Calvin Blog Carl

Hi, could you give me a clue of your theme? I want to create a blog using tumblr and I really love yours :)

Thu, 24 May 2012 11:33:57 -0700

My theme is just a hack of Peter Vidani’s theme The Atlantic. However, if you want the code from mine, I have posted my template on Snipt. Feel free to use it. Warning: it was a really quick and messy hack job, so don’t judge my development skills based on this thing. :)

While waiting for freshly primed canvases to dry, I decided to...

Sun, 20 May 2012 20:21:09 -0700

While waiting for freshly primed canvases to dry, I decided to combine some scrap pieces of wood together by covering them in glue. Tomorrow I will see if I was successful.

David and I found a sad little bumblebee today. Life is fragile,...

Wed, 16 May 2012 15:25:25 -0700

David and I found a sad little bumblebee today. Life is fragile, man!

I just sent this email to my co-workers, about how great the new...

Tue, 15 May 2012 16:38:00 -0700

I just sent this email to my co-workers, about how great the new Folindux website is, and I figured I might as well post the email here:

So I have never found a bookmarking app, like Delicious or Pinboard, that I thought really worked for me. I am a visual guy, and a long list of text links is a surefire way to never inspire me to visit the site again.

In comes Folindux (silly name, but great and simple site).

It’s made by the same super smart guy who made the belated Recurse App.

It’s simple. You use a bookmarklet. Folindux saves a huge screenshot of the website, and then you can really quickly add tags to it. And ta-da, you are done.

At first I was skeptical, but I have found myself returning to it multiple times, just to find that one special little website I found a month ago, where I can remember it’s great design, but I can’t remember its damn URL.

Anyway, I just thought some of you folks might find it helpful. It’s limited to 10 bookmarks/month on the free account, or you can pay $4/month for unlimited. Oddly enough, I haven’t hit the 10/month limit, but I’m still thinking about plunking down 4 bucks, just to help it keep going.

LVL3: Artist of the Week: Brian Kokoska

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:09:36 -0700

LVL3: Artist of the Week: Brian Kokoska:

Brian Kokoska
Big Sister
2012, oil on canvas, 38” x 31”

This fella’s work is charming, terrifying, and funny, all at the same time. And he uses some really nice thin and smooth glazes of paint.

lvl3:

Brian Kokoska is an artist based in New York. He received his BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Publication and online projects by the artist consist of Chiclet Teeth (2011) and Atmosphere Shoulders (2012). Upcoming shows include A Sad Ballad, Preteen Gallery…

"The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and..."

Mon, 14 May 2012 19:34:19 -0700

“The press still thinks [global warming] is controversial. So they find the 1% of the scientists and put them up as if they’re 50% of the research results. You in the public would have no idea that this is basically a done deal and that we’re on to other problems, because the journalists are trying to give it a 50/50 story. It’s not a 50/50 story. It’s not. Period.”

- Neil deGrasse Tyson, podcast interview (via wiredforlight)

Everyone is lying to you, except Neil deGrasse Tyson. And that is no lie.

I wrote up a short intro to Dieter Rams on my work’s blog.

Mon, 14 May 2012 13:48:27 -0700

I wrote up a short intro to Dieter Rams on my work’s blog.

You can see the red under-painting beneath the pattern, which...

Fri, 11 May 2012 22:09:51 -0700

You can see the red under-painting beneath the pattern, which matches the red used on the hanging rag.

This looks better now.

Fri, 11 May 2012 22:07:07 -0700

This looks better now.

This one is getting close. Almost done. Very close. The pattern...

Sun, 06 May 2012 21:12:26 -0700

This one is getting close. Almost done. Very close. The pattern hanging on the top right will likely be replaced with something else.

Details as it stands currently:

48 x 36 inches
Enamel, acrylic, pencil, primed and unprimed canvas

The sun finally decided to come out today, so I was actually...

Sun, 06 May 2012 20:34:00 -0700

The sun finally decided to come out today, so I was actually able to throw open the door of the studio and get some real light in the place.

Opening reception tonight for my work on show at Customary...

Fri, 04 May 2012 14:24:00 -0700

Opening reception tonight for my work on show at Customary Clothing. I’m showing with Ashley Sloan and Nathanael Thayer Moss. Jeff Jahn on PORT wrote an announcement for the show:

One of the things I love about Portland’s scene and wasn’t covered at all in the WSJ article was the fact that we have small shops that sell other things and actively present art in a professional though often less concentrated way. Which is all to say we should check out Customary Clothing in that great little Burnside arts district by the Jupiter hotel. In addition to premiering their S/S 2012 line of clothing, the shop will be showcasing art by Calvin Ross Carl, Ashley Sloan, and Nathanael Thayer Moss. I appreciate how art and life are not separated in Portland.

Customary Clothing
811 E Burnside building, Suite 222
Opening tonight, 6-10pm

At Least That Biennial Will Look Good on Your Résumé

Fri, 04 May 2012 13:37:06 -0700

At Least That Biennial Will Look Good on Your Résumé

maryandthejoel: Nyan cat! This sticker shop is next to my...

Fri, 04 May 2012 11:24:38 -0700

maryandthejoel:

Nyan cat!

This sticker shop is next to my apartment. For the longest time, it looked mostly unoccupied. I assumed this sticker business was just a drug-front like most of the unused retail storefronts along Alberta seem to be. What little business they seemed to do revolved around local hip-hop acts. I suppose that explains the No Limits name (Make ‘em say ugh!). Then they printed a funny t-shirt with Osama Bin Laden’s face on it and it said “Hide & Seek World Champion 2001-2011”. Within the last year, some really greasy burnout kids seem to have taken over the business, and started sticking placing nyan cats all over the building.

theairtightgarage: Career Timeline: 1989

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:44:07 -0700

theairtightgarage:

Career Timeline: 1989

The Tools in a Designer’s Toolbox

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:00:55 -0700

Originally posted on Waggener Edstrom’s blogs

In my last post, I discussed how design is purely a tool. So I thought it was only fitting I should discuss some of the other tools us designers use.

One of the most exciting aspects of working in the world of web design is the fact any two designers can use vastly different tools to create the same end result. We tend to somewhat jokingly chuckle every time someone says, “What program do you use? Because I have the Dreamweavers at home too.” When the reality is that our team uses a huge variety of tools and apps to get the job done by whatever means necessary. These are some of the tools in the toolbox that our team regularly returns too:

Photoshop

Photoshop certainly needs no introduction, but it feels as if it is becoming less and less relevant as time goes by. Since it is becoming easier and easier to skip the comp design process and move straight into code, Photoshop often takes a back seat. However, when you need to adjust the tiniest of pixelated details, it is still the best option.

Pixelmator, the leaner Photoshop

If you need to do some fairly basic (and quick) photo editing, then Pixelmator is far and above the best option. It is lean and opens up in a few seconds, unlike the behemoth that is Photoshop. It may seem petty, but those few seconds you get back help maintain your focus, and your temper.

Espresso, the leaner Dreamweaver

I haven’t touched Dreamweaver in years and I believe everyone else on our team is in the same boat. Similar to Pixelmator, Espresso is a lean, mean, text-editing machine which can see you through HTML and CSS and into back-end development of all types. Some designers prefer Coda, but everyone on our team fell in love with the Workspace section in Espresso’s sidebar which gives fast access to a simple, organized list of the files you are currently working on.

CSS preprocessors: LESS, SASS, Stylus, CSSCrush

It’s hard to describe exactly what makes CSS preprocessors so special. It makes the writing of CSS faster and more efficient, and helps to keep code clean which makes the whole internet a happier place to live. Our Senior Lead Designer Tyler Sticka even found a way LESS can help with making modern websites work in old versions of Internet Explorer.

Omnigraffle

Wireframes aren’t always necessary (see the next item below for why they might not be necessary), but when they are and it’s a complex website, nothing can compete with the comprehensiveness of Omnigraffle. You can layout the design structure for the whole site in Omnigraffle, and then make sitewide edits quickly. So no copying and pasting that navigation bar into every wireframe when you make a slight change. Our team has used Mockingbird, a web-based wireframing tool, for simple sites but it lacks the libraries of Omnigraffle.

Pencils and Pens! The original design tools

It’s hard to believe, but there was a time when people didn’t have computers! Sometimes it is just quicker to iterate design ideas by sketching them out as quickly as possible. Sketches can be as high-fidelity as you want and can even render wireframes and comps unnecessary. Also, sketching gives you a freedom that computers can’t, which often frees you up for unexpected surprises. I’m a sucker for the Tri-Conderoga pencils.

Dropbox

Everyone knows how great Dropbox is for keeping your files synchronized across multiple machines. We use Dropbox for Teams to work collaboratively everyday, but Dropbox has one other fun use. Since every file in Dropbox is live somewhere in the cloud, either publicly or privately, you can use Dropbox as an impromptu web server when developing simple, static websites. This is great when you want to quickly prototype a design treatment in code, and you don’t get held up having to wait on hosting and server setup.

Project Boilerplates

These are pre-made packages created by other amazing designers and developers from the world, which the design community has virtually accepted as standards in user experience design:

HTML5 Boilerplate: This includes everything you might need to get started with a new development project, from CSS reset files to media query code which helps websites work on mobile and desktop browsers.

Eric Meyer’s Reset & Normalize.css: These help standardized how all CSS is visually displayed in all browser, so designs can be consistent everywhere.

The Less Framework: It’s more an an ideology than a framework, but the Less Framework (different from LESS CSS up above) helps you make responsive web sites which work on mobile, desktop, and all other possibilities in between.

Custom Grid Generators (Variable Grid System or Gridulator): A grid is the basis for all good designs, and sometimes you just need a simple grid.

Cloudapp and Droplr

Co-worker: “Hey, can I see the design you are working on for project X?”

Me: “Yeah, I’ll send you a screenshot quickly.”

Co-worker: “Got it! It looks great!”

This is what you use Cloudapp and Droplr for. Our team seems to religiously use Cloudapp, but they occasionally make fun of me for using Droplr when I am in the mood.

Rdio

Okay okay okay, so this isn’t exactly a design tool, but since everyone on our team has a subscription, it feels worth mentioning. The best way to stay focused is to plug in the headphones and just forget about everything going on around you. And let’s not kid ourselves, Rdio is much easier on the eyes than Spotify. It also has a free membership like Spotify, and unlike Spotify, Rdio doesn’t require you to sign up with Facebook. I’d recommend listening to our Experience Designer Erik Jung’s Eclectic and Noteworthy Playlist, which has a mixture of soul, funk and other genre classics, with some bizarre surprises.

And those were just the ones we could think of

So in conclusion, this is just a selection of the tools that make our team tick. It’s a bizarre smattering and there isn’t really one tool we use for every project, since we only use them if the projects deems the tool necessary. At the beginning of this post I said, “One of the most exciting aspects of working in the world of web design is the fact any two designers can use vastly different tools to create the same end result.” I suppose one of the other exciting aspects is just how fluid and flexible the design process can be in order to be most efficient.

Are there any tools you use consistently use to get things done?

Today was a day full of making lots and lots of stretcher bars....

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 18:20:45 -0700

Today was a day full of making lots and lots of stretcher bars. New paintings on the way.

Design is Not What I Do

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:23:00 -0700

Originally published on Waggener Edstrom’s blogs

Design is not what I do. Design is simply a tool. To call me a designer is to also call me an emailer, since I use email an equal amount throughout the day (please don’t ever call me an emailer). To refer to design as a tool is hardly revolutionary, but it is very important to separate the tool from the creator of the final product. The hammer doesn’t build the house, the carpenter does.

This is not a complaint about job titles. Instead job titles are a symbol of the misconception of design’s processes and purpose. My friend and fellow WE designer, Tyler Sticka, has already discussed the problem with job titles in relation to a designer’s often interdisciplinary nature. In my case, I am a user experience designer, but I am also a painter and sculptor. Yet all these share the same attributes. Paint is a tool. Sculpting is a tool. Design is a tool. So, what I really do, along with all others in creative fields, is ask questions. A designer asks questions of the client and audience, and an artist asks questions of culture at large.

Curiosity saved the cat

Much of this came to light recently when I had a failed project. Yes, even with me, a sour project occasionally happens, and it was a valuable learning lesson. Some project requirements were given to me, and they seemed informative enough to get started. However, I realized I didn’t ask the right questions, which are usually the questions starting with “why?”. I was too concerned with getting the work done, by simply using design as a tool. A tool can only answer “how” questions like “how is this made?”, and only answering the “how” always leads to bad, uninformed, and unintuitive design.

There is often a fear of being misunderstood when asking tough questions, so it often seems easier to just keep your mouth shut. In fact, it is much easier to keep your mouth shut, at least in the beginning. Then a butterfly effect can occur where one missed opportunity to ask a purposeful, hard-hitting question leads to a path of greater trouble in the future, and often a lesser result at the end.

So when you say you are a designer, copywriter, painter, or any other kind of maker, remember your job is not to do what your job title says. Your job is to occasionally be the prickly one who takes the time to ask questions. Don’t worry, everyone will respect you more for it later.

Been thinking about Anne Truitt today. Her never waning focus on...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:53:14 -0700

Anne Truitt in her Dallas studio in 1949

Truitt's Washington DC studio in 2003

Anne Truitt in her studio in 2003

Been thinking about Anne Truitt today. Her never waning focus on the power of reductive forms, and her use of rich, saturated colors always goes straight to my core. It’s such a disappointment her work hasn’t been more recognized until recently. Unfortunately, the world was (and still is) not kind to female artists in the man-centric world of formalism (or the art world in general for that matter).

Also inspiring is how she did so much, all from her little studio in Washington DC you see up above. Such perfect and pristine objects came out of that little place.

I’d like to think that her and Blinky Palermo are hanging out in the afterlife, talking about how they are the real monsters of minimalism and reductivism.

Some photos found via Notes on Looking

“Every Modern Convenience” I have been absolutely...

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:39:00 -0700

“Every Modern Convenience”

I have been absolutely addicted to Vintage Portland. Today they posted an old photo of the Portland West Side Auto Camp.