Orangutangy

Category: Experiments

  • A dream web design class

    I have a question to poll the audience: If you were to create a new Web design intro class, what would you teach? There were plenty of holes in my knowledge left to fill after my first class (still are plenty of them), but what would you propose adding? Here’s my take on an intro web design class. Do you have anything to add/remove? Let’s be brutal!

    (more…)

  • Band Album Cover: Pogonomys Championi

    albulmCover

    I finally decided to try my hand at the music album cover design challenge. The rules make it so that you get a random picture, band name and song title and then design a cover for such a selection.  Ivan describes the exact rules in his post.

    Here is my cover art  for Pogonomys Championi, playing their hit single, “homework formerly eaten by the dog”. I liked the idea of pairing the light quirky background with the dark silhouette of a laughing dog. I tried to convey indie rock band with mayan flavor. The band logo is of course their champion mouse.

    References: Pogonomys Chamioni is a tree mouse. The song title is a quote from Doug Larson, “Home computers are being called upon to perform many new functions, including the consumption of homework formerly eaten by the dog”. Original Photograph by ATLITW.

  • Photoshop CS3+ Letterpress Tutorial

    letterpress tutorial finished

    Here is a simple way to get a letterpress effect in Photoshop CS3 and above.

    To summarize, you apply a bevel and emboss layer style to the area around the ‘imprinted’ art. For this tutorial, I will show how to make the effect and then use smart objects to warp it non-destructively. (more…)

  • Put yourself in my shoes…

    This is why I moved....

    Tracy and I moved units after seeing this wonderful view. We wake up and come home to this. No drummers beneath us is also a plus.

  • Triptych x4


    Here’s something I’m proud of: A card with 12 images on it. What does that make this? a dodecatic? whatever. Just a fun(?) exercise. I remember making things like this in school.

  • Tonight’s sketch

    I should be asleep now but I was having too much fun sketching in photoshop… Just a reminder to everyone to have fun every now and then.

  • PHP register new user

    So I’m continuing on my user account management quest. Yesterday and today I added the ability to register as a new user. It’s still very rudimentary- the registration fields are not checked for validity (so more than one user can have the same user name) but I feel great that I’m making progress. Try it out: http://yukikodesign.com/test/testbed/index.php

    Next up, send an email when “forgot password” and add personal account management to change passwords and delete users if you’re an admin.

  • PHP user login test

    A huge step for me in programming- I got a simple user authentication to work through php. It took some stretching and “feeling my way through the dark” but I got something that requires a login and logout and it seems to work. The SQL database stuff was a bit of a fanagle since it veered off from my book but this time I looked around and was able to “upload” my queries instead of typing them out in a command prompt. I’ll work on it a bit more later but it’s sleepy time.

    links:
    My Quick and dirty test
    User: jack
    Pass: toronto

    Book reference: PHP Hacks- Tips & tools for Creating Dynamic Web Sites
    Online Tutorial: Simple Login, Logout, and Session Handling

  • Before and After?


    I have no idea how this happened. Somhow the png got really messed up…

  • Two Images I whipped up last night


  • Texture exploration


    Add another to the list… A nice texture from different opacities and a gradient.

  • Wheels turning but not catching

    I need to get off my but and do stuff. I need to be less worried about what people think of my work and just get pieces done. I feel no confidence in my writing or designing without a classroom. I fear competition rather than savoring it as I used to. Things that I think are nearing completion are being put aside and then revamped entirely. This used to be a good thing- a way to get new and fresh ideas, but right now it seems like it’s gotten me nowhere. I’ve applied to 2 design jobs since this whole unemployed business started. Two. How pathetic. I need discipline. I need someone to say, “Stop right here. It’s good enough. Move on.”

      Status Update:
  • Business cards- Design done, being reprinted by overnight prints.
  • Resume – latest iteration shown.
  • Website – Portal, portfolio splash, and 1 inner page complete. 7 inner pages, resume page and extras page still to do.

  • untitled

    I can’t get it out of my head. 

    She asked me, “How… How do you think of projects to make? I mean as an artist you can just go out and paint something. But how to you find a project for yourself?”

    How do I answer this? “I just find something that needs to be made better and make it better.” She doesn’t understand and asks the same question over again. She keeps asking me wierd questions. Is she saying that I need different pieces in my portfolio? Just because it hasn’t changed in the last week doesn’t mean that they’re bad. I haven’t posted them online yet. I feel annoyed that she assumes she can help me by hinting at what I should and should not do. I want to ask her for advice and not the other way around

  • Website preview


    I think I finally have a site design that I can live with. I tried to go for a clean look with a bit of texture. Other influences include apple’s reflections and adobe lightroom’s overlay style panels. I really wanted to include a large teaser image from my portfolio, but I couldn’t make it work without being distracting. The second pic is the previous draft. (Yes, I see the spelling error)