Design, discovery and humor- TED Talks

This is a really interesting and fun TED talk by David Carson. Interestingly, he said he had no design training.

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!!!

You know that old guy in every one of your college claasses and drove you up the friggin wall? Oh come on, you know the one....He always sat right down in the front row, directly in line with the professor, interrupted the flow of the lecture, always answered EVERY freaking question, did 5x the amount of homework required and generally made an annoying nuisance of himself at every turn?

Yeah...THAT guy!

He's in my distance learning class now!!! and he's annoying the hell out of me!! If I have to read one more freaking comment of his I'll scream!

Shut up already!!!

whew...rant over.

Sunday Funnies

In honor of it being Burns' Night, thought I'd use a scottish joke this week.
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A very popular scotsman dies in glasgow and his old widow wishes to tell all his friends at once so she goes to the newspaper and says "I'd like tae place an obituary fur ma late husband" The man at the desk says "OK, how much money dae ye have?" The old woman replies "£5" to which the man says "You wont get many words for that but write something and we'll see if it's ok" so the old woman writes something and hands it over the counter and the man reads "Peter Reid, fae Parkheid, deid"

He feels guilty at the abruptness of the statement and encourages the old woman to write a few more things. The old woman ponders and then adds a few more words and hand the paper over the counter again. The man then reads "Peter Reid, fae Parkheid deid. Ford Escort for sale"

Today's expedition into the art world

Today my friend Lisa and I took the first of a 2 part "Beginning Acrylics" class. It was a great way to spend a couple hours on a Saturday morning. Granted, neither of us is likely to be hanging our stuff at the Tate Modern any time soon...but still, it was a good time.
The instructor, bless him, was really sweet and kept telling us both how great our little birds looked, what a great job we were doing, etc.

All I can say is you can judge for yourself. ;-)

We only got to bring 2 colours, plus white with us and we had to stick to those two colours. That's why everything is green. Also, this is our base coat, not the completed project. Right Lisa? :-)

Next class, in a couple weeks, we'll finish these babies up!

Learned alot, had a great time and that's what really matters anyway! Not the fact that I'm now stuck with a very green bird.

Logo Learning - Trends

Good article about the 2008 trends in logo design can be found here at Logo Lounge

http://www.logolounge.com/logotrends/

Had a great time last night with an artist friend of mine looking at artsy magazines and internet trends. She used to do quite a bit of graphic art work and is an art educator now, so she's well aware of what's popular these days. Look at alot of work with circles, branching, thumbprints, growth and color.

Decided to try looking at some of my own work I've already produced photograpically for design ideas. That truly had never occured to me...We'll see what happens next...

I think I need to at least get a working handle on Adobe Illustrator to do some of the work that people have either suggested or that I want to do with some of the images I already have. But for some reason, Illustrator just seems overwhelming to me. Gotta just get 'er done I guess...

Purple???

Logo Learning Part 6

Fif is right, the lettering isn't correct., mostly cause I was basically just having a grown up, artistic, "temper tantrum' because I was sick to death of the whole idea of having to make a church logo be "masculine" instead of inclusive...but, really, I just needed to remember the C.A.R.P lessons of good design of Robin Williams (not that Robin Willams). Without it, you end up with CRAP.

C - contrast
A - alignment
R - repitition
P - proximity
I had some contrast, but not quite enough in the font. I don't think it's colour as much as the fact that the contrast between the two letters that was missing.

Next and last...attempt at this one...all out of my system now.

Logo Learning Part 5

Lesson of the day...

Sometimes, you just gotta do a thing just for youself!!

Been wanting to do something like this the whole time I've been messing with this project.

Driving me nuts to have to do this someone else's way.

Feeling better now that I got to work it out of my own self. Granted, the fonts aren't exactly right..need to be blended a bit more, but, heck it's good enough for 3:30am.

Has colour, has the letters together "as one", no "bleeding cowboy", heck, what more could they want? ;-)

One should photograph objects, not only for what they are, but for what else they are.

- Minor White

Windowsill Daydreaming

Logo Learning Part 4

Newest attempts can be found here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Changinglenses/11309Work?authkey=pLhbaFhlVG8

The ones with yellow lettering are not out of focus btw. I was trying to make the yellow ones look metallic like the silver one does. Didn't work....and I got tired of messing with it for now. Figured the last thing I wanted to do was keep messing with an image that no one would ever look at again. I understand now how to resolve the issues with lighting, and shading so I'm just moving on to something else.

Did get a bit of good feedback on the image where the font looks like there's lines through them and definately good results with the new background. Keeping that...

Of course, had to throw in one with the "Bleeding Cowboy" font again. Have I mentioned yet that I think that's the coolest font in the world? ;-)

Logo Learnin' Part 3

I spent about 2 hours trying to make this work, choosing fonts and colors. Then realized that, although I'd done a pretty good job of making a cool looking symbol in the middle, I'd just "killed" my whole design because your eye goes right to the middle dot and never to the word "Room" down on the far right hand side.

Plus I just realized, I think it looks just like a hazardous waste sign I've seen before. Ugggggh....

Logo Learnin' Part 2

After I completed the logo for my buddy's church and sent it off, I also sent it to my artist friend. He said that it looked like a logo for the red cross or something which was good, "if you think of your fellowship as a health clinic". OMG! I nearly died of laughter when I realized how right he was! It does look like a hospital logo...in fact, it looks like every hospital I've ever been in's logo. And I've been in alot of hospitals. Had my friend Lisa who also works in healthcare look at it too and she completely agrees.

Think all the years of healthcare consulting have soaked into my unconscious...what a hoot!

Went to the bookstore to look at logo examples and check out what I found.

Too funny!

Sunday Funnies

-- ITALIAN PASTA DIET --

1. You walka pasta da bakery.
2. You walka pasta da candy store
3. You walka pasta da Ice Cream shop.

Worksa every time!

Logo Learnin'

Over the last few days, I've decided I'm going to be moving towards a more creative lifestyle and spend 2009 learning design. Pretty much "done" with living out of a suitcase and wearing panty hose every day. (that's my dream anyway)

The last couple nights I've been working on a logo for my friend's church. Having a great time, learning tons! Have a fantastically amazing artist friend who helped me until the wee morning hours to come up with this:
For me, the very best part of this design is the awesome font called "Bleeding Cowboy". Yeah, yeah....I already know the jokes. I just think that's the world's coolest font...
Of course, that meant my friend who pastors this church hated it! He really liked the sun burst background, but just couldn't stand the little "tail" on the letter R. He said it looked "too french" LOL!

Tonight, during webchurch, I was messing around with Photoshop. I guess it's like modern day "doodling"...and after listening to a pretty dang good sermon, I came up with something totally different. I'm not sure the cross is quite "right" but I'm pretty much exhausted and don't feel like looking for another brush at this point in the night. I'm actually pretty happy with the way it came out. Not too bad for my first ever solo project I don't think.

Quotable Quote

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better. What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finally - US calls for Ceasefire in Gaza

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090106/twl-us-calls-for-gaza-ceasefire-41f21e0.html

It's hard to get past the press of a school being blown up I guess

U2?

Today I was having a conversation with a pastor friend who says he doesn't know any music by U2? :-O I KNOW...I nearly fell on the floor too!..once I recovered though, I quickly shot him an email with my favorite tunes. That of course included "Grace", "Still Haven't Found what I'm looking For", and "God, part 2". In my attempts to explain the last song, I searched The Message for the verses from Paul that I think the song is about. I'm posting them here (a first btw) because I really like the way it's said here:
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15 What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. 16 So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary. 17 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can't keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help!

18 I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, but I can't do it. 19 I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.

20 My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. 21 It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. 22 I truly delight in God's commands, 23 but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

24 I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? 25 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

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more can be found here...but this wording makes more sense to me than the other versions I've read or heard a "million" times before.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=52&chapter=8&version=65

Oh...and here's the song too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7fhIVgpSnc

Sunday Funnies

I think this Pink video is hilarious! Love that she's so willing to make fun of her own silly behavior and profession. Makes it easier to laugh at myself when I act like a passionate idiot too.

Plus the tune is just down right fun!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bNDr1A6dTU

Painting Class at Last

Signed up for an short, beginnin acrylic painting class with a friend today! There's a new art space and gallery in town that's offering 2 for 1 deals on some classes, so it worked out well.

I am so excited to finally be taking a step towards learning to paint. I've wanted to do it for quite a while, but haven't had either the courage or the time. Alternating excuses really...

Been using Corel PainterX to do some digital painting, but find that not having the body knowledge of what it feels like to move the paint around a canvas hinders the painting. It's hard to choose from all the brushes and paint techniques without having the experience of using them first. This will be a great first step towards learning more about how paint vs pixels works.

Now I just have to pick a colour scheme, buy canvas, brushes, paint.......WooT!