Mathew's Thoughts and Such » art

Damaged Goods presents “Shut it Up, or Shoot it” Flier

Mathew Ballard — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:00:42 +0000

Another month another flier for the Damaged Goods Improv group here in Louisville, KY. This months theme is a quote from a random quote from someone’s mother in church, “Shut it up or shoot it!.” I would go into detail has to how that came about, but I’m not the one to be telling that story, you’ll just have to go to the show to find out. So, this flier was interesting for me because what I ended up doing wasn’t what I initially set out to do. I had set out to do a fully illustrated piece using the image of the man with the gun that I was given. But, when I found out that I didn’t have nearly as long to complete the project as I thought I was going to have I found myself having to make a decision. Either rush to finish what I wanted to do and risk the work not meeting anyone’s standards or come up with a new idea that was both viable to complete in the given time and creating a great flier.

I ended up coming up with what you see above and finishing the project by the deadline. Personally I’m really pleased with how it ended up turning out and it may have been even better then what I was initially going to do. I ended up doing some quick painting work over the image given to me and a stock photo of a baby to give them a bit of a unique look and gave them fat white borders to make them look almost like large stickers. I created a textured background to make the solid colored background more interesting. And for the font I used the best font type out there, Helvetica.

Feel free to offer up any critique you may as I love to see what other people think of my work, no matter your knowledge level of design.

If you are in the Louisville, KY area and would like more information about the show click this link to the event information on Facebook.

Dogwood Flowers Photo and Desktop Wallpaper

Mathew Ballard — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:00:26 +0000

Every year, when Spring begins, white flowers bloom all over Dogwood trees. Now, I’m usually not one to love flowers and even more so I find taking photos of flowers to be very boring.

But, these flowers are one of the few that I really enjoy seeing, possible because they are only around for a couple of weeks every year.

So, when me and my girlfriend came across some Dogwoods at the Louisville Zoo a couple months ago and I looked up I was inspired. The way that the flowers contrasted with the perfectly blue sky, the one branch sticking out from the rest allowing for some great bokeh, the way the light danced around the flowers made me instantly put my camera to my eye.

I also decided to use this photo as one of my first wallpaper creations. I’ve been wanting to take the time to create wallpapers, not only from scratch but also from photos that I take. So expect more wallpapers, both original designs and those from my personal photography. The wallpaper is set for widescreen monitors and can be downloaded either from Deviantart and my Facebook page.

Damaged Goods presents “Get Over It, Pal!” Flier

Mathew Ballard — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 16:00:31 +0000

Another month another flier for the Damaged Goods Improv group here in Louisville, KY. This months theme is a quote from Bill Murray during an interview on the Late Show with David Letterman. For the colors and texture of the design I drew inspiration from Bill Murray’s outfit during the interview. Looking at his outfit I thought of colors from nature, rugged/rough textures and even the old school TV.

Speaking of the TV, one of the request I had from the group was to incorporate a screen shot from the interview. I thought for awhile how I was going to do this with out throwing off the overall design. I thought of doing some sort of Illustrator design with Bill Murray or even just embedding the screenshot into the background with some blending. In the end I decided to go with the old school TV. If you look close (hard to do on the above image) you can even see lines like you would see in an old analog TV.

Overall I’m very happy with the design of the flier. Hopefully next month, along with a new flier, I’ll have a new logo for the group to show you as well.

If you are in the Louisville, KY area and would like more information about the show click this link to the event information on Facebook.

New Website Design: DeVriesDental.com

Mathew Ballard — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 16:00:33 +0000

Last month I completed and launched a new website for a local dental office, DeVries Family Dentistry. The website, devriesdental.com, is their first real website, they had something through Yellow Pages before. They wanted a place were people could get access to info easily, request an appointment online and even give some feedback.

The design is more on the conservative side, fitting the overall persona of this region. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t give the website some personality. Dr. DeVries happens to be a legend of sorts for his success as a sports star in the area at the local high school, Meade County High School. The school’s mascot is the Greenwave and their colors are various shades of green. So, I wanted to give a little bit of local touch to the website with the wavy header and in my color choices.

After working on this website I now definitely think that every dentist out there should have one. Not only for people to learn more about the doctor’s practice, but also to allow them to easily do things like request an appointment or learn about a procedure that they are soon going to have performed. That goes for doctors in other medical fields as well.

Damaged Goods Improv “There Is No Improv, Only Zuul!” Flier

Mathew Ballard — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:19:56 +0000

I recently designed a flier for a up and coming improv group here in Louisville, KY for their first show in April. For the design I wanted to go with a somewhat retro look and feel while at the same time making it very easy for potential show goers to get the information quickly and easily. Overall I’m very happy with the design and it is one of my top favorites to date already.

However after looking at it since it was finished a few days ago I do wish I had done more to add even more texture to the design. I think I may have gone too light on the texture as you can’t really see it easily.

If you are in the Louisville, KY area and would like more information about the show click this link to the event information on Facebook.

P.S. If you are one who is asking, “What the hell is Zuul?!?!” Check here to find out.

Design Software Usage Survey

Mathew Ballard — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 04:06:57 +0000

A few months ago I became curious about other designer’s design software usage. Reason being because of the debates I had been a part of at the time about upgrading or not upgrading to Adobe CS4. I’m one of those who decided to stay with CS3 because I didn’t see a worthy reason of paying the price to upgrade to CS4 when it really didn’t have many features that seemed worth it to me. Sure, I could get it by other means, but I don’t even think it is worth all that trouble.

Anyways, I wanted to know if I was part of the majority or the minority when it came to my thinking on design software usage. So I decided to ask my fellow designers on Twitter what design software they use. With some help from Sheri Strykowski (writer_sheri), Gerrel Saunders (gaksdesigns) and Dwyndal (Dwyndal) I gathered 79 responses on the matter. Below are the results:

Adobe CS4: 44
Adobe CS3: 26
Adobe CS2: 7
Other:
- Adobe CS: 1
- Corel 14: 1

As you can see Adobe CS4 was by far the most used proving that I am part of the minority and most are willing to pay the the money for the latest (or at least that is what we are going to go with). Personally, like I said earlier, I don’t see anything in CS4 that makes me go, “Wow! I have to update!” That being said, I will be upgrading to CS5 when the time comes, because already you can tell that it will be well worth it. Lets just hope that Adobe realizes that they need to lower the price of their software when CS5 does come out.

But, enough of what I think, below are some thoughts shared by others on Twitter:

Feel free to share your thoughts and what design software you use in the comments section. I look forward to reading them.

The Lions!

Mathew Ballard — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:53:45 +0000

This is a logo that I recently created for a local youth soccer team. The soccer team is part of one of those leagues where all the kids just run around around kicking the ball in groups with no goalie and no score kept. The client wanted something cute, and I think I hit what she want, because when she saw it she let out a big, AWWWWWWWW!

Hudson River Plane Crash Shows the Speed of Social Media

Mathew Ballard — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:01:10 +0000

Less than two hours ago a plane crashed into the Hudson River in New York City. And if you don’t know about it then you must not: 1) watch a news channel or website or 2) take part in social networks/social media. Within minutes of the plane crash the news spread across the world like wildfire as hundrends if not thousands of people posted what happened to their Twitter feeds.

One man in particular by the name Janis Krum, took a photo of the plane crash, from the ferry that was rescuing people, with his iPhone and then posted it to Twitter using a service called Twitpic. Shortly there after the photo began making its way across the interwebs and eventually crossed the eyes of the major news companies, and within thirty minutes of taking the photo Janis Krum was being interviewed by MSNBC.

Its times like this that show just how fast news of something happening can spread across the world. And with technology like the iPhone, cellphone internet (3G I’m sure), Twitter and Twitpic its possible that someone who is on the scene can show what is happening to the world before a news station can do the same.

List Sunday: Top Ten First Time Watched Movies for 2008

Mathew Ballard — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 02:12:07 +0000

This is the last List Sunday of 2008 and what better way to go out then by putting together one of the most typical list around, a top movies list! But, this list has a bit of a twist. Instead of just concentrating on movies that came out this year I’ve comprised this list of movies that I saw for the firs time ever. No matter if they came out 20 years ago or just a couple months ago. Now, before any one bashes me for not having a particular movie on my list please remember that this is just for movies that I’ve seen this year. So certain movies, like The Dark Knight, may not be on here because I haven’t seen them yet.

10. Employee of the Month

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK-SWgsDp7Q

9. Hancock/I Am Legend

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZQQgvhn4jg

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4B7FW8b5qI

8. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe/Prince Caspian

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ9t3Xs8Sgc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zk-D7SuwICU

7. Akira

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGXL-6Jv1pw

6. Sweeny Todd

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_hgrfZVlJA

5. Juno

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0SKf0K3bxg

4. Four Chirstmases

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG0nmabeQN8

3. Quantum of Solace

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4jY8WxcFMo

2. Wall-E

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC86heBo0d4

1. Wanted

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ftozVc3lI

As always I asked those over at Friendfeed to tell me about their favorite movies that they saw for the first time this year. And like always, they came through with many opinions.

I finally watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind all the way from start to finish this year. I really liked it. -- Yolanda

I watched Benjamin Button on Christmas day. -- Bob

I saw Vertigo for the first time this year. It was pretty awesome. -- Mark Wilson

I also saw Valley Girl for the first time and I loved it. Great soundtrack too. -- Mark Wilson

Mark- Vertigo is an amazing flick! I liked Frost/Nixon a lot. I loved Wanted. Really, really liked The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, which I finally got to see. But I really loved the Lives of Others most of all. -- Abby Martin

I saw only one movie the whole year. (except for the pirated downloads that I plaid in the background and didn’t really watch because I could tell they sucked) the movie was “The Dark Knight”. I haven’t seen any of the Oscar season movies yet and I haven’t seen Iron Man, but I was not drawn to any media this year. -- Ⓝ〄ⒶⒽ ⒹⒶⓋⒾⒹ ⓈⒾⓂ〄Ⓝ

Benjamin Button, Death Note, and Love Actually -- Shevonne Polastre

Iron Man, Wall-E… -- Alex Scoble

Billy Wilder is always great…. I thought we were talking about recent movies -- Ⓝ〄ⒶⒽ ⒹⒶⓋⒾⒹ ⓈⒾⓂ〄Ⓝ

Umbrellas Of Cherbourg was my standout, classic movie that I absolutely loved, and was kicking myself for not seeing it before. -- Jason Kaneshiro

Knocked Up, Happy Feet, Dan in Real Life, A Night at the Museum, Woman Though Art Loosed…I think those are the only movies I watched this year that I hadn’t watched before. Oh that movie with Steve Carrel where he builds the Ark. Only movie worth watching out of all of these is A Night at the Museum. -- Anika Malone

American Psycho -- Mitch

oh… so sweet. http://www.hulu.com/watch/4617… Billy Wilder’s “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” is free online for all -- Ⓝ〄ⒶⒽ ⒹⒶⓋⒾⒹ ⓈⒾⓂ〄Ⓝ

APOCALYPSE NOW. Heavy stuff. -- Steven Perez

Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels -- Ian May

Abby, The Lives of Others is one of my favourite movies from this decade. It was incredible. It’s sad that, Ulrich Mühe, the main star died last year. He was amazing in that film. -- Mark Wilson

I saw both ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘American Beauty’ this year. And they were both extremely good. -- Rahul Das

Mark, Vertigo and the original Charade (not that Damon/Newton hot mess) are probably my two favorite thrillers ever. -- Anika Malone

Wall-E, Iron Man. -- Just Katie

http://www.hulu.com/watch/4617… Billy Wilder’s “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” is an interesting movie… but mediocre. not bad either…,but I was surprised it was Billy Wilder’s. funny scene involving Dr Watson and a bunch of gays in the Russian ballet in the beginning. seems like Wilder’s “Some like It Hot” had influences here… but all in all this film is not as good as Barry Levinson’s classic “Young Shermlock Holmes” -- Ⓝ〄ⒶⒽ ⒹⒶⓋⒾⒹ ⓈⒾⓂ〄Ⓝ

Superbad, Planet Earth series, The Kite Runner, Across the Universe, Stardust, Goodfellas, Mr. Brooks, Transformers, Ella Enchanted, The Borne Ultimatum, 300, Once, Sharkwater… All great and worth seeing. -- Mark

So what are your favorite movies that you saw for the first time this year?

Random Art Feature: 48 Mind-blowing Examples of Photo Manipulation Art

Mathew Ballard — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:50:54 +0000

While surfing the interwebs today I came across this post on Friendfeed. Its a blog post by PSDTUTS showcasing 48 absolutly amazing photomanipulation pieces of art. You must take some time today and go through and look at every piece, if it doesn’t blow your mind like it did mine, I don’t know what will.