Illustration

Relax

I’ve updated the Relax Booklet with new illustrations!

Are you feeling stressed and overwhelmed? Do you need some tips on how to relax and unwind? Look no further than this handy booklet, newly illustrated and reformatted for online for your convenience.

In this booklet, you'll find a variety of techniques and strategies for reducing stress and finding peace in your everyday life. You never know, it might just be the thing you need to find some calm in the midst of a busy day. Click the link below to access RELAX:

Working with a Print Designer

Producing a printed promotional piece that shines and communicates the quality of your business requires the help of a print designer. If you’re new to print, I can help.

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Print Design Formats

There are endless types of projects that are printed, each with their own unique advantages and challenges. Listed below are a few of the type of projects that benefit the most from an experienced print designer:

Business Cards with Special Effects • Branded Packaging • Brochures • Billboards • Book Covers • Magazines • Outdoor and Indoor Signage • Posters • Tradeshow Banners 

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Print Design is Different from Digital Design

When selecting a designer for your print project, it’s good to ask how much of their portfolio is print focused, and how long they’ve been designing for print. Once your project is printed, the opportunity to correct mistakes has passed—similar mistakes in an online environment have fewer financial consequences.

Also, there is a limit to how much text and graphics can fit on a single side of a business card. An established print designer is aware of these boundaries and is focused on readability and clarity. 

Color is another element that looks different on a computer screen when compared to a physical printed object. A print designer can help navigate those differences so that there are no surprises.  

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Printers Speak a Unique Language

Ideally, there is a discussion about how best to produce the print item before selecting a print partner. Then written specifications are developed in a common language familiar to the print industry. Developing this language, reviewing/converting images and preparing color for print is my specialty. 

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Read The Final Proof or You’ll Pay The Consequences

Tips for final proofing:

-Review a physical proof (not just a PDF) before printing any project. 

-Someone who has never seen the project and can look at it with fresh eyes can see errors others’ might have overlooked

-Bring these proofs with you to the press check, if your print designer hasn't already

-Color correction should be done with the printer, based on the proofs, because their color-profile and workspace may be different from what you’ve been looking at.

Need help with your next print project? Send me an email.

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Miss Minneapolis Flour

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Miss Minneapolis was a flour mill in the Twin Cities that was in business from around 1920 until the mid 70’s.

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They had the best logo, and ran the Miss Minneapolis beauty contest. Second place won a 50 pound bag of flour. Classy.

The below recipe is nearly 100 years old, and came from a Miss Minneapolis booklet of recipes.

I used coconut milk, but you can use the milk of a cow if you prefer. Moo.

2 cups scalded milk
1 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons lard
1 cake of yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
6 cups MISS MINNEAPOLIS FLOUR

Put liquid, salt, sugar and lard into a bowl, stir until salt and sugar and lard are dissolved. Mix these with lukewarm water. When the first mixture is of the same temperature, add yeast to it. Add half the flour and beat well, then all the remainder of the flour, making batter a stiff dough. Knead until smooth and elastic, place into greased bowl, set in a warm place and let rise for about two hours. Mold into loaves, place in a warm place, and let rise for one hour. Pre-heat oven ten minutes and bake 50 minutes.

Relax: Chapter 5

Relax
Written by Leonard M. Leonard
Designed + Illustrated by Will Dinski
Original Copyright 1952


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Chapter 5
Mental Fire-Traps That “Burn You Up”

One good turn deserves another. Try non-resistance on the other mental states that make you tense.

It’s the same deal. If you hate something you’re resisting its presence. If you suspect someone, you’re resisting what he may do. If you envy someone, your resisting her success. If you’re jealous of someone, you’re resisting that person’s attractiveness to others.

When something riles us, we say that it “burns us up” – which comes pretty close to the actual truth. As we have already noted, the scenes and actions which negative thoughts bring to your mind are telegraphed through your body. You fight battles, suffer heartaches, engage dangers in make-believe enactments that “burn you up” or wear you down.

Don’t wait for the doctor to tell you that your blood pressure has gone up, that your heart’s overworked, that an ulcer is on the way, or that you need a good rest. Rest? You can take i on your feet, if you’ll take it in your head. Give up your mental tug-of-war!

The idea, of course, if not to take the fight out of you, but to leave the fight in you. Every so often, something happens which calls for all the resistance we can muster. Why waste it, for example, against the sound of someone chewing popcorn in the movies?

These days, we Americans are doing a lot of proper bragging about Freedom and Independence. But here’s a question: how free and independent are you when you give to every petty annoyance, every disappointment, every person who crosses you the power to disturb you, to control your moods, to upset your digestion, to make your heart beat faster or your blood pressure shoot up?

Again we say it: be willing to let things happen. Stop resisting so much, and relax.