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.)
Hey Young World
“Hey Young World”, Slick Rick, 1988
This is Justin Holbrook, broadcasting from Putnam Planet 190. As Reena mentioned yesterday, I will be assuming control of the blog-writing duties for the summer. I am very excited and grateful to begin my internship here at MINE™. I applied as a joke after losing a bet with a classmate this past semester. It wasn’t even my fifth choice.
Actually, the truth is that I knew I wanted to be a part of MINE™—even if only for a few months—after I took Christopher’s GD 2 class a few semesters ago at CCA. I learned a lot that semester and figured that it could be an even greater learning opportunity if I had the chance to see how he runs this ship from a closer view. So here I am.
My first official day, I think, was yesterday. Reena, of course, was in and I spent much of the day familiarizing myself with the studio and getting the lowdown from her on various tasks/procedures. We all went out and had a nice little lunch up the hill, and I figured out my bicycle route for the upcoming days. Today Reena was in for just half of the day, so we ate some delicious Indian pizza and saw her ride majestically into the Mission sunset, onto BADder things (BAD = Bigger And Deffer).
To top off my glorious first day of blogging, I got to take some photos with my brand-new, futuristic, top-of-the-line camera of our eventful day. This camera is so futuristic, in fact, that the world isn’t ready for the pictures that were taken with it. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow, but trust me, it’ll be worth it!
Signing off
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
Last Tuesday post
Today is a Tuesday like any other Tuesday at MINE™. Nothing exceptional happened on my end. There was some file making, Wordpress tinkering, and package preparation. It’s strange to feel so comfortable with my routine, but at the same time know that I will be leaving soon.
I was helping Christopher prepare the Haiti Poster Project posters to be shipped out, and I totally felt like Ralph Macchio in the Karate Kid. In one scene Mr. Miyagi has instructed him to wax the car, and has a very particular way of doing it. “Wax on, wax off,” he chants. Ralph is a little peeved because he doesn’t understand what waxing a car has to do with karate. Finally he understands that there is a state of mind that he must achieve that will then permeate everything he does. That is totally what this internship has been about for me. Working at MINE™ has helped me reach a higher design sensibility that will then permeate everything I do. Preparing that package is my car to wax and Christopher and Tim have collectively been my Mr. Miyagi.
For Bob
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).
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.
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.
You can learn something from anything.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Blank screen of death
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!
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.
Enitrat
Yesterday was my birthday. So today Christopher took the office to lunch to celebrate. He also gave me a really thoughtful present. So my tummy is not only full of goodness, but also full of warm fuzzies.
We went to a new place on 24th street called Local: Mission Eatery. We had tasty sandwiches and then eclairs from Knead, the bakery in the back that shares the same space. Since I am obsessed with Tartine, Christopher gave me the Tartine cookbook so I can stop throwing my money away and figure out how to make delicious things to stuff my face with on my own. We discussed starting “Enitrat,” which is the working title for my concept bakery that will undercut Tartine’s business.
Christopher and Tim are more than mentors. They are awesome human beings. I love coming to work. We have fun, but we get things done. For all you future MINE™ interns, you are very lucky. Be awesome to them (of course you will), or know that I will fight you to the death…or just give you the stink eye.
Photo found here.
60 seconds
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]
I’m a Flash genius.
Today was awesome, because I did something that I didn’t even know I was capable of doing. Since Tim was out of the office day, Christopher let me take a stab at some Flash files and I rocked it with little trouble. Every time Christopher asked me if I could do any Flash, I told him no. I guess I was wrong. I’m proud of myself, but in reality it wasn’t rocket science. It was super simple animations, but I’m pretty excited about it anyway. It’s a good end to the week. Hello, weekend!
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
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!
I’m having technical difficulties.
So we’ve finally made the switch over to the new blog theme. Pretty rad, right? I have some things to tweak and type to finesse before everything is in ship shape. Since Wordpress sites go live as I update it, you’ll get to see changes in real time. It’s like watching Puppycam, but not as cute.
I worked on House of Air for a few moments, but most of my day was spent working on the blog. There’s nothing better to kill your self esteem like trying to figure out how to code things for the first time. I spent an hour or more trying to customize our header. Christopher walked up and the task was completed in minutes. It seems as though I didn’t close my tag. After I cleared that hurdle, Christopher and I spent some time trying to figure out other pieces of code to change color and column width. I have a long list of things to change still, and it’s going slowly. Once I get more familiar with it though, I hope the process will pick up the pace.
Coding is a tedious task, but it’s a fun thing to do. It’s kind of a like solving a puzzle and is really gratifying to see something start working how you want it. I’m excited about doing this project, because working with css/html was one of the things on my list of things I wanted to learn at MINE™. Two and a half months into the internship and I’m pretty sure I’ve already done most of the things on my list.
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.
Where did the day go?
I know the time changed yesterday, but I feel like I lost track of an hour sometime today. We weren’t particularly busy, but I must have been busy enough to not look at the clock.
[more]
Wanna whole lotta mug
Porcelain Clink Clink
Cut Crinkle Crinkle Crinkle
Fold Bend Crease Fold Fold
Yes, my haiku is so esoteric. You’ll have to order the The World’s Greatest Mug to decode it’s meaning. As of today, they are ready to be shipped!
New Blingy Horizons
Everyday that I come to work is a surprise. I feel really lucky to be here. Not only because I am learning a lot from Christopher and Tim, but because MINE™ has amazing clients. Since I’ve been here MINE™ has worked on projects for a trampoline gym that will open this summer, an education movement called Private Schools with Public Purpose, Coalition of Essential Schools’ education conference, Levi’s and Opening Ceremony, The Stern Grove Festival, The Good Design Book, The Energy Project, C+, Verizon Wireless, Wells Fargo, The Nature Conservancy, The Haiti Poster Project, and the Stanford d.School. I am amazed by the breadth of clients and how awesome everyone is. I feel like I am going to get spoiled and think that this is the way every design office is run.
A day full of firsts
My firsts included using Keynote, dusting, and meeting Ann from Hemlock Printers.
Christopher informed me that I was the first person to dust the cabinets. For some reason, I feel a little proud about that fact. But as you can see, I was desperately seeking something to do at the moment. Today was a little slow around here. We’re waiting for client feedback on a few projects so that we can proceed with them. It’s just the normal ebb and flow of things.
Gitting R’ Done at the d.School
Today was pretty exciting. I went to Palo Alto for the first time ever. I didn’t see much of the city besides Stanford and the d.School building, but the drive there was gorgeous. Sorry for gushing. As most of you probably know, I’m from Texas. I’m used to seeing flat lands and tumbleweeds.