I´ve secretly and not so secretly been hoping to win this for 5 years now, so going to the award show and actually getting a reward was very uhhh… rewarding. My site won in the best blog, yada, yada category. It used to be called best single person endeavor category which I could understand, I dont get the new category name.

From what I could gather there were over a hundred entries overall and then they were filtered into categories. I might ad that I also had another website I designed and set up nominated for an award. That´s the newly launched www.sparnadur.is site that I havent gotten around to add to my portfolio.

I´d like to end with saying that I really like winning this. And I´m fully motivated to do it again Plus winning a reward on you birthday is always nice. It was my 35th birthday last friday.

There are some photos from the event and of the stuff I got on flickr, be sure to have a look.

Here´s what they had to say, icelandic only for now:

Vefurinn sker sig úr fyrir áberandi leturnotkun og líflega hönnun auk þess sem efnið er skemmtilega fram sett. Innihaldið er skrifað af lipurð og einlægni þannig að maðurinn á bakvið vefinn skín vel í gegn. Vefurinn er gott dæmi um það hvernig fagmenn geta nýtt sér veraldarvefinn til að koma sér og verkum sínum á framfæri bæði á faglegan og áhrifaríkan hátt.

• Online backup. I use mozy for online backup. It´s super easy, reliable and it works. I´ve tried restoring stuff from their servers and it went gravy, no problems what so ever. Plus Mozy is real cheap.
• 0 inbox and gmail. I use gmail and I really love gmail. I used to use Apples Mail app but switched from that back and forth between it and gmail. I later decided to solely use gmail cause of the shortcut keys, and the fact you can upload multiple attachments, screenshots you know. I then learned a version of the 0 inbox method, try googling that. It´s basically about not having anything in you inbox that you dont need to act on. Everything else gets archived or deleted. I just love the E key in gmail, sends stuff straight to the archive.
• Online accounting. I use a local system here called Notando, it has a horrid interface at the moment but it sure beats writing out paper invoices and taking them to the post office. Also being able to send invoices every week or every other week keeps the cash flow going, which of course is extremely important for any small company.
• Using the same filing system every time. I´ve used pretty much the same filing system since I started working in this field. Starting out in 3d really forced me to keep my files organized. If you find something that works for you stick to it. I basically just keeps my psd´s in the root of the company folder I´m working on, sub folders for screenshots, logos, images etc. My main working tool is Photoshop so it made sense to have the psd in the root.

These are some of the things I do, of course there´s a lot more. Who knows, maybe I could write some more along these lines.

What do you do to simplify you working day?

• I have a ton of projects going on, to be honest too many, but I´m hanging in there. If there are some great designers out there that want to work with me, please send me an email.
• I´ve met a man! No not like that but a man I´d like to do more business with and who knows, we might open an agency at some point. More on that later.
• My daughter Regína has her birthday next week.
• We had dolphins swimming in the bay here in Keflavík
• I´m working for many large companies here in town
• I´m doing better mentally than ever before, thanks to yoga, meditation and consulting.
• …and my wife is pregnant with our forth child, how do you like them apples?

…so you could say that it´s good that I have a lot to do, especially with one more kid around the pregnancy corner.

Be sure to check out the front page with christmas ornaments.

Namaste very much
gummisig

Iceland
www.hugurax.is

Hugur/Ax is a rather big software company here in Iceland and they dont have a designer on staff, lucky me.

One of their staff was following me on Twitter and when talk came to do a new website for the company he jumped up on the meeting room table and yelled; “gummisig, we have to use gummisig for this!” …or at least that´s how I imagine it.

All in all this was an enjoyable project that I worked on with great people. Thank you Fjalar and Ósk. Hope to work with you guys again sometime.

Note: Hugur/Ax decided to go their own way with some design desiccions, but I´m showing my proposals here. I used this excellent image from a photographer that I cant remember what´s called right now for the front page proposal, that is a fantastic picture!

I used to create the pattern myself by creating a square pattern and saving it by going, Edit / Define pattern. This method works of course but it´s a drag doing and not all that efficient.

There are a bunch of tutorials around the web on how to do this with the brush. But I find that method to suck somewhat when your doing typical web designer work. It´s very inflexible.

Enter the styles palette
So the quick and easy method is just to use the styles palette. It comes with built in styles and some variations on dotted strokes.

Definitely not rocket science but a much faster and more elegant way to do this. Easy to copy stuff around and change as needed.

There are several versions to chose from, stroke weight, pixel spacing and other stuff. Be sure to try this out and save your self some valuable mouse moving time.

So I decided to make a riveting screencast with a smashing voice over for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy

We are sitting in the Blue Lagoon Cafe in the uhhh Blue Lagoon which is pretty close to where I live in Iceland. Must say that Matt is a great guy and a great designer, check out his stuff on www.artletic.com. He has done some amazing design work. And the Design Litmus site is always a great read.

Where do they come up with those clever names?

Anyways, this was my first ever interview as a designer. I was interviewed a couple of times when I was in a band, but those days seem so far away. I was really nervous as you might see with the redness of my neck

Gummisig Interview from Design Litmus on Vimeo.

Never never gland
Project not online

El mundo man, this art was initially produced for and Indian client. A lot of work went into it but it never got of the ground. I dont even know the status of this at this present moment, but I glimpsed this the other day while browsing and thought I´d add it to my portfolio since it´s really, really, ridiculesly good looking.

I dont think I´m at liberty to discuss freely about this client or his where abouts, so the title El Mundo is just, well, uhhh, total and utter non sense

It´s kind of funny because when I take time to relax or meditate I actually get a lot more done, am more focused, and most important am very happy. Life is beautiful, and never hostile. But this is not really what I wanted to write about.

When I take a walk in nature, most often by the seaside here in Keflavík, I cant help but admire and just be in awe of it. For one reason or another it sometimes brings my mind to a letter that the indian chief Seatle wrote to the president of the USA wanted to buy land from them. It´s very profound. I first heard it while watching interviews with Joseph Campel, he did a reading of the letter.

I just love this letter and find it realy brings things into perspective when thinking about earth, landownership and stuff like that. So I really want to share it with you in case you´ve never seen it.

Enjoy
Namaste
Gummisig

Letter of Indian chief Seattle to his people
The president in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. Every part of this earth is sacred to my people, every shining pine needle, every shore, every mist in the dark woods, every meadow. All are holy in the memory and experience of my people. We are a part of this earth and it is a part of us. The perfume flowers are our sisters. The bear, the deer, the great eagle, these are our brothers. Each ghostly reflection in the clear waters of the lake tells of memories of events in the life of my people. The water’s murmurs are the voice of my father’s father. The rivers are our brothers. They carry our canoes and feed our children.

If we sell you our land, remember that the air is precious to us. That the air shares its spirit with all the life it supports. The wind, which gave our father his first breath, also receives his last sigh. This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web he does to himself.

Your destiny is a mystery to us. What will happen when the buffalo are all slaughtered? What will happen when the secret corners of the forest are heavy with the scent of many men? And the view of the ripe hills are blotted by talking wires? The end of living and the beginning of survival!

When the last red man has vanished with his wilderness, and his memories are only the shadow of a cloud moving across the prairie, will these shores and forests still be here? Will there be any spirit of my people left?

We love this earth as a newborn loves his mother’s heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land as it is when you receive it. Preserve the land for all children and love it as god loves us all.

One thing we know: there is only one god. No man, be he red man or white man, can be apart. We are brothers after all.