I am currently back in School at The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago. I decided after working for about 5 years as a senior designer at a NBC Affiliated news station (WIS News 10) that it was time for me to move on to greater and bigger things in my life. I have an Associates degree from The Art Institute of Charlotte and figured the best way for me to achieve this goal of moving on, was to go back to school and get my Bachelors degree in design. After some phone calls and other things it was determined I would be going back to school and leaving everything that I had worked for and built in Columbia SC. I had a great job with great co-workers, and a wonderful new town house that I purchased and a 401K. Also I had a new car and family and friends all around me with positive reinforcement. Columbia, SC is the kinda place that you get to know almost everyone in the city… or at least it feels that way. I could pretty much walk into any bar or place and at least know one person and have conversations and fun times. My popularity as an individual and as a designer was on the rise and things were pretty much great!. I was told many times that “I had it made in the shade”, especially having all these things at the rip age of 24. So why did I get up and move away from it all? Well its quite simple really.

Are you taking chances?

Realistically there are two life directions you can go. One is to be “corporate Charlie”, go the safe route and play it safe. Get through college and then get a job and work your way up. Get involved and gain a family, buy things and live happily ever after. That is until a younger more ambitious version of you comes along when you are reaching the age of 45. When that happens you better believe that things are going to start getting interesting. (I obviously am not 45 and will not be for some time so I am basing this off things I have seen in other people’s lives). Young corporate Charlie comes in with his hair spiked up in the front and sporting a brand new jacket, attitude, and drive. He comes in and agrees to work for half of your salary. He comes in and takes your job and then you are left with…… nothing, and this is because you played it safe. Sure don’t get me wrong … you have your family and your other desires in life to fall back on but now you have to start all over because you didn’t take any extreme chances while working up to the top. You didn’t make decisions for yourself; you let society and your job decide what you are going to do for about 80% of your life.

I know … BUMMER.

The other direction you can go is to be a “Reckless Erica” This is the choice to take many chances and live your life instead of just trying to please and work your way to the top. Sure this life style is not all that glorious at first. In fact your going to have a ton of ups and downs in your life probably a lot more downs then upsThere will be a whole lot of what I like to call “shit storms” over you.  But as your going through your life taking chances you are doing a lot of things that are so great for yourself and your life. Your going with the uncertainty and curiously of what is going to turn out for you. This keeps things interesting and keeps you on your toes… keeps you working for what you truly want in your life. You have taken your life in your own hands and have now decided to do what you want with it. Society is no longer leading you in the direction it wants to take you but you have now taken control of your life.

With this life style you will meet tons of people and make tons of connections with people and things that could help you out later on in your life. Also you’re in pursuit of happiness and that alone is worth the chances. Your going to stay up to date with things in your industry and a younger version of you is not going to come in and take your spot, because you have built a life style that only you can have! You have in a sense made your self an unique individual with a unique life that applies to you and you only. You will have unique set of skills and style. Because you have taken these chances in your life you have become educated in multiple fields of your industry. Also your cultured and traveled a bit and people look at you in a different light. They take you a little more serious because of your ambition and your desire to get where you wanna be. They aspire to be like you and aspire to live like you, because you LOVE LIFE.

Lets face it… emotions and people’s attitudes are contagious. If you’re sitting around someone who is always bummed out then your going to start to feel bummed out. But if your sitting next to someone who is so excited about life and all things around them then your going to get all pumped up also and want to tackle the world just like that person.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.“-Steve Jobs

You will spend about 80% of your life working. 80% !!! That’s a lot of time. That is almost your whole life. I don’t know about you but if I am going to be spending that much time working then you better believe I am going to make sure that the job I do day in and day out will be my dream job, I don’t understand why anyone would not want this also. I currently am in school and struggling with money and many other things. I have a house that no one lives in, as I pay my monthly mortgage. My bank screwed up a ton of stuff and I had to pay 984352704578 dollors to get it all fixed and I am stressed most of the time as I push to get projects done by certain deadlines. I don’t have much down time, my social life is strange and I know almost no one here. Would I change any of this? NO!

I am now producing some of the best work I have ever produced, and I feel so accomplished by this. Since I have moved I have traveled and seen a ton of new things that I have never before. I have meet a ton of awesome people and made really awesome connections with others. These are all things I would have never of got if I would of stayed the safe route. I am now taking control of my life and going the direction that I wanna go. I am also starting to look in to maybe getting my masters degree, not for the fact to get “more pay” or “a better job” but to educate myself and to be able to choose what I wanna do in my life.

When you strip away most of the elements in life and mentality you are left with one undeniable fact. You. Are. Going. To. Die. Most things will not matter once your dead, but I am sure as your life flashes before your eyes you would probably rather see time spent with your family and all the awesome things you experienced or saw or accomplished while you were living on this planet. You’re not going to want to see grey cubicles and money and you sitting at the same desk for 40 years.

My point to this whole rant, is this and this alone.

Take chances, live your life to the fullest and strive to achieve the things you want to achieve. DON’T SETTLE. Never settle.

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” – Steve Jobs.

Let me know if you agree of disagree I would love to hear what you think life is all about and your take on how to achieve ”happiness” – Also be sure to check out my next blog post that will be about Artist having to settle to become designers to make money in order to live, and Designers Striving to become artist. Interesting take on the design industry. Excited to hear back.

ALSO you should check out books that were written by a wonderful man by the name of PAUL ARDEN. Inspirational books on taking chances and living life and how to approach situations in design and life. Check these books out!, easy read with a great message!

“Whatever You Think Think The Opposite”

“It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s how Good You Want To Be”

Brandon

*EDIT: Saul Bass on the same topic I touch in the article below. I would love to here your feedback on the subject as well.

I have just recently made a move to the great city of Chicago, and let me just began with the fact that I LOVE IT HERE! This city is a vast progression from when I was living in Columbia, SC. I still miss my hometown and the people, but the amount of work and progression I am making here has increased 120%. This city is full of opportunities and creative individuals. Its not hard science or math to realize that when you live in a place with a population roughly around 2.8 million people there will be indeed a lot more opportunities for you as an individual to succeed. That is if you have the right approach and most importantly the right ATTITUDE!

I was told when I moved here that the way to make an impact is to involve myself in the design community and go to “Industry Parties” and just mingle and let people know I am here and serious about what I do, but at the same time to be charismatic and enjoy my self while doing it. I mean after all what would life be if we didn’t have a good time while we were here on this planet. So I started to go to these things around Chicago. Let me tell you! This city has a ton of events and things to go to. My Calendar has never been as full as it is right now, in fact I think I am over working it at the moment and it actually crashed the other day? haha Regardless there are a ton of things to involve yourself in here.

So I went to a rather new thing (I was told) called Merge. It was an event for creative types to just come out mingle drink beer pass out cards and HAVE FUN! It was held at “The Evil Olive“. Neat bar lots of dance room, seems like the 2am bad decision bar but regardless the turn out was tremendous! I had a really great time meeting other designers, web dudes, animators, interior designers, architects, and much more while I was there. Beer was a nice thing to pair with these types of conversations. People were friendly and they would not hesitate to approach you and introduce themselves.

SO this is where The Attitude part comes in for me. While I was there I talked to 98430257348 people no lie. Seems impossible but I did. That is an actual number. While talking to these designers I noticed some things … not in there work but their attitudes. The first thing I noticed was that a couple designers all they wanted to do was talk about the money side of things. Granted money is important in this industry but aren’t we in it for the love design? After the money talk was being summed up I heard this phrase too many times to count.

“Yeah, I charge hourly and if they don’t want to pay me for my time in full then I will produce shit work for the amount of money they are paying me, I am not going to spend a lot of time on something unless I am paid for my time.”

ARE YOU KIDING ME?! This seriously is plain out a BAD ATTITUDE. Here is why this can be detrimental to you as a designer.

1. First off, anything you complete and turn in as a designer has your name attached to it directly. Say Susie over at FATBUTT INC. commissions you to do a project but doesn’t want to pay you what you want, so you just do mediocre work for her. She gets the finished product and then uses it in whatever way she needs to. SHOWS it to a billion people and every time someone sees it they ask who made that? Well that is where your name comes in. If you ask me we are lucky as designers because it is free advertising ALWAYS! I will be damned if I don’t ALWAYS PRODUCE THE BEST WORK I can. Even if the pay is shit to what you expect. Point blank, if you produce amazing work always and your pay rate will increase. It is just how it works. I KNOW, I KNOW …”But Brandon I can’t waste my time on things when I need to pay the bills” Listen, I understand that trust me. BUT the old saying “no pain, no gain.” comes into play here. This is part of the industry we work in. Its an unfortunate thing, but if you work extremely hard it will show in your work and people will began to respect you and would never even imagine paying you less than what you expect. It becomes a respect issue between you and the client.

2. Cynicism kills it all. Cynical outlooks on things as we discuss projects and design is never going to help you get anywhere. I personally can’t stand it. I don’t want to hear you complain about what your doing. I want to hear how much you love what your doing. If you complain about design and all the hours that you have to put into it, and you don’t even want to do it because its for a tennis ball company no body cares about…THEN YOU NEED TO FIND A NEW CAREER PATH!. This also is a part of being a designer. We are not always going to get the Golden Clients that we dream of but none the less it is work, and right now nobody should be complaining about work of any type. So stop complaining and start designing. I swear if these types of people spent as much time designing and creating as they did complaining then they would be top designers and we would all strive to be like them.

3. Be happy, charismatic and show that you love what you do. Recently a buddy of mine at the school I am attending - The Illinois Institute of Art-Chicago – told me he had an interview for an internship position. Naturally he was excited and did a little research in the company and the person that he would be interviewing with. He looked up their work and well lets just say …. it was not anything groundbreaking. It made him and me question how this person even got to the position that they have. With a little more research we discovered that they had indeed graduated from the same school we are currently in. So naturally we asked a teacher if they knew this person and the teachers response was:

“OH!, YES! … what a wonderful person… seriously the happiest and most charismatic person you will ever meet. Happy to be alive and lights up a room when they walk in.”

Well there it is. It all made sense as soon as that was told to us. My point is that its not always about being the best at what you do, but showing that you want to be the best at what you do and that you love what you do. I am interested to hear how his interview goes, but my money says my friend gets the position because he as well is a super positive guy with good design ethics and a GREAT ATTITUDE in life and design.

4. Competitiveness. Now this is a weird topic and point to discuss. The reason I say that is, we are in an industry where competition is almost the main thing we work against. We all want that awesome client and want that awesome job that every one is after. Granted competitiveness can be approached in a productive manner. Lets say I am working towards a job and I don’t get the account and I find out that Johnny at Johnny Designs got it instead. Bummer central, but I am not going to hate the guy/gal for it. In fact I am going to go over and congratulate him/her on it and observe and research on why they got it over me. Obviously they had something there that I did not and it is part of my job to find that out. It will only make me a better designer in the end. Not only will I congratulate them but I will promote them as well. They see that I respect them and that I want to be to their level then they are moor inclined to help me out in the future when they obtain the next awesome project that I wanted. You don’t make friends by being a jerk and cold hearted and agitated. You make them by be friendly and happy for them, showing them that means more than any design job you will ever get. Treat others how you would want to be treated and you will treated the same.

5. WORK HARD AND LOVE IT! It’s all mental, stay positive and know that your finished product will rule. There is no denying that it feels so great when you spend 594837 hours on project and then the client LOVES IT! It produces an emotion and feeling that I love.

To tie up this blog post I just want to point out a couple little things. I am no saint. I complain and I struggle at times with design. In fact I struggle a ton!! haha but I know that when I started designing in 11th grade 9 years ago, that I just feel in love with the creativity and ability to express myself through art and layout. I remind myself constantly why I am in this industry and it makes it all better. Stay inspired; surround yourself with things you love. Most importantly GET CREATIVE in all aspects of your life, not just design. We are creative individuals and let that part of you shine. I promise you that if you implement your creative personality in your every day life people will notice and will attract to you.

WE ARE ALL DESIGNERS, in every way. We should be happy and feel lucky that we were born with the ability to think outside the box the way that we all do. Embrace that and go with it and share your ideas with the world. BUT BE HAPPY ABOUT IT! SHOW THAT YOU LOVE IT. Not that you hate it. If you hate it then you need to find something that you love. Life is too short to stress and struggle with your career path. We spend a majority of our lives working so be sure its something you LOVE to do. Most importantly stop complaining and start designing.

“A man is what he thinks about all day long” -Emerson

Brandon

Some designers and people I met at the Lets Merge meeting:

Ann Clancy : Motion Designer
Michelle Osburn Renn : Interior Designer
Adam Daniels : Photography
Rob Louotka : Designer
Nick Cambell : Motion Designer

SOO, I got an email the other day that really made me stop and think for a second about where design/web is going. The email that I received was basically a designer who was asking for my assistance  (he was super nice and respectable by the way so not talking down about him in anyway) in helping him understand code for Myspace designs. He told me that he had been designing for 15 years and just didn’t understand code and definitely didn’t understand how to code for myspace or where to put it or where to start etc …. Obviously and unfortunately I was not able to assit him in this just because this would create competition and well I had to learn it all from scratch and if I can do it, then anybody can haha. SO this got me thinking on how many myspace layouts there are now and how many designers there are out there doing them right now.

Lets face the facts here, Myspace is dead to the daily user and Facebook is taking over. Hell if Google and Facebook join forces then we would all be doomed … BUT for bands it is still a great look to promote yourself and network and move up in the music Industry. (sidenote* If Myspace was smart they would turn almost all of their attention to the music part of their site.) Anyways, I started to really think about all the myspace sites I have done and all the AMAZING Myspace sites I have seen done by others and thought I would give credit where credit is due. Also give some helpful hints to people starting out.

1. If your new to designing myspace pages I suggest you brush up on your code skills. BUT is that really a skill? Some think so… I on the other hand think it is more of an understanding. Study it. When I started designing myspace pages I had to learn from scratch and had very little web experience but figured I would jump right in and see what I can do. GOOGLE helped me out soo much! Google is and amazing tool for Code and questions of any type. If you didn’t know this already then you really need to wake up hahaha. Regardless my best advice to anyone trying to start designing myspace pages is to google everything. Not only do you need to google everything but make mistakes, and try new approches to old ways of writing code. Myspace is already bulky enough as it is, so your primary goal is to use as little code as possible to design the myspace page that you are creating.

2. Set up a primary practice page. When I started trying to design pages I set up a fake band account and just tried everything that I could think of on that page. That way when It didn’t work … well it didn’t matter. Also it comes in handy later when you are designing pages for bands or people, this way you can create it on that page make sure everything is golden and then BOOM just copy paste the code to the page you are creating. It is also a great way to preview your design to the band before you load it up. People are picky and bands are pickier. BUT beware even with a practice page set up your still going to just have to make mistakes. One of the first pages I created was for an awesome band called Graves Of Valor , and when I designed that page I did it all in Safari. I did how ever neglect to check it in all browsers on the web and immediately got like 6 emails from designers and web people and just some other dudes telling me my page design was jacked. IT WAS EMBARRASSING! but I am super glad I went through it. I figured out what was wrong and then realized from that point on that I have to check it in every browser. Learn from your mistakes, but in order to learn from them you have to make them first.

3. DONT copy other people. I can’t even tell you how many myspace designers I have seen ripping other people off. The primary goal of designing these pages is for the band’s sake first and to please the client, but also for your promotion. Each myspace designer that has been really doing it for a while tends to have as distinct style and branding to their pages. Leave that to them, create your own look to stand out from the rest.

4. Why is it good to design myspace pages? Myspace is seriously probably the best promotion tool out there right now. Especially for designers trying to get more freelance. When you design a myspace page especially for a bigger band or person it is almost free advertising for you. People go to the band page they wanna check out and there you are ! plastered all over the place. Undeniable design presence. Trust me you create or design a big enough band myspace and YOU WILL GET MORE WORK. There are thousands and millions of people on myspace everyday checking out bands. MY point is when you start out designing do some of them for free. You can not expect to just say “HEY everyone I am here ready to design … but thats going to cost you $xxx” You have to prove to people that you are capable of doing it and capable of doing it good. I designed about 5 pages for free before I even made any money on anything at first. I still to this day design them for free for certain people. If the client is big enough then hell yes I will do it for free … because I look at it as an investment in a sense. You do it for free people will see it and you will get more jobs. A digital billboard for everyone to see.

OK now that I have given soem friendly and helpful advice I wanna turn to the designers that are really kicking ass right now in the Myspace world.

Sons of Nero - www.sonsofnero.com
More than likely you have seen some of these dudes work. They do amazing stuff and are staggered all over the nation. Not only are these guys designing amazing myspace pages but the are doing some amazing branding solutions as a whole for bands. They create consistent and fresh work every time. They also Have a active blog that they update frequently. If you are a designer this is the place to go get your creative juices flowing.

D-Dub Designs – www.myspace.com/ddubdesigns
Daniel Wagner straight out of Seattle, Washington. This dude rules at designing myspace pages. I have seen many of his pages around the internets and let me tell you, this is top notch work here. Super crisp designs that function well and flow well. Also he works super hard!, it seems like he has new designs coming out every week! Very talented designer and nice person. Check out his work and pick your jaw up off the floor.

Guardian – www.guardianstyle.com
Wow … this designer came out of no where to me. hahaha In fact the first stuff I saw from him was for my friend Jake’s band August Burns Red. He designed their myspace page and it is awesome! Also he designs shirts and they are all super awesome! I have not seen anything that this dude is doing that is not AWESOME. He presents all his work on a super clean and effective website. If you have not checked out this work yet do your self a favor and check it out now.

Designs By The D – www.myspace.com/designsbythed
This designer is doing really nice stuff as well. I stumbled across some of his work with some metal bands that I use to share the stage with back in the day. His work really stands out and is super profesional looking. Also he hails from my home state of SC, so gotta give mad props to the dude for representing home. Check out his work at his myspace page. He has a nice list of designs he has done. Check it now.

Some other designers that deserve credit where credit is due!

Skyline By Design – www.skylinebydesign.com
Skyline By Design, a Web & Graphic Design company based out of Provo, UT.

Design By The Kitsch – www.designbythekitsch.com/web/
This is some really strong and clean design work, clients include Maroon 5, Arrested Development and many many more.

Icon Design - www.myspace.com/icondesignuk
Tom Winslade, Digital Designer based in the South-West, UK

There are so many more people that are designing these days but these are the top of the game guys that I know of right now. If you know of some more than deserve credit for just ruling life let me know! You may be asking yourself why I am giving credit to all these people? .. why are you helping your competition? Well I was told recently by a smart man to give away everything you know and more will come back to you. This has proven true and I really wanted to give credit to all the good designers out there right now. They deserve it as much as the next person. Support the design community. So be sure to go check out these dudes designs and let them know how much they rule :]

OH and be sure of course to check out the page I have created and my other work on my website in my portfolio section.

Brandon Sharpe
www.myspace.com/bsdesign

Here is a little bit of what he wrote about me in his blog! .. Pretty Much dead on.

“Monday, August 31, 2009

MYSPACE MAKEOVER BY B.design Creative!
Well, Jordan Buckley did NOT make this myspace page. Weird to type, mainly because it was in the third person, but over the last couple month i have had the chance to meet and collaborate with some absolutely amazing people. Brandon Sharpe at B.design Creative is one of them. His emails are weird and he tends to have tourette’s of the keyboard, but i truly appreciate him and am very grateful that he was motivated enough to write me out of the blue and offer his web design services. If I was Howard Stern, a plug would cost him a trip to the robo-spanker, but since he just straight up rules, plugs are free! So check him out at createtheuniverse.com. But make sure to look around my new myspace first! It’s got a twitter tracker! And the drawings change on the main page! This is so cool!”

Also in addition to his page I have been super busy working on other myspace pages and websites. I just finsihed up two other myspace pages for local acts here in Columbia, SC

check them out when you get a chance:

www.myspace.com/beholdthemessenger

www.myspace.com/concretejumpsuit

GET CREATIVE!, LIVE LIFE!
Brandon.

Read More to check out all the photos from it! ,now run for your life.

Your Fate Is Uncertain

Seriously I would love to hear any feed back you guys may have so comment below and let me know what you think. There no excuse not to comment cause I got this junk set up so you can log in with a billion different methods hahaha!

WIS TV Real Estate 15 Sec Promo from Brandon Sharpe on Vimeo.

This is a 15 second promo for wistv.com real estate. The Sales department at the news station I work for is about to launch a real estate section on wistv.com. They needed spots to run on air to promote the section of the website. I created this spot using After Effects and Photoshop.

Hope you enjoy!

IF you have some free time I would like to invite you to check out my resume and some more work I have created in the past. In order to check out some of the latest things I have created, visit my portfolio and check out my resume.