The book of Vincent

My left wrist has gone through a multitude of different watches. None of them expensive, most of them I loved very much. One way or the other I managed to change up my watches cause either I would lose interest, or the watch started to not tell the time correctly, or I just fancied a new watch.

On my right wrist I went through a bunch of different simple bracelets, from wooden beads, to small black glass beads, to my current choice of 3 black plastic jelly bracelets and a braid leather bracelet that I got from MBK in Bangkok Thailand. Well recently my leather bracelet broke after 2 years of wear. It was sad, I tried to repair it but to no avail.

I'm looking for a replacement. I'm also slowly looking for a replacement for my necklace (I'll have to get into that in another post)


Love,


Vince

The trouble with photos

I know what it is that makes me love photography but I never want to get into it. It's 2 things:

1) I can frame things with my eye, I get inspired by things that I see and would like to take a picture of it. But what I take with my camera almost never looks as good as what I see in real life. I can solve this by 1. get a better camera or 2. learn to use my camera to it's fullest potential and embrace the irregularities that my simple camera's create.

2) Uploading images to my hard drive is a hassle, sizing them down for the web is a hassle, the pictures take up space in my computer and it makes me feel that with each batch of photos that I take with ever increasing megapixled up images that it's taking up space. A picture of a random cloud or a marshmallow can be space for a design or a big photoshop project.

3) I guess there is a third thing, this is my inability to divert my attention from graphic design. Taking the time out to learn how to take proper photos eats up my time in honing my craft in being a better graphic designer. I also feel that the knowledge from photography takes up mental space in my mind which I should really be using for graphic design.

I tend to like the fact that I can take imperfect photos that's all my own. I mean lots of people can take perfect well lit white balenced perfectly focused pics, do i need to be another one?

Don't let me get into video.


Love,

Vince

Vodka

To go along ith Nel's post, I'm drinking Bolthouse Farm's Prickly Pear Lemonade, I think it would taste pretty good with vodka. To me anything would work with vodka.

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade...and put vodka in it.


Love,

Vince

Closing in...

I feel like my days as a freelance are ending. Oct 15th is closing in on me and I once again will be a working stiff looking forward to the weekends. Having a stable paycheck would be a nice change. I don't think I'm as productive as I could be working freelance.

The fall weather is here in full force. Man I miss summer, I miss hot summer nights. I think I should move to California.

I weighed myself the other day and I am the heaviest I have ever been at 187 pounds. I can stand to lose 10 pounds.

Man this is life.


Love,

Vince

Story of the Swoosh

I remember hearing about the story about how the Nike Swoosh came to be and how much it cost Phil Knight to get the logo done. This is what I found online:

The Nike 'Swoosh' logo cost just $35 (equivalent to $184 today #).

It was designed by graphic design student Carolyn Davidson in 1971 and for her services she charged $35 at a rate of $2/hour.

Phil Knight, the company's co-founder, repaid her in 1982 with a gold Swoosh ring and an unknown amount of Nike stock.

I've been working on a lot of logos lately. It seems that a lot of people don't put as much worth on a logo as they should.

It got me thinking about this story of the swoosh. To be honest I don't think I would have charged too much more then what Carolyn charged for the swoosh (not the $35 but the equivalent of $185)

I have a lot of little stories with my personal connection with the Nike brand. Here's one that relates to my life in graphic design.

About 6 years ago, I managed to get an interview for a graphic related job, good new. Bad news is I don't know how to use illustrator...at all. So what did I do, I crammed, I got last minute tutoring, I tried to get as much knowledge on illustrator as I can in 24 hours (maybe it was a few hours less then 24 hours). One of the things I did was to practice tracing a logo, that logo being the Nike Swoosh. Needless to say what I traced was not very stellar. It was my first foray in graphic design.

I went into the interview the next day and took the illustrator test they got set up, needless to say I failed and it took me over an hour and a half to fail it. I managed to get into the art department a few months afterwards, this time it was to take care of their paperwork. I dabbled in prepress work and got trained slowly but surely. About a year later I managed to retake that illustrator test and complete the whole thing in 9 minutes.

I have yet to redraw the swoosh...I guess until now.


Love

Vince

Joe Fresh

I bought some desert boots from Superstore today. I like their Joe Fresh line, I always make it a point to check out what they got. I ended up buying a couple pairs of shorts during the summer.

I've been wanting a pair of desert boots for a while, I almost bought a pair while I was in New York. Actually I almost bought a grey pair right before I went to Vegas.

These were dark brown, not really my color but at $40 I couldn't pass it up. The part that sold me was the thin crepe sole. I don't think it'll last long but it does give it a poor man's Opening Ceremony look.

Another day another pair of kicks


Love,

Vince

Ninjando I mean Nintendo DSI

Looks like all of us gotta upgrade our DS to the new DSI.


Love,

Vince