Category Archives: design

design, shoptalk, WORK

hangin’

fending off vertigo

Yesterday was one of those run-to-the four corners of the city days. I had to run into Clayton to take care of some gov. paperwork for my dad. Snooty Clayton is the “county-seat” of Saint Louis – filled with high end restaurants, art galleries and law firms. I generally loathe going there for one reason… PARKING.

On the occasions I have to brave the area – I make it a point to treat myself to a plate of Zuzu’s enchiladas.

The day ended at the ballroom client’s space… But I wasn’t there for the Ballroom people – I was there for the construction / restoration company that owns and manages the building. By way of the ballroom folks, they’ve picked me up as their pet designer. We’ve been trying, for a month now, to get their damn wayfinding system I designed installed. Unfortunately – powertools and monkeybears are a bad mix, so I’m reliant on their maintenance people for the site installs.

Apparently getting subs to show up is a problem even for multi-million dollar construction companies. I’ve been up there three times so far for installs and the maintenance guys haven’t showed.

Needing to clock at least a couple of hours for the day – I helped myself to the supply closet and found a ladder and did one of the sites myself. (the hardware was already installed so all I had to do was put the panels on).

Anyone in “the biz” – check out B&N Industries. They’ve got totally cool, scaleable systems for displays. We used their “cable-mini” system and had them powder-coated locally. The plex panels were fabricated locally as well using vinyl lettering and 3M frost.

*Note – The Apple Store uses their cable system for their front-of-store displays. Endlessly configurable and deliciously minimal.

nummy.

I’m talkin shop – not blogging.

design, photography, WORK

getting aquainted

first project with the new camera

Didn’t get home from LoanScapes till about 8PM last night…. Pride is just around the corner here in St. Louis – which – for Homo-businesses, is the equivalent to Christmas, (marketing wise). So… (thankfully), their CEO, (my second favorite lesbian), booked me for the day to come in and create some spots for the upcoming festival and work on some other stuff.

Probably foolish to jump right into a “real” assignment before cracking the owners manual on the new camera.

So far I’m pretty happy with it… Some settings that used to be within thumb’s reach on the old camera are now clear on the other side of the body. I actually think the new configuration is more intuitive but I’m so used to the old one which became second nature that I have to just give myself some time to readapt before passing judgment.

My biggest bitch with Sony on Human / Machine interface design is that their designers don’t get the whole “tactile scale” thing. (Make buttons larger and smaller based on what they do)… Example – the PlayStation’s ANNOYING square, x, triangle and circle button… They’re all the same friggin’ size as opposed to the Game Cube’s use of different size / shaped buttons.

Things I’ve noticed so far.. This new rig is “faster”. (focusing, lens to screen refresh, etc.)… They’ve also added some “disco” to the information presented on the screen. Functions and settings are “animated” now with little 3Dish swoopy animations. Touches which would probably make chrisglass roll his eyes – but they tickle me.

I didn’t notice the “auto-ASA” until AFTER I snapped the group shots. From what I can tell so far is that the camera chose too fast of an ASA and too slow of a shutter speed.. (shame on me for not taking the extra five minutes to derive a more suitable manual exposure). The result was less than razor sharp images – but they’ll work fine for the intended size… And these spots are running in web-press produced publications that use a paper-stock resembling toilet paper.

I need to play more.

Today is Kevin and Chad’s wednesday – so I need to get the hell outa here.

No time for boring technical journalling about my new toy.

blah-blog-blah-blog-blah-blog

design, photography, WORK

grip and grin 2

I said something obnoxious

Spent most of yesterday working on-site for LoanScapes.

The company is mostly staffed by gays and lesbians and therefore likes to canvas community specific publications, especially the Pride Festival.

I’ve really grown to like this account and have gotten over my nerve-racked, intimidated opinion of the president when I first picked them up as a client.

The camaraderie and silliness makes it a fun place to camp out and work some days. There’s other things, like any corporate environment, that reaffirm my decision years ago to never be a payroll jockey and be trapped in a cube 40 hours a week.

The loan officers are pretty much “free-guns” and are encouraged to work their own angle at getting new business. Here now after nearly a year of servicing the account, “uber-frau” (the big boss) is starting to trust me and let me have some fun.

loanscapes adYesterday’s assignment was sitting with the two papa-bears who work there to develop some “them-specific” campaign materials for them to run in bear run books and stick up at fur-friendly bars, etc.

In a nutshell we sat and talked about where they wanted to run their spots… I hauled them up to the front of the office where there was good supplemental light and proceeded to make a complete ass out of myself to get them to loosen up and laugh. Of course I monopolized on the very well known fact that I have a big ole schmoopy-spot for men my father’s age. (*Paging Dr. Freud – Paging Dr. Sigmund Freud – Please report to the cerebral cortex*)

If I was blogging – I’d probably try to shamelessly plug them and try to send them business. I rec’d them tobleepkeeper for his refinancing but haven’t checked in to see how it’s going and if he’s been happy with them.