it`s friday night, i`m at home i have a high speed internet connection, you know what that means?
fun links.
well a fun link, the american dialect society`s 2003 word list.
enjoy
Archives For January 2004
sorry i couldn`t resist. we have a meeting this afternoon and i already have some ideas about how to temper the campaign while still maintaining my integrity.
this is why i like working here, i get opportunities to flex my talents. the other presentation that i attended this morning went well, i`ve realised i don`t like talking in front of people unless i have something to say. at some point in the meeting i engage and for a brief moment i took over.
i`m realising more and more lately my work seems to have a feel and context outside the caribbean. the look and feel of what i do has a lot to do with typography and text. and i design either consciously or unconsciously on a grid. i like clearly defined elements and lots of white space.
strange i didn`t go to school to learn any of this. that`s right i have no degree in graphic design, actually no degree in anything, i`m pretty much self taught, i always had an eye for colour, but my design sense is something that developed intuitively.
sometime after i started my second full time adverting job i realised that i was drained and uninspired, i managed to wrangle six weeks of no pay leave [which turned out to be the eventual cause of my termination, but that`s another story] during which point i interned at an art gallery in the east village. i spent my days running up and down, learning the city, making copies, busy work pretty much, not a design job anywhere in the experience but when i returned to trinidad, i was rest, rejuvenated and full of good ideas.
i think some of my best work is post travel, i`ve been looking at my portfolio and work lately and i sense of growth. all that said, anyone got £28,000 for two years for me to go to central st. martin`s in london and do a MFA. the primary thing about CSM is qualification in their programme is based on experience and a solid portfolio plus they have a pathway in typography and they`re in vic and i dream city, london.
Technorati Tags:
advertising, education, typography
too fucking bourgeoisie?
what the fuck? i have to laugh, in what i can only call a back handed compliment the client said my work was basically too upmarket looking.
“it would be more at home in a UK paper” all i could do is smile politely, but in the back of my mind, you asked for upmarket and elegant, that`s what you got. sigh. but the concept is sound. so it`s back to drawing board.
plus there was all this alpha male behaviour from one of the managers, i offered to help on this would make four occasions, this time he refused outright, we`ll see how that goes.
my apartment is a mess, i need to do the dishes and sweep, but i really don`t feel like doing fuck all, i want to curl up in bed with vic and go to sleep eventually.
ps: i have to thank vic and mefi for making me laugh until tears ran down my face with this gem
i`m still laughing.
Technorati Tags:
advertising, clients
it`s a little before 1pm, the presentation is at two, all the prints are done, being mounted as we speak. there were the expected snafus.
wouldn`t print from my computer. some of the prints looked blah, but all told we`re done.
all that`s left at this point is the client`s unending joy. and yes, i got stuck into going to presentation, so much for the big plan of making my escape and going home to sleep. i did get new toys today however, haven`t gotten a chance to try them out yet.
just before i fell asleep last night i had a brilliant thought about what i was going to post this morning. maybe it`s for the best, it was very political and maybe i should steer clear of politics for the time being.
there are so many thoughts careening around in my head and i can`t seem to hold on to one for long enough to form the basis of a post.
today is the major presentation, here are some notes for those of you even vaguely considering a career in advertising…
the worse thing that can happen to you on the eve of a presentation is discovering that someone else is using your carefully crafted tag line.
it`s usually enough to start a small panic and that`s exactly what happened yesterday evening, i was supposed to start printing last night, but we didn`t finalise a new tag line until late, so i`m going in early this morning to start printing which brings me to the other pre-presentation ogre, broken and slow printing.
i have 8 ads and outdoor material to print and mount for the meeting this afternoon, i`ll get help with the trimming and mounting, but my worry is the printing. it doesn`t matter the printer has been working for weeks and you put in yesterday, the day or in this case hours before the presentation is the time that most of the crucial machinery will start to give trouble.
i can`t say i hope i don`t jinx myself, because it`s how these things go, you learn to accept them. hence my early departure, start printing now and hopefully everything will be ready sometime in the next seven hours.
i also need to figure out what i`m wearing today, so i can look semi decent in case someone decides it`s a really good idea for me to go to the meeting.
i think client meetings are the one part of my job that i loathe. no sir, i don`t like them. in an ideal world, i would never meet them face to face and have to listen to them go on and on, that an the anathema of designers and creative folk everywhere, `just`. as in `why don`t you just`, but that is a subject for another day.
Technorati Tags:
advertising, clients, meetings
Do you think there is gender discrimination in regards to child support or the courts awarding custody of children to fathers?
thankfully in my experience no, but i have heard some horror stories. the extended family that i call my own is interesting on many levels and even with personal disagreements, everyone has the welfare of the children at heart.
i`m grateful for that.
i don`t usually censor what i say here but this is not a place for details about my children, so that`s going to be the depth and breath of my answer
presentation one is wrapped, that leaves two and three which are my babies and i`ve been working pretty solidly on two, the actual presentation is tomorrow. i`ve worked late the last two nighta and by the time i get home i`m physically drained and pretty much collapse into bed.
it`s not a bad feeling, i come home feeling that i`ve done something worthwhile, i`m proud of my work, how it looks, what i`m doing, what i`m contributing. it`s a satisfied exhaustion. the kind where wake in the morning fresh with new ideas.
i however am not looking forward to facing the shower this morning, i haven`t had hot water in my apartment since the weekend. saturday and sunday were no problem, just bathe in the heat of the day, but since monday, the overnight temperatures have been dropping and it`s like showering with ice cubes.
i`ve also been carefully threading the line between persistent and annoying with the embassy in regards to my packet, you would think three years in to the new millennium it still wouldn`t take about eight weeks plus for a packet to get from one end of the caribbean to another.
with my immigration status still up in the air it would be wise to temper what i say in a public forum.
well temperance has never been one of my strong suits. there are a number of things that are occurring around me and for the sake of being with vic, i`ve held my peace, strangely it`s something non-immigration related that`s set me off this morning.
it was the simple act of verifying my email to be able to post. it wasn`t a big deal, i did and i was done, but i kept thinking, if we keep accepting that it`s not a big deal and let it slide, where does it stop.
the prospect of being fingerprinted and photographed upon my eventually arrival into the us, infuriates me to say the least. in the process of this application, i`ve been photographed too many times to mention and fingerprinted twice and you know what, it`s not fun.
i`m also a conspiracy theorist and cynic of the highest order, i ponder what`s being done with all of this information, where it`s being stored, who has access to it and for how long. i`m sure there are a couple people here on js who would say fuck you, stay where you belong you immigrant, my response to that is i belong at vic`s side.
we`ve jumped through the hoops and it`s gotten us this far but i would rather be dead and alone than mindlessly give up my right to think and form my own opinions, all in the name of security.
i believe the inexorable slide has already begun and every time we say it`s not a big deal, we slide a little closer to the crushing embrace of big brother.
Technorati Tags:
immigration, government
it`s been a long day, bear with me. it was highly productive today, but i`ve been going nonstop all day.
in typical anal retentive fashion, i followed up on my jamaican citizenship application which entailed two trips to the passport office. i then spent the rest of the day work on layouts for the presentation on thursday. then met about the layouts thus far and decided the main thrust wasn`t exactly on target, so it`s sort of back to the drawing board and some of the pictures have to change. it`s not as random as it sounds and it`s for the greater good, so i have no problems with it.
i finally realised i was doing myself no good and came home, this is where the freak part came in, i`m a huge james bond fan and amc is having a marathon all this week. by the time i came home i only caught the end of you only live twice, but i`m hearing this piece of music and thinking why the hell does it sound so familiar.
anal retentive me, goes digging through the mp3 collection, i know this piece of music, i know this piece of music, as the end credits roll i hear another piece of music i know.
getting quite frustrated, i turn to my true research tool, google and to assuage my curiosity, i learned the following things
1. the end credit music was sung by nancy sinatra [which i knew] and the horn and instrumental portion were sampled by robbie williams for millennium, listen here
2. john barry [who scored a lot of the bond flicks] recycled the theme music from on her majesty`s secret service as incidental music in you only live twice and the reason i recognised it, because was the propellerheads [who are huge bond fans apparently] and the have a version of OHMSS on their album, which i love.
that album also features a track with shirley bassey and the piece of music that features in the lobby sequence of the original matrix.
this has been geeking with keifel. thank you and good night.
Technorati Tags:
samples, robbie williams, propellerheads
The TELEVISION was a great invention, no doubt. But today how much of your life is spent watching it? How many kids sit in front of it and stay for hours refusing to go outside for play but yet seem to be getting fatter? Are we as a nation just couch potatoes? What role does the TV play in your home? What kind of example do you set for your children in regards to the T.V.?
if you couldn`t tell from the subject, this is a subject that is a constant source of ire for me. the habit of sitting children in front of the television is reprehensible and tantamount to abuse.
my daughters watch television but they are also the sort of children who will sit out on the porch engrossed in a good book or be out in the yard exploring. my older daughter has exams this year and is pretty much on a tight schedule.
last year when i realised that i was encouraging my daughter waste her afternoons away in front of the television, we instituted tv time. cut back to specific hours a week, found other things to do. i would be laying on the bed reading and she would come in with her book and lie next to me and we would spend the evening reading.
there`s television i watch regularly, stuff i like, but having the tv on for the sake of having it on, i don`t think so. i realised this weekend, that apart from watching er on thursday night and futurama and family guy before i go to bed, my television is generally off, i found myself wondering why was i paying for cable.
television is not the be all and end all of my life, the internet is.
Technorati Tags:
television, internet