details

Continuing on my post yesterday about Vegas being a plethora of stimulation for creatives, especially visually, these are some details snapped along the way while out and about this week.

jackpot

I'm spending the week in Vegas. It really hasn't been that much of a play visit, but even just being here is a good change of scenery. I'm visiting my friend Curt, who is here for a conference ("Concrete World!" No really, I'm not making that up.) Most of his time is wrapped up in conference activities and events, while I have plenty of work keeping me in the hotel room most of the time. Luckily nothing shuts down in Vegas, so at least its easy for us to get late dinners or shows or even just wandering the strip and casinos when we both manage to be free. I think for anyone in a creative industry, Vegas is a jackpot of visual stimuli. You can't help but love being immersed in the neverending sights and sounds. It's a theme park for the senses and absolute kitsch taken to the utmost extreme. What's not to love?

med mod

Last November I broke my foot (of course you'd know about that if the blog hadn't fallen into its accidental hiatus then.) The doctors office was in this nearby medical building in Manhattan Beach that I've probably driven by a hundred times and never noticed. Though fairly non-descript on the outside (except for some kinda cool sheathing panels,) it turned out to be a pretty cool modernist-ish building inside. The finishes may have been cheap, but it had some great spaces. I wondered if it was a once-great building that hadn't been kept up well, but my hunch is that it was more likely just a cheap knock-off version of good modernism from the beginning (that still hadn't exactly aged well.) Nonetheless, I couldn't help but be intrigued by the place. For some reason I would guess it to be from the early 70's. The good side of its age was that the materials and fixtures seemed to be the original ones (both in good and bad ways, and sometimes so bad they were good.) Still, it was better than some attempt at updating by adding faux stone and columns or burgundy and forest green interiors. It may not have been a prize example of modernism, but the degree to which it remained in its original state without being mucked up by "improvements" was worthy of appreciation.

blacked out

jonberrydesign.com has been dark today and the following has been censored in support of the internet blackout against a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet. To see the uncensored text and to stop internet censorship, visit: http://americancensorship.org/posts/46383/uncensor

If ████ or ████ ████ to ████, ████ is ████ ████ █████ on the ████████ █████ ████ ████. As ███████ who ███████ ███████ for ██████████ and a ████ of the so-██████ "█████████ ████████ █████████" who █████ █████ ██████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███████ I ██████████ the ████ for ███████████ ███████ ██████ ██████. I've had my own ████ ██████. ████ ████, ████ and ████ are not the ███████████ we ████. ████ a ██████ to ████ or █████ you ██████████. You can do it ██████ ████ the █████ ████████ at ██████████████████.org.

make a date

It's pretty much custom in my industry (as I think it is in most) to give clients a Christmas gift. When doing mine, I've always tried to come up with things that have some level of self promotion, but are still nice and/or useful so that they don't just go to the trash. For the past few years, my gifts have also used the blind photography that I shoot constantly for this blog (and just as a creative exercise.) I was pretty pleased with the end result this year, so I've decided to do something I've never done before: put the client gift up for sale to anyone. It's not really a money making venture, because I kinda doubt I'll sell more than a few at the very most. It's more just a way of offering them to everyone, because I'd love to give them to everyone, but there's just no way to afford being able to do that. This years client gift was a 2012 calendar featuring collages that blend three photos in each spread, with dates as a vertical strip of horizontal lines. The calendars are spiral-bound softcover books at 8x6" in size (so 16x6" for a full spread.) Unfortunately, they aren't cheap. Printing and shipping costs a little over $20, so I figure I'll just sell em for $21. Any more than that seems like way too much for a calendar, but I don't want to lose money either. Since this isn't a planned commercial venture and I don't sell "products", bear with my homemade figure-it-out-as-we-go approach. If you'd like to buy one, just drop me an email (jon@jonberrydesign.com) and we'll work it out. (and a reminder: to see the spreads above, click on the image for a full size view)

the scarf

Spending a few days lately working on some potential designs for ACB soccer scarves (not as easy as you'd think) has made me think about my appreciation for them. I remember first noticing this type of scarf when I was in Torino for the Olympics. On certain days you'd see people all over town wearing them. I even bought a couple then not fully appreciating their significance, just because they seemed a cool souvenir of my time there. It wasn't until I started following American soccer and especially once involved with the Angel City Brigade that I realized what a signature of soccer they are. Football/Soccer scarves are generally attributed as originating in the UK in the early 1900's, first as stripe patterns of team colors and later with team names and slogans. Today there are all kinds of versions with elaborate designs, and like anything in sports merchandising, teams and leagues will add special designs for anything they can think of to make a buck. Naturally, fans gobble them up. In the last year alone I somehow went from one scarf to six, including one I gave away. What I love most about the soccer scarf is its versatility. Its an easy show of support for your team just hanging on your neck at a tailgate, but it also doubles as a banner when held over your head (especially impressive when a full section is doing the same), or as a rally towel twirled while cheering a play, not to mention its actual use as a scarf when chilly enough to need it. It sure beats a foam finger. It's no surprise that they are now starting to show up on baseball and hockey fans in the US, but they will always be the defining symbol of the soccer fan.

d town

Since the blog went on an accidental hiatus for about 5 months, I have a lot of old pics and events to recap. The good news is that it should help give me some content when I can't think of anything to post about (which seems to be pretty often); the bad news is that you'll have to bear with me posting about something that happened 3 months ago. You're welcome. And I'm sorry. Anyway, these are just some slivers of downtown LA from a few different times there in the last months, including when my friend Myron was visiting as well as during two different beerfests that were held downtown. Looking at these makes me feel like its time for another trip to Wurstküche and Spitz, a couple of my favorite downtown spots. If you haven't been, do it.

good girl

My parents lost their dog Phantom last night. Her legs hadn't been so great for a long time, but her eyes stayed bright and her appetite and spirit stayed strong. She was always a great dog, from her days of competing in the show ring (she loved the agility contests) to her more mischievous days of eating the entire pumpkin pie in the back of the minivan while Mom & Dad were in the store. More than anything, she could never get enough of having her head in your lap or being next to you. What Phantom loved most was to be loved. And boy was she. Dad posted the passage in the link below about Rainbow Bridge in honor of Phantom. I linked to it and received an awful lot of nice messages from friends. But Phantom was Dad's girl. Dad's not known for directly expressing himself a lot, he's usually more subtle that that; but when he does, its poignant. So I hope he doesn't mind me stealing from him again, but what he posted today is better than anything I could say:

"Thank you all for all you kind condolences.

I think I'm not feeling bad for Phantom. I do think she had a good life and wasn't happy that she could no longer do anything she enjoyed except eat and get a nice head scratch.

I think I'm feeling sorry for myself that I'll no longer get to enjoy her devotion and companionship. Each of the dogs used to get a walk of between a mile and a mile and a half each day. Edn's walk was pretty much mostly a teaching experience. Phantom had been through all that so our walks, often after dark, were just a couple of good old friends enjoying each other and where we were. I miss her."

Dad's Blog: Waiting at Rainbow Bridge

last look

A few last pics from my last day on the Gulf Coast before heading back to California... I made the mistake of not getting any Barbecue Shrimp while in New Orleans because I mistakenly assumed it was a broader regional thing, so we stopped at one of the only places we found it in Mississippi. It was perfect. After getting caught in unexpected traffic and almost missing my flight last time I was there (not that I would have minded), we headed into New Orleans plenty early this time. With the extra time to spare, we stopped for beignets at Cafe du Monde, which in all the times I've been to New Orleans, I had always avoided just assuming it was a tourist trap. We had time for one last swan song beer in Nawlins, and then it was time to head home.

building

As I mentioned in the last post, one thing I did get to do during this trip to Mississippi was see a lot of my friend Stephen's work. We often check out architecture by others, but I hadn't seen much of his except in photos. This week, he took me to see a few of his completed projects as well as some buildings under construction that he needed to check on anyway. If you've followed the blog, you know architecture has always been something I get a lot out of. I had always thought about becoming an architect when I was a kid, but decided against it after hating having to deal with rulers and triangles in some high school math or art class. Little did I know that as a graphic design student, I'd be spending my years in college with exacto pens and t-squares and rulers anyway. I'm still endlessly fascinated with the idea of bringing design to full dimension (I independent studied in this as well in school, but more in the sense of designing museums or theme parks), so its fun for me to have the chance to pick his brain and hear about the details of projects. Its also interesting how many similarities we have in dealing with clients or challenges in the process of our work. The biggest difference is how much "in stone" (no pun intended) his work is once construction begins, where my projects are constantly changing up until delivery, and frankly sometimes even still after that. Either way, its always cool to share stories and have some understanding and compassion of the process in the middle of projects, and after seeing these I'll understand his even more.

pieces

I'm back in Mississippi for a couple days to visit with my friend Stephen (and eat as many poboys, oysters, and fried tomatoes as I can before going back to California.) I've gotten to see more of his work this time, including visits yesterday and tomorrow to projects under construction. Other than that, we've just been roaming around the Gulf Coast in between taking care of work stuff I have going on: basically laid-back decompression days after the holidays. (Of course work always goes where I do no matter what; just the way it works, and no complaints about that.) That all leaves not a lot to say or show, but here are some bits from the last couple days.