Albert Einstein once said, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” I’m going to do something stupid and reveal all my sources of inspiration for the piece (my costume) to demystify it and prove that i’m not as creative as I appear…

Many people have been asking me where i got my inspiration for the pyramid.

The first thing that you need to know about me is that I am a graphic designer. I love design and everything art related. The second thing you need to know is that I am obsessed with triangles and pyramids for a few reasons.

1) the bands I admire use pyramids in their designs. Daft Punk, Arcade Fire, YACHT. Beck. they all use triangles and pyramids.

2) the egyptians were awesome. The pyramids are a wonder of human achievement.

3) the free masons (the founders of our country) used the pyramids in their designs. The all-seeing eye? anyone?

4) in physics, three is the least amounts of points needed to make a structure sound. The pyramid is the most basic 3D shape possible. This hints at minimalism… which i love.

5) In Christianity, the Trinity is the representation of all who God is.

That’s all the reasons why pyramids, triangles, and the number 3 is awesome… Here are some awesome designs that use triangles and pyramids:

(images found from ffffound.com)

Thanks for reading. Hope you were able to share in my obsession with pyramids this halloween!

Hey look someone is doing something similar to “Be excited.”

So this is it. My dream of throwing a headphone dance party is coming through fruition. We are going to be having it at the Habit in Granary square. I hope a lot of people come out. It should be hilarious.

We have an awesome DJ making a mix. His name is Andres Sev7n and he has mad skills as a DJ.

I’m also going to be on a internet radio program to advertise the party.
Sammy and I just choreographed a promo for the event, we’re going to record ourselves tomorrow morning.

So if you’re in the area on Sept. 19th you should come out with your ipod and dancing shoes!!!

here’s the link to the facebook event.

This time I’m working from the fliers up. Before, I used to work from poster down. But i figure, since the flier is going to be seen and distributed more, I should put more effort into that. The difference between the flier and the poster is that the poster is a full 8.5in by 11in page, while the flier is a 5.5in by 8.5. In other words, they aren’t proportionate.

I’m going to show you my thought process. AND SOME PICTURES! i know you all love pictures.

Here we go:

I must apologize for some of the images that are in this post. Some of them… actually one of them is very gross and work that i did before I knew anything about graphic design. This is the first Thanksgiving dinner poster I made for my church:It’s pretty bad. Copperplate is the most overused font and it makes no sense being used here… It’s horrible and ugly… I must say. But then we get to last year’s poster… This is after I took my typography class and learned all about type and how to use it:

I like this one… it is a thousand times better than the first one… but the hierarchy is kind of weird. I can’t really tell how I would read it if it were my first time reading it. I think my eye would go to the image of the turkey first then read thanksgiving dinner. Then when you get to the address and date… you’re not really sure what to read or which one is more important. I think it should be read… date then address but it’s just kind of weird going back up to read the address. then back down to read that “dinner starts at 5:30…”. I’m also not sure about the font for “Thanksgiving Dinner” it’s a bit boring. That type works well for paragraphs of text but it looks pretty weird as a title.

Anyway. that’s my critique of my own work from last year.

Now on to this year!!!

Coming into this I knew that I wanted something edgier and more “in your face.” Something humorous like the little “it’s FREE” coming from the turkey would be nice too.

Well here’s where i started:

I’m not sure what it reminds me of… (computer icons maybe?) but i took almost everything from last years poster. I fixed everything that I didn’t like about last years poster but my mom and brother didn’t really like it. Maybe it was the split between Thanks and Giving but they weren’t digging it.

So i played around somemore. That’s when i realized that these were supposed to be invitations… or they could be used as invitations. And invitations aren’t poster size, they are envelope size. so I switched my thinking to focus on the flier more than the poster and that’s when I came up with this:

YUmmy yummy white space. I really like this but it needed something thanksgiving-y to set it off. So i tried to think of ways i could use a turkey and my instincts just told me i needed a giant one!! so i drew it:

it’s totally Wallace and Gromit-y!!! (and a cannibal apparently) I was kind of afraid that people might look at the turkey first before thanksgiving dinner so i made another change…

Now thanksgiving dinner will definitely be read first. And then the little tongue joke reads better.

So that’s where I am right now. Tell me what you think about any of the designs. I’m planning on cleaning up the turkey and playing around with its color… even though the flier is going to be in black and white… I also want to put a knife and fork in the turkey’s hands… hahaha we’ll see how those both will come out. Thanks for checking this stuff out.

-Justin.

Here are the two paintings I’m showcasing and a short description of each.

1) Celebration Of The Bee

This painting is my little tribute to the bee, that lil bug that makes delicious tasting honey. I admire bees for their ability to work together as a hive. We often think of humans as the only species capable of communication but bees are industrious and have a way of creating wondrous works of architecture through team work. But not all is perfect in the bee world. As many news outlets have reported the bees are disappearing. Without bees, there’s no more flowers and who wants to be in a world without flowers? LONG LIVE THE BEES!!!

2) Life Goes On

In this painting I was exploring the ideas of life and death. The title is “Life Goes On” and I find it somewhat beautiful that life on earth will continue even after I die. I also find it pertinent that the scene takes place in an underwater Egypt because the Egyptians were obsessed with the after life. This may seem a bit morbid, but I believe there is a peace that death will bring, and that is what I was trying to capture.

Please if you haven’t checked these two painting out in person, please visit The Town Grind.

It will be up this month and this month only. Also, I’m planning on selling both of them so please come check them out!

Thanks,

Justin.

p.s. If you want to buy one of the paintings please e-mail me at justinmiyamoto@gmail.com.

p.p.s. to see more of my art visit my flickr.

Tell me if you want to be apart of my experiment!

I’ve been writing music lately. And that brings me precisely to the reason i need to be writing more. I’m planning on joining a band in which i will contribute my guitar/vocal/lyrical talents. And I’d like to get some fresh song lyrics floating around in that brain of mine.

I’m taking a US History class and it is as boring as ever. I actually have a test in two days. That’s about it.

Take care world!

-Justin

I’ve already been clubbing 3 times this year!!! I went clubbing again last Friday and I think i’m good for the next few months. I love dancing. It’s so freeing to just dance to the beat and get that itch out of your system. To lose yourself to the music and creatively come up with ways to contort your body to the beat.

That girl next to me here is Stephanie Kim. She is my best friend and it was her birthday on Friday. She’s super cool. I don’t know what to say in these things anymore. So I’ll leave it at that.

-justin.

———-
I love meeting new people. That’s what this is about…
it’s not very good but it talks about how I felt during a time when I first met her. I didn’t know anything about her and there was so much mystery. I loved it.

and now I miss it.

I wish it could of lasted forever…
but nothing gold can stay…

ponyboy.