Contained

In a recent post Seth Godin talks about rigid boundaries and no boundaries ar all. It's fun to think about just how far you can go but that also has me thinking about the old saying… "give him enough rope and he'll hang himself". Rules are versions of boundaries. In design, to be a good designer I believe you need to know the rules… at least as many of them as possible… so that, if and when necessary, you can break them… or go beyond the boundaries of what is generally accepted. With clients you need to know where you stand and where, under no circumstances, should you go. Sometimes I am that kid that Seth refers to that spends days scheming to get what I want and I know that I am wasting my time. You need to know when it is time to accept that you can't always do the best work possible but you can always give it your best effort with the tools that you are given. You need to know when it is time to stop fighting those monsters and give the client what they ar asking for… no matter what. And hopefully, while doing so, you have an "ah ha" moment and figure out how to give the client what they are asking for AND the best possible work.

41 Hilarious Science Fair Experiments

I have just started poking around the www for some ideas to help my daughter with Science Fair and I couldn't resist posting this. As the website starts by saying… "We should all pity the science teacher, for this is what they deal with on a daily basis."

And yeas… that experiment is "Chrystal Meth: Friend or Foe".

WAY COOL

Back in December I participated in a contest on Nancy Dorsner's blog Dabbled for the best holiday card. And with much help from friends and family… I won! And she sent me some great swag! If you want some for yourself, give her ArtFire page a visit.

Resolve

So the New Year starts with a bang. Yada… yada… yada… I resolve… already lost four pounds… woo hoo! And I got done what I told myself that I would get done on my house renovations before going back to work from the holiday break… another woo hoo!

There is so much to do for me at this time of the year. The Museum is keeping me very busy… as is usual right before a new show. Once the show is over, I resolve to add one new client a month… could it be YOU?

Voices

This has been a wonderful week… hectic but rewarding in so many ways. I had all kinds of ideas for this week's topic and had planned to have it done over the weekend… but plans change… and change… and… you guessed it… change… and so did the idea I had for the illustration… and so, I opened the sketch book and started… and this morning I had it all figured out… but things change… and while the idea is still there… the rest has been lost with the hustle and bustle of the day… the illo gives voice to our most treasured loved ones… the ones who must endure what we believe is right as parents… and while we have the benefit of hindsight… we do often close our ears and minds to the voices of our children… often with terrible consequences…

This thought recurred over and over this weekend… and culminated in the movie I watched last night sitting next to one of those I most cherish in this world…

Winter Is Coming

A Game of Thrones is the first book of George R.R. Martin's masterpiece, fantasy epic. The good news for those familiar with this series (no A Dance with Dragons is not yet finished) is that the series is being brought to the small screen by HBO. If you are a fan of Rome or the Arthurian legends keep your eyes and ears open.

For the last year I have been living without cable, but I will once again be swimming in the deep end when this amazing work is brought to life. Like much of the other series on HBO, this will be a story for mature viewers. It is a story of hard living in a kingdom very much resembling England during the Wars of the Roses. There is a touch of fantasy but it is not heavy handed. The main characters are all human insofar as they are from the human species (at least so far). Another difference is that this story is not the standard Good vs. Evil. It is a human story and in that sense it is a contemporary tale.

If you want to stay current on what is flowing from George R.R. Martin's pen he has an informative website and a blog. If you want to stay current on what is happening with the HBO series read the blog A Winter is Coming.

Rambunctious - Illustration Friday

Since this week has been one of those weeks… I am going to have to dig something up from the old sketch book. I do have all manner of rambunctious children and critters drawn and doodles in the stacks of books, but this logo caught my eye.

I worked on this project over a two-year period, first for Downtown Vision where I developed a direct mail and an online marketing campaign. The following year, the City of Jacksonville took the event over and as they were already a client, gave me a call to work on a new project of theirs. It is funny how things just seemed destined to be. We continued producing the direct mail pieces but the online component was scrapped. Luckily they did want to redesign the existing logo and after filling page after page after page with thumbnails, I came up with the award-winning logo that you see here. It even graced the cover of one of David Carter's logo books! Unfortunately, funding went away and so did the project but it was fun while it lasted. Their new agency liked my photography so much that they lifted one of my photos to use on the Downtown Vision's new site. Lucky me!!

Hopefully, I will have more time to get back to creating new work next week. Happy holidays to those of you lucky enough to be starting early.

Creativity

Ideo CEO Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play. One of the points that struck me in his talk at the 2008 Serious Play conference was that rules make for better creativity. I guess that makes sense. As a designer going into a new project, I do need information and parameters. And the more I know, the better the solution. When I taught at the local college my students would ask me why they had to learn the history and the rules. And usually my answer was so you know where you came from and why things are done. And then I told them that when they knew the rules it was easier to break them.

Take a look if you have the time and visit the TED site. They do have an amazing catalog of high powered speakers at various conferences on many different topics.

Who Keeps the Fish?

Coudal Partners is a great design, advertising and interactive studio in Chicago. Their site is packed with great information. Periodically the post a logic puzzler on their site. Over the Thanksgiving holiday I spent a few hours on this one. And yes, I am 1 in 121,348,731!

This brainteaser, reportedly written by Einstein as a child. It is also sometimes attributed to Lewis Carroll however, there is no known evidence for Einstein's or Carroll's authorship. The first known publication in Life International magazine on December 17, 1962. It is difficult and Einstein said that 98% of the people in the world could not figure it out. Which percentage are you in?

There are five houses in a row in different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a different drink, smoke a different brand of cigar and keep a different pet, one of which is a Walleye Pike.

The question is-- who owns the fish?

Hints:
1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the left of the white house.
5. The green house owner drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Malls keeps birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhills.
8. The man living in the house right in the center drinks milk.
9. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
10. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the one who smokes Dunhills.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Princes.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

There are no tricks, pure logic will get you the correct answer. And yes, there is enough information to arrive at the one and only correct answer.

If you get the correct answer, congratulations, you are one of the exclusive group of 121,348,731 people in the world who can.

A holiday trip

If you get a chance, take a trip over to Dot's blog "Dabbled". She is having a little competition called the "Holiday Art Card Challenge". There is some great work ther and all I can say is "Vote for Me!" … "Vote for Me!"

You may have seen this a few years back. If not, you can see it on her blog. It was another self-promo.

Happy Holidays!

Similar

This is a drawing that I may use in a self-promo to interest new clients or get some new work. The idea is similar to something I did a few years back when I was freelancing full time. This time, instead of trying to get the agency to add a new elf to their staff, I am offering my services with their elf troubles.

Balloon - Illustration Friday

Once

Once upon a time time had no meaning…
and no one knows why or how it came to happen…
yet it moved onward and ever on…
through the days and nights to only God knew where…
and still it moved without sound…

Once upon a time, a man opened his eyes and truly saw,
stepped through the door to a life not fully imagined,
not once looking back… always now, tomorrow and next year…
yet still remembering the beginning and the before…
and the only sound to be heard… a single heartbeat…

Once upon a time time stood waiting…
now I drink coffee on Saturday morning, in bed…
quiet time but for a brief moment, before the day begins,
and sometimes, sometimes I will roll back over,
smiling and know that…

Once upon a time is now forever…

An anniversary poem for my wife.

Been Tagged

I have been tagged by Tomas and Yoon See. Much thanks. Somewhere along this path, everyone will be tagged… and then what?

These are the rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacularhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gif details about yourself.
4. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
5. Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged.

I tag these talented people:
http://marcellomurru.blogspot.com/
http://oohlaladesignstudio.blogspot.com/
http://sentaplyer.blogspot.com/ yes… tagged again…
http://cockyerdoodle.blogspot.com/
http://studiololo.blogspot.com/
http://karenjasper.blogspot.com/
http://artsparktheatre.blogspot.com/

And these facts about me:

1. i cut off part of my nose when i was 2 and thank god it was the part that would have grown when i told "stories"…
2. thanks to my wife i now put peanut butter in my cereal…
3. i think i am turning my daughter into a bit of a geek… but she hides it so well…
4. working on my house has replaced working on my art… :(
5. my dog has been confused for a cat and a skunk
6. nothing makes me happier than my family… OK when my family is happy makes me happier…

quirky and unspectacular!

Opinion - Illustration Friday

Thanksgiving is just a few days away and of course it is a time to count our blessings… to give thanks… I started counting mine a long time ago… I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful family… and friends… and I am so thankful for the creative gifts I have been given…

My job has taken me many places… this week the Museum where I work is closed for the holiday but are showing a film Thanksgiving evening… Trail of Tears : Cherokee Legacy… of course I am thankful that the native peoples provided life for the early European settlers… they taught them how to fish and grow corn and ultimately survive the winter…

So what's with the cows? I live in Jacksonville… named for Andrew Jackson our seventh president… and while I am certain that the USA would not be what it is today… or might not even exist… I am troubled to live in a city that is named after a man who championed Indian Removal… our record with the treatment of the indigenous peoples is appalling and continues to this day… Jacksonville has a long and storied history… and as a native Jacksonvillian… I much prefer our original name, Cowford to what we now have…

Happy Thanksgiving… God bless…

Pretend

Have you ever wished that you were from somewhere else? Or that you WERE someone else? At times, I am sure that we've all done so. I think it is a part of our human nature. One part of pretending that we are someone else is the "lie". One must lie in order to become who we are not or get what isn't ours. Sometimes we do it because we aren't happy with who we are. Or we want the excitement of being someone different… even if only for a little while. And it starts at an early age… in the games we play… in the excuses that we make… in the boasts we make to get attention…

I always thought that these were part of what made us human. Not in a good way, but human none-the-less. Some say that only humans kill for the sake of killing. But that isn't true. I find dead lizards on my doorstep and in my front walkway that the neighbors' cats leave. They kill to garner attention… or for fun. And it's not just cats… dogs kill too. It's part of the pack mentality. Killing seems to be the domain of most animals in one way or another. What I did not know is that animals can lie as well. I was recently watching PBS and saw the latest installment of Nature called "Clever Monkeys". One segments of the story told of a particularly shifty monkey who yells "SNAKE!" to send all of the members of his troop scurrying into the trees for safety so he could get that bird's egg for himself. It was eye-opening.

O'Connell Ye Faithful

For those of you you were wondering, here are the wisemen in color. It was the first draft once I got my illustration scanned and redrawn in Illustrator but I thought that things were getting too busy. Plus, the monochromatic palette gives it a much more nostalic feel.

Another color change and the right is the final useage… our Christmas card. I am burning CDs to give to our friends and family. Old timey holiday favorites… Elvis Presely, Doris Day, Frank Sinatra, Dean Marting, Eartha Kitt and Jimmy Durante to name a few.

Wise - Illustration Friday

We're creeping up on Christmas and this only seemed like the logical place to go with the topic.

Here's the same illustration BEFORE I went wild on it with photoshop color.

Illustration Friday – Vacant

Well, the hungry ol' cat went looking for a snack and his silly disguise only got in the way. And when he opened the cage, the "snacks" got away! (But not so far as to hang about and do a little bit of gloating!)

So here's a new one. Today is a big day. I already voted and I am so glad that no matter what happens one of those two blue birds of happiness will soon be the President. Now, I do like one so much more than the other, but after the last few years…

The White House has been vacant too long.