Tumbleweed Tramp

It’s 2am and I’m wide awake. I haven’t been up this late or early, depending on how you look at it, since I did freelance work. I used to regularly work until 2 or 3 in the morning. But I stopped doing that this year. No, this time I am up because I had 1 cup of coffee past 12 noon. Anytime I have a cup of coffee past 12 noon, I am up until 2am. I have no idea why my body reacts to caffeine this way. But I’m going to lie down now, on my couch and try to think happy thoughts as I hopefully, eventually dose off to sleep.

I used to have a $7 couch which I bought at a church rummage sale. I think it was marked down 50% from $15. It was a great couch and served me well for a few years, but when I moved from my old barrio to the beach, I needed something smaller and less provincial. I bought my new couch at St. Vincent DePauls for $30. It was in excellent condition as I think any couch should be that you buy second-hand. seriously. This couch is no longer in excellent condition. my cats have clawed the front arms down to the wood, my daughter who eats on the far right near the tv has stained that area a mix of pinkish purplish punch color and chocolate cocoa brown. And I sleep on it most of the time. So any suspension it once had for the average tush is shot. but I’m grateful for it and it suits me just fine.

This is where I want to be and what I want to be doing one day.

I stumbled upon this artist last fall. I really enjoy her art.

I stumbled upon this artist and think she makes some pretty great art. Check her out.

Penelope Dullaghan

v3…

Rodney White is a self-taught artist and a 1999 graduate of Dekalb Technical Institute in Visual Communications. As a graphic designer he has a love for type, vintage design and advertising. Most of his free time is spent either painting or gathering ideas to paint.

‘I see things everywhere and every day that gives me some idea for my pieces. I love to visit flea markets and antique markets. I notice the natural aging of the things around us. Billboard signs, buildings, packages, and aging paper catch my attention. I seek to replicate the rusting and decaying look of the things I see.’

White has eclectic interests and hobbies as well. He loves furniture and dreaming up living spaces, movies, and collecting and listening to music. He enjoys learning about people and their stories. He believes everybody has them, but not everybody has someone that wants to listen to them. A dreamer, White is always dreaming.

A few years ago, I worked in the custom printing dept. for a coffee bag manufacturer, ever since then, great packaging design has really stood out to me. Usually, I walk around sickened by the 3,000+ marketing messages that flood our subconsciousness on a daily bases, but as I was leaving Alberston’s I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Tucked in between a toy vending machine and a coin star kiosk were these beautiful little boxes of chocolates by Russell Stover. I picked them up and admired the design. I was a little surprised, I hadn’t noticed anything like it before from a well known brand like Russell. But after the appreciation for the design faded, I was left with this to ponder… Is there anything left that hasn’t been urbanized? I couldn’t find a better picture, but the picture above is of Russell Stover’s new line of, what was the word they used, “Adventurous” chocolates.

I think it’s cool that a chocolate company wanted to take it up a notch and adopt some of the cultural trends the rest of the world uses to make their products stand out and seem cool. Not entirely sure chocolate needs any assistance, as it’s pretty good all on it’s own, but as a gift for someone who’s into trendy things, it’s perfect. So kudos to the designer on a job well done. These designs are cool enough to hang up in my ramshackle beach house. But I just wonder why everything under the sun has to have an urban appeal to be appealing at all?

Why as a collective conscious are we as consumers programmed to be attracted to anything that looks grunge, street, urban, or metro? Maybe the russell stover company said it best, their new line of chocolates are “adventurous.” Deep down we all wish we were a little more adventurous. So if we buy these cool chocolates or receive them as gifts, we’re part of the subculture or pseudo counterculture of society that shuns the man and lives by the seat of our pants. I doubt it, but if these chocolates make you feel that way - more power to you.

Maybe my seemingly innocent design question is as stupid as asking why rock-n-roll will always be the preferred music style, or why jeans and a t-shirt will forever be the choice people say if they’re given only one thing to wear for the rest of their lives. Maybe it boils down to appealing to the masses. So are the masses always urban, grunge, street and metro? I suppose they are, that describes the most populous places. I wonder how our marketing and packaging design strategies would look if the majority of consumers lived in Idaho, Nebraska or South Dakota. I’m not certain, but I have a hunch our design practices would look a little different. ;P

These are my thoughts…now let me know yours

I can’t speak for anyone else in the business, but I just recently thought about all the stages I’ve went through as a designer. I hope this time line makes you laugh or cry and not want to punch me in the face. I in no way think I am a great designer or even a good one for that matter, I just have a lot of opinions about something I’ve spent half my life pursuing.

1980 - Grandma had a mac and a paint program…need I say more?

1995 - Hey what’s this…you mean I can take some clip art and some text and make a cool picture, like for cards and stuff…cool!

1998 - What’s that? You need someone to design a newsletter for you? I can do that! I once made a card in 1995.

1999 - Um…it appears there’s a job where they will actually pay someone to design stuff all day long - c-ya, I’m outta here!

2000 - This job doesn’t offer me enough creative expression. If I’m ever going to be good at this, I need something more diverse to grow my portfolio.

2001 - I’m sick of design and I’m never going to design another thing as long as I live.

2003 - Sure, I can help you make a flyer for your halloween party, it’s no big thang.

2004 - You need some custom letterhead… let me help you with that. You didn’t expect something fancy? Then why did you ask “me” to do it? You could’ve asked anyone to put a name at the top of a piece of paper! “note to self: I need to go back to work as a designer…”

2005 - You need a coffee bag design? No problem, I used to be a designer a long time ago. “note to self: I probably won’t get sucked back into that world again…”

2006 - Full swing into freelance business

2007 - What? You don’t like my designs? Are you crazie? You have no appreciation for art.

2008 - I could care less if you like my designs or not. What I create doesn’t define me. It’s all worthless marketing drivel anyway. None of it means anything to anyone. Closed down freelance business.

Present day - Truly great design, is noticing what the trends are and then successfully breaking them by starting your own. A truly great designer is someone who is so good that other designers want to copy them, but can’t.

:P

Have you ever been a complete jerk to someone just because you were trying to be funny? I did today. I felt so bad afterwards that I went and found that person and told them what they could have said back to me, to make me look like the jerk that I was…they declined because they’re not that mean, which I conceded that I was and we both had a good laugh.

But I still feel the pain of realizing I just made someone feel stupid. Why is it always the stupid people that make other nice people feel dumb? And why in the world do I have to be one of them?

Lord help me to remember that I’m not as funny as I think I am, and please forgive me for the times when I am cruel.