Last week, I had the privilege of creating some signage for the 2010 Fishtail Family Fun Day parade in Fishtail, Montana. The turn around time was pretty ridiculous (created Thursday night, printed Friday morning, picked up by the Unc on his way into town, and paraded around on Saturday!), but it was definitely worth it. Apparently, in part because of my Aunt’s insane marketing skills, the design will be painted all over the town. Whether it is or not doesn’t quite matter to me, I’m just glad I could be part of Fishtail Fun Day from 2,350 miles away. The sign was proudly displayed on the front of the (legally blind) 82 year old Grand Marshall’s four wheeler and carted down Main Street (in the photo above). Classic.

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So anyone who has watched any sporting event with me in recent months knows a rather disturbing fact/fetish of mine. I am in love with… luxury car leasing screens! When a good Mercedes or Lexus leasing lock-up appears on screen, I jump up and yell something dorky like:

“Look at that grid, suckers!”

-or-

“Well kern my letters those Germans can sure make a handsome leasing screen!”

Yeesh… It’s really embarrassing. I scoured the web for examples for a good half hour and got nothing (I guess you need a camera, big TV, and great reflexes to catch one of these beauties in the wild.)

Now that my confessional is out, I used this sordid love affair as inspiration for a hatchet desktop. It was a really fun exercise and I hope to do more in the future. For now though you can plaster my self-indulgent lock-up on your computer screen and save up your pennies for a Hatchet brand Hatchback (obviously). Props to Mr. Neubau for the car.

Download the desktop here:

• 1024×768
• 1280×800
• 1280×1024
• 1440×900
• 1680×1050
• 1920×1200

This just keeps getting better. I just read article two, and it was just as amazing as the first one. This article was written by Amy Smith, an instructor and founder of D-Lab (Development through dialogue, design, and dissemination) at MIT, who writes about the Fuel from the Fields project. This project aims to find a solution to the need for healthy, renewable fuel that plagues the nearly “2.5 billion people using wood, charcoal, or dung for their cooking and heating needs.” Smith highlights the fact that “the leading cause of death in children between the ages of one and five is not malnutrition, diarrhea, or malaria, but respiratory illness caused in large part by breathing the smoke from indoor cooking fires.” Shocking, isn’t it?

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My wonderful Nana discovered I had a list of books/music I wanted on my Amazon.com Wish List, and she bought me a bunch of it for Christmas. One book didn’t come until a couple of weeks ago, and that was the Design for the Other 90% book I wanted. This book came out of an exhibition by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum of the same name (check it out here). The exhibition brought together designers and engineers from around the world designing for the “5.8 billion people, or 90%, [who] have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted…”
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You know when the first song on an R&B and Soul record starts out with “They call me Big Mama ‘cuz I weigh three hundred pounds,” its gonna be good.

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I love my job…never a dull moment. Yesterday evening David and I went to one of our favorite local joints, Austin’s Coffee, for a bite to eat. Little did we know, we were actually sent from the high heavens upon request from Jackie (owner + barista extraordinaire) to assist in the design for a poster for their I-4 Festival on July 4th. Jackie’s idea, an elephant on a bike, reminded me of the CD cover David did for Michael Claytor + His Friends incredibly catchy album titled We Have An Elephant (see it in our portfolio)…so of course I immediately loved it. David and I threw together a quick design and wanted to show it to the world (and of course endorse the show). They will have 26 bands on 2 stages, beer (free Magic Hat #9 during Alias Punch’s set), henna, tarot readings, live graffiti, and more! Definitely check it out on July 4th from 12pm-12am and see some live music!