Nightscape photography provides a glimpse into what most of us are missing while we sleep. With our sights set on the daytime sky, it is rare that we get to actually appreciate the beauty that the darkness can bring. This award-winning timelapse is the result of over 1 and a half years of work, 31 hours of shooting images over 6 nights in Australia.

Sometimes getting away for a day is just what the doctor ordered. I threw a bit of gear in my bag and headed out on a day trip up to Palomar Mountain in May 2011. Part road trip with plenty of tunage along the way, and part semi-cloudy day hike around Palomar’s many hiking trails, this is my lil video summary of the day. Enjoy.

Check out Torrey Pines information center site if you are looking to see what it has to offer.
http://www.torreypine.org/

Summary:
Hunter Shirts are made available for promotional use and for sale to contractors, specifiers and other irrigation industry workers. One of the top products is the MP Rotator. I designed the shirt to promote the technical superiority of the product while still appealing to the male dominated end users of our industry.

How you benefit: I’ve created amazing shirts that are always a hit with the target audience. Be sure to see some of the other shirts I have done. Legoland, Disney, and many charities are among the client list for whom I’ve successfully designed for over the years.

SideNote: This has been one of the TOP SELLING shirts in the company’s history.

Client: Parfums Raffy | website: ParfumsRaffy.com

Raffy Dolbakian is a high school friend of mine whose family has been in the perfume business as long as we’ve been friends, getting close to 25 years. They have a store in Sherman Oaks, CA. Raffy has had a store in Brentwood CA and focuses on his online store, ParfumsRaffy.com which has been online since 1998. Raffy is a CFSS (Certified Fragrance Sales Specialist) by The Fragrance Foundation in New York. He is also formally trained in the art of perfumery and has created signature fragrances and custom perfume for many individuals who want to express their unique self.

Summary: In 2006, Raffy wanted to launch his own line of colognes and perfume. He and I worked closely together on his vision for designing the look and feel of his box designs, logo identity and website. Below are some of the results of this project.

Project Type: Product Box Design

Creating a process for Project Management

Efficiency + Reliability + Accountability = Success.

When looking into a project management process for a company of over a thousand people, there are many factors that need to be considered. Analyzing current practices and determining actual needs requires a bit of investigating and some good old Q&A time. A process that is implemented poorly can steer a department off track. And while nothing is ever solid in the ever changing marketing world, establishing a clear and comprehensive plan is important for the end result of saving a company time and money while providing accountability and data needed for today’s modern project managing.

Implementing a CMS system

While implementing a CMS system at Hunter Industries, I worked closely, as I often do, with all parties involved from internal clients and designers to the consultants and creators of the software I chose to use. I selected Daylite by MarketCircle. Daylite is an amazing CMS system. Daylite is a business productivity manager designed to help you manage your business and your team, with native applications for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. More than just a CRM, Daylite can be used to manage your company’s projects, sales, contacts, tasks, appointments, meetings, notes, and email.

I was interviewed by the makers of DayLite about how I implemented this into the workflow of the Marketing Department at Hunter Industries:

What do you use Daylite for?

I was first introduced to Daylite in early 2008 and implemented it in our Marketing department using it as a project management tool. We handle project requests from internal and external customers, and we enter that information into Daylite with the help of DMI, linking the relevant contacts to each project so that all our emails, tasks, and planning can be associated with that project are tracked.

What was it about Daylite that drew you in initially?

It was the strongest featured software for project management that I could find and being Mac based, it became a simple choice. It seemed to do most everything I wanted backed and supported by great online training videos, documentation and community forums, which has been very helpful.

How has Daylite and/or Daylite Touch improved your workflow?

Daylite allows our process to be more manageable and efficient. From initiating a project all the way to providing current assessments using smart lists and sending project reports via the Delivery integration feature, we rely on this daily. I also wrote a decently detailed manual to help our entire team with all the great features of Daylite.

Which features do you find most useful to you and your business?

The DMI integration with the ability to hold attachments and keep correspondence associated with the project is the most used feature. Tasking allows us to send action items to each other that we want to track through to completion as part of a larger project. The “Add file reference” is one of my new favourite features that saves me a ton of time by letting me set a link directly to a folder on our server or to a website. Pipeline stages with status change annotation help us with our reports that we send to project requestors showing the status of their projects and our current workload. I am currently looking into importing data from the project request form into Daylite using the “import XML web leads” function. There is a lot more, but that’s some of the most used.

How has Daylite helped you to increase revenue in your business?

Efficiency + Reliability + Accountability = Success.

Documenting and Educating is critical to the success of any process.

Not only is there a need to modernize and implement a CMS system for successful Project Management, but documenting and educating is just as critical. For this process at Hunter, once the needs were defined as determined by the interviewing and assessing process, I then documented the process for the internal team by creating a short Process Manual. I believe that the education process is very important and because of that philosophy, I don’t believe the manual should be anything less then modern and function as well – and that is why I created it with a dynamic table of contents that breakdown the manual for those who want quick references to the functions they need. The manual also has dynamic page references. This is another important part of document creation because over time, certain needs might change and some parts of a process might be updated, revised, or removed. So it is important to think of this while creating the manual because when pages are added or removed, you do not want your cross-references to be incorrect.

Is implementing a CMS project management system right for you and your organization?

Keeping in mind that this is a Mac based software, I believe that the DayLite software is the best solution for small to medium sized organizations. I also use Daylite personally, integrating their mobile software, DayLite Touch, to keep me on track in my freelance career. Being able to sync my data, notes, and calendar when I get back to the studio is fantastic. I also use the billings software that Marketcircle makes for time tracking billing and creating estimates, invoices, and keeping all my projects on track when it comes to the dollars and cents, there is no better Mac based powerhouse package then what Marketcircle has to offer.

If you are interested in implementing a Project Management solution in your organization but not sure where to start, give me a call or send me an email. The time and money you spend up front with proper analysis, will be worth it!

—
Sean Bell
Graphic Designer
Loono Graphics
PO Box 813 Carlsbad, CA 92018
760.580.9062

If you are in the San Diego area, I also recommend Steve Henry, a DayLite Master Partner. Steve was key in helping me get up and running with Daylite.

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Steve Henry – San Diego Mac IT
http://www.sdmacit.com – 888-502-1038 Office

Certified Member, Apple Consultants Network 
Daylite Master Partner • MoneyWorks Consultant