Randonisation #42 – Inspiration

Over the past few months, After going through several significant life changes, I have started to get re-aquainted with some things from the past.

Thanks to several new, and several long-known people in my life, I have very recently become far more inspired to pick up a pencil, a paintbrush, an instrument, or a camera, and start creating things more often. Whether I always like the result or not, just the act of doing such things has been exhilirating.  Pulling out my paints for the first time in a couple years, and seeing the weird things that seem to be in the back of mind come to exist in front of me, getting lost in complicated ink drawings for hours on end, experimenting with my camera, even though it’s lens and body are really starting to crap out, and picking up my guitars and even singing (when no one is around to hear), dabbling in a bit of piano, and even building a kite.

It’s unfortunate sometime’s how things can change in life and leave a bit of a hole in your everyday routine, but it can end up being a pretty amazing result when you can fill that hole with some amazing new and old friends, and get back into some activities you once loved, but had put on the backburner for a while whilst pursuing other things.

A big thanks to all of those who have played a direct or indirect role in this sort of renaissance of my life.  There are many of you.

I will leave you with a couple photos i’ve recently taken with the aforementioned glitchy camera.

Randonisation #41 – A New Look, Again…

2nd post in one day! Whaaaat?!

As another few months have rolled by, i’ve again grown sick of my website, and decided to try a new look.  It’s also just a nice way of taking short breaks from my regular work throughout the day to do something more personal.

I feel it’s a good sign to never be satisfied with one’s own work.  I am surrounded by amazing designers all day thanks to the small world that is the internet, so it just makes me want to be better and better, which is probably a better way of going then just sitting there feeling you suck in comparison to everyone else.

Let me know what you think, pretty please!  This industry thrives on criticism! It’s the biggest thing i miss since I left school.

I’m curious if I can pull off teal, I’m also thinking of a new logo, who knows.  Maybe no teal? I dunno. Obviously there will be more content, I just want to get a feel for how people feel about the feel of the design. feeeeeeeel.

Cheers,

John

 

Randonisation #40 – Picture o’ the day!

Have posted nothing for a while, which is shaeful, I know.  And, knowing that at least my mom and dad check my blog semi-regularily, thought i should do something, so i dug up an olllld photo.  It’s a bit of a sad one, but i like it!  Maybe you do too, that is, if you’re  into dying, wilting flowers.

This was taken for a MacEwan class, in which we learned SLR photography using only blk/wht film.  I loved the class, and I still feel I may want to pick up a film camera sometime.  Something about the thought of creating an image using actual light, with nothing digital happening in between, just makes me kind of happy.  As I don’t have access to a scanner at the moment (which i really should, as a designer. pfft) Here is a digital photograph of a non-digital photograph.  How lame is that. Either way, here’s my photo o’ the day! Cheers!

 

Randonisation #39 – Pink Floyd Experiment #3

So I think this will be it for pink floyd/ david gilmour experiments for a while.  New experiments to begin next week.

Heres a quick break down of what i used to make up the back grounds, because process is always fun.  Photos were taken on my 2nd Eurotrip. more visible when you click on it.

 

If anyone ever wants to play some photoshop tennis, let me know!

Randonisation #38 – Pink Floyd Experiment number 2

One of my favorite things about design, is that if you take a project, complete it, then start from scratch again, odds are you will like it even better.  My new goal is to make a new one of these every day (every day ish), and see what happens, and like i said, it’s a good little lunch break activity from the regular grind.

Randonisation #37 – Pink Floyd Experiment #1

I try to keep doing little side projects for fun, just to escape the repetitiveness that my regular work can often bring.  Heres a little photoshop experimentation with the David Gilmour illustration i posted earlier.  The lyric comes from the song “remember a day”, a classic. It started to get a sort of comic book feel as the layers started to develop.  more experiments to follow.

 

Randonisation #36 – Shuffle Mode

Shuffle mode in Itunes can really send you for a ride.

The gift and curse of good music is how easily it can affect your outlook  on life, and it can do so in a VERY small amount of time.  It becomes too relatable, and can directly effect your mood in spans of 3-6 minutes.

You can listen to one song, and gain a sense of hope and determination.  It can stir up a fight and sense of entitlement.

Minutes later the song is over, leading to the next, which  can just as quickly lead you to a sense of resignation and acceptance of the things that just seconds earlier you had built up the willingness to fight for, and just as fast, the next song can stir up resentment and anger, all based on notes and lyrics, whose authors never even had you specifically in mind when they wrote them.

Then randomly a totally rediculous song pops up (thank you, Edguy), and you are left feeling foolish for getting so caught up in it all in the first place.

I find it all quite exhausting.

Cheers

Randonisation #35 – David Gilmour

While packing up some of my belongings, I came across this illustration of David Gilmour I did while at Grant MacEwan.  I had completely forgotten about it, but it brought back some good memories of the amazing life of being a student.  Miss those days alot.  I love the rigidness of it, came out looking pretty ‘dark’, and I love how these kinds of illustrations come together when you take a few steps back.  I hope to do some sort of poster or something with this in the future.

Pink Floyd, I love you.

Randonisation #34 – The Rump Roller

I’m a big fan of this cover.

Also, the title track is pretty great if your wanting a classy strut down the avenue.

If you are ever looking for some inspiration, Sleevage.com is one my favorites.  you can search by Musician, Designer, or even Design Studio.  Pretty rad.

Randonisation #33 – Home Brew

Decided to make some labels and packaging for the beer i’m currently brewing at home, just to get some portfolio work done in my spare time.  I started with the logo, lend me your thoughts! (my metal tendencies have surfaced again…)