Fighting back the snow with Business Cards

Christmas time just seems to get busier every year and that is a big reason I have been MIA from posting up here but today here we go.

Diana chose a design and her cards and they are now being made. Hopefully they will come out correctly. I realize that I shouldn't worry as Vista Prints knows what they are doing and I have used them before. But there is something more comforting about going local even if it is more expensive. With going local you have that physical contact with someone in which you can tell them exactly what you want. With online it's fast and cheap but at the same time you run into the issue of how they are going to cut them and sometimes their instructions can be confusing. But since I doubt Diana wants to pay big bucks to go local I will trust in Vista Prints for now. So here is the final product:Since I have been doing business cards for people lately it only seemed right that I get my butt in gear and get my own printed out. I think I have been planning my business cards for at least 2 years now and everytime I come back to it I end up changing the design. This time I'm going to just pick one and print it. I figure if down the line I end up wanting something different I can always print something else off. So here those choices are. Not sure what I want yet and I'm passing them around to my other art friends because I have been looking at this too much.

A new food group and movie tawdriness

This is going to be a bit of a short entry as right now I am claiming Theraflu as a food group. A few key points seems to be a good way to work this entry.

• The Logo I designed for Diana is now on her website at Sweet D's Tag Boutique. Which I am so incredibly proud of even if I moaned and groaned about it I really do love the end product.

• The business cards are going really well and I really do like the ones I've come up with. Right now it's color choice time and here is the proof sheet for those color selections. Hmmm...I thought there was more. Oh well that seems to be it and now to return to warmth of the blankets and Zombie Strippers. I'm starting to be concerned that all the movies I watch lately sound tawdry. Lesbian Vampire Killers, Zombie Strippers, Suck...seriously they aren't like that just really funny. Plus Suck has Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Alex Lifeson, and Alic Copper in it. Honestly there is no way you can go wrong with that kind of line up. Ok now I'm just rambling so I'm going to go.

Here's to the memories both good and bad.

The business cards I am trying to make are kicking my butt. I've come to the conclusion that I am just out of my comfort zone with this. It's not the the aspect of the dog that is throwing me it's just that I don't do cute well. For me I think cute is either all the way with pink frills and swirls or just no cute at all. There is no happy medium that my mind can go to with this.

I thought around noon that maybe if I work on something else I could clear my mind and come back to it fresh. This turned into a six hour study in procrastination. Although it was more of a productive method of procrastination since I actually did take those six hours and make something I have had in my head for a week now.

You know how there are certain albums that the moment one song on them starts to play you get flooded with memories some good and some bad? The album …And Out Come the Wolves came up on my Ipod last week and all of a sudden I started to remember. Pretty much any album produced between 95 - 97 will just start to make me remember wonderful things and this one is no exception.

I'm 27 now and I don't think that in my entire life I was as happy as I was during those years when Sam schooled me in all things music. 95' was the first time I saw a concert, the first time I danced like an idiot with a bunch of other idiots, and it was around that time that I heard Ruby Soho. I remember belting those lyrics out with Sam over and over again till I'm sure we annoyed more then one of our parents. It's been 10 years now that she died and even though I don't feel completely hollow anymore I do get a twinge in my heart when music like this comes on.

So here's to the memories both good and bad. To all the inside jokes and to the person who made me understand and love music.

Bags, Monsters, and evening Models.

Finally one of the Christmas projects at work turned out perfectly. There were no problems sublimating, the colors came out just as I wanted them too and it looks freaking awesome.

I have spent the better part of the week stressing over these Christmas gifts that the office is doing and I have been a real monster to be around I'm fairly sure. For that I'm sure there are going to be some apologies made on Monday on my part. But finally something turns out right and I'm so proud of it.

There is now going to be some kid out there walking around with that bag that I designed and made. That right there fills me with so much pride. It's such a small thing I realize but I always get geeked when something I made even as small and trivial as this is going to go out into the world and given as a gift to someone else. It's the small moments like this that make me grateful that I am an artist.

My model of the evening Sharon

Throwing up pastels and other horrible ideas.

Ever get that feeling that no matter how hard you work at something it just isn't right? You sit there pouring over it trying to correct this or adjust that and still when you sit back, take a break, and possibly play hair dress up in the mirror for 15 minutes because you figure this is something that has to be addressed now, that you still aren't getting it right. I feel like that right now.

I have been trying to convince myself that this dog logo thing is right. That the business cards will look amazing but when it comes down to it, I just don't do cute. I can fake it well I believe and make you think it's cute but really it's just me throwing up pastels onto the page.

Maybe that's the key to being a great Graphic Designer is just convincing the people around you that you are the most amazing thing since sliced bread and giving them what you want to see not what they want. Or I could just being talking out of my ass, both of these might be true.

Tomorrow is Friday and I will be working exclusivly on my stuff. I tried to take a break from the dog stuff and work on it earlier which was a poor idea considering I'm just fustrated and when I get like that my work suffers. So instead of pictures of what I'm working on here is something from back in the day when things just seemed easier.

MOMA Shopping bag template Front


MOMA Shopping bag template Back

Falling asleep to Minor Threat

I want to put something on here before I succumb to sleep completely. Ever since Saturday I have been going to sleep any where from 2am - 4am. This was managed by coffee quite effectively for the first part of the week but I believe I have hit my wall. Currently I have my "oh dear god stay awake" playlist going on Itunes. I usually only bring out this playlist when I am attempting to drive long distances and not even remotely coherent to be on the road. It features such artists as Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys, The Germs, and much more in that particular vein. of music styling. I have been listening to this since I got off work and although this is some of my favorite music I find myself nodding off. If you know any of those bands this is really quiet a thing to do especially while listening to Minor Threat. I closed my eyes during "Screaming At A Wall" that is just so hard to do when it is blasting out of the speakers.

With all that said I think the Sweet D Logo is done. Diana realized today that maybe we should put a collar and a tag on the dog considering she is selling dog tags. That right there is just really sad and I must say I'm a bit disappointed in myself because usually I catch that stuff but I am going to say it's due to sleep deprivation and leave it at that.

So here is the logo and tomorrow I will start on the business cards and for the better part of the weekend I am going to spend working on my stuff. But for now I am going to go turn off all the lights in my bedroom, open the blinds and stare at the snow till I go to sleep.
P.S. I'm still not thrilled with the dog but I like me some Edwardian font so a 50/50 on this isn't too bad.

The Amorphous Blob I call a Dog.

Every once in awhile it does happen. You start a job completely jazzed about what you are about to do. You tell yourself "I'm going to knock this one out of the park I'm going to make this look amazing." Then you realize something, a small thing you didn't consider, you suck at drawing dogs. Now maybe for you it isn't dogs maybe it's hands or eyes or something really very difficult. For me my Achilles heel has always been dogs. For some reason my brain does not wish to process what a dog looks like and sees it more as a amorphous blob with ears and a brown spot. This of course makes it very diffucult when you work for someone who runs an online dog tag business and is paying you to create the logo.

Recently my former employer Monica who ran Barnyard Tags sold the business to her sister Diana who is renaming the business Sweet D's Tag Boutique and with the new change wanted a new logo. I was so excited to do this because lets face it I'm a sucker for people starting out new business and I love when I can be a part of that and give them the look that they are going for. When I said yes the idea of drawing dogs did not cross my mind. I realize it should have considering she sells dog tags but it didn't and I ended up having to draw a dog.

Strangely enough the dog actually did come out looking like a dog versus the amorphous blob with ears mentioned earlier but I'm still not happy with it. I realize that like every artist out there I pick at my work. I sit in my chair and stare at the computer trying to figure out how to change it, how to make it look better, how to make the text look like the dog didn't poop green letters. And I pick over and over again I pick at it till I want to fall on the floor and writhe around like I did when I was 3 and was forced to take a nap.

I'm still not thrilled with the outcome of it but Diana loves it she thinks it is so cute and exactly what she wanted. At this point I have to just tell my inner whiny picky child that you did create something good and that in the end money talks and when the customer is happy so is my bank account.

With that I am going to go and start work on another of the many projects I can't say no to. I wish this post was more about what I'm personally working on but paying customers come first because they keep me in mac and cheese and ramen. For any of you out there that read this yes you 3 people, if you are feeling generous or just down right board please take a look at the logos and any helpful criticism is welcome.

1st Day

So it's sort of the first day of my attempt at finishing one of my own projects. I am committed to doing this but I also have a paying job that has to be done by tomorrow and since I spent the Holidays without my computer I'm doing it all tonight. This of course puts a bit of a crimp in the whole "working on my own stuff thing." But I have decided on what I'm going to work on which is the last project I was working on before I became so busy.

About 4 months or so ago my Mac that I have had since I was 18, named Glitter Baby (named so based on my belief that all computers are Drag Queen drama mongers), refused to turn on. This had happened before and usually when I set him in front of the air conditioner and left him off over night he was fine the next day. This was not the case though since he refused to turn on. He was sent down to Dan the computer guy and he gave me the bad news that he was busted. My baby died and while waiting for my new baby to come in I was left without a computer, internet and basically my drug of choice. Instead of going a bit stir crazy like the last time the computer broke I decided to go feed my other drug habit which is that of Copic markers. I marched myself down to T-Square spent a good 30-45 mins. picking out 4 Copic markers. This process takes time you have to test them out and see if they are the right fit for you and since I was on a gray color kick you can imagine that picking out the right gray did take some time. I eventually ended up with Cadmium Red, Neutral Gray No.8, Black, and a Colorless Blender and while expensive was completely worth it.

Now that I had the colors I had to come up with an idea. At the time I was going through my computer loss I was reading a lot of books that I had started and never finished and noticed that every single one was marked with bits of paper or post-its where I left off. Somewhere in my apartment I have a stash of really nice bookmarks but I have no idea where that is and I figured looking for said bookmarks would only cause me to tear my room up so instead I decided to create my own and with that my own book store.

I haven't attempted something like this since college when you would create an entire business and do their whole look. So I created Rainy Day Books located in New York. I wanted it to be simple and sleek and of course come in gray. So here are the first two attempts at logo designs.So far I'm leaning towards expanding on the second one but I still do like that bit of red in the middle of the first one. But here you have it hopefully the beginning of something usable for my portfolio and now back to working for money and listening to Rancid's …And Out Come the Wolves Album which I'm happy to say is quite possibly annoying the redneck who wanted to feed the the stray cat anti-freeze. It's the little things that make me smile.

Frustration

I know that I should always be happy when I have paying projects to work on. I know that I should look at them as padding for my portfolio and money towards a new car. But right now I have four projects in the works and I have to say it's just burning me out. I should just learn to say no or to be more accurate let them know that my services are available but there is a queue and I would be more then happy to create something amazing for you but it might not happen for a while. This never happens of course because I think I can take it all on and then find myself either sick or screaming into a pillow.

This isn't where the frustration comes in though, because at some point between the sickness and the screaming pillow moments I realize that although I might have taken on too many jobs the fact is that there are four people out there willing to pay me to create something for them. There are four people out there that looked at my stuff and said "I love it and I want something of my own from you." The frustration comes from the fact that it has been at least 3 or 4 months since I have worked on anything that is truly mine and mine alone.

It has been keeping me up at nights having ideas in black and white with red in the middle. Wanting to just sketch these things to get them out of my head. To plop myself down throw on Philadelphia Grand Jury and zone out into that little piece of heaven. But when I get home I find myself throwing little artist hissy fits knowing that I need to work on the paying stuff but also dreading it because it's not filling up that little part of me that art projects usually fill up.
So in an attempt to fill up that part of me I'm going to attempt to create a little challenge for myself. The idea is to work on one of my projects in conjunction with the others. To have a one month deadline starting on the 28th of this month because that's when I will be back home from the holidays and have access to my computer again. I'm going to give it till December 31st right before the New Year to finish it and post it up here and hopefully in the meantime post on my progress with it as well. My hope with this project is that it will make me stop feeling so down and out of it when it comes to art. Because I do get to that point when working on projects that aren't my own where I want to throw up my hands and say screw it I'm going to go watch TV instead and I slowly start to hate my art and myself. I really would like to not get to that point and get past it and I want this to be the way I do that.

It's a bit strange the way this all came about. In a way it was my idea and in a way it really wasn't. So many years ago someone from my Russian History class recommended I read a blog that was on live journal. They suggested I check it out after comments were made outside of class about a certain part in Russian history that I won't repeat here. They steered me to this blog and one story in particular to get my interest peaked. It was about, what can only be described as by far the most shady booty call ever. They said I would either laugh so hard I would cry or I throw up depending on my choice of humor. Although it was a bit sick I ended up laughing so hard I did cry. After that I wanted more but it turned out that not everything on there was shady and torrid but actually smart and insightful. It ended up being about this guy who dropped his nice paying job to write books and tour and possibly become homeless. I found myself obsessed with stalking this blog and reading it everyday just to hear him rant. In the beginning I did just want to hear shady hook up stories because it was a major guilty pleasure but the other stuff he wrote about, life and just being a part of it that hit a chord somewhere. Eventually I did stop reading it due to switching to a different college and just forgetting about it all together like only a true A.D.D. person can.

But last week when I was sick and laying in my bed reading stuff on my phone I thought about that blog again and was overwhelmed with curiosity to see if this guy was still around if he actually followed through with anything that he would rant about. Turns out he is and I spent the better part of the day falling in and out of sleep reading his blog. I couldn't believe how far he came from when I first started reading this to the present. There's a bit more sadness in the rants then I remember but he's still there and still ranting to people about living their life. So my thinking was if this guy could do all this and still be around still be ranting and raving then I should be able to turn out one simple art project in a month. My ambitions are low but I figure it's at least a step in the right direction.

Thus begins the experiment to see what I come up with. And if you are feeling overwhemed with curiosity about that blog I would recomend reading about Christopher Gutierrez and maybe getting a little something out of it.

New Job!

I'm going to ignore the fact that I haven't posted anything on this blog for what seems like forever and just dive right into what I am currently working on.

Due to the amazing talents of Liz to procure me design jobs I was introduced to Kathy who is starting up a new business called The Well-Mannered Dog Center. It's only in the beginning stages of getting off the ground but the general idea is to create a large facility for training, grooming, kenneling, and so much more for your dogs. This project is rather large considering Grand Rapids had absolutely nothing like this here on the scale she is looking to build. With this huge endeavor on her part comes an even bigger endeavor for myself, to create an entire look for a new business. I have to admit it was a bit daunting at first considering I have never done anything on such a large scale or for such a high profile customer. So far the logo design has be chosen and business cards are in the works to being made.These are at the printers right now and even though I have faith they will produce them correctly I still have moments of fear when I wake up in the middle of the night hoping they understand what full bleed means. The next phase of this job will be starting to create the brochures which hopefully can be done in the next week or so.

Artist's Block

While up till 1 am last night trying to figure out how to set up the guest section of the JAFAX program layout I finally had to utter two words every artist hates to say "Artist's Block." You spend so much time with this upward momentum thinking everything is going perfect that everyone loves your designs and then it strikes like a disease ravaging your mind till all you can do is blankly stare at the computer screen wishing Photoshop would magically start working by itself. I would like to say that I woke up this morning completely cleared of all blockage but I am still having issues with dead space, proportions, and just general dislike of the overall layout. With all that said here is what I have so far and my hope is that putting it out into the void of the internet might release the last remnant of the block. Either that or drive me completely insane.

JAFAX Program Revisited

I got my feedback from the JAFAX crew on my layout and the overall consensus was that it was wonderful with only minor changes to the margins so that more information could be fit on the pages. I must say for not really having any guidelines for this project other then to "have fun" and the only issue was the margins I have to say I'm rather pleased.

JAFAX Program

A few months back I was roped into creating the program layouts for a local anime convention called JAFAX, and if you know Liz then you realize that there was actual rope involved. After many horrible sketches that landed themselves in a corner of my aparment I believe I have a rough mock up of what will be used for the event.

The Mock up was created completely in PhotoshopCS2 but the final program will have all the text layout done in IndesignCS2 with all the graphics imported in. So far I'm relatively happy with it but I know if I stare at it long enough I will pick at it and change something but for now I'm going to kick my feet up and finish watching The Tattooist.

Relization

Maybe setting up this Blogger profile just to help out a friend design their own Blogger profile was not such a great idea in hindsight.