Final Blog

       Well, it looks like it's finally time. I'm sure you've noticed, but I've been losing steam with these blogs recently. While a part of me does want to keep going, I feel as if doing this hasn't been benefiting me. It does not help that they're not the best at putting me out there, and I have better avenues to express my thoughts and plans. So, as the title says, this will be my final blog.

      I want to start off by apologizing to those who have read and enjoyed these blogs in the past, and continued to. I know this probably wasn't the most enlightening and entertaining thing out there, but it kept your attention for some  time.  I also want to thank you for your support, whether it had been big or small, and hope you can continue it in my other endeavors. As it stand though, this blog, as it is, won't be continued anymore.

     Going forward, I intend to use more of my social media presence that I've built to interact with my audience. Those are places where I can more easily show my portfolio, whilst also having more of a platform to speak on. On top of that, I feel I could be more genuine with my feelings, instead of forcing myself to come up with a new topic, and try to talk about it.

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    As for what happens to this blog, I guess I'll still keep it around as an archive. Maybe I'll update it once in a while with a photography collage, or some shower thoughts. Other than that, this is it. Thank you for sticking around, and I hope you check me out on my other platforms. If you do, then please, stay tuned!

Holiday Cards 2025

 

   It's that time of year again! Here are the holiday cards I have made for 2025! Hope you enjoy!

Super Bowl Commercials

    Ah the Superbowl, a proud American tradition since it's inception. An even prouder tradition however would have to be the Superbowl commercials! On one of the most watched events ever, you want to make sure your product's name leaves an impact on consumers. Adjacent to this, advertising on the event is no cheap fee; so be able to pitch something people want to invest in. So, let's use these points to better go over what makes a Superbowl commercial terrific!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia. 

      In the instance  of leaving an impression, remember that a variety of people will see this; many who don't buy the product. On the flipside, you have people who swear by the product that you'll want to entertain.  As such, one will notice these commercials being grand spectacles: Celebrity appearances, storylines built through other commercials, insane scenarios, etc. This is what helps a Superbowl commercial stand out from regular commercials, and what makes them feel like a special event. 

      Once again though, bear in mind that none of these promises means a commercial will be made. The charging fee the Superbowl has for advertisements is astronomically absurd. As such, it feels as if some Superbowl commercials feel samey nowadays; you definitely want to create something to appeal to higher-ups, but that also stands out. Also ensure to keep the budget on these commercials reasonable. Should they flop, chances are it will damage your reputation if you made a million dollar stinker.

      With those two limitations in mind, good Superbowl commercials should be easy to make. However, that isn't necessarily the case; as stated before, recent commercial tend to be a little bland. Added to that, neither issue is essentially easy to overcome. While with enough elbow grease, one could make something entertaining, it's still a challenge. However, making a quick, fun commercial is still possible, so let's not give up! Than you once again for reading, and stay tuned!

Happy Holidays 2024

    Hey everyone, happy holidays! As usual, this won't be that big of a blog, just me hoping you have a wonderful time, whatever you celebrate. I'm planning some big changes to my life, although I'm not sure how soon they'll come into effect. Whatever the case I still thank you for reading! See you next year!

Crossing Over

      In the field of graphic design, or just media in general, nothing can be more fun or challenging that a crossover. Whether it's a promotional event, or working with another artist, crossovers are sure to catch a viewer's eye! Granted, this doesn't mean they'll be an instant success. If anything, you might have made a spectacle out of a mess. This week, I want to go more in depth on this subject, and what makes a crossover work. Without further ado, let's go!

     One thing to understand about crossovers is that not everything meshes well. For example, brutal horror and children's entertainment isn't exactly a perfect idea; unless you do it ironically. Even then however, it's a thin line on how successful it will be. At the end of the day, every crossover is conceptual, and it will take a good amount of planning, agreement on both parts, and backing to put it to paper. With all of that to consider, its important that you make sure the two components can provide an idea worth investing in.

    Of course, it's one thing to come up with an interesting idea where both IPs work. It's entirely another to actually pull through, and make the idea a worthwhile watch. For example, while two popular comedies meeting up might seem like a good idea, consider what the plot would even be. Also consider things like how much representation both sides get, and how to best present it. This might seem like a mild summary, but it is a good kicking point with whatever project you wish to collaborate on.

       Finally, the main thing about a crossover is to make it fun. With all of the rules set before you, and an idea of what you want to do, now is time to just let the words and images flow! That way, when it's finally time for the audience to see it, it'll be great for them too! With all of that said, thank you for reading, and stay tuned!

Thanksgiving Photos 2024

 Hey everyone, it's a bit late, but here's this weeks' Thanksgiving photos! Enjoy!

Old and New Audiences

     It goes without saying that finding an audience can be tricky. What can be even trickier however, is choosing wether to maintain that audience, or find an entirely new one. This is a process that takes hard work and skill to pull off, but can easily be undone with a few mistakes. On the other hand, not looking at your work properly could land you with a different audience than you intended. In these cases, you have to ask yourself, 'what do I do?' Whith today's topic selected, let's get right to it.

    To start off, we need to ask, why bring this question up at all? Well, let's say you've been doing nothing but draw coffee cups for awhile, and you want to try something new. Do you plan to still satisfy your coffee cup loving audience? On top of that, are your skills tuned to drawing something like wine glasses, so you can get that audience? A bit of a strange comparison, maybe, but my point is you need to consider where you are, where you want to go, and most importantly, the poeple you meet along the way when it comes to a change like this. It does rely on the actions you want to take, after all.

      What if there is a factor beyond your control however? Let's say you write for a kid's show, and the kids grow up. Well, you can then change the show's tone, and tackle topics that they might start relating to as they grow older; on the other hand, you could just adapt your style to write for a new generation of kids. The same can be said about bringing up nostalgia and newer characters, trying to entertain a crowd you lost or entertaining a new crowd, etc. There's pros and cons to both sides, and no situation is going to be similar. The decision still has to be made, and chances are, you may or may not have a hand in it, so pay attention.

    In the end, the answer on what you do about your audience is a tricky one. Circumstances will always put you in a situation, and you must respond to it. Think of it like working for a client's needs, except that client is made up of several opinions and tastes; which you will need to pick through. With all of that said, thank you so much for reading, and stay tuned!

Follow-ups

      It's  never easy to follow up a previous work. A good amount of expectations are going to be on your shoulders to deliver something great, if not better than the original. However, there's also going to be doubts if the product can even live up to the original, let alone be seen in a favorable light. In a sense, I feel some of those expectations myself, considering this blog is a follow up to another.

       Last time, I went over how there's always room for improvement to a product. This time however, I want to go over different ways someone could follow up a product. Be it a sequel to a movie from years ago, a spinoff of a large franchise, or maybe even a remake.

        For starters, what is the route you want to go for your follow up? Is there a specific character you want to build on for a story, or maybe a new motivation for your characters? If it's a remake, do you plan on being faithful, or switching genres completely? This is of course, factoring things in like time constraints, funding, and audience desires. As a result, the follow up you craft should, in a coincidental  sense, be like choosing a path down a trail; what's going to work best for you, but also keep you where you need to go?

      Of course, there is still the expectations you need to worry about. To reiterate, audiences can either hold your potential on too high of a pedestal, or not be willing to give it a chance. Unfortunately, I can't really say wether or not there's a right answer here; I understand the desire to impress with a grander scale, but I also feel its ok to temper you're expectations. The most I can say is 'compromise with the audience and creators.' Read the room for what the follow up will be, and set your expectations, or your skill level, to that area.

      Doing a follow up is always going to be tricky, and can make or break what you built to achieve. Whether or not you can successfully build off on previous works though, the important part is that you try. With that in mind, thank you for reading, and stay tuned.

Real Bizarre

        Sometimes marketing can get kind of bizarre. 

Image courtesy of This man.

        Now, most companies tended to play it safe nowadays,  but back then things could get really weird in how they presented the product. Granted, that is depending if the ad actually represented the product, and didn't leave you asking what you just witnessed. From ridiculous and naughty scenes like the one above, to the more accidentally terrifying, and then to the plain misleading.

       However, a part of me wishes that we still had this type of insanity in marketing. I'm not saying we should be going absolutely crazy and film babies committing war crimes, but at least come up with something memorable. As it was once described to me, 'think inside the box before coming up with the out of the box ideas'. To me, there is nothing more entertaining than controlled chaos; just tying all of the outrageous events together in a neat little package. Yes, I understand that it isn't everybody's cup of tea, but I think even then you could pull something from it.

     Another thing you could get out of these oddities was always a nice style to strive for. Uneven fonts, a mix of bright and subtle colors, unique music backing, etc. Again, it's a shame that while most advertising has taken to being safe, going out there with the ideas has left the table. There has to be a good middle ground somewhere. With that being said, thank you for reading, and stay tuned!

Designated Roles

       Everyone has a role to play in graphic design; there's always a head designer, someone in charge of audience research, someone in charge of image design, etc. However, this isn't just a topic when talking about the people of graphic design. Each element, down to the font used, can play a role. Whether this be for elements of a story, or for the organization of a store front. With our blog topic picked, let's dive into it!

      Firstly, it's important to understand the hierarchy of said roles; what do you want customers to see first? For example, in a movie poster, the role of your main image might be the main character, or a logo you want people familiar with. Another example is the role of storytelling; will it be filled by a narrator giving plenty of exposition, or visual cues along with music. Both in this case serve a similar purpose, it's just up to you as a creator to decide what you want. What fits this final product, be it commercial, book, videogame, is up for you to decide.

       Speaking of stories, each part of one has a role to play as well. We all know about the iconic 'beginning, middle, and end', but what about the stuff in between? Some chapters may play the role of exposition, giving the audience extra information on the road. Other chapters might play the role of a cool down, allowing a break between the action. Whatever  you want to tell, know your roles, because stories can be more than just those three parts.

         So now you know the roles any piece of work or media can have. From people, to tools, to words, it's a nice, lengthy list to have. As usual, thank you for reading; please remember to cast your roles right, and stay tuned!

Holiday Cards For 2024

     At long last, I have finally completed my holiday cards for this year! It took a bit longer than J wanted, but I think they're definitely something I'm proud of. Hope you enjoy!

A look back on: A look back on the strike!

       Well ladies and gentlemen, I think enough time has passed that I can talk about this again.

        As some of you may know, I have shared my opinions on the writer's and actor's strike in the past. In short, I still maintain individual artists who work on the projects for big studios deserve compensation. I do believe that it is their prerogative to stand up for themselves as well, and their right to ask for reasonable wages. Now, admittedly, my last post on this was critiquing SAG-AFTRA after they pushed for AI, and I still stand by that it was a less than stellar decision from them. As of writing, another strike is going on, this time for the videogame industry, and also lead by SAG-AFTRA. It is this writer's genuine hope that they maintain the best for the workers this time, and don't backtrack at the end. 

      With that in mind, I hops that consumers and artists alike maintain wariness, and go into this matter informed. While I do wish to trust the strike, mostly for the individuals, I do have reservations, and advise caution. However, this will probably be the last post I make on this matter. As it stands, I am mostly repeating the same points, and unless a really big development happens, I don't want to keep saying this. All I, and you dear reader, can do is stay informed. There might even be facts I don't understand right now, and I apologize if I have spread misinformation about this. 

      Once again, I ask that you stay tuned, not just to me, but to the media and creators that you have enjoyed.

Representation

       Representation in media, an ongoing struggle and issue that really shouldn't be a problem. Over the years, certain minorities were left out of shows, commercials, etc., due to the mindset of the time. Now that things have thankfully been adjusted it should be able to represent these groups, right? Well, not everything is perfect, as there are people who still complain, but there's also people who don't do a good job representing these groups. So, with the topic set, let's get right to discussing it.

      Now, A major reason representation has been a problem, hasn't just been a lack of adding a minority in. It has been a negative viewing of those minorities, portraying stereotypes and bad traits excessively.  That's why it's become important to feature people of other races, ethnicities, etc., in a better light. They are people that exist, no reason to pretend like they don't, or that they're scum.

     On the flipside, there are times when people force representation, if only to try anything get more eyes on their product. Usually these come as a result of playing up a character's traits, only for it to be no big deal. Another example is when they add a character of another race, or sexuality, and proceed to make that their entire personality without much thought into the matter. In a sense, to these people, it's just an advertisement, and they don't care about actually representing these groups in a natural manner. This is something that should be best avoided, should you actually care about the minorities. 

      The best way to include minorities, in my opinion, is to actually understand and include them. They are real people, who have a had real struggles. It shouldn't be that hard to casually have them around in a setting, or to research a bit of their backstory. It's not about putting them on a pedestal and flashing them around for their color or sexuality. It's about just letting them join in, and celebrating actual accomplishments. 

    With all of that said and done, thank you for reading. I hope that my argument was strong enough, and that you stay tuned!