One of the jobs in the works here at the studio has a component that requires us to create 15 or so small (nickel-sized) icons that will be used in a clients’ conference/training materials. Each icon will represent a particular step or activity in the training, and will allow participants to easily locate and [more]
Penguins + skulls
= hang time.
Today I spent the bulk of my time working on some logos/artwork for House of Air. A little something extra that might grace the surfaces of t-shirts and head protection gear. I got to do a little research on the bone structure of penguins to inform the creation of the work—sweet. We’ll find out in the next few days what the HOA folks think, but it’s all looking pretty nice. Also in the works is a classy red carpet gala/grand opening invitation for another client.
Overall there was a lot of activity today. Christopher is in the process of writing a book, and a lot of his focus the last few days has been directed toward that endeavor—on top of all the day to day details of running a studio. I’m realizing that one of the big challenges in the “real world” (post-school) is in fact balancing all of the daily tasks, client interactions, emails to answer, etc with the creative work—whether it be designing or writing or whatever; the process of making time to think/create amidst the hubbub of the everyday.We also had a potential new client come in for a first meeting. It’s an awesome project from a pretty inspirational guy, so I’m excited to see what happens moving forward.
ILINE, ULINE
Whoa, it’s like I went through a time warp. I go to sleep after a day’s work and when I when I sit back down to blog, two weeks have passed! My apologies for the moment of silence to all of the loyal blog followers out there (I’m especially looking at you, Pennsylvania—keep the visits coming).
Rapid rewards
Today I spent most of my time working on design directions for the exhibition catalog project I mentioned the other day. I am very excited about this project and am looking forward to when we get feedback from the client. One of the things that has been nice is finding a way to work around the budget constraints and real-world printing logistics. That’s one of the things that feels so rewarding to me—finding a way to get it done within the constraints. [more]
Hola
You never know when you’ll need to say “hello” in a different language from your own… to impress a new client, while traveling to a different country, when the boss’ son gets home from Chinese school.
Always handy.
English (America, Australia, UK): Hello
English (Australia): G’day
Cantonese (China): Néih hóu
Cassubian (northwestern Poland): Witôjze
Icelandic (Iceland): Góðan daginn
Canela (Brazil): Hââ-pô
Zulu (South Africa, Lesotho): Sawubona
Chamorro (Guam): Hafa
Egyptian (ancient Egypt): Iiti em hotep
Welsh (Wales): Dydd da
Tahitian (Tahiti French Polynesia): Ia ora na
Shor (Russia): Ezen
Norwegian [Nordmørsk] (Norway): Goddág
Mien (Laos, Thailand): Yiem longx
English [New Oreleans dialect] (Lousiana): Where ya’at
Meatball and spaghetti
When we were visiting Singularity University down at Ames yesterday, we heard on a couple of instances the NASA logo being referred to as “the meatball.” Apparently it’s a semi-official nickname used by NASA personnel. When we got back to the studio I looked it up and found out that NASA has three official marks. The round meatball is officially known as “the insignia” and was designed in 1959 by James Modarelli, a former employee. When I think of NASA this is the image that pops into my head, along with a shuttle launch scene.
And Ben Affleck in a bright orange space suit.
The meatball insignia sort of replaced the red wordmark—a stylized N-A-S-A rendering known as the “worm” that was retired in 1992. And I don’t know if this is actually true, but word on the street is that the worm was also called the “spaghetti” logo. This would possibly explain the meatball thing, but I don’t know about that one. More triangulation needed.
For more info on the NASA meatball, this is a pretty funny official release that mentions what a “design nightmare” it is. And this is NASA’s beautifully designed online graphics standards manual. Make sure you have at least Netscape Navigator 4.0, though!
iMINE™ technology
What did you do at work today?
Went to NASA and talked to a robot.
The end.
Actually, that is indeed what happened. We took a trip this afternoon down to NASA’s Ames Research Center to meet with Singularity University (see red circle). The branding we’re working on for their 2010 Graduate Studies Program is almost finished, but we needed to finalize a few last details. As we were sitting around a conference table, I heard a mechanical whirring sound slowing increasing in volume in the adjacent room to my right. From where I was sitting, I could see past the doorframe into this room, and a little further into the hallway. Suddenly a mechanical “thing”—I couldn’t tell exactly what it was—maybe four feet tall and on wheels, rolls past the open doorway and starts down the hall. I only saw a second or two of it. Christopher, seated across the table, heard the whirring sound as well but didn’t have the same view. The Singularity folks were oblivious to it, as I guess it’s a regular thing there.
When they realized we were intrigued by what was making this sound, they called it over! Turns out it’s a robot used primarily for video conferencing purposes, currently being controlled by a human somewhere in the building. A person can log-on from anywhere and gain access to the robot’s controls via webcam. The person’s face appears on the LCD screen, and they can see and hear everything that the robot “sees” and “hears.” They can then control movement using two cameras that give them a view of the robot’s surroundings. It didn’t look like this or anything, but it was pretty sweet and less eerie. The greatest part was that they gave us guest log-in access so that we can assume controls of the robot—from here in San Francisco—during our next meeting with them. Nice.
Colortypethics
In addition to reading this post, be sure to also make time for Part II—the conclusion—of Christopher’s Design Business + Ethics entry.
When the mail came around mid-day, there was a small poster tube in the pile. Those are always exciting. In it was this small poster by Julian Hansen, loosely based on FontShop’s 100 Best Typefaces. If you’re ever feeling stuck as to which typeface to use on a project, look no further! It’s full of helpful decision-making questions to lead you to that perfect typeface for the job. For example, You cried when watching the Terminator? Yes or No.
This morning began with some revisions to the Singularity University banners. Before we left the studio last night we got additional feedback on a few changes to make, so getting those done was the first order of the day. These banners are going to be printed large and displayed at the NASA Ames campus as a way to highlight and identify several areas of study during their Graduate Studies Program this summer—from renewable energy production, to the frontiers of space flight, to food production for large cities. It was/is a great opportunity to use bold, eye-catching color schemes for the banners. They’re turning out to be quite vibrant. The client really liked them. Each component of the Program curriculum is identified by a particular color and represented with a specific icon. These icons will also appear as a group on t-shirts of the same colors. At one point in the day Christopher made the comment that it was kind of nice using colors that the studio maybe doesn’t normally use—or hasn’t used a lot of in the past. I haven’t used some of the colors in any of my work, either. It got me thinking about a question Jon Sueda brought up in my Typography class last semester. He asked us if we had any particular methods for working with or selecting color. Some people (myself included) seemed tended to gravitate toward certain colors or palettes, but nobody had a particularly strong criteria for selecting them, other than just gut feeling and whether it seems appropriate.
So, to anyone out there reading, do you have any particular methods for selecting or working with color?
Design business +
I will keep today’s post short so as to encourage you to read this timely entry from Christopher. I encourage you all to post your thoughts to that one.
Here at the studio today I spent most of the day helping out on a project for Singularity University. I have been sketching, designing and revising a series of large banners and t-shirt graphics for their upcoming Graduate Studies Program. It is the first time that I have been this involved, contributing to the design of each piece, presenting variations to Christopher, etc. I have had to adjust a little to the process, but I think I am starting to feel a little more comfortable. I have realized that it can be helpful to set a time limit, and after that time is up, get some feedback on the progress made. In certain instances, this can be a real timesaver, preventing me from going down a path that I don’t really need to be going down.
Be sure to check back tomorrow for Part II of the above link.
Potential New client
In the words of our good buddy Ice Cube, Today was a good day.
Mid-morning we got a call from that potential client I mentioned on Monday. Christopher got on the line with him and went upstairs to talk about the proposal he had spent a good chunk of time crafting after the meeting. After a long while he came back down and revealed the good news. We got the job! Sweet. I am really excited to see how this thing unfolds over the next several months. Once the ball gets rolling further, I will fill in some more details. Stay tuned.
As many of you know, Christopher is an adviser to Project M and Tim was a participant down in Hale County, Alabama a few years ago. I don’t have quite as strong of a link to John Bielenberg or Project M, although I did participate in a mini “M Blitz” at the end of 2009 while in Eric Heiman’s level three class at CCA. Well, today we had the pleasure of chatting via Skype with a few current Project M’ers in Alabama. One of them is a classmate of mine on hiatus from school for a bit while doing his thing down in AL. (Hi Matt, aka matt_in_black.) They are part of a team involved in a variety of community projects, but one of the problems they are running into is distinguishing themselves and their scope of work from other, affiliated groups. So who better to contact for advice than the masterminds of identity, MINE? Some really good and smart ideas were generated during the brief conference call. Matt, keep me updated on what happens with it!
The bizniz
Today was awesome. We had a potential new client come in and meet with us over tea for a few hours in the morning. It was exciting for me to be able to listen to, and even participate in the conversations at this really early stage. Plus, the person we met with was real cool, and the business pretty sweet. It would awesome if we end up being selected for the job. Christopher will be spending the next few days writing a proposal, and hopefully we will find out soon. Exciting stuff, no doubt! One of the items on my list of “things I would like to learn/do while at MINE™” that I gave to Christopher is to be a part of a project from A to Z, from its inception to its completion. Maybe this could be the project.
The whole business side of the job is fascinating to me. The presentations and meetings, the creation of proposals—basically everything needed to be done (aside from doing great design) to successfully run a business. One of the things that is hard to simulate in school is this client interaction. I love the assignments I have gotten in school, have loved getting up and speaking about my work, and have learned some invaluable lessons. But creating your own fictitious ________(insert event/publication/etc here) and creating an air-tight, compelling story to inform or back-up your design choices is one thing (a fun one at that). The added variable of a client, and the direction that a project can take based on the clients’ interaction can be quite a different experience. The quote on the back of Dan and Andre’s book Never Sleep (which I have received three copies of as gifts recently) comes to mind: There is a major disconnect between the life of a design student and the transition to being a design professional. I guess you could say that a big part of my internship here at MINE™ is to help with the bridging of that gap.
Jimmy jam box
Today at MINE™ was filled with a little variety in the activity department. Mid-morning I worked on some final revisions for the walkathon t-shirt. The drawing I had done/modified was fine, but I needed to make a few changes to the type. After browsing the collection of fonts on hand for a few minutes, I ended up drawing some letterforms that fit in with the “modern 80s/90s hip hop” feel the client was looking for. I hope so, at least. Christopher saw it on my monitor from his desk and liked it as well (“that’s cool” were his exact words), so hopefully the client is into it. We also learned that another way to refer to a boombox is to call it a jam box. I may change my name to Jimmy Jam box. Once 12pm rolled around we had to head out of the office for a lunch meeting at RN74, a wine bar and restaurant by Michael Mina. It was a great place with some good food. One of the coolest features is the wine list, displayed large on the walls as an old train station timetable. At various times of the day, you hear this “click, click, click, click, click” and look up to see the information changing. After lunch we had to book it back to the studio so Christopher and Tim could meet with a client regarding the House of Air project, which is sounding and looking pretty cool. I finished out the day looking everywhere in the studio and in the garage for a simple CD case for Tim. After several unsuccessful attempts, I finally found a pile of old CDs from some of Christopher’s former students, so I stacked them neatly together and stole the jewel cases for future use. Tomorrow morning when I get in I will be doing some touching up of an image for Tim. And since this is the 3rd post in a row with no images, tomorrow I’m going to focus on taking some photos to add to the blog.
The longest hour
I know you’ve seen the new Stern Grove poster. It’s sweet. If you haven’t yet, visit that link for a moment. The technique Yulia Brodskaya is flexing her superior skills with is called quilling. We had a brief history lesson today courtesy of the Internets, and learned at one point in Europe quilling was thought to be one of the “few things ladies could do that was thought not too taxing for their minds or gentle dispositions.” Hmm, I wonder what Yulia would say to that statement, because from my seat her illustration looks like it would take the mind of a razor sharp paper-ninja.
When I got in this morning, I completed some typical early-morning intern tasks: printed some labels, filed away some print samples, churned some butter. A good chunk of the day, however, was spent by all working on various aspects of the Stern Grove Festival project. Tim was busy working out the type for large signage, several versions of some shirts, and about a hundred other things. About midday Christopher and Tim had me trace the edges of paper within the Stern Grove poster. At first I just did one section to give them an idea of whether it was working and whether or not I should continue. It looked pretty nice, so the plan was for me to spend the next hour or so finishing off the rest of it. But I tell you what, those paper lines just kept coming and coming! It took slightly longer than an hour. The process of tracing became almost a meditative one as I located each edge of the pieces of paper and tried to match its path. I then passed it off to Tim who began integrating into the work he was doing. It looked pretty sweet; hopefully the client thinks so as well. Time will tell!
Happy birthday to Amelie today!
d.schooled
Friday was a rather eventful day, and I didn’t even have to step foot inside the office (hence the blog entry about Friday today). Before I left for the evening on Thursday, Christopher mentioned that we’d be heading down to Palo Alto in the morning for the Opening Day of the d.school’s new digs (Building 550, the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford). MINE™, if you recall, recently completed a project for the d.school, which I, and many others in attendance today got to see for the first time.
So on Friday I met Christopher outside of Building 550 at 9:30am (I decided to commute by train + bicycle) and we signed-in and got assigned to teams. I had initially thought I was going down there to hear some introductions to the new building and to meet some people, but I soon realized I was wrong. (I should have known better from description of “d.school hootenanny” in the studio’s calendar.) I was now the newest member of “Team 7″ and was being directed to quickly customize my name tag before joining the rest of my team already underway upstairs. For the next 3 hours I got to experience a good dose of design thinking fundamentals in the form of a hands-on design challenge dubbed “Reboot Camp.” My team consisted of a Clorox marketing person, three Stanford professors, and of course little ol’ me, Intern™. Through a flurry of idea generation, rapid note-taking, strategizing, prototyping, testing, revision and reflection, we participated in a project centered around engaging 10,000 kids for 90 minutes a day over the entire summer, as part of a volunteer program. One of the coolest parts of the challenge was having a group of 5th graders come into the room to test out our prototypes and give feedback.
After lunch we attended a small workshop conducted by the editors of Ambidextrous, Stanford’s Journal of Design. There were about 10 of us at this particular workshop, and the goal was to redesign/rethink the magazine specifically for someone else in the room. We paired off and had 5 minutes each to interview the other person. Based off this brief exchange we then had 10 minutes to quickly sketch/construct a prototype of our customized magazine. I have to admit, at first I was a little nervous at being put in this situation with such a small amount of time to work, in a small space, knowing that I’d then have to get up and share it with working professionals. But what nerves did exist quickly dissipated as we got to work and I realized there was absolutely no reason to be nervous. Not only did it turn out to be a fun exercise, but we were given a boxed set of all 12 Ambidextrous magazine issues as a gift. Nice!
To top off an action-packed Friday, we all gathered in the large central hall toward the end of the day and were ceremoniously recognized as co-founders of the new d.school building. Tears were shed by many in the audience (not so much by me, though). Next thing we knew it was 5pm and time to make the trek back home. It was definitely an interesting event to take part in, and probably a bit of an atypical first full day of an internship.
My first press check
It was rad!
Christopher let me tag along on a press check for the House of Air business cards. It was a simple one, but I got the idea. We were there to make sure that the color is correct, the copy is correct, and that there were no strange marks on the print out. Then Christopher signed the proof and it was over. We had a discussion about larger printing jobs and how sometimes you might have to hang out at a printer all day. He informed me that in the good ol’ days they would wine and dine you, but alas those days are over. After we signed off on the proof, Christopher took me on a tour of the Oscar Printing facilities. Some how I got out of design school without ever going to a printing press, so this was interesting for me to see. I didn’t realize presses were so huge and that printing could be such a technical skill. Christopher explained some technical aspects of printing to me such as using an instrument that measures light refraction to see if you color is even on the paper.
Going on a press check was on my list of things I wanted to learn at MINE™. I’m down to the last eight days of my internship and we might have officially completed my list.
Deadlines and screen printing
Sorry for not blogging on Friday. We were out of the office to screen print posters. The good people of the CCA Oakland campus were kind enough to let us use their facilities.
We’re running a tight ship today. We have a deadline to meet for a client tomorrow, and it’s all banner ads. They are simple enough, but there are many to do. Flash can be a tedious program so it just takes some time to do these. Tim is a machine. I have built two in the same amount of time he has done approximately six to eight. Other than the Flash, I checked my first printer proof today. I didn’t ask if this is a common practice, but as I checked each letter to see if their were any errors, I placed a tiny red dot next to the letter. Tim also informed me that if you have a lightbox, you line up the crop marks from your files with the printer files and check for errors that way. I like learning little things like that, because it makes me like I’m a part of a profession that has it’s own secret codes and ways of doing things.
Tomorrow we might be back at CCA to finish screen printing posters, so it’s possible that there may be no Tuesday blog. Look out for pictures of our finished posters on Wednesday!
The Final Countdown
Things are picking up around here again. There are so many exciting and new projects on the horizon. I’m kind of sad that I won’t be here to see them all through. The countdown to my last day has begun.
I worked on the Stern Grove Festival poster with Christopher and Tim. We are finalizing the type and adding our own touch of craft to it to compliment Yulia’s cut paper illustration. So for the past few hours, I have been cutting out typography that we will put on the poster. It’s a tedious thing to do. Though if you think about how graphic design was done before the time of desktop publishing, the magnitude of my task wanes in comparison. The way I was doing things was fine, but talking to Tim I learned that there are best practices that I haven’t been aware of before this internship. Not just best practices on how to use cut paper in your design, but other things I wish I could remember at this moment. There are may be a of doing something that gives you better results.
Tomorrow the MINE™ team will be knee deep in ink and squeegees. We’re screenprinting! I am super excited. The posters we make tomorrow will be sold on the Haiti Poster Project website.
d.school
d.one
Off to the presses
We’re continuing to keep busy at MINE™. In one day we collectively worked on 5 different projects, checked in on one, and was referred for another by poster designer extraordinaire Jason Munn. It seems as though there is a steady flow of work. When we finish up projects, there are more on the horizon.
Today we are working to get this d.School project to press. Tim and I made production dummies for the printer. His was a smaller version with the art on it. The one I did was to actual size without art. Because I did things by hand, they were a little off. So Christopher went back and made notes throughout the piece with exact instructions on what to do. I rarely made production dummies during school, but I see the importance of them now. They are especially important when there is a client paying you. If something goes wrong and your instructions cannot be refuted, the blame cannot fall on you. To make a mistake at this stage would be an expensive one.
We just ate the cake I made. It wasn’t awful. Awesome!
Besties
House of Air and I are totally besties. At least for today. I worked on their wristbands, made penguin feet to scale and designed socks! You know you’ve made it as an intern when you’ve designed socks.
Besides House of Air and some scanning, I also brought Christopher a chocolate cake for his birthday. I made it from the Tartine cookbook. Enitrat lives on. You might think, “Why would you go to Tartine if you have the recipes?” I now know why. Baking is hard, and their baked goods are way prettier.
I would write more, but I started the blog late today. Also the rest of the team is heading out. Until tomorrow.
Fresh
There are a lot of exciting things happening at MINE™ today. We are finishing up the project for the Stanford d.School, we received final art from Yulia Brodskaya for the Stern Grove Festival poster, and we continue to rock the House of Air branding.
I apparently need a tutorial in making shadows in Photoshop. Unfortunately for Tim, I looked at the tutorials after I gave him the files of some faked Post-it notes. Christopher made fun of me for how long it took me, but at this point in the internship I’ve got thicker skin. It’s very strange to think back to my first days and how nervous I felt about the tiny tasks they gave me to do. Now I am a more confident person than I was in January, but obviously have much to learn.
The illustration we received from Yulia is beautiful! If you have been anywhere near a design blog in the past year, you’ve probably seen her previous work. She uses the edges of cut paper to make intricate, well-crafted, gorgeous illustrations. We’ve have been back and forth with her for the past few months about layout, typography, and color. Everyone needed to be on the same page about the illustration, because once its made, the illustration cannot be changed. Our clients at Stern Grove have already seen the illustration are delighted. Next steps are to find a secondary typeface and put all the festival information on it. Be on the lookout for the poster within the next month.
Lastly, I got to make penguin feet today! These might be used to make impressions into the floor at House of Air in their so fresh, so clean new cement. It’s been super exciting working on House of Air. I’ve never had the experience of seeing something that I helped create that is “alive” in the world. Sadly, the end of my internship is nearing and I probably won’t be around when House of Air opens. I will definitely bug Christopher about going to the opening though.
Holy Tuesday, Batman!
I know. Today is Wednesday. So much happened on Tuesday that it is deserving of another post.
The day started out pretty crazy. As soon as I arrived, Christopher and Amelie were out the door so they could bring the little ones to school. A few minutes later, Christopher walked back in the house upset. Some guy had barreled over the hill on Putnam and almost took out the side of Amelie’s car while she was standing next to it. Luckily he just crunched her door (but with her standing behind it!) and took out his own was side view mirror. It could have been much worse.
I guess barreling forward was the theme of the day. On Tuesday, we had three deadlines and made all three. The Coalition for Essential Schools launched their email blasts thus starting their Fall Forum education reform campaign, which MINE™ designs every year. Then Christopher presented a redesign of PeachPit Press’ Visual Quickstart Guide series. When you see the new ones roll out soon, you’ll see an updated logo and new cover design a la MINE™. Lastly, we gave Wallet Project files to Grace, our client at the Stanford d.School., so that the d.School folks could do another round of user testing. In the middle of all of that, Christopher interviewed two people.
Just when we thought we caught a break, we hear the smoke alarm. Christopher and Tim ran upstairs to quell a small oven fire.
So Wednesday doesn’t feel left out, check out what we received in the mail today! We all received tickets to the World’s Smallest Poster Show! For those of you that don’t know, it’s a project that MINE™ started last year. The first exhibit was held in Christopher’s home. This year we’ve passed the torch to friends Shasta Garcia and Dave Muro.
Time is money.
One of the things that I have learned at MINE™ is that time is a commodity. Of course I’ve considered the time it takes to complete the actual design of a project, but I have never considered time for meetings or dealing with printers. As someone who is just beginning their career, these are good things for me to realize before I start taking on any serious freelance clients.
Yesterday I learned how to request a quote from the printer. Today I learned how to present an estimate to a client. I’ve also learned that you need to figure out a budget before you start any project. If everyone is not on the same page, then the situation might get sticky down the line. I wish there was a class in school that taught you about best business practices, but I guess these are things you learn once you get out into the world.
There is so much more to running a design business than I had imagined before. You have to think about budgets, time, whether or not you get along with your clients, balancing your social life, having the right employees, and organization. I’m sure the list goes on.
Blue: A controversial color
Who would have thought?
We had a meeting with our House of Air clients and I’m pretty sure we spent as much time talking about the right color blue as we did talking about their web site. Color is a very subjective thing. People have different associations with them and feel different emotions. The conclusion was to keep it the same…I think.
Building an identity for a company is a funny thing. For example, we had the House of Air colors planned with a primary and secondary palette. But when we actually executed designs, we noticed that we didn’t ever use one of our primary colors which canceled out our two tier system. It seems that as the project evolves, so do the branding specifications. When you actually start using the elements of the identity, you begin to see a pattern where certain elements work better in certain situations. You end up assigning meaning to these elements and decide to limit the places you use it. We have a stripe pattern that we use in the signage and for super graphics. They can be over powering so we limited their use as super graphics in certain areas of the building. When the building opens and begins to have meaning to others, we might have to adjust the identity again. Then when the brand has been around long enough like Coke, I guess you have the identity down to a t.
The House of Air identity is moving along though. This week Christopher and Tim have been working on the business cards and web site. The concept for the web site and the cards are super rad and will be something to be proud of in the end. Tim taught me how to write printer specs to get a quote on the cards. It’s a totally mundane task, but I was happy to learn it. Each piece of knowledge gained will help me disguise my inadequacies at my next job. “But it’s not like I have that many,” she says as she grins.
The ball is not in our court.
We’re waiting for clients to get back to us, so things are a bit chill today. But that’s the reason why I had time to work on stickers for House of Air for a few hours. It was fun to play with composition, color, and type. But I was some where between uptight and the state of mind I needed to be in to execute them to my satisfaction. I don’t think I have gotten over the fact that people can see what I am doing all the time or the mindset that it’s ok for me to make mistakes. Maybe I just work like Michael Bierut does. He says he has to do a lot of work just so the probability of having something awesome is higher. So yeah, I’m going to compare myself to him (smiley emoticon), even though he hasn’t accepted my friend request on Facebook. I have faith though, Mr. Bierut.
While I was designing stickers, Christopher was meeting with Dave and Paul of House of Air. He presented the signs that we spent the week creating and they are totally stoked about them. This project has been such a great opportunity for everyone involved. Dave and Paul want their space to have a cohesive look and feel so they want to push the branding. For us that means we get to keep working with great clients on a great project.
Lastly, we received a second copy of Stanley Hainsworth’s Idea+ology. We were definitely surprised because when MINE™ has been featured in a book in the past, no one sent a free book. So thanks, Rockport!
Photo taken by my Verizon Wireless Crackberry
We made it.
We had to take a little extra time today, but we did it. We put in a few more hours this afternoon and finally finished our sign design proposal for House of Air. Last night I worked until 8:30 and Christopher continued on until 2:00 a.m. Like I said yesterday, environmental design can be a long, tedious process. Now we just hope everyone approves the designs and that the signs adhere to building code.
As tedious as it was, I really enjoyed doing it. You have to think really hard for a minute, then your brain gets to rest and wander while you’re recording your information and basking in the glory of your success. In my younger years, I enjoyed math. The thing that was enjoyable about it is that there is always a definite answer. But I guess that’s what is boring about it as well. Because of my very left brained background, I had to learn that there is no right answer in design. I realized that it’s all subjective. Though this is the case there are definitely better, smarter answers than others and figuring it those out is highly gratifying.
And for anyone who was afraid of losing Puppycam, I gave out some misinformation. The little ones are still there!
Add, subtract, multiply, divide.
It was an environmental design day! We had to figure out scales and specs for House of Air signage. It was quite fun. Christopher has a way of figuring out scale that I didn’t understand at first, but I caught on eventually.
Seeing a giant version of your design is really exciting, because people have to physically interact with it. However, I forgot how tedious the process can be. We’ve been looking at elevations of the building all day, and there are so many details to record. There is the height, width, and depth of the sign, and then there is the location where you want it placed. And when you do the elevation drawing for the sign, you have to specify where the type and image go to the T. After you do all of that, then you have to give each item its own “code” to differentiate it from the hundred other things on the list. I guess it is a necessary thing, if you are working with a lot of people. The designer or architect comes up with the plan, but other people might be implementing it. Thus the process leaves no room for error.
Whew. It’s only Tuesday, but it already feels so much later in the week. We are a bit slammed at the moment. And I haven’t checked myself, but I heard Puppycam is over. No more soft fuzzy things to take the edge off.
Better than a 24 hour punk rock diner
I was just telling Christopher that working here is the only job I’ve ever had that has been more fun than my stint as a server. Oh, I guess teaching was pretty fun too. But I digress.
Have you noticed the blog? It’s new and improved! Now with more visuals! Today I spent the day adding images so it will look totally rad when we make the switch to the new format. It has been fun because with each picture, I get to choose the message I want to communicate for the day. So sometimes I had a picture that worked perfectly, and other times I had to make something up. They are just blog photos, but it was a design task. We make messages with words and images, and hopefully create new meaning and context. I can’t say that all my photos live up to that statement, but I enjoyed doing it nonetheless.
After my morning of bloggery (No, that word is not in the OED…yet.), Christopher, Tim and I brainstormed about signage and graphics for House of Air. I recorded notes on a giant notepad with a sharpie while trying to contribute to the conversation. We came up with some really cool ideas for the space in which we will pitch to our clients on Friday. So after the meeting and watching Puppycam (Thanks, Emily!) for a few minutes, we started adding our signage, color, and graphic ideas to the architectural renderings. They’re starting to look pretty sweet, or maybe it’s just the beer goggles.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, friends!
Blogging and jumping
My big project of the day was to start rethinking and reformatting our current blog to prepare it for a theme change. To do this, I have been going back to older blogs and adding photographs. I wrote those blog entries only two months ago, but I sense a certain naivete in them that I don’t feel now. Reflection is an interesting feeling. As a teenager, I set fire to my old diaries so that younger person didn’t exist any more. But I can’t exactly burn the blog down, so it’s here to stay.