it’s right off the L and looks like a good time.

Dialogue: Art and Design Senior Portfolio Show

Opening Reception
Thursday May 6, 2010
5pm – 7pm

Exhibition
May 6 — May 20, 2010

Paul Robeson Galleries
Rutgers University Newark
Paul Robeson Campus Center
350 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
Newark, New Jersey, 07102

The Main Gallery is open
Monday – Thursday, 10am – 5pm.
973 353 1610
galleryr@andromeda.rutgers.edu
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/artgallery/

http://www.newark.rutgers.edu/visitors/index.php?sId=gethere

Luckily for her, she walked back into my life right as I discovered that hey, beer is pretty tasty and it helps my creative process. Very good timing indeed. She helped refine my color palette for luminos (the modular lighting system I told you about earlier) and I’m feeling pretty good about these last couple weeks of the semester. I just need to get my act together and pull awesome stuff out of my bootay. Pics to come.

I don’t know if its completely unrelated but I’ve picked up my guitar again after quite a bit of musical down time. Wrote a song about a lost love who is getting married. I’m sure the angst is helping fuel the creativity as much as the beer. I’ve been listening to a lot of indie stuff too…there is so much talent out there. To name a few bands I’m addicted to right now: Passion Pit, Vampire Weekend, Chromeo, Kate Miller-Heidke (and husband on guitar), Tokyo Police Club and my staple Ani D. Love that girl to pieces.

I’m still looking into turning this into a sound blog…at least on my end. My fellow admin hasn’t posted in a while and I plan on bugging her about it. A classmate suggested I stop stalling and just jump into creating sound with my Mac. Dunno that it’s what I’m going for, but it can’t hurt to start experimenting. I’m much more interested in found sound and just carrying around a digital recorder with me everywhere I go and then isolating interesting bits for my never-gonna-happen soundtrack for the even-less-likely stop motion typography film I’ll never make.

We’ll see how that goes…

I’m in a branding class this semester and it was DREADFUL for the first 5 weeks. Just now is it getting exciting. I’ve decided on a lighting system I thought up on a drunken night and I’m pretty hyped about it. The company I faux-created designs bespoke lighting solutions, and I’m branding their modular offering. Basically my product is for commercial spaces where an entire wall is made into a light box with a grid over it. In these slots plexiglass triangles and squares can be arranged into patterns. TA-DA! I haven’t decided on colors or even the name actually….I will update as I work on it

Facebook is more frustrating, partly because they are brand aware enough to limit how much customization they allow. I can’t be upset about that though as I respect these boundaries and very much agree with their strategy (which in a nutshell I believe is to slowly take over the world and then find a way to suddenly charge everyone for it). After all, the fb phenomenon has lasted much longer than the myspace buzz. Why? Because myspace was the gateway drug and fb is the intervention-worthy ensuing addiction. I think deep down myspace incited those social networking endorphins but there was too much freedom, too much variety. That gets old because people in general do not have fine tuned design sensibilities so most of the pages were overloaded with nonsense. Necessity may be the mother of invention, but structure is the mother of true creativity.

Sooner than later I will be creating a new homepage for PJs as well as a fb fan page. Keep an eye out.

xo,
admin

If you are looking to test your site and see what its mobile-readiness is try dotMobi’s page check. They also provide emulators and free templates and hosting for mobile friendly sites. The BlackBerry site also has a simulator package for developers that I am downloading as I write. I can give you an update and let you know if it is worth it.

Also worth noting, google has a site where you can see your page adapted for mobile devices.

Some common problems I’ve come across so far and how to avoid them:

Problem: Images, tables, etc. don’t render correctly
My solution: Eliminate them in your “mobile version.” My test mobi site used xhtml, divs and a linked stylesheet. Do the same.

Problem: Links show up as plain text.
My solution: Make your links explicit. BBs are all about being down and dirty, not cute. So don’t “click here” write it out “www.google.com” instead.

Problem: Your multipart MIME e-mail is being ignored by mobile devices, who beyond all comprehension, create their own plain text version from your HTML.
My solution: Cry, have a beer, and then stop trying to make things that should work actually work. How long have you been in this industry anyway?? Let me save you some heartache: nothing works as it should, everything takes twice as long as you plan and nobody likes you unless they need something from you. Stop being a baby and make your HTML mobile friendly. Or provide a click here to see the mobile version link with a mobile friendly site. TA-DA.

If you have any other problems feel free to comment, I will answer what I can.

xo,

admin

I’m working on a project right now that has the most ridiculous list of criteria ever. It has to simultaneously be: A4 & Ltr size; formatted for screen, office printing and professional printing; have even margins with or without a bleed (which is actually physically impossible lol); and cook you breakfast. I’ve got everything down except the b@stard keeps burning my waffles.

A friend sent me this link that I thought you’d appreciate: http://colorschemedesigner.com/

screenshot

It is absolutely delicious, especially the monocolor schemes. I wish I had found this before I decorated my apartment!!

Another resource I think you will love is http://www.sxc.hu/ they have the best free stock photos I have ever seen on the web. Hope that helps!!

Other than that, nothing new except that things have been quite slow because of the economy. Job markets have been frozen, but I say don’t give up.

http://newyorkpanorama.com

Apparently, it’s a very grueling process to learn and it requires a lot of camera equipment. I love the panoramas I’ve taken of some sites in Japan. One day I’ll host the link up for those photos. In the meantime, enjoy this photographer’s work and pay attention to his process. I guess my main concern is how to merge the photos together, but there’s a program for that. Enjoy.

I.can’t.compute.

In the position that I am currently resigning from, I’ve had to work with the sales department in creating powerpoint templates for their presentations. I’ve never seen such a team work so hard to defeat the company logo. Never.

In any case, I have learned to love working with Powerpoint, because you can easily make a hot template, as long as it remains a presentation. I’m enjoying the new projects that I have taken up thus far, because it gives me a chance to work with web development.

In other news, I’ve finally completed my website via flash. Will someday, when I get my sanity back, work on the HTML version. Check out the linkage: http://www.agdesignsite.com