Posted June 24, 2010 6:55 pm.
Filed under: inspiration, lessons learned, school
Tags: cca, christopher simmons, digging, records, typography, video, vinyl
Sometimes you just don’t know when your work on a particular project will come full circle and be the very reason that several months—or even years—later someone approaches you about new work.
In the Spring of 2009 I created a video while a student in Christopher’s level 2 Graphic Design class at CCA. Part of the assignment was aimed at getting us to work outside of the more typical design projects—posters, logos and books—and getting us working with tools that maybe we weren’t as familiar with. The assignment was to create a one-minute video narrative on the subject of secret(s). I created this piece that follows a DJ through a record store digging for gems buried beneath the dust (video after the jump): [more]
Posted June 22, 2010 5:35 pm.
Filed under: inspiration, process, school
Tags: cca, format, portfolio, sample books
One of the things that has been on my mind recently is the upcoming creation of a portfolio of my (mostly student) work over the past few years while at CCA. I will receive my degree at the end of this year (knock on wood), and am currently enrolled in a class called Transitioning to Professional Practice, in which the actual creation of said portfolio takes place. In addition to an online portfolio, we are creating a printed piece, despite the fact that these may be becoming more and more irrelevant in searching for work. There is definitely less emphasis placed on them, at least. Still, a succinct printed presentation of ones work can make a big different when coupled with an effective online one.
If there is a moment or two to spare here at the studio, it is always nice to be able to dig into the archives and browse through the design and paper samples. One of the things I’ve been paying extra attention to lately are page dimensions and different formats. It has been a good process figuring out the best way to show my existing body of work. Today, while doing a little shuffling of the printer sample drawer, I came across two page dimensions that felt really good in my hand, and that I think would work well in displaying my work.
When I sat back down at my desk, I glanced up on the window sill and was reminded of another interesting format—a set of books that arrived in the mail a few weeks ago. Definitely not the best size to display work, but perfect for what they are… cigarette-sized books inside a tin!
Posted June 1, 2010 5:50 pm.
Filed under: daily happenings, first times, school
Tags: breakdance fighting, cca, cinthia wen, class, noon, Photoshop, professionals, school, sleepwalking, spam, tim belonax
After the long weekend, MINE™ was back in business today, sans Tim. Well, kind of. The morning consisted of some standard studio maintenance tasks—breakdance fighting, file organization, spam email deletion. Then, about mid-day, the doorbell rang. It was Tim and he was sleepwalking, his muscle-memory kicking in and leading him to the office! When he woke from his deep sleep he decided to stick around for a few minutes and take care of some last minute odds and ends.
There are a few upcoming design competition entry dates, so I took some time today compiling all the pertinent entry information in preparation for our potential submission. I finished off the day doing a little Photoshop work on a file for Christopher, and am now finding myself having to cut this post short to head out to the first day of my summer Transitioning To Professional Practice class at CCA, taught by Cinthia Wen of Noon (and CCA’s newly appointed chair of the Graphic Design program). The class meets twice a week in the evening, so I will have to start my blog posts earlier on these days! Until tomorrow…
Posted May 26, 2010 5:42 pm.
Filed under: clients, process, school
Tags: alabama, cca, eric heiman, new clients, Project M
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!
Posted May 17, 2010 6:08 pm.
Filed under: field trips, inspiration, school
Tags: cca, Christopher, justin, mfa, Tim
On Friday, after taking care of business in the studio, we headed over to CCA to check out some of the graduate thesis exhibitions. Here’s a taste. (Photos by Christopher and me.)
Posted May 5, 2010 5:59 pm.
Filed under: first times
Tags: Azerbaijan, cca, Christopher, Justin Holbrook, Qatar, Yemen
It’s my last blog post and my last full day at MINE™. I’m really sad to go, but at the same time feel like this internship has prepared me to move on. Christopher and I went over the list of things I wanted to learn that I wrote back in January. One logo, a press check, some client meetings, typography knowledge, a few thousand photos, and six web banners later, here I am standing before you with 10.5 out of 14 goals achieved. I smell success.
It’s been a great run. I’ve learned a lot and made some friends along the way. Goodbye to all my international fans especially in Azerbaijan, Yemen, and Qatar. Thanks so much for reading!
Justin Holbrook, CCA student and the newest addition to the MINE™ posse, starts blogging tomorrow.
Be excellent to each other.
Reena
Posted May 1, 2010 1:02 am.
Filed under: inspiration
Tags: Bob Aufuldish, cca, Christopher, facebook, homage
For the past two days, we’ve been having a really great time watching videos posted by Mr. Bob Aufuldish. Mr. Aufuldish is Christopher’s colleague at CCA and one half of the design firm Aufuldish and Warinner. If I were to describe one of the videos, you would probably wonder why said video was interesting. I might even go as far to say that you would think it was boring. For example, one minute and 31 seconds of a rock drying in the heat. Doesn’t sound interesting right? You are very wrong. Mr. Aufuldish has a gift for making the mundane seem artful, beautiful, and at times ethereal. To see them, you’d have to be his friend on Facebook.
This is our homage to Bob Aufuldish (video after the jump).
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Posted April 28, 2010 6:44 pm.
Filed under: field trips, inspiration, process
Tags: cca, Haiti Poster Project, Hatch Show Print, Jim Sheridan
It was a long night, but we did it! Haiti Poster Projectposters are ready to be stamped and shipped off.
We arrived at CCA in the afternoon with the hopes of everything going quickly and without hiccups. That is never what really happens though. At least this time we knew what we were doing. After our first batch of ink ran out, things got a bit trickier. The viscosity was not the same, which lead to some trial and error. Eventually we got it down and were rolling again. At first we were looking at the prints and thinking that they weren’t turning out the way that we wanted. Tim pointed out that the beauty of this art were the imperfections, which caused me to remember what Jim Sheridan of Hatch Show Print told us in a print making workshop that I attended once. He instructed us never to throw away a print that you make. Save it and look at it another day. Mr. Sheridan explained that with print making, we often have an idea of what the outcome is suppose to look like in our heads. When our prints don’t look like that image, we get disappointed. Well today is the next day, and they look pretty fantastic. The imperfections and sometimes hasty looking washes of color add to the urgency of the message. The five posters spell out the word Haiti and have the national motto overprinted in magenta on top of the letter. It says “l’union fait la force” or “unity makes strength.” The posters will be sold as a set on the Haiti Poster Project website.
You can see all 5 posters and some of the process on our Facebook page.
Posted April 26, 2010 1:27 pm.
Filed under: clients, first times
Tags: cca, Flash, screen, Tim
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!
Posted April 19, 2010 5:31 pm.
Filed under: field trips, lessons learned
Tags: bracket, cca, Christopher, serif, stern grove festival, The Energy Project, Tim, World's Smallest Poster Show
Everything is a learning experience, no matter how many times you have done it before. Every time I repeat a task I notice something that I didn’t notice before. For example, when I am typesetting I notice the curve of a bracket or a unique serif for the first time. It’s kind of like listening to music and noticing sounds that you had never heard before.
Today my main task was typesetting documents for The Engergy Project. The work isn’t the most exciting, but I was able to practice my ninja like type skills. Earlier this morning when Christopher was at CCA and I had nothing pressing to do, I reorganized all the paper samples. Like I said before, everything is a learning opportunity. My knowledge of paper increased, and the alphabetizing put me in a meditative state.
Besides the Energy Project, Tim has been working to finish up the Stern Grove Festival poster. I’m really excited to see what the response will be like when the poster debuts and they announce the line up on May 1.
We’re all attending the second annual World’s Smallest Poster Show tonight! Hopefully we’ll get some pictures to you tomorrow.
Posted April 5, 2010 5:35 pm.
Filed under: mistakes
Tags: cca, Christopher, Enitrat, HOW, Tartine, Tim, Wordpress
Today could have been the first time I cried at an internship.
While Christopher was at CCA this morning(*), I was playing with the code for our blog to see if I could figure some things out. Then I just tinkered with the wrong template. I pressed the update button and then all I saw was a big white blank screen. I looked at the blog, and nothing was there. This was followed by a few short expletives and some minor hyperventilation. Tim started to ask me questions and I could barely answer him. Thankfully, he sent me an article about how to fix the problem and told me how it’s a common Wordpress glitch. I felt a little better. Then Christopher walked in. I didn’t know what to expect. I’d never seen him angry before, and I didn’t want to find out what that was like. I said, “I broke the blog.” He asked me to explain. So, I told him the problem and he walked me through the solution very calmly. There are not two better people to make a mistake around.
Then we all ate the pie I made from the Tartine cookbook. Viva Enitrat!
*Christopher’s blog for his GD2 class at CCA is part of How Magazine’s list Top Ten Websites for Designers! Woot!
Posted March 30, 2010 4:58 pm.
Filed under: first times, inspiration, lessons learned
Tags: cca, Christopher, code, email, Tim
It’s been an interesting few days at MINE™. I myself haven’t been terribly busy, but I feel like I’ve been learning a lot nonetheless. Whether or not I am directly involved in the things that are going on around me, I’ve been soaking it in. I have found that just knowing the possibilities is the first step to actually doing something. The more knowledge you have, the more you can participate in the conversation.
For example, Christopher invited Tim and I along for his GD2 class’ film viewing at CCA yesterday evening. We watched a lot of shorts done by students who produced video for the first time. If I had been given that assignment, I would have been in their exact same shoes. I remember how daunting it can be to dive into something that you’ve never done and have to go through the pains of learning tools before you can stylize just the way you want it. Just by viewing the videos and talking about them with Christopher and Tim, I learned about uses for software programs that I hadn’t considered before. Now if I’m ever in the position of producing a video, I at least know where to start and where to look for help. The other thing that I’m not doing, but am more familiar with now is creating email newsletters. Christopher has been working on one all morning and asked me to look up some code. Again, if I ever need to create an email for myself or a client, I’ll know where to begin.
Video after the jump [more]
Posted February 8, 2010 6:32 pm.
Filed under: daily happenings, details
Tags: Apple, cca, Chocolate Peanut Butter Stuffed Whoopie Cakes, Christopher, FedEx Office, French Toast, good design book, Kalle Lasn, Tim
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.
[more]
Posted January 28, 2010 6:47 pm.
Filed under: field trips
Tags: Brickhouse, cca, emigre, Gallery 16, mind map, Portfolio Center, Rise & Shine
Most of the day was spent doing research, in true Portfolio Center fashion: mind maps, endless websites with obscure facts, and some image searching for mood boards.
But then two o’clock rolled around and we went on a field trip! First we had lunch at The Brickhouse and then moved on to Gallery 16 for the last day of the Emigre exhibit. We even stopped in (barged in some might say) on Rise & Shine, a design studio owned by CCA grads Rob and Melissa. One of my favorite things about working here is the people I get to meet each week. There’s always someone new coming by or someone we go to see. Even when we returned, two of Christopher’s students, Georgia and Nick, came by for a visit.
If you haven’t checked out the Emigre exhibit, tomorrow might be your last chance. There were Emigre posters, publications, fan letters, hate mail, and magazine cover press sheets on display. As I walked around, I got warm fuzzies in my tummy. Looking at the work, I was proud to be part of such a relatively new profession and in away be able to experience some of its history.
I forgot to bring the camera on the field trip, so Christopher snapped some photos on his magic phone (i.e. iPhone) for all 20 of you who actually read my blog regularly. Hi, Mom.
Posted December 8, 2009 6:47 pm.
Filed under: daily happenings, details
Tags: balloons, cca, holiday card, phot shoot
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:
Posted September 2, 2009 6:14 pm.
Filed under: details
Tags: cca, classmates, flyers
I like getting the mail here, because we often get cool work. (That and I’m not personally responsible for any bills.) Below are a few pieces we recently received for CCA related events. All three are designed by friends and former classmates.
Posted May 12, 2009 3:33 pm.
Filed under: first times, inspiration
Tags: cca, first day, student, studio, summer
Hello.
So this is the first entry in what will become a daily (or every working day) blog entry straight from the mouth/mind of the intern at MINE™. That would be me. My name is Shaun Durkan and I’m a senior graphic design student at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA and am interning at MINE™ for the summer. This will be a daily feed of happenings, ideas, frustrations, new experiences, documentation of process, found inspiration and an overall stream of thoughts about what it’s like to be a student/intern.
My desk, my computer my lamp and my chair for the next four months.
Today was my first day visiting the office even though I had been invited over as a student of Christopher’s while taking his Graphic Design 2 class at CCA. Christopher’s class was one of the main factors I fell in love with graphic design, so it was a natural progression for me to become interested in working for Christopher and Tim at MINE™. I rode my bike for the 10 minutes it takes me to arrive at 190 Putnam and discovered Christopher already at work rearranging the garage. I parked my bike in the garage alongside Tim’s and entered the studio. The space is small but surprisingly comfortable with 3 work stations, stainless steel desks, a great library of design books and a comp room.
The previous intern, Heidi Reifenstein, was here to show me the ropes and make sure that I had a smooth transition into the position she would be leaving in two days. She showed me the cataloguing and archiving system, the library (organized chromatically by spine), setup my intern email address and introduced me to some general duties that I’ll be covering while working here. I assisted Heidi on a preliminary round of notecard designs for a new client and generally started to adjust to the place I’ll be spending most of my time this summer.
I’m really excited by the opportunity to be a contributing force to help make MINE™ an even more productive, rigorous, and innovative design firm. Even just being in the work environment is inspiring and I can’t wait to get my hands on some work.
