These are design or consulting jobs that rose out of a request from the audience. I am always looking for prompts for new content, so if you have a need, please reach out.
So here is another monogram study for a very good friend and regular contributor to this project, Shannon. Shannon is bright, kind, inventive, cool, smart, technologically proficient, creative, and a lot of fun to be around. In short, she’s amazing. I wanted to capture some of her qualities in these monograms. Hope you liked it, and thanks to Shannon for asking for it!
I’ve received a strong response of interest (maybe jealousy?) in the “friend monograms” sketches, and I’m saying right here that if you ask for one, I’ll make every effort to make you one, or in this case, 12. I think letterforms and their relationship are art. I got a lot of help from fontographers on these, but the kerning, custom nodes, placement and relationship, etc., is mine. Thanks for asking, Dan! That’s what this project is all about.
So this is a pretty common effect, but it’s easy to master, and works beautifully in Inkscape. Thanks again to the crew on Monday night at Princeton Public Library who came for the fourth installment in the Inkscape Workshop series. To make this image above, do the following:
That’s it. You can apply the effect to almost any shape as long as you use the instructions set out here.
So this is a request from Dave Reynolds, who I have an ongoing battle with about coffee. I suggest that no one be subjected to the nonsense they sell as coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts and he says that Starbucks only sells pretentious, overpriced bitterness. Just like I like it. At any rate, very recently he suggested a sketch in which a Dunkin Donuts cup relieves itself on a Starbucks cup in the way that Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) often does with Ford and Chevy logos on the back of trucks of the other make. I thought it was a great and funny idea, and decided to do it right away. Especially since I think that the analogy is right for the taste of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee (#OHNOHEDIINT!) Thanks for the inspiration Dave, and I hope someday when Starbucks buys Dunkin Donuts and shuts them all down, we’ll be able to drink coffee together in peace. 🙂
So this came out of a recent discussion with one of my oldest friends, Roch. He’s a great artist, and one of my lifelong inspirations. This sketch celebrates just one example of why I love him as a friend and mentor. He told me a few years back about an art project in which the focus was on a single phrase that could be taken in more then one way, but could also potentially be seen as a way of life.
As I understand it, Roch’s idea, “Just (t)ask”, is a play on words that indicates that as long as the thing you’re asking for is just (reasonable, not hurtful, helpful, etc.) I’m more than willing to consider helping you to do it. Just ask, just say the words, help me to understand that you want to do this thing, and let’s do it. Together.
Much love, Roch, and thanks for the inspiration for all the time I’ve known you.
So my friend Robert has been trying to get me into gaming. He alerted me to the fact that the gaming platform called Steam was coming to Mac OS a few months back, and they offered a free game called Portal as an incentive to get you to download and install the engine. I loved the game, a mix of strategy, first person play, and a manipulation of the physical world that is just amazing. One mission from the game involves having to travel with a weighted companion cube throughout the level, and without giving too much away, you end up having to do something horrible to it at the end of the level. Since it’s just a bunch of metal, you needn’t care so much, but many do. Robert asked me to do a sketch based on my feelings about this event in the game. So, here’s my note of apology to the weighted companion cube, with an acceptable excuse, I hope. 🙂