New Print -- Revolution

My latest print design, entitled Revolution. The centerpiece and inspiration for this design comes from the antique Rollieflex camera. I wanted to pay homage to the antiquity of photography, one of the newest, yet most popular current art forms. The orange coloring of the camera was inspired by the French style of painting where an outline was painted onto the canvas at first and colored later by an imprecise wash. I used a sans font for the main title, with modification, and mirrored it. My idea, upon creation, was to submit this to several different magazines and hopefully it will get picked up and published; if anyone knows of a particular magazine that hosts this type of work, I would be pleased to hear from you.

Solo Archive Work -- 1

Like I said in the website update post, when I went with my all-new web design, I opted not to display many of my old works and instead focused on a select few of my best. Instead of featuring those old pieces in my portfolio, I decided to post a few of them periodically on the blog for anyone who is still interested in viewing them. The first post will be from a layout collection I call Isolated Dreams. This is actually one of the few that got chosen to stay on my portfolio page, but I only display one of the five layouts that were originally designed. Anyway, the layouts were basically just a lesson for me and haven't served any commercial purpose... I was studying Build and Muller a lot at the time of creation which is most likely evident. Hope you like them, any comments would be fantastic.

Image of the Week -- Wk. 3

Image of the Week, wk. 3. This shot was taken at a resort I stayed at on the Mayan Riviera in Mexico last year. The resort had its own marina where there were dolphins, seals, manatees and other aquatic life that you could view or interact with. You could pay to swim with this dolphin but I didn't find out that the facility had such offerings until the last day I was there, and it was to late... At least I was able to watch them for a while and get a few good shots with my Lomo. Shot with Fuji 100 speed Supera.

Prefab Homes, Part 2 -- M-CH

Another week has past (a little over a week, actually) and I am ready to delve a little deeper into the topic of prefabrication. Last week I discussed the rather spacious, English made M-House. This week I want to discuss a much more compact, but even more efficient living space: the m-ch (or micro compact home). The m-ch was designed by Richard Horden and can be viewed in person at the O2 student village, Technical University of Munich. The m-ch is 2.6m cube with ceilings at around 2m. It is said that the m-ch was designed as an answer to an increasing demand for short stay living for students, business people, sports and leisure use and for weekenders. Its design has been informed by the classic scale and order of a Japanese tea-house, combined with advanced concepts and technologies. Living in an m-ch means focusing on the essential - less is more. This is a principle I couldn't agree more with... Our houses today are generally built to accommodate so much excess that it is outrageous. I love the sleek style and design and how efficient it is (including two double beds, kitchen area, fridge/freezer, etc.) Yet it remains to be seen if someone could actually abide living in such a confined space for an extended period; and it seems to be a bit pricey for get-away retreat at around 37,000 euros... at least on my budget.

Image of the Week -- Wk. 2

Image of the Week, wk. 2. This is a shot of the grill on an old Chevrolet truck that has been sitting behind my family's barn for about 30 years. Needless to say, it is becoming infused with the ground and plant life around it. The shot was taken with my Lomo LC-A+ with 100 speed Lomography film? or whatever film it is that they ship with the camera... It was one of the first pictures I took with the Lomo.

Website Update

I have just recently finished and published my new website. It is a completely new design and now features a blog section (which also serves as my new front page). I have also cut out a lot of my older designs, photographs, etc. and only kept what I feel is some of the best works (no more than six works per section). Anyway, if you get a chance, take a look at the new design and let me know what you think. Since I have taken off a lot of my old work, I will be posting it periodically on this blog for anyone who still may want to look at it.

New Shirt Designs Released!

I recently released a new series of shirts on my RedBubble shop front. I have been studying logos and symbols a lot lately, therefore I decided to create symbols for the Earth's elements, including earth, wind, fire, and water; I also have one that features all the elements. I think that the elements kind of symbolize personality traits in a way (fire representing someone who is very passionate, etc.) so I feel like they should have pretty good consumer appeal. Head over to the shop to check them out and let me know what you think!

Prefab Homes, Part 1 -- M-House

Architecture is something that has always been intriguing to me, though to be honest, I have never really given prefabrication much thought... until now. I was searching for modern home architecture and ran across a site that linked to several different modern, prefabricated home manufactures. Upon examination I was really intrigued about the prospect of prefab. It's quick, simple, modern, inexpensive for the most part and very efficient. The design I wanted to talk about first is the English-made M-House. The m-house is technically a caravan (or trailer) which allows it to be placed in a larger array of locations with lower restrictions (it even floats). With over 1000 sq. ft. of living space, the m-house has all the amenities you would expect in any contemporary housing configuration. The external finishing is done in a futuristic looking aluminum that really sets the house off. Anyone have any experience with these or seen them in person. I wonder what kind of foundation they require (if any)? I will continue to do some research on the m-house and update this blog as new information becomes available. Next week I plan on talking about another type of prefabricated home. Until then...

Welcome to the DesignbySolo Blog -- New

I recently decided to add a blog to compliment my website in order to bring up some points about interesting design, get some exposure and hopefully make some new friends. I also wanted to transform my solely portfolio based website into something more, something that gets updated more often and inspires revisiting and fresh traffic. Hope you like whats to come, I'll try and keep things as fresh as possible. Also, I am always open to suggestions and am new to blogging so any advice is appreciated.

DesignbySolo T-Shirts Now Available!!

I recently opened up a custom t-shirt line available on the RedBubble website. Pictured above is the Japanese Koi design. Visit the DesignbySolo Shop for this and many other designs. All t-shirts are printed on American Apparel shirts with Direct-to-Garment, high quality printing.

Image of the Week -- Wk. 1

This is the first Image of the Week on this blog. It is an unfocused image of a small puppy taken with my Lomo LC-A+ camera using iso100 Fuji Supera Film. Let me know what you think.