Saturday, October 30, 2004

Freedom Cinema Festival Logo


To provide some closure for this little design chapter, here's a finished version of this brand-new logo.

Each of the icons in the film strip was its own little design project, and logo-like. Andrew said a nice thing to me, that even the complex objects, he could still tell what they were though very small.

This is going to look so great on a black t-shirt.

Friday, October 29, 2004


Now the film strip is getting some attention, the letters have been extruded, and the icons are getting placed.

At this point, it's really difficult to change placement and shape of things, but colors and translucency are still easy to alter.

Proofing a poster

Leah/Nika/Sterling, this is a layout for the poster at 20"wx28"h. I've moved the colors around, made it so I had more room for the logo at the bottom, and subtly changed the purple on the logo's top swoosh so it shows up a little better. It was too close to the gray value of the green, and pulling a vanishing act.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

On the path to perfection

Here's what you are looking at: the first iteration of the logo from my sketches, with Andrew's input, and based on the existing logo from Jen. What you can't see: I've converted the globe into vector art, but it's flat (i.e, it's not a 3D CAD object). This means it's infinitely scalable. The film strip is far harder to illustrate than any of us knew; I've drawn it dozens of ways, and this version is one of the two or three that I like. It is pretty good. But it's super sensitive: a little bit one way or the other and it looks bizarre.

The letters aren't 3D yet, and the icons aren't drawn in yet. We're just looking at overall placement, size, scale at this moment. For example, the film "feels" wide, but it's already nearly too thin to hold the icons. You can see that the letters will extrude really well, popping out from the depths of space.

[edit]
Here's an example of the sort of change that's easy to do now, but will be harder later after there's a bunch of detail:



Yeh, the upright words are good. I've changed the metal cap around the earth to an atmosphere. Consequently, it stopped looking as "golden age of cinema" so, what to do... Say, how about some "rays of cosmic consciousness?"

Shall I work on a figure-eight film strip?

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Try to hear it, change is here

Hello, FCF'ers!



The globe sketch is based on the existing artwork, the one with the film is a response to my struggle with trying to get the words to be the most prominent feature of the logo, and the icons are here to show the beginnings of the woodcut/poster art style that I think would help solidify the bridge from past to future.

If you post your comment here, we'll all be able to read them.

Friday, October 22, 2004

Showing my friend Carolyn how to Blog

The blogger community is about to get a new convert! I'm at Carolyn's office, and I'm showing her how easy it is to add a post to a blog.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

On a rush job, is it best to start in the middle?


I've been visualizing a full pipeline of fun jobs. So I get a nice referral from Allison Bliss, to some folks with www.freedomcinemafestival.org. Somehow they were deep into a poster design project with no time left and no one to really finish the job. Andrew and I hit it off pretty good to start, and I got the file in its state of disarray (text wrapped blocks in Photoshop? By having multiple, non-linked text layers? It was ugly) and I whipped it into shape over the phone, IM, and email this afternoon!

It was the most fun I've had on a rush job in a long time.

Monday, October 18, 2004

Open during remodeling

Just want to capture a bit of yesterday and today...

My chiropractor is a "wellness chiropractor." I see her even though I'm not currently wishing for pain meds for my back. The idea is that together we can avoid getting to that stage. I can testify that by spending the time to integrate the shocks and surprises that happen just in the course of regular life, I avoid getting to the point where I can't move.

Yoga helps, too: I'm pretty tuned to my body/mind/spirit.

I'm an integrated, flexible being. Here's what happened yesterday: I realized that part of my struggle is that I don't open the door to my heart, wide enough to let other people in. It's dam' scary! The might hurt me! And this closed space, this idea, has created a contraction which actually pulls my right shoulder down, the left side of my neck in, and makes my right ribcage smaller than the left. You can see it. I've had it for years, and wondered why and what I could do about it.

At Mass, I suddenly got a clear picture of the connectedness of the issues of my heart, my fears, and the manifestaion in my body. I chose that my heart would be open on that side. I could feel a sense like a buzz, or like a sleeve being slipped off, and I could feel my right shoulder expand.

Today, there's been lots of crackin' and poppin' as my breastbone aligns to the new volume. My heart is more loving, and I have a greater capacity for patience and gentleness.

My right ear is cooler and soothed, my teeth fit better, my right elbow is functioning fluidly... it's all really, really wonderful.

Friday, October 15, 2004

SpeakOut::California Propositions Information

Connecting up all my parts means that I choose to be political, as well as to earn a living and to live by my principals.

SpeakOut::California Propositions Information has a handy list of California's props, whcih can help us make informed decisions.