Life as a Creative

I am sure my fellow designers/creatives in the "industry" will agree on how it is sometimes difficult explaining our artistic plight to friends and family. Graphic Designers, Art Directors, Creatives do much more than spend a fun day at the office coming up with "cool ideas" for advertisements, and making clever logos and product packing and playing on our computers. 

No, we don't just make pretty pictures on the computer and surf the web all day. And no, we don't sit in a circle and throw around an idea ball. It doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing, real creatives never stop thinking about design, type, composition, color, etc. We are indeed obsessed with all the elements and details of visual communication and can't turn it off.

These spots for the 2012 ADDY Awards do a perfect job at showing (although maybe embellished in some cases) what our life/mind is like inside and out of work. These are my favorites. I can particularly relate to the "tantrum" spot. You can see all of them here

Kick Ass Type Porno

I have no idea what DVNO stands for but I never get tired of watching this. It reminds me of my childhood... spent in front of the T.V. instead of outside playing sports with the other dirty neighborhood kids. I grew up Mormon so most of what I learned about the "real world" came from watching television...and Penthouse Magazine. I always wished I could have had a train in my house like Ricky Schroeder. Spoiled little show off bitch.
Ferg this is that video I was telling you about that we unsuccessfully spent over an hour trying to get to play the other night.

GOTTA A SWEET NEW GIG

This week I started a new job as a graphic designer at The Screamer Company. They're an extremely talented and driven bunch and I am pretty stoked to be working with them. Screamer Co. has worked on some fun projects, and do awesome work. They've won a few ADDYS the last couple years and very recently won two more. Good times ahead. Stay tuned.

CRUMMY HOUSE MEGAZINE launch Tonight At Common House Artist Collective

So I have a few random ZINES that I picked up over the years, including some old school ones from an old friend, artist rockstar badass and personal hero of mine Mike Seiben called Programmed from India. They're a hilarious and a unique part of art history in ATX! But as an art collector/hoarder of sorts, I have ,for the most part, missed out on these unconventional artistic outlets. Maybe because they're usually pretty small? But NOW, thanks to new friends at Crummy House, and studio mates at Common House, I am now more aware of the creative awesomeness and power of zines. Anyone can make a ZINE! About anything, kind of like a BLOG but better because you can hold them in your hand, they're more fun to make, and there are no rules. Not only are they punk as fuck, in my opinion, they're cheap to mass produce and more fun to create and collect. PRINT WILL NEVER DIE.

Come to this at Common House tonight!

Screen Printing Awesomeness

I am a bit of a screen printing nerd/poster addict/collector so you'll probably see a lot of Snack Machine posts about poster art.  These are by designer http://www.shawnkknight.com/ Shawn K. Knight. Aside form Wu Tang, I don't know who the other bands are but the posters are bad ass art pieces. Amazing textures, composition and detail! (my art words for the day) Plus, I 'm a fan of anything that has a skull in it. I love that pseudo-mosaic texture inside the skull