Button Concept: I heart smart.
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I scribbled this down ages ago and it’s far too awesome of a concept that no one has thought of it already. But I googled and I googled and it doesn’t seem to have been done before! So I whipped it up in Illustrator and you see the results above.
I thought it might work as a 1″ button. Would you wear it? Would you buy it? Would you look at it on a con table, smile at it’s cuteness and walk away? I’ll have some done up for APE if I still like it in the morning. But the yellow might need to change to something else, not sure if it’s working for me. What colour compliments brains?
A Special PSA to my fellow Canadians
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
It’s hard picking colours for this kind of thing. There’s so many political parties up here, they’ve nabbed all the colours!
Question: Do you vote for your local constituent or for the party itself?
Personally, I vote for the party itself and their policies, I don’t even know who’s running in my area! Maybe I’m doing it wrong.
Business Card Design
Monday, October 13th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
After a lot of back and forth and numerous redesigns, I think I’ve come up with a business card. A nice and clean design on the front with minimal wording and some experimental design. But on the back things are a bit messier, a behind the scenes feel with sketches and some finished work in the grey area being pulled into the clean area that is the House of Scott.
I was pleasantly surprised how well some of the scans fit into the concept. Nothing was drawn specifically for the card, they’re all old sketches and designs I found in a single sketchbook! The only thing I might look into is rounding the corners during printing.
I’ve also been really interested in the potential of QR Codes lately and thought it would be interesting to try and work them into the design. After playing around with them I have to admit they’re tough to design with! Needing high contrast to be read by a camera, you can’t change their colours or ghost them out to bring a background through. No partial cropping or distortion either.
I have no idea what kind of minimum size they need to be to be read but I’m hoping a half inch will be all right. I can’t even check since my cell phone is so old and crappy I can’t even download a reader for it to confirm that they work! I guess that’s the price that needs to be paid to push the boundaries and limits of design.
I could use your input on the design, let me know if you like, or what you think isn’t working. Let me know what you think.
New Shoes! Blackspot V1 Red
Thursday, October 9th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
As you can see my classic V1’s were getting pretty ratty. Eyelets were popping loose, big ol’ crack on the bottom, faded hemp, fraying laces. It was certainly time for a new pair so I didn’t look homeless at work. So I got a red pair! Still breaking them in, hopefully my feet won’t bleed like the old pair did when I broke those in. The things I do for ethical fashion.
A little about the shoe: the fabric is hemp, no sweatshops were involved in the process of manufacturing, the logo is hand painted on (but it’s just a big circle) and they’re pretty bad ass. The whole concept of the shoe itself is to go up against the footware giants to prove that an ethically designed shoe can be successful and profitable in today’s market and to steal a little thunder from those exploiting populations in poorer countries and neighbourhoods and use processes that are harmful to the environment.
John Fluevog was even commissioned to design a style. Honestly though, I’d be hesitant to order another pair of the Unswoosher since the top seam on both shoes almost immediately split upon purchase. Plus they don’t have much support and hurt my flat feet if I’m on them for hours on end. But I bought them when the style was new and the manufacturing process was probably still being developed. I still have them and wear them but it took a lot of scrubbing to get the faux dirt out of them. I’ve read since then they’ve ditched the faux dirt look since it was largely hated and hopefully they’ve tightened up their manufacturing standards. There may be a replacement pair in my future yet.
Designing for the worst of clients: myself
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Legend has it that the Pope once dispatched a courier asking Giotto di Bondone to submit a drawing proving his worth as an artist. In response, Giotto took a brush and with some red paint drew a perfect circle which he sent to the Pope.
In every field there seems to be some hallmark, a rite of passage in which, if achieved, that practioner proves his worth. And for a Designer, that perfect circle is successfully designing for themselves. I don’t think I’ve ever met a designer that’s every been truly happy with their own logo, their website, stationary, demo reel etc. Others may see it as spectacular, but the designer only sees what could be better.
I’m finally getting around to designing some business cards and the logo to go on them. We’ll see if I like this one for more than a day. I’m pretty happy with it right now. But to save space, I’ll continue blathering under the cut.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, I’ll dream of you tonight.
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
The above is a scaled down frame capture nabbed from a video taken with the new Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Go watch it first and then come back. Back? Good. Impressive wasn’t it? The remarkable thing about it, the thing that really blew me away, was the camera isn’t a video camera, it’s a digital SLR (single lense reflex) camera. I’ll blather on some more after the cut.
Comix & Stories Con Report
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Sadly, I always forget to take pictures whenever I go out, but I took one of the swag I got. Comix & Stories was a good time. While the Vancouver Art Gallery is a great old building, it’s not the best for a con. Situated on the first, third and fourth floors, the wayfinding was horrible until Don King (who I can’t find a website for!) reportedly took things into his own hands. But there were a lot of people drifting through and it eventually got hot and sweaty wherever you went. I sold a few handfuls of the mini/button and sold a few anthologies. Plus I got to talk to some fine folk.
Texty report with many links after the cut.
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- Kinda bagged this afternoon. Could really use a nap but there's family stuff to be done after work.
- Busy day of visiting my new niece and going to a launch party for a book I'm in. I'm beat.
- Got the call this morning: I'm an Uncle! Welcome to life Claire.