We originally had the idea of the “spy agent” theme. I know it sounds a bit cheesy but the concepts we had were sleek; however, we tossed out the theme. The spy theme style was too similar to last year’s senior graphic design show called “Design Inc.” They were all superheros. Thanksfully none of the guys wore undie over their pants.

This logo was for the short-lived theme. The “zero seven” was our graduation year and the eye box was well, for spying…

The “Christian art” I’m referring about is the art you’d find in a typical christian gift store, perhaps something similar to the style of Thomas Kinkade. I’m not bashing the idea of having Thomas Kinkade art style in your home. There are Christian art out there who are, in my opinion, much stronger and bolder in the sense of design and also expression than the mass-production art you find in a Christian gift store.

A online gallery store has just opened recently. It’s 12 Stone Art. Timothy Gray started up the website with two artists – Justin Gerard & Christopher Koelle.

From the site’s “Who We Are,”

12 Stone Art was started after our own unsuccessful search for quality Christian artwork. We commissioned the talented artists at Portland Studios to create several original works and purchased the rights to reproduce these works so that we could make them available to others in search of a reputable source for Christian art. We hope you enjoy the artwork we have in our gallery and invite you to participate in future work by recommending artists and themes for us to consider for future work.

Take some time and look around. Enjoy!

Today I said “dude, I know him!”

He is Nick Dimondi, the person in the Doritos commerical during the last week’s Superbowl. I skateboarded with him during my freshman year at college. If I recall correctly, he was a cinema major. However, he didn’t come back the second semester. He transferred to Libery University. It’s neat to say “Dude! I know him!”

All photos were scanned so you might see some speckles or funky hair-like shapes. Also some were photoshopped, only for Sepia purpose. During last summer, I learned how to do Sepia in a photo lab at Northwestern University. When dyeing a photo into Sepia chemical, your eyes might light up and go “ooooh” but your nose will disagree. I’m just thankful for the Sepia feature in Photoshop, sparing me the fate of smelling like rotten eggs once again. Anyways, enjoy the photos.

Baby Gazing
Muncy Street
Wifey Smile
Hoop Against Sky
Muncy Playground
Bottles On Still
Mother Feeding
Grammy Cooking Me Sum Bacon
Sit By Me
Barn Side
Backyard House
Backyard House II
House I
House II
Baby Giggling
Aunty

And then my favorite picture – The Three Sisters.

I just love that last picture. It’s like when you’d scroll down a hall of your parent’s childhood home, and you find a picture of your parent on a wall. That picture haunts you, making you realize that at that exact moment….that part of life froze. Sentimentality is my nature if you couldn’t tell yet. Growing up, I nosed around my parents’ old photo albums, packed with B&W photos of my parents and relatives as children, teens, or college years. The body langauges, facial expressions, the surroundings, and fashion trends interested me.

Perhaps someday Kody, our soon-to-be-born son , will come across that “Three Sisters” photo. He might see past the technical aspects of the photo, and learn to love the visual story of his mother, aunts, and his baby cousin.

*Posting again. I’ve just realized that Kody is in the picture. Think about it. Smile*

But now I can be more faithful to updating this blog. Full internet access at home. No class. Most of my sea-monkeys died because of the cold weather (I put the glass container near the window. Not a good idea)

Last month, I was hired as a designer at Advertising & Design department at BJU Press. I work mostly as a print designer, creating book covers, ads, collateral, and more. Working with experienced designers and creative people is great.

My wife Lydia has also been recently hired as an intepreter at BJU. She enjoys her flexible hours that allows her to sleep in and nurture our little *Kody* in her belly. We’ve decided the name Kody Isaac Ng will be the name of our first boy. He will be out and all ready for the world on June 23rd this summer.

So yeah, this is the good start on reviving this blog.

Standing in Chicago’s Blick Art Store, I held a three-dollar spiral sketchbook with my left hand and an eleven-dollar moleskine sketchbook with my right hand. I struggled like Gollum from Lord Of The Rings, babbling endlessly about which one I should buy.

If you don’t know what’s Moleskine, you’re probably thinking, “Why spend eight dollars more for a sketchbook that is named after an ugly animal?” Take a look at Moleskine site and its very addictive blog Moleskinerie. You’ll see how rich the Moleskine’s history is. Van Gogh and Henri Matisse scribbled madly on Moleskine notebooks. Hemingway also used Moleskine. Artists, writers, and adventurers kept a moleskine notebook. In 1986, the production of simple, classy notebooks took a stop until years later the production was revived by an Italian Manufacturer, Modo & Modo. To promote Moleskine to audience, Modo & Modo did what they do well – revive. They brought stories to us. Not a warm, fuzzy story like you find on the back of Big Mama Mia’s Tomato Sauce can, but raw and fresh stories like Hemingway writing The Sun Also Rises in his Moleskine.

Moleskine notebooks are classy and easy to carry. Unless you have a destructive nature, it’s also tough to wear them out. Hemingway used Moleskine. Van Gogh used Moleskine. And I’m sure that Star Wars’ Boba Fett the Bounty Hunter, hopping around galaxies, would carry a Moleskine to keep track of his preys.

The blog Moleskinerie is a community of Moleskine users from places everywhere. Modo & Modo knows that people are united by a common interest. If the company didn’t bring the stories to us, Moleskine would just be another expensive notebook on the rack. People invest in Moleskine not only for its quality, but because they desire to be part of a rich tradition.

Okay, back to the story… I decided to get a Moleskine but fate played a cruel joke on me. I had only four dollars on me. Not planning to shop for a while, I bought the three-dollar sketchbook and walk out of Blick’s hoping that fate will my friend next time I have a Moleskine in my hands.

And the letter C on Greenville Art Museum.

And the letter Y on Main Street.

We often limit how we see our environment. We walk on sidewalks to avoid streets. We don’t travel through alleys. We don’t turn our heads upside down or sideways. We rarely engage our environment. I know we’re far from the next spring season, but stop, smell the flowers (or dead leaves for now), and explore your environment. And also I leave you with this (where I’m interning at).

For the first image, my goal was to play with darkness and light. When I was a kid, I was totally spooked out by Hitchcock’s films, Twlight Zone, & classic horror films.

For this photo, I turned off all lights to focus on the subject – my brother.

It was wet, summer midnight. My brother and I decided to do some photoshooting on Harlem Ave. near our home. If you ever ride on Harlem Ave near Irving Park Street during midnight, watch out for cops sneaking up behind you.

Anyways, while crusing on the street, I saw this small, polish-owned wedding store. I asked my brother to face this window while I’m taking pictures. Soon, my brother mumbled something about a man, but I didn’t pay much attention to him. After shooting some more, I saw something moving inside the store. My brother and I decided it’d be best to leave. Don’t want any cops come after us.

There you folks go… I hope to be more faithful in bloggin’ after I graduate in three weeks!

I grew up seeing graffiti bombings in Chicago, wherever on a side of a warehouse or in a bathroom stall. Each graffiti artist attempts to outdo other graffiti artists by creating an insane work of art, or spraying his nickname on seemingly impossible-to-reach places such as high walls or bridges. The competitions were amazing, especially in New York City.

Pack your bags, pump overpriced gas into the car, bring a good camera, and go to New York City. You’ll see how graffiti bombings spray NYC beautifully. Sure, some graffiti looks amateurish or horribly done, but a good graffiti art requires quality, creativity, craftsmanship, and risk.

Sadly, many marketers could learn a thing or two from graffiti artists. USA Today has an article that speaks the truth. We face ads clutter such as Internet ads pop-ups, postcard ads falling off between magazine pages, ads sticking on the bottom of a swimming pool, and ads attaching onto school buses. In some part of this country, ads are even tattooed. Now I’m already cluttering this blog with the word “ads.” Smile.

Not so long ago, I read news that a well-known corporation wants to smack their ads on parking lines. So when you open your car door, you see ads on parking lines.

When companies launch vicious waves of ads bombing, they forget that consumers respond positively to quality instead of quantity. They want you to remember who they are. It seems that they think you have Alzheimer’s Disease so they need to cure your memory problem by bombing ads again.

Like all good graffiti works, ads should be memorable, not annoying or displeasing to the audience. Consumers are the ones who react. They are the ones who judge you by your ads. Ultimately, they’re the ones who keep your job running.