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 Phil Shapiro, a regular commenter and visitor to this project, suggested a sketch for a volunteer project that promotes play. That’s right — an organization to make sure that play is on the minds of Takoma Park visitors. I love it so much I’d like to propose it for my own town of Ewing, NJ. I’m always looking for ways in which happiness can be increased on a larger scale; I’m deeply interested in studies and stats about happiness and how it is recorded and shared. Hint: Happiness is not usually associated/concurrent with money. I’d love to see the effects of citywide play adoption on happiness.
At any rate, Phil asked me to design a bumper sticker for the newish organization, and I was more than happy to oblige. Below is an example of their current branding. I’m hoping maybe next time I’ll get a shot at helping them to relaunch their entire brand. 🙂
I myself had a rough time with sports through my life. I really was a very bad baseball player, and had some success with basketball. Football is something that just escapes me. If you’ve never met me, I’m a bit of a tank. I’m not proud of it, it just is. Always has been. I earned the rage of my high school football team and earned a lot of school-wide enemies by dropping off the team after two games in my freshman year. I hated the game. I didn’t understand why I was being asked to (specifically) hurt people. I personally feel like my lack of interest in team sports was kind of a wedge between me and my dad, one of my sisters, and many co-workers for whom team sports is a kind of religion. A handful of close friends are highly avid fanatics for sports teams, though, and it’s something I ask from time to time: Why do you care about (team name)? What is it that makes you so excited? I’ve never gotten an answer that was personally satisfying. But to them, it’s a way of life that requires jacket and mug purchasing, score retweets, and spontaneous play by play monologue for everyday actions. I don’t get it, but I still love them.
Suzanne Carbonaro is a friend, an avid NY teams fan, and a long time collaborator in many projects. She recently made the request for a field of dreams with a pretty sunset, and I hope I came through for her.
Old Spice guy library sketch by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Old Spice guy
Andy Woodworth, a NJ Librarian and friend, suggested a part of the response to his tweet to the recently retired Old Spice Guy (OSG), a video in which OSG talked up some of the benefits of libraries, which in turn started some larger conversations and discussions about the interactions of commercial ventures and libraries and what that means. Andy details the exchange here. The video in part stated, in typical genius, freethought OSG style:
My my long time friend and one time co-worker, Angel Brady, suggested that I do a sketch series on creation myths. I loved the idea, and I decided to go out and look for some I didn’t know anything about. The illustration is of the giant Mbombo, ruler of the watery earth, vomiting up the sun, moon, and stars. It’s part of the creation myth of the African Bakuba:
“In the Bakuba account of demiurge, the Earth was originally nothing but water and darkness, ruled by the giant Mbombo. This giant, after feeling an intense pain in his stomach one day, vomited up the sun, moon, and stars. The heat and light from the sun evaporated the water covering Earth, creating clouds, and after time, the dry hills emerged from the water. Mbombo vomited once more. Many things were contained in this second vomiting—people (the first man and the first woman), animals (the leopard, the eagle, and the monkey Fumu), trees, the falling star, the anvil, the firmament, the razor, medicine, and lighting. The woman of the waters, Nchienge, lived in the East, and her son, Woto, became the first king of the Bakuba.” from Creation myth – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia at Tue Jul 20 2010 11:25:54 GMT-0400 (EST) on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth
Thanks, Angel, for the inspiration! I loved making it.
So this is an answer to Erika Bredahl’s picture submission of her dog Yoda. After bitmap tracing the image a few times to get some various levels of shadow and detail, I overlapped the paths and colored them using the eyedropper tool and a vidcap of Yoda from ESB. I then used another vidcap of Yoda in the Swamp scene, took it into the GIMP and used the stamp tool to remove Yoda, then brought the resulting image into Inkscape and bitmap traced it, then gave it some blur.
‘Yoda (/ˈjoʊdə/) is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe, first appearing in the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back. He is a small, green humanoid alien who is powerful with the Force. In his first appearance in the original trilogy, Yoda is described as the Jedi master of Obi-Wan Kenobi and subsequently trains Luke Skywalker to use the Force. The character reappears in Return of the Jedi where he reveals his age to be 900. Yoda has become iconic in popular culture due to his distinct pattern of speech and role as an old, wise mentor. In the prequel trilogy, set a generation before the original trilogy, Yoda is among the most powerful members of the Jedi Order and a general of clone troopers during the Clone Wars. He also trains all Jedi children, before they are assigned a Jedi master. Yoda appears again in the sequel trilogy, advising an older Luke and empowering Rey to face a revived Emperor Palpatine, along with other past Jedi.’
from “Yoda – Wikipedia” at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoda curated by lemasney creative. Feel free to share.
Libraries and Transliteracy cc-by lemasney #logo #Inkscape #libraries #design #typography
Libraries and Transliteracy cc-by lemasney #logo #Inkscape #libraries #design #typography
So @annavan (Scoyoc), a friend in the NJ Library Land circle, simultaneously made me aware of a logo contest for Libraries and Transliteracy and called me out (in the best possible way). She tweeted
“It’s Contest Time! Libraries and Transliteracy Needs a Logo! https://librariesandtransliteracy.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/its-contest-time-libraries-and-transliteracy-needs-a-logo/ [hmmm… wonder what @lemasney would come up with]”
I love design challenges, Libraries, and Anna, so this one was a no brainer. So the first thing I did was make sure I had a clear understanding of transliteracy and how it related to libraries, and so I did some research, starting but not ending with the ubiquitous Wikipedia entry, which gave me a good start, defining Transliteracy as:
“Transliteracy is The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. (PART 2007) The modern meaning of the term combines literacy with the prefix trans-, which means “across; through”, so a transliterate person is one who is literate across multiple media.” from Transliteracy – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia at Sun Jul 18 2010 14:12:31 GMT-0400 (EST) on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transliteracy
A few other sources extended, reinforced and clarified the definition. Thanks for the nudge, Anna, and I hope my answer gets to the finals!
If you like this image, please share it. If you use it, please attribute me, and thanks! (cc-by lemasney)
