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 April 12, 2010 5:47 pm.
Filed under: clients, lessons learned, process
Tags: branding, Christopher, d.School, House of Air, illustration, Photoshop, poster, so clean, so fresh, Stanford, Stern Groe Festival, Tim, typeface, Yulia Brodskaya
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.
Posted January 27, 2010 6:35 pm.
Filed under: details
Tags: emails, Exacto, logo, mood board, Photoshop, Type Directors Club
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
[more]
Posted January 20, 2010 6:13 pm.
Filed under: daily happenings, process
Tags: Good Deisgn Book, Jay-Z, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Pandora, Photoshop, T. Rex
Yep. It’s happened. We’ve listened to too much Pandora. No more Jay-Z or T. Rex stations for the rest of the month! Rude, Pandora. Really rude.
Other than that, I finished up my Photoshop duties today. So, I started on the task of photographing the remaining Good Design Book entries. Since setting up photo shoots is one of my favorite things to do, today was pretty rad even though I only got through one entry. Tim was my creative director of sorts and he made me redo one of the shots three times. He hasn’t signed off on this last attempt, so I might have to do it again. As Ludwig Mies van der Rohe said, “God is in the details.” (Yeah, I totally looked that up). Did you know he also said, “Less is more.” So getting things just right makes a difference.
Christopher and Tim have been going through the current version of the Good Design Book to edit and make changes. I made books in school, but it’s good to be reminded about pacing, grids, and all the considerations that one takes when designing a book. Today was the first day that I really got to take a look at the projects, and it’s inspiring stuff. Not only is it a book of full of work, but there are in depth case studies and essays so that you can get behind some of the thinking and processes of the projects. It’s been a few months, but I remember that making a book is a long process. But it’s all worth it, because in the end having the actual piece in your hand is so gratifying.
Elevation study of the Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe found here.
Posted January 19, 2010 6:42 pm.
Filed under: clients, lessons learned, typography
Tags: Hayes Valley, Photoshop, stern grove festival, typeface
I think it was a draw.
After a three day weekend, it was good to be back at work. So I didn’t mind doing the Photoshop all day. Well, almost all day. We went to Hayes Valley for a short meeting with the nice people from the Stern Grove Festival. So far, dealing with clients seems like cake! Christopher has informed me that it is not always the case, but from the two client meetings I’ve attended, there was a give and take and the conversation flowed smoothly.
[more]
