Tis the season!

I was going to blog about some process of my work but instead today as I got in my car and turned on the radio 100.3 switched to all Christmas music today! I just could not hold in my excitement due to my extreme love for the holidays and the music that comes along with it. So from now and till December 26th I will be belting out every christmas song that comes on during my daily commute to good ol CCS. So for the rest of you though do you think its too early for the holiday jams to be played and should wait till after thanksgiving or are you like me and soon as November 1st comes around you instantly get in the holiday spirit!?

For those who need to get on the christmas music vibe here is a link to listen right now!
Christmas Music!

Coffee vs Beer

While I was doing homework this week, I happened to come across this interesting but awesome infographic on what drink makes you more creative, and those drinks being beer or coffee. This caught my eye because I occasionally drink a beer or two when i'm doing homework and always drink coffee when its going to be a long night of work. After reading the info graphic it stats that having a beer or two will help jumpstart your brain in coming up with an idea but it makes you tired so you will not be able to work as long, and that coffee helps you get more focused and finish out an idea. I would agree with their conclusion because I feel that when you drink a beer or two you become more relaxed and loose so you think differently and not as pressured so more ideas may come up in the process. Along with I drink coffee often while trying to finish projects and this kind of just reinsured why I do it which I thought was funny. So what do you guys think about it?

Here is the link to the full infographic.

Drink & Draw.

Today was AIGA("American Institute of Graphic Arts")  Drink & Draw at The Emory a bar/restaurant in Ferndale on 9 mile and Woodward. The event was to socialize, drink and eat food at The Emory.  It was my first AIGA event that I have ever attended and honestly it was quite odd. I walked in and there was almost no seating where the event was happening so I ended up sitting with a few friends at the bar just outside the tables where the event was happening. We still ended up getting some paper and drawing utensils to create stuff while we were enjoying our drinks and food.  The overall experience was quite nice and fun in the long run, but at first I just was confused and expected it to be a little different or more organized I guess because Im new to the whole AIGA thing and I'm kind of shy at moments so I didnt really want to walk up to some random table and just be like heyyyyyy is this the AIGA event, but like I said I did end up having a good time!
The one thing that I found interesting was that the bar had no domestic beers on tap but only craft, which wasn't a problem for me because I love craft beer and supporting local breweries. So this I thought was a good chance to ask you guys what you think about that or what you think about craft beer. I personally will drink almost anything(which could be a bad thing?) but I think its fun to try new beers so you can have different flavors for different times of the year or mood you are in, which enhances the experience and purpose to drink the beer or beverage rather than the more obvious reasons.

Inspiration Inspiration Inspiration!

http://redcatposters.calarts.edu/

Throughout the week I was in a design block and couldn't come up with any ideas for my current projects. But I came across this site that my teacher recommended called redcatposters. Its a site with a bunch of great posters created by other students. I really enjoyed the site because no one poster is a similar they all have different ways of showing their messages. I also really enjoyed the way a lot of them have many different layers to each piece to help create a more dynamic compositions. So after looking around through it for a few minutes it helped me get out of my design block due to seeing how other people did some thing I have not seen before. Further more if you like poster design, need some inspiration for a project or just want to look at some cool stuff, check out this site!

826 Store Update!

Here is an update to the Viking 826 Store in St. Paul MN, I have been working on. This step is probably the largest and most fun in process of creating the identity for the store due to not being constraint to anything and being able to just make whatever you please that gets at the essence of your concept. So far I have been struggling a bit to really get some good solid pieces that could be used for the identity but have got rid of all the cliches and most probable solutions so I should be able to push myself further now and really get something exciting and different that everyone will enjoy. If any of you have any suggestions or ideas that could help me push this concept of a viking store further, then please do! Any help or criticism I am more than welcome too, and it should help me along the way as well!

The Good o'l Hockey Game!

Inspirit of the hockey season starting and it being my favorite sport, I decided to look at how many of the teams came out with new logos or revamped their jerseys for the upcoming season.

The first one I came across was the whole new identity of the Dallas Stars, this is the teams 3rd time doing this since being the Minnesota Northstars which later became the Dallas Stars. From what I noticed they tried to simplify the design even more while trying to recreate the Northstar logo at the same time. I think the reason for the change was to have a more recognizable logo that could relate to the city and its fans. This will also create a bigger meaning into the logo so when the players are wearing their jersey, they will have more pride and history with the team. 

Further more many of the NHL teams have been changing their jerseys to be more simple and bold to create more pride and more connotation and denotation with the logo. This will create a large sense of symbolism and have a stronger brand essence with the team. So with a more meaningful logo more people may end up liking the team due to just how the organization operates, to the people who only like the team if they are winning.  A good example of this is the Detroit Red Wings and the winged wheel. The wings wheel doesn't have much meaning to the City besides the spoked wheel to represent the motor city, but from the past years and the people who have worn the jersey created a deeper meaning or persona that comes with wearing the winged wheel, much like the old english D on the Detroit Tigers jerseys. So this design may be cleaner and more simple but it helps create a better brand and persona for the team itself. Below are a few more images of teams that changed their logos or jerseys, and lets enjoy the start of the new hockey season. Lets go wings!

826 Store Project,

826 Stores are a nonprofit that raise funds, inspire creative students, and advertise our programs to the local community, our centers feature a street-front retail store filled with unusual products, student books, and information on the center. In my visual communication class we are suppose to create a 826 store based on the city we have been selected. The city I have is St. Paul Minnesota.

St. Paul Minnesota has many unique qualities to it such as having the largest scandinavian population in the United States which is 1.6 million people. It also has other fun stuff such as having a stereotype for people living there called Minnesota Nice, and other things such as their accent, love for hockey/outdoor activities, and lastly its the land of 10,000 lakes. 

With all of this research I had to come up with a concept to start creating this store from its name and what some of the products it could be. I chose to do a viking supply store relating to all of those scandinavians within the state and just other people who would enjoy to have something viking related in their household. So far all I have started is some artboards trying to get an idea of what vikings were like and what they did, I will show more progress as I get further into the project. I hope you are as excited to see the outcome of this as I am.