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...