Happy Halloween.

First off... the illustration above, I drew this over the summer and I thought that it would be very fitting for current time period. Today Lily gave me a black rose for Halloween and Loni gave me a dandy treat bag for Keph and Shmee gave me a pubish looking hair net so that I could dress like a lunch lady. Thank you for all the gifts ladies.

New project announced in class. It will be designing a book, which is really odd considering that I ordered a book on hand bound books this morning. I initially ordered the book so that I could make a hand bound book as a promotional piece to send as a mailer portfolio piece. I want to make a hand-stitched book with various weights of paper with no glue. Complex in design, simple to read and navigate.

I have decided to write and llustrate a childrens book. I am currently brainstorming ideas to write about. Once the story is written I will then decide the style of illustration as well as the over all feel of the book. As Brian said, this will be a huge portfolio piece, so it is time to step it up. My main objective in this project is to communicate the story visually. Hopefully the illustrations will be strong enough that text shouldn't be a factor when flipping through to understand the overall context of the story.

Here are some great Illustration links to get your visual groove on:
Illustration Friday
Illustration Mundo

Strawberry Milkshake

I find it amazing how one student that takes one class at WCC can have so much influence over an entire class of students. That is all I will say about that other than the strawberry milkshake that I saw walking around today.

AD and I made plans to go shoot some stuff Wednesday at the parking decks downtown. We are shooting during our regularly scheduled photography time, so if anyone else wants to go shoot with us then by all means let me know.

Yesterday Kephren received another cute little package in the mail from Lily. This time the prize was Pop Rocks. Needless to say he was super psyched.

I read an article about a japanese illustrator who basically locked himself in his apartment for a couple of years to dedicate himself to something that many people attempt but never succend. Its a great read for inspiration in doing what we creatives do. Check it out -> Gez Fry - Interview

Binding.

Ventured to Wake Forest University today. My American Lit. class visited the library on campus to take a closer look at 18th and 19th century books. Initially I wasn't really excited about the trip, being a student of design. We were taken to the third floor of the library to a small room concealed on one end of the building. As you entered into the room your eyes immediately flowed over the walls that were garnished with old cloth and leather bound books. Our presenter Megan did an excellent job with the volumes that she had hand selected before our arrival. Turns out she started talking about the binding techniques and letterpress. Everyone else was falling asleep while I listened with open ears. Megan approached the presentation more along the lines of a design perspective rather than a literary analysis. At least thats how I took it.

While visiting Wake, I got the feeling of being in the presence of greatness. I get the same feeling while visiting NC State. Being surrounded by smart people can do that to a person. With that said, I think great things will come of the 2nd year design students. Its great being a small part of the classes along with the teachers. As design students we're very lucky to have teachers that want to push the boundary's and leave room for our creative failures. I think this is great because I always learn more from my failures than I do my accomplishments.

Seeing Red Again,

The topic yesterday was "Red". Everyone was talking about the red headed girl in photography. I bet she has no idea how popular she is at school. During lighting studio yesterday, I felt bad for her because no one was helping her with her photographs. Basically, she only had every guy and most of the girls posing for her. I thought since she was being deprived of attention I would make casual conversation with her. It must be hard being in a class not knowing anyone and feeling like an outsider.

After class I seemed to make everyone mad at me. Amber was hating my guts for not going to eat Japanese. Shmee and Vic gave me dirty looks and threw a few "R" words in my face. Lily and I talked about fried apple pies which is awsome. The Shat, A.D. and I then headed for ice-cream. Good stuff. A.D. noticed that he had seen several people wearing eye-patches and I let out a hearty pirate sounding "Yaaaaarghhh!" Only to find out that ol' patchy was standing right behind me. I brought Loni some chocolate back but they didn't have cookie dough for Amber so I came back empty handed for her. I'm not going to talk about what went down after that.

So today we have a critique on our food products. Can't wait to mount it on a can.

Life Beyond Khakis

The image above is an exercise in illustration that I did for a random magazine article entitled "Life Beyond Khakis". Over the summer I revisted my love for drawing. Just read an article yesterday on how doodling helps keeps creativity fresh. For a lot of my rough work like quick figure sketchs they tend to grow on me over time. I did a quick sketch of a lady standing in a very boring pose and found it to so ugly. I left it on my desk all day yesterday and used it as a notepad for live-area and bleed measurements for the current Ad Campaign project. As I looked at it more often, I started to like the drawing more and more. Same with the img above, I did it about three months ago. I like it more and more everytime I see it. I think it is because my design work and illustration work are opposites. I like clean, simple layout and design and my illustration style is loose, messy and unorganized.

A long day of modeling....

Today, I was hired for a session of modeling. It always drains me when the photography staff on hand doesn't provide me with back to back cappuccinos. Above are some shots I did at random while Shmee was shooting her set.

Over the weekend I read a design article in which the author was explaining how its benificial to talk to others that are in different fields of work. The author was talking to his friend ( A Flash Programmer) about the flight of birds. The programmer explained how the bird's wings move and how they appear as they move farther and farther away. I could go into more detail but the main point of the article was to get others perception on things. In the field of design I think it will be benificial to look at the world through other peoples eyes. Not only to look through others eyes but to describe how to look through your eyes. An example of this would be when you are trying to sell an idea to a client, it would be to your advantage to help them to see what your seeing.

Link of the Day:
Thinking with Typography

ZOO

Went to the Zoo in Asheboro Saturday. It was a perfect day for such an event. Keph was excited to see the Warthogs. We stood there forever and then he finally came out. We actually made it through both the North America and the Africa exhibits. I had a lot more fun this time than last. Last time I went with some friends from Eastern Carolina University and it was just too hot. One thing about the zoo is they have a lack of good food to eat there. We ended up having a pic nic in the parking lot, which Keph enjoyed because he chased the Geese around while the rest of us ate.

Lazy Five and the Crazy Little Girl in the Green Shirt.

Today was the Lazy 5 field trip day. I have to say that I am super tired. 1st graders can suck the life out of anything that moves. I had one girl in my group kept trying to take my camera then she tried to get my wallet. She is the one in the green shirt pictured up top. I was tempted to lock her in one of the barns until we were all ready to go. Keph got to feed Giraffes and Buffalos. The weather was really beautiful. I best part of the whole trip was just spending time with Keph. We actually stayed for a couple of hours after the school buses left. Its nice having no agenda to attend to.

We arrived home to check the mail and there Keph found a letter addressed to him! It was a neat little package from Lily. The letters' outter typography was great. Perfect choice. It was really sweet of Lily to take to the time to do that. Kephren was in awe that he actually had something for himself in the mail. Thanks again Lily!

I missed all of my classes today. I wish I could have been there for photography class. I developed my studio shots but havn't had the chance to scan them in.

Tomorrow, we are going to the zoo. hip hip.

Thursday Night Service Job

I had a lovely time today telling and listening to ghost stories at lunch. Gotz me cash flow money from work. Tomorrow Keph and I are going on a field trip to Lazy 5 Ranch. I went to the grocery store and bought us a lot of goodies to pack for our lunch tomorrow.

While I was at work Shmee and Shvic came in for some of my "Easy" service. Turns out that they are actually friends with a good friend of mine. How small the world seems sometimes. Maybe its just in Wilkes, who knows. Any who, they asked her if I used to mack on girls. They never revealed what she said but I will squeeze it out by Tuesday. So as they are leaving, I have some returns that I have to take back and put on the shelf and I freakin' start dropping them all over the place as I'm saying my goodbyes. My manager is two feet in front of me. He was like "looks like you just bought some merchandise."

Playa Playa!

Today I was trying to be nice to a student in our photography class because she always looks lonely. I'm not one to let one be lonely. In doing so, my friends thought I was pulling the moves on her. Which if I had pulled my moves on her, she would have probably thrown up. So now I'm going to have to throw down in an alley to set some people straight. I'm going to watch Rocky I - V tonight to prepare.

Before I offered my friendly greetings to the Red Headed photography student, Lily gave me a present. I'm am so stoked about these rolls of film. The Fuji on the top expired in Feb of 97'. The Kodak expired in Dec of 92'! And the Focal 100 expired Nov of 97'. Thank you so much Lily! I can't wait to see how the rolls turn out.

I also turned in my Box of Mischief book case project. I got some feedback from friends which consited of "You should be shot in the face!" and "You suck!" and "Over achiever!" I've never been told such things and still feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Mischief and Such.

Finished the Box of Mischief. I'm happy with the way it turned out. If I constuct the box about five more times I think I could get it perfect. The bends are tough because you have to compensate for material thickness as well as print thickness.

Yesir.

First official day of fall break. I worked on my Graphic Design II project from 8-11:30. I made a mock up of the childrens book box that I'm doing, it was constructed using matte board. The hardest part was bending the matte board so they it looked the way I wanted.

Matte Board tip #1-> Flip an exacto blade over and score the lines that you want bent. Do this over and over removing some of the material to make it easier to fold.

Matte Board tip #2 -> Place a ruler on the flat area while you fold the other part up. This gives the rest of the piece support while your doing the bending.

Overall it was a great day. Nice weather and lots of loud music while I worked on projects. I also did some loose illustrations but they came out like crap.

Nada...

To start things off, my power supply has died in my desktop. Its a rosewill 450 watt power supply that is only 8 months old. I'm thinking about going with an Antec smartpower 500 watt for my next round. So this is why I'm blogging in bed with my laptop. Makes me mad that I'm on fall break and no desktop. I guess all project work will have to be done on my trusty Mac with my trusty sidekick Mac the English Bulldog.

Tomorrow Renae and I are going to Greensboro for the Design event. D. also told me at work about a Design conference Thursday in Greensboro. If I can get off of work were going to make a trip down there to check it out.

I don't think anyone wants a round house kick to the face while I'm wearing these bad boys.

I turned in my action shots for photography class today. Over fall break I plan on shooting some more action shots because I certainly need practice. The gentleman to the left was an amazing goalie. My shutter speed was too slow, hence the very fuzzy picture. Honestly I was going for a static shot.

One of my favorite photographers currently is Jeremy Cowart. He has a great portfolio. Check it out:

Jeremy Cowart

Also watched the Adam Sandler movie Click tonight. It's funny but also has a lot of real world sadness wrapped up in it.