Welcome Home.

I celebrated another year of life yesterday with my wife, and I must say... it's great to be married. Food tastes better, the company is prettier, and the experience is much more memorable. We headed over to Shabu Fondue for a wonderful birthday dinner surprise. I was fairly excited about this because I had not had 'real' fondue before in a restaurant setting. The atmosphere was great and the restaurant was themed pretty well; distinctly Asian-decor (think lots of red and black). The food was fantastic, albeit a little on the pricey side (especially since you're the one cooking half of your meal...). All-in-all a great experience, and one I would recommend in moderation (your wallet will thank me).

We are also picking up the keys to our finished condo today! After nearly a year of waiting, the place is finally built and ready for the newlyweds to move-in. I must say, with this being my first piece of non-rental property, I'm quite excited. Celeste and I are both keenly aware of the fact that this, along with many other things, is a blessing from the Lord. We are so very thankful to our God for giving us this opportunity and pray that we are able to honor Him through the use of our home and lives together.

During the course of the next two weeks, I'll be traveling a lot. Next Tuesday we will be heading over to Orlando Florida for the Photoshop World Conference with our friends Vinny and Elizabeth from Xaris Studio. Upon returning, I'll be preparing for another trip with my Creative Services team at Food for the Hungry. We are having our annual vision planning trip which will help us brainstorm new ways to be productive and innovative with our branding and marketing during the course of this next year.

It's a busy time in our lives, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

That's a computer?

The OQO Model 2 computer is pretty amazing- it looks more like a smart phone to me than a computer. With a base price tag of $1299 (and the ability to buy a refurbished model through the outlet store for $999), these little 'laptops' are competition more for the cell phone market than anything else.

When you you realize that a 16gb iPhone is $500.00, it really puts things in perspective. Would you rather be limited to a smart phone-style iPhone (come now, lets admit it- for as cool a phone as this is, its NOT a computer) OR, for roughly double the price, have access to a fully-functioning computer? If I was in the market for one of these things (which I'm not currently), I'd save my dollars for the latter option. The base specs aren't too shabby either: 1.2 Ghz processor, 40GB Harddrive, 512 MB of RAM, full WiFi and bluetooth capabilties, preloaded with XP home OS. Not only that, but the docking station is sweet- elegant aesthetics in the design department, and extremely functional.

The reason I would contest that something like this can compete with the smart phone market, is the ability to use VOIP in conjunction with this full-on computer interface. By utilizing a data plan through a variety of available cell companies, users could not only use this device to wirelessly access the internet, but also to use services like Skype anywhere they have cell service. This was something I had talked about a few years back in my blog. I was really excited at the prospect and potential of these 'mini-laptops' and their ability to incorporate the use of VOIP on the fly.

A service like Skype essentially cuts out the middle-man in VOIP communications... that is, of course, AFTER you've already purchased a data plan from the aforementioned middle-man... oh well, there's still room to grow. Still, this is very, very cool.

The 'Rig'

I'm officially a camera geek. I've spent some (too much) time at Home Depot and Ace Hardware of late looking for parts to use in constructing my new HV-20 'rig'. For those of you uninitiated into the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) world of guerilla filmmaking (ex- for those of you are not geeks), a 'rig' is simply a type of camera setup that has been configured by its user to accomplish multiple goals in cinematography at one time. For example- I'm trying to create my rig in a manner that would allow me to have multiple mics, a video light, an additional camera lens, a video monitor, and some zoom controls all housed in one solid piece. I haven't gotten too far yet, but I do have the skeleton of the rig basically completed (see photo). It's not spectacular by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm slowly working on adding more functionality and form to it. The end result should hopefully look like something someone would use to shoot a movie with... not like a botched ab-roller... errrr... like it does now...

Christian Artists: A Call to Excellence

As a Christian, I am well aware of the origin of art- my maker, my creator- He is where art had its beginning. Looking throughout creation, be it in the faces of my coworkers or at the top of a mountain overlooking the vastness of this world, God has truly crafted a work of art in his creation. What an excellent reminder and encouragement to Christian artists to pursue excellence! So often we are encouraged to imitate Christ in the way we speak and lead our lives. As artists, our course of action should be no different; we ought to imitate Christ through our art.

I find it disappointing that good art is considered 'secular' within the school system today. Why is it that, as Christians, we feel like we must sacrifice our values and morality on the altar in an effort to be known or to create what others would consider 'truly great art'? Today, everyone feels as if they must push the envelope. Cinematographers are constantly looking for that next scandalous subject that will have the media abuzz. Just take a look at the Sundance Film Festival. Whilst seeking to create pieces more 'esoteric' in nature, some film makers trade well-written stories for drab, meaningless plots that make a stir by being crass or unsettling. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying here: there are MANY excellent films that come out of that festival, I am not contesting that. However, for an event that supposedly houses the independent film making elite, it sure is a sad statement in general about the values and focal points of mankind.

As Christians we do not have to sacrifice our faith in God in order to create pieces of art! During high school I was fortunate to have Heidi and Erin as friends. These twin girls were a constant reminder to me of what the sole-purpose of art is: to glorify God. That is to say, our creativity, by very nature, is an expression that can be used to bring honor and praise to the supreme Artist. Heidi was recently featured in an article over at ASU's online news hub for her show at the Step Gallery, Chrysalis: The Contemporary Significance of the Classic Still Life (which I unfortunately missed due to the craziness of current events with moving and the like- so sorry Heidi!). What a wonderful statement she has made through giving her gift of painting to her heavenly Father! I've known Heidi for a long time. Heidi's work is never static, dull, somber or cheesy- it is always alive, joyful, and progressive. Her work is the mark of an artist on fire for Christ.

Being a Christian artist does not mean that you cannot push the boundaries of your creativity, it does not mean that you are forced to endlessly fabricate 'Jesus pictures'- that is a common misconception. God's beauty is in His creation, it is in all that He has created. A flower, a daring rescue, the somber reality of war, a baby, a family in poverty, persecution, a joyful entry, a man weeping, an artistic rendition of feeling, a composite of materials... these are all art subjects that can be used to bring glory to the supreme Artist. Why? Because He made everything! The distinction between a Christian's art and a non-Christian's lies solely in the artist's viewpoint of sin. A Christian artist understands that sin is a perversion of art, not something that should characterize art.

To my artistic brothers and sisters in Christ- may we embrace the gift that God has given us and relentlessly pursue Him through it's use. May all our actions and art be for His renown. May we invest ourselves in mimicking His artistry throughout all creation.

Good Marketing: Epinions.com

As a graphic designer, I really appreciate a good marketing campaign when I see one. Epinions.com has a really great one going on right now- write 10 reviews and get $10. Why is this so great from a marketing standpoint? Namely- users, as well as Epinions benefits from this.

This campaign does three things for Epinions from my point of view: 1) increases traffic to their website, 2) provides incentive for users to get invested and integrated, 3) costs them VERY little to boost traffic and user interaction. The rules stipulate that a max of 30,000 reviews can be received to qualify for this promotion. Hmmmm... let's see, 30,000 divided by 10 equals 3000. Yep- a promotion that, at the most, costs Epinions (a company valued at $30.5 million in 2003) only $3000 to generate massive user interaction and interactivity. Not only that, but it is more than likely that Epinions will receive excess entries over and above the 30,000 qualifying ones.


I'm a dork I know, but I couldn't help but admire a well-thought out promotion like this that saves money and maximizes business productivity. My goodness, did I just give free advertising for a promotion? What a dork...

The Uprising Has Begun...

My sources have recently informed me that there is an uprising in the works meant to stop my progress as an individual. It goes by the name of S.O.M.B.S. Details are sketchy at the moment, but a look at this new 'video blog' reveals quite a bit about the movement's leader, known to his audiences only as 'Darryl'. More info will be posted here as this unsettling drama unfolds...

IMHO: 5 Fonts That Should Not Be

I was reminded of some overly-used, ugly fonts today. I was going over some spec sheets of 'approved' fonts today for a vendor whom will remain nameless and found one of the fonts that is on my pet peeve list... ug... Come now people, let discuss some basic principles of design. Without further adieu, I give you the top 5 Fonts That Should Not Be.

#1 - Comic Sans

It really wasn't an option to not pick this one as my #1 most despised font. If you look far and wide on the net, you'll discover that I am not alone in my disdain. Nothing says tacky quite like a the cartoony-goodness of Comic Sans. Check it out this website dedicated to banning Comic Sans, or this font dedicated to spreading truth; its entitled 'I hate Comic Sans'.

#2 - Papyrus

Often referred to on the net as 'the thinking man's comic sans', this is one font that has been driven into the ground by overuse (plus, its ugly... so there). This font thrives amongst small churches, video-gamers, and a plethora of other groups. For those of you thinking that this a unique way to distinguish your document/piece from the masses- it's not. Everyone has adopted this font, everyone. I remember being pretty disappointed to see that one of my favorite (canceled) series, Firefly, had adopted this font for use on the their spaceship in the movie Serenity (although to be fair, they did alter a bit... mostly by bolding the typeface). Apparently the papyrus font is still heavily used 500 hundred years in the future... those poor space people.

#3 - Curlz

I'm not going to even bother justifying why I picked this one... just look at it.

#4 - Copperplate

This is probably the font that I'll receive the most flack for picking. However, I still stand behind my choice. This is a font that does have its specific applications, but has grown to be included on my pet peeve list due to overuse. Like papyrus, this font is one that many people use to make their documents 'unique'. The tracking of this font is pretty odd in my opinion (too much space between characters). While that can be adjusted easily in design programs, most users taking advantage of this font are using applications like Word which do not have this ability.

#5 - Brush Script

Unless you're designing a baseball jersey, stay away from this font. There are so many fantastic cursive/handwriting fonts our there for free download... why in the world would you choose to use this one? If you're looking for one of the most contrived cursive fonts in the universe, please look no further.

Have a font that I missed? Disagree with my choices? Please leave comments...

New Print Ads & Web Work

I'm gearing up for an intensive graphics load in the coming months here at Food for the Hungry (FH). There are quite a few print/ad projects that need attention, and on top of that I have a website redesign to attend to. Don't get me wrong- I am pumped about this work- but it can seem a bit daunting at times when your project load takes a huge spike. Thought its been a few months in development, I really think that the new FH web site will be well-worth the time and effort that goes into it. The web team here in-house is extremely capable and has given me pretty broad limits as far as design goes. I'm posting a black and white print ad I just completed today for the upcoming GMA (Gospel Music Association) week. FH has two of our amazing artist advocates playing at the event, Leeland and 33 Miles. This should be a great acoustic show for those who are able to attend!

OSX Leopard Icons

One very small upgrade to Leopard (but one that has not gone unnoticed by this designer), is the ability to use larger icons. OSX Leopard now uses icons that can be up to 512px big. This update is especially important now that coverflow browsing plays a big role in day to day operations. Coverflow shows icons and photos of any and every file residing in a specified folder. Having icons that span up to 512px large makes for much clearer images and a greatly improved GUI. I have been wanting to design my own icons for sometime, but never have taken the time to learn the process from start to finish. Well tonight I did!

Using the tutorial provided at TutorialDog.com I was able to successfully craft my own Leopard-compatible icons. I did however tweak the tutorial a bit. Instead of using CandyBar, I used the free program icns2icon to implament my finished product. The only other programs you need are photoshop and program called IconComposer which is included as part of Apple's Xcode package (this should be on your OS disc or is available for free download at the hyperlink provided).

I also discovered MAC's official human interface guidebook for designing all sorts of add-ons for OSX. It's a great read and really shows you why OSX just looks and feels superior to other operating systems on the market. Apple has set a benchmark in the aesthetics department which is huge to their product line. They've discovered that form indeed plays as equal a role as function in the marketing process. What's more, the MAC community has rallied around the good looks of the OS and has made qualified attempts at maintaining certain standards in the design and feel of their products/projects. Very cool.

I created icons tonight for myself and my wife to use on our separate document folders. In keeping with the MAC style guide, I gave them an apple-esque bubble flair. There is actually quite a bit of thought that goes into designing icons and logos like this. If anyone has any questions regarding the process I used for this, please feel free to post. I hit a couple snags when I was working on this, but was able to get through it fairly quickly.

My Brief Take on OSX Leopard

I was recently able to upgrade to OSX Leopard on both my work and home graphics stations and am really enjoying it! There are some cool new features that Leopard adds to the mix and I've been taking advantage of those quote a bit these past few days. My favorites so far are the advanced network capabilities (thank goodness we finally have networking capabilities that can compete with a windows machine out of the box... in my opinion this was MAC's weakest point in past releases), the ability to stack items in the dock (my dock no longer overfloweth...), time machine (this is amazing and really much better than I expected), cover flow (hooray- now I can browse files AND look cool doing it). to name a few. I've been much more impressed with this upgrade than I originally though I would be.

One option that I'd love to get working, but am still somewhat skeptical about, is the Back to my Mac ability that Leopard boasts. I was just approved to work from home one day a week and this option would be really helpful to me! Using this function I would be able to, in theory, access my work computer from home and control it. If I'm missing a file or need to grab something from the company servers, all I'd need to do is log in and drag-drop it to my home workstation. This is all fine and dandy, but tapping through the ports is something that should prove to be challenging. I'll post more on this if I am able to get this to work properly in the next month.

Fun on the Golf course...

I'm in the process of editing a short reel of film I shot at FH's Million Dollar Golf Challenge this past Monday. Here's a short clip of me and Elgin messing around while we were waiting for one of the groups to catch up...

Political Quiz

My wife and I have been taking online quizzes in an effort to better understand how our views translate to the political realm. While I was fairly sure that I knew the finer points of my own political views prior to taking the quizzes, I did discover some unique quiz tools online. Both Celeste and I agreed that our favorite test was taken at: http://politicalquiz.net/. We liked this one the best because it doesn't give you the generic, "Your a Republican/Democrat!" answer. This test assigns you a 4 digit numerical value which tells you about the specifics of your political views. It is apparent that how you prioritize your values in politics makes a huge difference in how you vote. After completing the test, you can plug the numbers you are assigned into a 'voting match-up' section of the site that will pair you with a presidential candidate. Pretty nifty!

Documentary Blogs

...I'm going to be posting them. I haven't figured out all the details yet, but I'm planning on doing a series of semi-weekly blogs that contain documentary videos on specific topics. This a) gives me a chance to blog with a purpose, and b) allows me to put to use all of the learning I've been doing over at hv20.com. Forums can be an incredible way to pick up knowledge- I can't believe how much info I've picked up from this awesome community of do-it-yourself filmmakers. Lynda.com has also been an invaluable resource for quick assimilation and training on this subject.

I can't remember the last time I've spent so much focused time on one subject... I'm getting addicted to video again. I'm finally starting to understand the cinema tech heads and all of the jargon that they spew... its disturbingly fascinating and also... (lets just call it what it is, okay?) incredibly geeky. Not too many people can appreciate talk of inverse telecine pulldown, the importance of deinterlacing your video footage, or how to dequagmify your rotothermonuplex (okay so I made up that last one).

Still... the video bug is in the air and I'm hooked. Look for some more short films and abbreviated documentary pieces in the not-so-distant future.