7.4: Cat’s Advice and Her Favs

Filed Under Business Life, Community, Design, Interviews, Successful Blog | 24 Comments

Whew! Cat’s a Busy Designer!

Cat Morley

I’m not going to list all of the places we’ve been with Cat. From OZ to design for the Queen is enough said. Tonight questions are a little closer to home.

Cat, What do you do when you’re not sharing your great links and ideas at Successful Blog?

I still have clients in the wings (the last ones before taking off into
unemployment), I keep Designers who Blog running. I’m project manager for NO!SPEC which means I deal with design orgs when spec competitions come up, I send out letters of protest and galvanize people to send out letters, etc. As project manager for Creative Latitude I confer with my team before we update, deal with new authors, come up with angles, etc. As the president of Proscodi I put together committees to deal with each element of setting up a design org, I meet other heads of design orgs, go to meetings, etc.

What advice do you have for new bloggers and young designers?

Bloggers - it always takes more time than you planned so be sure to write about something you love. And be prepared to walk away if it’s taking up too much of your life.

Designers - there is not enough room here for all the advice I’d give to a young designer, so the top priority would have to be:

    - Get a degree. The best one you can afford. And then some.
    - Learn about business, accounting, dealing with clients,
    communicating, public speaking, hiring, etc.
    - Learn to write. The majority of the designers I know have appalling
    grammar. Myself included.
    - Latch onto a mentor.
    - Never stop learning.
    - Get a life. Preferably your own.

What design work online do you point to as well done?

Illustrator: (Von created the icons for Creative Latitude) -
http://www.vonglitschka.com/
Web designer: (Nigel designed the Creative Latitude website) -
http://www.commonsensedesign.net/
Blog designer: http://www.pearsonified.com/

One more part to go. Cat tells her BIG IDEA.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
Interview 7.1: Meet Cat Morley, World Designer
7.2 Interview: Cat Morley Becomes a Blogger
7.3: Cat, the Toothpaste, the Queen and Everyone

7.3: Cat, the Toothpaste, the Queen and Everyone

Filed Under Business Life, Community, Design, Interviews, Successful Blog | 6 Comments

How Does One Person Do All This?

So far we’ve met Cat as world traveler and designer, a child star in the Wizard of OZ, and a crusader in the logo wars which got her into blogging. Now as promised . . . Cat meets the Queen and takes over the world (so to speak.). Read more

Interview 7.2: Cat Morley Becomes a Blogger

Filed Under Business Life, Community, Interviews, Successful Blog | 1 Comment

Crusader Cat

Cat Morley

If you read the beginning (7.1) of this interview you know that Cat Morley has been a few places and done a few things in her career as a World Designer. If you came to this week’s open comment night, you also know that Cat had a major role in Wizard of OZ written just for her.

Tonight a little more about the many things Cat has had going on in her life.

Cat, how did you end up as a blogger?

I’m a crusader with a hot spirit. When LogoWorks started showcasing logos that were remarkably similar to many, many other designers’ logos, I was swept into blogging along with others. Of course there were some bits that had to be in place first. I just happened to be test driving blogger for a client when it all came about.

Cat tells the story of how she started to blog on Creative Latitude. It’s called Blogs, Podcasts and all that stuff.

Here’s how the story starts . . .

If you asked me a month ago about spending my precious time updating an industry or personal blog, I’d say, “Never!” Sure, I have a business blog (now sadly ignored) which I’ve spent time on, but I’ve always pooh-pooed jumping in and keeping a blog just for the love of it.

Many times on “The About,” (About.com’s graphic design forum) I’ve passed a verbal grin in Chris Gee’s direction when he went on and on about the wonders and power of blogging on his blog thepreparedmind.com. Not for me. I felt I had better things to do with my spare time.

I’m really glad she changed her mind.

Next: wait until you hear about Cat and the Queen of England!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related article
Interview 7.1: Meet Cat Morley, World Designer

Interview 7.1: Meet Cat Morley, World Designer

Filed Under Design, Interviews, Successful Blog | 11 Comments

Meet Cat

I first saw Cat’s Blog, (click this shot to visit it) . . .

Designers who blog

I discovered Designers who blog when I was looking for great designers to feature. Then she submitted her blog for the Link Leak Blog-to Show that Successful Blog held earlier this year. I was delighted to meet her and a new friendship was forged.

Now I get a chance to share this amazing woman and designer with you.

I sent Cat a number of questions that I figured she might answer over a number of days and they came back in a number of minutes. . . . That shows a lot about who she is.

Today we’ll explore how she got started.

Hi Cat! Where’d you grow up and how did you end up in that part of the world? What’s it like for a blogger there?

Ok, that’s three questions.
a) Where’d you grow up
My parents were expats (expatriates) so I grew up overseas. Not all the time as in between we were stationed in places such as Fairbanks, Alaska where I lucked out and lived through the great Alaskan earthquake. Sadly, my aunt who was visiting did not. Our last posting was Blenheim, New Zealand. I will always remember the land of the long white cloud as god’s country. Kiwi’s are a very lucky people.

b) how did you end up in that part of the world?
France was too expensive so I took off for warmer, more amenable lands.

c) What’s it like for a blogger there?
Lonely at times as the US is asleep for the majority of my day, and whooping it up when I’m asleep. But it also means I get a lot done.

What got you started in online design?

When I decided to relocate from Brunei, I realised working in web would be more practical than print, which was my entry into the world of design. To explain, in Brunei I had local clients and a range of off-station clients. With a possible move to another country (and perhaps another after that) working 100% via the intenet made more sense.

So that’s how Cat got to be a world online designer. Next we find out how Cat faced diversity to become a blogger.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Great Find: Wufoo — Form-making Tool

Filed Under Successful Blog | 27 Comments

Cat’s in Great Form

Cat Morley isn’t only a supreme designer. She is one curious Cat, for sure. Each week at Tuesday Open Comments Night, she leaves a link that leads to a uselful site or article for us — one she’s found while she’s been surfing. Often during the week she’ll return to shoot me something else she’s discovered. This one, Cat sent for two friends of Successful Blog, Kean and Joe in hopes that they might find it the answer to their quest for a contact form on their blogs.

Great Find: Wufoo

Permalink: http://wufoo.com/

Audience/Topic: Bloggers, small-business owners

Content: Wufoo was released to the public in July 2006. It’s a friendly form-building program that allows users to quickly create a mailing list, a contact form, a marketing survey or even a complete customer management system. Here’s a list of what you can build on their server.

    Contact Form
    Mailing List
    Survey
    Job Application
    Workshop Registration
    Event Calendar
    Account Management
    Customer Management
    Bug Tracker
    Invitations / RSVP
    Online Orders
    Wedding Planner
    Address Book
    Home Finances
    Classifieds
    Personal Journal
    Quizzes / Tests
    Media Collection

Adding class to the picture, Wufoo also provides the power to build a theme for all of your forms and reports. I signed up and made this lovely contact form.

Wufoo provides the code I need to send the answers to the Wufoo server. It was free to make this form and get the code. I would need a $9 subscription to use their server to collect the data. It might tricky figuring out how to use it without a Wufoo subscription on a different server. However, other forms don’t require such a relationship.

You can make three forms for free or buy in a variety of subscription levels — $9/month, $24/month, $69/month, and $199/month. Take the time to check this out. It could be just what you need to add that last dash of professionalism to your business and your brand. To find out more, click the Wufoo logo.

Wufoo

Thanks, Cat Morley, for another Great Find.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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