The Longest Illustration I Have Ever Seen

Thanks to my boy Jay for showing me this site zenvironments.com The illustration/artwork is by Zach Johnson and I think he has tired fingers.

Rise Against

I saw these guys in Baltimore last night – what a great show. No mellow songs or ballads, 90 minutes of balls out music. (and yes, I sat on the sidelines – I am too old to get in the pit. that would be waaaay to hard to explain at work) They talk about their politics on stage, but it does not get real preachy (which is a good thing). This is the second show I have seen at Rams Head Live and it is a good venue – almost like the 9:30 club, but with that new car smell. So, for those of you who don’t know or have never heard Rise Against check them out here.

Deadlines

Have caught up with me this week. I won’t bore you with the details or bad posts – be back next week.

Socially Distorted Strengths

So, I promise that this is not becoming a music site. That being said, I saw Social Distortion last night and they kicked ass. Mike Ness is just an awesome front man. His voice is as good live as it is on record. They played a great tune off their greatest hits album Far Behind:

Now between writing about them and De la Soul yesterday, it made me think about career longevity. How do you keep yourself going in a work environment, creative or otherwise. I came across a great article by Susie Wee of HP:

Use your weekend strengths at work

…An additional tip that I gave was: Use your weekend strengths at work.

My advice here is to think about the things that you do on your weekends and in your free time when you’re with your family and friends. Chances are that you’re spending your free time doing things that you love to do. Chances are that these things use your natural strengths, i.e., your weekends strengths. And, chances are that your weekend strengths can be used at work! Read more.

Now what the hell does this article have to do with either of the band I have posted about in the past 2 days? Well, what better weekend strengths are there than playing music for a bunch of people. Its adapting a party to your job. Now, most of us can’t do that, but I bet there is something that you do outside of work that can help you inside (and no, flasks don’t count).

De La Soul

This group takes me back to being a teenager listening to 3 feet high and rising. Run DMC got me into hip hop, but after Raising hell, they kind of stayed the same. De la managed to tweak their sound on every album. Their live shows were a blast – a great party vibe. Their albums after stakes is high have their good tracks, but don’t do as much for me as their earlier work. That being said, how many hip hop artists/groups manage to stay together and produce work over 2.5 decades. Here is a sampling of their sound. For those who don’t know, you should.

Ring Ring (Ha Ha Hey)

Ego Trippin pt 2

Stakes is High

Dave Mckean: Mister Sandman

I first came across his work while I was in college. I was starting to use some comic book style elements in my work, so I headed in to the local comic book store to see what artists were up to. I was a super hero fan when I was younger, so comics for an older audience were a new concept for me. Personal history lesson aside, I saw this kick ass cover to a Sandman comic. I was just learning photoshop and Dave’s work has been an inspiration ever since.

His illustration style has branched out into motion graphics and film:

What up dog?

I want to challenge myself on Fridays, so I am now going to try to find humorous creativity to post every week. The mini interactive urinal post was the start, this week we continue with the Dramatic Prairie Dog. 15 seconds to take you into the weekend.

Hitting the digital wall

So, as an interactive designer you always want to come up with innovative ways for a viewer to be able to play and use your content. Adobe has come up with an execution that uses the motion of a persons body to interact with the content on the screen via infrared sensors. First – I want that kind of budget for my next project. Second, I think that it is pretty damn cool and a glimpse of things to come. Again I defer to a better writer to offer more info:

Maria Aspen of the New York Times writes:

Adobe will unveil an interactive wall of projected animation this morning in Union Square, along the 14th Street side of the Virgin Megastore. As pedestrians walk past the wall, infrared sensors will lock on to the person closest to the wall, who will then be able to control a projected slider button at the bottom of the wall.

As the selected pedestrian continues walking and moves the slider along, the wall will start displaying colorful animation and playing music, effects that will grow or recede at the pace that the person advances or retreats. When each selected pedestrian reaches the end of the wall, his or her design will be in full blossom, above the campaign’s message: “Creative license: take as much as you want.” Read More .

See the wall in action:

Designer, Artist, Hybrid?

Joshua Davis is a designer that gets to do the work other designers would love to do. I have never met him, but I have seen him speak at a few conferences. He is an engaging speaker that makes you look at your own process of idea development. I know this project for BMW is not his latest work, but between the video and the final product, this project gives good insight into his creative process. The picture below is of the three styles of the prints.

Now for how he got to that point:

For more on Joshua Davis go here.

He might blow up but he won’t go pop.

Today’s post is a little different. Stan Whitney is a painter, a rather successful painter. He is also a professor at Tyler School of Art. So, his paintings are good, but the focus of this post is how he forces (yes forces) you to be creative in his class.

I had him as a professor about 10 years ago at Temple’s Rome campus. The non art students used to come to our class to see us get bitten in half, chewed up, spit out and finally stepped on.

“I feel as a professor you want to tell [students] the truth,” he said. “My job is to guide them in the right direction; whether they get upset doesn’t matter to me. In the end, it will make them better artists because they will have to defend what they create beyond the classroom.”
Read More.

Two people in the class could not hang and bailed out, one went as far as to leave the program completely. I took my weekly beatings with my friends laughing at me. I would spend all week trying to come up with something that would get me off the hook.

My favorite critique was this:
“I was talking about you at dinner the other night (this has to be good right??) and I think you are in the wrong field (fuuuuuuck me). You have a beautiful voice – have you thought about radio? I really don’t think you have what it takes to make it in the creative field” Now, that hurt a little, but he was right. I spent most of my time over there partying with a little dash of art on the side.

So, I did not quit and go into radio, I spent a little less time partying and a little more drawing (or did both at the same time). I finally had a good critique “Guess who finally showed up this semester!”

At the time, I hated that class, but it is the one class that I look back on most fondly when I think about college. Stan forced me to actually think about what I was doing. He probably would not remember me now, but I tip my hat to him, w/o that class my creativity would have not grown in the way it has.

Thanks Stan

Who are the people that helped you establish yourselves creatively?