How to design a cool CD cover

Have you ever wondered how bands come up with their names or how designers come up with their weird CD covers? Well, here ya go. This is a Facebook special. (You know, where they pass it around and you come up with 25 things or put your IPOD on shuffle or something...)

1. Go to "wikipedia." Hit "random" or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2. Go to "Random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to flickr and click on "explore the last seven days" or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use photoshop, the gimp or similar to put it all together.

5. Post it to FB with this text in the "caption" and TAG the friends you want to join in.

I won't do number 5, but this is what I came up with this morning (a good "warm up" exercise of sorts for design...) :

I can't keep my mouth shut.

The quilt is starting to come together. I want to give a little sneak peek of some of the fabrics I will be using (just ordered yesterday on Etsy). Still not going to give away to entire look or anything...

In other news, triathlon training is coming along. Well, except for when my feet fall asleep after I've been running for about a mile. I think I'm going to have to go to the doc to find out what is wrong. It only happens when I run and it goes away when I stop. It feels like when you're foot falls asleep and you try to walk around on it...very weird. We got the map for where will be running on the tri course, and it's about half in the hills...and looks really really long. At least we will be able to run this route a few (hopefully) times before the actual race July 26. Oh, and Geoffrey shaved his legs!

I'm interested in this exhibit opening at AMOA...I like maps and I get that from my dad. He loves to look at maps to find a better route, I love to look at maps because of all of the lines and shapes created. If it's old and weathered, even better.

Global Business logo

That's what I came up with. I did one with Helvetica, too, but I didn't like it.

(See below.)

Helvetica and captions

This is a creative idea: guy draws a picture every week and you write a caption for the picture. if your caption wins, you get published in a book. fun.

Geoffrey and I finally watched the movie about Helvetica this weekend. Geoffrey really enjoyed the movie, which kind of surprised me. I definitely recommend it. The movie is very informational about the typeface Helvetica as well as design in general. I especially enjoyed Paula Scher (her maps are super-cool, click on her name to see) talking about how she isn't that crazy about Helvetica. I like Helvetica in the American Apparel logo (or American Airlines...basically the same thing, one word different). In the American Apparel logo, Helvetica has a trendier quality to it (that's in a big nutshell) than the more corporate feel of AA. But that's mostly about their surroundings. And that's what Helvetica does--it says what it needs to and lets the content do the talking. Target (look at the scrolling graphics) uses the whole family...light, bold, black, etc...in different ways. I also like this coffee mug (and I plan to buy it at some point). I think the reason I'm not drawn to using Helvetica a lot is that I like to be more expressive with the type. Lately I've been more drawn to hand-lettering. I keep looking for a good excuse to use it in something at work... When you're in Mexico, you can't help but notice all of the hand-lettered signs in fonts of all kinds. I took this one in Guanajuato, Mexico a couple of years ago:

I especially like the R.

Of course, everything cannot be hand-lettered. Like the Global Business Connections logo that I am working on. It needs to have a more "corporate" feel. Maybe I'll use Helvetica...

Cupcakes and

Melaina's Birthday Cupcakes...fun to make!

Speaking of cake...Cake Wrecks is a fun blog.


Ice on the trees...it actually got below 32 degrees a couple of weeks ago

Logopond.com to see some logos I've done for the Chamber and for lots of great logo ideas.
Take that, Logo Lounge! It's free.

busy busy

when i get busy, i don't blog.

i've been working on triwaco.org this week. it's almost done...just a few things left to do. i'm glad for the experience of working on this "template" web site. i feel like it is helping to ease me into actually doing a real site. i've really started to think about what i am going to do for my own web site. first, i need to buy whatsthejillio.com before someone else does. the other thing though, is how do i make a cool, unique site that doesn't look like anyone else's? and is something that i can create myself...i dunno. but i've got to start thinking about it. it'll probably take me a reallly really long time to figure out what i'm doing.

i'm also battling a cold. i've been lucky until today...everyone around me has been sick recently.

i left my pictures on my work computer, but i made some fun cupcakes this week. i poured the batter into ice cream cones and mixed up some different icing colors...hot pink, purple, green...it was fun. i'll get those up next week.

A handshake and a pat on the head

January 20, 2009
Former President George W. Bush shook my hand and patted me on the head.

W came home to Waco/Crawford last night and I got to see it up close and personal. Big fan of the former prez or not, definitely a once in a lifetime experience. My dad got to shake his hand, too.

Almost more exciting than meeting the president was seeing Air Force One (well, a presidential plane that looks just like Air Force One, but is not called so unless Mr. Obama is on it.) The plane is gigantic. And very official looking.

I watched the inauguration yesterday morning as well. It was a very nice event. I especially enjoyed the poem.

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."

Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

--by Elizabeth Alexander