Holiday Card

...because I obviously haven't had enough of designing holiday cards

Astoria in the morning

Usually the train station is occupied by one or both of the NW trains during the early morning commute, but today the station was empty and for once I was able to see the view of Astoria and the ConEd plant spewing surprisingly pretty pollution into the air.

Clients from Hell

Just found this funny collection of terrible client stories. Also, a great collection of terrible istock photos, oh the life of being a designer...

Great Typography Article

My sister just posted this article from the NY Times and it pretty much sums up my relationship with typography. I feel that having a basic knowledge of typefaces is both a blessing and a curse: it's great when you find awesome typefaces in design that are inspiring and perfect, but on the other hand it makes you upset/angry/disappointed in the entire human population when you stumble upon horrific fonts with bad leading, or acceptable fonts used in completely the wrong situation. While the issues of bad typography have been bothering me for years--ever since my first design classes in college, one memory stands out in particular. I was in the emergency room, hooked up to an IV and barely aware of my surroundings, and the one thing I remember is how annoyed I was at a horribly designed poster in Comic Sans, one of my least favorite fonts of all time. After this experience, I can totally relate to the author of this article when he states "If it’s bad for me (an amateur enthusiast who is interested in typography, but isn’t hugely knowledgeable about it), what must it be like for the purists? Dreadful, it seems." I can't even imagine...

astoria park

Mom came down to visit this weekend and we decided to go explore Astoria Park since it was so gorgeous outside. The park is so pretty and the bridges look so sculptural in contrast with the natural curves and bends in the hills. I tried taking some panoramic shots; theyre not perfect but I think they turned out pretty well for my first time and without a tripod...

Sand Painting

Creativity just posted a link to this incredible video of artist Kseniya Simonova who uses sand to create "paintings" on a lightbox. It's amazing how much control she has over such a difficult medium, considering tiny details like how much a mouth turns up and using the tips of her fingers to create texture. She puts so much emotion into these images with just the flick of her hand, and the mood is definitely emphasized through the dramatic music in the background. Her website is here.

The City at night

I've decided that I really want to get back into photography so I'm going to make an effort to carry my camera everywhere and post new photos each week.

Tonight on my way to the Bolt Bus I decided to snap a few shots in the semi-darkness outside my building. It was just starting to rain so the highlights on the road were particularly emphasized, and the cold air allowed the steam coming out of the manhole to be visible. It was the perfect time of evening to shoot these pics too, I thought it was beautiful how the intensely blue sky contrasted with the yellow lights on the building down the street.