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designing books 9-5 = lack of new posts & words
hello there sir. ladies.
new designs. soon to grace delicate little notecards and little handmade sketchbooks.
my friends and I are forming a collaborative to help one another in this economy.
Be sure to show some love when it kicks off. It’s gonna take some time, but keep watch.
sometimes im just tired of drawing cute.
Drew this the day before halloween but quickly abandoned it because I literally couldn’t look at him anymore.
stupid muave dinosaurs.
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This is a old video aired last year for the Summer Olympics in Beijing. The music and art are done by the Gorillaz, the people behind the addicting songs Clint Eastwood and Feel Good, Inc. And the Gorillaz have done everything I dreamed of doing myself and I love them for it. Journey to the West/Monkey was a story I wanted to illustrate myself since my senior year in high school. And 5-6 years later, I haven’t done it yet. The short animation movie is paired with beautiful music and song especially during the 0:30 mark when Guan Yin 觀音 begins singing. This definitely is a big motivated. But first I should read the novel in entirety so I get a better feeling for the story.
A quick look at the books for sale, I have to say, I’m sorry, the covers are ugly. Just by looks at the cover, I can imagine the paper quality is of a stark white crisp paper that will make you want to put the book down. It is a blinding white and the type is probably size 11 serifed font that reminds you that you are reading a assignment novel and not one you read for pleasure.
There are quite more boring covers available online. But I’m afraid I might be put to sleep while I’m uploading them and I dont want to waste my laptops battery life as I slowly drift off. So, what inspires you?
Thanks to Durian Dave over at http://softfilm.blogspot.com/ for linking me to this
Here is another video done by Jamie Hewlett (whom does the vocals for Gorillaz) who does a live action rendition of Monkey. Hmm..The Gorillaz seem to have a thing for Journey to the West. Kudos to them for keeping the story alive.
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I am not motivated to write.
I’m too tired.
I’ll think of something a little later.
Filed under: graphic design | Tags: books, comics, manga, new york city, review, vampires, witches, yen press
I’ve never been a big fan of manga/anime. The only thing I’ve ever become obsessed with was simply just Sailor Moon. Which every little girl at some time or another loved during the 90’s. So that doesn’t count. Especially since I never read the manga.
But I’ve recently discovered the enchanting and wonderful stories in which manga holds. Last few weeks were a time of having my nose to these little books speeding through the storyline and being so sad when the story seems to end on a cliffhanger. Comics and manga are definitely a under appreciated medium in society.
I’m hoping to have a “Manga of the Week” post to motivate myself to blog more which I often neglect.
So this week’s Manga is ….
Svetlana Chmakova’s NIGHTSCHOOL. Published by Yen Press
The Design
For one, the cover is absolutely beautiful. What I love about this cover is the fact that you can see the brush strokes of the artist in the hair and in the cityscape behind the main character. The character design is absolutely wonderful as well. The purplish highlights in the characters hair and clothes compliment the logo of the book and the sky in the back. Sneaking in towards the center of the book are colored pages which show more of the beautiful art while the rest of the book is in the traditional format of black and white pages. It’s a nice little breaker for the book.
My only criticism of the book is the use of typography for the text for the back cover. They used Herculanum which has a certain look to it. Fitting to its name, it looks like a emulation of Roman or even Greek typography on architectual structures. But, it also does give off a slight mood of fantasy and wonder so it seems fitting for the inside thought bubbles and Headllines. For the description on the back cover though, they should’ve used something that is a text font. Herculanum itself is a display font as Headllines, not meant for text copy. Is it readable? Sure. Why you complaining then? Because for the aesthetics of the book which is beautiful in itself, it would’ve enhanced it greatly if the font choices were different. The other thing thats bothering me is that the type wasn’t fixed so that there are no hypenated words at the end of the paragraph. I think if a different font was used, the hypens would’ve deleted themselves.
The Story
“Where do demons get their diplomas?” The night school of course. “Schools may lock up for the night, but class is in session for an entirely different set of students. In the nightschool, vampires, werewolves, and weirns ( a particular breed of witches) learn the fundamentals of everything from calculus to spell casting. Alex is a young weirn whose education has always been handled through homeschooling, but circumstances seem to be drawing her closer to the nightschool. Will Alex manage to weather teh dark forces gathering?” via little preview text on back of book
This story I believe shouldn’t be categorized as simply a girl or boy manga. It appeals to both audiences because its full of funny moments and mystery about each character. Its full of fantasy and makes you just crave more of the story. There are witches, vampires and vampire hunters in the story so theres plenty going on. I won’t give too much away I strongly suggest picking up a copy. I couldn’t put this down so it says a bit about it. If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t have gone past the first 5 pages.
Please do not go and read it on illegal copies online. That not only hurts the publishers, it also hurts the artist who work so long through so many revisions to get their work into a finished book. Please support the works of the artist. To buy yourself a copy please visit Amazon
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I’ve been collecting little trinkets leading me into the world of the old China and it’s glory days. Especially those of the Shanghai calendar girls and the diva’s of those seductively beautiful songs. Everytime I come across a little treasure, I would always wish I could go back and time and live during a Golden Era where everything seemed to be a better quality. Unlike nowadays where you have girls who call themselves Mango whom sing about Apples and Oranges.
After searching the web a bit more extensively today I’ve come across a awesome blog who dedicates its time to finding vintage images and linking the great songs for people like me to enjoy. My heart jumped with glee when I saw all these gorgeous images from the 60’s and earlier pop up.
The site’s name is http://softfilm.blogspot.com/ and made by someone named DurianDave which is a awesome name within itself.
image via http://softfilm.blogspot.com/
(found via google search)
I especially love collecting these ad’s. They’re gorgeous.
I love these images! It beats all those cheesy superstar calendar’s they give away nowadays with some female singer standing before a fake landscape or car. And they’re not even all that vocally either…
And as a beautiful ending, listen to Chang Loo’s rendition of a old Hokkaido fishing song in mandarin
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WHOA, last entry was in May?
Thank goodness for autosave or I wouldn’t even know what my password was to sign back in here.
So, I’m here after July 4th has ended (though the fireworks are still going), my good friend is gone and I’ve probably gotten 1 size bigger. bleh!
So what’s new with me?
Jerry Pinkney is what’s new!
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him last week when I had to deliver his precious, beautiful artwork back to him via the metro north railroads. So, I took the opportunity to ask him for a autograph since how many times in your life can you meet a amazing illustrator like Jerry?!
Here’s his newest book published by Little, Brown and Company. It’s the Aesop’s Fable The Lion and the Mouse.
Some closeup shots of his artwork
Amazinggg! He was the nicest man ever full of smiles and thank you’s. Hopefully in the future I get to meet more illustrators
As for my own graphic design and illustrations, sadly, with work I’ve hardly had time to create anything for myself. All I can do is wish that I can get my act together and do something creative over this summer. Right now, making my own website is all I can think of. But, there are just way to many Wendy Chan’s in the world, stealing my dot coms! Grrr, any suggestions?
Follow me on twitter? Look for missjellypus. Can’t miss me, I got a “fight me for my lollipop” profile picture up.
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STRESS! Portfolios in in 5 days. I’m scared, sick and sweaty. So for the last 3 days, I had severe severe heartburn. So severe that I couldn’t get out of bed. As soon as I stood up, I felt like my spinal cord was going to collapse. After 3 days of laying in bed putting on ointment, drinking some sort of medicine called 333 I finally found my heartburn medicine from 2007. It was overdue but what the heck, I took some this morning and I feel so much better. I took this chance to give the doctor a visit. He thinks my stomach might be inflamed/infected that’s why it was burning for 3 days. So I have to make a appointment to get it checked out and he also gave me temporary relief medicine. Thank goodness the pain is gone, because I have a meeting on Monday and I can’t lay in bed any longer. I got shit to do man!
Before all this happened, I finally got the chance to go to B&N again and get the recent Shojo Beat issue. Yes it is out. The manga NANA is on the cover.
Here’s a scanned copy. It’s weird because most of the stuff listed there aren’t handmade. Their all made by million dollar companies in Japan so I feel a bit raggedy. Pick up a copy of you like girl manga, there are actually some pretty good stories in there which I’ve been reading when I’m free.
And here are some of the stamps I made. Enjoy 
And honey, baby girls out there who just 15-17, I know its hot out but please don’t go dressed like hoochie momma’s. When I came out of the doctor’s I saw some 15 year old girl wearing booty velour white shorts that reached her ass cheeks. And I saw her ass sweat stains on it. Girl, if you gonna wear booty shorts at least wear another color! Not one where I see the sweat drippin. I wanted to be her mother and wrap a pair of pants around her. That is so sad considering I’m only 21 and not that much older. Kids these days. 
Update again when Portfolio’s are over and I’m Freeee!
Filed under: Uncategorized
So, I finally made some rubber stamps.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: carbonmade, cute, graphic design, handmade, keychain, manga, portfolio, shojo beat, views
Wow, hey my views are up, the highest for a while now. Of course its nothing compared to the sites that have ad sales and such but its still pretty surprising. Apparently there is a massive search for Takashi Murakami today and people was bounced to my site. Woo!
So, I finally made a carbonmade portfolio until I finally get enough time to code/script my own website with my own domain. For now, its a generic xxxxx.carbonmade.com website.
So here, Check Check Check it outtt
http://iamwendy.carbonmade.com
I don’t have all my work up because with a free account they only allow 50 pictures! That’s too little, there’s no way I can show all my graphic design and illustration work along with my handcrafted items. I’m already up to 45 pictures and I feel like I hardly have anything up.
That’s a preview of how it looks like. I know, its so generic looking but there aren’t may customization options for that site. You have 2 colors (black/white) to choose from and 2 fonts (serifed/san serifed) and that’s about it. Suck’s I know. But do go check it out when you get a chance and of course spread the wordddd.
So, I’ve been complaining for a while that my wood hasn’t come in yet, well, they’re here. But now I’m too busy to make stamps from them. There sitting in the corner collecting dust while I work on my portfolio.
And anime lovers, specifically SHOJO BEAT lovers, Keep your eyes open for a little feature on ME! Yay, some of my handcrafted items got picked and is featured in one of their sections. I don’t know which one yet. There’s a little interview in the May 2009 issue. I haven’t picked up a copy but the editor told me the May issue is coming out soon. Perhaps I’ll go to B&N tomorrow to see if its out yet.
Good Luck All!
UPDATE: SHOJO BEAT MAY 09′ IS NOT OUT YET
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I would do anything for you Hello Kitty. Well, almost anything. So I took a 1.5 hour train ride then a 2 hour ride with Jin up to Palisades just to partake in the Sanrio $20. Grab bag event. We’re given a bag and allowed to stuff it with as much of the selected items as we wished. The only thing is that your bag must be able to close.
So….
Along the way I passed a Saloon. That was just crazy to see that with the old school typeface. And being a designer, instead of punch buggy, I was trying to identify all the fonts on storefronts along the way. Well, that didn’t go all to well cuz I’ve noticed in the signage upstate, they love using cursive script fonts and Olde English typefaces. Now why is that.
I went giddy like a schoolboy and snatch up a bunch of stuff from the Sanrio store, but you wouldn’t wanna see what I got.
After shopping for so much of the cute stuff, we decided to be stingy with our lunch and get some Wendy’s.
I picked up this awesome Flan/Purin letter set from the Kinokuniya up there. Look at that, they wanna scoop themselves up and engage in some cannibalism.
And this super pretty sticker sheet. I don’t know wth is wrong with me. I go weak in the knees for cute things like this.
TWITTWAT ME : missjellypus
I’m a bit ashamed to admit that I have Miley Cyrus’ The Climb on repeat while I’m working.
