Kristin Currier

I haven’t posted anything in a long time. What’s been going on? Well, for one thing, I’ve been slogging through the Javascript Essential Training series of tutorials by Dori Smith on Lynda.com. It’s an excellent series, and I feel that I understand Javascript at its most fundamental level. Dori rocks and I like her sense of humor. I’m not sure I could write my own code straight from scratch, but I can at least implement existing code and tailor it to my needs. But it’s not my intention to be a Javascript programmer anyway, as my focus will be on aesthetic design and CSS. I’m an art girl, not a math girl, and Javascript is a bit math-y. But at least I can move foward with it a bit, and probably start learning some jQuery soon.

I am also reading DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith in addition to the Lynda.com tuts. I take the book with me on the train and follow along on my laptop. It’s a solid book and I highly recommend it for the beginner who has knowledge of HTML and CSS already. I have to admit though – it’s taken me literally MONTHS to get through it. I’m not a programmer, and the Javascript language was very foreign to me. I had to keep reading and re-reading the same chapters, especially in the beginning, to get around a steep learning curve. It was an amazingly frustrating experience! But, in the end, it will be worth it.

Now, I’m going to go start learning WordPress theme building. I started dabbling a bit long ago, but decided I should learn more advanced coding skills first. With WordPress, I will also be learning PHP and more advanced CSS, as well as CMS stuff. I’ll be changing my website soon and moving all files into WordPress, instead of just having a static site with a WP blog attached to it. I built my site while learning semantic HTML and CSS a ways back, and it’s a very minimalist site, a little boring, but hey, it’s clean, valid and was a good start. Time to improve it.

So, what else is up? Got a promotion, yep. I am currently Senior Web Graphic Designer at my company. Not bad for someone who came from print design, took a break to start a painting business, got back into temping for design when the economy blew up, and studied studied and studied web technology through Lynda and other sources while doing Photoshop work for the web. It’s amazing how much stuff is out there on the web for anyone who wants to learn something. There’s just absolutely no excuse to be ignorant of anything anymore. And one doesn’t need to spend money to take a class somewhere. If you work online creating online content, why would you go anywhere else for your education?

Other stuff – wedding plans are still on and becoming more solid. We are watching the oil in the gulf with apprehension, but we aren’t freaking out yet. Islamorada is a bit far up the Keys chain and the oil might not make it there.

Bag on Timbuk2

The importance of displaying products in eCommerce can’t be emphasized enough, yet sadly, it’s one of the most overlooked aspects of online visual merchandising.

Customers online are separated from the one thing that the brick-and-mortar customer takes advantage of each time she walks into a store – the ability to pick the product up, feel it, open it, snap its snaps and button its buttons. How does it look? What kind of quality is it? How much functionality does it have? How will it look on me? Is it worth the money?

For many buyers and managers, the thought process of how to keep selling the product once it’s placed into inventory stops at the creation of the item #. The same goes even doubly so for products on the web. But we need to be doubly vigilant about how a product is visually represented online for the very reason a customer is removed from being able to make a physical assessment in a store. For some reason, how products look on the web is taken even less seriously than how they would on a shelf. As more and more customers do their shopping online, and the cost of renting in commercial buildings skyrockets, retail companies need to pay attention to how their products look online, and to ensure that all the visual information needed is there to help the customer make a confident, informed decision.

If you are selling a product that doesn’t rely on the emotions or senses as much as just plain necessity, maybe this doesn’t pertain as much to you. But if you are selling apparel, home goods, jewelry or other lifestyle items, you should seriously consider how your products look online. Would you pay $739 for this blurry, moldy looking bag? I know this brand. They make gorgeous bags. You wouldn’t know it from this terrible picture.

Would you pay $739 for this?

The nicer your product is, the more you invest in making sure it looks impressive. What would you, as a customer, want to see?

Here’s the basics for better online product presentation:

1. Hire a good photographer with a professional camera with access to a good studio with proper lighting. You little point-and-shoot won’t cut it here. Make sure your photographer understands product photography and how to fill a frame. Product photography should be big, informative and clear.
2. Hire a designer proficient in Photoshop retouching with knowledge of web graphic optimization. Yes, this is what I do for a living, and I might be biased, but I can guarantee you that a solid Photoshop artist can drastically change the way your products look online, and, if consistent, your entire website. That designer should have expertise in color and tonal corrections, removing backgrounds, creating shadows or reflections, removing flaws, changing colors realistically without destroying textures or shapes, and sharpening images for clarity. They must understand optimizing images for the web at many different sizes. They also must develop a scalable content management system that allows them to keep the images organized.
3. I have a solid merchandising and retail background, but if your designer does not, you need to guide him or her, or make sure you have a merchandising department who can develop standards for how your products will be shown. For instance, a tote bag for my company will have a front shot, back shot, side shot if needed, open shot, detail shots of special features, and sometimes a model shot. Zappos does an excellent job at this. How they merchandise shoes with multiple views indicates they understand how online customers shop. The goal is to help the customer “pick-up” the product and look at it from all angles, as if they were standing in a store.

Bag on Zappos

4. Invest in Zoom software (Adobe Scene 7) or hire a front-end developer who knows how to use jQuery or Javascript to get you some whiz-bang rollovers and lightbox effects for multiple views of your product. Small thumbnails are fine, but what customers want are large images where they can see every detail. So make sure your thumbnails are linked to larger images, and that those large images are high quality. If you can’t afford the Zoom or rollovers, have a section of your product page or link to another page that shows more views of the product.

Product presentation is often skimped on because it doesn’t show an immediate cost benefit like email campaigns, special offers, or home page banners. But think how you shop. Perception is everything. If your products look fantastic online, customers will believe they are. Great product presentation is at its very core good customer service and excellent salesmanship.

It’s been a while since I’ve done any painting. Seems I’m always at a computer these days.

I was recently contacted from some old friends of mine in the Boston area who’ve recently purchased a home in Bokeelia, FL. They have an open floor plan and tons of empty wall space, I believe 12′ ceilings. The walls are screaming for art! So my friend Donna invited Matt and I over to hang out a bit and take a look at the place. We took a ride in John’s little boat on a choppy Tampa Bay, proceeded to get drenched, and had a great lunch at Woody’s. Then I took some photos of the walls and made some notes on our return back to the house.

On the way home Saturday night, the ideas started flooding in. I’ve got 9-10 paintings to think about, and formed solid plans for about 5-8 of them. Sunday afternoon, I was able to come up with some very rough sketches of the ideas. I’ll keep working on the rest this week. If they dig them, I’ll go on to do full mock-ups that I’ll use for the final paintings. Since this is a Florida house, the themes will be tropical. I’ve been dying to do some tropical art for some time now. The colors are calling me!

The images here show 3 paintings for the main wall and foyer for the den showing lush foliage scenery and parrots for the big painting, and a carry-over of the same theme onto the two smaller square paintings high up on the two identical walls in the short foyer. Those two paintings show the tops of the ‘jungle’ with parrots flying about. Since John and Donna are Jimmy Buffet fans, I think the parrots are appropriate. The walls in this room are a pretty, light spring green. The main sitting area and kitchen are in direct view of these walls, so it would be nice to be able to enjoy dinner and entertaining with a nice island tropics view.

Mock-ups for main foyer, tropical theme

The next image is the Master Bedroom. The walls are a medium gold and there is sage and a brick red in the furnishings, as well as reddish-brown stained tropical style furniture. I thought a relaxing “get-away” type of painting would be good here, so the idea is a hammock between two trees in a shady spot on a white sand beach, with turquoise waters and a sailboat. Since John owns a sailboat, I might ask him for a photo of it so I can use that. The hammock looks a little funky, but remember, this is a rough draft here and we might go with something else entirely different in the end. There is a bit of gold and red in the painting to coordinate with the room.

Hammock and sailboat for Master Bed

If Donna and John like them, I’ll go on some field trips to take photos of Miami places like Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens, Jungle Island and a few other lush locales around my home to take some photographs of foliage, and find me some parrots. I might even buy a hammock to place on a beach around here and use that as a reference as well. After I get my references, I’ll spend a weekend over in the Bokeelia house to do the final mock-ups on site to get my colors and dimensions just right.

Other ideas for the other areas in question: Above the kitchen cabinets, 4 square paintings of animals eating things. Monkey with a mango, turtle with grass, pelican with fish, alligator thinking of eating an ibis. These paintings would be lighter and a bit humorous.

Another bedroom could possibly get an underwater scene, which would mean I would have to get a small waterproof camera and go snorkeling, but I think I could handle that! John’s a diver, so perhaps he’d like that.

I’m thinking of using 2″ cradled Ampersand Claybord for the paintings. This is essentially masonite covered with a fine layer of white clay, and then cradled on 2″ boards that give the art a dimensional effect. I might also try their Aquabord with watercolor. The cradle boards can be stained or painted. The main painting would actually be made up of 3 30″ x 30″ boards bolted together, so they can be taken apart and travel easier. All the Claybords will be painted with either watercolor, inks or acrylics with a thinning medium, and varnished with a UV protectant AquaThane from Faux Effects. So, these paintings will be bright, strong, transportable and durable. I’ll buy some small Claybords and Aquabords to experiment. What I want is translucent, vibrant, loose colors, and I think this material is the best for that.

There are a ton of other empty walls, but these are the biggies, and would take care of the emptiness very quickly. Then, we could work on smaller pieces, or they could start collecting from other artists in the Bokeelia and Matlacha area, since there are tons of them.

Anyway, that’s it for now. As I move along with this project I’ll keep posting progress reports and pictures. John and Donna will be invited to stay tuned to this blog category so they can watch the progress from back home in Boston and offer comments as well.

You should be getting these in the mail shortly. They’re postcards printed from 123Print.com off an original watercolor I did. I wish the paper was a wee bit thicker!

Save the Date. Pelicans!

I’m urging our immediate party to call the Coral Bay Resort pronto and reserve your room/bungalow early on so we have an idea of how much the place will fill up. There are tons of places around that area besides the Coral Bay if extra rooms are needed, but we really want to be sure family and friends in the wedding party get into the Coral Bay for certain. We’ll be sending out a second wave of Save the Dates and invites after we’re pretty sure the immediates are booked. If we can fit everyone at the Coral Bay, that would be ideal!!

It’s starting to feel real this time! Soon it will be here!

So yeah, I’ve been bringing a camera with me as I walk from the station to Congress Ave lately. I’ve taken some decent shots of traffic coming in and out of the deadly little road where an angry little Haitian pretended like he was going to run me over the other day.

As I said before, there are no sidewalks and no crosswalks at all on this road, or the intersection at its head, and Congress Blvd. itself has sidewalks and no crosswalks except for at major intersections miles apart. This road was not built for foot or bike traffic. Which may seem odd, seeing that it leads to and from a public train, bus stop and taxi stop.

In these photos you’ll see what I see everyday. Big buses whipping around the corner from Congress Ave. Cars with drivers not paying attention to pedestrians because they are either looking for county offices, the train station, or are distracted by their digitalia. Cop cars on the way to the Sheriff’s Office that drive, like well, cops. I try to walk on the grass to avoid the traffic, but you can see from these shots we have a large tire tread indentation in the mud from a bus or truck that ran over the cement curbing, so I need to walk further up on the landscaping.

Do I really need to start driving 60 round-trip miles on the hell that is I95 to work in order to avoid getting hit on this tiny, unnamed road to the train station? Or should I walk the mile down the road to the crosswalk at Atlantic, and a mile back to my place of employment directly across from this road?

The curb where the road meets Congress, notice the tracks in the mud that ran over the curb? Notice the big bus? People walk here!

Close-up of vehicle tracks and oncoming car. I used to walk here to avoid the cars, but now since seeing this I walk way up on the mulch.

A bus coming down at ya....time to jump up on the nice county landscaping!

Both sides of the road. No sidewalks. Now imagine it filled with a giant puddle and some angry dope in a truck faking to run you down.

I write this as I watch from my front window as all these ignorant people keep parking in front of my house or nearly blocking my driveway because they all want to see the dingy smattering of poop-stained baby clothes and pots and pans my idiot neighbors have splayed out on the same nasty blue tarp they roll out for their near monthly white-trash yard sales. They keep parking in our bulk trash heap filled with palm fronds, and when they leave, their tires drag the fronds into the street. Which they also block, because they are looking at the stuff on the lawn. While 90 cars sit behind them, making noise and exhaust stink.

Yes, I’m starting out this blog post with THAT kind of tone.

I take the Tri-Rail train from Hollywood to my place of employment in Delray Beach. I’ve done it for about 2 years now. It’s nice. I95 is filled with crazy people, and so is the Tri-Rail, but at least they can yammer away on their cell phones while not being behind the wheel of the Tailgating Hummer of Death. Another nice thing is that I can walk (or dodge more crazy people in cars) across Congress Ave directly to my work. Takes less than 5 minutes. Nice, right?

Not if you’re trying to walk out of the train station parking lot entrance way that also takes you to the South East Palm Beach Administrative Complex, Sheriff’s Office, Supervisor of Elections, Facilities Management, or Parks and Rec offices. It’s the little road that is not more than a 50 yards long. Congress is a 4 lane main road, lots of cars, no walkway or intersection lights where I cross. Yet, it’s less dangerous than that one little road leading to Delray Beach government offices and a commuter rail station.

There is no side-walk there. You have to walk in the street, or in the nicely landscaped grass and mulch on one side that is often muddy and not good for office heels. You literally have to dodge big city buses, cop cars and the general aimless population in autos who don’t pay attention to their surroundings, which pretty much is everyone in SE Florida. When it rains, the street becomes a river, with the only passable walkway being the middle of the street. So, when walking there, you need to make sure no buses or cars are coming, and you need to let them pass at a considerable distance so you don’t get soaked.

Yesterday I did just that. No cars were coming. I hurried through the middle of the street, through the giant puddle on both sides. I don’t dwaddle. I don’t text and stroll slowly, oblivious to my surroundings. I pay attention. So it amazed me that suddenly I felt water spray me from behind and I turned to find a white pick-up truck with a bed cap stopped right behind me, and an angry old Haitian man gesticulating wildly for me to get to the side of the road. You know, the side with the giant puddle.

I went off. I mean, every morning and every night I have to walk this street. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to jump far onto the grass because some idiot on a phone was coming straight for me. Just that morning some bimbo in an SUV almost got me. So this jerk in a white pick-up pretending he was going to run me over because I had the gall to walk in the only dry spot on the road caused me to flip my lid entirely. I gave it to him, in no puritan language, loud and clear and crazy. Demanded he get out of his truck and listen to me. But the coward pulled away fast and went to the train station.

Which is exactly where I was going. I saw him pick up a young man. I went right up to his door and demanded again he listen to me. I was absolutely enraged. Freaking out. Like, “Look at that crazy lady yelling Mama”. The old coward flipped me off and drove away again, afraid to roll down the window. He best pray he doesn’t see me again. I don’t take kindly to people in automobiles harassing pedestrians or people on bikes.

So my new goal in life is to write about my public transportation highs and lows, and to publicize the fact that THE CITY OF DELRAY BEACH NEEDS TO WAKE UP AND REALIZE TRAIN COMMUTERS WALK AND RIDE BIKES TO TRAIN STATIONS AND THEY NEED TO BUILD A FREAKING SIDEWALK ON THIS ROAD! They spend money mowing the pretty grass and putting mulch around the pretty trees I jump behind to avoid killer buses, they can afford to build a stupid sidewalk. I’m not the only one who takes it either. There are offices up and down Congress. Real workers take this train, not just tourists taking the Amtrak from NY.

This ends my rant. For now. I’ll be sure to post more later, and take pictures. And the local papers and Delray offices will hear from me soon as well. Florida is the deadliest place for anyone to walk or ride a bike. This is just one of many examples. I find it ludicrous that I take the train because its safer than driving, yet I can be killed just walking to or from it.

Timbukt2's Build Your Own Bag

I love cool new ways to show product online. I can play with this thing for hours, but I gotta work! Timbuk2 clearly has one of the most user-friendly and fun ways to design your own Timbukt2 bag. Go to their website and try it out!

We spent this past weekend at our designated future wedding spot, The Coral Bay Resort in Islamorada, Florida Keys. You can read all about it and see photos here. I did get a chance to do a quick watercolor and pen sketch of some of the succulent plants sprouting about.

Watercolor at the Coral Bay Resort

The Coral Bay Resort, Islamorada, Florida Keys

For Matt’s birthday weekend we decided to give our future wedding destination a visit. We scooped up the girls in Miami and our overnight bags and drove 3 hours south to The Coral Bay Resort in Islamorada, FL. It was a beautiful –if not slightly overcast- day, perfect for no sleeves or socks.

Julie and I in room 9

Upon arriving at 2:30 p.m. and checking in with Bryon at the front office, we inspected our adjoined bungalow at #’s 9 – 10. Basically, it’s a small house split in two. One half has two full beds and a bath. The other has the same with a full kitchen. Both have front porches with tables and chairs. The bungalow was immaculate, and not in just a clean-floor and clean-bathroom kind of way. The tops of the door jams were dust free. The insets on the doors were wiped down. The plastic white light switches were spic-and-span. The towels were snow white and thick. With just a few shabby parts indicative of an older building, the bungalow was pretty with yellow walls, tropical bed covers and glowing sunshine through the windows.

Tiki bar on the pier

We took the girls down to the water and pier. The pier is about 15-18’ wide, 25’ long, and is connected with two spits of land on either side, has the bay to the north of it, and the tidal pool and beach to the south. The tidal pool is filled with fish and crab, and although it’s not really the sort of place you could swim in, you can still wade in a bit. The beach has soft, white sand, lounge chairs and a thatched shade. The west spit of land adjoining the tidal pool has a boat ramp, the east, a long tiki bar with sturdy wooden stools.

North East sides of the pier

We found out that our Maine Lobster Direct order was not arriving due to big storms up north. They canceled the order, and reinstated the gift certificate for us for future use. Byron told us about Mr. Lobster about a mile west on US1, so we took a trip down to the little dock studded with large round vats, surrounded by fishing boats and lobster traps. A few hundred lobsters huddled together in the vats, long spiny legs and antennae poking and waving, clawless and brindle colored unlike the big red ones I was used to. Matt grabbed a net on a pole and shoved it in and pulled out an angry lobster, curling and flapping its tail in frenzy. Julie and I inspected a load of giant shrimp on ice while Alicia held back screams as Matt tried to show her the lobsters. The fisherman removed the heads of our lobsters with a skinny knife, cleared the entrails by needling half its antennae up the rear end, and then placed them in the bag with our shrimp.

Lobster tails, shrimp and steak tips

Alicia, leery of anything with more than 4 appendages, will not eat lobsters, so we drove to the nearest Winn-Dixie for steak tips, beer, garlic, butter, corn, red potatoes, apple sausage, lemons, limes and half of a German Chocolate Cake in a plastic container. This was no short trip, and we highly advise members of the wedding party to make their stops there on the way down to the resort if anything is needed.

The boat ramp on West side of pier

We popped a few Corona caps once we arrived back at the resort. Julie poured a Cape Codder. We walked by the quiet, colorful bungalows to the pier, where we discussed wedding plans, watched the sunset, and swatted biting gnats. These bugs bit through the layer of Skin-So-Soft as if it were marinade. Thank goodness I brought the can of napalm-strength Off! We found out later that the county sprays regularly, so we will be sure to ask about that before the wedding.

Ms. Tizzy, resident kitty of The Coral Bay Resort

As the sky grew darker blue and the air became cooler, the bugs seemed to lessen. Walking back, we met the resident resort kitty, Ms. Tizzy, a large gray tabby with a tail that sprang backwards onto her back when you petted her. I minced garlic and the rosemary I brought from my garden, Julie prepared the lobster tail, Alicia shucked corn and Matt waved gutted shrimps in her face. The corn, potato and apple sausage went into the big pot full of Beck’s, and the poached shrimp and lobster after. We ate on the front porch and it felt like a New England summer’s night. Ms. Tizzy circled our ankles, feasting on random bits of seafood falling from above.

Sailboat at The Coral Bay Resort

We had German Chocolate Cake and espresso vodka–some of Matt’s favorites- by the heated pool in the dark, our legs hanging down into the warm water. Soon, the girls went to bed, the few people staying in other bungalows had already gone to bed, and Matt and I went for a quiet walk around the grounds. All you could hear were the masts of sailboats, a lazy wave or two, and the occasional car driving up US1. We were in bed by 3 a.m.

Resort grounds at night

Between the 4 of us, we hashed out more plans for the wedding, like how to decorate, where to put the wedding altar, speakers, the tables, chairs, food tent, beverages and lighting. We talked about getting a volley-ball net and a boat, and what to prepare for food. Coral Bay is so pretty with its palm trees and lush foliage, colorful houses, soft sand beach and tiki bar, that we’re sure everyone is going to have an unforgettable time, and we are more confident than ever that indeed we have made the correct choice of venue for our wedding.

It’s been a abysmal weekend. Matt and I had to put down our critically ill kitty, Clive. He had something within him that just would not quit, a horrid gnawing illness we could not detect nor cure in time. He was just barely over a year old. And the sweetest thing imaginable. And he’s gone, just like that. Got sick Thursday night, and was in kitty heaven Friday afternoon. My darlin’ little Alarm Kitty -named for his habit of waking me up at 4 a.m. for his early morning love session, before I got up at 5 to work out. We buried him in our jungle backyard next to Howie and Captain Morgan, my loving Halloween black kitty of 14 years, and the loving dog companion of our home’s previous owner. Our yard is a pet cemetery, and believe me, there is no better place to be.

After laying him to rest Friday, and with a depressing Saturday moping about, we decided we had to get the hell out of the house. So we decided on a little rockabilly honky-tonk right next to the Gold Coast Derby Girl roller rink, where we could catch some hillbilly punk rock. I love all kinds of music. I was reared on punk and new wave, and recently have been loving old time jazz, blues and country, so this was a real treat.

So I put on my Frye’s and thrift store cowboy top, and Matt one of his many Hawaiian shirts, and we tried to put our best social face on. We caught dinner at Shenanigans West (Nice to see ya again, Matt the bartender, don’t worry, the jock-tard extolling the virtues of roofies only embarrassed himself, not you, sweetie), watched LeBron sink more impossible 3-pointers, and off to the hot rods, hot babes and hot cycles of The Monterey Club.

A little snapshot: A tattoo shop right next door called Kreepy Tiki with a straightedge gal with Marilyn hair listening to The Smiths. Johnny Cash and Tiger Army on the house stereo near the bar. Combat boots and blond dreadlocks smiling and sipping beers, chatting with robust Louise Brooks red-head girl with daisies in her hair. Illustrated boys playing pool -badly- and asking us if we wanted some new ink at the shop next door. We do, but we see Pooch and Scott up north. Maybe later?

The Monterey Club is like your cousin Ronnie’s basement. Cousin Ronnie works on old cars and motorcycles, has sideburns, tattoos, a pool table, comfy couches, a wide screen TV, listens to lots of Motorhead and Social D, and drinks plenty of Pabst Blue Ribbon. At the Monterey, you’ll see hot rods and walkin’, talkin’ pin-up girls. You’ll see girls in cowboy hats and mini skirts playing washboards with spoons. A crazy hippie on an old guitar playing gonzo punked-up blues from hell. Engines roaring outside from souped-up choppers. Big manly men with tattooed knuckles and big, black boots. The glittery SoFlo metro-sexual douches with faux-hawks, manicures and tight glittery shirts heading for the party at Las Olas would get pretty damned nervous in here.

Playing this night was Smokestack and the Foothill Fury, that dirty hippie stoner bastard (who kicks so much ass), and Boise Bob and his Backyard Band. Hillbilly punks from hell, all of them.

Visiting The Monterey is like inhabiting a Cramps song for a honey-slicked moment of time. And it was just where we needed to be. And bloody hell, it’s literally just a couple of miles down the street. A little slice of heaven in Fort Lauderdale. A comfier, cozier version of Miami’s church of the Churchill’s Pub. A place where R. Crumb could pick and choose his buxom models to ink into eternity. Which is what I pretty much did. Finally, some new art to put up on this blog ‘o’ mine. I hope you enjoy.