This is while I was on vacation. You don’t know all the strange looks I received while writing this and taking a photo of this. I actually wrote the whole alphabet.  I would like to see Photoshop make type look like this, SO BRING IT ON!!!

Some of this stuff is new, some is revamped. Enjoy

How Inspiration Works

can you read this

think of us

Here are some new brushes! Here is a sample of what they look like as well as a design that i created with these brushes only! let me know what you think as well as how you use them.

Here is the sample of what i created with the brushes

Here are the brushes

I don’t usually post someone else’s work, but this was too amazing not to share. It is a new video by blu. Check it out and let me know what you think.

BIG BAG BIG BOOM – the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

SO as i am about to go for a run, i am reminded of the last time i went running/stalked. Ok let me start from the beginning. Running is a very lonely activity and that is what i like and dislike about it at the same time. SO, i was running and saw another person running in the same direction that i was running!!!!!! SO of course i made it into a game. My game was to to try and catch him. He was running faster than me, so it  was a challenging game:)

He looked back at me half way through the run and when he saw me he did nothing and kept running, but as I made every turn that he did he started to pick up the pace. Now i don’t know if it was because of me, but it was pretty convincing that it was. He kept looking over his shoulder as if to say……”are you still there” or “who is this guy” or “get the hint go away”

Well i did not get the hint and did not go away. I was at this point following him where ever he was going, it was fun and really forgot i was running.  I had know idea where i was a t this point as I was following him. Eventually i had to break off and go back home as I was lost and only can run so long on my foot.

However, the whole time i was thinking of funny things to do when this other runner would turn around. here are a couple: BTW would love to hear Any of your funny things to do or say.

1. Slice my throat with my hand
2. Two handed wave
3. Say ” i see you”
4. Dart out of the way in the bushes every-time he turns around
5. “HEY you, do you have any friends”
6. “can i follow you home”
7. What’s your address, i will meet you at your house”

~dzob

I definitely think there are some courtesies that Americans do not do and some that we do too much.

1. Waving when someone lets you in: The first one that I want to talk about is when driving and somebody lets you in.  The courteous thing to do is wave, which means, hey kind person thank you for letting me in when all these other jack asses did not. Why don’t people use this? I feel people think that you have to let them in and it is their right. That drives me nuts. When I let cars in and they don’t do this I give them the finger behind the steering wheel, so they cannot see that I am doing it. It gets my anger out without being shot in the face

2. Holding the door. This is a courtesy that we can do with out. I am all for someone holding the door for someone with groceries, hands full, kids, a pregnant person, some one stealing a T.V., all of those are ok. However, if I am an able bodied person who can move my arm forward and back I do not need the door held for me. Thanks but no thank you!! And here is the reason it annoys me so.

The door is usually not held when I am right behind them it is when I am to far away for me to stick my hand out and grab the door. So, what ends up happening is that you have to jog or walk quickly to grab the door that they are holding for you to be “nice.” AND AND they get annoyed if you don’t get to it soon enough, as if you are the jerk for not walking faster then you normally walk. There “HELP” because not helpful and in fact becomes work.

What I normally do if someone is holding the door for me, I walk at my normal pace and if they want to stick it out good for them, if they let the door close, perfect. Sometimes I shout, “thanks, but you can let it o” there is just no need

When I “hold the door” it is for someone who is right behind me. I mean I am not a jerk, I will not let it slam in their face, ok…..well maybe that has happened a couple of times.

I have let the door close because the person was far away and have them yell “thanks for holding the door” in that case I just continue to walk because you know that person could. A kick my ass and B. are probably looking for some confrontation

Ok so that went longer than I thought, so I will stop there. More to come later

~dzob

So normally i post my own stuff, but my son drew these monsters that are too great not to share! SO I hope you like them and i will post more with his artwork as well as a spread i am going to develop that uses only his art work.

I want to start a design revolution!!! Who is with me? I am tired of seeing BAD design. Reply if you want to be part of the revolution.

1. We need a name
2. A purpose
3. a slogan
4. Chain of command

anything else i am missing?

~dzob

I have this new fascination with turning people into brushes, so i was playing around the other day and this is what i have come up with so far. Let me know what you think!!

I want to comment on the state of graphic design. I am not talking about getting jobs I am talking about what I am seeing that graphic designers are doing. From Magazines, movie poster, flyers, etc. It seems that graphic design has been confused with layout artist or template followers. WHEN did this happen and WHY? The WHY I can tell you; Because it is easy. It is easy to follow a template and just layout in copy and text, but takes true skill to think of a concept. Any one can put words on color, but it is the designer that makes it come to life.

I have seen too much of the template designs and it is driving me crazy!!! COME ON DESIGNERS stand up for what is right and challenge us! I would bet money that if magazines where more DESIGNED and less LAYED OUT more people would buy them and keep them and share them.

So, that being said….Colleen, another contributor on this site, and I were talking and she suggested the idea of a REAL TO LIFE layout. So we take our normal 16” x 10” design and make it 16 feet x 10 feet and have to create elements NOT using the computer. SO if you wanted type you would have to draw it or recreate it or even print in out but then put it on your real life spread. If you wanted people in your spread you would have to have people lay in your spread.

The idea of this makes me feel alive and want to try this out. I was thinking of doing a test run and posting photos of what happens. Imagine the possibilities!!

~dzob

While I was running I was thinking about what super power I would have if I could have one and it has always been mind control. Because I thought that if I was in a fight with another super hero I would win hands down. They want to burn me with fire, I can control them and say, “no you don’t”

But as I was running I saw this guy; We has about 45 and had on Khaki shorts, t-shirt and sweat shirt overtop kind of sloppy looking, but not dirty. He had a dunkin donuts back and coffee in one hand and his cell phone on his belt, but here is the weird thing, he was trying to hitch a ride. So that got me thinking…..what is his situation. Did his car break down and he stopped for a doughnut and coffee or is that cup and bag really old and there are drugs inside.

My mind starting going some strange places and that is when I realized that my new super power would want to know other peoples situations. Who they are, why are they here, etc. It is killing me that I don’t know that guys story.

So, i have not written in a while and I  know all two of you are upset that you could not get my daily rant or running story…well i am back to running and back to tell a story (YES!!!)

SO I tore my Achilles Heel and I went to see an orthopedic doctor and he told me to stay off of it for about a month and than get physical therapy. That month seemed liked the longest month in the history of longest months. after my LONG month I went to PT and saw a great doctor who started to give me some exercises to do and I asked “When can i get back to running?” his response “probably not for another month or two”……OR TWO!!!!!! about two weeks later he had me walking and eventually jogging. YES!!! I said i am back….well sort of.

He looked at the way that i was jogging and said “HUH….run some more……HUH, interesting.”

That did not sound good so i asked him what was wrong and he said “the way you run is weird and no wonder you got injured and he have to fix it” so basically my whole life I have been running stupid!!! SO we fixed it and i have to stretch before I run which I never did before….SO i have been running for about a month now for 2o minutes non stop, which has been great.

This morning I run for 23 minutes….30 minutes here I come!

Oh and I had to get fitted for “REAL RUNNING” shoes and they feel like a glove and now I don’t want to wear anything else. They are amazing, exspensive, but amazing. thanks for listening!!!

~dzob

Very good points. With the fire one my general idea was to have the pole be the only thing that was not damaged. However I did try it crooked. I will post with my results. Here are my results from Ryan’s Comments. See I can listen:)

I have not decided if this is for digital imaging 1 or 2. I took a road see below and destroyed it. I did two version; 1 with some pot holes and other destroyed roads, the other was war destroyed as you will see. Comments. Still kind of working.

I don’t know how convinced I am about the walk sign. Still maybe looking

Below is the war destroyed image:) I think the walk sign looks better in this one.

~dzob

Look at this picture and tell me if this is interesting or lame. I am thinking about showing it in the digital imaging 2 class.

I wanted to post something that was more design related ans less rant related. So, this is something new that I have been working on. It is for my digital imagining 1 class, for the text as texture lecture. I wanted to have words, but not have the message lost in the words, so why not have it be in french? What do you think?!?!

I was talking about layout in one of my classes this week and someone raised their hand and asked me, are there any magazines that you think has good design? And I really had to think about it because there are so many bad designed magazines out their. I have been thinking about this question for a long time and the answer that I keep coming back to is NO. There is not a magazine that i read that has good design.

the last magazine that i saw with really good design was a magazine called “raygun” that was designed by David Carson, one of my graphic design idols. That magazine was created in the 1990’s, so i have not seen one that has the same emotional design as raygun had. I was thinking why that was and I figured it out while i was driving into school. David Carson was not a formally trained designer, so he took risks that a trained graphic designer back then would not take. He distorted and destroyed copy and challenged the reader.

Today’s magazine there is NO regard for the type. It is all just placed in the page and the headlines are not considered a design element. EVERYTHING is a template of what and where things are placed. I am not saying that all the type needs to be unreadable, but it needs to be considered a part of the design and not an after thought. The cover is important, but does not need to be what they spend all the time one.

COME ON MAGAZINES!

~dzob

So my site was hacked:(

I think the site was hacked because of its awesomeness, but none the less hacked, so i have been off trying to figure out what to do. So in the end what i did was just replace the site with a backup version something i should have done from the beginning. What would happen is that every time i would try and comment it would bring me to another site.

So i contacted my host provider and told them the problem and they said there was no problem. They said to clear the cache and that fixed it on there end. So what they suggested to me was to clear MY cache of MY browser and that should fix the problem. What kind of advice is that. SO i am supposed to tell the people who visit the site (all 3 of you) to clear your browser cache every time you visit the site….that is redonkulous.

that is not help. Find out what hacked my site and suggest to fix it…..this is not what i was going to post about, but it annoyed me and had to be said. My original post is to come

~dzob

So i was on my way back from the ENT and he pulled tones of junk out of my nose:) aren’t you lucky you know that. Maybe i will have fewer snot rockets. anyway it was in towson and i thought i would stop by at trader Joe’s.

Let me stop for a moment for those who don’t know the hell of the parking lot of this trader joes. It is too small, too cramped, and not enough parking. People are animals for spots. We don’t go to it a lot just because of the parking lot.

So i was waiting behind a lot of parking disasters. One was waiting for a spot and this person had to back up and go forward 10 times ( i counted) meanwhile that cars where backing up to about 12 cars ( again i counted). this was already making me a little on edge. I cannot stand parking lots where people take too much time to pull out and are not considerate or do not know how to drive.

Anyway, so i finally make it around the corner and the car in front of me finds a space and is waiting for the car to pull out so he can pull in. Meanwhile while i am waiting this car honks its horn 3 times and gives me a look, well at least the old lady in the handicap spot with her reverse lights on does.

again let me stop you. Old people like that annoy me, they just create problems.

So i think I will go in front of them because they will take a lot of time to back up and i don’t like to wait, so i start to pull ahead and they honk the horn again and start to back up. I let them go because i did not want to die and i see a spot, a precious spot, open up and this old lady takes 3 minutes ( i counted) to back up.

Meanwhile my beautiful spot gets taken as well as other spots that i see because this old lady. i had to park so far away where there is no cart return and i feel guilty just leaving that cart there. So i curse you old lady and your extra wide tan Buick:)

~dzob

So i found out last week that i have achilles tendonitis which means that I have to rest my foot for two weeks. Which means no running:( Because of that you will not get any strange running stories. So instead of a running story I have a bread story

My mom makes bread from scratch and it is amazing!!! A couple of months ago I got the recipe from her and starting making bread. The first time wa a little bit of a disaster, but today was the third time and it turned out FANTASTIC.

There is NOTHING better than warm bread right out of the oven. SO if you are in the area stop by the house smells like fresh bread……wait jsut kidding don’t stop by:)

~dzob

This is a new series that i am starting. I hope to have all of the letters of the alphabet done. Here is the letter a and g

I recently posted a comment on facebook about how hollywood is the death of all good design and I thought I would post something here. I started this thought when i saw the avatar poster and it used papyrus! Really! Who was paid to do that poster. You have this nice artwork in the background and then you throw papyrus on it with a glow and a shadow and viola……hollywood poster!

It is not jsut the avatar poster it is a lot of posters that come out of Hollywood. I don’t understand. They are so over the top and mediocre it drives me crazy. There are so many movie posters that use Trajan as their typeface, it is plane laziness.

Take some originality and start to think what the type means and what the poster is supposed to say, not ” what “cool” effect i can put on it. As I was stewing about this I was watching some photoshop tutorials and i don’t get what is going on with design and photoshop. It is like any effect and cool trick is being used and it is seen as good design. it makes me sad:( and more ready to teach good typography and have people not create crap design.

~dzob

SO of course the snow did not stop me from running. I went running on Tuesday near my parents house and it was a great run. I love running in the cold, it is so much better than running when it is hot. however not all of the sidewalks were clear, so i had to run in the road for the most of it. SO here is my problem, why are not all the sidewalks clear!?!?!?! I mean it was three days after the storm, get outside and clear your walk. I had to do it, in fact i had to do it twice, but i did it becasue that is what you do. If it is too heavy or you cannot lift it than you pay someone to do it. Either way you need to clear your walk.

Yesterday i went running as well, and the same problem. Except these where sidewalks on major roads that should have been clear, like a 695 overpass and walk on the Harford Rd. I had to run in the road and have cars honk at me. What was I supposed to do about it. I am not walking in a foot of snow.

Ok that is all setting you up for what happened in the snow, with ice, sidewalks and you guessed it my good ol friend the barking dog. SO i was running on a sidewalk that was mostly clear and really focused because when the snow starts to melt it freezes over night giving you ice. SO i really have to watch the walk to make sure that i do not slip or to jump or run around it. As I said i was focused! and out of nowhere this dog starts barking as if i just kicked him and was attacking it’s owner and it scared me. So i turn, look, and stop all at the same time and….you guessed it…..I …….hit some ice. and completely fell on my running ass. As it happened i cursed the house, snow, ice, and sidewalk.

I am ok, but…….those damn dogs

~dzob

So last week i was running in the woods and it was raining and the trail i was running in was muddy and I slipped in the water 4 times and I loved every minute of it! That is the best running. My shoes where wet, my shoes where muddy, my hair was socked, and my legs where covered in mud, and I loved it!

But that is not the point of the story, I am just setting the scene.

So I was running and I was tired and I was wet and I look up and see there is someone else in the woods (which makes me nervous….because why are they there. I know why I am here, but they were not running) and i see more that it is a couple and they are walking there 1, 2, 3, 4…..5 DOGS!!!!! i run by them and the dogs bark, but they did do mutch after that. SO i run up this huge hill and turn around to come back on the same trail and i see two of the dogs running up after me!!!! Where are the owners?

the dogs run away, so i thought, ffffeeewwww. and as i am running past the couple and the insane amount of dogs and then……..i see one is braking away from the pack and chasing me….so i have to cross a little stream on this trail and my thought is that there is no way the dog will follow…………..I was wrong. I t came with me barking and basically at my heels….so i stop…look at the dog……..and i hear the owners say “come back here” “Come BACK here” “COME BACK HERE” and it did not do anything. It just looked at me and I was looking at him. For what seemed like 5 min. Eventually i started to run and the dog ran back to its owners…WTF Dog owners. Leash your dog or at least control your dogs. This comes form every scared runner, walker, and passer by. “I DON”T KNOW YOUR DOG IS FRIENDLY” So stop telling me that after it has already scared me and is 2 inches in front of me.

~dzob

These are some photo manipulations that i have been working on. Some video of how they where created are coming.

This is  out of brushes

this one I added all the splashes of water to the drums

say hello to the first Lebra ( I put zebra strips on a lion)

So last week I went for a run at in the trails at catonsville. It was great; muddy and hard to find where i was going. I slipped a bunch of times got my shoes wet and muddy and it was amazing. those are the kind of runs I love. Any way this post is really not about the run, it is what happened after the run….

I went to the gym to shower and change. I always hate this because it is the same gym as students use and I don’t need to see a student in there. I really hate seeing people i know from work or school in a different setting than what i know them from. Isn’t weird when you see a teacher in the grocery store or at a restaurant. now think about it if you see them in the gym changing. So anyway i hate showering at the gym at school, but I have to so lets move on.

When i get into the gym I see some paper towels sitting next to my locker. (clue #1) than i hear the water running from the shower area. My first thought is who is using them and the second is oh crap! so i have to do, so i can get back to my office, so i go into the shower area and i see that it is an old man (clue #2). SO i ignore him and go about my business and when i am done showering i go back to my locker and see that the paper towels (clue #1) are being used by the old man. He is standing on them! I have been in a lot of locker rooms and have seen a lot of old man and THEY ALL STAND on a towel and or paper towel while they are getting dressed. what is that? I am going to have to start to ask questions, it fascinates me so much.

Let me ask; what is the first thing that you would put on clothing wise when you are in a locker room? My answer would be underwear. That is not what old men do. First is they air dry, so that’s great. The second is a shirt, no bottoms, what? and the third is socks and then come the underpants……why…why….why. I don’t know why they do it that way but i have seen to much. I don’t want to see your junk…cover it up!

This guy put on his flip flops, so yes he has flip flops but he stands on paper towels, and goes to the hand dryer to blow dry his hair…….with nothing on, but his flip flops….so hw was flip flopping if you know what i mean…..damn!

It is so weird…anyway just had to share

I hope you enjoyed:)

~dzob

and p.s i have many more if you ever want to hear more…..maybe i should not have shared that:)

I am trying to replace some bi fold doors in my room and they are so hard to install. You have to make sure the top is in a while you are holding the top you have to some how keep that pressure and make sure that the bottom is in. WHO the F designed these things. They are the bane of my existence (and yes I know what that means).

ANd lets say by some stroke of home depot gods you get the door in and secure, it could get loose and you are back to being frustrated. AHHHHHHHHH.

If the bi fold door was a person i would beat him up. Ok maybe not beat him up, i am really not a fighter, but i would find someone to beat him up, ok i don’t know nay friends that are fighters, i would……would……would….um………right about him in a blog.

Look at colleen’s post below. It is a perfect example of why magazine design needs to change, why it needs to be better, and why we as designers need to change it.

I hate that colleen came to the conclusion that all magazine’s use template, because it can be deflating to realize that. I understand using grids, but template driven design is NO GOOD. EVER EVER EVER. It even goes further than magazines. Other design is going the template route as well…wait what. It is true. Look at target’s new brand up and up. It is completly sterile, lacks personalitiy, and is totally based off of a temple.

Lets stop this and start designing. This goes out to all the designers out there. We need to stop relying on templates and gimics in photoshop (drop shadow, inner glow, bevel, metallic, shine, etc) AND START DESIGNING.

I am not saying that it all needs to be in my style, but there needs to be some style.

Here is what I have gone with or at least what i am thinking about

Option 1:

Click here to read the rest…

I think a lot about perception. The way we see people form a far and what stories you make up about them. When I am out any where I LOVE to people watch, in fact I like to try and figure out what the people are doing, what their relationship is, and why they are out. It is so fascinating.

So i often wonder the little glimpse that we see can really distort our perception. We are only seeing part of the picture. For example if you see a parent being mean to their child (pulling them, or yelling at them), you may think what an awful parent. BUT what you did not see is the 6 hours prier where the kid has worn the parent down and this was the last straw that we saw. And I think single people or even married people that don’t have kids perceive this differently than people with kids. Single people may say, “and that is why I am not having kids” where other parents may say, “I know that feeling” or “what a bad parent”

SO this all leads up to two scenarios that I have seen that I want to share.

1. a couple of nights ago I saw, while picking up my take out order at a pizza place, a man about 30ish sitting at the table eating pizza out of the box and crying. And he wasn’t even trying to hid the fact that he was crying.So my question is why was he crying, what didn’t we see and was his intention to eat at the restaurant?
   Think about it and reply
2. The second scenario is when I was running the other day I saw an older man in his 50’s walking on the sidewalk in gym shorts, a fleece, brown dress shoes, and black socks. So my questions are:
   A. Did he look in the mirror?
   B. IS that his normal exercise gear?
   C. Does he own exercise clothes?
   D. What makes you change into gym shorts but not change the shoes?

~dzob

Here is something that I am working on.

Sorry for the lack of posts, my classes have been keeping busy. That is a good thing.

This happened last week and I need to share it:)

I was driving, of course this a story about driving, and all of a sudden 95 comes to stand still. Forget the fact that I was thinking about something in my head and almost hit the person in front of me, but it is never good when 95 is not moving. I was on my way to my 9 am class in catonsville.

So we start to move a little, but I am watching the clock tick away minutes and my preparation for my class also dwindle away. Now I left my house at 7:30 and it usually take about 30-45 minutes depending on traffic.

So we are still just crawling along……foot by foot. It took me 15minutes to get onto 95 from 695. It was ridiculous. SO I am going crazy. I don’t mind traffic if a know why there is traffic, but this seemed more than just traffic. the not knowing is what kills me.

So i am thinking do i exit and try the back roads? i did not have my gps, so the answer to that is NO!

SO we start moving a little more and  a little more and that is when………..i see it……….the cause of the traffic…………it was

One of those signs that say MAY be fog, but in this case it was saying that taffic on 95 is heavy use 895 and 695 as alternates!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH what! after that sign the traffic disappeared.

SO WAIT….the traffic was caused by a sign that says there was traffic???!?!?!. THE SIGN WAS SAYING THERE WOULD BE TRAFFIC……AND BECASUE OF THE “SIGN” THERE WAS TRAFFIC.

WTF everyone. Can’t you read the sigh while you are driving and not to stop or SLOW DOWN. I was so mad. A SIGN!!!!!!!! I took me 1:15 minutes to get to school because of a sign telling me about traffic.

~dzob

In my typography class I was showing how you could create a design in photoshop only using type and various brushes created out of the type, so i thought i would make a video of it and post it here.

Below is the finished tutorial and click here to download the psd file if you are interested in seeing how it was done.

Here is the video:

Ok, so I have not written a running story in a while and thought it was about time. Because this semester I am teaching many morning classes my running schedule has been disrupted. I would usually run about 7:30 in the morning and then go into work, but this semester i have 3 morning classes, so i have to find time to run while at school.

So if you see me running on campus please do not honk:)

I was running at catonsville’s campus Monday, did any else know that they have trails on campus? anyway that is where i was running, the trails. I LOVE running trails! There is a lot more to look at, to dodge, to think about. I LOVE IT. can you tell i love it? But i also hate them, because they make me nervous….why do you ask….I fear the people that may be lurking in the woods, murderers, strange people, and my own shadow:)

Any so i was running and feeling good, crossing rocks, going up steep hills, going down long hills, climbing over trees, etc….i felt like i could be on survivor:) I was doing good until……….i saw a flash of something through the trees….it was yellow…..no it was orange……is it moving………and then……………..i saw that it was a student…..or was it…..yes yes it was a student and they where taking pictures with their camera.

Run some more…..almost run into..more people….now i start to wonder why there are so many people in the woods….i don’t know what makes me more nervous, lots of people or not any people.

Run some more and I am really starting to feel tired and it is almost the end of my run and then it happens…………………there is a rustling in the bushes…..i think maybe it is another person, nope the bush is to small……….then more movement…..keep running eyes straight ahead…..and then it happens…..this thing darts from the bush right in front of me and I almost trip/step on it and then it darts back into the bushes….breath……than it come back out and this time I start to get nervous….i still cannot get a good look at what it is…it does this about two more times in a matter of seconds…….it turns out it was a scared squirrel!

A squirrel, A squirrel. A squirrel. I was scared of A squirrel! what? While this was happening i actually yelped out WHAT THE F….I had to laugh at my self for being so scared of such a little animal

Hope that made your day:)

~dzob

This was for my typography class, but just in case you forgot or never had it here it is. It is a real simple intro on how to slice type and basic movements in illustrator. Linked is also the template that i used. enjoy

~dzob

I think as adults we loose finding fun in the little things for example as I am writing this my son is in his underpants playing with post it notes and putting them on his fingers and pretending they are claws. First he made them sea weed and now he is putting them on his shirt and saying “hickory, snik, mick….i just said snick”

Why as adults are we not able to do things like this? Is it because we think that it is inappropriate, or we feel silly, or any other reasons? It really is sad to me. I am a little different, I like playing and having fun and really playing “WITH” my son. I think to many parents just want there children to play by themselves. When ever I go to a party that has kids I feel like I am running a day care, because other people’s children come over to me because I am playing “with” my son. I.e. Down on the floor, giving him piggy pack rides, building with him, etc. I don’t find it hard, but maybe I am different.

anyway this post was supposed to about finding fun in the little things and turned into something else, oh well. “stinky socks” says my son.

~dzob

So, I get lost very easily. That is why I normally have my GPS on even though I know where I am going. Not only am I not good with directions and could get lost in a parking lot (True story) and get wrapped up in my own thoughts and usually forget that I need to make a turn or get off of the highway(another true story). That is why the GPS is good because it make noises and brings me out of my own thoughts and back to focusing on where I am going.

So here is why I am writing this. The other day I am going form towson town mall to CCBC (essex). I decide to take the highway and I decide to take 695e towards essex and get off on exit 35. SO I repeat this to myself about 5-10 times so i remember.

You may ask your self, why didn’t you use your gps? and that would be a fine question. The reason is it was in my bag and I did not feel like reaching back and getting it and plus I thought how hard could it be. 695 E exit 35.

I am on the highway…….and approaching the split of 695 and 95. 95 exit is on the right and to stay on 695 is on the left. I am deep deep in my own thoughts………….and I stay where I am which happens to be on the right…..and I exit to get onto 95 s. By this time I still do not notice that anything is wrong. Until I start to merge and I think to my self there is a lot of traffic and construction on 695……wait…………….I am…………….on……………95 south!!!!!!!! There are no exits soon once your are on 95. SO swear, swear some more and get out my GPS….

It guides me to where I want to be and I will always use the GPS no matter how close, far, or how many times I have been there.

~dzob

I gave my self a 20 minute challenge. I took 1 picture and had to create a design ONLY using this one picture. I would love to see someone else take the challenge of taking one picture and working it into a design/art whatever you want. Only take 20 minutes and only one picture. Even if you don’t take this challenge at least look at what I did, please comment:)

Original Image

Combined Image

“I AM THE BEST, OR AT LEAST I AM THE ONE THAT YOUR NOT”

any thoughts!

So I have not written in a while, but i have a lot to say! My family and I went to the beach a couple of weeks ago and I have some things that I noticed.

1. People love to not wear shirts! And I don’t mean on the beach, when they leave the beach. There were people at the gas station not wearing shirts and people getting food without their shirts on, it was ridiculous. What makes them think that because they are at the beach that it means “NO SHIRT FOR ME” On the actual beach does not matter, but it does matter when it is off of the beach.
2. I was amazed at all the people running, biking, walking, etc in the morning. I was one of them, but I found it interesting that so many where doing it as well. It is good and not a complaint, but I was surprised. Because it was so hot there were tons of people running shirtless! Now I run and get hot but ever once did i say “it is so hot at 6 am that I need to rip of my shirt” I know it gets hot when you run, but I don’t want to see your sweaty back fat!
3. I think people who run at noon are idiots, they wonder why they are so hot. UMMMM maybe because the sun is straight above you and it is the hottest time of the day, maybe. “Maybe I should take of my shirt to show you my amazing pectoral region” Which way is the gym:)
4. Why is it fun to dig big holes in the sand? I was right there with the rest of the idiots digging a big hole. “look i dug a big hole, now what?” I don’t know what it is, but it was fun!

I have more, but that will do for now. Comment on your observation while on vacation!

~dzob

So recently my son has really been into playing board games. Now keep in mind he is only 3 1/2. He wants to play our, adult, games, like; monopoly, clue, taboo, chess, etc. So we make up our own rules and he has a blast!! Try teaching a 3 year old the rules of clue; youa re trying to find the murderer as he replies “what is a murderer?” I say; oh crap it is when you kill someone one….i mean…it is when you shoot someone…i mean…it is when you take a rope and strangle them….i mean….you should not play this game

But it really got me thinking about the game monopoly, which is my favorite game off all time. IT is so much fun, but I have nobody to play it with me. My wife does not like the game and does not play it right anyway. She does not trade the properties that she gets, she hold onto them. SO the only way to get a monopoly is to land on all the properties yourself. Which rarely happens.

SO, this new game came out by monopoly which is called monopoly deal, which is a card game where you only try to get property. Is it sad that I am really excited to get it?!?!

I have been thinking a lot about board games; which are my favorite, why, and should I get some new games? So here is my question to all of you that are reading this;

What is your favorite game and why?

When driving there are many types of cars and people in the cars not to trust and there are combination’s of all of these not to trust. Some of the combination that i will mention are not to trus tthe person because they may crash into you, cause an accident, drive away from the accident and jsut plain drive slow:)

So here they are in no particular order.

1. Any person in an oldsmobile! I have found that no matter who is driving if you see an oldsmobile (especially a cutlass classic) switch to the other lane and drive past them as soon as possible. They are usually in the left lane going slow.
2. Any person with their hand out of the window when the temperature is above 85. They cannot possible think it is that nice outside. It probably means they are crazy or the AC is broken in the car and they cannot fix it because they don’t care or they don’t have the money. Either way that does not bode well for driving behind or next to them. (THIS is worse if they are driving in a pick up truck, van, or oldsmobile!)
3. Any person with their hand on the passenger seat. You know with their right hand around the back of the passenger seat. This means they are relaxed and could care less about what everyone else is doing. This usually means that they drive very slow and are not aware of it. Again this is made worse in a pick up truck and any old car, or sports car.
4. Any SUV or VAN with a kids TV show on the installed TV’s. Not all the time, but I have found that these people do not drive that fast and are somewhat distracted. I am also distracted trying to figure out what they are watching. Pass them because they are usually going slow
5. Any car that has a bumper sticker that says something about Jesus saving them or about him being the co-pilot. A couple reasons why I put this person in here is; 1 they don’t seem to drive fast 2. They know that if they crash they go to a higher place because jesus saves, so that means that they are not going to be to worried. 3. If jesus is driving he probably is not worried that i am late tailgating behind them:)

I have many more, but these are some of the worst offenders!

~dzob

I was driving home from the store today and i saw i guy on the corner in work out clothes, gym shorts and t-shirt, and he was looking around….but that is not the weird thing. Wait….He was holding dress shoes.

SO here is what I want to happen from this post. That is the end of dress shoe guys story you need to tell me how he got to the corner holding dress shoes in gym clothes.

I will post my answer later:) I think this will be a fun little game. If you read this on facebook, come to dzobel.com and post the answer, so everyone can see it!!

~dzob

Today I am going to stain my deck. I don’t know how to do it, but how hard could it be, right? he answer to that is it could be very hard. I can see my deck looking striped like a zebra:) I power washed my deck last week and that was fun for about 30 min, than I was thinking… could this be any more tedious? It was amazing how clean the deck got. But anyway.  Hopefully no dog will try and bite me from my deck:)

OH! but my neighboor does have a dog that every time I go outside it goes crazy. SO now it is a game about how crazy i can make the dog. I am not mean, but PEOPLE control your animals. They leave the dog out all day and night, never see them walk the dog. I don’t like them and there dog jsut makes them worse.

It started out as such a nice post and then i had to find something that annoyed me to put in the post. HA!

~dzob

This post is not about dogs chasing me or any other dog BARKING issue. This is about me running the best time I have ever run. Yesterday morning at 7:00 I went out for a run and it was beautiful out, perfect running weather for me. I do not like it when it is too hot outside. In fact I love running in the cold. You should see what I wear, i look like snake eyes from GI Joe. Any way my typical pace is about 8 minutes a mile, so if I run 5 miles my should be……40min.

Because it was so nice out and I had not eaten I could feel my self flying down the road. My first mile 38:31 which is something like 7:45 a mile, which again is really fast for me. Now, I have been running for 13 years and stated out running a 12 minute mile. I ran in HS and college, took a break to gained 80 pounds than got back into running and eating right. I used to weigh 250 lbs now I weigh somewhere between 175 and 180, which is a good weight for me. Anyway that is a post for another day.

I was proud of my run and thought I would share.

~dzob

I have been trying to get this story to the site for weeks now. Anyway here it goes. So, I am a master BBQ’er or at least I think I am. I wish I could cook everything on the grill…love the smokiness, the texture and the flavor. I have been watching to much food network:)

I was BBQing some chicken on the grill and I like to baste the chicken twice. Once when I first put it out and the other once I flip the chicken. So I am trying to get dinner ready and I put the chicken out on the grill and give it a good bath in BBQ sauce and put the top back on and let it cook for seven minutes..

Seven minutes are up………and I flip the chicken…….everything is good…….i reach for the BBQ sauce…….and I go to pour it…..and think…….it has been seven minutes and the sauce is probably settled and could use a good shake…..

**Now I have to stop to let you know how I shake and what method I use. I use a side arm shake. I start off with the bottle horizontal and shake across my body to the left and shake to the right and go back to the left. Holding the bottle horizontal…A good side shake method.**

So back to what is going on in the story. I go to shake the sauce…………and……..all of a sudden I feel something on my face and then…….on my shirt……and then on my leg……and then on my hand………..and then in my hair. I felt like I was shot. I was holding this now empty BBQ sauce bottle.

I looked at the bottle as if to say “what did you do?” and then I muttered the all to familiar phrase……”you have got to be kidding me”….and guess what it was not kidding. Then I said a couple of choice words and had to go inside to clean and get all the BBQ off of me. My favorite is Jesus F-ing Christ. Or I may have said you Mother F-er.

Meanwhile none of it got on the chicken……Just another day and life in my shoes, my BBQ sauce shoes.

~dzob

I was going to write a funny story today, but something else came up that compelled me to write an angry story. I went out to my car this morning to get something and noticed that my drivers side door was slightly open. So, very concerned I looked in the car and at first saw nothing broken or missing.

I looked in my glove compartment and saw that my detachable radio was still there, but….my GPS was missing….missing…..i should say stolen. This really makes me upset. More than just having something stolen from your car, but the logic or lack of logic.

One should always live by the rule; if it is not your DON’T take it!!! I would never think to take anything from anyone. Not only because I don’t want to be arrested, but because I would not want anything stolen from me. Why don’t other people have that same tendency? It makes me think what is wrong with this person; where they not held enough as a baby, where they beaten, do they have a father, what are there role models, etc etc.

I don’t know what can be done, but it seems like these type of people can get away with it and don’t care. What do they care about if they don’t care about other people. They certainly don’t care about them selves because if they did they would be scared as well.

Damn.

~dzob

I was at a birthday party with my son and it was at a bouncy party palce. The best creation!!! IF you have never been you need to get a child and go. It would be a little creepy if you showed up and had no child:) It is a big room filled with all sorts of moon bounces, and yes for my 30th birthday party I had a moon bounce….and BBQ. My two favorite things!

Anyway, SO I was at this party and about 5 kids where in the moon bounce running in circles and loving it! it made me think that when do we loose that ability to have fun running in cirlces. When was the last time you heard one of your friends say “Hey dave let run in a circle for about 30 min”. The only time I heard it was when I was running track and you have to run in a cirle. But you understand!

Or when was the last time pretended a pillow was a fire truck. When do we loose that raw energy and creativity?

So I was creating some brushes the other day and I thought that many people don’t know what goes into creating brushes, so I thought I would share.

Here are some of the materials that where being used. The first shot is of a $.99 spray bottle filled with regular house paint. NO WATER ADDED.

Here is part of the set up as well as the can of black house paint.

I pored the house paint into the bottle and set up a close line with close pins, where i hung sheets of paper. I than sprayed the paper with the pain to create…..well you will see

This is a sample of what some looked like. I used different approaches to create this brushes. I stood close up, far away, at an angle, etc.

results:

In the end i created ab out 50+ sheets of paper. Now not all of them i turned into brushes, but i did end up with 31 brushes.

Here is a link to a sample of the brushes. Enjoy:) I am not giving you all of them….I have to hold something for my self.

Ok so this is another running story, maybe not as funny as the snot rocket story, but what will? I get so many comments in person about that story it makes me laugh. So anyway. I was running the other day, like I like to do. It was about 3:00 and I had underestimated how hot it was.

I started off running and no problem with the heat or the sun. AND THEN………it happened…….As i was running probably at mile 3 out of no where comes this DOG!! Now I stop here to tell you a side note. I cannot stand dogs, while I am running. They bark, run , or leap while I am running it is so annoying. The owners always say, “he is friendly” or “he is a nice dog”…ummm if we was a nice dog he would not park at me and make me wet my pants, ok?. OK! Right, so back to this DOG, all caps. All of a sudden this DOG come running, full speed, towards me and mind you this is not any dog it is a pit bull or Rottweiler! So it is coming towards me with what looks like no leash.

I am scared out of my mind. I actually say out loud, what are you doing?, as if the dog will answer me….”To eat your face, of course” But not to fear there is a fence, so the worse it could do is scare me and I move on with my life……too easy. All of a sudden the fence ends and here I am face to face with this DOG. He is running I am running and he is inches from me and I see it…..it is a glorious leash and it yanks him back, but he comes running again.

Now here is what is in my imagination; the DOG breaks the lease and I start to run faster and he runs faster and now I am in chase with a DOG who wants to eat me. Luckily that did not happen, but that lease was to long. Come on dog owner think of the people that are walking and running by.

So after that scare I still had 2 more miles to run. Now my heart is beating fast and it is hot and I might have a heart attack. I run another half mile and my feet are on fire, sweat is in my eyes, I AM HOT, not to mention I am now running up a big hill, so what do it do…….I actually yell….F*UCK. Literally out loud! I was so hot I don’t know what came over me, but I said it again and this time louder. After I said it two times I had to laugh because i was thinking what the other people that where in there yard were thinking.

What would you think if out of no where this runner comes by yelling the F word? Any way that is my typical day of running story. Hope you enjoyed:)

The full article is below and the design article is above. This is the first idea for this article more to come. Let me know as always

Today I ran my fastest mile pace ever. It was 7:53 for about 5 miles, so that I ran 5 miles in 44 minutes and 25 seconds. That is really fast for me and was very excited about it and had to share it! Even though that my regular pace is about 8 minutes per mile this pace seemed to make me extremely tired and I so exhausted when I finished and came home. 7 seconds does not seem like that big of a difference, but it was!!

What made me push my self and keep going was the music i was listening to. My high school coach, Mr. Link, told us never to listen to music as it will alter our pace and make it inconsistent, or something like that. That is in the back of my head every time a strap on my ipod and put on those headphones.

The music that really helped was some songs by the white stripes (ickey thump and Blue Orchid), Run DMC (Raising Hell (this I listed to 3 times) and Peter Piper) and Bad Religion (21st century digital boy). SO i wanted to thank the music….you guys really helped me through the tough hill at the end. When i said this is enough i must start walking RUN DMC said “king from queens from queens come kings we are raising hell in the class when the lunch bell rings….so loud like a cloud of thunder and lightning so proud to the crowd it is somewhat frightening……and bad religion said…..”i don’t believe it the way you look sometimes……the things you are offering me…… i am a 21st century boy, i don’t know how to read but i got a lot of toys, my daddy is a lazy middle class intellectual my mommy’s on Valium so ineffectual….and the white stripes said “white Americans, what? nothing better to do? why don’t you kick your self out, you are an immigrant to!”

SO thanks you!

~dzob

Here are the other comps

Here is the video tutorial for the typography brush thing that i posted last week. I am getting together a step by step tutorial, but that takes some time, so it will come a little later. Below is the video and a link for the brush file.

Brush Files: brush_turorial4.zip

Here is a new design. It started from a gift that I gave a friend recently. I changed it to say typography. I am goign to try to do more because i really like what is going on with it and everything that went into it. Later i will post the individual layers and how it was created. Let me know what you think

In this tutorial I take a text treatment and make it using masking, etc and turn it into a brush and than make a design out of that. It is amazing what you can achieve with brushes!

So, I was on my way to catonsville and it is 10:55 and I needed to be in my office at 11:00. By my calculation I was about 5 minutes away from at school, so I had no room for error. I know I could have been five minutes late, but I do not like to be.

I am comming up on the sign for my exit and it says 1 mile to go, but i was behind some jerk going 40 miles per hour ON 95, WTH!!! Side note** Sometimes when I am driving I get lost in my own thoughts and miss exits and I usually have my GPS on just so it reminds me. SOmetimes a drive past my exit to go home….another time I will tel that story:)

So I go to pass this person and all of a suddon three trucks box me in and I can not move out of this lane and now I see my exit comming up and so i try to break and go behind the truck and the same jerk that I was passing takes my spot. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! Well I said much worse than that, but….

As this jerk, lets call him roger, took my spot I looked at him and mean really looked at him. He was old in a Oldsmobile Cutlas classic, tan, wearing a wicker hat….so I named him roger. There are a few rules that I follow when I am behind a car and one of them is never trust any one that drives an Oldsmobile!

SO I missed my exit, and that got me so mad,  and I had to drive to the next one and turn around it made me 20min late to school.

~dzob

Here is an article that I wrote. Below are some spreads that i designed to go along with this article. If you are taking my type class you will see some of these again. Some are better than other. Let me know what you think:)

good typography is becoming extinct and bad typography is the disease. how many times have you seen bad typography win over good typography and do nothing about it? this has to stop! corporation and average joe are taking over the design and creative industry and we have to stop it from spreading. corporations do not want to try anything that is interesting or creative. why? FEAR! they are all afraid that they will fade away and nobody will remember them. they are afraid to make the average person confused. because of this they never will push the idea of design. to them it is making their boring ideas “pretty” or “have some pizazz” or making it “sexy”… and if i hear one more person tell the designer to “make it pop” i will go insane!

The reason that logos are so annoyingly big are not because the designer wants them that way it is because the client (who doesn’t know any better) says “can you make it bigger.” and every designer or creative director rolls their eyes and says sure! in the heads of most designers they are saying, sure, you without the formal training or the knowledge that if i make your logo bigger than all the type has to change and be re kerned so that it all fits together. the person who knows the best about the subject is being turned into a technician.

Designer start to become immune to this disease and start making the logo bigger to start with and than the type becomes bigger and soon they are part of the problem and not part of the solution. we need to re-train the designers and owners of design firms to stand up to this disease if we ever want to cure it.

There are so many reasons why people and designers are perpetuating this disease and adobe is the main cause. Yes that is right i said adobe! they added drop shadows, inner glow, outer glow, bevel/emboss, and all the other pointless over done and over worked cheesy gimmicks. If they were never there we would not have this disease running ramped through our society.

I went to see cirque du soleil, or circus of the sun, over the weeked and it was amazing!!!!!! For those of you who don’t know what cirque du soleil is it is circus like nothing else you have ever seen. There is comedy, contortion, tight rope, wheel of death (my favorite), etc. It will amaze you and make you feel like you don’t have any special talent:)

IF you have never gone than i suggest going!

But the main thing that i want to talk about is the parking!!!! We get there 15-20 min before it starts and there is just a cluster “F” of cars. All waiting for parking. SO five ten minutes role by and we have not moved very far. So we turn around and start to try a different area for parking, well te parking attendent says we cannot go that way and points us in a direction and said more parking and I quote “a left, a left and a right”.

So what do i do….a left a left and a right……well that got me back on MLK and make a huge loop see two accidents and 10 min later I AM BACK AT THE SAME SPOT!!!!!!! So we had to park at camden yards staduium and walk to lot “O” of M&T Bank stadium. We get there 10-15 min late……They should have had signs or something. The lack of signage made me psychotic!

~dzob

I was asked the other day in one of my classes, “Did i make the same mistakes as us, did you also have this handle on design and type, etc” and the anwer is no! I was not always as crazy as I am now. I made the same mistakes, I even used papyrus. That is right i said it, I used it. I am not proud of it and I am currently seeking counsling.

The reason I harp so much about type and design and really forcing my students is because no body gave me that advice or direction till I was at graduate school. Being at pratt institute really changed my whole portfolio and design view. My portfolio went from disaster to master….well maybe not master, but a lot better. I don’t have the old files before pratt, but I do have my pratt stuff that i will post. I would even change some of that work, now if I had the chance.

Also living and working in NYC really made a difference. It is really influenced how I look at design and what I do with design. I don’t have a clean approach anymore and never want to again. I did clean for corporations for 10 years, now when i design it is beyond that, texture, crazy type, etc. One last thought; pratt really drilled type into my head and that is what all designers need.

I will post some of the pratt files later. I have to find where they are:)

~dzob

I was at the grocery store, Safeway, and was pushing my cart to my car when I saw the thing the drives me the most PSYCHOTIC………. The grocery carts where all out in the middle of the parking lot and thrown in the cart corral! How hard is it to out your cart inside of the cart that is in front of you?????? Am I really that much better at pushing a cart than the rest of America, I guess so?

This is why it drives me so crazy; It is lack of respect for the perosn who has to actually take the carts into the store, lack of respect for the next person who has to put thier cart in and laziness. It is also inefficient.

So what did I do when I saw that carts this way……..I am gald you asked…..I went crazy and starting…..to……..well ok nothing to major. I rearranged the carts so they all fit together, it was as if i was a Safeway employee. This one lady saw what I was doing and looked me in the face and put her cart in the wrong way!!!! She did not say anything, did not help me, or wait. She added to the problem. WTF GROCERY STORE SHOPPERS!!!!!!

WTF

~dzob

I just got a new Digital SLR and Love it! Here are some pictures I took with it. It is a Sony A-350. It is a middle of the road camera, but love it!

Click here to read the rest…

If you had to pick 2-3 super powers what would they be?

When I have thought about this before, and I think about it a lot, I used to have a solid answer every single time, MIND CONTROL. I thought that mind control could do anything and win anytime. But I have given it some thought and there are some other things that I, personally, would like to have and it has nothing to do with winning or defeating. It was more to do with dealing with situations. SO below are a list of powers that I would like to have:

1. Knowing a persons situation: This one would be when you meet someone for the first time you know something about them. It would allow to make better small talk with someone. For example if I meet “Joe” out at a party that I don’t want to be at, but when I meet him i knew that he liked football, played tennis, was married, loves shrimp, but hates traffic. I can make small talk about something we have in common. I also would make people watching so much easier. I could look at a table and see two people and know if they were on a date, friends, or married.
2. Hello/Goodbye Detection: Knowing the appropriate hello/goodbye: hug, handshake, kiss, or wave.
3. Undo: the ability to undo up to 25 things in a row, just like photoshop
4. Eye Camera: Being able to take a picture of what my eye sees

Let me know yours!

I have seen the 25 things that you should know about me on face book and thought it would be a good idea to post it here.

1. I love to chop wood
2. I love to make a fire
3. I bowl (used to have a 190-200 average) I have my own shoes and ball
4. I drink about 90-100 ounces’ of water a day
5. I used to weigh 250 lbs now I weigh 175 lbs
6. I run about 16-20 miles a week
7. I like teenage soap operas (One Tree Hill, OC, Gossip Girl, but draw the line at 90210…it’s so unbelievable)
8. Love breakfast
9. Love cereal (Cheerios, Honey nut Cheerios, Fruity Cheerios, Kix, Trix) I like to mix the cereals together
10. Love Music (currently listening to Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, and Locksley)
11. Favorite Dessert is a doughnut
12. Like to shop at Express
13. Like any cop drama show (Currently – Mentalist, Bones, Fringe, 11th Hour)
14. Like to play cars more than my son
15. favorite video game is PAC MAN
16. Think I am funny
17. I am socially resistant (don’t like have small talk with people…don’t care about the weather or sports or politics)
18. Am an Independent (don’t like politics, but like to vote in the president election)
19. Love coats and different types of coats
20. Would shop more if i did not have buyers remorse
21. Love anything about design, typography, and art
22. Don’t like to be under an umbrella or be near umbrella’s (fear of being poked…not really but they do annoy me)
23. Can fix light fixtures, but hate plumbing projects
24. Love to cook on the grill. Would cook everything on the grill if i could
25. Favorite food – Ham
26. Love corn in anyway (on the cob, off the cob, creamed corn, corn bread, corn cakes)
27. Don’t really like pancakes, but LOVE french toast
28. Make killer sandwiches ( take my time to make it right) Secret tiger sauce!
29. Don’t like warm water, it has to be ICE cold
30. Don’t like high fives in any format
31. or thumbs up in any format
32. Don’t like any period films (anything set not in today or the future bores me)
33. Love to people watch
34. Am very observant
35. Have a learning disability ( i think…Dysgraphia)
36. Want an i touch or iphone
37. Hate all customer service reps…i feel like they all don’t care
38. Feel people should be more respectful and less jerks
39. drivers other than me are bad drivers
40. I am normal, but everyone else is weird
41. Am not a big movie fan
42. Only running shoe that fits is New Balance
43. Have never seen classic 80 movies (like flash dance, dirty dancing, and breakfast club)
44. Used to have a goatee
45. Shaved it off seven years ago
46. Only have 4 close friends (don’t like having more than that)
47. Farm animals freak me out a little
48. Love Adam Sandler movies
49. Don’t own any movies
50. LOVE my job!
51. Got married when I was 21
52. HATE when people hold the door open for me (It makes me have to jog to get to the door…how rude)
53. Don’t like mediocre music
54. Don’t like bad rap, but love RUN DMC
55. Can’t remember any actor or actresses names…only their names in the show they are in
56. Favorite TV show of all times (Friends)
57. Think men with long hair look silly
58. Don’t get sports cars
59. Don’t get sports or sports fans
60. Don’t pay attention to most sports
61. Love watching Bowling and poker
62. HATE traffic
63. HATE traffic ( i know it’s twice that is how much I hate it)
64. Love Grunge type and design
65. LOVE Jazz
66. Could listen to Ella Fitzgerald all day (her voice is like butter)
67. Never have been in a fight (always talked my way out)
68. Never have been drunk
69. Never had more than a sip of Alcohol
70. People have tried to get me drunk (why do people who like to drink, try to get other people who don’t like to drink to drink)
71. Used to skate aggressively
72. Have seen the spice girls movie
73. Watched sports and what not to wear at the same time
74. LOVE what not to wear, wish I could hang out with Stacy and Clinton
75. Am allergic to smoke from Cigarettes
76. Love to play monopoly
77. Don’t like chocolate
78. Love fruit – Favorite is either apple or watermelon
79. Love the taste of crabs, but hate to pick them (It is a lot of work for such little meat) Any time I have to work that hard for food, I am not interested
80. Love Tex Mex (favorite Rio Grande)
81. I could eat BBQ all day everyday 24/7 (Pulled Pork is my favorite)
82. My parents are really religious, but I am not. Don’t believe in organized religion
83. Shave in the shower
84. Love the smell of Coffee, but don’t drink coffee (would like to because it seems interesting to have all the different flavors)
85. Love flavored soda! (jones strawberry lime is my fav, but birch beer is the best!)
86. Feel like a loser at restaurants because we don’t drink, order coffee, or dessert.
87. Get nervous leaving a message on an answering machine (the beep is so final..basically says leave a message NOW!!!!)
88. Feel awkward at parties
89. Only swear when I am by my self
90. Jack Ass is fun to say
91. Don’t listen to the radio (they play the same 10 songs)
92. Used to live in NYC (Queens) and did not like it, great for my design, but did not like the people and the atmosphere and commute
93. On the subway in NYC someone sneezed on my neck
94. Don’t like to shake someones hand (not for germs, it just seems over done and am always akward with it. A lot of pressure to give a good handshake)
95. I would rather wave goodbye than shake and or hug (You never know which one…going in for a hug, when the person wants to give you a handshake……AWKWARD)
96. Dislocated my shoulder (My hand could touch my knee) The most pain I have felt
97. Have a high tolerance for pain
98. Love to hear my son laugh
99. Can’t take naps
100. Am a morning person (when I wake up I am awake and ready to start the day)

DID IT!

This is a great website, www.typeisart.com. It deals with creating art from different parts of typography. When you get there hit begin and start placing the differet parts. You can scale and rotate the type. It really is cleaver. You can also save it and look art what other have done. Try it out!

Alright I know I have been writing a lot of running related post, but this is so funny that I had to share. SO I was running in the cold and when i run in the cold my nose runs non stop (probably more than you needed to know). Anyway, SO I do not carry any Kleenex with me but I do blow snot rockets.

If you don’t know what snot rockets are: You put one hand on one side of your nostril and blow the snot out of the open nostril and it should shoot out like a rocket, hence snot rocket.

SO I was running along and had snot rocketed a bunch of time and could feel another one coming on, so I put one hand on my left nostril and………(let me explain that is was a very windy day) I don’t know if the winds where aligned at the right time, but the snot rocket came out of my nose and hit me square in the face….not just the face, but in my eye!!!!!!!

That’s right I had snot in my EYE. It was gross!!! I scrapped the snot out of my eye and kept running, but laughing and disgusted at the same time. I have had a SR(Snot rocket) hit my hand and even my sleeve or chest, but never my eye. Because it was so cold I imagined my eye being frozen shut with snot:)

. I thought I should share my experience.

~dzob

Today i was buying new running shoes. New Balence in black, they look cool, anyway…and I went up to the counter to pay, because that is what you do at the counter. I swipe my debit/credit card and it asks for debit or credit and i push credit (because M&T will charge me if I use debit) *****Pause***

Lets talk a little about the debit credit machines at the stores, I wish they would some how standardize them. each one is different and each one has you do something different for credit and “yes” and “no”. Some you hit the green yes, so you select from a menu….WHICH IS IT!!!!! it drives me crazy.  *****end pause***

Than after I hit credit it says debit or cancel….in my head I am saying to my self “self. I don’t want debit, but i also don’t want to cancel the transaction and have to swipe it again because the 40 people behind me would not like that”. So I end up having to ask the clerk “Do I want to cancel?”…THEY need to rename it from “cancel” to “skip”.

That is an interface that is not intuitive and could use a designer to think of how to solve that problem…or maybe I am the only one having problems with this?

~dzob

Many of you may not know, but I am a runner. Always have been since HS. I ran Cross Country and than took a break in collage and than got back into it to loose weight (lost 80 lbs). NOW I have been running religiously 4-5 times a week and running about 4-5 miles a time. Anyway that is not the story, but jsut the background

I went running today (temperature 30 degrees), and it shocked me that most people do not have thier sidwalk’s cleared off from the snow. I almost fell on my face 40 times (ok, that was a slight over exageration….but I found that this story is not as exciting without a little drama!…but it was very hard to run)

While I was running and falling and almost dying(there is the dram again) I noticed that people like to look at runners, or honk their horns as they are driving past, or yell things at me…..is it just me or do all runners get this? Maybe they are thinking…how could someone run in this weather, or I should be runner, or what the hell, or…….(enter in your own here)

If you are one of the people doing this….than stop!

As I was thinking about this I almost got hit by a car with NO turn signal…..don’t get me started!

I have a bad case of the bad design disease. It can be contagious, so you might want to stay away. Let me explain: Recently I have been preparing for one of my classes and I have started collecting designs that I see around town or where ever I am. I started out collecting brochures to critique in my class, than it was taking pictures of posters, than it was magazines, now I cannot stop.It started out taking one brochure, now I walk away with a stack of badly designed material.

It is affecting my life!! I cannot go anywhere without seeing bad design and having an urge to take it, taking a picture of it, or steal it. I need help. Every website, brochure, ads in magazines, magazines, they are all out to make me crazy with their bad design.

They are out to get me….oh great now it is making me paranoid. Does anyone have a cure or the same disease? HELP!!! BUT…MAYBE I don’t want help….if I get cured, how will I know when something is a bad design.

This is a new design that I have been working on. Just thought I would post it too see if anyone has any comments:) This is for nothing. It is desgin for design sake.

So i know this is not new or anything, but it is amazing what is on facebook and what people say on facebook. It seems like everyone has a page and is sharing information. One thing that I love is to snoop on what other people are doing, talking about, and taking pictures of! I do have some problems/questions:

1. Why are people i don’t really know asking to be my friend. I did not know you in HS or College, why do i want to be your friend now? I mean really!
2. Why do so many people send me quizzes they took? Maybe i don’t want to spend the 30 minutes to take an IQ test to tell me i am not that smart. (P.S. I did take the quiz….damn you FB)
3. Why join a group….do you talk to all those people or is it something just fun to do?
4. If you are going to write me a note, why can’t you email?
5. Why do people put their address, phone number, and baby pics…..(maybe i am to nervous, but I have watched the child predator shows…..did i just write that? But seriously)
6. If you don’t have a page are you a loser.
7. Sometimes i don’t know what to write on the status part……do you really want to know what i am doing?

Anyway…..cheers to FB!

P.S. My wife never understood it, but now she is addicted!

Here is a great way to get ride of anything. In this case the patch tool works really well with pimples and real simple blemishes to very complex image editing as you will see when you watch it!

I created an imix and it is now at the itunes store, I think that is so cool!!! I did not know that anyone could publish one! it was so much fun to do. This a look into what music I am into. Take a look. To see the mix in itunes music store click on the title in the box below.

This year was the first year I had to put together toys for my son, and any who has done this know what i am about to say! If you have never done it before, thank your parents right NOW, it is hard work.

First of all I feel the instructions and parts that they give you are all part of a big joke on people. Why else would the instruction be so dumb and the parts not intuative. I was putting together a workbench for my son and it took me 2 1/2 hours. it took me 1 1/2 houres to get through step 2! My wife finally needed to help me because I needed three hands, or as it turns out four hands and two heads.

I also feel it is a test for any parents Patience. Thank goodness for my wife, i would have thrown parts if it was not for her.

and lastly i need a word with the work bench, so stop reading and let me have some words. WTF how hard could you be…it is a work bench for little kids, you bolts and other weird parts can kiss off! Maybe if you where not so worried about how you look you could have told me when I put the part in wrong and there was no other way to put it in, or that one of your parts was manufactured wrong. Instead you let me belive that I was doing a great job and would finish soon…..thanks a lot:(

I am done. I feel better with that off of my mind.

~dzob

For those of you who have not seen this 99 designs is a place to go for short term freelance work. It is almost like a craigslist for designers. They will post a design contests that is for a logo and they will pay X amount of money. Anyway can submit designs, This is great!

I found this at my gym and it made me stop because it was so bad. See how many design rules this breaks, in a bad way.ENJOY!

Here is another photoshop tutorial. It talks about how to use brushes and masks together to create great effects. This time I have included the source files for you to work with. There is an .abr file, which is the brush file, to load the .abr file double click on it. Sometimes that does not work so follow the steps below

1. Select the brush tool(B)
2. Click on the arrow in the brush preset picker in the upper left (it looks like a brush)
   
3. Then click on the fly out menu (it looks like a play button in the upper right)
4. And select load brush
5. Than find where you placed my brush set. The brushes will be added to your current set at the end of the list

SOURCE FILES

Here is a photoshop tutorial about how and why to use masks within photoshop.

I had technical difficulty, but here is a new tutorial on how to make your own photoshop brushes. I hope you enjoy. there will be more photoshop tutorials to come.

This was sent to me by a fellow teacher. It is wonderful. See below

Last night My wife and some friends went to Mustang Allye’s,  upscale bowling and restaurant. It was a little pricey, but really fun!!! THe design and set up of the place was really great. It was confusing on how to do bowling and eat. We had to have two different reservations.

We all had sliders, mini sandwhiches, which were really good. And if you go make sure to get the sweet potato fries, they are to die for. No literally if i had to die I would eat them.

Anyway that is not why I wrote this…the reason I wrote this was to talk about the bowling. I used to bowl in a league when i was younger and I was pretty good! I took lessons, I have my own ball, asn shoes, just a little background. Well, I forgot them last night and I could not bowl with the “standard” balls that the ally provided, so I was really playing awefull last night. However, one time I had a really great shot and I was so excited that……I gave……Lee a high five…..Yes i know…….I feel strange inside…..As soon as I did it Lee said…”you just gave me a high 5″ and all I said was…”DAMN”

~david

A student recomended this site pandora.com. It is an internet radio station that adjusts to you taste in music. YOu can reject songs and accept songs and will adjust to you recomendations.

When you first go to the site it asks you to pick an artist or song and than creates a station from that. It will start to play other artist and you reject them and it will not play them. If you accept an artist it will give more that fit that tpye of music. I hardly listen to my ipod when I am sitting at my desk because of this.

Go check it out and let me know what you think. You can also create up to 99 stations!!!

I have been telling my students about it and they all say “oh yeah I have been using it for a long time!”..don’t I feel out of it.

~david

Misprintedtype.com is a great website for inspiration, brushes, and typefaces run by Eduardo Recife a talented designer. I ahve been a fan of his style for a very long time and thought it was time to pay tribute. I tell all my students to visit his site and now i am telling all of you to as well. The below image was created using only his brushes and typefaces. Thank you Eduardo!

I was excited to see that the Hives had a new CD out and was really anxious to get it. I have not been listening to them as of recent because I have had some many other bands to listen to. I really like the Hives sound, so I imported it in a cranked my ipod and was pleasantly surprised with there first song Tick Tick Boom it is what the hives music is all about. It was high energy and the screechy vocals that I love. They get to the chorus and I realize that I have heard it before in some commercial. Click here to read the rest…