The Boring Stuff

So in my poor attempt to stay organized I keep all of my task on a iCal to-do list. It’s probably not the best solution but so far it’s working for me. The problem I’ve always had is, I love doing the cool stuff. Posters, shirts and series designs are more tempting then gold to me. I eventually catch up and all I’m left with is the boring stuff. Usually on the bottom of the list are things like forms, booklets, and flossing. Regardless of my likes and dislikes these tasks need to get done.

Getting through the boring stuff requires more inspiration then ColdPlay & Tomlin can offer. So I created a folder called inspiration in my mailbox where I put testimonies and encouraging notes that I’ve collected from my time at PVC. These stories do much more then motivate me to get pass the forms and paper folding, it puts everything into perspective and they remind me why I do what I do.
So how do you handle the boring stuff? What are some particle ways that help you get through the list?

GRATIS! Free Textures

Something you might not know about me is that I'm a sucker for free samples at the grocery store.  At first I was embarrassed about taking a sample and not buying the product.  But after much practice I've perfected my technique and have no shame to just walk by and snatch it. 

Well here at GRATIS it's all free.  You don't have to worry about sneaking it things out here feel free to download these textures below.  

I'm always on the look out for texture graphics so decided to grab the d200 and see what I could find around my domain.  There are a mix of textures from plant pots, palm tree bark, sidewalk and even a cinema display cloth. Enjoy  

Download Textures Here

Before&After: Mexico Outreach Booklet

My goal as a designer is to take the idea and translate it in a way that it clearly communicates the message while still keeping true to the brand.  Once a project is completed it is really easy for me to check it off and move down the ever so growing list.  Much can be learned by taking the time to pause, step back and evaluate the process from beginning to end.   

In this Before&After series I want to take the time to step back and look at where the project has come from.  

This particular piece is part of a huge project called Mexico Outreach 09.  This is our yearly outreaches that are hosted by PVC.  Several youth groups come from all over the nation to participate in mission work across the border in Reynosa, Mexico.  

Below is a resource booklet that is given to students.  It has the daily schedule, campus map, note sections, Spanish 101 page and internship advertising.

Before

The previous booklet was done in a time that we had limited resources here at PVC. However alot of time and was taken into the binding of the booklet, with a clear cover, spiral bonding and plastic book end. I decided on simplifying the process. The end product was folded and stapled and cut to bleed.  Since we do mostly everything in-house I have to keep in mind how long the process will take to finish the piece.  It is really easy as a designer to come up with creative packaging and not realize the implications it makes to the production time of the product.  I strongly believe as a designer I'm called out to not only be creative within my photoshop window but also to be creative with the resources that are available to me.

After
 

Overall I'm truly happy on how this piece turned out and have learned a great deal by stepping back and looking at the big picture of the project.  I challenge you in any work or project you may be working on to take some time, pause and look where you have come from.  

Discovery Class Design

It's feel like it's been weeks since I've designed something and feels good to get back into familiar territory.  This design is going to be the new look for PVC's growth classes.  Find out about them here.   

Tools Of The Trade!

I'm a strong believer that tools shouldn't make or break a project.  But having them sure helps.  I've been asked several times what we use to produce our printed pieces here at PVC.  These tools have helped saved time and money and are a vital part of our production.  

HP DesignJet z2100:

This bad boy is our large format printer! It prints 41 inch wide by up too 150 ft long.  We use this primarily for stage set backdrops.  We occasionally use it for large posters and displays as well.  You can easily pay $7sq.ft. at our local printing shop.  Having this in-house has brought the cost down to about $1sq.ft 

Xerox Docucolor 252

This machine is a little less then a year old.  We use this primarily for color printing of  posters, worship guides, hand outs, books and so on.  Before we got this printer it would take half a day to print our worship guides for the weekends.  Now we can get them all printed in about a hour or less.  It has a high capacity feed for large print up too 13x19 paper.  It also has a booklet finisher.  Only cons is that it's loud and hot.  We use to have it in our office and would have to have the AC pumping non stop.  

Industria 480E Paper Cutter

The newest addition to the family.  Producing anything with a bleed use to be a nightmare.  We had to take stuff to a print shop and have it cut.  After having several deadlines not met and time when the cuts were wrong we decided on getting our own machine.  After months of researching I found this cutter and it was the best product for the price.  It' cuts our 17 in. paper in 2 in. stacks.  It's a very easy to use machine.  Now we're able to turn around jobs more quickly with options of using bleed cuts.  I LOVE THIS THING!!!

Martin Yale 959 Auto Folder

Not the most glamorous of the bunch but it's another time saver.  When I got here they use to fold all worship guides by hand.  They also did perforation by hand as well.  This particular folder does double folds, perforation and even scoring.  This one is a tricky beast.  You have to look at it just right or it might jam.  But it does make it life easier.  

These are some of the tools we are using here if you have any question feel free to ask.  

Our Poor Stage In A Year

ANother year has flown by here at PVC and another is in full swing!  I just wanted to give some props to the stage crew that has been involved in stage production over the last year!  It's been a fun ride.  Here are some pics of how our stage has changed through the year.  Enjoy, and if you want take take a peek at the current set be sure to go on over to mitchisms.com.

 

Gotta Love Istock

Istockphoto.com has to be one of my biggest resources when it come down to crunch time.  Now I'm a believer of being original and taking the photo if you have the resources to do it.  But sometime there just isn't enough time.  This is where istock comes in handy.

This design below was made using the lower images off of istock.  This is a very bussy week and didn't have time to go out and take pictures or even sketchup the design.  The great thing is I can probably use these images again for something else down the road.  

Elevate Design

I had the opportunity to do some work for Elevate Worship Internship.  I've been really on a 3d kick the last couple of months.  I don't have any 3d software so I've tried to fake it as much as possible.  Here I used Illustrator to create the 3d type face and brought into photoshop and ran it through several layer effects to get the final look.  

Bring On The FooFooness

This week we finished off our "Church I See" series.  Which means a new set design this week.  Big props to Cierra for leading on this set and making it happen.  We kept the basic lighting frame and brought some old fabric we had used last year for Christmas.  Check out my flick photo-stream for more shots.  

From Sketch-up Too Sunday!

This post is part of Creative Chaos on Ragamuffinsoul.com

Yesterday we started a new series and along with that came a new set design.  The team really pulled through to make this happen and such a short turn-around.  I was really excited we stepped it up from our napkin drawings (sorry Jorge) and started using the google sketch-up application.  It's basically a very user friendly 3d sketch application.  Building our stage took a little while, but we now have a template to work with. for the future.  This really help to address issues before we even stepped foot on the stage.  

But enough of me talking check out the photos down below.  Let me know if you have any problems with the slideshow, this is the first time using slideshow app.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.