2009 INsight Design Conference – Northwest Indiana Designers Give Back

DYER – The first annual INsight Design Conference will take place January 8, 2009 from 6-9 p.m. at Faith Church in Dyer, Indiana.

The INsight design conference is a free one-day event that’s dedicated to helping the growth and knowledge of new or inspiring graphic designers. INsight brings industry professionals together to review portfolios and discuss issues of design, standards, and expectations in an open forum format.

Participating designers/design firms are: Allema Advertising from Kentland, Atom Groom from Valparaiso, Faith Church from Dyer, Keyword Design from Highland, Madhaus Studio from Valparaiso, Miracletwentyone from Munster and Zondor Creative Group from Griffith.

This event is free to the public, but registration is required. Register online at www.insightdesignconference.com. Space is limited.

For more information visit www.insightdesignconference.com.

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Easy on the Tryptophan!

Well that's if your eating turkey before 7 am on Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving of this year you can burn off a whole bunch of calories and have dessert without feeling guilty by participating in the Gobbler Classic 5K run and walk. On Thursday, November 27, 2008 at 7am. Faith Church will be hosting this fun event. Pre-registration is only $15 (until Nov. 23) and after that it's $25. Register online at www.faithchurchonline.org.

The money raised will be split between Faith's and local community causes. The first 200 people to register will receive a free long sleeve tee, designed by me.

I've Struck Gold

I'm pleased and very excited to announce that my shirt "Vote" has been selected as the 1st place design for the Typetastic Competition at allmightys.com. This comes as a great shock becuase there were so many good entries for this comp. I just want to congratulate all of the other winners and everyone else that entered. And thank you to everyone that voted for me. Check back often to find out when the shirt will be avaiable to purchase.

This is my 5 design to be printed by almightys check out the other ones here.

Good food + Good art

Equals good times. This past weekend started the wonderful month of November and man its going good. On Saturday, I meet with Ryan, the owner or Pier 74, and his father to hand my artwork in his restaurant. For the whole month my digital portraits will share some good times in the dinning room, entry way and bar of the restaurant. The collection is called Face to Face and boast portraits of family, friends, and the some people from lala land.

Each piece is for sale and is reasonable priced at $70.00 with the largest piece being 24"x36". In honor of turning 30 this month, I will be donating 30 percent of all sales will be donated to Faith Church in Dyer, IN. (30% of 70 is 21, I know its dorky).

So stop by for dinner and take home a portrait, Christmas is right around the corner.

Visit Pier 74

FREE Music...FREE GOOD Music

I just gave my good friends The Dirty Rooks, a face lift to their MySpace page. If you have heard them, you defiantly have to check them out. They're a great blues rock band with a kick ass sound. And even better they are now offering their whole first album FREE to download from their sitewww.dirtyrooks.com. Now is the best time to hear them right from your computer and catch up the the folks you already love their music.

After downloading your free songs and learning the lyrics, get yourself down to one of their upcoming shows.

Nov 7 2008 8:00P - Goose Island, CHICAGO, Il
Nov 26 2008 9:00P - DOUBLE DOOR, CHICAGO, Il
Dec 1 2008 10:00P - Reggie’s Chicago

Check them out!

VOTE for Me

Allmightys.com is waste deep in their latest t-shirt design competition. Above is my entry for the comp called TypeTastic. It's all about letterforms and type. My entry's meaning is two fold. One is to be a cool tee that boast tunes of cool hand rendered type and the other is to express the confusion of voting. We are all told these messages of positive outcomes but as an uneducated voter you tend to ask questions. So sprinkled throughout the design are little questions like, "How?" and "Why?". Overall I like the color scheme and I think it came out great.

Head on over to www.allmightys.com and cast your vote (5 for good, 0 for bad) and leave me a comment on the voting page to let me know that you stopped by. In order to vote you must be registered with the site, which takes as long as it took you to read this, plus by being a member you will get updates and be in the loop to see if I win or not.

see and vote for my entry here

A Walk in the Park...

I wish this project could have been that easy. But after a lot of work and determination we finished the website for Wicker Memorial Park in Highland, IN. The new design is a complete redesign of the old site. It will have the ability to reserve picnic areas from the site in the near future. For now the site is a functional source of park information. Check it out at www.wickermemorialpark.com Programing credits go to my good friend Robert Kina of CNIServices Inc

I heart Issuu

I came across this site by accident and I think it really cool. Issuu.com will take a muliti-page pdf and turn it into a beautiful animated flash flip book. Its really easy to do and the quality and functionality is great. I can think of a million things to do with it. Best of all you can embed the book right into your site or any other social network site out there. The site is still in its beta form but I've had some good luck with it so far. I've created a book for my site that contains some illustrations that I have. Just look for the "view samples" button on my site or go >HERE.

I'm really excited about the endless possibilities that issuu.com has to offer. But you can check it out for yourself. www.issuu.com

Get your own - Open publication

Thank for the Love

Franz Jeitz runs www.fudgegraphics.com, a blog and portfolio site. I've been a big fan for a while and he post different designers from around the world on his blog and I'm please to say that, I've been included in the roster."If you don't ask then you'll never know". So head on over to his site and check out >my feature spot. Fudge is great source for inspiration and resources for expanding your skill set.

Thanks again, Franz - www.fudgegraphics.com

K-Heavenly

Or also known as K-suerte, delicious mouth-watering cookies. K-suerte cookies and cards are a wonderful combination for any event, party or "lay on the couch and watch Lifetime for 12 hours" day. These amazing cookies come in a variety of flavors and can be purchased through their site www.k-suerte.com. K-suerte cookies are baked fresh for your order to give you the best quality upon arrival and should be eaten as soon as possible. The cookies are handmade fresh without preservatives. So stop on over and pick up a dozen or 100, you won't be disappointed.

Got Big Thumbs?

Author Martin Dawber and Anova Books will be publishing "The Big Book of Contemporary Illustration" early next year. I happy to announce that I will be one of the 400+ designers/illustrators to be included in this book. It will be the largest resource book of it's kind for this subject matter.

The book will be published in UK for worldwide distribution. It it will not be a 'show-and-tell' book but more of a visual source book for creatives to dip into to gain insight and inspiration for their own work.

A handful of my illustrations were chosen and I am thankful and glad to be included in such a large book/project.

Check out http://www.anovabooks.com/.

Good food + Good art

I'm pleased to announce that Pier 74 in Ceder Lake, will be displaying my artwork as a local artist of the month for the month of November. I've selected a handful of my portraits (about 16 total) to decorate the walls of this fine eatery. So stop by and pick-up a bit to eat and look at some of my artwork. The restaurant is located at 13125 NE Lake Shore Drive in Cedar Lake, IN.

I would just like to thank Ryan Spencer for this wonderful opportunity.

Visit them online at www.pier74pizza.com.

Singing the Blues

This July 12th and 13th is the Blues, Jazz and Fine Arts Festival in Munster, Indiana. I've been fortunate to be asked to be this years featured artist. With doing so I've created the poster, t-shirt, special section in The Times, and public art mural. I will also have a booth at the event with fine art prints of my illustrations. A portion of the sales from the prints will be donated to the Cancer Resource Center in Munster, Indiana. An organization that provides education and support for those that deal with cancer and their families, all free of charge. I will also be taking orders for my t-shirts from allmightys.com at an extremely reduced price of $30 with shipping included (regularly $45.37 with shipping). These shirts are of the highest quality and are printed on American Apparel super soft t-shirts.

The mural is made of two 8 foot by 4 foot sections each shows images of pollution with an instrument shooting green imagery into beautiful green fields. The blues fest is going green this year. So this mural is meant to education people on the dangers of pollution and how through music and education we can create change. The public is asked to come and fill in the mural with color so I invite everyone, old and young to come and fill in the lines. Below are some of the pictures.

On the 6th Day He Rested

Faith Church(www.faithchurchonline.org) has started it's new series "Re:Think" which covers the issues like the creation of the earth and what we need to do to keep it for our future. They have also taken an artistic approach to the education and awareness of the gospel. I've been asked to depict the creation of the world and man kind. I was given a four foot by four foot blank canvas to show this powerful scripture. I wanted it to have a childlike feel to it and appeal to children, thus giving them a platform for discussion about the process as a whole. It a was a fun thing to do and drawing again was therapeutic.

North Township Trustee New Logo

Creating the identity for a government office is not the most exciting project at face value. But after finishing this new logo for the North Township Trustee of Lake County, Indiana I have a better understanding of what this office does for the under privileged people of our area. From providing rides to meals and aid the NTT helps people in need. The new identity reflects this service that the Trustee provides. The logo depicts people standing in line with the first person in the head of the line getting help or receiving aid from the people on the right hand side. They are lifting them up and putting people back on their feet. The figures all create the initials of the Trustee N T T. The complementing typeface mimics the shapes of the people in the mark and is a soft yet strong face that holds up well at small sizes or in one color.

To find out more about what the North Township Trustee provides visit their website at www.northtownshiptrustee.com
I am also designing the website with, CNI Services, which should be completed in the next few weeks.

Finding the Best Solution

Jennifer Litwin is the buying guru. She finds the best deals, researches warranties, and is the expert in furniture purchasing. She is a regular contributor to ABC 7 Chicago with her Shop Cop segments and is on many other daily shows across the country and is the author of two books. Jennifer wanted an identify that instantly reflects what she does, so animating her into a detective holding a magnifying glass over a sales tag has done so to the 'T'. The mark works well in all sizes and on TV as well. This was a fun project with lots of hand drawn versions of Jennifer. This one fits perfectly.

For more information on Jennifer Litwin visit her site at www.jenniferlitwin.com.

Miracletwentyone: The Dirty Rooks

Miracletwentyone: The Dirty Rooks

The Dirty Rooks

I really don't post things about others that often, but these guys are the exception. The Dirty Rooks are a mind blowing band with some amazing songs. You have to check them out. I got there first cd a while back and its still in my top play list and in constant rotation on my iTouch.

Check them out here: www.myspace.com/dirtyrooks, they have an upcoming show next month

May 17 at 9:00pm at Martyr's3855 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL 60613.

A review printed in NewCity Chicago by Tom Lynch

Chicago's boozy, seventies-rock-and blues-inspired band The Dirty Rooks burrow themselves underneath your nails, along with the dirt and scum and filth of the city streets. And they're good. The group's self-titled record, self-released, doesn't (expletive deleted) around--one song even starts with the sentiment, "I was born on the day my mama died." There's a lot of whiskey in that lyric. The slow, moody "Tell Me Something" should quiet even the rowdiest bar room. Even the acoustic-based "Little Queen"--with its subsequent blues-country harmonica--works nicely. Other than with Velcro Lewis and His 100 Proof Band, rock 'n' roll hasn't been this drunk in a while.

I'm in the House

In this years Graphic Design Inhouse Annual that is. I received notice that the work I did on the Community Hospital history book will be published in this years GD USA American Inhouse Awards Annual. Its a very cool honor and I look forward to getting my issue in July. This year over 5,000 entries were submitted and only around 500 were excepted. You can read more about it here: http://gdusa.com/contests/aida.php

Painting the Blues...and Jazz

Like water and chocolate, blues and jazz are great together. What's even better is that this years Blues and Jazz Fest (July 12-13) will have some amazing artwork to go with it. I've been asked to be this years event artist for the festival. My duties include coming up with two 8 foot murals that will be painted by the public during the two-day event. I also get to design the event poster. Its a very cool and exciting opportunity and I am extremely honored to be participating in this years fest. I will also have a booth there were I will be selling some of my latest prints. Stay tuned for details.

Miracletwentyone v2.0

It's been long over due and something that I've been wanted to do for a while. My new website is up and running. It uses the same format but now it is updated with project descriptions and more images, new projects and a cleaner look. I think I will keep my blog with this same look I just don't have the time to get into it. Anyway stop on over and check it out. www.miracletwentyone.org.

ON SALE

My second place prize is fresh off the press and now on sale. Pick on up here:
http://allmightys.com/store/shirts/we_need_help/index.htm

Silver is Sweet

I am pleased to announce that I have taken second place in the latest allmightys.com tee shirt competition, I am thinking... It's been the first time that I have placed in the top three and my fourth shirt that will be printed and for sale on the site. Thank you to those who voted and for the great comments that people left me, you can read the comments here: http://allmightys.com/features/design_forum/index.htm?viewDesign=851

Be sure to check back and see when the shirt is ready some time soon.

Signing at the Border

Thank you to everyone at Borders for having us on Saturday, March 1, and thanks to those of you who stopped by to support our project. We really didn't know what to expect, but we had fun and meet some interesting people (to say the least) along the way. It was a great experience and I am very thankful to be included in the promotion of the book.

Pictured above is Sherri Holt, Jane Bomberger and me.

Miracletwentyone...What the Heck Does that Mean?

Two years ago from today my life changed with the birth of my first son. He was born premature and it was a miracle to us that he did as well as he did. The gift of life is something we take for granted and holding a piece of you in your hands is magical. We knew if it was a boy his name was going to be Meryck (pronounced merrick) and so naturally the nickname miracle just flowed out. So I began to design under the banner of Miracletwentyone for this reason, his is my inspiration and was born on the twenty first of February.

All Business

Thanks to my good friends over at Largus Printing in Munster (http://www.largusprinting.com/) I now have some of the coolest business cards around. These beautiful black Pegasus 110# are graced with a metallic silver ink that pops off the card. Each card has a different back and each tells a different story.

Here are some more shots of the cards.

Seeds of Hope

I've been asked to create this years invitation package for the Seeds of Hope Dinner put on by the Friends of Hospice for Hospice of the Calumet Area (http://www.hospicecalument.org/). The event is this spring and about 400+ people attend.

This years theme flower is the water lily. A great visual, things are going well and check back for samples of the invite.

Hospice of the Calumet Area, a not for profit organization, is dedicated to improving the quality of life through compassionate care for individuals and families facing an end-of-life illness.

The Hospice of the Calumet Area’s staff of highly qualified nurses, social workers, clergy, and volunteers work in partnership with the patient, family, and their personal physician to make the final period of life comfortable and peaceful.

Paying Respect

A Few Good Men...I Mean Robots is now available for sale in the Allmights.com store. This is my entry to the MechTech Competition that Allmightys put on at the end of last year. This is also my third shirt that has been printed. So stop on by and pick one up.

Here:

http://allmightys.com/store/shirts/a_few_good_men/index.htm?PHPSESSID=2716ae18a4cd675e89f922c05e26492c

Photo by allmightys.com

We Need Help

Allmightys is still accepting submissions to there contest I am Thinking...and here is my latest entry, "We Need Help". It is a collection of thoughts about the U.S. and how messed up things are. It's not meant to bash the U.S. but to bring light to all the issues that this power house has. The shirt also boast a secret message. If you fold up the bottom and bring it to the top, it reveals the message, We Need Help in side of the shape of the United States. I have some images below.
Leave your comments and when voting starts click here:
http://allmightys.com/features/design_forum/index.htm?viewDesign=851



The shirt is a Sea Foam Green

If you click on the image you can see it in a larger size.

Here is the hidden message

Things are Heating Up

In conjunction with Allema (http://www.allema.com/) I am working on creating a website for Open Fire Media. This small media company is currently focused on short promotional, educational, instructional, and experiential projects. Whether you need a promotional DVD for a new product or service, or whether you want a special event filmed and produced into a professional DVD, Open Fire is a great company to use. The site will feature samples of their work and what process they use when working with clients. Overall this is a great company that produces quality work. So check back often for updates on this project.

Yes, we're Related...

With so many social networks to spend your time with which one is right for you? Well last year I came across design:related (http://www.designrealted.com/) they were still in their beta version and I was skeptical. This network is geared toward creative people of all types, students and professionals. What I like about the site and network is that it doesn't try so hard. The pages are clean, the work is paramount and users aren't half-naked, with puckered lips doing a beer bong. (I'm getting old) As this new year gets going I will be phasing out my myspace account and only checking it every now and then. I invite you all to check it out, if that is what your into.

Drawing Out the Competition

My good friends at www.allmightys.com asked me to design the promos for their newest competition. It is also their one-year anniversary and this competition is just like their first competition, anything goes. Its an open format so you can design anything for this comp.

1 EUR from each "I Am Thinking.." t-shirt sale will be donated to Cancer Research UK http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/

Here is how this all started (below). Be sure to check out my next entry its gunna be one you might want to pick up.

Heading for the BORDER

My biggest project to date keeps getting bigger. On March 1st from 3-5pm, Author Jane Bomberger and I will be doing a book signing at BORDERS in Highland, IN. This will be our fourth signing to date, the books are selling great. You can purchase the books online at http://comhs.org/community/pdf/book_flyer.pdf or you can purchase them at the South Shore Gift Shop located inside of the Center for Visual and Performing Arts in Munster and the Red Garter Gift Shop located inside of Community Hospital. It will also be available through Borders as well. The 30$ book comes shrink-wrapped with a dust jacket. It's 12"x9", hard bound, 300+ pages of historical and design goodness. You can see more sample pages of this book on my website http://www.miracletwentyone.org/


My old college is having an Alumni Show in their Mart Gallery located at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. This book, The Community Hospital -an Impossible Dream, will be one of the pieces that is showcased in the show. You can check it out from January 18th-February 28th.

Here are some photos from the last couple months.


Me warming up with 50 advance copies


Writers cramp


Me, the Author Jane Bomberger and the amazing Coordinator, Sherri Holt


Jane and I on the night of the book reception and signing at the Center for Visual and
Performing Arts in Munster.

The Shirts Off My Back

My tee "Hanging with the Crowd" is for sale at www.allmightys.com this is my second tee that has been printed from allmightys, head on over there and pick one up they have reduced the cost on all of their tees for 08' from 25 to 21 euros!

Here is the tee in action! Pick one up while they are still in the store. http://allmightys.com/store/shirts/hanging_with_the_crowd/index.htm

Photo by allmightys.com

This is my first tee that was selected to be printed at allmightys.com, "Drying UP" is available in the store at the http://www.allmightys.com/ It comes with a free limited edition hand signed and numbered poster while supplies last. A few sized are in their second printing so pick one up while they are fresh of the line. One euro for every shirt sold goes to the Friends of the Earth.

Here is the shirt in all its glory. Here is the link to the store: http://allmightys.com/store/shirts/drying_up/index.htm

Photo by allmightys.com