483A packaging. final product.

the Chicago 2016 Olympic Games welcome package consists of a customized/interactive brochure/ticket holder. it opens to an athlete running with the word RUN with custom typography. you pull up on the tab to raise the tower with the word RISE in the same type, revealing the ticket slot and a tab that works with the word chicago. you pull the GO tab to reveal the Chicago welcome letter and pull the insert all the way out to have the venue instructions on the back. i think the pictures tell the story:
















to see the process of this project, check out the previous blogs:
concept (original words - rise and go).
mock-ups (3D folding fun).
finishing techniques.

all i have left now is to create a couple promo items to go along with this package. stickers, a poster, a t-shirt... still in the works.

483A packaging. finishing techniques.

the next stage of my Chicago 2016 packing project was to experiment with the metallic paper and various finishing techniques. this is a continuation of 483A packaging found ://here. i measured and made my own dies and printed them on SHINE paper and explored blind deboss, spot varnish and raised gloss emboss. all seemed to become a disaster.

first off, printing color on the metallic paper completely saturated the colors — so much, that after multiple test prints, it changed my concept.



i decided to use only a monochromatic design on the metallic paper. most of the framework to my package was in the metallic paper, and it resulted in a clean and classy look. below are my dies for the top-opening envelope, the backs of the tickets and the main welcome brochure/ticket holder.



but, i wasn't happy with my monochrome choice. it came out too green, so i added a little bit of magenta to give it a richer look.



the extra finishing techniques weren't working. they need to be perfect, so i decided to abandon them after my experiments. the blind deboss was done with a tool from michaels. i can't draw perfect circles so that idea was trashed.



the next attempt was to use embossing powder with a slow-drying ink (versa mark). in order to "better" my hand-drawn circles, i found a stamp with perfect circles. they had little graphics on the inside, so i cut them out to make just the rings. i stamped it, powdered it, heat gun dried it, and it looked like poo. i couldn't create the perfect rings, so, that too, was trashed.







now, i'm on to finishing this month long project. stay tuned for the final product.

history of graphic design: essay five.

here i am today, reading the final essay/article (number six) from looking closer five, and i realized that i never posted my fifth write-up:

"Raging Bull" by Rick Poynor had me changing my mind with the wind as he wrote on the perceptions and usages of the term bullshit. it's funny how he writes to convince you, then continues to write to confuse you by convincing you to believe the contradiction of what he previously convinced you of. confusing, right? i have to wonder if it's all bullshit. truthfully, i don't and i found this essay to be very stimulating either way you look at it.

my write-up pdf can be found //:here.

TOYSPACE shopping bag on design spotter.

this is a project i did in the spring. it is now featured on design spotter, a german-based online magazine that publishes student work. it can be found in the Stores + Shops section. have a look...


check out design spotter.
check out the original blog back in may.

textbook... subscriptions.

yeah, that's it... my subscriptions are textbooks. i see the envy in my wife's eyes everytime a new publication comes in the mail. and my justification is that they keep me abreast of the latest in my industry. it just so happens that design pubs are a little pricey. but in the end, i gain lots of knowledge and inspiration from each book, plus they're all write-offs. subscribing to publications is actually the best textbook and i'll probably recommend/require them one day when i'm a gray-bearded professor. being in a readily exposed contemporary culture with many new ways of learning, they're a win-win — the text that keeps on giving. currently i subscribe to these pubs:


Print, HOW, CommArts, eye, ID and 2wice.
kristy gets cottage living, and some parenting ones.
while we both enjoy westways and the la times. in addition to those are the freebies, which are always a pleasure: freepeople, UO, and anthropologie catalogs, GDUSA and the fullerton observer.

life is good. and our mail box must loves us.

this. and that.

last couple of weeks
i've been out of sorts
in this project artschool (coursework, in general)
department. discovering many books
and articles that i think will
apply to my grand scheme here
and to my thesis in particular.
the problem is that i can't find
the necessary hours to dive as
deep as i'd like. i'm constantly
skimming the surface in my
school-related research. i
spent last week up to my
neck in freelance and a few days at a trade show in las vegas
and well,
kind of abandoned my coursework.
couple good things though,
i registered for spring two-thousand nine,
sorted out my study plan, and
rented a gang of books from the Cal Poly library.
drove up there a few weeks ago to return a book
and ended up walking out with 5 more.
in addition to those books, i'm borrowing
a handful of design theory books from
my history professor, bought
some poetry books, and rediscovered
virginia tufte's book, "Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style."
it's at the top of my pile. i know it applies
to the direction i want to take my topic
because i can't keep my nose out of that one...

so basically, i have to catch up in my three courses now and dig deep into this pile:


i'm actually excited
for every free hour i can find and
yearning for christmas break time so
i can get into my new stack of
books.
from here on out, it seems
that my bibliography will have real
purpose
towards my final goal. it might look more
like a lit-major's bibliography — but that's the point.

i think.
and also — i'll be implementing a system
my mom told me in outlining
the information i'm reading. starting
with index cards and a shoebox.
and there you have it. a little bit of this.
and that.

artists to eye at the moment:
Brion Gysin
Frederick Kiesler
William Burroughs/Charles Bukowski/Jack Henry/Gillian Prew/Hollace Metzger/Antony Hitchin/Erica Jong/Allen Ginsberg/Marilyn Chin
J. Abbott Miller
Tristan Tzara
Sonia Delaunay
Genesis P-Orridge

topics to watch:
designer as author
architecture of deconstruction
visual culture in relation to intuition
formal structured poetry

neil sharum: soaked in sweat and smoke.

MFA student neil sharum is in my book class (semi). he's been busy on his mfa exhibition and is graduating in a month. his photography is outstanding and he's looking for work...

have a look at some of his work from the show, mostly photographed at crash mansion over a long period of time (2 1/2 years, i believe). he was the official photographer for the club. he also has an 80-page book of his photography.

















here is an accordian book of his undergrad work. it's fantastic. i wish i had better shots of each page.


check him out ://here.

history of graphic design: essay four.

essay four was just plain great. it's too bad i completely forgot about it until 2 hours before my write-up was due. "Human Dignity and Human Rights: Thoughts on the principles of human-centered design" by Richard Buchanan was a good read, but unlike the previous three essays, i didn't have a chance to really dwell in the message. >over coffee. >in a park somewhere. i typed my response directly into the computer. printed. and ran.

the essay struck up good conversation in class... everything from outsourcing jobs overseas to intelligent design. human-centered-ness is huge within the design sphere. otherwise, it's just form. and form is nothing without content. and content is what speaks to the people. ethics were also raised when the professor reiterated that it's not ethical design producing people but rather ethical people producing graphic design. i thought that was pretty cool.

this essay goes beyond ellen lupton's essay, "birth of the user" as it really calls for the need to have substance, not just usability, or aesthetic, in order to trigger human worth.

i'm blogged out for this weekend. good night. the pdf is //:here.

448 artists' books: found paper book.

"found paper" is anything that is found, just not in a store. i searched around the house for found paper and came across many things i could have made a book out of. for instance, misc ticket stubs from the tube and amtrak/metrolink. it could have been a "travel" book or i could have made a bible-thick stab-bound book of verizon wireless comps, from my previous agency life.

i decided to bind a collection of newspapers that i saved this summer. i stashed away every olympic section (BEIJING 2008) of the LA Times from thursday to sunday in the month the olympics were held. i have a weird olympic fetish, if you haven't noticed. so, with that, i decided to make a box/case to preserve the finished book for years to come.








the case consisted of the cardboard backs of large sketch books (found) and layout paper from the my old drawing classes (10 years old, found) holding the hinges together and to cover the flaps i used international calendar pages that were laying around in my classroom (found) and an advertisement with poster-boy michael phelps that slides into a newspaper stand (found... at the ralph's in brea). i used mucho PVA glue and some matte medium to decopauge the covers.




the actual book, the newspaper spreads, were too thin to bind directly. so, i reinforced the newsprint with book cloth in each spread's spine and sewed them together with dental floss. (found, found, and found). still thinking about covering the inside of the box, just haven't found the right paper or cloth.


and there you have it.

i also did another "found paper" book from another mini collection that i found laying around. for some reason, i've been saving the six-pack boxes of project artschool beer — getting me through this experience. they really had no purpose until now. i cut them up and bound them. then added a nifty little handle.





this book can probably be taken to another level or two. but i'll worry about that later...

voila. found paper.

this class is pretty much just therapy. a break from everything else in the world. i love these friday mornings when i can just escape the stresses of freelance and life in general.

a couple other little binding exercises i tested:
a stab-bound book (no glue used) with handmade paper...




and a pamphlet-stitch book (no glue used)...






and finally to wrap up this book blog, a sneak preview into the narrative book i'm creating now, "familiar days spent in unfamiliar ways." it's based on 4 days of sleeping in my car in random places throughout orange county. thus far, i've covered davey board with moss green book cloth and finished the inside covers with a coffee stained map of north orange county. the contents will be used papers from all over the place, wrappers and such, with xylene transfer xerox's of my story and photos. i'm not sure how long it will be but i'm guessing somewhere around 30 pages (stab bound).