Guns or Butter

This informational poster illustrates the economic principle known as "guns or butter," which postulates that a government only spends money on one of two things: Defense or Social programs. This poster, designed to be mailed to tax payers, illustrates the magnitude of the US military budget by building big-ticket items out of people. Other information displayed includes amounts of each item in the US arsenal, and other associations with the cost of food aid in relation to populations of various nations, as compared with the cost of military equipment.

2009: A Pessimist's Calendar

A pessimist sees all of the greatest holidays through a very different lens. Where most see joy and time with family, a pessimist sees hassle and headache. This series of postcards chronicles a year through the eyes of a pessimist, illustrated by hand with expressive images and type combined with photography.

This project saw a lot of ups and downs. I'm finally at a point where I'm happy with it, though.

I don't know what my employment situation will be after graduation, now a month away. But I do know that I will at least enjoy a chance to experiment and create on my own terms. I've always been very happy with doing that: just doing things for me.

For a while, you know.

Update, Regular-type. And eggs.

I've been craving scrambled eggs lately, which is something of a rare occurrence for me. I pulled an all-nighter Monday night and ended up fasting completely for some 18 hours. I didn't even equip myself with snacks or anything; I wasn't prepared for a marathon design session. Anyway, when it was done, I had this earth-shattering hankering for an egg-based breakfast. Unfortunately all that was within striking distance was a McDonalds. I told myself it would be fine, eggs are eggs, after all. However, it was not fine. What transpires on McDonald's breakfast menu is a travesty, a crime against breakfast. It may have just been an off day, or that particular location, sure, but it was enough to make me swear off McD's and to almost ruin my day thereafter.

So I still haven't gotten my egg fix. And I think I'll go fix that now.

Too too too much to do in the next three weeks.

The Itch.

And so of course now I'm itching all over to be done with these projects; I'm ready to focus on my portfolio, because I can't wait to have the time and freedom to apply everything I know now to things I designed a year ago. I'm really excited about that first, before graduating.

But I'm incredibly excited about graduating, believe me.

Difficult and frightening.

My best friend gave me this book, How To Be A Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul, by Adrian Shaughnessy, and reading it has made me... unsettled, I guess you could say. I've never been over-confident about whether I'd get a job in design once school was out. I thought that perhaps I wouldn't knock it out of the park on the first go, but that I would end up somewhere cool... after a while, at least.

But in this book, I wind up just reading over and over again that the design field is just super-crowded and competitive and that it's incredibly difficult just to get an interview with studios. It's not helping me out, really.

Did I mention?

Did I mention I'm in a band?

I am.

Investing in myself as guitarist and musician in general has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. And spending a lot of time with the same musicians has also been rewarding in the extreme. It's so great to feel them evolve with the music, read my body language and know exactly what it is that I'm trying to do with the music, where I'm trying to take it.

We have a show coming up soon, a very rare occurrence, unfortunately. It's a thrill to prepare a full set list and rehearse in the span of an hour and a half and be confident enough to let it lie until showtime.

This is really just a typical update.

It really is very hard for me to believe that Christmas is happening again. This event hurtles toward me, and I feel like a deer in headlights, watching it come, not understanding. It's not that I don't like Christmas, it's just that I have apparently fallen through some sort of time warp and I find myself completely unprepared for it this year.

Graduation also speeds toward me, taking the same road as Christmas, it would seem. This, too, seems like a dream; over and over again I try to imagine what it's like to never have to go back to school again unless I really want to... and I fail.

My break so far has been about work and Christmas shopping. Hopefully after that I'll do all these other, more nifty things I've been meaning to do.

I spent a couple hours in garage band tonight and came out with something I'm incredibly happy with. I suppose I have to mention that every time I post in this blog. I really need to start up that website of mine.

It's raining hard outside now. It's delightful.

My truck is trying to die on me, and I don't know if it's in my power this time to stop it.