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.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:32 pm -
Hmmm the deck peck thing is nice. Might have to try it out.
September 8th, 2008 at 1:49 pm -
Oliver - I would love to see that Seinfeld illy.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:14 pm -
Will you post the scary clown design somewhere ?
I really want to see it.
September 8th, 2008 at 3:19 pm -
I’d be interested in knowing what you think of Universal Type Server - we were considering it for our CSR here at the newspaper a while back, but since it didn’t come out until fairly recently, we opted to go with other solutions (local installs of Suitcase Fusion).
September 8th, 2008 at 3:45 pm -
I believe the header is the seinfeld pic. And it does look a lot like him!
Can’t wait for that “How To Win” post, Jeff. I need the dough! xD
Okay so both of you seem as if you’re designing a great deal for the Killers.. are you getting compensated for rejected designs and for time? I’m just curious… it’d be awful if you’re submitting all of these kickass designs that you’ve worked hard on, only to have them want something else. [then again, you could stockpile the designs and put them up on DBH and win for each of them!]
September 8th, 2008 at 4:47 pm -
Percussive maintainance is much better then punching stuff, although I have a bad temper so I shoouldn’t talk
Break stuff, not your hands.
Just to let you know Jeff I fully agree with your post on Target and I see that its not a hit on peoples creativity and being selective on clients, you’re just being critical of a piece of artwork, which is more than acceptable in the design world, its practically a rule.
Over and Out
TheChequeredManiac
September 8th, 2008 at 5:51 pm -
I hope your knuckle feels better
September 8th, 2008 at 9:15 pm -
Once again, an ass-load of work all rolled up into one week. Just getting started with my own design business and not having any customers makes me a little jealous while reading your weekly reviews, then again I’m sure that can have a double-edge. I’m glad you mentioned where the user showcase went I thought it was gone completely, I must admit that I like it better where it was.
Nice work though fellas!
September 8th, 2008 at 10:27 pm -
Can’t wait for that DBH article!
September 8th, 2008 at 11:49 pm -
Clowns are always scary! Yikes!
September 9th, 2008 at 2:39 am -
nice changes.its better to move it down:)
September 9th, 2008 at 10:18 am -
“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 like that you post your failures as well as successes. Goes to show the objectivity of art.
BTW, you guys should totally be used to the Brown’s losing, unless you were around when Jim Brown played. Last season was just a teaser to get your hopes up. They’re going back to the usual bottom-feeder position this year.
September 9th, 2008 at 11:33 am -
The swelling’s gone down and my knuckle is fine. I had a really weird lump for about a week and it would throb like crazy during an intense afternoon of hoops.
As for the Browns, we’ll see what happens. They have an awful lot of talent on offense, but key guys are injured. On defense, they have a good front 3 and 1 good safety, but there’s 7 other guys that totally stink.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:18 pm -
I gotta get together and play hoops with you guys!
September 10th, 2008 at 2:54 pm -
Wow those decks are sweet like 2 girls in Karo syrup wrestling match, makes me wanna snowboard right now!
September 10th, 2008 at 8:53 pm -
New footer looks great!