Inked!

A few years ago, my friend Jo asked me to design her a tattoo as a Christmas or birthday gift. (It’s been so long since that I forget.) I felt really uncomfortable with the idea of something I designed permanently stuck with someone. What I consider good design one day, I rue two years later, if even. So I kept putting it off in the hopes she’d lose interest/forget about it.

JO NEVER FORGETS.

She gave me a concept a few months ago, and more recently pushed me to show her something. She wanted an image of the time of Miss Havisham stopped her clocks in Great Expectations with flame-like elements surrounding the clock. I reused the clock from my website, downplayed the gears, and emphasized the elements she wanted.

I worked pretty hard on this, though I had no clue how much detail could be included on a tattoo—figured that any excess could be edited with the tattooist’s discretion. And really, I didn’t expect Jo to go through with my design. I figured she would realize the error of her ways and go to a professional tattoo artist to better realize her idea. At least giving her this, I could say I tried.

Then this morning, she got it done.

I gotta say, I feel a lot better now that I’ve seen it carried through. Of course a lot of detail was lost in execution, but I expected it. The core of the design shines through—I think the tattooist did a great job! It’s got an elegance to it that I think will last well, and I’m feeling really honored that Jo believed in my skills enough to go through with the tattoo. I’ve been doing a lot of work in the past couple weeks, but this is definitely one of the more badass projects I’ve been involved with.

{ April 4th, 2009 at 10:11 pm | 1 comment }
Tags: illustration, personal projects, photos

Life updates

As you can see, I’ve shifted things around a bit! The blog now has a dynamic sidebar. Wordpress is becoming less arduous the more I use it. Anyway, there are proper archives along with a new twitter account I’ve set up dedicated to design and blog-related items.

Proper post on logo trends soon. In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been up to.

I redesigned one of my favorite books for design colloquium as part of FINISHING THE SEMESTER.

This year, effort actually got involved in wrapping presents. (The font I used for the letters is Nevis Bold and available for free!)

I’m always so terrible at finishing mix cds. This year I managed to actually do so, and design a cover as well! Following through on things, I should continue with that.

This is when I made the internet real. (I also got a haircut, and here it’s in the weird-unsettled-kinda-wig-looking stage. I’m better now.)

I also had a great holiday, went back to work at Brightline for the break, and submitted to the ADDYs. Let’s not talk about that last one. Ever.

{ January 7th, 2009 at 10:35 pm | 1 comment }
Tags: homework, my so-called life, personal projects, photos, updates