None of my business

So Leslo are gaying in public, good job, convert one for the home team. I think its funny that people are surprised that Mantha doesn't dj gay venues....if I was important and perform I wouldn't do gay venues either. I have no problems with homos, but when you start doing gay venues when you are gay then you get pigeon holed. People are not open minded enough to understand that gay people sometimes do not want to be associated with all things gay. Being a mo is not first on her list of identity traits. She is a dj that happens to be a mo and not a mo that happens to be a dj. The day that people stop turning gayness into the pink elephant in the room is the day everyone will come out of closet.
And it seems right now it is more marketable to be gay because everyone is coming out. Difficult economic times call for deperate measure.
Maybe I should name my greeting cards HOMO greetings.

seasons fleetings

So I am in the midst of the push to finish. Of course I have decided to begin other important projects such as greeting cards. It started with my father asking for a seasons greetings card to send out to all his closest associates...all 100 of them. I finished it and thought how great would it be to do a series of them to sell on Etsy and then I thought I could take them up to NY as things employers could take away from our review. So now I am going to knee deep in december holiday cards and its not even Halloween yet.

wann fly away

The gas stations around our area are closed or don't have any unleaded gas and I am worried it is going to get worse before we drive to NY. This of course is the thing I think about as we try to fill out out 10 page apartment application.
I keep saying I will relax and stop worrying about things when certain things get done, but I always find something new to put me back in a state of anxiety. First it was getting my work done, then it was finding an apartment in NY, now its the application, and after that is all done, its going to be having enough money to make it to NY, and I am sure after that it will be finding a job...let alone a job that will allow me to live, save money, and pay off my loans. I am thinking of moving to the woods...whose with me?
On a good note:
I had my photo shoot this weekend and it went really well. Jorge Menes, a friend, and wonderful photographer shot my design work and I have a feeling it is going to be an amazing book based on his skills and art direction as much as my work.
The only issue I have with being done with the shooting bit is now I have to wait and waiting makes me feel aimless and moneyless. I feel so lazy when I am not working. Its not that I have time for work right now anyway, but I have enough free time to feel like I am being lazy.

Leggo my Logo

Blarg

Client and designer relationships. In school we learn to design and make the design that fits the design brief. The first step is to figure out the target audience, design a mark (if you are designing a logo mark and not a word mark. Example: logo mark- the Target logo and a word mark-IKEA), and then find a type face that goes with the mark. (A type face is what people usually call a font. The font is actually the different styles within a face. So, a font family is all the different weights of a type face. Helvetica is a type face and Helvetica bold is a font.) In real life a client will try to rearrange the order of these elements. You can design a mark and find a face and then the client decides the face for the word is not what they want. The issue with this of course is you find a face they like and it might completely oppose the logo mark. Are you still with me?
Here is the case in point. The first logo below is the one I came up with with a face that really works with the mark. The color is blue (there is a little grey and maybe some red, but it never shows up when I save things for web. It fulfilled the mission.



This is what the client wanted b/c its younger and more hip. The client wanted the word to be bigger than the mark. This usually is not the case. Yes this logo below feels funky, and I was able to make the mark fit with the type. I am not unhappy with the clients decision, but it was not where I wanted to go. I think when you think PR you think professional.



Conclusion: You cant always get what you want, but hopefully you will get paid anyway. And remember you can put whatever you want in your portfolio not what the client chose. Also, don't be a Kinley from project runway...clients do not like to be belittled even when they have no taste and are wrong....they are the one's footing the bill.

dingle bells

Its coming! The end is near and with the end will come a website...ooh...aaah. More on that in a while. In the mean time here is the holiday card I made for my father. I will be printing 100 for this holiday season. I cannot wait until I get paid to do this stuff....economy willing.

the quality of quanity

An oldie but goodie. This was one of the first pieces I did in a style that I felt was mine. I had to go through all my illustrations and decide which are going into my final illustration portfolio and this one made the cut. I have what looks to be 30 pieces that are good enough to make the first cut. I plan to cut it down to 15 or 20, but really 20 is the limit. Its an odd thing to look through two years of work and have to make such big decisions. I am glad I have been prolific though b/c out of over 200 illustrations there are only 30 good enough to even be considered. I cannot wait until this is over and I can stop dissecting my work every day. I have not painted in 3 months and it makes me sad.