Prickly Pear Bloom

Christmas

December 26th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Well, we got through Christmas for another year. Hooray! And relatively unscathed, too. These are a some labels that I spent an hour whipping up for a couple of jars of gifted preserves.

We spent Christmas Eve hanging out at my aunt and uncle’s country place, hot tubbing, learning to play dice, and watching the horses. I want to photograph them every time I’m there, they’re critters that I don’t get to be around that often, and they’re gorgeous and huge and full of personality. I went out in the morning with the last of a roll of Impossible Project Color Shade First Flush polaroid film. It took a full 24 hours for it to develop enough to make out the horses, and even so, it’s incredibly smokey and different from what I’d expected. But that’s the thrill of it. These shots feel so wintry, too. I wonder if they will develop even more over the next day or two?

I almost forgot to make a Christmas card this year, but was threatened with buying a box of them to get them out, and I just couldn’t be okay with that, so I managed this. I’m satisfied. Hopefully the recipients were as well.

This has really been an incredible year, full of opportunities and big changes. I’ve been looking back quite a bit over the last few weeks at what I’ve learned and created, and I’m so excited to see what the next year has to offer. Merry everything, ya’ll.

New Years, new work

December 12th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

We decided to throw a tiny little New Year’s party this year, so I threw together this little logo/invitation for it. The version on the right is the result of a happy accident I discovered when I previewed the native file, which shows all the layers, even the hidden ones. I love when stuff like that happens.

I also just photographed samples of a very exciting project that I worked on this summer, which has been in the wild for a while now, but I haven’t had a chance to tell you. Look for that soon!

Engagement

December 7th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

When my friends Shane and Courtney asked if I’d do an engagement shoot with them and their dogs at the Verona Dog Park, how could I refuse? It was fun, casual, funny, and a really nice autumn walk. And I think the shots came out pretty well, too.

Stop Motion Road Trip

November 23rd, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

This week has been a struggle for me. I think I may need to lock myself in a room for a day and just make art that doesn’t need to communicate something other than the noise that’s in my head, and doesn’t need to satisfy anyone but me. H’anyways, in an effort to try to regain a sense of enjoyment of anything in time for me to appreciate good food and company tonight at Friendsgiving 2011, here are some things.

First, here’s a lovely little film made as a personal project by director Tom Jenkins, made with stop motion and Google Maps Street View. I think this is an interesting concept, and I got completely invested in this when I watched it the first time. Although, I also have a personal attachment to travel and road trips. So there’s that, too. Nevertheless, watch it, it’s beautiful.

Another thing I’m enjoying today: this vintage postcard calendar journal project. Also dying to try these, but butter is not a thing I need more of in my life right now.

Really digging this album, Exurbs, its awesomeness has been on repeat and is shepherding me through this week.

Creativity and Time

November 10th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

The creative industry is full of “make more work faster.” I’ll admit that I do tend to need a deadline, but no time constraint can push me to be more creative. I love the way this video illustrates that, in the most perfect way.

What I did on my summer vacation

November 1st, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

Well, Hello!

It’s been a little bit, huh? Since I’ve posted here.

I guess I’ve been working hard and playing hard. Lots of hours in front of the computer, and then off to see music or can tomatoes or some such, and then I seem not to want to spend any more time than I have to with my favorite technological companion, the Mac. I even had a post about rhubarb ice cream all set to go, just waiting for photos, which I never took, and then it didn’t seem so relevant anymore as spring’s rhubarb season passed on it’s merry way.

So, I feel like it’s the kind of time for a “What did you do on your summer vacation” kind of essay.

I went to visit my dad in Anacortes, WA, and took him to my favorite hipster trifecta of Seattle: Serious Pie, Stumptown Coffee and Molly Moon’s. And it was splendid. We took a ride on his motorcycle to the one wavy spot in the sound, and let the sea salty wind tickle our faces. And I only took film cameras, and haven’t even thought about developing yet.

I canned a ton of things. It was the summer of pickles and jam. This recipe for gherkins turned out awesome, and I jammed quite a few pounds of sour cherries from my friend’s tree. (She doesn’t like them. Lucky me.) And I pickled garlic scapes, dilly beans, beets, hot peppers, and sour cherries, plus made some insane killer fiery hot sauce.

I grew an artichoke.

I Shitty Barned almost every week, and discovering tons of new music to obsess over. Check out Blessed Feathers and Anna Vogelzang. They are on heavy rotation around here. (Anna’s on tour right now! Could be in a city near you!)

We took a short road trip out to South Dakota and bummed planless around the Black Hills and The Badlands. It was amazing. Lots more film. And lots of digital, too, just not processed yet. I finally saw wild (mostly) bison. It was incredible. And bighorn sheep, wild burros, tons of turkeys, pheasants, and pronghorn, which I learned are not antelope, nor are they related to either deer or cows, like we thought, but are their very own thing. We camped in The Badlands for a night, and it was cold. Below freezing.

I spent some time with some friends from the north, and learned that chestnuts do actually grow in Wisconsin.

We harvested our first garlic.

I shot my first engagement session. With friends. I’d like to share some favorites soon.

So, please forgive me for not being present here all summer. I’ll try to be a bit better. But I can’t guarantee it. There’s still lots of work and play to be done. See you soon, and thanks, friends.

For my birthday I:

July 7th, 2011 § 7 comments § permalink

Sat on the Terrace and drank some beers with friends
picked many pounds of strawberries
Saw Jason Mraz and Guster
made many jars of strawberry preserves
went for a 27 mile bike ride
ate cupcackes
sat on the porch

It was a good weekend.

She’s a Fickle Knitter (But Not Really)

June 21st, 2011 § 3 comments § permalink

I’ve been a bit under the weather the past couple of days, so I guess I should take advantage of the few hours at home to post about some fun stuff I’ve been working on. I was fortunate to have Michelle Miller (Fickleknitter Design) contact me to design a postcard and trade show banner for her booth at TNNA (The National Needlearts Association) a couple of weeks ago. Michelle is a fantastic knit designer, who specifically tries to create pieces that can be made with one skein, which is great, because I know had a habit of falling in love with luxury yarn and purchasing only one, for which I never find a good. I’m sure I’m not the only knitter who does that. Plus, it’s just nice to make something small out of fiber that is fancy and luxurious, without breaking the bank to get 8 skeins for a giant sweater.

Anyway, she wanted to go in a more typographic direction, with pink and gray being her booth colors, so design-away I went, and this is what I came up with. I hear it got a great reception at the show. Shortly thereafter, she asked if I could put together a logo based on a similar look as the banner.

I’m really pleased with how these pieces have turned out, but I’m even more excited to be designing her first book! I can’t wait to dig in and show it off!

Love, Etc.

June 19th, 2011 § 3 comments § permalink

I hate when Netflix doesn’t even have movies listed yet that I want to see so badly. I watched this trailer today and got almost a little teary. I need to remember to search for this again later when maybe, hopefully, Netflix will know about it. (found via Evening Chef)

The Experience of New Things

June 14th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

One of the things I like most about being a graphic designer is that I sometimes find myself in situations where I am either learning a whole bunch of stuff about something that I never would have learned about, just for some project, or I have to figure out how to get something made that I’ve never made before.

I have been working with my hair stylist for a couple of months on some printed materials for her new business, Cuture. We did business cards, and then some postcards to mail to her clients announcing the change. Turned out she also needed to get a vinyl sign for the glass door of her studio. She had been referred to a company that makes these things, but it turned out that they were really more marketed toward people who want to put words and photos on their home walls, not businesses with logos. We couldn’t customize the sign to match the graphics that I’d designed for her, and that just wasn’t acceptable.

So I grabbed the reins. I’d never had something like this made before, so I did a bunch of research on them, and then found a few places to get quotes from. Turns out, people have these things made all the time! Go figure! So a sign printer in town quoted me out and I had them printed.

I picked it up and brought it over to install at Cuture’s studio. The sign printer gave me instructions on how to install this thing, but it was nerve-wracking. I followed everything they told me, and it didn’t seem to be sticking. Even after an hour of drying, the circumstances were the same. So I decided to leave it overnight and check on it the next day.

That’s when I had an anxiety-fueled dream about the whole thing, which involved me going over there, pulling the backing tape off, to have half the sign peel off the door, and I couldn’t fix it.

Luckily, that was only a dream, and when I went back in reality, it had dried just fine and adhered just like it was supposed to. Big sigh of relief, though. And now the next time I have a client who needs a custom-cut vinyl sign for their window, I know from experience that it’ll need 12-24 hours to dry, but that everything will be fine, and I don’t have to have scary dreams about it again.