I just realized...

My Senior Show was a culmination of propaganda posters from games, comics, anime, etc that had a huge influence on me. I did Zombies, Pokemon, The Joker, One Piece... How on Earth did I skip doing a Mega Man poster...

I feel so stupid.

Playing around

I've been playing around with some sketch books because I have a ton and the ones I like the most are pretty cheap. So I've gotten to where I cut things out of books and magazines and whatnot and glue them or tape them into one of my books. It's helps me to organize things that may influence me as far as lay outs, grids, color schemes, typography all those good things. It's not much of an entry, but if you're an artist following me, or just casually browsing don't be afraid to dismantle the world around you to find the things that'll help progress as an artist.

Die Line

This is a really awesome site.

Here's a few things I like.

Old Dogs and New Tricks

I wait tables. I hate it. It pays my bills. It's not that I don't like people, or meeting new people, I just hate that people treat you like a servant rather than another person.
I had a table tonight where the younger guy was asking the older guy if he wanted Teriyaki. And the guy didn't look like he got out much. He wasn't rude, in fact the younger guy was a little more unpleasant. But as soon as he asked that I wondered what sort knowledge the older guy had about Teriyaki. Did it hate because of Pearl Harbor? Did he even know what it tastes like? Was he an adventurous guy or had he only eaten the same stuff over the years.

This may be kind of long so strap in. A few days ago I was thinking about life before the baby boomers when people lived in the cookie cutter lifestyle and FDR was borderline Jesus. What flavors did they have back then? You could get mild or plain... Honestly I'm not sure how this works. My Grandfather turns 100 this year, and he's pretty set in his ways. He called Led Zeppelin "N----- music" one time because it's not 1914 "N'Olens" Jazz.

My grandfather isn't a racist, by any means. Honestly, I feel like I'd have a hard time convincing you of that based on the last statement, but when you spend 60 years of your life watching people be oppressed; by the time you're that old you're probably fairly set in your ways.

So I get back to my point. What are the odds that you really go out and try new things once you're set. I've watched even myself grow more stubborn as I've gotten older. You know what you like and you don't really have the audacity to spend money of something you aren't sure of. It may be 100 bucks or it may be a dollar, but you're still going to get mint gum rather than dragonfruit gum because you know you like it.

Just a thought.

The Ethos of Logos

A long standing history of sports begets followers. People follow leagues, teams, players, even just awesome highlights. But I recently started to wonder what causes great highlights. What makes teams have great followings?

The first thing I'd say brings in followers is location. People are exposed to an area or a region and grow to love its local sports teams.
The next thing I'd say brings in followers is winning. Teams and players with a history of winning bring in a good fanbase. People want to be associated with winning. You can't really hate on someone for being good at something, especially when they are humble in victory like Andre Agassi late in his career.
The next, and main thing I'd like to talk about, is the thing thatbrings in all the random casual fans with no regional or lineage of following. Many people will follow a team because their dad did. But what happens to the kids in Alabama who's dad only watched baseball? Who does he pull for when he's talking football at parties?
Logos and color schemes gets my subjective and subliminal vote.
The Lakers and the Vikings both have the same color scheme, and in the ways that it's used the Vikings look better, but the Lakers sell more units because of championships. Let's find two less than par teams with moderate championship-vying histories. The Houston Rockets current logo may be the best logo in the NBA.


The 'R' with the hoop around it doesn't really convey 'rocket' all that well, but the simplicity and cleanliness of the whole thing is nice when most other teams have very busy logos. Also, though the type isn't realy something that's pleasent, and it sort of overhauls the whole idea, it fits it because the type is also very clean and simple.



The NFL has much less bulky logos, but still has a few problems.
The Bucs redesign is in need of a redesign. I'm not going to hit on all things but I really find it interesting to see what people follow, wholeheartedly, and the aesthetic appeal of sports franchises. This isn't an icon its the face that thousands, even millions of followers stand behind. It's the face of an organization and the face we adorn season to season. It's not crazy. It's sports.

Ladies and Gentlemen

I'm back, hopefully for a good long while. My summer was a little different that my normal time for hiatus, but I'm back now.

I'm getting back into my creativity and writing and starting to design again, but at the same time everything is starting back up. EPL season started this past weekend and I'm elated for the renewal. In addition, the NFL is in the middle of preseason and I'm getting incredibly excited for that as well. Maybe the influx of creativity is due to the influx of interests, but either way I'd say its great.

This is an old poster I did for a class, I submitted it for an addy. And I'll leave you with this.

Remix!

It's been a long while since I posted. I'm sad to admit that. I'm going to be more on my game, I promise. Some stuff should follow this, coming this week about the EPL season and some other events upcoming.

In the mean time, enjoy...