the making of "get out of the trees" video

Posted on November 16, 2010 by admin

This project was created for a contest that AT&T is doing through zooppa.com. Here’s the concept, as posted on AT&T’s site.

The AT&T Simplify Your Life video contest is a chance for you to make your own video about AT&T’s Online Services, such as Paperless Billing, Account Management, AutoPay, and Online Support. Each of these services can help to make life simpler.

So here’s the video. PLEASE click on the link and vote for it on Facebook by clicking the “like” button.

my idea

My idea for this was to make a stop motion video using my collection of rotary dial phones, making them into a tree. At first, I was going to use a person as the tree trunk, but then I thought that would be a long time for someone to be wrapped up in phones and I wasn’t sure the cords were long enough.

The concept is to stay out of the trees, meaning the phone trees and paper trees, and to use the AT&T online services. Continue reading →

graphic designer’s ‘get out of jail free’ card

Posted on October 23, 2010 by admin

Capital One had a commercial for their new Venture card. I didn’t hear much of the commercial, but the image I saw on TV intrigued me. The card pictured had the name Lee N. Cardholder. At least I thought it was an ‘N’. If it was an ‘N’, that would be ‘lean’ or ‘lien’, which being a graphic designer, I can recognize a subliminal message faster than the average bear. I do it, all graphic designers do it. It’s creative and fun, a hobby of sorts for us. It’s like a designer’s secret language.

I also see that Jimmy Lee is one of the guys heading the national small business lending division of Capital One. So is Jimmy Lee actually Lee M.? I have no idea, but I do know this. This is the designer’s ‘get out of jail free’ card if some non-designer cracks the secret language code. If you’re a designer, keep a few of these with your business cards. ;)

See the full article on rethinkgood.com.

light painting

Posted on May 24, 2009 by admin

I love it when I can share art with kids! I am in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico at Casa Hogar Elim orphanage. Last time I was here, we did photography light painting with the kids. This time, I brought lots of flashlights for the kids to use, and with a supply of color gels to color the flashlights.

Not familiar with light painting? Simple, and yet most cool process. If you have an SLR, place it on a tripod and set the shutter on ‘bulb’. Hold the shutter button down and have people ‘paint’ with the flashlights. Anything that has light on it will show up in your photo.

The kids down here love to light paint. When we break out the camera and flashlights, they know exactly what we’re doing. They get so excited and like to see the photos right after we take them. With that being said, I have to hold on tight to the camera because the stampede of children will come after every photo. The excitement on their faces is awesome and it’s wonderful to watch them come up with creative ideas for the next shot.

Enough words. Photos below.

right brain: activity

Posted on May 22, 2009 by admin

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Just a little creative brain exercise on a Friday morning. :)

Can you identify the story in the image? If so, comment with your answer.

have your cake and eat it too.

Posted on May 20, 2009 by admin

In efforts to save money for our church and still have a nice celebration for our staff’s birthdays, Lori, our director of getting stuff done and keeping everyone organized, said she would make birthday cakes. She then proceeded to ask everyone on staff what type of cake they wanted for their birthday. She’s made everything from red velvet to triple chocolate. And her cakes ROCK!!! Way better than anything you can buy in a store.

Lori should know by now that I don’t usually have standard answers to questions, but she asked anyway. ”What type of cake would you like, Jody?” I answered, “An art cake.” She didn’t see that coming. I explained that I love white cake with white icing, but anything white looks like a blank canvas. So if she would get colored icing for my cake and let everyone sign it, then she wouldn’t have to buy a card. :) Saving money AND having fun with food. What could be better? Staff people that would never consider drawing a picture in a card, drew one on my cake. A creative moment for the entire staff! What an awesome gift. :)

photocake2

excessable gallery show

Posted on November 15, 2007 by admin

These are pics from my art show in 2006. The show was called ‘excessable’. It about the excess in our society and the accessibility to a lot of stuff we don’t need. (iPhones are NOT included here!) Some of the details:

-All of the photographs are light painted. If you’re not familiar with this process, a camera shutter is opened in total darkness and the images are painted with flashlights that have color gels on them.

-The rug is made from 1296 gift cards.

-The wedding dress is a divorce dress. It has clocks on the front and a disturbing version of wedding vows on the back and all down the train.

I will post that later.I will post the individual images that are not on here.

a friend-ly reminder

Posted on October 4, 2007 by admin

This is what happens when you have creative friends, a broken key on your PowerBook and a spare 5 minutes.

mac buddies

So just messing around with Jerod’s broken laptop… we thought, “Hey?! Wonder what the old keys would look like with the new lit PowerBook??” So it started. We changed out the ‘:’ key that keeps popping off. It looked cool, so then we had to switch out one of the Apple keys. Then Jerod said, “We have to switch some of the letters too”. So he choose 8 letters that spell three words. (Thus the ’3′ key that I switched out) Can you guess the three words? Letters may be used multiple times.

a e d r y n j o

I’ll post the answer in a few days. Unless of course someone gets it.

my art wall

Posted on October 1, 2007 by admin

floor to ceiling
This wall is my favorite wall. It’s painted a nice Florida shade of pink. It’s a wall in my art room and it’s painted pink because I could paint it pink. I don’t have anyone to tell me I can’t paint it pink.

It’s a random wall, full of frames and pictures from floor to ceiling. Cluttered, some would say. It’s an unfinished are project. We can call it a progressive art project since it will never be complete in this lifetime. Some of the art is mine, some is not. But I like looking at all of it. Some of it changes, some of it will never change. It’s fun to look at. And if you focus on just one piece, you can sometimes get lost in it. Everyone that looks at it sees something different. They look at it. They like it. But they would never do this in their own house.

It’s a good wall.