Slacker Updates

It’s finally the last week of summer for the kiddies, you can smell fall in the air here in Portland, and as much as I’d love to enjoy these precious last days of warmth I’ve been crazy-busy with design projects. These last two weeks have been crammed with freelance meetings, deadlines, birthdays, and other various social gatherings. I believe I’ve finally reached a winning design for the brand spankin’ new Northwest Noise business cards, and after all approvals have been received and the production logistics are aligned I’m planning on unveiling it to all you loyal readers. I guess I could put the runners-up on here too, just for funsies.

Also on the agenda for this week were a couple of commissioned illustrations, one for a self-published zine and the other for my buddy at NW Noise, Justin, to celebrate his new digs in NoPo (North Portland, duh) Those’ll show up on here in the next couple weeks as well.

Also up finally on the NW Noise website is my Brandon Chandler & The Revival album review, which you might have seen already my site here, but I’m happy it finally made it on the website it was written for ;) Last week’s interview with Tea for Julie should be posted as soon as the podcast is properly edited, and for the record, those four guys were very cool and the interview turned out great. Up next is my review of Blind Pilot’s album, 3 Rounds and a Sound. They are on their “West Coast Bicycle Tour” now and you can read updates about the band on their blog here.

That’s all I got for now, I’m off to Deschutes Brewery for lunch in a few and I just saw a homeless guy pee on a lamppost outside my window.

Very Bad Haiku

In case you live under a rock, haiku is a Japanese-style poem consisting of three lines, with 5, 7, and 5 syllables per line, respectively. Here are some particularly amusing ones:

Bananas in cars
Get stinky in the sunshine
Please eat them at home

There's not enough beer
Up, down, far, wide or near, to
Want to kiss you, dear

I miss you like the
Cat who used to poo in my
delivery van

Acoustic guitars
And dirty feet do not make
you sing like Dylan

Asparagus pee
What a mystery are thee?
Like the honeybees

Blink 182
Oh dear, what happened to you
And your nakedness?

No, I did not take
Your Jello Poke birthday cake
You ate it, fat boy!

Noisy intestines
Gas at the reference desk
Should I let one fly?

Curious feeling
This thong I am wearing now
A paid-for wedgie

What the hell is this
Everything I own is pink
Red sock washed with whites

Big Mouth Billy Bass
Given as a birthday gift
Fifty percent off


And my favorite....


I told her and she
Was like, "Oh my God," and I
Was like, "Oh my God."

Something that made me laugh today

Jeph Jacques Indietits Comic, originally uploaded by Deluded Secretary.

Become I am such an authority on emo-rockers.

Review: Brandon Chandler & The Revival

I was very impressed by the debut album of Brandon Chandler and his band, The Revival, titled After All This Time. The album is a very catchy and soulful tracklist of summery tunes, like something you'd hear gracing the background at the neighborhood backyard barbecue. Chandler's voice is reminiscent of the vocal style of Jason Mraz and Ray LaMontagne, and as a big fan of those aforementioned artists, I found Chandler and his band's work equally appealing. He has a bluesy, feel-good vibe, paired with beautifully written lyrics and excellent guitar sound. I loved the diversity of instruments used, from guitars to pianos to organs, all mashed together into the wonderful harmony of sweet-sounding soul.

I believe the energy and youthful originality created by Chandler and The Revival will make them heavy-hitters in the folk/acoustic genre. My favorite tracks on After All This Time were "Slow Up, Slow Down", "The Sixes and Sevens", and finally "Lie To Me", which provides a great example of Chandler's incredible vocal range. I'm excited to see Chandler and The Revival's sophomore album Make Love Sing, due in early fall of 2008.

Also, I had to mention it because I loved it so much, but the artwork and design of Chandler's album cover is frickin' awesome. If I saw this album in the store I'd pick it up just because I liked how it looked. The artwork totally captures the essence of the genre, so major kudos to the band for choosing that design and to the designer for creating it.

sweet

Me versus Me

together, originally uploaded by Deluded Secretary.

I was cooler at 17 than I am now. I've regressed in coolness.

Yearbook Yourself

Stumbled across another golden time-waster... go to yearbookyourself.com to turn any photo of yourself (but pictures with you facing forward work best) into a yearbook photo from the 1950s through the 90s. Here are some of the ones I did:

I dig those cat's eye frames in the second one. Gotta get me a pair...

Print Gocco

Gocco (pronounced Go-Ko) is a type of Japanese screenprinting that was originally invented as a children's toy. The gocco machine is small and makes postcard sized prints on paper, cloth, and even food. While the prints can't get much bigger than 4x6 inches, you can make prints with the gocco screen an endless amount of times. The gocco machine looks like this:

The machine creates a print template out of any image by burning the image into a small mesh screen using a flashbulb, similar to what was used in old camera flashes. You simply make a carbon copy of the image you want to print using a standard copier, and load the image into a chamber on the gocco machine that contains two new flashbulbs. The copied image rests against the screen, and when the bulbs flash, the carbon is burned onto the screen, making pinprick holes everywhere the carbon was touching.

After the print screen is made, gooey, oil-based ink is applied to the back, and using the gocco press, is pushed through the tiny holes onto paper, fabric, or whatever material you want, creating a final print. The process is very simple and makes very detailed prints over and over. Here are some sample prints done by people in the gocco workshop:

The last one with the words "Fly By" was designed by me. I drew the cockatiel image and created my own font using the paintbrush tool in Illustrator. The cockatiel is my little baby girl Penny :)

Camping is in tents

This last weekend was spent camping at the Oregon Dunes with the fam. I really needed the break, it was heaven being outside in the beauty of Oregon and away from computers and cellphones and people. It’s so easy to get caught up in everything going on all at once, it’s nice to take a step back and have a breather once in a while. It was great– we slept in tents, cooked our food over the fire, got dirt on our clothes and sand in our shoes.

My family is the outdoorsy type, so I’ve been going camping and hiking with them since I was a little girl. Going to the Oregon Dunes is one of our favorite spots. We spent all day Friday at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, where we watched the puffins and got to touch stingrays and small sharks. Saturday was spent at the South Jetty Beach in the Siuslaw National Forest, where we climbed all over the beachside dunes and checked out the stuff that washed up on the shore. Animal sightings included snowy plovers (in summer plumage), killdeer, osprey, otters, pelicans, some kind of hairy worm, and sand crabs.

Now for a random thought: Congrats to my good high school friend Hannah for tying the knot last weekend! I know you and Tim will be very happy!

Currently spinning on my digital turntable:

Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo Original Soundtrack – Ennio Morricone

Turn boredom into fun! with Photoshop

I think the city backdrop in this photo is in China. So the pufferfish makes total sense, since the air pollution there could probably cause you to hallucinate.

Birthday Announcement

I made a little birthday announcement image for my friend's event webpage. It was really simple to make. Just a few free images from the web + some quick Photoshop edits + a few snazzy InDesign moves = a really easy way to get something noticed.

Good online time-waster: Wordle

Just discovered this cool website, Wordle, that allows you to create little word "clouds" by entering in random words, bits of text, or the link to any text document. It then will spit out a little creative looking word cloud, which you have the option to print or add to your Wordle gallery. You can also tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. And now for your viewing pleasure is my crappy sample:
See? Any monkey with a computer can be a designer!