My formal design education at PNCA has come to a close and as of May 25th I will be a college graduate. Each student at PNCA creates a thesis work for their last project in school. We have to present a proposal describing what we intend to do then over a 16 week period create the work. For my thesis work I created a web site about the experience of fighting testicular cancer, something that I went through over the last year. While the experience of going through cancer was no fun the work I created about that process was. Check out the work at www.fightingtesticularcancer.org.

The site is intended to help men that face testicular cancer find their way though the treatment process. The information I included was less of a medical nature and more about what a man could expect. When I found out I had cancer I found a lot of useful information about the treatments I would go through but little to no information about what it would be like. I took on the challenge of creating a site that explained that in more detail.

As a part of the thesis process I did a presentation about the work to a group of my teachers and peers. I spoke about the work for about 45 minutes then answered questions about it for another 30 minutes.

Speaking in front of people has never been easy for me but in this case I was very comfortable. I talked a lot about the over all design of the site and the different decisions I made when creating it. On the whole the speech went very well.

I had a great time creating this web site. It was very difficult at times but the outcome was worth all the hard work. The site was created entirely in flash and this was my first time creating a site in this way. If you know anyone with testicular cancer, send them here. It could really help them through their difficult experience.

My design classes at PNCA have been keeping me very busy this term. That would explain the lack of updates on the blog but I wanted to share what I have been up to. This is the last project I have completed, a label for a bottle of brandy. For the assignment we were given a type of liquor and location then we had to come up with the rest.

I was given Brandy and for the location I got Barbados. The name Hurricane Belt reflects the location I was given while the design reflects the traditional French heritage of the liquor. I worked to make the brand speak to a younger audience while still retaining a feeling of authenticity. Hope you like it.

I love that time in the evenings when the sun has dropped behind the skyline but the sky still has a hint of blue left in it. Using long exposures brings out the color of the sky for some dramatic photography.

I found myself on the south waterfront here in Portland a few nights ago. The light was perfect for only about a half hour so I had to shoot fast. Photography can be so dramatic. The blue of the sky and the yellow of this crane made for a great photo. I tend to shoot with a very wide angle lens, I like to capture as much of a scene as I can. These are my favorites from that night.

I have been shooting at night quite a bit lately. Its a good time for me to shoot because of my busy schedule and because I love night photography so much. These exposures were around 45 seconds long. Not huge in terms of night photography but longer than your normal exposure. I think the images are a strange blend of day and night because of the blue sky and the lights on in the buildings. It makes me wonder exactly when they were taken. Hope you like them.

Typographic superhero Erik Spiekermann has done it again with Meta Serif. As you can imagine Meta Serif fits in with the existing Meta Sans family perfectly. I am excited that this typeface was developed because I use Meta very often in my projects. It is nice to have a Sans and a Serif face that were developed to work together. I’m not sure if there are any other type combinations like this. If you know of one let me know already!

When considering typefaces to use I always look for a Sans Serif and a Serif to use together. Having a pair that were designed to work together is going to make my life easier. Now I just have to land one of those job things so I can pay for yet another typeface. Have a closer look at Meta Serif at FontShop.com

This is the latest of a series of posters I have been creating with my self portrait as the creative driving force. I really enjoy this one, it’s my favorite out of the bunch I have done thus far. I printed a bunch of them, I really like having prints around. My office is filled with print designs from companies like House Industries and Veer as well as a lot of my own work. This poster made the office wall. Check out the details.

I started this part with a self portrait out of the digital camera. After a while in Photoshop and Illustrator it became this. Kinda creepy but that was kinda the point.

This is a close up of the typography. I really love the way type can be used as a graphic element. I kinda took a 70’s feel for this type block and I think it turned out quite nicely. Holler with the feed back.

This is a variant of a series of self portraits I recently did. This poster is only using type to convey a part of my personality. This one is about my summer that turned out to be a bit more of a ride than I expected it to be.
My summer was filled with freight and dread… Well I guess it wasn’t that dramatic but it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park either. I fought cancer over the summer and am currently beating it back. Yup. Not very much fun like camping for instance. Heres another self portrait poster design about the same thing.

Hope you like the new work even if its about my lame ass summer…

Over the past weekend I worked with a group of people and made a short film in only 2880 minutes.

Film 2880 is a short film contest that takes place as part of the Port Townsend film festival. On Friday night our team was given a prop, a theme, and a line for us to use in our short film. Then we had to think up a concept, write the script (or just wing it), shoot the film, edit it, and send it all before 7 pm on Sunday night. Chaos is a term that comes to mind. Our film was in the mail at 6:45 pm. Whew. We were one of 35 teams to enter but the only one from Portland. My part was to shoot it and do most of the editing. I took some behind the scenes photos while we were working. we did some funny stuff. I will have the video posted after it screens at the festival.

A quick look at the first of a few different shooting locations… Yup that’s my friend Crae’s computer room. A riviting location for sure. Just look at that view!

Jack and Crae on the set. Here we were shooting a skit about a cross dressing Lutheran man that always wanted to be saint Lucia. He finally got his chance. I love doing projects like this because this is when the really crazy stuff happens.

We just had to light something on fire. The film is about danger so this is dangerous right? Also a bit disgusting but whatever…

The Rock n’ Relay is almost here. Running, beer, good times, and great hair.

The hair salon my wife works for, Hello Gorgeous, has two teams entering the relay and I was charged with coming up with team logos and tee shirt designs for each. The team names are HOT Garbage and the Lager Joggers. This was a pretty fun little bit of work, the logos had to be easy to see and read while still showing some personality. This event is just plain fun, and so are the teams from Hello Gorgeous. These guys are really into what they are doing so I wanted their shirts to look as great as their hair…

The HOT Garbage team is rocking pink shirts so I made thir logo big and black, it looks kinda like a target. These girls are not going to need much of a reason for people to look at them but the black on pink colors do really draw the eye. The team captain liked the tag line “so sick” and just had to have it on the shirts. I kinda like it too, I think it will be on their butts… Just a thought. I will post the logos again along with some shots of the shirts themselves when they are all finished up.

Apple’s WWDC07 ( the developers conference ) kicked off today and Apple.com seems to have gotten a bit of a face lift.

So like the apple nerd I am I watched Steve Jobs Keynote speech at WWDC07 earlier this afternoon and was impressed at what is in store for us apple lovers during the next year. The most interesting is the up coming release of OSX Leopard, just 21 months after the last release of Tiger assuming that is comes on time. Steve was boasting over 300 new features in the lastest release of the operating system but who knows if that true, I don’t think I will notice all 300 that’s for sure. Regardless I am excited, but where am I going to get all the money I’m gonna need for the upgrade?

Well I happen to think that Steve Jobs is a terribly charismatic person, I want nothing more than to believe everything he has to say. As he stands in front of the room his excitement about Apple is ever apperaent. He kinda seems like a kid talking about all his new toys. I like that, it’s how I feel when I get to start talking about design.

Steve starts out his presentation talking about Leopard and some of it’s sweet new features. My favorites were the new finder and the new desktop with stacks. The look of the new desktop is similar to Tigers but more streamlined and simple. The doc extends into the background image like a 3d stage for your app icons to sit on. It’s really pretty cool. Stacks are a way of cleaning up the desktop. They are like a small folder that sits in the dock that holds groups of files that are easily accessable without cluttering your desktop. You can create your own but Leopard ships with a stack for all the files that you download off the internet instead of ( like me ) having so many things on your desktop that you cant see the background.

This image and the one before it are screen captures from the WWDC07 keynote address earlier this afternoon. Check it out at apple… I found it a little long but who cares… it was Steve Jobs right.

Apple.com is sporting a new look as today as well. The navigation has been taken from simple and understated to more simple and more understated. I just love it. Simple is in and that’s cool.

Apple.com is as clean as ever. I have always looked at my enviroment as a designer and Apple has always influenced me as a designer. I like the light windows with the light gradients used by apple. They feel sturdy and brings weight to the page. The information is always present and  easy to access, the main navigation is strong and simple, and the slider at the head of some of the pages is fun and easy. How could you not want play with this thing? I have to figure that out… So cool.

This could very well be the coolest desk ever created… behold MILK.

I found it earlier this morning somewhere out there. I saw some random link and boom, there it was. The coolest desk I have ever seen. Sure I have a great desk with loads of space. It even has adjustable legs. This thing is called MILK and was designed by Soren Kjaer owner of In2media, a new media design company out of Denmark. OK everyone, HOLY CRAP, this is one cool desk. Wanna know why?

Thats right, you can get a special fish tank that fits right in to one of the storage areas. Like huh? Fish in your desk. I couldn’t believe it either but there they are. Fish. Ok, so beyond the damn fish this thing really is something special in terms of how it is designed and how it functions. I dont think that Soren left anything out. There are four storage containers built in that are flush with the table top. That means your not going to snag something on the lids. They look pretty big too.

MILK’s working surface measures 55 1/8 by 25 2/8 inches. Thats a pretty big desk. Not Google CEO big but it’s enough room for a couple of Apple’s 30 inchers with some room to spare. MILK also sports a cool cord compartment in the back big enough for your little sister to live in. I love this idea. I have more cords under my desk that I occasionally get entangled and have to cut myself free. Makeing a compartment for them IN the desk is just plain genius.

Simple solutions to complex problems… sounds like good design to me. The web site says that the only visable cords are the power cord for the desk. Hold on a minute… a power cord for the desk itself? Thats what they say. MILK is height adjustable with the touch of a button. Thats where the power cord comes in, it has an electric motor that does all the heavy lifting for you.

So I will begin taking donations imeadiatly cause you just know this thing is going to cost as much as a Hyundai. I hope I am wrong but in my experience you get what you pay for and this is no Ikea particle board desk. Anyway I think I may have rambled on long enough, have a look for yourselves at MILK.DE. You might also be interested in Soren’s new media company, In2media. They have one kick ass website and some real nice work to look at on the inside. Enjoy