designer's block (cont.)

still unable to decipher the rubiks cube of designer's block, i am now submitting another oldie but goodie to threadless:



i had run this through design by hümans a while back, and had a decent enough response, but decided to pull it to try my hand at threadless again.

this video has really been hitting home with what we're dealing with at work lately:

designer's block.

i've been trying to come up with something new for threadless for some time now. and after a considerable amount of block time, i decided to push this old design through. it had existed in threadless' work in progress area for some time



i've been revisiting a lot of my older designs lately and trying to redo them, actually, i'm trying to get them right, they never seem to end up on screen how they begin in my head.

rock obama.

i was commissioned to do a punk rock obama shirt a while ago (as foretold here) and i finally got my shirts in the mail and also checked on line and it's up for sale.

i am an addict

i have a history of being a habitual collector.

it started after i got into the beast wars transformers cartoon long after watching cartoons was socially acceptable, and let me state it here; anyone who says beast wars wasn't real transformers or dismisses it has either never seen it or is a complete idiot. beast wars saved the line and had the best story lines to date.

at any rate, i started buying toys, and now, over 10 years later, I have 9 tubs at home filled with transformers from all generations and our tiny bedroom walls look like a toy store stocked with packaged transformers.

after my wife and i got a dvd player late in the game, i started my viewing with clerks, and tht snowballed into a 300+ dvd collection.

yesterday morning, i stopped into a gas station and happened upon some mountain dew bottles that i had seen on the national ad. turns out they're kinda cool, kitschy and trendy in a good way.



i have found that i will collect anything and everything. i blame it all on being a straight edge punk rock teenager (not the vegan bastardization that was amended in the 90's) and to this day i don't drink smoke or do drugs. it seems, instead, i collect arbitrary things. i suppose the beer would have cost me more over the years anyways.

regardless, like a college kid, i now have a collection of bottles started. though mine aren't lined up above my bed, i have them mixed in amongst the transformers and family guy figures adorning my work desk.

logo hits the big time.

the first professional logo i created (chronicled here) has finally hit the big time.

i am so pleased to see something i created in such a grand scale (another step closer to a billboard).

this sign is about 8 feet wide to give some scope to it. todd signs of duluth created it based off our collective specs. painted pvc for the logo, a sanded texture for the background and the "family/cosmetic" copy at the bottom is struck out of the sandy texture.



me so happy.

death, taxes and hi-def.

(this video is from a year ago, but the content is pertinent)

my wife and i just finished up our taxes and we have a decent amount coming in.

so like the children we are, we're buying ourselves presents (and our daughter's upcoming birthday will be well stocked)

we went to best buy, where i burned out the rest of my christmas giftcards to nab a returned toshiba hd-dvd for really cheap.

it came with bourne ultimatum and 300. plus 5 free through the mail (we're nabbing pitch black, charlie and the chocolate factory, troy, the frighteners and the italian job. i'll be pawning bourne and troy in hopes for enough pawn credit to nab transformers hd.

but that's not the most childish of it all, tomorrow i'll be nabbing a blu-ray player (with 10 free mail-in movies)

i figured the cheap hd dvd player will be good for the few releases i can't get on blu-ray. and with blu-rays (rightful) stranglehold on all the studios, i'm willing to pay $399.99 for a player.

my wife and i watched 300 and marveled over the dirt and eyebrow hair. if that ain't livin', i don't know what is.

also, my wife is stoked to nab a couch... yipee.

i'll defend the minute amount of adulthood my wife and i can contain by stating that we're still putting almost 2/3rds of our return into savings.

so, nyeah,

finally, my own site.

i've had a couple personal "sites" floating around the net. none of which i am proud of.

i finally got tired of lackluster site design and calling my myspace or youtube pages "home".

last week, i had set up a temporary site as a showcase of my designs i have for sale. this morning, i woke up with the an idea and spent the afternoon putting it together, may i present to you:

dann matthews

as it stands, it is still just a "vehicle" (get it?!) to showcase my designs. i intend to build the rest of the site around it. right now it's housed on my employers server, (thank you john) but i will most likely shop around for a domain soon.

update:
i now own dannmatthews.com and have completed a print page, and a home page.