Random ads I’ve seen here and there

There’s just something about mid-20th century (40s-60) ads that I just dig… These are hanging up in one of the laundromats in town.

A quick thought as 2010 draws to a close

As we wrap up 2010 and look forward to 2011, let’s stop and take some time to spend with our loved ones, whether they’re right next to us, or across the globe.

Happy and Prosperous 2011, everybody!

Photoshop– you sure you’re doing that right?

I was walking around the mall this afternoon running a couple of errands before I start my new job on Monday, and I happened to come across a poster for the upcoming Scott Pilgrim movie. I thought it was pretty cool as a teaser type poster (I’ve always been partial to bass and drums). That is, until  I took a look at its feet:

What jumped out at me was how oddly angled and out of proportion (relative to the figure as a whole) the sneakers looked. And let’s not get into the shadow. For a second I thought the whole thing might have been an optical illusion created by overly baggy pants, but the jeans looked loose or relaxed, but definitely not baggy. I also looked Michael Cera up on IMDB, and found that the kid’s close to six feet, so not only did the shoes look like they had been replaced, but they were now tiny as well (I’m fairly confident in saying that, if anything, Mr. Cera would not want to be known as the guy with the tiny feet).

Just so things are in context, here’s an image of the whole poster. I took the liberty of really quickly drawing a rough “wireframe” of where I think the original feet were placed.

I’m hoping the reason such slipshod work was put out was because of time constraints. I’d hate to think this exemplifies the type of quality the studio’s marketing people (whether in-house or not) are putting out.

So, tell me– am I correct in my observation? Am I completely off-base here? I’d really love to hear your thoughts on this.

The New Testament and Social Media

I’m writing this as I’m about to post, and not really editing (other than for typos), so please bear with me.

Lately I’ve been listening to Joel Osteen on Sunday mornings as I’m getting ready for church, and the last couple of weeks in particular have hit home with me, for one reason or another. Yesterday’s message boiled down to how we need to have in our “inner circle” (his phrase, not mine) people that will encourage us and who will be supportive in chasing and reaching our goal.  Those “toxic” relationships (as he described them) should be ones that we re-examine and possibly even eliminate from our lives.

Also, this past Sunday our church was visited by one of the pastors from a nearby church. The message he prepared and delivered was all about sharing. I believe some of the phrasing he used– to me– echoed in a weird reversed way Gordon Gecko’s speech about greed in Wall Street.

But I digress.

See, you can take out all the Biblical bibliography, and both messages remain extremely relevant. And, the way I see it, as designers/developers/artists– whatever, the idea of having people that are supportive of our goals and the idea of sharing what we have (knowledge, experience) are both things that are important to our growth, and are an integral part of living and interacting in the realm of social media. After all, isn’t that at least part of the reason we involved ourselves initially, and continue to do so day after day?

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for May 1st

So, this is what I got for today. No fancy intros, no purple-prosed laden explanations.

©2010 rafael armstrong

(And, yes, I’m well aware there might be some irony at play tonight).

Enjoy!

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for April 30

Wow. I was aware I had dropped the ball there for a while, but didn’t realize it had been almost 2 whole months.

That changes today. I’m getting things back on track a step at a time. This is the first step.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my high school years the last few weeks, particularly because of the recently resolved student strike at the UPR (the secondary school I attended was part of the University system), and one thing that came to mind was a sort of unofficial call to arms my class had. So I started doodling and sketching– something I hadn’t done in quite a while, and came up with what would eventually become this:

©2010 rafael armstrong

Anyway, there we are. Let’s see what my brain has in store for me tomorrow.

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for April 17

I’m driving in the car earlier today, and, for some reason (part of it, I imagine, is living in North Jersey, land of malls and diners you’ll see why in a sec), I started thinking about the visual language of mall directories (see?!). Completely random, totally out of left field. Then my mind started to wander into things like a person’s moral “compass” and the role that Theism (or is it Deism? Definitely some “ism”) may or may not play in all this.

I decided to play with those ideas in this piece.

©2010 rafael armstrong

I know I’ve used the figure illo before, but felt it fit with what I was doing. And, if it helped move things along, then all the better.

Your thoughts, comments and opinions are always welcome!

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– April 7

Real quick. I have a splitting headache right now, probably– as Ant0nio Banderas (as the Nasonex bee) is prone to say– as a result of seasonal allergy congestion (now, try saying “seasonal allergy congestion” from now on and not think of the Nasonex bee commercials). Debating on whether I should take something. My choices right now:

©2010 rafael armstrong

And there you have today’s #daily365. Enjoy!

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for March 8

I really dig the blues. And I really dig Stevie Ray Vaughan. That’s pretty much all there is to it.

©2010 rafael armstrong

Adobe apps– which one’s your fave?

I’ve been seeing on-and-off for a few days now various blog posts and tweets asking and discussing if such-and-such app is better/more useful than this other one. And, because the last couple of days I’ve spent a fair amount working in InDesign (probably the Adobe print app that, over the last few months I’ve spent the least amount of time in doing work), I figured I’d ask out loud:

Which of the Adobe Creative Suite apps  is your favorite?

It could be it’s the one you spend the most time in, or it could be the one you know the best, but don’t really spend that much time in anymore. Or, it just happens to be the one that crashes the least. Whatever.

My short answer is Illustrator. I started out as a Photoshop phreak, but once work-related circumstances pushed me into the deep end of the Illustrator pool, I found that it wasn’t the big scary, foreign-looking interface and app I had made it out in my head to be. In fact, I found I liked it and, to stretch the metaphor out, the water was fine.

I still use Photoshop (and InDesign, Dreamweaver, et al) whenever appropriate, but if I just want to noodle around with ideas and concepts, Illustrator’s where I go. A digital moleskine of sorts.

So, which one’s your favorite?