It's 5am and it's almost Breakfast time.

Copy by the fabulous Kim Healy. Tagline says "It's something to get up for."

And on that note, I'm going to bed.

Sallie Mae is the Devil

School costs money. More than what most people have. So, for the majority of us, we need loans. Sallie Mae is supposed to help students get loans for an education but instead make it so difficult that it becomes a full time job just getting a loan to go through. Now imagine being a student with no cosigner and having to deal with these spawns of satan.

I thought money lending was illegal...

Quick story: In florence, there is Palazzo degli Strozzi (where Fendi and my old school are located). The family Strozzi were a bunch of money lenders who charged so much interest in their loans that people ended up paying twice as much and more for what they borrowed. People became broke, economy suffered, life sucked. The government put a stop to this nonsense and the word Strozzi eventually materialized into Stronzo... which means asshole. So the government needs to step in and get rid of these Sallie Mae Stronzos.

Dave Holloway, the reason the Circus has a tent.

Once upon a time, a junior at James Madison University interested in getting the advertising club back on track, contacted a JMU alum in the advertising world. I was that junior, Dave Holloway was that alum, and now I'm at the circus and not at Law school.
Dave just came to speak at the Circus, second time for me and a few others hearing him speak. Always awesome. For those who don't know, he's the godfather in the advertising industry and has done some of the coolest stuff, written an amazing book and just all around really great at helping out the creative newbies. So this guy helped me figure out how I need to go to the creative circus and what I need to do to break in this steel bolted industry - mucho inspiring. I'm still amazed that I had enough courage to call him and if I have any success in advertising, I pretty much owe it to him.
check out his website,AMAZING stuff, buy his book: www.daveholloway.net

streetwise

So I was looking at the White+Partners blog and they found this new idea in South Korea of a virtual wall for a crosswalk. I know a million places where this should be.... a million places in Atlanta. To people in this city, stop sign means pause, and red light means maybe look both ways before you gun it across the intersection.

oh and speaking of car stuff... $4 a gallon??!?! I want a mo-ped. stat.

I want one of these.

Since when did my little car require $52 at the fill up? Right now, I'm working on some smart car stuff which just makes me want one even more. (just you wait, it's brills)
Not like I wouldn't be in tears at the loss of my baby, the silver surfer, but I think everyone in this country needs a smart car.... or a bike. At least raise maybe put a few solar panels on the top of your car.
Which totally brings me back to sixth grade when my little group of guys and myself won the school solar panel car race in the Sea Road parking lot. I think we won pink t-shirts if I can recall... not so cool.

I missed watercoloring.

So it was book cover time at Type class. I really missed watercoloring and doing things by hand, especially since it was something I've been doing since the beginning of Lola time. This is one of five we had to do for tomorrow... or I guess today. Since the book is about life, love and death in the eyes of the generation X, I used a lot of themes about change or reminiscent of nostalgia. I got the idea of a tattoo with the title for the idea of a generation X, watercolor for a softer image to represent love and Gotica and Retro lettering for life as a past. Voila. My other themes besides the tattoo one above were the New York Subway, Coffee, Airplane Jet setting and Brick/Cement walls with graphittiesque colour. We'll see which one wins tomorrow at class.

Quick story: When I was a young girl of maybe 13 years, I took some classes at Maine College of Art. During my first oil painting class, I was sitting next to this emo-ish goth college kid. While I was painting some some purple flowers in a vase, she was painting a bleeding heart. The kind from anatomy books. Not really that accurate or even artistically done well. I never thought I would ever be painting a bleeding heart ever in life.

When life gets you going, do a cartwheel.

Found this picture of a friend of mine doing a cartwheel and thought it would be a good inspiration for this vector drawing. Love using illustrator. I entered this, Johnny cash and some other things into the student show.
In the next few months, I plan on incorporating more hand drawn stuff into my work. I've only spent about 20 some odd years and 100 grand in higher education learning fine arts. Might as well actually use it.

Personal note: I broke my toe today and I have an ear ache. So I can't walk and can't hear. Awesome.

2nd quarter work- click the goods to see larger versions

This is the random campaign we did for sylvia last quarter. Here were the many guidelines:
1. Choose a friend. (Kate) Have the campaign influenced by her and solve a problem in her life. Kate: works in engineering (fancy word for construction) around lots of men and yet is somewhat fashionable and a touch of girly.
2. Have the ads be in the style of a given designer: Cipe Pinles
3. Must advertise a candy bar: Kit Kat
4: Must be in style of collage.
5: Use color scheme.
6. Write your own copy.

I'm assuming the lesson was about how to follow guidelines and restrictions.

oh there is of course more to this campaign.... message me for more.

The kids go to Washington.

This picture is of my childhood best friend Kate, myself and my buddy Roberto. We all come from the land of Maine. And now we convene in DC to reclaim our insanity by causing chaos.... and more insanity. At the end of it all, I found pictures in my camera of a woman in tye-dye, a large sand lot dog, an eagle painted in the colors of the american flag and a man bending by his car to reveal a very odd butt crack. This is how Kate takes pictures of the "sights" in DC.

Katie was just here in Atlanta for again more chaos and insanity. Also here: my mom and a family friend. It's been a little crazy but exactly how I like it. Theres way too many creatives with too little inspiration from actual life. I get inspiration from the hilarity of my family and friends. It's that connection with real life that I think is the only way to create great work. Too many creatives just think they can get away without having connections with actual people. I can't imagine how some people get their inspiration when they haven't seen family or friends in years. Maybe it's the glare of their Mac screens that are blaring into their retinas but this is no industry to be blind of whats going on around you.

Kids on the book of faces: more pictures of craziness in DC available. Atlanta photos coming soon... or whenever Kate gets around to putting them up.

3rd Quarter

Today is the monday and first day of the first week of the third quarter.

A few issues:
1. Vacation was not long enough
2. I already miss Syliva's classes.
3. There is a guy here at Panera who looks like a Who from Whoville.


I hope everyone brought their game face this quarter. I have a feeling it's going to be a bit painful around the end of May when a lot of people I know will be graduating and/or enjoying summer vacation.

Hi Mom! Look what I made in School!

Type assignment: article opener page. The article was about the new Indiana Jones movie.

Side note: Why does the printer at school alway break down right after I purchase a copy card?
And crash right before panel?

Also...
heading to VA next week for break and planning to work on my children's book. Kind of in the style of Harold the Hare. Might actually be Harold the Hare.

Panel time at the circus next week

Everyone wants to know. Are there finals at the Circus? No, there is something called panel. At panel, you present your work you did throughout the quarter to any three or so instructors at the school. They sit there taking notes and noticing everything from your choice of font in piece A to your overall appearance. You have 20 minutes to show 10 weeks of work. Its pretty intense and people end up sleeping at the school to get work done.
And to go through panel you have to have thick skin. Luckily, I do, thanks to 9 years of college level critiques. I like critiques, good and bad. If they were all good, I would think I was wasting my money and time. Feedback is always important no matter how rough it can be.
At the Circus, you have people who have been told they were so creative and unique their whole life. Put a bunch of these people in a room and creativity becomes bland. Can sometimes seem like a bunch of big fishes in an even bigger pond. I think the best way to go about this is to just be yourself, like in any situation. I hate to see so many people be insecure with themselves and their work. I think about 70% of success is believing in yourself and what you have done. The other 30% is a mix of hard work, luck, and a bit of craziness.

Hi Mom! Look what I made in School!

Once upon a time, there was a hare named Harold who had a very hectic day.
If this whole advertising thing doesn't work on, maybe I have a career as a children's book author?

Hi Mom! Look what I made in School!

This is my vector drawing of Johnny Cash. I'm thinking I need to blow it up so when I present it in a few weeks at Panel they can see the detail.

Hi mom, Look what I made in School!

My Paul Rand inspired work, possibly to become a tissue/allergy medication ad in the future.

Where I roam on the Web.

Let's be honest. Here is my not so secret secret. I spend alot of time on the internet. Kind of happens when you work in art direction. Some may call it procrastination. I call it inspiration. And yes, I would call myself somewhat addicted to celebrity gossip, but some of my coolest ideas have come out of it.
Here's how the day goes, in no particular order:

Yahoo News
Perezhilton
Hotmail
Gmail
Facebook
PostSecret
FFFFound
TMZ
Vanity Fair
MSN news
Craigslist
youtube

repeat


I'm always looking for new sites that are interesting so let me know if you have a favorite.

Muffins

I swear, this never gets old. This guy liam did the "Shoes" video too.

Muppets - Mahna Mahna

Just for a laugh. Enjoy.

Brown eyed girl

We learned some pretty interesting things during our lecture about the color brown. I guess we are the "coffee" generation. Starbucks has infected us not only with caffeine but the tendency to use a deep chocolate brown in our designs. Where as it used to mean drab and boring, our generation has transformed it into an idea of cool and sophisticated. Funny how brown became a popular car color in the 70's during economic problems. Now, because we see brown on the walls of Starbucks, we willingly use our rent money to buy a mocha.

On a side note, please recycle. And buy those energy efficient light bulbs.

Ciao bella.

Color me Happy!

Ok, so what do I paint my walls? I just moved into my very own apartment and I feel rather adult. I thought a color along the lines of what this color chart calls boredom... but now that I see this, not such a good idea. As the great Sylvia says, its not what the color is, but what it becomes in it's surroundings.