I was recently turned on to this little blog, NE Creative. It’s a nice little blog by Zach Origitano over at Envoy (at least that what I deduced from 30 seconds of cyber-stalking), that focusses on the “No Coast” design community. There is some good stuff on his blog, so I recommend checking it out if you are from the area. The best part is probably the Agency and Talent Directories.

Come to think of it, I did have the opportunity to meet Zach at the Addy’s a couple of years ago when his (then) girlfriend, Heather, was working at Firespring. He’s a pretty nice guy, so say hello if you ever get a chance to meet him too.

Once again, I will invoke the visual wizardry that emanates from Andrew Jones to spice up my drab corner of the internet. Trust me, I’m not a stalker, I simply admire the work that he does. I aspire to be as great at what I do as he is at what he does. First off is some album art Andrew did for the upcoming Soulfly album entitled Conquer coming out July 29th on Roadrunner Records.

This is just a snippet, so head over to the Concept Art Forum to see all of it’s glory. This artwork is just pretty enough to make me buy this album. I have Soulfly’s second album Primitive, and I like it a lot, but I haven’t gone out of my way to check out anything they’ve done since then. This’ll be a good excuse to jump back on the band wagon.

The second little bit of Jonesiness I wanted to throw out to the world is this video of Jones demonstrating a new vector art application called Alchemy. In it he combines the power of his tablet and sound to create random shapes which he then throws together to develop a little concept art. It’s a pretty cool demo. I’ve downloaded the beta version of Alchemy myself and will give a brief report after I play around with it for a while.

Courtesy of BittBox: 25 MORE Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer. The follow up to his widely popular 25 Reasons You Might Be A Hardcore Graphic/Web Designer. More of these are applicable than I’d like to admit.

The Human Flipbook, a nifty ad campaign from the nifty little sandwich shop franchise Erbert & Gerbert, the shop closest to my neck of the woods just went out of business… well enjoy the video:

And last but not least, a little news from the web frontier: Average Web Page Size Triples Since 2003. More images and video are fine for those with high speed access, but are we as designers leaving those less fortunate users in the dust? Something to ponder the next time you whip up a design.

The wait is finally over, Photoshop Express is here. Photoshop Express is the new online Photo editing app from the kind folks over at Adobe. This web app is perfect for all of those people who don’t need the full featured version of Photoshop, but still want to play around with their photos. Here are a few of the features (via

• Includes tools for applying spot healing, distortions, sharpening/softening, color tweaks, image filters, and more
• Offers 2GB of storage space for storing images
• Supports tie-ins to Facebook, MySpace, and Picasa
• Runs in any browser on Mac, Windows, or Linux using the Flash Player (v9)
• Will include an AIR-based desktop version (useful for editing images offline) and printing services
• Will remain free, with paid service adding more functionality

A word of advice, if you sign up for an account give them a few minutes to get your confirmation email sent off, I’m sure they are mighty busy right now. Eventually, you’ll be able to check out some of my stuff at http://proj.photoshop.com.

After much hullabaloo about a short lived book cover design contest on Freelance Switch, Collis Ta’eed chimes in to share his opinion regarding the practice of businesses hosting design contests as a way to get cheap/free design work. I tend to agree whole heartedly with what he is saying, designers are tradesmen like any other, and our time is just as valuable. Sure, we often design during time off, but that is for our own enjoyment. Much the same way a mechanic likes to fiddle with his car on the weekends, you would walk in to a garage and offer up the carrot of hope that if he fixes your car he’ll gain world renown for doing such an awesome job that people will be beating his door down. My final word hear is that Ifs and Maybes don’t put food on the table and a roof over your head, so don’t fall into the trap of giving it up for free.

I’ve been going on and on about how awesome Neil Blomkamp’s Halo shorts are. So, if you haven’t checked them out yet I suggest you do it now. All three shorts have been collected into one—slightly longer—super tasty short.

I recommend watching the large video, it’s worth the extra download time. You’ll see the amazing amount of detail that was put into this featurette. The textures are gritty, the cameras are jerky, and watching the Brutes’ hair ruffle will send shivers down your spine. If only the Master Chief were more than a ball of flame shooting across the sky…

On another note, I’d like to thank the CIA for making me so feel much better about my own logo designing capabilities… Presenting the latest addition to the ever expanding list of worst logos in the world, Terrorist Buster!

Apparently Al Qaeda is no longer a threat, but sasquatches are. Now that Big Foot has learned to use fire arms the Pacific Northwest just hasn’t been a safe place.

I added a couple of pieces to the Gallery. First off in the Web Design section is Cascades Humane Society. These folk were great to work with, they had clear ideas of what they wanted, while still allowing me some creative freedom. Notice that sweet little puppy at the top of the page, who could that be other than Mister P.T. himself. Check out www.cascadeshumanesociety.org and learn what they are doing to help the animals in Jackson Michigan.

Next up, I’ve added two pieces to the Music Promotion section of the Gallery. The first is a graphic for the Lil’ Boosie & Webbie show coming up on June 30th. I took this as an opportunity to try out some fading and wear techniques. Then there is the graphic for the Marilyn Manson & Slayer show on August 16th. With this piece I wanted to play off of the dirty look of Slayers new album, plus I wanted to try something like Eduardo Recife over at Misprinted Type. Be on the look out for a quick tutorial on how I achieved the grunge effects on these two pieces, I’ve incorporated a couple different methods to get these done.

After much grumbling, begging, pleading and rolling around on the floor we finally got an upgrade! WOOTS!
Yesterday the creative department at work was all a flutter as IT came in and installed the latest version of the Adobe Creative Suite. I for one am super-stoked, I haven’t had much chance to break it in, but I will.
Shoot, enough writing, I’m gonna dive into all of Adobe’s spectacularness!