slowin' my roll...

sigh... can a one-man operation undergo a restructuring? how'sat even happen?
whatever it is, i'm now finding myself having to step down as the self-aggrandizing CEO of my own 'upfromsumdirt' brand and focus more as the self-aggrandizing door-to-door upfromsumdirt salesman sticking my big toe in the door jamb of potential clients willing to invest in my craft... i mean, i'm sorta feeling like bernie madoff right now (and not the ontopoftheworld bernie, but the iamnotacrook bernie) - going back to the literal drawing board to clean up my act. coming back with t-square swinging...

actually, im having to get my 'organic' grind back on, setting illustration and visual art as higher priorities over graphic design (which was always illustration-heavy to begin with!).

i absolutely love design, but so many more folks are inquiring about my illustration services that that's where my attention and intentions will be focusing (the best jobs will allow me to focus on and combine both elements!)...

still looking for a trusty copywriter and photographer to work with, but thats a whole 'nother blog...

recent illustrations

stupid video, but the jazz is SICK!

iDRAW

"stelo"

before i got all 'uppity' with my design services, i used to flood myspace with self-promotional material, mining that site for social networking clients... this was a favorite promo that used to gather much response... i should probably go back to using it... i had forgotten about it until surfing my linkedin connections led me to the blog home of Tobias Wright - immediately i got jealous wishing i had photoshopped my promo in that manner to fit this blog... but i'm an old-school rap guru and i cant bring myself to bite his current style. in the meantime, i'm hating the game/not the player.

new sample sheet no's. 1 & 2 - feedback is welcome!

at heart, i'm an illustrator... a visual artist... always have been/will be.

at times, i worry about my expressive need for color and composition getting in the way of my professional design approaches. it works well when creating icons for online use, but i'm told my logo designs can be 'too artsy' - that the gradients i sometimes incorporate arent always necessary, which can be true: gradients and shadows can be horrible for traditional print media. but modern processes seem to have increased their abilities adjusting to us overly-creative designers...

but many companies are having designers tailor their work as internet solutions, promoting or branding one industry or another. the 'pretty pixel' has become a major part of that process, especially since too many modern design 'specialists' are bodyslamming the works of traditional designers like paul rand.

most want something 'traditional' and 'everlasting', which is the new way of saying 'computery' and 'trendy'... it's sad, but like most wanting to earn a living at this design-racket, i comply. the internet has ruined the expectations of designers and clients alike. only the super-design-agencies have artistic license to say otherwise... modern design is CGI on a shoestring for most of us. and with that said, i throw the switch and offer up samples of my latest work for the critique of peers and passers-by...

enjoy. ...or dont.

i'll be okay either way you play it...

braggart series...

basic bookcover samples...

i recently joined a ning network for black authors with the hope of gathering new clients;
to that end i created a few 'basic' bookcover looks (most of the authors seem to write about business, marketing and self-promotion) to hopefully reel them in... i'm working on some other ones as well, but these are the latest ones...

the new make-my-logo-bigger cream!

emailer... or something like that...

new self-promo... plus, dirty one - because you know how i hate 'sanitary'...

kung fu grip

bored stiff...

commentary on a dying horse...

mythium masthead redesign...

we're getting very good reviews for our mythium literary journal and i felt it necessary to redesign a few of the site banners (the new main page banner comes from a cover mock for the spring issue).
i'm hard to please. i'll love a work immediately after i've finished it, but give me a couple days to stare at it and i begin to grow dissatisfied. its just my nature. the previous banner was also the off-spring of a cover design, so i think im setting the tone to change the site's appearance every six months, something i probably wouldnt do if it was an originally coded site and not created from a template provided by our internet carrier. i love and appreciate classic sites that maintain a visual aesthetic over time, but because so much of our site is beyond our ability to properly code the on-site graphics tend to grow 'stale' with time - sorta like going to your favorite blog only to find there's been no recent entries in months.

so i thought it was time to update some things (wish we could adjust our navigation bar, but you work with what you've got, i guess) so i made changes to the main page, the contest page and the submission page banners. i couldnt help myself. it just wouldnt leave me alone  - the old graphics talked me into it... they said "pleaaaaassssseeee....."

 

 of course, i just HAAAAD to redesign my literary blog header also... i cut up the old projects banner to make it... i really like it.

best ads of the decade

adweek has open voting for best ads of the decade in the categories of media, creative, branding, and agencies - waaaay too many to list here... but here are some of my favorite commercials

iphone humor from political cartoonists...

daryl cagle's website
check it out...

i was so mesmerized by the iphone when they first started advertising for them
(as well as lusting for the macbook air - i mean, just drooling!)

but i'm over it now.

i just dont want a device that replaces all other devices in my life: i like my cd player... i like my camera... i like my computer... i've recommitted myself to using the house phone...

caint i just have a cell phone that rings and hangs up? ...is that too much to ask for?

great websites...

jason gray's music

magnetic north

m1 design

to logo or not to logo, that is the question...

so many graphic designers face this hurdle - designing their own logo...

some designers choose to forgo the logo concept, deciding to instead bank on the professionalism garnered solely from their names as a dependable designer... for them, logos are of a cage that could potentially box them into a certain perception, if not fully developed correctly - which is very hard to do these days since so many designers have developed more than one specific design skill set. what mark could ever embody all of their professional nuances?
but for other designers, a well produced logo offers the opportunity for instant recognition, especially on the internet (which i'm increasingly beginning to rename "the omniscient whorehouse", but that's my own hang-up - i swairfogawd, i think virginal sacrifices are required on an hourly basis to placate the internet gods to slow down their consumption of all of mankind... )

but the fact is, for designers choosing to include a logo in their own personal branding, we tend to  create the most horrible logos for ourselves... i mean, just hideous. and it kills me when i see a bunch of suck-up designers create a list of 'best graphic design logos' include those hideous monstrosities on their list (especially if the named designer is uber-popular) - "graphic design", one part cult, two parts disease. (dont try to cure us, we'd only re-infect ourselves!)

case in point, i'm an illustrator at heart so the vast majority of the logos i create incorporate elements of branding (meaning they just dont represent a philosophy or idea, but are also trying to manipulate mood or navigate an emotional or visceral response in the process - logos define a company, branding defines how you as a consumer choose to connect to that company)
and i've been playing around with various logos for myself for years, stuff that i think is cute at the time of creation but nothing with a lasting impression that i deem marketable.

"someone" defaced my latest attempt with graffiti, but here was a recently failed concept:

you have to envision it without the exhaust and eyeballs and torso and other agitated embellishments, but if you stand back and squint while spinning in circles, you'll see what i was going for with the 'upfromsumdirt' design brand...  vomiting might occur, but we'll blame that on the spinning and not the artwork, okay?

iDRAW

new collage

new ill.

yes, virginia, there is a santa claus - aka - yes, i believe in magic...

or 'miracles' if your religiousness forbids you from uttering such phrases outloud; if your inner-child was abducted and made to act grown by screw-faced parental administrators (god bless you and them, i'm sure they meant well!)

but i believe in all of it: miracles, mojo, magic, all of it - i'm an artist - it's in my dna.

my fiancé and i were in louisville for 8 days beginning this past friday while she teaches creative writing at spalding's fall mfa session. i'm from louisville, so i always go with her - allowing me to be her soundboard while also allowing me to visit family.

i had no reason to want to come back home to lexington, an hour's drive away, but today i was feeling 'confined' and felt compelled to make the drive instead of going to the bookstore or music store or any of the usual things i might do to shake any doldrums. so i did make the drive, promising my fiancé and my daughter (who was taking advantage of the warm day to grill out) that i would be back in the afternoon.
i got home at 9:30am.

ate cereal. made coffee. watched sportscenter. checked email and was preparing to take a nap before making the return drive. it was 11:30 and i was planning on leaving around 2.

then i thought i smelled gas.
no... i was definitely smelling gas... the house was leaking gas! ... ...profusely!

so 9-1-1 is called. 6 fire trucks arrive on the scene. they do their thing/the gas company is called in, she does her thing. crisis neutralized.

- but i had no business even being here today!

the plan was to return next sunday, lounge for a little bit, work on our office space, have a date night.
had i spent the entire week away, chances are something entirely dire would have awaited us on our return... at least five hours have gone by and i'm still a bit shaken by it.

so what's a neo-spiritual, completely superstitious and abstractly religious creative type person supposed to do?

make art, what else.

so i did. it speaks to me. i hope it  honors the ancestors who've looked over us today...
(maybe it'll make a bookcover for someone oneday....)

so here it is: 6 apples, in honor of shango...

hunger aint gettin' it done...

i wrote a poem once about how i'm gonna rob all yall in a dark parking lots if this graphic design racket didnt start paying off... well... im finna expand that to 'semi-dark', 'dimly lit', 'damn near noon'...

when my fiancé told a long time friend of her's who had been a friend of mine once upon a time, that we were dating, he said "the cartoonist?" --- i was insulted at first (not his fault, since illustration was what i was into when he knew of me 20 years ago), because i was establishing myself as a visual artist and graphic designer and 'cartoonist' seemed... unsatisfying... vulgar...

or maybe i was unsuccessfully running from my past...

i mean, i've recently had just as many inquiries about my illustration work as i have for my graphic design services... so much so that i've once again began branding myself as an illustrator. i really have no other choice - my aesthetic as a designer is very much influenced by my role as a visual artist, meaning my designs come across as too conceptual to potential clients. the internet has ruined expectations for those in need of graphic services - it's either, 1. stick a flock of stick figure people in the middle of my brand name and call it a logo, or 2. create a swirly, bubbly, at&t-inspired knock-off (but different).

so way too many designs work wonders online, but look generic in real life (should those designs ever make it into the real world to begin with). my approach doesnt mimic web design trends enough, so i get tossed aside as "a traditional designer"...
...but once i started calling those same designs "illustrations" i noticed that what i create resonates longer with those interested in what i do.

so... if "illustrator" keeps me from having to reach into your pockets while i got you jammed against the hood of your bmw, then, yeah... i think we all can live with that. 

mythium design

welcome to the cheesy self-promotion... 
(what? were you going to do it for me? ...i didnt think so).

what is lorem ipsum?

- as edited from this online LOREM IPSUM generator with 10 paragraphs of random lorem ipsum text.



...


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Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.
The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.

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Generated 10 paragraphs, 1141 words, 7753 bytes of Lorem Ipsum

photoshop -

photoshop manipulations 1

photoshop manipulations 2

i've seen much better - the first set is average, a solid B...
some of the second set appears in the first one, but overall, its borderline horrible - i give it a C+