RETURN TO CASTLE TRAVENSTEIN

https://youtu.be/Zhz308yXNhQ

I have been working on an outside/personal project since my first quarter began at SCCA. I’ve been designing a usable typeface for a juice bar located in Palm Springs called Jugo Y Chisme. The owners contacted me after seeing some other lettering projects I had worked on via Instagram. They asked for a hand drawn “juicy” font that would be legible from the road when displayed on their building, but also work for shirts, menus, all kinds of branding.

I enjoy hand lettering and type design is one of the main reasons I/ decided to enter into the design program. So, this project is fun, but it’s very time consuming and hard to focus on while I’m busy with so many school assignments. It took me three months to finish all the capitals. I am currently working on lower case letters, glyphs and numerals. Luckily they’ve approved everything I’ve worked on so far and I expect to finalize the rest of the typeface by the summer. Once that’s completed I can move on to some character designs for the company.

So far working on this project has been a great experience and it pays well. The most stressful part is finding time to work on the letters. The owner of the company works in architecture and interior design so it’s been really eye opening to see all that goes into opening a restaurant: construction, interior design, choosing color schemes, fonts, font weights, menu layouts, uniforms, etc. etc. etc.

I’m grateful to be working on this while I’m learning about type, but I suspect I’ll have a much easier time if I get hired for similar work once I’m out of school. Also, eh, does this count as an internship?

I got really sick this week. When I am sick I generally crave spicy Thai food and nothing else. So on my second day of illness I decided to treat myself. I didn’t want to leave the house so I used Doordash. I only use delivery services when I am ill due to the fact that my food generally costs double the asking price and this time was no different from the rest!

I used procreate to create this gif. I have become interested in making short animations since starting the program. I would have enjoyed trying something out in After Effects but my skill level in that program generally cause my projects to take forever. I am much more proficient in Procreate and on a sick day I went for speed and precision over a skill bolstering session. Thanks.

The first module I was assigned to in New Media was After Effects. I really enjoyed the class but it got off to a rough start for me. The first week or the first quarter of my first year in the SCCA Graphic Design Program I was stuck at home with covid. I attended all of my glasses via zoom and in most situations I felt I was still able to participate with relative comfort. During the first After Effects lesson the zoom connection repeatedly dropped. When I was able to zoom in the connection was very choppy and hard to follow. After Effects can make that happen. I was pretty distraught over this due to the fact that I had never used After Effects before and I really wanted to do well in the module and understand what was going on.

Luckily Erik Scheel recorded the lesson and I was able to follow along and complete my assignment – creating a basic graphics package for a newscast. It turns out following along with the videos at home was my preferred method of learning After Effects. I made my way through the assignment with some hiccups and the end result might have been a little shaky but not bad for my first effort. Cool.

The day before the assignment was due I decided to watch my finished video during a lunch break just to see if I needed to go in and refine anything. I couldn’t find the video. It seems ridiculous but I never found it. I searched my computer, used every key term I could think of in finder, searched all the After Effects files I had and it wasn’t there.

So I just made the whole thing all over again during that lunch break. The second pass came out better than the first. The project originally took several hours and the redo took about one.I was able to remember how I had made the original video and even learned a few new things. So I started the project ill with covid and a bad internet connection, managed to create something half way decent, promptly lost that thing, and to my surprise was able to remake it with some slight improvements.

This week my team used Eye Jack’s panel’s function to create a tour of local restaurants. I Chose ChuMinh Tofu Deli for my part of the tour. ChuMinh offers free meals and supplies to underserved communities every Sunday from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. They are a staple of low cost vegan fare located at the border of Capitol Hill and The International District.

I created an animated GIF displaying some menu items using Photoshop. I used Illustrator for the rest of the assets for this project. My teammate Dang finished his leg of the project before me so I tried to match his layout stylistically for continuity. I reproduced ChuMinh’s logo in Illustrator as I could only find very low res images of it online. Let me tell you, their logo is composed of a wild menagerie of type faces, text weights and text sizes. It was interesting to consider the choices of the original designer.

Eye Jack incredibly easy to use and I am happy with the outcome. I suspect I will use it for some fun projects inn the future. Below I’ve included the assets I created for the project.

AAAAnd they’re gigantic.

This week I created an AR experience in Adobe Aero. The concept is based on the original theatrical trailer for the movie Alien. I watched the trailer seconds before opening the app so I just went with my gut. I followed a tutorial and used some of the assets provided in class. There were a couple issues with animations working so I experimented with changing the order and position of a few steps and things worked out pretty well.

The first project in the AR module was fun. I happened to have an animated gif I had made a couple years back ready to go. I animated it in procreate drawing each frame by hand. I have used this same animation in the past to assemble a flip book, which was quite laborious considering that the animation lasts maybe 8 seconds. Using Eyejack was quick and the app is easy to use. Picking music that fit the vibe of the animation was the hardest part. I chose a title and picked a font that works well with the animation, but ultimately decided to use just the image and qr code in the finished design. I think a little mystery and a very simple design works well with the image I used. My only gripe is potential viewers have to download the app to view the animation and I think that may be the stopping point for a lot of folks.

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I’ve really enjoyed the chance to intersect with the visual media students. The modules kind of feel like a fun break from all the large projects I’m working on in my core classes. Well, I’ve only had After Effects and AR so far which I find stimulating and entertaining, I may find the “fun break” aspect wane in later modules.

I am an independent cartoonist. Visual story telling is something I value and it’s the reason I decided to try my hand at graphic design. I was delighted to discover my skillset is a valuable asset when working in After Effects. It felt very natural to jump into the program and start making things. This experience gave me a new appreciation for the visual media program. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn to use a tool I would have never touched otherwise.

I would love to produce graphics. It’s not something I ever considered before joining the program. I’ve filmed a few projects in the past but I pretty much just edited things in Imovie in a very rudimentary style. The next time I work on a video project I can add text and animation! I’m excited for whatever comes next in the modules.

For a few years in the 2010’s I ran a risograph printing service out of a studio in George Town. I enjoyed being part of the local print community but it was a lot of hard work. First things first I had to have the best paper. Riso ink is not fully opaque and it technically never actually dries. Ideally you want an uncoated, toothy stock that has minimal transparency. I used Mohawk Via Vellum 80 lb text weight sheets for book pages, and 100 lb card stock for covers. This paper is expensive. I tried to remain frugal when purchasing other supplies. During this time a lot of churches had old riso supplies. Riso printing was marketed to churches as a cost effective alternative to xerox. By the early 200’s hundreds of churches were trying to get rid of their supplies. Knowing this I Scoured craigslist ads from all over the U.S. I would contact sellers in other states and offer to pay them to ship to me. These second hand materials worked just as well as brand new ones and Using this method I managed to acquire supplies for around 20% of the retail price for several years. The combo of cheap supplies and expensive paper allowed me to keep the cost of printing competitive with other riso printers. Every print was important to me and I wanted to maintain a reputation of producing high quality work.

Thinking big is a bit outside my wheelhouse. I primarily focus on the task at hand and keep my work local and simple. This is an aspect of my personality I’d like to change. I’m taking small steps and sometimes leaps and bounds outside of my comfort zone in this program. The idea of working for a large company with a big impact seems more tangible to me now than in the past, but I still think in small, independent terms when approaching most projects.

About 16 years ago I joined a band. I had just gone to trial for crimes related to graffiti. I painted trains through my teens and early 20’s and an old warrant I was completely unaware of caught up with me. The result of this was distancing myself from a long time friend group, most of whom were graffiti writers. I was feeling pretty directionless.

A friend of mine contacted me and said she was starting a band. I was living with a drummer at the time and had been casually playing drums in the living room in my spare time. with the limited experience I had playing the drums I was hesitant to join a band. My friend said she didn’t care and the band was wildly experimental and I could make my own percussive instruments. So I did. Over the next 6 months we went on two tours and recorded and album in Seattle. It was on this trip that my friend decided to move here. She encouraged me to move too.

Leaving all of my friends and family behind. I got on a plane and flew to Seattle. I had very little money as I was still paying off restitution from my trial. I had no friends or support group other than the band I was in. This change of scenery made me anxious, but I just kept reminding myself that if I ever wanted to I could move back home and everything would be the same. 15 years later I’m still here.