(202) - PROJECT 4 READINGS

What are some ways to introduce a new paragraph?
You can introduce a new paragraph in plenty of ways. One can use rules, boxes, different colors, and drop caps to name a few. You can have various sizes of indent, different kerning on different paragraphs, etc.

What are some things to look out for when hyphenating text?
When hyphenating a text legibility is the most important guideline. Line breaks work smoother when there are natural pauses at the end of a line. Avoid widows (one word on the last line of a paragraph), orphans (one word or sentence continuing alone), breaking a line in the middle of a name or proper noun. Avoid beginning consecutive lines with the same word, avoid ending consecutive lines with the same word, and avoid ending lines with the words: the, of, at, a, by, and so forth.

What is font hinting? Why is it necessary?
Font hinting is a technique to avoid rounding errors in low-resolution digital type. It's necessary for digital formats where not every user sees the same thing.

What is letterspacing/tracking? How do you adjust tracking in Illustrator and InDesign?
Letterspacing is the amount of space between characters. You can adjust tracking through the 'character' window in both Illustrator and InDesign.

Define kerning. Name 8 kerning pairs. How do you kern in Illustrator and InDesign?
Text that is kerned is spaced so that the characters appear visually even. Kerning makes it so that gaps do not appear on letters whose forms angle outward or frame an open space. Kerning is controlled by a table of kerning pairs which specify spaces between different letter combinations. Av, Aw, Ay, Ta, Te, To, Tr, Tu, Tw. You can adjust kerning through the 'character' window in both Illustrator and InDesign.

Try the kerning game. How did you do?
I got an 81. I completely messed up on like 2 of em so it brought my score down.

Define wordspacing.
Wordspacing is the space between words instead of space between letters.

Explain DIN.
DIN is a standardized system of paper sizes for printed matter. DIN uses a 1:2 ratio.

What is a baseline grid?
A baseline grid is an imaginary system of rows in which the lines of text rest on to create an evenly spaced system of text-blocks. The amount of leading is a deciding factor in how much space is between rows in the baseline grid.

How many characters per line is optimal? Is there a range?
Depending on the typeface and the size of the typeface, more or less may be optimal. When the paragraph is justified, it helps to have more characters per line to avoid rivers flowing through the text.


Define aesthetic text alignment (optically hanging punctuation).
Aesthetic text alignment allows for punctuation marks such as quotations to hang outside of the margin so as not to disturb the alignment of text inside the margins.


What is a typographic river, a widow, and an orphan?
A typographic river occurs when there are varying amounts of white space between words in a justified paragraph. This happens when there aren't enough characters per line to fit the justification. It can be relieved by reducing the type size, increasing leading, or adjusting the minium, optimal, and maximum word spacing.

A widow is when there is only one word on the last line of a paragraph.

An orphan is when one word or sentence continues alone.

(202) - BEGINNING OF PROJECT 4

Photography:

• ALEC SOTH
An american photographer born in 1969 known for his "large scale american projects" from the midwest. He made his career by 'finding chemistry with strangers' while photographing 'loners and dreamers'.

Official website
Alec's blog

• RICHARD AVEDON
American photographer lived 1923–2004, very influential fashion and portrait photographer. Helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last 50 years

Official site
Portraits of Power

• JEFF BROUWS
Self taught artist and photographer born in 1959. He has compiled a visual survey of America's evolving rural, urban, and suburban cultural landscapes.

Official website
In Robert Koch gallery

• LORI NIX
Born in western Kansas. Her work has been featured at the Spencer Museum of Art as well as in many other galleries.

Official website
In Edelman gallery

• PHILIP–LORCA DICORCIA
Philip is an American Photographer born in 1951 known as one of the most important figures in contemporary photography who established his style through a fictional approach to photography.

Collective Shift portfolio
At David Zwirner

• BRUCE WEBER
Born in Pennsylvania in 1946, became the preeminent photographer of the fashion industry in the 1980's. Known as one of the most popular and influential photographers.

Official website
At the Museum of Contemporary Art

(202) - LETTER FOUNTAIN HOMEWORK

p. 31-57

1) Small capitals are miniature versions of the capital letters in a typeface. They are made specifically as small caps, not just scaled down versions of capitals. They can often be ordered as an expert font. They are different from something set in all caps because they are proportionately made to be used at a smaller size. Bodoni does not use small caps, but Ms Eaves does.

2) Ligatures are combinations of letters that would crash into each other during metal typesetting, such as the hanging terminal of f next to an ascender (f to i). Ligatures are used to prevent this problem. They aren't used much in the digital age since the problems can be addressed systematically through the digitization of the font. Bauer Bodoni does have ligatures.

3) Foot marks are used to mark feet, such as 5'. An apostrophe takes the shape of a '9' and is used for a possessive.

4) Inch marks are used to mark inches, such as 5".  A quote mark signifies dialogue, such as "yo man, who should I start at Running Back this week, LeGarrette Blount or Maurice Morris?".

5) Hyphens are used as a symbol to break words, such as tele-vision. En Dashes are longer than hyphens are and are used in an instance such as 'from 1914 — 1918' with spaces between the dash. Em dashes are basically the same as en dashes but without the spaces between the dash. 

(204) - MORE INFO GRAPHICS PROCESS

Here are some more parts to my info graphics project.

I've now moved on to refining and coming up with the final ideas for my book that includes all five info graphic assignments.

(204) - INFO GRAPHICS PROCESS

For the first part of our information graphics project, we were asked to document our closet in a way that includes pictures and information.  We had the freedom to do this however we wanted.  I chose to set up a tripod and take pictures of most of my shirts in my closet, and set them up in a poster that records information about each shirt and gives an estimation to how many times I've worn it.  The poster lists the shirts from simplest to most complex in design.

Here are a few photos

(202) - BODONI RESEARCH

TASK:  Research and write at least 1000 words about the origins of your font. Can be specifically about your font, or about the classification or both.

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            Bauer Bodoni was a revival of the original typeface, Bodoni and was created in 1926 by Heinrich Jost and Louis Holl.  Jost designed the characters and Louis cut them and prepared them for letter pressing.  The Bauer version of the font is the revival staying most true to Giambattista Bodoni's original design of Bodoni.  The typeface shows a strong emphasis on the vertical stroke and sharp contrasts between stroke and serif.  It also features a classic symmetry and sharp transition from stem to serif.  The serifs are as thin as the thinnest parts of the letters.  The axis of the thick-thin contrast is vertical, and the typeface has many weights. Because of modern day printing techniques (digital), some of the fine details (namely, the super-thin serifs) are lost in print, however, in the days of cast metal typesetting, the pressure applied from the press during the printing process ensured the hairline serifs were visible because of the precise cuts to the sheet.

            Bodoni has a great many weights and includes a beautiful italic font set on a 16 degree angle and includes circular finials on almost every terminal.  Some of the distinguishing characteristics of Bodoni came from its subtle variations on the form of the 'O'.  The Bodoni 'O' features an effect from the shape of the counter created from a rectangle and semi-circles known as the "bone effect" where the left and right sides of the rectangle curve to the inside of the letter.  This effect gives the illusion that the middle is slightly hollow, similar to a bone.  The Bodoni 'G' is hard and classical, staying true to the roman two-story version.  The Bodoni 'K' features legs connecting on eachother and not the stem.  The Bodoni 'X' is built on a thick stem intersecting with a hairline stem, the hairline stem using brackets and the thick stem using a straight connection from stem to serif.

            Some more distinguishing characteristics of the Bodoni typeface include the tail of the 'Q', extending straight down from the body.  The 'J' has a balled finial extending from a terminal which is different from any other character.  The 'Y' character's terminal is offset from the body, changing angles at the slightest degree.  The capital G has a spur which does not reach the x height.  The capital 'E' and 'L' have distinguishingly tall serifs.  These characteristics ensure a classy and sophisticated look.

            Bodoni has been used for a wide variety of material ranging from 18th century Italian books to 1960's periodicals.  Today, the late manner versions continue to be used in advertising, the earlier manner versions used for fine book printing.  Bodoni can be seen in Hilton Hotels collateral, such as their restaurant menus and bar menus.  Nirvana's logo, as seen on their album covers and posters, is written in Bodoni.  Carnegie Mellon University's wordmark is written in Bauer Bodoni.  Tom Clancy's novel Dead or Alive features Bodoni on all of the artwork.   Lady Gaga's logotype is set in a widely tracked out Bauer Bodoni.  The yard markers on many football fields from the NCAA to the NFL use Bodoni.

            One of the newest Bodoni revivals is ITC Bodoni Twelve.  This was just one variant published by ITC in the set including Bodoni Six and Bodoni Seventy-Two.  These names are simply referring to the height of the letters in points.  The point of having these differences in sizes was to take advantage of the larger size allowing for greater contrast and thinner serifs without disappearing.  This version was created on the basis of optical scaling aimed at pleasing human eyes, rather than conforming to mathematical proportions at small sizes.  Another Bodoni revival is Bistream Bodoni, a version first drawn in 1907 by Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders.   The main difference between this font and the other Bodoni's is that its serifs are thicker and more visible at smaller point sizes.

            It is said that the most successful revivals of the Bodoni typeface are ATF Bodoni and Bauer Bodoni.  ATF Bodoni was the first American revival of the typeface containing several variants, all created by Morris Fuller Benton.  Benton's goal was not to push the limits of the typeface based on printing technology, but to capture the original Bodoni flavor while emphasizing legibility.  Bauer Type Foundry's version did quite the opposite: emphasizing the extreme contrast between hairline and main stroke.

            A relative timeline of the Bodoni revivals starts in 1909 with ATF Bodoni.  The series includes: Bodoni (1909), Bodoni Italic (1910), Bodoni Book (1910), Bodoni Book Italic (1911), Bodoni Bold Italic (1911), Bodoni Bold Shaded (1912), Bodoni Shaded Initials (1914), Card Bodoni (1915), Card Bodoni Bold (1915), Bodoni Open (1918), Bodoni Book Expanded (1924), Ultra Bodoni Italic (1928), Bodoni Bold Condensed (1933), Ultra Bodoni Condensed and Extra Condensed (1933), and Engravers Bodoni (1933).  Monotype also did a revival of Bodoni based on Benton's versions.  Damon Type Foundry offered a Bodoni revival named Bartlet.

           Bauer Bodoni belongs to the Didones / Modern classification of typefaces.  Didones are the late neoclassical seriffed types not quite as old as the humanistic and garalde classifications.  The name Didon is a combination of the French printing family Didot and the Italian printer Bodoni.   The first representative of the Didone style is Didot, emerging in the late 18th century.  This classification is best highlighted by the original Bodoni typeface created by Giambattista Bodoni in 1789.  Bodoni was known as the 'printer to the kings'.  The typeface holds an elegant look thanks to its symmetrical build and balanced proportions contrasting the thick and thin interplay between strokes and serifs.

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JOST, HEINRICH

            Heinrich Jost was a popular typeface designer, typographer, and graphic designer born in Magdenburg, Germany in 1889.  Before becoming a typographer, Jost trained as a bookseller and attended courses at Kunstgewerbe-und Handwerkerschule in Magdenburg.  Soon thereafter, in 1908, he moved to Munich and began taking evening classes under Futura's typeface designer, Paul Renner.  Another one of his mentors was Emil Preetorius, known as one of the most important stage designers of the beginning of the 20th century.  Renner and Preetorius helped set up the illustration school in which Jost was taking classes at.

            Jost continued to study graphic design and illustration, working as a book designer and graphic artist until 1923.  He then moved to Frankfurt to become the art director at the Bauer Type Foundry.  Besides creating the Bauer Bodoni revival of Bodoni at Bauer Type Foundry, it is believed that Jost added detail to early versions of Renner's Futura typeface.  Jost led Bauer Foundry to its most glorious era.  Some other typographers whom he worked with besides Renner were Georg Hartmann, Emil Rudolf Weiss, Berthold Wolpe, and Ernst Schneidler. 

            Some of the fonts created by Jost at the Bauer Foundry include Bauer Bodoni, Bauer Bodoni (BT), Bauer Bodoni (URW), Bauer Bodoni Black Condensed, Bauer Bodoni Bold, Beton, EF Beton, Beton Bold Compressed, Beton Bold Condensed, Beton BQ, Beton Compressed Bold, Beton Demi, Beton Extra Bold, Beton Extra Bold (Monotype), Beton Extra Bold (URW), Beton Outline, and Beton Stencil.  Jost died in Frankfurt on September 25th, 1949 at the age of 60.

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BODONI, GIAMBATTISTA

            Giambattista Bodoni was an Italian engraver, publisher, printer, and prolific typographer who was most known for creating the original family of typefaces called Bodoni.   He was born in Turin, a city in Northern Italy, in 1740 and brought up in a family of printmakers, giving him an early experience of the trade.  As an apprentice at the Vatican's Propaganda Fide printing house in Rome, Bodoni impressed his superiors with an insatiable appetite for learning.  He had great habits of studiousness and hard work.  Along with Baskerville in England and the Didot family in France, Bodoni followed foot as a leader in originating pseudoclassical typefaces.  After creating the Bodoni typeface, Bodoni was known for his designs of highly style editions considered more apt to be admired for their layout and design, rather than to be read or studied.  His greek typefaces were most successful as they combined a balance of beauty and legibility, something that his earlier typefaces did not achieve.

            Bodoni gave four principles to the art of designing type.  They were: regularity, cleanness, good taste, and charm.   He was arguably the most successful early proponent the didone/modern classification.  His books were created for the wealthy and aristocracy and were the most advanced, elegant, and refined book being printed in Europe at the time.  At the end of his career, Bodoni had designed and personally engraved 298 typefaces, printing over 1200 fine editions of type in his various printing houses. 

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WORLD NEWS AROUND 1789

            Some notable events happening around the time period in which Bodoni was created (1789) include the creation of an Independent United States.  Following Independence Day, America began to establish more and more projects and created opportunities adhering to the freedom of the people.  A few decades before Bodoni, Europe was known as the world's strongest power.

"Giambattista Bodoni - Font Designer of Bodoni." Linotype.com. Web. 26 Oct. 2011. <http://www.linotype.com/683/giambattistabodoni.html>.

Gomez-Palacio, Bryony, and Armin Vit. Graphic Design, Referenced: a Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design. Beverly, MA: Rockport, 2009. Print.

Pohlen, Joep. Letter Fountain: (on Printing Types). Köln: Taschen, 2011. Print.

"Typeface: Bodoni." Rightreading.com. Web. 25 Oct. 2011. <http://www.rightreading.com/typehead/bodoni.htm>.

           

(202) - BODONI

I was given Bauer Bodoni as my font last week.  

Anyway, here are some of the characteristics and font examples of different typeface classifications over the years.

- OLD STYLE or "Gerald" - Starting around 1475

• crossbar of lowercase "e" is horizontal
• top serifs are roof shaped & triangular
• bottom serifs arent rounded at the bottom

1) Bembot
2) Albertina
3) Plantin
4) Sabon
5) Garamond

- TRANSITIONAL - Starting around 1750

• base serifs aren't usually rounded at the bottom
• crossbar of lowercase "e" is horizontal
• "o" is not angled

1) Baskerville
2) Concorde
3) Fournier
4) Perpetua
5) Times

- MODERN or "Didot" - Starting around 1775

• strong emphasis on vertical stroke
• thinner serifs
• great variance between fonts

1) Bodoni
2) Didot
3) Walbaum
4) Linotype Centennial
5) Filosofia

- SLAB SERIF or "Egyptian" - Starting around 1800

• serifs are as thick as the letter
• serifs are the defining characteristic between fonts
• differences in the subdivision are most clearly visible in lowercase letters

1) Antique
2) Rockwell
3) Clarendon
4) Archer
5) Memphis

- HUMANISTIC (SANS)


• no serifs
• line-widths are visually equal
• the characters have more distinctive forms than previous sans-serifs

1) Gill Sans
2) Profile
3) Frutiger
4) Myriad
5) Syntax

- GROTESK (SANS)

• no serifs
• ascender height is equal to capital height
• lowercase "g" has an open curve

1) Aksidenz Grotesk
2) Helvetica
3) Univers
4) Trade Gothic
5) Gotham

- GEOMETRIC (SANS)

• no serifs
• very straight lines
• perfect circles

1) Futura
2) Avant Garde
3) Eurostile
4) Avenir
5) DTL Nobel

(202) - PROJECT 1 on behance

my behance

my project

(204) - Animal Poster Sketches

So in VISC 204 we've been cruising through our first project, where we chose an animal and sketched it in many different styles.  We also explored creating compositions out of our sketches and creating five prototypes posters of these compositions.

I chose Roly Poly as my "animal" and so far I think it has been a great choice.  It's been fun sketching these  and it has been smooth sailing as far as making cool images from my sketches.

(202) - TACO

Well, after taking advantage of KU Dining Services taco setup at the underground last thursday (I bought five 79 cent tacos) and bringing them to class to consume, Our class voted on finding the word "TACO" wherever we could on campus while Andrea could critique our weather compositions in private.

John Reynolds and I found some pretty cool letters out there

(202) - TYPEFACES

PART I
Who is Adrian Frutiger?
Adrian Frutiger is a type designer known primarily for designing Univers (1954), Serifa (1967), Frutiger (1975), and Avenir (1988).  A frenchman born in 1928, Frutiger joined Deberny & Peignot in 1952 whilst moving around various places in Europe.  


What makes Univers unique?
Univers is a typeface created in 1954 by Adrian Frutiger known for its simplistic and modern sans-serif look.  Univers is unique for its numbered naming system, where its original 21 weights were used to name the different fonts within the family.  The typeface uses even stroke weights and large x-heights making it a versatile choice when concerned with legibility when used very small.  These characteristics also make it a great choice when needed to be used very large or very heavy.


What is the 'Univers Grid'?
The Univers grid is used to display each of the 21 original variations of the typeface - spanning the various weights, widths, and styles of the font.  The first digit corresponds to the weight of the text (higher number means thicker text), the second digit corresponds to the width of the text (higher number means more condensed).  The italic and roman styles are differentiated through even and odd numbers (odd is roman, even is italic).

PART II
LIVING TYPE DESIGNERS
1) Adrian Frutiger: type designer born in switzerland in 1928 who has been a prominent influence in type design even in the 21st century.  He is best known for creating "Univers" and "Frutiger".  Univers is a typeface similar to Helvetica, Aksidenz Grotesk, and Folio, a compilation of neo-grotesque sans-serif typefaces released in the same year (1957).  He designed the typeface, Frutiger for the international airport in Roissy, France.  
2) Hermann Zapf: German type designer known for creating the script typeface "Zapfino" in 1998.  Zapf was a self-taught student of calligraphy and lettering and designed his first typeface, "Gilgengart" in 1938.  He also served time in WWII in the Cartographic Unit of the German army.
3) Ed Benguiat: American type designer who is credited for over 600 typefaces such as "ITC Souvenir (1970), ITC Tiffany (1974), and ITC Bauhaus (1975)".  Benguiat became the head of the publishing dept. of Photo Lettering Inc.
4) Christian Schwartz: type designer prodigy born in 1977 who released his first typeface, "Flywheel" through FontHaus when he was 14.  Schwartz graduated from Carnegie-Melon University and established Schwartzco Inco, a studio and foundry. 
5) Joshua Darden: type designer prodigy born in 1979 who established a design firm in 1993 at age 13.  Published his first typeface, "Diva" at 15 years old, and eventually joined Hoefler & Frere-Jones Type foundry in 2000.


DEAD TYPE DESIGNERS
1) Eric Gill: type designer from the UK who lived from 1882-1940 who is known for creating the typefaces "Gill Sans" and "Perpetua".  Gill was also a talented sculptor, engraver and letter cutter.  Gill Sans has distinct letters Q, R, a, and g which helped it become an extremely popular typeface in Britain.  The Ultra Bold style of Gill Sans shows the exaggerated forms of the letters that distinguish it from many other sans-serifs.
2) Paul Renner: type designer from Germany who lived from 1878-1956.  Paul is famous for creating the geometric sans-serif "Futura".  Renner was also a teacher and writer in addition to type designing.  Futura is a widely-used sans-serif typeface whose forms stay true to perfect circles (such as a, o, d, p).
3) Morris Fuller Benton: American type designer who lived from 1872-1948.  Benton started his career working for the American Type Founders (ATF) and designed more than 200 typefaces (some of them were extensions to existing typefaces).  Benton is known for creating the typefaces "Franklin Gothic (1904), Engravers Old English (1907), Hobo (1910), and Bank Gothic (1930)."
4) Roger Excoffon: French type designer who lived from 1910-1983.  Excoffon designed very adventurous typefaces in the 1950's.  Known for his comprehensive type family, "Antique Olive"
5) Frederic Goudy: American type designer who created more than 100 typefaces such as "Copperplate Gothic (1901)" and "Goudy Old Style (1916)"


* sources: 
"Graphic Design Referenced" by Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit.
"Getting it Right with Type" by Victoria Squire
"Letter Fountain" by Joep Pohlen

(202) - TYPE (pt deux)

Define:

-weight: the "heaviness" of a chosen typeface. The bolder or heavier the font, the higher the weight.
-width: the distance horizontally across a letter or element
-style: bold, italic, etc.
-font: a specific style within a typeface or font family
-typeface: a family of fonts, ie: helvetica, rockwell
-x-height: the height of the lowercase letter 'x' of a font, chosen because it is easiest to measure
-cap height: the height of a capital letter in of a font.  Usually measured in millimeters
-leading: the distance between one line of text and another.  Measured in points.
-letterspacing: the amount of space between letters

-type can be measured in inches, millimeters, points, or picas.  Designers should use whatever they feel most comfortable with or whatever is being used by who they are directly working with.  Newspapers often use picas to measure their columns and for formatting purposes.

-point- aka didot point, measuring 67.564 points per inch
-pica - a point system known as the "anglo saxon" version of the didot point.  72 picas per inch
-67.564 didot points in one inch. 72 pica points in one inch
-36pt = about half an inch
-72 picas in an inch
-1.07 didot points in a pica point

(202) - TYPE

John and I created our "type" out of cords.  I think the plug in at the end of some letters really adds a nice detail to the letterforms.

As for my homework:

Define:

- Grid: a set of vertical and horizontal lines for the alignment of type, images, and other elements used in a piece of work.  Designers use grids so that we can implement the elements we'd like to use in our presentation in an orderly and structural way.  Grids are essential for the design of books, manuals, pamphlets, and other multi-page works.  A specific grid will help the designer make choices about things such as letter spacing, type face choice, type face weight, and more.

- Modular Grid: A modular grid is a strucure that implements the use of columns to organize the page, similar to a newspaper.  This is what we'll be doing in the first few exercises of project one.

- Margins: The space between the edge of the content of a page and the edge of the page itself.  Margins can be flexible but are often restrained by specific printing needs.

- Columns: Modules that are vertically oriented.  The use of columns helps the designer maintain consistency in line-length throughout the page.

- Grid Modules: "fields" of text or other elements that are separate from other content from the page.  These can be columns, rows, or other shapes made from other modules in the page.

- Flowlines:  Alignments of text or other elements that break the space of a page into horizontal strips.

- Gutter: Inner margins of a page, created by the space between one field and another.

- Hierarchy: The emphasizing of certain elements of a page.  Hierarchy can be established by font size, font weight, element size, element weight, or the implementation of other visual prompts.  Proper hierarchy makes designs more legible and information more memorable.

- Typographic Color: The overall tone of blocks of text on a page.  This is created by font weight, leading, and other character settings.  It does not refer to the color (red, blue, yellow) of text.  In order to maximize legibility, it is important to efficiently contrast letterforms from the page that they're on.

- White Space: the negative space used in an image.  Negative space refers to the space that isn't taken up by text, images, or other elements in a design.  White space helps create emphasis towards the important part of a design and the hierarchy of specific pieces of the design.

- Contrast: The difference between one object and another.  Black vs. White

(204)- I HEART DESIGN

I am asked the question,

"What piece of design moves you??"

My answer is more of a story including a couple pieces of art, but I will begin with this one:

This was a piece called "SUBESSENCE" by a guy known as "ekud" made back in 2002.  I stumbled across his work on deviantART.com back then and followed him ever since.

Now, rewind back to 2000, when my older brother taught me how to make "tags" in Photoshop 7.  Tags are just little images used as a "signature" on an internet forum.  I frequented a couple of these forums referred to as "gfx" communities and spent hours making crap in photoshop and having it critiqued, and making more stuff, and battling other members of the forum over who could make the best tag.  I would look up tutorials to make cool "gfx" stuff like I saw ekud do.  I made tons and tons of art in photoshop which was kinda cool, but really, it was awful.  For example:

You can tell I was a complete "noob" simply by what I named the piece, "Incorporeal Life".  I wanted to be just like ekud, from the miniature text, to the "technical linework" set on overlay mode and randomly scattered everywhere.

A few years later, I was still learning new tricks, but never tried my own thing.  I was still trying to be just like ekud.

I made this one in 2005 and called it "SYNAPSE".  This has ekud written all over it.

Looking back at those days makes me realize plenty of mistakes that I had made.  I did way too much copying, and didn't explore my creativity as much as I should have.  Granted I was only 12, I just wasn't smart enough to use programs like Cinema4D, Maya, and other 3D programs that top dogs like ekud were using.  However, I still should have tried to be more original and looked further than "cool gfx" on deviantART.com.

Now, ekud (Justin Maller) has blown up.  He's making stuff for Nike, DC shoes, Coke, Young & Reckless, Verizon, ESPN... the list keeps going.  His style is still pretty much the same.  He just makes shit look cool.

check out
www.justinmaller.com

Back in '02, I had talent, just like ekud had talent.  But ekud was in college, and I was in 6th grade.  I didn't know anything about anything.  But now I'm in college, and I'm ready to put forth the work that needs to be done in order to improve my work just like Justin Maller improved his work.

This is what moves me, as a designer.