design manifesto - teaser 02

another teaser coming at you from the graphic design manifesto assignment. turns out this hasn't officially been assigned. so for the same class i have another project going that has to do with a really old david lynch movie.

Most Vision Award

Yes my school had an graphic design on campus awards and i walked away with the award for most vision. I have had the most compliments in a day i can handle.

I feel bad my parents weren't there - it didn't occur to me to invite them 'till it was too late. oh bother.

Zao Web Design Preview

A teaser preview for everyone out there!! My latest work on a site for one of my top top ultimate favourite bands of all time - the mighty zao. This is for a dreamweaver class I have a mountain of stuff to do for - that in flash class have really been stretching me out.

I hope to kill this project off by the end of the day.

I'm starting to learn from this project so far - that complicated amounts of slices without a set grid is dangerously difficult.

In regards to Liberate:

The zine is ready for print - im practically sitting on it - waiting for the right day and time to assemble it - im still hoping to possibly get some material from outside sources!

so keep unplugged.

contact me with any ideas or projects you may want to see come to life! Or entries for the zine.

Liberate Zine Cover

The spring summer release of Liberate will be titled: Reborn. I plan to do aside with numbering issues and just giving them titles.

If you want the most updated in the works copy of the zine in a pdf format send me an email request - I'll try and get back to you as soon as possible.

The zine launch hasn't found a home yet - but those who are hoping to come out to it - sign up on either facebook - or send me an email.

This Is Propaganda

A weird little video i put together. I plan to publish more onto youtube with a new account.

Graphic Design Manifesto

A little Teaser of a project that is currently in the works. It's a graphic design manifesto and I probably have enough content at the moment to settle down and start carving it out professionally.

joh-nny-fuck-in-depp

Project done for a course called "Visiting Designers" - It's a culture magazine that's supposed to cover all angles of culture from punk rock, to easy listening, to r & b. The cover is supposed to be a teaser for the magazine's launch party and make everyone desperately want to read it.

The real fucking question is:
what are you thinking about?
Because sometimes i wonder if we’re thinking about the right things.
No - not that kind of you shouldnt be thinking about naughty things!
doctrine - thinking about sex and
really fucked up shit s is completely fucking naturally human.

i’m wondering about the
non-natural thinking though
the thinking that’s outside of. because i have a theory that if you haven’t said or thought johnny depp at all and stayed inside a bomb shelter for the past i don’t know six the first bombs hit poor innocent japan - i have a theory that coming out of the bomb shelter i’d instantly be hearing you shoving together the syllables like a fucking zombie joh-nny-fuck-ing-depp-awe-some. no really some really old people might not know who johnny depp. now steve mcqueen there’s an actor. back to my point! im sure if you haven’t said it or thought it for yourself yet- someone in your vicinity said it, or maybe you opened the paper to the whatever page and there is his name, than you text a friend and they tell you about alice in wonderland - johnny depps in it? That thinking which is forced upon us day in day out is not natural thinking!!! its what outside forces have made you think about - your environment, your social circle, your outside culture. I’ll try and cut this short - i’d much be rather thinking about artists and what they have to say - and their stories. why is music and movies the only art form - everybody enjoys on a collective scale? Why don’t we hear about every fuckign where we go - more about poets and writers and visual artists and maybe even graphic designers who flipped off coca cola and pepsi both in the same day decided to flood the culture with poetry he was up stoned all night reading.
I can admit we’ve made some progress with the sudden book-pop-culture, and hey everyone knows stephen king - and well thats cause the movies. but i don’t remember ever in the mainstream a following of book and movie series until recently. is this a new step? a step forward? Is this Peter Jackson’s fault? I like to think yes, yes and yes, maybe soon there will be cult followings of books without the movie combo on a so called mainstream scale to the point kids are lining up in toronto from all over the fucking world for the one big gala event where douglas coupland comes out for a signing and speaking venue ie spoken word gig for the release of his next book - generation whatever about how us - you - and - me were the generation that changed things.

yea .. itd probably be taken over by commercialism and thought enforcement - like like tim burton on johnny depp in a hollywood orgy.

but yea - could we be the generation that changed things? I like that!

instead of being told - we will like these movies and we will enjoy this music. and yes we have a variety - and if you do the math like -

6 different options of 6 different options - you have 36 different types of individuals you could be in this society and still look like individuals when seen in crowds

my facebook is pimped out with my favorite shit - like david bazan@ and 7-seconds% and fuck the facts# and the refused^ - and maybe ill be a little angsty. man - fuck greenday. - what if we turned off the television, stopped going to the movies, stopped all that shit and started just hanging out with each other. What if we everyone in this room***** right fucking now threw down - and played the biggest fuckign match of dungeons and dragons IN RECORDED HISTORY, ** or made a band together that was going to sound galactic****, or made a skate crew and filmed it on vhs* and made copies for all your friends, what if you organized shows in your shitty 500 dollar-right-to-exist-comfortably apartment and gave all the door money to the homeless, what if you took your grandpa mountain climbing in norway, created a zine that only you and 12 friends understood - and you called it inside joke, what if you went and vandalized government property. what if you joined fucking boy scouts to help teach children how awesome it is to live in the woods and skin a fucking rabbit, while simultaneously weeding out the entire sqaudron of other scout leaders, hunting down the pedophiles so you could take an axe an chop them into little tiny pieces and have an art attack? what if you and your friends took up QUILTING? *** what if you played basketball from right after school till your tired fucking arms fall off and you pass out in a huff? what if what if what if what if what if- i dont know. you have the ideas youre the ones, youre generation that will change the entire fucking world - right fucking upside down, left - right what the fuck if ever man? what if? what if? what if? what if you stopped thinking of johnny fuckign depp?
homework: the next time you happen to see johnny depp - think about johnny depp - fantasize about johnny depp - whisper his name quietly as you gently cum - next time you hear about him - think about this article - remember youre the generation that will change the world - why because we already have - its already happened
**now the edition war debate could follow thereafter ***This would be pretty fucking hipster, it could catch on
*broken bones BITCH ****planet uranus BITCH *****if youre not in a room where the fuck are you? how am i talking to you?

Yes, i was suddenly made aware yesterday through email - i have the chance to display art in a show tonight. I look forward to it.

I framed some images that have been important to me and have put them up with price tags. I'm pretty much selling my soul here. Tonight itself will be an experiment in finding out if my art can actually grow legs and bring in revenue for myself for further artistic endeavours, such as my upcoming zine launch. I'm not exactly money hungry I'm just completely fucking broke. Hey maybe I can up the number of press runs for the zine when it comes.

For the zine itself I have some good ideas developing - it's going to image wise carry a vibe of smoking cigarettes. yes. cigarettes. I have an interesting story i wrote out the other day. i submitted it to a site the other day so its on the internet somewhere nifty and sapphic if you can figure out that conundrum.i also hope to do some interviews with a band and possibly someone very unique and interesting. I'm going to jam as much poetry, random lyrics, stories, manifestos, swearing and sexual imagery I can into a 12 or 16 page zine without it looking too dense.

HERE IS THE ARTIST STATEMENT I'LL BE POSTING TONIGHT:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

as an artist i have come to be merely a vessel for a passion i can't fully control. i believe in many contradictions while i search for my own meaning in life.

i believe in the spirit that art should become a threat again and in most contexts not be recognized as art.

my resume kind of looks like this: through high school i did a lot of more personal art and focused on creating a plethora of flash videos this coming from me drawing up comics for a character super stick man. Years later i had my first art show blah blah blah at the velvet elvis. i did many spoken word gigs. i have done art and layout for a couple band's releases also doing graphic design work for a brochure - violence against women awareness month. I produced a couple zines back in the day, which I'm getting back into. i used to be the main dancer for the band Planet Uranus. I threw together an art experience for them when they played with a very talented band, Mahogany Frog from winnipeg. I just got back into school for graphic design and recently am fighting through second year.

i seek to create my own industry. I will be heading a project of a quarterly zine, being launched in early april, feel free to inquire about that. I want to produce full books and work with other people's writing presented in a graphical experience that supports their vision. I want to push my art to new levels of experimentation.

i'd rather drown in passion than die of thirst on her shores.

i am also a huge fan of hardcore music.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
ANYHOW:

I feel really really fucking good about trying to get back into art and writing and poetry and hopefully let this help and not hinder my journey into the world of graphic design.

This blog will probably be the main docking area, corner of the internet for any announcements and displays of my work for the time being, until that shadowy future tense when I will finally be happy with a design for my own beautiful web presence.

i am a multiverse

I couldn't recover the exact passage from one of my anarchy journals. The words express how I currently process the meaning of recent events. Events that I see becoming reflection of my own struggle spiritually and philosophically.

I have begun to recognize how strong and how real the many different conflicting sides are within me. I have begun to realize I don't believe or think in one thing, that I ultimately view myself not as one person with one way of thinking - rather a counsel of many different thinkers. They all have different approaches to thought, some rational, some emotional, some shallow, some (in my own eyes) rather profound.

The article itself spoke how as an egoist, they don't bow to any one ideology because they cannot account for the hundreds of different opinions they have, and a hundred different voices they know lay within their mind.

My therapist marks that what I'm doing currently gives me a greater advantage in being able to think critically. I am able to have a better look at both sides of an argument - and possibly enter into the thirds, and fourths and fifths. The grey areas so to speak. Having this critical thinking is fairly foundational in gaining and seeking a clearer picture on things.

These recent events for some could have been enough for them to dive right into blind faith and blind belief in the ideologies that, as of late have been invading my life. Many people fall into the trap of feeling they owe some kind of allegiance to whatever point of view at certain times in their life become apparently so true. They're quick to abandon all other paths for that one path that so clearly must be the Truth, with a big capital T. They don't realize that their mind has ultimately concocted the invasion of this ideology into their life. They also don't realize there could be greater truth found in trying to figure out why it is your mind concocted this invasion. What does your mind see in this ideology? What does that part of your mind really want out of it?

It may be a mere side effect of being raised in the one-god-system of western humanity to feel you must leap and bound towards this capital t truth while slaying all other minor truths. This attitude ironically has found it's way into the practices of atheists who claim to be great practitioners of critical thinking. Thus they work all their selves around this capital t truth of the non-existance of a judeo christian god. I can't wait until the great abolition of god from all minds. This spook has created terrible believers and now is creating terrible non believers.

I really wish there were times where me speaking of the different sides of myself hadn't devolved into the great religion debate. I'd rather be discussing the possibility of us ourselves being gods, or the possibility of multiple dimensions that would shatter mere mortal minds, i'd rather be discussing why sometimes you start thinking about a certain thing and the next you know someone's talking about it. Why do coincidences act like gravity, or like echoes off walls? I know it's partially our own mind applying meaning to situations and categorizing reality into neat little boxes.

I'd much rather have community centres - where you go in to discuss how you feel about being an artist of passion in a capitalist society. How reading a spawn comic sparked a memory of some gnostic text. Labels are so fucking condemning that when someone admits they believe a few or so outright contradictions it doesn't make sense to anyone. You walk into a debate between acquaintances and you're forced to declare what side of the fence you're on.

I've got to stop running into christians because they continually make me feel like i have to be an atheist as a knee-jerk-reaction, and i hate listening to them chatter on how there is this god of theirs and I should come back to being a christian. I don't really want to choose either side, not because they're wrong - but because I think we could reach better conclusions not even talking about our theistic inklings.

There's people who can argue ON an ON about how a tree just happens or a tree was put there by god. Well I'm going to experience both sides of the argument by climbing the fucking thing.

And if you think im trying to conclude that I believe in both sides, you've completely misunderstood me. I have a faith in belief that there's something beyond these two paths. I feel there's something greater to be aimed at. I don't know what it is - so don't ask me. I believe and feel a lot of things I can't exactly explain.

Snippets 01

This is just like the time I got bumped out of applied math and science because being the only one answering questions out of a class of idiots implies intelligence. however such correlation is ludicrous bullshit. it merely implies i was surrounded by idiots.

now this is interesting. i walk down to the local hasty market and grab a bottle of coke from the back. i walk up to the till followed by a lady with a bottle of pepsi. i ask her if she's just getting the pop - just in case her transaction will take less time than mine. i am planning to grab smokes. so i impulse buy a pepperoni stick at the same time. cash through with a pack of du maurier. she cashes through with a pack of dumaurier light, a bottle of pepsi and a chocalate bar. weird?

i understand why that dead fuck hid in the woods for the years before, well he was a dead fucker. what's his face in that book catcher in the rye - it was pretty hardcore for some people who liked shooting celebrities. that dead fucker hid because there was bigger and better book coming out for wanna be socio paths: fight club. i fucking love that book and when i hunt down my john lennon - i'll be carrying that in my inside pocket.

back when i was washing dishes in some fucked up italian restaurant where communication was a crude mixture of yelling and god-knows-what-else i'd hide in the shitter and read whole chapters of it.

Escaping The Photoshop & Cementing a Style

Sometimes images just don't escape Photoshop.

You know exactly what I mean and I have been guilty of this. They're ugly and disgusting and only similar words can do best to describe them.

Escaping Photoshop to me is the first step in escaping your medium To me escaping your medium is imperative to good execution of whatever concept you're trying to convey. Sometimes the problem lies in a lack of said concept, but other times it's pure lack of skill.

Always, always though concept is what makes any execution shine.

Just check out this page here on Web Urbanist where the artist melds together concept and execution to define completely mind blowing non realities.

Concept is where every great design has it's foundation. Back in the seventies and eighties the design team known as Hipgnosis rammed their metaphorical phallus in everyone's face using their almost scizophrenically genius concepts. They dominated rock and roll album covers with a photoshop that was more involving and intensive then your friend burning you a copy off some torrent site.

There's a lot of bad photoshop out there, heck look at the banner above you.



The above tree and stereo-castle was something I was proud of. Two or three years later and I'm looking at the something cheesy and plagued with obvious dodge and burns.




Image on the left was a sketch that I pulled into the photoshop and started applying all kinds of textures. It looks rather terrible. The image on the right is my attempt at something http://souljunk.com type art.

I don't remember what the point of this thread is really.

I'm trying my best to cement a style in a digital age using digital mediums.

I like more organic things - but everything has a need for some polish.

Concept and composition.

blah

Fucking Epic

I've been firing my way through Robert Jordan's third book of his most epic saga: The Wheel of Time.



I just finished reading Chapter 36 which randomly brings us back to the main character Rand Al' Thor. Rand is the Dragon Reborn, destined to fight the last battle against the Dark One. To be the saviour of man and womankind. You get the idea right?

A woman leads a small squad of about ten horsemen up to our main hero here who is camping away. She announces her intentions of camping the night with him and where they're going etc. He immediately decapitates her with one fell swoop. Literally wielding a sword made of fire he kills all of them without so much as an inch of effort.

He literally murders like 10 or 11 people without asking any questions.

He then arranges the bodies so they're bowing towards him and rubs his dragon reborn-ness all up in their faces.

I'm sure if I read between the lines, something she says makes him realize she's completely bullshitting or whatever. but holy shit this was shockingly awesome.

This is totally fourth edition material.

Dragging the body that is my only real hobby

I'm not a person who sticks to plans or can make regular appointments with people other than doctors and scheduled classes. This sucks when it comes to trying to apply one's self to role playing.

What got me into D&D is whatever got me into fantasy.

People who get into smoking after quitting usually pick up a drag here and there, then they're having the occasional cigarette to themselves - next they're buying a small pack and are back to smoking by a weeks end.

Same can be said with my interests in fantasy. I wasn't into it for the longest time than suddenly it's all I ever do.

It started out very robin hood for me. In early high school I wrote stories of the lone warrior rising up against a tyrant. I wrote a good novel and half with the classic cliche of a real world being sucked into some fantastical parallel dimension. I didn't know but I was throwing in the cliched magical mentor stereotype. I was probably following sword-in-the-stone patterns mind you rather than Lord Of The Rings.

By the end of high school, I had done a successful book report on the Hobbit, the movies were coming out and I was chewing on the written trilogy. Friends who had a family-thing going of reading all of the Wheel of Time, pulled me into the series.

Now I have a shelf filled with Conan and other thin pulp styled paperbacks ranging from mostly seventies to the eighties. I'm trying to get through the Wheel of Time for the second time before starting the final few books. I have read the Silmarillion twice now I think.

There's an active community of fantasy lovers around me in my area - but still haven't grabbed up an active game.

I had a good two hourish session I was planning on dropping in - but now I have class this semester. I was playing 4th, a Dragonborn Cleric.

I would love to hook up some first edition, the books are so compelling.

But then the body that is my hobby continues to drag across the ground.

This is the woe of many a gamer, not having a consistent campaign. While others boast twenty - thirty years of game.

Oh bother.