back to the grind...and this blog

Okay, I've been seriously slacking on this blog, so with school starting back up it's time to get my ass in gear again. I'm taking Visual and Verbal Rhetoric. The first class went well. The work doesn't seem too heavy (of course now it will wind up that way since I said that) and we got out early, so that put a smile on my face. The class is geared toward the analysis of writing more than actually designing anything, so the fact that i still have some freelance stuff going on should satisfy my appetite for design this semester.

Football!!
I can't even tell you how stoked I am for football this season. I realize my Redskins will probably need a year or two under Zorn to get his offense down (my one buddy predicted 3-6 wins this year), but I love the fall weather and football season, so I'm excited nonetheless.
We had our fantasy draft on Saturday night. I drafted 12th out of 12 teams for the second year in a row, so that blew, but I did keep Adrian Petersen from the prior year, so that helped my first round outlook. With the snaking draft board, it just sucks picking 12, 13, and then having 22 picks between your next two selections. My team looks like this:

We start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 D, and 1 K.

Drew Brees
Jeff Garcia
Adrian Petersen (keeper)
Jamal Lewis
Edgerrin James
Chris Johnson
Jerious Norwood
Wes Welker
Jerricho Cotchery
Donald Driver
Vincent Jackson
Reggie Williams
Owen Daniels
Ben Watson
Arizona D
Jeff Reed

One thing about my league that I can't fucking stand...guys who draft a few spots before me are always like, "is so-and-so available??", and then they don't pick that guy...who happens to be someone I am eyeing up to draft. That shit is just wrong. First and foremost because now they gave the other idiots ahead of me an idea of who to pick, and second of all because they should be paying attention!! As commissioner, i may have to make some sort of "idiot rule" for next year, or have my IT buddy build a program to show the players who are still available.

...and lastly

I'll try to blog more this semester than what I have been this summer. Of course if I didn't do another one until December, that would still be more, but you catch my drift.

projects; this and that

Projects:
I've been keeping busy this summer without taking classes. I've officially had 3 freelance projects I've been working on, with 2 more on the horizon before the Fall. I'm certainly getting my fill of brochures. Out of the 5 projects, 3 of them are for brochures. The project I'm currently working on is for the Moms Club of Bel Air and their 2nd annual vendor fair to benefit the Casey Cares Foundation (benefits critically ill children). It involves 3 pieces: flyer, brochure, and bookmark. I almost have the flyer finished and just got a great idea for the other pieces last night. Everything is based off of this great image I found of a child opening a holiday gift. Next up is a revision of a shitty....yep, you guessed it...brochure. Practice makes perfect...I just have to find out the best way/printer to get the duplex so the sides match up.

This and That:

1. I just had a revelation this morning that my life will be busy for the next 18 years at least. I guess I always have in the back of my mind that I just need to get through the day so that tomorrow I can relax. Shit...with two kids, projects, home fix-ups, and all the other crap that goes on in life...that's a pipe dream, but I wouldn't trade being busy for the world. I do think it is valuable to stop and smell the roses before I turn around at 50 and wonder where the time went.
2. Kind of related to above, but every once in awhile I get a serious yearn to head out with friends for a few drinks. Once I'm out, I miss my boys at home and get a serious yearn to be home with them. Grass is always greener...never truer words spoken.
3. I'm so looking forward to Fantasy Football this year. Bout time I reclaimed my throne.
4. HAIL TO THE REDSKINS!!!!!
5. I think that the O's need to convert Adam Loewen to a 1st basemen after his latest arm injury. Look, the guy could have been drafted as a hitter or pitcher (ala Nick Markakis) and has said in the past that he likes playing in national league parks because he gets to hit. This is definitely a stretch, and not to say that he'd be another Rick Ankiel, but the guy is big, he's left-handed, and this might be a way for the O's to get a great return on his big contract and for him to save his career. It certainly wouldn't hurt to give the guy some at bats in the minors on his way back from this arm injury. The guy was a great power hitter prior to being drafted...let's see what he has and improve our position-player depth!

logos

Definitely too long since I've posted something, so here are a few images of some logos I was playing around with for a friend's auto-shop:

soccer brochure

Unfortunately I cannot upload my jpeg images because of an internal error. WTF!!!!! Why can't thie damn thing just...um...WORK!!!?

Any suggestions on how to get the images on there? I tried saving as something else, I tried sending to work and uploading from there and either I'm a complete fucking retard, or this damn thing just doesn't like me. :)

SHIT

this and that

I've been really bad about maintaining the blog the last two weeks or so. My apologies to my wide fan base. I have some recent pieces to add to this, but I always forget to follow up on that when I get home at night.

Currently waiting to hear back on a job interview I had. I feel like it went pretty well. The interview was supposed to be 30-45 minutes and it wound up being and hour and 45 minutes. I guess that's a good sign. We'll see ...

Could a "MacGyver" considered an occupation? I mean, I always hear people who pull a MacGyver, so why couldn't that be an occupation? Like if I made a business card, I could put:

Chris Bland
Maverick, Innovator, MacGyver

Even though it's a proper name, the word does indicate a high level of resourcefulness and being able to work with limited tools to accomplish great goals...in some cases this may mean diffusing nuclear warheads with a pack of matches and a staple gun. Thoughts are welcome on this matter.

freelance projects

I have stumbled upon my first 2 freelance projects of the summer. One is a brochure for a soccer camp that started out as a mockery of all that is good in design. This was created by a non-designer who happens to be the husband of this girl I work with. They didn't ask for me to redo it, but i told them i'm going to show them what it should/could look like and basically do it pro bono in case they want me for a later project or can refer me to friends.

The second project, and one that could potentially be quite exciting is for this vendor fair for the Mom's Club of Bel Air, to which my wife belongs. The vendor fair they held last year kind of bombed, so this year they have a sparkplug in charge who has a ton of sponsors lined up, including possible sponsorship by the O's and Ravens. She has promised some great exposure for me and with the sponsors she has, this looks promising. At any rate, the project consists of a brochure and flyer, and they want me to present them with a couple of design ideas based on the concepts they want to incorporate. This will be somewhat daunting as they have a few ideas that all need to be incorporated, namely the charity they are donating to, holiday shopping, and a mom's night out. I have some great concepts already though...stay tuned for those postings!

free at last

This was the first Monday morning I can remember in a long time where I felt rejuvenated and stress-free. Not that I don't have things to occupy my time now that class is over, but being deadline-free is certainly a wonderful thing. My plans for this summer (in no particular order)include:
1. spending time with my boys
2. losing the weight I gained during my wife's pregnancy.
3. redoing my resume/portfolio/looking for a design job
4. yard work/landscaping my backyard
5. reorganizing our basement
6. softball!! :)
7. golf
8. start freelancing

final process

I couldn't get my jpg images to upload for my final process...not sure what the hell is going on. So. I did the next best thing and included two images that I used for the revised booklet. I went back and forth on the design...so much for the easy week. I'm enjoying a Miller Lite now, and I can safely say I'm done. Not certain I'm satisfied with the final process booklet, but I'm done regardless...stick a fork in me. Time to throw myself at the mercy of the crit and see what grade I get for the semester. Hard to believe the stress will be officially over tomorrow. Finally hitting dinner with the wife tomorrow night...which reminds me, if anyone wants to switch time slots for the individual session, I'd be much obliged.

process re-revision

I'm not going with those organic lines mentioned in my last BLOG after all. They are too distracting and random. I'll post the pages as soon as i figure out which way I want to go with them. Should be a late Thursday night.

Process revision

For whatever reason it's been very hard this week to focus. I'm betting it's because I see the light at the end of the tunnel. At any rate, I did make good progress last night on my revision and have made the following decisions:

• I won't be adding pages in even though I got feedback to that effect. The reason it was suggested was to make the pages less cramped, so I am adding more breathing room instead by adjusting the leading and removing all of the images. I may bump the page sizes up slightly as well, although it's looking like that won't be needed. I also avoided adding pages in because it would have screwed up my yard-line theme and the math with how the yardage lined up.
• My comp felt kind of rigid, so I'm taking a chance by removing the images and replacing them with X's and O's running through the pages (like plays drawn out on paper). Not only does this make the pages feel more organic, but it adds to the flow by adding that line running through it.
• I changed my title to "Drafting With Purpose: A Guide for Fantasy Footballers", instead of "How to Have a Successful Fantasy Football Draft", and adjusted the font on the cover from Nueva (you were right Stacey!)

I hope to post examples tonight, but they weren't cooperating before, so we'll see what happens!

favorite words

Disclaimer: This list is certainly not all-inclusive as I hear words every week that I'd add to this list. If I knew we were going to open the door to curse words, I'd have about 50 more on here.

menagerie
sommelier
recockulous
poppycock
Wenceslaus
henceforth

Logo

Okay, first of all the colors on this upload are all f'ed up and I have no idea why...any suggestions? The browns and other colors have gone haywire!!! F it, I'm posting anyway!

My wife and mother-in-law have been making stylized burp clothes and changing pad covers for gifts to expectant mothers and for craft fairs that'll be coming up this summer. My wife's maiden name is Cipolloni, so I actually suggested their business name too of "Cippy Stitches". I designed a logo for them and recently revamped this ("recently" meaning before the Words & Images class...I mean, I'm a glutton for punishment, but I'm not f''ing crazy!) for them. Any feedback is appreciated. I think maybe the start of the "S" thread (bottom of the S) could be faded slightly to blend into the background, but up for additional suggestions.

process samples

I have been trying for the better part of 2 days to upload sample jpeg pages from my booklet: "How to Have a Successful Fantasy Football Draft", but it's not working. Toot tired to deal right now.

We had to go to the emergency room for 4 hours tonight...apparently Matty (newborn) is allergic to milk. GREEEEAAAAT.....

this and that

I'm hitting a serious friggin wall energy-wise. At times I feel delirious. The baby didn't sleep AT ALL last night and neither did my wife as the baby was up screaming. In think I may have gotten 3 hours...maybe. Just a week and a half left, just a week and a half left...and I'm all about Brewer's Art after our last class if anyone wants to go for a beer. I could sure use one now...and a whole helluva lot of sleep.

I'm adding 16 additional images to my Flash project. That will have to do cause I just don't have time to add more. Tonight I start putting them into the program and try reorganizing things. We'll see if the music still synchs up.

For the process, my idea was coming together and I had an epiphany last night about a design idea, so I will continue implementing that tonight along with my Flash nightmare. Thursday and Friday will bring printing adventures and more Flash headaches I'm sure.

I've had some people say to me "I don't know how you're doing it", meaning grad school with the new baby. You have to want it bad, plain and simple. Not that other people don't want it, but this is an opportunity I've been waiting for for a long time and a little strain on my time isn't going to stand in the way of me attaining my goal. I'm just really lucky that my wife supports me in this. I guess I'm being rewarded from supporting her through grad school to become a speech pathologist a few years ago. As soon as I think I've had enough, I think of how trivial staying up late to do a project seems when you consider there are people accomplishing far greater things such as persevering through illnesses, or fighting for our country, etc. Just this thought alone gets me motivated to stay up and crush whatever I'm working on.

another busy week

I feel better about this week than last in terms of how much work needs to get accomplished, but I'm still going to be busy as hell. We have carpet getting installed this Thursday, but I do have off the whole day, so that day could go either way in terms of how much crap I get done. My goal is to pound out some good work tonight, Monday and Tuesday so the last part of the week isn't so grueling. Good luck to all...almost there people!!

collection

I'm a huge traditionalist when it comes to the holidays...specifically Thanksgiving and Christmas. Big family get togethers, old XMas movies (It's a Wonderful Life, Christmas Carol with Alistair Simm, Christmas Story...okay, that's not old), etc. I love the going to Kenilworth mall and seeing the huge train garden. My mom actually started collecting these Dept 56 houses and accessories which are the small intricate houses you typically would see in a Christmas train garden. She wound up getting me into it and now every year she buys our family a new Dept 56 house. Maybe one year I can put them all together and make that train garden myself for our family. At any rate, these houses often remind me of The Christmas Carol since they are replicas of old British homes (they even have a Dickens collection within the Dept 56 brand), so that's why I like them so much...

thoughts

As I sit here taking a break from my Flash project at 11:15 PM, it's hitting me that this is a little tougher than anticipated (duh) just do to the fact that I don't have experience moving around within the program and I spend half my time trying to find the stuff I already thought I created. I was honestly just going to do the damn thing in I-Movie since I know that program, but it doesn't have the flexibility of Flash and I'm a glutton for punishment (see grad school with 2 kids in tow). I find it funny...or just downright annoying...not sure which...that I have some instances where I figure shit out and I'm like "Oh this Flash thing is cake, I got this", and other times when I'm like "F*** ME!!!!".

funny

These are from an amusing old e-mail I received. To appreciate these, you have to just think of how cheesy Chuick Norris is. Anything to lighten the mood for the tough week ahead.

Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried.

Chuck Norris recently had the idea to sell his urine as a canned beverage. We know this beverage as Red Bull.

Rather than being birthed like a normal child, Chuck Norris instead decided to punch his way out of his mother's womb. Shortly thereafter he grew a beard.

Chuck Norris lives by only one rule: No Asian Chicks.

The original theme song to the Transformers was actually "Chuck Norris--more than meets the eye, Chuck Norris--robot in disguise," and starred Chuck Norris as a Texas Ranger who defended the earth from drug-dealing Decepticons and could turn into a pick-up. This was far too much awesome for a single show, however, so it was divided.

Chuck Norris was the fourth Wiseman. He brought baby Jesus the gift of "beard". Jesus wore it proudly to his dying day. The other Wisemen, jealous of Jesus' obvious gift favoritism, used their combined influence to have Chuck omitted from the Bible. Shortly after all three died of roundhouse kick related deaths.

Chuck Norris's girlfriend once asked him how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. He then shouted, "HOW DARE YOU RHYME IN THE PRESENCE OF CHUCK NORRIS!" and ripped out her throat. Holding his girlfriend's bloody throat in his hand he bellowed, "Don't fuck with Chuck!" Two years and five months later he realized the irony of this statement and laughed so hard that anyone within a hundred mile radius of the blast went deaf.

Chuck Norris once shot a German plane down with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!"

Chuck Norris frequently signs up for beginner karate classes, just so he can "accidentally" beat the shit out of little kids.

To prove it isn't that big of a deal to beat cancer. Chuck Norris smoked 15 cartons of cigarettes a day for 2 years and aquired 7 different kinds of cancer only to rid them from his body by flexing for 30 minutes. Beat that, Lance Armstrong.

When Chuck Norris's wife burned the turkey one Thanksgiving, Chuck said, "Don't worry about it honey," and went into his backyard. He came back five minutes later with a live turkey, ate it whole, and when he threw it up a few seconds later it was fully cooked and came with cranberry sauce. When his wife asked him how he had done it, he gave her a roundhouse kick to the face and said, "Never question Chuck Norris."

Chuck Norris can make a woman climax by simply pointing at her and saying "booya".

Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month.

Chuck Norris once went to a frat party, and proceeded to roundhouse every popped collar in sight. He then drank three kegs and shit on their floor, just because he's Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

In one episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Chuck Norris replaced Carlton for one scene and nobody noticed.

Chuck Norris took my virginity, and he will sure as hell take yours. If you're thinking to yourself, "That's impossible, I already lost my virginity.", then you are dead wrong.

Chuck Norris found out about Conan O'Brien's lever that shows clips from "Walker: Texas Ranger" and is working on a way to make it show clips of Norris having sex with Conan's wife.

Chuck Norris once tried to sue Burger King after they refused to put razor wire in his Whopper Jr., insisting that that actually is "his" way.

Chuck Norris has every copy of National Geographic in his basement. He also has the ability to lift every single one of them at once.

Takeru Kobayashi ate 50 and a half hotdogs in 12 minutes. Chuck Norris ate 12 asian babies in 50 and a half minutes. Chuck Norris won.

The chief export of Chuck Norris is pain.

Chuck Norris doesn't have normal white blood cells like you and I. His have a small black ring around them. This signifies that they are black belts in every form of martial arts and they roundhouse kick the shit out of viruses. That's why Chuck Norris never gets ill.

classification

Here are my spreads for Saturday. My publication is ESPN Mag. I almost feel like the second spread needs another page element...maybe the magazine title like the first spread, but I'm kind of waiting for the crit to tell me what i need to know. The this white lines get lost in spots, so suggestions are welcome. I will say that using black or thickening the stroke from 1 to 1.5 has not done the trick, rather, made it look better.

Process

Fantasy Football it is! Actually, my official title will be "How to have a successful Fantasy Football Draft". I'm going to attempt to have the booklet cover and back as a distressed-looking playbook. The inside cover will explain fantasy football. Here is what I've come up with so far for that:
How Does Fantasy Football work?
We’d be remiss to assume that everyone understands how Fantasy Football works, so here is a framework to get the novice up and running!

Fantasy Football has grown in popularity and become a multi-million dollar industry. The great thing about this hobby is that you can be as involved as you want to be depending on if the league is just for bragging rights or whether you are trying to win money. Each league can be unique in the way they are structured, but the basic concepts on how to play are simple:

1.Draft a team, choosing individual players from actual NFL teams.
2.Your fantasy football team will be assigned a weekly schedule in which you play the other fantasy teams within your league.
3.Your individual players are attributed fantasy points for their success during their actual NFL games. “Success” may include scoring touchdowns, catching passes, accumulating yards, etc.
4.The fantasy points which are accumulated by your players are totaled to give you your team score for that week.
5.Your team score is tallied against the team score of your opponent’s fantasy football team for that week, giving you a win or loss for that week.
6.Final win-loss records usually determine playoff seeding. Using the normal 17-week NFL regular season, a fantasy league might play a regular season of 14 weeks and leave the last 3 weeks for your fantasy playoffs. Hypothetically, in a 12-team league, only the teams with the top six win-loss records would qualify for the playoffs.
7.Last team standing wins the Championship and eternal Fantasy Football glory!

While the concepts above provide you a basic understanding of how Fantasy Football leagues are operated, there are some key steps you can take prior to your season to prepare yourself for Fantasy success. It all starts with your draft, so make sure you are ready by following these guidelines…

My process steps will be:
1. Know your League's Rules
2. Decide on a Keeper
3. Research Research Research!
4. Create a shopping list
5. Formulate Draft Day Strategy
6. Prepare your Draft Day materials

As you can tell by the FF explanation above, this will be a challenge due to the amount of copy, but I think it is a good thing in that that inside cover will allow me to come up with a typographical solution. We'll see how this evolves.

flash question

Actually, this is more an audio question as it pertains to Flash...anyone know the difference between MP3 and MP4 files (aside from the obvious)? My audio is an MP4 and logic tells me that if it should work in Flash, but I'd like to confirm whether I need to convert the sucker...thanks!

random thoughts

1. This week is gonna be a doozy, especially with trying to get some of this Flash project in place.
2. I think I may talk about the wife and kids too much in class, but maybe that's just because it's in the forefront of everything in my life right now....so F it. :)
3. I'm happy I took advantage of the lab today and scanned my images in for this Flash project. That saved me time later this week dicking around to try and have the images scanned in somewhere else.
4. Damn I'm tired.
5. ...but I'm really hoping it doesn't rain in the AM because my first softball games of the season are tomorrow.
6. Just watched the O's notch another win. It's starting to scare me.
7. If the Orioles have a 6 game division lead , say, 2 weeks before the trade deadline...does Brian Roberts get dealt?
8. This Fantasy Sports idea that was mentioned during the brainstorm has my interest piqued. My friends and I have been running a Fantasy Football league for about 13-14 years now and I was commissioner for a long period of time. I also run the draft and have won the league a few times, so I know how to approach the set-up, and strategy, etc.
9. I hate pollen
10. The last day of class I'm gonna splurge on sushi again.

storyboard

Is anyone else finding their storyboard to be quite long? Mine is already 8 pages (3 captions per page) and I'm thinking it'll wind up being 12-15 pages. I'm very much liking the way it is turning out though...I guess the proof will be once I put them into Flash and see how the images synch up with the music. Mine will be very fast paced though, so lots of images.

Flash

I already know exactly what I'm doing for this. My wife's labor came on very quickly with our first child and our car ride to the hospital was an adventure. The story will be from my perspective and I'm going to illustrate the images for the movie as well. I was thinking black and white, but in color may indicate mood a lot better. I also have in mind a particular sound track for the my movie, which may actually add some light-heartedness to the situation. I'm looking forward to working on this!!

Classification #2

Well, it looks like I am going to stay with the "type of sports fan" idea. I just need to find images to complete the design and to tighten up the concept and the direction it's going. My roughs:

classification project

I'm really excited about doing this project, but I know I have to attack it head on as the wife could go into labor any day now. I'm going with types of sports fans and I already have the basis of my writing as well as a concept I'm excited about for the graphics portion. I just need to find the right images...geez isn't that the case with just about anything these days?

hilarious

I mentioned these ads in our group session last Saturday to try and inspire some creative thinking. Gotta love Will Ferrell!

old:
http://www.whoomp.com/articles/65/1/Will-Ferrell-Gap-Commercial

new:
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/all-8-will-ferrel-jackie-moon-old-spice-commerci/3872720803

Project 3

Thursday is print day for me...that is the schedule I've set forth. I'm very happy with my revised design for project 3 but the writing needs a little tweaking and so I'm working on that now. The front of my postcard needs something more than just that image, while still remaining consistent with the other pieces to show it is all one campaign. I'm kind of glad we are easing back into the workload this week because I'm finding it difficult to motivate myself and gear back up after the break. Maybe I just need some coffee...although sleep sounds pretty damn good right about now...

midterm review

I was happy with my outcome, but my writing needs refining abit. I have alot of good random thoughts, but need to unite them to one common purpose. The most frustrating thing is when you think something finally clicks and you find out after critique that it only half-clicked. I guess if "getting it" was that easy, they would be selling degrees instead of making you work for it!

street art

Found this street art on the http://www.woostercollective.com/ site. I just thought it was really cool for how simple it is.

BANG

Okay, so I just wanted to write "BANG"....

Seriously though, Molly Bang's book is pretty interesting and quite a fast read...thank goodness because I'm still settled into this nice little break we've had.

I just hope she didn't name her kid Harry.

revised cause-effect

I stuck with the texting while driving theme, but I totally revamped my approach. I think the result is a hipper, more suitable attack at the 16-20 crowd. Comments are welcome!!
(single girl: mag ad
single boy: poster
2 girls: post card)

busy week

Just when I thought I was going to have a break...Wednesday I left work with a 24 hour stomach flu and I generally don't get sick. Thursday I gradually felt better and was able to take my wife to her regularly scheduled doctor visit for the pregnancy. That evening, she goes into false labor and so from 6-11:30 we were either on the road or sitting at GBMC for the labor check. So much for working on schoolwork that night. Friday my in-laws were able to take our son Jake for the day and so I was able to continue painting his new room and work on schoolwork. Now, after running errands all morning with Jake in tow and finally getting him down for a nap (car rides will do that), I have more time to work on revisions and hopefully finish up some household chores so I can actually relax tonight and watch a movie with my wife. What a week so far!

random thoughts

• Happy St. Patty's Day
• I'm satisfied with my first two projects, keeping in mind that grades for project 2 have yet to be released.
• I have a sh-tload of work to do to revamp project #3.
• ...and some decisions to make about the direction I want to go in
• How bad are the Orioles going to be this year? BAD
• It would be really cool if kids could learn how to go potty in like 5 minutes.
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch might be the best cereal in the world.
• I need a new job, preferably utilizing my graphic design skills.
• Too bad the market is such that I wouldn't feel comfortable being low person on the totum pole.
• When will these 400K houses start selling for 300K?
• I might have a drink tonight....seated of course
• why do I feel like I can't relax even though it's spring break?
• relaxing would be a mistake...
• I need to stop eating so much, but it's hard with a pregnant wife and it still being cold outside.
• sh-t, it's 10 of 2:00...too much stuff to work on to Blog.

just a little taste

Well I'm still refining this comp. I am trying to put to use the comments from my per revision, namely sprucing up the typography. The new typography needs some tweaking...not sure that art deco is working in the header and I hate that question mark.

profile writing

It still needs tweaking (bold parts):
Frank Cipolloni has owned his trumpet for 44 years. This brass companion has been there through it all; Colts games, proms, nightclubs. To understand the indelible mark this trumpet left on Frank, you must first know that instruments allowed teenagers to enhance their social lives during the 1950’s and 60’s, despite being primarily viewed by parents as a way for their children to earn money in the difficult job market.
In 1966, a year removed from becoming the Baltimore Colts Marching Band’s youngest member at 15, Frank and his friends began the Top 40’s cover band “La Moures”. This name was contrived by the band to have a Spanish feel and became a running joke amongst its members as numerous fans attempted to guess its meaning. With its 15 members, “La Moures” was an original participant in the Fells Point Festival and used this exposure to propel them into other gigs. “One weekend we decided to see how long we could play” quipped Frank, “so from 7-11:00 on Friday night we played at a Perry Hall teen center; then traveled to Chambersburg, PA to play an after-prom party from 2-7:00 AM. From there, we went to the Eastern shore for a bull roast from 12-7:00 PM, and then finished at Kale’s Nightclub from 9-2:00 AM.” Summing up this fond memory, he added that the band felt relieved once the final gig had ended so they treated themselves to a relaxing Sunday at the beach.
Frank still stays close with the core group from the band. His teenage years were spent earning money and building friendships that would last a lifetime; none so important as his friendship with this old brass trumpet, which helped shape his life and remains never far from reach.

6 word autobiography

High strung neat freak: loves sports

Venting session

Regarding the profile project, I'm not especially happy that I kept my writing under...rather "at" 250 words. My interpretation of 200-250 words is no less than 200, no more than 250 words. I mean, every other time they've told us "at least 150 words", etc. so we knew we had to be over a certain amount. I also think that should have been one of the main challenges for this project too since it is damn hard to keep it that short. It was obvious that many other classmates went well above...sorry, had to step away to change a dirty diaper. Welcome to my life...that pseudo word count. Not that I'm mad at people in the class, but I think this criteria should have been made much more clearer so some of us (Okay, ME) didn't spend all that time refining their writing, only to now have more work to do to add text back in. I'm not especially excited about wasted time these days, but I guess this is the nature of the beast in the design and writing world. Moral of the story...ask more questions about the requirements for all projects going forward. Oh, and while I'm at it, is anyone else just slightly amazed at this kind of ambiguity in our daily sheets? I also noticed that the one we received on March 1st had the titles of projects 2 and 3 as "Make your Friend a Star". I'd like to see our handouts held to the same high standard our projects are. Maybe it would avoid confusion. I digress...

Cause/Effect advertisement

Hey Gang. I don't ski, but this ad is very cool!! Visually striking, good example of cause/effect, and contains the call-to-action.

FOCUS!!

Okay, my choices had grown to 3 for the cause-effect project, but I think I've narrowed it down to 2. Still conjuring up thoughts and thumbnails for the "children under 2 watching TV" idea, and came up with another one for text messaging while driving. I really think the images and titles would be more striking for the text messaging bit, but I the children idea may have more substance. Not the time to be wishy washy, that's for sure.

I got my mind on my projects and my projects on my mind

Okay, so I'm very glad I did so much for those first drafts of project 2...it's really making that part of this week not-so-stressful (knock on wood of course, cause that could change). For this cause and effect project, I am seriously considering doing the effect that television has on children under 2 years of age. There have been studies which show that children who are inundated with television aren't developing the expressive language they need during the early stages of childhood which could lead to a number of different things...acting out/aggressiveness, frustration, obesity, etc. It looks like for this idea, people may have to "take that walk". Another really good idea is one my wife suggested, but I haven't decided how depict the cause/effect...the new head of Baltimore City Schools (Alonso) has tried to institute paying students for better academic performance and graduation. I'll need to research this more, but I'm under the assumption this isn't the first time this has been done in the country and I'm still deciding whether the cause would be the bad grades, or the cause would be the payoff, thereby making the effect....???

Compare picture/ad

A freaky one for you all...

magazine collection

I grabbed some magazines for my budding collection and haven't thumbed through every page yet, but I'm finding some interesting and useful things already. In particular, Best Life magazine which is a spin off of Men's Health, has intriguing typography in their articles and ads. I was also drawn into their articles, simply by the fact that I can relate to the topics they discussed (fatherhood, etc). I'm still looking for that great compare/contrast ad though.

switching gears

Well, I certainly understand our assignment better after our class last Saturday. I decided to change my common fruit to a bartlett pear because its attributes fit better when comparing and contrasting to my other choice, the "exotic" quince. My previous common fruit were blackberries, which seemed to fit nicely with my previous concept of having both fruits on each ad and using the "preserves" and "raw vs. cooked" themes, but I took the wrong approach with that concept and I'm finding the bartlett pear is making my life considerably easier. Okay, maybe it's just making this project easier to deal with. My life remains hectic!

Profile...again

I subscribe to Graphic Design USA and the first issue of the year has "People to Watch in 2008", which highlights designers, their backgrounds, and asks them two common questions regarding the industry. On each page there also is a sidebar which delves into that deisgner's interests, from favorite movies, to bookmarked websites. I found this interesting in terms of getting the perspective from a variety of designers on how they approach their work and what they use for inspiration. Here is a link to one of those articles which features Michael Hendrix, the chief brand officer and creative director of Tricycle, Inc. : http://www.gdusa.com/issue_2008/01_jan/feature/p35.php

...and a painting from a website on his “bookmarked sites” list:

Profile details

I've chosen to profile my father-in-law, who used to play the trumpet. At 15, he was the youngest member of the Colts Marching Band in 1965 and later in high school he played in a band called La Moures. They covered Chicago, The Beatles, Blood Sweat & Tears, and other Top 40 Bands of that era. They were one of the original bands to play in the Fells Point Festival and are listed in Baltimore's Book of Bands. I found the interview very interesting, so much so that I could barely keep up, and then found that I couldn't fit all of his information into a 250 word story, so it has really been pared down to the essentials, per the project requirements. The magazine I chose to model from is Rolling Stone. I had to buy it covertly because it has Britney Spears on the front!

checking in

I'm trying to get as much done on project 2 as possible. It looks like we are to bring in 4 different rough drafts as opposed to 4 copies of one rough draft. That would make sense. It shows we've put thought into different layouts. I'm happy with my concepts for the first project, but hoping to print out some better versions than what my printer has provided. I guess this Saturday's class will really set the bar in terms of where we think we are at versus what reality is. Looking forward to it, actually.

Inspiration

I find the Absolut vodka ads, produced since 1981 by the international advertising agency TBWA, very inspiring. I can point to this particular ad as one that piqued my interest in graphic design many years ago. The ad is simple in terms of what it communicates, yet it upholds the sophisticated standard by which these products are typically judged.

workload

I'm wondering if the workload given to us for these two weeks away would be the normal workload given to us for one week. My thought is "yes" and I'm preparing as such.

Hale

As I read through Sin & Syntax and try to incorporate the grammar "do's and don'ts" into my own writing, I find myself drawing an analogy to golf (which I happen to not be very good at as I don't play much). When I (resisting urge not to misuse the pronoun "you") am teeing up a shot in golf, I think:
1. keep my head down
2. swing easy
3. keep my elbow straight
4. hold the club loosely
5. make sure my stance is correct
6. bend at the knees
etc etc
Now, when I write, I am constantly looking at the details of the sentences and not just going up there swinging. I know that as I write more and more, training the ears and eyes to see these details and follow these rules will become second nature, just as my golf swing will grow better with the practice and repitition. Just a random thought...

coming to conclusions

I’ve chosen to use blackberries and quinces for my fruits. I went to the Wegmans in Hunt Valley to do research. Given the location of that particular Wegmans, the variety of products they sell, and their prices, I figured my audience will be either stay-at-home moms, working professionals, or retirees. In all cases the large portion of the audience will probably be above the median income.
I am going to compare my fruits by discussing how they are both ideal for making preserves, jams, and jellies. This will cater more to the retirees and perhaps the stay-at-home moms who might have more time on their hands to make homemade goodies.
When I contrast my fruits, I’m going to focus on the raw vs. cooked angle and throw some facts about perish-ability (did I just make that word up?) in there as well. Quinces are not to be eaten raw due to their astringent and tart flavor, and so cooking them is recommended. Quinces can also be stored up to 2 months without going bad. Blackberries, on the other hand, can be eaten raw and they actually don’t keep more than 2 days.

Wegmans sign

Sign from Wegmans taken as part of my research. Some of you may find this useful.

my fruits

would a quince be considered an exotic fruit or a common fruit? "Exotic" to me would seem to imply something tropical, but a friend said quince would be exotic just because it's not one you hear of often. Just looked up "exotic" on Webster's on-line and it said: introduced from another country : not native to the place where found .....so I think I just found my answer. I digress...

Class groundhog...for your viewing pleasure!

february 2

I looked for a 4GB flash drive today and saw 2 different kinds at Best Buy...one for $30, and yet another for around $68. The cheaper one was the "Geek Squad" version which looked as if no one had bought. There were only 2 of the $68 dollar flash drives remaining. The only difference I saw was some anti-virus protection offered on the more expensive one. I have an IMAC, so I'm not sure I'd need the extra stuff offered with the $68 flash drive. Any suggestions and/or advice here?