6.17.2010

New Feature:



As all of my loyal visitors know, I often stumble through periods of blog inactivity. Therefore, you may have taken note that I haven't posted in nearly a month. In an effort to remedy my dereliction to putting fingers to keyboard, I am introducing a new feature called Meeting Notes.

The story is this:
As part of my day job at Marlin I occasionally sit through a meeting. I say occasionally with a small sense of pride in that a Marlin meeting — at least for me — is always dead productive. But alas, I have the attention span of a gnat, and as such, I engage in doodling to keep my mind supple to absorb the substance of a meeting’s malay (I'm pretty sure I'm using malay wrong, and I'm trying not to infer malaise, so I say let alliteration reign).

In fact, doodling was (and maybe is) the possible subject matter of my thesis. I believe, and have seen some writing that supports my conclusions, that doodling helps a creative mind stay engaged in things like school lectures, management seminars and creative staff meetings.

So, from here on out, I will sprinkle my posts with doodles done on this end of a project meeting. To kick it off, get things going, or to simply let the other show drop, here's a salutation from our head of accounts:

5.26.2010

Apple ][ to the Tune of Jed


Jed’s Other Poem (Beautiful Ground) from Stewdio on Vimeo.

If you know me you know I love Grandaddy. But you may not know I programmed on an Apple ][ back in high school in 1984. But I didn't know it either as I got a couple of freshmen code geeks to do most of it for me. In honor of the two forgotten coders, and for the love of all that is Grandaddy, I give you Jed’s Other Poem (Beautiful Ground) form the album The Sophtware Slump by Stewart Smith.

4.08.2010

App Cloud




It’s been some time since I’ve posted anything (curses to you prosperity and popularity!). Anyway, hero Brad Hill of TAP turned me on to this very cool cloud based app called, well CloudApp.



Simply put, It’s a file sharing platform that works seamlessly with the Mac OS. It has two parts: an app that displays up on your toolbar (which is a little cloud, that acts as a progress bar and glows blue when your upload is complete), and a browser-based management tool called My CloudApp.

They have a slick little idea called Raindrops. They appear to be like scripts which you can do stuff like: Set it up to automatically upload screenshots. Through a hot key, upload a selected song from iTunes, or send up a Keynote presentation to access later. And then you can share all these files with whomever you choose. It’s dead simple and dead useful.

This is version 1.0 and there is room for improvement (like a simple share button, no apparent login on the home page, or unaware when I'm on their blog that I just came from My CloudApp and might want to scurry back without the browser’s back button). But I'm sure improvements are on the way.

And the best part: It’s free! It appears they have a pro version in the works which would do away with ads (which aren't there yet).

My advice, keep your feet on the ground and your head in the clouds and don't just check it out, sign up.

3.12.2010

Mr. Frenchy Frenchy French Man


It’s rare for my wife and I to find time to watch a movie, but a few months back we managed to sneak in Julie & Julia [WARNING: Link Autoplays sound]. Anyway, it inspired the purchase of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and that is the subject of this post.


Actually, it’s the French Onion Soup, pictured above, that is the subject of this post. Now that we have the subject out of the way, let’s move on to the body of this post. With the exception of securing five generously proportioned tureens, Ms. Child’s recipe was easy enough to make. And finally, the conclusion of this post: It was delicious.

2.07.2010

Glendale High Tennis Crest


Andy, my 17-year-old tennis prodigy, is playing his final year for Glendale High here in Springfield. As co-captain and graduating senior he gets to pick the team’s uniform and logo: That’s where I come in. Above is the crest Andy and I decided upon, featuring the school’s falcon mascot, crossed rackets and clenched balls (ha!), the founding date and the year of application.

Go Glendale! Go Andy!

UPDATE: I have replaced the art with correct school colors, Columbia Blue and red.

2.02.2010

Honorable Mention



How to Fulfill the Demands of the Art of Pastry Chefdom has earned an honorable mention in the Letterhead Fonts 2009 Design Competition.

Chuck Davis of Letterhead Fonts wrote, “It is a beautiful, understated design.”

To see the three winners and two honorable mentions, click here.

I’m all a dither.

1.28.2010

iPad: A Lesson in Projection

All jokes aside, the overwhelming reaction of the geek class of pundits are missing the point: Apple’s iPad is not for them, at least not yet.

The Steve did say it was between a smartphone and a laptop, not a new device to replace them.

Geeks, powerusers, programmers, and yes, designers are all frowning on the Pad because it doesn't do anything for them. Or should I say, it doesn’t do anything more for them. I’m calling this projection, or projecting what they know, what they’re used to and most importantly, what more they want form the next iGadget.

Here's what they don’t get: It’s not for them. It’s for the un-them.

Apple’s iPad is for my wife. She loves Facebook. She loves family photos. She loves making photo albums in iPhoto. She emails, browses the web a little, shops a little, watches a movie or two on her iPhone the handful of times she travels, pay bills online and that’s it.

The iPad is for my daughter. She does just about everything my wife does (except pay bills).

Apple’s tablet is for my mom who has never figured how to use a computer let alone set one up, install software, manage all the cables, printers, scanners, external hard drives, burning CDs, backing up, viruses, connecting to the internet, email, blah blah blah.

The absence of multitasking, Flash, a camera, an always there physical keyboard and whatever else the computing class have grown accustomed to, all amount to stuff that's done on devices that the iPad is not trying to be. And though the iWork stuff was pretty amazing, it’s stuff my wife, daughter and mom don't really care much about.

So, instead of looking at what the iPad is not, the important thing to remember is what it is: (present company excluded) A computer for the rest of us.

I think I just projected back in time.

1.23.2010

Spotted!


I stumbled upon the Booth Ranches Black Box I drafted In the produce department at the Price Cutter in Springfield, Missouri, while shopping for ingredients for leek soup. The box is cool. The soup was hot.

Finalist!



The little chap book for Sweet Street, How to Fulfill The Demands of the Art of Pastry Chefdom, has been chosen as one of fourteen finalist in Letterhead Font’s design competition. In the immortal words of Jimmy Wilson, "Look at me now!"

1.22.2010

Omm


I have decided to quit the business of graphic design and dedicate the remainder of my mortal life to writing. Let me be clear: I’m not going to just write, I am going to write in Ommwriter. Farewell Mr. Rand. So long Saul Bass. Good day Mr. Glaser.


Ommwriter from Herraiz Soto on Vimeo.

12.20.2009

A Simpler Christmas




This year at Marlin to celebrate the end of 2009 (so long, sucker!), we decided to give the gift of simplicity.

So, what's simpler than an Origami snowball?

Find out.

9.29.2009

Repacked for Teens



Edgy and irreverent.

Those were the orders from Hasbro on a re-packaging, re-positioning assignment for three of Hasbro's classic board games.

Pictionary, Trivial Persuit, and Taboo were canned to appeal to a younger demo with a bit more pocket change, but a shorter attention span in this hyper-digital-handheld-device-driven era we’re all traveling through.



We presented two themes with designs to match: Co-Ed Wrestle and Shock Talk. The games were miniaturized and made portable by using a squat can and decreasing the size of gameboards, pawns and whatnots.

Using found imagery and period appropriate typography, the cans take a spin in the mosh-pit of retail punkery with hopes kiddies and their mums are eager, or at least curious enough to slap down a few bucks for a little gameplay.

7.16.2009

An Eternally Brief Post





Another quick post to announce the selection of another logo I drafted to be included in the upcoming LogoLounge Master Library series

Above is a logo concept I did for Larry Barnes at Eternal Screen Printing in Bakersfield back in 2002. LogoLounge and Rockport Publishers will include it in the book, Animals, Birds and Mythology.

Below is the final logo Larry picked:



Eternally cool.

6.22.2009

A Cigar, Sweet Music & You




Less talk, more work.

This was done for Design Mark for the 17th Street Cigar Company in Bakersfield back in 2006.

That’s Marlin intern Jared Tomlinson.

6.18.2009

Sweet Sweet Icons



Sweet Street Desserts is venturing into the world of the consumer and as such, is ramping up their brand to appeal to the delicate sensibilities of the rabid American shopper.

Here at Marlin, working with senior copywriter, Judith Garson, we put together the above 7-panel consumer brochure to be included in every outbound online order from the amazing Sweet Street confections factory in Reading, Pennsylvania.

The idea was to take a series of Sweet Street’s products and create photo-realistic icons reflecting the essence of the dessert.

I'll put up the complete series of images in a future post.

6.03.2009

TXT ISLAND



Halogen





My pal Brian Williams, CD at Inspiration Networks, threw me a bone with an identity exploration for a documentary television network.

Halogen takes a faith-based approach to exploring real world issues without the all-too-common whitewashing or sappy storytelling many Christian programs trip over.

Up top are my favorite solutions to the problem. Below are sample pages for a Field Guide the network publishes to express the voice, tone and manner of the channel.