all said and done Posts

Published June 15, 2010 by

Client designed logos

I had the worst ‘logo design’ experience today. Last week I submitted several options to *client* and had done my best to steer the design in a somewhat simplified direction and it comes back with. “I don’t really like option 1 & 2 (damn, they were the best ones), let’s merge options 4, 5 and 6 together!!!!”

Yes that’s right. Feet (Skeletal style), red sore spots, healing hands (Hands are tricky and worth avoiding in logos if at all possible) and a specified position for the type: above the arm and IN THE FREAKING ARM.

So I did it.

And they were happy. “This is what I envisioned, now can you make the hands glow so it looks like it’s healing!”

I could’ve cried.

(Just trust us. Really it’ll be better)

Branding Design

Published June 12, 2010 by

Clothes

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread upon my dreams.

Yeats

Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

Isaiah

Words

Published June 8, 2010 by

Big Listers

I am reading the most excellent book at the moment: ‘To See Every Bird on Earth” – Dan Koeppel I had a short fling when I was younger with the whole bird watching thing. It lingers in different forms… the ‘Beside Book of Birds’ – which I love for both the book design and the content. But really it’s the collecting thing. The listing. The organisation. The categories… I must go back to the museum again soon.

My mother is a big lister. She writes them in her spare time. Things like: Words that rhyme with xyz. Odd. Not just one here and there. Lots. And me: Font collections. Books. RSS subscriptions. Posterous. Collections fascinate me.

It’s incredibly satisfying being a ‘big lister’ in some way shape or form (if I can stretch the bird watching definition further, as Koeppel does anyway). I do hope that this book continues to resonate. Blair, I believe this is my ‘I get you Nick Hornby’, because, ‘I kind of get you Richard Koeppel’.

image source

Books Life Lists

Published June 1, 2010 by

Vocation

I have been thinking much lately about this word: Vocation

vo·ca·tion
/voʊˈkeɪʃən/ Show Spelled[voh-key-shuhn] Show IPA
–noun
1. a particular occupation, business, or profession; calling.
2. a strong impulse or inclination to follow a particular activity or career.
3. a divine call to God’s service or to the Christian life.
4. a function or station in life to which one is called by god: the religious vocation; the vocation of marriage.

Things of which have been influential on this have been reading Thomas Merton’s autobiography and also hearing a the story of Jon Cornford (who heads up Manna Gum)

Anyway, there’s that lovely introduction. And no I’m not thinking of changing career. But thoughts to follow sometime when they solidify a bit more.

Christianity Life

Published May 26, 2010 by

What I am learning – working in design/prepress

It has been an interesting four months or so. A steep learning curve in many regards. I am currently working in a design/prepress place where (unfortunately) the design is fairly template driven so the steepness hasn’t been so much on the physical design aspect where I would genuinely like it to be – but very much in the work environment. As some of you already know, it’s not exactly job I’d hoped I’d get straight out of finishing my design degree but…

Let me share some things I’ve learnt:

  • Never, ever underestimate the value of good colleagues. It makes everything so much more bearable
  • Asserting yourself (when appropriate) is okay, good and healthy
  • Always recognise and honor the immense value of a company who places high priority on taking care of their staff (Ergo you were and are amongst the cream of the crop – now morph into a design studio please and take me on!)
  • How to operate a digital press (2 kinds actually), laminator, programmable guillotine, shrink wrapper, drill punch
  • Much improved knife skills (Scalpels and metal rulers friends! Nice not nasty!)
  • Better understanding of paper and paper grammage/stock etc.
  • The secret joy in watching the plastic shrivel when you shrink-wrap something
  • Keep tabs on your pay
  • The importance of correctly designed fonts
  • A full day goes very quickly
  • Task Lists are ALWAYS fun to tick off
  • Some jobs (as in tasks) just suck, and always suck, but they have to be done so you just get on with it
  • I am more detail focused than I even realised – I think this may have developed further over the last year, so much so that I have been told several times to ‘Stop being so anal and just get on with it’.
  • The later you eat lunch, the quicker the rest of the afternoon goes, sometimes it is only by necessity
  • Phones are not the scourge, they are actually quite useful
  • Questions = faster learning, smarter doing

Work

graduate graphic design prepress Work