it's official

i am now an award winning t-shirt designer.

*pats self on back*

the duluth superior adfed just had it's 33rd annual addy awards tonight, and one of my t-shirt designs for braggame rights went home with a silver award.



i was hired by nelson&company on august 4th last year, and my first 6 hours were spent creating that very t-shirt design.

i've actually known about my win for a few weeks, only because i have been helping out the adfed for the awards show. because of that, i had prepared the stills for the winner's reel. i got to work with the guys at tri-quantum productions putting together the winners reel and being taped telling a story about kicking a stranger in the butt in idaho. (true story)

the night was fun, i got to watch my boss drink, play a little electronic drum kit along with the dueling piano performers, play piano to some 80's hair metal song (that i can't remember right now) and then i got up and did my best (bad) will ferrel playing cowbell to "don't fear the reaper" impersonation.

interesting night indeed.

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.

crashes, beer & graphic design.

it's been a hectic 2 weeks.

6 days after being laid off, an suv tried to force a subaru outback into the trunk of our car.

the outback didn't fit.

all in all, we were car 3 in a 5 car pileup. everyone is safe with minor aches and pain. the car was totaled and we were 3 months or so away from owning it outright.



the day after this debacle, we took a roadtrip to montana for a family reunion slash job hunt. and despite beer being the secondary promise in the blog title, my family was a little more conservative this year (and i don't drink, so i was the perfect man to document)

here is the trip in a musical format:


and, in the ever widening pantheon of online design contests, i was invited to another t-shirt design community the other day. itself has a very similar set up to threadless, in that it's an ongoing competition (new shirts every 2 weeks to threadless' every week), a voting period (60 days to threadless' 7 days), and there are a lot of the threadess alumni (including me) there.

i have two designs up for voting there right now. both can be found here.

i was glad to get to update "aquanet lincoln" who has seen a lot of design competitions, but this is an updated version, now titled "awesome abe."

i also entered "multinational." for the first time in a t-shirt competition.

well, i'm off to litter the town of duluth with my résumé.

typography vs. dann.

i was handed a challenge at work yesterday. i had to come up with a quick flyer for a local music (etc.) store, electric fetus.

i had to translate 3 paragraphs worth of copy into an 8.5x11 handout.

i will file this as my first well made typographical project.

i usually battle typography, but i was able to turn all the text into a design.



i'm not used to tooting my own horn and i apologize, i hope you enjoyed my toot.

to keep the tootin' common (tutankhamen... king tut.... i am hilarious) here's a sign i had made for them earlier this year:

i'm not sassy enough.

my creative director and me were put to the task of making logos for a diner.

we were given an outline of them being sassy and known as the "hidden jewel of duluth", so we set out.

i had come up with these.



i obviously was rather fond of them, but none of them were picked.

after meeting them, it is obvious why they gravitated towards the one that the did, and had i met them prior to creating the logos, i would have changed the design knowing their general attitude.

i got a new layer of thick skin as they placed my 3 mouted foamcore boards aside and said out loud "these 3 are crap" and then backpeddaled a bit and explained that they are too contemporary, which i agree entirely. i held back a tiny wince at the word "crap" though.

what can i say, i'm not sassy enough.

(all logos shown are owned by carlson media inc., my employer)