Invitations Arrive Tomorrow!

The wedding invitations are coming in tomorrow! I feel so very blessed- O'Neil printing is comping our order completely as a wedding gift to us (Conny and Tony- you are truly blessed friends- THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart). For the designers of you out there who are actively looking to pick up a friend in the printing business, I would suggest, no scratch that... I would BEG that you get in contact with O'Neil Printing. There is no finer, classier, nobler printing company out there. They truly do break the mold with their customer service and self interest in their clients. The company itself is employee-owned so everyone that works there has a vested interest in doing the best possible job for all their clients. Now they most certainly won't comp your order but they'll give you a very competitive price and will guarantee the best quality product available on the market. I love this company... can you tell?

Due to O'Neil Printing, I was given the rare opportunity to dream up an invitation from scratch. The finished product is an oddly sized 5.5"x5.5" shell which contains a pocket flap with stepped inserts containing information about the ceremony, reception, registry, and directions. It is printed on a beautiful pearlescent-type paper and aqueous coated for durability. It has turned out to be a really gorgeous print piece! I'm really jazzed about all of this and am thinking of investing into the wedding preparation design market. I'd like to specifically focus on those couples who want nonstandard print materials which distinguish them from design norms that abound in the current market. This all of course will be after my own wedding, but still- it's exciting to see a potential design niche to grab onto and explore.

Holiday Recap

Hello friends- I hope that you all were able to enjoy a very restful Christmas with friends and family! The Christmas season is an awesome reminder of what Christ, our Savior, has done for us. Its not only a time to remember his birth, but a time to remember that He was born for a reason. Indeed, He was born to die for our sins. I admit that I often lose sight of this and regret my self-centered actions. As a sinful man it seems that it is all too easy to lose focus on Christ in favor for my own worries and stresses. Friends, I pray that you and I may run to the cross always. Let us never forget that the problems of this life are fleeting, but our God is forever.

I would appreciate prayers in the upcoming month. My fiance and I are approaching the final month of wedding preparations which has its unique, yet often blessed, stresses attached to it. Please pray that God would continue to draw us closer together through our love and service to Him alone. I am also looking at quite a rigorous schedule of design work coming up which should definitely prove to be challenging. It seems that I have often been reminded of my inability to control circumstances of late. However, I take courage in the fact that God is control of all things. There is a great couple of verses in Psalm 127 that I find particularly encouraging (1,2):

Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.

In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to [a] those he loves.

What a great reminder for me personally! I try to control things so often. In vain I stay up late. I lose sleep while trying to accomplish impossible tasks. Though its hard to do so, I've found that it is often better to let go of some of these 'impossible' stresses and just sleep on it at times (I am definitely preaching to myself first and foremost on this... see my "Sleep- I Defy Thee..." post for confirmation on that!). After a good night's sleep I find that I am refreshed and empowered in the morning. In this way I am much more able to rely on God to fully give me the strength to persevere through any trial. How often do we forget that God created rest for a reason? God delights in the rest of his people and designed us as human beings to operate this way. May we never forget the value of a commitment to restfulness in our Lord.

JJ Abrams is My Hero

Between JJ Abram's highly anticipated movie 'Cloverfield' and Lost Season 4... man... that's just creative talent coming out the ears...

Heck yes.

Excellent Sermon

My pastor spoke on the parable of the treasures today. He did an excellent job using scripture to illustrate how God does the choosing of His people; not the other way around. I love Pastor John's straightforward style and felt like this was some much needed spiritual food for the soul. How blessed am I that God sought me out and made me His child? You can check out this sermon and more from Grace Covenant at our broadcasting site hosted at Sermon Audio.

'Tis the Season

'Tis the season of much design work! Working at Food for the Hungry has proven to be a major delight and joy. My job continually challenges me to put my best foot forward and embrace new projects. I've been hard at work developing departmental brandings (see image for a mock example of what I've been working on), creating team shirts, producing training manuals, magazine ads, brochures, and plenty of web-based graphics. Its been a busy few weeks, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I am nearly done with a lot of the wedding collateral thats been weighing on me for the last month and am excited to have that printed up and out the door soon! Thank you all for being so receptive to this new format and encouraging me to keep up documenting the oddities of my life via this web interface.

Dependent on the Rock

I am reminded of my utter dependence upon Christ today. A short passage of scripture that I encountered today during my devotional:

^"17 Unless the LORD had given me help,
I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.

¹⁸ When I said, "My foot is slipping,"
your love, O LORD, supported me.

¹⁹ When anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought joy to my soul. "

-Psalm 94:17-19

May we give thanks to a God who hears us when we cry out to Him! I am so thankful for a God who has compassion on me when my foot is slipping and my body gives way. Thank you God for stressful times and trying situations; in these trials do I find strength in you. I am utterly dependent on Your grace and strength holy Father- teach me to rest completely in Your arms alone.

My friends- if you do not know this security and comfort, run to the cross! Throw off everything- every relationship, every comfort, every novelty, every expectation, every cultural norm and run to Christ's saving arms.

Ammunition of a Creative Blogger

The tools available to the creative professional who blogs keep getting more and more amazing- I'm psyched to be back and blogging again; what a perfect time to jump back in! I recently stumbled across www.vimeo.com a 'you-tube-esque' site (albeit a MUCH prettier, sleeked out one) that lets you broadcast your videos in HD. Yep, that's right- HD! Okay... so granted its not the physical, full-fledged HD package, but its pretty darn close and streams high-rez video extremely well.

The reason for my excitment about this? Just last week I was able to purchase a Canon HV-20 DV camcorder. God miraculously provided us the unexpected means to purchase this camera for which He gets all the glory! Celeste and I thought this to be a wise purchase as we approach our wedding and wanted to start documenting our new life together. Yes, documenting life is grand, but I'd be lying if I denied the fact that I'm really pumped to be able to use this camera for more artistic things as well. My love of cinema and short films was spawned back at Mesa Community College when I took a course with a very talented instructor whom inspired me to create several short films. Unfortunately life, work and school in general squashed any free time that I had available to continue making these films.

However- now with the HV-20 in my possession, I see a bright future for cinematography (heck- if a return to blogging is in order, then why not film making as well). For those of you haven't seen what the Canon HV-20 can do, you've gotta check it out. This is a consumer camera that records in full 16:9 HD and also has the ability to film in 24p (the frame rate that most movies are rendered in). Essentially, this is a 'big-boy' camera wrapped in a consumer package. Don't let the size fool you- this thing packs a punch. While I haven't had a chance to shoot any footage to write home about yet, here is some sample footage that I dug up on Vimeo for you to check out. The best way to do this is to visit the actual site and view it rather then watching it within this blogging structure.

I'll be sure to post some test footage when I have it shot, rendered and ready to go. Invaluable resources that I've stumbled upon so far regarding the HV-20 have some from www.hv20.com- check it out.