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By Neil, January 26, 2008 2:31 PM

Brainstorming is, usually, my favorite process of design. My second favorite would be finishing a project. So, that leaves many processes in between that are critical, but not ones that bring great pleasure for me. Question and research takes place before brainstorming. These steps are arguably more critical than the steps that follow as they steer design to a preferable solution if they are done correctly.

Up until this semester in school there has not been emphasis from instructors on the processes that take place before brainstorming. Having learned their importance so late has made me begin to wonder if my ignorance has been a fatal blow to all the work I have done until now. A big indicator of this is the amount of work that I’ve presented in my Portfolio Preparation class judged as not being portfolio ready. At this point, I will need to create at least three new pieces for my portfolio.

In the mean time, I’ll continue to fight the urge to think that I’m not cut out to do design.

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By Neil, August 4, 2006 1:47 PM

August is here. I have dreaded August for the last four years. There is nothing particularly wrong with the month. In fact, a specific, significant event in my life happened in August, and I look forward to the anniversary every year. So, why have I dreaded August for the last four years? One word: school.

Last year, I dropped out of two of the three classes I was taking because Marj had a miserable time after Noah was born, and I felt that I needed to be with her. I also took the spring semester off from school to continue to spend time with her. So, now I’m gearing up to return for my final year at Ivy Tech. Who knows if I’ll continue afterwards, but I’m ready for a break. Therefore, I can be confident in saying that I will not be continuing school for a few years.

Before I return to the unbelievably busy life of a student + husband / father / employee, there are a few projects on my plate that I need to finish. These projects are mostly personal, but exciting: two photography based projects, two video projects, the NVOOLY MySpace redesign and the NVOOLY Website.

Recently, I was asked by a friend to photograph her wedding. Marj, with her truly saleswoman mental abilities, suggested to our friend that we also shoot a video of her wedding and we could also provide the music. This was a great idea! While I photographed the event, Marj played piano and Kat recorded the event on video. I am roughly 75% finished tweaking and cropping the photos. The video editing is not yet started, but should only take a day or so of work. I have been using iPhoto and iMovie for this project. They are not exactly professional software, but they are sufficient for the project.

The second photography project includes a small portion of graphic design as well. Marj needs new signage for her office, so we have been taking various pictures at her office to use in the new signage. This project is roughly 25% complete. I will be using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for this one.

The second video project is just for home movies. I have several hours of family happenings to wade through to find the most entertaining portions. I’m utilizing iMovie for this as well, and the project currently sits at around 15% complete. I really don’t anticipate finishing this before I return to school.

The NVOOLY projects are being created in anticipation of the Back to the Present album release. The artwork has been finished for a while now, and the websites will serve as a marketing and commerce tool for the release. Brian has already created a MySpace page for the band, so I need to clean it up and make everything cohesive with the existing artwork. The website proper is not started yet, and I haven’t determined what how it will be developed. Everything is still in planning stages here, so these will most likely still be in progress when school starts.

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By Neil, March 12, 2000 10:03 PM

YL Habitat/Indianapolis, IN
Chores that need to be done at YL Habitat were set back a few more days. Thankfully, Tabi was online Saturday morning to remind me of plans that I had made with Jeremy a few weeks ago regarding the Thirsty’s show in Kokomo. Otherwise, the chores would have been done by now. We wouldn’t want that. Would we?

Denise and I spent today playing cards off and on with her family. She made it a point to occasionally tell us bad jokes from candy wrappers. One would think that we did something horrible to her to make her submit us to such torture. She paid no mind to our groveling and pleading for her to stop. How cruel.

Inside artwork for the Maybe? Maybe Not! CD is on my chore list this week. I also hope to get some fingerboard frenzy going on. Let’s watch as another week unfolds itself right before our eyes!

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By Neil, March 9, 2000 8:06 AM

The Grind/Indianapolis, IN
Artwork for Maybe? Maybe Not! did not get as close to complete as I hoped last night. I’ll just have to accept that it will take a little longer to get finished.

YL Habitat has a lot of projects pending as well. Where is all this time going to come from?