I’ve been cleaning up the gas mask image, and now I’m wondering olive drab or white?
The following are:
Old    New
Olive  In Context
Monthly Archives: November 2008
My Christmas Cards III
I set aside this project for the past few weeks, but with the election over and the holidays fast approaching, I’m back on the job. Here is the latest draft of the Jolly St. Roger Bandana that I am making instead of Christmas cards this year, and I’m going to use it in place of wrapping paper for some small gifts, so it is doubly cutting down on paper waste.
I realize the layout is rough, but it’s more about the concept at this point and I will clean it up before the final print. What else does it need? Nautical stars in the corners? Should I leave well enough alone? Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Alright, back to the computer lab.
Buying a New Router
I mean the rotary wood milling tool, not an Internet router, so this won’t be interesting to tech geeks. It probably won’t be interesting to anyone except me, but I need a place to house my research and process my thoughts. A blog is supposed to be a journal right, so I shouldn’t apologize for writing something of interest only to myself.
My father said he prefers Bosch routers because the motors are almost impossible to kill and that he prefers a 3 horsepower router because it can swing a 3″ bit, but that I shouldn’t go below 2HP. He said to get a plunge base rather than a fixed base for greater versatility.
Popular Mechanics published a comparison of 2 1/4 HP fixed and plunge routers in 2007 and the abridged version is as follows: PM agrees with Pops on the Bosch ($203), giving it their 5-star rating, as opposed to 4 stars for the Milwaukee ($188) and Porter-Cable ($259), and 3 stars for the equivalent Dewalt ($204), Hitachi ($162) and Ridgid ($???), with a measly 2 stars being granted to the Skil which came in at an unsettlingly cheap $85.
So, it looks like 
will soon be mine.
Designing New Business Cards
I have business cards from the art college and the contemporary art center, but I don’t have any with personal info or for the myriad other things I do. I toyed with the idea of listing everything I do on one card, since I joke that I have at least five jobs at all times, but really I think it’s better to keep it simple for now.
The first run is going to be a one-color letterpress job. Mandate Press is running a great special on letterpress business cards that can’t be beat if you want a simple black design on white stock that is relief-printed so that the inked portion is embossed. After that I am going to work with a local letterpress printer to get something more exotic and exciting, particularly, I’d like to create a card printed inklessly to leave an impression (see example i. below).
This morning, not knowing what I was working on, my psychic friend Janna sent me the link to The 75 Hottest Business Cards page, which spurred some creativity and led me to Faveup and then on to crazyleafdesign.
Here are a few ideas I have been playing with, but I am not attached, so either vote for your favorite or make a suggestion.
Notes:
For d., e., and f., I’m thinking it would be easy enough to grab cyan and magenta highlighters to fill in the lenses. c. is just there for reference to help you imagine the other three as having 3-D lenses. Too creepy?
i. is the concept to be explored at a later date, with all of the job titles and the non-url part of the address done as an inkless impression, so they will be legibly embossed, but not inked, inking only my name, phone number and website.
Thanksgiving Time is the Greatest Time
It’s food-centric holiday. Sure, Pillgrims, Indians and being grateful play in somewhere, but really it’s all about the food.
Since my family is so far away, I’m doing Thanksgiving dinner with TSB’s family in the East Bay. Last year, I brought the classis Cranberry Orange Relish, that everyone always seems shocked by, despite the fact that the recipe is on every bag of Oceanspray cranberries.
The unwritten trick though, is to cook it for a few minutes and then refrgerate before serving. Cooking it allows the liquids to gel a bit and brings if from dreary pinkish-grey to a bright red color.
I’m trying to decide what else to bring this year. Anyone have any favorite Thanksgiving dishes to share?
Look what I made (Hint: It’s a Table)
Early in 2008, my Green Furniture Design Collaborative project got picked up for a hefty grant from Toyota through their now-defunct Heya program. With their financial, motivational and emotional support, I was able to design and build a website to host the project and start production on prototypes for an initial line.
The site was built for designers to post ideas and concepts to be critiqued and collaborated on by other designers, greens and creatives to create new and innovative products, and also as a clearinghouse for ecological design research, ideas and resources.
The long-term objective is to have a site where talent and funding can come together, so that designers could put together a team to collaborate online to develop a product, and interested investors could back or buy projects that they saw as having market potential.
The table in the photos was the first prototype to come out of the experiment. We decided to focus on the urban apartment-dweller as our target market, looking at the most versatile items and most efficient use of space.
The table achieves the goal as it can be reconfigured from a 5-foot long coffee table to a small desk/table. It is currently undergoing a redesign and is the centerpiece for a full line I am working on. That was a lot of words just to get to the pictures.
Recipe: Pumpkin Bisque II
This is a revision of my first Pumpkin Bisque recipe.
1 splash beer (optional)
1 small pie pumpkin (about 3 pounds)
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 carrot, finely diced
1 celery stalk, finely diced
2 shallots, finely diced
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups boxed chicken broth (vegetable broth can be substituted for a vegetarian recipe)
1 tablespoon herbes de provence
1 bay leaf
1 cup heavy cream
1 small pie pumpkin (about 3 pounds)
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 carrot, finely diced
1 celery stalk, finely diced
2 shallots, finely diced
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups boxed chicken broth (vegetable broth can be substituted for a vegetarian recipe)
1 tablespoon herbes de provence
1 bay leaf
1 cup heavy cream
1. Preheat oven to 375 and open a beer.
2. Remove fibrous/seedy part of pumpkin with a spoon, peel off the shell and cut the flesh into 1-inch cubes. Place in a covered baking dish with 1/2 inch of water and drizzle with maple syrup. Cook until fork-tender, about 30 minutes.
3. Heat 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottom saucepan. Add the diced vegetables and sauté, seasoning with salt and pepper and stirring occasionally until soft. If the pan gets a little dry, add a splash of beer rather than more butter.
4. Add broth and herbs to pan and bring to a boil.
5. Pour off liquid from baking dish and add pumpkin to simmering soup, mashing gently with a fork.
6. Simmer 5 minutes, add cream and remaining butter. Remove from heat as soon as soup returns to boil.
7. Discard bay leaf, blend soup until combined and visibly chunk-free, but some texture and bite remains.
8. Pour into four bowls and garnish with sour cream, crumbled bacon and fresh basil. Serve immediately with crusty bread or croutons.
Pumpkin Soup Time Again
It’s getting cold, and I’m taking the day off to celebrate yesterday’s presidential election. On my to do list is making a batch of pumpkin bisque. Recently, I directed a friend to my recipe, when she mentioned hers and she balked, saying it was too complicated. I flipped out a little. “Really?” I said, “All you do is roast a pumpkin, saute mirepoix, season it, add broth and herbs, simmer, add pumpkin, add cream and blend. Could it get any simpler without coming from a can?”
I suppose, in retrospect, that I made the recipe look complicated on the bog, so I will dumb it down simplify the recipe and post it here again after I make it today.
Recovered: 3-D Gas Mask Design
Another t-shirt design, which is still in the works. I drew this a million years ago, and was reminded of my old sketch when I saw this “Troopa” t-shirt from Design Give on tcritic.com.
Mine was inspired by the gas mask I bought in a mlitary surplus store in Berlin, a childhood love of 3-D glasses and the art of Ralph Bakshi, particularly in Wizards
I like the look of white on black in the Troopa, so I think I’ll appropriate that in the next re-draw, and when I prep it to print, I’ll do all the negative space as an absence of ink.
Your thoughts?