WCTC TShirt Design 2010
So here's something I'd like to share on here. For the last 3 years I've designed the TShirts for the Wisconsin Christian Teen Convention held annually. I just finished this year's design and figured I'd post it on here for all the world to see. The grunge is something fun that I've always liked to do with a lot of my work and only recently I've been able to get better at it. This shirt design was to sort of match the design of the site I created for them a few years ago, but at the same time still feel fresh and new. Many grunge brushes went into the overall look of the design as well as a happy mistake of lowering the opacity of the grungy background in order to make the text pop better. I love happy accidents sometimes.
My 2010 Streamy Nomination
I can not be more excited than I am right now. While on my daily Facebook visit (did I say daily? I mean bi-minute) I found one of my friends from California congratulating me on my Streamy Nomination. I immediately was like "whoza whaaaaaa?!" and clicked over to the Streamy Nomination list. Scrolling down, sure enough, I found my name listed under the category for BEST VISUAL EFFECTS.
This is friggen amazing. Last year we tried to get nominated but didn't make the cut. This year, we got nominated. Now, I'm not counting my chickens before they contemplate their own existance...or whatever that idiom is, but I'm very excited and hopeful that we win this year for my work. I'm not the only person nominated from our web series. Both the creator of the show and the guy who does all the backgrounds for the live action footage is also nominated, but none-the-less, I am still ultra ecstatic right now.
Even if I dont win, it's still awesome to have the nomination under my belt for my work. So dont mind me if I'm a little self centered when I pat myself on my back for a job well done. Woot!
Watch http://www.thecrew.tv/!
Video Work Added/New Sections Soon
More of my video related work has been added in the VIDEO WORK section. I mean, where else would that stuff go? I should try putting it in the photography section some day just to throw you off. I apologize up front for the fact that I'm using YouTube to link to my video work, but that's only because i have yet to find a decent alternative to video embedding that doesn't suck my bandwidth. Give it time and better versions (and more content) will be up. In the meantime, enjoy.
On another front, I'm working on creating a new weekly section that I can write about stuff or perhaps do tutorials on. I know, real creative and original but I feel like I'd like to jump on the bandwagon of internet web blogging. I mean, everyone else can complain or express themselves in written form so why can't I?
Old Memories & Freelance Work
So I've found myself over the last few months of working on some projects (all of which are to be kept hush hush until further notice, to which I will post links to the projects to allow all to see), harking back to old times in high school. My iTunes playlist seemed to fall back to the old days of some of the musicals I was a part of and listening to them have brought back many fond memories that I had long forgotten about. The fun thing truthfully is that I remember a lot of what I had done in the shows and started acting it out again in my room as a "temporary break" from my work. I wont lie, listening to some of these old shows kind makes me want to get back into Theater again, having had the most fun in my life doing shows but sadly due to my tight schedule between my day job and freelance work at night, I'm kind of strapped for time. Who knows, perhaps one day I'll be able to find the time to act again. I really miss doing it.
New Logo Fun
I get a kick out of doing these types of things every once in a while. I loved the new J.J. Abrams version of STAR TREK. I saw it three times in theaters, bought a double sided poster of the film and bought it almost immediately on Bluray once it came out. I love it and so my love of a film and changing it's title treatment to match my name come together once again. This time referencing one of the first teaser posters for the film.
Hollywood is Messed
The amazing truth is right now that Hollywood is even alive right now. The sad thought is that within a few decades there might not be anything left of what we know of Hollywood. The major studios one by one seem to be falling by the wayside or being purchased up by other studios. Grand film projects are dropped and movies with crummy plots and no point are produced like nobody's business.
The studio's are no better anymore. They themselves are hurting for viewers in a world where internet can give you anything you want in 10 minutes instead of waiting until 10:30 to watch it on tv. The executives are so frightened of change that they find themselves jumping at the slightest change and trying to find ways out of it without simply waiting for things to change.
NBC is one of those stations that is suffering and becoming jittery at the slightest problem. THE TONIGHT SHOW is "hurting" according to them, loosing almost 50% of their viewers since Conan took over for Jay back in June. They see it as a loss of viewers and blaming Conan for that problem when in reality it's not his fault. It's because the population seems decidingly split about their views on who is a better host for the show. The 50% of viewers who stopped watching THE TONIGHT SHOW were the 50% who dont like Conan. The same thing happened when Carson left the show in the early 90's and people who grew up watching him hated Leno and the new direction the show took. NBC gave Leno the chance back then and over time the show picked up it's ratings with a new audience. They gave Leno more than 7 months.
Unlike Conan.
This post is more of me venting about Hollywood's dumb decisions when it comes to producing "entertainment" for the masses. Personally I support Conan's decision to leave NBC, by giving them the finger and telling them to f--k off. Good for you Conan.
The Future
So the sad part of everything I've done with this website, is that every time I attempt to update my portfolio, everything I've tried to showcase my work better, nothing works the way I want it to and I end up coming back around to the same ol' style. Doing all the image's thumbnail's by hand and linking them to larger versions. It's tedious work but I suppose it's better than nothing, right? After all the images of mine that'll be uploaded here are, well...up, I plan on doing video work that I've done, something that I've never got around to.
Again, give me time with all this. There's so many things I'm in the middle of doing right now, it's hard to get everything accomplished at once. Like rewatching the first 5 seasons of LOST on Blu-ray before the 6th season starts in February. It's a tedious task but someone's gotta do it.
Gallery & Content
I'm still in the process of finding a good way to display my work on the site here. So far it's not working real well but give it time and my stuff will be up soon. I promise.
2010, Twenty-Ten, The Teens or however the hell you wish to call it
Yeah, what version is it actually? I've heard all three of them be used in conversations only a few minutes apart from one another and am really confused as to what the "official" version of this decade it is. Oh well, not important. What is important is the fact that it's a new decade. Most people look at it just by the year but I am instead planning on looking at it from a decade point of view. It's easier for me to make goals when I have a bigger amount of time to work on them. I look at it like this because frankly, I can look back ten years ago and see my progress from a high school freshmen to a post-college graduate/freelance designer. It's nice to see some change and if I "short change" myself (lots of uses of the word change in this post) by wanting to accomplish this, this and that before 2011, I'll be bummed if it doesn't actually happen. But by allowing myself 10 years to accomplish a list of things, the pressure is off a bit to actually get some of the things completed.
That is until 2019 rolls around and I realized I haven't accomplished HALF of what I wanted to do...then I'm sure I'll be bitching.
Here's to an a decade better and more profitable in everyway for everyone. Cheers.
Inbetween Christmas & New Years
It's this week that I feel doesn't get enough credit. The week between Christmas and New Years. People are just getting down from the high and hype of Christmas and getting pumped for the night of drinking that is New Years Eve. It's a crazy week that when it falls on the days prior to a weekend make short work weeks and long weekends. I wont complain this year because I'm not stuck to a retail job where I have to work one day or the other on New Years. I remember my first year in retail, I made the mistake of getting New Years Eve off but having to be at work at 9:00am on New Years day....let's just say 5 hours of sleep and a ton of alcohol doesn't make a very entertaining day of work the following day.
I wont lie, this year's New Years is sounding to be one of the best ever.
Today's photo is one from the past. I saw that the lighting out was really beautiful, so I quickly grabbed my camera and drove around town for the 15 minutes that it was like this outside and snapped photos anywhere I could. This shot was not planned but a quick snap through my car window as I drove by. I've attempted to recreate it for a Summer, Fall and Spring versions but can't figure out the angle that I achieved with it.
