This time around, we’re featuring:

• aromatherapy and skincare by Essance
• jewelry by Free Spirit Beads
• custom bags by Olive Chaos
• stylish tees for a good cause by TanQ
• Japanese beverage tasting by Genki-Su

…and, of course, there’ll be new photos by yours truly on display. From what photoshoots? You’ll have to drop in to find out!

You can RSVP on Facebook and invite your friends along. Come down and celebrate the shiny weather, have a drink and a nosh, and maybe even go home with something awesome. I look forward to seeing you!

FIRST FRIDAY IN JUNE
June 1, 2012, 5:30pm-7:30pm
@ Sarah G Creative
Suite B29 in The Ford Building
on SE 11th & Division

I was already acquainted with Old Town Computers when I re-designed their business card–they took good care of my beloved old MacBook, Flexo, when the trackpad started behaving oddly, and got it back to me with no fuss.

That, however, was a mere annoyance. When one of the hard drives in my uber-workstation failed spectacularly, that caused me some serious panic. I always have plenty of backups, so my work was safe, but a dead hard drive made it much harder to do my editing work. Even worse, my computer was set up with some add-ons and upgrades that I didn’t have a lot of concrete information about, so I didn’t know where to start with fixing it.

OTC came to the rescue, though–they helped me piece together the problem, didn’t flinch when they asked questions I didn’t know the answer to, explained all of my options along the way, and were just incredibly patient with me throughout the entire process. I’m happy to report that I picked up my computer yesterday morning, in full working order, and newly set up with redundant backups! The next time a hard drive fails out on me, it should be much less stressful than it was this time.

So, yes, if you have computer troubles you can’t solve, whether they’re PC or Mac, Old Town Computers will take good care of you. And, you might even see a familiar-looking business card design on the front desk, when you get there.

Think about the Who and the Where.

You know that different clients sometimes need different approaches, when you want to give them your best, so you should keep that in mind with your banners and flyers, too. Who will be seeing it? And where will they be looking at it? Will they have time to stop and read it?

If you’re taking your clothing line to a higher-end trade show, you’d want to use different wording on your banners or cards than you would at a bargain sale. If you’re promoting an event through a street team, you’ll want a flyer that makes a quicker impression than what you’d use in a place where you have more face time with each person.

Keep it consistent with your brand.

Even when you’re adjusting your banners for your audience and venue, you still want it to communicate your business’ message as well as all of your other advertising and web promotions. Spend a few minutes looking at other promo materials you use, and take hints from those.

The hints you’ll get from that? They should include the visuals and the content. Use colors and styles that look good with your logo, for instance. You can work with a designer you trust to make sure everything looks cohesive. Did you have a copywriter help you with the written content on your web site? Maybe you should call them up and get their help with your signage, too.

Don’t overload it with information.

Information overload is probably THE number one mistake I see on signs and flyers. It’s tempting to want to say everything you possibly can about your product or your service, but too much will just overwhelm your potential customer. And, the people who see your sign will likely only see it for a brief moment, as they’re walking or driving by it. Will those people even have a chance to read a sign that’s too wordy?

Your best bet is to make your message as clean and concise as possible. Get the most important information out there, and give them the opportunity to notice, like, and ask questions about your work. If you entice them into visiting your web site or asking you about your work, you can use all the words you like to answer them.

Those who keep any sort of tabs on my personal social networking universe know that I’ve been talking up these cookies for weeks, and they’ve been through several revisions. The reviews were good on the first couple of attempts, but I wasn’t satisfied, so I continued to tweak the recipe. After this latest revision, I’ve finally reached a point where I feel they’re ready to be unleashed, and you know what? They’re pretty awesome.

Semisweet chocolate probably sounds like a pretty tame starting point, but it’s only part of the equation.

Peanut butter is also part of said equation, but no, that’s not terribly weird, either. Reese’s has sworn by that combination for years, so I couldn’t possibly stop there. That wouldn’t be any fun. After making things a bit more interesting, this was the result:

Your eyes do not deceive you. There’s bacon in them thar cookies.

I don’t have a fancy name for them, but I do have a recipe, for those who want to experience the wonder for themselves. Here is my gift to you, dear Internet!

Peanut-Butter Chocolate-Chip Bacon Cookies

6-8oz bacon
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat oven to 325F. Cook the bacon in a pan until crispy. (yes, I insist upon crispy bacon. Texture is everything, y’all.) Reserve 4 Tbsp of the bacon grease and set aside, and chop the cooked bacon into small pieces.

2. Cream together the peanut butter, sugars, bacon grease, unsalted butter, and maple syrup, and then beat in the egg.

3. Sift together the remaining 4 ingredients, and then add the peanut butter mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix thoroughly. Add the chopped bacon and chocolate chips, and mix until thoroughly distributed.

4. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet, and bake for 12-13 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool on a cooling rack, if you can restrain yourself from eating them for that long.

The cookies don’t spread terribly much, and they’re crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. I also recommend using crunchy peanut butter, or the kind you grind yourself at the store–New Seasons has a machine filled with peanuts that it’ll grind into peanut butter in whatever amount you want. Again, texture is everything.

HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response was founded in 2001, right here in the Northwest, and they’ve expanded into a nationwide organization that brings canine comfort to help people in need. HOPE sends specially-trained human-and-canine volunteer teams to people affected by disasters, and gives much-needed comfort in trying times.

The bonus for HOPE? Now, they have a modern look-and-feel, with a homepage that highlights what they do, and how people can donate or get involved. They can also easily update their content and keep their members up-to-date, without knowing how to code, which is one of the things I love about designing for WordPress!

I definitely encourage you to donate to the cause, or even get yourself (and your best doggie friend) involved by becoming a part of your regional chapter.

One of my favorite parts of conventions like these is getting to photograph so many people who are doing things they’re excited about. I got to capture artists and writers passionately talking about their work, geek performers sharing their tunes and talents, and hands-on creatives showcasing the fruits of their labors. It’s truly awesome to see all of the cool things that people are doing and making, and that’s one of the things that I really love about working with people in my own business.

A few highlights from the con are here, and you can also see more photos and read recaps of Day One, Day Two, and Day Three from the convention.

Portland fashion photography – Portland event photography – Sarah Giffrow Creative

Fortunately, you can take the sting out of the process by scheduling your blog posts and social networking ahead of time! It’ll make all of your content look more active to your visitors, because you’ll have updates posted on the regular, and encouraging people to visit you (and potentially hire/buy from you)? Definitely a good thing!

Schedule Your Blogs

A regularly-updated blog can definitely do wonders for creating buzz about you and the awesome things you’re doing. And, when you schedule content in advance, your blog will also look more attractive to search engines, because the content is spread out over time–releasing too much content at the same time can look like potential spam! Scheduling your content is also great when you have a lot of ideas, because you can get all of your writing done at once, and spread it out over several days, weeks, or even months.

If you’re using WordPress, when you create a new Post, take a look at the Publish menu, to the right of your writing window. In that, you’ll see several options for making your post viewable or not, but the one we’re interested in is Publish immediately. Click on the Edit link next to that, and you’ll be able to select a future date to schedule your post! Then, click Ok to set the date. Once you’re done writing your post, just click on the blue Schedule button, and your blog will automatically update on the date and time you chose.

Social Networking In Advance

Planning ahead isn’t just for blogging, either–you can keep your social networks active by scheduling in advance, too, with the help of some handy web apps. HootSuite and TweetDeck are two of the most popular platforms to manage your Twitter and Facebook presence, and all you have to do is sign up for free, and then add your Twitter and Facebook accounts to them.

These apps are fantastic, because now, if you want to hit the morning crowd and the afternoon audience, you don’t have to sign in multiple times. You can schedule all of your updates just once a day, or even once a week, and have plenty of time to make your entrepreneurial magic without interruption. You can even send the same update to multiple places at once, so you can tell your Facebook and Twitter followers about your latest news in a single step.

To schedule your updates, all you need to do is look for the calendar icon (HootSuite), or clock icon (TweetDeck), and click on it. Then, a calendar will pop up, allowing you to set the date and time you want your update to go out. Finish your update as you normally would, and the magic of the interwebs will send it out at the date and time you selected!

Oh, and in case you were wondering? This post, and the Tweet or Facebook update that probably told you about it? Yep, scheduled in advance. It works for me as a constantly-busy small business owner, too, so give it a shot.

Community Warehouse is a Portland non-profit organization that gathers donations of used goods, such as basic furniture and housewares, and distributes them to help local people in need–that includes low-income families, people with disabilities, the elderly, and women escaping domestic violence. It’s truly wonderful that we have a resource like this to help disadvantaged folks in Portland improve the quality of their lives, so we’re excited to lend some of the spotlight to them as part of shooting this fashion collection.

If you don’t have things to donate? You can support Community Warehouse by shopping at their Estate Store–they cherry-pick the coolest vintage and retro furniture, kitchen goods, and fun decorative pieces to sell at the Estate Store, and all of the proceeds go to support the Warehouse, and get more housewares out to people in need.

In the meantime, enjoy the photos, and check out the full collection on the Clair Vintage web site.

Portland fashion photography – Portland lookbook design – Sarah Giffrow Creative

The next thing you know, a logo was born! I whipped up a slick, modern logo for DerbyCoaching.com, incorporating shades of green that Venkman favors, along with a bit of pink for pop and contrast. Eagle-eyed derby skaters might also notice a couple of details specific to the sport: one being the styling of the pink letter “O,” which is styled to suggest the shape of a roller derby track. Additionally, there’s also the star in the dot of the “.com,” calling back to the star worn on the helmet of the Jammer, the only player on the team who can score points in a jam.

DerbyCoaching already has a solid list of some truly prolific skaters who are offering their wisdom to derby players all over the world, but there’s always room for more on the site! If you’re looking for a coach, or would even like to be listed as one, take a look at DerbyCoaching.com to get a glimpse of what’s happening in the roller derby community.

Oh, and if you happen to be in Portland, Rose City Rollers has several bouts happening in March! This Friday, the Break Neck Betties take on a visiting team from Seattle (Derby Liberation Front), and Saturday night has two of our home teams battling for supremacy. So, if you haven’t seen roller derby in a while (or ever!), now’s the time to get tickets, and get on it!

Portland web design – Portland logo design – Sarah Giffrow Creative

But, of course, the highlight was the awesome garments on display, from fabulous Portland-area designers and boutiques. For the full array of what was shown, check out my gallery from the show. Or, read on and get a peek at just a few of the looks that graced the runway!

Solestruck had a cute display letting the crowd know about their ongoing mission: To Rid The World of Ugly Shoes.

Studio SKB brought some smart-looking womenswear to kick things off.

StudioSKB also presented a dramatic collection by Bryce Black.

Ms. Wood set a dramatic mood for their collection with a teaser video, and got what was easily the biggest crowd reaction of the evening, with their amazing sequined dress!

Clair Vintage Inspired lightened up the tone with a lively vintage video clip, and showed bold prints and wearable dresses for Spring.

Let’s not forget the boys–menswear just got interesting with a cool collection from Chicago Harper.

And, the finale was a shoe-centric team-up by Solestruck and Black Milk Clothing–check out the slinky catsuits and popping makeup!

Portland fashion photography – Portland event photography – Sarah Giffrow Creative