It's the thought that counts

So here I go, and only one month late (sorry Michael).

What brand do I think gives a great branding message? Knog. Knog is cool. No debate. Sweet company. Knog is a clever, playful company that appeals to clever, playful cyclists. Sometimes they are downright bizarre, but the best people usually are at the very least mildly eccentric.

Let's take a gander at my one of my favorite products from Knog - the Frog.

Knog Frog! The name rhymes, it comes in lots of pretty colors, and it's squishy! By far the coolest bike light ever made. Do I have one? No. Buzz off - I'm poor.

The Frog also conveniently ties in with their other, higher-powered bicycle lights - the toads, the bullfrogs, and the gekkos. I feel like relating bike lights to nocturnal reptiles that can cling to almost any surface was genius, and the form language is fabulously coherent and tied together.

Quite possibly the best part: the product descriptions. This is how they describe the Bullfrog light:

"2am. There was a panicked tapping at my window. It was AXL Rose (again!). He was soaking wet, heart-broken and not on any type of drug. I cuddled him close to my bosom and he pleaded for me to enter the darkness with him. I flat out refused and instead gave him my Bullfrog. The big guy immediately cheered up, impressed by its waterresistant silicon casing, built-in mounting latch and a light show with more punch than Chinese democracy."

Check out their wares here. And by all means, feel free to buy me a present. I've had my eye on those love and hate gloves for some time now....





Who doesn't love lesbians and small children with mustaches?

You got doored

Oh, I'm bad. Very, very bad. Trying to be good, but jiminy...

Anyway, how have I progressed this quarter? Hmm...I like to start with the bad and end with the good, so I'm a dismal failure at doing the things I don't particularly feel like doing. 3D modeling still gets my goat. I'm just not into it. It gives me a headache. I feel completely incapable of making an Alias model look anything like my sketches. I have promised myself, time and time again, that I would take some time and really put effort into learning it well. Let's face it - I hate it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. But...maybe I could learn Rhino? I've heard good things...Solid Works, too, but I feel like that stuff is kind of primitive. Dunno...something I need to work on. Focus on, even...

Technology, too. Bleh. I don't know anything about it. I'm not particularly interested, either.

But! About that sketching...it's fun now. Really, really fun. I'm actually sitting here, sketching tea kettles, watching Weeds, and having a grand ol' time. Not literally sketching right now, but...will be. Soon. And was.

I'm not sure if I actually got any better at it, but I have gained a new perspective. Designers sketch to explore forms. I can draw something really stupid looking, and now I can look at it and say "Ok, that sketch makes me a little nauseas. Time to move on." Sketching ugly stuff is almost as helpful as sketching pretty stuff. At the very least it will help me decide what I definitely don't want to do.

And...I'm going to Tool this winter. Yay! And I think yoga is becoming a fairly integral part of being a balanced designer. Just a side note.

So, I think I'm more or less fine with how things are going. We'll just have to see.

It's my portfolio!

Check it here.

Any feedback would be fab, as always :)

While I'm working on inspiration....

...I'm going to rip off some of the genius ideas from Cradle to Cradle. Just to remind myself. Because it's way important. To make sentence fragments. To know you're going to be awake for the next two days. To find some sort of distraction from doing "real" work. Anyhoo...some of this is also ripped off from friends, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Irvine Welsh and Chuck Palahniuk books, and Pulp Fiction. Sorry guys. If there is an original thought in this I apologize to all involved parties...this is entirely for my own benefit anyway.

Sustainability is not just about the environment - it's about being socially responsible.

Be the tree - make things that make the world a better place and and create good things for the environment and fellow earth dwellers. Don't just make it "less bad." Less bad is no good.

Cheeky bunnies are funny bunnies and funny bunnies are fun. Who wants a boring bunny?

A honey bunny could potentially put up with a boring bunny. Who knows what they're thinking anyway. Honey bunnies get around the block.

This assignment is a wee bit boring (no offense to the good people involved, just not my cuppa tea), so I think by involving more bunnies the overall quality of the finished product will improve tremendously.

Nix cords. They're a pain in the ass, they lose power, and they're hella easy to lose.


Solar panels? Alternative energies?

All I really know is I want to make this thing fun. Maybe then people like me (who feel put upon by the constant surge and surrounding business of technology) will be less intimidated by the machines. Zen divides people into two groups - artists and mechanics or something like that (I don't have the bloody book with me and I don't remember anyway, buzz off). The artists are just terrified and alienated because there's such a lack of beauty (aside from that sparce, function driven beauty engineers get off on). Maybe bring some of that to the insides? I dunno...it's late...

I should stop. Here's hoping this will get my juices flowing tomorrow. And hoping this little rant doesn't turn off any potential employers - I'll be a good intern, promise! :)

Peace out y'all.

Alrighty, I'm not really sure how this works...if I'm not following blog etiquette, by all means correct me.

I'm working on updating my portfolio so I'm going to talk about a Coroflot post, Design Portfolio Tips. You'll want to read the article itself here. I'm just writing about the article from my perspective...

The Right Type
First Coroflot talks about something that I forget from time to time - remember who is viewing your portfolio, and how. Because it's so easy to just make one portfolio, I end up sending the same portfolio to footwear companies, action sport companies, toy companies, consulting firms...I never really bother to distinguish, because let's face it - that's more work. Still, I think it would be totally worthwhile to at least shift the order of the pages depending on who I'm talking to, or maybe come up with a couple different graphic layouts...that way I don't actually have to come up with a whole new format, I can just shift stuff around. Bingo...

It's also good to remind myself that these people are looking at my portfolio on-line (usually) and I'm not typically there with them to walk them through it. Definitely something to think about.

Skillzzz*
The moral of the story here seems to be don't suck, because everyone else is pretty good. Ouch...having some pretty pictures isn't going to cut it. You have to "demonstrate that you can quickly and effectively communicate complex ideas in a professional manner," which is really flipping hard. Hurray! Suggestions - create a dynamic, interesting portfolio by playing with scale, color, and other stuff. So...I'll work on that. Presentation skills.

*spelling edited for my benefit

Range
Show some flexibility and stuff. Show work from a wide range of projects using a wide range of skills (different types of 2d presentation, 3d modeling, research and thought processes). Show your "holistic" design capabilities. True dat...

I think I try to show a pretty fair range...although I know that 3D modeling is a category that could be vastly improved. I should add a wider range of types of sketches, too. I pretty much skip from rough sketches to finished products and tight renderings.

Ambition
Show it. Duh. Resumes are a big part of showing this, for sure, but it can also be shown through self-directed projects. Going above and beyond and carrying out the thought process from start to finish. This is something I need to work on...I think it's fairly evident in my resume, but all the ideas for self-initiated projects have been just a little too daunting for me to actually carry out. I think I have it, but I'd need to show it.

That Special Something
So all this is not enough, says Coroflot...everything before this will only guarantee a position in the middle of the pack. You need that special...something. Make your portfolio something that can be read again and again by putting several layers of meaning into your project. Like an onion. A delicious onion. Subtly show your strengths in each area. Hmmm...

And their closing:

"This may sound like a daunting task, but it is the reality of the design world in the 21st century. If you take the time to review and select your work, and put together a well thought out book, you'll be rewarded many times over throughout your career."

All very true. And a lot to digest...

I'll publish my portfolio up here when I figure out how. Think a little more about it.

New quarter...hurray...cough, cough...

In the words of Tony Kawanari, I'm in serious need of some "flair."

I don't really know what this means, and I'm a little afraid that it's cheating if I skip the mechanics and head straight for the flair. Haven't really skipped the mechanics, maybe...at least not for lack of trying. I try. And struggle.

So, how do I think I can find the flair? Some practical ideas...

1.) At least 30 sketch pages a week, at least, regardless of whether I need to do the pages for class or not. This may be lax (I didn't forget that you suggested 50 pages, Michael), but let's be realistic here. 30 sketches a week is way more than I would do if I had a choice in the matter. I might actually do 30 sketches a week. 30 sketches of stuff I feel like sketching.

Do things have to be ID related or in an ID style to count as sketches? Can I run around and draw people for a while? Does that even count?

2.) I will study the sketching I really like and copy one sketch page a week. I will copy a full sketch page with beautiful composition (something I struggle with) and undeniable spontaneity (another thing I struggle with) until it starts to show the characteristics I admired in the original. Then I'll burn it.

3.) Try a different medium each weak, keeping in mind my beefs with the medium from the week before (make any sense?) So, I'm sick of the hairy lines from using pencil? Switch to pen. Sick of the unforgivable nature of pen? Try a light marker that I can build up. Sick of using anything I have to use like a pencil? Fuck it, use oil paints. Sketchbook Pro, blow pens, india ink, whatever. Just keep trying, 10 different mediums, 10 different sketches, 10 different weeks. I'm hoping that by forcing myself to switch things up I might stumble on something I actually really, truly like.

Maybe. Who knows.

These are my goals.

Peace out.