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A quick little project

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My wifey and I got to talking while taking a drive today. She wanted to have some personalized note cards made for business and/or personal use. I thought it might be fun to share a tiny window into our evening.

Sorry for the shitty phone pics… it’s all I’ve got.

A quick conversation in the car leads to this…

A few minutes in front of my computer leads to this…

Then some chatting about color leads to this…

And a some time making paper selections and color matching leads to this…

And altogether, it leads to a happy wifey!

*Update*
Janey wrote a post about them too… I’m happy that she digs them.

Silver Bell Express

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I’d like to welcome my first guest author to this blog!

I asked Kristoffen to come let my readers know about some really fun news. It’s a project that he’s worked very hard on for a long time, and I nearly lost it with excitement when he told me it’s ready for the world.

And so, without any further interruption from me, here’s the news…
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Hi there everyone!
First, I’d like to thank Rustin for the invitation to make an announcement here on his site. I’m very excited to see years of work finally come together and help spread some magic all over the world.

My name is Kristoffen, and I am a 5th generation Parcel Elf at Silver Bell Express – The exclusive parcel service of the North Pole. I am just one of many elves whose mission is to deliver each and every package that’s sent to and from the North Pole (with the exception of the Big Guy’s toy sack, of course… that’s another Elf team entirely). I’m proud to carry on the tradition of my father’s father’s father’s father’s father, to quickly & safely deliver every magical package. “On Time, Snow or Shine!” as they say…

The reason I’m here today is to let you know about a brand new service we’re offering! I’ve recently been promoted to Chief Parcel Elf in charge of a new department called Santa Claus Personal Service or S.C.P.S. Our sole purpose is to provide direct express service to Santa Claus himself!!

The Big Guy has always loved writing to the boys and girls from his nice list, but with time crunches around Christmas and delays with some other delivery services, he never seemed to have enough time to write to each and every one of you. I am so excited that Silver Bell Express has finally opened a separate office dedicated to Santa Claus’ personal outgoing mail. And it’s just an honor that Santa chose me to head it up. I’ve got my boots in a jingle just thinking about it!

We’re making sure the Big Guy is supplied with the finest parchment and ink for each unique letter. They’ll be packaged in durable tubes and kept private with Santa’s personal wax seal. A real, beautiful and totally unique letter directly from Santa Claus himself. Definitely an item you’ll want to keep in your memory box forever.

We’re still getting our reindeer in a row, but we’ll be kicking things off soon. Click below to visit our new website, and don’t forget to drop your email address in the box so I can let you know when Santa is ready to start sending letters.

Thanks so much, and get ready for the Merriest Christmas yet!!

Kristoffen
Chief Parcel Elf S.C.P.S.
Silver Bell Express

What to say about what I do

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I was smack in the middle of finally updating the ‘About’ page on this site when I realized there was a good post topic buried there. It’s all about that question so many adults ask…

What do you do?

This is always hard for me to answer.

My whole life I’ve presented different versions of myself to different people. Not really on purpose, it just seemed to be the path of least resistance when the only other option is to lay on a big story about all the things that interest me and, in later life, people pay me to do. It never seems right to shove my whole story on people

It really started back in high school when I split two schools for a few years. I traded off and spent alternating days at each school. At one I was a singer & actor. I was in the musical productions and choirs and never really let on that I did anything else. At the other school I was a drummer. I was captain of the drumline and played in percussion ensemble and symphonic orchestra. I never really had a reason to let people know that I was a singer.

I inadvertently separated two major interests that made me who I am. It was kind of like living two separate lives. I didn’t actively try to keep them separate. Nobody asked, and I didn’t bring it up.

Now that I’m older I find myself creating a very similar situation. Different groups of people know me for different things.

Some people know me as a creative type. To them I’m an idea guy, presenter & showman. Some people see me as a tech guy. They see me fidget with the computer for a while and, like magic, machines do my bidding.

I would venture a guess that a few of the people I associate with have a real idea of the breadth of my professional experience, but not many. It’s completely my fault that most don’t. I shoehorn myself into roles and neglect to present anything else.

But, what do you do? Why is it hard to answer?

It’s hard because I do what catches my interest. But even more than that, I get all bent out of shape when people try and file me into a little box that only has one label.

I love to create experiences. I like to take ideas or information and present them in new, interesting & elegant ways. I’ve had the great fortune to design & produce a wide range of things, both real and virtual. Events for many thousands of guests, web applications, websites, outdoor & print ads, brand/identity systems, environment theming, way-finding systems, ways to manage thousands of volunteers for stunts and performances, music, experimental performance, art and anything else that has presented an opportunity to learn or teach.

So, what do you do?

Yeah yeah, I know. I’m afraid this isn’t a post with a clear point, or even an clear answer to the question I posed. Just food for thought I guess.

I know I’m not the only one with this problem. I work with people who have wild jobs that defy any sort of description. How do you all handle it? Is it even an issue for you?

I never finished that update to my ‘About’ page.

The Story of Maingate Ads

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One of the first projects I devoted time to after leaving Disney, almost a year ago, was to finally finish and release my Magic In Type – Castle letterpress poster. It was a project I had started many months earlier, but I could never devote enough time to get it to the finish line. I was very excited to finally be able to work during real daytime hours and make it happen.

Skip forward a few weeks to when I had a crate full of freshly pressed prints on the floor of my studio, and it was time to let the world know about it. I, of course, had this dream that I would post one tweet about my posters and the world would be completely amazed by what I had done. Word would spread like wildfire and I would sell out in mere minutes. I did tweet about it, and posted on facebook, and I had a reasonably good response to that… but reality was setting in that I would need to dig a little deeper to make it work.

I decided I would do a little online advertising in the niche areas that might be interested. Disney fans & typography geeks don’t really run in the same circles, so I focused on the area I was most familiar… Disney Parks fan sites.

To make a long story just the tiniest bit longer, I found that advertising on the sites I frequented most was a complete mess. There is a myriad of sites that were possibilities, but they were all covered with boring, vaguely-targeted text ads or flashy, noisy, annoying animation ads, and in most cases, both. It all felt like somebody was handing out a box full of megaphones and telling everyone to stand in the same room and yell their message. With everybody trying to scream the loudest, everyone gets lost in the noise.

It was around this same time I read an interview with a business hero of mine named Jim Coudal. In the interview Jim talks about being frustrated with the state of online advertising in a specific demographic where he wanted to market a new product. He got annoyed and did what any self respecting entrepreneur would do. He decided he could do it better, and with that he launched The Deck.

His story just hit home with me at the right time. I started forming plans to fix what I think is broken about advertising on the sites I love.

After several months of planning and working out the technical details, I’m very happy to announce the launch of the latest J. Blackbird venture…

Maingate Ads – A new ad network reaching out to theme park fans, travelers, memorabilia hounds and amusement industry buffs.

Beginning July 1, 2010 we’ll be serving simple, beautiful and perfectly targeted ads on an impressive lineup of websites. We’ve been so fortunate that our message has struck a chord with website publishers and advertisers alike. We’ll start reasonably small, but we’ve already got some big plans for the road ahead.

If you run or know of a website that’s interested in carrying Maingate Ads, or if you’d like to find out about purchasing ad space, drop us a line.

Redesigning TouringPlans.com

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Back in early march I was contacted by the great folks from TouringPlans.com about doing an identity and website redesign for them. I won’t bore you with a lot of details today as I plan to follow this up with a real post about the project and some of the fun stuff we encountered along the way.

For now I’d just like to invite you to see the new TouringPlans.com.

For reference, here’s what the site looked like when they first contacted me:

So many wonderful things

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The stars have somehow aligned today and we’ve seen the launch of a bunch of really wonderful things around the web. I’ve linked to some on twitter, but it’s just not doing it all justice. I thought I’d take a cue from Dan at Simplebits and link to a bunch of wonderful things I’ve seen launch in the last little while.

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.

betaloft_site

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.

jessica_hische_site

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.

ligature_site

…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.

teuxdeux_site

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.

mighty_site

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.

Two months

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I didn’t plan it like this… really I didn’t. I didn’t mean for this site to become a monthly chronicling of my life post-Disney. It’s just sort of ended up that way so far.

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.

Moo Cards

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?