Commission or not

The bulk of my design work is self-initiated, with a few requests scattered in. I’ve received requests at work, or suggestions to submit ideas. The one area I really haven’t strayed into is the world of commissions, where a new customer requests a design based on a concept. I’ve thought about adding a ‘services’ page to my portfolio, but haven’t taken the step.

My main worry is that design right now is mostly self-expression, an outlet for my sarcasm and critiques on things in the world. I also have to balance my day job with any potential work (not expecting to quit the day job by any means).

If anyone has thoughts on this, please let me know. This is definitely one of those times I wish Jacquie was here to consult.

I am become life

EMS designs will be recurring design topic, mostly in support of my sister. A while back, I whipped up a quick design based on a quote from the Bhagavad Gita, made famous by Oppenheimer: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

As EMS is constantly fighting Death to save their patients, I turned the phrase, reversing the roles.

New patches

Got the latest round of patches from Mutiny Shop. One is the Area 51 Security patch, the other is the “Secret Kiwi” design a coworker requested for some Kiwi friends of his.

Overall not too bad, especially the patch quality. Probably made some of the text on the Area 51 patch a little too dark, but that’s on me.

https://www.mutinyshop.com

Well, color me…

Color is one of the key things to design. Choose the right color, it evokes certain emotions, as does the wrong. There are way too many colors in nature to truly see them all. For designers, it becomes a matter of palettes or collections of colors. Some designers will simply look up colors with no real set collection, going with what colors seem to fit or the customer wants. Others may chose more set schemes based on their own design philosophy.

I recent picked up a book called color index from a used bookstore. Adding a color guide to my bookshelf is something I’ve needed to do for awhile. Many of my designs tend to be a very earth tone, largely due to the ‘tactical’ or military aesthetic to them.

I’ve also taken to noting car paint colors, both for my own interest for future purchases and as a reference for colors I like and want to add to my palette. To be honest, I hadn’t actually created a palette either. I just picked colors as I needed, maybe not always sticking with the same similar color across designs.

So… I decided, while looking up car paint colors, to start collecting colors. Using the Encycolorpedia (trying saying that one fast…), I start shopping colors for my palette. As you can see, still very earth tone, but will hopefully give me a more consistent collection.

https://encycolorpedia.com

When a can isn’t enough…

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘can of whoop a**”. I whipped this design up for those times when a can isn’t enough. Introducing the 55-gallon drum of whoop a**! This is the censored version, there are two other less censored ones.

Marvin Would be Proud…

In honor of the impending ‘invasion’ of Area 51, aka Groom Lake, I threw together a patch the security teams could wear.

What’s the Frequency…

One of my other hobbies, albeit less attended to is, is Amateur (“Ham”) Radio. I’ve had my license since 2008 and have a few handheld radios. At work, we have a group of Hams (in more ways than one) that chat about a lot of things including radios. The other day, one of the Hams was talking about how a garage sale was interrupting his contesting time. Contesting for Hams is trying to collect contacts within a certain period, usually trying to reach certain regions of the country or world. Being the snarky person I am, I proposed a sign to essentially scare people away from a Ham’s radio area. The results are the signs below.