Practicing the Golden Rule (you know, "he who has the gold makes the rules” No, wait! Not that one, the other one!! 😊) and supporting good business, I am writing a business review for a great creator of GIF images - our fellow Steemian @skyleap.
Above you see the "finished product" of an image I contracted with her to create for me. I will write more about the details of the design later, in another post.
For now, I would like to honor @skyleap, for her great work.
Background
Being relatively new to our Steem Community, early on it caught my eye some of our fellow Steemians had created custom images to "market" their online profiles. I went back and forth for awhile about whether I wanted to take the time to do something similar.
Deciding to "pull the trigger," where specifically would I go for this type of help? While I could always "google it," I elected to see what I could do inside of our Community. The answer I settled on was found in a Steem post first referenced in my Reputation 40 update. In it, I gave a "shout out" to @kenmelendez, in response to what followed from my reading of his encouraging post, Don't Throw in the Towel. If you read his post, you will see where I was first introduced to @skyleap.
So, I began to follow @skyleap and when the time was right, reached out to her in a comment on one of her posts. She replied by making direct contact on Discord.
The Rest of the Story
One fascinating part of electing to enter the "crypto universe" last summer (see "The Beginning") is the international nature of it. @skyleap is from Japan, more or less half way around the world from where I am.
So, being from a different country and speaking a different language, how was this going to work? On top of that, while I am a pretty good engineer (working as a Business Systems Analyst), I make no pretense of being artistic. So, add how to effectively communicate what I would like to the cultural and language barriers ...
Once she had provided me an outline of what she needed, I supplied what she requested. From that, she provided me a "back of the envelope" conceptual drawing. Frankly, I couldn't really be too sure about it, until I saw something more tangible, but said OK.
[Note: Above, I reference "contract," but it was simply an exchange / understanding via Discord, sealed with a "digital handshake" ... 😊]
So ... How did that go?
Well, from @skyleap's first draft, it was crystal clear she is very talented. But, upon seeing the "big picture," I knew I needed to request some significant changes. I wish that had not been necessary, as she had faithfully recreated what she had originally presented in her conceptual drawing. Sadly, I just "didn't get it," until I could see it more fully / clearly.
I am happy to report this did not present a problem for her. I presented her with better input than I had the first time. She took it all in stride and, again, turned around a significant rework of her original image quickly.
What you see above is the "finished product," from her second pass at it. While technically accomplished as a digital artist, she is also obviously quite good at interpreting what her customers are asking from her.
Closing
I admire talented people, particularly those with talent(s) I don't have. While I was in no hurry (although I don't think I communicated that very clearly ...), it was very impressive to me how quickly @skyleap got this work done. High quality work, "ahead of schedule and under budget!" What's not to like?
If you are interested in something similar, I highly recommend @skyleap to you for consideration. You won't be disappointed!
Do you have businesses who have provided you a great service or product? IMHO, there is no better way to help them than word-of-mouth advertising/recommendations. I would encourage you to write your own business reviews for the benefit of the rest of us. You just never know where that might lead!
Other business reviews, by yours truly:
P.S. In the above mentioned post, @kenmelendez encourages us all to "Keep Posting!" Well, here I am still posting. Just hit the "century mark!" Or should that be the "Benjamin mark?" 😊
Posted (in part) using MSPSteem and (in part) using Busy.org