Being considerate shows respect, understanding, appreciation, and care towards whoever is involved. It effects our overall image – how people perceive us, which, in the end, is more positive. The more we realize and acknowledge things about people, the more we learn about ourselves (read: self discovery), and about everyone around us. This helps us become socially well-rounded, which is important to all of us when we’re around friends, family, coworkers, strangers at a bar, and so forth.

So, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Being considerate involves compromise. You need to be observant of people’s behaviors and feelings so you can determine what needs to be done. If someone you know is having a bad day, you probably shouldn’t do/say anything inappropriate that would hurt their feelings. If you see a friend or colleague drowning in work, and you happen to have free time, lend a hand. These types of things are hard to forget. More after the jump…

Three weeks from today, my college career will be complete. I will have fulfilled the requirements of a rigorous 120-credit design program, met tons of amazing people, and built lasting relationships with my colleagues. This will mark a major milestone, and I will be headed towards greater things.

A strong network is important because you will take it with you wherever your career takes you. The amount of opportunities you are presented often depends on who you know. Your former professor may recommend you for a job, or a former classmate may need your expertise in some project. In contrast, if you ever need a hand somewhere down the line, who do you ask?

Say a former colleague of yours becomes an Art Director and is building a team of professionals, who will he go to? Most likely the people he knows and trusts, which could be you. I have been referred to clients by my friends and colleagues simply because they knew I did design work. People often make recommendations based on good experiences. The more people you meet and impress, the more likely you are to be recommended. More after the jump…

Be amazing in your schoolwork, regardless of what it is you do. Always do more than you’re asked for. Beat out the competition. Blow them away with your work. Come up with fantastic concepts and ideas – something you know others wouldn’t think of. Always go for something that would make people think “dang, now that’s clever!” These are the teachings of my former Advertising professor, Douglas Davis.

In his class, I learned how to truly work as a team with partners, how be actively productive, and how to go above and beyond what I thought I was capable of. These are the types of professors that shape and mold us into who we are as professionals.

When you’re just entering the working world, you don’t have much experience under your belt. Your schoolwork is pretty much the only thing you have to show for yourself. For designers, this means that your portfolio does most of the talking. For those with careers that don’t involve portfolios, your resume should list your accomplishments, activities, and so forth that define who you are and what you’re capable of.

By mid-May, I will be launching a portfolio that will highlight a lot of my schoolwork. It will including some great advertising campaigns I worked on in Douglas Davis’ class. I can’t wait until it’s up an running!

Some people say they are always behind everyone else, but that is not the case. Everyone is always a step behind someone, including the best out there. It takes a special skill to be able to discover things and learn whenever you wish. Self discovery is important because it’s what allows us to take control of ourselves and our future.

Knowing what you want is one of the greatest challenges in life, even though the list always changes. We may not always have the answers in front of us, but if we learn to look for answers in the right places, many problems can be eliminated. We all have the ability to research, try and experiment with anything that interests us, whether it’s music, the arts, programming, sports, and so forth.

Self discovery is a life-long process. Even when we reach the point in life where everything is going our way, it’s no reason to stop growing as a person. There is too much to see and learn about in this world to be fooled by some success. Success, after all, is a state of mind, and must be actively sought after.

Remember: Not knowing isn’t the problem. Not knowing how to get what you want is the problem.

A few weeks ago I discovered Flavors.me – a website that allows you to quickly create and customize your own website. You can link your existing blogs and website feeds, Flickr, LinkedIn, Netflix, and so forth, all in one simple interface. Here’s mine: flavors.me/lasha

Flavors.me is a GREAT way to get you started if you don’t have your own website, and a great addition to your online presence. It allows a decent amount of customization such as colors, fonts, and various options for Facebook, Flickr, etc. With this service, you can link people to just one page and have them access everything else. Great for potential clients and networking.

On another note, I’m getting decent traffic from my Flavors.me page back to this blog. I don’t know how that happened… haha.

This morning, I read a great post by Andy Rutledge about Risk. Things haven’t been too smooth lately, but this bit of encouragement set me on the right track again. It helped me realize once again that, without risk, there is no greatness. Those who set out to build empires and succeed take risks. Those who aim for the very best take risks. Those who set out to make a difference take risks.

“For designers, for business, just as for nations, risk is the essential component to great success.” – Andy Rutledge.

Andy created a series of Desktop Wallpapers based on the article. Risktakers stand out and achieve great success. Take a look at every successful company that has shaped our world today (Google, Apple, Microsoft, YouTube, Facebook, etc.). The question you should be asking is: What do you want to be noticed for?

Well, it’s that time of the year again where we all stop and think about the stuff we’d like to accomplish in the upcoming year. Looking back to December 31, 2008, I was madly excited about the year and the amount of things I was going to achieve. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out the way I would have liked them to (even though 2008 itself was great!).

Not to give an excuse for only completing 20% of the 2009 to-do list, but College work was harder this year than any other semester, period. Any normal person would’ve gone mad while going through the things I did. I hated it with all my guys, but now it’s all good – and I love it!

2010 will be a very interesting part of my life as I am graduating in June, and the rest of the year will be dedicated to job hunting and working… full time (whoah!). Getting through the final semester will be a pain in the ass FOR SURE. A friend of mine went through it and has now graduated. I will be following his footsteps in no time.

I am also thankful for having travelled to Israel this year and seeing family members I haven’t seen since I was a baby. It was a great experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Unfortunately, I wanted to travel to another location in the world (goal was 2 for 2009) but it didn’t happen.

This year, I am going to make 2 resolution lists instead of one, simply because some things take priority over others. The 1st list contain all of the important developmental things I will set out to achieve. The 2nd list will list things that I should always be keeping in mind, like going to sleep on time instead of writing blog posts 5:30 in the morning!

Here are some of the things that will be on the lists:

On Saturday, I stepped out of the classroom where I took my last final exam of the semester. It was a feeling that I couldn’t quite grasp right away, but now that it has sunk in, it’s pure bliss. This was quite frankly the hardest and the most stress-inducing semester yet.

The fact that I am graduating after next semester (June ’10) makes things extremely exciting! Regardless of the amount of classes I am taking come this January, nothing can surpass the amount of work and sleepless nights I just went through. Here are the classes I took:

1. Advanced Web Animation (Flash, ActionScript 3.0, Web Animation)
2. Advanced Web Strategies (Web strategy, marketing, a bit of JavaScript, PHP, MySQL)
3. Advertising Design II (Concepts, concepts, and more concepts)
4. Design Internship (Interning at an Interactive Design/Development agency)
5. Art History (Prehistoric to Gothic)
6. Macroeconomics (Economy, supply & demand, economic conditions, business)
   

90% of the people who see this list call me crazy, and I don’t blame them. I don’t regret anything one bit. I learned and achieved more this semester than ever before. It’s funny how all the best work happens right as you’re about to finish your degree.

I learned invaluable skills in Flash, and gained amazing portfolio pieces from Advertising Design II. The Design Internship allowed me to work on projects for Fortune 500 companies, and so forth. More after the jump…

A friend and I were talking about how busy we were with finding jobs and finishing college, when he mentioned buying time with a Credit Card. I thought to myself, “that would be absolutely fantastic! …or would it?”

Imagine what life would be like if time could be charged on credit. Some would have tons of time to do anything, while others would be falling behind on everything – all depending on their credit scores. Those will good credit history (aka productive time management) could buy more time to do whatever they wished.

Let’s be real for a minute and consider what “buying time” is really like in the world of flesh and blood. You’re probably thinking it all depends on what you need time for. Certainly, finding time to acquire a Master’s degree is different from getting an extra hour or two of sleep at night. To me, time is something we mold and sculpt to fit our lifestyles. We each have different likes, dislikes, ambitions, and plans for the future – including exactly how we’re going to get there.

How do you price time and at what cost do you buy it? I heavily invest into my future. For better or for worse, I don’t rush things and take things very easily. I often fall behind on accomplishing things, because of… you guessed it… time. I have plans to take over the world, but I just can’t afford the time, you know? Maybe I should up the credit line on my credit card.

Moral of the day: Time is responsible for our past, present and future. Befriend her and learn to play nice. Find your style of how you buy and spend time, get comfy, and set out some goals.

By now, you have probably heard all you think you need to know about Twitter, and you either love it, or hate it. There are a million and one ways of approaching and using a service like Twitter. Some of the obvious ones are:

1. Staying in touch and up to date the minute with your friends
2. Following big-time celebrities like Oprah, Jimmy Fallon, Al Gore, Britney Speakers, and you name ‘em!
3. Keeping up with the news way faster than traditional print and TV media (ie; Iran Elections).

What I’m trying to get at is that Twitter is a lot more than what the average person thinks it is. It is not only a social networking service, but a tool for business, professional networking, resource mining, and virtually endless knowledge.

Since I am in the Graphic and Web Design field, I will be talking about its relationship with Twitter and all of its benefits. More after the jump…