VOG Concert 2011 Tri Fold Program

VOG Concert 2011 Tri Fold Program (Outside), a photo by Ron San Kyuu Ban on Flickr.

This was definitely a fun project. As I do every year I get the privilege of designing the program for our annual gospel concert. This year since I was very pressed for time I had to really unleash the creativity and work fast!

VOG Concert 2011 Tri Fold Program (Inside)

As God gave me the vision for the flier and gave us the direction for the theme, a big part of putting this all together was already in place. Again, with the divine inspiration, I decided to go with the same tri fold brochure style program. In this instance, it world simulate the various maps, travel guides, and vehicle maintenance pamphlets, which ties into our main theme "I Won't Turn Back!" We're on the road with God. We have said we won't turn back. The bible is our roadmap to life. Etc. AND It also works with the key scripture in John 6:63-69. Pretty cool, huh!

So with all these in place, I merely needed to drop the info in where it needed to go. This time around I decided on doing the design and layout all in Photoshop versus InDesign. I opened the picture I took in Australia. (see the blog on that for the story), and began to play with type placement, and color. Still, there were a couple of panels that had to be addressed. For these, I remembered that while I was searching for a cool type effect to use as a possible main element for the flier, I came across another effect that I saw had potential as a good support element for this occasion. As it turns out, Abduzeedo again, provided the tutorial for the typography wallpaper technique I used here. To see how, follow this link: Typography Wallpaper

VOG Choir 2011

The last element and inspiration hit just before "zero hour", and right after I had most of the program in place. We needed a current picture to add the final touch to the work. I sent a quick text to the choir members stating that we would be taking a picture right after our final rehearsal, and I grabbed my camera gear and headed off to rehearsal. Some members couldn't make the final, and some could stay around, but with the help of my dear friend and fellow photographer John Bulwer, we rounded the choir up, played with lighting, moved furniture, placed everyone we had and took one cool picture.

The Ladies of VOG

About eight hours behind my personal schedule, ( I had a TON of other things to do for the concert AND my side hustle!) I was done with the program and ready to enjoy a bit of the rest of my day. Yogurtland with The SYDe, and my volleyball game later that evening.
At the concert, I kept getting compliments on the design and it made for a great keepsake of the powerful night we had as we sang to our 'Audience of One".

The "Classic" Fellas Shot!

VOG Concert 2011 Flier

VOG Concert 2011 Flier, a photo by Ron San Kyuu Ban on Flickr.

The OFFICIAL flier for the Voices Of Glory 2011 Gospel concert "I Won't Turn Back" utilizing original photography, and type placement and manipulation in Photoshop.

The photo was from one of the back roads we were on somewhere north of Deception Bay when the Island Breeze guys and I went pig hunting in Australia. I had stay with the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) group during my first week or so of my mission trip, and this second time was an unplanned stay for me which I thoroughly enjoyed! On the morning I was to leave, I was informed that the guys were going to hunt pigs so they could prepare a feast for the graduates of the program, so how could I NOT go? We headed out and after a couple of stops, a redirection, and a few wrong turns, we ended up at a huge farm off of an isolated road. I stepped out on to they highway and was in awe of the scenery that stretched before me. When I lined the shot up I knew I was going to have use for it some way, and in some capacity. I just had no idea it was going to be like this! Wow! Several people have even commented that this is a professional grade photo. (Technically it is, but I understood what they meant. *wink*) I mean I'm not against a company like Getty Images buying this from me or anything. *Hint Hint*

The title type treatment is a distort effect used to simulate the road paint on the highways. I used several effects and used red to add emphasis to the overall message. All in all this is definitely an image dominated flier with type as a support element.

Harvest Fest 2011 Flier and T Shirt

Harvest Fest 2011 T Shirt Design

I had fun with this design as a whole. I got to do a little research on the images, break out the olde graph paper, and then played with the placement. The style is something that is not new to me, but one that I haven't used in a while as a "finished" piece.

After a quick scan and a couple of image adjustments in Photoshop, I dropped it in Illustrator and went to work. since the T Shirt deadline was due I started that one first. Originally I converted it to the wrong live trace format which cause my progress to be slow initially, but once I figured out what I had done, I just started from the beginning (Thank God it was only black & white!) and finished it in the amount of time that I had been mucking around with the bad format.

After the T Shirt was approved, I did a colorized version for use a the flier, which was fun considering that I got to play with a full color palette. I do have a few variations that I didn't go with, but may at some point make a montage of the "prints".

Harvest Fest 2011 Flier, a photo by Ron San Kyuu Ban on Flickr.

Super Saiyan Ron Level 1

SuperSaiyanRon, a photo by Ron San Kyuu Ban on Flickr.

The Super Saiyan version of the Saiyan sketch. More fun Sketching. This is only level one, as the beard isn't super long. Ha!

Super Saiyan Ron Version 1

What if I were a Saiyan? 

I do love Akira Toriyama's legendary series Dragon Ball Z. In it the hero, Goku, belongs to a warrior race called 'Saiyans', that hail from a planet called Vegeta. Goku grows up on earth, and becomes its greatest hero, saving the planet numerous times from various villains. since this is not a blog post about Dragon Ball Z, I'll leave off with just the basics, and simply state that this drawing is a pencil sketch inspired by Toriyama's style. It's pretty rough, but has a very nice feel to it, and it may work it's way into my avatar repertoire in this state. I'm already looking to do a colorized version of it, but that'll be a drawing for another day. Till then enjoy this!

The Waffle King Logo

The Waffle King Logo, a photo by Ron San Kyuu Ban on Flickr.

I know I featured this in the previous blog post, but I just had to give it it's own 'solo shot'. I had a lot of fun with this one. I completely worked it up in Illustrator using multiple techniques to pull off the over all look. A Look worthy of a king...The Waffle King as it were.

The Return of The Waffle King -Mother's Day 2011

Official Waffle King Logo:
Tatumology Productions

It's always a fun time at Southside, and this day was no exception. Another Mother's Day was upon us, and we (The Men), were plotting to handle the breakfast duties as is our custom every Mother's Day. While they decided who was going to serve, take orders, and cook, there was no question as to whether or not The Waffle King would be making a return appearance.

This year, I had something special for the menu. Last year, I wowed the ladies with the debut of my now famous Chocolate Chip Waffles. This time, I looked to take my game up several notches. Being the food lover/ 'Foodie' that I am I had been on several of my patented Food Adventures which introduced me to all kinds of incredible eats. One particular run brought me face to face with The Buttermilk Truck and their infamous Red Velvet Pancakes.

Red Velvet Pancakes: The ButtermilkTruck

These were a very nice slice of deliciousness that got my creative mind whirling. Now. Knowing how I do love a good waffle, and how close a pancake is to a waffle, I began to wonder what it would take to get that pancake goodness in the form of a waffle.

Test Batch Batter

My thinking was this: If I could find a pancake recipe for the red velvet variety, I could at the very least tweak it and make it suitable for my waffle irons. After doing a initial search of the internet, I came across quite a few references for red velvet pancakes AND red velvet waffles. I did several scans of the found recipes, and finally decided on one that looked to be a real winner. The recipe is one by a very dynamic young lady Ms JG, and it was everything that I needed to proceed with my master plan! The Cream Cheese Butter may seem unnecessary, but the waffle will be incomplete without it, besides, It was an absolute FAVORITE of the moms and ladies when I served it up! Click This link for the recipe: Red Velvet Waffles I will admit JG, that I added one extra ingredient, a bit of something that I picked up from The Buttermilk Truck here in LA. I added chocolate chips to the mix!

Test Batch Stacks

I decided to do a test run before I unleashed the full flavor on the masses. I'll have to say, these came out pretty good. The test batch gave me a good idea about the yield, consistency, and when & how to insert those wonderful chocolate chips!

Red Velvet and Regular Waffle batter side by side

The actual run went very smoothly. I pre made the batter at home and dropped it off at the church the day before, so it would be good to go in the morning before the ladies arrived. I also made regular waffles while at the church, so I could get a good jump on the next day. I was itching to try out my new four slice belgian waffle iron by Cuisinart, but it would have to wait till the next day.

Batch one. Lookin good!

I'll have to say that I was very pleased with the results from the Cuisinart iron. My previous attempts to provide a good waffle maker for use at the church produced only cheap failures. I was looking for a multiple waffle maker with the durability and reliability of my tried and true single waffle maker by Toastmaster. Results don't lie. Cuisinart's model Rocked!

As the ladies rolled in, most initially asked for the regular waffles, but those 'in the know' requested the day's special: Red Velvet Waffles. As the first few orders went out, it didn't take long for others to recognize that there was something special going on. After all, there was a bright red spot on some plates that caused all eyes to focus in, and each brain try and comprehend what was going on. As the olfactory input reached their sensory receptors, cries for 'That Waffle' began to rise up all over hallowed Parmes Hall!

Red Velvet Waffle with Cream Cheese Butter and dusted with powdered sugar

Before long I had run out of time and waffle batter. Everyone who had one of the Red Velvet Waffles loved them, and those who didn't get one were just a bit upset that didn't know about the 'Special Menu'. The 'regular' waffles were still a hit, and some chocolate chip waffles were even made...on special request of course. Plans are already being made for next year's batch, and I even got a special request to make some for my sis Oana when I visit Brisbane next! Until then, only God knows what will be the next tour of tastiness for

 The Waffle King!

TheSYDeBonfireLogo

TheSYDeBonfireLogo, a photo by Ron San Kyuu Ban on Flickr.

Just a quick 'logo' design for the upcoming SYDe Bonfire. This was created in Photoshop using various techniques.

Twitter Cookie Party

Each month my "Taste Buds" and I have what has been dubbed as a Twitter Food Party. What generally happens is someone decides on a food, or ingredient, and then on the last Monday of the month, we share our interpretation of the topic. Fun stuff! This month's topic is Cookies, and since I have been enjoying baking cookies since I was a little guy, I was definitely all over this one!

As things turned out, during this stint of me trying to eek out a living doing freelance art and design work, I was able to catch an episode of one of Paula Deen's cooking shows. as usual, she just makes everything looks absolutely yummy! This time, I was more focused on the signature dessert. Oatmeal raisin cookies. Now the way these shows do things, they'll tease the most tantalizing parts to make sure the viewers stick around, so I had to wait to see what they were teasing about those cookies.

So, like the show, I'm gonna tease you a bit. Enjoy the process of my Twitter Cookie Party Submission!

Off to a good start

As I stated earlier, I saw this on Paula Deen. For the actual recipe, you can follow this link:

Fluffy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I did take some liberties on the recipe though, nothing too major. Since my all time favorite cookie is an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, A substitution of the chocolate chips for the raisins was called for, and since i just like what ground cloves can do, I added an eighth of a teaspoon to the mix.

Fresh from the oven

Too bad you cant smell how good these are!

Cookies are done!

This whole process was easy and fun. I adjusted the cooking time and oven tempts accordingly since our oven's thermometer had a mind of its own, and voila! Step one was done. At this point in the show, we would break for commercial, and leave you wondering what the other things in this picture have to do with this plate of golden brown deliciousness. I won't hold you in suspense that long, I'll just let your imagination do that for you as I put in a little production note: Place Commercial Here

 

Pre Production, Production, Post Production

Now here is where everything just gets all kinds of good. As I watched the show return from commercial break I saw something that was so simple, yet so awesome. The addition of chocolate sauce, nuts, and marshmallow fluff! My inner fat man was jumping for joy! So you can imagine my excitement as I set about to put it all together. It was all I could do to keep from eating the marshmallow fluff and chocolate by themselves! On the episode, Paula used a mixture of nuts, but I just stuck with my favorite, pecans.

Finished product

Beautiful production color contrast

I had to break out my big camera to take these photos. Though I love the camera on my Blackberry Tour, it just wasn't gonna do the job today!

This cookie sandwich turned out absolutely delicious! Even if you only go for the cookies themselves, this is definitely a delicious end of a meal, or just something to feed your inner fat man or your inner fat gal. It's an easy recipe, and there is a lot of room to get all kinds of crazy adding things to it. I saw some caramel chips in the store that I may have to try out on the next go round... *wink* 

Thanks for reading, and drooling!