Project - Hollywood Bachelorette Party

Greetings gentle readers.

So for the past few newsreel style posts I've been hinting that I was working on a larger project for my sister. Well, over the weekend her sister-in-law and fiancee had their wedding shower, with the theme being "Hollywood Awesomeness".

Donna (my sister) collected up a number of themed items from places like Party Packagers, but commissioned me to go the extra mile and create some great personalized items for those involved. This resulted in the following:

This Hollywood sign hung up over the doors, while a second, larger one was staked into the ground

as you walked in from the driveway. Both we made using white foamcore boards.

This marquee was for the movie All You Need Is Love, staring the bride and groom.

Crafted again from foamcore and several coloured sheets of bristol board.

We created a Walk of Fame for all the members of the wedding party. The bride and groom's star were much larger

and at the end, and were trailed by each member of the wedding party. Donna laid out a red fabric "carpet" too.

I also created an actual movie poster for the event. Hold on, let me get a better image of it...

I couldn't make it to the shower itself, but apparently everything went off great. I got a lot of praise for my work, and apparently had a few of my business cards handed out too! I really love when I can put a number of different design pieces together like this, and when I get free reign to have fun :)

As always, thanks for reading!

Wear It With Pride

So I've been fairly busy with some overflow work from a designer friend of mine, cropping out images for a website that as soon are finished, I'll link over to. That, coupled with not being home most weekends and trying to get some design work for my sister (who is setting up a bachelorette party) for Saturday, have made me fairly busy, and without a lot of time to update.

However! I did start up a D&D campaign DM'd by Jim and in the course of said game, we voted the character "Spooks" (a fire breathing cat) VIP. In honour, I made this:

See the kitteh! See it?! Thanks for reading!

One Can Dream, Can't They?

A little while ago I found a piece of art floating around Facebook that depicted what would be an epic level Lego Zelda: Ocarina of Time video game. Once I saw it, I was totally inspired to take it to the next level and see what would actually happen if it was applied to the actual game boxes. After contacting the artist, Wes Talbott and getting his blessing to use his art for my own project, I set to work. The results are below, and should make at least... 4 people I know wet themselves:

To be clear, neither Wes nor I own any of this property, and Nintendo, Lego, Microsoft and Sony do not support or endorse these ventures. We're just a couple of crazy, mixed up artists with grand hopes :)
Also, as a shameless plug, if you're not following Wes or at the very least checking out his portfolio, you are at a sad, sad loss.

Thanks for reading!

Backburning A Fire Under My Butt

I had a little bit of a realization today, something creative and design related, so I figured I'd share. This may seem more obvious to some, but bear with me that revelations like this take a bit of time for me. I'm kinda slow ;)

So I think I realize why I always seem to have some kind of project or new idea on the back of my mind, and why it always seems to be the project that I'll keep saying "I should really work on that now that I have some free time", and be really excited to but when it comes down to it, I do almost anything else.

I think I need that alternative project to keep me focused on what I'm doing. Let me step that back one: I need to have something that I will never properly finish so that I always have something on the go, so that I always have something creative to do. It's like loving your job because you have a hobby that you hate... I think... out loud that doesn't make sense, but I'm going to go with it.

This is probably why it took me over a year to finish the web comic script, but why I would also attack it with such gusto when I DID work on it. I always had something to do, even little bits at a time. When I couldn't find work, I had something creative to do, and that kept me going. Right now I've got another story I'm writing (which I haven't touched in over a week mind you) that is collecting proverbial dust because of the new business. This is a legitimate reason to not be working on it, but I had a solid hour tonight I could have worked on it, and decided to play some video games instead.

Why? It lets me procrastinate. It gives me something to look forward to. I'm not overly sure what the reason is, but I know that when I don't have a personal pet project, I get down on myself.


Thoughts?

The Subtle Art of Business

It has been quite a whirlwind of things around the office lately (heh, the office. I have an office!) Sorry this post didn't come out sooner, I actually got caught up in some end of the month paperwork last night :) I smile because it seems so weird to say...

Most of the projects that I've been working on (Repeater and the Machine and The Inexpensive Gamer)  are good and finished, with the work all posted up nice. I even managed to find some random work redoing a logo for a business in Cambridge when I was out that way last. I also have two logo jobs for one client that we're in the back and forth stages of, but when they're finished, I'll toss them up here for some cross promotion goodness.

The wedding side project is going well, and I'm looking forward to sharing that. I've got to check in with my sister to see if it's cool to put that stuff up. I don't see a problem, but you always have to watch out for letting out information before it's ready, you know?

Today hopefully will also be a day of business promotion. Once I finish the double job I mentioned, I have no no clients. I'm waiting to go down officially to the Welland Chamber of Commerce simply because it's the off season, and I wouldn't get nearly the bang for my buck that I would waiting until September. We shall see where that goes.

Still writing, more planning at this point. I'm trying to find the happy mental median of doing things to keep the business on track, but doing the creative thing I need to recharge my own mind... and NOT playing the new Borderlands copy I just bought :P

That's all for now. As always, thanks for reading!