Hello, Everybody!
It's been two years since my last post, I'm sorry to say... Work really took its toll and it was not possible for me to carry on with my blog, even though I didn't close it down because I was hopeful I would post again.
With a little sadness this post is to let you know that I don't intend to post again in this blog.
I am working in some other projects which I'll reveal in due time and I hope you all come and join me there!
I do thank from the bottom of my heart everybody who commented and emailed me, for giving me a chance to make a tiny difference and to help you with my articles.
I am proud of what I wrote and proud of my little personal project, I learned so much and enjoyed it thoroughly.
See you soon!
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Thursday, December 04, 2008
Transmilenio and design during Christmas
I'd had a crappy day and then just when I was getting home, something brought a smile to my face...
Yesterday was a long succession of ups and downs, mostly downs, made lots of mistakes, there was a tense atmosphere... at the end of the day I took a Transmilenio bus to go home. 50 minute commute, listening to my iPod, trying not to think too much about the events of the day.
When suddenly, as the bus was approaching the Portal (Terminal, the last stop) the driver speaks up in this towering voice (which they never do, as you'd know if you live in Bogotá; Transmilenio drivers are not allowed to talk to passengers) and said:
And what does this story have to do with design?
Design as this driver drives. Design because you love it. Be excellent in your endeavors because it will bring you joy, because this is the way you serve the world. And your tool is design. Do you think you can reach such passion?
All the best!
Yesterday was a long succession of ups and downs, mostly downs, made lots of mistakes, there was a tense atmosphere... at the end of the day I took a Transmilenio bus to go home. 50 minute commute, listening to my iPod, trying not to think too much about the events of the day.When suddenly, as the bus was approaching the Portal (Terminal, the last stop) the driver speaks up in this towering voice (which they never do, as you'd know if you live in Bogotá; Transmilenio drivers are not allowed to talk to passengers) and said:
"Hello, passengers! My name is So and So (I'm so sorry I didn't get his name) and I just want to say to you all that it has been a pleasure driving you tonight and that I do this work with love, because I am here to serve you. I also want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and a wonderful evening!"Well, as you can imagine, we were all kind of shocked at first, thinking that maybe this guy was some psycho that was going to kidnap the bus or something. But then the whole bus burst into applause and some people yelled "And to you too!". I did have a funny feeling in my throat, a mixture of sudden happiness and tears.
And what does this story have to do with design?
Design as this driver drives. Design because you love it. Be excellent in your endeavors because it will bring you joy, because this is the way you serve the world. And your tool is design. Do you think you can reach such passion?
All the best!
Sunday, December 30, 2007
This Design Blog in Review
2007 is gone and what an interesting year it was! I learned so much! Writing for this blog has been amazing and it has taught me a lot in itself as well as a lot about myself.It ocurred to me last week that it would be a good idea to list all my past articles so far and add some categories, so that it’ll be a good index of topics. So here goes:
► Business & Management
Designers beware… design is not just about designing.
Designers beware of… customer service.
Getting a client, instead of an occasional buyer.
Designers beware of… filing systems.
Designers beware of… finances.
Designers beware of… production lines.
Designers beware of… technology and supplies.
Designers beware of… time measurement.
Time Tracking Tool.
Designers beware: 10 tips on writing emails.
Designers beware: Setting clear goals and expectations.
Designers beware: 5 steps to productivity, the 5S.
Designers beware: 5S Phase 1, Seiri (Select).
Designers beware: 5S Phase 2, Seiton (Organize).
Designers beware: 5S Phase 3, Seiso (Clean).
Designers beware: 5S Phase 4, Seiketsu (Standardize).
Designers beware: 5S Phase 5, Shitsuke (Improve).
► Recruitment & Selection
Designers beware: 10 tips on designer resumes.
12 resume writing tips for designers.
Designers beware: Being the interviewee (Part 1).
Designers beware: Being the interviewee (Part 2).
Designers beware: Being the interviewer.
Designers beware: Your portfolio.
► Leadership & Self Development
Designers beware of… leadership.
Design leadership and the constant challenges.
Designers beware: Is the design manager or leader the one that is “better” than the rest?
How can I?
Learn English!
Paradigm shifts and design.
Positive feedback.
The 10 Major Causes of Failure in Leadership.
The 11 Major Attributes of Leadership.
Three books you must read before you're 30.
► Creativity & Inspiration
Design magazines.
Design on wheels.
Designers beware: Podcasts.
Designers beware: Travels.
Four Design Influences.
► Resources
Design resources: Coroflot.com.
Design Resources: Design Management Institute, DMI.
Design resources: Springwise.com and Trendwatching.
► Local
10th Design Showroom, Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Expoartesanías 2007.
Latin American Design Events.
► Reference Articles
Design jobs: 3 great articles.
- Creatives Wanted: How to Prepare Yourself for Today's Job Market.
- Turning Up the Volume: Teleconferencing Etiquette.
- Five Sure Signs Your Job Is a Dead-End.
Design resources: 2 articles.
- Get A Life (And Other Remedies for Creative Atrophy).
- The Proof is in the Process.
► Guest Post
Beginners guide to making money on the internet
► Personal
25 things about me.
Gracias, Merci, Thank you, Danke, Grazie, Obrigada...
I want to thank everybody who visited and commented on my blog! I am sure 2008 will bring more topics to write and discuss about!
All the best!
Special thanks to my friends Wayne Smallman and Carl Grint who have helped me improve this blog.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
No post this weekend.
Hello, Everybody! I regret to inform you that other priorities got in the way of my writing this weekend. It seems that I've gotten busier and busier. I am trying my best to keep my blog up.
See you around.
See you around.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Paradigm shifts and design
I started at my new job this week. I haven’t been exposed to the specific tasks of the position, yet I’ve learned a few lessons…
It is a big company, so there were these introductory activities that are meant to give the newbie an idea of what the company is, where it’s going…
As a designer and professional I look for new challenges, I look to acquire new knowledge. Which may in the beginning be interpreted as challenges related to the technical aspects of design, form, color, sketching, specifications…
And then sometimes you find your challenges somewhere else and related to other things different than design.
This week I met this guy, 25-year-old. At first glance one of those yuppie guys that work in the commercial field, remembers everybody’s name, always smiling… you know the type, right? Your typical sales manager in the making.
In one of the activities we were all asked “what is something that few people know about you?” and his answer was “overcoming a back injury in a taekwondo match”.
I later on asked him about it and he told me about being in bed for two years because he’d broken his back, he wasn’t able to walk and he was told that if he were to walk again, he’d be “walking strange”.
I can tell you something, six years later, he’s not walking strange. Not only that, the guy jogs every day and at 25 he has a clear picture of where he’s going, what he wants; he’s building his life.
So this knowledge took me from seeing him as the yuppie careless kid, to admiring his vision and persistence and even feeling jealous of him because when I was his age I had no idea of where I was going.
Oh, but there was more for me to learn this week…
Another one of the people in the activities was this girl… She got there late, for starters. I immediately made the judgment that a person that would arrive late wasn’t very committed or maybe she just didn’t care.
During the day it became obvious that she was loud, bossy and obnoxious. I was thinking “thank the Lord she’s not in my area, I don’t have to work with her”.
And as luck would have it, at the end of the day I learned that she and I will actually be working really close together.
How ironic, huh?
I also learned that this twenty-something woman has a child and a husband, goes to college and works full time. Her day starts at 4am to study for her finals and then get her son ready for school at 5:30.
How about that? Suddenly my perception turned 180°, I could see her struggles and enthusiasm.
But what does all this have to do with design, you ask?
Not much, I guess.
But I wanted to bring this experience up to illustrate how we can get so immersed in our misconceptions that it takes a shift in our paradigms to understand, to be able to see further.
Would changing our paradigms have anything to do with design?
How about making assumptions about a problem? About people?
Could there be other alternatives? What else could it mean?
How else could we approach the issue?
Be open, be generous, be humble.
All the best.
It is a big company, so there were these introductory activities that are meant to give the newbie an idea of what the company is, where it’s going…
As a designer and professional I look for new challenges, I look to acquire new knowledge. Which may in the beginning be interpreted as challenges related to the technical aspects of design, form, color, sketching, specifications…
And then sometimes you find your challenges somewhere else and related to other things different than design.
This week I met this guy, 25-year-old. At first glance one of those yuppie guys that work in the commercial field, remembers everybody’s name, always smiling… you know the type, right? Your typical sales manager in the making.
In one of the activities we were all asked “what is something that few people know about you?” and his answer was “overcoming a back injury in a taekwondo match”.
I later on asked him about it and he told me about being in bed for two years because he’d broken his back, he wasn’t able to walk and he was told that if he were to walk again, he’d be “walking strange”.
I can tell you something, six years later, he’s not walking strange. Not only that, the guy jogs every day and at 25 he has a clear picture of where he’s going, what he wants; he’s building his life.
So this knowledge took me from seeing him as the yuppie careless kid, to admiring his vision and persistence and even feeling jealous of him because when I was his age I had no idea of where I was going.
Oh, but there was more for me to learn this week…
Another one of the people in the activities was this girl… She got there late, for starters. I immediately made the judgment that a person that would arrive late wasn’t very committed or maybe she just didn’t care.
During the day it became obvious that she was loud, bossy and obnoxious. I was thinking “thank the Lord she’s not in my area, I don’t have to work with her”.
And as luck would have it, at the end of the day I learned that she and I will actually be working really close together.
How ironic, huh?
I also learned that this twenty-something woman has a child and a husband, goes to college and works full time. Her day starts at 4am to study for her finals and then get her son ready for school at 5:30.
How about that? Suddenly my perception turned 180°, I could see her struggles and enthusiasm.
But what does all this have to do with design, you ask?
Not much, I guess.
But I wanted to bring this experience up to illustrate how we can get so immersed in our misconceptions that it takes a shift in our paradigms to understand, to be able to see further.
Would changing our paradigms have anything to do with design?
How about making assumptions about a problem? About people?
Could there be other alternatives? What else could it mean?
How else could we approach the issue?
Be open, be generous, be humble.
All the best.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Gracias, Merci, Thank you, Danke, Grazie, Obrigada!
Last year I started writing about the design business as part of a networking strategy I was implementing. At first I thought I didn’t have much to say…
So I wrote about eight articles that were first posted on Ecademy. Late last year I got prompted to write again by a friend and that’s how I’ve been posting weekly all this year. I discovered I actually had some things to say!
So, technically, I am an amateur blogger, a newbie, a rookie…
Still, I’ve gotten such a positive response so far and I find amazing that people from all over the world visit my blogs both in english and spanish. I am aware that many of those visits are mere coincidences, but I’ve noticed I’ve got some regular visitors. So this post is to thank all of you who have visited, have left comments and continue to visit!
People from Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Finland, France, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Qatar, Singapore, Spain, Sri-Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland , Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and USA have visited me during these months and I am so grateful for it…
So what’s in store for the future?
I will be starting at a new job soon. I’m not sure yet how my work load is going to be, but I intend to keep posting weekly. This new job represents a huge challenge for me and I’m sure it’ll give me plenty of topics to talk about! I am so excited about it!
I also intend to make some changes to optimize the blogs, maybe shorter titles, maybe more pictures, a new template? I don’t know. Actually, why don’t you tell me what you’d like to see?
Thank you again and I hope to see you around!
So I wrote about eight articles that were first posted on Ecademy. Late last year I got prompted to write again by a friend and that’s how I’ve been posting weekly all this year. I discovered I actually had some things to say!
So, technically, I am an amateur blogger, a newbie, a rookie…
Still, I’ve gotten such a positive response so far and I find amazing that people from all over the world visit my blogs both in english and spanish. I am aware that many of those visits are mere coincidences, but I’ve noticed I’ve got some regular visitors. So this post is to thank all of you who have visited, have left comments and continue to visit!
People from Australia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Finland, France, Honduras, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Qatar, Singapore, Spain, Sri-Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland , Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and USA have visited me during these months and I am so grateful for it…
So what’s in store for the future?
I will be starting at a new job soon. I’m not sure yet how my work load is going to be, but I intend to keep posting weekly. This new job represents a huge challenge for me and I’m sure it’ll give me plenty of topics to talk about! I am so excited about it!
I also intend to make some changes to optimize the blogs, maybe shorter titles, maybe more pictures, a new template? I don’t know. Actually, why don’t you tell me what you’d like to see?
Thank you again and I hope to see you around!
Saturday, May 12, 2007
25 things about me
My friend Wayne Smallman from Blah Blah Technology recently did an article on 25 things about himself and I thought I’d follow his lead and roll with it…
So for once you get to know a little bit about me. Here goes:
1. My full name is María Carolina Ayerbe Castro, however nobody calls me all that. There are many shorts for my name, like Caro, Carito, Caroline, Carol, Carriolo…
2. There are two things I don’t like to talk about: Politics and religion.
3. My friends talk about the “relativeness of Carolina”. For example, I’ll say “I don’t like to dance, unless I have to”.
4. I don’t like to exercise (unless I have to, lol) in general. However I used to play tennis and started jogging about two years ago. I jog one day and work out the next.
5. I taught myself english when I was about 12 by means of closed captioning in TV shows.
6. My eyes tend to water whenever I’m talking about something serious.
7. I’d worn glasses since I was 9 until I was 26, when I had lasik surgery.
8. I have poor short term memory, which is really the reason why I create so many systems and databases to control everything and why I became so organized.
9. According to what I’ve researched, I was one year old when my first memory was created. It’s of my Mom taking me to the doctor.
10. I’ve always loved books. Books with lots of pictures, like design, architecture, science or art books.
11. I’m known for being honest and direct which, granted, has brought me trouble sometimes.
12. I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan, I lost count of how many times I’ve read the books and heard the audiobooks and I never miss an episode of Mugglecast.
13. Although I’m a latina girl, I enjoy rock and pop… though no mixes for me, I like the originals, thanks. Latin music is not for my iPod, it’s for dancing!
14. I love to travel. I’ve made it a goal to travel at least once a year.
15. I am fascinated by ancient cultures, especially Egypt.
16. I didn’t use to be a disciplined person, but in the last few years I’ve discovered true freedom in discipline.
17. My favourite color is red and I have to restrain myself from buying everything red.
18. I love to sing. I don’t have a good voice, but I’ll even sing to the commercials on TV.
19. I have no vices, except an addiction to chapstick and biting my fingernails.
20. I’m usually either too cold or too hot, but almost never quite confortable. Living in Bogotá (Colombia), most of the time, I’m too cold.
21. I love sci-fi, movies and novels and for a girl, I am quite interested in technology. I love gadgets and I will read their manuals thoroughly.
22. I never learned to skate and I wish I had. It looks like so much fun!
23. I love speed with safety, like rollercoasters… or just speeding up in the car (not that that’s safe at all).
24. When I smile, I get a dimple on my right cheek, but not on the left.
25. I love people who are passionate about what they do.
Phew! That was hard…
All the best!
So for once you get to know a little bit about me. Here goes:
1. My full name is María Carolina Ayerbe Castro, however nobody calls me all that. There are many shorts for my name, like Caro, Carito, Caroline, Carol, Carriolo…
2. There are two things I don’t like to talk about: Politics and religion.
3. My friends talk about the “relativeness of Carolina”. For example, I’ll say “I don’t like to dance, unless I have to”.
4. I don’t like to exercise (unless I have to, lol) in general. However I used to play tennis and started jogging about two years ago. I jog one day and work out the next.
5. I taught myself english when I was about 12 by means of closed captioning in TV shows.
6. My eyes tend to water whenever I’m talking about something serious.
7. I’d worn glasses since I was 9 until I was 26, when I had lasik surgery.
8. I have poor short term memory, which is really the reason why I create so many systems and databases to control everything and why I became so organized.
9. According to what I’ve researched, I was one year old when my first memory was created. It’s of my Mom taking me to the doctor.
10. I’ve always loved books. Books with lots of pictures, like design, architecture, science or art books.
11. I’m known for being honest and direct which, granted, has brought me trouble sometimes.
12. I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan, I lost count of how many times I’ve read the books and heard the audiobooks and I never miss an episode of Mugglecast.
13. Although I’m a latina girl, I enjoy rock and pop… though no mixes for me, I like the originals, thanks. Latin music is not for my iPod, it’s for dancing!
14. I love to travel. I’ve made it a goal to travel at least once a year.
15. I am fascinated by ancient cultures, especially Egypt.
16. I didn’t use to be a disciplined person, but in the last few years I’ve discovered true freedom in discipline.
17. My favourite color is red and I have to restrain myself from buying everything red.
18. I love to sing. I don’t have a good voice, but I’ll even sing to the commercials on TV.
19. I have no vices, except an addiction to chapstick and biting my fingernails.
20. I’m usually either too cold or too hot, but almost never quite confortable. Living in Bogotá (Colombia), most of the time, I’m too cold.
21. I love sci-fi, movies and novels and for a girl, I am quite interested in technology. I love gadgets and I will read their manuals thoroughly.
22. I never learned to skate and I wish I had. It looks like so much fun!
23. I love speed with safety, like rollercoasters… or just speeding up in the car (not that that’s safe at all).
24. When I smile, I get a dimple on my right cheek, but not on the left.
25. I love people who are passionate about what they do.
Phew! That was hard…
All the best!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
