Some that never made it to the league..

So far I have only made these posts about the graphics i’ve made that got a response. But I did make a few, a few that I am damned proud of, that never got a response. So I will include those here and give some details on them.

To preface this, I am not upset these individuals didn’t respond, I know that I am not entitled to anything. I just want to include the images here so someone can see them.

Allbirds:

I am sure most of you know what allbirds are, they are a shoe and clothing company that prides itself on being sustainable. Go here to see what they are doing to be more environmentally friendly. The truth is that the garment/fashion industry contributes more waste to the world than most other producers. From the ground up the industry is basically designed to pollute. So a company trying to take steps to mitigate their impact is always a welcome sign. Although, I do not know firsthand if they truly are taking these steps, or just virtue signaling. but, I will gas them up and say good on y’all. I imagine producing garments in a less harmful fashion is a pricey procedure, and their products are not too outrageously priced. One thing they do offer is that their shoes are machine washable, so their lifespan is far greater than an average shoe that might end up in the trash someplace.

Now I don’t own anything from them personally. I only got the idea to make this little ad because my fiancée was wearing a pair and she was bragging about how “cool” they were. To me, a flat is a flat. I have been a part of the dangerously polluted sneaker world my whole life, until recently. I have gotten into the train of thought that all you need is one pair of shoes, but they better be a good pair. I am not sure a pair of allbirds are what my feet need, but some people will find it fits their toes just right…

I made this, its just their script logo, their little bird, and a geometric person wearing their shoes surrounded by allbirds in a bunch of different languages. I was trying to convey that their passion for being more sustainable was a mission for the whole world. No matter who you are, helping cut back on pollutants will not only help your life, but the life of people across the world.

Well I sent it to them on insta and got left on read…

Gavko:

Gavko is a custom knife company, well actually I believe its just one man in a shed in Florida. The man, Michal Gavac, started to manufacture folding knives that are insanely detailed and beautiful to look at. I cannot find much about the man on the internet, I would interview him if he ever responded to me… I digress, for anyone that doesn’t know, one of my hobbies is collecting folding knives that often cost entirely obscene amounts of money.

And yes, I know above I was talking about sustainable products, I actually am not aware how harmful the production of knives is to the world. But I assume that the extraction of ore and the refining of such materials are quite damaging. I try to purchase knives that I know likely had the least impact, such as ones made in the USA, or by an individual and not mass made.

Gavkos, his custom knives, are made in a shed in the woods in Florida, so I would say that’s a small impact. Although he has used some of his designs with mass making companies.

Most of his knife designs are inspired by sharks, this is where I got the idea for the graphics I made. He has a design called the rocky great white. Basically it has an aggressive shape with a texture handle. and thus, I thought of this first. the knife looks like the one In the photo.

But I got half way done and thought of something better.

I sent these over to him and never got a response. I still had a great time making them though.

Tactile Turn

A pen is the coolest thing that anyone can own. Now if you’re like me, you have probably gone through 30,403 plastic pens in your life and contributed to the massive pollution problems of the world. Kidding aside, a good pen is worthwhile, one that can live in your pocket and help you day to day will do more good for you and the world than you’re aware.

Tactile Turn makes pens that are life long friends. They machine them in the USA, right in Texas. For me, a USA made product is always worth paying a little more for, a “little” in this case is a bit of a reach. Normal pens will run you a couple bucks, and do all a pen can. Tactile turn’s pen starts at $99. for a pen that seems pricey.

But you truly get what you pay for, and tactile turn has never offered to pay me to gas them up, I am still waiting for that. My first pen from them was one machine from copper. If you aren’t aware, copper is a pretty unique material to make pens from. Just like a penny, it gains a certain smell that you seem to love or hate, I enjoy it. It will also gain a patina, so over time it will look more and more unique. Copper also makes this one pen weigh about as much as 15 plastic ones.

Another interesting thing about their pens are their mechanisms for deploying the pen, they offer side click and bolt action. I chose a bolt action one because fidgeting with it makes me happy. Although I am sure the noise it makes drives some people in my life crazy..

I truly enjoy everything that makes my pen special, I would buy it over again if I needed to. I won’t ever need to though. I have had this pen for over a year and never come close to losing it. The sense of value it holds makes me want to use it and keep track of it. Not that I was wasting pens beforehand, but with the tactile turn pen I don’t think I will need to buy a plastic one again.

So this brings me to the ad I made! I had the idea that anything in life can come from the tip of a pen. Ideas are solidified with someone using a pen to get their ideas out. Creative minds use ink to bring works of art to life. Important moments in your life will take place at the end of a pen. School work, puzzles, doodling, clicking, inventing, drafting, writing novels, literally anything can be done. The connection between the mind and the world.

alas, my idea in a gif form. It is an animated picture of my pen.

I have never made a gif before, so I admit it is sort of clunky. I do like it though. I think it brings my idea to life and illustrates my concept.

I logged onto instagram to send it over to tactile turn to see if they liked it. Turns out I forgot that you can’t send a custom gif via messages on insta, so I figure some way to send it. Too bad tactile turn doesn’t accept messages…

Fast forward a week and I decided to just make a post with this image, a still shot of just the top portion, and I tagged them. I noticed 4 hours later that they liked the image and added it to their story. I do appreciate it, and I am excited that they liked it to some degree. I would have liked a message before they just posted it, but oh well, I literally just randomly sent them a gif.

To end, I think this may be my favorite thing I have made so far.

Enlightened Equipment.

This company I have known about for a long while, they make very high quality quilts and jackets for backpackers, or really anyone who likes to get out into nature and be all warm and cozy. Preface, I don’t actually own anything from them as of yet, personally I hate being warm, unless my feet get cold. I am in the market for a new quilt, so maybe I will be purchasing from them soon!

Anyways, why am I here? I happened to see a jacket they recently released, The Torrid Pullover, its a pretty slick jacket that I could see myself in one day if the ice age comes back. Now what got me interested was the feature they call the marsupial Pouch, the pocket at the belly, now why this interested me is up for you to think about. But I thought about opossums living in the pocket. So I made that image.

Okay, now I know opossums are kind of like big tree rats that are lazy and trying to die. But they can be cute, just google baby possums. Anyways, this is the thing I made after seeing the jacket and thinking about marsupials. Although I don’t really remember how the toad made it in there, I like to think that a opossum momma might adopt a loner toad and raise them. But toads are schemers, so prolly not a good idea on the opossums part.

Again. As an avid hiker, I do think that this jacket would serve very well. When backpacking with a full zip jacket, nothing is more annoying than one side getting stuck behind your backpack strap, or fidgeting with zippers with gloves or icy hands. So naturally A partial zip makes a lot of sense.

If you buy one, put a opossum or toad in it and let me know if they like it. I sent this picture to Enlightened Equipment on Instagram, and actually did get a little response, so that was fun.

I do this almost purely for the fun, and I do enjoy getting some little validation from these brands or companies that I appreciate. At the end of the day, if some big company doesn’t have the heart to at least notice something a fan does, then maybe they have lost touch with the people that helped them get to where they are.

I do know that this whole post has been very weird and technically dumb. But sometimes I enjoy writing stream of conscious. Hope you enjoyed.

NorthEast Oddities

This one is admittedly an odd one, even for me. For those that don’t know me well, I do enjoy to fidget with whatever I have in my pockets, whether that be a pen or a knife most days. My pen can be a nuisance to some so I avoid clicking it, and my knife, well some people don’t enjoy seeing someone play with a knife. So randomly on Instagram I came across this neat little fidget thing that a creator makes and sells. The page is NorthEast Oddities and you can click the photo below to get to his instagram.

Now, I know, this is a weird little thing to carry around with you. But it is pretty neat. Where a gameboy has a cartridge this has another piece that can be moved around and fidgeted with. Plus it just reminds me of my youth where I wouldn’t be caught dead without my gameboy, obviously playing Pokemon or whatever. The whole thing is pretty incredible to me, I enjoy metal, gameboys and fidgeting, so for me, it makes perfect sense. Only problem is that this is one dude that makes these and that equates to supply issues, thus, sadly, unfortunately, sadly again, I have not been able to come close to getting one of these bad boys. However, I did make a cool little gif to send to the man making these, purely as a fun little nod to my past.

The real thing does move like this, but it doesn’t come with the rude little picture on it. I just thought that a funny picture would make someone happy, I know it makes me giggle still. Anyways, I sent this over to him on Insta, technical issues made it not send as a gif, so embarrassing I had to send several photos, mostly just the one with the cheeks on display. Man did respond.

The man seemed to think it was a pretty cool little piece of pikachu, he even shared the image in his story. Sadly no-one came to my page and offered me millions of dollars to make them cool pictures, but ehh. Im happy that this creator liked the gif. That was what I was aiming for.

Honestly this brings me to another thought, how jealous I am of this creator and people like them. They get to make this physical things that can bring people joy or some utility. If I could somehow learn to manufacture items of use, prolly not useful to everyone, I would open up shop and create whatever it was to the best of my ability. Maybe one day.

Dunsmuir

Ever since I moved to Dunsmuir I have wanted to make a logo or an ad for the town. I still want to make a more complicated and detailed ad, but I have made a couple quick logos. I thought something simple would look the best. Dunsmuir is known for trains, clean water, and wildlife. These all are nice areas to explore in a design.

The add I want to make involves the downtown and one of the local waterfalls that draw people in from all over the state. I haven’t had any luck in getting it to look any good. Ideally I would love to be involved in some way to get more people to visit Dunsmuir and help make it an all around better place for locals and tourists.

So anyways, The first little logo that I came up with was a fish, since some of the best fishing in CALIFORNIA IS HERE IN DUNSMUIR.

I DON’T HATE OR LOVE THIS FISH, I GUESS IT WORKS, BUT THERE IS SOMETHING I REALLY DON’T CARE FOR. SO MOVING ON FROM FISH I THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT OTHER WILDLIFE IN DUNSMUIR THAT I AM EXCITED ABOUT. OF COURSE, BEARS. IN MY TIME HERE I HAVE ONLY GOTTEN TO SEE A SINGLE BEAR, BUT IT WAS MAGICAL. SO FROM THE IDEA OF A BEAR, I WORKED UP A LITTLE BEAR VERSION OF THE ABOVE FISH!

I REALLY LIKE THIS BEAR ONE, I THINK IT WORKS MUCH BETTER THAN THE FISH DOES, AND IT IS MUCH MORE SIMPLE. THIS BEAR REMINDS ME OF THE ONE I SAW, EXCEPT IT WASN’T LOOKING FOR MY TRASH CAN.

I THINK WITH THE SUMMER COMING ON I WILL HAVE MORE INSPIRATION TO MAKE A FULL ON AD FOR DUNSMUIR, THE TOWN REALLY LIGHTENS UP AND COMES ALIVE WHEN THE WEATHER IS NICE. THERE IS SO MUCH TO APPRECIATE ABOUT GETTING TO LIVE IN SUCH A BEAUTIFUL AREA OF THE WORLD, I JUST WANT TO BE ABLE TO CONVEY THAT TO SOME OF YALL.

Bad Agnes

So my first stab at this idea is with an outdoors brand that I have enjoyed for years. Actually it was one of the first brands that I tried out when I started to get into backpacking. If you don’t know anything about Big Agnes, they’re a great company based out of Colorado, so they have a pretty good idea of what outdoor enthusiasts need in a product! Check them out, www.bigagnes.com, I am obviously not sponsored in any way, unless they want to pay me!

Anyways, I was just thinking about sleeping bags and how some people that never go hiking/camping seem to actually own them. Logically I started to think why? Maybe they like the way they feel, maybe a bag is their only means of warmth, but maybe, just maybe, it’s something more interesting.

So there is my final idea. In all of its glory and splendor. On one side a man kicked out of his home, retreating to the comfort of a sleeping bag on the lawn that he once claimed his own. The other side, a Kafka inspired, weirdo man using a sleeping bag to make his transition into a giant beetle.

Now yes, this is a bad ad for a business, people usually don’t turn into beetle. And people being kicked out often sleep further from their heartbreak. But I think its funny, and it would sell me a sleeping bag if I had any interest in being a beetle.

So I took the next step, I got on instagram planning to message this ad to their page. Embarrassingly, I didn’t follow them already. I follow, I send the ad. No response for a few days, I am in shambles, how can they not like me? But alas.

in summary, they sent a heart. Look at that, they do indeed love me, please keep an eye on my resume because I will be adding this to my references.

I had a lot of fun coming up with this whacky image and putting this together. I appreciate anyone taking a look at it, and if you like it, cool, if you hate it, cool. I like it.