Year 2, Semester 1, Day 1

I had my first class of the fall semester last night. It's Graphic Design 1. So far, so good.

For some reason, I'm not as afraid of a graphic design class as I was of typography last semester. Maybe it's because my teacher for this class is exactly my age. He graduated from Mass Art the same year I graduated from RISD...which is a little weird. But since I clearly haven't made a name for myself in my own field after all these years, maybe he can help me break into his. /o:

In any case, he seemed to be speaking about design on a level I can understand. It seems like all of the principles I learned from being an illustration major can be applied in a different format to graphic design. Good design is good design, right? I'm still nervous about Intermediate Typeography next week. Something about type still makes me vaguely nervous. Guess I'm going to have to get over that, huh?

In a little aside - we all had to get new IDs last night since the college changed its logo and ID format. I got a new photo too since the last one was wretched. I have to say, the new one isn't much better. I'm pretty sure that even supermodels look like crap in their school IDs and licences, but is it really necessary for me to look like Popeye in mine?

Hahaha! Oh well. Happy Friday, everyone!

21 Day Challenge: Day 2

I did this quick little sketch last night. I was trying to capture a little gesture from memory that my hedgehog makes when he's running about sniffing things. I used a teeny bit of color in this one. A while back, a friend of mine gave me a set of what looks like crayons or oil pastels. It comes with this paintbrush looking thing that has a hollow interior so you can fill it up with water. Once you "color" with the crayon/pastels, you can run the brush over your marks to wet it and it turns into a sort of watercolor. Pretty cool.

Before I forget, I wanted to update all of you on the Case of The Missing Class Work. My teacher from this past semester wrote me back regarding the failure to find any of my projects in the Continuing Ed office (which is where he promised they would be a week or two after the semester ended) when I went to Boston this weekend. Apparently he's off on a trip somewhere, and hasn't even dropped them off yet. It's a little frustrating that I didn't know that before I took a day off of work to pick everything up. But thanks to our trip to Blue Ginger, the day was not a complete wash. I'm just glad that my 15 weeks of work isn't lost in some sort of office abyss.

Happy Friday!

Blue Ginger

I took my very last personal day off of work yesterday to make the drive to my college and pick up all my work from the whole semester. As some of you might remember, my teacher held everything and told us he'd drop it off at the school a week or two after class finished. We could "swing by" the Continuing Ed office to pick it up. (They're supposed to hang onto it for up to one year.) However, me "swinging by" entails a one hour, 15 minute ride...if I hit no traffic. I certainly was in no mood to drive down, turn around, and drive back up. I figured I'd make a day of it and hang around the City, so the hubby also took the day off as did hubby's friend, T.

Once we arrived, I made my way to the office. The folks at the front desk pointed to a very small pile in the corner and told me that's where all the left over spring semester projects were. It didn't take very much digging for me to realize that there was NOTHING from my class in there. Plus, everything was labeled "Drawing for Communication" and not "Typography". I inquired again at the front desk where the typography class work was. The guy looked at me blankly, and said, "Everything we have is in that pile." Grrrr. I left empty-handed and angry. My teacher better still have my semester's worth of work. I will be furious if the 300 artist business cards I collected have been lost in the black hole that is Mass Art. Not to mention all the layouts and logotypes I busted my butt creating all semester. Fifteen weeks of work. Gone. (Yes, I e-mailed my teacher this morning about it. Cross your fingers that he can provide me with some sort of explanation.)

T., hubs, and I decided to make our way to the Museum of Fine Art since we were already at that end of town. We got there only to find that it closed at 5:00 on Mondays. ARG! Boston = a total bust.

The next half of this blog is rather uncharacteristic of me, in that I'm going to blab for a loooong time about food...because I had the most amazing meal EVER last night. So, if you're not interested, I give you permission to cut out now.

The three of us had reservations for 7 at Blue Ginger in Wellesley, and decided to head over early.

T. works there, and was taking me and the hubby to the restaurant as a wedding/anniversary gift. We hit rush-hour traffic and wound up arriving around 6-6:30.

Blue Ginger is owned and run by celebrity chef, Ming Tsai. He used to host the Emmy Award-winning show East Meets West on the Food Network, he was on Iron Chef, and he now hosts Ming's Quest on the Fine Living Network as well as Simply Ming on PBS.

T. gave us a tour, and introduced us to everyone. We sat at the bar where the boys ordered beer and I ordered a Fuji Apple Martini. Mmmm. We figured we'd get some crab Rangoon to munch on while we waited. They brought us both the Rangoon AND an order of shrimp sticks--with a wink to T. And thus began our 4 hour, 6 course dinner. You heard me correctly.

When we were seated at our table for dinner, we ordered a bottle of wine and a couple appetisers--calamari and an order of foie gras-Shiitake shumai (on T.'s recommendation). We munched on our little bread/cracker basket while we waited. Then, they brought us our appetizers...and a little bonus...an order of muscles in a lovely sauce with grape tomatoes. Oh. My. God. SooOOoo good.

Minutes later, the waitress comes back with a little "amuse bouche" (a little taster) which was some sort of chicken dumpling. One each. I could see they were absolutely spoiling us because T. had brought us as his guests. Clearly, we had an "in". Lol.

We turn around at our table, and who is actually working at the restaurant that night but Ming himself! T. introduced us, and a few minutes later, Ming pops over to our table to chat a little and to give each of us a "butter taster". It was a little marinated piece of butterfish and two pieces of sushi. Everything was so light and flavorful...I can't even begin to tell you how amazing it was. Plus, since T. is one of the cooks he was able to explain to us what was in each dish and what the different textures were.

Ming also came over to make sure everything was up to par. I was laughing later with my husband about it. Like, who are we? We're nobody! We ate at Bugaboo Creek last week! This place is far above and beyond our standards. Yet he treated us like we were important, and made sure we enjoyed our meal.

Then dinner came. And a second bottle of wine. I had a gorgeous curried pasta with Asian vegetables and coconut shrimp which I could barely make a dent in because by then, I'd been grazing for THREE HOURS. Dinner got boxed up and carried home with me. But it didn't stop us from ordering coffees and one dessert to split. I think we ordered a sesame macadamia caramel nut tart. They brought us FOUR desserts off the menu. And the tart had a delicate lemon cookie leaning against it with "Happy Anniversary" scripted in a frosting on the front and a little candle burning on the side. I was so contented, I thought I was going to die.

The kicker? With T.'s employee discount, pretty much all that we owed at the end were tips to the waitstaff. Just to give you an idea of how insane that is, our two bottles of wine alone (not counting a single scrap of food or our pre-dinner cocktails) would've come out to about $110... so you can only imagine what a full dinner of that caliber would've cost us sans T's hospitality.

My hubby and I couldn't stop talking about how amazing the food was or how fabulous the service was...even after we got home! I was convinced I was going to die of food happiness in my sleep because I'm pretty sure they don't feed you that well unless you're heading to the gallows. Lol. For any of you who ever find yourself in Wellesley MA with some money to burn, go to Blue Ginger! The decor, the staff, and the food are all fantastic. I cannot reccomend it highly enough.

A big enormous THANK YOU to T. for the amazing culinary experience, good company, and a lovely time all around. *Hugs*

Blogs, School, and Helvetica (the movie)

I woke up this morning to yet another lovely piece of news. Fellow Etsy seller DecMeadow has featured me on her blog! Read her lovely feature of me here.

I had my last typography class of the semester on Tuesday. (Phew!) It was pretty laid-back and even involved cookies. The only issue I'm having now is that our teacher collected our projects. In fact, he still has ALL our projects from the entire year. He'll be returning them all to the Continuing Ed office by the end of the month (after he grades us) for people to drop in and pick them up.

The only problem with that is I can't "drop by" since I don't live in the City. I live an hour away. More than an hour away, if you factor in traffic. Sigh. The office will supposedly hold student work for up to a year, but I don't want to take that chance. Especially not with potential portfolio pieces. But I'm also not going to drive all the way down there just to grab my work and drive all the way back home either. I'm thinking I'll have to take a personal day off of work next month (hopefully I can convince the hubby to play hooky with me) and make a day of it. I have a couple RISD pals down there who I haven't seen in ages anyway.

The result of me not having my final project in my possession is that I can't take photos of it to post on here. It came out well, but it's not really the impressive masterpiece I expected it to be, so I suppose it's no big deal. The challenge of organizing and arranging 250 business cards was a real obstacle to overcome. I tried and tried to avoid going the Rolodex route. I even recruited my mom (who has some experience with amateur book-binding) to help me brainstorm. In the end, the only way out of my self-inflicted mess was to use a Rolodex. Someone has already stared down (and solved) the "too many business cards" problem, and their solution clearly is the best one. I did create a front and back book "cover" for the Rolodex (hand-painted and everything!). I categorized, alphabetized, and slid each card into a clear plastic Rolodex sleeve before putting them in. So, if you can imagine that, you can probably live without pics for a little while longer.

Now that I have an iota of free time before the fall semester, I plan on getting my studio in shape (you literally can't take one step in there without putting your foot down on some randomly scattered art supply or project). I'm praying that I'll have time to finish a couple paintings I started last year and work on some new ideas I have brewing. I'll be working two jobs this summer though, so we'll see if this is a pipe dream or not. (o:

I've already started to relax a little bit. Last night, the husband and I had a "dinner and a movie" date. (The stay-in-the-house kind, not the go-out kind.) I made a massive pan of my ever-popular healthy (or...healthier, anyway) lasagna and we settled in to watch...Helvetica. That's right. My husband voluntarily watched a documentary about graphic design and typography. I swear, I didn't tie him to the chair or anything! He even tolerated me whooping every time a famous graphic designer (or even a term I learned this semester) came on the screen. Not to mention all the laughing I did at design jokes. Though, my behavior might have had a teeny bit to do with the 2 or 3 glasses of Chianti I had. *Ahem* Anyway, Chianti or no, I enjoyed the film. I especially enjoyed my non-artist non-designer husband watching it with me. Then again, I've watched an awful lot of sports with him. I regularly hear him cheering (or swearing) at the tv from 3 floors above. He probably knows that he owes me.
Next up? Basquiat. (It's already in our Netflix queue. Shhhhh...don't tell my husband!) (o:

Small World

Last night was my second to last typography class of the semester. By next week, that journal of artist business cards will be done, and I will post pics of it on here for your viewing pleasure. (Or displeasure, depending on how it goes...lol.)

Aside from presenting our final 3 page magainze layout/spread, we had a guest speaker -- the talented graphic designer, Wing Ngan, of Ink Design. He's done graphic design for MIT, Harvard, and Houghton Mifflin to name a few. He's also been featured in loads of graphic design magazines. But what caught me by surprise was that he's an Etsy seller. Really. Go look. He sells adorable little gocco prints. I didn't say anything about my own shop (even though he was sitting right next to me). I just stashed the knowledge away and hearted him when I got home. Haha!

I have done both printmaking and silkscreening in the past, but had no idea gocco existed. They're teeny little silkscreening machines from Japan. Now that I know they exist, I MUST have one. Alas, they're a bit expensive and I don't have the funds at the moment. But it is the newest item on my wish list. Maybe I'll make a bunch of sales at once, and then have some spare cash to spurge on printmaking supplies. Hey - I can dream, right? (o;

Confidence

Last night's crit on my brochure layout went better than expected! I'm starting to feel a little confident about my design skills, and certainly more confident in my ability to learn quickly. We have only 3 major projects left and 4 weeks until the end of the semester. Yikes! After that's all done, the hubby and I are going on a weekend getaway for our first anniversary. So, at least I have something to look forward to at the end of my trials and tribulations!

In other good news, I made a sale yesterday! That was a pleasant surprise since sales are rare for me these days. I haven't had time to promote my shop or make any new items for a while, so it has been really stagnant. Lately, I've mostly used Etsy to buy from other artists and chat. My poor shop has sat there waiting for me to find time to pay attention to it. People seem to be liking my teeny little inexpensive drawings, though. Maybe I'll make some more this summer.

Other than that....when I can, I've been working on organizing my studio. Along with some little plastic tubs, I bought one of these from Target last week:

Note the signature "honeydew" color scheme? Yeah, I'm a sucker for that color. I saw a VW Bug on the road this morning in the same color and I was like, "Hmmm...." as my head filled with daydreams of driving around in one with Honeydew Studio stickers all over the back. I don't even particularly care about VW Bugs. I think it was just the color that nabbed me. Lol. Oh God.

Anyway, I want more bins, but all that our local Target had in stock was the one I bought. I even went back a few days ago, but alas - still out of stock. I'm thinking about buying more online. The only problem is that you must buy 2 at a time online, and it gets pricey with the shipping etc.

That's about all that's going on today. I hope it's as gorgeous outside in your neck of the woods as it is in mine!

Paul Rand

In class a couple weeks ago, our teacher made us each pull a name from an envelope. Those slips of paper had the names of various graphic designers on them. Our newest ongoing assignment is to create a magazine spread for whichever designer we got.

I pulled Paul Rand. He's the one who designed the logos for UPS, IBM, ABC, and Enron (to name a few). It was a lucky draw, because I feel like I "get" Rand's work. It's modernist, simple, and witty.

Paul Rand passed away in 1996, but remains one of America's biggest names in graphic design. What I didn't know about him until my research this week, was that he designed a few children's books with his wife, Ann Rand. As an illustrator (who has been focused largely on the children's market in the past few years) this interested me. Take a look at some of his book covers:


The above cover is the french translation for Rand's book, I Know a Lot of Things. I mean, how adorable! That book (in any language) seems to be a collector's item now. The starting prices that I saw online were $40 and up.


The top two images are covers, and the lower images is a spread from one of the books. I think it's just gorgeous.

You know, it's funny...until this Typography class I didn't think about the people behind the designs we see every day. I guess in my mind, there were big corporations collaborating together and churning out logos and type like factories. I never thought of individual designers sitting behind their desks, brainstorming over letterforms and what way would best brand a company. Now I not only understand that many logos can be attributed to specific designers, like Rand, but I am starting to recognize and appreciate individuals and their work. It's sort of like a door opened up and I've discovered there's a whole other wing in this house that I haven't explored.

I still don't know if I'll ever be a good designer, myself (I still very much have an illustrator's brain). But I do feel like I'm learning and progressing by leaps and bounds. We'll see how I feel after the crit on my brochure layout tonight. I honestly have NO IDEA if it's good or bad. Usually I have some sort of inkling before class. Today? Nothing. I'm sure you'll hear about it either way. In the meantime, go look up Paul Rand online. You'd be surprised how many well-known easily recognizable logos are attributed to him.

The Cure for Insomnia

Eureka! I've found it! May I present to you the first drug-free cure for insomnia:

It's my copy of Typographic Design: Form and Communication.
Oh. My. God. I thought I'd reached the pinnacle of all dry, boring textbooks when I took an Architectural Theory class in my undergrad. I have to say that this book is in a close race for second in the category of Most Boring Reading Material EVER.

I have a lot of reading to finish up by next week for class. I thought I could plow through it last night. I made myself a ginormous cup of coffee, propped myself up on pillows, and sat on my bed to do some reading at 8 o'clock. Every two pages, I dozed off! This was sort of aggrivating seeing as how I didn't even feel very tired...plus I was pumped up on caffeine! Unreal.

I was literally swearing at the book last night. The writing is pretentious. It's like these guys are getting paid by the word. They'll take up 4 lines text and pack it full of 10 cent words to say something that could've been said in one easily digestable sentence. It's not like the concepts are beyond me, it's not even that the vocabulary is beyond me, it's just that I find the writing obnoxious. By the time I've finished reading their phrasing, my brain has shut itself down and I've slipped into a coma.

So, if any of you are having trouble falling asleep at night, put down the Lunesta and head to your local bookstore for the cure!

The Grid is a system, Neo.

It seems I wasn't the only one in Typography class last night who didn't "get" the whole grid layout concept. After a 5 minute explanation from the teacher, I felt like I had an inkling of understanding. Even though I don't feel completely secure in my knowledge, going from having NO clue to at least SOME clue was huge. I felt like I could suddenly see the Matrix.

For those of you (like me) who are coming from a non-graphic design background, I'll try to explain. Imagine blueprints for a house you're going to build. You've got the square footage, the rooms are all drawn out, and that's the plan. Once the house is built, you are free to renovate and knock down walls if you want. A grid is sort of like a blueprint in the world of page layout. You set your margins, number of columns and their width etc -- then you build your design on top of those standards. That's how I understood it, anyway.

Our prof. said the explanation of grid layout was all in our book. Okaaaay. Granted, I'm not yet 100% done with the reading. However, I read the stuff about grids and to me, it was jibberish. That Typography book is as dry as toast. I fell asleep on top of it at 5 o'clock in the afternoon the other day! I'm a firm believer in going back over the reading material in class - even if it's just a quick overview to see if anyone has questions. Which, clearly, we all did. I learn much better by seeing and doing. Looking over a magazine with the teacher and having him point out the underlying grid patterns helped my brain immensely. I have a starting point now. Now maybe I can make heads or tails of the next two layout assignments. At least I know I'm learning something, right?
Five more weeks of class before summer va-k. (o:

You know what day it is

It's typography Tuesday! I have my class tonight. That means I usually have nothing to talk about except school this time of the week. (Sorry!)

But, on a positive note -- I sort of feel like Super Woman today.

I finished my logotype project and am pretty proud of how it turned out. I illustrated the honeydew shaped "O" for an image on the letterhead and the back of the business card. I kind of love it. (I'll post newer pics soon).

I also finished up the first portion of my brochure layout assignment. I'm not so proud of that one, but at least it's done. I'll be honest in saying I had ZERO idea what I was doing last night. Brochure layout...whaaa? You might as well have told me to write a paper in Russian. I just can't seem to get the concept of a grid down in my brain. I know what hierarchy is, but ugh. It's just not working out. Even if my samples are abysmal (which I'm pretty sure they are) I'm not super worried. I seem to be learning really fast and I'm sure the crit will set me on the right path.

Other than that, we have a quiz tonight and I have no idea what we're expected to know. The only thing he told us for sure we'd be quizzed on are hyphens, en dashes, and em dashes. Well, I know what those are. Let's cross our fingers that's the only thing on this quiz. Especially since I didn't finish some of the reading I was supposed to do (gulp!).

After all of that, I somehow found the time to make a semi-complicated stew at the last minute and throw it into the slow-cooker overnight. Usually my poor hubby can forget about a home- cooked meal until Wednesday. Granted, I was still cooking at midnight last night, but at least we have dinner for the first half of the week.

Full time work, plus homework, plus commuting, plus school, and I still manage to be one mean cook? Seriously, where's my cape? (o;

Honey-do homework

I thought I'd finally show you guys one of the projects I've been working on for class. This is my *brand new* Honeydew Studio logo. Last week in class, my logo samples went down like the Titanic. This week, I ditched everything and started from scratch. After busting my butt, e-mailing back and forth with my teacher, and discussing it at length with my brother-in-law (who is a professional graphic designer) I came up with this resolution:


That pic is kind of a crappy copy. Sorry. I don't know how well you can see it, but there are little seeds inside the "O" to represent a honeydew melon. I'm thinking about saturating my greens a little more since they don't show up real well on white paper. Especially the "o"s. I want them to be a bit closer to lime green. The other half of the project for this week was to design two samples each of letterhead, a business card, and an envelope. Since I spent so much time on the logo itself, I had to crank the rest of the project out last minute. After seeing everyone's professional-looking work hanging up on the wall during class last night, I was completely ashamed to show my cobbled and glued together mess. I could barely hear all the nice things people had to say about my logo, because I was so appalled at my stationery set. Thankfully, some of my ideas were at least shining through my horrid craftsmanship, and I was able to come away with a plan for next week. I'm eager to get to work on it.

I feel a lot better today. I suppose this cycle of stress and anxiety will continue every week until I'm done the program. (Ugh.) I only have one class this semester, and am starting to wonder how I survived two classes last semester. In the fall, I'll be back to taking 2 courses again. I am not looking forward to it. At least my blog readers will get a whole summer reprieve from me whining about school before I turn spastic again. Haha!
Anyway I'm motivated enough to start working on this week's assignments immediately. I hope I can get it done, get a head start on project #2, and have time enough to enjoy myself this weekend. (I am attending a Margret Cho show with the fabulous Ms. Sarah of The Pink Shoe Diaries.) And maybe...just maybe...I can start sketching cover art idea for Ryan's Life in Orbit album. (I hear you cheering, Ryan. But don't get your hopes up too much! Lol.)

Under Pressure

(Minus David Bowie or Freddy Mercury.)
Is it just me, or does anyone else have a problem creating their art under the weight of high expectations?
I'm not talking about the stress of deadlines or anything like that. I'm fantastic at working under that kind of pressure. It's not even really other people's expectations that get me. It's my own.
Let's say I was about to start a painting and someone said to me "This piece has to be PERFECT because it's going into your portfolio", I'd be frozen. I wouldn't even be able to pick up a paint brush.
I think the equivalent happened to me this week in my Typography class. We have an ongoing logotype assignment. Most people just made up a company for themselves and branded it. I have my real shop - Honeydew Studio - which has been waiting for some sort of logo and branding since I opened it last year. It's already gone through probably half a dozen shop banners.
I worked up about 7 logos, none of which I was happy with, and brought them to class. Oh. My. God. My project went over like a lead balloon...and rightly so. None of my logos were any good. I'm starting to feel almost incapable of producing anything great because of all the pressure I'm putting on myself. I mean, if this logo comes out well, I'll be using it in the real world for years to come. I can be fabulously creative when I have to brainstorm a project for someone else. It's just that this particular project is for me and it isn't just a school assignment.
It's quite literally back to the drawing board for me this week. That will put me a bit behind everyone else. (They'll just be resolving their final logos and starting to design business cards etc.) Ugh. Any suggestions how to get myself out of this deer-in-headlights mindset?

Typography Tuesdays

Oh you know what time it is! Time for another heartwarming typography discussion. Lol.
I have my class tonight, so that means last night was homework-cram time.
I was working on my logotype assignment for today. We had to invent a "company" and services (which isn't difficult for me since I have a real, still as of yet unbranded, online shop). Then we had to pick a color scheme and design the logotype for business cards, stationery, envelopes, etc. Six different versions were due today.
It's been over a year now that I've been trying to do this logotype thing for myself for real with no success. Of course, up until this year, I also had ZERO graphic design training. So, I thought maybe tackling the whole "identity" thing would be easier since I've been in school. Now that it's an assignment and I have to do it, it'll just come rolling out, right? Wrong. The only thing that was easier for me was deciding which fonts stink. Other than that? Same level of difficulty. How do I sum myself up when I'm not even sure what I want to say about myself?
Right now, the things I have for sale are children's illustrations, funny bumble bee ornaments, and stuffed animals. But I don't want to pigeon-hole myself into some goofy logo, because I plan on eventually expanding into more "grownup" artwork as well as (we all hope) graphic design. My favorite logo is probably the most boring one in the pack. I have 7 logos, but I sort of feel like not one of them are that great...so don't ask me to post them! I'm worried it's going to look like I didn't do a ton of work on this, when in fact, I've been wrestling this beast for too long. What a mess. My best hope is for a productive critique tonight to get me back on the right path. I guess we'll see what my teacher and class have to say. Sigh. Wish me luck!

Geeking it out in Typographyville

I had my typography class last night. It was a busy night, and we had a lot of ground to cover. The homework due included a type project, a paper, and mid-semester review of our big "journal" project. AKA - my infamous "artist business card project". It went over well, and everyone seemed impressed at how many cards I've received so far. (Thanks to all of you!)

I'm slowly starting to understand type design. Previously, I never really liked or cared about this sort of thing. I appreciated good design, but wasn't really interested in talking about it or doing it myself. Typography seemed like a foreign land to me. It's like if you were suddenly plunked down in Paris with no French language skills at all. Once you get a handle on the language (be it French or type), the world opens up and there you are on the street cheerily waving to people shouting, "Bonjour! Commant ca vas?" Or in my case, getting way too thrilled with receiving artist business cards in the mail and looking over all the different designs. You know what I mean?

I'm even excited for the next big project. We have to "brand" ourselves and create a type logo for letterhead, business cards, etc. We'll even get to use color. (We've been working in b&w all semester so far). I am psyched. I've been struggling to do this very thing for Honeydew Studio for more than a year.
I have a banner which was made for me by the lovely Ms. Jelene, but a banner is not necessarily a company identity. The last business cards I have were from YEARS ago and are really poorly designed, generic mass orders I made through an online printing shop (which will not be named). When trying to sell your artistic and design ability, these are maybe not the best things to hand out to people. Now I'm going to have my teacher as well as an entire class worth of critiquers to take a look at my design ideas for Honeydew. As far as I'm concerned, this is not merely a class project. For me, this is "real world" design for my shop and services - an area that where I've felt lost and lacking for a very long time. Now, I'll get getting loads of help at long last. (Hooray!!!)

Man, is this the first telltale sign that I'm geeking it out for graphic design? I guess you'll know of sure if I ever start getting excited over font.

We have a winner!

Due to the incredible response I received from all of you, I've already gathered nearly 200 business cards from artists, designers, and craftspeople for my typography project!!! I've received mail and digital files from all over the country and even as far away as Australia. I can't even begin to express my relief and gratitude. Since it's impossible to thank each of you individually, I entered all the names of those who sent me cards into a drawing. The prize is a print of one of my children's illustrations. I kept a careful list, printed and folded the names up, and randomly pulled a name out of a jar the good ol' fashioned way! So, this morning, I'd like to announce the winner:

Congratulations to Tanya of Razorberries!

I'd like to thank you all so much for your help! Though this marks the end of my contest, I'm STILL accepting business cards for my project. It isn't due until mid-May, so the collecting continues. Again, please e-mail me at honeydewstudio@gmail.com if you'd like to contribute.

Mr. Postman, do you have a letter for me?

Last night the first two envelopes of business cards arrived, as promised. Yippee!!!

I expect more to be rolling in all week. I think I might be getting a little too excited about the prospect...but, c'mon! I opened my mailbox yesterday, and for once it's not stuffed with bills or misdirected pieces of mail. (I'm still getting mail for the previous owners of our place. We've been here for 3 years. And we also still get mail for my MIL. She stayed with us for only 6 months and I swear she gets more mail than we do!) Anyway, it's doubly nice to be getting something that will be an aid to this ginormous typography project that I have looming in front of me. You guys rock.

This is not to say that I don't need any more cards. I do. In fact, I need A LOT of cards. Nothing would make me happier than to be up to my eyeballs in business cards. (o; Like I've been saying all week, if you are an artist/crafter/designer I still need you to send your business cards into me! E-mail me here: honeydewstudio@gmail.com

Moo cards are great. Digital files are perfect. I'll print them up myself. Anything and everything would be great as long as it's a) from a creative person and b) in business card format.

Now, to discuss a different kind of card...As I've previously mentioned in other blogs, lately I've been very interested in ATCs (artist trading cards). I have a book about it and have been doing a little research. From what I can gather, ATC trading was created in 1997 by Zurich artist M.Vänçi Stirnemann. He came up with the idea as a way for artists to get share and socialize with each other.
For those of you who don't know, an ATC is a 2.5" x 3.5" sized original piece of art. Artists trade and collect them. There are a couple general rules about ATCs -first is the aforementioned size restriction. Second, they have to be original works of art. And lastly, they're not sold. You trade one of your cards for one card from another artist. (Generally, you aren't allowed to trade other artists' cards.)
The idea of collecting small works of art became so popular, that many people do sell them, but as ACEOs (art cards, editions and originals). I know ACEOs are available on Etsy.
I'm not looking to sell. I'm interested in the original concept, which is artist-to-artist trading. I'm dying to find out more about them, and to try my hand at making my own when I have some free time. Does anyone out there belong to a good online ATC trading group? I'm interested in joining one and getting more info from someone involved with the process. Leave me a comment if you're an ATC artist. I'd love to hear from you!

Just another reason to love Etsy (as if you needed one!)

Over the last two days, I sent my plea for business cards out everywhere I could think of. Including begging on this blog. (I'm sorry, but if you can't whine on your own blog then where can you whine?)

You know why I need so much help? Because these were all I could find in my house for artist business cards:

I'm hoping there's more lying around somewhere. Even if there are, it won't make much of a dent since I need hundreds for this project. The instructor told me via e-mail that over one hundred cards would be a minimum.

I'm a member of several art, craft, and illustration groups so I e-mailed or posted on the sites of every last one of those groups. Only a trickle of responses came in. With one exception. Etsy. The deluge of e-mails and convos from Etsy folks simply blew me away. It makes me so happy, I could do a little dance. In fact, I just might!
The support and help I have received from the Etsy community is astounding. I even received international e-mails. I would hug every last one of you if I could! You can imagine what a difference all of you guys made (and can still make). Especially when some of you are including cards of artist friends and family when you mail me. By the end of the week, my pile of material will have increased 100 fold from what I have now. I expect the final product (the book I have to make) will be fabulous.

For those of you who haven't been following my typography project saga, scroll down and read the blogs from the past two days to catch up. Then, if you haven't sent me your card yet but would like to, feel free to e-mail me at honeydewstudio@gmail.com and I'll let you know where to send it. Although the first half of my project is due next Tuesday, I will continue collecting cards until nearly the end of the semester (that's when the project is due). Every last card is needed and welcome! So, please keep sending them!

Now...onto another topic. (You deserve it. Especially since you've been listening to this homework stuff for 3 days in a row now!) I was browsing at Barnes and Nobles a week or so ago with the hubby. I decided to poke through the art and design magazines and just became overwhelmed.

What I want to know is - do you guys read art mags? Which ones are your favorites? I usually like Juxtapoz...even though it sort of makes me feel like I stink as an artist after I read it. It's like fashion magazines for women - you know you'll never be Gisele but you keep looking at (and comparing yourself to) pictures of models anyway. Haha! Oh well.

Anyway, this month's Juxtapoz was all encased in plastic. I don't know about you, but I hate when I can't flip through a magazine before I buy it. First of all, that plastic is such a waste! It creates so much extra (non-biodegradable) garbage and for what? I mean, is there a special gift inside that they don't want to fall out? Usually not. Basically we're just not allowed to gaze at the magazine before we buy it. Um...no thanks. First I want to know if I'll even be interested in what I'm paying for! I find that most of the other fine art magazines consist of 99% ads. Which annoys me. Art magazines are expensive! I don't really need to pay $8 or more for you to sell me something. If there's hardly anything inside aside from ads, why bother creating the thing at all? I thought ads were supposed to help pay for content. So...are there any other worthwhile illustration/design/art magazines you can recommend? Good articles, great pictures, etc? I want something worth picking up. I think I have another B&N gift card with $15 on it somewhere and I'm looking to spend it! (o:

Oh boy. I'm in trouble.

As many of you know, I'm not only working full-time but I'm taking night classes for the graphic design program that I'm enrolled in.

Right now, I'm working hard on a BIG project for my typography class. This is a semester-long project. We had to pick a theme and start collecting typography samples on that topic. (We should've been collecting since day one of this course.) Later, we'll be compiling them into some sort of creative journal format. I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to work on, so I arbitrarily picked something. I recently decided that I hated my theme, and didn't want to work on it.

I decided it would be much more fun and interesting to collect business cards from other creative people (ie: illustrators, designers, and craftspeople). I e-mailed my professor about it this week. I received an e-mail back saying that would be ok, but that I should've been collecting all semester...and that I'm going to need hundreds of business cards.

Yowza!!!

Ouch. I'm still dedicated to this project, but I desperately need your help. If you're an artist, illustrator, graphic designer, or crafts person (or know someone who is) please please please send me your business cards!!! If you read yesterday's blog, you'll know I even have a contest running right now for people who get their cards to be before March 18th.

Some folks have been asking if it's ok to just e-mail me a digital file of their business card, and the answer is YES!!! It's totally fine. I just got a professional-grade printer this week, so your cards will print up beautifully on my end. Just send 'em. If you want to go the snail-mail route and need an address, just e-mail me at honeydewstudio@gmail.com and I'll happily send it to you. You can also send me your digital files at the above e-mail address.

Lastly, I would like to say a very big THANK YOU to those who already responded to this request. You guys have been fabulous and so generous with your help and support. I can't wait to open my mailbox later this week. *Hugs*. Keep 'em coming!!!

Design Whine

I'm exhausted. The weather is just miserable. Coffee isn't even helping me this morning - which is a shame because I have a long commute and an even longer day ahead of me.
I have class tonight, and I'm not at all confident in the homework I completed for it. I worry that I misunderstood something about the project, or missed some crucial direction and that my work will stick out like a sore thumb amist beautifully executed pieces.
I really don't "get" typography and layout. It's like my brain simply isn't wired that way. You might as well be speaking to me in a foreign language. I suppose that's why I'm in school in the first place, but still...you don't want to be the worst girl in class, right? You want to at least appear that you're catching on. Especially when I already have BFA from an excellent art school. I imagine people raising an eyebrow at my credentials then pointing at my homework and saying, "And this is the best you could come up with???" (I realize no one would actually do that. But that's what goes on inside my head sometimes.)
Adding to my misery, I'm working on a PC at home. A Mac is really more appropriate for these design programs. I think I missed out on a pile of potential fonts that I could've used last night for this project just because I'm working on PC platform. Not to mention that my bare-bones knowledge of design programs will eventually conspire against me. I certainly don't have any money right now to invest in a new computer system. (Unless I win the lotto...which would REALLY help right about now! Where's that genie in the magic lamp?)
Last week, our teacher mentioned that we could work our school's computer lab, but he also doesn't know that I am an out-of-state commuter. I'm not going to drive down an hour (sometimes 1.5 - 2 hrs depending on traffic) on a non-school day just to pop in the hopes there's a free seat in the lab. I do have a full-time job, an online shop, and a home to maintain. Ugh.
Anyone want give me a boost of confidence? Or at the very least, a really strong cup of coffee?* I need it today. :oP

*Along with the lotto genie, there should definitely be coffee fairies. They're much needed creatures, you would think nature would've designed them by now! Lol.