Dec/090
Happy Holidays!
Holiday Hugs 'n Kisses from the man stuff wrecking crew!
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Happy Holidays from Chris Gilbert Design.
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This is also a 3 foot x 4 foot poster hanging in two separate locations @ the Hillside Art Center campus.
Guerilla Marketing (Bridge @ Hillside)
Advertising Department Message Board @ Hillside Campus
Kate Stevenson poses with the Bridge poster, after drawing a mustache on me.
Dec/090
Term 1- Total Recall
So I am well and truly underway with my Art Center career. Term 1 ended, and not only is it a “job done,” but if I might be so brave, I’ll go ahead and say it was a “job well done.”
I learned so much from my classes, but even more from the experiences, and most importantly, the people. I met new friends, conversed with strangers, picked up hitch hikers, and mingled with legends. I visited museums, tried new hole in the wall restaurants, shopped for dead people stuff, and opened my home to revelry!
I have never before felt like I’ve belonged in a place and time more than right here, right now. Thanks, Art Center School.
Dec/093
Communications Design 1 Final Project
Today we debuted our final video project in our communications design class, thus bringing a close to a BEAUTIFUL chapter in my early advertising educational career.
Please enjoy this film, meant to communicate the benefits of mobile phones, responsibly.
Nov/090
Blue Man
The Artist's "Blue Period."
This is a behind the scenes look at my first video spot as an advertising design student at art center. I painted myself blue. Off to a great start.
Stay tuned…
Nov/090
New Pad
Moved the other weekend… Now in a one bedroom. The move went pretty smoothly, only one broken glass! The new place is awesome, and I have an epic patio. Also? It’s warm. A few of my friends helped me ring in the good times with a pretty fun get together, and as a result, I am now FULLY stocked with a bevy o’ beverages. Success!
Oct/090
Happenings
Playing blog catch-up because of massive schoolwork related backlog.
1. 9/26/2009- Had dinner with some lovely friends, Lesley and John Dyer, and their positively adorable son Nicholas. I had not seen them for like, 7 or 8 years, and their son was literally in Utero last time I “met” him… The best part was that we basically picked up where we left off. So much fun. Can’t wait for round two!!
2. The Dodgers won the NL West… Think Blue™.
3. The other Blues, Chelsea FC beat Liverpool 2-0. Ballin’. Take that, A.J. Howard.
4. Found out with my buddy Dan’s help that Kinkos has a machine called a “plotter” or something which can scan a document and spit out a much en-huge-ified version for like pennies on the dollar. I made some HUGE promotional signs for less than $10. Awesome. He immense-ified one of his really cool designs where he’d destructed some type. Really cool. I love Art Center kids. We basically use our downtime to party, or make personal art….
5. Scoped out a really amazing Taqueria with the same buddy, Dan.
6. Got to meet Christina, a friend of my friend Dana. She was visiting from Philly and scoping out LA before she moves out here sometime after the new year. We went out for some drinks and there was probably more but I forget! Very cool people!
7. I am finally giving up on the Roommate front, and moving into a one bedroom unit on November 7th, same complex though. The bonus? I get a huge patio. BBQ anyone?
Stay tuned for a brief retrospective of some of the things I’ve made for Art Center so far!
Sep/090
Happy Birthday, Clifford!
My father turns a year older (wiser, and more fantastic!) today. He has aged beautifully, like a fine wine. I ask my reader(s?!) to enjoy a moment of their time by living GLORIOUSLY in any manner of their chosing, but to do so in his honor. Particularly appropriate devotions might include: sampling fine wine, appreciating a stamp, making a hilarious wise-crack (I’m a chip off the old block), or engaging in a sprawling intellectual discussion about the nature of all things, history, science, music, art, or how much you regret having that huge dinner last night. Look at the stars! Sing a show tune. You will be enriched by this moment. Do it every day, but today do it up brown. For Clifford.
I will be dining with him at Le Petit Greek, on Larchmont… IT WILL BE A FEAST FIT FOR DIONYSUS HIMSELF!! Stop by if you’re in the area and bestow upon us good tidings, all manner of fine beverages, or just a smile!
I love you, Dad!
Sep/090
Way overdue Art Center appreciation post
Wow. Art Center is incredible. This post will be an uncensored love fest, so it might not be for the squeamish or faint of heart. Impressionable minors would do well to avert their gaze.
Advertising History? Bob Matsumoto is my teacher. It helps that the teacher teaching advertising history actually made advertising history himself. He also is going to get Lee Clow to come talk to us. SERIOUSLY?! Yes.
Communications design? Lou Danziger is one of my teachers? Are you freakin’ kidding me? AIGA Medalist. You can’t make this stuff up, kids. Living legend.
Design 1? Cutting out shapes, and x-actoing my finger? Check. More upset about blood on project than own bodily harm? Check… And a critical phase of the Art Center sickness. “Oh god I cut my finger horribly” is not in my lexicon, but “Shit, I actually have to redo this now… Oh well it will be better the second time around!” totally is.
Typography 2: I have done a research paper on “Clearview,” the font that is going to replace Highway gothic on roadsigns across America. The icing? I’ve been in contact with James Montalbano, the font’s lead typographer, and he gave me a free license of the font in order to complete my project… Amazing. Plus it looks halfway decent. I’m moving up in the world. The final iteration of the project will be a stunning 8 page book. Get psyched!
It just keeps getting better and better. I’m making cool work, and meeting amazing new people- In addition to reconnecting with old friends, too. Go figure! Nick Arciaga, a buddy of mine that I hadn’t really seen since middle school goes here, and we’ve already connected, had lunch, and he invited me to a party this Friday… Did I mention I love this place?
Sep/090
9/13/2009- Rose Bowl “Swap Meet”
I love looking through “dead people stuff.”
I went with my friend Dana to the Rose Bowl flea market today and it was super rad!
We found all sorts of insane Darth Vader helmets, B-Movie posters, insane trees, racist dolls, questionable apparel, $5 frozen lemonades, and tons of people single-handedly saving the scene!
I bought a sick $1 Echo and the Bunnymen LP, but most importantly, I added another Michelin Man to my Michelin man collection/Advertising Icon collection.
He is beautiful and when I get my camera out I will photograph him properly.
Lunch @ CPK. I drank literally 20 glasses of iced tea. The server was completely freaked out.
Lastly, I’m sure everybody is real keen on hearing a “first week” report from Art Center… Well I will give it to you tomorrow, because I still haven’t had all of my classes! Due to the holiday last Monday, I only had a half week. Tomorrow I will have been to all of my classes. Stay tuned, stay classy.
Sep/090
FYF Fest 09/05/2009 @ Los Angeles State Historic Park (?!) “Hipster Woodstock”
F Yeah!
This was an obscene amount of fun.
A few of Gabe’s buddies hit up my apartment and chilled for a while, and we grabbed some hot wings on Colorado Blvd., then we hopped on the Yellow line from my apartment to Chinatown to see one of the most insane lineups of music I’ve heard of in a while.
We get there to encounter a gigantic line for Will Call, but some crafty line cutting manouvres later, and finding the shorter $8 ticket line, we finally made it in.
First on our agenda was fuzzed out, psych garage, “beach punk” of Wavves. His set was short but sweet. His drummer had an epic mane of metal hair, and they were down to rock. The droney, haunting, high pitched harmony yells were a great additional texture for the songs, and the crowd was super into it!!
The next in line was to be Dan Deacon, but he canceled last minute. Shit. Oh well. He was replaced by garage punk outfit “Carbonas” who I enjoy in recorded form but the vocals seemed a bit flat live. This fact was rectified by their pretty decent musicianship. It still rocked!
We stayed at the “Oak” stage for local heroes Mika Miko, who rampaged through a frenetic, rockin’ set. One of the two female vocalists has this amazing red telephone that they have amplified, and they wail through it! One of the girls also had a lust-worthy T.V. Yellow Gibson SG!
One of the arguably best sets was next- Me and the guys pushed forward to be in the pit for my all time favorites, the Thermals. Hutch wore an amazing Sleater Kinney shirt to fully rep the Oregon vibe, and they blew us away with an incredible set full of favorites old and new. Before they launched into their first song, Hutch and I went back and forth bantering about his mic check noises. A few of my smartass replies put a smile onto his face- and he replied, kindly enough, by playing a set that put a smile on mine. The pit got pretty crazy and we kicked up a ton of dust. Dancing and singing caused a problem in that when we left the pit, my entire being was coated in a film of dust, including my mouth and teeth. Gross! Worth it.
Dazed, dazzled, and starting to feel exhausted, we boldly tread towards the “Redwood Stage” where we would ultimately finish our night.
Hardcore stalwarts, “Fucked Up” took the stage and instantly a gigantic slam dance mosh circle materialized. The brutality and violence of the music instantly transmitted to the blood/sweatsoaked crowd, and it surged out of them in an orgy of flailing bodies, human catapaultings, stage dives, and what looked to be fights. Frontman Damian Abraham’s vitrolic screams, and over the top showmanship helped make this a memorable ruckus indeed, and he had it right when he did an improvisational rap declaring the Fuck Yeah Fest “Hipster Woodstock, coz we’re playing hipster punk rock”. Impressive stuff. My ears are still ringing!
Next up for me was the night’s second biggest disappointment, following the Dan Deacon cancellation. Tim & Eric of Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job! Took to the stage amidst an atmosphere of anticipation. I find their CD pretty entertaining, but they didn’t play anything I recognized, and their presence was a bit flat. I wasn’t too sad to see their set end.
They made way for No Age, another band of LA heroes. Their set reverberated with musical skill, and there was an amazing amount of cans being used as showers… It was raining soda and cheap beer and the effect was visually stunning! They played proficiently and it was a really good set.
Finally, we pushed forward to the pit for Black Lips, which ended up being the perfect cap to a pretty perfect day! The pit became a wall of humanity that bobbed, weaved, and pulsated in unison. Crowd surfing, total loss of personal space, bumping and grinding ensured that everybody will have gotten their quota for human contact for the foreseeable future. Their set was rowdy, and totally brilliant. They played a mix of favorites spanning most of their career, and “Bad Kids” might have been track of the day. Energetic, enthusiastic, and unstoppable.
When the dust settled, we were exhausted, and we had to take a cab home because the last train had departed 5 minutes prior to us arriving at the station… But the general consensus was, that despite our exhaustion, we were sad it was over. We were thoroughly rocked.
Thanks FYF Fest, see you next year!