Friday, September 07, 2007

600 sq mi

Houstonist.com offers up some betters views of H-town - Houston Press

A new vision of Houston, through 42 lenses - Daily Cougar (UH)

Last call to come to the opening tomorrow night! M2 Gallery in the Heights, 7:00 - 10:00. Fun and photos, what could be better?

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

If you've got some free time on Saturday night, have I got an event for you... This show will feature some absolutely fantastic photos of Houston, including two taken by yours truly! I'm pretty excited, as it's my first official photo show. (My two contributions are this one and this one.) If you do decide to come, definitely let me know...

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Neat little Flickr app I came across today, letting you embed this nice-looking slideshow of any sets you have...

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Typography class ended last night with presentations of the fonts that we spent all semester designing. I ended up happy with my font, though I must admit that it is not the most useful of all fonts. It was inspired by a photo in one of our textbooks showing snippets of the sign for a Noah's New York Bagels shop. See how the sign is really a mosaic and the letters are made of tiles?

After doing a quick search on the net and not immediately finding a similar font, I decided to make a mosaic font. Mine's called Bagel Shop, and here's the poster I made to show what it looks like (click to see a PDF). Obviously mosaic letters also reminded me of the subway.

If you want to use it, you can download it. I still want to do a bit more work on it, not with the letters themselves but with the spacing. Even without that, it's usable right now.

It turned out better than I expected.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Last night I turned my handwriting into a font. It was really easy (provided you have the software) and really fun. I'm very excited. I want to turn everyone's handwriting into fonts now!

If you just adore my handwriting and want to use it yourself, you can! I made it available as a TrueType font that you can download.

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I did an hour on the bike trainer last night after class. I was supposed to swim, but didn't think ahead enough to realize that the pool would be closed after class, and I didn't want to swim at the apartment pool. So I biked. Bike bike bike. Spin spin spin.

On another note, I was thinking of heading to Twin Lakes this weekend for a big open water swim session. But the water is freezing right now (55 degrees) which means I'd need a good thick wetsuit and maybe even booties and gloves. And the Houston Racing Triathlon Club forums freaked me out by talking about how you pass the sunken school bus (the lake is also heavily used by scuba divers) and a big patch of vegetation and that it's freaky. I don't want it to be freaky!

What do I do?

I shouldn't have delved into the HRTC forums at all, really, because they have seriously started to scare me about water temperatures, wetsuit issues, wind, and other assorted issues. Oh, and everyone there sounds like they're really fast and intimidating.

Sarah = not fast and easily intimidated by fast people.

So I have 3 weekends left before the race. That's 6 days of "big" training in addition to the weekly stuff. Current schedule looks like this:

March 10 - 2500 yard swim...in open water?? with a wetsuit??
March 11 - 0.6 mile swim, 28 mile bike, 6.5 mile run (practice Quarter Iron)

March 17 - Seabrook Half Marathon #1
March 18 - Seabrook Half Marathon #2

March 24 - 60 mile bike ride somewhere, thinking about heading to the race course in Galveston
March 25 - open water swim with HRTC & Galveston Beach Patrol (?)

APRIL 1 - LONE STAR HALF IRONMAN

All sorts of questions bounce around my head. Is that schedule good enough? Do I need to skip one of the half marathons in favor of another long bike ride? Will another long bike ride even do me any good at this point, or will it just depress me?

And no, I'm not really tapering and I don't plan to. My "taper" will be the week before the race. My goal is just to finish.

It's official -- I'm freaking out about an event. I didn't even do this before the marathon. Geez.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Last week was my final

Last week was my final week of advertising design class, and we each presented our package design and related ad campaign. (I'll post mine later.) There was a lot of good work, with one problem -- SPELLING AND GRAMMAR.

I was going to write a long rant about the subject, but finally decided to spare all of you from reading while I go on and on about how people just don't proofread their stuff anymore. Then today I saw this, and my internal rant started all over again.

It's common knowledge that I'm a stickler for spelling and grammar. I'm pretty sure this comes from my mom, who always offered to proofread my papers when I was in high school. I doubt that I ever turned in a paper that she hadn't redlined for me, pointing out where I'd spelled things wrong or sentences that sounded awkward. (Thanks Mom! I think...) Now, this doesn't mean that I always get everything correct, and if you read through a number of past blog posts I'm sure you'll find a spelling error or two, and certainly some bad grammar. But hey -- this is a blog. It's informal.

But if you were turning in an assignment for a design class, wouldn't you proofread it first? And last? And a dozen times in between? If English is not your first language, wouldn't you have someone else double-check it for you?

To me, poor spelling and grammar on a finished product -- an assignment, a newspaper article, an advertisement -- is like waving a huge red flag in the air and saying "I DON'T CARE." You're saying that you don't care enough to check your work. You're saying that I, the viewer, am not worthy of you taking the time to get the details right. The moment that I see a badly spelled word, or a badly worded line, I dismiss your assignment, your article, your ad.

In class last week, the first three people that presented each had glaring spelling and grammatical errors. I couldn't help it -- I commented. (The whole class critiques each assignment anyway.) I got teased for being so picky, and my pet peeve about spelling and grammar became a joke for the rest of class.

The best part? One guy got up to present his ad campaign, and he looked at me as he joked "you'll be happy to know that I used spell checker." With that, I began to read the ~150 words of copy that he'd written for his ad. Within three sentences I found an error -- "there" instead of "their." ARGH! Spell checker only catches bad spelling -- it doesn't captures homophones! (That would be words that sound alike but are spelled differently.)

I didn't even bother to point out his error; by that time I was resigned to everyone's bad spelling.

Being a naturally good or bad speller is one thing. But most people who can't spell know they can't spell, and so I return to my original opinion: there's no excuse for not proofreading your work, or having someone else do it for you.

Sigh.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

We finished our third big

We finished our third big assignment in advertisting design class last Monday. It was a group project; we created a fake service company and then created a set of ads for a chosen niche market. I chose the 20-30-year-old backpacker market.

Here's my print ad.
Here's my annoying pop-up ad.

Next up is a fashion ad. I'm required to have a model in it. Anybody want to model for me???

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Our second advertising design assignment

Our second advertising design assignment was to create an automotive billboard. I don't really know much about cars, but here's what I made:

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

My second assignment for my

My second assignment for my advertising design class was to create a full-page ad selling four CDs for a "fictitious record label, store, promoter, or nightclub" that captures the "feel, ambience, and tone of the music."

Here's what I turned in (click for a larger version in PDF format):

Friday, September 08, 2006

I've been paying more attention

I've been paying more attention to advertising and advertising blogs lately, thanks to my class this semester. Here are a few interesting links I've found this week:

+ An oldie (1996) but a goodie from The Onion:

Nike to Cease Manufacturing Products

"The last few years, it became impossible to maintain our high standards of advertising while faced with the daily distractions of making sneakers," said Phil Knight, Nike founder and CEO. "By discontinuing our entire product line, we will ensure that Nike remains the world's leader in the field of incredibly cool TV commercials well into the 21st century."

+ The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss. "Before Theodore Seuss Geisel found fame as a children's book author, the primary outlet for his creative efforts was magazines."

+ Steve Irwin's classic Sportscenter commercial, in which he wrestles the Florida Gator. Proof that these ads don't really get old.

+ Remember when the iMac first came out, and how it was available in all those cool colors? After being copied by everyone, Apple seems to have returned to black and white.

Monday, August 28, 2006

I'm taking a third design

I'm taking a third design class at UHCL this fall -- Advertising Design. The semester started last week, but I missed the first class since I was at the conference in Colorado. Our first assignment, however, is due tonight:

"Download 5 high-quality photographs that would make a wonderful setting for an advertisment. Turn each photograph into an "Advertisement" by typing an original word, phrase, sentence, or slogan onto each image using Photoshop. Use all your knowledge of Photoshop's Type Tools, Layer Effects, and advanced manipulation techniques to make these Ads as professional as possible."

I decided to use NASA images since 1) they're readily available and 2) they're in the public domain and can be used freely. Instead of five separate ads for separate things, I went with a single theme and got inspiration from the NASA Exploration website, an old PBS ad campaign that Jose told me about, and the fact that I think the solar system is pretty amazing. I compared some features on other planets to those on Earth to make what, I hope, is easily recognized as a sort of "awareness ad" campaign. Not selling a product, obviously, but just trying to make people think about and remember NASA.

Anyway. Click to see larger versions.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

My graduate project for web

My graduate project for web design will be the following:

You will be responsible for coming up with your own Graduate project. You will need to come up with your own project idea and develop a strong concept behind that project. A part of this must be a strong research component.

I could give you a direction, but after talking to several of you, it was clear that everyone has a different direction that would help further their career. This will give you a chance to make that project you need for your personal growth and/or resume.

Of course, this should be a *much* larger project than any one of the projects, including the final project. The number of pages, images, links, and artistic elements needs to be much higher and a higher quality than anything the undergraduates are working on.

I will also need to approve your project before you start. So you will need to turn in a 1000 word proposal that highlights the need, your concept, and a bit describing what the project will physically (virtually) look like.

As always, the techniques and visual structure that you use will be entirely up to you.

So. I get to basically do whatever I want as long as its complex enough. Anybody need a complicated website I could build for them?

Friday, February 10, 2006

So, you remember that logo

So, you remember that logo I did a couple months ago for the Dragon Boat Festival? It was an extra credit project for my graphic design class. Well, a couple months went by without hearing anything, so I figured they'd chosen a different logo. Then, a couple weeks ago I got an invitation to the Dragon Boat Festival Kickoff Party last night at a bar downtown, saying that the winning logo would be announced at 8:00. I thought about going, but then forgot about it, not really wanting to drive downtown when I might lose. (Yes, I am that shallow.)

On Monday I got an email from a woman who works with the festival, saying that the judges really liked my logo and they just had a couple minor tweaks -- making the face wider, and changing the text to reflect what they really wanted it to say. I sent that to them on Tuesday night. I got another email on Wednesday asking for one more tweak to the font and wording, along with a casual "they'd also like to know more about you and your background." At this point I was feeling like I had a good shot at winning, so I decided to go to their kickoff party last night with the thought that it would be a bit annoying if they'd asked me for those tweaks and my logo didn't even win.

Anyway, the party was ok, and I'm glad I went because my logo won! Hooray! Here is the logo for this year's May festival, to be used on t-shirts and brochures and stickers and even temporary tattoos (which is my personal favorite item). :)

It was actually pretty embarassing, because they had this whole "reveal" thing where they pulled a cover off a posterboard that had my logo on it, along with the cheesy "about me" that I'd sent via email -- word for word as I'd written it in the email! And I had to stand next to it so they could take my picture. And another girl from my class was there and kept saying "oh I knew they'd pick yours!" which was flattering, but also made me uncomfortable because while I obviously think that my design was awesome, I am always suspicious when other people agree with me.

I was both embarassed and excited.

Yep, I'm a freak.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

My first website for my

My first website for my web design class: here. It's pretty dull. It's not how I would do an image gallery. And the images, in my opinion, are too big. There are still enough people out there with small monitors that I think 800 pixels is too wide. BUT those were the parameters of the assignment: splash page, 3x3 grid, and individual image pages with 800 pixel wide images.

Sigh.

After class last week, I'd decided to drop. It's not worth the money I've spent for it. But I missed the deadline to drop without a penalty. So now I have to figure out what the penalty is, and whether I'm willing to suffer it.

Friday, January 27, 2006

I took that photo!

I took that photo!

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Two entries this morning, to

Two entries this morning, to make amends to certain people who harassed me for not updating yesterday.

I took the day off work yesterday to run around Houston taking photos for an upcoming story in the Newark (NJ) Star-Ledger. Randomest of random, I know. Anyway, the focus of the story is the city of Houston, how it was affected by the Enron collapse, and what has happened in the four years since. With the trial about to begin in a week or so, I guess Enron is back in the news. I met up with the reporter and took photos of three of the people she interviewed, including a woman who lost her job and former Mayor Bob Lanier. I also did my best to get some "ambiant Houston shots showing how the city has bounced back." As it turns out, that is a tricky prompt to shoot to!! But I got a few shots that hopefully the newspaper will like.

If the article ends up online, I'll be sure to link to it.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

My first assignment for my

My first assignment for my web design class is to gather 10 photos and process them, for eventual use on an interactive, self-designed gallery page. I know, it's an easy assignment, but whatever. I have a bunch of ideas and can't decide which to do. You can vote:

+ World Series Game 4 (already processed, and obviously it makes an awesome gallery subject)
+ Running photos(pick one of the races I've shot and do 10 from that, the con being that most running photos look the same)
+ "Day in the life" (take 10 pictures in one day and use that as the theme)
+ Aerial photos (10 of the zillions of photos I've snapped from the window seat on commercial flights)
+ Inca Trail (because it was awesome)
+ Yosemite (could do a graphic of Half Dome as the page background)

I want to pick something that will make it fun to design the background of the gallery page. You know -- baseball stuff if I choose World Series, or an airplane if I choose aerial shots. I also want to impress the class with my photography, so I want to make sure that whatever I choose, I have ten really good photos...

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

The February issue of Runners

The February issue of Runners World has a wonderful collection of stunning and inspiring photographs of 2005 NYC Marathon finishers. I highly recommend checking it out online, where the photos are accompanied by audio recordings of the runners telling their stories, or in print, where you can better appreciate the photos themselves.

Thursday, December 15, 2005

This commercial for the Sony

This commercial for the Sony Bravia TV is by far the coolest commercial I've seen in a long time. It's not CGI either. They actually sent 250,000 superballs bouncing along the streets of San Francisco.

Monday, December 05, 2005

We have one last extra

We have one last extra credit opportunity in my graphic design class. I'm not sure if I have the time to do it, but heck, you guys know that I'm going to at least give it a shot. Here's the prompt; I need some ideas for a story!

Overview: Create an original Comic Book (or Graphic Novel) page in Adobe Illustrator. Create the story, the text, the ambience, and the characters yourself.

Details: The page can be any other page except the front or back cover. Include enough comic book elements to make a professional publish-quality page. Include several panels separated by gutters. Include elements like narration boxes, thought bubbles, and dialog bubbles. Play with the standard elements of comic design. The standard comic book dimension is 10"h x 7"w.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

My final graphic design class

My final graphic design class is Monday, and our final assignment was to do a technical illustration. I chose to do a T-38, the astronaut training jet.

Here's my photo:

And here's my illustration:

I've been staring at it long enough that my eyes have gone a little buggy, so if there's anything out-of-place or odd-looking, let me know. Here is a larger version if you really wanna inspect it...

Monday, November 21, 2005

Final version. Thanks for all

Final version. Thanks for all the comments. I saw the logo that another girl in my class created, and it was good but verrry similar to the three that have been used in the past and were given to us as examples. So when the powers that be make their decision, I guess they'll be deciding whether to stick with what they've done in the past or try something different. I'm the different option.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

I'm looking for feedback on

I'm looking for feedback on an extra credit project for my graphic design class. The idea is to design a logo for the local Dragon Boat Festival, and it's actually a competition. The winning design will be printed on brochures and t-shirts and such. The parameters are fairly limiting -- it has to be able to be reduced to a single color, which means even if I put all sorts of colors in, I'd lose them in printing.

Comments? Suggestions? I don't have too much more time to work with it, but as is my tendency with stuff like this, I'm feeling like something is missing. Here are a couple slightly different versions.

Same as above without the bulbous nose:

Same as the first but with no snake-ish tongue:

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Two more quick ideas.

Two more quick ideas.