For the Ladies!

In an ongoing effort to diversify my offerings, I made some new buttons last night. The way I see it, broads (what dames like to be called these days) are more inclined to wear buttons. The designs I've got now tend to be more gender neutral or skew towards the kitschy and masculine. So I'm remedying that. Here's some flowery, frilly shit:




I'm not sure that the pictures do them justice. But trust me, they're quite beautiful. Hooray!

The NE Button Store is Live!

The buttons have been printed and punched. The store is online and fully functional. So if you like any of the designs, please check it out and support online merchants. All funds will be donated to my vacation fund. Mmmmmm, Thai boys.

More buttons to come as the months progress. And I'm printing "Racism Is Gay" on Wednesday. E-mail me with your size and color preference (sky blue or banana yellow shirts)if you want to guarantee a copy.

And now...some comedy pieces with an emphasis on brevity, presented in declining order of quality.

Refreshing Newness: First, a truth that can't be denied: "I Am Fucking Hilarious". Also, there's "Places Your Barren Fiancée Didn’t Find Eggs During Easter Weekend" and "Single Entendres" but that last one ain't so good.

Creation

Here are some more buttons that continue the robot motif and begin the audio lust motif. Moreage on the wayage.



I got the machine yesterday. This means that I'll be selling by next week. As I didn't have high-res prints of my designs, I whipped these up from an old comic book. Abstract and cool pop fun!

Minimal

A small offering of potential buttons to begin your Wednesday morning. Nothing flashy, just fun with black and white. As proof that my ego has firmly entrenched boundaries, boundaries of exactly one inch, I've offered the head logo. Those of you that wanted it on a shirt will just have to settle. The last one is an attempt at rendering a Muller-Lyer illusion, but I think it could use a bit more work. More of those to come.

For those keeping track, I've promised to offer up more optical illusions, more comic word nonsense, more robots, more abstract patterns and more simple portraits of injured people. Geeoyl! that's a lotta work.

There's Great Opportunities in CRACK!

Beginning the week taping with Cracked Out puts me in the best of moods. The portion of the CRACKTION Movie that I previewed went down a storm: 3 minutes of uninterrupted, belly laughs. Once the site is up (May-ish?), we discussed the possibility of a bunch of other side projects. I. AM. RAPTUROUS. I'll go into greater detail as things develop.

Button Onslaught, Continued

You've been sending electronic love for the buttons and I appreciate the feedback. I've slapped together some more potentials. The two on the right of the top row are just a couple in a series that gives my personal onomatopoetic expressions the comic book treatment. As for the butterflies, I'm not sure if I prefer them with the head (outside two) or without (inside, blue and white). Huh.

May is gonna be a good month for Nerd Elite merchandise. I ordered the button press this weekend so I should have finished, ready-to-buy buttons by the first of the month. Also, I'm going to print "Racism Is Gay" t-shirts. I repeat: I'm going to print "Racism Is Gay" t-shirts. Phew. It's been a long time coming, I know, but I'm finally going through with it. I'll likely place the order by the end of next week. The shirts will be available in a sky blue or banana yellow t-shirt. If you'd like to guarantee one for yourself, send me an e-mail with your size and color preference. HURRAH!

FCP Slave

The weekend was wonderful. I took care of some much needed spring cleaning and bought a few house plants to liven up the place. I spent the entirety of yesterday editing The CRACKTION Movie. It's pretty funny stuff. Tonite I'm previewing a rough cut of 1/3 of it before I go and finish the lot. When the Cracked Out site is up and running in May, you can have a lookie loo as well.

Buttons, Day 3

I can't devour chapters of my Illustrator tutorial fast enough. Gotta improve that skillset if I hope to achieve on the page the same look that resides in my head. Coming up: more tragic portraits, complex/colorful abstracts and robots, robots, robots. And a pitcher to go!

Buttons, Day 2

More potential button designs. Same ol' good time.

Buttons

With the prospect of being able to make an endless number of buttons with endless designs in varying quantity, I've decided to make a fuckload of potential designs. For one, it's a good use of stuff I've made in the past. Two, it's a good design exercise. And three, I can weed out the chaff in a couple of weeks and I'll be left with a really solid line up of buttons. I plan to elicit your feedback and then eventually sell them with an order form that'll let you buy however many of whatever design you'd like, made to order. WOOT!

Hard Work

Still hard at work on websites and general design projects with all that is left of my free time. Yesterday, I walked around Brooklyn for a few hours, camera in hand, to recharge the creative batteries. I've been compiling a library of visual inspiration that will serve as a) a reference point and b) a catalyst for ideas.

I'm also trying to brush up on some technical skills. For the longest time, I've used Photoshop for all of my drawing/design needs. I have Illustrator but I haven't taken the time to learn to use it properly, a travesty considering it'll likely cut production time in half as well as yielding a more polished final product. But that is being remedied. Next up is Quark.

My tax return is filed away, safe and sound, and a windfall of refunds are whisking their way to my checking account. In addition to responsible obligations to my savings account and accrued debt, I intend to use a bit of that bread to further some design ambitions. Possibilities include a screen printing course, customized 1" buttons in a myriad of designs and "Racism Is Gay" shirts. Put your hands together for merchandising!

It's back to the grindstone for me. For about a month and a half I've been filming and editing shorts with Jon and Brett for the soon-to-launch Cracked Out site. At the moment I'm compiling footage for the CRACKTION MOVIE which I think may be one of the funniest things I've ever edited. Seriously, this video will be one for the ages. Say it with me now: THE MOTHERFUCKING CRACKTION MOVIE!

"Last Resorts"

Refreshing Newness: A new feature for Tuesday (or any other day for that matter). It's called "Last Resorts" and it's a bit of a lark.

Brunch with Bowie

I've been listening to a lot of David Bowie in the past week. Non-stop Ziggy Stardust. Last nite I had a dream that I was out to dinner with Bowie, Iman and a bunch of graphic design students and Bowie was really impressed with my insight into album covers and everyone else was jealous.

Let all the haters boogie.