Monday, October 31, 2011

Mrs. Mia Wallace

Halloween was ridiculous this year. I was sooooo amped, and it was a little bit of a let down.
BUT! I did really kind of like my costume!

I started out wanting to be an Ed Hardy girl haha I had fake sleeves with Hardy tattoos all over them. I couldn't see myself paying for that outfit though, because it's ridiculous.



So, I went to Walmart, 2 A.M. Friday night. Obviously by then costumes were picked over, but I found a crazy, awesome black wig! This spawned my costume idea.


Yes, I was Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction. Granted, her hair was a little longer than mine and I only had a Salmon colored trench coat, it still worked... Grant got it! :] 


With my Jacket on I felt spy-like. 

It also convinced me that I'm never to dye my hair black. I've cut it that short before (pretty much) and dyed it so auburn it looked black, but strait black is not flattering to my skin tone. Yuck. 

What did you guys end up as for halloween?!


Thursday, October 27, 2011

Letterpress

I've been meaning to post this for a while! I finally got 1/2 of the L Letterpress machine a few weeks ago! Sadly, I had to return it cause a piece was missing and there wasn't another to exchange it with, but I'm going to a different store to get one tomorrow!  Until I get the other half I'm sufficing with what I have!





Apparently I need to work on my technique haha

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Caterpillar Day





Today I was down by my moms house so I decided to go to my favorite spot at Lake O to take some photos! It was partly for photography, partly for personal. Um it turned out kind of awesome. I saw 4 furry caterpillars, all in different spots, all different colors. My favorite little beast is the black and yellow man on the flowers up there. He was posing the hell out of my photo shoot with him! I really wish I had my telephoto lens, cause had to get (almost literally) face to face with this guy. I've always been told furry caterpillars are poisonous. I'm pretty sure after googling it just now they all aren't, but there's NO WAY I want to find out.

The orange man at the top is pretty rad too! He was hiding under my car, but I was gone long enough I'm pretty sure he got out from under it before I could run over him (fingers crossed). 
I mean I know they're bugs, but their furry factor makes them adorable. Like little insect kittens! haha okay, maybe not, but still. 

I sat down to watch Venture Brothers with Tyler after I got home, and oddly enough the episode was about Doctor Venture turning into a caterpillar! 
So strange, so strange.

Now, because today was so good, I'm declaring caterpillars as my good luck charm (but only furry ones). 


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Color Therapy

I've been starting to think about opening an etsy shop, but I have NO idea what exactly I want to put up. Mostly illustrations, and if I can get better at typography it would be super nice to mix it up! Honestly I really wish I could put furniture I makeover up there, my coffee table is golden! 

While I was thinking about what to do I got tangled up in the love of the website. Of course! 

I love the fact it's all colorful! Everything I've been looking at is neutral and beautiful, but with winter sneaking up quick, color will be what keeps me sane in all the dull, drabness of no trees or flowers. 








and my favorite....  

I'm a sucker for a old typewriter, and adding color to it makes it all the more tempting! 

What's gets you guys through the cold of winter?

Friday, October 21, 2011

Color Crush

I saw this photo earlier and thought I had to start doing a color crush. I LOVE the colors in this photo. If it doesn't make you want to run across a wheat field on a stormy day, I don't know what will! 


Today has been super productive. I've been learning new design things (thanks Kathleen, by the way, it was super helpful!), getting my oil changed on my car (so now I'm not worried about her breaking down), having  some nice conversation and yummy wine, and working on a barn (which doesn't seem as overwhelming as it did 2 weeks ago)! 

Now for the official weekend!
  • Work
  • Barn
  • Affair of the Heart with my mom and aunt
  • Family Dinner
  • Romantic night at home with the boy! (which I'm most excited about!)
  • and a Kate Spade marketing booklet


I'm totally ready for this. 
What are you guys planning on doing this weekend?

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

I Will Never Love You More...

I will never love you more... than peanut butter. 

this is the story of a charming girl
she laughs out loud, sings off key and believes in taking chances
she is quick and curious and playful and strong
she lets her imagination run away with her
she has never been one to stick to convention
she is fond of daydreams that take her places
she can order a cocktail in six different languages
she feels that understated is overrated 

This video made me fall in love with Kate Spade. 

Her style, her bold colors, the charm of her advertisements, her style, basically, just her brand in general. 
Her ads make life seem so simple and carefree, and just overall dreamy. 




What are your favorite advertisements out there these days?


Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Rule #1: Don't be a Cop-out

Some of Roxanne Daner's Work

Fall break is almost here, and so will begin the end of the semester I've been looking forward to for a long, long time. This semester has represented my transformation from feeling like a kid in a design studio to feeling like a designer. I feel like my work is constantly improving, and I'm working my ass off trying to make it better. I'm trying new things and pushing my bounds. I'm ready to get into the nitty gritty of design so I can keep learning and keep improving.

One of the things I've been wanting to do for a while was learn how to use photoshop to incorporate my drawings {as seen here}, instead of having to make them in the computer (which was all I previously knew how to do). I just posted a project about designing a poster from an emerging designer and a historically relevant designer, and although I think it was going well, it wasn't challenging me to learn anything new. I knew the idea I had and what exactly I wanted the poster to look like, and it all just seemed so easy. 
  • Writing a 5-6 page paper to me: easy
  • The concept of the poster I had: easy
  • The technicalities of the poster: easy

It all fell like a cop-out to me. It was all too easy. So me being me, I last minute changed my emerging designer! I went with Roxanne Daner, who is awesome. 

For my poster I ended up illustrating her and her dog in her style as much as I could (mine obviously still shows through). I didn't know how good I would be at adding color in photoshop, since I had tried before and it didn't go so well. I ended up coloring everything but the backgrounds with copic markers and going back in the computer and adding the concrete floor and background in PS and text in illustrator. Honestly, the more I look at it the happier I am with it. 

I don't feel like it was a cop-out at all, which was bringing down the other poster I was making a lot

Roxanne's Style is so textural and fun!
It's what I strive for. 


My poster! 

Are there any projects/tasks you guys have started, but changed because you thought it didn't show your potential?

Monday, October 17, 2011

Munn dun dun


For History of Graphic Design 3 our class is writing a paper over a historical design rockstar and an emerging designer.  We also have to make a poster reporting our findings, which is probably for sure the coolest part of this assignment.

I went with Seymour Chwast for my historical rockstar. His illustrations are so much fun and can be pretty dreamy!

Thennn my favorite favorite favorite, Jason Munn. I'm not so sure how emerging he is (actually I don't quite think he is at all, because he really shouldn't be), but I kind of, REALLY love his work and had an awesome idea for a poster because of his work.
Love them. 
This is the most clever thing ever.

So for my poster I'm merging them! They both go off really clever concepts and play on imagery. I just have to add the text and write the paper!




I also really fell in love with Roxanne Daner.  Her illustrations are so amazing :] 






Saturday, October 15, 2011

To Do. redo.


I'm in the process of finishing up my apartment. That along with:

  • working on a barn
  • writing a paper
  • making a poster to go with that paper
  • doing a group advertising project
  • doing a personal advertising project
  • doing a case study
  • trying to not fail physical science
  • working so I can pay rent
  • photographing
  • printing
  • letterpressing
  • networking/social life (barely)
  • helping my boy write his paper
  • trying to do personal projects
  • trying to keep up on here
  • and sleeping enough to not freak out from all I have to do. 
Cool! Okay, I think I'll probably be going to hobby lobby soon. I'll have a surprise soon! :D 
I'm excited. 



Also, while I was writing this, the new USPS mail commercial came on. I like it a lot! Hopefully it will work for them!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

In the Next Year....

The other night I sat down and made a list of some things I want to do/accomplish in the next year of designing. They're things I've been thinking about wanting to do for a while but never really made the time or effort to try, but I really want to see how it goes. 
  • create a suitable banner for my blog
  • define my blog and where it's going a tiny bit more

  • create an infographic

This Book is perfect for looking up different inspirations and types of infographics
and overall ways to arrange data
                
This was my favorite infographic.
It's a family tree created by dividing each
section into 2 people (parents) of said person (so on and so on)

  • create an ambigram
I'm actually making on right now, but shhh it's a surprise for a little girl's birthday!
This ambigram was the easiest to read, but so super awesome. 
I found a tutorial here but it seems a little awkward, I won't lie. It's a really good start 
to creating one though! Personally, I just dove on in. Practice makes perfect!

  • create a beautifully scripted poster/design (all type)
If you haven't heard of Jessica Hiche, please Google her now and sit in awe while looking at her website.... Don't worry if your jaw drops a bit, she's mad talented. 

  • create a take-along portfolio for everywhere I go (aka improve networking skills)
  • network (in general)
  • learn how to compose text (mixing and matching fonts incredibly well)
Any designer, aside from you masters of type-mixology should definitely 
bookmark this page (and if you masters o' type want to bookmark it too, I encourage it). 
It's got really sound advice on mixing fonts. Something I've super 
recently started divulging into. It's not quite there yet, but yet again, practice makes perfect.

  • learn to work photoshop amazingly so I can incorporate my illustrations without having to vector them
  • become more detailed in my illustrations
I tried not to admit to myself that my drawings need more detail. This is probably the 
most detailed thing I've done and it's still lacking a lot.... 
This also goes along with my learn photoshop goal (above). I loose something
between my hand and the computer... I can't explain it. 
  • create a series of characters 
I want to make more characters and develop them more. Maybe one day I can even see 
it in my heart to give them hands and feet (see above) haha 


What goals do you guys want to start on or accomplish?

Monday, October 10, 2011

Out of the Drought


This weekend, after what felt like YEARS of not having rain, it finally rained! For two days strait actually. It was so refreshing and calming. It just makes me more and more ready for fall. After the second day of rain I noticed something in my apartment.


It was/is not okay. I called to have it fixed and I'm pretty sure they haven't done it yet, but it also isn't dripping, and dried up by this morning. I'm kind of, sort of hoping to get a cut in rent for my troubles of having to deal with it considering I've only been here 2 months and it's getting crazy. 

Needless to say I got a few AWESOME shots of the night sky!
This is what it looks like on a normal unclouded night
This is what it looked like last night. 

One of my other favorite shots I've gotten of the sky lately was during a sunset a few weeks ago. 

The one thing I love about Oklahoma is definitely the variation in sky we see. 

Was anyone else thankful for the rain!? It was incredibly lovely. 

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Sugar Sugar Sugar skull

I really love sugar skulls. I love what they look like, I love what they are made for, I love the celebration they are included with. Basically, I'm not kidding when I say I really love them. That's why when I got asked to make a sugar skull/elephant tattoo for my best friend, Audrie, I was totally on board. This girl loves elephants. Like a lot. It's super adorable, actually.

I had asked her if she knew what sugar skulls were for and she had said no. So for those of you who also don't know I will give you a tiny taste of this awesome tradition. Basically, sugar skulls are made on Dia de los Muertos (aka Nov 1&2) for the deceased. The skulls are called sugar skulls because they are made of sugar, obviously. How I see it is that they're pretty much celebrating the people who have passed on and their lives. You guys should really read this... It will do a much better job  of explaining than I do.

So I asked Audrie if she was getting it for anyone or wanted to get it for anyone. Oddly enough she had already wanted to get it for her grandpa, the man who brought her the love she has of elephants! It was really quite perfect.

So on I labored, first figuring out the silhouette.


I really liked the silhouette on the right, but thought a literal interpretation may be better. 
She liked both. Sooooo.... Being awesome like I am I combined them.  
Outline of the elephant

Okay, anyone wanting to make a sugar skull, it's freaking hard. Maybe not as much on just a skull, but that is a lot of body to fill.
This one was a no. Really.
Yes. 
I ended up scrapping the first one because it looked like an Indian elephant instead of a sugar skull. I did keep some aspects of it, but the back is really different. I'm not super excited about the back legs on the one I'm keeping (aka the one with color). Really, they're not okay. It looks like fishnets and a valentines day card hahaha. I still like him though. He just needs a little more love!

I'm kind of curious of how many other people have a love for elephants... You should share your love!


Saturday, October 8, 2011

Roach Encroach Part 3

So I had decided to break this post into 3 parts. One part description, one part process, and finally my final products! I'm excited that the photos I took turned out pretty well! There were about 15 parts to this project in this kit, so be patient with my photos! I tried to trim them down to the basics!



Foam Dough - 3 white, 1 brown

Craft Sticks

16 Binder Clips

3 Stacks of 2" Post it notes

Rubber Bands

Push Pins

Tape

T Pins

Embroidery Floss

Pipe Cleaners


Instruction Book


Sitting in the kit
Back of Kit 
If you have any questions about this project feel free to ask! I'm happy to explain/talk about any of my ideas!