New Biz Card Design

So I've been working on redesigning my business cards.
Here are some roughs I've been working on.
I'm leaning towards the elaborate pencil sketch (which will be in color), but i am not sold on all of the type just yet.
The idea is to have all the info on one side, and my logo on the other side, with my website information.
What do u guys think?

Hello! It's Toohey!

I have been meaning to fill this out for sometime now. Sorry this has taken me so long to do but I am finally doing it!


1.)What have you been doing post-graduation (art-wise or life-wise) and what are your plans for the next few months?

Well I moved to Chicago and started working part time for Steve Munro, an art rep out here, (http://www.munrocampagna.com/). I have been learning the tricks of the trade and getting some contacts that I have yet to use. I also recently started to work part time at Crate and Barrel, and if you have ever worked retail you know just how grand of a job it is. The next few months I am going to attempt to open my etsy shop and sell copies of my book because a lot of people have been bugging me about not having a copy. I have also been making lots of cute stationary but I haven’t posted most of it on my blog yet for some reason.

2.)Where have you moved to (be specific: ex."hampden") ? Are you happy/excited/frustrated/ disappointed by your new location? Is there something about this new place you wanna advertise, or warn us about? (Ex. great Tex-Mex food, bad public transportation)

I moved to Chicago and it is taking a while to grow on me but I am doing my best to get over its discrepancies. I would prefer to live New Orleans, but that will hopefully happen sooner rather than later. I live in Andersonville, really friendly cute neighborhood. Lots of cute shops. The great thing about living here is public transit is amazing! The locals complain about how expensive it is, which it is, BUT its all over the city! So for people like me who don’t have a car and work downtown the el is perfect. I am not that impressed with the food and the taxes are ridiculous (10.25%). It’s just starting to get really cold here but its not bad, yet.

3.)Is there something you have created since you graduated you would like to share? (it doesn't have to be an illustration)

I have FINALLY made some stationary and some things can be seen on my blog. (http://tooheyology.blogspot.com/) I just need to paint some lines onto some things and then post it. I am also working on illustrations of animal sounds. I am finishing up an owl hoohoooooing.

4.)Which specific color have you been using/thinking about the most lately?

Uh… using mostly… looks like chocolate brown. I didn’t even realize it till I came to this question. I haven’t really been thinking about any colors really. Now I want to think about colors!

5.)Tell us something about you that has changed since we last met.

Something that has changed. Well I gained some weight. I think I want to be an art teacher considering the recent market crisis.

Illustrators 51

I just found this info online, and figured that I would give a friendly reminder to anyone who wasn't up to date with the Society of Illustrators latest competition! The Deadline is November 7th and I pulled the main requirements for quick reference below. They have everything set up online this year and so far it seems to be efficient and organized! Best of luck to everyone that is entering!

Eligibility
Any illustration created or initially published between October 1, 2007 and November 1, 2008 that has not been accepted in the Annual previously, is eligible. International entries are welcome.

Categories
All commissioned work whether published or not, should be entered in one of the first six categories: Sequential, or Series / Animation, Editorial, Book, Advertising, Institutional, and Uncommissioned.

Entry Fees
$30 per entry for non-members of the Society of Illustrators
$35 per entry for non-members of the Society of Illustrators entering Sequential or Series / Animation

Yay!

It's great to see people posting their home pictures! Please feel free to continue posting your pics up, but in the meantime...check out these artists! They are yummy.

LETMAN
(please check out his EASTPAK design. brilliant.)

Sam Winston
(very designy and fine arty at the same time)

Hennie Haworth
(Yay! ok. lots of yellow but it's worth it, i swear)

James Joyce
(don't leave without seeing Corporate Power. Bam.)

And just for fun...
a hotdog!

On another note, the poll has expired! What would you like the next poll to be?
Any comments/ question about the last poll?

Let's see... first the questionnaire, and then some room pictures...

1.)What have you been doing post-graduation (art-wise or life-wise) and what are your plans for the next few months?

When you guys graduated I was still short some credits, so for the summer I attended Millersville University to complete graduation requirements, and received my diploma at the end of August. Attending class at MU was very different from attending class at MICA, much more "normal", I guess, and strange, I missed seeing familiar faces.

Then after a few lazy weeks I found a job at a local photography studio, where I've been working since. The pay for fiddling around in Photoshop all day is decent, and having much less free time to work on illustration has made me use that time better. Oddly enough I've been more productive then in those weeks when I wasn't working.

2.)Where have you moved to (be specific: ex."hampden") ? Are you happy/excited/frustrated/ disappointed by your new location? Is there something about this new place you wanna advertise, or warn us about? (Ex. great Tex-Mex food, bad public transportation)

Home. I moved back home to Lititz/Lancaster[Amish] County, PA, and I'm probably the only one who would rather be in the city. :) (I like having people around, and at least the sounds, though they might be disturbing, are recognizable in the city.) But it's really not bad at all being home.

3.)Is there something you have created since you graduated you would like to share? (it doesn't have to be an illustration)

I renovated my website. It's fall-ish now. :3

4.)Which specific color have you been using/thinking about the most lately?

For a while in the summer I was really into mint green/lime green/off white.

5.)Tell us something about you that has changed since we last met.

I've been wearing my hair part to the side. Which is only a big deal for me because it's always been parted in the center.

And some pictures. That is the room in which I live, and that is the view from the window.
I am a mess, I know :)

Wordle!

I generated this wordle (type cloud) out of the last 700 words posted in this blog. This was done using the wordle website. the words' sizes are relative to how frequent they were mentioned in the mica illo blog.

Hello everyone! It's been great to hear about what people have been up to. I thought I'd take this opportunity to share my favorite spot in Megan and I's apartment, the kitchen.
I really did not think this spot would become my favorite, but since moving in, it has really turned me onto cooking like never before. Going to this from what I had in Baltimore has allowed me to do many new, exciting things! New appliances: oven/stove, microwave, two sinks, dishwasher, wine glass rack, a bigger fridge, plenty of cabinet space/ counter space, and even spice racks built into the drawer by the oven. There's even more counter space in a nearby corner, with a wall fixture to hang pots/pans.
You are all welcome to come over for dinner.



Below is a picture of our studio. It gets great light, and has a closet to the left (not pictured, where there is room for an easel or another small desk), but as you can see, its a little barren. Megan and I have concentrated on the rest of the apartment while leaving the studio neglected. We plan on putting up everyone's postcards as soon as we can.


To see what I've been working on for my internship, check out my blog. I would appreciate any feedback or critique on sketches or finished works. More pictures to come!

-Eamonn

PODOHAMA

To those who are interested in PODOHAMA...
I've finally started to work on the website and I wanted to give you guys a glimpse of what it is so far. PODOHAMA is currently an online store for apparel/buttons/zines/etc. and I'm, obviously, the only contributor so far. I know that one can create a design and sell it on shirts of all kinds @ zazzle.com. You set a price for it and make royalties off of it. It's a cheap and easy way to start selling apparel! They also provide many other products, but I'm focusing on apparel for now. In case any of you were looking for a better provider of such services, I would check out zazzle.com. I haven't exactly tried it out yet, but reputable companies use zazzle so I'm going to guess that they'll be pretty useful.
The goal, right now is for PODOHAMA to successfully function as an online shop for my junk and for it to eventually cater to you guys, if any of you might be interested once PODOHAMA's up, running, and doing super. I don't know.. it's all just a jumble of ideas and it's all kind of up in the air, but... yeah! I'm super excited about it.

Now for the sneak peek... a corner, really.

That's all you get.
Bye

I am here!

Hey everybody, Z Bauer reporting in. I just realized I haven't posted on here yet, so here is what I've been doing!

1.)What have you been doing post-graduation (art-wise or life-wise) and what are your plans for the next few months?

I took a couple classes over the summer to clear up the credit mess with my graduation status, and now that that's taken care of I've been devoting pretty much all my free time to producing artwork, with the rest of it on trying to find a steady job. I've been working at Sonar downtown most of the summer, but its the pits only being able to work from 5pm-2am and to only find out when you're working the day before or sometimes the day of. I've recently been sending out my resume/portfolio/cover letter to a bunch of different game companies near and abroad in search of the dream job. I'm super nervous about that.

2.)Where have you moved to (be specific: ex."hampden") ? Are you happy/excited/frustrated/ disappointed by your new location? Is there something about this new place you wanna advertise, or warn us about? (Ex. great Tex-Mex food, bad public transportation)

Me and the lil' lady got hitched and moved off to live in the back country of Idaho!

Ok you caught me, Karoline and I actually moved up to Charles Village. Its been pretty awesome living here, a lot of my non-mica friends have actually moved up around the same area, and so I don't even have to drive to see people. The area itself is pretty nice too, and our apartment is almost perfect sized. I just wish I had more room to do some decent sized paintings. I do live really close to Chipotle and a 24 hour Subway now though, late night subs for the win?

3.)Is there something you have created since you graduated you would like to share? (it doesn't have to be an illustration)

I've been drawing a bunch, and all finished work has moved to the digital realm as of late. Karline and I modge-podged a periodic table of elements poster onto our coffee table, Its pretty awesome. Check out the new artwork over at the ol' bloggeroo.

4.)Which specific color have you been using/thinking about the most lately?

I've been painting a lot of browns lately, per usual. But Orange has been showing up a lot more too.

5.)Tell us something about you that has changed since we last met.

I signed up at Brick Bodies gym a couple weeks ago. I'm trying to get back in good shape. Multiple all-nighters a week in the studios wore me down.

And now, my studio nook! As viewed at 1:00am.



I know its really dark, but I do a good deal of my work in the evening/night so this is what it looks like most of the time while I'm painting. This is all crammed into the living room along with a futon, TV, coffee table, easel, bike, and a bunch of shelves. Efficient! I'll take some pictures during the day tomorrow. There are two huge windows that provide an awesome amount of sun during the daylight hours.

Whats going on?

Are you a little lost? Here's what we're doing right now. Get your pics up!
And don't forget to take the newest poll, just one more day left!!

my little corner

so this is my little corner in my house in NJ. i decided to make my workspace outside of my bedroom....i tried that before, and it never works too well. so i've got all my books and supplies and computer in one corner. its cozy (even though it looks really dark) - i probably spend 90% of my time at home here!

Sleepytime Sanctuary

I've been in Philly for two weeks now and have been loving it. My roommate and I don't have a TV, so I've been doing crafty things to pass my free time. I made a tree branch out of wire, felt, and fabric to put over my bed.
I've been frantically job searching since I've been here, so my bed and sleep have become my favorite parts of the day.

My mess

This is actually kinda embarrassing.
The undeniable evidence of my messiness finally publicly known.

Nothing to relate to my studio neighbor who just so happens to be so effortlessly neat (damn youuu!) But it's true. This is my favorite spot in the whole apt, i can't deny it as i can't deny all

the time i spent sitting here. Of course i'm sitting there now as i write this.
It is not very nice to look at, but then i guess this is not about that.
If you do want something cute to look at, then go look at my living room.
(sorry, but i couldn't resist, i'm so very proud of that brick wall...)

Some new artists (to me at least)

Thought I'd share a few links to some artists I've recently found out about. Maybe you guys will get some inspo from it. Please excuse me if you seen these before. These are artists I did not know about while at mica, or maybe I did but i didn't know it.

Ken Garduno - beautiful
http://kengarduno.com/home.html

Derek Albeck - kinda reminds me of Adrien's stuff
http://www.derekalbeck.com/

Julienne Hsu - I have a feeling most of you already know this one.
http://www.juliennehsu.com/#space_cat

Tessar Lo - this guy's finished illustrations look like very polished sketchbook pages (in a good way)
http://www.tessarlo.com/

Anthony Zollo - fascinating person. this guy doesn't have a site, only myspace. I occupied his old room this summer at Ringling. His process videos are fantastic! PS that's Rob Gibbs playing the piano, second video down, i think some of you know him.
http://www.myspace.com/azollo

Kenichi Hoshine - you guys prolly know this one too
http://www.kenichihoshine.com/

Thomas Herpich - neat stuff
http://www.thomasherpich.com/index.htm

Peter Herpich - neat shit
http://www.peterherpich.com/Index.html

Eric Fortune - very interesting process
http://www.ericfortune.com/

Hope you guys found these interesting. I will make a post to the favorite spot thing soon. I just found an awesome apartment right next to Minato. So most likely that'll be my favortie spot. I'm signing the lease this Saturday!

-Jeremy

Bagel: Spot Updated

Well... I don't get out much at all and I just spend the majority of my time at my desk/studio which is really the dining room... So.. yeah... yay. I wish I had a more interesting spot to take a picture of. At least this has a dog in it? Roseanne, all nine seasons of Roseanne. Can't live without my Roseanne, sorry.

Note to Jeremy: Hahahahaha... yeah.. my dad made me put the "I Can Do It" up there :) Only thing is that I don't ever see it.... I'm too short.

This is prettier (cold night sky, my favorite):

Your favorite spot

So we came up with this fun idea.

Take a picture of your favorite place in your current apartment. This could mean the cutest or grimmiest or best illuminated or simply the place in your apartment that you enjoy the most. It could be the view from your window, your backyard, your bathroom tiles, your stylish wallpaper, your favorite poster wall or a shot of your new
kitty/puppy/plant. Pick your favorite spot. Take a picture. Tell us all about it.

We have a good variety of cities people have moved to this year,
so we should have an interesting array of pictures and stories. Let us have it!
Everybody is encouraged to participate!! Show us your new/current place!
Posting will end September 31st, so that gives you some time to cutetify your place if you want to!

Post, post, post!

Dearest Ike

Well, guys as some of you may already know, I live in Houston.
As in Houston, Texas. As in getting hit by hurricane Ike in a couple of hours.
So I'm using the last bits of whats left of my electricity to update everyone.
Yes, we're fine. We weren't called to evacuate, because we live very close to downtown and the goverment ordered us to stay put and let people that live on the coast get out into Dallas (which will prolly get hit too, eventually) and elsewhere.
Some people frantically left, and some refused to leave their beach houses.
Honestly, the hurricane is pretty huge (takes 40% of the Gulf of Mexico) , but it is only a Category 2, so we aren't that worried(i guess). We've been through worse hurricanes before (back in Puerto Rico) and usually the worst part is waiting to get back our water and electricity after the storm.
So for now we're just bumming around eating potato chips and waiting for the winds to start pounding our glass windows (yep, we totally taped them down, lol)


Oh, and we got us some miner flashlights and they're absolutely adorable.

Reporting in

1. What have you been doing post-grad and what are plans:

I've completed my internship (actually it wasn't an internship as I was not doing it for college credit; my title was "contracted artist.") at Firaxis games in Hunt Valley, and a couple weeks back I got offered and accepted a full time position as a Concept Artist which has been nothing but awesome, as its been my dream job since high school. Half the time it doesn't even feel like I'm 'at work' because of the subject and the hours, which aren't nearly as long as what I pulled last year. I'm working alongside some non-08 MICA alums you might know, like Chris Sulzbach, Brian Mahoney, Steve Egrie, and I'm working particularly close with Piero Macgowan, as he's another concept artist on the unannounced project we're working on.  

The only drawback I can see with the job, is the fact that I can't put any of the work I do online because the project is secret. This really irks me because the stuff I've been doing of late completely blows the stuff I did last year out of the water, and I'd like to put it up in place of some less interesting stuff on the website.  

No specific plans in the next couple months aside from learning and getting better and better. I've got a side project I'm workin on but its going to be a while before I'm comfortable enough with it to put it online.

2. Where have you moved?

I moved to the top of a hill in Mt. Washington, about a 10 minute walk from the lightrail, and its hard to imagine that you're still inside the city limits.  I look out my window and I see trees, at night instead of gunshots and sirens and helicopters and yelling I hear cicadias, crickets. The sky isn't as orange out here either, and the air is fresh like the country. I don't feel like I'm about to get mugged when I walk home at night, and i've found a patch of woods along a river to hike when i'm bored. A Big backyard, friendly neighbors, spacious apartment; definitely a big step in the right direction from my old tiny bolton hill affair. I had a hell of a time finding a place but I'm thankful I put in the effort.  Mt. Washington is wonderful, even though I have to lightrail to get something other than wholefoods. 

3. Something you've created you'd like to share?

 Nothing too interesting, I've been too busy either working to get fulltime, or moving into my new apartment and getting the roommate situation figured out / unpacking all my shit, and none of my bonsai trees are anywhere near presenting (give me 2 more years)

4. Which specific color have you been using/thinking about

 What I've been learning recently is to use every single color to some degree in every piece. Local colors are the devil! Though if I were forced to choose I'd have to say Purple/Violet. 

5. Tell us something about you that has changed

 I ride a bike to get around now. s'Faster than walking. 

_Bryce

International Competition

Here's a link to an international design and illustration competition,
courtesy of Alain and Rebecca!

http://www.esad.pt/titan/

Big prizes! Check it out, it might work for you!

**UPDATE**

I have been confirmed that this competition is exclusively for work that has been published during the last 5 years.Unpublished work does not apply. Just putting it out there. Good Luck.

It's Alessa, 3 hours later.

1.)What have you been doing post-graduation (art-wise or life-wise) and what are your plans for the next few months?

Well, I looked for art-related jobs (graphic design, art dept intern, art colleges, etc), and I'm still searching, but in the meantime I'm doing retail. I work at a hole-in-the-wall children's clothing/toy store called 'Kids Only'. On the downside, it's minimum wage, but on the upside, it's on Haight St, a very famous and graffitied shopping street in the heart of San Francisco. There are tons and tons of awesome restaurants there and lots of hobos and potheads to entertain the masses. So now I just want to do my own artwork in my free time, maybe do some freelance, mostly just building a bigger and better portfolio. Doing more music videos for sure!


2.)Where have you moved to (be specific: ex."hampden") ? Are you happy/excited/frustrated/ disappointed by your new location? Is there something about this new place you wanna advertise, or warn us about? (Ex. great Tex-Mex food, bad public transportation)

I'm in San Francisco and I love it. Right now, it's not the best spot. I'm about a half hour from the cool downtown areas, but still technically in the city. I'm sharing a 2-story townhouse with a couple of San Francisco State students, very nice people. I was kind of afraid to move in with complete strangers, but I knew we had some things in common and it's been really great so far. As of now, though, I'm the oldest one in the house, so we can't go to any bars. All in all, this city is pretty nice. There are a lot of creperies. It's surprising how many Europeans there are here. I hear a lot of British and Irish accents, as well as French and Italian. And of course tons of Spanish. The public transportation is one of the best systems I've seen anywhere, the weather is beautiful if you don't mind a little fog, and people will stop you on the street to tell you about their troubled childhoods. No joke, this has happened more than once. I should also mention that I drove out here on an awesome road trip! You can see pictures of the journey here
.

3.)Is there something you have created since you graduated you would like to share? (it doesn't have to be an illustration)

I've been doing some sketching and just-for-fun illustrations, but I don't have my scanner here yet. Very soon I will start working on a music video for a band called Princeton. My friend Paul is actually living with them a house in LA, so I met them when I visited/helped him move.

4.)Which specific color have you been using/thinking about the most lately?

PINK! I don't know why, but I've been obsessed with pink lately. Any shade of it, as long as it's bright. At the moment, I'm into baby pink. Recently I decided that when I have my own place, I will have a completely pink kitchen. The dishes, the cabinets, the walls, the tile, everything. I'm really excited about it.

5.)Tell us something about you that has changed since we last met.

I got my first tattoo this summer. I plan to get more. The other day it was brought to my attention that the illustration I did for the Beasts book was put on the Fantagraphics blog. I think that's cause for celebration.