the blog.

Yesterday I had the privledge of taking engagement pictures for my brother and his gorgeous fiance.

While wasting time during lunch at our brand new downtown office today, I stumbled across Art Backwash, a blog by Von Glitschka. In one of his posts, he took it upon himself to design a logo for the devil.

Those of you who are about ready to click the red shiny ball (or the “X” for PC users)….wait.

The post starts by brining readers up to speed by talking about the verse in Revelations 13:18, that references the mark of the beast. He then proceeds to challenge himself to think of how the devil would sell his “mark” from a marketing and design point of view.

Glitschka makes the obvious point that, Bible-believing or not, it would be fairly tough to get anyone to have the number 666 on their hand…much less their forehead. So using this rationale he decides to see what he can create as a brand logo for the devil. His constraints are:

- “666″ has to be in the logo.
- A brand name has to be developed. (Think “Zoloft”, “Viagra” or “Crestor.”)
- Must use “Red”. (Satan owns this color. Sorry “Target” and “Coke.”)
- Spend no more then 30 minutes on it. (Have work to do.)
- Approach it like a corporate client.
- No cliches. (Think “Devil Horns” and “Trident.”)

What I learned from this post wasn’t that it’s a good idea to take 30 minutes out of your day in an attempt to create a logo for the master deceiver. I learned that taking 30 minutes a day (or even a week) and pushing myself to create something presentable is a great way to stimulate the creative juices.

Click here to see Glitschka’s two logo solutions…and stay posted for some 30 minute exercises.

I’ve been at somewhat of a loss for things to post lately. I’ve been keeping fairly busy with freelance work in my two weeks of no class, but none of it is quite to the posting stage at this point.

And so it begins, my final year of school. Very exciting, but at the same time horribly daunting. Not daunting in the sense of “I have to find a job”, but daunting in the sense of “What am I going to do without school?” By the time I finish with a BA I will have gone to school for seven years. Four and a half of those years I was a full-time student taking summer classes. The other two and a half have been as a three-quarter time student taking summer classes.

I’ve tossed around the idea of getting my MFA but at this point I’m not completely for sure why an MFA is something I want. Is it because I want the recognition of having the highest degree you can obtain in the graphic design field? Or is it because I would use it? Does it matter?

And if I decide to go back to school, the biggest question is where? Your alma mater doesn’t matter so much for a bachelor degree, but a masters…an entirely different story.

So many questions. Not so many answers.

Beautiful packaging is one of the best forms of inspiration. Straight from The DieLine (where else?) These are some of my recent favorites. Just makes me want to ….lick… them.  You laugh, but I know there are others out there who know what I mean.

Maestro Dobel Tequila. Designer is Stranger & Stranger.

Sohne Wine Bottles. Designer is Ned Wright.

20cL Wiskey Bottles. By Douglas Laing & Co. Ltd.

Q Tonic. Designed by Q Tonic

Peared - student work from Syracuse. Designer is Conor Hagan.

Reading through the August issue of HOW (one of my favorite graphic design magazines) I came across an article featuring an amazing artist. The artist is illustrator Linzie Hunter. Instead of trashing all of the spam email she gets, she chooses to be creative with it. She makes art.

According to HOW, her hand-lettered spam one-liners began as a playful exercise to get away from her computer illustration and get back into paint and ink. In no time, this experiment went from the lab to commercial success. Although spam can be quite crude, some of these one-liners almost take on a crafty, folk-art quality through her illustrations.

She has a book being published this fall.

You can find her work for sale at Thumbtackpress.com and 20×200.com

Last night due to a random urge, we decided to go hang out at Mad Anthony’s, a tiny brewery on the edge of downtown Fort Wayne. When we got there, we noticed a poster hanging on the door announcing live music from The Orange Opera (Fort Wayne), Luego (somewhere in N.C.) and Pepi Ginsberg (Brooklyn, NY).

If you live in the Fort Wayne vicinity and have never seen The Orange Opera perform, it is a must. These guys put on a great show and their music is catchy.

From their website:

The Orange Opera channels a classic vibe, enriched with some stellar signposts of early ‘70s rock, driven by uncanny songcraft. This combo melds modern energy with vintage vibe to produce the kind of distinctive, catchy, smart and infectious sound that you recognize immediately: it simply belongs in your ears. Imagine bits of Beatles and Badfinger melodic magic mingling with ELO and Wilco, and you’ve barely scratched the surface.

They’re the kind of band that makes you think there may be hope for the Fort Wayne music scene afterall…

I had the honor of taking pictures for Wes and Dixie at their wedding this weekend. It was a beautiful day.

I’ve finally finished the storyboards for my summer class and am really excited about how they turned out.  Enjoy!