Kenpo - empty hands

"I come to you with only karate, empty hands. I have no weapon, but should I be forced to defend myself, my principals, or my honor; Should it be a matter of life or death, of right or wrong; Then here are my weapons, Karate, my empty hands."
-Ed Parker-

fullgive (day3)

I thought that I would make a banner graphic for the website that my brother has been selling the FullGive line up on. I wanted something simple that would relate with and reflect the look and feel of FullGive. Materials and a DIY approach that are used in the making of the cases them selves was used.

Soto Pets

Today I got to thinking of other living things I interact with besides people and got to thinking of my pets, most especially my fish. I know, fish can be really boring, but they are the perfect companion if you can't have a dog or cat in your home, or want to worry about cleaning up messes. So I got to thinking if Soto was a pet shop that sells more aquatic animals like fish, turtles, crabs, etc. I felt the type would still work with the organic movements I originally went with, but wanted to see how it worked just by changing the mark, so I drew a simple looking koi fish.

"Don't Sweat, Glo"

This is my Glo logo just placed in a completely different branding strategy for a different audience. I am a cyclist so I have been really wanting to insert my logo into something dealing with cycling, so I did! I placed the Glo Logo on my cycling shoes! I hope you all like it!

Day 3: CendrilliMEN

Niche market here I come.

friday the 13th

don't judge me. it's been a weird day.

i hate peeps, and have been trying to come up with a use for them ever since my grandparents mailed me a care package containing several:



that being said, i hope you laughed at this (cause i giggled for about 10 minutes after i took this photo), i have been brainstorming more ways to make typography interact with the environment i place it in. instead of adding typography after the fact (placing it in pre-existing photo like i usually do), i literally put typography in the environment. and i had fun doing it.. implementing my favorite design rule that i posted yesterday.

no peeps were harmed in the making of this photograph.

okay, that was a lie

Rebus

Today I decided to make a rebus out of my product.....can you figure out the puzzle? I thought it was a fun twist of how pictures can be associated to words. This could also help kids make different ways to make signs advertising their lemonade stand.

Cable Table reDesign.003

Today's project led me a lot more off track (in an interesting way) than the past two days. I have been thinking lately about how not everyone likes to hide their cables and everything in their office or room, some people are content to have everything showing as long as it is well organized. I consider myself one of those people with everything other than cables. Later in the day, I was watching a lindy hop team routine with five pairs on the dance floor. This can easily get messy with lindy hop, but I was amazed by the choreography. Their formation changes and the ways they organized the high number of dancers on the floor was incredible. One of my favorites was the human piano, shown above, that they created for a strong, bold piano part towards the end of the song. It was an awesome way for them to emphasize the music and each couple.

Also, here is the original video if anyone wants to watch (it starts off kind of slow but gets awesome). 2009 ILHC - Team Performance: One2Swing's The California Rolls

The reazon why

I wanted to backtrack today. I attempted to take a good hard look at why, when, and what activities I'm doing, while I'm listening to my music. And in doing so, why I'm so picky with it. To try and make a long story short, I ended up doing some deep thinking. Lately the only reason I try to use to get done what I know I needed to do, was to think about my friend Tony who passed this august the 28th as a result of swine flu. I don't wanna get morbid or depressing with this, but I guess I tried to force something positive out of a negative feeling. In doing this I wrote a few song "quotes" down, and tried to just sketch either things that came to my mind to try and work them out, or the things I enjoying doing while listening to music, while listening to certain songs the whole time.

It almost became like therapy to a point for me...

Forcing something beautiful from pure chaos.

i never go for anything natural. i love the taste of energy drinks, but other people i know really don't. so i asked a couple people what would make them want to have an energy drink, and a few answered that if it was more of natural energy and not so much of the sugary taste, they'd drink it. this is something that goes for the more natural look.

Day 3 - There's no biz like snow biz

I wanted to continue exploring different kinds of companies that Altable could be. This got me started thinking about products that are easily changeable, or alterable. My thoughts came to rest on the Altable Snowman business. The company would be similar to the those who sell Christmas trees during the holidays, only at Altable would you be able to purchase your snowman starter kit. This kit would include a small, medium, and large snowball which the costumer would then be able to alter in their own way. Like adding arms, scarfs, hats, eyes, ears, and so on... The target audience for this would be families that live in small apartments with no yard full of snow, or anyone without access to snow. The picture above is a depiction of a client paying for one of the snowman starter kits. Notice the Altable signage or the ground and the dressed up snowman mascott in the background (his named is Kevin Frankels).

So what would make something as seemingly bland as furniture (shout outs for interior designers who love furniture) become interesting and creative. Well, the furniture of course! Since i used internet pics last time i thought i would just draw what i found and a couple things that i was thinking of could be in a Suite (sweet) specialty furniture shop. Its my mix between ikea, love sac, and a funky furniture design store. I mean really who wouldn't want these things, a hand chair with flexible fingers, a gaming bed (how lazy can we get) with built in tv, glowing furniture, a mouse trap bed, chairs make of you very own custom fabric, paper lamps with unexpected shades, pod beds, faux grass ottomans, bean bags you buy by the dozen and last but certainly not least a table that looks like an old school nintendo paddle. This is what dreams are made of!

Freudentisch and What?

What is freudentisch? First impressions are, after all, very important, and I wanted to see what impression people had when all they knew was the brand name. So I went around campus today and asked people to tell me if freudentish was a noun, adjective, or verb, and then I asked them to put that word into a sentence. It was more a game than anything, and since people recognized that they didn't know what it meant (and that it wasn't even English!) they relaxed and compliantly played along, coming up with random sayings and using freudentisch to replace words in common English phrases. Some even ventured to give me a direct translation.

the repose i

I spent the morning teaching Brenna my four year old how to cut squares out of paper. She is getting very competent with her new scissors. Conner (my 1 year old) helped me paint the background of this piece. I was thinking about the "i" in identity and how it is a powerful signification today. I was also entertaining how the "i" in ourselves is in constant competition with the self. The "i" may be the true identity of our competitor.

Day 3: To Think Like A Kid You Got To Be A Kid.

You think since I am older that building a Fort would of been a lot easier to make. I slept in the fort the whole night and it was so comfortable that I accedentail slept in and missed my classes. Ooopppss! Oh well. So this is my last kid experiment that I will be doing. I am now going to try and focus more on experimental design to finish up this week.

Today I thought I'd try the music direction

so I made a new logo for a music company

called Tuesday Afternoon which seems to fit.

I also wanted to include a sound clip of debussy's

Arabesque for your listening pleasure, but I'm

not that blog savvy yet. So if you want to hear

a really good version please go to this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWpV7L4YHuU

enjoy.

natural beverage

After making the smoothy I thought I would turn that drink into a natural beverage that can be sold next the Naked juice and Bolthouse Farms. The ingredients were inspired by the smoothy concoction from yesterday.

The Movement of "flamenca"

I've related the movement of the Flamenco dance, the basis for the perfume and typography, to those of whipping clothes drying on a line on a windy day. The movement is conceptually related due to both the softness and sharpness seen in the dance style and the effects of the wind on the fabric.

juice

I am trying out a new creative angle, I was Literally looking for my creative juices. So instead of sitting in front of a computer or a sketch book to work something out I decided to raid my refrigerator. I took house hold essentials and made Nature's Niche into a found smoothy. My final ingredients included Raspberry preservers, Some Pulp Orange Juice, and Home-Jarred Peaches. Other trials included apples and iced tea, those were failures. The final one ended up being quite good.

Swift Identity

So I spent a bit of time today walking around with Brenna, my 4 year old daughter. We picked up leaves and she was not selective at all when it came to the old ones, color, size or shape, she just collected. We took the leaves to my office and I scanned seven that mirrored a change. I then sketched an aging portrait of Taylor Swift. I overlapped the two elements to see what might come of the juxtaposition.

Cable Table reDesign.002

I think the perfect world would be wireless, but I've completely forgotten that there is at least one benefit to cables. The more there are on your stage, the more you look like a rock star. With this concept in mind, I found a photo I took years ago of just the cables on the stage at a concert. I originally took the photo to observe the patterns and lines the cables made in the photo. I have now added the detail of the band's name written in the cables to show one way that cables could be used for decoration and flourish rather than just pushed to the side, taped down, tangled and tripped over.

Freudentisch and Old Lace

So, I got to thinking about that fantastic production "Arsenic and Old Lace." My final idea has very little to do with that, but maybe that might help make this make sense.
What if Freudentisch were a social society? Like a book club, or lunch group, essentially a forum for people to get together and get to know each other, to keep up with everyone else and their everyone else. Just a place to talk. A group with whom you can slow down in order to keep up with the fast pace of life. Hence the teacups and the good ol' "Jeeves & Wooster" in the shot... it's all about society! (And, why yes, that is my table Freddie under all that stuff... how could you ever tell?)

Day 2

From my original idea for Soto I was following a type of meditation I'm more familiar with that I do myself: focusing more on soft subtle movements resembling the flow of water. I got to thinking, "What other forms of meditation are there out there?" I realized my two roommates are a lot more active physically than me, and one of the ways they let out their stress and anger is practicing karate for their class. So I watched them practice their movements and the way they moved their bodies, along with breathing exercises to see how the brand of Soto could work with a different type of meditation.

FullGive (Day 2)

I wanted to make a tag for the FullGive cases, so I modge-podged different layers of paper on a wood block for a collaged look; added a pattern of pin head nails in a grid; took a pic and added some FullGive text; voila.

Day Dos (say that fast, it's fun)

Oh ideologies, how I love thee. So motor oil and perfume eh... Well something gots to lube all them there moving parts. So I says to myself, I says... Yeee Hawww.

Well I really have no idea what that first paragraph is all about other than... I don't know actually. So I think this is working. I left slight gaps between the various images for implied effect of spraying perfume everywhere but also implying that oil gets into all of the little small cracks as well. So enjoy my creativity.

When you do not care what you are doing, and you dont take it seriously, it is like throwing away money. I wanted to focus on the financial aspect of life. and yes i cut up my dollar.

number-2

i really like superheroes and most of the time wish i could be one...but i'm not. this is going off of drinking "glo" and feeling like a superhero. not exactly the best sketch (i miss painter) but it's the idea.

design rules

i have started thinking about the concept behind my 'quote book'. i picked all of the quotes in it for a very specific reason: they reflect my personal philosophies behind design. so, today i decided that instead of using quotes in the book i would make a list of what my philosophies are and design a spread using one of them. i named this list 'design rules' (because, well.. it does!).



because i know its hard to read, the list is:

Talk about your work.
Step away from the computer.
Never use the default.
Do research.
Take your time.
The details matter.
Simple is never easy.
Design for content.
Work really, really, really, really, hard.
Think.

and the spread i designed:



i wanted to design this in a similar but slightly different style than what i had been working on for previous spreads. i paid close attention to the interaction of the type and the image while holding on to the simplicity i so adore.

and because i like you guys so much, i made a couple wallpapers of these for your personal enjoyment. feel free to use them.. you can download them from my personal blog.

A Poem for a Tuesday Afternoon

I'm a poetry nut, so I thought it might be interesting to try a poem with a bit of collage. The idea being that there could be a website where poets could go to leave poems or read ones submitted. It doesn't necessarily read too well, but I like the idea of playing with words as texture and layering.

Suite Stuff

I thought of the audience that i was trying to connect to with this project before, and snooty barbie and her horse race loving friends were a good but small audience. to change this furniture company into something different you ultimately change the people coming into the store. although i wish i had time for some snapshots i settled for some pics off the internet of hip, young, trendy people who could like odd or contemporary furniture...

Aziz Light!

Ok so for day 2 I redid my Glo Logo in actual graffiti form. Sorry its kinda like my piece from yesterday, but i was thinking about this and just really wanted to do a punk-renegade-art-graffiti-Pollock-style. Well i hope you all like it!

ps: Haha, oh also sorry about the "5th Element" reference. I forgot how early it gets dark so I kept telling my sister "Aziz Light!"

Peace Out!

Homemade Lemonade

Today I decided to actually try making some homemade lemonade. I thought that it would be a good idea to incorporate some lemonade recipe's along with my table so that kids can make their own. The lemonade actually turned out really good! Try out the recipe sometime :)

Day 2 - Braille Marquee

Today I explored other possible uses for Altable, such as a marquee of sorts for the blind. I cut a wooden dowel up into a bunch of 1/2" pieces and used them to create the characters. The peg and hole system was perfect for creating the braille characters since they are based on a grid as well. The board would be used to create large braille letters to attract attention to the blind, much like we use large letters on billboards to attract the attention of drivers. The beauty of the system is in the ease of use. Simply push the pegs in or take them out as needed. Write and message then switch it up when needed. And in case you were wondering, the board in the picture spells out:

Altable
Braille
Marquee

Day 2: Hopscotch Experiment

This is one my experiments from my list. First of all I am going to throw out props to the random girl, Nicole, and Laura for actually doing the hopscotch.

At about 4 o'clock in the morning I got up and made hopscotch drawing on the cement floor. I did this because I didn't want anyone to see me and also I didn't not want to get into trouble.

I started to watch people at 7:45-8:30 a.m., 9:40-10:00 a.m., 10:40-11:00 a.m. A total of 1hr 15mins. I saw 218 people walking over the hopscotch drawing and out of those 218 people only 3 people actually jumped the hopscotch drawing.

To me that made me think. Why won't older people jump the hopscotch drawing? What made that one random girl jump it? Are people too caught up looking to cool to be a kid again? Or to busy being on there cell phones, or maybe they are just caught up in the world around them?

This experiment just made me think about how sometimes we loss that kid in us. If we lose that kid in us we may also lose that imaginative side that we had when we where growing up. I hope that I will never loss that side of me and that I can apply this fun and imaginative side to more of my work as a designer.

K.O.L.

I decided to switch gears from that idea, and took Hy's advice to try and force this album cover to work with a completely different color for the mood. With what I have to work with, I could get away from the red a lot, which is annoying me now. 

It was one of the first ideas I had to work with this project. Originally I didn't want to do any red at all. I might still be able to but I don't know. I am still working with the mask to get more interaction between the only two images on there now.