Skeletal

Blogging got hard. I'm back only because this is a venue where I can post an animated gif of my face paint progression. (Click here and here for final pics.)

Erik Spiekermann on Corporate Design

The work is tedious, and you don't win any design prizes with it, and people get bored, but it trains you to listen to things that, for us, are terribly unimportant, but for are clients are very important.

-Erik Spiekermann about corporate design work

We are a service industry. I'm not an artist…I am a designer. I work for other people. I solve other peoples' problems, not my own. My personality comes into it, but I'm not an artist. I don't express myself. I have a style…but I do work for clients. It doesn't mean I'm a slave! But if I take on a commission, a project, I will, at least metaphorically speaking, kill for those people. I will be very, very loyal. Otherwise, you know, why bother? If you find you're not loyal…to your client anymore, it's time to get out. It's a relationship.

-Erik Spiekermann on how he stays involved with work that he finds tedious

Click here to listen to the whole Design Matters interview. It's a good listen. 

Cold Specks - Winter Solstice

I've basically been listening to this song for two weeks straight (and sometimes this one). This girl is magical.

Type Fight

I was invited to participate in Guest Fight on Type Fight—a website and ongoing project created by Drew Roper, Ryan Paule, and Bryan Butler—where two designers create the same letter and then go up against each other for votes to determine who came up with the best-looking character.

For the past week, designer Jake Welchert and I have been battling it out with the letter K, and it's been a very close fight all week long. There's only one more day to vote, so head over to thetypefight.com to help me win with the K on the left!

Two Lettered Quotes

Below are my two most recent lettered travel quotes done in two very different styles and color schemes.

I enjoyed studying Roundhand style of lettering/calligraphy over the past couple of weeks, including all of the beautiful flourishes frequently used in that calligraphy style. I didn't letter this with a calligraphy pen, in fact, I've never even used a calligraphy pen, but I enjoyed utilizing the style of it. I almost posted the Emerson quote before I added the y_t, a_t, and f_d ligatures, but I'm so glad I added them, because I like the piece a lot better now.

I didn't take the sketch of this one very far before beginning to work with it on the computer. In my sketches, I had found the basic alignment and structure of the letters that I wanted to use, and I kept some of the horizontal and vertical lines. I knew that for this particular quote I could keep sketching and sketching without getting closer to the final piece unless I took it to the computer, so I didn't even finish my last sketch.

I've updated these to my portfolio site. Click here to see all of the lettered travel quotes I've created so far.