Hello once again! 

I thought I would give you a quick update on what I have been doing over the past few months.

In December a few weeks before Christmas, I undertook design and layout duties at the North Eastern Advertiser. I did two newspapers including advertisements before Christmas, which kept me busy leading up to the festive holidays!

As you know I work casual at Tasmanian Independent Retailers over the Christmas/New Year/January period. I did this for the second time last month, making it one year since I started working there. Time flies! I love working there, the people are great and supportive and I am glad I got to spend most of my summer there once again.

After Tas Indies however I am back at the Advertiser! I have done two newspapers since then, and at the time of writing I am unsure as to how many more I will be doing. I will be doing next week's paper (10th Feb) and then we shall see where we go from there!

In the meantime I am still available for freelance requests, website updates & other design jobs. During this time my phone has cooked the SIM card, so until an alternative is arranged, you can still contact me through this website, my email or my Facebook page.

Apologies for the lack of clarity over what I have been doing over the past few months! I look forward to bringing you updates over the coming weeks/months!

Cheers, (Adam) Branchy

For years I have been using a Wacom Bamboo Fun, and it has served me well. I managed to get through university with it, including drawing my first full graphic novel, Once Upon a Time in the Country.

Unfortunately using the tablet required looking at a screen whilst I drew, creating a little disconnect that I got used to after a while, but always persisted.

Wacom has effectively ended this disconnection by combining both graphic tablets with a high resolution LCD monitor. 

The model is a Wacom Cintiq 13HD, and I got a fairly decent price for it!

This will make digital drawing, editing, design and refinement amazingly quick and presise, all with the benefit of a 1980x1080p LCD monitor. Multi screen design is now possible!

It's also relatively portable also! Drawing out and about will be no issue now!

Cheers for reading, and I look forward to creating more content with the Cintiq!

​-Branchy

In the past I have had many Youtube channels, but they mostly devolve into offtopic video posting, like funny or stupid videos that do not really fit with Branchy Design.

So I've decided to finally create one specifically for Branchy Design!

In addition to posting video content on there, it will be great for clients to preview videos I have been working on for them.

Hop on down to my channel, and watch out for some more content!

Branchy Design has finally made the move to a .com.au domain!

This will create a more professional presence on the internet, where it is most important! It also shows that I am a registered business, as one of the ways to acquire a .com.au domain is to use an ABN to purchase it.

Along with the new domain name, I have set up a permanent email address, no more redirecting! Previously I redirected my email 'adam@branchydesign.com' to my old hotmail address, so it looked professional on my site, but in reality I was still using boring old Hotmail.

Now it runs on a dedicated email address which is adam@branchydesign.com.au. I have changed the site to reflect this change, but this means some of my printed promotional products are dated (business cards, flyers etc)

Luckily my old emails will redirect to my new email still, until I can update everything!

This means you can now look forward to my new business cards, whatever crazy design they happen to be!

Cheers,

Ads

Got a new laptop a few weeks ago, after my previous one was tragically taken from me in a string of Launceston robberies. Other electronic devices were stolen like my portable game console and my housemate's laptop. Tragic days.

If you know me personally, you will be sad to learn of the sad sale of the Branchy Design company car 'The Corona'. Many jobs were fulfilled with the aid of the fair beast, and it will be sorely missed.

Lately I have been doing contract work for various businesses in the North East. Always great to get experience in professional work environments, and add to my skillset!


Future projects include a website for a local business in Derby! Stay tuned for that one!

Hope you enjoyed reading this quick update!

-Branchy

Hello all, long time no blog!

My latest client has been D&Me Fashion in Scottsdale, a fashion boutique specializing in women's clothing. Over the past few months I have been working with the good people there in developing an online store, complete with checkout functions and a vast catalogue of items.

You can find the website at www.dandmefashion.com.au

The site itself is in it's early stages and still does not have a great deal of content, but the hope is that the site will have hundreds of products online before the Christmas rush. 

If you decide to pop on by, hope you find something nice!

-Branchy

Recently I completed and uploaded a site for Cheesecake Baculo, a local company that makes fresh cheesecake on a stick. 

www.cheesecakebaculo.com.au

Do us a favour and check them out! The cheesecake is delicious, and the website isn't too bad either!

A few people have been asking me about my current situation in life and regards to my work. This blog post is to address my thoughts, concerns and what actually has been happening in the World of Adam Branch and Branchy Design. This blog post is a form of closure, hopefully it will be therapeutic to get this out in the open.

I was briefly employed from late October to early January at a sign shop in Launceston. I saw the job in the Examiner on the Wednesday in late September and one month later, I had my interview conducted and was officially employed.

My boss told me that I was to remain a casual employee doing only three days a week, 24 hours total. I was happy with this setup as I had to travel 1 hour to and from work everyday. The boss promised more work once the year was over, starting in January next year.

I enjoyed the work! I was on my feet most of the day, helping the screen printing shop and doing signage when required. Although I was happy with my work and my hours, the job was not able to last.

When I was due to return to work, my boss said there was little to no work for me, and said to hold out till the election. I remained hopeful that an election victory that my boss would be happy with would put my sign career back on course.

Even after a Liberal landslide victory at the Tasmanian election which would in theory bring confidence back to small business owners, it was not enough. Work had died down, one of my colleagues who was full time last year is only casual 2 days a week now, and the demand has subsided to a stop.

My boss rang me to say that there was no work for me, and I had to look for something else, but if circumstances changed they would call me right away.

So the job hunt begins again.

A job hunt in an unforgiving 'experience means more than your degree' market.

I have turned quite bitter towards the industry as a whole, but I remain optimistic. I understand that experience does indeed stack up better than a piece of paper, but not having solid work experience does phase me. What qualifies for work experience? I have been freelancing for over two years now, does that mean I have two years experience in the field? I like to think so, but it's not for me to decide, it's the employer.

That's just a little rant in the world of Branchy and his Design. I have not been very active lately aside from tending to clients. Hopefully freelancing picks up a bit and can evolve even further. 

My next blog post will be about the next 6 months, my plans, my goals and my promises as a Designer and Cartoonist. I hope you stick around for them!

-Branchy

Last week I launched two brand new websites!

They are both businesses in Scottsdale. The first is Scottsdale Suzuki, the local motorbike dealer:

The second is for Lords Hotel, the local hotel:

Both websites turned out great, and have started generating a decent amount of traffic.

Doing websites for the local community is something I really enjoy doing, I offer great packages to help them establish an online presence at an affordable price. Not to mention the sites don't look too shabby!

Until next time,

-Branchy

The past few months I have been mediating on the thought of my current website setup. I love having this place as a place on the internet to post all my artwork, yet I think the cartoon section could deal with a bit more love.

I then thought about www.boganscorner.com, my ill fated first attempt at a webcomic. In some aspects it was a great success, but many things came into play for me to stop updating it.

I thought of TwiggyToons, what I used to call my cartoon brand back before Branchy Design. I thought that it would be a good time to set up a website dedicated to my cartoons, a 'sister site' to Branchy Design. It would be much more convenient to keep my content on two websites, rather than spawning another one to constantly update whenever a new cartoon comes out. (Unless it is a popular one shot or something like that)

A website centered entirely around my cartoons, featuring Bogan's Corner, OUATITC and all my future projects. That sounds like something to strive for!

Stay tuned for the return of TwiggyToons!