Alright progress time kiddos... so what I wanted to do was make a dummy deck out of normal paper, really simple without color jsut so I can see how I want to place things and not run into this problem when its printed out and shit when its a lot harder. So, I taped together 3 pieces of 8.5 x 11..and i wanted to make it as alike as possible so I snipped off the corners and gave it the rounded edge.



This is the creation in the making. I actually didnt realise how BIG this is until I mapped it out this way. This is going to be intense! But Im excited.

Here is the bottom little bit of the board I was doing. You can see that the skeleton is a bit different than the one I had originally drawn in the quick sketch. Im actually going to get back to it now so I can finish it up before it gets too late.Im going to take more pics and ill post them up in a wee little bit. I can already see some things Im going to alter (ie. the coffin).

We dont start class til a bit later but ill be waking up a bit earlier cause I wanna make some stops. Im going to bring in my rough sketches into west49 (the company) and talk to somepeople there about what they like/dont like and grab some pics of other boards that are around. Ive been in there many times but never with a camera, haha. But theres the dealio so far! Ill be back in an hour or two or maybe just come by on here tomorrow.

PEACE!

So today was the first day of the new project and getting cracking. The weeked I looked at some boards, which you can see below. I was sketching out some ideas when I was on the bus/in class and came up with a concept I like. HELL BOARD

Basically what I want to do is make a "Ride Or Die" theme. Im throwing in some badass skulls, a grim reeper, coffin, stuff like that. Its still in the works so Im sure things will be added in, taken away, etc.etc. Already, my thoughts for the colors I was going to use have changed (from reds and oranges, to purples and greens) and they are probably going to change again.

Thats what Im working on now so Im pretty stoaked about it. Im working on a dummy board, sketching out what I want on paper and then transferring it into photoshop and illustrator. Imma post up my pics of what Im doing to date, but these were the rough sketches to start.


This was something I was doodling on the bus. "Ride Or Die!!" I dont know if this is what Im going to use, but I just wanted to see what it would look like with the font made up of skeleton bones. Obvioulsy its really rough, as I was on the TTC for about 10 minutes but I think the general idea is there.

(Above) This was where the orginal idea came from. I was listening to Andrew talk about clients and procedures and just started doodling. It spun off and turned into this really cool idea (i think anyway, hah). Again, its really rough and the desgin elements are going to change (the look of the skulls) but there are defintly some ideas I want to pull out of this doodle into the deck.
Its kind of hard to make out this pic, as it didnt scan very well into my comptuer but its just me trying to outline where I wanted everything and gave me an idea in terms of spacing, how big things are going to be and just some rough notes. This was also done on the bus and was about 2 minutes to do, but I wanted to get everything down before I forget (memory like a goldfish over here).

So we got the new project yesterday from Andrew about the skatedecks. Im really looking forward to this one, and I know a little bit more about these badboys then I do about rollerblades :P.

My friend, Terran works at Hogtown (http://www.hogtownextreme.com) so Im going to go in there and talk to him about decks, what are the most popular brands and designs, etc. My buddy, Ash also works at West49 (www.west49.com) and they also sell skateboards. The store isnt as professional or serious, but it will give me a good impression to see what kids and youth are looking for in terms of cool decks and whatnot.

I was looking on the net for some cool boards and pulled up a couple that I liked. I really like the cartoon designs so I think Im going to sketch something like that out. Im debating whether or not to do a normal skatedeck or a banana board, but we'll see what happens when I go to it.


Up above are the skatedecks I was looking at, pretty cool eh? I like them. Im going to see if I can get one printed out onto a real skatedeck, but who knows. If not Im just going to see if I can make a dummy one myself on foam core and just get some trucks and stick em on.

Doop Doop Doop! Ill jot some things down later. I have a booming headache and dont kno if Im making sense now, heh.

Lateraroonies.

READING WEEK!

So this week has been class free, but sadly it didnt feel like it too much (lol) I still spent 2 days at school working on Tores project, and I still wanna spruce it up tomorrow. It was good though, to be honest it took longer then I thought it was going to.

I worked monday and thursday, but that allowed me to get some solid hours in so Im happy :) Commencement was yesterday, which was fun as balls seeing my old friends and what they are up to. The best one? My friend, Paul is stripping now. He makes like 50 bucks an hour on a bad night so good for him, but I know I wouldnt wanna be flopping my wang around some menopausal woman..heh, if i had a wang that is.

But anyway, just wanting to pop in and say whats up. Goin to finish up work (im done in 1 hour, yea!) and then bounce off to my date :)

I got some pics from commencement and shit that ill try and post up later on so you can see me and my friends :D

So its been a couple days since I have popped in here. Our rollerblade deadline has actually been pushed back by Jo, which the date is unclear I dont know whats going on.

Its kind of bittersweet I suppose. I ended up getting this project done and I was actually really happy with it. Maybe with the extra time I could do something even BETTER possibly..but Im confused to if the details or outline will be changing.

^^ The above pics were just 2 of the ones I did for the booklet before text was added in. I was trying to get the final ones (with the text) onto here,but its being a pain in the ass right now so Ill leave that for tomorrow possibly :P

Ill post up some updates the second I hear anything. Everyone at school kinda exchanged projects and shit..so it was awesome to see everyones different themes and shit they came up with :) A lot of people did a terrific job and I am oh so proud of them all <3 Goodjob everyone.

And congrats to Angel, my partner is crime who stayed up 2 days straight (what a trooper) to get it all completed.

Im heading into school tomorrow during reading week to put together everything for Tore's slideshow. I think a bunch of us from classes will be there so it should be dope.I picked up a mixtape of "Can I Rap" for Zee, so i hope he digs it.

Until next time kiddos!

So heres some stuff Im fiddling around with. Some of the stuff needs tweaking but this is the look Im going for. All the pictures you see in the background are the ones I took from a skatepark at Weston & Lawrence, altered in photoshop.

This is my first crack at photoshop so Im hoping it looks okay. Those are only 3 of the images..but I'll post up the rest when its done. I need to throw in some text still, but I kinda know what I wanna do there. Jo was showing someone in class what to do/not do in terms of font and shit so Im going to follow those rules.

I designed a logo for K2...it follows a graffetti style, kinda coinciding with the skatepark graffetti featured in the background of some of the pics.

Just thought I would post up the progress. I'll shoot up another something something, and the images with the font when its all done with.

PEACCCCE

NP: MJ- Billie Jean (ever since Blag played a Necro track for me, this beat has been in my head forever).

The last few days have been getting continually more stressful. After talkin with Andrew though earlier, Im feeling a bit better about the projectand shot around some ideas with him. I know what I want to do, I just got to get everyhting there.

My final piece will be a 3 x 3 1/2 inch layout, and instead of having it fold or clip together, im going to have it on a shower curtain type rod to flip through. I made a little model of it.

I got some images from a skatepark way in the west end of Toronto (around Weston and Lawrence), so here they are. Im excited to throw these bad boys into photoshop. I have some sketches I did for a new K2 logo, as well as a cartoon Im thinking about incorporating into the design.

Like I said before, I have a wicked panphlet that Im going to use for some info.

Honorable Mentions = Blag, Willy and Alex for helping me out. I fucking love those boys <3.

Ill post up some sketches and tomorrow when I got some photoshop going, Ill post them up too!

Today was a LONG day at work. Just wanted to pop on here since it has been a couple days and give the scoop on how the rollerblade project is going.

It was weird, in Jos class he mentioned something he was planning on doing which was almost exactly what I was thinking. Not the rounded edges, but just the concept of having the blade and zooming in to the selected area and wriing the little ditty about it.

Test, Project, Quiz, Project...so I havent gotten my hands on illustrator yet to get my layout done (which is stressin me out more than life, really) but thats what Im tackling on Monday morning before Interactivity. I tried to see what time the school was open til onthe weekends, and itsonly 5 i think, which sucks cause Im not even outta work at that time.

But Monday night or something, I'll post some shit up here about whats going on (a better detail). Ill scan thepictures I come up with in Andrews class and show you how Im going to incorporate it into my project.

As for now, ta ta!

Make sure to always wear your helmet when you are rollerblading, kids.


Oh and check out this video.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WfkKx6OLgBU

Its pretty badass and the tricks these guys are pulling are ridiculousssss. Prepared to be amazed.

:D

Im working on the rollerblade project this week HARDCORE. I have some ideas now and all I gotta do now is put everything together. I got some Qs for Jo which will help me clear things up a bit. Ill post up how shits going and when I got some concrete files done Ill post them up for your enjoyment! Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend, but its crack down time - Minus the crack.

This is just something I wanted to post up cause I think its a pretty sweet ass shot. This stuff makes me wanna throw on some Rancid and jam out to be honest.

Im heading down to perception tomorrow with the camera...

http://www.skatersinc.com/skatepark/perception/index.htm

Theres the park if anyone has never heard of it.Its wayyyyy friggin east and a bit of a mission but I asked around and my buddies say it'll snag a few really dope shots.

Im also thinking of a catchy slogan for the end of my tag that'll be a fun little ditty for the finale.

Butyah, i have a billion ideas floating around and I just need to talk to jo or andrew about getting some serious shit together and hwo to do it (in terms of medians and whatnot) but either way im feeling alright about it so ye ye!! 1 week to go...this is going to be an inteeennnnseee week thats for damn sure.

Alright guys Im out for the day, happy turkey to most of you (i think i have ribs going on tonight).

I spent a good amount of time shooting the shit and going back and forth with my friend about what times of ideas would be cool to incorporate. What I had so far was color and information to include in the tag.

Teenagers + Rollerblades + Color = ?

We discussed a lot and broke it down into something more simple. Where do people blade?

We came up with 2 main sources
(1) Around the parks, city, roads
(2) Skatepark

Having a tag based around things you would find if you were skating through a park seems pretty boring, doesnt it?

I thought that going with the street side of things would be cool. Taking a look at a couple different skate locations, GRAFFETTI is the dominant feature hitting up each one. My idea shifting from that to a "City Blade" theme.

I want to incorporate a graffetti style, city blade scene. Using different things to skate from, graffetti styles and colors to highlight some of the more important features. The picture at the top is somethng I want to use (along those lines) so Im going to grab my camera and snap some photos tomorrow of some cool spots to blade. I have a theme + the colors + the information. Now all I gotta do is design some shit and snap it together.

Imgoing to head downtown tomorrow and to some skateparks and see what I can get flowing from all of these ideas. Now to the sketchbook.

Alright Ive done a lot of reseach the last couple days on the rollerblade project and now its about time to pin up what I have so far. I'll be dicking around on photoshop later tonight but I think I know pretty much what I want to do for this project.


ROLLERBLADE PROJECT

OBJECTIVE:

To make a tag for a rollerblade

GOALS:

To make it not only visually appealling for the buyer, but to also include information that will promote the k2 blade (the one of my choice) as the better choice

CONSIDERATIONS:

Who am I designing this for? What can I do to make this more appealling to my target group?

Development Cycle (Selecting a blade and target audience)

Instead of just doing a basic tag for a rollerblade, I wanted to design something I felt that would have the highest positive feedback from my audience.I wanted to design a tag that would directly appeal to rollerblade buyers.

I choose the K2 rollerblade after taking a look at other competitive brands (such as Firefly & Salomon). After looking at a couple of k2 blades, I chose to be more specific and chose the k2 VO2 Max as the rollerblade to create a tag for.

I spoke with the manager of the sports department in Sportscheck and was discussing some of the things he noticed/felt about the blade. He clearly told me that the k2 is by far the favorite of the teenage crowd. Of course, I cannot say that its the favorite of the teenage crowd in the city or in the world, but it gives me a strong idea that the tag I am designed should be designed to target the teenage age group.

So then I posed the almost unanswerable question:

What do teenages like?

There is always a fad or trend going on so its sometimes hard to design something that will appeal to most people. I decided it was time to ask around and see what people had to say. I surveyed 10 people (men and women) of the ages 16-22. That is a pretty good range of teenagers/early adults. I asked the simple question to get an idea of what people liked (the were allowed to say more than one thing as well:

If you were buying rollerblades, what is one thing that would attract you to the rollerblade or packaging, etc.?
By organzing it after getting all the responsing, in order from first to last is what is the most important to the people I surveryed.

Color (5)
Font (3)
Specs including on box(2)
Style of blade (2)
Pictures (2)
Packaging (1)
Endorsments (1)

Since color was the most important to my focus group, I decided to pose this question(once again they were allowed to pick more than one answer):

What colors do you like the best?

In order from first to last by popularity, the list is as follows.

Black (6)
Blue (5)
Red (4)
Green (2)
Silver (2)
Gold (2)
Purple (1)

Getting that information made me think about the colors I should incorporate within my design. Since the black was the dominant favorite, I posed one more question in regards to the color scheme.

How do you feel about black and white packaging?
Some of the responses are as followed


"YES... good.. i was actually thinking that at first.. " - Amanda (21)

"Good...since there would always be another color with it and it would stand out and catch my eye" - Sadi (17)


"Thats good" - Conner (19)

9/10 people I asked said that they thought black and white packaging was a good idea. When the tenth person said they did not like it, I asked why.
They felt that it has the possibility to be boring. "As long as their are other things that will stand out, the b/w would be too plain"


My color portion was complete. To wrap up: I think my color scheme, based on my answers I received, will be Black and White, incorporated with bright colors to make it stand out such as Blue, Red and Green.

Now....to figure out what people want to know about the blades before they buy them. I surveryed the same 10 people and asked them

Whats the one thing you would want to know about the rollerblades before you buy them?
Once again they were allowed to say more than 1 thing if needed. In order from most important to least:

Durability (5)
Comfort (3)
Wheels/Bearings (2)
Warranty (1)
Comparitive to other brands (1)
Style (1)

After getting my responses back from my survey, I decided that the most important thing to include for my audience is the level of durability. I also need to include other specs, such as the comfort level, wheels, and special features of the k2 blade that make it better than other brands.

To sum up my findings:

Color - Black and White. Incorporate other colors such as Red, Blue, Green to make it stand out.

Include the specs such as Durability, Wheels, special features that will make the k2 blade stand out among others.

Im trying to scout out some cool locations of places I think kids would blade and whatnot. Since the k2 are pretty popular among the younger generation, Im trying to get some shots in of staircases, poles, etc...anything a kid would go buck for on their skates.

Apparently theres a skatepark somewhere around my work (which makes sense to why their is always kids on their boards and such) , so I wanna go there and see if I can get some stellar shots in and sketch something cool up. Ill pop in here and let you kno what the progress is.

Other than that, it'll be a worked filled holiday.Saturday, Sunday and Monday will be work time. Its alright, cause Im stoaked to put in the hours. As geeky as this is going to sound, Christmas is coming soon and I wanna load up on gifts for my family so its saving time :P

Heres my K2 rollerblades I'll be using for my project. I went into Sportcheck and the guy working was nice and let me snap some photos of it. Its the VO2 Max. Its not the highest line (I think it was going for about $250 in the store) but the guy I was talking to said it was a favorite for buyers, since of the good quality and a reasonable price for a really good blade. So I took some photos and Im checking out the website for some specs (www.k2skates.com). The guy working was also nice enough to hook me up with a K2 skate "Owners Manual" so I was able to get some awesome info on the blades in the manual in about 7 different languages :) ! So, Im feeling pretty good right now,and Im stoaked to get these printed out and ready to roll for Tuesdays class to really get started on the project.

So Im chillin in class right now, and thought I would pop onto the blogger and write a little bit down.

I have been going non-stop the last couple days with projects,projects,projects. One more to do tonight, and then I can chill for a bit (maybe 1 night). Im sick though, so now its been a bit harder to do everything.

Im going to post up a couple pictures of what Ive been doing lately, in terms of Andrew's classes and everything when I get home, that is.

But just wanted to include that all is well. The picture up here is one of me and my good friend, Jenna. I know her tounge kinda looks like a man weiner...but shes awesome. We were being silly back in like grade 12 in the art hall (H). Shes moving to Austrailia on the 1st of December for a year :( But she'll have a good time, so thats phhhaaat.

Anyway, Im off for a bit...but Ill be popping in around hurr later on.

OH! AND...Aerosmith was fuccccckin dope! :D And i just found out that Guns and Roses are doing a show here next month :D Party Time!

Heres a pic from the science centre, yo.


This was a jolly day...next time I wanna spend more time there just cause it was a barrell full of fun. Hardcore Psychology project but its mad cool.

Finished off all Tedfords drawings and water colors, yeye. Now I just gotta post them up on foamcore tomorrow.

Whoever was dicking around with the camera deleted the picture I drew of my intersection, so Ill have to go back and snap another one before I post it on this bitccch.

Just finished my last smokie so Ill have to get my balls to the store before the night is through.

More updates to come, just wanted to show off the soliders. :)