Life of a Designer

2009-05-10T08:22:00.000-07:00

It's been such a long time since I last updated. I have had a lot of computer problems, and not much time to dedicate to my designing like I wanted to. Over the last month, I finally got an external hard drive, and it's about 1 terabyte in size, so I'm very happy with that. I just got the new version of Windows, Windows 7 and I'm hoping to get it loaded on my computer by next week, I just need 2 gigs of RAM before I can go ahead and do that. Once my computer is fixed, expect a lot of designing to come out of me. I have tons of ideas up in my noggin, and I can't wait to get it all out in Photoshop. Some clients I'll be working with soon are some old clients, because they're way past due for a new layout. I'll be doing a new layout for Evayllia and Pixel Famous. I have tons of ideas as far as Evayllia goes, but not so sure what I want to do for Pixel Famous yet.

While I was gone and away, I worked on a new layout for TMarshDesign. I finally have the official website and you can check it out here if you want to see a live preview. The layout idea came from psd.tutsplus.com and it helped a great deal. I didn't change much because I didn't really have the time to go through all the changing, so not all credit goes to me.

2009-03-31T13:37:00.000-07:00

Over the past couple of weeks, I've become more interested in Babycakes Clothing, probably because I just started up a clothing line myself. I've really been into Babycakes Clothing for about a year and a half now, but my interest sparked into bigger things. I like how successful Paul Griffiths is and I want to be successful like he was, but in a different sense of style with my graphic designing for layouts. Since I found Babycakes Clothing last year, it's been shaping my music interests. I'm into a lot of club music, more than I was when I started getting into it. I'm starting to listen to a lot more UK artists. I'm going to try and travel abroad after college to visit Manchester to go to a famous Babycakes party and maybe go to some club shows they have there.

It's kind of sad because I haven't had work in a long time. The last layout I made was the one I made for Evayllia two weeks ago. I have three clients I'm waiting on, and one private client I'm working with right now, but that's a free one that I'm doing. My boys Evayllia are putting out a demo sometime this week and with the new song release, they are releasing their layout and putting the word out to all bands. I'm pretty excited for this to happen, I really need the exposure.

My desktop is so close to dying. I checked my system and everything, and it's just so messed up and funky I just need to buy a new one. I'm trying to look for some cheap desktop computers. Right now, I am getting my laptop fixed, but it doesn't have a lot of RAM and such a good processor. I need to start spending my money wisely, but something always comes up to where I have to spend the money. I haven't really blown it off on anything, yet. The only thing I would probably blow it off for is Babycakes stuff or hair stuff.

2009-03-19T11:33:00.001-07:00

Time is really tight on my end right now. I have a lot of things to take care of before I start designing some new stuff to add to my porfolio and such. I'm trying to bring my grades up, especially World History. I'm working on the new layout for TMarshDesign's MySpace. I'm hoping to launch it this Saturday. That's about all I can say for now...

2009-03-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

Everytime I see this picture, I find how much I like it more and more. It's like the perfect picture a photographer can take. I kind of feel like I'm there with the photographer while they are taking the picture.

What's new in the design world? The other night, I did something really stupid. I had such a nice layout setup for TMarshDesign's MySpace, and I just got tired of looking at it the other night and deleted the entire layout! I didn't have the codes backed up or anything, and I'm starting to miss the layout. I have ideas for a new layout, though. I'm currently in the works on a layout for someone right now, it's not something I'm going to release in my blog or on TMarshDesign. It's kind of like behind the scenes work. I'm going to be very busy for the next two weeks preparing for the new TMarshDesign layout launch. It's going to be hectic putting a whole new set of codes up that I haven't really used before. The new layout is going to be b0mb though!

As far as school goes, I'm falling behind in English. I brought my grade up a lot faster than I thought I would, but all this homework I am getting for that class is just too much, and I just get the attitude of, "I don't want to do it, I'll do it in study block or something tomorrow". Then I find myself rushing to get my work done and I don't even get it done on time anyways. My World History grade is still horrible. I have to learn to balance my time between designing and doing homework and studying. I need to break the bad habit soon.

So, the other day I found out I'll be going all the way down to Charlotte, North Carolina just to go see New Found Glory. I'm so stoked to go and see them. Their new CD is so good and it's going to be nice to see them perform some of the songs they just released on their album to be played. My show date is on April 16th but I'm going to miss some school after that. I'm mad stoked though!

2009-03-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

Today has been a bad friday. I realized a lot of things today. I'm overworking myself and I don't talk to many of my friends anymore. I'm growing apart from a lot of people, and I feel like I've been running a race I can't win. I feel like everyone's forgetting about me.

I want to get into vector designing. Someone on CreateBlog posted a vector graphic they did, and it looked so cool! It seems like a hard concept to understand though. The ones I want to do look simple, yet they look complex in my eyes. I've been looking at similar vector graphics for some inspiration. I'm hoping to find some tutorials on how to go about making them, but I'm too tired to look right now. I don't have any design jobs to be working on now, so I'm kind of bored with life right now. I hope to have a new job to work on soon. That's it for now...

2009-03-12T16:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't contributing any time to my designing in about a month. I've been failing school and I was forced to study instead of doing some designs. I must say, the break from designing was definitely a well-needed one. I had simply no creative spark in me after I drained it all out with the Pixel Famous layout I did last month. When I went back to the drawing board, I was full of ideas of what I should do. Phil Mamula (Graphic Designer in Sons of Nero) suggested to me that I should take a look in some design magazines or to go watch a movie when I'm stuck in the middle of a layout. I want to start doing that, because I think that will help. Above, I am showcasing some new stuff I just finished today. I made a layout for this band called Evayllia. The layout follows a solid gray and black color scheme, and I actually pulled it off better than I could have imagined. I like the look of it, and I tried some new things. I'm starting to incorporate twitters into my layouts as well. I think it just adds a sort of pop effect to the layout. I am probably going to take a couple of weeks before working on another project, so I can look into other designs and try to incorporate it into my stuff. If you want to see a live preview of the Evayllia layout before it hits their MySpace, check it out here.

2009-02-21T09:20:00.001-08:00

I got to meet these guys last night. They were some of the nicest people I've met. They were almost as nice as Breathe Carolina. I think they were. I had a really good time watching them perform the acoustic set. I stayed for both and I couldn't get over how good they were. I can't wait for them to come back in April. The lead singer has a phenominal voice. My jaw almost dropped the first note he let out his mouth, because bands don't usually sound like they do in studio recordings, there's usually some sort of difference but there wasn't.

They said they are going to come back in April. I'm really excited to go and see them. It's going to be an awesome show, I can already feel it. It was great because they came up to me, Aga, and Brea after their performance and after shopping and and told us thanks for coming to the show. That's really nice of a band to see you long after performing and actually confronting you to say thanks. They were very social with everyone. They're definitely going on my list of favorite bands.

2009-02-14T17:26:00.001-08:00

This baby is mine. =] I finally got around to taking a picture of it. I love this thing, it's so nice and it doesn't even slow down my computer. I worked on some new tunes today, and I'm halfway finished with a new song. It's coming along, but it could use some work. I also picked up on an old demo today. It's sounding a little bit better, and I'll probably post it soon.

Anyways, today was kind of a bad day. I'm still sick and I want to feel better, and I have been resting. I do not know what's wrong with me today. I played Pokemon for most of the day today, though. I know, lame. But it got pretty addicting after playing the first ten minutes on Thursday. I'm all the way at seven badges now! I spent the rest of my day just eating and watching TV waiting for time to go by, and then I decided I haven't taken any new pictures in a while so I was going to take some new ones. I spent like 30 minutes trying to take some good ones and I finally got this good one of me making tunes:

Pretty snazzy, don't you think? I really need to get back to work. I haven' t had any work to do for TMarshDesign in a while. I got some bands talking to me about making them a layout, but they all said it will take them up to a week to come up with a final decision so I have my fingers crossed. I really need the money.

2009-02-13T20:44:00.000-08:00

I finally got a new project to work on for ApathyEdge. I don't really like how the layout came out, but I didn't do any of the designs so I don't feel as bad about it. It came out decent I guess.

Well, Gabe got me into doing this blogger stuff. It seems like Blogger is going to be a lot easier to use than what I was doing in the first place. I still feel like crap. It sucks I missed school Thursday and Friday so I'm going to have so much work when I go back, and I'm not looking forward to it. I'm mad right now because Nick bailed on me for the Take Action! Tour show. I really want to go and see Kyle and David. I haven't seen them since November. =/ Lexi said she is going to try and ride a train or something down here so she can come see them with me. I don't want to give up that Meet & Greet, but I need someone to go with. I'm so tired right now, I can't believe my eyeballs are still open.