the is a design blog

Let's try this again.

2009-11-17T08:17:00.000-08:00

SO I know I do this on a way too regular basis. I fall of the radar and stop updating only to come back 6 months or a year later to post that I'm going to make a grand effort to display my current work (which admirably is more refined than some of my posted older work) but I get too busy and when I do have spare moments, I'm too tired (lazy) to post and it goes so long that when I do get freed up a bit, it just seems less important.

SO I'm trying to do it again. I'm on this organization kick—probably because I'm so busy lately and I need a way to juggle everything. I also realize exactly how important this blog as well as my other blog on Tumblr, and keeping my work and voice of there. I have started trying Things for the Mac as a suggestion from a friend and since I'm making to do lists so frequently, I'm trying to include my writing and my blogs as much a priority as everything else I do.

I state it again. Expect to see new work in the coming weeks. I'm committing a little more than last time with my lists. If I don't follow through, please hold me to it by emailing me an angry email or @mentioning me an angry tweet. Let's see if I can get back into the habit of updating this thing.

Also, I'm going to be doing some slight redesigning, so expect to see that soon as well.

New Work Coming Soon

2009-04-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone who reads my blog. I realized that I'm pretty bad at updating this thing, especially when I'm working 13 hour days lately. So I'm going to try and put some of my new work (stuff from the last year or so) that I have failed to show off that probably should be show off pretty soon. Also, I need to figure learn CSS better so I can control the look of this blog a little better. I have some good ideas of how it should look but as of right now, the coding is a little foreign. If anyone knows a good resource let me know view facebook, twitter, or email. Thanks, and stay tuned!

Winter 2009 Portfolio Show

2009-03-24T12:37:00.000-07:00

This Thursday at The Art Institute of Houston is our Winter 2009 Portfolio Show, showing off graduates in our Graphic Design, Web Design & Interactive Media, Media Arts & Animation and Interior Design programs. It's should prove to be interesting. If you are in the area, you guys should drop by and see what the students have to offer. The only exposure I have to the students are my interns and neither of them are graduating, but they're good so therefore all our students should be good too (theoretically that works, right?). So come check it out. (Click image to see the info bigger).

Unrelated. I took a tour of our soon to be North campus yesterday and was quite amazed. The space is amazing. I was jealous. I want our main campus to look like that!! It wasn't completed but I'm good at imagining how things are going to turn out and it's going to look good. Now my boss and I have the daunting task of creating displays and artwork for this huge new space. I'm not sure how I'm going to get it all done!! O_o

The Big 24

2009-03-22T20:25:00.000-07:00

So today was my birthday. I just want to say thank you for everyone who wished me a happy birthday this weekend and a special thanks to those friends who came out last night to give me a really great time. Also thanks to some people I don't really know that well that definitely made the evening interesting.

It's been a pretty good weekend, the main downside is a string of bad car luck that seemed to follow me around. Friday my sister and I were leaving her place on our way into the city for some lunch and museum action and she accidentally backed into me leaving a small dent, but nothing major, nothing insurance can't take care of. Also, yesterday on the way to IKEA with my mother to get my b-day present (an amazing bookcase that was just the perfect size), my mother hit a chuckhole and bent her rim and got a flat tire. No me gusta.

That aside, this weekend was great and I had a blast. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have more energy to blog about something real.

Music Review 2009

2009-03-19T11:49:00.001-07:00

With the looming economic crisis at hand, it seems the music industry has been pushing through. It seems like everyone has put out a record in the first 3 months of 2009. The ones who haven't will probably soon put one out. I wanted to take some time to give you my picks for the top four albums so far of 2009.

1. It's a Blitz—Yeah Yeah Yeahs
This is an album I just hear for the first time a few days ago and I have to say I was mesmerized. I've been waiting for this album for the past 2 years and it did not disappoint. This was a bit of a softer side of the YYYs in comparison to Fever to Tell, but with it's mix of electronic beats, haunting melodic tones, and the siren song that this Karen O, this album will not disappoint.

2. Face Control—Handsome Furs
THis was originally going to be my number one and I went back and forth for a while on which would take the no. 1 position because I felt this album was another hauntingly beautiful mix of amazing vocals, awesome lyrics, and amazing electro beats just like YYYs. I've been listening to this album on repeat!!

3. Hospice—The Antlers
So I'm new to The Antlers, and I'm really glad I stumbled upon this album. It's got the right mix of hard and soft with haunting instrumental songs leading into harder lyrical masterpieces. Very nice.

4. The Hazards of Love—The Decemberists
I was so SHOCK to hear this album. I felt this album was a complete 180 from The Crane Wife and all other albums The Decemberists' albums before. It's hard rock tones and theatrical lyrics shocked me out of thinking The Decemberists were a folksy historic band. Still with they're amazing lyrics and historically references, it's obviously more of what you would expect but with a darker harsher side.

Obviously there have been many more amazing bands releasing great work this year. Some other notable albums: Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective, Tight Knit by Vetiver, Grr... by Bishop Allen, Hold Time by M. Ward, and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone will soon release Vs. Children which I'm looking forward to greatly. I would have it already if I had gone to their show Monday but I was too tired. :(

Kid's Village

2009-03-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

Kid's Village is a new program that the City of Houston has started up to promote proper eating habits, exercise and general well-balanced living. The picture above is the logo I created for them. I'm not in love with it but I think it turned out pretty good and it's nice the do something for the City of Houston especially for a great program like this one. I hope this program proves to be a success.

Prada Lookbook

2009-03-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me isn't surprised at all that I'm blogging about Prada. What? A gay guy who likes fashion? Imagine that. Pretty much everything Prada makes clothing-wise is absolutely beautiful with their simple silhouettes and emphasis on details. Beyond that fact, they also have been very smart to align themselves with some very talented Graphic Designers that makes amazingly beautiful designs. I thought last year's lookbook was absolutely amazing, but I feel that this year's (combined with what I consider a more beautiful collection) blew last year's out of the water. I feel like this one really feels like Prada—classic and simple with small touches that make it SUPER unique. I was stunned...to this very moment I still keep going back into the file. Check it out here.

Conception, the act of

2009-03-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

So one looooong night later, the painting is done. I'm calling it Conception, and while I still wish I had more time to clean it up, I still think it came out pretty well. It's very pop-art-ish. Hard painting to finish up. I realized in painting this that my skillz are getting rusty and that I need to paint more. I remember when half my design work had an element of painting in it but now I got too clean and Suisse grid and stuff. Oh well. I'll get back to my roots someday.

Test from my iPhone

2009-03-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

I just downloaded an app foe my phone that should allow me to blog if this works. If this works properly then I could blog anytime and would make accessing my blog much much easier.

The photo is a painting I'm working on right now. I'm waiting for this layer to dry.

UPDATE: The app works pretty good. The only thing I don't like is the photos default to medium or small size and I want them the be bigger...

Chris Garneau: They Shoot Music—Don't They

2009-03-15T17:01:00.001-07:00

So, I'm not sure how I exactly stumbled upon Chris Garneau, but I'm glad I did. I have practically fallen in love with him. His voice is amazing and so is his writings. I've been listening to his cover of Elliot Smith's Between the Bar for weeks now over and over again. I've been so mesmerized by him.

Below is a link to some live performances that prove to be quite amazing...I was very happy when I found this. Check it out fo' sho.

Chris Garneau:They Shoot Music—Don't They

P.S. This sounds a lot like the Australian indie gay magazine They Shoot Homos, Don't They?

Finally Back

2009-03-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

Well, looking at my archive, I haven't posted in over a year. I've been through a lot this past year, and I don't really want to get into detail, but now I'm trying to refocus and start fresh free of the distractions that I had. I've been doing some pretty awesome things this year so far and I'm excited about the stuff coming up as well. I'm going to try and post at least several times a week and also open this blog up to be much more than just a place to display my work. I want to show off a variety of amazing design and culture related posts with maybe a sprinkling of my work here and there.

At this very moment I'm painting a painting for a charity event and watching the Royal Tenenbaums, which is one of my favorite movies. I love everything Wes Anderson does. I have to watch Indie/Foreign films when I'm painting to keep me in the right state of mind. I'm not sure what's next after this. Maybe something foreign? I was also thinking about The Virgin Suicides today. We'll see. I have a lot of things to do today.

oh btw, the picture is of me putting up a gallery installation made out of paper.

30 years of creative excellence—and 3 months of hard work

2008-04-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

So…yea. I haven't posted in a really long time, but with good reason. As I noted in other entries, this year is the 30th Anniversary for my company, The Art Institute of Houston and as a result, I have been so busy it's not even funny. I can't post everything right now, but what I don't post in this entry, will be in the next.

Literally being in your work

2007-12-27T09:57:00.000-08:00

Display concepted by me for the new Digital Filmmaking & Video Production program. The idea was to literally get into the program and watch yourself on the television screens via live feed from camera sitting right there. Kinda stolen from bad Sears and Best Buy displays, you know the ones I'm talking about. Background was painted back and lit poorly so that the soft glow of the tv screens would contrast the background the the background fades away. Sorta playing on people's vanity, because everyone loves/hates looking at themselves. Below: Eric and I really get into the display and test out the camera.

ALTERATIONS

2007-12-26T12:22:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

Below is a proposed solution to the upcoming foto fest show that we're having at The Art Institute of Houston. Our theme is alteration, and tends to be a bit on the eerie or creepy side. I altered the type with a color palette similar to that of the picture, which by the way is by the Chair of Photography, Gary Miller. The event is in march, so mark your calendars. Even if the design doesn't stay the same, the event will. Hope to see you there!

John

Coming soon to design blogs near you.

2007-12-14T07:16:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited about some of the stuff I'm involved in. Expect to see some of the following soon, yo: Digital Filmmaking & Video Production Display, invites to the 30th Anniversary for AiH, several new displays that will go up in the next week or so, volume 9 of the artlog, a graphic design mobile, new stuff all around for AiH.

Oh also, I'm helping but together an AIGA Houston get-together where John Bielenberg is going to speak, so expect to see the collateral for that, I'm not designing it—my friend Nuzi is, so expect to see what amazing stuff she comes up with, the concepts we talked about are great. The event is March 6, 2008, so this is a little advanced to even talk about it, but keep it in the back of your heads for when it draws closer.

I hope everyone has a good holiday over the next few weeks. Just because school is out for the students, doesn't mean it's out for me. Expect to see more posts soon.

Vive la 1970's.

John

Vonderkid: Eric Cartman

2007-12-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

So, my obsession lately? My obsession is altering type until it's almost not type, and playing with the way colors overlay. I love things that look a bit vintage, or vintage "revised." I think design in the 70's was sooooo beautiful. Below is an experient with the typeface ITC Avant Garde and the typical rainbow colors (forshadowing of work to come? maybe… : ) ).

30 years of creative excellence—the beginning of a brand

2007-12-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

So, our 30th aniversary is coming up here at old AIH, and we have to start getting into the spirit for the big party next year. This is the start of a lot of new collateral (expect to see really cool new stuff soon.) coming out for AIH. This is a poster series that is displayed on the first floor, by the elevators of our fine building. We were just trying to set a mood and almost gave a table of contents of the displays on the other floors, 5th floor-web design & interactive media, 3rd floor, photography, 2nd floor digital filmmaking & video production. The rest of the 30th stuff is more concept driven, and boy and I'm proud of it. Expect to see lots of 1970's inspired design, but updated. Will post soon.

Portfolio Show Fall 07

2007-12-11T14:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a Portfolio Show invite that Eric, my intern, and myself did very fast (in like an hour) for the Fall Portfolio Show at The Art Institute of Houston. The whole concept centered around time and different turns of phase dealing with time. Eric did the Illustrations; I did the layout and type creation. If you live in the Houston, TX area, come out and see amazing work from our Graduates including Eric, and my ex-intern Allison Ripley!! I'm so proud!! Thursday, December 13, 2007, from 11-7. It'll be great!!

Because I always prefer a good environmental shot

2007-12-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

Environmental shots of the DFL poster.
Model: my current intern, Eric Castorena (website, blog)

I seem to be advertising a lot lately

2007-11-27T10:34:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a while. It's too early in this blog to be getting lazy and stop posting. Below are two advertisements for The Art Institute of Houston that I completed in the past week. Both use to concept of "Get Real," explaining that at The Art Institute of Houston, not only do you do realistic projects similar to those that you do in the "real world" outside of college, but you also do REAL projects within the community that will get your name out. The first ad is a Texas Monthly ad were we talk about several of the projects including promos for the Sci-Fi network, our restaurant Courses, the designing of the local major league soccer team, the Houston Dynamo, mascot, and a mobile project that will go in the center of a high rise loft complex that's currently being built. The second ad is for a local magazine called ENVY, and we focused on the real world of fashion and how our fashion & retail management program does real fashion shows—some students have even helped with the dressing back stage at Fashion Week Live, one being the personal dresser for Naomi Campbell!!

a bad couple of weeks

2007-11-13T14:15:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't been keeping my blog up to date with new work or stories of the life of a design studio manager for one of the top design schools in Houston, TX. The past few weeks have been absolute hell! Just to give you a quick overview: I got sick with a sinus infection last week forcing me to take time off to try and heal, I pulled a muscle in my back, I confessed my love for my best friend to a strained reaction, which I expected, making our friendship, while always, close a bit strange, and this past Saturday I got hit by a car for the second time in two months. Damn this has been a bad few weeks. Oh, and my car is so messed up, the insurance company is going to total it and I'll be forced to buy a new means of transportation—errrr! So hopefully all the worst is behind me and November, much like September, is proving to be a bad month. Maybe next week will be better—I HOPE!!! For the two people who read this, the graphic designers in Houston that i like are all gathering Friday at Rudz at 6 PM…you guys should try to make it for a burger and a beer.

Hoping for better luck and more time to post work.

John

I'm designin' fast, yo!!

2007-11-02T07:34:00.001-07:00

So this past weekend was the 2007 Design in the Fast Lane, sponsored by AIGA Houston, Dallas, and Austin. It went over well. It was the largest design in the fast lane. So, overall, prepping for this event has been hell and hard and made me want to pull my hair out. But now it's done, and I'm proud. I think it went really well. Christian Helms from The Decoder Ring Design Concern was our keynote speaker and did a great job. University of Texas-San Marcos won the student show and a scholarship from Adobe. Other great speakers were Nicole Newton from Schepul (hope i spelled it right), Thomas Hull from Rigsby Hull, and the guys from CMA (these dudes rocked…talk about knowing your shit about packaging!!) Great event.
Pictures below, my posters wallpapered on mobile display, Lyndia (old classmate) and I standing around talking about which session she should sign up for, and wall inspired by display i did earlier this year. Each paper asked what creates a spark and the crowd answered. Everything from "I'll tell you when it happens" to "me in bed." I had a laugh. For more pictures of the event go to Flickr and search AIGA houston.

What creates a spark?

2007-10-26T07:53:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, at the University of Houston, is 2007 DESIGN IN THE FAST LANE sponsored by the Texas chapters of AIGA. If you live in Texas or surrounding you should come out and check it out yo, it's going to be great. Christian Helms, from The Decoder Ring Design Concern (thedecoderring) is the keynote speakers, followed up by an all-star cast of great Texas Designers. I designed most of the collateral for the event. For more information or to register, go to dflhouston.

Below: The first is an email blast sent out to help students "save-the-date." Second and Third, are front and back of the poster that was mailed out to all Texas AIGA members, third is a final reminder sent through email from AIGA Houston to all members (not designed by me, but based off my designs). The idea for all collateral, was that every small thing you do, can inspire you somehow. Mowning the yard creates a spark, drinking bad coffee creates a spark, that soggy bowl of cereal creates a spark. Pictures taken by polaroid to make them even more "mundane." Type: Trade Gothic, a mundane font in the eyes of Tibor Kalman. Green and Orange used to make the collateral look more "vintage."

my friend Alfredo has a synthesizer for a heart

2007-10-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

Gallery show I put up and designed signage for my friend Alfredo Mejia. Showed off a collection of poster, character, and toy designs. Used paint can containers from the container store to suspend his 3-D objects, a Coke can he designed, the Trexi he designed for Coke, and his personal creation, the TAMO. For more information about my friend Alfredo, check out his website, Alfredo Mejia.

more creative excellence

2007-10-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

Last posted I talked about The Art Institute of Houston Catalog for 2008. Below are a few pieces of collateral that followed the image in a hope to create an cohesive image for our 30th anniversary.

FUTURE FORWARD: the start of 30 years of creative excellence

2007-10-23T14:14:00.000-07:00

This years college course catalog for The Art Institute of Houston. Last year, we wanted a young fun aesthetic. This year we wanted a bit more mature, grown-up but still a little edgy. We are celebrating our 30th anniversary this year, so the catalog was the start of our branding for this coming up year, showing off the past 30 years of creative excellence, but noting that the we are always look to the future and thinking "future forward." Models on cover and on interior design spread are my interns, Allison Ripley and Eric Castorena. Photography was done myself. Cover shot at The Houston Contemporary Arts Museum in an amazing exhibition by Xaviera Simmons.

the leaning tower of tvs

2007-10-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

Display created for the new Digital Filmmaking & Video Production program at The Art Institute of Houston. Our studio produced this flat display of a leaning tower of vintage television sets with random images placed in the center. Images range from newscasters and people with video cameras to penguins and dancing cats.

another issue of artlog

2007-10-23T13:04:00.000-07:00

Another artlog. We're continuously improving the look and feel of the artlog. We tried to create a vintage feel for this artlog. In this issue we talked about the launch of the Kitchen & Bath Design program as well as the Dynamo project, a project where graphic designers created a mascot for the local soccer team, the Houston Dynamo. Students Leslie Lopez and Eric Husely actually created the mascot for the soccer team. Look for upcoming artlogs, as the format is about to change and printing quality will improve.

Discover the Artist Within

2007-10-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

The Art Institute of Houston 2006-2007 College Catalog. First full color catalog for the school. Created a fun "youthful" feel. Carried over on cd that held a pdf of the catalog. The idea of a profession voice and a student voice juxtaposed together runs throughout the catalog showing the duality of the school.

Make sure to eat your squid

2007-10-18T09:51:00.000-07:00

The Art Institute of Houston quarterly publication, the artlog. This issue we talked about Design in the Fast Lane, The new Graphic Design chair, and alumni Chef Clark.

it's not a monkey flying out my arse

2007-10-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

This campaign was a local campaign for Toyota, launching the new Yaris. We decided not to talk about the features of the car itself, but show the attitude of the car. We focused on what it's not, rather than what it was. Find out more at mindMonkey.

It's all about Fashion

2007-10-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

While I'm showing off fashion stuff, why not show off some more? Below are two different fashion displays I created for The Art Institute of Houston. The first is a display for Chloe Dao, the season 2 winner of Project Runway on BravoTV. She showed off 3 dressed currently in her collection and a few from the show. The second is a gallery show for the visual merchandiser John Findysz, who has been in charge of display designs for Macy's and Jeffery's New York and Atlanta, among other things. He put up his show very low-tech, placing everything up with push pins and tape. We created vinyl lettering and placed it on the gallery windows to play on the name of the show "John Findysz: A career in windows."

Either you're in or you're out

2007-10-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to play catch up a bit and post a bunch of different stuff that I have laying in my archieves. The first are dress forms that I designed for a fashion show our school hosted for TimeWarner, BravoTV, and Project Runway. I created these abstract dress forms where I hinted at typical dress shapes but never actually made dresses. Dress forms where in a state between dressed and undressed.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so photographers probably talk too much

2007-10-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

Photography display that I created to promote The Art Institute of Houston’s new Photography BFA program. The display is created to look like a photographer’s studio, with student work hanging from strings and falling off the desk. An inspiration board was created in the corner to make it look more like someplace a student would be working.

ARE YOU DOWN WITH THE GAYS?

2007-10-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

Update on the GLBT gay-la.

The GLBT gala was this weekend and our art was auctioned off in a silent auction. So we had to go to a judging cerimony in the morning where we were paraded in one by one and asked to talk about our work and answer questions that the panel had, all while being photographed for publicity. Then the gay-la/art auction started that night at 6. My painting ended up being sold to my friend Gabi, also know as Ella, for $20, which is pretty bad because people weren't bidding but good because I love ELLA and I know my painting has a good home! As the competition goes, we were all kinda mad because most of my friends and I didn't come in so well even though our pieces were, in our opinion, much better. We were disappointed.

But I still love my piece (see below), and I can see it any time I want since my friend bought it, YAY!!!

John

GOOD BYE, LENIN!

2007-10-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Hi Design People, I have a lot of catching up to do, tons of work to show.

Below is a design project I did back in college. We designed all the collateral associated with a movie. We started with the movie poster, then soundtrack, then collateral box and assorted pieces of collateral. The movie that I redesigned was the German movie, Good Bye, Lenin! Description below from imdb.com:

"East Germany, the year 1989: A young man protests against the regime. His mother watches the police arresting him and suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Some months later, the GDR does not exist anymore and the mother awakes. Since she has to avoid every excitement, the son tries to set up the GDR again for her in their flat. But the world has changed a lot... Written by Benjamin Stello"

Movie Poster:

The poster is completely sown, silkscreen, and written out by hand. I used the image of clothing to show how they covered up things, poorly sowing together lies to hide the truth from their mother.

Soundtrack:

I used the image of the one thing that they never could find to cover up the new democratic germany…Spreewald Pickles. I juxtaposed the Pickles with images from the movie, as well as tradtional communist imagery and pictures from the real DDR.

Collateral Kit:

Collateral Kit made from wood, textured and grafettied to look like a piece of the Berlin wall. Piece inside included soundtrack, Spreewald Pickles, a bottle of coke, and a t-shirt with patch sown on.

Protegez-moi

2007-10-04T07:37:00.000-07:00

Howdy,

Recently I created the following piece for an upcoming GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered) Gala/Art Auction coming up at the end of the week. The inspiration for the piece was a Placebo song, "Protect Me From What I Want." It seemed like an appropriate message for the audience. The piece is collaged together and painted with acrylics.

"Protégez-moi"

the beginning

2007-10-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

So this is the first entry of my design blog. As you guessed from my last sentence, I am a graphic designer. On this blog, I will present pictures of my work, as well as supporting those people who fucking rock in design. So this entry will be cut and dry without any presentations of work, just plain and simple introduction. So howdy! Stick around and hopefully you'll like what you see.

See you soon,

John