Graphic Design and Illustration.

Archive for ‘October, 2011’

A meeting of the minds

So it was an interesting night out.
I first went to the grand opening of AssentWorks. An interesting collective that was created so entrepreneurs, inventors and hobbyists would have a space to work and have access to rapid-prototyping equipment. CNC routers, mills and 3D printers oh my. Just to name a few of the goodies they have there. In other words, they had some pretty cool toys you can play with for a monthly fee. Definitely a guy place, (and most definitely, NOT a Pierre Lavoie place) though there were a few young ladies walking around who both seemed interested in the tools and knew about how some of the equipment worked (which is more than I could say for myself).
I did have to laugh when I saw the “tool crib” though. It was basically a room totally branded by Princess Auto. Seems they donated a lot of hand tools. Kimmy didn’t know anything about it. Too bad she wasn’t there, I think she would have gotten a kick out of the “blue and gold” room.
So after seeing a few of the projects that have been made there (including a whole car!) I was off to The Secret Handshake (that so far doesn’t seem to actually have a secret handshake – so much for truth in advertising) and hopefully something to eat. But before that, I had some time to kill, so I went to MEC to see what was there to see (and hopeful find a much needed bathroom!) All I really succeeded there was scaring the bejesus out of some woman who hadn’t locked the bathroom door to a co-ed, single stall bathroom. I knew there was a reason I avoided the downtown area…
Anyways, the meeting was held at the Lo Pub. A very cool little place (with mediocre food – more on that later) in a rather rough part of town and sharing space with a youth hostel. Methinks they need a better location. Though being right by the Exchange District, it wouldn’t be so bad in the summer. The meeting started off slowly, most of the creatives there seemed to already know each other, but I eventually found a few other newbies who were all standing around wondering what the heck was going on. And then some of the more regular members took pity on us and helped us mingle. Quite an array of people with different backgrounds. Too bad my wife couldn’t make it – there were quite a few photographers there. And if they keep having meetings on Thursdays, she’ll never be able to go. Except for maybe in the summer. All in all, a good night, even if I feared for my life heading home.
Now for the food. It’s a vegetarian place. Let me say first off, I have no problem with a meatless meal. Chana Masala is one of my favourtiest meals. I had “The Philly”. Maybe not the best choice. Didn’t taste like a Philly cheesesteak, and it sat around for quite a while once eaten. The fries were good, the price very reasonable, and the portions generous. And I understand the vegetarian poutine(??!!!?) was quite good. And the nachos seemed popular. So maybe I didn’t order the best thing on the menu.
So I think the Secret Handshake gets a passing grade. At least for now. Means I’ll be attending future meetings. And anyone who wonders who this Pierre guy is and why he should never be within 1000 ft of a laser cutter, you can see his work here.And I hope he’s now satisfied. 🙂

Image Of The Month – October

While technically, this is my second post this month under this category, I think it’s safe to assume the first one I posted at the beginning of the month is for September and this one will be for October. While not a seasonal image, strictly speaking, I did resurrect this image from a job that died an untimely death quite a few years ago. So I guess there’s a strangled tie-in to Halloween…

I did a bunch of pencil roughs of a whole series of people. A real cross-section of North Americans. They were all punted in favour of a mod/hipster type drawings similar to this guy here. (that were ultimately rejected in favour of just not doing the project at all). I always thought it was a shame the drawings never made it past a very early conceptual stage. So I set about to change that. This is the first one. I’ll maybe do a few more later on.

This one was my favourite of the bunch. My wife thinks he looks a lot like Billy Blanks of Tae Bo fame. I have to admit, there is a resemblance, but he was the furthest thing from my mind when I was originally sketching out the images.

The image started off as a scan of the pencil drawing and then I went to town dropping in colour. Starting out with flat tones of colour and then built up the highlights and shadows. Pretty straightforward. The only really crazy thing I did was essentially re-do all the linework directly in Photoshop. Lots of fun with the Paths tool and a custom Photoshop brush. Resulted in some nice a slick lines.

Enjoy.

 

Thinking out loud (for real this time!)

So I’m testing DragonDictate to see if this is a good way to blog without having to do too much typing. So far it seems to be working pretty good. I just have to remember to actually use punctuation when I talk. This should be a good way for me to blog while I’m waiting for my wife at the Pan Am pool. So I get to be the strange guy at the Pan Am pool, who is going to be talking to his iPod. It’ll probably also be a good way to get that seat all to myself on the bus!

Publication Design

This is a small sampling of the various publications I’ve worked on over the years. Shown here are some pages I helped put together for Travel Manitoba. Though another company designed the original sample pages,the company I was working for at the time was assembling the bulk of the travel books for that year,. Due to some miscalculations and miscommunications, I would up doing most of the cover pages for that year. Example pages for the NorthWest Company, and some miscellaneous stuff for Freedom 55 are included as well. I’ve also done work for the Canadian Dental Association, Manitoba Moose, and the Investors Group.

%d bloggers like this: