I’ve been keeping myself busy these past few months with Ad School projects, freelance and general adventuring. I completed my 2nd quarter at Miami Ad School, spanning the months of January through March, and then enjoyed a nice spring break in New Orleans. I took some really fun classes this quarter, my favorite of which dealt with typography and the role letters play in sending a message. It was enlightening to learn about how the style of type conveys an additional message other than the meaning of the words the letters are arranged to make. It was taught by Diego Guevara, and I enjoyed completing the poster projects he assigned. My top work from the class was probably a series of travel posters… Here’s a sample
We also had to design posters for an “iconic event” in history. Well, being me, I chose to spotlight early transit graffiti in New York City. It was an interesting time for outsider art and was really the birth of Modern American Graffiti in its current form. Here is one from the series.
Another fun project was redesigning the Comic Sans font. Anyone who has spent even just a little time studying typefaces and their history is familiar with the unanimous hate that the subculture feels towards this font. Our assignment was to make a new version of Comic Sans that could actually be used in some real situations. I created Komik Sans, a simple geometric sans-serif font that can be used for display purposes. Here is a little specimen of the work.
If you are interested in checking out the rest of the material from these assignments, or any of my other work for that matter, please hop over to my Behance online portfolio.
So yea, school was productive and challenging as usual. Coupled with a steady flow of freelance, and my position as the studio assistant at Miami Ad School, things got downright busy. I still managed to find time to do some cool things just for the hell of it. Over this past quarter I had one of my first experiences delving into the world of beauty photography. The head of Photography at MAS has a niece, Abby Dixon, that is an up-and-coming model in Florida. I needed a certain shot with a female for an unrelated project, but decided to plan a fun studio session just to make some cool images for both of our portfolios. I bought some colored pigment powder to throw around and hopefully get some cool shots with. It has already become kind of a gimmick, but I had never used it before and wanted to try. I was pretty psyched with some of the results! Here’s a sample.
No matter how busy I get, I must always find some time to clear my head with a good spray. I know not many people understand why or how I do it, but graffiti is an important part of my sanity at this point in my life. It is one of the purest forms of creation in this day in age; there really isn’t much to gain from it, it simply represents putting a part of yourself out into the world for all to see. I was recently interviewed by a friend for a certain university publication about street art and why I do it. I thought I would put my answer to one of the questions here as a partial explanation to why I am so magnetized for it.
Why Do I write:This is a tough question that I find myself trying to answer everyday. The most simple answer is that I wouldn’t want to live in a world where this kind of subversion didn’t exist. A world without graffiti would mean that there is no one asking why these rules and laws exist. No one questioning or confronting the powers at be. Complete homogeny. I think we need graffiti to compete and combat the messages that are jammed down our throats by advertisers and authority every day. We need something in our visual environment that reminds us of the way we are constantly influenced by people demanding our vote or money. Not trying to communicate any message in particular, the medium is the message for me when it comes to graffiti.
— me
I’ve been lucky enough to meet some folks down here that have introduced me to the world of freight trains. I have become enamored with the culture! There is something really special about the rails… These giant silent boxes sitting at night, waiting to keep America truckin’ on by day… So the little leisure time I get to enjoy these days is mostly used trainspotting.
I am already a few weeks into my 3rd quarter at Miami Ad School, so this post is a bit late. Looking back, Q2 was alot of fun… I made what feels like a ton of progress, and had some fun new experiences too… Miami living, Buku Project’s second year, and a fun visit to New Orleans. I included a photo roundup of the past few months of my life, so anyone reading this, please enjoy!
