Branded Designers

Before I got my first tattoo I was told they were addictive. Everyone I knew that had a tattoo already would say something like, "once you get one you can't stop. It's a rush." And while I don't find this to be completely true, now that I've had mine for over a year I am ready to get a new one. I already have a few ideas in my head of what I want, but I thought what better way to get inspiration than to reach out to my fellow designers and see what they had to offer. And I must say, after a brief outreach to my fellow friends on twitter and flickr I am pleased with the response I got.

So here, without further ado, I present you with 9 wonderfully "branded" designers.

Aaron Irizarry - www.thisisaaronslife.com

The tattoos on my hands are my favorite because they are on my hands, and they are zombies. Both also have significant spiritual meaning to me.

The one holding the Anchor and sinking (right) is a constant reminder of the damaging/negative things I used to hold onto in life that brought me down (or caused me to sink), and that God freed me from those things/addictions/struggles. The one with the crown engulfed in flames (left) reminds me that in order to have victory in life whether spiritually, mentally, physically, etc... I have to endure the flames, and pass through the fire knowing that God is in control.

I love when there is a story behind a tattoo, it gives interesting perspective into people's lives and how they think creatively about their experiences.

Adelle Charles - www.fuelyourcreativity.com

In all reality the "star" has no meaning besides that I like stars and I had always wanted to get some ink on my wrist - something simple and something that could be covered if needed.

Adelle is also in the works on a new tattoo and I wanted to give you a sneak peek of it. She says hopefully it should be "in ink" within the next month. And in my opinion it completely rocks.

Angie Bowen - www.arbent.net

I designed this tattoo to commemorate my husband and I going vegan a few years back. I wanted something small and simple so I decided to go with pure typography. It's an ambigram (meaning it looks exactly the same upside down and right side up).

April Hollex - www.aprilholle.com

The tree for me symbolizes wisdom, growth, strength, and being able to withstand the test of time and changing conditions. The gnarled bark reminding me that change is required to continue to grow.

The cherry blossoms symbolize the fragile, transient nature of life. The falling blossoms are for those I've lost during my life, my mother and my aunt, both strong women that have effected my life greatly.

While the tree was a huge part of the design of the full tattoo, the drawing of the tree was not planned before my session this evening. The artist hand drew this on my back within a matter of twenty minutes and perfectly captured what I wanted.

Chris Coyier - www.css-tricks.com

It's a circle. The perfect idea. The perfect design. Contrast, balance, geometry. Line, shape, form. A circle doesn't say much, yet says it all.

David Aaron Hopper - www.davidaronhopper.com

Each of these tattoos are Hebrew writing that represents one of the names of God represented in the Bible. The top is Jehovah-Mekadesh, which means "The Lord who sanctifies". The bottom is Jehovah-Nissi, "The Lord my Banner".

I got these to always remind me that God is there with me during my hard times. There to keep me strong and there to go before me into all the "battles" in my life.

Emily Lewis - www.ablognotlimited.com

I have several tattoos, and I'd been wanting to get something on my inner right wrist. I came across an article in the February/March 2008 issue of Dynamic Graphics: "Punctuation: From Charlemagne to the Chicago Manual of Style." It featured the interrobang in several iterations. It just struck me then that would be the perfect tattoo to represent my love of punctuation in general, and my fondness for the interrobang specifically.

Graham Smith - www.imjustcreative.com

Ever since I was a teenager, I had wanted a tattoo, but I certainly didn't want any kind of generic style, walk in, take a look at a catalogue, choose one then BAM. (One instant tattoo that you probably share with a 100 others.)

So I booked up several meetings with a local tattoo artist to go over the designs I sketched out, then he took and crafted them into what you see. It is based on the Eye of Ra, and the only area of colour is the eye, which was a brilliant hue of turquoise, just dulled a bit now. It takes up most of the upper arm, but it's been designed to wrap around and follow the curvature of the arm but also to finish before a standard t-shirt finishes. I wanted it to be obvious when wearing a vest or nothing, but when wearing a short sleeved smart shirt or t-shirt, to be mostly hidden. So this works well for me.

Jason Armstrong - www.elegantmachines.com

At the beginning of the process of getting a tattoo, it was strange to look down at my skin and see it there, but the longer I've had it, the more it's really become a part of me. Now, I look at the rest of my skin as more of a blank canvas that *needs* to be filled. It just seems so right.

As for what it represents to me, I have always loved dragons. Having participated in martial arts, played Dungeons & Dragons when I was younger and read numerous books about them, I grew to appreciate them for what they represent as well as art. Dragons represent wisdom and to me personally the wisdom I am acquiring as I age. I am looking forward to getting a tiger on my left arm and shoulder to represent gradually leaving behind the impetuous and often angry child of my youth.

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Thanks again to everyone that participated.

Personally, this was one of my favorite posts I have done. Even though it took me longer to put together than expected, I learned a few things about being persistent and following up with people (always a good area to grow in), and even making the tough decision to cut some people (Nothing personal).

And what about me? Here is a picture of my current tattoo (the top picture is when I first got it done in April last year and the bottom was taken this past August) and what it means to me. Hopefully now with all this inspiration I can begin putting together ideas for my next tattoo. Thanks again everyone.

Kyle Steed

I got this tattoo done while I was stationed in Japan. The last thing I wanted was another kanji character tattoo. (I never saw people in Japan with english words tattooed on themselves.) The guy who did it didn't speak a lick of english but boy did he understood tattoos. It took roughly about 3 hours to complete.

The main focus of the tattoo is a rampart lion within a shield, resembling a coat of arms. The text underneath it reads "Victoria Vero" which translates from Latin to "Victory in Truth". It's a symbol, a reminder for me that in my life there is always victory in truth, victory in Jesus.

interview: andrio abero at 33rpm

When it comes to finding gig posters there is definitely no shortage. But it seems the good ones, I mean the really good ones, come few and far between. And that's why I was ecstatic when Andrio Abero, over at 33rpm, said he wouldn't mind doing an interview for me. I have followed Andrio's work now for the past three years, and his progression has been wonderful to watch. His work has been featured in numerous magazines including Print Magazines Regional Design Annual, not once but twice. Andrio has also been involved in over 40 exhibitions for his work and received more honors than you can count on your fingers. But if you think Andrio is only good for a print design, then you would be mistaken, his web portfolio is just as impressive.

So sit back, relax and enjoy all that is 33rpm.

1. Andrio, I have been a huge fan for the last 3 years now. At what point in your life did you first become interested in design/illustration/poster making?

I grew up near the Portland music scene, where I saw fantastic poster design. It was my senior year in high school in Vancouver, WA, and a recruiter from the Art Institute of Seattle visited my art class. I've been artistic since I was five years old, but never thought of making art as a career, just a hobby. I excelled in math and science and had thoughts of becoming a biologist but that didn't really make sense to me. That fall I moved up to Seattle and started classes at AIS. I wanted to focus in illustration, but gradually drifted towards design.

2. Who or what would you say has the biggest influence on the work you're doing?

Music has been a driving force for my every day inspiration. I like everything from indie rock to electronic music, dance music, hip-hop and old breaks, funk & soul, classic R&B and pop. I like meeting musicians and people working positively in a scene and not scenesters.

3. What do you find helps when you run out of creative ideas?

Go out and do something completely different. Take a break and you'll know when you're ready to be creative again. Maybe try working in a different medium or go about a design in a different way.

4. What has been your favorite project you've worked on, and what has been the hardest?

Bumbershoot was really fun because I got to see my work everywhere in Seattle. It was also a nostalgic event to work on because I had attended the festival every year for the past ten years. Thankfully there hasn't been a project that sticks out in my mind as being really hard.

5. How would you say being a designer influence your life? Do you feel you have a different perspective on things around you?

It's not so much being a designer, but choosing a profession that allows me to be creative while making a decent living. I've met a lot of talented people, from other designers, artists, musicians, dancers, thinkers and all around creative people. Being able to relate to someone on a creative level is great to experience.

6. How do you spend your spare time?

DJ'ing, music production, learning to be a better cook, bike riding, going out…

7. What are your five favorite sites you visit?

The New York Times QBN Resident Advisor Cool Hunting Gigposters

8. The number 33 has a very powerful meaning to me. What does 33 mean for you?

33rpm was founded by a good friend of mine, Jen Wood and I right before we graduated from design school. It was actually her idea to call it 33rpm. We both love music and we wanted to do exclusively music graphics. 33rpm is the speed which records play at. We thought it was fitting considering our analog aesthetic.

9. Thanks for taking the time to participate. Do you have any last words of inspiration or a favorite quote?

Always do what you love, and success will follow.

To learn more about Andrio Abero:

Print and Illustrations Web and Interactive Exhibitions and Publications About and Contact

and the winner is

Last month I held a contest for my one-year blogiversary. It was my first contest to hold, ever, and I was a little nervous to see how it would go. But after receiving over thirty comments it was my greatest post to date. It was a blast getting to read everyone's comments. Some just came right out and explained why they wanted the note books, while others quoted whole poems (not sure what that was about). It even opened the door to make some new connections. Thanks again to everyone that stopped by and left your comments.

However, there could only be one winner and that's what I wanted to share with you today.

His name is Armen Thomassian. (That's him in the picture.) Originally british born, he now lives with his wife in Tasmania, Australia where he preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. He used to have a wonderful blog where he shared his views on his faith and life, but due to some unfortunate events decided to take it down. His site now exist as merely a portal to visit him elsewhere on the web and to contact him. But even in the face of adversity he leaves us all with a message of hope:

"Let nothing or no one steal your joy."

Congrats again to Armen for winning the Field Notes 3-Pack of notebooks and I hope they come in handy for him.

interview: nectar

If you were to look up Nectar in the dictionary you'd find a picture of the six sexiest guys you've ever seen, along with the definition: "A company built upon strong relationships with an even stronger commitment to serving up the best in personal branding on the web."

I first met the men of Nectar back in August, well one-half of them anyways. Josiah, Caleb, Aaron and myself got to know each other at the Dallas Museum of Art. Then I met Dave for lunch the following week and that just seemed to really open the door to working with these guys. But it wasn't until Nectar Hackathon 2.0 that I got to meet the rest of the team, Brett and Charles, and work right along side of them. These guys are the real deal with a lot of heart and a lot of passion for what they do. So without further ado, it's my pleasure to present you with an in depth look at the minds behind Nectar.

To make things more accessible, I've added links to each Nectar team member's response.

• Aaron Harp
• Brett Tilford
• Caleb White
• Charles Williams
• Dave Onkels
• Josiah Platt

1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?

I'm lead (only) PHP developer of Nectar.  I also handle most of the frontend JavaScript goodness.  Actually, when I first met Josiah years and years ago he encouraged me to learn PHP and that's what I did.  I have done freelance development since then and I'm happy to be settling into Nectar.

2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.

This is the first project I've worked on that has been a true team scenario.  Working with guys that you love hanging out with really makes staring at a computer all day (or through the night before a launch) much more enjoyable.  We've crammed a lot of work into the last couple of months and everyone has been vital in making this thing happen.  I'd say the best part of teamwork is that if there's something you don't wanna do, there's likely someone to pass it off to.

3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?

Though I enjoy web development, my passion is in music.  It's my goal to make a career of performing and eventually settle into a job conducting choirs at a liberal arts university.

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1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?

I'm currently focused on the sales and marketing aspect of Nectar. We love the new social media technologies and the opportunities they bring to create conversations and meaningful relationships with people. With this in mind I've really thrown myself into the world of blogging and micro blogging. It's really been such a cool journey to begin building the Nectar community from the ground up and I'm really excited to see the conversation expand in the weeks and months following our launch.

My first experience in utilizing these tools was as a youth pastor at New Hope. I was trying to email all my student leaders information and they weren't responding. I tried calling them... that didn't work either. I was baffled. How on earth do I communicate with these kids? That's when I figured out Myspace and Text Messaging. After that I had no problem at all. It was then that I realized that our world was changing in drastic ways. I call a kid and get his voicemail. I text that same kid and I get a response within seconds. I think this has huge implications for how businesses connect and communicate with customers.

2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.

The importance of team work can't be overestimated. I think this is one of the reasons woman make such amazing leaders, they are so relational and skilled at building consensus that they just make great team leaders. As a company of all males we really have to work hard at building relationships with each other that foster trust, encouragement, and accountability. Another beautiful thing about teams is the way it allows you to play to your strengths and leave your weak areas to someone else. For example, at Nectar you don't want me designing or coding out your website but lucky for you, I don't have to! We'll leave that to the Josiah, Caleb, Charles, Aaron, and Dave who are experts at that stuff.

3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?

Definitely a professional surfer. Just chilling at the beach all day. Are you kidding me?!

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1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?

I'm primarily focused on front-end web development (XHMTL / CSS / Javascript) for the Nectar page as well as the various tastes. I've been doing web development since I learned it in middle school back in 1996, and I absolutely love it. I'm also very involved in writing a lot of the copy for the site, which I love equally as much.

2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.

Team-work has been absolutely vital for this project. All six of us have very different strengths and skill sets, and I firmly believe that Nectar would not be a reality if any one of the other members of the team wasn't involved. Feeding off of the other guys' energy, passion, and humor has been a complete blast and made this truly the best project I've ever been a part of.

3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?

Professionally speaking, this is it. I love the web, I love people, and I love running a business. Nectar is absolutely perfect. I also love studying and performing music, but I think it would lose a lot of it's allure to me if I was ever doing it professionally. Maybe I'll define a new professional field; something like "Semi-professional musical web-development hobbiest" And maybe drop "lumberjack" in there just for fun.

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1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?

Right now I head up everything on the Nectar design frontier. A good 90% of my work day is spent hacking away in Photoshop. The last few months at Nectar has been a blast and I'm really excited to see how people take to the look and feel of everything.

For as long as I can remember I've had an unexplainable passion for design. Not particularly web design, but just design in general. I found myself spending tons of time cruising around the web admiring the work of other designers and wanted to give it a shot myself. I love it.

2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.

Solid teamwork is absolutely paramount for the success of any team. The passion and energy that each of us bring keeps us going strong day-to-day (well, that and lots of coffee :D). I've been friends with most of the guys for years, so we work pretty cohesively together. We may be talented people individually, but without the backbone of clear communication we'd be lost.

3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?

I'm gonna go with photographer on this one. Traveling the world with a camera at my side has always been something I've dreamt of doing. Maybe someday.

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1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?

I'm a bit of a jack of all trades. My background is in business, design, and technology so I weigh in on the strategic aspects of our marketing and business plans, dabble in design, and look for holes in our user interface/customer experience.

I had been fleshing out the business plan for a personal branding service that leverages best-practices employed by the top web design experts. I met Josiah through a chance encounter for a separate business opportunity which ultimately turned into a partnership with six specularly-talented guys from the Dallas area.

2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.

Teamwork in any organization is critical but it's vitally important in a small company such as ours. Our creativity and business ingenuity relies heavily on our ability to feed off each other and leverage the team's strengths. The beautiful thing about Nectar is we operate more as a family than just business partners. This isn't to say we don't have conflicts but when we do we work through them without malice or resentment. I guess it ultimately boils down to trust.

3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?

Honestly, I'm living a dream right now. After extensive self-exploration I've recognized that I'm hard-wired to be an entrepreneur. My passion lies in emerging web technology and progressive design so Nectar truly represents the type of convergence I want within my professional life. Now that being said, if we're talking about anything in the world...being a test pilot for very light jets would be a close second, assuming my wife weren't to object. (Dave is private pilot in his rarely found free time.)

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1. What is your current role at Nectar and how did you first get involved in that field?

I'm a front-end developing, jQuery learning, standards-nut, CSS junkie. I've been involved in web design and development since I was 13 (12 years ago - sheesh), when my partner-in-crime Caleb came over to my house and taught me HTML. Since then I've been fascinated with and involved in a little bit of almost every area of the web, and specifically in love with CSS and standards-compliant markup.

I credit the majority of my growth to the incredibly inspiring community in and around this wide world we call the web. I stumbled across one Daniel Mall back in the day on Shaun Inman's Designologue, and he has since been a gracious tutor in all things CSS / markup. I want to be him when I grow up. He's also why I'm 2 degrees from Jeffrey Zeldman, Jason Santa Maria and Happy Cog, and while they don't know me from a hole in the ground, this is both bragable and awesome.

Well beyond markup and development, my true passion lies in relationships and marketing. If you see me in a room full of people and I'm not meeting those that I don't know, chances are my legs have been recently fractured.

That's the short story.

2. Since you all are a team working together, please describe your view on the importance of team-work.

As far as teams go, I'm blessed to work with people that I not only respect, but completely love and would die for in an instant. I would do anything for these guys, and I'm confident that the feeling is mutual.

I've heard horror stories about being "friends first" in a business relationship, but I generally respond with a question about the depth of the "friendship" these horror stories speak of. I work with men as close to me as my real brothers, and while we've been at our throats more times than I can remember, we always seem to come through our differences stronger than before.

We're a tightly-knit group, and I think we're stronger for it. Where one of us is weak, another is strong. I love that I can genuinely say that we have a firm foundation of love and respect beneath us. Nothing gives me more confidence as we move forward than knowing my bro's have my back.

3. If you could be anything else in the world what would it be and why?

I like to imagine a life of boundless opportunity, and while that sounds like a bottled cliche, I really do tend to look into the future with more wonder than concrete planning. I suppose if I have to give an answer, I'd be a panther. Like a panther with wings. And like a built in coffee maker for a leg. That'd be awesome.

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To learn how you can get your own sweet setup head over to tastynectar.com and see the beauty for yourself.

A special thanks to Shelby Cook for the amazing photographs.

connecting the less popular dots

There is a current crisis going on in the blogosphere right now where we have a lot of quality blogs that are going unnoticed due to the massive amount of junk that is out there. (sort of reminds me of the Christian music scene.) In order to find something of quality you either have to [A] already be connected with other bloggers or [B] you have to spend a lot of time searching the vast internets. Seriously, if you don't update your blog but once every two or three months then what's the point?

But it looks like there may be a new way to help connect these less popular dots together. Over at the blog of Chuck Westerbrook he proposes a simple yet effective idea. That is if the support behind it is strong enough to carry it on. And that is exactly why I am posting here today with links back to his site in full support of what he calls "Ending the Tragedy of Under-Appreciated Blogs."

Here is the battle plan:

1. Gather some nice bloggers who believe in helping good content rise. The more the merrier. This becomes our group for the project.
2. A good, lesser-known blog is chosen. Everyone in the group will read that blog for two weeks.
3. At the end of the two weeks, the group moves to another blog to read.

And all you need to do:

1. Comment here to express your interest in participating.
2. Be willing to add only one new blog’s worth of reading to your life. (This will be a different blog every two weeks.)
3. Subscribe to Chuck Westerbrook's Blog to get RSS or email updates.

I'm excited to see what kind of difference we can make by reaching out to lesser known blogs, like this one, and give them the attention they deserve. So if you enjoy reading my blog or have one for yourself then I would urge you to help support this effort. Thanks.

the onset of winter playlist

the songs that make you flip your collar up and watch your breath, like smoke, escape your lungs.

• Bright Eyes - The Drunk Kid The Catholic - 3 New Hit Songs
• Snow Patrol - Grazed Knees - Final Straw
• Damien Rice - Volcano 97' Demo - b-sides
• Bloc Party - So Here We Are - silent alarm
• Smashing Pumpkins - Thirty-Three - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Disc 2: Twilight to Starlight)
• Modest Mouse - The World At Large - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
• Ryan Adams - Wonderwall - Love Is Hell Part 1
• David Gray - Babylon - White Ladder
• Sufjan Stevens - Casimir Pulaski Day - Illinoise!
• Bon Iver - The Wolves (Act I and II) - For Emma, Forever Ago

redesign

As a part of this new redesign I ran across what seems to be a very common, yet seemingly frustrating problem with setting your sidebar to the full height of a page (not just the screen). It made sense in my mind to simply set the height of the sidebar div to 100%. But oh no, all that gets you is a headache and a pocket full of lint. I tried everything from setting the body and html tag height to 100% to using a min-height of 100% on the sidebar as well, but no luck. I'm still not sure whether this is a browser problem or a CSS problem. In either case I knew I was going to have to do my homework.

Type the words "full height sidebar" into google and you'll get over 300,000 results. With that many pages staring you in the face it can seem a little overwhelming. But I knew I wouldn't have to look that hard, what with Googles superb job of site indexing and all. After reading through a few forums I started to realize the problem I was having. Since my sidebar is floated right it sets the height according to the content that is inside of it, not to the height of the page itself. So for example, if I only had three lines of text in my sidebar it would only span the height according to those three lines of text. I think that worked fine in my old design, as seen below,

but with my new design using a dark background and a light grey sidebar it didn't look so pretty. And sure there are those out there who may say they like the sidebar to be cut short, but I think they're just being lazy.

Enter our hero, the magnificent, super-duper wrapper div. To be honest I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner, at work I always wrap my content. But in this case it hadn't occurred to me. But low and behold, as soon as I wrapped my content and my sidebar and set the background color to match that of my sidebar and set the height to 100% it worked like a charm. That is to say on some pages. You see the next problem came when my sidebar would extend pass the content, then my content would have this ugly grey area underneath it. And that wasn't going to work since I'm using #ffffff as the background color for my content. But even if I changed the wrapper background to white my sidebar would end up looking cut short when the content extended longer than the sidebar, which was my original problem to begin with. UGH!

Cue sound of angels singing. While taking a break from the code, washing my face to be exact, it clicked in my brain what needed to happen. It was so simple. Why hadn't I seen it before? All that was needed was a simple background image repeated on the y-axis that matched my sidebar and to set the background color to white. Now it didn't matter the length of the content or the length of the sidebar, all my pages were covered. Yay!

So what do you think of the new design? Do you like it better than my previous theme? Would you like to see it in the WordPress theme directory?