While most of us designers don’t have the time to go out and save the world, there are a few things we can do that will take up little time and money.

1. Use your design superpowers for good - design a poster or flyer that opens peoples eyes to the issue of poverty and put it anywhere you legally can.
2. Design an educational website teaching people about the effects of poverty in your area.
3. Run a mini Blog Action Day type event on your blog - ask people to sponsor you by donating $1 for every post you make about poverty in a 24 hour period.
4. Host a fundraiser BBQ and invite your clients. Charge them an entry fee and donate the proceeds.
5. Donate your time - give a talk to a classroom of people trying to free themselves from poverty about the business world or design.
6. Organise a design competition in your area and speak to your local council or community radio stations about free promotion. Ask entrants to draw or design something to do with poverty, whether a poster or an innovative representation of an idea to end poverty.
7. Turn your computer and office equipment off when you don’t need it. Calculate the money saved on electricity and donate it.
8. Donate your design services for free to a charity. Let them call on you when they need flyers designed or a website developed.
9. Donate your in-house e-commerce software to a charity to allow them to accept donations on their website.
10. Offer to manage the content on a charity’s website for free, to allow them to concentrate on more important things.
11. Donate a portion of your earnings to helping rid the world of poverty. Ie. Donate 10% from every logo design to The Global Fund (or your organisation of choice).
12. Set up an account with BuySellAds.com and start selling ad space on your website or blog, with the intention of donating every cent of it to a good cause.
13. Start a blog dedicated to the issue of poverty. Post only about that topic and use your design skills to come up with some pretty provocative imagery.
14. Work with other designers to come up with ideas about how your industry can make a difference.
15. Take time out from posting on your blog about design for one day and instead use the time to interview a homeless person. Post the interview on your blog and get it to spread like wild-fire. Let the world hear the personal story of one sufferer.

Enjoy this post? subscribe to the RSS feed or get get updates via email.

Twitter itself doesn’t have the greatest search functionality which can make it hard to find people you’d actually be interested in ‘following’. What’s a girl to do?

Just Tweet It, that’s what!

Just Tweet It is a directory for Twitter users interested in finding and following other Twitter users with the same interests. All you need is a Twitter account and away you go. Find the category that describes you best and add your Twitter link (mine is www.twitter.com/marnieb!) as well as a short description about who you are or why other people should follow you.

Head on over to Just Tweet It and add yourself. I have.

Enjoy this post? subscribe to the RSS feed or get get updates via email.

Want to help a good cause AND win great prizes? You do? Great!

To help raise funds for Blog Action Day, marnieb.com is running a small competition with some big prizes!

As a designer, I of course wanted the competition to be focused on design. This doesn’t mean you have to be a professional designer to enter though. If you like to doodle, paint or fiddle with Photoshop in your spare time, you are welcome to enter. After all, it is for a good cause so why limit the donations by only allowing certain people to enter? The prizes have also been chosen to reflect this - they are prizes that the every day person can enjoy, so you’d better get enterin’!

how do i enter?

All you have to do to enter is design a poster themed end poverty and donate $2 or more!

Posters must be 500 pixels wide by 700 pixels high. Aside from that, entrants are free to interpret the theme any way they choose.

Your entry could be a sketch of a revolutionary idea to end poverty, it could be completely typographic, it could be a graphical representation of the suffering poverty causes, anything. You are free to design as you choose, as long as the words ‘end poverty’ are included in your design.

prizes!

Entries will be judged on the 14th of October, 2008. There will be prizes for first and second place, as well as 3 runner-up places.

first place

1 x Logo re-design - thanks to Bergan Blue
1 x Business card design - thanks to Bergan Blue
1 x copy of The Path To Success - thanks to Sprout Publishing
1 x subscription to Communication Arts
1 x $50 Gift Voucher to spend at Joliv - thanks to Joliv
1 x $50 voucher for Dawson Documents VA Services - thanks to Dawson Documents
1 x hair treatment and blowdry - thanks to Hairplex (available to Sydney/NSW winners only)
Valued at approx. $1,345!

second place

1 x Business card design - thanks to Bergan Blue
1 x phone consultation or resume update - thanks to Enhance Your Chances
1 x copy of The Path To Success - thanks to Sprout Publishing
1 x $60 Gift Voucher to spend at Tayana - thanks to Tayana
1 x Moving Memory DVD - thanks to Zana productions
1 x Nutrimetics Little Luxuries Fragrance Collection - thanks to Dawson Documents
1 x BubbaLog baby log book - thanks to BubbaLog
Valued at approx. $520!

runner-up

Runners-up will receive a copy of The Path to Sucess, and one lucky entrant, which will be randomly picked, will receive 1 x hour telephone life coaching session - thanks to Crossroads Life Coaching. There is also a Box of Stuff to be won thanks to Blue Zamboo!

where will my money go?

ALL money donated will go directly to The Global Fund. The Global Fund combats AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, all which have a crippling effect on the fight against poverty. In 2008 The Global Fund is the official Blog Action Day charity. Your donation will be processed via Change.org and will not enter the hands of anyone involved in this competition or anyone at Marnieb.com.

ready to enter?

Use the ‘donate’ button below to donate $2 or more to The Global Fund. Once you’ve done this, email your entry to blogactionday@marnieb.com with your name, phone number and location.

sponsors

The above prize packs would not be possible without the generosity of some great businesses. I’d like to thank each and every one of your for donating a prize and being willing to give up your time/products for such a great cause.

Enjoy this post? subscribe to the RSS feed or get get updates via email.

Blog Action Day is an annual event which brings together bloggers from all around the world to talk about and raise awareness of a chosen issue for that year. This year, BAD is focused on Poverty. As it is such a broad area, participants are asked to interpret the topic as they will.

The hope is that with thousands of registered participants talking about the same issue on the same day, the world’s attention will turn to this important issue and encourage people from all walks of life to consider the issue and what we can do to help turn the situation around.

when is it?

Blog Action Day will be held on October 15th, 2008. Registration is open from August 15th to October 15th. It’s important to register for the event so that organisers can track how many people are taking part. You can register here.

so, how can I participate?

Got a blog, podcast or videocast? On 15th of October, dedicate the day’s blogging or podcasting to discussing the issue of poverty. How does it effect your industry? What can you do to help? Spread the world via your blog or podcast and get people involved.

Advertise on your site? Donate the day’s earnings to charities dedicated to ending poverty. Not sure where to start? Check out Blog Action Day’s suggested funds and charities on their site.

At present there are 4,735 participating sites, with big name supporters such as Envato, Blog.TV, and more.

For more information, visit blogactionday.org.

Enjoy this post? subscribe to the RSS feed or get get updates via email.

I know I’ve been slack lately. But before you condemn me, let me plead my case?

Well, it’s not quite as dramatic as I make it sound, but I have been very busy and very sick. The last couple of weeks we have been busy finishing up a major installation of blueCart for the Coast’s leading florist, Boydita Flowers Delivered (if you go to their site, rest assured, that is not the site we’ve been working on… we have a major and much needed redesign underway). Jon has been busy customising the software to look sexy and also integrate with Web Chameleon, and me? I have been busy testing the software.

Aside from all of that fun stuff, we’re getting a test site ready for blueCart as it is long overdue. We’re hoping to have one finished by Monday, so I might share it and get some feedback from you all!

Something else that has put a bit of a stick in my spokes is a lack of a PC. Last Friday my PC went, “Hey! I think I’ve had enough of your workload. I know it’s going to leave you in a bit of a bind, but I need a holiday. A permanent one.” And off it went. I’ve been stuck on a Macbook for the last week which has made it almost impossible for me to work. The screen is too small for my usual Illustrator antics and quite frankly, it’s ridiculously hard to migrate your workflow from a PC to a Mac.

Well, enough of the excuses. I promise to pick up my game over the next couple of weeks.

Enjoy this post? subscribe to the RSS feed or get get updates via email.

Yesterday I received a comment from the lovely Annette at Under the Loupe informing me that, well, she loves my blog!

i love your blog awards

After doing a bit of Googling, I found the I love your blog awards to be everywhere! So how does it work, you ask?

The rules of this award are:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog
2. Link the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated

So as hard as I know it is going to be to pick my favourites (I read hundreds!), here are my favourites:

1. Small Business Diva for the practical tips

2. Design*Sponge - for the eye candy. The fabrics, the pillows, the rooms! Is there a more beautiful blog?

3. The Ampersand - I’m obsessed with typography at the best of times, so a blog dedicated completely to ampersands. Yeah, I’m loving it. The little, tiny smiley at the top of the page is completely cute, too.

4. Just Creative Design - because it’s good to see another Aussie designer doing so well. Quality content.

5. Blog by Belinda - another local small business owner who posts some great tips and also keeps me up to date on some great local events!

6. Styl.eti.me - for the quality articles that get the design community talking.

7. All Things Lovely - for all the prettiness.

Enjoy this post? subscribe to the RSS feed or get get updates via email.

The gorgeous Aussie Kids Boutique blog is running a very cute competition at the moment showcasing some of the most unique kidswear finds from around Australia.

Each week, readers have sent in their favourite finds and then voted which has won them a gift voucher for the lovable shop at All You Need.

Now, voting is open to choose the favourite item for the month! Head on over to Aussie Kids Boutique and submit your vote! If you happen to vote for D, which I just happened to submit, I won’t complain!

Voting closes at 8pm Friday the 29th of August, so get in ASAP!

Make sure you check out All You Need’s site for some of the cutest kids clothes, toys and accessories around.

Enjoy this post? subscribe to the RSS feed or get get updates via email.

Found: Wooden USB sticks.

Wooden USB sticks from Supermarket.

Beautiful and practical. These gorgeous wooden USB sticks can hold up to 1gb and each stick is handpicked and handcrafted. Use them to break up the white and grey glow in your office or buy them as gifts - they come packaged in a white gift box. Bonus!

Enjoy this post? subscribe to the RSS feed or get get updates via email.

This was so bizarre that I just had to repost it.

Kittiwat Unarrom began his art career painting portraits. Today, he prefers a less traditional form of art.

Some of Unarrom’s unique works of art

Feeling hungry?

Believe it or not, these gruesome body parts are not the leftovers of Unarrom’s victims, but are actually edible pieces of bread made and sold out of his family’s baker in Ratchaburi, Thailand.

Kittiwat fashions his creations out of dough and uses chocolate, raisins and cashews to fill in the details that make his work so realistic.

“Of course, people were shocked and thought that I was mad when they saw the works. But once they knew the idea behind it, they understood and became interested in the work itself, instead of thinking that I am crazy,” said the artist of his unusual creations.

Please click here to see more photos. You can even watch a video here!

Enjoy this post? subscribe to the RSS feed or get get updates via email.