Comic Sans Strikes Back!

Hellow people! Haven’t post anything on this blog for a long time. Pardon my lame excuse, but work has been cray cray *insert the valley accent*. So what’s been happening? As for me, I’ve been doing this awesome side project with my best friend, Anto. Check it out, Pingu On Mars.

Anyway, the reason why I want to write something is this. I posted this quite some time ago,and today I bumped into this link. It’s so funny.

Every graphic designer I know loath Comic Sans with a passion. There’s a lot of blog posting dedicated to curse them, make fun of them and so on. But now it’s time for Comic Sans to defend itself. Haha.

Check this out: I’m Comic Sans, Asshole – by: Mike Lacher.

Hahahaha. Sadly, most of the points that its trying to say are true. Sometimes, no matter how bad you want it to not exist, some people just love to use it. Ahahaha. Now I’m waiting whether Papyrus is going to say something as well. That would be funnny!

Toodles!

Grid

“The grid is an integral part of the book design. It’s not something that you see, physically. It’s just like underwear: You wear it, but it’s not to be exposed. So the grid is the underwear of the book.”

Couldn’t agree more!

Video via: Brainpickings

Lost & Found

It’s not a secret that I’m a big fan of Oliver Jeffers. Since the first time I read “The Incredible Book Eating Boy”, I feel in love instantly. And then I stumbled onto “Lost & Found”. A very touching story about friendship, probably one of the sweetest stories I’ve ever read in my life. Today I was researching about short animation, and I remembered that they made a short animation video for Lost & Found. And I found it! OMG!

Without blabbing more and more, here it is, enjoy it!

[Studio AKA] Lost and found (2008) from thp1986 on Vimeo.

Now, does anybody know how can I get penguin as a pet?

Triangles

I’ve been planning to write about this. This is one of the rare occasions that my project turns into something “real”. Actually this is the first time that it turns into something real hahahaha (I hope this is not the last time).

As always, I doodled random stuff at work. And then my friend saw it and said something about maybe wanting me to make them in different colors and shapes. So I did, and sent it to him. To cut the story short, I ended up making 14 versions for him. Hee haw!

So I just wanna share the process of how I did it. From the initial drawing until it became a “complete artwork”.

The one on the left is the initial drawing. From that doodle, I explored on textures, colors, transparency. I remembered that I have lots of hi-res canvas textures from uni. So I put it as a background and changed the colors into black, putting lines on them (this is the hardest part, it took me hours to laid all those lines on it, I swear I had a sore arms after!), playing with the transparency. Finally I got the “look” that I want, so I stopped there.

And then I remembered that my friend was saying something about “colors popping out” so I explored other options. I simply put different paper stocks on the background (left overs from uni-era), and I played around with colors and transparency. I have to say, having all those paper stocks helped me a lot. In the end I got like 10 versions of the “pop”.

So there you go, the story behind that random triangles with lines on it. I still don’t have a name for it (yet). Been thinking some pretentious name for it, but I guess I’m too shallow and vain hahahahha.

Oh well. The babies are in the process of printing now. I will post pictures once they’re done.

Till next time!

Currently listening to: The Presets – Fall

Lego!

Such a great video. Something to remind us, that only the best is good enough. And the imagination is the limit!

Cups

I’ve decided that I wouldn’t “declare” that I would do something, while in reality I might be too lazy or too tired to commit myself into it. So in saying that, since I stopped making declarations or promises, I’ve been quite productive. I know it doesn’t make sense at all, but hey, whatever works right?

Some of you might know that I am working in retail as well as being a graphic designer. Working in retail sucks, not the work, or the people that I work with (gotta clarify this, just in case friends from work are reading this, hello you!). It’s the annoying/stingy customers, and the moment when there’s no one in your shop. Its actually more tiring to work during this quiet time rather than the busy times. So I gotta occupied myself just to make sure I stay awake during those times.

Sometimes I clean the shop, but that only takes like what 10 minutes max? I can’t draw at all. I’m so bad at drawing and I accepted that fact long time ago. So I sketch! I usually sketch patterns on paper, coffee cup holder or the coffee cup itself. I remembered that day was so quiet, and I think I was working alone because its Friday night. I bought a coffee before I came to work, so i got an empty cup as my victim. It was a 5 hours shift, I did it in between serving customers and cleaning. But still not finished yet.

It took me a while to get the mood to get it done. Because really, coffee cup is not the easiest medium to work with. The rounded surface is quite tricky, especially with the pattern that I’m drawing (well, its not actually pattern, its just lines). I tried to finish it up two days ago but was too tired from work so I told myself I’m gonna do it this weekend.

Today was a cruisy day for me. Woke up at 1pm (awesomeness!!!), I was fasting so didn’t do much. I decided I’m going to finish the cup while watching Community season 3. And I did it!! Took me an hour, and a sore back, but hell yeah I finished it!!

So happy with it, now that I’m thinking that I might wanna buy empty coffee cups and draw on them. But, knowing me, that idea might be a bit too much, so I decided I’m going to take it slow. I decided that every time I buy take away coffee, I’m gonna keep the cup and draw on them! Maybe someday I’m gonna be able to collect it and make a series out of it. Hee Haw!

And a bonus, this tiny clothes peg is my latest victim as well..

Till next time!

National Anthem

So I’ve been listening to National Anthem non-stop thanks to Spotify. And tonight I was just doodling on the kitchen table and voila! Doodled this.. This is a very bad attempt I must say. But at least I’m starting to draw again! Hee haw!

Jamie Woon_ed!

This is too good to be true. I’ve been his fan for quite some time. But I just saw this video tonight.

How good is he?!? Crazy!

You Are Not So Smart

Having a resolution? Really? The same one as last year? Or from two years ago? No this time is different right? Cause this time, you MEAN it.. Hahahaha.. This is a bloody good one, perfect timing as well.. Goodbye 2011.. It’s been hell of a ride! Thank you for the memories 🙂

Gotta buy this book!

Hold On

So I’ve been looking for quite some time for this particular song. I was having coffee at Zekka, and heard a bit of it. I tried to listen to the lyric, only managed to get some bits and pieces. Tried to google it up but failed. I thought it was James Blake, cause they have similar voice, but it wasn’t. After several failed attempts, I stop trying. And today, I heard the lamest mash-up ever, sounds something like this. I was a bit pissed and decided to change the station, and VOILA!!! Triple J was playing the song!! “The song” that I’ve been looking for months! I recorded to my phone and trying to get the lyric, but still can’t quite catch it.

That’s when I just remembered, why not use Shazam? My housemate got iphone, so I had to download it first to be able to tag the song. After couple of minutes, guess what?!?! Got the song! I was so happy I was so ready to go home and buy the album off the net.

There’s my story. SBTRKT! I need all this process to be able to listen to your song, and I think its worth it!