EWDDesign Blog

The looks of NYC.

2011-03-27T19:07:00.000-04:00

I wanted to post some of what I have seen since living in NYC. From touristy to the everyday.

Pier onto the East River, a few blocks from my apartment.

The green kicks.

Where I work.

View from the rooftop of my office.

Chinatown rooftop graffiti.

December 26, 2010, first of the blizzard.

My apartment.

My apartment building and stoop.

My setup at work.

Walk through the tunnel from the 1 train to the L train.

View from my bedroom window.

Penguins at American Museum of Natural History.

Bike riding around Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

My cab ride from the airport when I moved into the city.

View from my apartment rooftop in Brooklyn.

Pond in Central Park.

Neighborhood market in Upper West Side.

Outside my office building, before I ever even interviewed. 2nd Floor.

Central Park in the fall.

5th Ave Apple store.

The Great Lawn at Central Park.

First interview location.

The 1 train at 225th st.

Courtyard of my first apartment building.

On the way to work.

Rockefeller Christmas tree.

My first stop when I get to work.

Where John Lennon was shot, underneath his apartment building.

We all need a little change.

2011-01-31T00:41:00.000-05:00

Change means things are going to be different. Can be as small as adjusting to a new pair of Hanes you have added to the top dresser drawer, or learning to live in an entirely new environment. Or it can be learning to live without.

It's not always easy, but it is indeed one thing that all of us go through at some point in our life. Whether you like it or not.

You change age. You change tastes in music and food. You change grades and schools. It is what life is all about. Obama's entire presidential campaign was themed off the word "Change." Change for the better. Change for the worse.

Change comes sometimes without our control. And other times, we make decisions that spawn it. We have to, and we must understand that the consequences of it we need to endure so that we might, just maybe, reap a lesson of life out of it. Others will disagree with you, look down at you for it, or tell you straight up that you're wrong. But do understand that when you feel in your life that change is due, go with your gut and your heart, and leave your brain at home. Don't think yourself out of tasks that you know need to happen regardless if you like it or not. Because usually, the journey through the darkest places in life teach us the most about ourselves. Not to come off completely dramatic and deep. But God knows we all need to inspect who we are and what we're about every now and again. You need to make sure you are the best representation of what you want to be and be seen as before throwing yourself into social situations where someone might want to analyze you. Because they will.

I have decided that is what I need mostly right now in my life, so I am changing things as well. I need to figure out what I want in life, and what I want to be. Not so much career-wise, but more so human-wise. It is definitely not easy to do, and has already required major change that has been quite difficult to deal with. A little painful mind you. But necessary.

Be sure that you are pleased with who you are as a person before you ever decide to let someone else have you. You may just find yourself slipping down a path that you never intended. And when that does happen, making a decision to do something about it is all on your shoulders, and it might totally suck. Don't wait for someone else to tell you to. If you care about the thoughts of others towards you, to where it's what leads your life and decisions for yourself, change it.

Of the bridge and tunnel people. I like it.

2011-01-04T23:01:00.000-05:00

I am officially a New Yorker as of December 31, 2010, when I arrived in a budget truck with all my life's possessions. And, I must say, moving to New York is more of a nightmare than I could have ever imagined. With the mix of snow and ice, crazy NYC drivers, being under the weather, a 10-foot budget truck with overused wiper blades and bad shocks, and a $13.50 toll for every bridge and tunnel in and out of the city, it added up to be an experience I thought I would only find at the core of the Earth. Hell that is. But, all in all, it was a learning experience and now I know that you can't pump your own gasoline in New Jersey.

On a better note, I am here and moved into my awesome Williamsburg, Brooklyn apartment. My commute to work is cut in half, and my neighborhood consists of some of the most unique and amazing bars and restaurants in the NYC area. Also, not to mention, just a couple blocks from the water, which is the foundation of my Manhattan skyline view.

Check out some of the pictures of my apartment. I'm working on a little video of my NYC adventure so far, so be on the lookout.

The Kitchen

Part of the kitchen and living room.

Through the living room to the two bedrooms.

Bathroom.

Full Kitchen.

My bedroom.

Old fireplace, now DVD holder.

I made it.

2010-12-13T10:48:00.000-05:00

Its been a while since I've written into this template, but I was having withdrawals, and not to mention, I have had a million and a half things happen since I did last. So let's recap the events.

First things first: I graduated from Portfolio Center. It was great. I was very ready to finish. Check out my updated portfolio of work on EricDewyngaert.com.

Second: I went to New York for a portfolio review/celebratory weekend with my fellow graduates. It was halloween weekend, so needless to say, fun times, from what I can remember. I met some great companies, and definitely saw interest in my work, which is what is was all about. I was their from Thursday-Monday evening, and the review fell on the Friday am. I met a recruiter during who set up a meeting with me on Monday am after the review, in which there was an interest for a position. Very long story short, by the time I was La Guardia bound in an accidental stretch limo with some friends, I was considering this being the last time I am leaving New York for a while. I had landed an interview for the next thursday, which I was required to get back to Atlanta, get things in order in about a weeks time, to be able to board a flight that Wednesday back to New York. One way.

Third: I did the move. I landed a sublet on the upper west side of Manhattan with a friend throughout the end of 2010. I put all of my life into 3 suitcases, said my very hard goodbyes, and set sail for my new life that abruptly fell into place. Moving to NYC meant I was going without a job, a temporary home, no family and only a handful of friends, and all of my belongings sitting in storage in Augusta, including my Xterra that I would still be making payments on in my mother's driveway. Still, something told me to go. Years of dreaming for this, those all seamed like petty hurdles for me to figure out, at a later time.

Fourth: As I moved to NYC, I was contacted by another firm who had met me in May at the portfolio review, and again at the review in October, mentioning they wanted me to come by the office to meet some others, which at the time I did not realize was an actual interview, I would be presenting to the Executive Creative Director. I guess the unknown kept me calm. Long story short, I interviewed with both companies, and the Monday before Thanksgiving day, had found a home as a full-time junior designer at Momentum Worldwide in the lower west side of Manhattan, start December 6th. On top of that, I also received a full-time freelance week from another firm for the week prior to start Momentum, in which I made enough money to move into an apartment (paying my 1-month security deposit and first month's rent). Crazy how that worked out.

Fifth: The first week of work could not have gone any more amazing. I was received with huge open arms, friendly faces, a Herman Miller Aeron chair, and the potential to work on some amazing work. That week, I found myself with an offer for an apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which I will be moving into on the 1st of January. I am one stop away from Manhattan on the subway, and have a beautiful view of the Williamsburg bridge from my bedroom window.

Sixth: As the first week of work ended, I was starting to feel like things were becoming evident that I made the right move. On Saturday night, I received a call from a retired dentist in Augusta making me an offer for my Xterra, which was the payoff of the car, taking it off my hands. It was the biggest relief and stress reliever that could have happened.

So, I am very happy needless to say that New York City is indeed my new home. I do miss friends and family, but I am living a long awaited dream and its just as amazing as I could have imagined. I am very thankful and blessed for what has happened for me, and can't wait to see what the new year holds. Stay tuned.

Next agenda item, driving all the rest of my stuff up here. Here are some pictures of life so far:

The video is shot from the rooftop of my office building. It really doesn't do it justice.

My morning subway commute. Packed.

My friend Kristel and I in Strawberry Fields in Central park on December 8th. Cool experience

My office, well, part of it.

My desk at work.

Staying southern in the laundromat

Almost there!

2010-10-07T00:23:00.000-04:00

One week from today I officially sign off from art school (I present my final portfolio to a body of my fellow students). I graduate the next day, Friday Oct 15. Its going to be a great next couple of weeks. At the end of the month, I along with the rest of my quarter will travel up to NYC for a portfolio review, where hopefully I'll connect with someone to get me up there quick. Here is the poster that my friend Jamie designed for the event.

A sincere thank you

2010-08-25T12:35:00.000-04:00

Next week is my last official week of class at Portfolio Center. Wow, 2 years flew by. I am definitely ready as I have been working literally around the clock. I still have a good bit of work to get finished, but I am starting to see a little light at the end. I am pretty excited about the prospective jobs I am looking into once I finish.

I wanted to just take a second and thank the ones that have stood behind me and supported me through this. Though some may not have understood me quitting my full-time job and going back to school, but I know in the end I really can see the ones that stuck with me along the way and as I celebrate this accomplishment, I celebrate it with each of you.

I have made friends at school that have become literally brothers and sisters to me. When you go through emotional turmoil of too much work, the ones that see you at your lowest lows definitely become a little closer to you, regardless if they like it or not.

My mom and sister have been firm foundations on keeping me going, from the very beginning of me quitting my job and finding better in life. Through simple emails, calls, texts, short day visits, and the monetary assistance that I required sometimes, they have become to absolute reason of why I was able to remain strong and driven during the hard road. My uncles and aunts, and grandparents, through facebook or blog posts, or emails, have always let me know of their support. Even though they are pressing hard for me to be a west coaster, I have never had a doubt that they only want me to succeed and be ultimately happy. Through little comments here and there about the crap I was blogging, those are the things that kept me hanging on. My girlfriend, Megan, has been with me through severe ups and downs, and has done everything in her power to make this last leg of school as relaxing and stress free as she can when I'm with her. I love her to death and can't really figure out how I made it this far in life without her. And the loyalty of my friends who knew I had to disappear sometimes because I got under so much work. They stayed with me and now that I start to see where I get my social life back, the ones that kept faith in me through it now have become just like family to me.

Though this may come off as a cheesy post, in the same sense that academy award winners spat off nervously at a microphone, I felt it absolutely necessary.

Hang on to those who hang on to you. God has them in your life for a reason, and the ones that believe in you are part of the who you really are. And I definitely can say that the ones that have supported me I am in huge debt to for the rest of my life, and I will continue to strive upholding the promises I made of being the absolute best person I can be.

Alright, enough of that...holla

Getting close to the end...

2010-07-17T23:14:00.000-04:00

Oh how things are really starting to get crazy and exciting. I just started my 8th and final quarter at Portfolio Center. This 3 months is all about tightening up and perfecting my portfolio, and preparing us to set sail into the industry on a search for the perfect job. It is probably one of the most exciting times of my life thus far, and I can't wait to see the outcome.

Along with the completion of the portfolio I am accepting an intern position at Realm Advertising, just up the road from the city. I will have opportunities to work with some of the video and motion graphics I have been getting interested in lately.

So keep posted. I will have all the finished work up on my website around the beginning of October.

Here are some dates for my finishing up:

October 11th & 12th - I will sign off at school. (Present my finished portfolio to my peers)
October 15th - Graduation at school.
October 29th - Portfolio review in New York City.

Motion to advertising

2010-07-14T10:01:00.001-04:00

And here is an example of motion being done INCREDIBLY inside advertising. Enjoy.

Jack Daniel's "Label Story": "Old No. 7" from Brand New School on Vimeo.

Making it move...

2010-07-14T09:55:00.002-04:00

So, I have been getting into motion graphics lately. It is all the rage in the industry, and where a good bit of money is as well. Its mostly dealing with After Effects, a program that does many of the effects you see in movies and such. I have a LOOONNNNGGGG way to go to get to this point, but hopefully one day I'll be apart of a team to create something like this. Enjoy.

Lilac Wine from kimcool on Vimeo.

Actually, Nevermind

2010-07-12T10:59:00.001-04:00

I went and tried out Tumblr, but I think I still prefer using Blogger more. So I will just keep posting on here, but keep my Tumblr as well. I have a post coming up soon about this current quarter I just started, which is also my last. The big 8. So get ready.

So long blogspot.

2010-05-08T13:01:00.002-04:00

I just want to let everyone know that I am moving my blog to Tumblr. The new address is ewddesign.tumblr.com. For all of you that get emailed updates of my blog, that will be ending as Tumblr doesnt have the feature. So make sure to follow on the tumblr side. Plenty more exciting things to come.

Tumblr Blog

New York City Portfolio Review

2010-05-07T11:55:00.009-04:00

First things first. I got new glasses. Here is a picture. Bigger thicker black frames = bigger and bigger nerd. Enough said about that.

May 2-4 I was in New York City. I was chosen to go show my stuff. My portfolio that is. I, along with 300 other students from all over the nation met at the Art Director's Club, in which creative directors and recruiters from all around popped in to chat, look at work, and trade business cards. I had a freaking blast. I got several good contacts, as well as a ton of knowledge for what I need to focus on as I finish school in the next 5 months. If you didn't see my previous posting, check out my current portfolio (which will dramatically change and get better before I graduate) at my portfolio site.
I also tossed in some pictures that I snapped with my iPhone as well.

Portfolio on the web

2010-05-05T18:55:00.003-04:00

Check it out: EricDewyngaert.com. Not the final, but in the works!

48 hours of no sleep

2010-04-23T12:34:00.005-04:00

This past weekend, IOPP (Institute of Packaging Professionals) held a 48 hour packaging challenge for students in the Southeast. The design heads of my school decided to make teams among all the design students and let us have at it. We had teams of 5, and were given the design brief at 7pm on Friday night. We had to have the packaging completely designed and photographed, as well as a video presentation under 2 minutes of the sales pitch. The packaging had to promote either recycling or include a secondary use of some type. We could choose from peanut butter, bottled water, cereal, or wine bottles. My team decided to take on peanut butter. Here is our presentation video as well as the final shot.

Advertising

2010-04-09T18:06:00.002-04:00

New Nike ad for the Tiger Woods situation. Goes to show advertising doesn't always have to be funny to be rememberable. This is a recording of Woods' father speaking to him earlier in life, to give the idea of what he would say for the sex scandal. Pretty smart on Nike's part.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Welcome to the future. Super impressive!

2010-04-08T16:04:00.001-04:00

Take a minute and treat yourself with this video. I graduate in October, this is out in November. Great graduation gift idea, ha!

NYC, here I come!

2010-04-07T18:48:00.002-04:00

Go back to the second post I made on this blog, back in 2007. I discussed the dream of being in the bright lights of NYC. Well friends, the time has come. I am heading to the big apple on May 3rd for a portfolio review at the Art Director's Club in Manhattan. This is an opportunity in which the top art schools in the nation send only 5 people from each department to go represent them. I was lucky enough to be chosen, and will be meeting potential employers from all over the states. I'm not going in the hopes to get hired, but really just for the practice of talking to people and figuring out what they want to be seeing to offer me a job. I started my 7th quarter meaning I am 6 short months away from exiting these Portfolio Center doors and starting my future. Its exiting, but scary too. We'll see very shortly if I'm where I need to be to make the cut. I'll keep you posted!

Traveling the southeast

2010-04-06T19:13:00.008-04:00

For break, Megan and I traveled to a few places. One being Greenville, SC, so that Megan could meet and hang out with some of my college friends, as well as a chance for me to get to see the new house purchases of some of them. As some are getting married and buying houses, it's funny to me to think I needed to come back to school. Ha, oh well. No rush. We got to spend an entire night of the 2 nights we were there waiting on one of my friends to be let out of a detention center. Long story, not really worth discussing since all charges were dropped and he is one of the last I'd imagine to be in jail.

On the Falls Park bridge in downtown Greenville.

Then we traveled down to Augusta to visit the 'rentz. We got to get around town with Mom, including the riverwalk and catching the newly added statue of James Brown...hmm. Anyways.

After all that and a weekend in Atlanta, we headed west. All the way to the west side of Louisiana, right on the Texas border. I got to see where Megan came from, meet her friends and hang out with her parents. With drive-thru daiquiris, crawfish boils, and some of the most amazing shrimp and corn chowder I think I have ever eaten, it was definitely a different place than where I'm from. We traveled 20 minutes down the highway from her house to the Texas border to take some pictures of my home state. Well, for the birth and first 6 months of my life. I kind of thought of it as an accident, since I am as far from a true Texan as possible. Check out the pics:

Bag of soon to be eaten crawfish.
Not to appetizing looking yet, but after the boil, hell yea!
Megan house. Designed by her mom. Beautiful.

A cool pasture that caught Megan's eye on the drive back to Georgia.

Almost over.

2010-03-03T18:17:00.002-05:00

I am in the ending weeks of my 6th quarter. To sum it all up, I am very tired. This has been my toughest and most challenging quarter thus far. I am beginning the production of my projects and will be spending the next 2 weeks doing so. 2 weeks from tomorrow night I have to have all the pieces in pristine condition to bring into my critique, but then I am a free man. I am looking forward to break like crazy. My girlfriend Megan and I will be doing a bit of traveling. First we'll be heading out to Greenville to catch up with old friends and show her my previous life before the Atlanta experience. We then are going to head south to Augusta to hang with Mom and some friends there. I guess it's time for me to show her exactly where I came from. We'll then head back to Atl for a few days then we'll be driving 10 hours west to Deridder, Louisiana. I will get to see where she lived, went to high school, stuff like that. Looking forward to it. I plan to have my video camera rolling the whole time to get the full experience. Be looking out for that coming up shortly after our return.

I'll be starting my 7th quarter at the first of April. This is my last regular quarter before working on the finalizing of my portfolio for my exit in October. Great things to come this year as I leave yet another chapter of my life. It has been a great one.

But for now, the book is not quite closed so I got to get to work.

Neenah Paper blog post.

2010-02-25T14:57:00.002-05:00

Check it out guys. A little light spread on the Fernbank Gold photography exhibit I directed a couple of quarters ago.

Neenah Paper Blog posting

A little bit of exposure..

2010-01-28T15:58:00.004-05:00

I have recently began my internship with Epidemik Coalition, a branding and design studio here in Atlanta. Made up of Portfolio Center alumni, I will be spending the remainder of the quarter redesigning their website. This opportunity came about after I had a class with one of the founders, Larry. The class was called Entertainment Design. It is basically a dream class of any designer who loves music. We focused on the rebrand and design of an assigned music artist's album cover, single cover, tour poster and merchandise items. I was assigned The Deftones, and wanted to take a risk. I wanted to take what was just a typical heavy radio-rock band and push them towards a different direction, or "experiment" if you will. I decided, after finding 2 acoustic version songs, to create an acoustic album and tour. Being a band known for their experimentation of different sounds, I decided to call the album The Acoustic Experiment. The idea is to carry you through the process of their recording, and that their hard personality still flows even if it isn't out of distorted half-stacks. The album carries the image of a solid clean acoustic guitar, which once you reach the inside the viewer would find the guitar in shambles, representing the starting element (clean acoustic) to finished result after music was made (smashed to pieces.) I was really excited about this album and look forward to tweaking it for the future to pop it into my final portfolio. Here is an image of the finished piece. The inside also carries a set of collector guitar picks with gold deftones logo, The Acoustic Experiment title, and a guitar logo I designed. Check it out:

I also was carried onto the Epidemik website currently. Here is a screen shot of it, or feel free to look it up on the site, EpidemikCoalition.com.

Skylines

2010-01-26T13:57:00.001-05:00

I love skylines of all cities. I found this video. Figured I'd share.

Sky from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

On its way.

2010-01-18T17:01:00.001-05:00

Be on the look out in the upcoming months.

Updated Schedule

2010-01-14T11:10:00.003-05:00

So I figured I would give the rundown on what I am doing these days. I am starting my 6th quarter, which basically means I'm on the home stretch of being finished with the Portfolio Center design program. I CAN NOT BELIEVE IT! It feels like I just started, yet it feels like I've been here 10 years. Here is my current schedule as well as a little blip about what I'll be doing in each class or job:

Monday: 12-1:30 Peachtree Street Photography Book - My friend Erin and I, the same person I worked on the Fernbank photography exhibit with, have been requested to direct another photo project through the school. This time a little bigger of a deal. All photographers are assigned to the class, 17, and will be documenting the famous street of Peachtree in Atlanta, the main vein of the city. Erin and I will be heading up the design and writing portion of the book, as well as defining the conceptual direction and overseeing the project all in all. I am pumped and honored to be working on what could potentially be one of the coolest projects produced by a Portfolio Center team. We set up a "war room" in the photo studio, where basically people can write notes and thoughts on the walls, and pin up pictures, spreads, timelines, dates, emails, notes, etc. Pretty cool.

Wednesdays:
- 8a-12p Message and Content class - basically we are learning semiotics, the study of signs. Information design is so relevant in my industry, and we will be developing different projects in which we will place into real environments and study people's reactions to our pieces, as well as a developing a mapping assignment of ourselves.

- 1p-5p Modernism and Design History - this is the macdaddy class of Portfolio Center. Many students come to the school just for this class. Taught by Hank Richardson, the former president and design head of the school, we are studying major art movements in history which our projects will be based on. Here are the assignments I will be developing:
• a chair based on the connection between the psychadelic movement and a personal story of mine (some picture examples of other student chairs below)
• a written narrative/book based on International Style and the discussion of process being more important than outcome.
• wine bottle set for Robert Mondavi (vineyard based in Napa Valley, CA) which will be designed with the Swiss International Style, also known as the International Typographic Style
• a gift for a current designer/artist based on a personal interview we will undergo. I will be doing Rick Valicenti, based in Chicago.

- 6p-10p Packaging 2 - rebranding a company through structure and product design. For my first assignment, I will be doing TAG body spray. The second product assignment will be in the second half of the quarter.

I also will be interning for Epidemik Coalition for the next 6 weeks. Epidemik is a branding and web development studio based here in Atlanta. They are a group of former Portfolio Center students who are now recruiting business left and right. I will be redesigning their company's website over my internship time span. It is so awesome to have this opportunity to design something that will actually get launched live after 6 weeks. Check out their current site, as well as their clothing line, Process.
epidemikcoalition.com, wearetheprocess.com.

That's all for now. As you see I will be a busy fella over the next 3 months, but I am READY!!!

Museum of Design Atlanta work

2010-01-02T14:13:00.002-05:00

I took an environmental design class this past quarter. Some of the images of the scaled model are in an older post. Here is a 3d animated walk through of my exhibit, which I created through a 3D rendering program. Check out the video clip.

New Year, New Opportunities

2009-12-29T14:25:00.002-05:00

I love New Years. People ask me what my favorite holiday was, and at one point in my life, Christmas would have definitely been the first thing to pop in my head. These days, that isn't really the case. Sure, I love Christmas and everything that its about, but there is something about New Years that seems to hold a greater value to me at this point in my life. People celebrate all other holidays that occur during the year differently. Whether it be Valentine's Day, and a couple goes out to the typical dinner and movie, or they do the anti-valentine date and decide to not support it at all. Or Christmas. With many celebrating Christmas day, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or decide against it all together. But New Years. New Years is for everyone. It doesn't discriminate. It's one of those holidays that doesn't have a grounding in some type of emotion such as Valentines, or based on a historic event such as July 4th. It's everyone counting down another year that they have spent as an individual in this world. It's especially important to me now because as each year goes by, the more I change and my life changes. I am now entering my last 9 months of graduate school which will close the educational chapter of my life for good. This time next year, I have no clue where I will be. Does it make me nervous or anxious, sure. But the excitement of the unknown and the adventure at hand is much greater. We go through really great, memorable times during each year, while at the same time, we endure dramatic life-changing events. Sometimes you feel like you made the right decisions that led you to where you are, and sometimes you make wrong choices, that again, leads you to where you are. New Years is another chance for everyone. It's a clean slate. What can you do differently this year to make it great based on lessons you have learned in the past years? Don't ever step into a new year with regrets or fear, but with the mindset that it will be the best yet. If it doesn't turn out how you like, well, it's only 12 months until you get another shot. Cheers!

I don't just photoshop...

2009-12-16T14:25:00.005-05:00

One of my biggest assignments of the quarter and definitely one of my biggest challenges so far was my project for Environmental Design. Being assigned the architect, Louis Kahn, I was to create a concept for an 8'x8' mobile exhibit that could be disassembled and moved frequently. Naturally we weren't required to build the actual exhibit, but a scaled model set at 2"=1'. I decided, due to Louis' life being quite tragic and depressing, to focus more on the style he used, which was International (modern). The space is more about volume than mass, meaning big solid walls with little ornamentation. I also wanted to include representations of Kahn's water garden design from Salk Institute in La Jolla, California. The side windows are representations of illuminated water gardens filtering down each side of the exhibit. The back wall is a translucent glass panel with a bitmapped image of Kahn himself pondering, which I felt encapsulated the entire idea of the exhibit. All of his work came from his thought. As you begin to enter the exhibit, you will also notice his name engraved into the front two panels, which in the model I hand-cut with a utility knife. This model itself, along with a real-size panel from the exhibit which is backlit from a light box I built, and the drawing set book will be going into Museum of Design Atlanta on January 4th for 2 weeks. Its been quite amazing to work on something like this that was completely out of my realm and took me out of my Adobe programs, Apple computer comfort zone. Here are some images that one of the photographers from school did for me. Check them out:

Time to slow it down

2009-11-22T18:11:00.000-05:00

Check this out. Pretty rad

Eric Smashes Guitar SLOW from EWD Design Productions on Vimeo.

Best job ever!!!

2009-11-17T01:19:00.001-05:00

So, tonight I did the photoshoot for an acoustic album cover for the Deftones. It is a project for my entertainment design class and I have to say, this was the most incredible homework I have had thus far. Check it out!!!

Eric Smashes Guitar from EWD Design Productions on Vimeo.

Tour de School

2009-11-04T11:42:00.006-05:00

So, I decided since Im spending so much of my life in this institution that many of you have never seen, I would throw up some pictures to give you a bit of a virtual tour if you will. Many of these were taken during studio week so the place is a wreck and students are everywhere rushing to finish their projects. So check em out!

Sic em!

2009-10-04T20:18:00.003-04:00

Went the Georgia/LSU game with some friends of mine. We tailgated all day and it was such an amazing ending to my break! I posted a video from a touchdown.

Fernbank: Georgia's Heart of Gold

2009-10-04T19:56:00.004-04:00

During my 4th quarter I had a cool opportunity to creative direct a photography exhibition for Fernbank Museum of Natural History here in Atlanta. They opened up a new exhibition called Gold, which is just what it sounds, an exhibition of gold of the world. Portfolio Center (my school) and Fernbank teamed up to bring a special side exhibit which would be stories of gold in Georgia portrayed in photography. 7 photographers from PC picked a different topic and spent 3 months shooting the particular subject. The topics ranged from Georgia Miners, to gold label recording artists, all the way to the story of the Gold Grillz. I got brought on once the images had been shot to basically handle most of the communication between Fernbank and Portfolio Center, as well as the photographers. I had to opportunity to work closely with the board of directors of Fernbank, where I found myself presenting and discussing the exhibition to them at a conference table. I also got a chance to do some of the design work for the exhibit (opening banner, artist statement plaques, captions, and interior design of the exhibit.) It got to be pretty strenuous and time consuming at times, but priceless experience. I have attached some photos of the opening night. The exhibit opened on September 26th and will remain until January 2010. Go check it out!

Here is some information about the exhibit, as well as a podcast of the photographers explaining where their ideas came from and what they accomplished through the assignment.
Georgia's Heart of Gold

Art & Copy

2009-09-24T10:09:00.003-04:00

I checked this movie out at the Plaza Theater in Midtown Atlanta last night, and was pretty impressed. It gives a great understanding to what the advertising field is all about, what its become, and where its going. Interviews with some of the most creative thinkers of industry made the film quite interesting. Learn where the great campaigns such as Got Milk? and Nike's Just Do It. Check out the trailer below.

Rain rain, go away

2009-09-21T23:29:00.006-04:00

So check out what we did in Atlanta today. These are all in my little apartment complex.

Walking with Lane to check on her car.

1 down, 1 to go

2009-09-17T17:52:00.009-04:00

It's been a while since I have been able to check in and fill everyone in on what is going on, but I have just finished my first year of Portfolio Center as of last night. I had my 4th quarter critique and it went great! I had a good panel of 4 designers and they all gave me very informative feedback and helped push me to where I need to go. I posted some images of some of the work I did this quarter. It was one of the first quarters where I haven't done some type of poster, so it was a little different. I had a packaging design class and I had so much fun with some of the work. Check it out!

First project we had one week to do packaging design for dog, cat, or bird food. I chose to do something fun and bright, basically to encourage a younger demographic on a tighter budget to purchase it, and still know they were giving their cat the nutrients it needs. I did the illustration and photography as well. I was pretty pleased, as was my critique panel.

We had to also take on the week challenge of redesigning Wal-Mart's Great Value brand, since they just went through a big change themselves. This is what I came up with.

For this project, we had a week to redesign a beer of our choice using only 2 assigned typefaces and no imagery besides the logo. I wanted to redesign Brooklyn Brewery displaying the dark age of when it wasn't the safest city to be in, as it is nowadays. I decided to go in the Mafia direction with this collector set of 5 bottles, each representing one of the five crime families. The origin of each family is on the back of the box, while the founder and who the family was named after can be found on the back labels of the bottles. This is one of my favorite projects of the quarter and I am looking forward to pushing it forward more before it hopefully ends up in my final portfolio.

The last project was for a class called Creative Strokes, which basically is a class all about hand illustrated typography. This assignment we were to create a mobile calendar. My concept is capturing the colors of the seasons using the Pantone Color System. I have always been intrigued by the personality of the months through colors, so I decided to construct a series of 6 jacob's ladders, divided by warm months (April, May, June, July, August, September) and cool months (October, November, December, January, February, March). You flip from one set of months and all the colors change in a wave like motion. On each square you will find hand illustrated numbers for the days of the months, while on the very top panel, the first letter of each month in a calligraphic style. I also created a telescoping box for the calendar to sit into. All in all I really enjoyed this fine arts project.

Each quarter we do projects to keep our minds sharp, but we also spend the rest of the time redeveloping some of these as we learn new skills. All of these projects will grow more and more as I get closer to the finish and could possibly go into my final portfolio.

Amazing videos

2009-08-16T19:12:00.002-04:00

So, I have been inspired lately to really find my way back to the multimedia world. I want to definitely enhance my skills in audio recording and video editing. I absolutely love this stuff, and its an everyday passion of mine. I want to be able to contribute art to the world of video, and be able to present my feelings and emotion into them. Vimeo.com is one of the sites I find the most inspiration. Here, you can find all types of videos made by people on various subjects. I have posted a few really cool videos down below for you to check out. If you want to find more, go to the site, and spend some time there.

Los Angeles: in motion from Michael Marantz on Vimeo.

Hammock - Mono No Aware from David Altobelli on Vimeo.

HP - invent from Tom and Matt on Vimeo.

Timelapse Film - "Kachi-Kalion Trip" from Animi on Vimeo.

Let it be known...

2009-08-13T22:43:00.002-04:00

So many things are just going crazy these days, and I can't tell you how many times I get asked if I have some work up online anywhere. I also get asked for business cards all the time. Apparently, I'm being too quiet in the industry at the moment, so let it be known. IT'S TIME TO GET ROWDY!!!! I have my domain name again, being EricDewyngaert.com. I'm currently working on my design portfolio site of current work. I will only post major projects for the moment. I don't want to put many out there, since I want to perfect most of my work before it's exposed to the world. But again, let it be known, I have one year of Portfolio Center, and I will be coming at this industry full force. They won't know what hit em. I also redid the blog back to its original look, if you hadn't noticed.

I will also be in the process of branding myself. I want this to be a lengthy process to make sure I have a solid creative brief backing me for clients, as well as much meaning behind the logo, whatever it be. I will be creating my entire creative setup from there on (business card, logo, stationary, and site upgrades). Branding is one area I see myself going into when I finish school. I have learned a good bit about it since I take a branding class almost every quarter.

I am tentatively planning a trip to New York City for a few days during my break to go and see some companies and what they are doing. Building relationships is key at this point in the game, and I look forward to seeing some creatives that I have met from there, as well as seeing some friends. I will also be leaving a few days after my return from NYC to head to Memphis for the AIGA National Design Conference, Make:Think. This will actually be taking place the first week of my 5th quarter, which is my halfway point through school! Crazy how fast time flies. I will return back to Atlanta to get to know my new roommate, Kathleen.

I'll leave you with a video. Pretty incredible.

Cover creation from Peter Belanger on Vimeo.

The Goodlife Recipe

2009-07-23T23:30:00.006-04:00

It has been a while, but things are going terrific in school. I have been involved in all sorts of projects, fictitious and real. One of the fictitious projects I have been currently working on is for my packaging class. We are assigned a food product to repackage at the end of the 9 weeks, then we have these little 1 week challenges. This is where we are assigned a certain themed product that we have a week to design and produce a critique ready package. This past week we did our first, which was based on animal food (Dog, Cat or Bird). I chose to do cat food and use the brand The Goodlife Recipe. I have posted pictures of the end result, which I as well as my instructor and classmates seemed to be pleased with.

Packaging is quite a rad direction in design. People pass this stuff everyday and someone has to be in charge of doing this work. Considering dabbling in this after school. I am also currently working on a freelance project of designing an album package for a local musician in the Atlanta area. So I am pretty excited about that as well.

More to come including work with Fernbank Museum of Natural History for a Gold exhibit coming in September. I am working with the photographer's group from school for the design work of their gallery being set up along with all the collateral with it (Peachtree street banners, commemorative poster for the exhibit, postcard sets, photo book, etc). Life is quite exciting right now but very busy. Just trying to keep my head above water.

No more summer breaks :(

2009-07-08T00:42:00.006-04:00

So I officially started my fourth quarter of grad school today, and what a day it has been. It should be a really cool quarter. I am doing mostly hand crafting classes to work on some of that skill, so it will be nice to get away fro the computer some. Here is my new schedule:

• Creative Strokes - class where we will be hand illustrating typography into a calendar. It will be really interested and we already began learning calligraphy and hand script.
• Packaging - focusing on the design of product packaging. I hope to be doing ice cream, but it is not a definite yet.
• Bookmaking - focusing on hand binding books. We will be required to create various books for other classes so it should definitely be interesting.
• Criticism and Design History - Now, this class is basically the motherload class of this program. It is taught by the president and is on Friday mornings at 6:30 am. In this class I will be developing several projects including a wine bottle set, logos, and the infamous chair design project. We are to design a chair that is to represent us and our life. I put some pictures below for you to check out to see what I mean. These are promising portfolio pieces and I am really excited about doing so. Hopefully it won't be too expensive to produce.

Should be a good time but very challenging, which I am very ready for. I hope all is well and more to come!

Ouch...

2009-06-27T11:13:00.002-04:00

You guys saw this I hope. Don't know where I have been but just did. HILARIOUS!!!

3rd Quarter Guerilla

2009-06-16T17:18:00.002-04:00

Hey guys, I went through my advertising critique last night. It went awesome, they loved my ideas on my projects and had some very encouraging things to say. Here is one of my projects which my partner and I actually executed. It was fun and gave a good opportunity to experience people's reactions to your ideas. Check it out!

Empty Bookshelf Campaign: Little Shop of Stories from EWD Design Productions on Vimeo.

Music Review

2009-06-08T09:18:00.003-04:00

So, starting studio week, it's pretty dumb for me to think I have the time to do this, but it must be done. I have gotten 2 albums in the past week and need to recommend them to everyone! Especially with the summer here, you need good music for those days by the pool.

First thing is first. Although and older album, I discovered I didn't own the Killer's album, Hot Fuss. This is really what put them on the map. It has the hit single "Mr. Brightside", along with "All These Things That I've Done," which was used in a Nike commercial a while back. The CD starts off with the song "Jenny Was A Friend of Mine," which is just amazing. It's rockin! As the cd goes on, you will find all different experimentations that the Killers did to make this album very versatile. I would absolutely highly recommend this becoming part of your library.

Second order of business. Need it be said a must have album for this summer is Dave Matthews Band's new release, Big Whisky and the GrooGrux King! Dude, this is an amazing album. I can't stop listening to it. With the loss of Leroi Moore(sax) last summer, it has driven Dave to write like he has never done before. The band sounds like they locked themselves away until they produced what they thought could be the best music they have ever done, and I have to say they succeeded. I mean, I absolutely love Dave Matthews Band's first albums, but this one in particular gets me excited all over again about the band itself. The album artwork was all done by Dave himself, which I think is rad. The best thing to do is get the album, and set an hour aside to just sit back, and let the music take you for a ride. Pop it in the car stereo and just go out for a drive. Whether you are stressed, having problems in life, worried about things, listening to this album will be a vacation from all of that for a little bit.

Alright, back to work. Almost done with this quarter. Lots to do.

Data Blitzin

2009-06-07T22:23:00.001-04:00

As students of Portfolio Center, we are chosen randomly to do some sort of presentation at the beginning of one of our seminars. It can be anything that we want. They usually last for 2 or so minutes. So my friend Jamie just recently did hers, which was pretty funny. Check it out

Jamie's Datablitz from EWD Design Productions on Vimeo.

New Position

2009-06-01T17:15:00.002-04:00

So I hope everyone had a great weekend. I personally had a great weekend. We are slowly coming to the end of the third quarter, meaning i have 5 more and I am on to bigger things. But I must say, making the decision to leave my job and go back to school may be the smartest thing I have done. I was nervous there for a bit, but as more and more things occur, I feel more certain I am on the path that was made for me. As you all know, I took on the job as a student assistant to the president at the end of my first quarter. This was a situation where he sought me out and offered me one out of the six spots, so it was quite an honor. I get so much experience and time spent around him. He has definitely become one of my main mentors and knows just what I need to do to get me to New York and in that dream job when I finish. Here is a picture of all of us out to lunch at the end of last quarter after going through projects once the quarter was over. We had a great time.

I stepped into his office last week and had a chat, just to make sure that I was doing everything I possibly could be doing to stay as involved as I want to be. I came to this program to be immersed in it and basically be warped into the designer I want to be. As he had very kind words to say about my drive and ambition he sees in me, I still felt there was more I could be doing, maybe even outside of school. So, with that thought, Saturday, I attended a student board meeting for AIGA. For those of you who are unaware of what AIGA is, it is the Professional Association for Design. It stands for American Institute of Graphic Arts. They have it separated to different chapters for different cities, Atlanta being one of the biggest for students. There are many art schools, probably being the reason for that. Anyways, my friend Erin is one of the reps from Portfolio Center, and informed me that they would be voting on new council positions for the board, and that I had to get involved. So I did. And I am now the President of the Student Board for the Atlanta Chapter of AIGA. I was up against another girl, having to plead my case of why I would be the best. Needless to say, out of the 15 people present for the meeting, I earned a unanimous vote and will be taking charge of this head on for my remaining time in school. I am extremely excited and have big plans for students involved in the AIGA. Take a minute and check out the site and you can see what its all about. AIGA.org. I will also be attending the AIGA conference in October in Memphis as a volunteer, meaning its FREE. Ha.

My president was so very stoked for this opportunity, and has all kinds of things for me to do and people to meet with. This is a major boost to the resume and represents leadership skills for future jobs for me. I don't really know why I deserve the opportunity, but I plan to give 10000000000% to it and hopefully have great things come from this.

I hope everyone is well and having a great weekend!

Why I design...

2009-05-17T15:19:00.005-04:00

I am sure the question crosses many of your minds of why is Eric doing what he does. "Can you really make descent money and make a career out of playing on photoshop all day?" is another common question that I have heard. Well, allow me to break it down for you why I do what I do.

Last night I attended the launch party of MODA's (Museum of Design Atlanta) new exhibition, The Graphic Imperative. It is an exhibit displaying 144 graphic designed posters that have been created by AMAZING designers that ultimately address social issues in the world and make it aware, even though it is a harsh reality. These are just your typical printed posters, but the message they carry gives them the meaning of what they symbolize. Some of these posters have created movements for humans, stopped wars, and basically create this lifestyle change in mankind. Issues such as children being abducted for military use, racial discrimination between whites and blacks, the killing of innocent civilians during military actions, and many other issues that most of the time, people are unaware of the occurrence. So yes, I know certain people who will read this and think, "Oh Eric is turning into another hippie type trying to push peace on Earth." And as that may be true, understanding the big picture of what I do makes it more meaningful.

As a designer I have this opportunity to take my opinion on any issue, and portray it for the world to see, in hopes that others will see eye to eye with me. It is the ultimate freedom of speech. As heart wrenching some of the visual images were on these posters, I feel that it is necessary that we as humans know what takes place in this world that we call home. For a long time I thought to myself, what would have happened if I became a doctor or someone that basically can help mankind in some way. Well, over the past couple quarters of being immersed in design, I am finding I have an opportunity to create movements and change the world. So as many of you may think all I do is play on my Mac and make pictures look pretty, I hope this will change your opinion a bit of why my heart is in design, and what makes my passion throb more and more for this industry everyday. Although it may not always be the most lucrative job in the world, I can guarantee you I will love it more than most people can even say they like their jobs. And that, my friends, you can't put a price tag on. Here is a poster I did last quarter for the issue of children being abducted in Northern Uganda for military use. Though I was only a second quarter, I enjoyed this project and putting my point of view out there, making awareness, and look forward to doing more of these in the future.

Now there is a project coming up for Winterhouse. It is a writing competition in which we have the opportunity to discuss any part of design and our thoughts on it. If chosen, we win $1000, but more importantly, we can have this awesome award to go on our resume and know that we made an impact through our writing. I'll be doing this through Microsoft Word, just so you know. Not Photoshop. I plan to write on the subject of Conservatively Designing in a Liberal World. I feel that many of the things I value are usually addressed from the opposite side of the room, and I plan to bring up a discussion on how the foundations of design has found its way to this side, and why I feel it is important for issues to be viewed from different angles. The main defining truth to creating a point of view. I am pretty excited about it.

Do I look smarter?

2009-05-03T11:36:00.004-04:00

So, I guess genetics and staring at a computer screen caught up with me, but I had to have a new accessory added to my everyday life. Oh well, not so bad I guess. At least I'm not 23 walking around with braces. That my friends is the ultimate call to women to stay far away (no offense if you have braces and reading this.) Got a black and brown pair, here are a couple pictures:

The official start of my summer!

2009-05-01T08:49:00.009-04:00

So its that time again. Thanks to my wonderful Mother, I was about to break away from logo research and content branding to sit back and relax, and enjoy the sweet sounds of the Dave Matthews Band. Being my favorite band, it has just become of my normal summer routines to go see him. Luckily, this summer, it happened to be in April, so the weather was gorgeous and it was just a good time. I went with a few friends as well. We loaded up the cooler with our special brand of PBRs and headed to the show. Here are some of the pictures from the show. Enjoy!

There are more things to design than just a picture...

2009-04-26T20:17:00.003-04:00

Sound design. Ever heard of it. It is truly an amazing trade and is the essence of what we hear in most media based products today. Movies, commercial, interactive ads, all of this stuff has a sound-designed foundation, which really gives the mood and theme of the product.

Last week, we had Glue Audio come to speak to us at school for our Thursday morning Seminar. Hugh Barton, executive producer/sound designer of Glue, really gave an amazing presentation that personally inspired me to really stretch my mind as far around design as I can. All of the aspects of it. Not just Photoshopping something. He truly resembles someone who is passionate about their work and continues everyday representing that in each of his projects. Check some of their work out athttp://www.glueaudio.com/featured_work.html. I personally love the Sony HDNA spot at the end. And make sure to listen to it through good speakers, thats really what its all about.

Checkin my pulse...

2009-04-24T15:48:00.009-04:00

Alright, so its been a while but I have a brief moment of downtime so I figured I would update you all on what is going on here in the ATL. I just began my 3rd quarter, which is just crazy. Feels like I was just a 1st quarter. I will be doing my grad sign off and hunting for a job in the real world before I know it. Here is my schedule and a brief description of what I am doing in the classes:

Monday - 6pm-10pm - Logos • I have 3 separate companies I am rebranding. I am doing Tommyknocker Brewery, a beer company from Idaho Springs, Colorado. The Tampa Bay Lightening, NHL team. I am also doing Fox Vineyards and Winery from Social Circle, GA. Lots and lots of sketches for this class. By Monday I have to have 100 separate logo sketches for each project, so that is 300!

Tuesday - 6pm-10pm - TV/Viral Video • An ad class focusing mainly on the television broadcasting of advertising, and the viral video phase.

Wednesday - 9:30am - 12pm - Buzz • An ad class focusing on non-traditional advertising (guerilla). Basically in your face off the wall style advertising. Similar to the truth.com campaigns if you have ever seen those.

Thursday - 6pm-10pm - Content Branding • I basically pick a neighborhood in Atlanta in which I will rebrand. I have been spending most of my time walking the streets of Virginia Highlands, capturing the overall essence and personality of life there.

All in all, I am basically now starting to produce work that could be put into my portfolio, as the first 2 quarters were foundational courses for the most part.

But great news! As you enter the school, you get to see all types of student work all around, just representing what the students can truly produce here and the way we think. As you first come into the school, there are 2 glass cases facing each other, that are the first impression pieces. When I visited the school a year ago for the first time, I remember looking at these projects and just being in awe of what students could do, and how far my skill was from that. But guess what. I made it there now!

I got a chance to design a wine bottle set in representation of Renzo Piano, my assigned architect. I also redesigned the book covers for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. I was really excited about all of this and really am on my way to building a great book that will eventually get me a great job, hopefully in New York City. But we'll see, maybe even the west coast for a bit.

On a more depressing note, I got to get my eyes checked. I have been having headaches and find myself squinting. Thanks to the wonderful science of genetics, I can already tell I will be there eventually, as Mom, Dad, and now Ellen all use glasses some or all of the time. Oh well, maybe it will be a good look for me if it does work out that way.

Yesterday, I got to get out to Social Circle, Georgia, to visit the Fox Vineyards and Winery there. What a small, quiet country town it was, but nice to get out of the city for a few hours. I got to sample all of the muscadine and scuppernong based wines for free and learned quite a bit about the company. I am rebranding them after all, so I need to be able to understand the full personality of the business. Here are some pictures of my visit:

That is about all I got going on at the moment. Broke, busy, exhausted, and absolutely loving being a student and just warping myself into the designer I want to be.

Where can I get one?

2009-04-21T13:33:00.001-04:00

Is this possibly the cutest creature in existence? And how can I get one as a pet?

Welcome to the future...

2009-04-12T01:01:00.002-04:00

Oh how technology is becoming quite intense. Check this out!

Moving on up

2009-04-03T14:36:00.002-04:00

Alright, so Im two days out of starting my third quarter, which is CRAZY. My how the time flies by when you work on never ending projects. So, 25% of my path is complete through this incredible journey I have taken. Lately I have struggled with decisions on which track to focus on, between art direction and design, which leads to the ultimate question of where I can see myself after this. Would I be better suited in an ad agency scenario as an art director working with a writer doing various campaigns for different clients? Or, could I see myself in a design studio doing work like branding agencies (designing logos and creating identities for businesses). I had a sit-down pow-wow with the president yesterday, which ultimately I see to being my main mentor during my time and after. He is so passionate about this field and is always willing to sit and listen and give words of wisdom to keep us on track. His encouraging talk picked me back up and I am ready to continue on, and planning to pick the definite track at the end of the quarter, since I will be taking a split set of design and art direction classes. This is truly the definition of the phrase, time will tell. I will update you guys on my schedule and what kind of classes I will be going at next quarter in a couple days. Monday, we will have a new group of students coming in as first quarters, and being a student assistant, we get to sit with them and answer any questions about the school that they may have, which to me is always fun. I love meeting new people and the ultimate chance to meet people that will be industry leaders one day!

Hatch Show Print • Nashville

2009-04-01T03:18:00.001-04:00

Hey guys. Had a little overnight field trip with my publications design class to Hatch Show Print in Nashville. It was a really fun trip which we went on with the president of my school along with the other students in the class. Enjoy!

Hatch Show 09 from EWD Design Productions on Vimeo.

Homecoming.

2009-03-25T12:56:00.005-04:00

You guys asked for it, so here s a quick rundown of my living conditions for my time in Atlanta. Feel free to stop by anytime. Enjoy!

My Atlanta Apartment from EWD Design Productions on Vimeo.

Taking a break.

2009-03-25T00:48:00.004-04:00

Oh I am so enjoying my break so far. I feel like I am recovering from a 3-month hike up a never ending mountain. It was an absolutely amazing quarter full of great classes, but really took a toll on me. My final design critique went well, although I got critiqued to the core. Though it was a bit brutal, it was great feedback and am just ready to do that much better next quarter. The next day after the quarter ended, I along with the other assistants, had to go to school to sort all the work from the quarter for the president to flip through and decide what will be put up on the wall. After we finished, he took us out to an amazing lunch at this place that knows how to cook good souther style food. I had country fried steak with mac and cheese, okra and fried green tomatoes. AMAZING! Below is a pic of us all there packin the food in.

Then that night I met up with Dad and my Uncle Alan to go to an intense NHL game. We saw the Detroit Red Wings whoop some Thrasher ass, although I was pretty impressed with the Thrashers attempt to win. We tried some fantastic beer, so all in all, it was a great start to the break to tie one on with the fam over a great game.

This Saturday, my friends Shaun and Erin and I will be joining Jessica to go to her home in Louisiana for a few days. It will be a nice break from the city and the 10-hour drive should be pretty exciting too.

I plan to have some more stuff coming up soon. Sorry I have been kind of slack on blog entries, but this next quarter should be a little lighter than the past. And I will be moving on to the 3rd quarter. 25% COMPLETE!!!

Advertise this...

2009-03-18T09:44:00.003-04:00

So last night I had my first critique for advertising. Last quarter I just had one design critique, so starting now in my second quarter, I have one critique for my advertising projects and then another critique for my design pieces. The critique went really well. I pitched 3 campaigns. One for VSA arts, a non-profit organization for the purpose to educate those with disabilities in the arts. We did a series of 3-ads, a viral video concept and a guerrilla campaign. The concept behind the ads was to portray signs in the world of art with the disability symbols, to show people that even those with disabilities can have active careers in the arts. The second campaign was a business-to-business campaign advertising the idea of Bringing Starbucks to Your Office. They offer a service where different Starbucks coffee can be delivered to the office to brew in your coffee pot, or you can have an actual Starbucks brewer set up in the office. The concept behind this campaign was getting Starbucks involved in the everyday workflow. It was my panel's favorite campaign I did not to mention, which I felt was my weakest. The last campaign was a Viagra campaign. We wanted to get away from the "pussyesque" theme of most Viagra advertising which is the guy sitting on the beach rubbing his wife's back, or salsa dancing, or something like that. No wonder he can't get it up. Too much estrogen flowing in his system. So we wanted to get it back to the basics. The tagline being "Get the job done." The idea was that men work hard all day and need to get the job done then and in the bedroom. We wanted to get away from the uncomfort men feel for the need of this product and laugh with them and make them feel more comfortable that Ed has attacked them and Viagra has the solution for getting the job done. Over all it was a lot of fun doing these campaigns this quarter. I will be excited to see what happens next quarter with my classes and definitely more to come following my design critique, which I have way more stuff to explain.

Cheers

Competing in Design

2009-03-06T14:13:00.003-05:00

Hey guys. Its been a little while but I have just been hella busy with school. Quarter is about to come to a close in 2 weeks, as I am now preparing to get all my pieces sharpened and printed to take to critique. I have 2-20 minute critiques this time. One is my advertising critique, which will be probably Tuesday night, and then my design critique on Thursday night. We'll see if this year's critique will go half as good as last quarters.

I also wanted to update you on a recent competition that some of my work went into. We designed 2 magazine spreads (4 pages) based on a certain subject guideline given by the hosts of the competion (SPD, Society of Publication Designers). I chose to do mine on Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which is a part of New York that is total hipster. Graffiti covering each wall and the place where young people making the move to the city may find their first home. Even though the part of town is now changing for the worse due to money, and things getting to expensive, I still wanted to design the pieces based on what WillyB was originally known as. We sent out the finished pieces this past Monday to SPD, which is in New York City. They began judging on Tuesday at noon and we will find out results Friday, March 13. So the prizes are really what perked me up to the competition. They have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and then 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Honorable Mention. First place wins $2500, the Adobe Creative Suite, which is the software I design on, and work gets published in the SPD annual at the end of the year.

Now the biggest part of this is that the first 4 winners (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 1st Honorable Mention) receive fully paid(living expenses covered) summer internship with a major magazine in New York City this summer. Now, those of you who know me well enough know that this is right up my alley. I worked my ass off for these pieces and spent many weeks on it. I hope to be chosen and feel really good about my work. However, if I don't, I will keep my head up and keep on working as hard as I have been. In time I know that doors will open where they need to and I will be packed and ready for those opportunities. I will keep you guys posted on any news I hear.

I will now enjoy the rest of the weekend outside, since the weather is gorgeous.

Kinko's Blows

2009-02-17T17:19:00.002-05:00

Headline says it all. Kinko's is the worst establishment in existence, at least the Atlanta locations are.

Its a good show...Trust Me!

2009-02-13T13:49:00.002-05:00

Hey guys. So, I don't get much time to do anything other than homework, but I do make it a point on Monday nights (while working on my laptop as well) to sit and watch the great new show, "Trust Me." It comes on at 10 pm my time and it is a drama series about the world of advertising. The plot focuses on the struggles and stresses of agency life with the main characters being a creative director and a writer, and how their relationship as best friends reroutes once their partnership is split due to a promotion. It is based in Chicago and really will give you a good idea of what agency life is like, however, they ad a bit of drama to make it an entertaining show. So if you are sitting around on Monday nights looking for something on, definitely give it a try. It is only an hour but a very cool show.

Here is the link too: http://www.tnt.tv/series/trustme/

Feeling like death warmed over...

2009-02-11T23:30:00.002-05:00

So, another day of a 12 hour class, I am exhausted. I will be, with my class, doing a presentation on illustration and caricatures in the morning before seminar. Should be pretty interesting and hopefully alot of fun for what we have planned. Maybe some pictures will come about from it. We are closing in to the end of the quarter though. I just hope I can survive to the end without dying.

Superbowl Favs

2009-02-07T12:20:00.002-05:00

Hey guys. So the superbowl was a bit disappointing, but I was able to catch some pretty funny commercials. Being in art school our eyes are naturally drawn to this stuff so in case you missed any, here are some of my favorite spots from this year's super bowl!

Denny's - Call Me Nannerpuss | Viral | SPIKE.com

Another weekend day...another class

2009-02-01T09:21:00.003-05:00

So, Sunday morning, 7am, and I am sitting in Hank's class...again. I feel like we are spiraling up toward to the completion of the first project, which is our magazine spread that will be entered into a competition once we are finished. I am doing a City/Regional magazine based on Williamsburg Brooklyn, and about the lifestyle there. It has been pretty interesting and challenging all at the same time. My class got together yesterday after a long day of preparing my work to present to them and it was a really helpful meeting. So I hope everyone has gotten enough sleep and enjoyed the weekend, because mine has been a bit of a blur. Thanks again for everyone who supports me in what I am doing because I am working my ass off to get to where I want to be, and understanding from everyone of the work load I have on my plate always makes my life just that much easier. More to come soon!

Check it out!!!

2009-01-29T15:29:00.001-05:00

http://www.portfoliocenter.com/blog/2009/01/29/inspired#more-324

Oh to be a kid...with no worries

2009-01-28T09:50:00.002-05:00

I was at the apple store yesterday in the Lenox Mall to take my laptop in for repair. The "A" key stopped working and some of the paint is defective on the casing, so under my applecare warranty, I am able to get it repaired. The only drawback is I am without my computer for 7-10 days, which SUCKS. I told my girlfriend that I felt like my child was taken from me. My entire life runs through the hard drive somewhere on that machine, so it is hard to accept being without it. Luckily my friend had an older Mac laptop that she was able to lend me until I get mine back. But thats not the blog subject, just setting the scenario.

So I walked in and was standing there thinking that it was such an inconvenience to have to get this problem fixed and be without it, when I noticed this little girl, maybe 4 or 5, standing at a bank of iMacs in front of the service desk. She was leaning up against this stool that was taller than her. She kept pushing it ever so slightly, and then stopping to give the surroundings a look. I assumed her mischief made her curious of what all the "big people" around her were thinking, or if she might get called out on her actions. To me she was doing nothing wrong, and through my eyes that she looked in, she knew I wouldn't say anything. She continued pushing this stool a few more inches closer to the table of computers, still pausing to scan the horizon. I then started thinking of all the problems and issues that I have going on in my world right now why I watched this child work and plan her next move. This week a situation really hit home personally that involves this economy falling to pieces. A loved one's life was changed drastically because of our national situation and it put me in an entirely new emotional realm that I have never been. Even though this particular situation didn't have an immediate impact on my living situation, my heart grew a little bruised for the thought that this person was going through what they were going through, when they didn't deserve it one bit. As I watched this child move this stool, I put myself into her shoes and considered the idea that her only worry and issue in the world at that moment was to move this stool close enough to the computer so she could climb up to another world of exploration that she may had not ever experienced before.

In this time, we have to reach out to our friends and family, and stick together. Yes, situations happen to others that are out of our hands, but prayers and support can be major building blocks to putting someone up to another level of exploration that they may have never been before. Don't belittle the situation or turn your head to it just because it hasn't happened to you. It could very well be tomorrow that you find yourself in a life altercation and having the support and care from others would possibly make the issue a little easier to swallow. I hope this email finds you all in high hopes that we will pull out of this current crisis in our nation and that we as family and friends stick together through it. DO NOT belittle anyone's situation for what they are going through, for we have NO CLUE of understanding what that person could be possibly feeling.

Take care of yourselves.

Seeing eye to eye

2009-01-21T08:57:00.003-05:00

So we have a new president. If you didn't know that, pull your head out of your ass and get with the times, ha. Anyways. My home for the last 5 months has been this art school, which has a different mind set towards things than I do sometimes. One of those being politics. Now, I will be the first to say I hate hate HATE politics, but I am not ignorant to it and know that a country needs a government to run correctly. I do think all politicians are crooks and its in the job requirements to be one, but this is my blog and I can fully voice my opinion. If you want to, start a blog yourself, its pretty sweet. Now within my family even, between the east coasters and the west coasters, we don't always agree on it and it becomes a joke most of the time that I find pretty funny. We all love each other but the fact of the matter is the different parts of the country is seething with different morals/lifestyles/and over all opinion. My friends here at school come from all over the country as far as San Fran and India, and its naturally a difference of opinion in these times. The important thing is that we respect each other's choice. I did not feel that yesterday was a smart decision but the majority of the country did, and now Obama will take the reigns. Now, I can continue with the sobbing and whining that policies are completely far fetched/ motives are fantasy based/ and that I am tired of hearing that the country feels like this one man will wave his magic wand and fix the economy and all problems, when anyone with more than half of a brain will realize our problems are WAYYYYYY too extensive to be fixed by just one guy who "says" he has a plan to do so. As a mature American man, realizing no matter what issues and problems may befall us for the future, we still remain the absolute best nation on this planet. Being in school and studying the arts and realizing the opportunities that are open for me proves this for me more and more everyday, and I don't need a presidential election to show it to me. Too many have their hands out to the government when they need to get off their ass and make something of themselves to begin with. The point of the president is to keep this country stable, protect us through decisions that impact us all. The white house is not a huge salvation army. Take the opportunities that we as Americans have, that many other countries are so envious of, and use it as a catalyst for moving toward success. Success is misinterpreted sometimes. Many think success is having a fat wallet and buying more junk. FALSE. Success is your ultimate happiness in life. If you find yourself in a good job where you're happy, a good family life where you're happy, a good marriage or relationship where you're happy, and overall a good life where you're happy, then you have reached success, no matter how others view it. Success = ultimate happiness. Your success is your own, and no one else needs to attempt to understand or ever judge you on it. If they do, screw them. Your life is not for pleasing others. One of those lessons I have strongly learned over the past couple of years and getting stronger in my heart every day.

So where am I going with this? I will respect the president who has taken office, and trust that he will do everything in his power to keep this country afloat and representing the best and most successful nation in the world. No room for whining and complaining because it does no good. On the other side when Bush was in office, I constantly saw the lack of respect from Americans for him, when the truth of it was, HE IS THE LEADER OF THIS COUNTRY! Yes, he may have made decisions that everyone didn't agree on, but when you have a nation of 305,657,264 citizens, not everyone is always going to see eye to eye. I am not saying the email jokes and funny SNL skits of the president is uncalled for. I will be the first to laugh my ass off at that stuff. But in reverence to it all, we now need to unite together as a country and look to President Obama to lead us in the right direction. And besides, if its possible for the country to get screwed up any more, it is for only 4 years, hahah. (That was a joke)

More to come about work and project updates and my trip to Nashville this upcoming weekend. I also will be meeting with Carla Frank tomorrow, designer and director of Oprah Magazine, along with several other amazing projects. Check her out!!!

My prediction was correct...

2009-01-17T13:17:00.002-05:00

Yep, got out of class at 6:00 Pm. That is a straight 12 hour class. Thats rough but I guess we all do what we do and make sacrifices to make it somewhere in this world and follow our dreams. I have much more homework to get caught up on today and get prepared for my trip with my class to Nashville on Friday. We will be visiting Hatch Show and it should be a good time. More to come with some video...

Its frickin' early...

2009-01-16T06:46:00.002-05:00

Well I am sitting in class at 6:46 am feeling like a zombie with coffee on my breath. Coffee is basically the only substance I feel that keeps my blood flowing so I can stay conscious at this time of the morning. I'm watching Hank fish through emails so he can send us a little bit more reading material, and the rest of the class with glazed eyes. I am looking forward to sleeping in a little bit tomorrow morning, but am starting to realize that there is so much more to do with your time than sleep, although I enjoy it so much. Not too much going on this weekend. Mostly homework. I have to take some pictures, do some more logo sketches, read more of my trilogy, and hopefully hang out with the girl some too. We are also planning our trip next week to Nashville, which we are going as the Publications Design class (what class I am sitting in currently) and going to visit Hatch Show Print, which is an amazing company that does music based print work. I believe its affiliated with the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is pretty cool too. Anyways, more to update after that. I plan to take the vid cam to document the trip, so be looking out for that as well.

I also wanted to explain to all that receives the email updates of the blog, you should also visit the actual blog site too. It isn't just general emails, it all links up to my blog @ ewddesign.blogspot.com. You can see some more stuff on there, like links to fellow blogs which are also good to read, pictures, and just more stuff like that, so check it out. Anyways, I guess Hank may be getting back to explaining what our work is so I should stop typing this up. I hope everyone had a good night sleep of at least 8 hours, because I definitely DIDN'T!!!

Back in the ATL

2009-01-05T14:31:00.002-05:00

Hey guys. Holidays came and went and its time to get back to work. We officially start 1st quarter today. Here is my schedule of how my weeks is going to go for the next 3 months:

Advertising Concepting 1 : Monday 6-10pm

Intro to Photography : Tuesday 8am-12pm

Intro to Design : Tuesday 6-10pm

Digital Concept and Design : Wednesday 6-10pm

Publication Design : Friday 6am - who knows

The last class I have on Fridays does indeed start at 6am and has been known to last ten hours at a time. It is taught by the president of the school and there is a small group of us. Should be an interesting experience to say the least but a really good experience. On Thursday's we will continue having our Seminars, which is when a random speaker which is usually a person from the industry who comes to speak to the school about their agency or firm. This gives us a good opportunity to rub shoulders with some really incredible people that could lead to job opportunities or internships.

Also during the break, I met one-on-one with the president of my school to discuss future opportunities and he asked me to become a student assistant, which is basically 1 of 6 chosen students to work along side of the president assisting with various tasks. This is quite an incredible opportunity as well, due the fact that there are 250-300 students and they only choose 6 for these positions. I will remain in this position until I graduate. Very very excited about this and we will see where it leads for the future.

We closed out the quarter with critiques, which is as I explained when we have a 15 minutes to present our deliverables and the remaining 5 minutes the panelists take to critique us. This is what everything amounts to because it leads to graduating with great work that has been run through fingers of current industry workers. We are graded by 3-4 panelists out of a 10 point scale. My average for the critique was 9.4, and had some very very encouraging comments that just continues to push me further into what I know I was made for.

Last thing, I am having to sell my car for financial reasons, so I will be living carless which shouldn't be too big of a deal. I have good friends around and my girlfriend lives on the next street. Yea, that's right, girlfriend. You will have to just wait on more details on that, but it is really good and she is very supportive and encouraging during stressful school days. Now I just have to stress over getting these car payments off my back and focus on finishing up and getting to New York City in less than 2 years.

More to come as I am sure some really exciting things will be happening. Take care and thanks for the support!

It's Over!!!

2008-12-14T12:48:00.002-05:00

It is finally complete. I am talking about the first quarter. I finished up on Monday December 8th after my fabulous 20 minute critique. I basically had to take all my deliverables and present it to a panel of 4 people. Usually my panel will be people I don't know, but this time only had 2 people I had never met along with 2 of my instructors. One of them being the instructor of my hardest class. Long story short, I presented my work as the last person of the night. Right on the 15 minute mark, I allowed them 5 minutes to let me know I had by far the best work of the night, immaculate presentation skills, and one of the panelists was surprised by me being a 1st quarter and could tell I had been designing for a while. With all that being said, I walked out of the critique a free man and on top of the world. We won't receive critique scores until the end of the break. It keeps us on our toes but I also think that it will be nice to have a few weeks from not thinking about school. The night after critiques were over, I reserved the upper room of the Taco Mac at Lindberg Marta station. Most of the 1st quarters came and we all got to celebrate the completion together.

So now being the break, me and some friends have been tearing up the city. We rode the Marta and explored the downtown area, hitting Centennial Olympic Park and some other spots. After that we rode over to little 5 points which is just an incredible part of town. Its basically a little strip of vintage clothes shops, different cultured bars and some music venues. Even further down the road you will run into the Viriginia Highlands, which is my favorite part of town. I describe it as the Greenwich Village of Atlanta. Even further down is the East Village which also has some great bars and music venues. All in all I have been pretty busy.

This upcoming week I will be enjoying some alone time around my apartment and getting ready for my trip down to Greenville. I will be going Friday to visit some friends and hit up a Christmas party and then heading to Augusta on Saturday. I will be there for a little over a week enjoying the holidays then heading back to the Atl to spend the New Years with al of my returning friends for school. We have to register for classes on January 2nd and then we will getting into the 2nd quarter starting the 5th. So lots of exciting stuff on the horizon but for now I will be around getting enough sleep.

Studio week to critique, and then to the sack!

2008-12-02T23:57:00.002-05:00

Hey guys, quick update. I am in studio week currently, or as I refer to it, HELL WEEK. Basically we are in the stage of perfecting and completing all our projects (deliverables) for the quarter. We are completely done with classes and we have the entire week to work on our own, which isn't much time at all. Hopefully I can fit some sleep in there somewhere. Next week is critique week, which we take all our finished deliverables, dress up in our sunday's finest, and do a 20 minute presentation in front of a panel of 3 to 4 people. They could be some of our instructors from the quarter or people we have never met. We take 15 minutes to explain our 11 deliverables from this quarter then they have the remaining 5 to rip everything up in front of our eyes. Its a tough life but it will only make us better, have thicker skin, and be toting out some kick-ass work when we graduate in two years. Anyways, had a quick minute to write. I hope all is well with everyone and I will be soooooo very excited a week from tonight because I will be a free man for about 3 weeks. The journey is far from over however, but I am loving it.

Going to the chapel, and I am NOT getting married

2008-11-12T10:55:00.002-05:00

Hey, early weekend update. I will be headed to the Aug (Augusta) after class on Friday to go to my step-sister's wedding on Saturday. I haven't gotten to see the fam the entire time I have been in Atlanta so I will be excited for the reunion, as well as seeing Ashley get married off and start her own journey. Also, I will be bringing a friend of mine home with me. Her name is Jessica and she will be getting the chance to meet some of my family. I am excited about the weekend. Get out of the city for a couple days, but I will return to the A-T-L saturday night to get caught back up on homework.

Also, my cut paper poster is COMPLETE! I stuck the text on earlier this week, put the plexi glass over it all and framed that sucker up. Its a bit surreal but it's nice to see my first complete deliverable of the quarter. By deliverable, I mean finished piece that I will take with me into critique at the end of the quarter.

Hope all is well and more to come!

Seeing the light...

2008-11-05T08:19:00.004-05:00

I am starting to see the light at the end of the 1st quarter tunnel. Feeling like I have been here for about a year, these past 5 weeks have been a whirlwind of loads of homework, projects, trips to kinkos, outings with friends and lots of coffee and energy drinks. Oh, and did I mention the extreme lack of sleep I am having to endure as well. All that being said, I am having the best time of my life. The mania of learning in the art world is indescribable and is a great outsource of creativity and emotion. I have worked on some awesome projects, and are still perfecting those. The goal is to be introduced to these projects and spend the quarter creating them, and using studio week to perfect them to make sure they are perfect for critique week. I attached a couple shots of my cut paper poster, which is basically an advertisement for an Aboriginal Penguin exhibit at the St. Louis Zoo. The trick is, there is no ink allowed by any means, it is completely created out of cutting out different shades of gray paper. Basically you become best friend with the xacto knife and you begin to master your craft. The other was based on a tracing of a picture, that went through scanning, a bit of photoshop touch up as well as illustrator work. My logo can be found in the bottom right and the text behind me is some that I wrote in using my Wacom graphics tablet. I also have the New York skyline in the background, as well in my glasses. It was definitely one of the most enjoyable projects since we did it completely in class. With my buds in flowing some Explosions in the Sky, and working in complete darkness, it was a relaxing time for innovation and filtering out some of the stress that has built itself to quite a mass from the past weeks.

We have also had some incredible seminars, which is where the school meets each Thursday mornings at 10 and have a speaker from different studios around the nation come and share with us what they do, and basically give you the idea of possibly working for them if thats where the Portfolio Center path leads you. Frog Design, an interactive design agency based in places such as San Francisco, New York, Amsterdam and Shanghai. After picking my jaw off the floor, I found that this could possibly be a job for me when I get out of here in two years. I spoke with another agency called Brew Creative based in Minneapolis, which have worked with such clients as BMW. Check their site out at www.brew-creative.com. I wrote the creative director an email of just basic interest and showing my gratitude for his presentation, also throwing my portfolio so far in there. You never know what will happen as far as jobs go, and all these agencies know we are basically incubating at this point in our life, and are going to be incredible creatives when we graduate. Alright, all I got for now. Hope everyone is well and I may see some of you soon.

Pulsing

2008-10-22T10:20:00.001-04:00

Hey, still alive. New entries to come, just have been sort of limited on time lately. Things are absolutely amazing right now though so no worries!

Skipping class

2008-10-15T09:15:00.002-04:00

Sitting here in Typography Fundamentals and thought what better time to catch up on my blog entries. School is going AMAZING. It's tons of work but it also is a lot of knowledge which is just molding us into better creatives. Some of the time I feel like I am in an advanced summer camp after we have finished working with glue and finger paint, but really the stuff we have made is pretty interesting and gets our minds flowing. It is all about mind expansion. In the future when we're working for whatever company we are employed by, we may have some type of design block and can think back on some of these projects and will probably shoot us right out of our bunch. This class I am in currently basically is 4 hours of font lecture. Although that may sound boring to some of you, which sometime it is hard to sit through at 8:00 am, I find it very interesting and know it will assist in my skills. Alright, that's all you get for this time. We have first quarter party this weekend, which is basically a big house party that the second quarters throw for us. It's 80's theme so it should be a lot of fun, and a much needed stress reliever. Alright, buhbye

Portfolio Center so far...

2008-10-08T01:07:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone, long time no talk. Alright, so my experience here in Atlanta at Portfolio Center is nothing short of chaotic and the most overwhelming thing I have ever encountered. But you all know that, speaking from the past entries, so time to look at the positives. I have made a ton of new friends, including people all from my quarter as well as upper quarter people. I have made a point to do some sort of social outing everyday so that I don't go crazy nor get burned out on this stuff. Its hard work, but completely doable and very rewarding.

Friday night I was invited to a drinking break over at my friend Hayley's place, who also lives here in Colonial Homes (the PC dorms basically.) Virginia and Jessica came as well, who are room mates and also live here. As they sipped their red wine and I drank my six pack, we all got to have some great conversation just discussing all the nutty stuff that has been packed into our tight extremely short schedules. As the drinks continued, so did our depth of conversation, which became pretty humorous. But it was really cool to connect to these people who are going to be like family for the next 2 years, and as I can already see really cool and fun friends.

Saturday, went to a party at an upper quarter student's house off of Roswell. This was an awesome opportunity for me to meet some more upper quarter people which really helps from the advice they give us of how to deal with this ridiculous load. After a couple drinks there, I headed home to work strenuously to get some work knocked out.

Sunday, I ended up working from 10:30 am to 5:30 am straight, except for a friend coffee break from 9-11 that night. I made a deal with myself that I could sleep once I finished all the work from one of my classes, which I did indeed. So I slept from 5:30 to 9:30, feeling great I got up and dove into more work. I can definitely feel my work ethic positively changing and fast.

We had seminar up at school Monday night and had Frog Design come in to speak. They are here recruiting and they are an interactive design company, based all over from san fran, nyc, austin, to shanghai and the newest in Amsterdam. Very overwhelming to talk to people that could potentially hire me and send me to one of those places. Crazy, but freakin awesome.

Anyways.

Tonight we had a party over at Binders, which is where most of my loan money will go over the next 2 years. It is an art supplies store and the point of tonight was to show us around, but I have already been there 6 times this week.

OOOO, I almost forgot. I tagged along last night on some friend's homework assignment to attend the Claremont, which is the oldest gentlemen's club in Atlanta. To me, that equalled the nastiest sketchiest place I have ever attended. Needless to say, it needs to be experienced.

Alright, thats all I have energy to write now. I'll update you more later. I have a ton of stuff still to do. Back to class at 8 in the morning

Skippin the zzzzz's

2008-10-06T02:36:00.002-04:00

Hey guys, first all-nighter and only a week in. I have a feeling I will be doing this very often this quarter. I have been working straight since 10:30 AM this morning on this particular project besides the 2.5 hour coffee break I had with some fellow student friends around 9 tonight. I am tired yet driven, and I know what I have to finish. Thanks for everyone's support. I should be sponsored by the Full Throttle energy drink, because God knows I have invested plenty of money to their company so far.

Checking for a pulse...

2008-10-05T01:10:00.002-04:00

Hey guys, sorry about the length of time since I have visited. I am in a HUGE hole buried in the most intense and quantitative art work I have ever been involved with. I will give a huge update soon of everything I have worked on, just as soon as I figure out exactly what I am working on. Right now its just a jumbled up mess of notes containing vocabulary that is completely foreign to me. I'll surface eventually, but until then, wish me luck. Thanks

Planet Earth = AMAZING!

2008-10-01T20:53:00.003-04:00

New show that I feel a addiction slowly creeping to my brain to. Planet Earth on Discovery HD has some incredible stuff. Now, I don't want to come off as some kind of science geek or tree hugger, but the film shots that these guys get are nothing short of remarkable. They are encoring the season on Discovery on Sundays, so I suggest you check it out. There are different episodes such as deserts, mountains, and so on. Around my school schedule I plan to catch the episodes which are recorded on my DVR. No one ever said there was anything wrong with some educational television, and at this point in my schoolin', any type of inspiration will just better assist to my projects. These episodes are no National Geographic and no where near boring either. If you got a free hour on Sundays, check it out because I promise you won't be let down. Good stuff! Alright, time for some homework for my Typography class which isn't due until next Wednesday, but I figure I will put aside any procrastination and attempt to cure that disease.

Demand and supply...

2008-09-30T23:45:00.004-04:00

Alright, time to catch everyone up on all the good stuff of the week so far. We started it off with Portfolio Center orientation on Monday morning at 9. Side note, if anyone has not had the chance to check out the institution I am about to devote the next 2 years of my heart and soul to, I really recommend you do so so that you may have some more of an understanding of what I am actually doing. That is if you don't know. www.Portfoliocenter.com. Anywho, orientation went great as I sat there amongst the other 35 new students for this quarter, and with a big dorky grin on my face the whole time. I have never had such a peace about being in a place as I have about this, and I thank God everyday that my path led me here. I can't wait to see what happens.

We were introduced to some of the staff, which basically we sat in awe as their careers and experiences were verbally depicted for us. I hope to grab a single breath of creativity from these people because I know it will take me far. I plan to be like a sponge and soak up every single thing that they say and teach us. Everyone looks really friendly as far as the students go. Age ranges from right out of undergrad to school to married with kids. Also, not to mention lots of cute artsy chicks that I can't wait to "work on projects with." We settled with financial aid, took our pictures for our id's and picked up the parking pass, then we got our schedule.

Here is mine for the week, just so you know:

• Wednesdays - 8am - 12pm Typography Fundamentals (dealing with use of type in works. One of the major struggles for designers is creatively sending the message of the work on a parallel that matches the art itself. We will be designing our own fonts as well I assume.)

• Wednesdays - 1pm - 5pm Electronic Digital Applications (class overviewing the use of the Adobe Creative suite, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign, along with Quark. These are programs I have used a lot in the past and will use even more in the future.)

• Thursdays - 8am - 12pm Seminar (the whole school student body as well as public attends this. We meet in the biggest room in school, also known as the Los Angeles room, and sit to hear speakers from the creative world that come from agencies and companies all over the nation. Good chance to network and plant that seed for possible future employment. Frog Design is coming soon, which is an incredible studio which has a location in NYC. Time for some butt kissing.)

• Thursdays - 1pm - 5pm Integrated Print and Electronic Production (I believe this is just the basics about how to prepare to start building a portfolio in print as well as electronic, such as a website. We shall find out soon.)

• Thursdays 6pm - 10pm Emotive Type (Again, not too sure of this class, but the supplies list was hella long. I do know however we will be making our own books, binding them and all. have actually seen finished products and they are legit books. Should be interesting.)

• Friday 8am - 12pm Design Aesthetics (Oh yes, the class also known as hell on earth. From all the students I have spoken with, the most warning comes for this class and instructor. Not too sure what goes on in this class but I do know that my free time as I know it disappears completely once I begin this course. I am however extremely excited because this is just the challenge I have been wanting!)

So there you have it, the schedule. Not too bad but I may be singing a different tune this time Friday. Here is a picture of my recent art store trip, purchasing products I had never even heard of. But thanks to Alan at Binders, I was able to locate everything. He also was very helpful to explain the structure of the store, and let us know he was always there to help when we needed.

For my Typography Fundamentals course, I have been reading the book, Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton, which is one of my required textbooks. It is actually really interesting, as others may not think so much, to explore the histories of where certain fonts have come from, and how they have changed over the years. I am very interested to see how my design will go when I start to brainstorm it up. Hopefully it won't suck!

I also wanted to really quick throw out a thank you to all of you who have shown your support tremendously. It really means the world to me to have such great friends and family backing me up when I am chasing my dreams into unknown territory. From little financial presents in surprise cards to simply a phone call or text message telling me good luck in class, these are all things that have made a great foundation for me to walk strongly about. I can't wait to see what all is going to happen for myself my career with Portfolio Center, but I do know there is no other place in the world I would rather be at this time then where I am, and my happy cup runneth over!

A new day...

2008-09-29T00:07:00.001-04:00

Hey guys, I will be sitting in orientation for Portfolio Center in nine hours. Can't wait and be looking out for updates about the chaos my life is about to endure. Cheers!

A stroll in the park

2008-09-27T23:14:00.003-04:00

Hey guys, wanted to throw in a quick entry about the last couple days. We finally have internet so now it is only requiring the motivation to get off my ass out from in front of the 42" television filled with digital cable and enlighten you. We have been here one official week now and it has been a busy one to say the least. We have ridden Marta busses and trains, walked God only knows how many miles and dissected the city as much as we can in the last 6 days. I have been filming as I said so not many pictures, but I did in fact grab the camera for photography down in Piedmont Park, which I can already see to be one of my favorite places in the city. I was here a little over one year ago to see Dave Matthews and the Allman brothers put on a great show here, and now I stand just looking over acres of green grass, nestled in the shadows of the Atlanta skyline. Check out the photos of the park, downtown as well as some around the apartment. (Click on the picture). If you can remember earlier in the blog I discussed my couch and snapped a shot of it in its worst state. Check it out now after Mom's magnificent doctoring of it. We are going to hit up Buckhead Church tomorrow to see how that is. Oh, and by the way, Marta has come in handy since I have had to park my gas-needing car because I can't find a station with gas to supply. It is kind of scary, but thankfully I do live in an area where everything is walking distance or a bus ride away. I am also trying to recover from this annoying cold, which seems to be slimming up. Hopefully will have completely removed itself from my body by Monday morning so I don't snot all over my new fellow classmates that I will be educating with for the next 2 years.

Hello WWW...

2008-09-26T11:50:00.002-04:00

Hey guys, just got all connected to the internet and some cable on the tube via Comcast. I feel like I have my limbs attached to my body again. It's sad that technology does that to you nowadays, but anyways, just thought you should know.

Peachy day in the city

2008-09-23T19:45:00.002-04:00

Sitting here at Panera again eating a cobblestone and figured I would update you on all thats going on. Everything is going great here in Atlanta. Having an absolute BLAST so far. Mom came up yesterday to visit and see the inhabited apartment and thought she was pretty impressed with what she saw, which is great. We went and grabbed some most delicious grub at the Varsity by GA Tech in downtown. After a couple chili burgers and onion rings, we headed over to Ikea to load up on some bedroom furniture so I could stop living out of suitcases. After struggles of screws and nails and even a broken toe, I got everything built and put in place and my room is a very comfortable living space now. My roommate Evan and I spent the duration of the night hanging our wide assortment of our NYC art all over the apartment, definitely making it feel just like home. It will be a great next 2 years.

Today we ventured to Lenox mall to the check out the Apple store and some others. Then we headed back to the apt. and grabbed a Marta downtown. I have been doing a fair amount of filming and not too much picture taking, so as I said, stay tuned for the vid. We will also be getting internet and cable friday morning so the long wait will be fine and maybe limit our trips to Panera. We hit up Underground Atlanta, Olympic Park, and found ourselves walking aimlessly for a while around the downtown area, looking like we knew what we were doing. We also made a pitstop at the Westin, the huge round building with the glass elevator on the outside. Granted the elevator was boarded up for repairs after the tornado struck it last year, but the top was a great view of our new home!

We plan to hit the coke museum later this week and perhaps take a ride out to Stone Mtn. I should be quite skinny with rock hard calf muscles by Christmas from the amazing amount of walking we have been doing. Welcome to city life. Anyways, more to come soon.

I have arrived!

2008-09-21T20:27:00.003-04:00

Hello folks, just wanted to quickly give you the update. Move went splendid. Weather was beautiful. Apartment location is great and Atlanta is going to be a great new home. We don't unfortunately have internet or cable until this upcoming Friday, so me and my roommate are sitting here at Panera up the road using the free wi-fi. I have been doing a fair amount of filming of all move in work from yesterday to the Marta adventure to the Braves game today to watch our home team put a whoopin on the Mets. It has been a blast so far and will continue to be. Just stay tuned in!

Classes start a week from tomorrow, ahhhhhhhh!!!!

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go...but not leaving on a jet plane.

2008-09-19T22:10:00.002-04:00

What a week it's been. Ellen and Brian came last week for mom's 50th birthday week. We completely renovated her garage, leaving it a bright room of purple walls and a green floor. Wasn't the easiest task I have ever worked on, but definitely turned out great, and was just what Mom wanted. I will be editing some video footage in the following week so be on the lookout for that video.

Interesting to find though. Our little cat Oliver unfortunately went into heat earlier this week. So now we call HER Olive. Kind of a funny story to tell, but through my mom into a tantrum. Plus I feel like the cat just got a sex change and I am just having to adjust to not calling the female cat by the male name of Oliver.

So I spent the entire day today packing my life away. You really find just how much stuff you own when it is all in boxes. Luckily a 5'x8' U-haul holds all my belongings (for now) perfectly, along with the help of a truck bed. I am so very excited the time has come for me to make this move. It's been a long time coming. This summer, however, absolutely flew by, as it feels like yesterday I just unpacked everything. There are going to be some many challenges and events coming my way in the next few weeks that will probably put me in a trance. Hopefully I will be loyal to updating the blog on everything going on. We are leaving promptly at seven in the morning. With a nice breakfast stop in Madison, GA, it should put us there about 10:30, in time for me to sign my lease and get the key. Uncle Alan is going to meet us in downtown about that time to hang out as well, so that will be way cool as well.

Alright, been a long day and I am exhausted. Tomorrow will be even more of a tiring day. I will see you on the other side.

Looking back

2008-09-11T02:06:00.003-04:00

It is truly unbelievable to think that today marks the actual 7 year anniversary of the tragic events of 911. I remember like it was yesterday. I was in the first semester of my junior year of high school. We were in the middle of changing classes, which I was going to drafting. I walked in to the big classroom to see a group of students standing around looking up at the TV hanging from ceiling. The news was on covering the actual events as they were occurring. I remember sitting there thinking of the freak accident. Now, call me dumb or lacking any knowledge of the outside world from my small casual life in Evans, Georgia, but I hadn't even known what the world trade centers were until this point. I had heard of them before but knew nothing more than the name. I watched in amazement as the smoke billowed from the top of the tower. I just felt that it may have been a freak accident. I mean, the towers stood so tall over the city and sometimes these things happen. Little did I know this was nothing of the kind.

I watched as a plane slammed into a tower... again. I honestly thought it was a replay of the first plane hitting, but I realized after a bit of time that a second plane had flown into the second building. I was in complete and utter shock. Even though I was young and sometimes incompetent of placing a solution to every problem, I joined the rest of the nation in curiosity of what was actually happening in lower Manhattan. The rest of the blur seems sort of a blur to my memory now, but I do in fact remember it being progress report day. My grades were slipping a little in chemistry for the first of the year, and I saw this situation as a possible relief to the punishment that was coming my way. Selfish I know, but as I said, I was younger then and not had quite the experiences yet that has edged me to be the person I am now. Not just an observer, but wanting to understand what I am encountering.

Throughout the day more and more news continued to flow through the hallways and classrooms. "These may be signs of terrorist attacks." "The towers have collapsed." "An act of evil has occurred in New York City and upon America." I felt I was stuck in a nightmare. I didn't know how to feel, what the think, or how to respond to what was happening to our country.

That night, my family went to eat at a nearby Mexican restaurant, El Valle, which I remember nothing from the meal. The only memory that lurks in my mind was viewing the news on the Hispanic channel, where I watched people jumping from the towers to the ground. Sure I had seen violence in R-rated movies and on television shows, but never had I seen people finding themselves in such situations that the best alternative choice was to jump to the end of their life. I think back to that day sometimes and still find myself in disbelief that I witnessed such a historic event, which was one of the most horrifying days of my life.

In March of 2007, I was able to see ground zero, which is quite the construction zone and completely built up. New York doesn't waste time. There was a fire station across the street which is still defaced, and had a big plaque on the outside of the building stating "We Will Never Forget."

So many times in this world we get caught up in our own dramatic events that we blow up to be some sort of colossal event when it really makes no sense at all. I am guilty of such, and I try to remember that there is much more evil in the world to dwell on my insignificant problems. We become selfish and don't realize how good we really do have it as being Americans. The freedoms and opportunities that this country lays out for us that other countries could never live up to. If we are not careful, we will find ourselves in another civil war between what is wrong and right, democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives, whites and blacks, when in this time we need more than anything to unite as a solid nation. When you find yourself in some type of "complication" in your life, put yourself in the shoes of one of those who dove to their death because that was a better situation than where they were.

Alright, off my soapbox I go

The Life of Olive

2008-09-08T02:09:00.004-04:00

The Life of Olive from EWD Design Productions on Vimeo.

As promised, here is my newest video done with my new HD video camera. It has been so much fun. I also picked up Final Cut Express, a new editing software, which is definitely a step up from what I have been using. This being said, the video quality to come will be much better than what i have been producing. I did this little montage of my mom's new addition to her cat family for her birthday. It gave me a chance to use my 240 fps feature on my camera. Check it out!

Unemployed...but happy

2008-09-04T22:29:00.003-04:00

A few thoughts have been streaming through my brain in the past couple of weeks. After much reflecting over the subject, I have decided to blog it out so I can express my feelings and maybe disentangle some of the emotions that have somehow intertwined themselves, throwing me on a bit of a roller coaster. So bear with me on this.

So here I am, about an hour and a half from dozing off to the lethargic bridge that will link me to tomorrow, Friday, my last day of my first "career" out of college. It's funny though. It felt just like yesterday when I was offered the job, and here I am over a year later walking away from it. The thoughts about it kind of sets me in a state of unsureness, fear, anxiety, and most of all, curiousness. As each day goes by, we accumulate plans and ideas that run through our minds. Whether they be what we are going to do to pass the time during our weekends, or how we choose to spend the rest of our living years walking the planet. I have never believed to be one to settle. Once upon a time I may have thought thats what I wanted, and maybe some later day I will, but anyone who knows me well enough knows me to be a nomad. Always ready to go again and see what the next place has to offer, and what I can offer it.

I graduated college and resided in Greenville, which was comfortable to me at the time. Then with the assistance of Mom and a 4' x 8' U-haul trailer, I found myself in another transposition of where I would leave a place of solace and proceed into another locality. Now, I know Augusta is the town where I spent the years of my adolescence. Whether it was waiting on my friends who had their license to make me their passenger to so-and-sos house, scrutinizing a new release, bagging groceries at my first big money-making scheme, or looking out my bedroom window as I spent a Friday night grounded because of that inefficient report card. But the person I was when I drove away from Augusta in 2005 was completely variant to the person I was when I returned. The other day, some long-time friends and I were discussing the 9 years between now and when we were taking our first steps into our high school. It feels like a million years ago and yet it feels like yesterday. I was so unaware of the life-altering events that would occur in a period shy of a decade. When I left Augusta, I learned to be a responsible adult, where there were no more disciplinary procedures when I bombed a test besides the idea of inadequacy to why I was there in the first place. Acquaintances came and went, and then I met life-long friends. I learned how to fall head-over-heels for a girl, and that a broken heart can honestly make you believe your world is going to end. And most of all, I learned that I wanted to succeed while I do have God's gift of life to be here. Succession can have different meanings to different people, but for me, I do not intend to waste my years in distress and unhappiness. The things you experience in life chisel you down to be ready for what life really is all about, being happy and having no regrets. It's what makes it worth living.

So now as I complete this chapter of my life, I find myself again unaware of what possibilities, opportunities, and misfortunes that may cross my path in the next nine years just to continue developing me into the person I am intended to become. I am stepping completely out of my comfort zone, and am leaning on the support of my family, God, and the faith that I can achieve my main goal, and that is to be happy. One of my chief support systems and the best sibling any person could wish for reminded me the other day that you have to take risks to find something extraordinary. And with the anxiety and fear aside, I can honestly say now that I am ready as I ever will be!

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.
- Henry David Thoreau

Myrtle Beach May 2008

2008-08-31T23:35:00.002-04:00

Myrtle Beach May 2008: Wayne's 50th Birthday from ewddesign on Vimeo.

Here is the latest video of Dad's 50th birthday party at Myrtle Beach. We surprised him in May, where all of his Californian family and Georgian family all met up at a beautiful beach house for a week and had a blast! Check it out.

Counting down...

2008-08-20T22:27:00.003-04:00

So today marks my one month point from the time I move into my apartment in Atlanta. I have never been so ready. It has been an awesome summer so far though, and still have some to go. This past weekend, I visited Greenville for my last time for a while. I arrived to catch some friends at Barley's to grab a bite and had a remarkable calzone. After I jumped in the car to head to band practice to get ready for the next morning which we would be playing at Phil's Music in Greer. Even though the whole band wasn't available to play, I still thought it would be a good time to jam with the guys for a bit. The show went good. Not too much of turnout as to be expected since it was from 11am - 1pm on a saturday in August, which means HOT and EARLY! Still, a few friends did show up to support us as well as customers going in and out of the music store. It was a good time nonetheless.

After that I headed up to some outlet shops about 45 minutes outside of Greenville to grab a couple bargains on some clothes for school. Then the long 3.5 hour drive home from there, which I wanted to be than anywhere else. No matter how far you stride away in life and all the adventures you take, there is truly no place like home. The place where your family is and where you are comfy. Augusta is that place for me, however, I am ready to take those adventures.

Saturday night started my editing session of the Myrtle Beach vacation and once I get started, there is no stopping, even if I stay up to 4 on Saturday night, 2 on Sunday and Monday night, and 2:30 on Tuesday night, I will not stop until I have finished it. It's weird though. My best work, whether it be graphics, video, music, or whatever art project Im working on, my best stuff is always done in the late late night. I finished burning it tonight which I am taking it over to Dad's tomorrow night to get their approval, which I think will pass with flying colors. As soon as I get all the copies out to my family as promised, I will post it on Vimeo.com and link it to my blog.

Well, that's all I got for now. More videos and exciting events in the days to come!

A whole new look

2008-08-11T22:29:00.002-04:00

So this past weekend, me and mom went to do a bit of furniture shopping. Now since we are trying to stay on somewhat of a budget, we started with some thrift stores. I was in need of a new computer desk, couch, and chest of drawers. I have never been a huge fan of thrift shops, I guess because of my luck I seem to have finding quality things, but this time was a different story. We came across an awesome wood desk with metal frame. I plan to paint the frame black to match some of my other furniture in my room. Then, as I went to check out, a couch/chair set caught Mom's eye. It took me a minute for it to grow on me, but it was indeed quite an interesting set. Definitely of the mid-century modern design, which is the look I was going for. Although the furniture had a nasty brown fabric covering, we had decided right there sitting on the actual couch that we were going to make a project out of it. We went to Joanne's right after and picked up black vinyl and the other materials for completely reupholstering this entire set, making it fit right into my idea of a pretty sweet living room. Mom, being the machine she is, says it won't take long to do, so I am very excited to see this fortunate thrift-store find completely regenerated into it's new life. On Sunday we completely ripped off all the old fabric, so here is what it looks like for the moment, but not for long.

Also, to throw in, there were a couple dates written from previous reupholstering jobs done, and judging by the way the date was written, 12.10.89 with the name Guton, we made the assumption it very well may have spent some time in the German lands. I will be excited to get it finally finished and put in my new Atlanta pad. I am only about 6 weeks out from moving!

Sony HDR-SR11

2008-08-07T11:42:00.002-04:00

Hey guys, this is my new toy. The Sony HDR-SR 11. I really wanted to get something secure for capturing the memories of school and all that comes with it. My older JVC is shot, so it was time for an upgrade. Although I had to sell a guitar to buy it, I think I made the right choice. It shoots in a true 1080i High-def, and has spectacular features with it, including 10.2 megapixel still images. Be on the lookout for new videos I will add. Myrtle Beach 2008 vacation video on the way!

Greenville, Sweet Greenville

2008-08-06T11:48:00.004-04:00

So I just got back in town from my 3 day trip to Greenville, SC. I had to work in the office Monday and Tuesday since the senior designer was on vacation and another designer was on his honeymoon (poor guy, ha). It was nice to catch up and sort of reflect on what had been my life the last 3 years. Now that I have moved back to Georgia, I am happy to go and visit Greenville and the great friends I have there, but it's a great feeling to leave and come back to where I feel I belong (for now).

I arrived Friday night in time to meet up with some of my best friends from Greenville, Justin, Adam, Laura, Megan, Sheila & Cody. We made our way to the hottest spot (in my opinion) in the upstate, Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria. Amazing is the only word to describe this place. Tons of different types of beer and pizza, pasta and calzones so good, you almost never want to leave, and definitely what keeps me coming back.

We left there and walked outside to find a police chase right on Main St. It was probably the most action that town has seen in a while, but rather eventful nonetheless. We watched as a cop car pulled into the intersection of Main just in time to hop out and sprint down the street towards the criminal's car, which was completely surrounded by two other police cars behind him. It is amazing how so many people are memorized by a car search and someone getting frisked. It was a good bit of excitement for one night.

I crash at Justin's place whenever I go to, since he was one of the best roommates I had ever had and one of my best friends. Oh, and I Greenville forgot to mention, he has an AMAZING couch which always seems to welcome me with open arms when I am away from home.

I worked in the office on Monday, and during lunch, had to hit one of my favorite burger joints in Greenville, Bee Bee's. Only cash and checks accepted, cheap, and all around great food that will make your cholesterol level scream! I met up with Matt, the other guitarist from the group I play with, after work at Boda pipes. It's a cool little cigar shop nearby the office and always has a great smell when you walk in, that is if you like the smell of cigars. We had band practice on Monday night, which was alot of fun to catch up with the guys again. We are preparing for our performance at Phil's Music in Greer on August 16th. This may be one of my last performances with them due to Portfolio Center taking over my life in less than 2 months now.

Tuesday, another day in the office, and my last. I will continue working for the company from home until September 13th, but afraid I won't be seeing any of the fine people I have worked with the past year. It is a good company and I wish them all the success and luck. Tony has been a great boss and I have no doubt he won't make an empire out of that place. For my last lunch, I wanted to kick it over to the Orient, a great Chinese place in downtown. My folks are even fond of this place from past visits. It was really a great end to my last time being with my coworkers. After dinner with another friend that night at Wild Wings, I got back on the lonely backroad of highway 25 and returned back to the peach state. Thanks to Greenville for everything it has given me, I definitely will miss it.

Bringing out the kid inside...

2008-08-02T02:10:00.006-04:00

Today I reverted back to my childhood days. I went and picked up my bicycle that I received as a Christmas present around the 10th grade from my dad's house yesterday. Since it had been years since using this, one tire was already trashed, and the other one was on its way to splitting, meaning I had to tune this baby up. After a $112 quote from Chain Reaction, a local bike shop here in Augusta, to get tires replaced and brakes checked, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Mom and I ran over to Wally world tonight after dinner and I picked up a couple new inner tire tubes, 2 new tires, a new cushy bike seat, and a locking chain. At around 10:30 I found myself oiled up in the living room dissecting my new mode of transportation. I replaced both tires and the seat, and locked the chain on as well. Me and mom took a nice ride through the neighborhood around midnight, which was AMAZING. I had so much fun and felt like a kid again. I felt like I could have ridden the bike all night, but unfortunately, it was still in the 90's outside and I decided to call it a night. I can't wait to load my Tailwind up and take it up to Atlanta and try it out on Peachtree St., around my Buckhead neighborhood, and down in Piedmont park. We get caught up in the frustrations and stresses of life sometimes, and it is always nice to go back to something as simple as a night time bicycle ride to forget about it all. At the time I didn't realize, but years later, I find that this very well could have been one of the best Christmas presents I have ever received, I just had to remember what it was like to be a kid!

My office/bed...

2008-07-30T23:43:00.002-04:00

So, this summer, I have been working for the marketing group I worked for in Greenville. They allowed me the opportunity to sit and do the design work from my house. I am still working the same hours I did when I was in the office, but the stress of getting there on time has changed a bit. Now, my alarm goes off, I hop in the shower, grab my pop-tarts and flip open the Macbook Pro and get to work. Although it is relaxing to lay on the bed with my buds in jammin my tunes, it gets frustrating working completely alone. I enjoyed the time I got to work around other designers for inspiration. Now I just have to settle for this scenario for the next several weeks, until I finish up and head on to Atlanta.

Some other interesting things going on:

• Grabbed an extra two years of warranty for my laptop which is usually $350, for only $160 off ebay. Once I sent the money through paypal, the guy emailed me the serial and I registered my computer, which is covered until a month after my expected graduation date, which is real convenient.

• Private student loans: Having a little trouble getting approved for a student loan because the economy SUCKS right now, so hopefully I can round up a co-signer in the next couple days so I can get these funds flowin.

• Craigslist: This is my route to finding anything. I am now looking for a few pieces of furniture for my Atlanta apartment. I have my heart set on a couple pieces of Ikea furniture, but you never know what you will find in the local classifieds

Questioning time...check it out

2008-07-28T23:07:00.002-04:00

Fun Facts to Know and Love.
TAG, you're it...if you read this, you must cut and paste it with YOUR answers into your blog.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8:45 AM
2. Diamonds or pearls? diamonds, since I'll have to give one to a girl one day to symbolize my undying love (Not for a long time)
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? The Dark Knight
4. What is your favorite TV show? Friends
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? low fat strawberry poptarts
6. What is your favorite cuisine? Mexican will set me up for a good meal anytime
7. What is your middle name? Wayne
8. What food do you dislike? scrambled eggs and grits (and to think I was raised in the south)
9. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
11. Favorite sandwich? Chicken-bacon-ranch from Subway
12. What characteristic do you despise? negativity
13. Favorite item of clothing? boxers
14 If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would it be? Amsterdam
15. What color is your bathroom? purplish (Mom's choice)
16. Favorite brand of clothing? Hurley
18. What was your most memorable birthday? 21
19. Favorite sport to watch? football
20. When is your birthday? June 2
21. Are you a morning person or a night person? night person
22. What is your shoe size? 11
23. Pets? none personally, but in the current household, 2 dogs & 7 cats
24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? I am running 5 miles now
25. What did you want to be when you were little? an anchor on the news
26. How are you today? stressed and tired
27. What is your favorite candy/chocolate? twizzlers
28. What is your favorite flower? ha, do not care
29. What is a date on the calendar you are looking forward to? September 20th
30. Do you enjoy your job? Becoming burned out
31. Coke or Pepsi? pepsi (Mtn. Dew)
32. Where were you born? Wichita Falls, TX
33. What is your favorite chip flavor? Salt and vinegar
34. What fabric detergent do you use? All free and clear
35. Favorite Color? black and brown

My future home.

2008-07-28T10:24:00.004-04:00

So spontaneously yesterday my mom got up after a rigorous 12-hour all-night nurse shift and decided she wanted to go to Atlanta. After washing the truck and changing out the battery (not interested in getting stranded a couple hours from home), we set on our journey to the city. We grabbed some chili-dogs and onion rings from the Varsity, rode by Colonial Homes to check out the apartment location which is a underhanded stone toss from the back of the school, since that is our view from our back door. We should be able to pick up our internet from school which would just eliminate a little more money that I will be investing into the Atlanta life.

After that we went to the interior decorator's playground, Ikea. Awesome and fun furniture store just 5 minutes from the apartment. I am going to pick up a few pieces of furniture from there right before I move in in September. The little love seat will be a good fit anywhere, whether it be in my living room in Atlanta during school, or in my mid-Manhattan studio apartment in the afterlife of PC in a hopeful awesome designer position in the NYC. I have to dream about that, because that is where I feel like I am destined.

Me and Evan have been making much use of the texting feature on our cell phones getting our plans together for who has what furniture and what we need before we move. We are both amped and ready to start that chapter.

Remembering the heroes.

2008-07-24T22:40:00.004-04:00

So I just finished the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks directed series, Band of Brothers. Its a 10-episode series about a company of soldiers in WW2. Each episode begins with a narrated interview with the actual soldiers in the company. It is pretty breathtaking since the events you watch is what actually happened and told by the men who experienced it. Although it is extremely graphic in which Spielberg cut no corners on displaying the casualties of the war, I feel everyone should watch it. It makes you appreciate times we are in now and what a great country we live in. Check it out!

Time to commit..

2008-07-23T23:38:00.004-04:00

Alright, I have been away and have been a poor excuse for an acclaimed "blogger." Here I am on the brink of starting a new chapter and decided its time to update my thoughts on a weekly basis. I want to keep track of all the stuff thats going to start flying at me in life, and writing down my experience will give me the chance to step aside for a breather and reflect.

With that all said, here are some updates:

I moved back to my hometown of Augusta, GA for the summer to live with my mom and save up money. In less than 2 months I will be moving to the great city of Atlanta. I will be living in Colonial Homes in the downtown Buckhead district. I will be starting the grad level program at Portfolio Center, which I will be studying Design and Art Direction. In Colonial Homes I will be living with a fellow North Greenville graduate, Evan Hampton. We are both extremely excited about the opportunity before us.

Over the next 2 months I plan to spend time with family and to rest up, because it's going to be a wild ride from then on.

For more info about the school we're going to, check out the website: www.portfoliocenter.com.

2008-07-23T23:38:00.003-04:00