I finished my annual report:

Did a little typeface ABC book for colloquium:

Went home for the summer and started cooking a lot:

Then went to Texas to hang with the relatives:

I got another internship! I start on that next week, so pictures of that forthcoming I guess. For now, I’m wrapping up vacation in Houston, and I come back to northern Virginia tomorrow.

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.

jetBlue ‘oneBlue’ mailer ad
Won a gold ADDY for collateral material brochure/annual report.

‘Passwd’ magazine cover
Won a silver ADDY for editorial design cover.

I really love reappropriation art. It’s exciting as a means of interacting with art, to take your interpretation of a piece and create a physical manifestation of it in a sense. There’s also taking an image and placing it in a completely different context than its original. I know that some artists can feel violated by seeing their work used in a way they didn’t intend, but once you put your art out there, interpretation is fair game. It seems silly to me to try to control that.

Meanwhile, here are more recent screen printing adventures of my own:

PRINTED IN GOLD.

1) Japanese Art textbook – I’m taking two art history courses this semester: “Art of China and Japan” and a special topics class on Dionysos. I’ve always preferred learning about Greek art more than any culture’s, and the nuances of Dionysos as a god and character are exciting. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to remember all the periods of Chinese history … the names are harder for me to remember.

2) Easisolv – This is to wash out the screens in my screen printing class. I had a really bad experience with Pocono Screen, and thus am still waiting for my screens to come in … I wouldn’t recommend them. They apparently have a recurring issue with sending shipments to the billing address instead of the shopping, and I got serious attitude from customer support. I have a much higher tolerance for mistakes when the company attempts to be apologetic or sincere.

3) Girls Aloud “Out of Control” – A late late birthday gift from my sister. I love Girls Aloud, but that stretched type on the packaging makes me so sad.

By the way, here are my first attempts at screen printing with an old 110 mesh screen (with some ink already dried in it …)

I had used a stencil with the screen before, but this time I actually used the photo emulsion and such. Anyway, the test print on the left turned out much better than the shirt print. I tried on the shirt twice, and there’s some offset from multiple attempts. Fabric is HARD.

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.