life is a work in progress; see it from behind the scenes

Délateur

I'm turning in my bottle series project tomorrow, and I've taken a couple of camera phone shots of it. I've got to pick up my camera from my parents' house to step up the quality here in a while...

The project was to create a pair of bottles for some product. I did a vodka/tonic brand called "Délateur" which in French means 'canary' in the sense of a tattle tale (according to my favorite dictionary). The company name ties into the design of the piece with a canary yellow color for the type, pattern, and the inside of the label (visible through the bottle), and the name also connects with the product, in the fact that the more you drink, the more you're likely to tell...

So, here's the pair and a crappy detail shot of the labels.

Into the Wild

SO, Netflix made even better on our relationship by shipping Into the Wild so that it would get here on the day it is released. Sweet.

It was all around good movie, but my friend Maria was kind to warn that if you know anything about graphic design, you have to work hard to ignore the terrible titling throughout the movie. I knew the overall storyline but didn't know too much about the details that get you to the end. It was pretty interesting how the previews had taken pieces of the movie totally out of order to put together their hook. (I watched the preview enough times to remember parts of it in anticipation of getting it from Netflix)

The experiences of the main character Chris demonstrate his rejection of mainstream society, suburban dreams, and the resulting more pure existence he was able to achieve. I was drawn into this notion, agreeing that the suburban dreams are not my own, but rather than seeking something in wilderness, I am running the complete opposite direction, towards the city, towards a world in which civilization peaks.

I've been thinking a lot today about how interesting it is for a medical doctor to be able to have any interest in art. I imagine they see life from such a biological standpoint, so much about what goes on inside the body, and artists are concerned with the ephemeral, the non-tangibles of life. I cannot fathom being able to do surgery on a person, forcefully fighting with someone's physical body to correct a problem. And in that same thought, I am at a loss to understand how someone so in tune with biology is interested in anything philosophical. I definitely recognize that countless doctors are very interested in the arts beyond emotional aesthetics, but it is a giant mental divide for me to comprehend; I see life defined by ideas, creativity, interaction, whereas a biologist sees the world as physicality and survival.

The movie's not about art, so don't expect that. Just a departure point for my thoughts...

New Space

In trying to get everything ready for the big move, I have to get a lot of designing done in the next two months. So, today I created a new space for myself, with a desk that doesn't face the wall for a change, but rather sticks out into my room and takes up half the space in there. I have a great 6' window to my right, a little hatch show print up on the wall, and a bulliten board of work & inspiration in front of me.

Camera phone pic isn't the best, but probably worth something...

BANKSY

The UK has this great street artist named Banksy whose identity has never been revealed... He's pretty incredible and is a really prolific artist. While some people call it vandalism, others find his street art more than grafitti; some towns have even voted in the past on whether or not to keep his work as an installation of art for the public's enjoyment.

He's very poignant in his social commentary, has a great sense of humor, and is quite the talented stencil artist.

Anyways, I saw a great little project called Little People on an interesting design blog, and then clicked over to 'other street art', on which I found the large image below.

The background references a Banksy piece in which a man (presumably Banksy himself) is smashing some flowers. If I can find a link to the original piece I'll be sure to post it here...

Come to the Cross

This is the rave card concept for Shandon's annual pre-Easter modern worship event. The mood for the event is somber, introspective, and almost dark (as reflected in this concept) rather than typical bright Easter colors.

*The cards are cut to bleed, but I love the black stripe hanging over on the comp sheet.

March of Dimes

This was a 2 hour project for an actual client, the SC National Guard's March of Dimes. This is a 3 color screenprint for the back of their T-shirts.

UPDATE:

My design is one of the two finalists for the actual shirt. Wouldn't hurt my feelings to have it as a pro-bono client in the ol' portfolio...

Funday Sunday Logo

This is a logo for my church's funday sunday, a carnival-type of event targetting children & young families. They asked for something very 'fun' and kiddy. It's definitely not my style, but I'm pleased with what what came out of the process.

Wal-Mart, in costume

This is late to write about, but I was just going through pictures from Shandon's Monster Bowl (October 28), where I dressed up as a sketchy repair man in a wig, some Dickies coveralls, and some dirt I rubbed all over my face and arms in the parking lot (actually brake dust off my tires--not the healthiest choice).

The event was a success, and afterwards I went out to Yesterday's with Anna, Meagan, Josh, and Neal. Our waitress didn't recognize that we were dressed up, I'm pretty sure, which meant we looked like a mighty fine mess. Anna was Beth Moore, so she had her hair sprayed up HUGE; Meagan was an iPod or something, so she had on all black and a white apple sticker on her shirt, which the waitress commented that she really liked...

Later on in the night/early morning Meagan and I headed to Wal-mart to buy hot chocolate for Tracy D. and Jess who were camping out in line for Josh and my Clemson tickets.

GARNER'S FERRY WAL-MART:
Meagan changed into PJ's but I was still wearing my coveralls and I still have some of the dirt smudged on my face. While we were looking for hot chocolate, I decided to buy some Tea like my mom had kept at our house, a French Vanilla Lipton tea (which is great by the way).

It was probably 2 in the morning at this point, and they're in the middle of restocking all the food in the store. I had told Meagan what I was looking for and neither of us could find it. The guy working on our aisle came over and tried to find it, and called over the aisle to 2 other people to find out if they had it. I wasn't even asking for it really, and we went away after he said they didn't have it.

After the food section, we'd gone to camping and picked up a cooler jug to put the hot chocolate in, and we were picking out candles all the way across the store, when the guy working in the tea aisle came down the aisle and found us with the tea we'd been looking for. We're pretty sure they saw us and thought that we were a young married couple and that I had some kind of shop job and just got home super late, and took my wife to the store to get some stuff.

It made me feel very out of place, but also strangely like I stuck out less (than loud college students) at late night Wal-Mart...

School is Back

I should have been keeping up with this a lot better, but surprisingly once you're back in a world that lives on technology, the luxury of time to enjoy being online is gone, and time on the Internet becomes a lot less precious, much more about work or something frivilous, another distraction from the day or task to do than a release from the day.

I bought a Moleskine yesterday and a gigantic sketchbook. I'm hoping going lo-tech can help some too.

I've started reading Atlas Shrugged, but I haven't read it or anything for a while now...I'm about to read it some after I get done here. The other night I put together a list of over 50 things I want do do before 25 or 30...one of them is to finish a book over 1000 pages.

I'll put some more of them up here soon.

My new house is great. It's like nothing I've ever had before. I've never lived somewhere that everyone comes to hang out. more stories to follow in time

New toys since the last post:
1.New Computer--Macbook Pro
2.New Phone--MOTOKRZR (still waiting for that one to come in)
3.New Glasses--(can you say VERSACE?)

MORE PICTURES

I finally got some more pictures up, they're on FLICKR

here.

I'll have better descriptions soon...