“Blog on a consistent basis, if it’s one time a week, then make sure you do it…”

In reading that, it seemed easy enough – but nope! Anyhow, it’s retarded for me to even blog about blogging (no offense to the retards who read my blog). I’ve been so busy doing that I haven’t had time to really tell about any of it – so here goes.

Wait! I have to share this video from Home Skillet Fest - I think it’s rad.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ok, here goes…

Nike

I do a lot of work for Nike, a lot… So much that I have had to build a team of very talented individuals to compensate for my lack of bandwidth. I can’t really say what we are working on currently but I can say what we have worked on in the past.

We launched nikecorre.com about a month ago and sportchangemakers.net a few months before that. Now we are working on managing both of these sites and doing consulting for a few bigger projects (I can’t name them and I won’t!). It’s been an amazing ride working with one of the most globally recognized brands in the world – I truly love it.

The stuff we are working on currently gets me all hyped up – I can’t wait to launch! Of course some of it will be over the course of a month, some of it all the way into January. Seems like awhile, but some of the stuff is really ambitious – we are learning how to, “Just Do It.”

Rahzel Live!

This is a project that came out of left field, but also one I couldn’t refuse. Working with Rahzel to help build him a site where he could manage all his merchandise and digital downloads has been a fun experience – the guy is the KING of beatboxing and I have been a fan since, “If Your Mother Only Knew.” This should drop soon as well.

Home Skillet Fest ’08

In another life I used to be a commercial fisherman in Alaska and it was around this same time that I co-founded a record label called Home Skillet Records. About three years ago we started throwing an annual music festival in Sitka, Alaska called……Home Skillet Fest (we’re kind of a one-trick pony). We just wrapped up this year’s show and this had to of been my favorite year. We were well organized, we had tons of merchandise, and we put a little money back into the label – that was our goal. If you follow this sob-story of a blog, you may remember my last post that was questioning the whole project. I am over that now – the festival is a great thing and my hometown is truly a special place. 

For the first time I walked away from Home Skillet Fest stoked and ready to build the momentum for next year. It’s turned into a family project for me, with both my parents and older sister helping with the organizing – it made it so much better. In having such a solid team in PDX I was able to call on people to help with design work – which is good because I’m really only decent at web design, the print world is perplexing.

Wrap Up

All in all business is good and growing. Our team is rad. I am getting married in September. My set didn’t suck at Home Skillet Fest. I am running for my health, so I feel better, AND…

…I am more happy now than I have ever been in my life. I think I am ok with that too – it’s ok to be happy for once.

Don’t get me wrong, this catalog isn’t horrible. I am happy to say it was a good first attempt. Along the way I got to increase my CS3 sweet chops and learn a new program (InDesign) which I had never used before. HomeSkillet Fest, which I co-founded, is always a chance for me to branch out and learn something new. I think it’s important to have not only client projects, but your own projects as well.

This was just the cover of 16 pages of sponsorship/schedule/show info goodness. It took me a long time to get through it. By the end I was really burned out, but am happy with everything for the most part.

What you don’t see is all of the “experimentation/bad” ideas I laid to rest. I am a huge fan of peer review and upon bouncing this off a few of my designer friends, there were a lot of things that needed changing.

On top of this catalog there is:

A website
Tickets
Posters
T-shirts

Luckily I had help from some friends.

Check out the Catalog
Check out the Event

One might think this would be an easy trip at 1:30 in the afternoon, nope! Let’s start with the first stop on the agenda, the auto shop. I’m not going to name name’s as my fiancee’s cousin works there and they’ve been good about the situation as-so-far. But I have had to bring the car BACK for the third time for the exact same problem. My POS Jeep can’t seem to get fixed. This last time they had the car while I was in Alaska! Two Weeks! Today I picked it up, I was weary of it working at all.

It got to the Apple Store fine, I purchased my iPhone and was back in it in a matter of minutes. On the way back through Portland, I started noticing that familiar smell of burning rear differential. I was at a fork in the road where I could either turn right and go home, or turn left and head to the auto shop. I opted for the autoshop.

By the time I got there, not only was the car smoking profusely, it was also making bad sounds. I can’t really explain it other than the fact it sounded like the rear axial was freezing up and breaking. I was able to pull in and get a yup, it’s broken again. I took the loner Subaru and headed back to my house, mostly irked because it was all eating into my new iPhone time.

Eventually I got home and am waiting for the number to switch with Verizon. Phone is dope so far. And I haven’t even received a call or text!!!

That was my adventurous day, pretty soon I will vow to never leave home. Too dangerous.

As with most HomeSkillet Records (the label I co-founded) projects, there are a ton of subtle things I like to hide within the design. May as well keep it interesting right?

The festival happens in July and if you have been looking for a reason to come to Sitka, Alaska, this is it. We hope to have three packed nights of people, music, and brew. Check out the site for more details.

It’s funny, I was thinking about my high school teacher who taught me basic html. I wonder what he would think now. Anyone who reads me knows I love the internet and all the barriers it is knocking down. I probably would grow up to be a soured old prick if I didn’t have things digital distribution of music.

Which brings me to HomeSkillet Fest.

We’ve had a great show up here. It is not often that a small community gets to see renowned musicians in their own backyard. We were all fortunate enough to have the other HomeSkillet Records co-founder, Nicholas Galanin, put the majority of this thing together.

We had the local artists play up until 10pm and then Jake La Botz came on. Jake is a blues musician from Los Angeles and we flew him up for a few days for the festival. It was good to be completely blown away. I think I am going to try to build him a solid css website. I haven’t talked to him about it, we’ll see.

All in all the show went well and it all reminds me I need to pick up the guitar more often than I do. I used to play four hours a day and now I design and build websites all the time. It’s all about balance and the continuing strive to maintain it.

Too many passions. (-;