sunny day, sweeping the clouds away!

finally.

i'm contributing to pop-culture rather than just parodying or riding its coattails.

late last year, threadless was contacted to take part in a project focusing on sesame street characters. the staff then brought it to the alumni group (printed threadless designers) to come up with an idea to make a collaborative piece that centered around what makes grover who he is. the idea of his traveling tales trunk came up and the group went to work on grover's stickers collected on his journey.



the full project was for "t-world magazine" an australian bi-yearly publication, and the magazine just came out today:



and here is an early scan of the magazine (if you squint, my name is creditted third from the bottom right)


click here to zoom

if you want to get a better idea of the construction of this collab, please visit the flickr set. and an extra special thanks to ian leino for compiling everything and keeping us all in the loop!

last we had heard, t-world and the folks at children's television workshop were very interested in seeing this printed on (can you guess?) t-shirts! i would be very pleased to see that happen!

job hunt = not so great.

well, i have been unemployed for over a month now. again, this is the first time i've had a lapse in employment since i was 16 (when i moved to minnesota from alaska).

i found that i had a decent network of friends who work in the graphic design industry, or at least close to it; so that was positive. i've been trying my hardest to stay in the duluth/superior area, as we have a mortgage on a place and a lot of family around here, but the positions just don't exist.

i have 2 meetings coming up, one with nelson & co. they usually farm out their graphic needs, so that would be a freelance gig at best for now. the other with ht klatzky. they're not currently hiring, but they were interested enough to sit down with me and go over my portfolio, so that is incredibly cool on their part. especially if i end up with a bad gig somewhere to get the bills paid, that'd be a nice callback in the future. i'm also trying to get my foot in the door at westmoreland flint. i missed an opportunity for a gig in their fargo offices, and i have a few names to drop currently in their employ at their duluth offices, so fingers crossed all around.

i have also sprinkled my résumé and references all over town periodically throughout the weeks, becoming less and less surprised by this conversation:
"hello, company x."
"hello, i was wondering if you are currently hiring for any graphic or interactive designer positions?"
"no."
"that's too bad. i was wondering if there was anyone i might be able to leave my résumé and references with in case you may hire in the future?"
"we're not hiring." *click*

at least i'm fully aware that it's a dead end, but it took a few calls to get used to that dialog. thy must be getting a lot of requests right around now.

i begin my big expansive search next week. i was trying to avoid moving, but if no can employ me here, i have to move to where they are hiring i guess.

i'm not a big fan of uncertainty.