The Attitude of "flamenca"

Although most models give the pouty mouth and eyes, I feel like these two convey an appropriate look consistant with "flamenca."

The becoming-prince of the multitude

Kant dedicates reason as an animating force in doubt, and enlightenment as a police armed to banish the "fanatical vision". What does it mean, it means a resulting death of philosophy. Doubt then, not reason itself reveals the revolutionary passion in reason as emerging from the margins of art history.

"The becoming Prince of the multitude is a project that relies entirely on the immanence of decision making within the multitude." —Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri

This piece reasons with the decision of joining the "Furrydom", anthropomorphism, and a courtship with the multitude.

FullGive (Day 5)

So I wanted to try my hand at carving my own FullGive stamp. The idea being that I can now spread the love and put a bit of a FullGive on anything and everything for everyone to see… ha ha can you feel the love?

Playing with Fire!

I was thinking What made Kenpo different from other styles and inturn what would make my brand different. I came to the idea that they are "living". Kenpo, unlike other styles, is constantly evolving, improving, and getting better. So I started thinking what is living that isnt? FIRE.

So I took the chines symbol for Kenpo, and set it ablaze.

The Glo of Under Water...

Today's design is a little bit back to the original idea I had for this project with the idea of making the Glo Energy Drink branded and designed for many different types of sports. This one is obviously designed for swimming with the logo on a pair of goggles.

Sour Faces

I decided to experiment with the taste of lemons. Lemons are known for their fresh and citrus smell, and they taste great loaded with sugar in lemonade. But how do they taste all by themselves? Not so good as me and some of my friends found out. I wanted to really dig into the real taste of lemons and took pictures doing it. If you ever want a real jaw jerking, eye stinging, explosion of sour taste in your mouth experience, get yourself a lemon! If not, visit a Lemon Time stand near you :)

Soto's Asian Foods

Today I was thinking of the concept of what things I have at hand that are more unusual and stand out from others', and I realized I always have a small variety of Japanese foods I get when I go to small markets. Even though the list of things I eat or drink which origins are Japanese are very wide, at the moment I found I had green tea, pocky (biscuit sticks dipped in chocolate or strawberry coatings), rice crackers wrapped in seaweed, and large strips of seaweed used for making homemade sushi.

Because Soto's origins are of the Japanese culture I was thinking how it would work if it a brand that released a large variety of Japanese food such as what is found at a Japanese market.

Freudentisch and Exotic Pets

Freudentisch is all about pets. Pets are animals. As I worked on this concept, I thought about Meret Oppenheim (especially her piece with the fur-covered teacup and spoon, and the trussed heels). I asked myself if there could possibly be a market for tables covered with faux fur. Initially, I wanted a shag carpet or faux ermine coat to cover the table, but I decided to go with the iconic leopard print. The overall idea behind today's concept is: some people enjoy snuggling with pets. If a customer purchases a table pet, why not make that worth snuggling with too? It won't bark, it won't bite, and, best of all, it won't leave a mess on your boss's suit pants! It also won't require walking, grooming, feeding, veterinarian visits, licensing...

define design

when i was little and i made food, condiments had to be applied in an aesthetically pleasing manner. HAD to be. i have been known to throw away a hotdog because the mustard and ketchup looked too messy.

that being said, why can't mustard on toasted bread be typography? why can't a wine bottle be sculpture? why can't a wallpaper pattern be art worthy of hanging on a museum wall?

i love the idea of everyday objects considered as art. viewing your surroundings as creative, intentional, and beautiful will give you a whole new appreciation for them. this is an essential part of what i believe as an artist and designer and want to translate that belief through my work.

Cable Table reDesign.005

I caught a rerun this morning of an interview John Mayer did recently about his new album Battle Studies. He was asked about how it differs from his last release, Continuum (2006). He brought up some interesting points about how Continuum was meant to be "perfect." He redid certain vocals nearly 100 times to get them just right, the same with the instruments. He smoothed it out as far as he possibly could. On the other hand, Battle Studies is "purposely rough." He felt that, lyrically and thematically, it was the most approachable album he's done, so he wanted to treat the music the same way.

It got me thinking about when it's appropriate to do this with design. I've heard that art directors and designers go back and forth all the time on whether the hand-drawn look is appropriate or not, and I'd put in my $0.02 that there are times it definitely works. I wanted to take this approach with the Cable Table brand with the hopes of making it more welcoming to a younger, artsy-er and maybe unorganized audience. This newer, sketchy logo (created thanks to the magic of carbon paper + my previous logo w/ a few things added) is meant to give off a look of "You are capable of making this table whatever you need it to be. It's your canvas." The components would possibly be sold as attachments rather than already included and set up. It's not as sleek as what I originally offered to the lifehacker crowd, it's much more DIY and open-ended.

By the way, I've found that carbon paper is a great way to bring your designs back into the sketchbook and that experimental mindset after playing around with them on a computer. I highly recommend it. It helps you get "closer" with the forms of the typography and shapes, plus I've found it helps your freehand sketching skills later on as well.

Day 5 - Comic

Today so I started thinking about what the name, Altable, could be applied to and I realized that really anything changeable or that can be altered would usually work. So I decided a Transformer-type comic would do the trick. I hired one of my illustrator friends to do the comic for me about a morphing-robot called Altable. After he drew up a rough sketch, I scanned it and roughly colored it digitally, which took a whole lot longer than I thought. But I think it turned out well. I definitely have a new found respect for any comic book artist.

Day 5: Real Value

I am going for the implication of costly perfume/cologne. How much does or could it cost your per squirt? Sometimes I think about stuff like that, or I think about stuff like that all the time. But if you start analyzing stuff like your daily routine and start with how much it costs you to shower, get dressed, eat (if I remember) go to school, cost per day for tuition and all of the sudden you start realizing how many resources you can use and go through on a daily basis without realizing it. So what if that sort of thing is applied to the ad. How much is it worth?

If the cost is high to initially buy the perfume or cologne then it will probably be used sparingly, but remember if you don't use it quick enough, it will go bad. So the actual value of the product decreases if you use it or not, so again, what is it's actual worth to you as a consumer?

A different angle on music

So, I wanted to upload a movie I made of my cello seen from different angles, but I'm not really sure what I'm doing so it may not work. (Hence the stills from movie) I like the idea of showing different perspectives of musical instruments. When I go to the symphony I always wish I could go sit in different locations to get a different perspective of the players. My thought today is that listening to music keeps us thinking about life in new ways from the vantage of other composers.
Music is a way of keeping our minds and ears open to new things. Every Tuesday Afternoon try to listen to something you wouldn't normally listen to.

Day 5: The Spider Web

So I want outside today to get some fresh air and look what I found in a spider web. Who would of thought?

glo people

a little bit different spin on an energy drink...it makes you actually "glo" in the dark! kind of creepy...and it'd be impossible to be sneaky in the dark. it'd come in different colors so you could glow blue, green, or purple in the dark. pretty fun!

Digital Age

This idea didn't turn out quite like I had wanted to. Long story behind that which I won't get into. Early this morning I had already started thinking about what direction I wanted to go with my Musician Album Cover. Then I remembered somebody saying to me "well what if it was vinyl, or just something other than a Compact Disk". I didn't really wanna go that route, because that not this artist style necessarily. The it hit me, I remembered a while ago hearing about or reading that musicians were considering the option of using jump drives or something like that to put there music on as a result or the Mass Downloading Music craze.

So I thought, how would an artist, such as this. Who on the last 3-4 cd's he released, if you pre-ordered you could get stickers, maybe a poster, and an exclusive unreleased track buy the artist, translate his album K.O.D. onto, or into a usb travel drive, or equivalent.

Like I said, this didn't quite go as I had planned. Had to get it done before 3 thought cause my evening packed.

greetings fall

growing up in Saudi we only had 2 seasons (if you can call them that) Hot and Cool. So while I was thinking about where nature's niche will go next I thought Why Not Saudi. I wanted a way i could bring the different seasons to my family overseas. So I came up with cards. I wanted the cards to reflect the different seasons by using the natural elements that are apparent during that time. I choose to do thanksgiving for obvious reasons. I went around gathering fallen leaves and sticks to spell out the holiday.

I would like to have printed this on nice paper and photographed it but I am currently up in Park city with out a printer.. So maybe when I get back I can do that.

myself as an environment

so i thought to myself, what if i represented myself not through a tangible object such as a book or poster but instead through an environment? what would this environment look like, what kind of objects would it contain, and what would it be used for?

i came to the conclusion that the best environment to represent me would be my idea of a perfect studio. i took the liberty of deciding what i want in my studio someday and laying out a floor plan. i am very particular about how i like rooms arranged so everything is very thought out. the couch has to be against a smaller wall, facing opposite a window next to the bookcases.. the desk cannot be on the opposite wall from the door because i cant have people walking in and scaring me from behind. i HAVE to have a whiteboard wall to doodle on.. yadda yadda.

you're all jealous now and cant wait to design your studio huh.

So one day I was at an outdoor mall and saw this cute little mod shop. It was a clothing store but i wanted to see if i could find a way to show the same idea with furniture since i seem to be leaning towards that kind of store anyway. So i know its kinda silly, and in case you can't figure it out the things in the windows are those pod chairs that hang from the ceiling, but it looks like a little boutique. The kind that people our age go "oh my gosh! have you ever been there!? i freakin love that store!" like people do when they talk about ikea...well i should say, when I talk about ikea at least.

As for the exterior my interior design and architectural background is coming out when i find it oh so awesome to have a trim and proper building with old classic style, crown molding and all, paired with bright colored lights modern textures and asthetics displayed in signage and perhaps a glass door, as well as an interior full of funky furniture. Love! I would totally live there

Day 4

I've noticed these past few days there has been a lot of exchange of sweets between some of the people I know and wondered what Soto would be like if it was a line of chocolates and made the front of a box of chocolates. Tried to use the texture of paints (as chocolate was unavailable) for the background to make it feel a little more organic.

The Taste of "flamenca"

I was hesitant to do something food-related because it's been done already for this project, but, what with my brand directly involving scent experiences, I felt this exploration would be appropriate. I spent time contemplating the sharp/smooth contrast of "flamenca, " and determined the characteristics of ginger ideally define the complexities of that contrast. By itself, ginger is a bitter, shocking taste. In food, and particularly chocolate, it tones down and develops a sensual, enveloping aroma that is experienced beyond taste buds and into the olfactory. And it doesn't hurt that it's delicious.

FullGive (Day 4)

This mock-up is an idea that I had for a catalog of the FullGive product line. FullGive uses random found objects (ie: the soles of shoes, textured fabrics, etc) with interesting patterns for stamping, which add interesting textures using acrylic paints. I wanted the cover of the catalog to show part of the creative processes used to create these products.

Day 4: Neverland

So this was a light box that I made. I was going to take more pictures but my camera battery died. My camera still hasn't full recovered from kanarraville falls hike.

Of Love Possessed

If love is like the wasp and the orchid; love becomes an engagement in the production of subjectivity. It is no longer spontaneous, romantic, or passive. It then being a production of affective networks, schemes of cooperation, and social subjectivities is and economic power. This leads to the production of the common and under these circumstances love itself becomes susceptible to corruption.

Lets have love defined by the common and then through the introduction and reoccurring encounter and experimentation of singularities within the common we can produce more common and more singularities. It is in the reproduction of singularities that we can study how people are and analyze the passions that actually animate them.

The productive, passionate, and industrious bee and its relationship with the flower as a common overtakes in its singular relationship the hedonistic relationship of the wasp and the orchid.

This is a response to an art forum article, Reckoning with Empire. The piece produced today is a further response to the issue of love, self, and identity.

Many "trains" of thought

After going through a couple of ideas about what I wanted to do to work off of what I did yesterday, a little. Without being so damn dramatic.

So I remade K.O.D. as if it was my own album cover. I knew that I loved the music I listen to because of where it can take me, or where it can take me from. Obviously how I relate to it, as any of us do. So I just put myself in it, hope this doesn't seem to egotistical heh heh.

Recipe for a perfect Tuesday Afternoon

These daily blog uploads certainly do make you think!

I decided after my last Tuesday Afternoon image that I

liked it as a music label. I guess it could be something

that encompasses a creative way of life—with everything

from how you live and surround yourself at home, to

what is important to you as a person. What kind of music

do you listen to, how do you spend your free time, and

what are your passions in life?

For me, music is a way of life. I wrap myself up in it

like a blanket on a cold day. I play it, I breathe it, I live it.

I know Autumn is a little bit past, but I thought it goes

so well with Mozart. I was imagining if I could bottle up

the perfect day I would capture a beautiful cloudless sky,

bottle some beautiful fall leaves of all shapes and sizes to

remind me how amazing life is when you live in the moment.

And, I imagine hearing Mozart because his music is so uplifting

and happy.

Would anyone care to

comment on the logo

I made? It probably

still needs a bit of work.

FYI that little lightening

looking shape above the

(a) is a symbol for a rest

in music.

Day 4: Cendrillon: A frame of mind.

So I know that the parameters call for a 6"x 6" but my idea called for a little bit more room than that. I totally forgot that I had a Kolob Canyon Review meeting on Thursday, but I think there was a reason for that. I fell in love with Cedar again on Thursday. I took this video as well as some amazing photos the day of the morning snowfall. I just had this feeling that I needed to go for a drive that afternoon and see what happened. I found heaven on earth. As I thought about this, I really didn't want to use this for any school assignment, but keep it for myself. But that has changed.

What if Cendrillon was a frame of mind instead of a tangible object. When I uploaded this video a lot of the quality is lost but the idea and emotion are still there. Design is all about portraying a message through type and imagery. Usually the type is what's "loud" and grabbing or even yanking for someone attention, just like my last post. But what design offered peace, and quiet like this snippet of heaven on earth?

Glo Mobile

So I was really trying to think of a way that I could portray or design my brand to fit another sport or something along the lines fitting an energy drink but that is not really what came out.

Some of my friends were watching one of the "Tomb Raider" movies. Now in the movie there is a part where she is in an ancient tomb and happens to be in the rights spot at the exactly right moment to see some hieroglyphic-hanging-mobile-type-thing. That gave me the idea that I and the huge desire to make my Glo Logo out of a mobile, like the movie.

Then I was trying to think of a good slogan befitting the design. I was thinking "It helps you at the exact time you need it" or something like that but I don't know if its that good because you almost have to have seen the movie or require an explanation. Anyway I'll think of a good slogan later. I hope you like the "Glo Mobile!"

Day 4 - Altable Interior

Today I was thinking of how the Altable product line could be expanded and I realized why not cover whole rooms in the product?! Hanging pictures, whiteboards, and posters would be a cinch. It could also have a great potential in craft rooms or workshops to hang tools and supplies. People with OCD could also easily align everything in their room using the holes as guides. The holes pattern might look pretty cool, especially if the wall behind the board was a bright color. And you would never have to go through the awful task of putting up ugly wallpaper ever again.

It might be kind of hard to see in this photo, but the picture above represents a craft room with the walls covered in the Altable peg board system.

Essentials

So today i was thinking, What is the core of Kenpo? it doesn't have any fancy flashy stuff. It is just basic "what works" moves. Its not showy. So i thought of welding paperclips together to make the logo. Its not flashy, fancy or showy. its just the base "what works".

Today I wanted to do another "add-on" for the lemonade stand. Kids can now purchase matching Lemon Time aprons to wear while selling their lemonade.

Seeds

Today is cold and dead, so I wanted my project to have life and warmth to it, cause I'm not a fan of cold.. So when I was thinking about how I could do that, I started thinking of life and how everything starts from something small and grows. which led me to this Seeds. I mean what better way is there for Nature's Niche to go, but back to it's roots? (sorry I for the awful pun couldn't help myself). So naturally (oh god I did it again, its been a long day) I decided to make nature's niche into a gardening company. I wanted it to have a different look than the generic seed packaging that already exist so that it would stand out on the shelf and make my target audience chose my brand over the others. So I added COLOR and PATTERNS to my design, aren't you surprised? I know using color is a bold move for me but I felt that it needed to be done... Enjoy

Freudentisch and Knock-Off Brands

This morning I thought about parent companies and knock-off brands. I especially contemplated the Great Value, Western Family, Kroger, Kirkland Signature, and other similar generic brands. I wondered if they were designed poorly on purpose. That thought led me into the idea of becoming your own competition. If people are determined to buy knock-off brands, then that would be ample motivation for big name brands to create their own knock-off in order to have a share in as many portions of the market as possible. I set to work trying to make a knock-off of freudentisch. At first I focused on a close English translation, Happy Table, and I made a paper maquette with the face in the style of a generic brand. Since I was going for knock-off, I even went with the stereotypical yellow 'happy face' color. After fiddling with it, I realized that it was very close to street warning signs. So that's where today went.
"Warning: Designer at Play."

once upon a time, i was a swimmer. i was given an energy drink before one of my races and i cut 2 seconds off my time. it was pretty awesome and i was excited so from then on, i had one before that exact race. i thought it might be kinda cool if there was an energy drink marketed specifically for swimmers. i put a shark with it because it's a pretty fierce type of animal in the water and so i went with that. after this design and thinking about all the fun memories of swimming, i've learned that i miss it...but making the design was fun.

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!