I’ve always wanted to do another conceptual gig poster, but I could never decide on a band. This week, randomly, an idea for the design smacked me in the face before I could even pick the perfect band to accompany it. Here’s the result:

The poster is based on the Pickups’ song “The Royal We” (a jam featured on my best of ’09 list). I’ll hit you with a few lines:

“And when it’s all over and you open your eyes,
You see the room turned on its side,
And you’ll be lying down and over on the floor.

Signed,
The Royal We”

Even though this poster isn’t my typical style, it really fit the theme. I love working on “messy” projects, despite the general look of my portfolio (the opportunity to use a grungy style just doesn’t present itself too often).

So yeah. Music is pretty neat, and I had to pay some homage to it. I’ll be making more for-fun gig posters in the future, no question.

After a full month of calculating, contemplating and designing, The AK Experiment is finally out in full force.

This project evolved even further than I had anticipated. Originally, the layouts were just going to be on-screen visuals. In the hopes of making this as “personal” as possible, hand-making the report (with hand-generated illustrations and custom typography) became the perfect solution.

This experiment turned out to be a great representation of my work when I’m having fun and floating on autopilot. Tracking my stats went from frustrating to habitual, and the artwork flowed out of my pen without any preconceived plans. I have to say, as time-consuming as this report was, creating something solely for fun and experimentation was worth every minute.

Here are some modifications I would make for next time:

• More specific music categories (“alternative” is somewhat of a catch-all, and I think my tastes could be better represented)
• Better stats on TV usage
• Tracking on grilled cheese consumption

My plan is to put the stats on hold for another three months and then pick this up as a quarterly project. I’m interested to see how the results change based on seasons/conditions. Whether I actually continue this in the future is in the air yet, but regardless, I’m happy I took the time to devote my attention to some design work that is completely uninhibited. Very rewarding, indeed.

Here are the spreads and stats (click each image to see the full page):

The start of a new year brings the start of exciting personal projects. First on deck: The AK Experiment.

Nicholas Felton has been creating some unbelievably awesome annual reports based on his day-to-day activities. I’ve been toying with the idea of designing my own for awhile now, but I never found the right opportunity to sit down and properly plan out the project. So, I thought: What better time to begin my own than at the start of a new decade?

Since I’ve never designed an annual report before–and since I’ve never shown signs of OCD–the documentation, calculation, and design of this entire report will be a challenge. In the meantime, I’ve developed an inventory sheet to fill out on a daily basis. At the end of each month, I will design a new report based on my findings.

My project will be less detailed in the travel department (as I don’t have a pedometer, nor do I travel extensively) and more so in the realm of technology (texts, tweets, emails, etc). This will be an interesting way to learn more about myself and about the design of information graphics. Plus, it gives me a good excuse to work consistently on at least one of my own for-fun projects.

Look for the first AK report in 29 days. I may toss in an update or two on this project before then. Only time will tell…

Happy 2010, everybody. I hope you are as stoked about the fresh new year as I am!

My print project at work today was dynamite. Check it.
(the pics might be a bit fugly, thanks to the incapable PC I’m working on)

It was somewhat of an experiment, because there isn’t much overprinting done with soft tint inks (the gold and blue you see here). I was encouraged to push this one to the limit, so there’s a metallic silver for the first layer, and the colored inks were printed on top of it. It turned out surprisingly well. There’s a really slick green color when the gold/blue mixed, and I ended up with a six-color piece from three inks. Pretty badass.

My regret is that I only printed on one dark garment; it’s amazing how different the results were. Everywhere the color overlaps the metallic? Hotness.

So, yeah! Overall success. If you want a women’s tee (size small or medium), I have a few extras to get off my hands. Or perhaps I’ll just keep them all…