Anyway, here’s my latest review of last week:

• Created some artwork for Vector Pack 13. Specifically some stuff for Robots, Flow, and Bound. The robots were a lot harder than I thought actually. But I think they came out ok. Here are some that I did.

  

• I put a new shirt up on emptees. It’s really just a logo, but it was done for a shirt. It’s some 3D lettering for Fearless Records. It was meant to give off a strong rock n roll vibe. I quite like how it came out.

  

• Arsenal 2 is just about ready to launch into public Beta. Our goal is Thursday!
• Speaking of Arsenal 2, I had to get a Merchant Account and Payment Gateway so I used Merchant Warehouse to do that. Never did it before, but it was pretty easy. Now we will be able to accept credit cards on our site yay! And we’re thinking of getting rid of Paypal altogether. Why? Because Paypal is nothing but problems. From echecks, to chargebacks, to no seller protection, etc. Just watch this video which explains my thoughts exactly.
• We are working on new site for Ballher, a girl’s basketball clothing line. The design was already provided by the client, we just need to make the website work and get his shopping cart and blog installed. We’re using Wordpress and this plugin called WP-Ecommerce.
• We’re getting our aquarium filled up today which is awesome.
• We put in plans to actually make a break room, so we don’t have to eat at our desks every day.
• We’re in the process of building this really awesome Hoodie Template Pack. It’s more than just a template pack though. To be honest, it’s like an all-in-one hoodie design package. It will allow you to create all-over-prints in a few clicks. It will be setting the standard for apparel templates for sure. I think we’ll be releasing that this week.

Anyway, November is insane for the Arsenal. So if you’ve got some ideas for articles or tutorials for our zine, and are looking for some cash this year for the Holidays and a boost in your site’s traffic, hit us up!

This is the door from the front stairwell into our office. We’re on the third (top) floor.

This is looking back at the front door from inside the office. We just got this lobby furniture! Thank you IKEA.

Spinning around and looking from the lobby area straight back. That’s our sales manager’s desk front and center.

Here is my desk. You’ll notice the Ikea Galant and a drawing table on the right.

Standing near my desk and look back across the office.

This is a fancy metal counter we have “floating” in front of the sale/project manager’s desk.

Behind the sales manager’s desk are these cabinets.

Here is a look through one of the glass walls in our conference room.

Here is a close-up of the conference room table. Yes I made it! It took a large piece of plywood, contact paper, large logo printed on paper, glue stick, Xacto knife, two colors of stain and lots of Polyurethane. I’ll let you figure the rest out.

This is the Aquarium. Obviously it’s not set up yet. We just got this in today!

This is the fancy glass we have suspended over our half walls.

Here is a close-up of how that glass connects to our half walls. These cables go up to the ceiling. It’s really quite amazing.

Designers hard at work.

More designers hard at work.

One more designer hard at work.

This is our messy area. As you can see, it’s messy.

This is the back hall where we have two enclosed cubicles, two bathrooms, HVAC closet, server room and a storage closet.

This is cubicle one. Eventually we will be putting our Wacom Cintique back here. Don’t laugh, yes, that IS a CRT monitor.

Here is cubicle two. I’m not sure exactly what will go in here. But we are about to paint one wall with “Idea Paint.” It turns any wall into a giant dry-erase board.

Well, that’s it. We’re very excited to be in here. There are a number of items that need finished - like our library and the aquarium. But it’s been a fantastic upgrade from my house so far. Hope you enjoyed the tour.

I started using my Action Method Book from Behance again and pretty much stopped using tasks in Outlook. I find physically writing it down makes me feel more productive. I am not sure why. The Action Method books themselves don’t help me that much though because I don’t use them any differently than I would a standard piece of paper. I’m usually focusing on day-to-day tasks that are small and unrelated to eachother so it makes no sense to use the “action steps.” So why do I use the book? Well, for one, I have it and don’t want it to go to waste. And for two, it’s dotted graph paper and spiral binding just make it easy.

Anyway, here’s what I did last week.

• Continued discussion with CS Cart developers. We’re working on Arsenal 2.0 still - but we took a big step and they installed it on our server. We’re going back and forth testing and bug reporting until it’s done. Adam Wagner is clicking away as we speak uploading products and writing descriptions. That stuff takes forever. But it’s coming along nicely.
• Did a 3D model of this crazy zen product called “The Tetrad.” They call it the “art of stillness.”
• The shirt I did for Paint the Stars finally was released and is available for sale. They used a cut and sew technique to pull off the full frontal skull print. I think it looks rad.
• Paint the Stars is also selling the Candy Lettering hoodie I did for them.
• Worked on some new vector packs for the Robot and Bound packs that are going to be out soon
• Had a meeting with this guy from UPS to help us set up our shipping dept. at Go Media. Basically, we need an automated way of handing the shipping of our merch now that we have the space to store it. We’ll be selling shirts and posters and other goodies in our Arsenal 2.0 store.
• Submitted a few unapproved client designs to Jakprints for their “Touch and Feel” project. They plan on selling samples of high end printing techniques to allow their customers to get a more hands on look at their ability to do high end shirt printing.
• Did a type treatment for Fearless records. They had a small budget, so I chose to do a simple chromed out 80’s metal inspired logo. I still have to finish it…
• Did an interview with Designfeedr for their series on Black and White images.
• Did another interview with The Familiar Strangers. That should show up soon.
• Did some miscellaneous manual labor around the new office. Stuff is still being worked on and today was especially noisy as they install a few counter tops, a door handle, and finishing our conference table.

So what did you do this past week?

Btw, the artwork in this post was done by Chris Comella for a new screen printed poster we’re doing.

Here’s what Jan had to say about the Fitted Ladies Apparel Templates we just released:

Adam,
I just love your t-shirt templates for both guys and girls and as a shirt designer they are very useful but I have one request that would help me out even more, an added side view of the left and right sides of the shirts. Many requests have been for a shirt design that runs across the side so I just thought I’d ask. Thanks for everything!!
Jan

What You Get

Thanks for the idea Jan!

The side view Ladies T-Shirt template is exclusive to this freebie - it’s not part of any pack (yet). It does include all the little improvements though, like the Highlights layer, the Shirt Color layer, the streamlined clipping mask arrangement, and the “Sleeves only” mask.

This template should make it easy to drop your designs onto the side of a shirt, or just down the sleeve.

Go ahead and experiment with this template, I mean, it’s free. Hopefully you can use it to impress a client (or maybe just your friends).

Oh, and don’t forget to check out the full version.

It’s been a long time since my last weekly review. And this is my first post as a freshly married man! For those of you who don’t know, Kim (Go Media’s office manager and Arsenal Customer Service Lady) and I have been together for 5 years. And we tied the knot on Sept. 27th. We spent the following week on a cruise in the western Caribbean and had a great time! Now it’s back to work. Here’s the rundown of what I’ve got accomplished since I’ve been back:

• Moved into our new office and set up my work area. It’s cool so far. We’re still adjusting to the inconveniences of moving in while construction is still not totally complete.
• We have a phone system now and my extension is 227. Now we don’t have wait until someone is off the phone before we can use it.
• I’m working on revising some flash ad banners for Gallery Stock.
• I am going back to using my Action Book for random day to day tasks. I stopped using pen and paper when we installed Outlook 2007, but I still feel more productive when I physically write stuff down.
• Started working on the next Vector Pack. Some vines, brambles, and thorny stuff.
• Arsenal 2 is making more progress. It was installed on our server and now we’re testing and finding bugs.
• Added more skate decks to our Deck Peck store for you to purchase.
• Launched Texture Pack 3 and a new font!

Here’s a photo taken at the end of our wedding reception with some Go Media folk.

From left to right you have Katie, Adam Law, Me, Kim, Oliver, Liz, Heather, Bill (bottom left), and Chris Comella (bottom right).

Chthonian (Ka-thow-nee-yin) qualities in art , my professor explained, can be recognized as dark, lurking, natural, flowing, passionate, and unclear. Apollonian (App-o-low-nee-yin), in contrast, can be seen as light, present, man-made, ordered, impassive, and lucid.  Although my understanding of these two terms are tragically watered-down, my professor was essentially examining the classic dichotomy of nature versus man, of chaos versus order, of the illogical versus the logical.

Years later, I’m still plagued with an awareness of all that is creative and all that is just plain boring. I can’t look at an object, person or website without labeling it as one thing or the other. Maybe it’s just my lunch talking, but I’m sick of  noticing such extreme separations. I’m especially weary of those who sever structure and order completely from the ominous creative process, as if beautiful designs floated down from the heavens with trumpets blowing and rays of light blinding any who dare look. Yes, wonderful moments can certainly happen by accident, but structure and creativity rely on each other much more than we care to admit. This happens naturally, gleefully, like a dog rolling around in a big, steaming pile of poo.

Let me reveal a surprisingly obvious example of when structure and creativity harmonize: If you’re fortunate enough to be in a work environment that keeps a project manager, go up and give them an uncomfortable bear hug right now. These lovely individuals communicate with clients, estimate quotes, create and assign tasks, organize and plan projects, file documents, manage calendars, and much more. On their best days, project managers intuit your needs and tell you politely that the reason you’re cold might be because the window right next to you is open (thanks again, Heather).

It is, in part, because of the creative potential of any work environment that the project manager role exists. Conversely, the project manager’s orchestration of structure and order can keep a designer, in particular, from worrying about all the annoying, extraneous shit that they would rather forget. These two roles have a symbiotic relationship, they need each other.

This is only one example, which is actually a bit counterproductive to my point. Treating one job as “creative” (Chthonian), and another as “structure” (Apollonian) is completely unfair; we know that order and chaos come with any job, filling up any life.  What I’m ultimately getting at is this: there is no canyon between what is logical and illogical; they live side by side, even one on top of the other (hold all dirty jokes, please).

I digress now to ask: what’s your take? Does structure and order play a large role in helping you create? Does creativity play a large role in establishing structure and order?

Another week has passed and I’m here reporting what went down since the last review. Here we go:

• Our new office is just about finished, we spent some time this week painting the walls. Photos to come soon. We’re going to move in next week, even though there a few things that still need to be added - such as the aquarium and various other “extras.” But it will be workable next week.
• Starting doing a shirt design for the band Bloodbath. It’s not going to be pretty.
• Finished my clown design for Harley-Davidson, see the preview image above. Still waiting on approvals.
• Arsenal 2.0 development is finishing up. Still going through the last round of edits and then it will be up to me to clean up the look of some of their “design” they did while coding. Anyone who has worked with a programmer knows they don’t really care about design so you’ll end up spending time fixing the look of things once it all works.
• Go Media is a sponsor of the new game BAJA for PS3 and XBOX360.
• Worked more on this silly Monster Truck hat for Isaac Stout’s hat line. It’s a fun drawing, but we had to construct a hat mockup out of poster board and draw onto that. It’s totally not as easy as I thought. I hope all my art lines up once they assemble it together.
• Added a few of Katie’s boards to our DeckPeck Store.
• Started some tees for the Beastie Boys.
• I decided on my “spot” in the new office. I’m happy with it, but we’ll see once I get my desk and all that in there.
• Some last minute preparations for mine and Kim’s wedding coming up Sept. 27th.

Another busy week flew by over here. Here’s the rundown:

Jeff’s Week in Review:

• Moved some of the sidebar modules into the footer. The sidebar was getting pretty long!
• Tinkered with Universal Type Server. We’re looking for a Server Based Font Management solution so we’re trying this one out. It’s got a lot of great features, but it’s really slow. Still not sold on it yet.
• Made a post showing off some tees at Target that used our vectors. Some poor choice of words incited a few people to blast me for calling out a bad design, even if it was made with a product we sell. I feel bad if I offended anyone, but I think some people overreacted. You can read the post and comments here.
• On a related note, I opened up a discussion on the general use of stock artwork. You can voice your opinions here like a lot of people already did. I think there’s a lot of inspiring commentary going on.
• Worked on a crazy clown sketch for Harley-Davidson, but it ended up too scary. Next round is a little more tame and comedic.
• We set up a store at DeckPeck to sell skate decks with Go Media art. So far it’s just my art, but there will be other staff here contributing soon.
• Did a shirt for the Killers. But they said it was too “touristy.” I have to say I agree, but I thought that was the vibe they wanted. Oh well, the next round should be closer to what they’re looking for.
• I have a new article going up this week about How to Win at Design by Humans. I did an interview with one of the creators of the site and he gave some good tips on what they want to see.

Oliver’s review from the past two weeks:

• A piece of artwork for Balanced Growth’s new Innov8 campaign that will be used in a lot of their materials.
• 2 Tee designs for Harley Davidson. One of them caused Photoshop to crash 4 times in a row, each time when I was saving. Causing me to lose hours of work each time. I punched my desk so hard that I thought I broke a knuckle. It’s still kind of swollen.
• 2 Tee designs for the Killers. They like to change their mind and we’re going through mountains of concepts, but the work is fun and they’re pretty open minded.
• Finished up a promo poster for the Arsenal. If the printing turns out like I want it to, it should be a pretty solid piece.
• Did an ad for a contact lens company that was along the lines of the concentric circle stuff.
• Speaking of that circle stuff. I submitted a design to Design by Humans. Vote on it!
• I also did an illustration for the Obama T shirt contest which mysteriously never showed up on their site.
• I did a vector illustration for the Cleveland Marathon. It was cool because I hadn’t done anything like that before, but also very annoying because the person that I was illustrating looked slightly like Jerry Seinfeld. It was driving me nuts, and in the completed illustration, the guy looks exactly like Seinfeld.
• This week should consist of some branding, gig posters, and more merch. Could be a good week, even though the Browns were dominated yesterday.

A recent comment by “Smutek” inspired me to ask this question. His comment was on Dave’s tutorial about designing on a budget. The tutorial covered the use of stock artwork (specifically Arsenal stuff) to create a pro-looking design in less than an hour for that client that wanted it yesterday and doesn’t have the budget to pay for a total custom job. Smutek’s comment was:

I used to smirk at stock art myself.

Then I got a job.

I am the only artist at my company. Stop by desk on any given day and you’ll find 15, sometimes more jobs in various stages of progress or waiting to be started. If I were to try and hand draw every job I would quickly find myself the victim of a client lynch mob.

This is a deadline driven industry. It isn’t about sitting in the basement in a haze of pot smoke, making something “rad”. It’s about more than drawing a “wicked” picture.

It is about juggling multiple projects, time management, asset organization, communication, talent and creativity all working under pressure in some kind of beautiful chaotic harmony to interpret the clients vision and provide them with the best possible product in the required time frame.

It’s about staying fresh and being creative, not just wen you *want* to, but when you *have* to.

There is a huge difference.

Whether you are creating completely from scratch, using clip art to compliment an original piece, or doing an entirely stock art driven piece, stock art is a tool, just like stock photography and just like fonts.

Embrace it. Or don’t.

So that brings up a great point. There are times when I feel like I should be in a basement drawing something rad every day (minus the pot smoke). But then on most occasions, there are just so many things going on, too many clients asking for stuff to be delivered asap and with a discount. Most of us are not drawing every single day. We spend hours every day in our email, twitter, or Wordpress trying to build relationships with potential clients and define our roles within the design community.

I look at customers who are buying stuff from our Arsenal and I see big names like Nike, MTV, Adidas, VH1, etc. You would think companies like that would have the budget to pay their designers to do 100% custom jobs every time? Then why are they buying our stock?

So what do you think?

Are vector packs just a cheap cop-out or are they a saving grace?

The Interview

• 

  Vectips: Hey Jeff, how is it going?

• 

  jeff_finley: I’m good, excited for the interview. Let’s do this.

• 

  Vectips: Thanks again for doing this interview with Vectips! First I would like ask you some questions about Illustrator.

• 

  Vectips: You are a master with the Wacom in Photoshop. Do you use the Wacom features in Illustrator?

• 

  jeff_finley: I do use my Wacom in Illustrator, but surprisingly I prefer to draw in Photoshop and Live Trace my result in AI

• 

  Vectips: Is there a benefit to using a Wacom with Photoshop Brushes over the Calligraphic Brush with a Wacom in Illustrator?

• 

  jeff_finley: I like the way PS handles pressure sensitivity. But using brushes in AI can be awesome. Like tapered brushes for hatching

• 

  Vectips: When you place the Photoshop file into illustrator, what is your Live Trace settings like?

• 

  jeff_finley: Nothing fancy, I usually leave the Live Trace settings as default. My art is black and white anyway and 300dpi, so it works fine

• 

  Vectips: In the “Bold is Beautiful” t-shirt, did you have to build the files as vector art for the screen printing?

• 

  jeff_finley: Surprisingly no, Design by Humans took my layered PSD and somehow managed to separate it into 9 colors and screen print it.

• 

  Vectips: Wow, that is impressive.

• 

  jeff_finley: Yeah DBH did a great job. Vectorizing things would have tripled the workload and made it hard to get watercolor effects and such

• 

  Vectips: Go Media gives free samples from the Arsenal Packs. Do you feel sites giving away free resources hurts the design industry?

• 

  jeff_finley: I could talk for a long time on this. In a way, yes because it devalues the hard work that designers do. No because…

• 

  jeff_finley: No because it can be viewed as helping new designers break in. As they grow they’ll move past the freebies do their own stuff

• 

  Vectips: Well said, it will also push designer to keep pushing the boundaries of design.

• 

  jeff_finley: It inspires me to do things differently. If my style is being replicated and given away for free, it’s time to move on.

• 

  Vectips: Do people steal your artwork?

• 

  jeff_finley: Yes, sadly, quite often. I know people steal our vector packs and such. But sometimes people steal work I’ve done for clients.

• 

  jeff_finley: My friend @RandomEntity says to beware of the Manticores! Don’t steal artwork unless you want to get publicly humiliated…

• 

  Vectips: If some of these people stealing your work are listening now, what would you tell them?

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  jeff_finley: Unless they want to have a penis photoshopped onto their nose and sent to all their Myspace friends, they should stop right now

• 

  Vectips: Ha! Penis noses are never a good thing.

• 

  jeff_finley: Yeah I stopped calling myself a Manticore after that incident. Pretty unprofessional. Some Manticores can be brutal about it.

• 

  Vectips: What is the worst thing about working for Go Media?

• 

  jeff_finley: Worst? Gosh, probably working in a cramped townhouse with 12 people. It can be loud and distracting. Can’t wait for the new office

• 

  Vectips: The best thing?

• 

  jeff_finley: Best? Probably the freedom and opportunity to succeed on my own terms. It’s open ended, so every day opens new doors.

• 

  Vectips: So what is a Manticore? Is this weird thing a Manticore? http://poprl.com/Vj. Is there any Manticore at Go Media.

• 

  jeff_finley: Yup that’s a Manticore. But the Manticores “club” started on Emptees to promote artist rights. http://tinyurl.com/2r5pt4

• 

  Vectips: What rights does it promote?

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  jeff_finley: Scroll down to the bottom of the wikipedia article to “real life applications” to understand what it’s all about.

• 

  Vectips: That’s great! Didn’t even know about it.

• 

  jeff_finley: When word gets out a design was stolen or another designer ripped off another, members would attempt to police the situation.

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  jeff_finley: Read more about manticores on emptees http://tinyurl.com/62z8nl

• 

  Vectips: I’ve read you are a movie buff. What movie or director would you associate your work with?

• 

  jeff_finley: My fav directors are Werner Herzog, Mike Leigh, Andrew Bujalski, Harmony Korine, Alan Clarke, Dardenne Bros, Lukas Moodysson

• 

  jeff_finley: Their style of film is real, raw, gritty, honest, and sincere. That’s how I want my work to be, but I’m not sure if I’m there yet.

• 

  Vectips: What aspects, if any, of your designs reflects part of your personality?

• 

  jeff_finley: The subject matter, the details, the technique - I feel it reflects my personality and my interests in music/film. Tough question.

• 

  Vectips: We are nearing the end of the interview. Got anything you want to say, products to plug?

• 

  jeff_finley: Awe too bad. I feel like there are a lot of questions I could answer but not enough time in the day. If you think of any more lmk.

• 

  jeff_finley: Some plugs: we’re converting all our vector packs into Photoshop Brushes, should go on sale this week. More apparel templates soon

• 

  Vectips: I would love to keep going if you want. I have more questions, I just don’t want to take up too much of your time.

• 

  jeff_finley: Yeah keep em coming. like i said, bring it on!

• 

  jeff_finley: Also I can take user questions if there are any…

• 

  Vectips: What is your best website resource for inspiration?

• 

  jeff_finley: I really like http://www.ffffound.com

• 

  Vectips: From dickieadams: Have you tried inkscape as an alternative for your original sketches?

• 

  jeff_finley: I’ve tried it once, but I have Illustrator so there is no reason for me to use Inkscape. Although Manga Studio is up and coming.

• 

  Vectips: You say you have a knack for generating “buzz” around products. What is you most useful online tool for generating this “buzz”?

• 

  jeff_finley: Well, it’s our blog first off. Twitter is working its way up too. Social Media is still king of generating buzz, esp in design.

• 

  jeff_finley: But generating buzz is never automatic, building real relationships with people is the best way and it takes time.

• 

  Vectips: From betterthanhuman: Speaking of inspiration, what other designers do you consider your influences?

• 

  jeff_finley: As always Aaron Horkey and Horsebites r big inspirations. I also like Cristy Road, Alex Trochut, John Baizley, and Vania Zouravliov.

• 

  Vectips: From StellasEmpire: What gives you hope to carry on a project if frustration is high, deadlines are freaking out and you could tell everyone to fuck off?

• 

  jeff_finley: Sometimes when all that stuff gets me down, I find something I believe in and donate my work for free. Makes me feel good

• 

  Vectips: From wkdown: Who’s Twitters do you enjoy the most?

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  jeff_finley: I like punknews, collis, and to be honest, most of my fav artists don’t have twitter, or not that I know of.

• 

  Vectips: How is the Designer Help via Twitter going for Go Media?

• 

  jeff_finley: Good, a little awkward cause multiple staff use it. It can be tough to catch questions when following hundreds of designers.

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  jeff_finley: But we’re enjoying the experiment. We can filter to see only tweets directed go_media. surprised we’re not getting more questions.

• 

  Vectips: What do you do if you are not feeling creative?

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  jeff_finley: Surf for inspiration on ffffound or get away from my desk for awhile. maybe take a nap.I go through phases of on and off.

• 

  jeff_finley: I have time for 2 more questions and I should get back to work

• 

  Vectips: What is you worst habit as a designer?

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  jeff_finley: Probably doing too much at once. I’ve constantly got a dozen windows open and feel overwhelmed and distracted.

• 

  Vectips: What is you single best accomplishment in your design career so far?

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  jeff_finley: Being featured magazines is nice. But my career is made up lots of small accomplishments. But moving into our new office is nice.

• 

  jeff_finley: We move in next month, so that’s going to be a BIG accomplishment for all of us.

• 

  Vectips: Well, I will let you get back to work. Thanks again for doing the interview!

• 

  jeff_finley: Sure thing! I had a good time. And just for kicks, people can subscribe to the GoMediaZine blog’s RSS http://tinyurl.com/687vz8