A Get Together to Tear It Apart

Listen: Podcast no30

2009-11-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

I think I might join a church and get baptized and eat more breadflesh and drink more wineblood. Enjoy:

"Panic" by The Smiths
"Warm Heart of Africa (feat. Ezra Koenig)" by The Very Best
"Lazer Theme (feat. Future Trouble)" by Major Lazer
"I Hate People" by Jemina Pearl (video)
"Horchata" by Vampire Weekend
"Should Have Taken Acid With You" by Neon Indian
"Apples and Pairs" by Slow Club
"Ancient Mysteries" by Brakes
"Pretty Visitors" by Arctic Monkeys
"Hummingbird" by Born Ruffians
"Random" by Gary Numan
"Don't You Be the Judge (Live)" by Danielson Famile
"Islands" by The xx
"Psalms 40:2" by The Mountain Goats
"Surf Solar" by Fuck Buttons

Here are some additional link(s) I blathered on about:

* The "Skins" music blog features an episode-by-episode breakdown of tracks featured in the show
* Danielson: A Family Movie is a documentary about the Danielson Famile and is available on Netflix

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no30 :: God is GREAT! Praise His Name! (mp3)
* no30 :: God is GREAT! Praise His Name! (enhanced)

That's it for episode 30. Here is an (outdated) list of tracks played on Pleasing To Your Ears! Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your Facebook page. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Listen: Podcast no29

2009-06-15T09:47:00.000-07:00

What song of Summer are you? Wanna be fake friends on Facebook? Ahh fuck this, I give up. Enjoy:

"Raindrops" by Basement Jaxx (video)
"Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" by Das Racist
"What Up Man" by The Cool Kids
"Idiot Heart" by Sunset Rubdown
"Auditorium" by Mos Def
"Daniel" by Bat for Lashes (video)
"No One Does It Like You" by Department of Eagles (video)
"Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare" by Matt & Kim
"The Rip" by Portishead
"The Tenure Itch" by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
"You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)" by Sunset Rubdown
"Good Distance" by Northern State
"Titus Andronicus" by Titus Andronicus
"Movie Romance" by Love Is All
"Kissing the Beehive" by Wolf Parade

Here are some additional link(s) I blathered on about:

* Buzzfeed's "What Song of Summer 2009 Are You?" quiz

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no29 :: WHOMP! WHOMP! (mp3)
* no29 :: WHOMP! WHOMP! (enhanced)

That's it for episode 29. Here is an (outdated) list of tracks played on Pleasing To Your Ears! Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your Facebook page. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Listen: Podcast no28

2009-06-08T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm going to see David Byrne in Prospect Park this evening. So this week I've provided excerpts from Byrne's "The New Sins" to guard your moral piety. Enjoy:

"Strange Overtones" by David Byrne and Brian Eno
"Heads Will Roll" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs (video)
"When I Grow Up" by Fever Ray (video)
"Dorchester Hotel" by The Sounds
"Hard Times" by Patrick Wolf (video)
"Help I'm Alive" by Metric
"Wet Hair" by Japandroids
"Century Eyes" by Shearwater
"Vermin" by Wavves
"Psychic City (Voodoo City)" by YACHT
"Introducing Palace Players" by MEW
"Dream City" by Free Energy
"Moth's Wings" by Passion Pit
"Kids" by MGMT (video)
"This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)" by Talking Heads

Here are some additional link(s) I blathered on about:

* More info about MEW's new album and image-based track names
* Wavves Barcelona breakdown

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no28 :: Let He Who Is Without Sin... (mp3)
* no28 :: Let He Who Is Without Sin... (enhanced)

That's it for episode 28. Here is an (outdated) list of tracks played on Pleasing To Your Ears! Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your Facebook page. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Listen: Podcast no27

2009-05-31T13:16:00.000-07:00

I graduated from graduate school. Graduate (x3)! With my new found free time, I'm hoping to get up to my old tricks and that means frequent, scheduled episodes of Pleasing To YOur Ears you guys! Enjoy:

"My Girls" by Animal Collective (video)
"1901" by Phoenix
"All Wasted" by Jay Reatard
"Stillness Is the Move" by Dirty Projectors
"Knotty Pine" by Dirty Projectors + David Byrne
"Tightrope" by Yeasayer
"Train Song" by Feist + Ben Gibbard
"The Shrew" by Beirut
"No Dice" by Realpeople (Beirut)
"MAD MAC" by Polysics
"Rain On" by Woods
"Two Weeks" by Grizzly Bear (video)
"When I Was Afraid" by The Thermals
"TMNT Mask" by Chad VanGaalen (a video for VanGaalen's "Molten Light")
"Snookered" by Dan Deacon

Here are some additional link(s) I blathered on about:

* Pitchfork followed Dan Deacon while he recorded his current album Bromst

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no27 :: Reboot (mp3)
* no27 :: Reboot (enhanced)

That's it for episode 27. Here is an (outdated) list of tracks played on Pleasing To Your Ears! Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your Facebook page. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

POPVISUALIZATION 1.0

2009-03-09T22:26:00.000-07:00

Pop Visualization 1.0 - Wham City from Tiny Hands on Vimeo.

This is an excerpt from the first Tiny Hands project, POPVISUALIZATION 1.0, which asks participants to visually interpret pop songs using common art supplies (markers, crayons and finger paint). While trying to deduce a song’s form, color and overall feeling, participants become active, rather than passive, listeners. Also, it’s fun to drink tons of wine and color with friends. This footage shows a variety of physical and aesthetic interpretations of the song “Wham City” by Dan Deacon. Read more about the project here and become a fan of Tiny Hands on Facebook.

Advisors + Development Videos

2009-02-18T00:14:00.001-08:00

Gripped by the siren's call of productivity, I find myself slogging through more work for my thesis. Good news: I've got an advisor. Other news: there's some interesting posts on the development blog. I promise I'll do a podcast soon.

http://devblog.tiny-hands.org/

Tiny Hands

2009-02-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

The MFA Design thesis, am I right folks? You in the back, you know what I'm talking about, I can tell. Guy waiting in line to pee, you feel me, don't you? Yeah, he feels me. He feels the unyielding desire to pee but he also feels me. Ahhhh, thesis.

Anyway, my project is called Tiny Hands, it's a difficult to explain but it's super fun in practice. It is an online, open-source art collective for regular people. For the time being, it is here:

http://devblog.tiny-hands.org/

You should totally read about it, tell me you read about it and, as a direct result of that closed feedback loop, be invited to participate in it when the time is right.

EMUHLAY!

2009-02-10T19:50:00.000-08:00

Emily was in town a few weekends back and we all went to Applewood for brunch. It was nice to hear about her plans for business school and recent nordic travels as well as filling her in on my ongoing thesis work. She dropped a lot of perspective on me, gave me one great contact and even squeezed in a silly hat photo shoot. Claire and I, to our surprise, have many silly hats.

Listen: Podcast, no26

2008-12-06T23:26:00.000-08:00

I'm back at school, but accumulated apathy and free time have yielded this podcast. I promise that this time there is more where this one came from and in short order. Enjoy:

"The Package Is Wrapped" by Marnie Stern
"Going Insane" by Vivian Girls
"After Last Night" by The Rev-Lons
"Peanut Duck" by Marsha Gee
"Un Dia" by Juana Molina (video profile)
"Banana Slugs/Cosmonaut" by High Places
"House Jam" by Gang Gang Dance
"Twice Born" by Fucked Up
"Steely" by Marnie Stern
"Monkey Trick" by The Jesus Lizard
"Feedback In the Field" by Plants and Animals
"Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric
"You Ain't Got Nuthin' (Feat. Juelz Santana & Fabolous)" by Lil Wayne
"Good Day" by Nappy Roots
"Miss Meri" by Two Gallants

Here are some additional link(s) I blathered on about:

* You can get the Hot Chip remix of Gang Gang Dance's "House Jam" here, presuming you don't mind signing up for the mailing list
* Here is Pitchfork's Top 100 albums of the 1990s (more on that next time, probably)

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no26 :: Indie Rock & Empty Promises (mp3)
* no26 :: Indie Rock & Empty Promises (enhanced)

That's it for episode 25. Here is an (outdated) list of tracks played on Pleasing To Your Ears! Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

A Couple of Things

2008-11-02T22:24:00.000-08:00

I've been working on my thesis project for the better part of two months now, often at the expense of other design projects. I was able to sneak a few things in, two of which are below. With luck, I'll be able to work on a few additional personal projects before the end of the year.

This video is the result of a Saturday of shooting and about $24 worth of apple green craft paper. My classmate Devon and I made it in response to a really loose brief for a class that acts as a sorbet to cleanse the thesis year palette. Devon and I have an aversion to people and a love affair with the absurd. Every sequence needs a bit of editing for time. I'll upload the streamlined version once I finish it.

(More of my videos)

I completed this opening title sequence for a department podcast back in September. If I find the time, I'd like to make some companion credits. The sequence follows the evolution of an idea, from concept to market. Fart.

(More of my videos)

NY Times: "Hot's Not Cool"

2008-09-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

British Steve and I designed a companion graphic for William Safire's On Language column in this week's New York Times Sunday Magazine. The project was part of their annual college issue, so all of the image-making was the product of current undergraduate or graduate students.

Our task was to design the column title, without any logical restrictions beyond reasonable legibility (for example, it didn't have to translate or in anyway interpret the meaning of the article). We perused back issues and saw a lot of digital solutions, the least interesting of which tried to create a connection in the graphic to the article, but we opted for something more playful, building a diorama of sorts, that measured more than fourteen square feet. All of the type elements were built from Play-Doh, Legos or stray toys, with additional decorative toy elements and a tinsel ocean. The end result was a lot of fun to do and I think it really stands out when held up to past issues. Below are some close-up shots that capture some of the detail lost in the overall picture.

Type Experiment: Fragmentation

2008-07-21T00:03:00.000-07:00

I was tinkering around last night when I got a call from my friend David. "What're you up to?" he asked. "Just doing some type experiments." He laughed. "Is that what they're calling it?" "I wish I was masturbating. Sadly, I am actually playing with type."

For lack of a better source text, I used the word "type" as a starting point and began applying the Fragment filter in Photoshop again and again and again. The result creates a surprisingly organic form, given that the filter is pure, algorithmic pixelization. The text appears to bleed, like ink soaked in water. The layering of distortion and digital artifacts even starts to pull a muted blue tone into the mix (at least when working with black text on a white background). I think the result is quite beautiful.

Click the full sample for a hi-res version of this experiment that provides greater clarity. Also, note the cropped portion below, which shows the effect at it's actual size--pixel bonanza. Next step: color and a more complex grid of text.

Completely By Accident

2008-05-27T21:24:00.001-07:00

Listen: Podcast, no25

2008-05-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

Design school is but a distant memory, for the time being at least. We now return to your regularly scheduled podcasting. Enjoy:

"Party" by Envelopes (video)
"Raging in the Plague Age" by Les Savy Fav
"Shove It (feat. Spank Rock)" by Santogold
"Navajo" by Black Lips
"Fools" by The Dodos (video)
"Blind Mary" by Gnarls Barkley
"Bonafide Lovin' (Tough Guys)" by Chromeo (video)
"Editions of You" by Roxy Music
"Strange Times" by The Black Keys (video)
"Say Aha" by Santogold (Zune Arts video)
"Trick For Treat" by Neon Neon
COVER: "Cobrastyle" by Robyn (Letterman appearance w/Teddybears)
"Run to Your Grave" by The Mae Shi (video)

Here are some additional link(s) I blathered on about:

* A quest for moonshine/White Lightning with The Black Lips in South Carolina (courtesy of VBS.TV)
* This week's covered song: "Cobrastyle (feat. Mad Cobra) by The Teddybears"

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no25 :: Didja Miss Me? (mp3)
* no25 :: Didja Miss Me? (enhanced)

Backwards Portfolio Review

2008-04-23T23:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted any of my school work lately and precious little otherwise. That said, I presented this concept/idea this evening and it went over pretty well. One of the critics even went so far as to call it "genius," a fact I considered omitting here but include if only because this late in the semester, when the idea tanks are empty, it's good to know there's still some gold left uncovered.

For my final presentation in Scott Stowell's class we were asked to present work from the semester in a manner consistent with a mission statement of our own design. I wrote my speech, recorded the audio, reversed it, transcribed the reversed speech phonetically, performed it on camera and then reversed the result again to create an intelligible presentation (with some assistance from subtitles). This is my literal attempt to look back(wards) at my output (a great deal of which I wasn't completely satisfied with) while pushing my belief that my best design work is witty, conceptual and performative.

Here is a truncated version of the phonetic manuscript.

And here is the final video.

(More of my videos)

Progress

2008-04-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

I compiled and uploaded a portfolio here. It got me a job here.

Early Morning Radio

2008-03-31T15:56:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I noticed that Claire and I have been waking up to a radio station of fair quality. She usually gets up for work, showers, has a bowl of cereal and is out the door before I've done than piss and then crawl back under the covers. Imagine my surprise when the DJ was going on about The Raveonettes and Los Campesinos! I could've sworn that the early morning alarm radio was always NPR or some world music station.

This morning I awoke to The National's "Fake Empire," a beautiful yet regrettably somber song, especially for so gray a day. I've added it to my Muxtape, so feel free to listen. I will continue to add songs to that site when the quality of a track compels me or until it gets shut down for copyright infringement. Think of it as a stop gap until I'm out of school for the Summer and my interest in podcasting is revived.

Liquid Psychedelia

2008-02-23T12:53:00.000-08:00

We're taking this course that is a simultaneous introduction to writing and an exploration of books and the form they take. It's more often than not pretty hippie dippy stuff with esoteric "writing exercises" that usually yield little more than awful poetry. I'm not receptive to the writing crash course b'c I can already write, but I understand how part of this course serves the greater good.

In a recent assignment, our instructor asked us to take some smaller bits of writing and some other pieces that were the product of free association exercises and create a bunch of varied type treatments. Type treatments are little more than artfully arranged text on a page, with an attempt at making a point or playing with a theme.

I was working on a more mundane series the night before everything was due, composing the work in Illustrator. This yielded the usual too-slick result, a piece of graphic design that has some visual appeal but no real soul. Rather than continue in this direction and have all of the enthusiasm sucked out of the assignment, I decided to experiment with a more physical transformation of simple, black, sans serif text.

Over the course of a few hours, I manipulated printed versions of my text while mid-scan and photocopy. Moving the text back and forth over the scanner and photocopier lens either stretches or condenses the text, often times separating the black portion into it's CMYK composite colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, etc.). I am FUCKING IN LOVE with the results. They are dynamic and each experiment has a surprising outcome. Further explorations are in the works using this initial foray as inspiration. The next obvious direction is the transformation of organic images, the introduction of video/animation work and an attempt of a large scale installation of scanners that act not as devices for capturing static images, but real time video input devices.

Mother fucking art school, ya'll.

Flying Cake (Trial 001)

2008-02-10T18:39:00.000-08:00

(More of my videos)

On Saturday, I met my group at the studio and we set to work on the first cake flight. Scott brought in six over-sized, helium-filled balloons, but they struggled to lift an empty Nalgene bottle. A trip to the 99cent store for more balloons also failed to turn the tables in our favor. We hollowed out all but the outer ring of an angel food cake and frosted what was left. From the beginning, the integrity of the floating cake has always been paramount and, as such, we were never interested in floating a box that looked like a cake.

Unfortunately, even the lightest store bought angel food cake (which, by the by, was infinitely lighter than the one we baked in Maira's kitchen) is too heavy to really take flight without strapping an unsightly number of balloons to the base. We have since resolved to frost styrofoam and even sculpt cupcakes, create vacuum molds and churn out perfect, hand painted, nerf foam replicas. All these eventualities didn't stop us from shooting a few screen tests for the ugly prototype. In the end, it took flight twice, owing more to large gusts of wind than defiance of gravity. Pretty magical, if I do say so myself. We are shooting again tomorrow with lighter materials. Here's hoping the fucker floats for a few hours.

Your Basic (Horny) Chair

2008-02-08T18:25:00.000-08:00

Last week, I mentioned my first visit to the wood shop for our 3-D Product Reality course. I had to transform a basic wooden chair from IKEA into the embodiment of the word "horny". I cut the legs and back on two simultaneous angles with a power saw, sanded the edges flush, filled in some holes with wood filler and then painted the entire thing with nine coats of plasticized rubber. Bind it, gag it and truss it up to a ceiling pipe and you've got yourself a kinky chair, begging to be whipped.

My classmates were kind enough to spank the horny chair again and again for a few final photos.

Stefan Sagmeister (CRIT, Ep1)

2008-02-04T20:58:00.000-08:00

(More of my videos)

I am spearheading the effort to bring a regular video podcast series to CRIT, the SVA MFA Designer as Author blog. I volunteered for the position of Content Editor last semester because I was eager to help develop the ideas of my fellow students that were interested in writing but were reluctant or at a loss for subject matter. I have also been kicking around the idea of the video podcast for a few months now. Ideally, we'll be able to produce something in the range of two videos a month, each of them spotlighting professionals working in any design or visual arts medium. Our program already has a wide variety of podcasts available, many of them focusing on the Paul Rand lecture series. I hope to move out of the classroom and into the studios and workspaces of designers in the NY area.

The first episode, a test run of sorts, was filmed last Thursday, during the Deitch Projects book launch for "Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far" by Stefan Sagmeister. The exciting atmosphere and the fact that we knew the guest of honor made it an ideal trial for working out the podcast kinks and planning for future episodes. With the help of some mates, we captured some dope footage and I chopped and reassembled the whole thing over the weekend.

I'm really psyched to develop this project. Shame I'm not getting a grade for it. Stay tuned for more episodes in the future.

Precision Cut and Made To Order

2008-02-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

As the ice breaker assignment in our 3-D Product Reality course, our instructor gave us each a wooden chair from Ikea with a personality trait scrawled on the underside. We walked into class, sat down in the Ikea seats and at the end, like a scene out of a low-rent episode of Oprah, turned the chairs over to reveal our assignment.

The chairs have to be transformed into something that embodies the given trait. I got "horny". After proposing a few different ideas (a chair transformed into Senator Larry Craig, sticking one of it's legs through a glory hole in an airport bathroom or a chair with a bike pedal connected to a cow tongue sticking through a hole in the seat that, when pedaled, allowed you to pleasure yourself), the class chose my more traditional bondage scenario. The bound, gagged, latex-covered transformation is due Thursday and I'll be sure to upload pictures, but in the meantime, here are a few shots of our first afternoon in the wood shop.

"It puts the lotion on it's skin..."

2008-01-30T19:47:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, we have a class called "The Visual Book" in which we complete a number of avant garde projects, many of them in the form of books that mix a visual form with a traditional style of narrative. For our first assignment, we were asked to "alchemize" an existing book and turn it into something else. Lacking inspiration, I stopped by The Strand and told myself that I would transform the first book I saw in the bargain bin. With that out of the way, I bought a cheap bucket, some cheap lotion, some cheap twine and got my papier mache on.

Cake with Maira

2008-01-30T19:35:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in passing here, one of our classes this semester consists almost entirely of the class meeting at our instructor's house, making angel food cake, icing them with bright pink whipped cream, tethering the cakes to balloons and letting go. We haven't got to the end just yet, but we did make a cake. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was worth the price of admission.

The Alameda

2008-01-30T18:25:00.000-08:00

While I was in San Antonio over the winter holiday, my parents and I visited the Alameda, a Smithsonian affiliate museum that is dedicated to telling the story of the Latino experience through art, history and culture. The afternoon was a real delight, spent pouring over the work of Vincent Valdez and Alex Rubio, two infamous Westside artists. If you are in South Texas in the near future, I recommend checking the Alameda out. The fine art and anthropological pieces on display made it one of the most memorable and inspiring museum visits in recent memory.

(The picture above is a cropped portion of a collage I made of “Casa Mireles Botanica Infinito," a piece that is in the permanent collection and can be found in the entrance to the Alameda gift shop. Click here for a larger version of "Casa Mireles".)

Picturing to Learn Workshop

2008-01-18T21:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend I'm headed to MIT with three other SVA MFAD students to participate in the National Science Foundation-funded pilot program of Picturing to Learn. Details and a full account to follow.

Picturing to Learn actively engages students in creating visual explanations. To go beyond viewing and analyzing images made by others, Picturing to Learn emphasizes:
* Making visual representations to increase understanding of science and engineering concepts
* How visual communication can improve information exchange between disciplines
* The importance of communicating science to the public for the next generation of researchers
* A new approach for teachers to evaluate students' comprehension of various principles

Slog

2008-01-15T23:20:00.001-08:00

School began again on Monday. The week is a calm before the semester's storm because, while we have class each night, there isn't yet the crushing pressure of ALWAYS HAVING SOMETHING DUE (! x3). I on the other hand, volunteered to create a title sequence for the program's new podcast series, so I've been arriving early in the morning and leaving really late each night, in addition to preparing for a trip to MIT, brainstorming thesis projects and Treehead scenarios and figuring out the physics necessary to make a tasty pink cake float 10 stories above Fifth Avenue. In other words, business as usual.

My graduate program is better than yours is.

Basil Eggling

2008-01-12T21:41:00.000-08:00

Claire gave me an Eggling for Christmas, a small clay pot in the shape of an egg that comes loaded to bear with seeds for herbs or flowers. All you do is crack it like a hard boiled egg, add the seeds, water and wait for a few weeks for your plant to grow. After a few months I can transplant the basil and use the remaining egg shell to fertilize the soil. This is a great gift to give someone that needs a bit of natural growth to liven up their home or office.

Type Video: Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse by Of Montreal

2008-01-08T06:35:00.000-08:00

(More of my videos)

This is the preliminary draft of my type video for our "Just Type" class at SVA, a project that required us to make a music video for a song using only letters from the typefaces of our choosing (previously mentioned here). I say "preliminary" because the time constraints of a full semester's course load and the stress of finishing a lot of other very demanding final projects kept me from incorporating all of the ideas I had for the video. In addition to that, one of the stipulations of the project was that the final video be black and white.

Soon, I'm going to begin work on the definitive director's cut (! x3) which will have color sequences, puppets, fake blood and live video.

Christmas Booklist

2008-01-08T06:26:00.000-08:00

For the past few years, my Christmas list has consisted almost exclusively of books. This is some of what was waiting under the tree for me this year. More to come by way of B&N gift cards.

Wisdom Is Wasted On Me

2007-12-22T06:43:00.000-08:00

(More of my videos)

For the final assignment in his class "Can Design Touch Someone's Heart?", Sagmeister decided to forego the humanity phase of the project and give us the opportunity to design a phrase similar to the work his studio creates in the "Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far" series (Example 1, 2, 3, 4). The basic idea is to pick a truth or sage bit of wisdom that you've identified over the course of your life so far and design that phrase. As usual, huge emphasis is placed on making a beautiful composition, putting effort and thought into the form of said composition and using original, well-composed typography.

I originally settled on a sentence (the exact phrasing of which escapes me now) during an early comp presentation, but was unable to recall where I'd written it down. It was rubbish anyway. I'm not terribly comfortable generating these little pithy phrases because I think they can very easily veer into preachy advice-mongering. After much hand wringing and brainstorming, I settled on the phrase "Wisdom Is Wasted On Me," which is both a piss take of advice in general and aptly expresses my reluctance of settling on any single bit of sage wisdom. I think that, at this time in my life, advice and wisdom go in one ear and out the other for me. I'm much more apt to try and fail than heed the advice of someone in advance of someone before said failure.

For the presentation, I wanted to experiment with audio and video, using long and short consonant and vowel sounds from trite cliches to actually derive the final bit of wisdom. The overall result has grown on me. Several technical complications during filming and post-production have ensured that I will need to re-shoot this project. The final presentation was well-received in class and should be appearing on the site that Sagmeister, Inc. is launching in February to host user-submitted pieces.

A Source of Light

2007-12-12T22:21:00.000-08:00

(project originally completed on 10/17/07)

For an assignment two months ago, coming off a streak of straight forward, design-minded projects, Milton gave us the following brief: “Bring in something of your own making which is a source of light.” We weren’t allowed any clarifying questions and were told that we shouldn’t discuss our ideas with or show prototypes to our classmates.

The exercise was a wonderful departure from the work we’d been asked to create up to that point. Having no specific methodology or outcome in my mind, it was a chance to do whatever we pleased, to think as far outside of the box as possible and risk embarrassment and failure.

My initial idea had to do with illuminated thought bubbles. I thought it might be interesting to create single color, plastic, injection-molded thought bubbles that would float above the users head. The bubbles would light up and be customizable with a dry erase marker. I imagined employing one when I was working at the studio and didn’t want to be disturbed: fuck off, I’m busy.

I ran into problems due to shape and lack of time and resources. I don’t know much about plastics and know even less about how to get an injection-molded prototype built. As an alternative, I thought it might be nice to make macabre nightlights and mobiles. Still into the idea of plastic and customization, I settled on the nightlight idea and set to work building forms out of crystal clear packing tape.

While watching a bunch of old Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes, I balled and folded and smashed and grew the tape. When I stuck a bunch of wads together and shone a light behind the result, the tape bounced and reflected the light back in on itself, creating this trippy mirrored ball effect. I continued to grow the shape organically until it began to resemble this menacing demon with a protruding lower jaw. The final step was to add gnarly fangs and dainty little horns.

I initially left the face blank thinking that, should a mass-market version be sold to a kid, they might like to customize their own version. But the more I stared at the demon head in the dark, it’s center glowing bright, I started to see shapes in the folds and creases of it’s packing tape core. Staring at the demon has the same end effect of cloud gazing or looking up at the popcorn texture on the ceiling: you begin to make your own shapes, see warts and scowls that are unique to you and you alone.

Milton enjoyed the end result, thought it was an ingenious use of materials, but wasn’t fond of the shape. “What can I say? I like devils and demons,” was my reply. My source of light sits on my desk at the studio to this day.

Guest Lecture Poster: David Rees

2007-12-06T21:21:00.000-08:00

One of the most rewarding learning opportunities in the MFA program is the weekly guest lecture series. Steve Heller plumbs his social and professional connections and gets the best illustrators, designers, filmmakers and authors working in the States and invites them in for a chat and Q&A. Each week, a first year student in the program designs a poster for the event and hangs them about the studio.

I was assigned the poster for David Rees, the artist responsible for the comic strip Get Your War On and My New Fighting Technique Is Unstoppable. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, various alternative weekly newspapers and several comic collections.

I’ve always secretly assumed there was a connection between the lecturers and the design students chosen to create the posters. Rees’ lectures are infamous around the studio because he’s “so fucking hysterical.” There was no shortage of people coming up to me and telling how funny he was, how the lecture wasn’t to be missed and how all the second years were sure to return for this one.

I’m pretty sure I got the gig because I’m “the funny one.” I would’ve laid waste to a pile of babies to design the Paul Budnitz poster (Kid Robot), but I got the lo-fi comics artist with a chip on his shoulder and a pension for using the word “fuck” as a punch line.

Nevertheless, I’m really pleased with what I designed. I digitized the clip art characters used in many of Rees’ comics, incorporated an upside down American flag which seemed apropos given our current distressing sociopolitical climate, and managed to condense a 3-panel joke into one poster.

Everyone kept asking me if I wrote the strip myself. I just shrugged and nodded. Comedy isn’t for the faint of heart.

(Click above for a larger version)

Treehead Seed Bombs the System

2007-12-05T18:54:00.000-08:00

(If XML doesn't load, refresh page.)

This test short was created as part of an assignment for an abbreviated lecture that just wrapped up at school. Jeff Scher, an illustrator and filmmaker, came in on Tuesday afternoon over the past month and gave us a crash course in experimental filmmaking and animation. Historically, this session was longer and students created a couple of films of varying mediums (stop motion, flipbooks, etc.). This year was a bit like drinking from a fire hose, owing to the smaller number of meetings and the volume of material to cover. For the last class, we were supposed to make a short flipbook for The Green World Campaign, an environmental non-profit. The inspiration/message for the video was Green World's tag for a current campaign: From one seed, a forest grows.

Many of my classmates embraced a more direct approach for their shorts. I'm not much of an illustrator so I played to my strengths, mainly humor, music, loud graphics and anthropomorphic freak out characters. The grenades were originally supposed to explode and cause trees and branches to take over dilapidated city buildings but we had a short window to complete this and I ran out of time. Solution? Blow up the city and grow more trees. Treehead is so awesome, I've decided to create a few 10-minute web shorts and flesh out his world, using some of my accented classmates for vocal talent. Respect.

Pay Your Interns

2007-11-18T15:21:00.000-08:00

Last week, in our Design and Intention class, we were asked to "design a poster addressed to fellow designers, urging them to practice ethically." This was the second time we've undertaken a poster trying to encourage someone to stop a particular mode of behavior.

It's hard.

You want to steer clear of any language which sounds like moralistic preaching or proselytizing. People shut down when a message is too critical or accusatory. I was quite pleased with my previous solution for this problem and received a good deal of positive feedback for it. But the audience was more focused this time around.

Rather than trying to tackle a massive, weighty issue that designers are, in part, responsible for (sustainability, the commercialization of culture, poor business practice), I opted for a more personal approach. When I first began the program, I knew that I would likely get a summer internship between the first and second year. I was, however, appalled to find that there was a pretty good chance, in keeping with tradition, I wouldn't be getting paid for my work. Bullshit, right?

After rejecting a few photographic set ups I had for my concept, I settled on the image of a disheveled, Dickensian graphic design intern, begging for change, armed only with his MacPro. Steve and Areej hit the streets with me, acting as photographers, art directors and bodyguards, ensuring the computer wouldn't get nabbed by passersby. Another of our classmates, Nick, wandered by during his cigarette break and leant the coffee cup for additional prop goodness. Steve took just short of 100 pictures, some of which I've included below. Click on the final poster for a larger res copy.

(By the by, kerning is the space between each character and word. Much emphasis in the design world is placed on hand-kerning text to ensure beauty and correct layout. Milton thought that "Will Kern For Food" should be the head and "Pay Your Interns" the subhead. I'm on the fence about it.)

The Tibor Kalman Library

2007-11-10T14:20:00.000-08:00

The MFA Studio is hosting an open house this afternoon for prospective students interested in applying to the program. I volunteered to help out because the experience last year was invaluable in choosing a school. I obviously believe strongly in SVA's program, but the hospitality and reception they roll out for these events is unmatched by any of the other Top 10 or NY-area design programs.

Last week, (British) Steve and I got an e-mail from Esther, the department coordinator, asking us to create the signage for the event. The project required us to create several directional way-finding signs and title cards for past projects that are displayed on workstations around the studio. In addition to that, Esther mentioned a long-term installation that the co-chairs wanted for the new library. Over the summer, some studio space was cordoned off to construct the Tibor Kalman Library, a dedicated room for design and visual reference books. The new library space meant new walls, which also means there is a big old patch of boring, white plaster in the front of the studio, begging for someone to spruce it up. Esther asked us to create some temporary signage for the library wall in time for the open house, with the understanding that we'd do something more extensive over the next few weeks.

Minutes later, Steve (one of the dept. co-chairs) called (British) Steve and I into his office for a meeting. The three Steves! He wanted to talk about the wall project, which to him, was far more critical than the event signs. He wanted it done by the open House. Steve and I just smiled, nodded and quietly panicked.

The following Monday, Steve and I sat down to bang out some ideas for the installation. I have little to no experience with collaborative design, a fact I mentioned in my earlier magazine post, so there was some reluctance on my part from the beginning. Steve and I get on like a house on fire, but when you're in a program like this, with so many people asking you to come up with great ideas at every turn, you can feel a little hard-pressed in the beginning to devise a plan you actually want to execute.

After scribbling some "serious" ideas on a pad, we lost our way and began joking about what we'd actually like to see on the wall. We started to build on a particularly rich concept, just adding more and more onto the pile and laughing about how mad the whole thing would be if that's the direction we went in. It was as easy a bit of collaboration as I could have hoped for and I can honestly say that the finished concept was both of our ideas. I'm unsure of where Steve's ideas stop and mine begin. After spending so much time on sketches and ideas and falling in love with the concept (a real problem when you're designing anything), we decided to pitch the ridiculous one to (co-chair) Steve. He was in Spain, so sent him the following e-mail, titled Tibor Library Ideas (TRIPLE AWESOME TO THE EXTREME):

Hey Steve-

This is Steven and Steve and this e-mail already sounds like an Abbott and Costello routine. We've attached a couple of mock-ups for an idea that we're pretty excited about. It is a bit involved, but a portion of it can be installed in advance of the Open House.

We'd like to transform the blank wall space in order to evoke a stately library of the sort that you might find in an old British manor. The walls would be covered in a muted victorian wallpaper and hung with old, gilded picture frames. Inside the frames, we would hang 17th and 18th century oil paintings of Dukes and Earls and regal Ladies, with their hunting dogs and powdered wigs and corsets. In place of their heads, we would insert the covers of monographs and books in the library, photoshopped to resemble the oil painting so that the overall effect was seamless. In the gap between the bookshelves, we'd like to stick this old wing back chair I've got, maybe draping it with a velvet smoking jacket, to make the illusion of a library complete.

On the right side of the column we would hang a large frame with "The Tibor Kalman Library" inset, accompanied by a modest framed portrait of Tibor below. This material could all be installed this week. Like I said, we've attached some jpgs to give you a better idea of what we're talking about, as well as a template for the signage that we're supposed to design for the Open House.

As an alternative, we we're thinking about creating an idea map of the library's contents. This would be a pretty straightforward web of the content inside, in black and white with more bold primary colors used to accent. We would once again reserve the naming information for the right side of the column.

The next afternoon, (co-chair) Steve was back from Spain, but most of the day passed without (British) Steve or I hearing a peep from him about the concept. At a quarter to five, he screamed for the two Steves to get into his office. (British) Steve and I exchanged nervous giggles and made our way across the studio. Perched on (co-chair) Steve's couch, he told us that he loved the idea and that we were free to do as we pleased. There would even be a bit of money to cover our material expenses.

Over the next week, (British) Steven, myself and two of our mates that we inducted into the cause, Areej and Nigel, made trip after trip to neighborhood thrift shops for ratty old picture frames with an ornate flourish. Steve and I went wallpaper shopping uptown and also picked up a few wall sconces at a nearby Home Depot, as well as some paint to give the frames an antique look. During one group shopping trip to an art supply store for our book class, I found a big bastard of a frame on a pile of discarded garbage. It was the perfect style and shape for the project, so back to the studio it went with us.

After class on Thursday night, (British) Steve, Areej, Nigel and myself waited for those folks sitting adjacent to the wall to clear out of the studio and began hanging the wallpaper. We started at a snail's pace since we had zero cumulative wallpaper experience, but after a few strips, we fell into a routine and were able to lock the whole thing down by two or three in the morning. In a short time, the pictures were framed and hung and we were done, barring a few bits of touch up work the following morning.

The following day, we got to the studio and filled in some wallpaper gaps that appeared once the lot dried on the wall. (Co-chair) Steven and Lita (the other co-chair) were already at school and seemed really pleased with the results. It definitely adds a strong visual element to an otherwise dull corner of the studio. Steve and I are still on the lookout for a couple more frames to house the portraits that we photoshopped but didn't get to use. Also, we need to find a chair that matches the wallpaper and work on the actual text sign for the right wall. When all of this is done, we plan on having each guest lecturer pose in the chair (with monocle and smoking jacket) and create a collection of bizarre portraits in front of our creation.

(British) Steve and I have already set our sights on another corner of the studio. There aren't many places in work, school or life where someone encourages you to do something really weird and gives you a bit of money to make the whole thing happen. I need to continually remind myself that I'm lucky to be in an environment where anything can happen as long as the idea behind it is golden.

OPTIC and the World of Magazine Design

2007-11-04T21:20:00.000-08:00

For the last two weeks in our Design and Intentions class with Milton Glaser, we've been immersed in the world of magazine design. The first week, we were asked to come up with the concept for a magazine, with a great deal of emphasis placed on a marketable concept that would be able to find both advertisers and subscribers. I spent a great deal of the week leading up to the due date unsure of what I would pitch. I had a few ideas of my own in addition to those I solicited from the folks at a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner I went to at the weekend.

Despite the large volume of feedback, I wasn't happy with any of the prospects. I couldn't see myself wanting to work on the magazines if the entire exercise went into another week of development. At three in the morning, the day of the presentation, I had a flash of inspiration and set to work on "OPTIC: A DVD Magazine of Visual Culture".

I pitched "OPTIC" as a bimonthly DVD and companion booklet for subscribers of all ages that were interested in visual culture like fine art, film, fashion, design and more. Each issue would have a governing theme that categorized the content inside. In place of traditional articles and print advertising, the DVD would contain interviews, short films, video art projects and humorous goofs, in addition to 10-20 second commercials. I was and still am pretty enamored with the idea and was happy to present it to the class, feeling that I had landed on a concept that I was happy to both work on and stand behind.

Unfortunately, during the critique, I was told that it was next to impossible for a DVD magazine to turn a profit. "OPTIC," it would seem, was dead in the water. Six of the magazine ideas that were more audience-friendly or fiscally viable were selected by Milton and the rest of us volunteered to work on the projects. One of my colleagues pitched a magazine of artful erotica and me, the consummate sex culture fiend that I am, joined that group.

I've never designed by committee before so I was concerned, nay perplexed, about how a group of people manage to achieve an overall aesthetic cohesion on a project. How would three designers with three completely different perspectives complete a workable finished product?

It turned out to be easier than I initially believed. Theresa and David, the other folks in my group, are really easy to get along with. We brainstormed ideas for interviews, feature articles and smaller bits of interest for the front and back of the magazine. We all have pretty different sexual/cultural interests which made for a really diverse content. We were supposed to have 16 pages (8 spreads) for the following week, so we divided up the workload and got to work.

Early on, our layouts weren't meshing very well. We ultimately decided that OPTU, the Greek word for "gaze," was less of a commercial monster and more of a large format art magazine. The variety of sexual peccadilloes on display practically demanded a looser grid layout than, say, Newsweek. That gave us the editorial freedom to design a layout about the difference between "kink" and "fetish" differently than you would a photo spread of erotic photographs printed with an antique look.

Our group took a field trip to the Museum of Sex to help generate additional ideas and observe the attendees who, we figured, were our likely readership. In the end, we printed out the spreads, glued a comp together just before class began and pitched the whole thing to the class. Milton thought it was a great treatment of the material, said the visual layout and our intentions behind it really served the material and, when some people in the class said they wouldn't subscribe, assured us they would, that they were "just embarrassed". My group was pleased as punch.

It was a pretty great experience on the whole. I still enjoy the complete control that comes with the solo thing, but the professional design environment rarely works that way. It was nice to know that, when the time comes, I'll be able to put obsession and ego aside and turn out a great product with a group. And as for "OPTIC: A DVD Magazine of Visual Culture," well, I vow to make the model work somehow. I really want to produce an issue of it this summer. And the idea acted as a kernel for an idea I'm currently considering pursuing for my thesis. Not too bad for two weeks of work.

(These are the three spreads I designed for the erotica mag. They're all mocked up with lorem ipsum dummy text, but the pullquotes are real. Click on the spreads for a larger, correctly oriented image. And for those of you paying attention, the spreads are split in the middle by the fold of the magazine which means, yes, the crease falls on the crack of the rubber-clad ass.)

The CW and The Feed

2007-10-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

I've got a new post up on (CRIT), the SVA MFAD blog. It's all about The CW network and the lengths it will go to to sell us shit. You can read it here. Toodles.

Design for 3-Dimensions or: How I Learned to Stop Building Models and Embrace the Poo Bot

2007-10-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

The MFA Design program at SVA is in a constant state of flux. They tweak the courseload with each incoming group of students to such a varying degree that we have classes our second year counterparts didn't, some mandatory courses they had the option of taking and classes that we all have in common but which are now twice as long as they've been in the past.

One such class, Design for 3-Dimensions, which is now mandatory, is an attempt to get us out from behind the computer and building things with our hands. I had pretty high hopes for this course after an amazing first meeting where we discussed, among other things, sustainability and planned obsolescence in product design. Then we got our first assignment: build a pooper scooper. Pooper scooper projects are the "Hello World" equivalent of the industrial design world, but I was initially game. However, the project went on for a month and my patience wore a little thin. While I was ultimately satisfied with my claw, dubbed "The Power Glove," and was able to use it to successfully pick up a stranger's dog shit near Gramercy Park, I was encouraged to push it further for the final prototype.

But I'd hit a wall. I had little interest in thinking about the practical designs of a pooper scooper, a device that all urban dog owners had told me would never surpass the plastic bag and hand in terms of convenience and efficiency. So I jumped ship. I ran as fast as I could away from the practical world of pooper scoopers and into the loving arms of an ideological sea change. I decided for the last week that I would propose an idea that, if successful, would result in a cultural touchstone, a wealth of merchandising oppurtunities and a generation of kids who would think that picking up dog shit was "totally cool."

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...POOTOMATON, THE UNSTOPPABLE POO-COLLECTING KILLBOT!

Pootomaton uses the latest advances in cybernetics and fecal fusion to convert a pile of dog shit into money. Pootomaton simply places said dogpile into the poop chute in his front panel and in minutes, the shit is converted via the fecal conversion reactor into a dollar bill. EVERYONE WINS!

BritishSteve, my cubicle mate, kindly agreed to play Pootomaton for the day so the exoskeleton was custom-fitted to his fleshy core.

I tailor a panel of sentient pooluminum (cardboard) while BritishSteve stares into the dark, haunting core of his left claw, which just happens to be one of his failed (but fucking awesome) prototypes.

BritishSteve tries on the cowl. We insisted that all people refer to the headpiece as a "cowl". Not a "helmet," not "the head," but a "cowl." People gave us strange looks but we weren't dissuaded. Inside us, beat the hearts of comic nerds.

The morning of, post spray paint enhancements on the sidewalk in front of the school. A security guard gave me a ration of shit about painting it after I'd finished and was sitting waiting for the bot to dry. I told her that I didn't care if I could do it or not, it was already done. Fuck you rules, ART KNOWS NO BOUNDS!

Pootomaton and his own comic make their grand entrance in the classroom.

Pootomaton collects poop. He prints money. And, if prompted, he pops and locks.

At our teacher's request, we stormed the office of Steve Heller, the chair of the MFA program to show off the costume.

Steve's words: "Well, you get an 'A'!"

A boy and his robot.

The comic next to my classmate Kimiyo's shit sculptures. I'm developing a bunch of ancillary products to flesh out the POOBOT-cum-SUPERHERO idea, so I'll post those later. Art school is, like, so wicked.

Another (CRIT) Post

2007-10-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

I have another post up on the MFAD blog, this one about Dunny Series 4. You can read it here. I'm scheduled to post again next week, so I'll let you know when it's up.

Type Video

2007-10-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

For our "Just Type" class, we have an ongoing project that is due at the end of the semester. Were constructing music videos that are black and white and only use type. If you want a background, you gotta build it outta type. You want characters? Type people. You get the idea. I'm animating "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse" by Of Montreal. My storyboarding consists of a withdrawn, drug-addled capital "A" taking a magic pill that transforms him into his drug-fueled alter ego. It's full blown psychedelia, baby. After presenting the idea and storyboards in class, I'm fairly confident that many of my contemporaries mistook me for a fan of hardcore hallucinogens. It must've been the bit about the "A" vomiting up a puddle of letters which then sprout insect legs to form a line of lyrics from the song. Below are some storyboards and a very rough screen test. I'll nix the commentary and leave the interpretation to you as this project has a couple of months before it's worth watching.

Click here to peep the screen test. Three seconds of animated motion graphics have never been more exciting!

Just Type

2007-10-16T19:43:00.001-07:00

One of the first semester classes were taking is meant to be a sort of primer/crash course in typography. From the curriculum description of the class:

JUST TYPE is an exploration of contemporary and classic typefaces that students will apply to ten short projects over the course of the semester. Every week, each student will be given a font to research and work with on a specific project. In some cases, we'll work in class with printouts and glue sticks. Seriously. At the end, a type catalogue of the fonts used will be compiled, and the class projects shown as examples of the faces in action. There will be no images,color or devices used--JUST TYPE.

The description is a bit out of date but it goes to the heart of what we are doing. Much of graphic design (and the disciplines that grow out of it: motion graphics, print, web, etc.) are built on a foundation of clear and concise type. Words communicate ideas and to be a good designer you have to be "fluent in type," which is a fancy way of saying you understand the laws and foundations of type construction. That's what this class is all about.

Over the past few weeks we've been working on a free-form exercise meant to loosen us up and get us comfortable working with type, letter by letter. Be it modern, woodprint or novelty, the idea is to construct textcentric posters that push our own personal comfort zones into unexpected places. We contacted designers whom we admire and asked them to supply a pithy bit of advice for design students to act as the basis of our posters. The advice was then used for the type compositions. Black and white. Just type.

Wood Type

The alphabets used were based on old woodprinting alphabets. The characters are evocative of old concert or carnival posters with all of the nicks and scrapes of age still intact. Quote: "Simple is beautiful." -Bubi Au Yeung, Illustrator and Toy Designer

This quote was a difficult one to begin with b'c we were being pushed to do a lot of crazy, messy stuff. Typically, too many fonts is a bad thing. But this exercise, in part, is about ignoring that instinct. I was afraid too much visual chaos would contradict the advice given in the quote and not really play as a composition. I decided to start by just obscuring some of the word "beautiful" and keeping things simple.

Over-scaled letterforms provided a canvas for the straight forward construction of the quote in this piece. I sort of like it. I think my professor sort of didn't. Oh well.

I am in love with this poster. It was a great excuse to use all of these cool old woodtype dingbats and call outs. The idea behind this is pretty obvious: there's a lot going on around the simplicity of the white space and text at the center. This one is my favorite for the wood type, no doubt.

Novelty

Novelty faces are super gimmicky and really only good for one purpose. Imagine an alphabet where all the letters are capped by snowy ice or letters that look like a lasso. Pretty much useless, I suppose, but novelty type is kind of trashy cool. Quote: "Don't worship The New for its novelty or The Old for its nostalgia." -Jason Kottke, Blogger and Design fan

Starting out, I had some trouble working with the novelty type b'c they are pretty hard on the eyes. I decided to play it safe on the first poster and just use novelty for "The New" and "The Old," softening the edges with the charm of more woodtype.

It's Type Jesus. Drawing inspiration from the word "worship" in the quote and simultaneously spurned on by this wicked thorny novelty alphabet, I decided to make a crown of thorns with the quote and use the letters in "New" and "Old" to construct a face. My friends and I think Type Jesus is hilarious and that the poster is, of course, fucking hideous. My professor on the other hand liked it and thought the conceit quite clever. Hmmm.

Here is the quote constructed from most of the typefaces provided to us in a folder labeled "Use with caution!" I threw caution to the wind and used a different face for each word in the quote. The text is meant to be worshiping the bits at the top, but that is hard to convey with letters and words. She "loved" this one. Wicked.

Modern

Modern faces are clean, stream-lined and go hand-in-hand with Art Deco styling. Quote: "Designers have to learn that we can't blame our clients for bad work." -Adrian Shaughnessy, Designer and Author

These were rushed and, as such, I can't say I'm quite happy with them yet. The exercise is meant to be non-cerebral. You're supposed to construct these posters in a rush without worrying the details to death. Still, since this round isn't due yet, I'll likely do a few more passes/designs before Friday's class.

Nothing says "deco" like the Chrysler building. Need those words to looks more skyscraper-y though.

Proof of Life

2007-10-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

My Dad sent me a letter the other day because my website was down, which cut off e-mail access. And I wasn't answering my phone, nor was I listening to messages. He sent a letter. The kind you, like, post with stamps and stuff.

I get it. The site is back online. I'm alive. I'll start posting work from my classes. OK?

This Is What Happens...

2007-10-02T00:07:00.000-07:00

when you're still at the studio at three in the morn.

Babynapping

2007-09-27T07:35:00.001-07:00

I don't want a kid. Not for the moment at least. Just not practical. But there were these two babies at Starbucks this morning and their pure, distilled, fat-cheeked cuteness had me fit to be tied. It was all I could not to take the wee youngest and raise it as my own.

Eat It Up, Fatties

2007-09-18T23:13:00.000-07:00

Last week, in Milton Glaser's class, we were asked to design a poster that would act as a deterrant to a particular action or habit. If you hate smokers, make an anti-smoking poster. If you hate people spitting on the sidewalk, make an anti-spitting poster. You get the idea. Claire and I decided that I should tackle our number one pet peeve: child fatties. Every day I see some little obese tubbo knocking back a coke or being fed a Big Grab bag of chips by their indifferent parents. THE FATTIES MUST STOP.

We scoured the Internet for pictures of fat kids, but in the end all of my ideas seemed to cruel and not exactly effective persuasive statements to convince fatties to put down the M&M's and back away slowly. My cube mates at the studio didn't seem to think my original slogan was all that funny: "Hey fatties, maybe it's time for some diet and exercise." In the end, I abandoned childhood obesity and joined the big tent fight of diabetes and obesity in general. My idea required a 15" x 20" illustration board and about $25 of high fructose corn shit. The pictures below are a brief documentation of the construction process, the final poster and an extra goof thrown in for good measure.

Two-Timing

2007-09-17T12:38:00.000-07:00

The MFA Designer as Author program has a blog and I'm going to start posting the occasional design thought/rant over there. You can read my first post, if you please. I'll continue to mention my posts, so no need to subscribe if you're not design-inclined.

Studio Engaged

2007-09-05T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hello folks. I'm alive, well, married, moved and I've started school. Things have been a bit mental of late. I've started a part-time schedule at work (which I've yet to make good on, making it more of a no-time schedule these past two days) and begun classes at SVA. Hopefully over the next week, things at school will subside (at the moment I'm just sitting here, staring at the finished project that is due in an hour and wondering if I forgot to prepare an additional piece of work) and Claire and I will finish settling in at home. Once that happens, I plan to post regularly about my scholarly adventures, design projects and drop the occasional podcast or comic strip. 'Member those? Me neither.

Below, I've included a few samples of my first assignment. Two weeks ago, we were asked to prepare a 15" x 20" board that was biographical (sort-of) and shed some light on our individual visual style and language. The project is for Milton Glaser's class, so everyone has been wringing their hands and second-guessing their work. But hopefully all will unfold without much anguish. Enjoy!

Few Things

2007-08-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

We're married.
We're back in NY.
Working is still boring.
We found an apartment.
I need to buy a computer.
School starts in three weeks.

Pictures of relevant topics are pending.

Gone Wedding

2007-07-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

I saw Cunty and Dumb-Dumb coming out of the Subway entrance near the Atlantic Center in Brooklyn. I haven't seen them in three years, but it seems appropriate somehow that they would reappear at this juncture in my life. A reminder of the past before a new future begins.

They still suck though.

I'll leave you with a quote from my sister Sharis when we were discussing shopping trips in preparation for the wedding: "We have some hose, now all we need are Spanx." Out of context awesomeness!

Rotation: July 15 to July 22

2007-07-27T22:54:00.000-07:00

Wild Mountain Nation by Blitzen Trapper | Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon | Fur and Gold by Bat for Lashes | Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters by The Twilight Sad | Zeitgeist by Smashing Pumpkins | And the Glass-handed Kites by MEW | Attack Decay Sustain Release by Simian Mobile Disco | The Trinity by Sean Paul | Bring It Back by Mates of State

Keys, Wallet, Phone...AND WHITE HOT RAGE!

2007-07-27T11:54:00.001-07:00

Today is my last day of work as full-time Steven before I run off, get married, enroll in a graduate program and return as part-time Steven. Some people saw fit to give me cards and gifts. Others decided to clean out the fridge ahead of schedule and threw my lunch in the garbage. I got your number, fridge nazi. And while it may seem like I'm sitting contentedly at my computer, perusing the "Items We Carry" pool on flickr, I'm actually quietly seething while brainstorming secure places to dispose of your dismembered body.

Working world? You won't be missed.

Listen: Podcast, no24

2007-07-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

I got this one just in under the three month deadline. Silly derelict Steven. Enjoy:

“That’s Not My Name” by The Ting Tings
“Rag & Bone” by The White Stripes
“The Underdog” by Spoon
“Pace or the Patience” by Love of Diagrams
“Music Is My Hot Hot Sex” by CSS
“Sealings” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
“60 Revolutions” by Gogol Bordello
“The Heinrich Maneuver” by Interpol
“Forever Indebted” by Shout Out Out Out Out
“A Message to You Rudy” by The Specials
“Jealous Guy” by Art Brut
“Body Baby” by Pharoahe Monch
“Leyendecker” by Battles
“Cherry Bomb” by The Runaways
“Down Boy” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no24 :: Promises, Some of Them Empty (mp3)
* no24 :: Promises, Some of Them Empty (enhanced)

That's it for episode 23. Here is a list of tracks played to date! Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Linkology: 07.10.07

2007-07-10T06:56:00.000-07:00

Hey sons and daughters of hungry posts! It's time to drink deep from the trough of new and old links:

* I LIKE TOWTLES!
* Site's 70s-era designs for BEST stores
* A few thousand sci-fi magazine covers
* Select 7-11 stores have been converted to Kwik-E-Marts as a promotional tool for the upcoming Simpsons movie
* Conan talks Simpsons
* The Ninth Floor, a photojournalists depiction of the reality of drugs in NYC (NSFW)
* Owen Wilson's TOTALLY REAL frontside noseblunt (as directed by Spike Jonze)
* Guys and Dolls, a doc about men and their real dolls (NSFW, but still so, so awesome)
* Jason Lee never met a paycheck he didn't like
* MoCCA compares 25 comic artist's childhood scribble to their current work
* The White Stripes are playing spontaneous, secret, super-intimate shows in Canada
* New Seven Wonders of the World
* Toypography block letters spell words in English and Japanese
* 30,000 matchheads go boom
* Sagmeister in Belgrade
* Stasi smell museum

Stewart's Kenya Journals

2007-07-06T20:01:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned earlier in the week, my parents are in Nairobi for two weeks. My Mother is spending the first week attending an international conference for women, sponsored by the YWCA, which means my Dad is left to his own devices. He sends a journal entry to my sisters and I each day. What follows are excerpts from Stewart's Kenya Journals:

Kenya Journal #1

Dear Kids,

Chaos Rules! I guess we should have expected it when the guy said he'd check our bags all the way to Nairobi. We arrived, but the bags didn't (or just haven't yet-- I hope). We flew United to Chicago and only made the plane because the Virgin Atlantic ticket agent walked us to the head of the security line. At London Heathrow, we found the stories were true. We had Two Hours and Twenty Minutes to make the connection and I had to jump the line to get a boarding pass before the plane left (and then they held the plane). This was the day they discovered the two potential car-bombs in London.

One of the things I did was to check the rate we're paying here. The normal rate is $300 a night, but we're paying $140. When I checked the rate, I found that it includes a breakfast in the resturant. We'd been afraid to venture to the resturant because of the way we look (I bought a comb and toothpaste today). It's all in asking the right questions.

I took a trip back to the air port to do a second look for the bags and had a long talk with "Big John" who was driving the cab. Nice guy. The road to the airport, on one side, runs along the edge of one of the national parks (yes think wild animals), but it's pretty far out. Traffic is suicidal here. Literacy is only a recent requirement for driving busses.

Today as your mom and I walked to the Mall, I saw Big John and said hello and shook hands with him. Your mom gave me a strange look and I told her "I know people here," which made the look get even stranger until she figured it out.

All for now, more later as the adventure develops.

-Dad

Kenya Journal #2

Hey kids,

It's 3:00 a.m. local. We're eight hours ahead of you (that's two more than London), so It's 7:43 P.M. there in San Antonio. We haven't been able to completely adjust our circadian clocks yet, so we're still waking up at odd hours. I know I'll be sleepy again in about half an hour, so I thought I'd supplement Journal #1 instead of stare at the walls.

One of the plesent things about our room is the choir. We're right across from the University and every afternoon there is a choir that practices in a courtyard across the street on the University grounds. We know this since we are on the 15th floor and have a great view. The first day they were standing in a circle and swaying while they sang. Today it sounded like church music - hymns. The trafic is heavy on University Avenue and we have the windows closed, but still the music gets in. Ever since the first day, they are sitting down when they sing. They sound great and the volume must be awsome down on the ground floor.

Yesterday I was more restless than today. I woke up just before dawn. I could tell it was near dawn from the volume of traffic going down University Avenue. Just as the busses used to announce the dawn in Oaxaca, the cars announce it here. Regardless, I'll swear I heard the Muzzin's call to prayer. There is a large Muslim population here, so it's possible. It would be broadcast from a loudspeaker from the minerette of the local mosque.

On my air port trip with Big John, I came back to the cab at sundown and there were three cabbies on their knees, heads pressed to a piece of cardboard praying in the parking lot. That's the first time I've seen Muslims in prayer. We didn't even see it in Turkey, but of course they're pretty secular.

The weather here is great. We're at 1700 meters, maybe 6,000 feet. The weather is coolish at night and not sweltering during the day. We're just below the equator, so it is winter here. It rains, or tries to rain every afternoon, but we're not in the real rainy season yet. I think that when the real rains come late in July and over the next two months, the water holes will fill up out in the parks and the game will start to migrate. We're supposedly in the Gnu migration season, but we're really earl and might not see to much movement.

Our suite is littered with drying clothes. Alma washed last night and thinks here socks won't dry by the morning (althought the underwear might), so she thinks she'll attend the conference in the socks I bought yesterday (she forgot to buy any). She told me this just as I was about to wash my own travel socks. I think I'll have to buy another pair tomorrow, or maybe a pair for her.

Well the hour is late (or early -- 4:00 a.m.), and the cycadian rhythms are getting to me.

All for now,

dad

Things That Go Boom in the Night

2007-07-05T07:04:00.000-07:00

Some friends of mine that live in Long Island City had a 4th soirée last night, so I whipped up some Sex in a Pan and stopped by. Their building is a stone's throw from the East River where the barges for one iteration of the Macy's extravaganza were poised to light up the sky. I've seen countless fireworks shows over the years, but none can compare to the visceral experience of being that close. You could feel the big ones thumping in your chest.

Amidst all the sparkle and flash, my friend Carlos, who has lived in NY for ages, said, "Well, this sure beats the last time I stood on a roof watching something explode." HA!

Kin(ya)

2007-07-02T06:58:00.000-07:00

My parents are in Nairobi. Shavonne received this message via my Mom's newly enabled Blackberry with int'l coverage:

Arrived safe, minus bags. Tell other kids. E-mail tough. --Dad

Jealousy, thy name is Steve.

Invitations Are Imminent

2007-06-26T19:28:00.000-07:00

The invitations for my wedding have been printed, stuffed and mailed so if you suspect you're invited, keep an eye out for one in the mail this week. The design is pretty good and I'll post it here sometime this weekend. If you have any questions pertaining to said wedding, go here. I'll be changing it up in the coming days.

Itchy

2007-06-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

I've got "A Message to You, Rudy" by The Specials in my head but I'm stranded here at work with no means of mp3 acquisition to help scratch the audio itch away. Remember when I used to podcast?

Wine, Design and Potty Time

2007-05-09T09:11:00.000-07:00

The MFA Designer as Author program at SVA had their graduate thesis show last night at one of the West Side galleries. I invited Emily along for the free wine, sweeping views of Mid/Downtown and all the ephemera (business cards, condoms, posters, stickers, seeds) that each graduate was giving away as part of their final product.

It was really exciting to see how different personalities interpreted the program’s mission statement, which more or less asks you to develop a market-ready product that is at once personally expressive and socially responsible. Erotic Urban vinyl toys for girls and boys? Check. A tube you can crap in while camping? Check. Turkish typographic identity? Check. All that remains is for me to decide what it is I’m going to make and sell.

Afterward, Emily and I dined at Morimoto on spicy crab, ramen, steamed chicken, pork kakuni and a Sapporo. The food was amazing, but the technological toilet was a tour-de-force. I wiped because I have little faith in a robot toilet's ability to wash all of the shit off of my ass. Then I settled in for the D-Luxe Rear Wash Treatment: warmed seats, oscillating spray, varying intensity and direction, etc. The blow dry was largely ineffectual (keep in mind how long it takes to dry your hands on a standard, wall-mount hand dryer) and the air smelled like mildewed crotch. All in all, I'm pleased to announce that THE FUTURE IS HERE!

Listen: Podcast, no23

2007-05-06T21:08:00.000-07:00

Back in action, spewing out the false promises. AND TUNES! So back off, Pops. Enjoy:

“Rapture” by Pedro the Lion
“Miss World” by Hole
“Hello from eau Claire” by Xiu Xiu
“Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John (video)
“Books From Boxes” by Maximo Park
“Pump Up the Volume” by Art Brut
“Black Magic” by Jarvis Cocker
“You! Me! Dancing!” by Los Campesinos
“Cuts Across the Land” by The Duke Spirit (video)
“The Quiz” by Hello Saferide (video)
“Alone/Alive” by Shapes and Sizes
”Our Haunt” by Palomar
“A Good Start” by Maria Taylor
“Reno Dakota” by The Magnetic Fields
“Chick Habit” by April March
“Drive” by el-p
“Comfy in Nautica” by Panda Bear

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no23 :: Podcast! Music! Talking! (mp3)
* no23 :: Podcast! Music! Talking! (enhanced)

That's it for episode 23. Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Anticipation Vertigo

2007-03-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

Today, I decided to revisit the SVA curriculum for the next two years. As I read the class descriptions, I got nervous, dizzy, my hands went all clammy and I got half a stock.

It brings tears to my eyes. Next week is five months and counting.

Complete

2007-03-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

I got into SVA, my first choice for grad school programs. So, um, that's pretty fucking excellent.

Listen: Podcast, no22

2007-03-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

I'm a liar and a cheat. You good people had a wealth of thrilling, mind-bending, explosive music coming your way and I tooks it froms ya. Robbed it right out of your hands. Sorry. Enjoy:

“Don’t Give Up” by Noisettes
“To Go Home” by M. Ward
“The Mountain” by Professor Murder
“Citizens of Tomorrow” by Tokyo Police Club
“Only” by Nine Inch Nails (video)
“Teen Age Riot” by Sonic Youth
“Yea Yeah” by Matt & Kim (video)
“9 Crimes” by Damien Rice (video)
“Someone to Love” by Fountains of Wayne
“The Birth and Death of the Day” by Explosions In the Sky
“Lying In the Bed I’ve Made” by Aqueduct
“Fire Island, AK” by The Long Winters (video)
“Bridge To Canada” by Noisettes
“Fall Inn” by The Ponys
“Then He Kissed Me” by The Crystals
“Terrible Lie” by Nine Inch Nails

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no22 :: Terrible Lies We Tell Ourselves (mp3)
* no22 :: Terrible Lies We Tell Ourselves (enhanced)

That's it for episode 22. Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Rotation: March 18 to March 25

2007-03-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

Writer's Block by Peter, Bjorn and John | Our Earthly Pleasures by Maximo Park | Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? by Of Montreal | I'll Sleep When You're Dead by El-P | Friend Opportunity by Deerhoof | Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem | Return to Cookie Mountain by TV on the Radio | All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone by Explosions in the Sky | Pieces of the People We Love by The Rapture

An Innoculation Against Failure

2007-03-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I passed a friend in Columbus Circle and she asked me if I'd heard back from any of the MFA programs I applied to. That's all anybody asks me these days. A month ago, out of the blue, my days were suddenly punctuated by periodic moments of crushing dread. I would find myself sitting and staring at the calendar on my desk at work for as many as five minutes, my breathing shallow and my heart rate elevated. I didn't expect to hear back from the schools until the final week in March and, as such, that week became the subject of much fatalistic obsession. My own personal emotional time sink.

Shortly after submitting my applications I read "How to Be a Graphic Designer without Losing Your Soul" by Adrian Shaughnessy. Unlike similar graphic design how-to books, Shaugnessy's advice is an invaluable resource with a lot of useful information on how to get a job with or without any professional experience. While I was putting the finishing touches on my application package, my mind was elsewhere, wrapped up in admittedly lame day dreams of 12 hour work days at large design firms, doing everything that was asked of me and soaking up as much knowledge as I could. The fantasy of the (albeit creative) work-a-day world was a defensive mechanism. In applying for school as a self-described outsider, I was less and less sure that my gamble would pay off. I would temporarily assuage my fears by scrolling through my portfolio slides online or catching a glimpse of the extra DVD portfolio cases stacked on my window sill. But those moments would pass and the insecurity would come roaring back in. I kicked myself for ever letting on what I was planning, for ever telling anyone I knew that I'd applied, for laying bare the intensity of my desire to matriculate to friends over dinner.

Work was a realistic option. I wouldn't get into school but I'd get to save $60,000+ and I'd get to avoid the overly romanticized bohemian lifestyle of the impoverished, newly-married grad student. Save your ramen and drippy, Chianti bottle candles. I'd get a job and keep my book and dunny habit. It was a safer choice. I was more secure.

It was also fucking bullshit. Yesterday I got into Parsons The New School For Design and the California College of Arts.

Two down, two to go, fingers crossed. It now seems likely that I'll be in New York for the next five years. It is also assured that in six months I'll be a student again. When I grow up, I'm gonna be a graphic designer.

Or an astronaut fireman.

Things Divine

2007-03-09T06:44:00.000-08:00

Dear God,
It's me Margaret. Thanks for clearing up all of those period questions. But now I've got a real doozie. Why did you create the Internet?

Margaret-
Just because.
-God

Listen: Podcast, no21

2007-03-05T18:51:00.000-08:00

It's been a month. A bleeding month and I ain't got much to show for it 'cept an audience that is likely growing tired of my bullshit excuses. Aww, don't cry babies. You know I only hit you to show you how much I love you. Enjoy:

“North American Scum” by LCD Soundsystem (video)
“Everything’s Just Wonderful” by Lily Allen
“The Zookeeper’s Boy” by Mew (video)
“Must Be the Moon” by !!!
“Engrish Bwudd” by Man Man
“Cellphone’s Dead” by Beck (video)
“(Antichrist Television Blues)” by Arcade Fire
“Spitting Venom” by Modest Mouse
“Your Southern Can Is Mine” by The White Stripes
“Weird” by Menomena
“There Is No There” by The Books
“Fiery Crash” by Andrew Bird
“Flathead” by The Fratellis (video)
“The Partisan But He’s Got To Know” by Swan Lake
“Shut Up I Am Dreaming of a Place Where Lovers Have Wings” by Sunset Rubdown

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no21 :: Greetings...FROM THE FUTURE! (mp3)
* no21 :: Greetings...FROM THE FUTURE! (enhanced)

Here's some links I mentioned in this episode:

* "(Antichrist Televisions Blues)" originally to be called "Joe Simpson"?
* The White Stripes announce "Icky Thump"
* How to correctly pronounce "de Stijl". Something new everyday, eh?

That's it for episode 21. Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

We Thank You In Advance For Your Patience

2007-03-05T07:07:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished 90% of a new podcast, which means it's not finished. But! But! It does mean I will be posting the episode for your listening pleasure tomorrow. And then I'm going to post a new episode next Monday. And the Monday after that! And then we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico! AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO STOP UNTIL FALL OUT BOY AND PANIC! AT THE DISCO AND THE PUSSYCAT DOLLS ARE A DISTANT FUCKING MEMORY!

YEAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!

Potential Theme

2007-02-19T21:21:00.000-08:00

This weekend I re-formatted my original design for the Save the Date mailers to facilitate easier mailing and provide a more legible point size. Claire addressed and stuffed envelopes while I toiled with an exacto knife and cutting mat. The first batch is in the mail. I am now in the process of designing a simple, informational website (no online engagement videos, you know who you are). And then I get to sink my teeth into the actual invitations which are more likely to take the form of a 12 page travel guide.

Personal Statement

2007-02-14T12:52:00.000-08:00

Why do you want to pursue graduate studies?

So that when I'm done, I can get a job where the day's indignities are doled out by a person whom I actually respect.

Crude Sentiment

2007-02-14T07:46:00.000-08:00

In the last two years, during the week leading up to Valentine's Day, I'm reminded of these Valentines I made a while back. I really should make new ones. I really should make all manner of cards. But I'm a busy boy. Feel free to use the old ones if you please.

Jenůfa at The Met

2007-02-12T09:06:00.000-08:00

Claire and I saw Janáček's Jenůfa at The Met on Saturday evening. It was a welcome return to what has been, with the exception of last year, an annual tradition of ours. The staging was appropriately bleak, but the story and incorporation of Czech folk music into otherwise traditional operatic forms was really intriguing and made up for the absence of visual stimulation (giant rocks used as metaphor for the burden of a character's guilty conscience isn't terribly original). A doff of the cap to the xylophone player in the pit on Saturday night. He was in excellent form. Moravian villages at the end of the 19th century could definitely use a bit of new blood injected into the bachelor pool. Any woman that considers herself lucky for ending up with the man that mutilated her face in a moment of lustful spite could definitely use a mani/pedi and an e-Harmony account for her birthday.

Common Courtesy

2007-02-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

Claire and I were waiting at the elevator bank in a hospital lobby the other day when two paramedics wheeled in a guy on a tricked-out gurney. This wasn’t the emergency room, just the good ol’ fashioned, low-priority front entrance. Now, dude wasn’t spewing anything black and bubbly out of any of his major orifices. Nor was he sporting any new holes or perforations care of a dispute settled with hot lead. But nevertheless, he was on a stretcher. And the rest of us were standing.

That said it was pretty crowded in the lobby. And some of us had been waiting there already for 30, maybe as much as 45 seconds. So I guess you can’t hold it against us for not stepping aside and giving him our place in line. In NY, you better be able to show a little uncoiled intestine if you expect to have any chance of jumping the queue.

Heartfelt

2007-02-08T18:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Writers of LOST,

Why do you suck my balls?

Sincerely,
Steven

Listen: Podcast, no20

2007-02-01T01:14:00.000-08:00

Sweet Christ! I went overboard for the twentieth episode celebration and packed this 'cast with more music than you can shake a cursor at. Be warned, the file is 94mb and will take an eternity to d'load. Enjoy:

“Magick” by Klaxons (video)
“Once and Never Again” by The Long Blondes (video)
“Swallow Tattoo” by The Long Blondes
“Smile” by Lily Allen (video)
“Hunting for Witches” by Bloc Party
“Muscle ‘n Flo” by Menomena
“Underwater (You And Me)” by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
“Monkey & Bear” by Joanna Newsom
“History’s Stranglers” by The Bronx (video)
“What You Know” by T.I. (video)
“Way Down In the Hole” by Five Blind Boys of Alabama
“Wamp Wamp (What It Do) (Feat. Slim Thug)” by Clipse
“How Shall I To Heaven Aspire” by Rock Plaza Central
“Ankle Injuries” by Fujiya & Miyagi
“History Song” by The Good, The Bad & The Queen
“Gravity’s Rainbow” by Klaxons (video)
“Montréal -40°C” by Malajube (video)
“Ruby Tuesday” by Franco Battiato
“The Perfect Me” by Deerhoof
“Political Song for Michael Jackson to Sing” by The Minutemen

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no20 :: Too Long for Two-Oh (mp3)
* no20 :: Too Long for Two-Oh (enhanced)

That's it for episode 20. Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Also This

2007-01-26T10:38:00.000-08:00

New Portfolio Slide

2007-01-22T23:19:00.000-08:00

I'm finishing up a few slides for the apps that are due the first of February. This is an invoice for Nerd Elite Design, to be used in the event of late payment. It's printed on x-ray film of a broken limb, wrapped around a baseball bat. Very mafioso. There were a couple other versions on the same theme involving bricks, broken windows, a severed finger, burlap soaked in kerosene and a ransom note, but they seemed a bit theatrical. No matter. The slides:

Listen: Podcast, no19

2007-01-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

I'm back in the podcasting state of mind, for the time being. Most of the apping is done so I should have the necessary time to get these out each week, as was my custom in the past. Without further ado, I give you the tracks:

"The Prayer" by Bloc Party
"Energy" by The Apples in Stereo
"Saint John" by Cold War Kids
"Parentheses" by The Blow
"Suffer for Fashion" by Of Montreal
"Who's Gonna Sing?" by Prototypes
"Cobrastyle (feat. Mad Cobra)" by The Teddybears
"La La Love You" by Pixies
"Wildflowers" by Tom Petty
"Ain't No Other Man" by Christina Aguilera
"Hold Up" by Girl Talk
"Too Deep" by Girl Talk
"Smash Your Head" by Girl Talk
"The Blues Are Still Blue" by Belle & Sebastian

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no19 :: I Let My Tape Rock (mp3)
* no19 :: I Let My Tape Rock (enhanced)

That's it for episode 19. Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Portfolio Slides

2007-01-11T23:09:00.001-08:00

As I prep my portfolio slides, I'm sticking them here. Join me as I tinker with the order and try to take in everything in a more distilled form.

Portfolio Package

2007-01-10T23:42:00.000-08:00

Portfolio

2007-01-09T23:30:00.000-08:00

Portfolio Package

2007-01-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

If you'll recall this post, I was talking about the backside of the envelope that will serve as the packaging for my applications. Here's pictures of the real deal. Very cool looking in person. Very tedious to create.

Portfolio

2007-01-09T17:19:00.000-08:00

Portfolio

2007-01-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

Write More: Notebooks

2006-12-20T17:37:00.000-08:00

I'm developing some stationery in an ongoing effort to get people to write more letters, diary entries, grocery lists, ransom notes and requests for Jesus. It's called "Write More" because I exist in a dimension parallel to yours in which everything is obsotively, posilutely, literally literal. "Write More: 'Cuz, y'know, you ought to." We've got our very best admen working on that bullshit slogan. I plan to throw myself into all efforts fancy paper after January. Until then, here are a few prototypes that I whipped up. They're Moleskine Cahier notebooks and they come with ruled or blank pages. "Write More: 'Cuz it's high time you made that Japanese girl on the train next to you insanely jealous." Bit better.

2006-12-17T19:06:00.000-08:00

(flickr)

App'velopes

2006-12-12T22:37:00.000-08:00

These are the finished envelopes that hold some of the material for my applications. In some cases, my recommendation folks have to mail material in boring old white, pre-addressed, stamped envelopes so some of the presentation is lost. But my favorite schools are getting the whole shebang. For my personal statement letter, I picked a few of the synonyms used by different schools and threw in a few of my own. I will circle the appropriate noun that corresponds to each school's usage. Blurgh.

Nice Ass!

2006-12-10T19:00:00.000-08:00

This is the digital mock-up of the rear of my grad school app. pckg. It mixes spray paint, cardboard and screen printing. It'll rule. Pictures next month!

Pleasing to Your Ears, The Lost Podcast

2006-12-07T08:56:00.000-08:00

I miss podcasting. I promise that there is an episode in our respective futures, I just can't promise when it might arrive. Near the end of my previous run, I was tacking on so many extra features in addition to prepping two streams and beefing up the enhanced cast, that the production time was pushing 3 hours. Lately I haven't had that much time to spare.

And so I continue to compile tracks to play for you. And I continue to compile letters and complaints from those of you who are left high and dry on Monday mornings. One thing I can guarantee is that once I finally scrounge up the time, you can guarantee that it is gonna be fucking long and fucking amazing. Promises xOne Jillion! In the mean time, listen to an old episode and re-discover your love for Blondie, Bjork and Beirut all over again.

Corporate Yoke

2006-12-06T23:58:00.000-08:00

Dubbs asked me to design some placemats for her company's holiday party. I was at first reluctant to take on more work during the apps season, but then I got the idea of slapping some paper crafts on the reverse side, complete with perforation so that people could play with them at the dinner table. In a perfect world, the mats would be distributed with a 4-pack of Crayola crayons and people would, for a night, rediscover their playful inner child. But it's an accounting firm, so I'm not holding my breath. Click on the images below for a detailed view.

This is one of those handjobby things where you have someone pick a color/number and then spell/count it out and reveal their fortune. So awesome.

A mask of the boss, perfect for taking the piss.

I'm working on an alternate version with a Manhattan version of M*A*S*H. Delight!

Happy Accident

2006-12-01T01:24:00.000-08:00

I'm working on this series of posters for my applications/portfolio which utilize this extreme pixelated drop shadow. While I was fucking around with the style and degree that I wanted to use in the final versions, I stopped for a nosh. When I came back to the project I was struck by the scratch pallette. While I don't intend to use this text as is, I really like it.

Meteorological End Times

2006-11-30T13:46:00.000-08:00

It's 20 degrees cooler in my hometown which is in South Fucking Texas! New York is muggy and cool and my office is balmy. It snowed a bit in Dalls. You might want to consider renting this.

Envelopes for Recommendations (Portfolio_1)

2006-11-27T20:57:00.000-08:00

This eve I'm printing this text on a set of business envelopes that are being sent to the folks who agreed to write the recommendations for my grad school apps. The third recommendation is a video and will therefore be represented by an envelope with a cautionary warning and a treasure inside. Blurgh.

Upcoming

2006-11-27T06:57:00.000-08:00

Holy shit, my beautiful babies! It's been so long. In the past week I've moved a few steps closer to completing my applications but I made no headway on a new podcast. Sincerest apologies, particularly to those of you who greeted last week's absence the same way you might the death of a parent.

Hyperbole. But there were plenty of e-mails and snide comments via phone and promises made, so I'm going to work on one for this week(end?). It will blow your mind out of your ass, that is all I can promise. I have so much new music to share. So stay tuned for new cuts from Bloc Party, The Blow, Joanna Newsom, Prototypes, Teddybears, Cold War Kids, Damien Rice and more. Balls!

New Record Design

2006-11-17T21:16:00.000-08:00

I'm printing this design on some vinyl records today. Each record comes with two custom-cut vinyl stickers that adhere to the wall, creating the illusion that the artwork continues beyond the canvas. Flickr photos are just around the corner. Hooray!

Listen: Podcast, no18

2006-11-12T15:46:00.000-08:00

Sort of thrown together. My regrets. The tracks:

“Alec Eiffel” by Pixies
“Comeback Kid” by Silversun Pickups
“Stray Dog and the Chocolate Shake” by Grandaddy
“Nuclear War” by Electric Six
“99 Luftballoons” by Nena
“Playgirl” by Ladytron
“Just Like You Imagined” by Nine Inch Nails
“Breakfast in NYC” by Oppenheimer
“In the City” by The Jam
“Exotic Talk” by RJD2
“The Same Fire” by Bishop Allen
“Above You” by The Whitest Boy Alive
“Hey Now Now” by The Cloud Room
“Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers
“Strange” by Built to Spill
“Walking With a Ghost” by The White Stripes

As usual, the podcast is available through RSS or iTunes. Here are the appropriate links:

* Subscribe to the enhanced podcast. (rss)
* Subscribe to the mp3 podcast. (rss)
* Click here to visit the "Pleasing To Your Ears" page in the iTunes Music Store, where you can pick and choose from available episodes.
* no18 :: We Got Dem' Fever (mp3)
* no18 :: We Got Dem' Fever (enhanced)

Here's some link(s) I mentioned in this episode:

* Trailer for Frank Miller's 300
* Track listing for all songs played to date (Excel)

Here are the supplementary tracks for this week's episode. They'll only be live for a week, so grab fast:

* "Bone Machine" by Pixies (mp3)
* "Destroy Everything You Touch" by Ladytron (mp3)
* "Ghostwriter" by RJD2 (mp3)

That's it for episode 18. Please tell your friends. Please tell me what you think. Please post a link on your blogs. Please use the hotline: (206) 202-3142. Please tune in for a new episode next weekend.

Rick "Man on Dog" Santorum

2006-11-08T19:15:00.000-08:00

While Daddy was conceding, it dawned on young Samantha that he would be spending a lot more time at home with Cuddles, the family beagle. In his office, behind a locked door. Making "grown up noises".

Cover Songs

2006-11-06T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hey folks. I'm throwing this request out there for a podcast I'd like to do in December. The idea is quite simple: "Transcendent Covers". I want to compile a show of unique, beautiful cover songs. There is too much ground to cover so you'll earn points for originality. But overall, I want covers that are (and this is open for debate) better than the original versions. Think "Wonderwall" by Ryan Adams or "Mad World" by Gary Jules. Cheers!

Puttin' It Down on Wax

2006-11-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

I've finished my latest silkscreening experiment and it is drying on the bookshelf. Well, hanging from the bookshelf is more apt. I printed a design I posted here a week ago on vinyl. They look fucking brilliant. Unfortunately, vinyl presents a problem when drying so I followed Dubbs suggestion to suspend them from the bookcase. Stick a chopstick under a heavier tome and slip a few on and dry all day and night. I'm going to print a few more designs before I move on from the vinyl. If you'd like to secure one of these for your very own send me an e-mail. More shots on flickr.