Ego Bruise, Issue 2

Issue 2 of Ego Bruise (formerly known as Offshoot) is finally online here!

Ego Bruise is an art and writing magazine that aims to give exposure to a wider range of talent. The e-zine seeks art that is made humbly, for the joy of creation or expression. WHICH MEANS any of you who have talents in art or writing should submit something to the next issue. There's an optional theme of "identity," or you could submit a series of works. Details are on the last page of Issue #2!

Hope you enjoy it, and thank you so much to all who submitted work and to Racheal Anilyse (and her team!) of Underground Art School for being such a huge inspiration.

Art Bash & Portraiture Workshop

It's been an artsy fartsy weekend! Friday night was Art Bash, the open house for the School of Art and Art History at UF. Above is our studio with "mood lighting." My desk is the one on the far right.

Everyone was invited to scribble on the nasty old couch that's been in the senior studio.

Please note the "Jonas" that some little girls wrote.

Then on Saturday some kids from the photo club got together for a portraiture workshop that Raul Fernandez organized.


More photos on my Flickr photostream

Type Doodles

I feel like I never get to doodle anymore now that I'm in upper division studios and have a million other things going on. Last night I finally got the chance to sit down and draw for fun, so voila! A nice verse in fancy type.

Right now I'm looking into web hosting outside of the university. I enjoy having free hosting, but I'd like to have PHP capabilities and the opportunity to run a Wordpress-powered blog right on my portfolio site. I'll keep you all updated on web developments and whether you should need to update your bookmarks!

Studio View and Other Curiosities

I have four new friends on my desk in the studio now, thanks to everyone in voxGraphis (the UF graphic design club). They're from Peskimo's Bamboo Zoo line at Kid Robot. The little guy with a trumpet snout also has a tambourine you can put in his hand! Thanks, Vox!

SO MANY COOL THINGS ON THE INTERNET
I don't know about you, but I spend way too much time gathering inspiration/trolling blogs. There's just so many awesome things being blogged about right now!

Some recent favorites:


Slightly obsessed with Tom Gauld's lettering. [via Drawn]

Pretty things by thief and bandit. Dibs on the poncho tee! [via?]

"Let Go of the Past From Your Wardrobe" on Unclutterer, and oldie but good.

Michelle Obama lookbook on The Cut. Check out her Halloween costume (by the way, who trick-or-treats at the White House?).

voxGraphis Miami Trip

Above: voxGraphis at Doink, Elastic People, and Cre8tiv Juice Group.
Image credit: Brian Slawson
Recently, I led a group of 40 other design students to Miami to visit some design studios and advertising firms working in South Florida. We met with these awesome people:

Cre8tiv Juice Group

Doink

Elastic People

Lemon Yellow

Zubi Advertising

It was great to pick their brains and learn valuable realities about the world of design and advertising. When I wasn't frantically herding students around Miami, I learned quite a few truisms from these talented individuals.

VALUABLE DESIGN/LIFE LESSONS

you can't design in a vacuum; you have to approach with a strategy

awesome work is nice, but you can't lose sight of what your design does for the client

with change comes opportunity

follow your passion, not money

it's a good idea to diversify clients, since you'll never know what will happen with the ups and downs of the economy

messaging is critical; the core of this is authenticity

make your problem your solution

if you invest into something your heart isn't in, it's never going to happen

there are NO EXCUSES for missed deadlines

ask yourself before taking on a project: do you believe in this product? Should it be on the market?

designers are gatekeepers

some projects don't make you money, but they make you better

Many thanks again to all the agencies/firms/studios we met with; we learned so much from you that we were able to take back and apply to our own work.