Headstart 2008 (March 7 - 8)

So have you heard about Headstart?!

Yes/No....Well, if you haven't I'm going to give you the 411 (info). It's a student event held my RGD each year that lets us students gain access and insight into the professional world of Graphic Design through studio tours and seminars that gets us face-to-face access with Creative Directors and/or Senior Designers. This is your chance to network, ask questions, get informed and improve your portfolios. 

For more information or to register click here.

Studio Tours - Friday, March 7th 2008

Times

• Tours A + B  9am to 12:30pm
  
• Tours C + D 1pm to 4:30pm

Pricing (+GST)

Morning or Afternoon

• Student Member  $30
• Non-Member $40

Full Day

• Student Member  $50
• Non-Member $70

Studios

Tour A (Morning)

• Amoeba Corp
  
• Grip Limited
  
• Blast Radius
  
• Oxygen
  

Tour B (Morning)

• Hambly & Woolley
  
• Pylon
  
• Bruce Mau Design
  

Tour C (Afternoon)

• Critical Mass
  
• Organic
  
• q30 design
  

Tour D (Afternoon)

• CTV
  
• Zync Communications
  
• Royal Ontario Museum
  

Workshop and Portfolio Interviews - Saturday March 8th, 2008

CNIB, 1928 Bayview Ave, Toronto

You'll be able to select sessions from any of the four streams which are:

• Stream 1 - Prepare yourself for the job market

1. Resume writing Workshop
2. What to expect Panel discussion
3. Where you fit Panel discussion
4. Networking Workshop

• Stream 2 - Develop skills not taught

1. Starting your own business
2. Sustainability and environmental issues for graphic designers
3. Understanding Ethical Issues in Graphic Design
4. The "Creative Autopsy"

• Stream 3 - Be inspired

1. Print/Illustration
2. Print/Editorial
3. Advertising
4. Environmental/Packaging
5. Identity/Corporate Communications
6. Interactive

• Stream 4 - Portfolio Reviews

Pricing (+GST)

Morning or Afternoon

• Student Member $30
  
• Non-Member $40
  

Full day

• Student Member $50
  
• Non-Member $70
  

Meet "The String Doll Gang"

So last year when I was volunteering at "The Toronto Film Festival" me and my friend came across "The String Doll Gang" in a store front window downtown. Essentially the dolls are made out of one continuous piece of string and can be placed on your keychain. Each doll in the series has it own special power and are quite cute and unique. The dolls are handmade in Thailand and are priced at between $10 - $12.

I myself own:  

• Lover Boy who attracts passion, inspires loyalty, and serves up the love.
• Big Frank who helps you to stay on task and finish the job. (Which I totally need)

These are great presents to give to family and friends. I actually gave my friend two for her birthday and we had a good laugh. It's just something that is fun for all no matter what age you are. The dolls are made by a company called Kamibashi so go check them out. The Gang can also be found at Propaganda at 686 Yonge St.

My Guilty Pleasures....What are your guilty pleasures??

This is sort of my guilty pleasures list.

Its weird but I like love love love "The Food Network"... come on Iron chef so does it for me. It's interesting because when you think about it they're like designers specializing in food. So basically there are 3-4 Iron Chefs who specialize in a certain area of cuisine like French, Italian, Japanese etc. So each week a top chef comes on and challenges one of the Iron Chefs in a hour battle of skills. The best part is the secret ingredient they must use in all their dishes. 

Ok, if that doesn't surprise you I also like watching Antique Road Show. Though it's less frequent I'll stop and watch it if I happen to catch it while flipping through channels. There's something about seeing someone discover that that old ugly vase that they hated in their parents house is worth +$5,000. I also I like the whole discovery of learning about the history behind items that appear on the show.

I would be a fool if I didn't mention HGTV and Holmes on Homes. I think what I admire about this show is the fact that they are trying to right the wrongs of contractors who have scammed home owners out of thousands of dollars because of greed or lack of knowledge.

Oh oh oh, have you watched American Choppers on TLC. They build custom made theme motorcycles for their customers like LUGZ, Sunaco, Lance Armstrong and many more. Just the dynamics of the crew is enough to make you laugh especially with Mikey hanging around and Paul Jr. & Sr. fighting.

     

Layout Galaxy Tutorials

Layout Galaxy Tutorials

So I just posted two new links into my tutorial section for HTML and XML. And I'll probably be adding the Flash kit link later on today. The layout galaxy site is fairly comprehensible and broken down so that it is easy for us beginners to get started on the right foot. So go check it out.

Challenge Week 1: Sketches

The site that I will be creating will be geared towards marketing my skills as a graphic designer to potential employers looking for some basic design work to be completed. Seeing that I want to try my hand at freelance work to gain experience and extra cash, the site will be an easy gateway for potential employers to see the type of work that I am capable of. The site will be flashed based, which will allow interactivity and motion. If time permits I would like to have a HTML site to complement the flash site. It will also offer an alternative to people without flash player installed to still have access to my site. The hard part in this whole challenge will be to keep it simple and not go crazy on the flash stuff. Yes, I must exhibit some self control, which will be difficult because I like all those flashy pretty things.

Sections:

• Home Page
  
• About/Biography
  
• Resume Section
  
• Portfolio
  
• Contact
  

Image 1:

Static page: 

• The browser window will pop up in the position of the static image and then will load and animate.
  
• It will check if flash player is installed. 
  
• The browser will be right t the edge
  
• I want to go with the whole idea of the thought process of my ideas. Developing and then reformatting into new ideas.
  

Image 2:

Portfolio Section:

This section will be set up a little bit differently then the main sections.

Components of this section

• Image system with specs/rationale (the image area has to be flexible in regard to size)
  
• Titles of Artwork
  

Image 3:

Main page/Portfolio:

• I was thinking of having any page be the home page.
• The menu section will be compacted on the bottom left hand side of the content area. When clicked it will scroll out to reveal the other section of the site.
• I still have to figure out how to transition from one section to the other.

These sketches will be further refined and sketched out. 

Creative ZEN

So I'm all about my music and when I decided to invest in my first MP3 player about 3 years ago I wasn't exactly jumping on the Ipod band wagon if you know what I mean. To be completely honest with you owning an Ipod is like the default (automatic) there's no thought behind it, it's just ordinary. I like to make informed decisions so I went out and did some research on other MP3 players on the market to try and find something that suited my aesthetic needs and music desires. 

I was discussing my need for a MP3 player with one of my friends from work and he told about Creative, which is one of the leaders in digital entertainment products. Checking out there site I happen to come across their Zen Neeon, which I automatically fell in love with. But to my utter horror they only sold it in Asia so I had to make peace and try to move on and hopefully one day if I was so lucky I would fall in love with another MP3 player. *sniffles* At that came minutes later when I came across the Zen Micro, which met my music needs and sooo much more with its built-in radio, hard-drive and sound recording. I think what really sold me on the Zen Micro was the fact that I could store music and have work files on one player seeing that I would be traveling from home to school and school to home. 

Though my Zen Micro didn't last I stay with the same brand and got myself another Creative player called the Zen V plus, which to my horror everyone thought was the new Ipod nano that just came out.

                                        

                                                                      

 Zen V Plus

Tutorials

I think everyone knows that tutorials are a great way to improve their skills when it comes to software. Even just taking what you learn from them and applying it to other work is how I personally learn and develop my skills. I was recently talking to Kemar, who a third year graphic design student and he told me about a great site called Computer Arts that has free tutorials for: 

* Photoshop and 2d

* Web and New Media

* 3D and animation

So if any of you know or find great sites that offer tutorials leave me a comment and I'll put it on my page.

What up with these templates???!

So am I the only one that is not feeling these templates because I think my blog needs a desperate overhaul so it suits my style. As much as I like these dots there will be some tweaking going on in the next couple of days. The only thing is I'll probably have to get my hands dirty in some html.... and we all know how fun that prospect is. So, if you come to my page and it's all messed up I tried my hardest. I'm sorry!

Justin Bua: Illustrator, Painter and Teacher

Bua in my mind is an urban artist that depicts urban life and culture through his unique style of drawings and paintings. I think what drew me towards his work was his unique style of exaggerating the human form of his characters. A common theme that I found in his paintings was music, which showed people singing or performing. On the other side you see his version of urban life with people playing basketball, chilling with friends or just getting up to trouble.  

Justin Bua has come a long way since his days growing up in New York city where he attended New York's High School of Performing arts, which is also referred to as F.A.M.E....*sings* 

I gonna live forever. 

I'm gonna learn how to fly, High!  

Anyways, back to business Bua has gone on to work on projects with EA sports for games such as, "NBA Street" and "NFL Street" and even has his own shoe line. Nowadays, Bua teaches figure drawing at USC. It seems that there is no area that Justin Bua hasn't reached in his career as an artist. He has truly adapted his work to the evolving nature of art in todays society.

Justin Bua

 

                

        

Image 1: Miki

Image 2: Jackson Jive

Erykah Badu...

is an artist that is "beyond the box" when it comes to her music and her message. I remember hearing her track "Bag Lady" and just falling in love with the beat and the message behind it. I know when I first listened to her album "Mama's Gun" I didn't really get it until I sat there and actually listened to the lyrics and understood what she was trying to say. For example her song "Green eyes" goes through three stages of a break-up where the music changes and evolves with each stage. These changes consist of Denial, Acceptance and Relapse.

The way she sees and interprets the world in her music is the reason why I would go out and buy her cd. There are certain artist that you feel compelled to support regardless of the fact that you can go online and get their album for free within minutes. I think it comes down to respecting and supporting artists that aren't trying to get a club hit and actually try to say something in their music. So here I am excited because I just found out that her new album is dropping on February 26, 2008. 

Her new album is called "New Amerykah" and the album cover is amazing with all its details that seems to capture the true essence of her and her music.  So you if don't know who she is check her out because I've attached some links below.

New Amerykah

Check out some of her other videos:

Next Lifetime

Honey (New Single)

Love of my life

Back in the day

Personal Challenge...challenge yourself to do something new

So this is a personal challenge for myself to improve my knowledge of photoshop and illustrator. I was speaking with one of my friends, who mentioned something about doing a tutorial everyday to improve their skill and knowledge for certain software and I thought that was an excellent idea to broaden my horizon per se.

Hold on, scratch that idea I think I'm going to start building my website. You know what they say it's never to early to start preparing yourself and this is probably one of those things that will change and morph into something up to par . I've always had this fascination with Flash and actionscript and all those wonderful and complicated things that we've all seen on other people's sites. And I think it's an area not many of us have explored fully. So my challenge to myself each week will be to either start or finish an aspect of my website starting from sketches to a fully functioning website my the end of the term. It's funny because I have all these books about building websites and I have technically never finished one...so here is my chance to get down and dirty with everything from photoshop to dreamweaver.

So the challenge starts Feb. 4 and ends April 18th. I want your opinions, advice and criticism. Don't be shy... be loud and obnoxious and tell me what's on your mind.

Looking for a few good people...

So I have this pipe dream of entering "The ADCC student awards competition" this year and I was going to enter the graphic design category only but I think it would be more fun to work with someone else and enter the advertising category also. So if your interested in working with me let me know...it would definitely be an experience. Oh, this years competition is centered around Bell Canada and re-launching the brand.  The deadline is: Thursday, May 8th 2008 at 5pm

If you want to check out the design brief click here.

Lost and.....

So I was told to check out this site called ffffound.com ,which is a site that people share art/images that they have found on the web.  At first I was a little skeptical about what I would find on a site of this nature but I was gladly enthralled my the endless images on the site. It's a modern visual journal of inspiration for anyone that happens to stumble on this site. The site has 700+ pages and is still going strong with the imagination of artists, thinkers and designers.

Image 1: www.jamesjean.com/recess/crayoneater.jpg