Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook

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I have been seeking to encourage myself to draw more. So, I picked up a Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook to foster this creative movement. I forced myself to sloppily graffiti the first two pages (some what unusable anyway) with a reminder.

I chose the Moleskine Pocket Sketchbook because of the thicker paper and the size. Plus it has that Moleskine-ness that makes it lovable. And I chose the Sharpie Pen because it won't bleed and it acts and writes just like a Ultra-Fine-Point Sharpie Marker (which I love to draw/write with but usually can't due to the bleed factor).

These are all the sketches to date, with a few notes.

Garamond Powerline

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This is a great re-design of a classic typeface, one of my favorites. Check out the rest of the typeface here, as well as other great work!

New President

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Barack Obama x Z-Trip x Shepard Fairey x Fresh Pressed from Barack On! Obamathon on Vimeo.

Whether you voted for him or note ... he's president, and this video is pretty sweet. And I love street art and graffiti. That is some serious talent.

Sticky Note Typeface

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Check this out. A typeface originally designed & Exact-O-Knifed out of Sticky Notes! I love it. Great photos too. Check out the site here for more info & work.

Cochrans / Aldi

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I saw the Aldi logo, and immediately thought of the Cochrans ski resort logo in Vermont. (I apologize for the terrible image quality, it's the best I could fine online.)

I appreciate the 'old school' nature of them both. I wish I could say what era or genre of design history that they come from or inherit their style from, but I can't. In fact, I can't tell you the history of much design at all. I probably should have paid better attention in Graphic Design History class in my BFA, and read the book(s) for that matter.

Anyway. I love the muted flat colors of both logos, as well as the flat two dimensional nature of both logos. They both make good use of geometric shapes, typography, and subtly asymmetrical layouts.

Pretty in Pink

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Here is the latest 'piece of work'.

I'm sort of on a pink kick. Pink in my blogs, in my graphics, in my email color templates, etc. I've even considered purchasing a pink dress shirt, and or tie; perhaps even a t-shirt. I'm not convinced yet that it is a good idea, we shall see.

I took some time to experiment more with some traditional methods & styles that I have seen lately online in vector artwork. I am continually trying to add layers of detail, texture, and form.

The piece is sort of at a critical mass, so I needed to end it somewhere. That 'somewhere' is here. It's a 'first stab' of sorts.

The title was inspired by my good friend J.

Enjoy.

(No tunes right now.)

Jewelry Design

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Below is a photo of my wife's and my wedding rings. (That grammar sounds so messed up ... is it? I can never figure that crap out.)

With my wedding ring, finding nothing on the market in my price range, I tried my hand as jewelry designer. I think it turned out pretty well.

Below is the sketch from my trusty Moleskine that I made of my ring as I woke up one morning. It was April 12th, 2008 to be exact. I just woke up with this idea for a ring in mind. And sure enough, 2 weeks later, I had the ring in the photo before me.

The jeweler and I went through about 7 different edits to the ring, mainly surface treatments. But I think it turned out well. There are 2 diamonds, and 1 natural ruby between them. (The same three stones in my wife's ring) The surface treatment to the right of the stones is a hammer finish with a satin finish over the hammer strikes.

Tunes: Spybreak by Propellerheads