SPEC WORK ISN’T ALL BAD. Just mostly.

Here are some follow up thoughts to my last post on SPEC WORK. Be smart with spec work. There has to be a reason why you would risk your time. Think about some of these things before getting involved.
1. IF the client sought you out and expressed a deep interest in YOUR work for a project AND that project is highly appealing to you… then you might consider it. An open invite to whoever will bite at some spec work is likely a waste of your time.
2. What are your chances of “winning” this gig? Who are you up against? Decide if your work is a good fit and if you think you can win the project, it might be worth going for it.
3. Have you done work for the industry that is requesting you work on spec? Work within an industry often lands you more work within that same industry. If you’ve been doing work for the music industry, that does not necessarily give you credibility to expect a full rate doing work for the movie industry (at first). Just ask Jeff Finley.
4.  Is the reward worth it? Only risk spec work for rewards that are worth it. Either the budget is amazing; the amount of exposure will be worth the effort; or you have a personal passion that drives you to want to land this gig.

Spec is a short term plan. You may have to break into an industry or into a job situation that way; but doing spec work will not make for a long term relationship between you and the client. It’s a temporary way for the client to receive options but what happens after that? No one in their right mind would continue a relationship full of spec work. Fool me once, shame on you. Full me twice, shame on me. Any respectable client is eventually going to realize that customer service, dependability, problem solving, consistency and relationships go much further than a random lottery pick of designs. There is so much more to a client/designer relationship than a one-off project.

VIDEO SHOOTS WITH THE CANON 7D

A month ago or so I posted a bunch of testing we did at Igniter with our new Canon 7d. The videos are finally out now and I’m happy to share them with you guys. Rob and Jeff wrote the scripts. I was the lead for the project – meaning I directed, chose actors, and established the look for the videos. David Womack was the shooter and Jenni Wright kept organized the whole thing for us so that it would be a good experience for our actors. I’ve become numb to the project at this point as I have seen it a million times. I keep noticing little things I wish I could change. Oh well. I’m pleased considering I rarely do video projects that have no motion work associated with it. I have a lot to learn about the 7d and look forward to gaining experience with it.

SPEC WORK ISN’T ALL BAD. TRUST ME.

About 8 years ago, Toby Mac was interested in hiring me as a full time designer for Gotee records. He knew I had the skills but my portfolio was much weaker back then. He asked me to create a design via spec. In my arrogance, I said, “no.” I felt that I should be paid and that my portfolio should speak for itself. I did not get the job. Fast forward to last year, I was asked to create artwork for a Wolfmother tour poster on spec. I’m not gonna lie. My stomach dropped and I received instant heart burn over the thought of it. I’ve been in the game for 10+ years now! Why should I do spec work? My portfolio speaks for itself. (Instant flashback to the incident with Toby occurred)

There is a risk to be taken with spec work. I did not take that risk years ago and the best thing I can claim is that I did not get that job. This time around, I thought about the reward if I take the risk.
Reward = I get paid to create artwork for one of my favorite bands
Risk = I loose some sleep and don’t get paid
I already know what happens if I stick to my guns and don’t do spec work. NOTHING. They’ll find someone else. Trust me.

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I took the risk. I submitted a design not knowing if I would ever get paid for it. They LOVED IT! Not only did I get paid for it, but Andrew (lead singer) asked his manager if I would work on a cover concept. Once I was in, I no longer had to work via spec. In fact, they paid me for 2 other projects – one they never even used. The spec piece I did for Wolfmother went on to win the DIGITAL ARTIST OF THE YEAR Award from Intel and Computer Arts Magazine. I took a risk knowing that the reward for landing a gig with a band of that caliber could be huge! I’m glad I did.

Later this week I will write some more thoughts on spec and the risk vs. reward aspect. Please note, spec sucks! It really does. I’m not a fan of it. But I saw a greater reward if I was willing to take the risk. It’s also worth mentioning that a few months ago I did concert visuals for Toby Mac (nearly 8 years after our original discussions and not getting the job). I did not need to do anything spec at that point. I had Lil’ Wayne, Owl City, and Wolfmother under my belt. Stay tuned for more thoughts on spec!

Here is a good video about spec from SXSW.

TEACHING AT SIMPLY YOUTH IN CHICAGO. R U WITH ME?

I’m real excited to be teaching a session at the Simply Youth Conference in Chicago along with several others from RT Creative Group. (I’m not excited that it’s in February – freezing!!!) So here’s where I need your help… It is NOT a media conference but there will be plenty of people there who are interested in learning more about media and how to get started. You may be one of them!

I’ve titled the session:
DESIGN/MEDIA TIPS & TRICKS
From small budgets to big programs, we’ll discuss creative ways to develop media for your ministry including apparel, motion graphics, video and web. Find out ways to save money while improving your media program, navigate the sea of designers and avoid some mistakes along the way.

I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU… If you are in youth ministry or just starting out and need creative ideas on how to create media, get media, inspiration, etc. What do you want to know? I’ll probably regurgitate a lot of this via the blog at some point as well so even if you aren’t going to be at the event, let me know… what you wanna know. That will help me to form the content of the session.

If you know anyone in Youth Ministry that wants to know more about this type thing… SEND THEM TO THIS POST and have them LEAVE A COMMENT. R U WITH ME? Thanks!

WARNING: Compositing secrets could destroy your reality!

This amazing video has been circulating the web for a few weeks. A breakdown of the compositing was posted and it is just as enlightening as the last video I posted about compositing. Watch and be amazed! Let me know what you think. Pretty cool, huh?

INTERVIEW AND ARTWORK FEATURED IN ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP MAGAZINE

Advanced Photoshop has a feature article spotlighting a handful of artists that use Photoshop and 3d together. I have a few of my pieces featured including one I did for the Echo Conference and one I did for Collide magazine.

In addition, I was commissioned to create the 2 page spread of artwork that opened up the article. It is a great honor to work with such an industry leading magazine. Their instructions were to keep a similar tone to the Collide piece… and to use lighting effects. I wanted to push 3d text a bit further than I have before, so I invested some time into modeling various elements for the piece.

THE ART OF COMPOSITING

My friend, Trent, showed me this video. I really felt it was blog worthy rather than just tweeting it. The video breaks down scenes and shows before and after green screen footy. It makes these shots seem so simple. I know there is an art to getting great looking compositing; but this video gives me hope that I can wrap my head around. Check it out and let me know what you think.

QUOTES TO LEARN FROM: JACK WELCH

Jack Welch was the Chairman and CEO of General Electric for 20 years or so. A while back, I heard a quote from him that has continued to stay with me. He said at General Electric,

“We cannot guarantee your employment, but we can guarantee we are making you employable.”

This quote resonates with me and I hope it’ll make you think for a moment as well. Here are some things I’ve asked myself over the years when evaluating my job:

Am I employable or have I fallen into some oddly niche job that no one else is going to pay me to do?
Keep in mind, there are seasons of life where those jobs might be exactly what you want or need to pay the bills. Just be aware of your situation because “knowing is half the battle.”

Where would I work tomorrow if something happened to my position today?
Am I good enough to do what I currently do… some where else?

What can I learn that will make me more employable?
I look for opportunities to learn on the job. It helps my employer. It helps me. It improves my work for my employer.  It’s a win win win. Find excuses to learn and implement what you have learned on the job. It’s part of being employable!

Design is such a fast moving field. Between keeping up with new software and finding new solutions, it is relatively easy to become unemployable. Be thankful if you have a job and evaluate your current status. Jobs are not guaranteed, but being employable can be.

FINDING INSPIRATION FROM MY DAUGHTER

Igniter released a new product partnering with Seeds. My instructions for the packaging were to take the look of Tracks and make it “home-spun, textured, and warm feeling.” The concept came from my 7 year old daughter! She’s always building her own crafts at home out of cardboard boxes and construction paper. It was fun to create this artwork for the cover because I kept thinking “What would Selah do?”… and then I would build it in C4d where I could experiment with camera angles, etc.

When I went to the f5 conference last year, that was something that came up a lot in the talks… find inspiration in everyday life – not on the computer. It often comes from research online but feel very authentic when I’m able to pull from something as simple as my daughter’s crafts and use it for packaging artwork.

CONCERT VISUALS USING CINEMA 4D

So here are clips from the live Toby Mac show. I created the visuals using C4d 11.5 and After Effects. Modynamics was used for some big moments in the 2nd song. The band is playing to a click track that allows the visuals to be sync’d to the beat of the music.  I’m pleased with the way it turned out. It was a fun project. If anyone wants concert visuals created, holler at me!

PHOTOSHOP AND 3D

I was commissioned by Advanced Photoshop Magazine to create a 2 page spread of artwork for this year’s Issue 65! It is an honor to create artwork for one of the industries leading magazines. It’s also out of the UK which automatically makes it even cooler! The artwork is for an article featuring artists who use 3d and Photoshop. I’m real excited to get the issue in my hands as they are showcasing several pieces of my artwork.

Last year they featured my artwork in an article about the Music Industry. READ it here.
You can also check out a tutorial I wrote for the magazine HERE.

YOUR BOX CANNOT CONTAIN STEPHEN WILTSHIRE

For some reason, human nature causes us to classify and stereotype things we don’t understand in order to feel comfortable. We force things into these stereotypes whether it is music, art, fashion, religions, personalities. If we’re not sure how to classify it, we’ll make a new classification for it (hipster). Fortunately, there are those out there that cannot be contained by the box we try to keep them in. Stephen Wiltshire is a great example of this.

As a child he was mute, and did not relate to other human beings. At age three, he was diagnosed as autistic – a brain disorder that “effects emotion, learning ability, and memory.”

It turns out, is memory is so remarkable that he gets over $100,000 for his drawings. They are extremely unique in that he is able to recreate entire cityscapes like NYC, Tokyo, London and more – all from memory after flying over them in an airplane. The drawings are accurately scaled with every detail in tact; proving that his brain functions and memorizes abnormally well.

Thank God for Stephen Wiltshire. He is truly an inspiration that cannot be contained.

2010 IS GOING TO BE A PROBLEM SOLVING YEAR!

I found this video (via Nick Campbell) of Steve Jobs describing what it was like to work with Paul Rand – the father of Graphic Design!”

I think of Paul as much as a business problem solver as I do an artist. It’s the marriage of those two things that I think are very very practical… and unique.” – Steve Jobs describing Paul Rand

This year I am going to put even more purpose into my work than ever before. Bad design occurs when a poor solution is chosen for solving a particular problem. My goal does not mean I will become more literal. Identifying the problem makes it much easier to find the appropriate solution- that may or may not involve being more literal. I can look back on some of my projects and if I get to the bottom of what truly needed to be solved, the solution should have been different. Paul Rand said that “A work of art is realized when Form and Content are indistinguishable.” When you have a purpose behind your designs, you are focused on finding the solution.

Check out this interview of Steve Jobs discussing his thoughts on working with Paul Rand:

SHATTERED DREAMS

Earlier this year I worked with Kareem Campbell to create the identity of a new company, Black Heart Skateboards. Kareem gave me total freedom to brand the company how ever I felt would reach our target in the skateboard industry. We got as far as sending all the skateboard deck designs off for production when the printer informed us there is a small, local board company in San Diego that operates under that name. We couldn’t believe it. They have NO internet presence and we even had lawyers confirm that we were OK to use the name. HOWEVER, you don’t mess with the skateboard industry, especially when it’s a company out of San Diego that seems to be loved and respected. So, our dreams of launching Black Heart shattered and all I can do is share the pieces with you here on my blog.

CANON 7D Wrap up

I wanted to post a few more links to videos filmed on the Canon 7d in case it helps you make a decision on purchasing. With the testing we’ve done at Igniter, the rolling shutter seems to cause a very jittery look at 24fps – 1080p. It is very noticeable if not on a tripod. I still think there are creative work-arounds that make it totally worth it. The professional look you get – especially in low light – is very impressive. The rolling shutter issue  is not really a problem at 30 fps or 60 fps. See the video below from R.B. Umali that demonstrates just how smooth the camera shoots in action. R.B. is a legendary skateboard filmer for Zoo York who has been filming since the early 90s. Check out his test footage using the 7d at 60 fps. Definitely nothing jittery there!

Several ABCblog readers sent me links via Twitter to check out of stuff they’ve shot with the 7d. Check them out and feel free to post questions/comments/concerns about the camera below and hopefully they are tuning in and will be able to help out.

Matthew Hawkins:
http://www.matthewahawkins.com/2009/12/16/day-16-enns-family-christmas-tree/

Matt Fogarty
http://vimeo.com/8031684

Ryan Brien
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4zyg5_zHBw

Adam Erickson
http://www.adamcerickson.com/?p=53

David Womack

http://www.vimeo.com/7565074