EVRT Studio: News Blog

Beat Connection / Sunburn Staying focused, I need good music....

2010-07-29T10:47:00-07:00

Beat Connection / Sunburn

Staying focused, I need good music. Here is some more of that surf rock slash chillwave that all the kiddies are talkin about. This song just does it for me. And you can get their full EP over here

West Bottoms

2010-07-29T07:59:21-07:00

I haven’t had much to share this week: it has been surprisingly busy, and I’m trying to unplug (at least a lot, but maybe not completely) from the internet and focus on getting some important things done over the next two weeks.

I figure I need to at least show up with some form of contribution to the blog this week, so here are a couple of photos from 2008, taken in the West Bottoms of KC.

I think I should send this one to Beck. Maybe he’ll use it as his next album cover. Riiiight. Both of these were shot with a Canonet, my favorite little Rangefinder. I can’t remember the film off the top of my head, but seeing as I’m a big Ilford fan I’m going to take a guess that it was HP5.

Have a good week/weekend!

I’m now on @dribbble if anyone else has an account. Get a sneak peak of things I’m...

2010-07-26T19:47:00-07:00

I’m now on @dribbble if anyone else has an account. Get a sneak peak of things I’m working on, that you won’t see here.

http://www.dribbble.com/players/evrtstudio

Oh, and a big thanks to Able Parris for the invite.

Every summer when tomatos are in season, I have...

2010-07-23T10:57:00-07:00

Every summer when tomatos are in season, I have an obsession with some form of food resulting in the combination of tomatos, mozzarella and basil. Last summer it was Bruschetta on garlic Naan bread. This summer’s obsession (thanks to my mother-in-law) is Panzanella, which is an Italian bread salad. I think we have made about 4 big batches in the last 3 weeks, and it disappears within an hour.

Grape tomatos work great for this salad, but it is better if you mix in at least one or two large tomatos for the juice, since the bread soaks it up. The best batch we have made also included a fresh baguette from Bloom bakery. The rest of ingredients are:

half a ball of mozzarella, diced

5 or 6 fresh basil leaves, diced

half a green bell pepper, diced

half a candy white onion, thinly sliced

half of a baguette (maybe 1 day old), cut into 1 inch cubes

tbsp olive oil

tbsp italian dressing

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

salt & pepper to taste

optional: chives

Photo

2010-07-22T11:52:43-07:00

aodine: Where were these wooden cars when i was a kid? I saw...

2010-07-21T12:06:24-07:00

aodine:

Where were these wooden cars when i was a kid? I saw these at a small boutique toy store and while they are slightly expensive for a toy car, i think they are awesome and nearly bought myself one…i still might.

There is a crazy story about Patrick Calello (the designer behind Automoblox) that was told to me a couple of years ago. I can’t confirm if it is true or not, since the story has most likely been filtered through lots of people before reaching me.

One of the scariest moments for any product designer is actually following through to the manufacturing and production phase of their product. Especially if the product has a very limited budget, and end price point. And even more especially if producing that product in a foreign country. Months of mental sweating ensue.

When Patrick took his car designs to China to have them manufactured, he worked for an extended amount of time with one factory in particular. Every time they prototyped his designs, they came out wrong. How could that happen when detailed drawings are being supplied to the factory? This cycle continued on for months. Nothing but problems.

Somehow Calello met up with an Engineer, who just so happened to speak Mandarin. The Engineer traveled to China with Calello, and sat in on one of the meetings with the factory. However, the fact that he knew Mandarin was kept a secret.

After leaving the meeting, the Engineer turned to Calello and told him to sever the relationship with the factory entirely, and he would help him find a new factory.

It turns out the factory was intentionally making the prototypes wrong, in order to stall the designer while they produced and sold the designs and working product to other people. Talk about a nightmare.

Lesson learned.

Again, this was a story told to me a couple of years ago, so I’m not sure how accurate it is. But my point of sharing this story is to show what can go wrong. I wouldn’t recommend that any designer first run off to China (or any other country for that matter) to produce his/her product idea. You might be surprised to learn there are lots of possibilities for producing here in the US.

Folks, we INVENTED mass production and lots of other amazing things. Let’s continue…

Ivan & Alyosha / Easy To Love I’ve been really hooked...

2010-07-20T09:03:00-07:00

Ivan & Alyosha / Easy To Love

I’ve been really hooked on Bandcamp for the past few weeks, where I keep running into these amazing artists. Ran into these guys last night, and I am addicted to this song. So catchy. And it involves hand clapping, so how can you not like it?

I’m telling you musicians now: add hand clapping to your songs! And whistling! It’s like drugs…

Freelance Projects You Shouldn't Take

2010-07-19T17:01:00-07:00

When the pitch goes something like this:

“This project should be pretty simple, we just don’t have time to take care of it ourselves right now.”

Camera Obscura / Razzle Dazzle Rose Just a nice relaxing...

2010-07-19T11:05:09-07:00

Camera Obscura / Razzle Dazzle Rose

Just a nice relaxing song…

Lewis Nerman Museum

2010-07-19T08:55:32-07:00

A contemporary Art museum on the Johnson County Community College campus (what a mouthful) that is often over shadowed by the Nelson Atkins. It is really a fantastic addition. Well designed, clean and modern.

Last week I finally got around to taking some exterior shots of the building. Something I’ve been meaning to do since it opened. On the underside of the overhang (which you can see clearly in this shot) is a large array of LEDs, which continuously range in brightness creating a dramatic light show. It is really an interesting idea.

Next, I will be photographing the interior, so look forward to that soon!

(Some of the LED panels need to be replaced already. I started to edit them, but it became too tedious for me)

Wallpapers

2010-07-16T06:42:00-07:00

Wallpapers:

The Record and Tree Rings wallpapers are up on Poolga today. Go grab them if you already haven’t! And the iPhone is now at a larger size for the iPhone 4.

"It’s just wrong to base your life or your business so it is dependent on regularly succumbing to..."

2010-07-15T13:10:29-07:00

“It’s just wrong to base your life or your business so it is dependent on regularly succumbing to sub-optimal situations.”

- If you’re a freelancer, you know them: the emails about a project that start with an apology, the phone calls that regret the short timeline or the slim budget. Everyone knows that it’s wrong, even the person wanting to hire you. But, it is the reality at hand. We don’t always have a choice. Compromising is a part of life because nothing is ever perfect, and we should do favors for people we like and love. Sometimes, we have to take on lackluster jobs like this for financial reasons. It’s called bread-and-butter for a reason.

But, exceptions are meant to be just that. By their default, they can’t be the norm. If they do become that, something’s busted and there needs to be some repairs at a higher level. (via viafrank)

(this is what I’m talking about folks)

A simple thank you card I made yesterday for personal use....

2010-07-14T08:00:52-07:00

A simple thank you card I made yesterday for personal use. Unless of course people start asking me for them! Now when you order a print or photo, you get one of these.

GPOYWife

2010-07-14T07:27:00-07:00

GPOYWife

Tame Impala / Alter Ego I’ve listened to this song at...

2010-07-14T07:16:50-07:00

Tame Impala / Alter Ego

I’ve listened to this song at least a dozen times since last night.

Money: Best Places to Live 2010

2010-07-13T15:09:13-07:00

Money: Best Places to Live 2010:

This years list, and once again Overland Park makes the top 10, ranking in at #7. Four KC suburbs make the cut in the top 50, including Shawnee (where I live) at #17.

Two more things......

2010-07-13T11:13:19-07:00

A couple of the best feelings which have resulted in losing my job:

1. Being told how easily I could be replaced. Yet 3 months later they are still looking for a replacement. Ha

2. Seeing them place ads for 1 full time Industrial Designer, 1 part time Graphic Designer, and 1 contract Photographer to fill my shoes. :D Probably one of the nicest compliments I have received.

Being fired for all the right reasons....

2010-07-13T10:47:26-07:00

I have never spoken of my abrupt and sudden unemployment back in March; the event was tossed to the side as if it didn’t happen. Mostly because I was not upset with the fact that I lost my job. Really the only thing that even bothered me about the situation was the owner of the company I was working for at the time, got away with being a horrible person.

Let’s rewind all the way back to 2002. I landed my first job just a few months out of college. I didn’t know it then, but I had one of the best jobs I will probably ever have. I traveled all the time: even to Europe and Asia. Got to see my name on product that I designed. Helped develop product for people like Target, The Container Store, etc. But I slowly started to take it for granted. After almost 5 years I packed it up and moved to take a job here in KC. But I did it for all of the wrong reasons. I took it because it was the only job offer I could find at the time in Industrial Design. And I wanted to live in a larger city. Not caring about the red flags that were going off in my head during my interview.

This new job was eye opening. I decided I would take a completely different approach (mentally speaking) to this place, and sort of just sit back and do the work. But that turned out to be impossible. Within six months I knew I wanted out. Not because I didn’t like the products I was designing (which I didn’t). It came down to how I was being treated. It was miserable.

I made some verbal agreements (which was a giant mistake, always get things in writing) to take less than the pay that I wanted because I didn’t know some certain software that was required. Once learning it, I would be bumped up to near the pay I wanted. No problem. I learned the software in less than 2 weeks. And in 6 months, I was teaching my Design Director certain things in the software that even he didn’t know. When I brought up the verbal agreement I made because I now knew the software, I was told no one remembered even having that conversation.

So here I was, grossly (and I mean majorly) underpaid yet constantly being told I’m not doing enough, even though I was basically filling the shoes of three positions: Photographer, Graphic Designer, and Industrial Designer. BTW, I was saving them $3500 for every day that I did photography, because that is the daily rate they were paying for their current photographer. Anyway. I was repeatedly reminded of how replaceable I was. I was screamed at, cussed at, threatened, you name it. And I honestly could not even give an example of what I could have done wrong to deserve that treatment. And thinking back I now realize that 90% of the things I was being yelled at for, at any other company would have been considered doing my job. The economy tanking just gave them even more excuses to be ridiculous. I could give you endless examples of crap I put up with, but to give you a clear picture of how irrational this person was, I’ll give you one single defining example. My director and I witnessed him threaten a grounds keeper’s life (not exaggerating in the least bit) because a piece of mulch landed on his precious Bentley.

After 2.5 years of this, it was seriously taking it’s toll. Unfortunately for me, I wear my emotions on my sleeve. I was coming home every night in a horrible mood and pissed off. One day I had enough. In a morning video conference with the owner, again my director and I were being cussed at. For no reason. Fuck it. I explained to him there was no reason to be yelling at us. He flipped out. I said I’m not going to sit in this meeting if this is how I was going to be treated, and walked out. After a while of cooling off we met on video conference again. I was asked what that was about. Lots of things were said.

Ultimately, I explained to him how I didn’t like the way I had been treated for the last 2 years. I no longer wanted to be cussed at especially. His response: “I’m 65 years old and I don’t need some stupid kid telling me how to run my business. I’m going to do whatever the hell I want, and if you don’t like it then you just need to go.” So that was it.

Over the next few days I of course was panicing like you wouldn’t believe. Couldn’t sleep either. But I decided this was the perfect time to take my freelance business to full time. However, it has been really, really tough to find gigs. I have called and emailed hundreds of people, sent I don’t’ know how many resumes and portfolios, gone to a portfolio showcase for freelancers. It is a tough, daily battle. Far more difficult to work for yourself than it is for other people. But I’m happy. Really happy. Oh yes, there are still times when I wonder how this is going to work, but I stay positive.

I guess the point of me explaining this story is to say as a designer (or really any career for that matter) don’t ever let yourself or anyone else compromise your goals that you wish to achieve. It is a tough, tough climb to get where you want to be, but the payoff is huge. I’m not saying you cannot work for someone else, but know how to own it and get what you want out of your career. For me, I will take the financial loss if it means personal happiness. And keep plugging away until this works. I may even have to ultimately go back to work again, at least for a while until freelance picks up. Or at the very least take a part time job at even a retail store. In many ways I feel like I have stepped back in my career by 5 or more years. But I’m OK with it because it made me realize the places I didn’t want to go back to, and shined a light on the places I did want to be.

Groundhog Run

2010-07-13T10:01:13-07:00

Was wondering if anyone in KC has done the Groundhog Run in January before, which takes place in the man made caves? Is it worth it? It is kind of expensive but how cool would it be to run in caves?

I have a degree in graphic design and took one marketing class in college but have never studied the two subjects in relation to one another. I will soon be working closely within the marketing division of a nonprofit and feel I need know more than just how to properly layout a newsletter. Do you have any books you recommend on the topic?

2010-07-12T14:12:00-07:00

I’m not sure If I can point you in the direction of a specific book. You’ve hit on two areas that I have little to no experience in: marketing & non-profit. Marketing goes hand-in-hand with any form of design in my opinion, and many times I feel needs a common sense approach.

One of the best things you can do is study your end user. IDEO is always unbelievably good at doing this. Know your target, and ask them straight out, what do you want to see? What is going to get your attention?

You seem to be on the right track in thinking you need to go beyond just knowing how to layout a newsletter. Although visually grabbing them is extremely important, knowing what is going to visually grab this is more important. That is especially the case because as designers, we often times lose sight of what should be done, instead of what we want to see done.

For a specific list of books, I would contact your college professors. They will know the best examples of books. I hope I helped at least a little bit. Thanks for the question.