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New Portfolio Slide

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

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

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

Portfolio

Portfolio Package

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

Portfolio

Write More: Notebooks

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.

(flickr)

App'velopes

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!

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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!