For anyone who read the title and thought “Finally” then shame on you. Actually by “US” I actually mean us as in this studio, by “invades” I mean works with and by “Canada” I actually mean a long term friend and great graphic designer/developer, Daniel Moya.

Sorry about the confusion, not really, that was just me trying to be nice. #nicefail.

SO! Now that we have that out the way, a little about the man, the myth. . .the Mexican. I’ve known Danny for neigh 10 years now and he has always been designing and developing anything he could get his hands on. He’s a hard worker, speaks English, Spanish and French, an excellent asset, eats raw eggs for breakfast and a man among men. Okay, okay I exaggerate, he actually hates eggs. Seriously though we are happy to have him aboard and look forward to making Thoughtbird even better with him here. Well technically he’s not here but in Quebec, you get the idea.

Already you can see his work throughout the site and in post that precedes this one.

If you like you can contact him via twitter @dnlmoya, drop him a tweet or two.

This is just a quick shout about some other places that you could check out our activity. We recently created a Facebook fan page a few weeks ago so be sure to drop a line and say hi. Myself and my cohorts will be there frequently and always be brainstorming for some killer creative content for you connoisseurs.

Here’s what you can expect:

Updates about the site, new articles, and other resources

Current Projects we will be working on

And maybe an interesting contest or two involving websites and/or business cards

We also have a twitter account should you feel the need to see what we’re up to on a minute by minute basis and “no” that’s not at all creepy if you do.

That’s all for now folks!

The times may or may not be “a changin’” but this site certainly is. This will be a shorty but will hold a lot of promise. This is where you say or think “I’ll believe it when I see it” or something to that effect. Which if you actually said it out loud then that would be a little weird, otherwise read on.

So if you have checked the blog recently you may have notice a drastic change in the look and feel of things around here.

From This:

To This:

We changed our brand from Falith Design to Thoughtbird Design for several reasons the main one being that we felt Thoughtbird was a better fit for out business context. We also thought it would be a little more relate-able than a word that, when pronounced even ever so slightly incorrect, sounded like Phallic. I think the last straw for me was that we were considering entering a ping pong tournament and I didnt want to be known as “Team Falith”. Besides, everyone relates to birds now thanks to twitter. Thanks twitter!

Anyhoozle, over the next few months you will be seeing more changes and tweaks around the site. It has to happen now because I set up all the changes on a time line in Things and I hate to see the red Doc-Count numbers. Can you say “Hoo-Ray” for GTD apps?

So what do you think of the new name as opposed to the old one? We would love to see your thoughts in a visible, easy to understand format below otherwise known as the comment section.

Cheers!

Brian Hoff

Brian Hoff is an extremely talented graphic designer in print and web that has been on the rise within the design community for a few years now. However more than just a designer, he is a college graduate with a BFA in graphic and interactive design from Temple University’s School of Art, he is certified with and trained by Apple Inc. in programs like Adobe Creative Suite 3 and currently teaches said software and the like to students and industry professionals. He also runs his own blog, The Design Cubicle that was launched in 2008.

All this while being extremely photogenic and in his spare time he finds time to take care of injured kittens who have lost their way, just because he cares that much.

Seriously though the guy is a real giver to the design community and we here at Falith thought it would be super keen to get inside his head and poke around a bit. So without further ado:

Welcome! Please introduce yourself, tell us where you are from and give us the skinny on your bio.

“I’m Brian Hoff, a graphic designer from Philadelphia. I specialize in logo and print design and have become more aware of the web in more recent years; although I can never fully get away from print.

As introduced above, I’ve earned my degree from Temple University with a BFA in Graphic & Interactive Design, work periodically at Apple, Inc as a certified software trainer and am the founder of a popular, emerging graphic design blog, The Design Cubicle.”

What motivated you to pursue graphic design in the first place?

“I grew up from an early age drawing, painting and doodling. I also had an obsessive love for computers so graphic design was the best of both worlds for me. Type has also been a passion of mine from an early age, which brought me into design.”

Are there any particular graphic designers, past or present that you consider mentors on some level. Or are there any designers that have inspired you to begin/continue your career as a graphic designer?

“I wouldn’t say there are particular designers that have inspired me more than others. Design in general inspires me. I’m always working towards becoming a better, more aware designer. Check out some of the things that I do for self-improvement: 16 Tips To Improve As A Graphic Designer “

How do you feel you have contributed to the design community so far and do you have any plans on how you want to contribute in the future?

“One of the main reasons I have started blogging was to give back to the design community that has given me so much from the start. I felt like I had some insight and experience to share with others and hopefully some are getting something out of it. In the future I would like to get into some conferences and lectures, to not only talk about design, but how social networking can play a big part in a designers growth and success.”

In what ways do you see the graphic design community changing, how has it changed since you started and what have you learned from it?

“The design community is consistently becoming more and more diverse. I can’t stress enough how much I’ve learned from the online community. I’ve always wanted to state on a resume that I earned a second degree from reading blogs.”

You recently posted a blog on The Design Cubicle about What Makes a Quality Font. What reading materials (blogs, books etc.) would you suggest for someone who knows nothing about Typography but wanted to start learning?

“Buy Ellen Lupton’s Thinking With Type book and subscribe to ILoveTypography.com to start. Also, surround yourself with type. Look at how “the masters” use it and how it is effective.”

Where do you see your design career going in the next few years?

“Currently I am working towards full time independency and eventually opening up a small design studio… I love working harding and love what I do. It’s nice to wake up every morning where your passion and hobby is your profession.”

***BONUS QUESTION***  How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop?

“I always bite it to get to that damn delicious tootsie roll, so I’ll guess I’ll never know. :)”

Well said! I want to give a big “Thank You” to Brian for taking the time to answer our questions.

If you would like to contact Brian you can usually find him lurking around the following sites:

Web: http://thedesigncubicle.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/behoff

I was browsing Flickr for images of street art. I love street art when it is creative.

Oh, and I love this joke by Demetry Martin about graffiti.

Graffiti… I don’t like graffiti, unless it teaches me something, you know? Like “Oh, that’s how Alex feels about Maria. I wouldn’t have known if I had not walked by there, thank you.” Graffiti’s the most passionate literature there is, you know? It’s always like “Bush sucks!”, “U2 Rocks!”. I want to make indifferent graffiti. “Toy Story 2 was okay!” “I like Sheryl as a friend, but I’m not sure about taking things further”, “This is a bridge!”, “That guy’s right!” – Demetry Martin

So I decided to share some of what I liked post a few of the graffiti art images for inspiration. I love the art with bright colors.

photo credit: Today is a good day

photo credit: funkandjazz

photo credit: loungerie

photo credit: The Flooz

photo credit: otherthings

photo credit: moonrat42

And if you’re in to street art, Wooster Collective is a cool website to visit.

photo credit: thinkpanama

Whenever you are starting your business you learn, most of the time, the hard way that you absolutely need to market yourself and whatever it is that you do. A Lot of people are better at this than I am, way better, however I figure that I have the advantage of writing from a beginners perspective. So over the past few weeks I have become acutely aware of this need and thought I would share with you what I have learned so far.

Recognize Who You Are

One of the most important lessons I learned from the get go was who I was, vocationally, in my new endeavor. Whenever I was introduced or was introducing myself I did so as a graphic designer/web developer and in doing so I have actually attained the majority of the business we have enjoyed thus far. I do this at my day job, when I am out for fun, in the grocery store and even when I pick up the mail from the mail man. You have to think, you are no longer a customer service rep or an IT for a large company, you are actually a professional writer, graphic designer, web developer or photographer. Hopefully you are also passionate about your new found freelancery and that definitely needs to show whenever you are introducing yourself, people need to know that you love what you do.

Make Some Commentary

You have blogs that you read because you think the information is useful or at least entertaining and hopefully both. One way to get your name out there is comment on the blogs that you like and become a part of the community. This can actually be a little time consuming for me so I resolved to making five well thought out comments per day so that I don’t end up spending all my time reading blogs.

Write A Guest Article

Writing for another blog has a lot of potential to generate some revenue for your business and I know a lot of people have recommended it in the past. What I have found when I did this is that it introduces you to a whole other realm of people and contacts and most importantly it gets your name out where people can see it. It also lets people get to know you a little better and lets them know what you are capable of. Whenever you do write a blog be it on your blog or someone else’s make sure that you always respond to the comments that are given, nobody likes it if you don’t interact.

Get To Know Your Community

This one actually involves leaving your precious computer and safe inner sanctum that is your house. There are tons of local business’s around your neighborhood and all you have to do is talk to them, don’t even hand out your business card at first, just get to know them. Once they figure out that you are awesome they will eventually ask what you do at which point you refer to quick tip number one. Take some time and look for local restaurants, grocery stores and flower shops and make a schedule to stop by and get to know the owners. You can also accomplish this by getting involved with your local chamber of commerce but there is so much pretense in those settings it’s not even funny. Pretense is never funny, ever.

Serve People

That’s right I said “serve”. No one likes to say it but the truth is that you are providing a service and once you have some clientele you need to serve them with proper respect. Believe it or not this is huge and a key quality to have for when you need a testimonial or referrals, not to say that you need to bend over backwards and break your back for people but leave them raving about how you do business. There are tons of writers, graphic designers and photographers out there but you can be the one that leaves people amazed with how you handle your clients.

The Bottom Line: It’s All About Relationships

It’s true, it really is all about relationships, simply because people are not going to go with your services unless they know who you are and are comfortable with you as a person and as a businessman/woman. The more people know who you are and what you do the better and if those people can get to know you as a person then even better, assuming that you are a good person anyway. So get out there, be friendly and show people what you are capable of.

Are there any quick marketing tips that you have that were not listed here? Don’t be shy! Share them in the comments!

These USB sticks by Thalbach Design look awesome. I love the wood container. I could definitely use one of these.

Main features of the exclusive Flash drives:

• each one is carefully handcrafted in Germany by Thalbach Design
• individual wishes on veneers used or style of aluminum inlay are possible
• attentions to details: e.g. the veining of the veneer goes all the way through the stick (china sticks don’t do – normally there the lid is made from a totally different piece of wood and just grabbed out of the big box when finally plugging the sticks together)
• these sticks can’t be bought from an online store since the producers believe that an exclusive product needs an exclusive customer service: they prefer to talk to the customers in order to build for them exactly what they imagine.

Gadgets Club is giving away 4 of these 4GB USB sticks. All you have to do is write a blog post about their contest with a link to their website http://www.gadgets-club.com and a link to Thalbach Design Manufaktur. Then just leave a comment of the Gadgets Club blog. Winners will be announce on their site on December 24, 2008.

The first time I saw a steam graph was earlier this year when The New York Times created a graph to show how movies did at the box office. It’s a really cool way to visualize data.

I looked for more examples of steam graphs but could not find many. Maybe they are called something else or people just don’t want to use them.

The New York Times Ebb and Flow

This graph is of Obama’s One Week speech delivered October 27th 2008 was create by neoformix.

This one is a little different. It shows box office data for movies.

I was able to make a graph from my Last.fm account information at a website called LastGraph. This graph looks sort of lame compared to the ones I listen above it.  But at least it’s mine.

photo credit: indigoprime

I hate pumpkins! In my entire life I think I carved a pumpkin a total of two times. I haven’t carved a pumpkin since I was a kid because of the horrible memories I have from the two times I carved one. I remember it being an extremely unpleasant experience. There is nothing entertaining or pleasant about carving a pumpkin.

Before you can even begin carving you must first cut the top of the pumpkin off which reveals the appalling stench of the insides of this awful vegetable. Once the top is open you must extract the insides by sticking your hand into the hole and ripping out the stinky, slimy guts and throwing them on top of the newspaper under the pumpkin. After the insides have been cleaned out, you can begin carving the pumpkin. Being a kid when I first carved a pumpkin, I could not easily carve it with the little pumpkin knife I was given. I had to jam the knife into the pumpkin and work at sawing using the knife as a saw to finally create a hole, which I would call an eye or mouth. Finally, it is finished and the awful looking, disfigured pumpkin can be set on the porch only to get even more disgusting looking by curling up and growing all sorts of things inside of it. I blame all of my emotional problems on these two times I was forced to carve a pumpkin on Halloween.

Maybe the idea of pumpkin carving wouldn’t sound so unappealing to me if we had carved pumpkins the way Ray Villafane carved pumpkins. The 3-d pumpkins not only look much better than those with holes in their face, they also do not need to be gutted first. Ray gives a pumpkin carving tutorial that explains everything you need to know to create those awesome looking 3-d pumpkins.

I definitely do not possess the same talent this artist does in carving fruits and vegetables. But I still suspect that if my parents had carved 3-d pumpkins when I was a kid I might be a well-adjusted adult that is not repulsed by pumpkins. Well, probably not.

Here is a list to change your Twitter background for a more unique or professional style.

Tweet Style has released 4 high quality Twitter backgrounds since the launch of the website a month ago. The website also offers custom made Twitter backgrounds for those of you that prefer to pay for originality on your profile.

Twitter Backs provides background templates that are customizable to add your own personal or business information for your Twitter account for a more professional look.

Patterns

Twitter Patterns is a pattern website made specifically for patterns to use in your Twitter profile. These patterns are very nice quality but a majority of them are a little on the feminine side. Though they are very well made, if you are looking for a background a little more masculine, you probably shouldn’t start with these patterns.

For a little more originality you can try a generator to produce your own original background pattern. Below are a couple of online pattern generators and stripe generators that are fun to use.

BGPatterns

Tartan Maker

Stripe Generator

Stringmania