Chaos Love: love, life, design and more.

I've just finished revamping the website that I design/manage for Colin Lake & Wellbottom, a local blues band. I've mentioned them plenty of times on this blog before, I'm sure.

The old site was perfectly functional and even looked better than 95% of band sites out of there, but it lacked a certain panache in my eyes. That, and it had been added to in a very hodge-podge manner as the site grew from its initial 3 or 4 pages to the fount of knowledge that it is now. The whole thing is definitely more unified and "designed" now, and it will be much easier to amend and expand in the future.

The real reason I went through all this work to fix a website that didn't have a lot wrong with it? Because it looks awesome in my portfolio! I don't have a whole heap of web stuff in my portfolio, so a quality piece like this will strengthen it immensely!

Posted in: chaosboy, design, internet, music on June 15, 2008 at at 2:21:00 PM 0 comments    

Penny Arcade is so damn funny at times. That is all.

Posted in: art, chaosboy, transformers on June 9, 2008 at at 8:36:00 PM 0 comments    

We're all familiar with them: ads on TV that include a little warning in them, either as a caption or a voice over. Do Not Attempt, they say, or Consult Your Doctor If Pain Persists... that kind of stuff. In general, they're a good idea: no one should take their new Audi out and attempt handbrake turns on the freeway like you see on all the car ads these days.

It's just that in America there are so damn many of these disclaimers. Sometimes it seems like every ad on TV has a disclaimer warning you about something. There's even car ads which proclaim Professional driver on closed course. Do not attempt. when all the car is doing is driving within the speed limit down a perfectly ordinary road!

Or how about the ad for earwax spray which shows a guy sticking a toilet plunger onto the side of his head in a futile (and obviously comedic) effort to dislodge earwax. Do not attempt, the caption solemnly intones, like we'd all think that a plumber's friend is the instant solution to waxy buildup, rather than the erstwhile product the ad is spruiking.

I know that the advertisers are just covering their butts in today's increasingly litigious society, but where will it end? And is the general public really that stupid?

And don't even get me started on the plague that is pharmaceutical TV advertising in America. These ads totally dominate prime time viewing and have to be seen to be believed. They tend to be a minute long, as they have to list every single potential side effect and problem that could arise from use of the product. And they're for everything: Viagra (and all the other "ED" products), osteoporosis, high blood pressure, sleeping pills and so on, ad infinitum.

It's fun when the advertiser tries to integrate the disclaimer into the narrative of the ad, such as making the protagonist actually visit a doctor (resplendent in white coat, of course) who proceeds to list all the side effects in excruciating detail, finishing with "and of course, see me if any of these things occur." It's all terribly reassuring.

But most of the time the ads just admit defeat and just show our heroes dancing around or leading happy, full lives while Serious Voice Over Artist™ runs through the litany of things that could happen to you for a full 30 seconds or more. It's kind of surreal, because the side effects always sound worse than the problem they're trying to treat. "Oh, so I don't have a blocked nose any more, but I might have headaches, blurred vision, a bloody nose or experience extreme nausea. Great!"

Finally, there's car ads which include financing offers. These tend to display an entire screen of miniscule terms and conditions (the real "small print") for a period of somewhat less than a second. Having worked on some car ads for the Daewoo dealership network back in Australia, I can safely say that you'd never get away with this there, as all type shown on screen in an advertisement has to be readable by a "reasonable" person. This would force these US car ads to be about half an hour long however, so it's probably best the way it is. I feel that Full terms and conditions of your lease agreement can be found at your local BMW dealership might be a better and more transparent way of going about things, however.

Posted in: chaosboy, general musings, united states on at at 10:25:00 AM 0 comments    

Design time – here's a logo that Christine and I combined forces to create.

Dr Kildeen Moore was Christine's much beloved aunt, who very sadly died from brain cancer a few years ago. Members of the family wanted to honour her memory by setting up a research fund in her name, and asked us if we would be able to come up with an appropriate logo.

The idea is all Christine's - she remembered Kildeen as always being the life of the party, so the conga line motif seemed perfect. Her initial concepts actually had the conga line facing left; it was only after we had "slept on the idea" that it occurred to me that the main character would resemble a stylised "K" (for Kildeen) if we flipped the whole thing. I redrew Christine's characters a little bit, added the type and submitted it. The family loved the concept and approved it after only a few minor revisions.

The stethoscope on the "Kildeen" figure was requested by the family: I personally find it a bit fussy for such a simple and stylised logo, but I can understand the reasoning behind it - an instant identifier of this figure as "Dr Kildeen".

Posted in: chaosboy, design on June 8, 2008 at at 5:33:00 PM 0 comments    

So, after more than a year, the ol' white type on black was getting a bit grating. Time for something new! I spent most of the day scouring the internet for information on how to get/create a new Blogger theme, with varying levels of success.

I finally found this neat theme, which I've spent a bit of time tweaking to my liking. There may be some more fiddling over the next little while, so forgive us if things look a little wacky at times. I'm still getting the hang of using CSS to determine pretty much every element on an HTML page. It's extremely powerful, but also quite hard to get your head around on the fly. Let us know what you think of the new look!

Posted in: blog, chaosboy, design on June 6, 2008 at at 12:52:00 AM 0 comments    

So Colin Lake and Wellbottom's album, Bullet, is finally being released properly. I did the artwork for this way back in February and while I've had my own sample copy of it for quite a while, it's quite exciting to think that it's out there for other people to see. As well as being in bricks and mortar record stores, it's also available on iTunes (as seen in the image above; click on it for a full size image) and Amazon.com (where it's currently rated #639,331 in their Music category!).

Of course, now that I think about it, Colin's fine recording isn't the only artwork of mine that is available for sale on the ol' interwebs, as the CDs I did for Hillsong Church are all out there too. (See here, here and here - they're on iTunes as well as Amazon). Maybe I just have a bigger sense of ownership with Colin's work, helping a new artist out with some quality artwork and design. Whatever - I'm just chuffed for both him and me that it's out there.

Posted in: chaosboy, design, music on June 4, 2008 at at 1:53:00 PM 0 comments    

Crowding In, originally uploaded by chaosgurlpink.

The Mac Store has been marking the Grand Opening of their Clackamas store in a variety of ways: the usual special deals on hardware and software, and (perhaps more unusually) with a series of live shows by local musicians and bands in both the new Clackamas store and the Portland store.

I came down a couple of times to meet up with Christine, and the music was always of very high quality. And Christine said that about the acts that I missed as well. The problem was is that it was generally played to an almost empty store, or to customers who wanted to shop rather than listen to great music. Sort of "live in store" elevator muzak, if you like.

That all changed when Laura Veirs showed up for her gig on Saturday. Suddenly, the store was full of enraptured listeners who found a position wherever they could to listen to her. As you can see in the picture above, there was even a guy who pulled up his old G5 tower that he'd just picked up from the service department as a seat! No one was interested in picking up an iPod accessory or even in the free pizza on offer until after Laura finished her set.

Of course, this reaction was to be somewhat expected - Laura Veirs is a pretty big name on the Portland scene. As Christine noted, she's the only one out of all the acts booked who has her own Wikipedia entry! She's released at least three albums that get proper distribution (ie, she doesn't rely on selling them at the end of gigs to get them out in the market) and has had successful tours and collaborations with The Decemberists, amongst others.

And that's what's cool about this small Portland moment. A successful local act who isn't above playing a very low key gig in a rather strange location (a computer store?!!). And she's rewarded for this, as the large and appreciative audience shows. A big win all around!

Posted in: chaosboy, music, portland on June 1, 2008 at at 7:13:00 PM 0 comments    

When I was first arrived in the US, I quickly threw together a web portfolio of my design work to make applying for jobs easier. No need to send a huge PDF of samples with my cover letter and resume; rather, I can just send a link to the site. However, it was very hurriedly done and probably didn't show my work off in the best way.

So I've spent a little while over the last few weeks redoing it, and I couldn't be happier! It looks very slick now, with a neat three column layout that works really well across the entire site. I think I now have a better portfolio site than some of the agencies I've worked at, but then, it always seems hard for agencies to find the time to sit down and do some proper self-promotion!

So head on over to take a look. Let me know what you think!

Posted in: chaosboy, employment, internet on May 22, 2008 at at 3:40:00 PM 0 comments    

It's kind of hard to believe, but today marks one year since I arrived in the US to live. One year already! And in that time I've done so much:

1. Married my wonderful girl
2. Gone head to head with US Immigration (and emerged victorious... eventually!)
3. Found (some) work
4. Flown to the other side of the country and back (up to 10 states visited now!)
5. Gone on a road trip
6. Made great friends
7. Discovered that good beer does exist in America and most of it is in Portland!
8. Clocked up more than 1,500 miles (2,400km) on my bike

And that's only the tip of the iceberg! Things have been a little tough at times, but Christine and I have managed to muddle our way through it all together, and I can't say I've ever felt happier in my life. Every time things look grim, financially or otherwise, something will come along and rectify the situation; whether it's Christine winning a prize through work, my back pay from Vein finally coming through or whatever... life is good, and the weather is starting to get nicer, too! Roll on the next year!

Posted in: chaosboy, general musings, immigration, portland on May 15, 2008 at at 1:29:00 PM 0 comments    

Sometimes we all question our job. Are we getting enough out of it? Are we getting paid enough? Are we advancing ourselves? These are the questions that have been going through my head for quite sometime. However, last week, my boss Dan made it clear that something was going down on Friday and I had to be there in order not to miss it.

Now, life on my front has not been so interesting in order to blog about lately although I had been on repelling excursions and jazz shows... although this definitely was. I tend to blog when a train of thought has been altered. And I can say now that my renewed faith in the company which I currently serve has been preserved.

A business division of our company called Irisink ran a contest starting 3 months ago allowing individual salespersons to refer customers to their services therefore getting the lead transfered into tickets for a raffle. Irisink received many leads from all 7 Mac Stores and transferred them all into the pot. We were all told about this back in February. Apparently May was the the month of the drawing and Yours Truly was in for a surprise.


Those crazy guys had me in suspense all week that I was either going to get a promotion, get fired or get transferred but instead they gave me a giant check accompanied by a surprise party complete with an adorable cake. I was put on the spot and hugely shocked how above and beyond they went just to tell me I'd won. It was gorgeous. I might stick around just awhile longer with the Mac Store. :)

Posted in: chaosgurl, employment, portland on May 13, 2008 at at 8:21:00 PM 1 comments