Friday, April 30, 2010
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Design a Day Keeps the Doctor.... Paid?
After reading about designers making a pledge to design something everyday for a year from smashing magazine, I decided to jump on the bandwagon. Hopefully it will unleash my creative potentials. If not it will atleast give me a chance to use wordpress. Anyway. Check it out over here in my new separate design blog, Graphic Design Sandbox.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
My Fair Logo
A long long time ago (January 2007) I said I was going to turn my photoshop transgressions (thanks Tiger) into a legitimate business venture. Well it's amazing how a 10 hour shift will stunt your dreams! My design company is however, progressing slowly toward reality. Here is the story of brave little logo and how he grew from an ugly duckling into a beautiful 300 calorie grilled chicken meal. Once my official website is set up I'll give you a full essay on how this logo came to be.
Logo Creator Software - Like Blonds in Sweden (Thanks Tiger)
Straight out of the College of Engineering, I had no idea where to start when formulating a logo design. From various design blogs I knew a few things like :
1. Logo should be scaleable
2. Logo should look good black on white or the opposite
I'm sure there were more rules, but I was young and impulsive... (Thanks Tiger). I fired up some Logo Creating software and spit out these beauties:
Wowsers! Surely one of these would have worked? Well turns out the problem with using "Logo Software" is that there will probably be a dude in Omaha or Boise or Calcutta that picked the same combination as you and now your "unique" logo idea is not duplicate. Plus, I couldn't explain to anyone what each swoosh or dot or twirllly line on these logo meant, which is kind of important for a graphic designer to be able to do...
"Urban" GFX Design Logo
Months and 10 hour shifts go by and I decide to get my foot in the design world door I should venture into the dark world of "Mixtape Cover GFX" GFX being the clever way mixtape cover designers abbreviate "Graphics" even though G-R-A-P-H-I-C-S is one word and can't be abbreviated. Either way I'd need a hot cool gangster logo. It was here that I decided to work the Camel angel extra hard and make it my company mascot. I also decided that Orange and Blue is more then world's best college fight song, but would make a great color scheme for my logo.
I also dropped the LLC because incorporating is not in the budget this year (Thanks Tiger). Here I began with the basic black and white logo for general use and created a gradient outerflow filled triangle fest for use on the web. I still think it could work for some other businesses, but it's a little too casual, too gritty, too hot for TV to be used as a professional logo
No More Peter Pan, Choosy Moms... aka Professional Logo
A lot more months pass by. In this time I discovered the true power of photoshop brushes when combined with layer blends and masks (yes I know, this is all giberish to you). I also read an article about using subtle gradients to give your work depth. I also also read an article about using simple shapes to craft your logo. I also^3 think Tiger Woods Golf Video Game will still sell like hotcakes this christmas...
Going back to the creative well one more time, I created a logo that was equal parts typography, equal parts shapes.
Simple black and white version. Notice the highest circle is different then the rest. This represents the company's standing among the competition. (Yes I know, there's technically supposed to be 15 circles, and when I get my official website up, I will scan that scrap pad filled with crazy ways I tried to make that happen)
Orangeeeeeeee, Bluuuuuuuuuue, Orangeeeeee.... you get the idea. While this is light years ahead of that stuff the "Logo Software" it was still missing something. For letters, stationary, and envelopes, this is it for the logo. A Darker blue was used in future iterations, but you get the idea.
For web use I added this "blue-ish" background. Sadly Vista, Photoshop, my monitor, and my printer were all having issues getting colors to come out correct so I ended up with this weird metallic blue looking thing. Again this logo is usable, beats the pants off the earlier stuff, but it lacks depth. I have no mastered depth as you can see in the final logo.
Now I can honestly say that is a sexy, yet professional web logo. You won't see all these fractals and gradients on any court documents I serve you in the future, but for promotional material and web work, this logo is excellent. Notice the gradients in the words and circles that add a little visual depth to the piece. I also decided every future Fortune 500 firm needs a tag line and created one to sit under the logo.
Now on to the myspace facebook and twitter profile pages! Then a wordpress bases website!
Comments?
PS: I forgot how un-user friendly the pic tool is here on blogger. By unfriendly I mean like you just left your job as a naked butcher at the meat factory and you just fell in the lion exhibit at the zoo...
Logo Creator Software - Like Blonds in Sweden (Thanks Tiger)
Straight out of the College of Engineering, I had no idea where to start when formulating a logo design. From various design blogs I knew a few things like :
1. Logo should be scaleable
2. Logo should look good black on white or the opposite
I'm sure there were more rules, but I was young and impulsive... (Thanks Tiger). I fired up some Logo Creating software and spit out these beauties:
Wowsers! Surely one of these would have worked? Well turns out the problem with using "Logo Software" is that there will probably be a dude in Omaha or Boise or Calcutta that picked the same combination as you and now your "unique" logo idea is not duplicate. Plus, I couldn't explain to anyone what each swoosh or dot or twirllly line on these logo meant, which is kind of important for a graphic designer to be able to do...
"Urban" GFX Design Logo
Months and 10 hour shifts go by and I decide to get my foot in the design world door I should venture into the dark world of "Mixtape Cover GFX" GFX being the clever way mixtape cover designers abbreviate "Graphics" even though G-R-A-P-H-I-C-S is one word and can't be abbreviated. Either way I'd need a hot cool gangster logo. It was here that I decided to work the Camel angel extra hard and make it my company mascot. I also decided that Orange and Blue is more then world's best college fight song, but would make a great color scheme for my logo.
I also dropped the LLC because incorporating is not in the budget this year (Thanks Tiger). Here I began with the basic black and white logo for general use and created a gradient outerflow filled triangle fest for use on the web. I still think it could work for some other businesses, but it's a little too casual, too gritty, too hot for TV to be used as a professional logo
No More Peter Pan, Choosy Moms... aka Professional Logo
A lot more months pass by. In this time I discovered the true power of photoshop brushes when combined with layer blends and masks (yes I know, this is all giberish to you). I also read an article about using subtle gradients to give your work depth. I also also read an article about using simple shapes to craft your logo. I also^3 think Tiger Woods Golf Video Game will still sell like hotcakes this christmas...
Going back to the creative well one more time, I created a logo that was equal parts typography, equal parts shapes.
Simple black and white version. Notice the highest circle is different then the rest. This represents the company's standing among the competition. (Yes I know, there's technically supposed to be 15 circles, and when I get my official website up, I will scan that scrap pad filled with crazy ways I tried to make that happen)
Orangeeeeeeee, Bluuuuuuuuuue, Orangeeeeee.... you get the idea. While this is light years ahead of that stuff the "Logo Software" it was still missing something. For letters, stationary, and envelopes, this is it for the logo. A Darker blue was used in future iterations, but you get the idea.
For web use I added this "blue-ish" background. Sadly Vista, Photoshop, my monitor, and my printer were all having issues getting colors to come out correct so I ended up with this weird metallic blue looking thing. Again this logo is usable, beats the pants off the earlier stuff, but it lacks depth. I have no mastered depth as you can see in the final logo.
Now I can honestly say that is a sexy, yet professional web logo. You won't see all these fractals and gradients on any court documents I serve you in the future, but for promotional material and web work, this logo is excellent. Notice the gradients in the words and circles that add a little visual depth to the piece. I also decided every future Fortune 500 firm needs a tag line and created one to sit under the logo.Now on to the myspace facebook and twitter profile pages! Then a wordpress bases website!
Comments?
PS: I forgot how un-user friendly the pic tool is here on blogger. By unfriendly I mean like you just left your job as a naked butcher at the meat factory and you just fell in the lion exhibit at the zoo...
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Football was soooo Last Saturday
It took Tim Tebow's tears (which have the same healing properties as some rain Forrest plants) to lift the embargo on blog posts. Plus I'm more proficient at IPhone typing now. It's a shame too because there's so many funny things that have happened to me since November of 08. I'll try and recall them but you know how that goes. Now all I need is a little red line to show up under the misspelled words.
Anyway after last Saturday's 187 of the Gators in the SEC Championship Game, my coping with grief stages kicked in and I suddenly became retrospective. I was thinking about the 2006 National Title Game I witnessed live in person (yet will never blog about) and remember how amazing the moment was. Then I remembered how un-amazing all the games the following season were. That 2006 National Title didn't mean Sh!t the following season.
What does that all mean to the sports fan? It means you have to live in the moment extra extremely hard. Like Mountain Dew hard! It's the only way. It works when your team is up. Now when your team is getting bent over like an episode of Oz then you may want to live in the past... just like a UM fan.
Speaking of UM fans. I had to pleasure of being berated by UM fans all this week. The sad part is I probably would have taken it all in good spirits if these taunts were from actual UM alumni or students. But these are some regular "this is my team cause I live in the area" type stuff. This is not the NFL. I strongly believe if you never attended a particular college then you lose all rights to talk sh!t on their behalf. And some of these Canes "fans" have a worse case of Great Gatsby syndrome then Notre Dame!
Hello UM, the 80's and 90's called. They want their sports news back. You don't see Gators crying about SEC domination in the 90's do u? No!
Anyway after last Saturday's 187 of the Gators in the SEC Championship Game, my coping with grief stages kicked in and I suddenly became retrospective. I was thinking about the 2006 National Title Game I witnessed live in person (yet will never blog about) and remember how amazing the moment was. Then I remembered how un-amazing all the games the following season were. That 2006 National Title didn't mean Sh!t the following season.
What does that all mean to the sports fan? It means you have to live in the moment extra extremely hard. Like Mountain Dew hard! It's the only way. It works when your team is up. Now when your team is getting bent over like an episode of Oz then you may want to live in the past... just like a UM fan.
Speaking of UM fans. I had to pleasure of being berated by UM fans all this week. The sad part is I probably would have taken it all in good spirits if these taunts were from actual UM alumni or students. But these are some regular "this is my team cause I live in the area" type stuff. This is not the NFL. I strongly believe if you never attended a particular college then you lose all rights to talk sh!t on their behalf. And some of these Canes "fans" have a worse case of Great Gatsby syndrome then Notre Dame!
Hello UM, the 80's and 90's called. They want their sports news back. You don't see Gators crying about SEC domination in the 90's do u? No!
Ahh. That felt good. Just like old times.
Welcome back Dwayne, welcome back.
Sent from my iPhone
WTF!!
Just wrote a long paragraph for this blog using a blogger app. But
unlike every other iPhone app that saves your information if someone
calls you, this app decided to send my paragraph to sentence heaven.
Thanks bootleg free Iphone App! WTF!!!
unlike every other iPhone app that saves your information if someone
calls you, this app decided to send my paragraph to sentence heaven.
Thanks bootleg free Iphone App! WTF!!!
Guess it's back to emailing these in.
Sent from my iPhone
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Masterpiece Fozzie: Keith's Bday Party
This entry was after wild night at a Sigma's bday house party (before I was a sigma, and I think it was Keith Racine's birthday)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Drunk People Aren't Fun ! - 1/27/2002
Yesterday was the longest day in my college life...untill I pledge a fraternity.
The started with me and O Diddy going to a special olympics basketball tournament thinking we were going to be doing the same thing we did @ the gold tournament. Managing a particular type of basketball shot. But noo, they're having real games with teams so we got stuck working @ the scorers table. The problem was the guy who told us the instructions didn't tell us very well so we had to learn on the fly. Keeping track of everyones fg, ft, reb, and 3ptrs was nooo joke ! It wasn't bad when we did the first few games, but the last game was between 2 innercity youth teams. Lord jesus !!! I had forgotten to track the team fouls for my team and the refs were complaining so I just wanted my team to win so bad so I wouldn't get beat up. Lucky for me they did win.
Later That Late Night
The house party was tight for the first 30 min. That's how long it took my friend to get drunk. 7 Cups of Hunch Punch and a Carona in 30 mins !!! So we were stuck watching him. When we took him outside to use the bathroom he ran away screaming like a 5 yr old. Sheesh. When we finally caught him, calmed him down, and brought him back inside his brain was gone in an instant! He finally settled down on a couch, and I finally got a chance to chill, so I sat down on the stairs in the house. 5 minutes later... a fight breaks out. Darn locals !!! That was the key to get my drunk friends home, but then they wanted to fight too !!! And these ugly local girls weren't helping the situation out either by instigating them more !!! Ug I hate them locals !
Me and O Diddy finally got them home, and we promised Never Again to goto a house party with those two cats every again.
I'll Holla
Fozzie
*You don't have to be a Blogger Member to leave a comment. Click other under "choose an identity" and enter any name , then type in the word verification.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Drunk People Aren't Fun ! - 1/27/2002
Yesterday was the longest day in my college life...untill I pledge a fraternity.
The started with me and O Diddy going to a special olympics basketball tournament thinking we were going to be doing the same thing we did @ the gold tournament. Managing a particular type of basketball shot. But noo, they're having real games with teams so we got stuck working @ the scorers table. The problem was the guy who told us the instructions didn't tell us very well so we had to learn on the fly. Keeping track of everyones fg, ft, reb, and 3ptrs was nooo joke ! It wasn't bad when we did the first few games, but the last game was between 2 innercity youth teams. Lord jesus !!! I had forgotten to track the team fouls for my team and the refs were complaining so I just wanted my team to win so bad so I wouldn't get beat up. Lucky for me they did win.
Later That Late Night
The house party was tight for the first 30 min. That's how long it took my friend to get drunk. 7 Cups of Hunch Punch and a Carona in 30 mins !!! So we were stuck watching him. When we took him outside to use the bathroom he ran away screaming like a 5 yr old. Sheesh. When we finally caught him, calmed him down, and brought him back inside his brain was gone in an instant! He finally settled down on a couch, and I finally got a chance to chill, so I sat down on the stairs in the house. 5 minutes later... a fight breaks out. Darn locals !!! That was the key to get my drunk friends home, but then they wanted to fight too !!! And these ugly local girls weren't helping the situation out either by instigating them more !!! Ug I hate them locals !
Me and O Diddy finally got them home, and we promised Never Again to goto a house party with those two cats every again.
I'll Holla
Fozzie
*You don't have to be a Blogger Member to leave a comment. Click other under "choose an identity" and enter any name , then type in the word verification.
Before Dollar Bill.. there was Fozzie
I've been trying to 5S alot of the junk on my computer... just like work! Speaking of work, this is the first time I ever took work home on my days off. Its like I'm practically an engineer!
Anyway... while trying to organize my files I ran into some old back-ups of my Open Diary. This thing is solid gold, going all the way back to senior year in high school to somewhere in sophomore year in college. Classic Classic stuff. So classic I must share it with the entire world... or random blog readers..
So keep an eye out for posts titled "Masterpiece Fozzie" for a look back waaaay down memory lane.
*You don't have to be a Blogger Member to leave a comment. Click other under "choose an identity" and enter any name , then type in the word verification.
Anyway... while trying to organize my files I ran into some old back-ups of my Open Diary. This thing is solid gold, going all the way back to senior year in high school to somewhere in sophomore year in college. Classic Classic stuff. So classic I must share it with the entire world... or random blog readers..
So keep an eye out for posts titled "Masterpiece Fozzie" for a look back waaaay down memory lane.
*You don't have to be a Blogger Member to leave a comment. Click other under "choose an identity" and enter any name , then type in the word verification.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Change We Can Blog About
Well look what I found, an old dirty blog. Somebody get me a bottle of Simply Green so I can remove all the old mystery junk off this thing. Ahh yes. Good old blog. Holder of all my late college adventures. I miss you... And for some reason I'm extra bored tonight and don't want to be productive. What better opportunity then this too blog?
How long have I said I'm gonna blog today, I'm gonna blog today, ahhh maybe I'll blog today. ENOUGH! It is time to reclaim my long lost jumping off point. In fact, when I got my iphone and had delusions of blogging from my new fancy dandy phone, I made a list of topics I wanted to discuss. Now it's too late to devote whole posts to these topics, but I can jot down some brief synopsisisisises. I know you all have been waiting for this like a 3rd Gremlins movie so heeeeeeere we go!
1. The Iphone....
I actually began writing a looong post about the wacky adventures involved with getting my iphone... on my iphone. Sadly while it's easier to type LOL a hundred times on the iphone, I won't be doing my own version of War & Peace any time soon on the iphone. It's still saved so hold your breath.
At the end of the day, the iphone is an amazing product, compared to my last phone which required a direct link to the hubble telescope for me to get any signal to make calls. It also allowed me to replace my defunct Dell DJ and always have an MP3 player one me which works great when for some odd reason I'm still at work long after I should have left...working basically for free... and need to maintain my sanity. Safari is awsome too. Just need some way to access blogger...
2. Unboxing Videos!
Maybe I should cover this last cause this has started to drive me crazy. I was trying to decide between a black or white iphone becuase I heard the white ones were "girly" but they shipped in 3 days as apposed to 7-21 days. I couldn't find any white ones in the wild... aka the at&t store so decided to look on youtube to see it in action. Big mistake.
All i could find were "unboxing videos". Now before I start WTFing all over the place, here is a definition of "unboxing" that I found.
F that! Its videos of people opening a box of some new electronic item! A box! These are not video reviews of the items features, no, it's a video of some guy opening the lastest phone, or game, or thing-a-majig and laying the contents on a table. Thats it! WTF! Actually... WGAF(Who Gives a F#$%#$)!
Youtube is amazing. You can learn just about how to do anything on there. There's always funny videos, and serious comentary. But a video about opening up the iphone box is friggin ridiculous! Go ahead, search "unboxing" on youtube, and after all 15 kabillion videos return, watch one and ask yourself WGAF!
Obama says you measure the american dream by people being able to send their kids to school and buy a home. Forget that. If you have so much free time that you can go through the process of recording a video of yourself opening up a box from best buy, editing this video, then submit it to youtube, then you sir are living the american dream!
3. Barack Obama
I'm not ready for my Obama post yet. (Running gag alert) Hopefully it doesn't turn into that post about the 2006 National Championship game...
4. There were a few other things that are now totally irrelevant... thanks procrastination monster! But I slightly almost promise to blog here atleast once a week. In the mean time, I'm going to reconnect with my former self and read some of these old posts... perhaps check out that top ten list (wink wink)
*You don't have to be a Blogger Member to leave a comment. Click other under "choose an identity" and enter any name , then type in the word verification.
How long have I said I'm gonna blog today, I'm gonna blog today, ahhh maybe I'll blog today. ENOUGH! It is time to reclaim my long lost jumping off point. In fact, when I got my iphone and had delusions of blogging from my new fancy dandy phone, I made a list of topics I wanted to discuss. Now it's too late to devote whole posts to these topics, but I can jot down some brief synopsisisisises. I know you all have been waiting for this like a 3rd Gremlins movie so heeeeeeere we go!
1. The Iphone....
I actually began writing a looong post about the wacky adventures involved with getting my iphone... on my iphone. Sadly while it's easier to type LOL a hundred times on the iphone, I won't be doing my own version of War & Peace any time soon on the iphone. It's still saved so hold your breath.
At the end of the day, the iphone is an amazing product, compared to my last phone which required a direct link to the hubble telescope for me to get any signal to make calls. It also allowed me to replace my defunct Dell DJ and always have an MP3 player one me which works great when for some odd reason I'm still at work long after I should have left...working basically for free... and need to maintain my sanity. Safari is awsome too. Just need some way to access blogger...
2. Unboxing Videos!
Maybe I should cover this last cause this has started to drive me crazy. I was trying to decide between a black or white iphone becuase I heard the white ones were "girly" but they shipped in 3 days as apposed to 7-21 days. I couldn't find any white ones in the wild... aka the at&t store so decided to look on youtube to see it in action. Big mistake.
All i could find were "unboxing videos". Now before I start WTFing all over the place, here is a definition of "unboxing" that I found.
The Internet trend of showing photos or video from the unpacking of a retail box of some desirable product, such as the latest laptop or portable music player. |
F that! Its videos of people opening a box of some new electronic item! A box! These are not video reviews of the items features, no, it's a video of some guy opening the lastest phone, or game, or thing-a-majig and laying the contents on a table. Thats it! WTF! Actually... WGAF(Who Gives a F#$%#$)!
Youtube is amazing. You can learn just about how to do anything on there. There's always funny videos, and serious comentary. But a video about opening up the iphone box is friggin ridiculous! Go ahead, search "unboxing" on youtube, and after all 15 kabillion videos return, watch one and ask yourself WGAF!
Obama says you measure the american dream by people being able to send their kids to school and buy a home. Forget that. If you have so much free time that you can go through the process of recording a video of yourself opening up a box from best buy, editing this video, then submit it to youtube, then you sir are living the american dream!
3. Barack Obama
I'm not ready for my Obama post yet. (Running gag alert) Hopefully it doesn't turn into that post about the 2006 National Championship game...
4. There were a few other things that are now totally irrelevant... thanks procrastination monster! But I slightly almost promise to blog here atleast once a week. In the mean time, I'm going to reconnect with my former self and read some of these old posts... perhaps check out that top ten list (wink wink)
*You don't have to be a Blogger Member to leave a comment. Click other under "choose an identity" and enter any name , then type in the word verification.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
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