›› Random PhotoBooth pictures of me posing for the camera while getting older and making graphic designs on the computer.

Today is April 20th, 2008. That is a fact. It means that we (Sue and I) have been living here in San Francisco for 79 days. It also means that I haven’t updated this blog in a long long time, so I thought I might write a bit about how I’m doing. Or maybe its better to touch on what I’m doing. Certainly an easier thing to recount. So here is what I am doing now and what I have been doing these past 79 days. Read the rest of this entry »

I know how this looks. Let me explain.

In February of 2007, nearly one year ago, my wife Sue and I moved from Lincoln Nebraska to Chicago Illinois. The Windy City. Chi-town. ‘Cago. We left behind our beautiful huge two bedroom apartment with a yard, our friends, our family and our home for a new life in the city that works. We got a small one bedroom apartment and I started working at Energy BBDO. Now here we are, nearly one year later, and in two weeks we are going to move again. This time to the city by the bay, San Francisco. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first in a series of posts about type. I was recently given an assignment to create a teaser poster advertising a shoe drive for the United Way. No time, no budget, just a headline. So I sketched up some ideas, bounced some ideas around with my friends/co-workers Sean and Steve and came up with the idea of using shoes to spell out the headline (which is “Let Somebody Else Walk In Your Shoes”). Another co-worker and I collected shoes from friends and fellow employees and shot simple digital photos of the letters set on common surfaces where people often walk - bathroom floor, the sidewalk, bedroom carpet, etc… Using a variety of shoes in the poster serves as a reminder of how many shoes most of us have sitting in our closet. Using objects to create letters is obviously nothing new, but this execution seems particularly well suited to this message. This is only the first draft, so hopefully for the next round we will have the opportunity to tighten it up and add some more shoe shots to the mix.

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A number of years ago (3 or so I think) I noticed that my sister Ariell was making collages. They were mostly made from cut up people in magazines, celebrities I assumed, and they were often composed on the door to her bedroom. I recognized the creative expression and decided to try to inspire her to continue these exercises. So I proposed doing a gluebook project with her and explained how it would work. I would get a book, spend an hour putting together a few collages and then give it to her. She’d put together a few pages and then give it back and we would continue like this until it filled up. I did just that and delivered it to her already decorated bedroom door.

I’ve never seen it since.

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It started innocently enough. I live in a small apartment in Chicago and the stand for my television doubles as a shelf for my cameras. One day, whilst watching a movie I noticed my Polaroid™ sitting next to the tele and I had an idea. I picked it up, got in real close to the TV screen, turned off the flash and took a shot. The result is my newest obsession. Abstract Polaroids™ of my television. I enjoy taking them because its a challenge to compose a shot of something that changes so quickly (depending on what I’m watching) and it is also a challenge to make an interesting image from something so simple (I don’t always succeed here). Either way, I like challenges.

The images above and below are a couple of my favorites so far. Click Here to view a Flickr set that I started (and am already behind in updating). Below are a few more.

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A few weeks ago I went to see The Darjeeling Limited with my wife Sue and my friend Chris. I am a huge fan of Wes Anderson’s work and this film was no exception. Since I’ve seen it people around the office have asked me if it follows the same format of all of his other films. The answer, well, yeah, kind of. Its about a family, fractured by something in the past that has prevented each individual member from moving on or finding peace in their lives. That being said, there is something unique about each of his films and even though some of the themes are the same, the stories aren’t.

So my opinion - its great. Go see it. But before you go, watch Hotel Chevalier - available for a free download from iTunes.

PS: I read on the Criterion Collection message boards that they are planning to release a Criterion version of Bottle Rocket. I am super amped about that as well.

I have started a blog. This is the first post. I am still working out the kinks. “What will this blog be?” I wonder. Surely it will have something to do with my graphic designs. Surely. Maybe I will use this blog to get back into writing. I have a number of short stories which I’ve started, maybe this could be something that helps with that. I’ve got that one about the family that can’t sleep. I should finish that. How to end it though, that’s the tricky part. Maybe this blog will serve to inform readers as to what I’m up to. Books I’m reading, films on the tele, etc… Maybe I’ll post links to my friends, and keep people abreast of what they’re up to. This is starting to sound nice.