difference than accessing it from your home computer. This is the most ingenious, clean, and attractive use of CSS that I've seen so far. Kudos to Stuff and Nonsense!

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2011

Contemporary Art

I confess, it's not very often that I take a peak at what is going on in the art world today. But I do get the newsletter from Celeste Prize. I seem to get an email update from them at least once a week. In my opinion, too frequent, so I tend to just hit "Delete." But today, I saw that their headline included the work of the 50 finalists for the prize.

Their work can be viewed here.

I can't say I'm at all impressed. With any of it. This is really the best they could find? I find it all to be so kitsch, and they all look like something I've already seen. Or they are simply poorly rendered! When will there be new quality artwork out there? Have humans simply run out of innovation?

I'll stick with 19th century work :)

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6, 2011

Typography

I was reading an article on different fonts, including Trebuchet MS, when I stumbled across something really interesting.

Before I go any further, take a look at the trebuchet ampersand:

&

And for those of you who don't know what an ampersand NORMALLY looks like, here you go:

&

Anyone think it looks a little strange? That's because it actually forms the letters "Et." In French, this means "and." So, I never noticed how strange the Trebuchet ampersand looks because, well, I hate the font. But learning this sparked my curiosity to research it further to find out how and why it's evolved the way it has.

For those of you who already speak French and realized this years ago...congratulations - you beat me to it :)

Monday, March 7, 2011

New website design and other things...

I have finally finished my updated website design (www.ntfredrickson.com) after much procrastination. I'm so happy that it's complete since it was really one of my big goals to accomplish while I'm on temporary disability. Well, it's not COMPLETELY finished. I need to add some more images to my graphic design section since it is pretty weak at the moment. Most of my portfolio is saved on my computer at work, so that will have to wait until I'm ready to return to work.

My other goal is finishing a very late wedding gift for my fiance's cousin and his wife. So far, I think it may be the best portrait I've ever done, so I really hope they like it!

I'm really counting down the days before I can go back to work and return to my normal life, but I do think I am at least trying to be productive during this time off.