WE BOOKED OUR FLIGHT TODAY! We're going to Seoul for a night (at the airlines expense!) then on to London, then Dublin, then from Dublin to New York! So to get into the spirit of travel, let's play a game: Can you name the city where the photo was taken? It's patronizingly easy! YAY!
IESSO
These posters have it all! Distressed backgrounds, minimal color schemes, angled text, vector illustrations, Futura! They're awesome. And the movie looks awesome too! Zorro meets 1984! I can't wait.
IESSO
APARENTLY i didnt make it clear enough: I didn't do these posters. Oh no! But I do very much like them. It's totally my style...
OK, SO THE SITE ISN'T/WASN'T WORKING. But I fixed it... sort of. The problem was that I had saved the old index page (the first pages that loads) as 'index.htm' and the new one as 'index.html'. So when I replaced the old site with the new the index pages didn't replace each other. So when it loaded it wouldn't load the new one. so I've straightened THAT out. BUT the next problem is that somehow I made the site 'mondayne.com' instead of 'www.mondayne.com'.
BUT if you go to mondayne.com you'll be able to see it. CLICK HERE if you want. Some other bugs still need to be fixed, but I need your help in finding them. THANKS!
I'm Elliott Scott, signing off
PS. There has been much questioning to what 'IESSO' means. It's the acronym for how I signed off the first post, and most posts subsequent to that, but I got lazy and couldn't be bothered typing the full phrase ... so... there you have it!
IESSO
I WASN'T HAPPY with the 'Silver Book' concept I've been working on. It was feeling professional, interesting or ... um... good enough. So I deleted it all and started again. What do you think? The cover is staying the same, and it's generally VERY similar but the little difference makes.. uh.. all the difference.
As you can tell I can't think straight.
IESSO
I FINALLY DID MY PORTFOLIO SITE. It's been uploaded onto my web address www.mondayne.com if you wanna check it out. At the moment though, it still needs some work: Some of the text isn't finalised, and I am having a few problems with rollovers (in Firefox OSX) but in Safari (Macs default web browser) it works great!
Have a look, give me some feedback, and some help.
Thanks
IESSO
PS. Eventually I will be making a switch from the blogspot format to the new site, so for blog updates and the like you'll have to go to my site. But that won't be a for a WHILE and I'll let you know well in advance.
I SEEM TO ATTRACT THE CRAZY ONES. I was at the station on my way home when a guy walked up to me trying to bum a cigarette. "Hey, can you spare a smoke?" I shake my head apologettically. "Do be a f*cking asshole, GIVE ME A F*CKING SMOKE!" I give him one. Reluctantly. And scared. He has a look of total rage in his eyes. "I need a f*cking light too!"
ALSO. Finished that poster. Hardest $150 dollars I've ever made! Not impressed, but in no state to refuse work. It's not radically different from the previous version I put up, but it's a bit more refined in regards to the shading.
ALSO ALSO: Working on my online portfolio to have it ready before I leave. It's gonna be simple. And HTML-based. Fingers crossed. I am REALLY bad at web design. Well, not so much the design as the production. HOORAY!
IESSO
I JUST READ LINUS'S POST ON HIS BLOG about how his iPod was stolen, and he put things into perspective. It got me thinking about how lucky I really am. I reread a bunch of old posts from this time last year. A lot has changed.
1 YEAR AGO: The pool party/Luau. I promised everyone to get laid, and to my knowledge no-one did. Yep. Figures.
ANYWAY
MY LIFE has changed a lot, and my outlook has changed too. Here is good stuff, in list form!
1. I am in a happy, loving relationship with a girl who's name I can't mention and for all you know could be made up! But I am happy and lucky to have met someone like her, who not only do I get along with great, but am inspired by, in awe of, and respect, but also love and loved by in return.
2. My career, while not exactly going anywhere at the moment may be soon enough. I have graduated (not officially yet) from my university course after 5 years of study, with top portfolio, and am gaining some confidence in my work. Or at least my outlook on future career plans. I'm not saying my work is great, but it's a lot better than it was even 6 months ago. Liveworm has helped a lot, and UNG has helped a lot too! But also my friends, mainly but not restricted to my fellow designers have always given me honest opinions that I am usually too proud to listen to, but end up using their advice in the end.
3. I have a goal for the short-term and long-term futures; travelling in April to the UK, Europe and USA. I will look for work there and hopefully get some good experience at some cool studios and do some cool stuff. I will also finally start exploring the world that I've peered out to from the fishtank of Australia (no-offense, but it is FAR away) and will have the adventures I crave.
In the long-term I plan on getting 5-10 years experience at studios doing some designs, hopefully building up at least a small amount of recognition and open my own studio. I plan on doing something similar to the Liveworm situation, but more to do with travelling designers, offering somewhat of a half-way house for vagrant designers. And designers straight out of uni. No-one gives them jobs, but I will! I will.
4. I am also starting to get some recognition and praise from clients (ok, they're just the uni) but the same clients keep coming back to me for work to get done. I like that feeling, I'm not just a designer, I'm Elliott. They want ME to do their work, not just anyone. Which is a new feeling for me. And I honestly like it. Fine, call me vain or narcassistic or whatever, but I'm just being honest.
5. I have a new Powerbook and iPod and other material possesions that are just posessions, but I like them, and am thankful to have them. They let me work at home, and stay awake on the train. So it's all good.
6. I have a supportive family, and my health, and all the other stuff that I take for granted. But I had that a year ago too, so it's not at the top of my list.
7. Lastly, and maybe most importantly; my mental health has drastically improved over the last year. I was reading those posts, and damn, they're depressing. Even the name 'Mondayne' is sssoooo depressing. I really am not the same person I was a year ago. I like this new me, and gosh-darnit (yeah, that's right!) I'm gonna enjoy this! Because it might not last forever. Although I hope it does!
IESSO
I GOT A FREELANCE JOB yesterday to do a poster for a theatre company. It was all good, the brief was interesting, I had an interesting concept, and it was all going ahead. I sent the client my price breakdown, and that's when the situation broke down as well. She called me, saying she didn't understand my costs. I told her that I was only going to charge her $200 for concept, $200 for final artwork and $100 for a postcard based on the original design.
She was shocked! She got all upset, like I had told her I killed her family. She thought I was going to do it for free. Apparently all the students in the past did it for the recognition. Uhuh. Well I ain't no student! I says: "This ain't amatuer hour, I'm not doing this for free!" She told me that if she liked the design she could give me $100 out of her own pocket. NOPE! I can't do that. If you don't like it, I've just wasted my time. She agreed to give me $100 for a concept and $150 if she wants it.
I agreed. Reluctantly. I need the money, otherwise I would've told to find someone else. It's high-time I put my foot down. I've bent over backwards to make clients happy. And they always end up screwing me over. I'm not the clients friend. And I don't have to build up a working relationship with a client, cuz I'm outta here soon.
Grumble grumble grumble! Was I being too harsh?
IESSO
PS. I don't want to hear any _complaints about Cooper or Clarendon! I figured that because she's paying so little I'm doing this how I want. And that means EXCATLY how I want, imagery, colors, fonts, everything.
THIS IS JUST A LITTLE WARNING: So listen up! I am putting up these images in good faith that any design elements won't be stolen, but anything does you will be prosecuted. All designs belong to me untill published and after that the client. Liveworm will use it's lawyer to prosecute anyone plagarising these designs at this stage, and once published the clients will too. So you may look at the work, but you may not use any of these designs. Thanks.
I'VE GOT THE CRAZIEST ASSIGNMENT EVER. The clients are doing a series of controversial lectures (isn't everything controversial these days?!) about God and religion in art, the pro's and con's and the for and against and I'm supposed to do the posters for them. This involves drawing this image here, and making it look like a decal found on a skateboard. THEN I have to buy a skateboard and 'age' it by throwing it around, grinding it and generally scuffing it up, and putting the decal on it, as well as all the text.
At this stage the image is VERY rough, crudely drawn, poorly rendered and featuring a busted up face, but I'll update you on the progress so you can get a better idea of how it's SUPPOSED to look.
NOW, I need to know, is this image particularly offensive? and how? Does the religious allignment offend you? Or the scantly clad girl imagery offend? The people at work are totally non-religious and have no problems with that side of it, but don't like women being seen as sex-objects. As a form of justification (bullsh*t) I might point out two things: 1. The client who this is for is a woman, and 2. She's actually a dominatrix, therefore being sexually in charge, rather than a submissive sex-toy role.
But still, let me know your opinions. AND let me know how to fix her face. It's totally screwed up at the mo'.
IESSO
Finally done. I can stop annoying people all around the world now. Sorry everyone!
SO MY LIFE ISN'T EXACTLY FILLED WITH EXCITEMENT AT THE MO', but the design for the 'Color Book' is coming along nicely. I have made some design changes:
(a) spine on cover [top]
(b) color segments taken from color wheel [middle]
(c) color bars on edge of photographs [bottom].
This is my life for the next few weeks. Monday's posts might be interesting after the weekend, but probably pretty boring between. Those zany antics at work theory is probably not going to pan out, there's too few of us to be silly, and we're too dedicated to muck-around. Sort of.
IESSO
WHY ARE RAINBOWS GAY?
They're nice, and beautiful, and full of vibrant color? Oh. That's why.
ANYWAY
Do you remember the Silver Book/Space Book from last year? Well because they hated the concept, I'm redoing it. But instead of 'Discovery' being the theme it's now 'An Alternate Angle'. Wow. Sheer genius. Anyway it's based around geometry and breaking from the norm, and all that stuff. The insides will have this color wheel broken apart, each segment representing a person blah blah blah. It looks nice anyway. And the reason there is a big white gap is because the book will actually be cut on a 12.5 degree angle. And the insides will have rotated text to match. Unconventional? Odd? TOTALLY!
IESSO
PS. If you have any suggestions, comments or gentle criticsm, please let me know. I'm totally brain-dead and uninspired lately, so I might need a gentle prod in the right direction.
PLEASE NOTE: Again, this is a work in progress. All designs belong to me. Intellectual theft WILL be dealt with. Any theft of logo's, slogans and other branding belonging to Griffith University will be dealt with by them. And they're a bunch of bastards. I heard one guy was put into the cement during construction of the foundation of the new dental school. Because he drew a book that just resembled the Griffith logo. So watch out!
THAT IS THE SADDEST THING YOU COULD EVER HEAR. I think I said that once a year ago, but I'm saying it again!
Anyway today was a LLLLOooooonnnnngggggg day. If you look at the timestamp on the post below you'll see that I was up ALL NIGHT again. I woke up at 11.30 sunday morning and have been up since. I went to LW today at it was boring and draining and I couldn't think because I was tired. I got to the office at 7.00am and it opened at 9, so there was a nice little wait. And work dragged on, and when I finally got to go home I couldnt wait to go to sleep. I asked my dad for a ride, which he sometimes does, and tonight I got yelled at instead. I didn't clean my room. Yeah, seriously. I don't really care, and it sort annoys me that he makes me clean it. I can't wait to get out of here. So instead of walking I watched some Futurama on the iPod, went to a dodgy mexican resturant (where the photo was taken) and wallowed in shame and stewed in anger.
And now I am friggin exhausted. Shirely tomorrow will be better.
IESSO
LIKE I SAID, I CAN'T SLEEP. I'm supposed to be at liveworm in 6.5 hours and awake in 3.5 so it's too late for bed. I didn't mean to stay up. I went to bed at 9.30 to get plenty of sleep, but at 11 I was still awake and not even remotely sleepy. I decided to get back into the swing of things by 'designing' something, although its not much of an ad. campaign like I wanted. I do like the illustration though, nice and rough looking. I acheived this look by using the trackpad and the pencil tool in Illustrator. And the colors were picked using photoshop's 'variation' mode.
IESSO
SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED THIS WEEK; I was a bit busy doing some things to personal and uninteresting to post about. Sort of good stuff and some bad stuff. But it's sort of worked out now, so I should be back to usual. I finished my lowrider bike painting and color modification, and phase 2 and 3 are going to begin soon. Phase 2: Adding mirrors and a longer sissy bar, phase 3: NEON LIGHTS! It will rule. And photos will be put up soon.
PHOTOS: Top 3 taken using the polaroid camera, bottom montage using camera on phone. I like the one of the UNG, for once she didn't screw up her face in terror of the camera. Sweet.
IESSO
PS> Back to LiveWorm tomorrow, so expect exciting updates on new projects I'm working on, and stories about the zany antics we get up to at work. (PLEASE NOTE: There may not be zany antics)
I'M EITHER returning to my old methods/styles because I'm creatively stagnant and running out of ideas, or I genuinely in love with the look. I can't decide. ALSO; working at the uni this week on the new silver book (remember the space book from a month ago, yeah, it's back, and worser than ever!)
IESSO
WENT FISHING ON MONDAY with UNG. It was a lot of fun. We didnt actually catch anything, but when you don't use any bait you kinda expect that. But it was still a lot of fun. I kept getting caught on seaweed (as pictured) and the tiny amount of bait we did have kept getting washed away in the current, but again, it was fun. I didn't really want to catch anything anyway, I don't want to kill the poor fishes. They never did anything to harm me.
Anyway I got a nasty sunburn on my back and arms and feet, and have turned at least 2 shades darker. And probably 3 shades pinker. You know the color of blush on fake-tanned skin... well .. i can't really imagine it, but it'd probably be like what my arms are.
And lastly and an odd detour from my usual self-deprication; I look pretty cut in that photo. More than usual. Maybe I'm not the horrible monster I think I am. Although I do need to lose a bit of weight around my tummy. I weigh 70kgs now! I used to be 62kg this time last year! So that's a fair amount! If you think I'm crazy, don't judge me on this photo. I am so insecure that I actually photoshopped out some of my flaws I'm most sensitive about. AND what's worse is: I do that to all my photo's. Pathetic isn't it?
Okay, sorry about that. I'm Elliott Scott, flabbily signing off.
I BOUGHT AN OLD-SCHOOL BIKE TODAY, it's totally awesome. It's unfortunately a Bratz brand bike (like the girls dolls, yes) but with some modifications it shouldn't be too embarrasing. BUT if that still doesnt convince you about how awesome it is, think of the price I paid for it: $30! Yep, thirty dollars! No typo's! I'm not sure how or why it'd be so cheap, but that's how much it was! It's funny too, I went to a bike store before I went to K-Mart, and they were selling an extremely similar bike, in a different color, without the sparkles, for 10X the price! So it was totally awesome!
Best. $30. Ever.
THE IMAGES: Top image is the bike itself, after I changed the horrible, horrible purple velour seat and metallic paint. The middle is me dorkily posing on the bike in my living room. But I didn't like the photo so I stylised the sh*t out of it in photoshop and illustrator. Maybe a bit over the top... but it was a horrible photo.
The bottom image is a screenshot of the product description I found on ebay when I was looking for a new seat. Couldn't find the seat, but this image is a laugh! Designed for 7-8 year old girls! HAHAHA
IESSO
PS. Sorry about the lack-of-posting this last week. I have been distracted and preoccupied, and I ... uh... forgot.
I'M TRYING to redesign my portfolio to make it easier to update and easier to understand at a glance for the NY crowd. But I'm having some major trouble with it. So I am putting the burden on you guys. What (if anything) of my designs and style do you like and recommend me using as a design? Vector graphics? Sketchey, hand-drawn styles? old-timeys? Any advice on the matter would be muchly appreciated.
IESSO
Got back from Sydney last last night. Here are some photo's I took on my digital camera. I also used my phone camera (with suprisingly good results) and my polaroid camera and will upload those photos soon. In the meantime, have a look at these ones. I haven't really written captions, but I don't think we need them. You're all intellegent people. 
MONTAGE: Sydney Opera House + Harbor Bridge
MONTAGE: Wandering the streets of the CBD
MONTAGE: The same streets at night time (Not very many because we were so tired at night...)
MONTAGE: Various parks and resting places (we walked a LOT!)
MONTAGE: Museums + Galleries
(Top to Bottom rows: Powerhouse Museum, Art Museum of NSW, Museum of Contempoary Art, Powerhouse, Art M of NSW)
MONTAGE: The UNG on the shuttle bus to the airport. (Our final glimpses of the city)
MONTAGE: The domestic airport on the way home
MONTAGE: Photos taken on my cameraphone on the first day. Sort of in sequence. Sort of.
IESSO
LINUS AND I went on a mini-epic-roadtrip today. He came by at 12 and we went up to Mooloolaba to see the fake dinos at Underwater World. Hilarity and tragedy ensued.
Firstly the trip up to Mooloolaba takes a good hour and a half from my house, but being us, it took more like 3 hours! We got lost along the way, and had to stop for lunch as well. It's actually really difficult to get from the GC motorway to the SC motorway, who woulda thought! They built this like big city thing in the middle of the path! CRAZY!
Anyway we finally arrived at UW just a bit past 3, and went through pretty quickly cuz we didn't really care THAT much. The fish were pretty cool. You can't see very well, but there was this car made into a fish-tank! It was cool! There was also an Axolotyl which was a 'flamboyant' salamander, so we personified him as this gay hispanic salamander defending his lifestyle and trash talking the other amphibians. It was funny. To us. Because. We. Are. Dumb.
And we went in the tunnel, which for those of you who don't know is actually a tunnel which goes through the middle of the aquarium, which is actually pretty cool. The fish and sharks and rays and stuff swim above you and all around you. Which is pretty awesome when you think about it.
And then we saw the awesomely pathetic fake dinosaurs! They were pretty cool. Except the dinosaurs teeth were soft rubber and squishy so it kind of broke the fourth wall a bit or whatever. Crushed the dream. I tell ya, if and when there really is a for-real Jurassic Park, I am so there! Like, for serious! Anyway the dinos were pretty cool. And actually pretty good with the scientific accuracy. I was expecting all sorts of error in bone structure and whatnot, and the old-school Brontosaur instead of the new-school Apatosaur that they had so I was impressed.
And then disaster struck. No wait, then we left and ate dinner at a Tibetan resturant. We had goat curry. It was good I guess but the thought of it made me sick. And it looked kinda of gross, the meat we cooked, but it looked raw. It was REALLY pink. It might have just been the lighting but it looked sort of gross. Tasted good though.
THEN the disaster struck. Nope, sorry, forgot about the icecream. We had Baskin Robbins icecream. Lino got a banana split, but in the hilarious Linus style, instead of a banana he just got a pile of marischino cherries, with the icecream, whipped cream, fudge and another cherry on top. I got a bowl of cherries on the side! SUGARY-SWEET!
THEN the disaster struck. We left and everything was relatively fine untill after we went through the city. We got lost again. This was the third time! Or maybe the fourth if you count our mini getting-lost adventure when we left the highway went around a roundabout and got back on the highway instead of turning around because we were already lost. Anyway we somehow ended up in a hillbilly town watching the train go past at a dodgy gas station. Which actually just turned out to be Coopers Plains and although we weren't on track, we were far from lost.
I finally got home. And um.. yeah that's about it. It was kind of a cross between a mini-road trip and a man-date, but lets assume it was the former. Anyway yeah, it was a lot of fun and funny, but being the horrible story teller I made it sound highly boring. Linus will no-doubt correct me, retell it, and actually make it sound cool. And not dorky like I made it sound.
ALSO being on the road for 6 hours, we got to see a lot of funny car signs. The best one:
"Exotic African Chocolate". That's not so funny untill I saw a black guy driving and joked that it was a sex-service rather than a confectionary company. Ok, so that might sound racist or something, but seriously; Africa isn't exactly famous for its chocolate treats. ... or is it?
IESSO
PS. I might bother with the image descriptions, but probably not. They're pretty self-explanatory.
I HEARD BACK from Hannah Cutts, the founder and creative director of Cutts Creative, my favourite design studio in Brisbane. I wrote to her about a month ago asking if I could go in and talk to her about my folio (she reveiwed it and gave me the mark I got) I was also going to talk to her about some freelance work after I finished Liveworm and before I left to Dublin/NY. I wrote to her a while ago, but she's been out of the office in the UK, and will be out untill the end of the month, but she got my email, and here is her reply.
hi...
your folio was brilliant and i'd love you to come in for a chat.
However, i'm in england until january 21st so if you email again after that
we can sort something out.
hannah
So that's pretty positive. I am totally nervous about meeting her though. I'm redesigning the folio, and want to impress her with the new one. Maybe i can get some work. That'd be awesome! It'd be some good experience.
IESSO
LET'S BEGIN with my life. That's the first error, and the first bit of humour. Ha ha ha.
Yesterday was a funny day, funny in it's trajedy! I spent the whole night awake watching 5 hours straight of Will and Grace, pun definitely intended mo-fo! And you know how when I watch too much of a single TV show it warps my mind? Well it does! and did! I had to urge to call everyone 'Honey' all day, but luckily I could suppress it.
Anyway left for the city at 7am, caught the bus, got to the city, all normal type dealie. Actually now that I think about it, yesterday was pretty mondayne!
I had to go to Liveworm to pick a few things up, but the security gaurd wouldn't let me in. I didn't have clearance to the studio. Only one person could be trusted enough; the UNG. So I had to wait an hour or so for her to arrive before he'd let me in. In the meantime I made Tanner call me on his video phone, because that's always fun. He said he had $70 worth of calls to use, so it didn't really matter. Unfortunately video calls AREN'T included in that $70, so our conversation actually ended up costing about $30! DAMN.
When UNG arrived I got into the studio, got what I needed and we left. We went shopping for a bit, and everything was normal. I got a new backpack which was needed to cart the GIANT laptop around. A shoulder bag is a bit too small and poorly balanced for long-time carrying. Anyway it only ended up costing $15 which is totally awesome! Normally they're on sale for ~$120, but I traded in the laptop sleeve, and it was 50% off! So woohoo for me.
Blah blah blah, we hung around in the city for a while but I started falling asleep in the park so we left.
I caught the 4.05 train home. I was feeling REALLY tired and started drifting off. I woke up in a panic fearing that I missed my train! But luckily we were only at Kingston. The train had broken down! I heard on the loudspeaker the driver say "Yeah, uh, the train is having some problems. We don't know when we'll fix it." No apology, no estimation on when it'll be fixed. We started moving again at ~5.00 and I didn't get home untill 6. Hooray! Hour long delays rock!
So ok, maybe that wasn't the most interesting of posts, but gimme a break, I am lazy. And I felt guilty for not posting much, so the hum-drum mondaynity of my life shall get put up on the interweb for all to see!
IESSO
PS. Elvira gets her blog back on the LINKS section for FINALLY posting something new! Good to have you back!
UNG and I bypassed the usual stress, hassle and ordeal involved with New Years, New Years parties and New Years drunkenness and watched the new year roll in front the comfort and quiet isolation of the sixth floor of the Marriot in the city. We were hoping the Story Bridge, which we had a great veiw of was going to have some fireworks set off from it, but that didnt work out. We did see the firework displays in teh distance, and it was nice. A welcome change from previous years. A happy end to an interesting and overall good year.
This next year is going to be a challenge:
- Life: Hoping to move to New York, look for a job, get a job, find a place to live, get some money.
- Love: Hoping UNG can come with me to NY but we're not sure if she can work there or not, so we'll see how we go. I'm going to the US Consulate in Sydney next week to find out.
- The Rest: Hoping my mental health improves. I'm so much better than I was last year, but have a way to go to be 100% back to normal.
Any resolutions: Stop waiting for things to happen. Try to be more proactive in my approach to life. Also, I will lose 5-10kg's before the years end. People tell me I'm thin, but really, I'm not. I've got some excess weight, and I want to get rid of it!
IESSO
