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Merry Crimmas from me and Godzilla! Reeeeeaaaaaaarrrrrgh!

Labels: bloggy, video

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Tina's little nephew lives far away, so we've devised a series of short movies to entertain and educate him. So here you have it: Warrencast episode 1, featuring original songs made up on the spot.

Labels: music, video, warrencast

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My sister and I (AKA Mookie and Melon) kicked off winter break with this little video. Can you control yourself while watching it?

The background music is by my good friend Dan Huff.

Labels: video

My first semester in the Advertising, Design & Illustration Graphic Design program at the College of DuPage has come to a close, and as a fun conceptual art project purely for my own amusement, I asked each of my teachers on the last day of class to draw me. Below are the portraits that resulted.

Brian Blevins, Design 1

Dan McCluskey, Graphic Publishing Applications

Anita Dickson, Drawing for Design 1

David Chu, Design for Advertising

...and as an added bonus, Mr. Chu threw in this killer illustration of a car. He's got a thing for cars.


The concept of this project was entirely selfish. I really worked my ass off and poured my guts out on all the projects during the semester, and when it was all over, I wanted something back from my teachers that was more than just a letter grade. Through my assignments, I had exposed my thoughts and inner workings to them, so it seemed appropriate that I should receive something more complex than a grade. I wanted some tangible expression of my teachers' perception of me.

When I asked for the drawings, I gave each teacher an easy way out. I told them that the drawing could be as simple as a stick figure on a post-it note, and that they didn't have to spend more than two seconds working on it. To my surprise, each of my teachers set upon the task with great enthusiasm. Eager hands rifled through desk drawers in search of worthy drawing implements with which to perform the deed. I posed for what seemed to be inordinately long amounts of time, stealing glances at the sketchpads on which elaborate portraits bloomed where I had expected mere doodles. As I went through my final classes collecting these drawings, I felt more and more humbled. Who else besides your best friends or your own family would take the time out of their life to do something like this? Apparently, teachers would.

Thank you all for a beautiful semester. I learned so much, and I'm looking forward to coming back in a month.

Labels: bloggy, illustration

My final assignment for advertising class was to create some kind of self-promotional gimmick. My idea was to package a sponge to highlight my incredible learning power. Dorky, I know. Here is the text that appears on the back:

Hello. My name is Dave Jacob Hoffman, and I am like a sponge. When I say that I am like a sponge, I am not referring to any particular physical attributes I possess, no matter how soft or porous they may be, nor am I referring to any square pants that I may own. I speak only of my incredible thirst for knowledge; my desire to soak up all information within my reach. This thirst stems from a great passion for art and design, an uncontrollable compulsion to create beautiful and useful things. For proof of this fact, you need only go to DAVEMAKES.COM

Here's a tip I wish I'd known before this morning: Sponges are packaged wet to keep them fluffy and bendy. If you take one out of its plastic wrapping and measure it for your own packaging, keep in mind that if you let it dry out overnight, the sponge will shrink a significant amount. You will either have to adjust your design, or dampen the sponge and hope it doesn't destroy the paper wrapper you've made before class is over.

Labels: design

This is a collage illustration I did for class on the subject of the current economic crisis. I really got my hands dirty with this one, it was a nice break from all the clean digital stuff I usually do.

Labels: illustration

Thanks again to tae-ko, who takes beautiful pictures that hold my interest long enough to do some drawing exercises. This one was done with a ball-point pen and an orange highlighter.

Labels: illustration

My pal Brendan (mentioned previously) showed up in this picture on BoingBoing Gadgets. He should be thankful he got into a post with a sweet robot instead of some lame steampunk thing. Way to go, man!

Labels: bloggy, link

My goal with this poster was to use the slick marketing of the Coca-Cola company against soft drinks as a whole by increasing awareness of the health hazards that result from overuse. Type 2 diabetes used to be called "adult diabetes" until recently because children are now being diagnosed with it. Diabetes and obesity have become epidemics in this country, and one of the contributing factors is the overuse of soft drinks. Clever advertising has tricked people into believing that it is acceptable to ingest these sugary drinks every day, if not multiple times a day. People think of them as "refreshments" instead of liquid candy, and they choose to ignore the huge amounts of sugar (or mysterious chemicals, if it is diet cola) they are drinking. I won't go into what all that sugar, caffeine, acid, and carbonation will do to your body here, but the information is out there for you to look up.

I'll get off my soapbox now. Just take care of yourselves.

Labels: design, illustration

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My good friend Dan Huff came to visit last week, and he brought copies of his new album. Dan is the most prolific songwriter and music maker I know, and absolutely one of my greatest influences. Writing and recording can be daunting tasks for normal musicians, but Dan has a love for music so intense that no barrier ever stands in his way. If Dan Huff can record an entire album in the back of his truck, then there are no excuses for the rest of us. Nothing should get between the artist and the audio tape. That's why Dan's newest album is so important. You can listen to some samples on his myspace page, but he's given me permission to post the album in its entirety on the internet, so I suggest you download it here:

MUSIC FOR MUSICIANS OR: How to make a 60-minute album in less than 8 hours for about $200 as performed by the Dan Huff Solo Experiments (68.5MB ZIP file)

Now, I have to warn you, it takes a special ear to really appreciate a Dan Huff album. You might think that it sounds terrible. What you really need to do is listen to the potential of the music. Shine it up a little bit, and you could find a pretty great song. Dan's music isn't about saving up for that expensive guitar at the store, or buying fancy microphones, or renting a studio, or taking years of guitar lessons. It's about capturing music and ideas in their most raw state, and moving forward instead of tweaking, procrastinating, and digging yourself into a creative rut. Why is this important? I've had so many ideas go unrecorded because I didn't think I could make them sound good enough. I didn't have the right microphone. I didn't have the right instruments. I couldn't play the part well enough. I didn't have the right software on my computer. All of that goes away when Dan Huff drives his truck out to the Walmart parking lot and records whatever's in his head through a $5 microphone into a battery operated 4-track recorder. If you have music inside you, there are no excuses anymore. Get it out.

Labels: music, video