In Case You Missed It

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/wherethewildthingsare/

No hyperlinks, so you know exactly what you're seeing. I would embed it, but I'm assuming any youtube clips will be taken down. It was fun looking at facebook last night, as most of the statuses were links to this trailer. The book is over 40 years old and has had such an impact on so many childhoods. It'll be fun to see it, because the audience will be such a huge range of ages.

My sister (who is quite a few years my senior) actually painted life-size monsters on her walls. I had a smaller sized Max on mine for a bit. Hopefully I'll be able to post the hilarious photo of my grandmother in the room.

Just wanted to give you something to smile about! More updates later, with some of my book projects.

Semiotics

My Symbology and Semiotics midterm, a strange form of puppetry to answer a given question. Can you guess the question? We've been discussing perception in class, in terms of user/viewer understanding. It's interesting, because there were six of us answering the same question, but each of us had different visual ideas (though for the most part, the same verbal answer). Visual versus verbal has kind of fascinated me lately, I've been struggling to find a balance between the two. Hopefully, I'll have time to write up some sort of longer explanation of what I mean.

This was a very fun problem to solve. I really love the forms created by the shadows:





Behind the scenes:

This is one of the reasons why I love McSweeney's so much:

A QUESTIONNAIRE REGARDING THE PHENOMENON OF THE SNUGGIE, THE BLANKET WITH SLEEVES, FOR TESTING YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF AMERICAN HOME ECONOMICS AND YOUR OWN PERSONAL DESIRES, WRITTEN IN THE STYLE OF WALKER PERCY'S LOST IN THE COSMOS

Have a good weekend!

4 Random Drawings from Sophomore Year

From my marker rendering class. I just dug them out while going through my stuff. Nothing special, but I really enjoyed the process of creating these. The tractor is fun, because I actually know how to drive it!

Cupcakes

Work in progress for my bookmaking class. Used Alton Brown's recipe from "Good Eats":


Unfortunately, we ate the cupcakes before I could get a shot. They were gooey and awesome cooked in mugs!

A Vote in Favor of Redesign

I guess there's been some sort of hoopla over Tropicana changing their packaging, to a point where they are changing it back to the original. First, if people are going to complain about a Pepsi Co. redesign, then why not look at the Pepsi soda redesign. Of the two, I'd say that's the more "generic" looking.

The funny thing is, I've come to realize even more so that I live in a design bubble. Everyone I've talked to likes the new packaging. At the same time, everyone I've talked to is a design student who also noted the change. Why do I like the packaging? It's clean, but still has playful touches, like the green leaf dotting the "i." I also love the glass on the front, which invokes the daily breakfast ritual better than an orange with a straw. I guess the original orange image was too realistic and straightforward for my taste. A package doesn't need to scream its message: a simple mix of color and words works fine. Especially for orange juice, which isn't trying to be "extreme!" or "bold!" or anything silly like that. Orange juice isn't loud, and the new packaging conveyed that.

Ah well, I'll just have to buy a carton or two and save it to enjoy on my own.

Save Some Words

I wish my vocabulary included some of these words. Trajectitious? Essomenic? Quaeritate?

I wish the FAQ section was updated. It's a really cool site, but the full purpose isn't entirely outlined. I'm assuming the words have been removed from the Oxford English Dictionary?

I made a logo of sorts this weekend:

I just wanted to do something quick that showed a little bit of personality. Why a bunny? Well, I spent a good deal of my life assuming that I was born in the Year of the Dragon, only to find out that my January birthday meant I was a rabbit. No offense to them, but dragons are far cooler than rabbits. So, I decided that if I was going to be a rabbit, I'd be a fire-breathing rabbit (with sharp pointy teeth)!

This guy was an honorable mention. A bunch of people said he looks too much like the Donnie Darko rabbit. I personally think he just looks pensive:

Not sure why they're so light. Saving JPEGs from illustrator is quite a pain.