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This is my modest list of resources I use all the time for Graphic Design! Who knows, even if you don’t actually do graphic design, you might benefit 
http://modularscale.com/ : The absolute most awesome source for breaking things down in the Golden Mean way. Harmonic proportions. Yes please!
http://wordmark.it/# : Want to see a word or phrase lined up on one page in all the fonts you have installed on your system? Well, this is just the place!
google images: goes without saying.
http://www.colourlovers.com/: Make your own custom color palettes and pattern designs. Browse a community full of color palettes. Get feedback.
http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/: Never be in the dark of a typeface used in a design.
http://www.toonmonkey.com/extensions.html: Some super important Flash extensions that are free!
http://www.banksy.co.uk/asseenontv.html: Need some artistic inspiration?
http://www.graphic-design-links.com/: The above four links are bookmarking sites specifically for design.
Font Resources:
http://www.highfonts.com/default.aspx
http://www.freepremiumfonts.com/
http://www.webdesigndev.com/roundups/22-free-calligraphic-fonts
http://fontfeed.com/archives/helvetica-and-alternatives-to-helvetica/
http://www.webdesigndev.com/web-development/16-gorgeous-web-safe-fonts-to-use-with-css
http://www.fontshop.com/products/fontbook/
http://ilovetypography.com/2007/10/22/so-you-want-to-create-a-font-part-1/
http://www.fonts2u.com/harabara-bold.font
http://www.addictivefonts.com/script/handwritten/free-handwritten-fonts/
http://webfonts.fonts.com/en-US/Project/ChooseFonts?Languages=W44%20%20%20%20%20%20%20
http://typekit.com/holiday2010
http://www.webdesigndev.com/photoshop/30-free-fonts-you-must-have
http://www.webdesigndev.com/photoshop/22-free-fonts-to-achieve-that-hand-drawn-effect
http://www.macworld.com/article/156825/2011/01/sanfordfont.html?lsrc=rss_main
http://kuler.adobe.com/#themes/rating?time=30 : Great color schemer.
Web Designer resources:
http://www.webdesigndev.com/web-development/web-designer-must-have-resources
http://www.lovevectorfree.com/category/icons/
http://www.elance.com/p/landing/provider.html
http://colorschemedesigner.com/
http://www.webdesigndev.com/roundups/10-forums-web-designers-must-know-about
http://www.webdesigndev.com/web-development/5-ways-to-scare-your-web-dev-clients-away
http://www.webdesigndev.com/roundups/100-fantastic-resources-for-web-designers
Phew. This should be a nice start to chew on.
For the last few days i have been trying a work/life hack called ‘the half hour work interval’. Admittedly I made that name up. The concept is this: Work for a solid half hour then play for half an hour. Simple enough right? Well, actually it really is. What I have been doing is to instead of play I do another phase of another project. Sad thing is, I haven’t been able to slide music into the work schedule. Yet. I intend to. I am noticing immense output now. From practicing piano to getting graphics stuff done to watching tutorials, to even comprehending and retaining information. I almost feel it is too good to be true. So what if it is, right now it’s truly working and I love it. I guess it is working for me because I am a very ‘need-a-due-date-or-goal’ type person. If I don’t have either I WILL procrastinate. I will fail. It is not me being down on myself, it is just being real. I can performance if I have some framework and a due date. Done.
On the marketing front I am working on a logo, also trying twitter marketing/slash being a person of tweetery specialness. Fail. I tried a program called MarketMeSuite(Tweet). It is a paid service of $5.99 a month and has a lot of killer services. Like reply campaigns and RSS tweeting. I got about 20 followers in 5 days of using it. I decided it was not right for me. The buggyness, half the features not working and the customer service basically never acknowledging what was wrong or be able to give me a resemblance of a solution. I cancelled the service. I realize since I have nothing to really show for, I would just tweet for free. I am now using Tweetdeck and am very happy. Tweeting for free is the only way to fly for now.
Today after class I had a really good conversation with our substitute teacher filling in while our main teacher is on vacation. She was telling me about Flash and its real upsides. She is a Flash professional and was really inspiring me to try and only use Flash to express myself for this next three week major project. She told me that I am good at the still picture, but can I immerse someone with motion. Can I make someone feel in another world with Flash, can I be good at motion too. I am not going to lie, she is an absolute savage when it comes to getting work and being at the top of her game, she will tell you to your face that you suck and show you why. So, for her to tell me that I am good, well I don’t know how to take that and or believe it. At the same time, she is wanting to push me to that next level of not only design but the ability to make someone feel, maybe even immerse them in a world I create. She said “No pressure…”. Well, there is always pressure to get to that next level. I almost felt like saying to not be afraid of pushing me, but then I was afraid the veil of my design work being good would be lifted from her and she would rail me. So, I decided to leave on top. All kidding aside, it was very valuable information and she is a great teacher. I think it is just tough with her, because whenever she comes in to sub, it is in the start of a major project and she always stops the class to teach new methods. I’t is more circumstantial annoyance than actual annoyance. Her knowledge and techniques are amazing. So, besides teaching and pushing that next level of design, there is the next level and pushing of learning to learn, in hostile and comfortable environments.
Ahhh, life is fucking grand.
In day two of the album adventure. I am happy, not because I have any pieces done or even close to done, but because of my attitude and approach. I am happy with the scratch tracks I have got going on and am happy that I am telling myself, while this is ambient and ‘noise’ that maybe there is more. Write good pieces. But, still express myself. That is when I know I am satisfied enough to rock a piece. So far, close but no cigar.
I am also working on the album cover and what I feel represents the mentality and mental space I am in or what this represents. That is hard to portray in a digital realm. It is ever changing, but the core is remaining the same, which is good. So, I feel good knowing that with the core still intact I am on the right path. It is a black space with a nebulaes middle, possibly me as a kid looking at it, only to realize I am still looking into the nebula. Still on the platform of lies/understanding of love. I am needing it to be eerie and ominous, while being minimal. Like I said, core still intact.
I am tackling a interval/ratio work regiment. Thirty minutes working and then thirty minutes fun. Or, more time working than same time playing. So far, I seem to be more focused during the work time knowing that I only have a set amount of time. I need to make use of this time. I am not super consistent yet with upholding said times of work and fun, but I am somewhat there. I am interested to see how this will benefit me and if it works. {open ended blog ending}
This marks day one in the life of this ambient/noise/who knows what this sound will be album. Today, besides thinkign about what I want to do all day, I sat down and let it pour out. Have you ever, with anything sat down and done a thing and let you emotion pour out through it? Well, Today was little part of that. I worked in Cmaj. for this one. I am at least assigning myself a key to work in. My signal chain was from keyboard->mixer->inthebox(amps and eq’s and delay, oh my). I am not happy with the sound quality but at the same time am. For some reason there is some weird hiss, so I might have to redo the recording to bypass the mixer. But, on the flip side, I like the drone-iness of the recording. I thought the performance was good, but honestly, I think I can do better. So, if anything today was getting my sea legs back and I have an outline for a really emotional song. I looked at today as pre-production. I am glad that was accomplished.
All day been working on a logo for myself, as I look to slowly move into developing myself as a person with a design identity. I also found out about the bone tool today as well in Flash. Wow! My next new thing to mess with!! Stick figure dancing? Yummy!
Irons in the Fire:
- I do have another ambientish piece in my phone, using both Amplitube for the iPhone and Filtatron. I can look to making that a piece of viable musicness.
- After I get done with a logo, I will finish a business card and start designing a site. WordPress? Host? Scratch? Flash?
- Working on album cover
- Always the quest for a good T-shirt design
- Always the quest to express
Gonna faint from tiredness.
Yep, album time has commenced. An ambient album. Yes, all the wonder if this is music or not, if it is even listenable. I don’t care. To me it is powerful. To me in the right context it is beautiful. To take a page out of Brian Eno’s book: “I try to create something that has not been heard before..”. To me, with all the turmoil of my personal non artistic life, I cannot and don’t have the capacity to not let go. Composition in the traditional form is just downright too much to handle. But, the free and super emotional is just downright bliss. Besides, traditional composition is for Neandrathals, not the geico kind either.
1. Lynda.com tutorials
2. Various typography sites
3. Marketmetweet
4. Class
Above is some resources I am diving into. It feels overwhelming but dang I am learning so much. I am also learning there is design and the politics of design. What I mean by that is that in certain niches there is parameters that need to be followed to be accepted by the masses. It is tough pill to swallow but liberating too. So, as I keep throwing myself out there, I am learning a ton. Thus, improving my design skills.
Album cover in the works. A couple skeletons pieces recorded. That’s all for now.
This last month has been, shall we say “Very interesting!”. I have been immersing myself in learning graphic design, how to get into rhythms of learning and rhythms of working. I have been trying to learn how to compartmentalize artistic strains and streams. The bouts of inspiration come and go, but I have realized and submit to learning and immersing. I find some tensions lately of just quitting the idea of working on music all together for awhile. Just playing keys, and using all my energy towards graphic design. The flip side is I feel it would be good to attain disciplines in both. So, I sit in prayer:
“What do I need?”
“What do you need of me?”
In my personal family life, there has been a fracture to the mainframe, yet it was always that way, but now it is apparent. So, I along with my siblings are working through that. So, in the creative field, inspiration and the ability to feel like doing a project is , well rocked. Also, coupled with just being in constant learning and visual consumption, This is the stage of life:
“In this stage of my life, I call it: LEARNING”
One thing that I am starting to really dive into is lynda.com and getting through courses and showing Certificates of Completion. It is not a degree, but it will show that I have completed levels of mastery in software and developement. I feel that will help with job prospects and my own personal growth. A couple so far:
This is in Facebook and iPhoto integration
This is Flash Professional CS5 New Features overview
So, it will be nice to get some formal education in so many different fields. I am excited to go to school, come home and do more ‘schooling’ and then throw in some piano/rhodes practice. I am learning One Republic’s ‘Apologize’. I am finding that maybe for me, learning classical stuff isn’t going to keep my juices flowing to want to put in work to get good at piano. Maybe, learning pop will. So far, it surprisingly has. there is something really educational about learning to play minimally with sheer effectiveness. But, in that minimalism there is a complexity and discipline, when to explode and when to simply give the melody. I am excited about this path and direction. Maybe, I should stop caring about being amazing and be satisfied with being good and effective. Thats seems more disciplined to me. Weird.
Where will my creative mind be tomorrow. I ask myself.
Today I was not feeling it creatively. Everything I looked at I wanted to rip up, whether virtually or on a piano key. Today I felt beat up and just down artistically. No confidence in my skills or abilities. I felt like I had an anvil on my head. The day ended better than it started, and I got a healthy dose of finding notes and riffs/melodies to some songs I am helping do keyboards for a show to. I think I might be tone deaf. It’s weird, I always find the harmony notes but have a hard time finding the root note. It is frustrating to realize, I am really not good at finding a note that is root. With that said, I am down to eradicate that. So, if it takes days and hours to get better pitch, than darn it I will do it. Just in the starting stages of that, and frustrated. I hope this frustration is just temporary. I don’t like feeling it and am finding a way to work through it.
Today in my school project I am trying to build a site that is E-commerce. Trying to be minimal but very pleasing to the eye. It is a ’boutique’ shop for high end music equipment and DIY. Like Robotspeak in San Francisco. I got a good layout and learned how to make a inner shadow with x background repeat image. That at least was an accomplishment. The rest of the school day was fending off breaking down as I felt the anvil of disgust, displeasure and hoplesness creep in. The end of the school day ended well when I started on the main page giant picture. It’s of a Korg SV-1 that crashed in the middle of a city. It is a promo picture, but am hoping that it comes out good. So far it is! That was pleasing. So, with 2 weeks left, 20+ more pages to make and a design to still nail down, I am in the crunch. Well, I hope I learn a lot more than just design when done with this project.
The last couple of days have been littered with watching Mad Men seasons 1 – 4, SF Giants baseball and practicing the Rhodes. Thats really all I can report. Still trying to find the framework for a project. I just wonder if I am incapable of having direction?
Last couple of days have been an artistic mental inventory. Practicing a lot and figuring out what I want to do. Do I want to really get started on this album? Do I just want to focus on Graphic Design and my only music is practice? I am checking myself. Best check yo self before you wreck yo self. Some dude said that to a beat. Part of my daily creative training lately has been to watch interviews of ‘legends’. One that has really struck my liking is Max Roach. He seemed immensely humble and full of wisdom. He had this air of authority from his being. He really inspired me to approach things with great concentration and focus. To approach music with a comfortableness in my skin. A lot of impasses are in my life, and this creative direction is one as well. I guess, when faced with it, God may be trying to teach me something, maybe how to stand on my own two feet, knowing that God is God. Maybe to accept I have no grandiose direction, but that I need to move forward, and let the impasses unwind on their own. God’s got it anyway. All I can do is walk.
..”we are all foreigners, God gave this country to the Native Americans originally, so we are all immigrants..” -Max Roach
I feel I could be wiser, humbler and maybe shut up. Speak through other things than my mouth. Use the energy that I might use to speak into concentration and focus. Hmmm?
The more I dive into practicing with the Rhodes, the more I just want to play, play, play! Funny, the sheer sound and weighted ness of the keys makes playing a whole new level of enjoyable. I am looking into getting a sustain pedal and rod kit, and a top. I also am needing to get tuning and maintenance tools. They aren’t expensive. That is a relief. I live on a paupers salary.
A new practice technique I am trying is practicing learning to play a particular riff. In this case, a metal riff for a song in a side project I am in. The riff is super tight and played very well. Plus, I am finding that Metal is extremely technical. So, I set up a loop of the riff with the beat, and well, try to figure out how to emulate it. I worked for about a half hour or so, and it helped immensely. I got close on my first session, of course some of the triplets are kicking my butt. So, we shall see how that helps me.
1. Piano practice
2. side project
3. rest
4. Bible pieces/vector/art
My fingers feel tingly.
