Chromajoy

At the Light Table 015

2012-01-22T07:51:00.000-08:00

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Spring Festival begins and so does the Province of British Columbia's tour of the Chinese media outlets in Vancouver!

Mary Lo, my Government Communications and Public Engagement contact over the years for this assignment, actually scheduled this event in her Outlook calendar last January so we could avoid rushing the project this year. This is such a fun project to be involved with, and this year being the auspicious Year of the Dragon, we both wanted to create something that the Honourable Harry Bloy, Minister of State for Multiculturalism, would be especially proud to present.

This year, I retained the 11x14 layout developed last year for the Year of the Rabbit because it was so well received and cost-effective.

As inspiration, I drew upon a beautiful Vancouver cultural landmark, the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden at 578 Carrall Street.

There are so many patterns throughout the gardens, and I have such fond memories of visiting them when we lived in the Lower Mainland, that it was an easy fit to include many of these into the background design. The patterns became vertical strips that used the province's corporate colours (Pantone 130 and 288). This became a visual anchor for what was planned to be a very colourful dragon.

The dragon was too fun. I used photos of the Vancouver Chinese Lion Dance Association as a jumping off point for the mythical beast. The dragon came quite easily.

Once the linework was cleaned up using a Sharpie, it was scanned and auto-traced with Adobe Illustrator.

Quite often the black and white "Simple Trace" preset delivers the truest tracing. This process is much like designing cloisonne because the colour wells cannot leak.

I usually use a garish magenta to identify cloisons and ensure there are no leaks. However, because I wanted the dragon to be colourful, the magenta suited it. You'll notice a few areas where this colour stuck!

Defining the colours was a hoot, but what was a bit of a challenge was deciding on a treatment for the linework.

All the elements were composited with Adobe InDesign.

Once again, our Graphic Design Unit's paper of choice, Legion's Moab Entrada ran through the unit's own Epson 3800 workhorse. The output speed was about 10 minutes a sheet. The length of time wasn't a concern because the results were wonderful and there was plenty of lead time this year.

The finished, framed prints were very well received again this year. Everyone in the office now wants their own copy!

At the Light Table 014

2011-12-24T09:15:00.000-08:00

The lamp-post banner designs I created for the City of Victoria a few summers ago continue to be repurposed by the city's Downtown Community Development Coordinator, Mike Hill.

A while ago, I was asked to re-deploy the pink salmon motif on a bike lock-up outside of the Mountain Equipment Co-op on Government. Recently, Mike asked if I could re-jig the motif to wrap an electrical junction box, similar to others the city has around town.

The thought behind wrapping these structures with artwork is to deter graffiti and vandalism. Artists won't tag another's artist's work. Duchamp was probably sick the day that lesson was taught.

However, the scope of this small project slowly changed from a junction box to the new Portland Loo on Langley Street.

I had re-designed the salmon image to tile around the junction box, but the loo didn't need a tiled wrap, just a couple of panels for insets.

Ideally, I would love to re-jig the work to wrap the structure (because there's a lot of uncovered area ripe for tagging), but I'll leave that for Mike to ponder. Maybe his crew would consider a wood panel or cedar shake motif with a moon on the door.

The Muse

2011-09-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

Werner Herzog is one funny guy.

One of the film's most inspiring moments: French archaeologist and former circus uni-cyclist, Julien Monney, shares a story about an Australian aborigine who is asked why he feels he must touch up an ancient rock painting. The aborigine replies, “I am not painting. The hand of the spirit is painting.”

Geist Werk Leben.

At the Light Table Lucky 013

2011-09-15T21:50:00.000-07:00

Designers and illustrators know the drill: "It would be great if we could see something today."

This assignment to create an infographic for a new "Jobs" initiative the Province of British Columbia is developing turned out to be a lot of fun despite its compressed time-frame. My manager, Andrew Pratt, had already doodled a concept for the piece. Andrew stressed he wanted to include "Lego men."

Thankfully, he had located many of the resources and statistics for the piece and there was no size constraint aside from width. So I quickly roughed out a concept on paper (for the most part) to set my mind straight.

Working with population statistics is fine, but these tables proved to be somewhat onerous.

Tara Kerner-Marsh, my co-worker and fellow designer, had already typeset many of her infographics with Sebastian Lester's Neo Sans, so it was an easy decision to use this typeface.

Creating the colour palette, too, was an easy task given Cossette West, the communications agency charged with much of the province’s advertising, had contracted Dare in Vancouver to devise the "Canada Starts Here" identity for the initiative. By-the-way, Dare is a "brand building agency for a digital world, not a cookie company" according to Rob Sweetman, their Executive Creative Director.

One of the enjoyable tasks was creating Andrew's "Lego men" icons of the top B.C. industries hiring over the next 10 years: Sales and Service; Business, Finance and Administration; Trades, Transport and Equipment Operators; Management; Social Services, Education, Government and Religion; Health and the Natural and Applied Sciences. I am a big fan of the Always with Honor crew from Portland, OR. It's probably obvious, eh?

I didn't use Lego's face for the figures, but after a simple exploration I arrived at something that was suitable and in keeping with Andrew's vision.

Drawing the icons with Adobe Illustrator went quite quickly once I developed a base mannequin (the green gent on the left). I added to or subtracted from him depending on the costume. Yellow seemed the obvious colour choice for their skin and a homage to Lego.

The completed industry icons.

Developing some of the charts was also a bit of fun. Andrew had created a "British Columbia in Squares" map a while ago. I thought this would lend a clean, high-tech appearance to the piece. However, when coupled with the economic regions of the province, the thing (below) became a mess. I abandoned it for a more conventional map of the province.

The chart to the right of the more conventional map (below) breaks down the anticipated number of job openings per economic development region. It was almost a no-brainer to use small, iconic people for this.

Total working time was probably 6 hours from start to finish, not including the hemming and hawing. Once the initiative is announced, I'll link you to the site to see the finished graphic.

Infrastructure 20110911

2011-09-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

On the recommendation of a friend, I just finished reading author Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael." The author won the one and only Turner Tomorrow Fellowship Award of $500,000.00 for this novel about a gorilla who tries to teach the narrator and others there is a way to live in greater harmony with the natural world.

The gorilla, whose name is Ishmael, makes the point to the narrator several times throughout the story that the advent of agriculture in the fertile crescent of Persia 6000 years ago changed man's view of nature and led to the advent of work, religion, laws and the myth that the natural world was created for man to plunder. Agriculture allowed man to act like the gods and so decide what species should live and which should die. This then led to monocultures and, ultimately, man's current industrial agriculture techniques. A thought-provoking book which I coincidentally finished just as the American restaurant chain, Chipotle, began to release a series of videos around this same theme of agricultural sustainability.

Infrastructure 20110905

2011-09-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

The Ford Taurus wagon died.

It brought home how expensive vehicles are to operate. How many of us consider this when we buy one. My wife and I kept most of the receipts for the Taurus' maintenance and insurance. It was a bit of a shock to estimate what we spent on the car before it died.

Add to this gasoline at 129.9 cents per litre (approximately 35 cents per gallon in the USA) for a 50 litre fill and, holy dolly, we're looking at an additional 1612 dollars every year on gasoline alone. Ahem, that's like a couple of extra mortgage payments.

Thanks to Greg, Mark and the crew at the Fairfield PetroCan for helping us dispose of the Taurus. Rest in peace, Big Blue.

Infrastructure 20110625

2011-06-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

The Bank of Canada just released to the press information regarding their new polymer banknote series. However, in their online description of these new banknotes, no mention is made of the art directors and designers involved in the project, only general aspects of the images depicted on them. Like the air we breathe, graphic design is ubiquitous and transparent. However, without it, I know we would only last a good 7 minutes before expiring.
____________________________________

From: Julie Girard
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 5:45 AM
To: Jones, Calvin
Subject: RE: New Banknotes, Design

Hello Mr Jones,

Thank you for your interest in the new Polymer series of bank notes. As you are probably aware, issuing a new series of bank notes requires the work of many people including graphic artists. We have indeed highlighted the work done by graphic artists in the Museum and we are doing so again. The Bank has developed a series of short videos that feature research and development, design, production of notes, etc. IN the design video as well as a short snippet of b-roll (video used for media outlets) we have images of one of the Bank designers, Jorge Perral. In conjunction with the release of the design video, we are also planning on issuing an article that will be distributed to over 3,000 media outlets across Canada.

Furthermore, at the recent unveil ceremony of the new bank notes, (link to webcast: http://www.bankofcanada.ca/media-room/webcasts/ and click on the June 20 webcast) dignitaries highlighted the contributions of the important stakeholders that worked on the new notes.

I hope this answers your questions.

Julie Girard
____________________________________

Julie A. Girard
Senior Analyst - Media Relations| Analyste principale - Relations avec les médias
Currency Department | Département de la Monnaie
Bank of Canada | Banque du Canada
234 Wellington Street (2 West), Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0G9
www.bankofcanada.ca/en/banknotes | www.banqueducanada.ca/fr/billets

At the Light Table 012

2011-04-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

The sweater has iconic status on Vancouver Island. Since the Scots brought textile arts and knitting from the Fair Isle in Scotland's Shetland Islands, the chunky sweater has become synonymous with the Cowichan tribe from the beautiful Cowichan Valley. First Nations knitters still create these popular sweaters using traditional techniques and materials. Many, like Vancouver's Granted and TNA have emulated this style of sweater in their contemporary catalogues, and craft giant Mary Maxim is proud to boast Bob Hope wore one of their designs while visiting Canada.

Sweaters and blankets, I must love the textile arts!

Infrastructure 20110417

2011-04-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

Both Bernard Chapais and Kim R. Hill in the March 2011 issue of the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Science Magazine speak to kinship relationships and deep social structure as being the root of what it is to be human. Hill et al. hypothesize in their article that humans' kinship arrangements and the resulting large social networks led to the social learning that resulted in cumulative culture. As Hill explained succinctly on CBC's radio show, Quirks and Quarks, no one human could build a space shuttle on their own, but many humans collaborating and contributing each in their small way led to the space shuttle's development. Is kinship and maintenance of familial relationships a core infrastructure?

At the Light Table 011

2011-04-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

Vancouver Island's history — both political and geological — is brimming with independent, creative spirit. Personalities like Amor de Cosmos, Cougar Annie and Emily Carr are but a few of the characters that have inhabited this island paradise. Geologically, studies at UBC and other institutions point to evidence the island is a remnant of a rogue oceanic plateau formed out in the Pacific while the other continents were heaped together as Gondwana. Only recently has it crashed into North America to create the Salish Sea, Rockies and other formations. Given its peculiar history, it seems appropriate that, as BC Ferries continues its unrelenting drive to isolate islanders from the mainland, we Vancouver Islanders embrace this spirit we have been bequeathed by nature.

Long live Wrangellia and long live the spirit of the island!

At the Light Table 010

2011-01-26T21:38:00.000-08:00

Over the past few years I have had the pleasure of designing a New Years poster that Mary Lo of the Public Affairs Bureau's Ethnic Media Relations Unit presents to the Chinese media outlets in Vancouver.

The unfortunate aspect of the project is its compressed timeframe. This year, the design needed to be completed in a day and nine prints output and framed the following morning so as to meet the presentation deadline!

Last year's "Year of the Tiger" poster was very well received.

The Greater Victoria Art Gallery was a great source of inspiration for this poster which was 8x17 in size.

I decided to keep the size of the 2011 rabbit poster 11x14 both so the cost stayed in line and to take advantage of readily available stock materials.

The fook character was created several years ago when the tour first began, and I have used it ever since. The tessellation in the blue background was derived from a cloisonne box the gallery had on display - can't remember the dynasty off-hand. The ink tiger was drawn from photo and painted sources.

As mentioned, this poster was well received (and quickly approved by the minister's office), so it made sense to continue with the visual theme but perhaps introduce even more cultural symbols to both liven it up and give it more depth.

One of these symbols is the knot. Several websites pointed to Lydia Chen of the National Palace Art Museum in Taipei as a major proponent of this cultural tradition. Images at many of these sites provided a great deal of inspiration.

Below is a glimpse of the design roughs. The first obvious upgrade was to consider replacing the simple red diamond card with a knot of good fortune like the one above.

Consideration was also given to replacing the gold cloisonne arc with a gold braid.

A blue knotted, woven background replaced the cloisonne tessellation. Take note how simple the actual illustration is, but how effective when viewed at a distance.

However, once these components were completed in Illustrator and placed in InDesign, it became readily apparent that even the MacPro didn't have the horse-power to composite these elements and output the file quickly enough. Unfortunately, I scrapped the concept in order to deliver the posters on time.

To simplify the design meant to bring it down to its essence. As 2011 is the year of the rabbit, and knowing from Uvic's experience how quickly rabbits multiply, it only made sense to make a simple tessellation of rabbits and use them in the background instead or the complex knots.

This meant employing a technique I learned from the illustrator, Darcy Petley, with whom I had the pleasure of working while at Disney. Darcy is a master of Illustrator's calligraphic pen stroke. While sorting through several of his digital illustrations one day, I discovered he didn't use a flat pen, but a round nib that was set to adjust in size depending on the pressure of the Wacom stylus' stroke. This was a revelation, and I have used this technique since with amazing results.

You can see the simplicity of the rabbit images below when viewed as outlines. Once the strokes are created, the linework is expanded and then erased where it strays too far. Then I use the pathfinder to join all the paths into a single, grouped object. Draw the fill with a bezier path using the pen tool and voila!.

Once all the components are created in Illustrator, they're composited in InDesign where the type is set. I find Illustrator is a very difficult tool to set type with. As well, InDesign seems to handle colour profiles much better and more consistently than does Illustrator. As this project was output on the Graphic Design Unit's in-house Epson 3800 archival ink-jet printer on beautiful Moab Entrada Bright White stock, InDesign was the hands-down tool of choice to ensure the colour profiles Moab offers stayed intact and the image output accurately.

It was difficult finding a typeface for the year, given the odd configuration of "ones." Eventually, Kris Holmes' Lucida Blackletter from Elsner+Flake fit the bill despite its odd cultural references. I set the "Year of..." with Carl Crossgrove's quirky Origami from the Monotype foundry.

A while ago, my talented colleague, Don Craig, researched the dickens out of the available archival printers and papers and hit on the Epson 3800 (now the 3880). It has been an amazing workhorse for our design unit, especially for very short print runs like these posters. When printing on a gorgeous paper stock like Legion's Moab Entrada, the resulting prints are stellar. It takes a fair amount of fiddly dialogue box dancing, but the output is worth it.

Here is the Epson churning out another print while the Opus frame awaits. The other component of the job was the framing. This was also an in-house job (me, using Opus' 16x20 black metal exhibition frames and Chai pre-cut mats. The cost was substantially lower than in previous years, and the results were just as good.

The finished product ready to box and ship to Mary Lo's Vancouver office with the eight others. Not bad for a day's work.

From: Lo, Mary PAB:EX

Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2011 03:55 PM
To: Lisa M PAB:EX; Karen PAB:EX; Jones, Calvin PAB:EX
Cc: Marisa PAB:EX; Alison PAB:EX; Ron P PAB:EX
Subject: Press visit

Dear all,

A great, successful Chinese New Year Press visit today. Good weather, no traffic, good parking and ahead of schedule.

Everybody loves the poster. All noted the rabbit background and loves it. Minister is warmly greeted.

Thanks everyone!

Mary

Snow Day 011

2011-01-16T20:57:00.000-08:00

At the Light Table 009

2010-12-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

The painted four-foot wide scene both completed (at left, before trimming) and installed on the lawn (above) thanks to my neighbour Duane and his son, Lowell. Installed on the last Sunday of Advent.

Duane also helped to create a set of small Christmas tree ornaments based on this design that I sold at our parish of St. Patrick's. The funds raised will support the Sisters of St. Anne's school reconstruction efforts in Haiti.

The Muse

2010-12-18T11:24:00.000-08:00

Michael Ostroff's recent release, Winds Of Heaven: Emily Carr, Carvers and The Spirits of The Forest, isn't (in my opinion) a stellar film. Sorry. This filmed biography of the British Columbian visual artist caused me to wince at times with its jarring mix of colour film grains and typography that is all over the map both historically and aesthetically. However, the story of Emily's life is strong enough to overcome the film's technical and aesthetic short-comings.

Historical footage of Victoria and the West Coast combined with images of Emily's painted interpretations of these vistas gave context to the arc of her life's work. And to learn that for 15 years she refused to paint stirred in me a great sense of empathy and kinship.

Carr House on Government Street

Almost every creative spirit has a muse it seems. However, classical Greek and neoclassical thought do not really describe or depict a Muse for the visual arts. For me, Emily takes her place with the nine daughters of Mnemosyne as the tenth Muse, and her domain is the visual arts.

As offsping of Mnemosyne, goddess of memory, the Muses were meant to encourage in artists the collective memories of their people through dance, poetry and song. However, the visual arts—though unrepresented—has proven to be one of the strongest and longest lasting creative disciplines to retain the historical memory of their creators' time.

The Elephant, Emily's traveling studio

Since my time at the University of Regina studying Canadian Art History, forward to further education at Emily Carr College in Vancouver, and then to live in Victoria both around the corner from Emily's House of Allsorts and then a block away from her final resting place in Ross Bay, I have felt her gently divining a path for me, both in art and in life. I sense from the number of pencils, paint brushes and flowers that adorn her grave marker many others do as well.

Emily's resting place in Ross Bay

As Catullus says in Carmina I:

"And so, have them for yourself,
whatever kind of book it is,

and whatever sort, oh patron Muse

let it last for more than one generation,
eternally."

View Emily's Neighbourhood in a larger map

At the Light Table 008

2010-11-14T07:39:00.000-08:00

Image now adjusted to use the paint pots.

At the Light Table 007

2010-11-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

Used the Pantone chart and found there is quite an interesting variety of old house paint pots in the studio. These should all work nicely on the new creche under a thick, black enamel illustration.

At the Light Table 006

2010-11-13T09:50:00.000-08:00

The old "U-Bild" No. 7 Nativity Scene is tired and in need of a face-lift. It's usually a half-day event to assemble with much heavy-lifting and consultation regarding placement of figures and lighting. This year, considered creating a faux stained glass painted on Plexiglas, but tests prove the daytime display is quite dull. Decided instead to create a single panel that's more like a large orthodox icon than a creche. Would like to flank it with angels at some point. However, the central panel should be painted by advent -- angels will be a bonus.

The rough mock-up for the central panel is based on French mediaeval windows and early English manuscripts.

Reviewing the mock-up with Mickey Jay, it seems a bit trite to rely so heavily on the stained glass motif. To offset this and give the piece a more contemporary feel, I looked to House Industries' great CPG graphics. The loose colour application with bold black over-print are great. Plus I just love their illustrative style.

Still a bit like stained glass, so have to refine the mock-up further. The line work in progress. Need something seriously bold that can hold its own over the vibrant colour.

Snow Day 010

2010-10-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

Drawing and re-drawing is something I don't do enough of. Now I'm forcing myself to reconfigure Samantha so that I can get to a place where re-drawing her with consistency is easy to achieve. Plus a couple of the previous iterations were a bit "odd."

Snow Day 009

2010-10-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics describes the visual vocabulary of comics in-depth, placing many historical heavy-weights within three vertices (what McCloud describes as "The Big Triangle"): the picture plane; reality and language. I'm working on Samantha's face basing it on Auntie Gert and definitely over-thinking it based on McCloud's observations.

Snow Day 008

2010-09-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

Looking at Hank Ketcham characters, they're so identifiable and distinctive I can't help but draw on them for Snow Day. The bell-bottom legs and simple construction is really endearing. Have to work on the facial features a bit more and perhaps (at the risk of making Samantha look like Ketcham's Margaret) it's worth adding the ringlets that Auntie Gert grew up with illustrated below.

Some of my Grandma's old family photos have great personality, especially those that include my Auntie Gert. She's beside my Grandma second from left on the top step -- a real character. Dig the ringlets, they're great.

Sketching 104

2010-09-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

At any one time, I've got five sketchbooks on the go -- at least! They turn up in the funniest places. Here are a couple of real oldies of my love and the kids from an old Strathmore 14x17 sketchbook I found behind a book shelf.

At the Light Table 006

2010-09-08T20:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Blurb I was able to have Grandma's Memoirs published in time for my Mom's 75th birthday. She was tickled.

Evelyn Lawson by Evelyn Lawson | Make Your Own Book

At the Light Table 005

2010-08-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

New City of Victoria bike shelter decal on Government Street. The design is based on one of the street banners I designed in 2003 for Mike Hill, the city's Downtown Community Development Coordinator. AlleyKat Signs fabricated using 3M Fasara. Looks good!

Broadside

2010-08-17T22:53:00.000-07:00

Sketching's been far from my mind lately, but creating has not. However, the creations could soon get ugly, especially when I see some a*hole fail to yield the right-of-way and instead run broadside into the people I love. Margo, my daughter, was recently broadsided by a motorist in a crosswalk, of all places. Mom has been broadsided by Amyloid beta which nature.com says has a physiological role in modulating synaptic activity, the disruption of which probably underlies cognitive dysfunction. Shiva runs broadside into our lives and doesn't give a shit about rights-of-way.

The Creative Habit 002

2010-07-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

The audience applauded at the finish of Exit Through the Gift Shop showing at Uvic's Cinecenta theatre. Mickey J joined me. On the drive home through Uplands, he and I debated whether the interviews with Banksy throughout the film are staged. Regardless, there's no debating Banksy is the ultimate guerilla marketing genius.

The Creative Habit 001

2010-06-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

A book recommended to me as one of the better business books ever written is Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit: Learn it and use it for life. So far a very revealing read in-between World Cup soccer matches and fence building — all of those tasks that wheedle their way into life and replace opportunities to create artwork.
The revelation is something I already know — rather than rely on bursts of intermittent inspiration a disciplined, habitual approach to creation produces consistent and high quality results. However, Tharp recognizes how difficult it can be to maintain a rigorous and disciplined lifestyle and encourages the inclusion of small and comforting habits amongst the larger moments of discipline to act as triggers that encourage one's mind to switch on creation.

At the Light Table 004

2010-05-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

For their 100th Anniversary in 2011, BC Parks is bantering about the return of their mascot, "Jerry the Moose." To support this, I've been working on a few new poses of Jerry, like this one at left, sketching in pencil first, scanning and then tracing the scan in Adobe Illustrator with the Wacom tablet using Illustrator's pressure sensitive calligraphic brush to get the clean inked line. So far the poses have been well received.
© Her Majesty, of course.

Sketching 103

2010-05-18T18:43:00.001-07:00

Andrew taking up position at the lunchroom table with his Vancouver Sun.

Sketching 102

2010-05-15T23:54:00.001-07:00

Mickey J rendered with a new "Derwent Sketching Dark Wash" pencil and Holbein Water Brush from Opus Art Supplies. Very cool tools.

At the Light Table 003

2010-04-18T12:09:00.000-07:00

At left is a personal project that began over a decade ago. My grandmother, Evelyn Lawson, whose memoirs this small book holds, was a remarkable woman. In this small book, she recounts some of the events of her life growing up in rural Saskatchewan at the beginning of the last century, her marriage to my grandfather, her family's move to Winnipeg during the depression to find employment and how there she made her life.

This project has been sitting on the back-burner since my mother handed it to me shortly after the turn of the millennium. As with many projects, there's always something more important that needs doing! However, with my grandmother now gone and my own mother's seventy-fifth birthday coming up soon, no excuse was strong enough that I couldn't complete this project and have it printed as a gift to Mom.

At the Light Table 002

2010-03-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

One of the mantras of my current UVic Marketing course is consumers do not buy products, they buy benefits. However, what are the benefits of the fine and applied creative arts? That is, any product of the creative process -- be it a song, a painting, a comic book, good graphic design, a film, a play or a dance performance.

The process of creation can bring great joy to the producer, but what about the audience? How do they benefit by purchasing the creative product?

I'm not sure if ego satisfaction is the only benefit to purchasing a creative work. Bragging rights to ownership of prestige offerings extend across all products -- computers, cars, coffee and the list goes on. Not all creative works fit into the "prestige" offering category to satisfy one's ego.

"Feeling" is closer, perhaps, but it's a vague benefit for me. The Gulag Archipelago doesn't make me feel good, but it's a good book. Why?

"What's in it for me?" is getting very close. What a great question to ask!

Boy, I've been thinking about this -- a lot. At the risk of answering my own question, I wonder if audiences are really purchasing the benefits of escape and insight when they purchase creative offerings.

Think about James Cameron's Avatar -- it's an escape -- 3 hours in which one doesn't have to sort the recycling. Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker is insight -- wow, is that what's going on over there.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character, Sherlock Holmes, says towards the end of Doyle's The Red-Headed League, “My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplaces of existence. These little problems help me to do so.” Perhaps all the arts are an escape from the commonplaces of life while providing an insight into the commonplaces of life.

Our instructor, Ken Bodnarchuk, pointed the class towards to great online resource:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingbasics/article34942.htm

As always, comments are welcome.

Snow Day 007

2010-03-11T21:29:00.000-08:00

Henry Miller was 43 when Tropic of Cancer was published. It's listed as one of Time Magazine's ALL-TIME 100 Novels. I'm sure it's on several other "top" lists as well. There's hope for me yet. I am wondering about including Emily Carr in this short story, Snow Day. If I set the story in 1910, then Ms. Carr will be 39. I almost wish to include her as a child rather than an adult, but the Empress Hotel wasn't built until 1905. Ms. Carr would already be 34. Perhaps it's in the cards that she's the matriarch I know her as from school and her resting place in Ross Bay, H 85 E 15.

Infrastructure 20100221

2010-02-21T22:39:00.000-08:00

Rough for the communication / language blanket. Central to the work is the human ear and the telephone keypad with the alphabet on the keys. Secondary are the stitched sound waves as sound is not the only way to communicate thought. Perhaps a bit too David Salle pastiche, ha ha ha. However, mingling stitching with silk-screening, patchwork and painting may be a great approach to layering imagery in this and other blankets.
As well, pocket this piece of trivia: David Salle is almost exactly ten years my senior.

Sketching 101

2010-02-18T21:58:00.000-08:00

My son, Mickey J Sinatra, gave me a mini Moleskine as a present for Christmas. Let's put it to use! Here's fellow designer, Bob Fehr, spending part of his birthday working at an online graphic for the provincial website.

Snow Day 006

2009-11-11T19:49:00.000-08:00

Funk over. What a wonderful little setting for Snow Day. Avalon Road in the James Bay Neighbourhood is just down the street from South Park Elementary and around the corner from Emily Carr's family home. 613 Avalon I mentioned earlier is in the photo above. Victoria's smallest public park is just at the end of the road. In the summer, it's where I sit and eat oysters for lunch while reading. It's all as cute as a button.

Snow Day 005

2009-11-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

I won a ticket to the 2009 Victoria Comic Convention and - unless I missed something - it was weird. Without a word of a lie, prettinear every patron wandering the hall of the Harbour Towers Hotel was a body double for the Simpsons' Comic Book Guy. I was disappointed. With the number of great authors and artists who have chosen illustrated storytelling as their medium, exemplified by the Vancouver Art Gallery's recent Krazy! exhibition, I didn't understand how tables of DC back issues, porn star wannbes, old Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek actors combined with a few folks dressed up as Darth Vader were anywhere near relevant. The whole thing put me in a bit of a funk about "Snow Day". Maybe my funny bone was amputated when I broke my arm!

At the Light table

2009-10-24T16:10:00.000-07:00

This past month of October I've been helping out a regular client, Christine at Open School BC, while she revises an English as a Second Language (ESL) manual and guide meant to assist volunteer tutors. The existing manual she's revising had some pretty harsh illustrations. Thankfully, Christine thought of me. At left are a few roughs of "Pictures of Free Time Activities" and "Ailments" from one of the modules in the manual. They're black and white line drawings, so inking, scanning and tracing with Adobe Illustrator's "Live Trace" is a dream!

Snow Day 004

2009-10-06T13:48:00.000-07:00

The Greater Victoria Public Library has a wonderful "Local History Room" on their main floor where I just found these 2 gems. The tiny handbook, ABC Guide to Victoria and Vancouver Island was published by Harold Diggon's Government Street print shop in 1928 and is great example of the typography of that era. Odd to see the iconic typeface of the 1960's - Cooper Black - used throughout.

Cecil Clark's The Best of Victoria, Yesterday and Today: A Nostalgic 15-Year Pictorial History of Victoria published in 1973 is also part of the GVPL's Local History collection. The images of "present day" 1970's Victoria are almost as dated now as the images of yesterday! This image of Government Street and Broughton illustrates the heavy use of overhead electrical power lines. Funny to see so much traffic on Government in the bottom image as it's now only two lanes of north-bound traffic.

Infrastructure 20091004

2009-10-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

Snow Day 003

2009-10-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

Starting to consider models for the main characters, Samantha and Miss Prewt. Right now, Samantha looks like she just stepped out of a Miyazaki film about Anne of Green Gables. I like Miyazaki, but I'm not sure if this is working for me just yet.

Egon Schiele's harsh line work is almost a no-brainer reference for Miss Prewt as Margo has described her. This is starting to work. I'll expand on this approach.

Infrastructure 20091003

2009-10-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

As discussed in previous sketches, I'm using "blanket" as a metaphor for infrastructure's intent to comfort and protect us against isolation and the elements. Taking this metaphor further, I hope to highlight the inability of many folks to purchase and maintain the growing number of infrastructure "blankets" required for contemporary living which unfortunately then leaves them disadvantaged. That said, living in Canada, I can't believe I haven't considered the iconic Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket as a possible medium.

This image, an advertisment from a 1960 publication of The Beaver magazine, is from the Hbc website describing the history of their point blanket. While the HBC point blankets are made in England by John Atkinson and Sons, they are a Canadian icon and very possibly a wonderful medium and reference for this project given their historical significance. Even the simple wool blankets that Atkinson markets are distinctive in their appearance with their silk or nylon border. Funny how one can see something so often that it become nearly invisible!

Hbc blanket colour range: Multi-stripe, Camel, Green, Scarlet, detail from a 1950 advertisement in The Beaver. I believe there's a scarlet blanket folded in one of my Mom's storage trunks.

Snow Day 002

2009-09-23T08:10:00.000-07:00

A test first panel of Margo's "Snow Day," set in Sir James Douglas Elementary School, present day Fairfield. Line work is not as resolved as I would hope, this is something that will need to be refined. Colours muted and leaning towards ochre or umber.

Snow Day

2009-09-21T18:48:00.000-07:00

Yet another project, yikes. Daughter Margo has written a cute story in Creative Writing entitled "Snow Day". It's ideal for a graphic short story. The setting in her story is ambiguous. However, after musing about present-day Fairfield as the possible location, and Sir James Douglas as the school the main character attends, I'm wondering about it being set in James Bay in the 1920's. The main characters could then actually meet Emily Carr, Lawren Harris and other Victoria luminaries and eccentrics who would naturally populate the area. Perhaps 613 Avalon could be the main character's home, similar to Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird". Hmmm...

Graphic Design as an Occupation

2009-08-30T15:58:00.000-07:00

Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 2:58 PM
To: Jones, Calvin
Subject: Cheryl needs your help

Dear sir,

My name is Cheryl. I used to be a senor graphic designer, and I had worked as graphic designer for more than 10 years. Since I had baby, I've been staying at home as a full-time mother for almost 5 years. Luckily, I'm eligible for applying government training fund so that I could have chance to get retraining to upgrade my expertise before restarting my career.

However, many people and even my case manager are not bullish on graphic design field. They keep telling me that this field is shrinking instead of growing, and government won't invest money in such a depressed industry.

As a graphic designer with long-term work experience, I really don't want to give up my specialty, and it is what the passion I have for. For getting the approval from government, I need to find some articles to prove that graphic deign field is not dying. I'm writing for asking for your help. Please support me by describing the status and the future of graphic design industry; and I will use them as reference to help me convince the Service Canada.

Thank you very much. Best wishes,

Cheryl

Jul.23.2009

---------------------------

Hi Cheryl:

Sorry for the delay in responding to your e-mail message, our team at the province's Public Affairs Bureau has been quite busy.

Your message caught me off-guard and has prompted me to really consider my role as a graphic designer in society and whether or not this role is fading as you mentioned your employment case manager suggests. Quite the contrary, I would suggest this applied art has always been overlooked and misunderstood because of its ubiquity. In an increasingly knowledge-based environment, I submit the role of the graphic designer will only increase in importance.

Lately, an increase in desktop computer technology has replaced many of the older "hands-on" technologies like waxing, paste-up, camera output, and such. These technologies, it should be noted, are not the heart of graphic design. These tasks could be now described as "desktop publishing" which is simply the technology-based task of typesetting documents and making them "pretty." This should not be confused with graphic design. Graphic design goes well beyond lining text-boxes up on a page and adding a bit of colour and photos to a document.

Rather, as the Graphic Designers of Canada's website explains, "Designers have put a face to our government, institutions, products and services. Cereal boxes, postage stamps, transit shelter advertising, textbook, magazine and newspaper design, video graphics, websites, logos even shopping bags, are all produced by trained professional designers."

Graphic designers do put a "face" on ideas and institutions and give them identities. Not just the institution's corporate "logo", but the entire way an idea or an institution presents itself visually. Think of our own country, Canada. The flag itself is a stellar piece of graphic design which gives an otherwise very difficult political concept to grasp an instantly recognizable visual identity or "face". Further, the federal government's website has been designed by a graphic designer, as are all of its visual communications (like the attachment about the importance of intellectual property, of which graphic design is a part). Just because graphic design is easy to digest (to the point of it almost being "invisible") shouldn't diminish its important role in any communications strategy.

It's interesting to note that the Prime Minister's wife, Laureen Harper, studied graphic design at SAIT in Alberta.

I've attached a couple of documents that may be relevant to your cause. I hope that all of this helps. While graphic design practitioners certainly won't be the top income earners in society, because of its impact on the members of society, graphic design is quite a worthwhile pursuit, and it certainly isn't going to fade away.

Cheers,
Calvin Jones

Federal Government's "Job Futures" website:
http://www.jobfutures.ca/noc/5241.shtml
"Outlook To 2009"
Your work prospects will continue to be FAIR because:
The employment growth rate will likely be average because of the emergence of information technologies, and an increasing number of websites.
Although the retirement rate will likely be average, the number of retiring workers should contribute to job openings.
The number of job seekers will likely exceed the number of job openings.
"Preparing for the Competition"
You're more likely to succeed if you have strong computer skills for presentations, design, and project management.

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/designer-of-2015-competencies

http://www.gdc.net/education/index.htm

http://ucda.com/careers.lasso

Infrastructure 20090808

2009-08-08T07:41:00.000-07:00

In 2005, the City of Ottawa embarked on a social infrastructure project to examine the social elements of public infrastructure.

"Infrastructure is generally conceived as 'hard' infrastructure such as primary roads and water treatment plants. More recently there has been a great deal of interest and discussion about 'soft' infrastructure like hospitals, community and recreational facilities, public spaces, social housing, volunteer networks and community based agencies. The term 'infrastructure' is increasingly coming to include this 'soft' or 'social' infrastructure. This is because such infrastructure increases social cohesion in urban cores, resulting in stronger municipal and national economies."

The goal of the study was to determine how investment in social infrastructure, particularly housing (which is identified in the project's research backgrounder as a key infrastructure in shaping the perception of the quality of places), contributes to the competitiveness of cities.

The research backgrounder also ponders the question, "Why do governments feel compelled to invest in certain forms of infrastructure but leave or re-designate others for private provision?"

Perhaps one possible solution is where the municipality's governing body sits on the political spectrum and the range of use a particular infrastructure asset has. Consider both "soft" and "hard" infrastructure assets like a toilet and sewer, for example. Consider, also, the municipality as a collective of taxpayers concerned (less or more so depending on where the municipality's governing body sits on the political spectrum) about the collective's well-being. An entire city block or neighbourhood of single households ties into a common sewer thereby justifying the collective's expense to create and maintain the "hard" sewer infrastructure to dispose of the collective's waste safely. However, if the collective is more conservative-leaning, it is perhaps more difficult for it to justify the expense of collected taxpayer dollars on the "soft" private-use, single household toilet initiating the sewage, despite the fact that clean, properly operating sewage disposal means overall healthier, and thereby perhaps happier and more productive, members of the collective.

Infrastructure 20090807

2009-08-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

Beautiful summer holidays this year in Ontario, Quebec and the homeland, Saskatchewan. Happening upon The National Gallery of Canada's Canadian collection in Ottawa on Canada Day was a sublime, unexpected joy. The oil studies by Tom Thomson are sumptuous. At McNally Robinson in Saskatoon, I was reminded of the blanket statements of the great Bob Boyer when I stumbled across a gorgeous book by the artist entitled Powwow. Boyer's painted blankets, holding paint as deep as the blanket will allow, speak of spiritual calm, heritage and betrayal. They are a real inspiration for these infrastructure blankets.

Is perhaps the infrastructure we develop a direct extension of our physical needs, as illustrated here? Perhaps the body drives and builds infrastructure.

Infrastructure 20090614

2009-06-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

Branches 20090325

2009-03-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Out for a walk along Rockland with my wife Saturday morning, I threw out the idea that natural things differ from man-made things in one key aspect - natural things seem to inherently branch off where as man-made things are static and self-contained. The bushes, trees, clouds, and even human offspring and interactions all branch off to other, newer things that are pretty much structurally the same as the parent. Juan Armando Sánchez in the Department of Biological Sciences at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Columbia has even dedicated a website to his study of branching in aquatic animals. Fractals are like the ultimate abstraction of branching off. 'The object need not exhibit exactly the same structure at all scales, but the same "type" of structures must appear on all scales.' A suite of works of branching off, hmmmm...

Infrastructure 20090311

2009-03-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

Gustav Klimt must have loved textiles. The blankets in several of his works are beautiful, and would be fantastic inspiration for the infrastructure blankets. Still wondering about the best approach to produce the blankets.

I can't be sure, but it looks like Douglas Coupland's been to Walmart to produce his "Corporate Safety Blankets," an interesting concept...

Infrastructure 20090308

2009-03-08T11:35:00.000-07:00

Sorry for being away from the sketchpad, my Dad died Valentine's Day in Regina, so the past while has been up and down.

At the Downtown Victoria 2020 conference a few years ago, Bill O'Grady, Ph.D spoke on the topic of "Downtown: The Last Public Place" and laid out a Progressive Vision for Homelessness. The vision included several points that are frequent stumbling blocks for youth at risk:

Affordable Housing - which could be addressed by using city-owned property to create co-op housing;
Educational Alternatives - particularly Grades 9 and 10;
Health Services supports;
Criminal Justice System - is homelessness really a criminal matter;
Social Supports - through mentoring;
Labour Market needs;
Education of Residents - how to interact with homeless;
Tolerance - of different lifestyles.

The current economic climate is pressing more individuals into difficult situations like couch surfing, marital disintegration, food banks and other related difficulties which in time could lead to desperation and homelessness. Carl A. Anderson is quoted as saying, "If greed - one of the worst aspects of human nature - helped push us into crisis, then one of the best aspects of our nature - generosity - will be necessary to help pull us out of it." We should all be looking to charity and generosity to assist those at risk.

Learn more about Bill O'Grady from the University of Guelph's website.

Infrastructure 20090114

2009-01-14T20:24:00.000-08:00

Pretty near everything has a simple or a complex key to keep it locked up. However, what if one has so many keys that they become difficult to manage?

Infrastructure 20081129

2008-11-29T07:11:00.000-08:00

From the 2002 documentary, "Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy" (Copyright 2003 Heights Productions, Inc., and based on the book by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw), this quote by Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto speaks to the social infrastructure that underlies much of our lives.

HERNANDO DE SOTO: "I have found out as we've been called to work in different parts of the world that every place brings something new. I was very interested, for example, when we were contracted to start helping redesign Egyptian legislation regarding property rights for the poor. I always thought that traveling to a different culture would make a great difference. It makes a difference, but not a great difference, and that's also interesting. What's interesting is to find out that we Third Worlders have much more in common than we have in differences. The cultural differences that would make for an interesting program on the Discovery Channel or an article in National Geographic Magazine are cute, are interesting, but that's not where the basics are. The basics are that all of us Third Worlders have in common a very underdeveloped property rights system, a very underdeveloped legal apparatus, and that's what keeps you ahead of us. That's the part I look at. The fact that I'm able to find it in different cultures is first of all important to us because it indicates that there are basic principles that account for development, that there are general theories that one can bring together and that, therefore, there are solutions that one can devise on the basis of this information. But it's not the differences that make it interesting for me to go into any particular part of the Third World; it's the fact that we're so similar in spite of the fact that this might be manifested in different cultural forms.
"What we think is that the reason it isn't working in the developing world and the reason it isn't working in former communist nations is not because people are anticapitalist or people are antientrepreneurial, but that the infrastructure of laws that make the carrying of capital possible are simply not in place."

de Soto is president of the non-profit think-tank Instituto Libertad y Democracia based in Lima, Peru. Read more of de Soto's thoughts at the PBS' Commanding Heights website or in his books, The Mystery of Capital and The Other Path.

Infrastructure 20081109

2008-11-09T13:51:00.000-08:00

Infrastructure 20081030

2008-10-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

On Painting 20081026

2008-10-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

Is painting with oils, acrylics and sprays healthy? In this time of environmental concern, drawing seems overwhelmingly more civil than painting. Drawing has fewer negative effects on the environment (and on one's health) than do acrylic, oil or spray paints. Look to the master draughtsmen like Titan, Turner and Tytla -- drawing is primal. It is as direct and as powerful magic as standing in front of a crowd and telling a good story. Few bells and whistles, just a straight-forward punch at the viewer. Drawing is king.

Infrastructure 20081019

2008-10-19T16:43:00.000-07:00

At the local transfer station yesterday dropping off some waste. Is infrastructure just an extension of our bodily needs and functions?

Creative Encouragement 20081007

2008-10-07T22:02:00.001-07:00

Before I get to sketching, I must acknowledge the encouragement both my Mom and my high school art teacher, Gary "Woody" Woodward, offered in my early years and my Mom continues to offer. I can only hope my creative efforts meet their expectations at my end.

Infrastructure 20081006

2008-10-06T00:54:00.000-07:00

The toilet has been slow to flush lately, which concerns me because our pipe to the municipal sewer could be clogging up. Every fall it seems to for whatever reason. Life doesn't get much more exciting than racing to plunge the toilet's bowl before the water rises beyond the rim, believe me. However, once the toilet drains, it gives me cause to reflect on just what's beneath things making them work, like my toilet, or my house's foundation or driveway, or my cul-de-sac's road. Sometimes, too, I wonder beyond simply what's under these things to consider instead why these things are even there.

Consider what lies beneath the things we use on a daily basis, things that could almost be considered below the threshold of our conscious perception because we don't give them much thought, like the toilet, or the telephone, or -- for that matter -- language and communication. These things are evidence of deeper structures that lie beneath our daily lives. These structures bolster us and our societies up. We have built them all ourselves, and we wrap ourselves in these "infra-structures" like we do a warm blanket against the cold. These infrastructures are our protection against elements and forces more hostile than we care to admit. Throughout this blog, I hope to -- like a geologist -- dig down through the strata of these infrastructures we have created for ourselves to sketch out, along the way, a view of what lies beneath all we believe we are.