Those kooky guys at Hix Bros. music put together an awesome Christmas album, and they're giving the profits to Mutual Ground, which provides services in southern Kane County and Kendall County for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Plus, it's full of good 'ol rockin' holiday cheer, and the cover is by Tina and me! So order a copy straight from the Hix Bros. or from CD baby, and feel good about donating to a good cause this holiday season.

Labels: bloggy, design, illustration

Question: What could I possibly be working on now?

Answer: ENIGMATIC SOCK PUPPET PROJECT.

THAT IS ALL (for now).

Labels: bloggy

Today was the second annual Shred Day at First National Bank of Naperville. I created a series of ads to run in the local papers, and they were apparently extremely effective. At 9am, we had two lines of cars snaking through the bank parking lot, and a line around the block on top of that. We reached the on-site shredding truck's capacity of 10,000 pounds of paper at 11am, leaving us in kind of an awkward situation for the last hour of the event. We worked out a system to transport the remaining material to the shredding facility.

I'm told that we took in about 600 pounds of food and a healthy sum of money in donations to Loaves & Fishes. This makes me especially glad as a designer, because this new aspect of the event was promoted solely through the ads I designed. It feels great to see an effective design facilitate so much goodwill.

It was a crazy day, and despite the problems we ran into, Shred Day '09 was absolutely a success. All that shredded material gets recycled, and the whole thing is a great big hug to the environment. Thanks to everyone who came out to shred and donate, and thanks for those who expressed understanding when we filled up the truck.

Labels: bloggy, design

Watch this video on Vimeo or YouTube.

Thursday night was Portfolio Night at the College of DuPage. All the graphic design students submitted their best work to be shown, and the portfolio students competed to be the best of the best. It was incredible to walk around and see everyone's work. Multiple times during the night, I had to hunt down people and berate them for not telling me they were doing such brilliant work. The night was full of surprises, and it was a wonderful way to end the year.

This has been the best year of school I've ever had, and I'd like to thank my teachers and classmates for making everything so fun and exciting. The amount of talent that surrounds me every day is staggering. You have changed school from something I used to dread into something I now love. You've changed my life.

Thanks.

Labels: bloggy, design, illustration, video

Watch this video on Vimeo or YouTube

Thanks to everyone who came to the opening of FACE VALUE last night! If you didn't get a chance to swing by, I made this little video to give you an idea. The show will be up for a month in the Wings Gallery, which is located on the first floor of the Student Resource Center at the College of DuPage. The open gallery times are a little goofy, and I'm not really sure what they are, but I will update this post when I find out.

All the glory should go to Kristin Schlottman, Chris Walker, Grace Blevins, Jake Albaugh, Erika Swanson, Heather Shaw, and Dan McDarrah for all their hard work on this show. You guys have incredible talent, and I feel so lucky to have worked with you on this project.

Labels: bloggy, design, video

Ever since I saw John Hodgman drink it on Halloween, I've been wanting a bottle of Dan Aykroyd's Crystal Head Vodka. And then today I saw this video, and I had to go to my local Binny's to get some.

I don't know much about my vodka, but Crystal Head is apparently quadruple filtered through diamonds, and besides, everybody knows things just taste better out of a skull. I've only had a sip of it, but it was smooth stuff. Also, having actually held a real human skull in my hand, I can say that the bottle is very much the same size and shape, but much heavier (because it's filled with vodka).

Now I just have to find a place to properly display this thing.

Labels: bloggy

Face Value is a typography show at the College of DuPage that I have been invited to participate in. This is just a sneak peek at one of the neat things we've been working on. The show opens on April 13th at 7pm in the Wings Gallery in COD, so plan on stopping by and seeing some fun stuff.

Labels: bloggy, design

My good friend Dan Huff (who you may remember from this previous post) wrote a theme song for me, and I couldn't be more excited about it! He gave me permission to throw the mp3's up here, so check it out:

The original (I kinda prefer this one.)

The second version (Pretty rare for Dan to record something over. I'm flattered.)

Dan is recording a new song every week and posting it on his Myspace page.

Thank you, Dan.

Labels: bloggy

I Need Sleep (that band I used to play with) just came out with a new EP called "Welcome to Monsters." You can download the whole thing for free here. Or, I've embedded it here if you wanna listen:



Gotta love that album art.

Labels: bloggy, music

At a Chicago Metafilter meetup about a month ago, I had the pleasure of meeting a man named Eamon Daly and his incredible super-powered beard. Now he is harnessing the power of his beard for charity. Ladies and gentlemen, Things My Beard Can Lift. Go make a tax-deductible donation now so we can all see Eamon's magnificent mane tested to its limits.

Labels: bloggy, link

Following the continuing adventures of my friend Brendan, he is now a blogger at hackerspaces.org. Read his first post, and go leave some comments to make him feel at home.

Labels: bloggy, link

Flickr | YouTube | Vimeo

Merry Crimmas from me and Godzilla! Reeeeeaaaaaaarrrrrgh!

Labels: bloggy, 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 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

The first time I saw the band I Need Sleep was in a Halloween-themed basement show. I can't remember the year exactly, but October of 2002 sounds close. I was an immediate fan, and as the ever-changing cast of members rotated, eventually they invited me to play with them. We played some terrible shows, we played some incredible shows, we made a studio album, and we went on tour, we won a battle of the bands. I left the band sometime in 2005 or 2006 (I can't remember exactly anymore), and although I've got a whole heap of memories and stories from playing in the band, I was a disappointed that there seemed to be so little video of the band performing. People frequently had video cameras at the shows, and there were rumors that some totally awesome tape was going around, but they never seemed to surface.

Then, about a week ago, a friend of the band named Paul from DeKalb uploaded some videos of an old show to YouTube. The clips are incomplete, and the audio is terrible, but it still embodies the spirit of what those shows were like. I realized that I had a few videos on my computer that I had never bothered to upload, and that maybe if I added to Paul's videos, perhaps others would make their private collections available as well. Since I feel it's so important to preserve this stuff for posterity, this post will hopefully serve as the ultimate I Need Sleep video repository. So, here they are:

• I Need Sleep on October 4th, 2003 - This was my first time ever playing on a stage (aside from being in the school orchestra). I was asked to stand in because Justin Powers and Dan Huff couldn't make the show. You can see how low-key the band was in those early days.


• I Need Sleep at the Fat Bean on February 6th, 2004 - The Fat Bean was a coffee house that served as the petri dish in which early I Need Sleep was allowed to grow. The band was still relatively calm at this point. I had planned a series of mini-documentary videos like this, but it became hard since I was more frequently playing with the band than watching them. Notice Dan Nagy playing drums and synth bass simultaneously, and don't miss Dan Huff's words of wisdom at the end.


• I Need Sleep at 602 North part 1, part 2, part 3, & part 4 - You can see the beginnings of the bat-shit-insane I Need Sleep in these videos. Dan Huff is gone at this point, but Brian and I have become official members. Justin wasn't at this show, and I don't generally regard this as a very good performance, but it was the beginning of a seriously fun stage in the band's history.


• I Need Sleep at Huskies Bar & Grill in Dekalb part 1, part 2, & part 3 - The audio on these videos does the actual show no justice, but the energy is there. Here we have the band's lineup as it was represented on the album: DL, Justin Powers, Dan Nagy, Brian Shebake, and myself. This was one of the first shows in which we passed out things for the audience to bang on, which made the whole room our rhythm section. Talk about audience participation.


• I Need Sleep at the Shape Shop in Chicago - There's a big chunk of time missing between this video and the last one. This video is after Brian Shebake, Dan Nagy, and I had left. This is even after Kevin Kozak, who was one of my favorite members, had come and gone. You can see that the choice of instrumentation had been pared down to the basics here, but the structure of the songs was starting to get more complex.

This is not a complete video list. I know for a fact that there is at least one more video I have on a tape hidden somewhere at my parent's house, and with any luck I will find that. Also, I'm sure there are people out there with videos who have not put them online yet. Please send an email to davemakes@gmail.com if this is the case, and if you need help putting it on the internet, I will lend you a hand.

Another thing is that I Need Sleep is still around making great music, albeit in Tennessee and with an almost completely fresh lineup, but hopefully as they play shows in the future, people will be more vigilant about recording and sharing them.

Thanks to the people who have uploaded their videos. I hope to see a many more in the future.

Labels: bloggy, link, music, video

You know when you stop by your childhood friend's facebook page to tell him you found a copy of an obscure Sega Genesis game, and then it turns out that he's received a $25,000 grant to travel the world researching the free software movement and he's writing a blog about it called Without a Traceroute?

Maybe not. Well, it's a little surprising, and pretty awesome, so I thought I'd give him a little link love. Brendan McCollam, everybody!

Labels: bloggy, link

Since I have tickets to Obama's big election day party at Grant Park in Chicago, I feel that it is my duty to tell the world everything that happens in real time via Twitter. If you're interested in how it's going down, I hope my little feed helps.

UPDATE: It looks like Ted Stevens was too busy going to jail to make sure the tubes were unclogged, so all my tweets came in to Twitter pretty much randomly. Looking through the sent messages folder on my phone, I will re-post them here in the correct order (along with a few that apparently didn't make it to the internet at all).

• 7:32pm - Some very enthusiastic Obama fans are providing ample entertainment on the train. Lots of cheering



• 8:09pm - Hit my head on a street sign. Nice start to the evening



• 8:31pm - I hope this massive crowd knows which way to go



• 8:51pm - Oops, I snuck in a pocketknife. A make warranty voider



• 8:56pm - Gimme an H! Gimme a U! What's wrong?



• 9:00pm - I wonder how often people actually cheer at CNN



• 9:09pm - Look at all the blue on that chart! Nobody's even come out on stage and CNN is already practically calling it



• 9:13pm - Nice. They're cutting the commercials in favor of sweet soul music over the Obama logo



• 9:28pm - Sighted at Obama party: one flask of booze



• 9:29pm - Mic check!



• 9:42pm - Senators? Pfft. I don't know who these people are. Gimme Obama!



• 9:49pm - Holograms?! This is the future



• 9:53pm - Tina needs a periscope. Paging Bre Pettis!



• 10:04pm - Obama wins!



• 10:13pm - Sound check for the next president of the united states. Most coveted roadie job ever.



• 11:21pm - It's over! It's literally an uphill battle to get out of here



• 11:28pm - I see now the advantage of cops on segways over horses is that they don't shit all over the place



• 12:31am - The honking of car horns and cries of victory fade into the distance, and the familiar sounds of chicago re-emerge



• 12:33am - But there is a glow of optimism. It feels better to be in america.



• 7:07am - Woke up this morning completely buzzed on caffeine and HOPE. It's like reverse Christmas, it's so exciting that you can't sleep afterwards!

So, that's my little slice of the experience. Photos and video will come when I have a moment to upload them.

It's exciting to be alive.

Photos and videos to be added below:



My friend Justin ran after this marching jazz band making their way through the crowds. A lot of people are saying the atmosphere last night was "like a concert, but without the music." They are incorrect.

Labels: bloggy

Here's a challenge:

If this was an album cover, what would the name of the band/album be?

Current submissions:

"Even Fish Can Drown" by Lightning-Fast Stardust Superstar - Submitted by Tina

"Flashfreeze" by The Taxidermists - Submitted by Kari

Labels: bloggy, design, illustration

Here are some photos from this weekend's trip to Las Vegas.



We stayed in a castle called Excalibur. They had a very entertaining Medieval Times knock-off called The Tournament of Kings.





There was a pretty nice fake Paris on the strip. There was also a fake New York, a fake Rome, and what I'm pretty sure was supposed to be a fake UFO.





At the Mandalay Bay Aquarium, they had some not-fake animals, like a Komodo Dragon.





But even with an awesome real aquarium, they felt compelled to include a fake one as well. I had a lot of fun "swimming" around in it.



There are plenty of other pictures and videos of our trip on Flickr.

Labels: bloggy