Poster Redesign Fire Drill

Hey YAWL

I think that school has ruined the laziness that I have so treasured throughout my life. I was sitting at home the other day, doing nothing in particular. You know, lounging around and watching TV (daytime network TV but that is a completely different story). Suddenly, I felt this compelling urge to get up and do some work. QUE? I tried to fight it, but alas, I could not. Instead I decided to do a little firedrill.

For those of you who do not recognize the term, a firedrill refers to a creative exercise that is completed in a short amount of time (in this case 3 hours).

So I went onto Gigposters.com (sweet poster site BTW) and began to browse through the random poster section. I chose 2 posters for two different bands and gave myself 3 hours each to redesign them.

The first poster I chose was this one for Vampire Weekend.

Never having listened to too much of their music, I put in their self-titled release and began to sketch. Choppy and energetic, their music made me think about enjoying a hotdog and lemonade while watching a space shuttle launch.
I took my sketch to the computer, found a suitable image, modified it (we don't use stock images, no sir!), and finished my design.
The photo would be printed out and then the green balloon, white lines and type would be screen-printed onto the image. The green would be left semi-transparent while the white would be opaque.

Total time: less than 3 hours

Next I remade this Ting Tings poster.

I'll post the results tomorrow. See ya then!

Typographical X-rays by Vanessa Ruiz

These are great. Excellent details such as the slight blur and the "hot spots" that glow whiter. Great stuff.

Daily Hat Weekly Munny

So break is here and I am already back to work (sort of). What I mean is that while I have several projects that I am trying to undertake over the break, I will not be nearly as busy as I am while school is in session.

Anyway, yesterday I was at Sam Flax (art supply store for those who don't know), and by the register they had a bunch of Mini Munnys (Munnies?). Munny is a little blank toy that you can design yourself FYI (there are a bunch of examples here). The ones I am talking about are 4 inches tall.

So I thought it could be a cool little exercise to do one of these each week while I am on break (3 total). To make it a little more fun I decided on a few more rules.

1. Must use the marker that comes with the toy in the color palette

2. Character should be derived from the random accessory that accompanies it

3. Must be started and finished in the span of 24 hours.

So my first one came with a pink marker and a hatchet as the accessory. So I decided that he would be a cute little axe-murderer.

(The pictures were taken with my blackberry, which is why the quality sucks, so don't hate)

Be sure to check back next week for the newest installment of Daily Hat Weekly Munny!

Finish Line is in Sight!

Hey Everyone,

Yeah so it's been a little over a week since my last entry. Sorry about that, but no worries, I have something to show you guys that I hope you will find both cool and sweet! This is a watercolor that I did for a class. It is supposed to have a b-movie feel to it. I will post the completed project when it is finished. Until then, I bid you adieu!

Award Season is Rough

Yo YO!

So it is like 4 in the AM and I have class in a few hours. I realize that I haven't been posting at my usual rate lately but their is good reason for that, and that reason is award season. Basically there are several award shows for the creative industry (that's design and advertising mostly) and these award shows have student categories for people like me to make a name for ourselves. So I have been working my ass off to enter as much stuff as possible while also keeping up with my normal course-load (which coincidentally is at an all time ridiculous high). All of these things translate into less time to post on the blog.

"But, Sean, That sucks ass!"

Yes, yes it does, and for my absence I apologize. I have so much stuff that I could show you guys but, sadly if I did, I would be disqualified from the competitions (can't show anything until judging is over). But I can show you some snippets of what I am doing.

Here is a little illustration I am doing for a poster campaign. I will show you the final product when I am allowed to (along with a shit-ton of other stuff).

Enjoy.

Banner Retrospective

Hey guys, I hope that you like the new banner. After I put it up, I realized that I should put all the banners I've done together in one post so you could see them all. So here goes.

Ahh, the first banner. An illustration collage that simultaneously demonstrates the randomness of my characters and my ignorance of standard web banner sizes.* The second banner is much cleaner, computer-y, and (dare I say) feminine? This marks my exploration into designing across multiple software platforms (in this case photoshop and illustrator). "Get Some" is the first of many experiments that I did with optical illusions. It eventually grew into a cover I did for my publications class. The forgotten mascot of the Daily Hat starred in this banner that also draws influence from kitschy 60's design patterns. I don't think he is dead quite yet, merely lying dormant at the bottom of the ocean a la Godzilla. Mechanical shark is a testament to the inner workings of the blog itself. Sleek and deadly on the outside, confusing and ripe with whirs and buzzes on the inside. Shiny in both sides. Notice now that I am fully aware of correct banner sizes.

While the evolution of the banner is perhaps not the most interesting material for a post ever conceived, it does feel a bit like those annoying clip shows that sitcoms do when the want to take a week off, I do think that the similarities and differences they exhibit are of some note. Kinda of a mini time capsule of the blog over it's first year of existence. Here is to another successful year. After all, it's all about you guys. Otherwise I am just shouting into the internet, which is pathetic.

*actually this was the second banner. The first banner was only the gentleman with his tongue out and was even more egregiously mis-sized.

Ubiquitous Superbowl Ad Post

So I took a break from my work to watch the Superbowl on Sunday, because, well, it's the Superbowl. The Saints won and there is nothing I can do about that. But I am not here to talk about the game, let's talk about the ads. I mean, I should care about this stuff, right?

Let me begin my assessment by stating that I was rather disappointed at the advertisements this year as a whole. There were moments where I chuckled, where I took notice, where I listened. But I cannot recall a single commercial that made me say "Wow, that was really smart." I saw nothing that took a simple idea, executed it simply and powerfully, and summed it up in such a way that left me feeling emotionally moved or introspective. What does a good Superbowl Ad look like to me? Well, this one stands out in my mind:



Regarding ads that use comedy to make their point. I think that, while effective, straight comedy ads can be somewhat of a cop out. Case in point from this year's crop is the Snickers commercial with Betty White and Abe Vigoda. I know a bunch of people really enjoyed this commercial. I, however, thought that it was kind of stupid and a little insulting. I mean all that money and what you came up with was that tackling old people is funny? Oh and they are playing football. In a commercial during the Superbowl. How clever. I am not saying that I am above low brow humor, I really enjoyed this Doritos ad, but give me something to go along with the immature humor and slapstick.



And the Budweiser Kleisdale commercials where they show an animal that wants be in the group, but can't, but then they work hard and become and honorary member and take one glorious ride have to stop. Enough already. I know they probably have market research that says "people like the kleisdale ads" but at least interject some originality into it. Like the spot a few years ago where they were playing football and the zebra was the ref, that was clever.

I will close this post with some quick thoughts. The dodge ad was almost awesome, but I thought the ending was a let down. The doritos ads were funny. The fact that the company that used crowdsourcing had (arguably) the best ads is telling. Snickers (for me) sucked. The movie trailers looked awesome but those people make any movie look awesome (Donnie Darko is the prince of persia?Really?). Tim Tebow ad was dumb, he should have been more opinionated and the fact that he tackled his mom was confusing. I guess he was getting ready for the special teams duties that will be his NFL career. My favorite ad was Doritos Samurai, but I will readily admit that it was stupid, but whoever made that guy's costume deserves a huge round of applause.

Next week I will post my One Show submissions.

Thanks for reading!