Adventures in the life of a SuperDesigner

everyone thinks they are a designer...

2009-11-09T18:58:00.001-08:00

This is totally true. I love it! A great strip... if you are involved in design, or even if you are not you should check it out: businessguysonbusinesstrips.com

the magic of photoshop

2009-10-01T19:24:00.000-07:00

Found this super cool photo.

Very clever. Erik Johansson's other work is also pretty great, but this was my favorite. Not much else to report. 5 weeks until D Day.

(via How About Orange)

legos, starwars, and paperclips

2009-09-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

Never Underestimate Youth - Especially if they have a lightsaber.

I discovered Chris McVeigh through Bent Objects. Both excellent blogs that make use of small figures/everyday objects in their photographs which remind me a lot of my own photographs. Maybe someday I will find a coherent theme for my blog, but in the meantime I can seriously admire their work.

A couple other Chris McVeigh photos that I thought were super clever:
Umm...
Late for Work

apology

2009-09-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry not to post for a long time, but we have been busy doing this!

OK, we haven't reached the end yet... 9 weeks to go! But I thought it was clever and wanted to share.

Anyway, I posted a comment on a friends blog yesterday and realized how long it has been since I have posted anything here. Things have been pretty crazy for me between freelancing for my last job, work for the synagogue, and well... there's a little monster in my belly :)

Hope all is well with all of you (whoever is out there).

bike to work day

2009-05-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (May 15th) is national bike to work day. My bike is in pretty bad shape, but I plan on walking... apparently that is what the bikes prefer.

via ShareSomeCandy

my cartoon and other job related stuff

2009-05-13T17:59:00.000-07:00

This is sort of old news... I created an educational illustration for work. It has gotten rave reviews and I have heard other folks are using it as far away as California. I am just posting the thumbnail, but email me if you want to see the whole drawing. I am happy because i got to do something genuinely creative and hopefully make the world a little safer.

In other work news several of my designs from the past year won marketing awards. It is funny because the one i was least proud of won the gold, but I am proud of the other 2 designs, which won a silver and merit awards.

Not too much to report workwise... some restructuring, but seems like things are going in a positive direction.

tea and tea cups

2009-03-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

I thought this was clever, although this teacup is waaay too small for a proper cup of tea
(via AT). Personally I like my tea in a giant mug, and I have been drinking a lot of it lately. While I enjoy my tea I am hoping for weather that doesn't require piping hot beverages in order to keep warm. Well, at least it was warm enough to walk home from work yesterday.

How cool is this wall?

2009-03-26T18:44:00.001-07:00

I have seen a lot of cool wall decals (some of my favorite are these birdcages, trees, and birds) floating around the design blogs, but wouldn't this be perfect for the wall behind the turtles tank?!

excuses for not posting...

2009-02-11T20:38:00.001-08:00

This pretty much sums it up.

"A site specific installation has just been completed in this lovely museum in the heart of Copenhagen. The installation is a large fully functioning meeting room, which seats up to 20 people. Focus is on the enormous amount of words used during meetings, of which only a fraction are truly useful." (via Design Milk)

I have lots of things to post, so hopefully I can get my act together soon... a few links to keep you busy:

1. Advice from Thelonius Monk
2. Cool coat rack wall decal (via Oh Joy!)
3. Interesting Ideas of what the 2000 would be like drawn in 1910 (via Speak Up)
4. Bagel, cream cheese, and lox
5. Amazing quilts from the Tokyo International Quilt Show by Moonstitches (via CRAFT)

And now I am going to bed... wishing I had once of these cool lamps by my bedside (via unplggd). Good night, and happy new year!

Paper Strongbad!

2008-12-29T16:10:00.000-08:00

I followed a link on MAKE:blog to Foldskool Heroes Marshall Alexander's website. I fell in love with the idea of a printable paper toy! Wow! Some of these are so intricate and detailed. I immediately had to try one. I chose Limi-ted. So clever. I finished it yesterday. Rather than taking another bad photo using photobooth here is the official photo from the website.

Trust me, it is just as cute in person! Anyway, this morning I decided to check out the links to other toy designers and found Cubecraft. The design is brilliant because it allows for so much of the character to be in the illustrations, and they did a great job with capturing the essence of each of those characters. I printed and cut out Strongbad (from homestarrunner.com). He is now sitting next to me watching me write this post. I suppose he would have a snide comment about now, but I can't think of any. All I have to say is, "Strongbad are you making out with a piece of looooseleaf?"

There are so many other toy designers with templates to download. I can't wait to post more paper toy experiments. Let me know if any of you decide to try.

tangerine menorah for hannukah

2008-12-21T14:35:00.000-08:00

I seem to be in holiday spirits today given my thanksgiving post earlier today.

Well, actually, i was not, but am getting there. I was feeling sort of sad that Hanukah had just crept up on me, and we were not doing anything special other then lighting candles, but I was going through articles in googlereader, and came across an article on Apartment Therapy for clementine candles. This may not be the sort of thing that puts you in the holiday spirit, but it perked me up thanks to a conversation at dinner on Friday night about what you could use to build your own oil menorah. Beets, potatoes, turnips, and of course CLEMENTINES! were suggested. I decided to try it out, and hopefully use a clementine menorah for next Friday, when the candles need to burn a bit longer than the standard boxed candles typically burn.

My first attempt was very pretty, but the edges of the star shape started to burn. I tried cutting the wick down to create a smaller flame and propping it up so that the hole was more directly over the flame. I even tried a second clementine with a smaller wick, but eventually that ended up being burnt too.

A couple of people wrote comments about this problem, but none gave a good solution, and given that you need to leave the candles (or oil as in this case) to burn until it burns itself out this didn't seem like a very safe way of lighting the 6 candles I wanted for next Friday night.

In the end I think I will just use the bottom half of the clementine. It is pretty and holds the oil well. I will do a test run tonight when I only need one candle.

The results are pictured about with the abandoned attempts in the background. It is still pretty, will do quite nicely, and has a nice cheery orange glow, just the sort of thing you need to get into the holiday mood...

Happy Hanukkah to all who will begin celebrating tonight!

thanksgiving wrap up

2008-12-21T11:07:00.000-08:00

I know at this point these are a month old, but i just finally loaded the photos onto my computer, so here is the story of our thanksgiving weekend...

We drove up on Wednesday night, and got there pretty late. The rest of the gang arrived EARLY the next morning. M, R, Little J and Brandy. This picture above is Samwise (Sam). He was there the whole time, even came to sleep with us on Saturday night. You can see J and R playing with a new toy in the background.

Mr. SD and I baked some challah on Thursday before the big dinner (we were planning on skiing on Friday) They came out very pretty.

There was a big giant (40 people!) dinner at friends who have a super nice wood log house with giant green plants all over the place and high ceilings, and an open kitchen with a giant island. I really like their house. Mr. SD's dad made a chickpea curry and there was lots of other vegetarian food and pumpkin pie for dessert. Yum. Did I mention the TWO vegetarian stuffings?!

Decided there were not enough trails open on Friday, so we went for a hike instead. Hiking through snow is hard, and I am terribly out of shape, so it wasn't a long hike, but it was pretty.

Mr. SD attempted to sign us into the trial, but the sign in book was full! (and had been for a quite sometime) and then at the end of the trail looking all rugged with our dirty subaru :)

Somewhat relaxing and quiet Saturday with fresh chocolate chip cookies and Kung Fu Panda late Saturday night. Nothing really beats fresh chocolate chip cookies and a nice big glass of milk :)

*Picture above not actual cookies baked over Thanksgiving weekend. Photo from Nestle Tollhouse.

sometimes it might be nice to hide inside a wall...

2008-12-15T19:45:00.000-08:00

and sometimes it might be nice to watch the reactions of the people passing by. I just really liked this image and wanted to share, but I just checked out the artist's website and it is pretty awesome. Some of the images are very sad, but some of them are ridiculously funny.

I think one of the designers interviewed for the documentary Helvetica said that when you see something and wish that you had done that .... well, that is saying something. Anyway, I feel that way about some of these photographs. Check out his website. I am sure you can figure out which ones I am talking about.

(via designobserver)

ninja magnets!

2008-12-08T19:54:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a while since I have posted and there are lots of other things to report on ,but how cool is this? It fits perfectly with my gmail ninja theme! (from core77 gift guide)

starry night at the moma

2008-11-12T14:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks to D and C's wonderful wedding present, Mr. SD and I went to the members only night at MoMA. It was still crowded, but the paintings were worth it. There were also letters to his brother and other with sketches of future paintings. Mr SD wondered why I didn't send him letters with drawings in them, and I pointed out that we were in the same place, so no need for letters, but he objected. How will they display these drawings in the museum when I am famous?

This painting, Starry Night Over the Rhine, is my favorite. I think it would look perfect over my bed, matching perfectly with my quilt.

It was nice to wander around the rest of the museum, which was basically empty. We got to see a pretty interesting Miro exhibit, which i think i enjoyed more than Mr. SD, but hopefully he liked some of it. There is also a huge video installation that opens next week, but they had the videos on last night. I hope to go back and get the full experience soon.

Mr SD and I felt so adventurous and cultured wandering the city on a Tuesday night.

Thanks D & C!

Goodnight and thanks for the cookies

2008-11-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

Well, they are calling it over, and i am inclined to believe them. Obama won for my birthday! I am going to sleep, but first a few more cookies:

Thanks for stopping by and decorating with me! Good night.

Red v. Blue

2008-11-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

Still reporting live from my election/birthday event. We have decorated more cookies, and are watching the returns. Anyway, I saw this post earlier on Apartment Therapy, and thought these doors were a perfect image for the day. Hope that you all voted. I did, and got the perfect birthday pressent, no line... more guests making cookies! Will post more photos later.

celebrating election day with cookies

2008-11-04T16:17:00.001-08:00

Blogging live from my election/birthday happening. This was my attempt at cookie decorating. Couldn't find any cupcakes with white frosting (the ones in the supermarket are still orange from Halloween, which is a little scary) so went with chocolate chip cookies, which is truthfully are probably better than cupcakes. Got the idea after a lively debate about Obama and Mccain cakes, cookies, and candies inspired by yeswecake.com, so I decided to just get the appropriate colors of frosting and let people decorate for themselves. I made these before everyone arrived, and I already had a friend attempt to decorate his cookie, but he ate it before I could take a photo!

2008-10-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

I am bringing this "globe" (for lack of anything better to call it) to an art show tomorrow night. The theme is light and dark, and while this globe does not make it dark when you put it on your head, it is very isolating.

My plan is to try and convince people to put it on their heads, but one of these days I am going to bring it into the city and take photos of random people transformed into giant fisher price little people. Not only am I a fan of making people experience something that takes them out of their comfort zone (and trust me the experience will only be greater out on the city streets when the sounds become muffled), but I think it raises pretty interesting questions of identity and how we define ourselves.

Anyway, I liked how these photos came out, although the color isn't exactly right, so I thought I would give all my loyal readers a sneak peak. Now you can say you saw it here first :)

Free Art/Political Posters

2008-10-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

unplugged posted a few of these posters on their blog, but didn't check the site out until it was mention for a second time in the NYT

Anyway, you should check out this site because the concept of posters that you can download and print yourself is pretty cool. There is a new one posted every day. Here are a few of my favorites to tempt you:

airport symbols

2008-09-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

I realize that I haven't posted for a while, but as I was just reading on someone else's blog... the longer you go without posting the more you feel like the post has to be even more special... and so you just don't post anything.

I don't have so much to report other than more of the same, so I thought I would leave you with a pretty cool animation instead.

via speak up

The True Story of the Birth of a Font

2008-09-07T09:57:00.000-07:00

Saw this a little while ago on parachute's blog:
Developmnent of Centro Pro Font
I have been thinking about what it takes to design your own font... how do you create something that hasn't already been created with all the fonts out there?

8 ways to drive a Graphic Designer Mad

2008-09-07T09:31:00.000-07:00

Found this link on a design forum. Very funny :)

Childhood Memories

2008-08-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

Dr. C just reminded me of the Recycle Shop at the Children's Museum in Boston with a link to the Scrap Exchange in Durham, NC.

Their website says it best, "Long before recycling was a household word, the museum began selling an amazing variety of reusable fabrics, plastics, papers, and strings for everyone’s crafts and fine arts projects. The only limit is your own imagination!"

The Scrap Exchange says it opened in 1991, but the Children's museum says they have been doing this for "more than a generation" (which I will admit is vague, but I remember going when i was pretty young and as many of you remind me quite often, that was a LONG time ago).

Wow, I had a lot of great memories creating masterpieces with the bottle caps and assorted other materials that we bought. I imagine that the stuff I would choose to fill my bag today would be different from what I was attracted to when I was 10, but I could be wrong. I am definitely going to have to go visit the shop the next time I am in Boston.

Paperless world fits into newsletter

2008-08-20T15:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I got everything to fit into the newsletter, but there was a tiny square of space left! Well, I don't know yet if it will make the final cut, but my coworker A laughed a lot when i showed to him. It occurred to me as I was saving the image for this post that my character looks a little like Mr. SD.

You can tell that i was actually engaged in my work today because yesterday at the end of the day there were only 22 unread items in my Google Reader (and those were from the NYT). Today, 80. Perhaps I am meant to be a cartoon artist instead of a designer? It is certainly more fun than newsletters (or at least this newsletter), but despite tying for #1 on Dr. C's funny list, being funny is pretty hard work.

Blog Addiction

2008-08-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

I can't help it. I am totally addicted to checking my email and reading every article in my GoogleReader. I suppose it might be more of a desire to avoid the mountains of work that are piling up in my inbox. I have a whole bunch of things to do, but find myself so discouraged by the whole process of approvals that every time I look at my to do list I think, "Why Bother?" and so I just check my email/reader again. Projects that I started almost 6 months ago are still not approved, so nothing can really by all that urgent, right?

Well, the decree that we publish the internal newsletter once a month is troubling, but at least I have one project that goes to the printer consistently, and so I spent my afternoon shuffling the stories to try and have every story and every photograph fit in the weird 6 page layout that the outside design firm gave us (which is pretty ugly in my opinion, but they spent a lot of money on it, so I can't change it too much). I miss J with her compulsive organization. I am going to try and set up a meeting and see if we can make it a little more formulaic... something like keeping to estimated word counts would be helpful! Of course when it doesn't all fit perfectly there is space for cartoons :)

All is not bad though. I designed and got approval on a brochure in English and Spanish in about 2 weeks, so nice when other departments are cooperative in the process. AND I walked home today for the first time in quite a while. It has been too hot and my feet were too blistered, but today there was a nice breeze and i had a nice walk while talking to A. Working in The City would mean no walking home, so my job does have a few advantages. Trying to adjust my attitude. Wish me luck.

Vintage and Modern

2008-08-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

Found this interesting blog, Apartment Therapy. It is sort of like watching all those home improvement shows without the annoying contestants. I love this dining room table and the GREEN chairs :)

Things I Learned at Work Today

2008-08-11T18:27:00.001-07:00

There is someone who programs the Jewish calendar into about 75 lights in LA so that they will turn on automatically without someone pushing the button (also mentioned that this is not a problem in NY since most of the buttons don't actually do anything, which I already knew thanks to Mr. SD) There were other interesting facts in the book review for 'Traffic' in the NYT but you don't have to take my word for it.
It is hard to find the right photograph to fit into an arrow shaped window.
You can make ice cream in a ziplock bag without a fancy ice cream maker!
No matter where you are working they will always ask you at some point to fit an entire word document full of text into an ad the size of a business card.
Based on my Google Reader suggestions I am a sports loving stay at home mom (The sports I understand, but I don't really know where they get the mom part, but keep suggesting that I read blogs about raising children)
I need more than one project to work on at a time or I get bored.

on blogs and more typographical fun

2008-08-06T18:33:00.000-07:00

I begin with ... Thoughts on blogging and this blog in particular

I have been contemplating the nature of blogging and what it means that this is a public blog and while I love my loyal readers, (all 4 of you!) I could just send you all an email with a link every time I find something that I want to share, and so that means that deep down somewhere I secretly hope that someone will stumble across my blog and read it.

I also am wondering how one decides what is important enough to share on a blog. What do I want to share? The dysfunction of my department at work? The random interesting images I come across during the day? Is it going to be about daily going ons or only when they are related to design?

Well, I don't have any answers right now, and I guess some of the answers will come with time, so don't go away 'cause we'll be back with more after a word from our sponsor.

And now ... a Link to More Typography

40+ Killer Typographical Posters
I especially like Beauty and Ink&Water

Mr. SuperDesigner (SD) would say about now, "They always say stay tuned for more after the break and there never is more!" so I had to add something after the link. Hope you will join us next time as our superhero battles through office politics and hopes that at least one of her projects can get approval for printing in the near future...

ABC3D Written & Illustrated by Marion Bataille

2008-08-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks to swissmiss again for this one. I am going to preorder this today! What could be better typography and pop-ups?

My kind of play station

2008-08-04T17:26:00.000-07:00

swissmiss linked to something else from this website, but I thought this t-shirt was just perfect.

Fava Beans... it's what's for dinner!

2008-08-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, we will probably have this for lunch and not for dinner since A&R gave us their extra beans and we are eating lunch with them, but I finally got around to cooking the fresh fava beans from the CSA (Community Sponsored Agriculture). They are VERY green (the ones in the photo are shelled, but still in their skin) and I might have over cooked them a tiny bit (It was only for 3 minutes! But they seem a little mushier than I would have wanted them to be), so I don't want to cook them any longer. That means frying with garlic and onions, which was my plan for them is out. I think I try and make this instead (it will also use some of the over abundance of cucumbers): http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fava-Bean-Salad/Detail.aspx
I am sure I will make some changes, but I will let you know how it turns out.

Change Can be Good

2008-07-31T07:33:00.001-07:00

My first published cartoon! It is going into the internal newsletter and Mrs. P even called to say how much she loves it! Wow! Anyway, the quote to go with it is, "Don't let change be the elephant in the room!" Felt it was appropriate for my first blog post.