Dave Makes

Switch to Wordpress Commencing

2010-02-15T18:18:00.002-06:00

I haven't integrated it with the rest of the site, so it's still pretty fugly, but the Dave Makes Blog is now located at davemakes.com/blog. All new posts will be made at that address. Please update your RSS subscriptions and browsing habits accordingly.

Thank you, that is all.

Switching to Wordpress

2010-02-07T15:11:00.003-06:00

A note to my devoted fans: I'll be performing a slow redesign/reorganization of Dave Makes dot com over the next few months in preparation for portfolio night, the culminating event before I graduate from the College of DuPage Graphic Design program. As for the blog, I will be switching over from Blogger to Wordpress, so things might get moved around. Just a heads up.

Insight

2010-01-22T08:17:00.005-06:00

View this photoset on flickr.

Just before winter break, five designers including myself put up a show in the College of DuPage Wings Gallery (located on the first floor of the SRC) called "Insight." Each of us created a poster that posed a question, and in front of each poster was a podium with a pad of paper and a slot into which anyone could drop their answers. Now that school is back from break, we've taken the answers and created books full of our interpretations of the answers.

The question I asked was "How can I be happy everyday?" This is an important question to me because I always feel driven to discover new things and seek out new experiences in life, and I enjoy discussing somewhat philosophical ideas that have real-world applications in everyday use. I felt that this question would also open up the audience's answers to a wide range of interesting and personal prescriptions that would also reflect their own lifestyle choices.

This was a very important and personal question to me, so I chose to create a self-portrait. This also helped draw in people, as I hoped all of my student friends and coworkers at the school would be ensnared by the familiar sight of my big dorky glasses and beard staring out at them from the gallery. When you get close to the poster, however, the portrait dissolves into a series of colored squares that make up a calendar of 2010. My hope was that this would facilitate some real thinking as people walked up to the podium and considered, what do we do every day that makes us who we are?

As a graphic designer, I spend a lot of time in front of a computer, and my work usually winds up passing through or being created entirely in one piece of software or another by Adobe. This is fine, it's certainly faster than the process used to be before everyone had a glowing icon of an apple in their laps. Recently, though, I've felt that there's a limitation in using this software, and I've seen a lot of homogenization in the design community's collective work. Our teachers demand that we do all of our concept work with paper and pencil, and then we can move to the computer to create the finished version, but I wanted to explore an avenue that had as little to do with the computer as possible.

I like to try new things (which usually means things I'm not very good at), but the answers I received seemed to justify, even encourage this stepping outside my comfort zone. For the answer book, I combined two things I have little to no talent for: origami and calligraphy. I folded sixteen original designs from single sheets of origami paper, wrote the answers on them with a somewhat uncooperative calligraphic fountain pen, and photographed the resulting works against various textures in and around the school. We printed them out, bound them, and voila! "Analog" graphic design.

Thanks to the contributors of answers to our show, you really blew my expectations out of the water and gave me some great words to chew over. I hope the answer book gives you something to think about as well. Thanks also to Grace Blevins, Chris Walker, Jake Albaugh, and Ogi for inviting me to be part of this inspiring show.

If you'd like to see the show in person, it should be up in the Wings Gallery at the College of DuPage's SRC building at least through the rest of January.

Digital Commons @ C.O.D. Spot

2010-01-19T09:07:00.003-06:00

Watch this video on YouTube.

This is a quick 30 second spot for the College of Dupage Library's Digital Commons service. I've worked out a new logo and identity that involves a network of interconnected dots as a graphic element. The dots can also be animated, as seen in the video.

Merry Christmas from Hix Bros Music - Volume #1

2009-12-13T16:40:00.001-06:00

Those kooky guys at Hix Bros. music put together an awesome Christmas album, and they're giving the profits to Mutual Ground, which provides services in southern Kane County and Kendall County for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Plus, it's full of good 'ol rockin' holiday cheer, and the cover is by Tina and me! So order a copy straight from the Hix Bros. or from CD baby, and feel good about donating to a good cause this holiday season.

30 Seconds, 30 Days

2009-12-12T16:58:00.002-06:00

Another semester has ended, but being the ever-vigilant artists we are, we are using this break as an opportunity to create more projects. Here is the concept for our latest project-in-progress, entitled 30 Seconds, 30 Days:

3 musicians collaborate (Dave Jacob Hoffman, Jake Albaugh, and Dan Huff) to record exactly 30 seconds of audio every day for 30 days beginning December 10th, 2009. The result is 90 tracks, totaling 45 minutes, which is then compiled into a freely released album.

As I'm writing this, we have just completed the third day, and there is already a broad range of sounds to tickle your earhairs. So click here to visit the 30 Seconds, 30 Days project, and then bookmark it and check back regularly to see how it's progressing. When the whole thing wraps up, I'll be sure to post the final compilation here for easy downloading.

ENIGMATIC SOCK PUPPET PROJECT PREVIEW

2009-10-25T20:38:00.001-05:00

Question: What could I possibly be working on now?

Answer: ENIGMATIC SOCK PUPPET PROJECT.

THAT IS ALL (for now).

Zombie project REVEALED!

2009-10-09T09:58:00.004-05:00

Watch this video on Vimeo | YouTube | The COD Library Website

Here it is, what you've all been waiting for! The SECRET ZOMBIE PROJECT is revealed.

"But what is it?" you may be asking yourself. Well, that's why I've brought to you this EXCLUSIVE MAKING-OF SPECIAL FEATURE.

I have been doing some work for the College of DuPage Library, and one of the ideas they had was a series of videos about different parts of the library. This project started out as a simple "How to print" instructional video, until the librarian I was working with on the project said "I wish we could do something crazy, like zombies in the library or something."

Now, I wasn't sure what I could get away with. After all, librarians are bookish folks who go around filing things and shushing people, right?

Not quite. I drew up a quick storyboard with the zombie concept, and they loved it.

Then I told them it was going to be a cartoon. I got a bunch of librarians together and recorded an undead chorus of frightful moans. I recorded hokey old-timey instructional video narration, and threw in old public-domain music for kicks.

They ate it up. Who are these librarians?

Next, I threw together an animatic (moving storyboard) to be presented at the Library's staff meeting.

Watch this video on Vimeo

It was unanimously approved. They gave me the go-ahead to produce the final animation. I became known as "the zombie guy" around the library.

And now, after weeks of furiously animating in flash, there is a video about zombies on my school's library website.

I have to ask again... Who are these librarians?

...and what will they let me get away with next?

Book Covers

2009-10-07T07:07:00.002-05:00

Just a couple more designs from last semester. These are typographic book covers.

"Green" Illustrations

2009-10-06T13:40:00.003-05:00

Digging out a few more illustrations from last semester. I was playing with the same style for both of these projects, since they both involved representing the "green" movement in some way. The first was meant to be used as an illustration for a magazine spread, with the article overlayed on top of it. The second was meant to be a poster.

SRC map illustration

2009-10-05T18:18:00.002-05:00

I'm digging out some work from the spring semester that I never got around to posting. This one is a simplified isometric map of the College of DuPage's Student Resource center. You might remember the SRC icons that were incorporated into this project.

The assignment was to represent the map in 3D, and I decided to go with an isometric view in honor of all the great RPG video games and technical illustrations that have influenced me. It was a lot of fun to define such a rigid, simplified world and then populate it all sorts of people and critters doing goofy things.

The way the different floors of the building were layered in space, it looked like the whole scene was in the middle of being dropped into place. I added some random objects floating around the scene to add a little more humor.

Great Scott! logo design

2009-10-04T16:41:00.002-05:00

For this logo design, I envisioned a television channel for makers, crafters, hackers, inventors, and anybody who's ever taken something apart.

It's called "Great Scott!" or GS for short. The logo is a custom typographic treatment of the initials GS. The letters have been woven together to suggest the tangle that these creative tinkerers often make with their materials.

I've drawn storyboards for station identification spots that display the logo in the environment of the subjects it covers.

We will be sending these storyboards to the animation students so they can create the actual spots, but I will be creating my own when I find the time.

Shred Day '09

2009-10-03T20:15:00.003-05:00

Today was the second annual Shred Day at First National Bank of Naperville. I created a series of ads to run in the local papers, and they were apparently extremely effective. At 9am, we had two lines of cars snaking through the bank parking lot, and a line around the block on top of that. We reached the on-site shredding truck's capacity of 10,000 pounds of paper at 11am, leaving us in kind of an awkward situation for the last hour of the event. We worked out a system to transport the remaining material to the shredding facility.

I'm told that we took in about 600 pounds of food and a healthy sum of money in donations to Loaves & Fishes. This makes me especially glad as a designer, because this new aspect of the event was promoted solely through the ads I designed. It feels great to see an effective design facilitate so much goodwill.

It was a crazy day, and despite the problems we ran into, Shred Day '09 was absolutely a success. All that shredded material gets recycled, and the whole thing is a great big hug to the environment. Thanks to everyone who came out to shred and donate, and thanks for those who expressed understanding when we filled up the truck.

ZOMBIES!

2009-09-22T16:57:00.003-05:00

Just a preview of the SECRET ZOMBIE PROJECT.

Back in School

2009-09-02T16:07:00.002-05:00

School is back in session, and I now have two excellent part-time jobs. There is hardly a minute to spare between projects, and soon the floodgates will open.

Above you can see a simple test of a zombie walk cycle. What project is it for? SECRET ZOMBIE PROJECT.

Tape Loops experiment

2009-07-16T16:53:00.003-05:00

Watch this video on Vimeo or YouTube.

While reading about how to make your own tape loops from cassette tapes*, I was reminded of the Buddha Machine (a sort of electronic ambient music generator), and how some people buy multiple Buddha Machines to create more complex layers of sound. I just threw together this little experiment, but the idea could definitely be explored further.

*I found that the added washers and stuff this guy adds are unnecessary. You really just need to open it up, pull out the tape, splice it to the right length, and put it back in.

3D Sine Wave (a closer look)

2009-05-13T09:07:00.004-05:00

View these photos on Flickr.

Here is a closer look at my final project for 3D design class. The interesting thing abou this form is how it seems to change depending on the angle you look at it. The video didn't capture that, so I hope these pictures get the idea across.

Previously.

Portfolio Night '09 at the College of DuPage

2009-05-09T07:50:00.005-05:00

Watch this video on Vimeo or YouTube.

Thursday night was Portfolio Night at the College of DuPage. All the graphic design students submitted their best work to be shown, and the portfolio students competed to be the best of the best. It was incredible to walk around and see everyone's work. Multiple times during the night, I had to hunt down people and berate them for not telling me they were doing such brilliant work. The night was full of surprises, and it was a wonderful way to end the year.

This has been the best year of school I've ever had, and I'd like to thank my teachers and classmates for making everything so fun and exciting. The amount of talent that surrounds me every day is staggering. You have changed school from something I used to dread into something I now love. You've changed my life.

Thanks.

3D final projects

2009-05-07T11:42:00.004-05:00

Watch this video on Vimeo.

My friend Jake and I finished our final projects in 3D class today. Mine was inspired by sine waves, and looks like some kind of futuristic chapel. Jake's is a series of interlocking octagons that fits perfectly within a cube.

This marks the end of my first year of design school. I'm not going to get all reflective on you yet, there are still some projects I haven't posted, and I plan on doing some video coverage of Portfolio Night tonight. All the hard work is done now, though, and it feels good to have survived the year.

Related.

Treasure Hunt photoshoot

2009-04-28T17:37:00.004-05:00

Watch this video on Vimeo or YouTube.

Treasure Hunt is an Egyptian themed board game I created with four other super talented design students at the College of DuPage. Eve, Kevin, Matt, and Blair put so much of their talent to work on this thing, and it not only looks great, it's also really fun to play. Thanks for making this my favorite project of the year, guys.

(Also, thanks to Mr. Blevins for assigning this thing in the first place. It's the weird challenges like this that make design school interesting.)

Lady Archaeologist

2009-04-22T10:48:00.002-05:00

Illustration done for a board game piece. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures of the full board game later.

Goofy Spaceman Photoshoppery

2009-04-21T18:31:00.002-05:00

There comes a time in design school when your teacher tells you to make silly images in Photoshop, and the next thing you know, you have a bunch of astronauts with giant food items. So, there you go.

FACE VALUE has opened

2009-04-14T18:09:00.003-05:00

Watch this video on Vimeo or YouTube

Thanks to everyone who came to the opening of FACE VALUE last night! If you didn't get a chance to swing by, I made this little video to give you an idea. The show will be up for a month in the Wings Gallery, which is located on the first floor of the Student Resource Center at the College of DuPage. The open gallery times are a little goofy, and I'm not really sure what they are, but I will update this post when I find out.

All the glory should go to Kristin Schlottman, Chris Walker, Grace Blevins, Jake Albaugh, Erika Swanson, Heather Shaw, and Dan McDarrah for all their hard work on this show. You guys have incredible talent, and I feel so lucky to have worked with you on this project.

Working on FACE VALUE

2009-04-11T19:14:00.002-05:00

FACE VALUE is a typography show featuring a lot of great work from some incredibly talented graphic design students at the College of DuPage. Some of my crap got in there too, I'm not sure how that happened.

The show will be in the Wings Gallery (which is located in the Student Resource Center, or SRC of the College of DuPage) this Monday, April 13th at 7:00 pm. I hope to see you there!

Grungy Illustrations

2009-03-30T19:50:00.004-05:00

Some fun retro/geometric/grungy illustrations representing the bookstore, cafeteria, and library at the College of DuPage.