Measure twice, cut once

I am feeling much better after a brief stint in the hospital during which I had the genius idea to expand the Ask an Advisor empire! So I ditched the blogspot url, ponied up for a domain of my very own (woo hoo, http://www.askanadvisor.org!!!), and decided to start consulting... and I have two clients already!

For one project, I'm working on an awesome campaign to promote first generation college student pride at my alma mater. First, I'm helping with the marketing materials for the campaign and got to work designing this graphic:

I was in love with this graphic, I was so excited to be a part of this project, I was ridiculously thrilled with my handiwork... Then I reviewed the specifications and was crushed, just utterly heartbroken. As awesome as I thought this graphic was, I couldn't get it to fit the specifications without looking like hell. Then I got really angry with myself for not starting with the specifications and going from there...

The moral of the story? Before tackling assignments, always, always, always read the specifications, grading rubric, guidelines, syllabus, or whatever first. In construction, there is the saying, "Measure twice, cut once." Basically, this means know exactly what you need to do and have a plan before you get started.

Reviewing the specifications given to me before putting time into designing a graphic I can't use now would have saved me a lot of time, energy, and heartache...

Got questions? Please feel free to ask The Advisor about it.