I studied abroad for 4 months during my senior year of college, and it was quite possibly the best time I've ever had anywhere.

I went to Nottingham Trent University in Nottingham, England, and worked on my Bachelor's degree there for a semester. I was amongst about 200 fellow graphic designers all graduating that year as well, and who were so eager to learn about everything.

They're very conceptual in Europe, and don't have the technical training that we do here for the most part. Most of their knowledge is self-taught when it comes to programs, printing, execution, hand skills, etc., but on an idea level...they're extremely talented.

Sometimes we had group seminars in huge meeting halls where the 4 lead professors of the graphic design department presented work to us as ways of motivation and inspiration. Some of the students that had graduated the year before had amazing, amazing work and had gone off to be fairly successful.

As one of the major factors in students' grades, the process was integral to the end result. Sometimes the initial process was dramatically different than the finished work, but the thoughts, moods, development and evolution of an idea was regarded to be the most important part of the project. And quite often, the process was far, far, far more interesting and inspiring than the actual finished piece.

One of the students, who's videos I recorded during the presentation are below, had a difficult time keeping a process book. He just wasn't able to put down what was going on in his head, and keep at it consistently; he just wasn't a sketchbook person.

So instead of having a sketchbook for his final project, he decided to record himself working from concept to final execution. It was a project for BBC Radio, entitled "Radionation", and as he progresses over the course of months, it's apparent his idea to record himself was well worth it. I actually find his process and struggles far more interesting than his final piece because it shows how much work, time and energy went into completing it.

His name is Callum Bain, and you should definitely, definitely check out his work, namely his sketchbooks. His books are inspiring, and reveal a lot about his personality.

Open up a notebook (or record yourself) and
Draw.

Process of Radionation:

Final Piece:

So, I'm going to be posting an album review once a week.

All the albums are ones that I've deemed the "perfect," album. My reasons for an album being perfect are as follows.

⋅ Its one where you can listen all the way through without skipping a track.
⋅ Its an album you pretty much know every single line to.
⋅ Its the album you don't listen to for years and then one day you hear it and you just sing along at the top of your lungs to it.

and to be a perfect album, it needs to end with a bang.

The first album I'm going to review starts off with a single strum of a guitar

"This song will become the anthem of your underground..."

"Stay What You Are" by Saves The Day is hands down my favorite album of theirs and is my first in a series of Perfect Album reviews.

"Stay What You Are" is a very upbeat pop-punkish album with an emo* sensibility layered with the classic, often gory, lyrics. Most of the songs don't exceed three minutes and I find that most of the albums on my list are under forty minutes. For some reason I love when an album doesn't jump around or have any filler and this album gets right to the point each time.

If you were in high school when this record came out then it was in fact an anthem. Chris Conley's lyrics still holds so much weight even when you're well past the age of teen angst.

A slow, very haunting intro kicks the album off with the song "At Your Funeral", which provides you with everything you'd expect from Saves The Day. If you don't know who saves the day is, please make this the first record of their your purchase. They are one of the endless wonderful bands that have come out of New Jersey(along side bands like My Chemical Romance and the ever-awesome and soon to be reviewed Thursday)

Though every song on this album is wonderful, there are the obvious stand outs. For me their opener, "At Your Funeral" followed by "Jukebox Breakdown", "As Your Ghost Takes Flight", "All I'm Losing Is Me", and "This Is Not An Exit" are the ones that mean the most to me.

I was introduced to this album during a transitional phase in my musical tastes--from my heavy metal/hardcore to the softer side of things with what was later deemed Emo*. I remember sitting up late one night in the Catskill Mountains with my girlfriend at the time, watching the video for "Freakish" and thinking how weird it was to see a music video filled with muppets. Two of my close friends and her had gotten into a huge fight in the den of the cabin we were staying in, and after the fight ended her and I were in the room alone. We popped in a Vagrant records dvd and watched music videos from that label all night long.

(Side note: It was here that I was introduced to Dashboard Confessional as well as The Get Up Kids)

Click here for the video.

With "Jukebox Breakdown" it was always me pretending to be the super romantic kid that I could never amount to. "If you've got a quarter you can stick in my neck and I'll sing whatever song you want for whatever mood you're in." That line always gave me the impression that I could be John Cusack whenever I wanted, only I'd personally sing it to whomever my affection was directed at; not use a boom box and "your eyes," to woo them.

"As Your Ghost Takes Flight" is just plain gory fun for me. I don't care who you are, but to have a really intense, sarcastic song about nailing a person to a wall would seem great to any 17 year old, angry white kid from the suburbs. For example, "I should've had my hammer and a few rusty spikes to nail you on a wall and use bottles to catch your blood and display you for the neighbors so they know your time had come."

"All I'm Losing Is Me" is just groovy. I love this one purely because of how it sounds. It's packed with a great chorus, a guitar solo, and really, really catchy hooks. It's on this song that the progression from underground punk band to a more refined pop-punk band is really seen, and this is strictly based off how the guitars are handled.

Though upbeat in tempo, most of the lyrics have really haunting undertones. As much as I sing along to every single second of this album, there's a deep sense of sorrow that comes with it. The eventual break-up with said girlfriend, the obvious, at times almost John Hugh's level of teen angst that drips off of it...with lines such as "Well here I am don't know how to say this, only thing I know is awkward silence, your eyelids close when your around me to shut me out."

What seventeen year old boy wouldn't be drawn to that when his heart's broken?

I know this isn't as much a review of the album from a music standpoint as it is just how the album made me feel. Music has a very lasting impact on our emotions, and how we feel. "Stay What You Are" has a very strong place in my heart based solely off of who gave it to me and the time in my life that I listened to it for the first time.

"This is Not An Exit," is the one song that still resonates the most with me today. Back when most of us still had AOL as our means to the world wide web, I had first started dating my girlfriend at the time. One day I had seen a line in her AOL profile from a song I could never place...it wasn't until we had broken up that one day while hearing this song, I heard the line

"Despair could ravage you if you turn your head around to look down the path that's lead you here, cause what can you change?"

* As a note, I'm not throwing the term emo around loosely. emo was a music style that pretty much ceases to be these days because it was a snapshot in alternative music history. Not quite punk, not quite pop, emo was one of the first times a music genre was created around the demographic the songs played to. It was a group of boys singing about girls, to other boys. It was about heartbreak and the fact that "emo" male's (emo is short for emotional) do exist. Now a days its just been bastardized to be a general term for something that's trendy or sucks, and sadly thats not the proper usage of the word. Plus for the record, most emo bands have long since broken up or totally changed their style of music.

(See: The promise ring, Texas is the reason, Sunny day real estate, Dashboard confessional, Saves the day, The Get up kids etc.)

I signed up to receive daily emails from this art blog called Blankanvas. It's by a woman in Singapore who is hands down the most insightful, interesting and experienced woman that side of the earth. She's also über funny.

The email that I got tonight was about creativity, and why one person's thoughts and work are just as valuable as another's. It's hard to keep up the imagination, and really dig into the fun of art sometimes when it's your job. Below is Pat Law's email from Blankanvas, as well as some tips on ways to increase creativity.

Always have fun, get creative, and
Draw.

*************************************

Creativity is inherent to the success of any brand. Creativity is inherent to the growth of any culture. Creativity is the reason why you pay 200 million for an original Salvador Dali painting, and 20 bucks for a knockoff from a Balinese street artist.

Some might argue that creativity is innate and that it is a talent more than it is a skill. While I agree to a certain degree, I believe creativity can be cultivated as well. The recession’s great for creativity. It is only at your poorest that you learn how to be creative with your limited resources.

Here are 5 ways you can increase your creativity.

1. MAKE SPACE FOR CREATIVITY in the environment you work in. I appreciate toys and I have them to keep me company while I work. Tardiness distracts me, and hence I keep my workstation as neat as I can.

2. SLOW DOWN AND OBSERVE the world around you. In today’s time staved world, we tend to miss the beauty surrounding us. Take time. Inspiration is drawn from observation. What have you observed lately?

3. CRITICISE CREATIVITY, especially if it's your own. I have seen 100-slide presentations with a massive collection of ideas and none of which made cow sense. I have a personal QC technique that I practice religiously, particularly with my own ideas – if a 7-year-old could’ve told you the same thing, don’t present it. If there is no “OMFG, this is brilliant!” element, don’t present it. Have some respect for your own job, would you? Just remember one thing – the client does not pay you to lie. Be brave enough to criticize your own goods.

4. BE A SOCIAL WH*RE and mingle with different tribes of passion. Sticking by our own tribe is great for vertical expansion of knowledge, but it halts our linear knowledge. When we become too preoccupied with ourselves, we tend to become myopic and close-minded. Close-mindedness and creativity don’t gel. They never do.

5. LEARN TO VISUALIZE YOUR OWN IDEAS in an organized framework in your mind. I picked this skill up when I was six or so from my art teacher who taught me to construct my painting in my mind before I executed it against a canvas. This preparatory skill has enabled me today, to massage fuzzy ideas into a logical framework mentally. It enables me to make sense of my idea (and also eliminate all that don’t make sense).

My favorite genre is surrealism when it comes to the art world. It's ridiculous to look at what comes onto paper from the mind of the artist because it's like a mesh of many different real elements to create something that seems so unreal. It's perhaps my favorite type of art because in surrealism you aren't trying to make something real, you're more free to use your imagination and if you're a perfectionist like I can be...there are no worries about creating a perfect image since only you know what this image is supposed to look like.

A recent favorite thing of mine to do when doodling or working on an art project is to mesh animals with inanimate objects. It's so much fun to think up of the multiple different ways that one can combine the two elements to create something that looks odd yet so fascinating. It's like getting to live in your own fantasy world almost when working on surreal art.

I like going to deviantart.com at different times and check out what's new on the site. It's a site "where ART meets application" and basically people from all over can sign up to showcase their own artwork. There's a LOT of different genres and a LOT of various skill levels that each "deviant" is at.

Here are some sweet lookin ones that I find when looking under surreal art

by JustMaThing http://justmathing.deviantart.com/

by xcassielx http://xcassielx.deviantart.com/

by Shyira http://shyira.deviantart.com/

Now get inspired and DRAW

I found this stop motion video for the Israeli singer, Oren Lavie. It's called "Her Morning Elegance" and not only is the title quite nice, but the video is pretty impressive. Stop motion animation is no easy thing and can feel like foreverrrrrr to finish, so to accomplish as much as he did as director and singer is a big deal. You should also check out his website, because it's just as simple, soft and effective as his music and videos.

What I also found while looking up the background to this video, was that it was used in a Chevy commercial last year. The first video is Lavie's video for "Her Morning Elegance", while the second is for the commercial.

Get inspired and,
Draw.

I think if you go through the blog and count the amount of blogs we do about Music or sketch books you pretty much have our entire blog!

So being aware of that I think we're trying to mix it up here and not always post about those two things, but really....most of our lives are just music and art, so its hard to break a lifestyle.

and damn.....this is far too cool not to talk about.

I went to a Minus The Bear concert about two years back in NYC and one of the openers was a rapper by the name of P.O.S. (http://www.myspace.com/pos) and my friend Guy and I were FLOORED by how good this guy was. We bought up every cd of his and we've been hooked ever since. He strikes a great balance between rap and rock, and shows how to really get it done.(sorry limp bizkit, but you kind of fell short of doing that style really well.)

So the second his new cd came out, of course us here at draw had to pick it up, and not only can I say hands down that this is the most complete and kick-ass album he's made yet, the cd packaging is by far one of the more inventive I've seen in a few years.

and thats saying a lot.

As you all very well know we're all about the handmade, and the physical feeling you get from an actual thing, so I can't speak for the rest of the draw crew but at least for me f**k digital. I still buy my own cd's and on top of that, I'm building up a very respectable vinyl collection as well.

So for the new P.O.S. album, it comes with 5 transparencies and 16 different panels. So what you can do is separate the panels, and mix and match your transparencies to make an array of different album covers.

Or you can just make one yourself. http://www.rhymesayers.com/neverbetter/

So.Freaking.Cool.

Its thinking like that thats made us all artists, and if you can be this clever with an album cover; maybe the cd isn't dead yet.

So rock out to P.O.S. "Never Better" and DRAW!

I really want to start sketching in my sketchbook again. Really, I do.

I went to NCSU for a portfolio review to see if I get into their industrial design program. In consideration for getting into the program, they really want to see your design process, what goes through your head when initially coming up with the different ideas to create something new. Everyone and anyone who's created a piece of art knows what I'm talking about. All those trial and error ideas, tweaking each one until you're satisfied with an idea to take it further until you have the completed product. In my ideas, I can range between five to 30 different sketches of possible variations of something I want to make.

When I was sitting, waiting with everyone else to go into their interview, I noticed almost everyone had their sketchbook, except me. I was curious as to why, and now I know why, it was like I said before they really want to see where it is you begin with an idea to where you take it. What do you think about when designing, what do you consider, what goes through your brain...they really wanted to see what makes you tick. In my portfolio, I did have some initial sketches and the finished design product, however I still wish I had my sketch book...and then I began to wish I just drew in it more in general.

It's just a great place to doodle down ideas, to think about things. I'm ALWAYS thinking of new things, new ideas, how to change this, how to change that, and I've realized I NEVER draw it down. I'm determined to now, or at least to try and use it more often than not.

In my interview, I was asked of something that I would change about an object or furniture, etc. I remember a while back sitting on a subway, wishing that there was a better seating arrangement to ensure more standing room during rush hour, such as seats that folded up. I told her that, and she told me that was a really interesting idea (and we talked a little bit more) and then she reiterated that she just wished that my sketchbook was there to see that design on paper to see how I'd think about it. I told her I would.

So I am. I have a ton of sketchbooks actually, but I need to buy a smaller pocket sized one. They're great to have, even if you wouldn't consider yourself an artist. It's a great place to doodle ideas, to look back on and get inspired, and also just to release any feelings that are pent up. I remember I actually used to always draw and doodle when I was angry. My parents still have some drawings I did when I was younger and angry in the car, perhaps I can find them and scan them in. They're, to me, disturbing yet somehow my parents found them hilarious and adorable.

I was so mad at them, lol.

Join me and go buy a sketchbook. Then DRAW

So, as a heads up I wanted to write a blog about all the time and effort that goes into making these shirts here at Draw ltd.

We don't outsource, and we don't send off peoples drawings then have some big company print them in masses for us to make crazy money off of.

We do each and every shirt ourselves, with the helped of the very talented Tim Fealey, a close friend, as well as a freelance silk screener. Together Draw and Tim help take everyone's ideas and drawings, and bring them to life via T-Shirts; a medium we all love.

but it's not easy.

A few weeks back there was a serious cold spell here in upstate New York, and one day Tim and I had to print the stephen tees in 10 degree weather. I'm bringing this up, because I could not be happier about that. Of course we were both bitter cold, couldn't feel our fingers but it was all worth it. To see people buying our shirts, to see kids really getting behind draw and our ideas, makes it all worth it.

For our next line "handimals," we're taking all the lessons we learned last time and building upon them. Expect more comprehensive shirts, better printing, crazy drawings, as well as little hidden gems around the shirts themselves.

T-Shirts are just as fitting an art form as a painting or poster and some may say that its one of the better mediums out there to show artwork.

Ponder what your tee shirt is telling the world about you, and in the meantime

DRAW!