very well

oh, it's me

2012-01-27T10:32:00.000-08:00

I've been feeling the need lately to record some thoughts and things, so I think I'll try to start up with the blog again (haha—I began my last post with similar words).

The past year has been such a roller coaster of change, and I feel like I didn't get to grasp and hold onto a lot of things the way I wish I could. I've learned so much about life and growing up from having a baby and working to support our little family. While I'm not really an avid writer, it seems like a worth-while use of my time to put some of those lessons in writing. (And some pics—who are we kidding). My life is very segmented at times, but I hope to be able to bring it all together in one place—maybe I'll feel like I'm all one person!

Oh and we've been uploading pics of our little Joah here:
joahanthonycruz.tumblr.com

life's going good

2011-07-23T11:53:00.000-07:00

OK, I guess I'll start up with this blog thing again! Here's a little update:

Joah is growing way too fast for me! He'll be 4 months in a week, and I get a little teary-eyed when I look at pictures of his early days. What a sweet little gift he is!

1 month

3 months

We took two trips to Colorado so Joah could meet the fam. They all loved him (of course).

with Grandma Mona

Highlights:
When Uncle Steve rushed out of the house to meet the little guy after our long road trip, I handed him over and Joah had a leak. Steve looked shocked, "What is that?" We were trying out a new diaper brand, which we don't use anymore...poor Steve :)

Joah also met his only first cousin, Ammon. What a cute pair. Definitely love at first sight. Can you believe they're less than 7 months apart? Babies grow too fast.

We moved! When my little monkey was exactly 2 months old, we packed everything up and moved 7 blocks, with the help of my crazy awesome parents. We're now living in a basement apartment in a less fun neighborhood and paying half the rent for a larger space. Woohoo! It still looks like we just moved in...maybe I'll be brave and share some pictures sometime.

I went back to work a week later, and James is at home with Joah until he starts school at the end of August. My mother-in-law, Carmen stayed with us for a week to help with the baby while we got settled, which was amazing.

These days we just try to keep on some sort of schedule, hang out, and watch our little cutie grow. We went to the aquarium in Sandy last weekend, and Joah had fun looking at the fish and penguins. I tried to take more pictures, but the light was so bad. I'm pretty sure the building used to be a grocery store.

on the way to the aquarium

at the aquarium

and a nap afterward. That's a penguin on his onesie.

Work is good. I have a lot of projects to update my portfolio. I'll get around to it when it's important I guess. Right now that's kind of taking a back seat to watching my baby chomp on his hands and blow spit bubbles. He's so cute :)

AND, that's it I think. I'll try to post more often in the future!

Joah at 2 weeks

2011-04-21T15:48:00.000-07:00

I'm behind!

Here's a little video of Joah waking up last week. He is so cute when we de-swaddle him. I always feel bad waking him up, but he has to eat! At his 2 week appointment, he still hadn't gained back his birth weight, which concerned the doctor a bit. We're going in to weigh him again tomorrow, and we'll see if our efforts to put some chunk on the little guy have worked.

The weird banging sound at the beginning is our washer...It's a little bit of an over-achiever when it comes to spinning.

Wake Up Joah! from Analisa estrada on Vimeo.

Expect more photos soon!

A Baby Joah!

2011-04-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

We had a baby!

Joah Anthony Cruz

Thursday March 31, 2011

7 lbs 5 oz, 20 in

And he is absolutely perfect. He's lived with us for only a week now, and has completely changed our lives. I thought 'd use this occasion to stop staring at him and share some pics:

Still Here!

2011-03-23T19:59:00.000-07:00

These past few weeks have gone by so fast!

The baby is due in 1 week and 3 days. I can't even believe it. I'm so anxious for the baby to come, I don't really know what to do with myself!

Our condo complex has a little terrace with gorgeous vines growing up the walls. I've been wanting to take some pictures down there before the baby comes. We had fun :)

Wooli Bottom

2011-03-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

I saw these gorgeous books on iiiinspired awhile ago, and I've wanted to do some bookbinding ever since.

However, I feel a little bad lately using my free time on anything except baby things, so I made a little wool diaper cover instead! It turned out pretty cute.

I used a wool sweater from DI that I shrunk and felted in the washer. It used to be gray, but I accidently put it in with a blue and red blanket, and it turned purple! I love the purple though. James looks good in purple, so I'm sure Babyboy will too. It's super duper soft, and the felting makes it waterproof. I even tested it. I can't wait to pull it over his little bottom!

I sewed it by hand, so it took me a couple hours, but still a pretty quick little project.

Secret: I'm a little terrified of sewing machines. They move too fast and stress me out. Maybe someday I'll be brave and really show the machine who's boss, but for now hand sewing is OK.

Oh, just HUGE

2011-02-24T17:35:00.001-08:00

You can see why I almost cried yesterday when I came home for lunch and the elevator was out of order. This baby is not easy to carry up 4 flights of stairs...

5 weeks, 2 days to go!

Light Bright

2011-02-14T17:28:00.000-08:00

I had a sick Valentine's Day today. Woke up with a sore throat and stuffed sinuses, and a little bit of a headache. So I stayed home, rested, and ate some nutritional sick food (ie pizza and strawberries...the pizza was to celebrate our oven finally getting fixed today!) Anyway, I tried to sleep most of the day, but my brain wasn't cooperating, so I found something to work on.

I saw this light art idea on AT a few months ago, and thought it was super cute.

A cute little Light Bright-ish night light to hang next to the baby's sleeping place. Yay! Since I already have the stuff to make it, I'm going for it! But I thought it would be fun to try using the baby's name or a cute word instead. So here's what I did today. I'm probably getting ahead of myself—I don't know how many lights are on one string, but I had fun!

...and then I thought it might be a little silly to put words on the wall for a baby... Anyway, wouldn't it be more fun to design a little Light Bright animal or robot friend? So this project is to be continued.

I'm working on making it cuter...

PS James came home from Target and cooked some Vday steak! It was delicious. He's incredible. Pretty sure I can't be sick after this kind of treatment.

Awesome Things My Baby Does

2011-02-08T19:07:00.000-08:00

1. Wiggles around when we play music.

2. Kicks.

3. Kicks my hand when I rest it on my belly.

4. Kicks James' hand when he rests it on my belly.

5. Kicks the iPad when I rest it on my belly.

6. Kicks his new stuffed puppy when I rest it on my belly.

7. Kicks my dinner plate when I rest it on my belly.

8. Kicks James in the head when he talks close to my belly.

9. Kicks me in the ribs when I slouch too much.

10. Gets hiccups!

He's amazing!

Teeny Tiny Legs

2011-02-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

One day, I saw this picture:

And ever since then, I have been a little obsessed with baby leg warmers. Unfortunately, this particular item costs a little more than I want to pay. (here) Especially since they're basically a pair of socks without feet. So I googled "baby leg warmers tutorial," and found quite a few lovely blogs that show how to make them from adult socks. I don't have a sewing machine, or know how to use one. But my mommy does! So we used this tutorial to make these little cuties:

After the baby is born, I'll be able to measure his legs and taper the bottom so they fit nicely. But I may have to do that sewing by hand, because my mommy is no longer near by!

My parents were serving a mission here in Salt Lake City for the past year, and left us for home last week. They had a blast helping people out at the Family History Library at Temple Square, and I was super spoiled to have them living so near, and to have them all to myself! Now they're far away, and I think I'm having mommy and daddy withdrawal. Aren't they cute?

When we own...

2011-01-28T14:51:00.000-08:00

It turns out someone already designed, furnished, and decorated my dream home. Which is actually an apartment! I'm in awe. I'm going a little crazy over how much I love this place.

They even have an gorgeous nursery!

Some Late Resolutions

2011-01-25T18:45:00.000-08:00

I thought I was only going to have one resolution this year: Have a baby! (although James said that isn't really a resolution) But getting so close to having the baby has given me an itch to improve everything!

First of all, our money situation is kinda messy. Turns out, even when you have a full time job that pays well, you can get into debt! Especially when you have car problems. We've been pretty naive (and a bit lazy) in thinking that we didn't need to keep a strict budget. This irrational behavior will be corrected.

Second, my life has gotten into a pattern of working, coming home, and watching other people live interesting lives and do amazing, creative things. TV, blogs, inspiring websites, etc. While my personal accomplishments, outside of work, have been pretty minimal. I decided that even when I'm feeling like poop, I can do something creative that makes our home better for our little family.

So the solution is this: James and I will be following a budget (!) that includes almost zero money for non-essentials. Any extra will go towards our lovely debt pile. (Have you heard of the Debt Snowball?) I will do more creative things around our home—perfect timing for me to get serious about our "nursery" (the baby's half of our bedroom). AND I'll blog about our adventures! It should be interesting with the whole ZERO budget thing.

So there. I'm committed. Wish me luck!

Zoooooooo

2011-01-15T17:46:00.001-08:00

We planned a trip to the zoo this weekend, and luckily I had energy, and the weather was really nice! The winter is such a great time to be at the zoo. No crowds, no crazy heat, and the animals aren't any less active. Although, I bet evenings in the summer are the best time to see the animals.

It felt good to be on my feet for longer than usual, until they started hurting!

Getting Close to Baby Time!

2011-01-15T17:36:00.000-08:00

Well, as of this week, I am in my third trimester. And you can tell!

Overall, pregnancy has been kicking my butt! I haven't had to miss work yet, but I'm pretty much in hibernation in the evenings and on weekends.

I don't think I posted it on here yet, but we found out we're having a BOY! And I think we have a name. What do you think?

Favorite Baby Things

2010-11-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

I've been obsessed with baby stuff lately, so just for fun, here are my favs.

Ugly Dolls

Aden + Anais Bamboo Blankets

Skwish

Wee Gallery Art Cards

Super Cute Times Ahead

2010-10-08T14:14:00.000-07:00

So, I have been largely absent from this blog lately, but only because there's nothing exciting going on.

Haha, tricked you. That is actually not true.

THE most exciting thing that has ever happened to me is happening right now. James and I are expecting a baby! We are due April 2, 2011. I'm almost 15 weeks along, and starting to show ever so slightly. I'll be sure to post a picture once I get a good baby bump going.

Also, rather than creating a mutant baby picture on one of those weird websites, I'm going to start posting family baby pictures so we can all create our own mental images of our new little baby.

I can't help but hope our baby looks EXACTLY like James.

Or my new little nephew, Ammon. Becky and Steven did a wonderful job.

And just in case you're wondering what James is pointing at...

New Place

2010-06-10T17:04:00.001-07:00

Well, we moved to downtown Salt Lake City a few weekends ago. We took a leap and downsized from a 1300 sq ft 3 bedroom to a less than 600 sq ft 2 bed, and I couldn't be more thrilled! We gave away a few pieces of furniture and lots of junk we were just hanging onto because we had the room. Here's a little peak at how our living room looks right now. We're still debating the couch situation...we kinda like sitting on pillows to watch TV!

I'm in love with our neighborhood! We're sitting right over a gorgeous little market. James surprised me with some meat and cheese from Tony Caputo's the other day, and I've been having the yummiest sandwiches every day for lunch.

Oh and I got a new haircut a few weeks ago!

3form!

2010-02-06T17:34:00.000-08:00

I'm WAY behind on posting things on this blog. So much has happened!

One of which, I was hired at a company called 3form in October. They're an up-and-coming resin manufacturer in the interior design and architecture world. It's been a blast working for them.

I'll be posting a few projects I've done sometime soon, but here's a little teaser.

Just a little illustration I did to promote their annual installation contest.

make: your way

2010-02-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I put up my BFA show, and took it down last week. Overall, I'm pretty pleased!

Here's a little about it.

Our perception of the structure surrounding us is hugely influenced by how we experience it. Whether it be a city, a building, or a wide open wilderness, the act of finding our way through an unfamiliar space triggers a highly complex process in our subconscious. At first thought, many would not regard the act of trying not to be lost as particularly creative, but the piecing together of random stimuli, thoughts, feelings and observed information brings into existence a very useful tool. Researchers have termed this tool a cognitive map. These maps——inner perceptions of the structure or organization of our surroundings——evolve from linear to spacial as we become more familiar with a space.

The goal of this show is to create a tangible experience to represent these intangible, cognitive creations.

Floor Maze: As you enter the room, the lone line of the maze represents a strictly linear understanding of a space. You know only the path given to you. When you arrive to the body of the maze, your mind opens up to the possibility of many choices, and begins to create its own path through the space.

Table One: These books are called maze books, in that they create a path as you manipulate the pages. This first set represents the random stimuli you may experience while finding a path through a new environment. This is a world of passive glances and quick observations. Your mind uses these imperfect, fragmented, exaggerated snippets of information to make sense of where you are.

Table Two: Once you are familiar with an environment, your mind is able to create a more accurate and useful tool for use in your wayfinding endeavors. This book encourages you to follow the graphic paths in an effort to arrive at the final configuration.

make: your way from Analisa estrada on Vimeo.

Thanks so much to everyone who helped put the show up. My dad made the tables, friends Ayumi and Brandi helped tape down the maze, and my wonderful James was AMAZING and helped fill in all the gaps.

I used images from the following Flickr members, under the Creative Commons license.

_unlikely
Andrew Turner
everydaylifemodern
healthserviceglasses
jamison
lucasmascaro
ManitobaHistoricalMaps
nicolasnova
RuiOrnelas
VeloSteve

Thanks!

gold

2009-09-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

I just noticed today that I'm a Graphis Gold Award Winner for the 2010 New Talent Annual. They don't post pictures of the Gold work, but my name is there! That means my Cycle branding project will be in the next New Talent Annual. I can't wait to see it!

Also, the TFF5 titles have been getting good reviews all over the web from some very exciting places. Here's a few:

Motionographer (!)
The Font Feed

fleurs

2009-09-14T08:38:00.001-07:00

I would very much like to know how to make these. And to be French. Thank you.

TFF5

2009-09-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

The following is a large portion of my summer:

Typophile Film Festival 5 Opening Titles from Brent Barson on Vimeo.

All done with video footage and stop motion. I helped write, storyboard, construct, animate, edit, and my hands are even in there for a fraction of a second. Teacher Brent was the creative director and was such a great mentor to us, helping us stick it out through the entire process.

My most proud moments:

I designed and animated the swashy Beauty with the help of Brent and Meg.

We had to redo this take probably 5 times, but it was totally worth it.

I art directed this table arrangement. The table cloth flip seemed really daunting, but we pulled it off!

See my hand? I loved this furry lockup. I can't even describe how beautiful it was in person. Kudos to Deven for setting it so carefully.

And yes, I was the skilled foam-core-manipulator who revealed the Typophile Film Festival lockup. One of the many hidden talents we discovered during this project.

The "scent" scene was absolutely my favorite, animated by Wynn and Meg.

The project overall was just an amazing experience. Working with physical objects and actual footage is where it's at.

The festival premiered last week in Portland, and is currently on the schedule for Typ09 Mexico City in October.

a little inspiration

2009-07-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile I see an idea or project that is so inspiring and touches me so deeply that I urgingly wish I could have been a part of it in some way. I recently came across wee see, a collection of short videos designed for infants to help "introduce" them to the visual world. Their website is super, and you can watch a few samples.

I don't even know where to start explaining how much I adore everything about this. the concept. the simplicity. the music. and especially what it teaches. During my freshman year of college, I was considering going into art education, and I completed a research paper on "art" as an integral part of the development of children into fully functioning cognitive and emotional beings. For me, these videos are an amazingly beautiful way to introduce visual thinking and expression to young minds, and to set a foundation for their creativity.

Among principles and elements like composition, shape, direction, symmetry/asymmetry, pattern, motif, etc., I was especially impressed with the animator's use of figure-ground relationships. I may make it a regular routine to watch one of these whenever I sit down to design a logo. :) Oh, and did I mention the music/sound is adorable and genius as well? It is.

While I'm on the topic of kiddie stuff, I got pretty into children's fashion while I was working on my redesign of Milk, and I'm super stoked to see this collection when it's released. And I was delighted by the beautiful surprise Hello on their website. "Feminine minus the frilly and pretty without the precious." yup.

Milk

2009-07-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

Magazine redesign for Milk, a children's fashion magazine.

smashbox

2009-07-07T00:08:00.000-07:00

Packaging project!! For summer packaging class, we worked with Brett Traylor from ThinkSo. He gave the assignment specifications and then traveled down here to meet with us and critique our work. We were even on their news page. Super fun.

My client, Smashbox Cosmetics, is a company based out of LA. They began as a photo studio (and still are) and started manufacturing consumer cosmetics developed by their in-house makeup artists. I drew a new logo and developed the packaging for a line of basics.

Thanks so much to Jessica for photographing these. They look beautiful!

Gilt

2009-07-02T10:26:00.000-07:00

I know I don't have time or money for these things, but I've become an obsessive Gilt Group stalker. Gilt is a website that takes high end clothing and luxury brands and knocks the price down to, well, still expensive but not outrageous. Right now, I'm wishing I had a hundred dollars to invest in this:

surface

2009-06-24T15:38:00.000-07:00

This is CRAZY cool. Just goes to show that an interesting but simple concept or point of view can take you places. If you're really awesome.

SURFACE : A film from underneath from tu on Vimeo.

Sugar and Crumbs

2009-06-09T14:41:00.000-07:00

I recently gave up sugar. And today I really want a cupcake. There has to be a way to make some tasty cupcakes without sugar!

Apparently Babycakes makes baked goods with no refined sugar or flour, and they even have a cookbook for sale, but their cupcakes don't look nearly as delicious as these cupcakes from Crumbs.

I miss sugar.

Mr. Smith

2009-05-31T21:52:00.000-07:00

My husband and I watched Mr. Smith Goes to Washington on Google today, and these newspaper printing scenes made me happy.

remembering stuff

2009-05-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

I saw this on fffound, and I remembered that I saw it at Kayo Gallery when I went to SLC with my parents the weekend of graduation, and I remembered that I liked it.

Dan Christofferson
Gotta love Hoefler type and cultish Mormon imagery

And that made me remember that I didn't post anything about graduation, which is weird because it's kind of a big deal. Except for the fact that I'm not really done with school until August, but that doesn't make it any less fun that my family came up to celebrate with me, and that I got to wear a big ugly robe and a weird square hat.

Mom, Dad, Abuelita and I.

Me and my husband James after the commencement ceremony.

We had a graphic design dinner for the graduates. We all got "wood awards" with wood scraps from the Habitat for Humanity home we worked on. Mine was "Most Likely To Apologize for Being Funny." Fun times. My favorite? Linda's was "Most Likely to Buckle Up Before Ayumi Presents."

Aaron gave a really great presentation at the College ceremony. This is something good ol' Milton said when he was at BYU a few years back.

Me and my fam. They're so great!

We had a picnic right outside of our apartment. So fun!

My abuelita and two lovely cousins Arisa and Azalea.

It was also Grandma's birthday! We got her a cake and some presents.

Cycle Clothing

2009-05-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged about this project before, so I thought it would be a great place to start posting my new work.

Cycle is an Italian clothing company that borrows from various fashion periods and trends to create really sweet contemporary clothing. Their current branding is pretty uninspiring, and it doesn't do their clothing or concept justice.

My first step in refreshing their brand was to create a logo that can be enduring and timeless—one that will hold up well through all the trends that fashion will invariable go through.

I developed a variety of cloth textures as another branding element for Cycle. They are evocative of the diverse textures that are used in Cycle's clothing line, and are very useful in creating a cohesive but varied visual language.
Developing the packaging was probably my favorite part of working on Cycle. It was a fun challenge to use the color palette and textures to create a system that feels consistent and diverse at the same time. Photos by Kati Ellis.

Once the color palette and textures were nailed down, it was so fun to carry the look, feel and concept through the environmental applications and web pages.

Portfolio Pictures

2009-05-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

The wonderfully talented Kati Ellis recently brought me into the studio and shot some beautiful photos of my work! I'm incredibly excited to see the final result and will definitely be posting the photos with some words about each project when they are all ready. But for now, a small teaser will have to suffice.

By the way, definitely check out Kati's website, 1. because her work is inspiring and 2. because I designed her logo and helped lay out the site! We'll be photographing the work I've done/will do for her towards the end of June, along with another project I'm just starting.

wild thang

2009-04-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

Where the Wild Things Are!! from Matt Krenitsky on Vimeo.

sooooooooooo excited! They bring the characters to life beautifully—so real and fantastic. It's going to be a huge hit, especially since it was just about everyone's favorite book when they were little.

What an amazing trailer, by the way. The song (Arcade Fire), the editing, the pacing. Everything is perfect. You can see it in HD on apple.com or the official website along with some great gallery shots.

Her Morning Elegance

2009-03-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

Oren Lavie - Her morning elegance from Mimì on Vimeo.

love it.

Would you eat it?

2009-02-27T14:02:00.000-08:00

Scientists at the University of Western Australia have coined the term “disembodied cuisine” to refer to a new tissue-engineering technique that makes it possible to grow edible meat in a laboratory from sample cells. In vitro–cultured meat production may have many advantages, but it raises practical questions, as well as some complex philosophical and ethical issues. What should this meat look like? What flavor should it have? How should it be served? King answers the first question: “A mobile magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) unit scours the countryside looking for the most beautiful examples of livestock. The selected specimen is scanned from head to toe, and accurate cross-sectional images of its inner organs are generated . . . to create molds for the in vitro meat. We . . . might still want to re-create a familiar shape to better remind us where the ‘artificial’ meat came from.”

http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/2008/elasticmind/#/65/

my new favorite thing

2009-02-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

I can't get over how much I love the little interactive animation on this student's website:

http://www.woebken.net/

It's beautifully simple little thing that hides in the top right edge of the page. When I scrolled over it to leave the website, it came out, like I brushed it with my hand. I had to stay and play with it a little longer.

Lia Lintern

2009-01-21T14:09:00.000-08:00

I'm hoping that someday I will own a coat from Lia Lintern. They're handmade, custom fitted, and under $1000. Which seems crazy to think about right now, but maybe someday. Especially since I'm graduating and design jobs are so hot right now (haha).

Playing Dress Up

2008-11-14T18:37:00.001-08:00

I designed another cover today!

I love working on this magazine. It's a little bit of a challenge to make things feel child-like and sophisticated and artsy all at the same time, but I'm getting the hang of it!

The photo is from Vogue Bambini. Thanks Ayumi!
Typeface is Freight Micro and Freight Text Italic

internship stuff

2008-11-14T12:26:00.000-08:00

I just found out that some of the projects I worked on this summer at Vérité are up and running!

This Norton Antivirus project was pretty cool. I designed most of the icons and helped storyboard, although I didn't help with the animating. I really like working with the concept of a hand touch interface. Oh and the wonderful hand model is Wynn Burton.

Our project for Kennecott Utah Copper was my favorite! I didn't play a huge role, being an intern and all, but here's what I did do:

designed the head and brain diagram at the begininng
animated the parts with the plastic man and all the stuff around him
designed the report card
designed and animated the map sequence

And it turned out so good!

current stuff

2008-11-14T10:31:00.001-08:00

Well I thought when I first started this blog that I'd be putting up a lot of my work. So far, that hasn't happened, so I thought I'd start now. I'm working on some really great projects this semester, and surpassing all expectations, I like them!

The first is Milk, a French children's fashion magazine. I really love the magazine as it is, but since it's in French, I thought I'd make the American version! Here's my first cover:

Typeface: Freight Micro
Masthead by me, kinda based on FF Magda Clean
Photo: Loretta Lux

I'll post the feature I'm working on another time.

And here's my branding project. Public Conversations Project is a nonprofit org out of Massachusetts whose sole existence is to foster communication between opposing moral, political and world views. I thought it was a great concept for an organization.

logo:
business cards:

Typeface: FF Fago Monospaced

And this image is just for fun. It's my illustrator file with all the layers visible. This calamity is why I'm soooooo excited to get my CS4 tomorrow. Illustrator CS4 has multiple artboards. They can be any size, any arrangement and can be created any time. It's like all my Illustrator wishes have come true.

2008-10-25T12:44:00.001-07:00

This is so incredibly beautiful. Marian Bantjes is amazing.

political perspctv

2008-09-19T15:20:00.000-07:00

This site is so amazing. www.perspctv.com follows the presidential campaigns on the web. When you go to the home page, you can sit and watch as posts that are related to McCain or Obama are published all over the web. So cool. And they have this really cool widget:

New Hair!

2008-08-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

Yay for good haircuts!

2008-08-11T20:03:00.000-07:00

what a beautiful page of thumbnails.

Fun Things to do With Letters

2008-07-24T21:42:00.001-07:00

I found this book at DI, and I think it's REALLY cool. Who doesn't want to have fun with letters?

My favorite part is these way cool type kids at the end.

2008-07-11T20:14:00.000-07:00

I recently got involved with an exciting project here in Provo—it's an animated soon-to-be series called Children Kids (guess who drew the animated birdie!).

It's art directed by Cole Nielsen, who was part of the 2007 Typophile Film Festival credits project that has gotten even more awards since last time I mentioned it. Although I'm busy with my internship full time, it's such an amazing opportunity to be part of this that I couldn't pass it up.

I'll be doing various things like contributing drawings and doing some Aftereffects work. It's going to be soooooooooooooooo good when we're done—the current goal is to have the first two "episodes" done by September 10 so they can be submitted to Sundance as a short!

2008-06-28T22:49:00.000-07:00

We went to DI today and found some great shirts. Here's my fav

The typo makes me love it even more.

motion projects

2008-06-20T11:34:00.001-07:00

Here's some nearly finished versions of projects from my motion design class last winter. The first is my final project, a PSA for AmericansfortheArts.org. The other is a quick type animation. Like I said, these aren't the final versions--one doesn't even have the sound with it. I've refined camera movement and animation and re-added things, including sound, since--I will post the final versions when I find the files! I'm reeeeeally hoping they're on my external drive at home. I'd write more, but I'm on lunch and I need to eat!

2008-06-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

Some of this guy's stuff is pretty great. He's obviously very talented. I love hand-done type.

2008-06-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

make your own cubescape

2008-05-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

BYU has been getting some attention lately due to the excellence of this

It was the class project for the senior design class of '07--the Typophile Film Festival 4 opener. It won a prominent award and some of people that worked on it were interviewed on FontShop's Unzipped. It makes me proud to be a BYU GD BFAer (and current coworker of Jeremy Ames).

truth

2008-05-06T21:38:00.000-07:00

I started my internship yesterday at Verite, Inc. in the great little town of Sandy, UT. They gave me a nice little shirt today with this beautiful little friend.

They do some really amazing work: verite.com. I'm really excited to work with them this summer!

milk caps

2008-05-06T20:34:00.000-07:00

When I was little, I really disliked my mother's love of antiques. Our old, squeaky, scratched furniture had the sad existence of being beautiful in a past life, with doors and embellishments and legs that had the tendency to break off. I remember the first time my parents bought furniture for my bedroom that was actually new. I felt spoiled because I could pull my drawers out without jerking them side to side and up and down while trying to shield my ears from the screeching. But I think I'm learning to understand her fascination with old objects.

My husband and I visited our families in Colorado last weekend. My parents paid for our trip as a graduation present for my husband. It was a fun, quick visit that ended with what else but a day at an antique mall! and I discovered some very beautiful things. Needless to say, as a designer-in-training, I am entranced by type. This being my first trip antique-ing since discovering my obsession, I was on the lookout for some great, old typography. Here's where I found it.

I was so excited to find these beautiful little milk caps. I was so excited that when I got home, I spent hours on the internet finding more that I love. At first I thought I was going to get sucked into spending an unending amount of money on these things for the rest of my life. But I decided I could just keep a digital collection.
Of course, pixels aren't touchable, flippable little pieces of type heaven, but I have a few of the real thing that I think can hold me over.

here we go

2008-03-21T19:38:00.000-07:00

so I just got back from the city of new york where my design class and I met with the very entertaining and intelligent brian collins, who has recently founded his own branding firm. he talked to us about the importance of storytelling in design, citing his own favorite story, pinocchio.

he not only told us of his love for this story, but showed us his obsession with posters and books he has collected and toys he had commissioned to help him understand and visualize it through the eyes of others. he said as designers, we should all be keeping a blog to help us learn to tell stories to an audience. then he presented us all with a little friend and had us promise to start a blog and send it to him. there is my first story.