Betaloft

First, I’ll let you know about the launch of one of my own projects. The re-branding and site design of an absolutely killer coworking facility in Salt Lake City called Betaloft.

If you work independently and, like me, often find yourself talking to your dog during the work day, Betaloft provides a wonderful way to keep your sanity and meet cool people. There really is nothing like the spark of creativity and inspiration that comes from face-to-face time with other humans.

I could go on for hours, but I’ll let you check out the site for more about all that.

Jessica Hische

I was first introduced to Jessica’s work when I ran across her Viney Alphabet in my feed reader. I became an instant fan.

She’s launched a new site full of hand-lettering goodness, and a store full of drool-worthy goods. A must see for type fans of all ages.

On a side note, don’t miss Jessica’s Daily Drop Cap for more beautiful lettering.

Ligature, Loop & Stem

This new site has a small, but wonderful, catalog of type related goods. They’ve just released a white version of their wildly popular Ampersand Test Print that I can’t help but love.

…and just look at that site. lovely.

Teuxdeux

A brand new web app by swissmiss that puts a slick designy spin on the todo app. I love the way it looks, and I’ll spend the next week or so giving it a try.

Mighty

Design hero of mine Jason Santa Maria resolved to work on “stuff that matters”, and he’s launched a studio to do just that. Meet Mighty.

I, and the rest of the web/design universe, will be watching closely for the stream of wonderfulness that is sure to emerge from this little studio.

Prep & Landing

Last, but not least, a beautiful bit of animation hit the airwaves this week. I was skeptical when I heard about it, but last night I watched it on Hulu while I worked. Disney’s Prep & Landing very quickly seated itself as a Christmas classic with me. It’s a creative little story with a ton of heart that will be played right alongside Christmas Vacation and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

If you haven’t seen it… get over to Hulu and check it out.

So I guess that’s about it. I wish the very best to everyone launching something new, something they care about. It’s a difficult but wonderful thing.

Now… back to work.

You’ll remember from my last post that I’ve been busting my butt on some ever-changing plans. Well, that work hasn’t slowed down one bit, as the world keeps throwing interesting situations our way. I’ve been very fortunate to have met several wonderful new clients and made some great friends who keep me in mind when they have design projects and such. I’ve got ten great posts for this blog, in draft form, collecting a bit of dust while I hustle at getting a few more projects out the door.

I guess this is my obligatory sorry-I-haven’t-blogged-but-I’ve-been-busy post. Damn, I hate those.

Ok, how about this. I’ll say sorry, and I’ll make a vague promise of doing better. But I’ll raise the bar a bit and bundle a bit of an announcement.

… remember a while ago when I was asking you all to help me decide on a few things for our new company? Well, that work is complete. I’d like to introduce J. Blackbird LLC.

The J. Blackbird website has been online in various forms over the last month. But it’s only just started taking it’s final shape. For now, only the design/development side of our business has a presence. The event side will come shortly. So… any thoughts about that?

I can say out loud now, that I left the company a little earlier than originally planned. My wife and I had set a goal to have our affairs in order for me to give notice by the end of October. It’s a date we picked fairly arbitrarily, but it was our way of drawing a real line… an actual point in time to hold ourselves accountable. We had talked a lot about our next adventure in life, we made plans for the next step in our personal and professional lives, but it just never seemed to happen. The time never seemed just right, so we didn’t pull the rip cord.

There were a few times we were sure we’d be pushed into making the move. First it was when we decided to move several states away from Disneyland to start our family. We worked up plans and were ready to go, but I was given the opportunity to work remotely (which was truly a pleasant surprise). After that we had a nasty round of layoffs. I was sure, as the only remote employee in our entire global division, that I would be on the chopping block. So we dug up our plans, polished them off, and were ready to strike out on our own. By some miracle I was spared and I went on working for Disney from 700 miles away. Plans were shelved again in favor of a regular paycheck, and I went back to the grind.

Each time it felt like we were on the edge some something big. We prepared ourselves mentally & emotionally… and when things just stayed the same it was almost a let-down. We were ready to make a big jump, a big move. We got our ducks in a row to make something happen, and it kept fizzling out.

Finally, I reached a point that it was clearly time to move a different direction. Without bringing up topics that are entirely inappropriate for this blog, I will simply pull from a post I wrote exactly one month ago: I needed to take the chance to spread my creative wings a little more independently.

It was earlier than we planned, but there were a few big influencing factors that made us sure the time was right. …so we jumped.

So here we are, one month later. What have we learned?.

• Plan for the worst, but hope for the best.
  This old saying has so much wisdom packed in it. Our own experience took us from plan A, to plan B, to plan C, back to plan A, some shuffling through several ad hoc plans, and finally finding some traction with plan J or K. Almost nothing has gone according to plan, but it’s all turned out damn fine.
• Be ready to punt at any time.
  I don’t make many sports references in life, but this one seems to fit. It’s one that I learned in my time planning and executing large events. Sometimes you watch the perfect plan turn to crap right in your hands. It might have been your fault, or it might have been factors totally out of your control. You just have to be real with yourself, and be comfortable when it’s time to kick the hell out of the old plan and come up with something new.
• A deal ain’t a deal until somebody’s signed a contract.
  We had several projects lined up. Big projects. The kind you spend months just planning. We had commitments, and had actually started some work. But those projects fell through, and I didn’t have a signed contract to back me up. I learned my lesson. Contract + deposit = a deal.
• Make new friends, and make sure they know what you do.
  I know, I know, it’s Networking 101, but that doesn’t make it any less important. I had some projects fall through, but happily I’ve been able to fill that gap in my schedule by letting some online friends know what I was looking for. A few messages on Twitter… and a great new client was in the door.
• Stop and smell them roses
  No matter how awesome you are, going out on your own is stressful. There’s a lot to think about. Make sure to take the time to appreciate what’s important and why you made the move. The world is one big beautiful place. Don’t let a day go by without appreciating it.

To wrap this up I will just offer one more little tid-bit. If you’re thinking of chasing a dream, DO IT ALREADY! Be smart, get your stuff together, and chase that damn dream. I chased a dream to Disneyland, and it was truly truly wonderful. Now, my loving wife and I are chasing a new dream. So far, it’s been truly truly wonderful.

Happily, it’s been an insanely busy week. New clients & projects, sorting out the plan for some killer products, and having the freedom to spend some time with my awesome wife and son during the day. I love it.

One of the large items to strike of my to-do list is to get an identity system worked out for the new company. So, call this a (sort of) announcement that our new design & consulting company is called J. Blackbird LLC. We’re all set up and ready to do business, we just don’t have a face yet. We need all the basics. Yknow… sites, cards, estimates, invoices and all that jazz.

I’ve set to work narrowing down the style we’re going for. Both Janey and I are drawn to old print. Ephemera of many sorts. Trying to take some of the bits of inspiration we find and simply choose a direction is very difficult for me. So I’m asking you. Take a look at these options and let me know what you think in the comments.

Not to sway you at all, but I think we’re both leaning for #1… and to give myself a little breathing room, I’m going to say some variation of #1. Speak up if you’d like…

And for your perusal, the scratch sheet I was narrowing from…

On May 15th, 2003, I drove a car stuffed with every worldly possession I could smash in it, to California to begin my life as a Disneyland Cast Member. That day, my birthday, I embarked on what would become the most amazing adventure I could have possibly wished for.

My heart is full right now as I try to find a way to express the deep sadness, and giddy anticipation I’m feeling.

I truly love Disney. I love what it stands for, and the legacy Walt Disney left behind. And I love the people. I love those real down-to-earth people who embody the essence of what Guests have grown to expect from Disney. True pioneers. Pillars of talent & creativity that I have had the great fortune to learn from.

Then why leave?

I’m in a new place in my life, a place where I want to spread my creative wings a little more independently. There are a few big things I want to create. I won’t give too much away now, but you can expect a launch this year.

Still, even though I’ve decided to chase a new adventure, I believe Disney is wonderful. There is not a finer group of people on this planet. I will always proudly speak of the time I was fortunate enough to spent as a Disney Cast Member.

So what now?

For now, in between feverishly working toward a launch of some new products, I’ll be ramping up my consulting work. I’ll even happily be keeping a few Disney divisions on as clients after my departure.

That said, I am looking to fill a few holes in my schedule for the next month or so. If you have a project in the areas of User Experience, Collaberation, Web Design & Development or Live Entertainment Events that you’d like me to weigh-in on, please feel free to drop me a line.

I anticipate this blog will see a boost in content as well!

And so there it is… the announcement is made and the next adventure begins. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

Huge thanks to all of you who entered! Really, I had so much fun watching this take shape today. I literally woke up this morning and said to my wife “I think I’m going to do a twitter contest to give away a poster”… she nodded, and I started this post. I had no idea I would have so much fun. I will absolutely do this again soon.

So, let’s talk about how this all turned out…
The first plan was to have my puppy and 9 month old son choose the winner. I hadn’t worked out exactly how, but I was picturing a pile of entries printed on bacon wrapped gram crackers… the rest is fuzzy.

With very few options in the clearly under-served market of bacon wrapped gram crackers, I was forced to adopt a slightly more boring approach.

There were a total of 51 valid entries. Each entry was given it’s own line in a spreadsheet in chronological order of when the tweet was made. My lovely wife pointed me to the slick and simple random number generator at random.org that gave me a random number between 1 and 51. The tweet that fell on that line number was deemed the winner.

While it didn’t hold quite the magic of a slobber war between the baby and the dog, it got the job done.

So my friends. Thank you again, and stay tuned for I will definitely be holding another contest soon! (but if you don’t want to wait for the next contest, just buy a poster!!!

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I’ve seen this done all over Twitter & thought it might be fun to try on this otherwise mundane Tuesday.

I’m offering signed and numbered Magic In Type Castle Poster to a random tweeter. To enter, just re-tweet the following…

I just entered to win a Magic in Type letterpress poster! Follow @rustin & tag #magicintype to enter. http://bit.ly/OQkh8

I’ll be choosing a winner randomly today (Aug 11, 2009) at 6:00PM Mountain Time! You need to be following @rustin, and have tweeted the above message before the end of the contest to be eligible.

Now… go tweet!

Go check them out… seriously.

As my wife can attest, this type castle project was always meant to be a letterpress poster. When I first started laying out the piece, about two years ago, I got all excited about how cool it would be to do a big letterpress poster of some Disneyland attractions all set in typography. I was so excited to share when I finally finished the artwork I decided to set it loose as a set of desktop wallpapers, but that was more of a fun little tangent than anything. Letterpress was always the goal.

Life threw a few curve balls to slow me down a bit and it’s taken me a while to finally get the show on the road… but I’m very happy to officially announce the Magic in Type Castle Letterpress Posters are for sale in the new shop!

Since the posters aren’t quite off the press yet, I’m offering a pre-order discount of $25 per poster through August 1, 2009. If pre-ordering’s not your thing, just leave your email address in the box on the shop, and I’ll let you know when the posters are shipping.

And what would a post about a letterpress project be without a little print shop eye candy…

This will be huge.

via designworklife