SexiDesign.com is my official new site for articles about the influence of sex in marketing and design. Visit the site for tantalizing posts for a whole new perspective on marketing.

SexiDesign.com

The last two weeks of mine have been devoted to the launch of my new site, sexidesign.com. I created this site to inform readers about the significant role that sex plays in marketing and design, regardless of the industry.
Articles will cover topics ranging from sexy art such as the design of sexy toys to underlying subliminal messages in ads that are meant to subconsciously evoke sexual desire. Ultimately, my angle is to understand the formula for how sex = sales.

SexiDesign.com Site Features

Articles
The site will feature articles on business, design, marketing, advertising, tutorials, and inspiration. I’ve always loved exploring the power of body language and plan to include additional articles which show how the industry is using sexy body language to ultimately close the sale.

Mature Content
Obviously as a site with a connection to sex, there will be a cornucopia of mature content available. I haven’t really decided how much I plan to censor, however, sexidesign.com is NOT a pornographic site and will not showcase incredibly sexually explicit images (porno-like).

In fact, I adopt the same philosophy as Playboy, by presenting information in a classy, mature manner, despite the presence of adult language and imagery.

Why Sex?

Spice Things Up:Controversial Style
I visit design and blog sites every day, and I’ve recently realized that there is need for a site with a little bit more kick.
I’m not shy when it comes to speaking upon controversial subjects because I believe that thorough discussion allows for a true understanding about the different perspectives of one topic. The topic of sex is either shunned or rarely highlighted for its impact on marketing.

Sex is Everywhere
Sex has a strong hold on many businesses and the success of those businesses who don’t necessarily have to be associated with the sex industry. Sexy advertisements are no longer rare to be seen and using it for a marketing campaigns is quite normal in any industry.

Open to Any Subject
I’m an artist, and as an artist who creates pieces with nudity I’m quite fine discussing a topic that I know people will accept with a little understanding and open discussion. This site is about sex, but more importantly its about the world of marketing and design, and how new industries have emerged and achieved success by taking risks. Ultimately, the more you understand the underlying and sometimes subconscious reasons behind a sale, the more sales you’ll make.

What Happens to AWalkInMyShoes.com?

AWalkInMyShoes.com is not going anywhere! Now that I’ve finished the design and implimentation of sexidesign.com, I now have enough time to devote to the growth of both sites. AWalkInMyShoes will stay as a more generally based marketing and design site, with upcoming posts to inform you on vital marketing strategies and information.
Also, expect a return to AWalkInMyShoes YouTube Channel, where I am currently developing new tutorials and update videos.

Subscribe for SexiDesign.com Updates!

Haven’t checked out the site yet? Visit sexidesign.com for some titiliating posts sure to make your mouth water, and subscribe to the RSS Feed for posts sent discreetly to your inbox.

Click To Subscribe For More From AWalkInMyShoes

<3 Love Ya!
-Mel

“Cuerpo is a celebration of the human form…An exploration of the idea of inhabiting the very curves which make up the body.” -Melody Nieves

Today is the official launch of my new t-shirt design line, “Cuerpo.” A series of 5 designs uniquely merging the human body with a world within itself.

Inspiration Behind Cuerpo

Many years ago as a young artist I began drawing light sketches of women’s bodies inhabited with cities and native civilizations. I attempted few acrylic paintings with these ideas, but recently decided to go back to my long lost list of painting concepts gathering dust within the corners of my brain.

“Cuerpo” is simply the spanish translation for the English word “Body.” And I can only connect the name’s language as perhaps a means to further embrace my puerto rican culture, while enforcing my perspective of also embracing the differing body shapes, colors, and sizes produced by cultures all over the world.

The Official Designs

1. Clouded Vision

(Description)- Clouded Vision is a recreation of an acrylic painting I made some years ago, and is the t-shirt design originally previewed here on awalkinmyshoes.com. It features a sailboat sailing in the sea of an eye with rays of sunshine piercing through a gathering of clouds.


2. Fishing For Memories

- This digital painting is an image of a father and son sitting side by side atop a slightly cupped hand as they fish for fish in the shape of the word “memory.” I really love the concept of this piece which is kept mostly black and white with areas of color showing through.

3. In The Palm of My Hand

- Here is where we really begin to see the black and white take over the rest of the digitally painted designs. This particular piece is of a hand reaching forward, delicately cupping a wave with a surfer while the water freely flows through the spaces in the fingers.

4. Watch My Back

- Definitely one of my favs, this piece is of a (technically male) human back where a painter is painting an image of the king of the jungle. I love working with Photoshop because I could totally make a separate print of solely the lion if desired…hmm…

5. An Irresistible Climb

- If you purchase this t-shirt please forward me a picture of you wearing it because I would love to see the brave/badass soul who wears it! This is, how do you say, my declaration for not only my love of the male physique (in any shape/form) but the muscularity as well. Probably the “sexiest” of all the t-shirts, this piece has two very admiring women climbing up the abdominal musculature.

T-shirts and Prints Available Online Now!

To purchase t-shirts using my digitally painted designs, head over to my zazzle.com/melodynieves. The designs will also be featured as prints, and in the near future I will be expanding upon prints with similar conceptual pieces.

These t-shirt designs are the first of much more conceptual artwork to come, however those later pieces will remain as prints, unless otherwise noted.

Subscribe To Win A Free T-shirt

I should be launching a contest by the end of the week to give away a t-shirt of your choice to one lucky winner. So the only way to stay tuned is to simply subscribe to my RSS feed for updates!

<3 Love Ya!
-Mel

Hey guys!

I figured it was time for an update as to what I’ve been doing lately. Although I have been blogging, individual posts can only cover so much ya know? Perhaps I shall do an updated post each month..

New Youtube Video(s)

Today I have finally published my first youtube video in about 2 or 3 months. It’s certainly been awhile, but I’ve been meaning to finish this last tutorial for my wii video game tutorial series. This tutorial covers how to make a simple custom background using After Effects CS3.

There shall also be 2 more videos coming within the next week or two, one that will be an update of everything that has happened for my youtube subscribers, and for what’s to come, and the other will be a photoshop tutorial. So be sure to subscribe to AWalkInMyShoes YouTube Channel, for more video updates.

Very soon I’ll be changing up the format a little of how I present the tutorials. In the future, along with the video will be screenshots and text walkthroughs of the tutorials as well–much like many traditional graphics design tutorials across the web.

T-shirt Design Line

Recently, I announced my plans to launch a new line of t-shirt designs based on new and recreated painting concepts made via digitally painting with Photoshop. The official launch for the designs will be July 15th 2009, and will be made available most likely through zazzle.com.

I do plan on holding a contest to give away one of the t-shirts. If you haven’t already, you can see a preview of one of the t-shirt designs here. I’m really excited, just finishing up the designs and have finally decided on a name and logo design for the line.

Countdown to Party at the Playboy Mansion!

I really can’t wait to go to LA to party it up with the people and fellow winners from AzoogleAds for the party at the playboy mansion event! As you may know, my winning t-shirt design for the party landed me an all expense paid trip to LA, though I’ll be too young to go to the party itself. Still really, really, really, really, can’t wait though! I’m counting down the days and I’m sure it’ll be a wonderful early birthday present

Of course, there are always continuously new projects I’ll be working on and updating you on, so be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed for more updates!

<3 Love Ya!
-Mel

First, I’d like to thank everyone who has responded to my “Commenting on 200 Blogs” experiment post. Your responses have given me a lot of ideas regarding things I should/could do for future experiments.

What’s New On AWalkInMyShoes

CommentLuv- I know, I’m like the last person in the blogosphere to finally integrate this plugin, but I would like to be able to reward readers with links to their most recent posts. I decided to implement this first instead of the “top commentators” plugin though, because I’m still working on how I would like my side column to look.

DoFollow- My blog is also now considered a dofollow blog–just conforming to the cult lol..

I hope to have threaded comments installed soon–depending on which method will work best for my site, if you have any suggestions/recommendations, please feel free to let me know.

What’s To Come On AWalkInMyShoes

Logo design Process for BullsBattleBears- check back tomorrow for my post on the logo design process for yet another one of my recent contest winners–Aman from BullsBattleBears.

Logo Packages Price Increase- as of May 1st, all of my logo design packages will experience a price increase. I originally wanted to lower prices (less than the industry standard) because I wanted smaller bloggers to be able to receive a clean, custom designed logo for an affordable price. However, there’s that age old saying that “prices are associated with quality.” I don’t want people to avoid my services because they think that they’ll be receiving cheesy/poorly done logos as a result of the prices being low.

So if you would like to take advantage of receiving a custom logo design for as low as $35, you have one week left to make your choice.

New Logo Contest May 1st- Friday, May 1st, I will announce the details of my second Free Logo Package Contest. If I aim to do this as a monthly contest, than I’m only going to be awarding one person a free logo package for each contest instead of 3 winners like my previous one.

New Products Coming Soon- All of this discussion has inspired me to create a product of my own for online marketing purposes. Trust me, it won’t follow the same redundant processes included in conventional products but will aim to give you a new perspective on online marketing..

PS & AE Tutorials- I have sadly neglected my YouTube channel, so new videos for both photoshop and after effects tutorials should be appearing within the next month. Techniques that I’ll be covering will include: How to make a basic intro with After Effects, How to retouch a photo, and how to restore an old photo.

So, if you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe to my RSS Feed for continued updates on these topics, and you can also follow me on Twitter @MelodyNieves.

Toodles
-Melody

hmmm…. I’m trying to figure out if the possibility exists for me to write this entire blog post without annoyingly doing it in all CAPS…LOL..

I WON!

My smile spans the entire width of a city block!–seriously.. My t-shirt design for the “AzoogleAds Party at the Playboy Mansion” T-shirt Design Contest, was chosen as the winner today, and I am uncontrollably beyond excited. If, for the rest of the day, I could jump up and click my heels together–I certainly would!

Click here to view the full size of my winning entry!

Thanks to Everyone

I would like to first thank the academy..lol–no but seriously, I would like to thank everyone from AzoogleAds and especially those who were involved in making the decision to choose me as the winner..
Thanks to John Chow for featuring the contest and my win on his site.
Thanks to everyone who participated and made this contest an interesting one.
Thanks to everyone who has congratulated me thus far.

What I’ve Won

I’ve won an “all expenses paid trip to LA to party it up at the Playboy mansion. Plus, her design will be featured on the offical party T-shirt.” However, since my 21st birthday isn’t until Sept 11th, Playboy Mansion rules dictate that I won’t be able to go to the party..

I am totally fine with this and still can’t wait to party it up in LA–I’ve never been there, and I rarely travel at all..

Why I won

According to Chief Marketing Officer Michael Sprouse, of AzoogleAds, this is why I won:

* She spent 40+ hours of work on the design, which included digital painting, and this level of detail really came out in the design.
* The design was classy, nice-looking and well thought-out and goes great on a t-shirt.
* The design also includes a hidden image of Hef, which was another well thought-out thing because Playboy Magazine hides a rabbit head on the cover of each issue — so our judges thought that was extra creative.

Additional commentary provide by AzoogleAds was as follows:

“The entire panel of judges was simply blown away by this entry. The amount of time and effort, the attention to detail, the brand sensitivity, and everything about it warranted a collective WOW. We’re happy to have awarded Melody the winner and look forward to seeing her in LA in August.”

I definitely took this contest seriously, I guess after not winning the last contest I worked on it was added fuel. I really just wanted to come up with a clean design that had flexibility and was conceptually artistic. As Playboy would probably argue about their magazine, the nudity for my entry was not meant to offend–but instead celebrate the beauty of a woman’s body.

If you’re new, or have been a follower here at AWalkInMyShoes.com, you may know that recently I dissolved a startup company–the original purpose for this site/blog, and have since switched it’s focus to follow my journey as a young entrepreneur in the graphic design/online marketing industry.

This experience has been very validating for me–I don’t want to get corny here, but I feel obligated to say that.

Have you found Hef yet? (Spoiler)

As mentioned above, I included a hidden image of (a young) Hugh Hefner hidden amongst the women’s curves. I did this at the suggestion of my good buddy, “Han,” and it turned out to fit really well. I decided to use the young picture of Hugh Hefner because I figured I would rather have an entry that is entirely based on images associated with the complete copyright/trademark ownership of Playboy, rather than an Associated Press picture.

If you have yet to find Hef’s picture, his head is between the arms and knees of the woman on her knees in the center bottom of the image.

Yes, a girl won!

I find hilarious irony here that a girl my age won the contest many men would love to win. I’m straight–by the way..lol I just found this as a wonderful opportunity to enhance my skills and advertise my abilities..

I have a weird additional need to show the pronunciation of my name–just in case.. you hear about me someday..lol
Melody (simple enough) Nieves (knee-ev-es)

Thanks!

*Background Music: “I’m so excited…and I just can’t hide it..” –Doing the “Flash Dance” in my room*

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