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).
FIFA
Funny & Interesting Friday Announcements
A smattering of thoughts from the week. Have a great weekend!
I never remember that monkey claw, said Christopher, referring to the hand contortions required to execute a particular InDesign super-keyboard-combo-shortcut.
#1: Don’t do it. #2: Do the minimum. #3: F* it and go all out. Your three options when deciding whether or not to take on a project with no/low budget.
Impress your employer with a new diploma of Harvard. was the subject line of an email from “Will Smith.”
Own goals are bad. Or good. (Depends on which side you’re on.)
Throwback
Being a former basketball player and current college basketball fan (I have less affinity for the NBA, although every now and then during the playoffs I can stand to watch it), I am often interested when a team decides to undergo a total rebrand and take on new colors, uniforms and logos—or revert to those from the past. Just recently, the local professional basketball team here in the Bay Area, the Golden State Warriors, went through one of those rebrands. The details (mostly failings) of this effort are well-documented elsewhere, and while there are a lot of problems in the execution (even non-designers know the type is horrible), the idea of returning to the vintage look is great, in my opinion. “The City” throwback logo and uniforms have a cool-factor that the now-former “lightning bolt man” logo did not. And it showed at the cash register; the Warriors have sold much more throwback apparel over the past several years than any other design. (This is an image of the previous throwback jersey:)
Are you a frozen treat enthusiast?
A good ol’ collection of random stuff for Friday…
One of my projects over the next few months is going to be helping redo the MINE™ reel. There’s nothing wrong with the current one, aside from the fact that it’s a few years old, but now is just a good time to spice things up! So today at lunch (at The Liberty Cafe, which I highly recommend), we discussed a few details on how it might all go down. It’s going to be pretty awesome, so stay tuned. Also, MINE™ is going to be featured on the CRAFT Magazine site soon. A couple of nice folks stopped by today and took some photographs. Be on the lookout.
Seen/heard over the past week-ish:
“Bacon is like a little hug from God”
“It’s all good until 2012″
“At warmer times of the year ice cream trucks bring wintry refreshment to eager customers of all ages. These vehicles use distinctive chimes to notify frozen treat enthusiasts of their whereabouts, and are common to city and suburban areas.”
Generation
It was pretty busy last week here in the studio. A lot of small, fast-turnaround type projects kept popping up and keeping us on our toes. As soon as we’d finish one of them, another would have to be turned around in an hour or two. For a while there it was like a non-stop carousel of fun. Those are the moments when you know you’re alive. [more]
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!
uu uu uu dot com
Smells like the Internets up in here (said in this manner). All kinds of discussion today about MINE™’s upcoming website redesign. Questions (and some answers) about user experience(s), specific work to highlight, integration with other channels of info (social media, blogs)… goodness in the works!
May 27
The first few times the phone rang this morning I was fully expecting a callback from our friends from yesterday. Luckily that feeling didn’t persist too far into the day, as Thursday turned out to be a rather uneventful one. I spent a few hours in the morning combing through samples of MINE™’s previous work. I first saw some of the studio’s pieces a few years back, and it’s been an interesting progression, first viewing the work as an outsider, then getting a different perspective having Christopher as an instructor and him bringing in and discussing work in class, and now getting an inside view of the operations behind the work.
In the afternoon Dave and Paul from House of Air came by to talk about the website design Tim and Christopher have been working on. They were really digging it, and it sounds like a few small tweaks here and there is all that is needed. It was a smooth meeting. They also made some decisions regarding furniture—café tables, picnic tables, and the like. No $3700 Belgian picnic tables this time around, but that’s okay.
To wrap up the day, Christopher, being extremely involved in the education of young designers’ minds across the land, headed out early to the Academy of Art Spring Show. I continued making some changes to the grid/layout of the intern binder, and Tim was busy burning some project files to CD. Every third disc made this weird tuba-esque sound as it spun in the drive. Sort of like this.
Other than that, at the end of the day I made a few things on the scanner with stuff lying around the comp room.
For example,
something dark
and something light.
03. I would like to make paper in…
…your bathtub.
This phrase was uttered a few days ago, and was shortly followed by I would like to make a volcano in your office.
04. Sometimes I take screenshots of my workspace at different points during the day. Sometimes it’s for a specific reason, to keep track of something, and other times it’s just because I like screenshots.
05. Fun fact: Last Monday somebody visited the blog on an iPad and stayed for 0:00. Horray!
06. Happy birthday to Pac-Man (tomorrow).
07. Happy birthday to the Empire Strikes Back today (courtesy of College Humor).
Interestingness
Throughout the work day while carrying out my various intern duties—whether it’s filing away print samples, conducting image searches, or even just being a part of conversations that pop-up—there always seem to be little moments of humor or inspiration or just general interestingness that reveal themselves (grammatical correctness pending on that last one). Sometimes it’s a funny phrase or comment said by someone here in the studio (I’ve noticed that the best phrases get written down by Christopher on a post-it note and slapped up onto a vintage Denoyer-Geppert wall map). Other times it’s just an interesting image that prompts me to construct a whole backstory for the people/places/things in the image.
So anyway, I figured that every now and then I’d post a few items from my list. Here are five to start out.
1. Your work is successful like an obituary is successful. It’s probably not a good thing if someone says this to you.
2. I went to file some business cards the other day in the studio’s growing collection. One particular card had a thin layer of what looked like a blue cotton coating, clearly not part of the original design. (The small tuft of cotton on the back set it off.) I went to file it but stopped short when I saw an identical (save for the cotton fur) pristine white card in a protective sleeve. It made me wonder about the blue-ish card in my hand. Where had it been? What adventures might it have gone on, and what stories might it have to tell? Instead of filing it, I placed it on my desk with a few other items. I planned to take a picture of the two cards the next day, but when I came into the studio the blue-ish card was gone. Vanished. Off for more adventure, I guess.
3. Because the physical studio space of MINE™ is located on the first floor of Christopher’s home, there are brief moments in the morning and afternoon when his kids come bursting through the door and fill the place with joy (and sometimes crying). I feel somewhat fortunate (privileged, even) to be a part of this home/office routine and the chance to get to know his family.
4. Time-lapse videos are soothing. Poetic, even, in that the busiest, most chaotic activity amounts to a slow crawl over an extended amount of time. Here’s a time-lapse video from the House of Air folks:
5. MINE™ is a small studio in terms of square footage. I’m 6′7″ on a good day, but this doesn’t phase me one bit, because for the past few years, I haven’t been able to stand up straight while showering at my apartment. Compared to that, MINE™ is an auditorium.
Hmm, that’s interesting.
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!
How, how, how, now, now, now
Hooray MINE™! We’re in HOW Magazine’s 2010 Design Annual for the identity work for C+. The photo looks backwards to you because I took it with Photobooth. Imagine it flipped.
We have been working hard all day to finish up the Stanford d.School project. I did a ton of image searching while Tim did some hardcore designing. Then Tim and I trekked up to Martha & Bros. to create some images. Christopher asked me to look generic today so that I could be the subject of the shoot. To me that meant dressing in blue jeans, black Chuck Taylors, a grey sweater, and a black scarf. I was a waitress serving coffee while things on the street happened around me. The sun was a bit harsh, so we’re hoping that we don’t have to reshoot. The d.School project should be in the bag by next Wednesday.
I have something exciting to look forward to on Monday. I’m designing socks for House of Air!
Thursday trivia
What do penguin tracks look like?
Check out link
How tall is the railing on the second floor cross ramps at House of Air?
3.5 feet
How many things can you make out of a circle?
A lot.
Who won an Oscar for best short film this year?
H5 for Logorama
How do you make a photograph look like an engraving?
Engraving II – A Photoshop filter
Where is Tiburon, California?
37° 52′ 25″ N, 122° 27′ 24″ W
Are there any more Post-its in the office?
Christopher might have some.
When is Christopher’s birthday?
Saturday
All these questions and more were answered today.
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.
Things that are round
Today I didn’t have any near meltdowns, so that was good. We spent most of the day working on the Stanford d.School Wallet Project, and I think it is close to being done. It’s been a challenging project because there was no tangible content from the beginning. As we’ve gone along we’ve adjusted content, which means we adjusted the design. So I’m sure there will be one or two more passes.
My big task of the day was to see how many things I could make out of one shape. Think of the exercise where you would be given a circle and then you have to make that circle into as many things as possible. For example a circle could be a pizza, doughnut, or a bike wheel. As with most things, it’s easy at first. Then you run out of ideas. For some reason I felt like I was cheating when I used the Internet for inspiration, but that’s a strange feeling to have. That would mean we’re all cheating all the time.
My advice to future MINE™ interns: If you are in doubt of what music to play in the office, Talking Heads is always a pleaser.
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.
Making sweet love to code
The blog is looking good. There are still some things to work out, but the list is getting shorter. Christopher did a lot of work on it over the weekend and fixed some things I was complaining about in my last post. I made some minor changes today, but they still took some time for me to figure out. My biggest victory was getting the “more” button to not give the user an epileptic seizure.
Other than making sweet love to code (Sorry. We’re listening to Motown and R&B hits on Pandora.), my day was sprinkled with intern duties such as making packages, opening packages and filing samples. One pretty rad thing we received is Stanley Hainsworth’s new book Idea-ology: The Designer’s Journey: Turning Ideas into Inspired Designs in which Christopher is featured! There are some pretty cool photos of Everything is OK Action Kits in use. The book is full of big ideas and talks about the implementation of them. Some of the stories are pretty inspiring because many of these big ideas came out of personal projects and were not funded by any particular client. It just goes to show that doing the thing you love, whether or not you know the outcome in the end, can lead you on a spectacular, unexpected journey and makes all of the tears, sweat, and blood totally worth it.
An Emotional Day
Who knew coding could make one feel so emotional. I’m not even doing anything really difficult, but my trials of the past few hours are weighing down on me a little bit.
As you can see our new blog is up and kicking. Christopher spent some time after hours coding things that he couldn’t stand to be left unfinished overnight. When I came in this morning, there were only some minor things left to do. Or so I thought. I changed some colors of things, but I also set us up with a Typekit account. If you aren’t aware of Typekit, check it out. I hadn’t heard of it until Tim sent me the link. Christopher said he wanted to embed a font into the blog some how and apparently this is how one might go about it. It’s magic! Well, not really. There is some coding and servers all over the world involved, but you can look it up on your own.
Earlier in the day, when I was figuring things out and making things happen I was on cloud nine. But for the past few hours, I haven’t been able to do anything exactly like I wanted to. I even went down the list of tags in the stylesheet and looked them all up. I gained a lot of knowledge about CSS, but nothing actually happened on the blog post lunch.
[MORE]: Why do you do that crazy jump thing when I click on you?!
GREY ABSCESS ON MY CATEGORY BAR: Which tag controls you?!
TITLES: How do I get you to not follow the style for all the links?!
STICKY POSTS: I will figure out how to customize you if I need to.
Happy weekend! Watch Puppycam!
A Makeover
Makeovers are the theme of the day. The comp room got one, and Christopher talked to me about giving the blog a face lift.
The day started out slow. When Christopher noticed that I was lacking an activity, he asked me to create a list of projects to do in the office. Some he gave me, and others I came up with on my own. But until they were down on paper, I hadn’t realized that they needed to be done. Then the day was more or less non-stop and went by pretty quickly.
I organized the comp room. It’s on the small side, so things definitely need to be in order in there. I really enjoyed compartmentalizing the drawers. It was kind of like laying out a page. It’s also a satisfying feeling to know where everything is.
But the other project that I’m pretty excited about is enhancing and expanding the scope of the intern blog. I’ve never really done anything extensive in Word Press, and I’m excited to figure it all out. Maybe I’ll absorb some understanding of code in the process which seems to be a useful skill to have these days. Right now we’re in the process of finding a new theme. When we’ve decided, it will get underway.
Speaking of makeovers, Tim informed me that you could get one to look like KISS on Valentine’s Day in Dolores Park. Do that, and then go to the Pillow Fight!
Photos of the comp room were taken by Ethan Davis.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Whoopie Cakes
So Tim’s parents are way cuter than mine. I get a newspaper clipping and he gets Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Whoopie Cakes. Tim’s an upstanding guy, so he shared. Thanks, Tim’s parents!
That was definitely the best part of the day. The rest of it included compiling URLs for the Good Design Book and calling Kinko’s, or FedEx Office if you want to be with the times.
Details
2 Children that greeted me
3 Plants watered
1 Water carafe Filled
1 Internet radio station that is the jam
8 Emails checked
1 File Photoshopped
1 Competition added to calendar
3 Business cards entered, filed and emailed
*Studio Week West Coast
My hands hurt a little from the past few hours. Why does production always take longer than you think it will? At first, the monotony of repetitive movements is soothing. But around hour three, it starts to suck a little bit.
I’m in the process of putting labels on the Everything is OK Action Kits. These were featured in a window display on Market street for Art in Storefronts not too long ago, and I’m replacing sun-faded labels. When I’m done, these kits will replenish the supply at the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design. Get ‘em while they’re hot, yo.
So today is a tedious day. But Tim said I could take a stab at designing the boxes for the Word’s Greatest Mug. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
*For those of you who read this and don’t know, studio week is the sometimes grueling production week before critique at Portfolio Center.
Kerning and Mayer Hawthorne
Oh, kerning! How I’ve missed thee. Kerning to Mayer Hawthorne is even better. Well, either I really do miss school or being hopped up on DayQuil makes anything better.
last day™
Out with the old, in the with the new.
Today is my last day at MINE™! It’s been a fun run — thank you for your comments, support, and for reading!
I now leave you in the capable blogging hands of Reena.
holiday party™
One of the most enjoyable and memorable non-design events of my tenure as an intern at MINE™ was attending the annual holiday party.
Held at Nihon, a fancy Japanese restaurant and whisky lounge (apparently offering the largest single malt whisky selection on the west coast), the holiday party was a great excuse to get former interns and employees together.
holiday cards.
Every year MINE™ sends out a fancy holiday card to our many beloved family and friends. The theme of the cards change from year to year, but the premise remains the same. The cards focus on that transition between years—the point in which one year becomes the next. Out with the old, in with the new.
reel.
One of the latest developments at MINE™ has been discussion about our reel and portfolio. (You can see it here.) Yesterday we ate lunch at Tu Lan (yum!) and talked about various ideas and possible directions.
balloons.
When I got to my desk this morning, I noticed a massive bundle of balloons coming from the comping room. I learned that we would be photographing these massive balloons for the annual MINE™ holiday card.
Here is Tim pondering future balloon placement: