Mike Pickett Design Co.

Happy New Year everyone! 2024 behind us and so many good things ahead, I hope.

I made probably one of the more difficult decisions I've had to make in a very long time last month, I cancelled by Adobe Creative Cloud account. I have been paying for this service for close to 2 years now without really using it, except for the odd personal design. So to continue paying Adobe's ridiculous monthly fees when I'm not even using the software just didn't make sense any longer. There should be a way that these companies can see usage on an account and then either credit or reimburse an amount for months not used if they're going to continue to increase pricing without fixing bugs and issues with the software that have been present for years.

That said, I still need software to use for vector design, image manipulation and desktop publishing, so... I've made the switch to Affinity. I'll be taking some time to learn this new software and plan on adding some new tutorials on using the various tools in this system.

Hope you're all still out there designing stuff!

See you soon, or later...

9 months ago | [YT] | 1

Mike Pickett Design Co.

Tuesday morning... I try not to post on Mondays as I feel that everyone is too busy from the weekend to pay attention to anything I might have to say.

I have a quick question for you. Currently most of the content on the channel is tutorials for Adobe Illustrator, would you be interested in me opening this up to Photoshop, InDesign, and other design software?

I'm also considering more talking head type content with freelance tips, tools and resources. Would these be helpful?

3 years ago | [YT] | 1

Mike Pickett Design Co.

Happy Saturday everyone! Unless of course it’s already Sunday for you… 🤔

Just wanted to pop in and say Hi! Hope you had a great week and found some time to design something. Let me know what you’re working on!

I also wanted to say I’m back and working as hard as I can on making new content while also working a full time job and launching a leather company.

I’m still figuring out scheduling and am also looking at ways to streamline my processes as I’d love to get back to uploading weekly content. I’m also looking at doing a biweekly live stream where I just design something live and we can chat or I can answer your questions or show you how to do things, even if it’s something I haven’t done before maybe we can figure it out together, more details on this soon!

Okay, that’s it. Enjoy your weekend! Thank you for being here, I’m stoked to be back and looking forward to growing the channel, myself and your design skills!

3 years ago | [YT] | 2

Mike Pickett Design Co.

Wow, it has been a minute ( more like 300,376 minutes ). Let’s start with what’s coming…

I am working on some ideas for how rejuvenate the channel. Although I’m no longer working as a graphic designer I still work with the same tools, still design tings for my other business and have more to share. Stay tuned…

Now for where have I been…? Well the break started at Christmas of 2020 which was only meant to be a few weeks off which turned into a couple months and then COVID hit the world. This took the wind out of my sales, but it also never felt like a good time to post. Although my family wasn’t affected personally by COVID in those early days I just never really felt like uploading content was a good idea…

Fast forward to November 2021 and I started a new job at a company I LOVE working for. The learning curve was high and took a lot out of me, so finding the time and energy to put in to the channel was lost on trying to be the best I could be at my job… YouTube doesn’t pay my bills.

While I was no longer designing I still needed a creative outlet and ended up learning leather craft. I make cardholders, wallets, key fobs and more from leather, the company is called sleaves if you’d like to look it up. The image attached to this post is one of my latest pieces.

Finally for the last 4 years I’ve been tired, run down, and felt foggy most of the time. As I’m in my forties and don’t really have any close friends to check in with or relate to, I just thought this was part of getting old. After feeling that way for way too long and not able to see a doctor due to a local shortage of doctors and COVID I finally went to see a doctor. Turns out I have a non-alcohol form of Liver disease. I’m still waiting to see the extent of the damage and will be waiting anywhere from 3 months to a year to get in to see a specialist.

Sorry for the long post. Sorry for the long break. Sorry for the lack of communication. Thank you for still being here. Thank you for taking the time to read, if you’ve made it this far.

I hope to see you all sooner rather than later and appreciate all of your support on the channel!

3 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 2

Mike Pickett Design Co.

Thank you to everyone who subscribed, watched, commented, and shared my content during 2020!

What a year. I hope you all stay safe over the holiday season. Do what you can to spend time with family, even if that means Zoom calls.

I'm taking the next 2 weeks to get in a little rest and do some planning for next year!

In 2021 I'll be expanding to Photoshop, InDesign, Affinity Designer with software related tutorials and also have plans for other design industry related content. I'm really excited for everything I have planned for this channel in 2021.

I'll see everyone back here on January 6th with some fresh content.

4 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 3

Mike Pickett Design Co.

Thank you to everyone that's still here with me and welcome to all of the channel subscribers!

Another quick poll question for you all! I'm considering posting some mid-week content that would consist of either some speed design or a normal speed design process with no commentary, just music. They would be videos of me working on logos, vector art and various other design projects. Would you watch that type of content?

4 years ago | [YT] | 3

Mike Pickett Design Co.

WOW! It's been too long....

COVID has sent me through a full gambit of emotions. I've been busy but as you all know - not so busy around here. That all ends very soon.

THANK YOU FOR STICKING WITH ME!!!!

I'm working with XP-Pen on a new video right now that will be ready to edit around the middle of October and then sent to them for approval.

In the meantime I'm also working on some new ideas and have a few in the can ready to be edited, but I need your help... Of the following options which would you like to see more of on the channel:

5 years ago | [YT] | 1

Mike Pickett Design Co.

Is it safe to come out yet!? Hey everyone, long time no talk, post, communicate....

It's been a whirlwind of emotions over the past month and a half, yes it's been that long since my last upload and I feel like a tool because of it! This whole global situation has sent me from one end of the motivation spectrum to the other. When I first saw everything going down I was a little worried about all of our future, then a couple of weeks in I was motivated with the opportunities this was all going to have, now for the past month it's all I can do to just get up in the morning, go to work at my day job, and survive my nights...

I need to apologize for the lack of content on the channel over the past month and half. I also need to welcome all of the new subscribers and assure you all that new content is coming! I'm pulling together a couple of new angles to shoot including an overhead rig on my drawing table and will be back to content sometime next week.

Hope you're all staying safe out there and I look forward to seeing you all in the comments section!

Oh, one last thing - who'd like to see some feedback / logo critique type content on the channel? If you'd like to submit your logos and have me walk you through changes I would recommend comment below.


Photo by Atahan Demir from Pexels

5 years ago | [YT] | 2

Mike Pickett Design Co.

Good morning Designers! Hope you're all staying safe out there... I'm still working but things are slow.

I wanted to take a quick minute to update you on a change to the channel. For the foreseeable future I'm going to be pulling back to a single upload each week. I haven't landed on a day yet - most likely Tuesday or Wednesday, I'll have made this decision before the next video goes live next week.

I'm making this change for 2 reasons:

1. I want to focus on my quality of content a little more. I feel like now that I'm past the 1k mark I want to add more value to each video. The videos I have done are good and have useful information and tools for designers but I feel like I could add even more value by focusing on the tools being used during the design of an actual project. For example how to incorporate the Appearance panel into your workflow while designing a logo or a business card.

2. The current situation in the world has made me realize I need to focus more on other online / passive income type activities and as such I'm working to start creating new Skillshare classes. I would like release my next Skillshare class before the end of April and then work to release a new class every month for the rest of 2020. These all take time to plan, shoot and edit. Add that to the pile of client work, personal projects, the YouTube channel and life in general and it makes producing 2 videos a week for this channel difficult.

I hope you'll all stick around! Don't think of it as less content, think of it as more focused content with a greater message and learning potential! Stay safe and let me know how you're handling the current global situation in the comments below! I'd love to hear from you.

5 years ago | [YT] | 3

Mike Pickett Design Co.

Welcome to the community page everyone! I hope to use this space to keep you updated on what I'm working on, get some insight on what you'd like to learn and just chat with all of you when possible. Here's a sneak peek at a logo I'm just getting prepped to post up on IG next week!! I've got a whole series of these that I'll have available on my GumRoad account for purchase!

5 years ago | [YT] | 5