Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
New York Magazine Approval Matrix
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
I've always loved the NY Magazine Approval Matrix, and now the Wu-Note Project is in my favorite quadrant: Brilliant/Lowbrow. Does this mean I can put "More brilliant than Cat Power and Captain Kirk" -NY Mag on my next resume?
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Logan Makes Tumblr
Monday, May 25th, 2009
I caved and created a Tumblr. So far the posts just consist of images from my " design inspiration" folder, songs I've been digging, cover art from songs I've been digging, reposts of Eric's Tumblr, and shared items from Google Reader. It's been a fun experiment in posting things quickly (sometimes automatically) without thinking about them nearly as much as I do for posts here. It's like a quick and dirty version of this site.
Oh and Wu-Note Round 2 is just around the corner -- I'm psyched.
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wu-Tang Design Remix Project pt.1 Revisited: I Love the Internet
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
Wow, big thanks to everyone who checked out my covers and gave me feedback. The response has been great -- in fact I was so psyched about it I went ahead and made #8. This is the only individual one I will post here, the rest will go up on Flickr as they are completed (although don't expect #9 til maybe next week, paying freelance takes priority). Special thanks to Ghostlaced at the Wu-Tang Corp message board and Tom at FreakyTrigger, who went so far as to name the project (Blu-Tang Clan [but maybe I prefer Wu Note Records?]) and offer some analysis:
Sample-based hip-hop is a conversation between the past (the records producers draw on), the present (the scene it emerges from and the audience who embrace it), and the future (its reception, and the possibility of crossover). Remaking Wu-Tang sleeve art as Blue Note sleeve art is making a point: this music, like that music, is classic African-American art.
Whoa dude. The reaction has been almost entirely positive, although a few people pointed out that the Raekwon cover either looked lazy or just didn't "fit." I'm only mentioning this because I felt pretty much the same way and posted it anyway, which I now want to rectify. The original was relying too much on the photo and as a result looked out of place. Rather than redesign it entirely I've tweaked it a bit and replaced it in the original post and on Flickr. From now on I'm going to be much more careful about calling something "done." In the meantime, enjoy, and I'll be back soon with some new stuff.
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »
Wu-Tang Design Remix Project pt.1
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009
A little while ago I put a bunch of Wu-Tang (both group and solo) albums on my computer. 21 of them, in fact. I inherited some mild OCD from my mom, and as anyone who has seen my iTunes can attest to, it manifests itself in weird ways. I need to have decent-quality album art for every album on my computer, which currently equals over 90 gigs. The problem was that almost all of the Wu-Tang album art was horrible (ODB's two albums being the only real exceptions) -- no offense to the original designers, but as iconic as they might be they're looking pretty dated these days. So, armed with inspiration from what Olly Moss and others are doing (as written about by me here, and later by Kottke here) and a book of Blue Note Records covers, I set out to remake all 21. The first seven are here (click for full-view):
I've changed the art for these in my iTunes and love the results:
So seven down, fourteen to go. From here on out I'm going to start uploading them to my Flickr Photostream as soon as each is done, so you guys can bug me if I'm not making them fast enough. I'll post the next set of seven here when they're done. In the meantime, enjoy, and let me know if you have any comments or suggestions.
Tags: album covers, blue note, Design, remix, wu-tang
Posted in Design, Music, Portfolio, Uncategorized | 104 Comments »
A Night of Contemporary Art at the DIA
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
The Detroit Institute of Arts is curating a special selection of contemporary art for friends of Media Genesis and Boyle Burdett on January 22nd, and we got to create the promotional material for the event. The first image was sent out as an email, and the second is going to be printed as an 18 x 24 inch poster. We're really happy with how they turned out, it's especially fun to take a set of visual elements designed for one medium and remix them in another.
Bonus Factoid: Pentagram made the logos for both the DIA and DSO (Detroit Symphony Orchestra). And both are excellent.
Photo: 
Michelle Andonian, American (born 1958), Andy Warhol in Detroit, 1985 (printed 2008); ink jet print. Gift of Michelle Andonian in honor of Joy Hakansen Colby (2008.422), © Michelle Andonian.
Tags: dia, mediag, warhol
Posted in Portfolio, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Links are finally real
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
The navigation on the left finally works. I know it's stupid to make a page live before it's even half done but that's the way I chose to do this and I'm sticking to it. Browse the portfolio, tell your rich friends who need freelance design work done.
Still have a lot to do on this site (cleaning up the right column WordPress stuff for one), but I think I'm instead going to spend the rest of this snowy Michigan Sunday playing Animal Crossing, watching Metropolis, and eating more Thanxgiving leftovers.
Tags: Portfolio, site update
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Giant Newsweek Article
Friday, November 7th, 2008
Just came across and read this entire Newsweek article on the 2008 presidential election, from Obama deciding to run (but only, per Michelle's request, if he gave up cigarettes) to his victory speech Tuesday. This article is looooong but incredibly interesting, the information gleaned by their reporters was only done so under the agreement that it not be published until after the election. Thankfully not a lot of evening news Palin mud-slinging, but instead some great actual information on campaign insiders, strategy decisions and non-decisions, and behind-the-scenes looks at McCain and Obama. A great way to wrap everything up and put this whole mess behind us.
(photo by Charles Ommanney)
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Don’t Forget to…
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Still working on code. Major changes have been made but there's still a ton to do. Don't bother clicking on that nav for a few days.
In the meantime, SRSLY Y'LL VOTE
Tags: basketball, politics, srsly
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Dense
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
Put dents in my car and my site design today. Both will be kind of ugly for the next couple days. Please excuse the dust.
Tags: what a mess
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Red October bandana
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
Red October is a pretty sizable moped rally in Ypsilanti. I designed this originally for a t-shirt, but I like it on the bandana. The Guns, the group that hosts the event, were very specific about including 1) Bill Murray, 2) Bill the Cat, and 3) a gun, so it basically designed itself.
Thanks to Nate for printing and posting to Flickr.
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Unordered List
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
Just a quick update to let everyone know:
- I'm not dead
- I got engaged last week -- really exciting hectic times
- The merger of this blog and my portfolio site is a little behind schedule
- I like the new Conor Oberst album! Concerned about whether this makes me mainstream or alt (HRO).
- See also: Pas/Cal, John Cale, Nomo, Husker Du, Grizzly Bear, Stereolab
- Chelsea will win the Prem this year
- Mixtape 3 coming in the next few weeks
Tags: status
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Spam
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Sorry to everyone who has commented on here, I've been getting a ton of spam in the comments and accidentally deleted all but one. Oops. Anyone got any advice for preventing "Konstantinos" from posting comments about sexy teens?
A new poster is being printed today, I'll post when it's done. The image above is from some new client work that I might be able to post in full later. I also have a post cooking about this logo I did awhile ago.
Tags: comments, no no no, spam
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Dicemanland
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
Tags: dicemanland
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
April Showers
Thursday, May 1st, 2008
Between moving to a new city, playing GTA IV, and watching my beloved Chelsea move into the Champions League final, things have been entirely too busy to write a proper blog post. I did, however, hear a rumor that the AIGA Urban Forest Project posters were being put up in Ann Arbor today, so I'll post pictures once I have them.
Tags: aiga, drogba, gta
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »