I love hockey.

I played when I was a youth and enjoyed everything about it… the character-building, the camaraderie, the sounds of skates on the ice and the ritual of wrapping my stick with tape and strapping pads on. I’m looking forward to today’s Olympic hockey gold medal game so much I can’t even tell you.

As a true fan of hockey I feel that Canadian ice is the hallowed, sacred ground. The gods smile upon each and every drop of water that fills the rink in Canada today. As a golf lover it’s much like the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland [insert angelic choir here]. Yes, to play hockey on ice divined in Canada against a Canadian team is right in so many ways. For us True Believers there is no loser today… there’s only hockey as it should be.

Having said this I’m now free to indulge, selfishly, in patriotic pride. Go USA! I trust my Canadian friends know that spirit is part and parcel of being American as I know theirs is for them but really… it’s hockey in Canada against a Canadian team – it’s a win/win point of pride no matter what.

Okay, lets talk statistics like a true sport geek for a second because this is interesting:

In the run up to today’s gold medal game we’ve seen the US beat Finland 6-1 (with a record-setting 6 goals in the first period but not sure what to make of the non-scoring throughout the last two periods). We beat Canada in preliminaries prior to that. However, what’s more important is that it means we’ve played each other and have had time for both teams to review the games in preparation for today.

Here’s where it gets interesting. That US vs. Finland 6-1 game was, with respect, a walkover. However, Canada barely beat Slovakia in their semi-final 3-2… Canada squeaked by on what might have been considered a secondary team. The interesting bit is that Slovakia and Finland had a higher scoring game against one-another than Canada had with Slovakia. In the end, the team we beat so well was the team that beat Canada’s squeaker… Finland beat Slovakia.

In a nutshell, the team we trounced beat the team Canada barely beat. We now play Canada.

I know, it would seem I’m suggesting that, statistically, we’re scheduled to play an inferior team (if all you did was base things on the winning model of Olympic preliminaries and semis). However, that couldn’t be further from the case. Actually, hockey, like baseball and football, can have many variables that come into play during eliminations.

Could the rest/recovery schedule be at work? Could a coach be biding time for more “important” games down the line in terms of protecting players from injury in less aggressive game play? What about the schedule and sequence of the eliminations themselves favoring one team over another?

Then, there’s the whole rock, paper, scissors element. A great team against a great team must make adjustments during the game (or in prep for a later game) to account for strengths and weaknesses. Finland switched goalies against the US late, I believe. It was 4-0 when the Finnish goalie himself went to the boards and presumably asked to be switched. Frankly, it should have been a call made by the coach one lost goal earlier. However, be that as it may, Canada won’t make decisions slow. They will make the vast majority of their decisions quickly and they’ll likely be correct ones from the get-go. Canada does not make rookie mistakes in play or coaching. Neither does the US.

My gut tells me that, although I want to see a close, high-scoring game today that ultimately goes into over-time with no empty-nets and sees the US score the final, winning goal in dramatic, back-shot fashion… I suspect it’ll be a case of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object. My gut says each goal will be hard-won and jealously guarded, with both teams countering like freight trains in a tug of war with only the chain breaking between the two!

This is likely to be one of the best hockey games we’ll ever see!

I shall be watching and recording it in 55 inches of high definition glory and will have a soft spot on the sofa cleared out where I will collapse afterward, exhausted and spent.

Thank you Team USA and Team Canada for making today everything a true hockey fan could hope for. Thank you Canada for taking such good care of all of us during these 2010 Olympics.

GO USA!

…it’ll be called the Apple “iPad.”

Since everybody and their dog in the Apple fanboi world is speculating about the January 27th Apple event I figured I’d jump on the bandwagon. Yah, I’ve got a Macbook Pro and will be getting my wife a Macbook probably next month. We both have iPhones. However, I also have a steroid-driven XP machine sitting four inches from me, too, and have no problems being a hybrid user.

Having said that, I’m also not all that excited about the next Apple product except I’m hoping iPhone 4.0 OS is on the way and that it’ll be good and free. So, since I don’t care about Apple’s upcoming even where they may or may not announce some kind of tablet device that may or may not have front and rear facing webcams, expanded touch gestures, drink holder, free pair of dorky librarian glasses and turtleneck shirt… I’ll just play the game and speculate about the name. Let’s begin:

I’ll be called iPad.

Why? Because, it’s a universal necessity. El Esteban likes short, high-impact product names that are highly brandable (is that even a word?). Although I’m nauseated by all the iThis, iThat, eName marketing drivel of the last few years it’s pretty much a given that the new tablet product (which I believe there is one) will have the “i” naming convention. It’s iApple, afterall.

It’ll not be called “iTablet” because that’s descriptive. Apple doesn’t like hardware-descriptor names, generally speaking. If they do (eg. iPhone) they rely on the “i” branding convention to pull it into an Apple iNoun and not a mere person/place/thing noun.

Although “iSlate” has been tossed around a lot of people thought it sounded stupid. I’m not one of them. However, I happen to think that “Leopard” and “Snow Leopard” are goofy names for an operating system. “OSX” rocked… should have left it at that. “iTablet” sounds more like a temporary name placeholder until we learn the real name.

Anyway, it’ll be called “iPad” because of its heritage. If rumor holds that the iPhone-based OS and gesture-based interface are major features then it stands to reason it’s in that family. One might assume that, again, if rumors hold, it’s very communication-centric then that sets it in stone. So, the iPod name that eventually worked its way into an iPhone means that this is the only chance Apple will produce a product that could take advantage of the iPad name and have it applicable. You can’t name a phone “iPad.” You can’t name an OS that, either. Apple shouldn’t be making let alone naming computer mice under any circumstances – so there’s no chance of it happening there.

Nope. Apple must name it the iPad because it’s their only opportunity to do so. It’s short, sweet, brandable, looks high-impact when printed all by itself on the backside of a device, pays homage to its lineage, and will make it possible in this one product to give it a name that applies and not miss the chance of doing so when another might not come along for a long, long time.

That’s my prediction plus reasoning, noted on this 21st day of January, 2010. If you don’t like it then you can kiss my assPod.

Be well, be healthy.

Let’s mess with Google and indulge a little in my 90/10 rule, shall we?

You’re certainly welcome to comment and debate (or agree) with me but I feel I’m duty bound to shout from the highest mountain top (or blog, as the case may be) my idea of the perfect martini.

It was said that Winston Churchill’s idea of a perfect martini was drinking a glass of cold gin while looking at a bottle of vermouth from across the room. Although that would certainly make for a very dry drink – a martini it was not!

A “perfect” martini is one with equal parts gin and vermouth. Personally, I see nothing perfect about such a bastardization.

No, to me, the perfect retro hipster drink is a combination of ingredients, preparation, and a little something extra. I’m inspired to write about my martini as I sit here and sip one – so you’ll pardon any poetic liberty I take because I do believe it makes a difference. I rarely drink but when I do my martini is certainly at the top of my list of choices to indulge in.

* Start with chipped ice. Cubes are okay but chipped is better. Shaved ice is not permitted – it dilutes too much and gets too cold. Chill a martini glass with ice before beginning. A martini glass is best because A) this is a martini and B) you need that stem to hold on to so the heat from your hand doesn’t warm the drink too fast. Then, fill a Boston shaker with ice about half way. Give it a moment for the shaker to chill as well as a hint of melting to begin.

* Dry or Extra Dry Italian or French Gin. I have a thing for Tribuno. Splash about 1/4 oz. across the ice in the Boston shaker. Give it plenty of time to reach the bottom – it needs to tumble across the ice to chill. Yes, you can shake it on the way down if you do so lovingly. This is where a little Frank Sinatra playing in the background helps. I recommend “Fly Me To The Moon” on vinyl. Let’s not use an MP3 at a moment like this, okay?

* Now, and this is important, strain out as much vermouth as you can by quickly turning the shaker over (either crack the halves or use a strainer) for a 2-count. That’s it. Count “One one-thousand, Two one-thousand” and then flip the shaker back up. Whatever vermouth is left tumbling back down the ice is what’s going to be left in the drink. If you do this while listening to the above listed song you’ll have a perfect 2-count.

* Gin. I prefer Gordon’s London Dry because, well, aw, you know. However, in a pinch Sir Robert Burnett’s Distilled London Dry (green bottle) will do. You will, again, splash 2 1/2 oz. of this across the ice in the Boston shaker. Give it enough time to waterfall down to meet the gin at the bottom recovering from the 2-count. Do this all with unchilled gin. You’re keeping your gin in the refrigerator? What on Earth are you thinking? It’ll be far too cold to help the ice melt the bit that it needs to. Keep your gin on the shelf of your bar – not in the cooler.

If all goes well, Frank has already played among the stars and is holding hands and getting that first kiss.

Now, I can already hear some of you bellowing about the gin and saying something completely silly about James Bond and vodka. I don’t care. Bond, James Bond is missing the boat on this and it’s not the only thing! So there! Nyeaaaah. Besides, gin is basically vodka but with hints of herbs and juniper – so I suspect that if you approve of vodka you’ll approve of gin.

Having taken a moment to ponder what it would have been like if Frank really could have “sung forever more” it’s now time to stir. That’s right – stir.

You see, gin is considered an “aromatic” and as such it loses some of it’s aroma when chilled too much (somewhere about the neighborhood of 30 degrees Fahrenheit). Shaking chills gin far too fast and far too cold and we need to let the gin have some time to get to know the vermouth but without chilling below that threshold. Stirring is the way to go. Sorry 007… your two mismatched ships also passed in the night. It was never meant to be. Stir for 20 seconds while you enjoy the music.

Okay, It’s at this point, if done correctly, Sammy Davis Jr. looks down from the heavens upon you and little ghosts of bartenders-past swirl around your chilled martini glass. It’s now time to work quickly. You must dump the ice from the glass and place at the bottom a green olive (yes, green, not black, we’re not making a buckeye here we’re paying homage to tradition). You may, however, do a couple of things to your liking at a moment like this. You can add one, two, or three olives (but not four as we’re staying under 3 oz. of total drink here) and you can let a little bit of the brine travel along with the olive/s into the glass. This is a good thing. Yes, Manzanilla pimento-stuffed green olives are perfectly fine.

Now, pour the contents of your chilled Boston shaker (the remains of that 2-count vermouth and 2 1/2 oz. of gin, plus melted ice) that’s had the perfect amount of time to come to temperature into the martini glass with olives at the bottom. You’ve now created the perfect, 38 degree martini.

The ingredients and amounts are tied-in with the method and since we’ve had several stages in preparation we’ve also done some very important things – brought the ingredients to the perfect coldness as well as allowed just the right amount of ice to melt along the way to help marry the ingredients together. No umbrella, only a wooden toothpick is allowed for the olives, if you so desire.

If all went well (and I’m sure it has) you’re beholding your glass about the same time ‘ol blue eyes is singing “I love you” and the moment couldn’t be more perfect.

Comments, questions, duels… all are welcome.

I love it when simplicity runs headlong into handy and Jubbly does just that.
That’s why I wanted to let you know about this free service because it’s one of those “desert island” sort of tools in the “if you could only have one tool to remind you of things” category.

From the Jubb.ly site itself:

Jubbly is a reminder service that will perform a function a few minutes before the time you specify. Just like Twitter, Jubbly accepts 140 characters. On the date you need reminding, Jubbly will Direct Message your Twitter account or send you an email.

Well, it’s true. It’s clean, it’s simple, it requires no sign up, no request to add all your private contacts to some spammy mail service, no log in – nuthin. It just does what it does and does it well and all it asks in return is if you want those private, direct messages from Twitter sent to you you need to follow @jubb_ly – which is a requirement of Twitter itself (that’s how private messages are sent).

Seriously, just visit the site, set up a reminder to pick up milk, roll the garbage and totes out to the curb on recycling day, whatever. You’ll appreciate this little gem.

I’ll admit I’m feeling like I got way more than an artists’ pat on the back after I woke up this morning. I started my day, coffee in hand (Italian roast from Starbucks), to a note from one of my peers… someone I genuinely like, respect, and admire on a personal and professional level. I won’t bore you with the particular compliment she gave my work but suffice to say it was perhaps the most rocking notes of praise I think I’ve ever received. I was really floored reading it!

I know this sounds like a left-handed way of tooting my own horn but anybody that knows me knows that, as a freelance artist and owner of his own business, it’s part-and-parcel of my day to always find some little way to self-promote and blab on about myself. It’s an annoying fact of life that one must constantly find little ways of saying “look at me – look at me!” in order to drum up one’s own business. So, let it be understood that if I wanted to pat myself on the back it’d be more annoying and blatant than this – as any of my eye-rolling peers and friends could attest to.

No, quite the opposite. I’m humbled almost to the point where I don’t know what to say. Or, at least how to say “thank you” in a better way than merely those two words.

It’s because of this that I ended up pondering something that’s very meaningful to me…

I’ve always appreciated kind remarks about my work. Who wouldn’t? We all do. Some people have been very kind to me and I appreciate every word, so never let it be said I wasn’t as grateful as a person could be. I sometimes labor over a piece of art for days or weeks. Sometimes it just pops into existence in a short amount of time. However, I always have a personal investment in what I create. So, like many artists, there’s a part of me that feels the weight of both criticism and praise when someone sees my work. It’s hard not to.

I love it when a person enjoys something I create whether it be an average Jane or Joe on the street or a client reviewing my final product. It always feels great. However, there’s something particularly special that happens when a peer gives you a thumbs-up. It’s almost like the feeling of “I’ve made it” all over again. I dare say it’s one of those “my first dollar” moments when someone you respect and consider capable of doing so much more than I’m capable of says they like your work in the emphatic way that this morning’s note did.

To this person I say thank you. I’m truly honored. I think they overestimate me but to evoke a happiness and appreciation in someone who’s own business it is to do exactly the same thing (and they do it so well) is deeply gratifying.

So, the point of all this is, I know raking in the dough is all well and good. It’s great to have satisfied customers and clients. That’s what we do and that’s what we signed up to accomplish. However, please don’t forget that whether you intend to or not, working hard to gain the respect of people you respect is probably so much more important because, it seems to me, that if you surround yourself with your heroes and they feel you are part of that group… all other denominators of success and accomplishment probably fall naturally into place. It’s a wonderful side effect.

Thanks to M.E.G. for making me reflect on this.

…and likewise.

Or worse… I’ve blocked you?

Let me ’splain about how I use Twitter and what my personal definition is of it.

First, I leave it open that Twitter is whatever you want it to be. So, if your views don’t jibe with mine that’s fine. Personally, I think Twitter is like the water cooler in the office. It’s like the copier room (you guys remember what photo copies are, right?). Granted, there are times when it is one of the most dynamic and far-reaching water coolers one could imagine (like during earthquakes, protests, conflicts, life and death, etc.). Like a water cooler it, too, can be a source of misinformation.

However, for the most part, it’s a water cooler for me.

Sometimes I chit chat about unimportant thing. Sometimes I reach out to potential clients or get contacted myself. So, the personal and business uses are intermingled at any given time. There’s a lot of in-between content, too and that’s fine by me. I follow people because they provide something valuable in the same scope. I follow other Tweeps because they entertain me, they are my friends, they’re my peers, or maybe they’re an expert in a field I desire hearing more about.

However, I consistently have less and less time for certain types of Twitter users and, because of my first definition of Twitter (It is whatever you want it to be) I make no apologies for not following someone – or worse yet, blocking them.

Keep in mind, sometimes it takes me a while to check out a new follower and determine if I want to follow them in return. I’m getting better at making that decision sooner than later but sometimes I just don’t get around to it for a while. When I do make a choice to not follow it’s usually because:

1. You don’t give me enough to go on. Your bio is empty, you have only a few Tweets and I can’t discern if you’ve got anything of interest that I want to add to the endless stream of Tweets occupying my feed every day. That’s not a judgment against you – it’s a fact: I can’t see what you’re all about so, if I had to make a decision at the moment, I say “thanks for following me but sorry I won’t be following you at this time.” I can say that because I’ve got almost 5,000 Tweets under my belt at the time of this entry… I believe people can make a decision on following me just fine. No hard feelings, though, okay?

A little suggestion, though… if you intend to follow people and are surprised you’re getting so few in return… fill out your damn bio and post a few things of interest. Nobody wants to follow a non-existent account with “Hello Twitter world.” as the only thing to their name. You might be a wallflower in the offline world but the online world sometimes requires a little more to go on. A’ight?

2. You give me more than enough to go on and I don’t care for it. Sorry, fact of life. Sometimes there are just people I don’t want to listen to. Maybe it’s you, maybe it’s me? No, it’s not you – it’s me… it’s just not right, I’m not ready for a new relationship right now but I’m sure you’re really sweet and someone will be very lucky to hook up with your Tweets. Maybe we can be non-Tweeting friends- the kind that never actually talk or share? Would that be okay?

Hey, what can I say? I try to surround myself with people that fit the descriptions I gave earlier. I try to avoid people that mess with my Chi. They’re lucky I let them post on this blog but I don’t want to hear from them regularly on Twitter. In general, though, I prefer to surround myself with people that bring positive, constructive and forward momentum to my day. That’s good juju. It’s not that I don’t care about your illness, problems at work, crappy Monday, pain in the ass client, or whatever. I do. Those things alone won’t make me avoid you on Twitter. Life is life and life happens whether we like it or not. I’m talking about a trend of undesirable online communication. If I can spot a negative or undesirable trend in a series of 140 characters or less… chances are the rest of what you have to offer might be more than I wish to listen to. Since it’s up to each person to subjectively decide what bangs their rocks together and what kills their buzz I accept anyone could make the same call on me. It’s cool, we’re still groovy.

3. I blocked you? You’re sh*ttin me. Really? Well, maybe it’s because I don’t think you’re worthy of beholding the blipfish, huh?

Maybe you creep me out? It’s possible that, when I look at your bio and Tweets, there’s something that tells me that you don’t have good intentions in why you followed me and I’ll have no part in being on your list of minions for others to see nor for you to read the greatness which are my regular Tweets.

Maybe you’re just a spammer? Yah, that’ll get you not only not-followed but blocked because I won’t bolster your following-statistics, I won’t give you additional market research, I won’t associate myself with you or your product, service, cause, or scam. What’s worse is that, if I get the impression you’re a dud and the only reason you found me is you’re using some service like TwitterHawk to scour for keywords to score scam-bait… I’ll not only block you but I’ll also send a spam report to Twitter. You might be surprised at how many people I can check up on 48 hours later that had thousands of people they followed only to be a suspended account. So, don’t underestimate the power of Twitter’s simple and convenient spam reporting and my willingness to use it.

4. You annoyed the blipfish. Want to know one of the best ways to get unfollowed by me? Automatic or repetitive posts telling me what you’re listening to every five freaking seconds, nothing but a series of affiliate crap one after the other telling me about some great product complete with a TinyURL link, retweets of quotes from other people because you can’t get enough of a daily helping of “Inspirational Quotes” pumped to your own damn desktop every day, or generally self-serving “buy my sh*t” posts barely disguised as anything more than “buy my sh*t” posts. If I want to learn about SEO or some quote from Sun Tsu – I’ll Google for it. I honestly don’t require you to Tweet tips, tricks, quotes, and other balloon juice all day. Your attempts at “Social Marketing” are bad enough without buying into the theory that people want to hear you regurgitate what others have said a million times in a million other places. As I said – you can be replaced by a Google search.

The blipfish is glad to hear about stuff you genuinely like, music you sincerely love, a new gadget you just bought and want to tell others about, or a word of wisdom you felt so strongly about you just had to shout it out to the rest of us. I commend you for these things because you felt passionate enough about them to take a second and share.

However, if you are just gaming the system or too lazy to type 140 characters to tell me about it but instead have an automated script telling me you’re listening to “Depeche Mode – Personal Jesus” …I’d be grateful if you’d shut your gob. Since I know it’s not my place to tell you to shut your gob I’ll just unfollow you. Maybe I’ll let you know you have a booger on your nose to give you a chance to reconsider but hey, Twitter is for you to use the way you see fit so who am I to force my views upon you, right? So, I unfollow. Enjoy the electronica.

I’d be following more people if I followed all who keep track of me. My statistics show this. I don’t believe in the nonsense as to a magic ratio, that Twitter is about following more than being followed or more about being followed than who you follow. I think Twitter is whatever you want it to be and I don’t pay attention to my statistics (I had to go look them up just to write this blog entry).

I’d have way more followers if I didn’t block so many. I’m sure I’d be more impressive to others if they saw my follower-count higher but I can’t worry about that. I’m in it not for the numbers but for the quality… the human quality.

So, if you’re on my list of people I follow then I think it’s fair to say I really value you and what you offer in such a tiny format such as Twitter. As you can tell… I’m kinda’ particular. You must be special.

http://www.Twitter.com/blipfish

(Click image above for link to store)

Let the teabaggery begin in the finest, old tradition!

I wish I could explain… it’s just one of those things you read somewhere that sparks an idea, then another, and before you know it teabaggery is involved with a tshirt.

Click on image for link to store.

This is a mockup for a full garment printing version of an existing design (available via clicking the image above).

I know, it’s not the most sophisticated or original design to slap on a shirt. However, I was a bit more after color combinations.

I think what might make this work really well would be a glossy finish to the skulls or something with a heavier texture than just letting the fabric of the garment work through.

I’ll admit, I’m currently dreaming of full-garment printing for this design but I will make it available in a smaller format on t-shirts soon at the Tornado Republic store.

I love the uniquely American history of Route 66 in style and culture.

I wasn’t sure if a filigree element would be work or not but I think it’s strong enough without detracting and in the end – I think it works well. Also, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m enjoying the more earthy-tones and somewhat non-standard garment colors since I’ve been so busy with high-impact-color designs lately.

I’ve been doing work for clients lately… lots of bright colors, eye-popping design elements, most geared toward either small format apparel designs or things like wine labels, brochures, etc.

I guess I was just wanting to play around with different elements. Sometimes it’s fun to just go another direction… distressed and weathered, subdued colors, and totally whacked garment colors – something that looks like it was two different batches of dye mixed together. Navy blue and bright colors that pop are great but sometimes it’s fun to just toss that out the window and go with garment colors that probably have no official color-name, big hem-to-hem printing, and a design that looks like it’s been through too many laundry cycles.

If I could find a POD that could give me all that – it could be a dream come true.

(Click the image to be taken to the store page.)

My new “H20 Just Add Water” SIGG water bottle.

This was one of those designs that took the long way around to get to where it ended up. I think my brain was stuck on square aspect ratios and circular designs for too long. Once I finally got the color palette settled some of the more important parts of the composition came together.

I decided I wanted to emphasize the “verticality” of the water bottle and keep a bit more focus on earthy, natural colors. Although the blues might be a bit “ideal” I think it worked out while keeping the water-element evident throughout.

I also liked designing for this product due to the printing process… I can have a white canvas which permits me to use soft shadows instead of hard edged ones.

Available to CJ/CP affiliates via “tornadorepublic” unique tags.
Available for licensing inquiries.

Here in our little half of the world we’re getting ready for Earth Day celebrations for Aprill 22nd 2009.
So, recycle that hippie, hug that tree, and conserve organic beer and all that jazz.

This design is available at www.TornadoRepublic.com on new organic apparel, too, of course.

I’ve talked about creating “stronger” designs for a long time. I’ve talked to people about it in terms of print-media, apparel, website, you name it – it’s been one of my mantras for a long time. I’m always encouraging people to avoid “good enough” whenever possible and go for designs that pop, that stand bold against the bland, that show tutti-fruity when others show plain vanilla. I preach about the virtues of creating the best you can within the scope of the media itself (paper, onscreen, print, etc.) and the expected viewer or customer. It’s about making the best art for the people who will see it in the way they will see it displayed.

I ought to know. I’ve allowed many pieces of mine out into the wild with the thought “they’re good enough.” I was a bad boy.

A few weeks ago I was having this conversation with a buddy who was beginning to set up a photography portfolio online. He asked me to help him whittle down his masterpieces so his portfolio would be filled with only the finest examples of his work (which all of his photos are exceptional – so it was going to be a daunting project). I warned him that I tend to take whatever people think are their top-10 pieces and destroy them down to two items, at best. Very little survives my “cream of the crop” list-filtering.

It’s not about being brutal or unconstructive. It’s not about being the best of the best (which I am most definitely not in any way, shape or form), it’s not about suggesting the art that didn’t survive the whittling-down were lousy pieces. It’s about distilling the top by category (absolutely best colorful photo, best black and white, best portrait, etc.). It’s about narrowing down what looks best, in his case, onscreen at 800 pixels wide. It’s about picking the best photos that would present him as a photographer worthy of spending money on for the type of clients he wishes to attract. That, in my opinion, is going to produce results that could be very different from a portfolio of someone wanting to show off their best “human” photos or best “landscape” photos. It’s all about the venue and “best” is subjective.

However, it’s still a topic that includes something I hope can be useful to others in the POD (print on demand) world.

I’d like to just start with the best example of what I mean by “stronger” designs because it shows a few evolutions and how the word “stronger” can mean different things – my own work.

Above you can an evolution of a theme I wanted to follow – “pixel pusher.” It’s a phrase I’ve used to describe work I do to friends. The best part of this example is that it not only shows, what I believe, is a great example of a terrible example, but also the cruel irony that a graphic artist (me) would produce such an awful, stinkingly bad piece of art to illustrate being a graphic artist. It’s a great walk-through of painful horrendousness in one graphic. I apologize – I don’t know what I was thinking?

Okay, check out the above thumbnails – at the top – “I Push Pixels” 2007. Behold that little train wreck of pixels. It frightens you, I know it does.

Part of what got me into trouble, and a great motivator for this blog post, is my buddy and I were discussing the pain of sorting through our own art and tossing so many aside in favor of a few, great examples. He wondered how a guy (me) could produce pieces like these and yet have the nerve to display that top, 2007 “I Push Pixels” monstrosity – especially as a graphic artist who pushes pixels!

I don’t have a great answer but I suspect that my explanation will sound familiar. As much as I’d like to claim that I was a noob artist at the time and didn’t know what I was doing… that’s not true. I’ve been an artist since I was a kid and a commercial artist for years. I think I was caught in a frame of mind that was thinking that I needed to stock up my online store (for which that was a tshirt design) as soon as possible… more products – more products! I felt it was “good enough” and probably left it at that. I suppose there was also a chance that I got tunnel-vision in Photoshop that made me get fixated on a design element (or two) and felt I had accomplished my mission when I saw those elements on screen. I didn’t bother to really objectively look at it and realize that just because it matched the written description of what I wanted… it still looked terrible.

Finally, one day I realized it was, indeed a really weak design and brought the neighborhood down in the rest of my storefront. I decided to do a new version – “Pixel Pusher” 2008. You may notice that I carried over one of those design elements I used in the first one (the blotchy splatter behind the text). I don’t know why? I thought maybe, by changing up the text to a variety of fonts, would convey some message but once again… it only served to convey a lack of focus and confusion. It was new, but still a weak design. In all fairness, it looks mildly interesting at full-screen on a black background. The fonts are, indeed, interesting and the broken-lines and negative space give some interest too. However, when all is said and done it’s weak because it’s mostly just text, the slightly interesting bits don’t make sense to the theme (graphic artist), and those bits don’t translate through properly to a shirt like they did in higher resolution on the 30″ monitor. I failed again.

As a special note, I have nothing against text-designs. One of my store-favorites is one that was mentioned in a Wall Street Journal article I was featured in. It’s a simple text design made to look like a rubber stamp Does Not Play Well With Others. It’s hardly an Auguste Rodin original but it works because there’s a point to the simplicity of a stamp that implies its a label – a warning label. It’s become known and is uniquely identifiable (keep that in mind any would-be copycats). That’s why it’s a strong design – it accomplished its mission which included simplicity.

What I do think, though, is that there’s “text” and then there’s “text.” Sometimes, simplicity and message trump design. The words are key and too much flourish detracts from that. Then there’s times that the art and treatment of text-heavy designs gets taken to a higher level with the art. I think, if possible, one should try to push a design as far as it will go while keeping its integrity and purpose intact. Sometimes (as in my case) I frequently have to ask myself if I’m slacking off or if I really gave a design the full treatment it deserved?

It’s not hard to see I took a pretty drastic change in direction with the above. It’s still “pixel pusher” as that’s the theme I wanted but I wasn’t in love with keeping it specific. There was room to play. So, I decided that I’d stop reworking the existing art and just put down the graphic stylus and grab a piece of paper and pen and sketch. Sometimes, when I’m not bound by the mechanics of how I work in Photoshop and, instead, go back to sketching, I come up with clearer ideas of what I want. It’s weird, but sometimes white paper and pen is more liberating than a blank PSD canvas.

As you can see from the newer, 2009 silver emblem it makes more sense. It’s certainly easier to take pride as a graphic artist when your graphic art doesn’t look like poo… which the first two versions did. These next two versions, I feel, are evidence that I did, indeed, have more work to do and I couldn’t defend the previous pieces any more.

Obviously, this is all subjective to my own views. Customers may say otherwise by how they spend their money, family may lie and say it looks great. However, sometimes an artist just has to make an executive decision.

The 2009 silver emblem does have graphics that support, what I believe, are a stronger design on the theme… a graphic pen which makes sense, clean and bold design as an artist might aspire to make, and the extra “digital artist” text brings it home in case someone didn’t quite understand the slang “Pixel Pusher.”

This piece also represents a philosophy I’ve been getting more in-touch with and blogged about earlier – that of Designing for Presentation. In a nutshell, I created the silver emblem version knowing full-well that it had to look appealing at 200 pixels in a thumbnail. It could have had more detail, it could have had more intricate embellishments, but in the end I designed it with the ever-present idea in my head that it had to look good to a customer in the first way they’d encounter it.. the tiny section graphic.

The final piece, “Pixel Pusher Brewery” is not so much about taking a weak design and making it stronger but about playing to a niche market that enjoys, in this case, vintage style signage. It’s a stronger design in that market, that’s all. It’s a passion of mine but I thought others might enjoy the fact that the theme of “digital artist” could also take on some character with a brewery/beer-label style rendition. It narrows the audience, yes, but it can be a devoted following – those who like this style.

Well, 1500 words later and you surely get the point, right? It’s not about a design looking bad. When I say “create a stronger design” I don’t mean the previous one sucks out loud. I don’t mean that at all. What I do mean is that there’s potential that’s not being explored and you’re duty-bound to uncover it. It’s like having a Maserati and never really taking it out on the open highway and putting the pedal to the metal. It’s about creating art that totally jacks up the level of craftsmanship to the point where even you, the most critical artist, will agree the design is fully realized, and ready to unveil to the world. When you work a design up to maximum with text, colors, layout, art, balance, style, and focus… you’ll never have to look back and wonder if it’s good enough. You’ll never have to wonder if it’s your art itself that’s not appealing. Art is subjective – but only when you feel it’s the best that particular piece can be will it be considered a finished piece.

Happy pixels.

Great pizza by the slice or whole! If you’re not on the West side don’t worry – they deliver!

I’ll be honest, I had a pizza craving yesterday and that means it didn’t take long for me to crave doing a pizza design in my vintage sign style with a modern twist. The colors for this were sampled from a photo of a slice of pepperoni pizza – how’s that for die hard?

It’s another one of my fictitious “Any Town, USA” pieces (or, in this case, “Any City, USA”). The skyline is actually a combination of Minneapolis with some hints of Toronto and Boston which, I’m sure, have perfectly good pizza joints and not all are on the West side so please don’t send me any angry emails.

It’s available on shirts, mugs, hoodies, and more at TornadoRepublic.com

Available for affiliate sales using Commission Junction – Cafepress. As always it’s tagged with the word “tornadorepublic”.

Someone suggested that I’m now “the sign guy” and frankly, that’s totally great with me! I’ll admit I have been pretty obsessed with signage-style pieces lately and it’s only a portion of what I’ve wanted to do for a long time. So, there’s only going to be more.

Done mostly for my own enjoyment. I just wanted to do a little “woodwork” style signage and, well, once you throw a little brass in it’s easy to get carried away, right? So, in a long, convoluted way I ended up doing this vintage, 1930’s-1950’s style barbershop sign with barber pole. It’s not exactly correct in the sense that I’ve never seen a sign attached to the pole itself but it works for me. It’s a “Main Street USA” kinda’ thing – Americana, small-town, simpler times, etc.

Thank you very much to those who answered my request for feedback on my work-in-progress. I think I’ve incorporated most of the points as I agreed with them, too.

Available on various products at www.TornadoRepublic.com

Current Wind Chill: -45F

I grew up in Montana. Minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit doesn’t skeer me. However, it doesn’t mean that I necessarily enjoy it. It’s all fun for about an hour and then I remind myself how nice the weather in the Bay Area is this time of year.

Whether you’re in Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio, or wherever, it’s a badge of honor to tough it out during some of these crazy cold spells. So, if you want to celebrate braving record-setting low temperatures, snowfall, ice storms, you name it… then this shirt is for you.

Have I mentioned I love vintage signage and bottle/brewery style labels?

It seemed like a good time to have a little fun with something a little “stronger” than a beer bottle label.

Ballyturk Irish Whiskey, from the little village of Ballyturk, where there are more sheep than locals, was a great place to start. BIW is the pride of this little farming community that uses the unique soil and peat created by the salty air of the cold, North Atlantic ocean to blend its excellent, single malt spirit. The cold, foggy and humid climate is perfect to create a robust, flavorful whiskey in the old tradition.

So, if you’re not able to stop by the local Ballyturk pub on Thursday night to listen to Teagan the barmaid tell stories and sing local folk songs then enjoy a little Ballyturk from the Tornado Republic.

Jen Goode has another great note on her blog about the value of making connections. She doesn’t just describe it in terms of networking/business value because the friends she’s made along the way mean a great deal more to her. It’s a great read and a great reminder that the people we meet “along the way” bring a lot to the party in every facet of our lives and work.

She’s a prime example of how this applies to myself. She’s one of the people I’ve met along the way and I’m better for it as a business person and a friend.

Read her entry at www.jgoodedesigns.com.