New Sketchbook

Wandered around Harajuku yesterday and realized (as I was looking at a beautiful leather orange one) that I'm due for a new sketchbook. If you don't know this already you will learn very soon that I go through "sketchbooks" like lightning, in fact I just finished one last week. I've hundreds and hundreds of them lining my room at my parents' house, BUT I haven't had a NICE one in a while. "Why would this matter?" you may ask. Well, at least in my situation, it matters because the quality of the sketchbook impacts what goes in it usually. If I have a big beautiful leather bound Rhodia than I'm more likely to use it as a showcase for more finalized drawings. If I have a crappy newsprint flop-book than than I'm more willing to use it for more practical reasons - for small rough sketches and lists... so many lists. Both are important and different kind of practices that like to be housed in a similarly formatted casing.

I haven't had a "nice" sketchbook in while and thus have not made many drawings recently that stand alone as a (final) drawing, rather than a sketch for a potential piece for another medium.

The sketchbook I bought is an orange leather dot-grid Rhodia. The dot-grid is a HUGE improvement now that I'm taking my typography a tiiiiny bit more seriously.

Of course the drawing on the first page is extremely cosmetic because thats the first thing that people see. (!)


I'll post new drawings as soon as I have a fair amount of them to show

M

TypeTypeType

Have been doing a bit of sketching lately and trying to get back into designing typography. Typography has the potential to be such a fun medium to get creative with since it comes along with so many rules and standards. It can really become an illustration itself rather than just the caption.

Name of an amazing norwegian bar in Shibuya. They held a jazz night recently that I decided to go to right after work. I had my sketchbook with me and so I just relaxed and did a little sketching while enjoying the live norwegian jazz.

I went on a trip by myself to the mountains after my second week in Japan. IT. WAS. GORGEOUS. truly inspiring - thus resulting in a bit of creative output, no doubt!

Name of the design firm I work for. (I'm sure they would never consider this their style or ever want it associated with them, but hey, I needed a word... and there it was.)

If you want to try a bit of typography of your own - a site I like to look to for inspiration is (get ready for it): designspiration.net. You should check it out even if you don't. I think you'll like what you see.

k, gotta get back to work!
M

Tokyo Mojo

Heeeeeyyyyy,

So, it's been a little bit of time since my last post. I've graduated, summer was well spent in Ann Arbor while freelancing for Spunk Design Machine and I saved enough money to go to... JAPAN!

Yes, I am currently writing this post from a tiny design firm in Tokyo! I've made it to the TOP! Well not quite yet, but it feels pretty good at this juncture. I'm currently the graphic design intern for Nosigner of Tokyo, Japan. It's a very small firm with some really talented individuals and open minded thinkers. You can check out their website here.

I'm realizing that working for small design firms is the only way to go - the best way to do it. You really bond with your team and get way more responsibility. Of course you're probably going to be working 10 times harder than a massive corp firm but really it ends up being much more fulfilling. For example! - I work 12 hours a DAY here. 10am to 10pm. Sounds rough, I know, but guess what... It is! haha but it's still very do-able! And MAN do you end up getting a LOT of work done.

But really, I'm immensly enjoying my time in Japan. I'm only supposed to stay till mid october but I'm going to try to stay longer if possible.

Working at the firm has got my creative juices flowing again too which is GREAT. Sooo now I have things to post again! Today I started a poster that I hope to complete in the next few weeks or so. I'll leave you guys with a taste...

It's about Japan. Ha really?!

K well welcome back to Slowjams! (it was time for a new look.)