Friday, May 14, 2010

YES!!! I DID IT!

I fiiiiinally hit 40 post! It's been a long time coming lol.

YES! Business is picking up!

For the past month and a half business on two of my websites has been suuuuuper slow!!! But this past week... people have been purchasing more frequently again. I am REALLY happy about that because I gave up 3 shifts this week because I needed the time to work on some things for school... so these unexpected sales will definitely help cushion the blow of missing all those hours at work this week!

Oh for those who are interested, you can find me selling goodies at the Noir Market this summer, and you can also find some of my things at Debra Raes Boutique so make sure ya check it out :-)
LOL I love running across things i've done that I forgot about. I did this last semester. It was my very first time doing anything in illustrator. I was shocked at how goooood some people were at this! I definitely need to step my game up!

I know I know

I've been blogging a lot about this portfolio... but it's all that's been on my mind for the past few days. It's now 7:20 am ... and it is aaaaalmost over! I can't wait to start my summer! This semester was one of my hardest for sure! Especially that completeness class which I absolutely hated! I'm sorry but I just had to get that off my chest.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

I thought I would be sleep by now....

But unfortunately i'm not :-( . This old navy campaign is not going as well as i'd hoped. I'd recorded a bunch of voice clips from freinds earlier in the week but today was the first time i'd actually had time to try to sync the voice and the images together and it turned out terrible! I had to scrap all the voice clips :-( . I really wanted voice overs because I remember Will saying the all music and no speaking would not work in a commercial... but I think I am not going to have a choice I am soooo tired right now and I can't think of anything else to do. I wish I had gotten further along in the campaign earlier in the week so I would have known in advance that the voices weren't going to work :-/ oh well i'll have to improvise I guess.
Here is one ad I got done for old navy... the others 2 are still nowhere near finished but I feel my eyes getting heavy...

Old navy campaign

So the last thing I have left to do for the review tommorrow is my old navy campaign. The first go round was a disaster .... I lost a partner and had to pull something together on my own at the last minute :-/. So for the portfolio I was pretty much told to start from scratch. I decided to do stop motion for old navy denim. I had a lot of fun doing it actually and I hope the reviewers like it ok.

Speak it and it sha'll be!

I've been saying since the weekend that I would NOT be in lab on Thursday.... And today is Thursday and I will NOT be in the lab! I just knoooow its going to be crazy in there today! First of all, the lab doesn't even open until 5PM today so everyone will probably be trying to get in the lab at the same time to finish up last minute work for the portfolio review tomorrow. I did not want to get caught up in that chaos so I was in the lab faithfully for the past few days to finish up all of my print work. I still have my old navy video campain to finish up but I can do that on my computer at home... I feel relieved knowing I won't have to deal with that today.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Its so hard to find.....

Pure products! I don't really like using products with a bunch of chemicals and fillers in them. Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally against them but I definitely think I should not have to go on a journey to find natural products! I try to use natural grease in my hair (preferbly natures blessing), I use pure shea butter on my skin, and I no longer perm my hair (duh the locs right :-).
But the other day, I was looking for 100% cocoa butter and could not find it anywhere! Maybe I just didn't know whwere to look here in richmond but I ended up just having my mother send me some from home. I think that's ridiculous! I went to the store and picked up things that said "cocoa butter stick" but when I turned it around to read the ingredients it was full of a bunch of other stuff :-/ because I am more concious of what I put on and into my body, I've found myself getting very annoyed when I'm looking for one thing in particular only to find that it only has about 20% off the needed product in it and the rest is just a bunch of unneccessary crap.

A promise to myself....

This year I realized how baaaad I really am at using the programs that are essential to my major ie: indesign, photoshop, illustrator etc. The first time I'd ever touch any of those programs was this past summer in a 4 week class that was held once a week. And I was kind of thrown into the mix after that. But I can't stand struggling with something that is so essential to my future. So I am making a promise to myself to take this summer to try to develope my skills so that I feel more comfortable being on the artistic side of things when needed. I do consider myself a pretty creative person, but imagination and execution are two different things. I would like to be able to successfully execute more of my idea using these programs. I know its going to take some practice and its not something I will learn overnight, but I have to start somewhere.

Reaaally though?


Does sex sell this much? I saw this ad and the first thing I thought was ... Um boob oooookaaay.
The I read tag line beside it that said "designed to thrill". They surely can't their point across, ill give them that much... But am I the only one who find this kind of sexist?

Where has all the good music gone?!

I rarely ever listen to the radio becuase all the djs put in rotation is the most popular song/requested song. Sometimes ill like a song and then after listening to the radio for a few hours and hearing song played 20 million times, I've already lost my love for it. They act as if the newest or most popular song is the only thing there is to play. To make matters worse, it seems like the more I listen to the radio, the less impressed I am. Even if the radio stations dooooo decide to play a few different songs, I've noticed that all the messages are the eaaaact same it just a different person singing or rapping... (Boreeee me... Snooore), there is so much good music out there that could be played on the radio .. Of new and undiscovered talent... I wish these stations would branch out and come with something better!

Great ad .... Powerful message


I saw this ad on adsneeze.com


and I thought it sent a very powerful message and it was about a topic that is often swept under the rug along with domestic abuse.
This ad is highly visual and I got it a first glance.... A lot of times people don't think of verbal abuse as abuse at all.... But it is and this ad says just that. It even goes as far to say that it is just as bad as physical abuse and I couldn't agree more.

Am I tooooo visible?

A lot of times I hear that it is good to have web presence but sometimes I think I may be a little toooo easily accessible on the web. Over the past few weeks I've notice a nice little chunk of my youtube subscribers have been finding me on facebook. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. I mean I'm flattered that people are even remotely interested in watching me on youtube but once thay start finding me and know my reeeeaaal name, I feel a little uneasy about that. I do not put my real name on youtube but I do have my business name on my facebook page. I suppose if you goodgle the business name enough then you would eventually run into my personal facebook page... I don't know how else people would find me unless they are just reeeally good investigators lol.
I have a personal facebook page, a business facebook page, a twitter, a youtube, a website, and I'm sure a few other things floating around out there. Because I don't have a brick and mortar store of my own I heavily rely on those outlets to bring customers my way, but how much is too much? I don't want to cut myself off to the point where people can not find me at all (or my business), but the youtube thing is starting to creep me out a little bit. Maybe if I take my business name off my page that will correct part of the issue. We'll see, ill keep you posted.

Technology you saved me!

Ok I don't want to get overly sentimental here. After all, it iiiiisss JUST a phone. But today I was sitting here checking and responding to email, typing a paper and posting to this blog and it hit me!!!.... What would I do without my phone?! Survive ... of course I would but ever since I've gotten my blackberry I have been sooo much more productive, and I seem to get so much more done than I did before. For example before I got my blackberry, I would only check my vcu email once everyday and sometimes less than that! A lot of times I would not catch important messages until it was too late! Now that the emails come to my phone I don't have that problem as much, and I feel a lot more organized and on top of my game. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way, but I don't like depending on my phone so much though :-/ I could lose it or break it today! And then what?! Would I just cease getting things done? I certainly hope not.

Cute but ewww

So this is an ad I ran accross for surf laundry detergent. Its kind of cute it its own creepy sort of way but at the same time the ants kind of gross me out. At first glance I wasn't 100% sure what they were trying to show in this ad, but after reading the short description that was posted below it (saying it was attempted to show how soft surf made your laundry), it made perfect sense. (I still don't like ants though).

http://bannedfunnycommercials.com/surf-laundry-detergent/

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Sitting here jittery

I've been running around like a chicken with my head off aaaall day long! Now I'm sitting at work feeling like I could be doing something better with my time. The very fact that I'm even writing this blog post is an example of how desparate I am to make some sort of progress!

Monday, May 10, 2010

From the archives

I just ran across a little ad campaign I did last year for scott tissue and I was a bit tickled.

Scott tissue #3 Dear John letter

Scott Tissue #2: Relationship therapy

Scott tissue #1

I still like these ads but looking at them I realize how much I have learned since I first did them.

He is just diva!

I absolutely looooove hanging out with my friend Aarron! I just admire his LIVE LIFE to the fullest attitude and big personality! Some may call him flamboyant but I just call him confident! I think more people should be like him... and worry less about what other people think and just life life!
We decided to go to the park and play with the camera for a little while the other day :-)
aaron

aaron 2

You are what you eat

I have been catching myself slippin' once again. By freshman year in college, I can not the freshman 15 but the freshman 30!!!!! YES!!! I gained 30 lbs my freshman year! By the end of my sophmore year I had lost 20 of the 30 lbs and I have been trying to keep that weight at bay ever since, but lately I've noticed i've been drinking more and more soda, eating more snacks and eating a TON of fast food. The last thing I want is to gain all of that wait back so I really need to get myself in check.
I am not supposed to be small anyway... no one in my family has a particularly small frame so I expect to be a little thick... but I definitely don't want to acquire a sever weight problem just because I was being careless so this summer I plan to get my behind in the gym and get back to eating a little healthier.

A continuation....

So I just made that post about my grandma trying to kick her smoking habit. So since it was on my mind I did a quick good search for smoking ads and I found some reeeeally good ones. Good ads against a BAD habit.

This says it all.

Powerful image about second hand smoke

Trying to shake the habit


Ever since I can remember, my grandma has told me "never start smoking" and then she would pick up a cigarette lol.
My grandmother has tried several times to stop smoking but has not been able to quit. I talked to her on the phone yesterday and she told me she had just stopped smoking for 35 days but didn't make it to the 36th day. She sounded so upset for herself for not sticking to it . I can not say I can relate because I have never smoked before, but I can only imagine how distressing it must be to want to stop doing something and not be able to. I really hope that my grandmother is able to quit. I know she can do it.... my mother quit and so did my aunt and I have faith that my grandmother can to, but it has to be hard to stop doing something that you have been doing for 40+ years.
You can do it grandma! I'm rooting for you!

It's crunch time :-/


I have a few more days left to get a million things done and I must admit I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. I was in the lab today until they closed at 11:00 this evening and here I am still up trying to make some sort of progress, but I feel like I'm on a tread (continuously running but not getting anywhere) :-( .


My partners and I have yet to finish one campaign completely and I'm getting a bit anxious. I am reeeeaaally trying to get everything done by Wednesday because I am NOT trying to be in the lab on Thursday because I just know it's going to be pure mayhem. So the plan tonight is to get as much done tonight as possible. I plan to stay up until 6am and do the following.

1) Finish a paper for my speech class.
2) Mount the 2 pieces that are 100% complete
3)Design the mailers for my completeness class
4) Make 5 more blog post
5) Come up with new copy 4 two of the ads from the goodwill campaign and the croakers spot campaign
6)Try to get to my stop motion for the the Old Navy campaign ( I kind of doubt I will get to this tonight because it is already 12:40 and I am tired)
But wish me luck!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

10 things I want to do before I die

I just wanted to start this list of things I want to do before I die. I don't think I will think of 10 in the next few minutes but I wanted to at least get my list started so here goes....

1. Go to Africa
2. Walk outside naked (dunno why I want to do this but I do lol)
3. (to be continued)
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

A peak inside my little world.

I get a lot of comments on my room when friends come over. My friends say they always feel like they are walking into some sort of boutique which is understandable sense I dooooo have clothes everywhere a mannequin and a leopard print carpet to finish it off lol. I stay in on campus housing but despite that I enjoy feeling cozy in my space. Here's a sneak peak into my little room.

I'm not a fan of "Authority"

This is really not big nes to anyone who knows me... but I am not much a fan of authorities.
Frankly I just don't like being told what to do lol. Well it's not so much that part that bothers me as it is the power trip that normally comes along with it. That's why I am so adamant about being my own boss in the near future so I can call my own shots for the most part. I know in this life you are always going to have to answer to someone about something but I would like to significantly decrease how much answering I have to do in this life especially about petty stuff that doesn't reeeeeaaally matter in the grand scheme of things. They say "if you don't like the way it's done then do it yourself" and that's exactly what intend on doing.


Chain Reaction


Lately i've developed a slight fetish for chains. So I started a new collection called "Chain reaction" which consist of backless tanks that resemble chains, big crochet chain necklaces, chain earrings and much more... I plan on really rounding out the collection once the semester is over the end of this week. I got asked to do a few fashion shows and events... and even though i'm not sure i'm up for it right now, it would definitely be a good opportunity to debut the new pieces... so i'll give it some thought

I've been trying hard ....


Not to make too many post about fashion and stuff like that but sometimes I just can't help myself... it's in my blood lol. I just haaaad to put the spotlight on Nakimuli ... an independently run clothing company of one of my twitter buddies Tenille she is sooo talented and make funky, fun outrageous clothes that look great... Check out this dress! You can't tell me this is not DOPE!!!

I'm getting that itch again.....


To buy a new camera that is lol. I've been looking hard at buying a new DSLR camera. Right now I have a rebel xs which takes decent pictures, but I reeeeally want to upgrade to the 50D but it's over $1000 for just the body of the camera alone!!!! UGH... I know i'm not in a position to get it at the moment but at least I can dream about it lol. I was thinking of all kinds of things to do so I could afford to get the camera. At first I thought "i'll just put it in my credit card" but that would just be irresponsible of me and I haven't had good credit up to this point my splurging outside of my means!!!..... theeen I though well maybe I could sell my rebel but that would only get me a little over $330 nowhere near enough for my upgrade :-/ ... but I am determined to get that camera... if I'm really thrifty for the next month I might be able to afford to get it without going hungry lol.

I think I can officially call myself an adult lol



Over the past few months a lot of things have changed for me... specifically my level of financial responsibilities.
Since I have been in college I have been primarily self sufficient I've been fortunate enough to have been employed my entire time in school. But my financial responsibilities were limited to paying my phone bill, my credit card bill, buying groceries, books for school, and a good chunk of change to cover my tuition.
But just last month I purchased my first car (with a car note).



I've had cars in the past but I always paid outright but this time I didn't so I must admit i'm a little nervous about having another financial obligation (along with insurance). I got a saturn ion... it wasn't exaaaactly what I wanted... I really wanted something bigger... but of course that came with a bigger price tag that I really couldn't afford right now lol... but I think it's cute and what's important is that it get's me where i've got to go!
Theeeeen my friend and I just found an apartment so I will be moving off campus which means ACTUAL bills lol. all of this is so sudden, but I'm a hustler at heart so i'm confident i'll work it out.

lol lol SWAGGER WAGON



Soooo I was on blackplanet today and ran across this Toyota ad which was a parody hip hop music and the use of the commonly used slang term " swagger".
I personally thought it was pretty funny, but a lot of people in the blackplanet forums were very offended by it and some even thought it was racist and an insult to hip hop music.
I guess it all depends on how you look at it. I acutually thought it was comical and a good departure from what Toyota has done in the past. My only concern is if a large enough group of black people DO find that parody offensive, Toyota may have just lost some potential customers.

Aaaaaahhhhhh I can't escape it!!!!

More and more frequently I've been noticing ads on my phone, and most recently text messaged advertisments as well!
For example: the twitter applications did not used to have advertisements but nooooow they do! Its sooo annoying but I guess I understand, twitter provides a free service so I suppose they have to get their money some type of way but I definitely noticed it when they made the switch. I guess my complaint is I don't want someone trying to sell something to me every waking second of the day but that's the world we live in, they have to get you where you are and we ARE on our cell phones a good portion of the day.
Twitter is one thing but text messages are just overboard! The past few weeks I've been noticing an increase in text advertisements. I am really careful about where I put my phone number on the net... And I try to omit it whenever possible but apparently I have not been careful enough and I am paying the price :-( I defintely think texted ads are a invasion of space.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The artist in me



I just felt like drawing today... and I ended up drawing this self portrait. I know I kinda had the stank face going on lol but I thought it was funny.

Something about me (new body art)

I just wanted to show off my new tat I got the other day. This is the last one... I think toooo many tatoos is un-lady like but I think a couple of meaningful strategically placed ones can be complimentary.


The tat I got the other day was this one with a treble clef and some music notes (it's still healing as you can see). Something few people know about me is that I'm a singer. I haven't been exercising that talent much lately though but i'm working on it because my mom keeps reminding me "God didn't give you a gift like that for you to keep it all to yourself", and I agree.
I graduated from Duke Ellington school of the arts with a diploma of Art in Vocal music and performing art (in conjunction with my general diploma). When I first came to VCU I was considering continuing my vocal training and piano training. But to be honest, I really wanted to try something new.... really what it boiled down to was ...as long as I was doing something that required some sort of creativity I would be happy... and I think I am accomplishing that, but I am making a promise to myself to get back to the music over the summer because it is definitely something I love and something I am good at if I must say myself :-)

Quick peak at my other tat of AFRICA :-)

Have you ever looked up and.....

wondered.... "where has the time gone"? I found myself doing that today. I know this is kind of random, but I was just thinking about how it seems like it is speeding past and I am standing still. Maybe once I fiiiiinally get out of school I will feel like i'm actually getting somewhere.

Ambient media

In general I think my favorite kind of advertisement is ambient media. I like a lot of viral ads I see on the net sometimes to but I think ambient wins for me. I found the image below on the net and it definitely made me stop and take notice. It's and ad for fedex kinkos office supplies.



Friday, May 7, 2010

Good ad bad place

I was just surfing the net and ran across this ad for Wolf hot sauce...




I thought it was a pretty cool idea to get the point across about their hot suace being hot (putting it on a hand dryer). Buuuuut I'm not so sure I would want to see food ads in a bathroom in kind of grosses me out and I'm not convinced that's an appropriate place for it. Cool idea, terrible location.

Goodwill Campaign

My favorite so far. I just wanted to take this post to show one of my recent projects for my class. For this project, my partner and I ended up doing an ad campaign for goodwill. I was actually pretty happy we got goodwill because come to find out there we multiple different directions we could go with the campaign. Until we started doing a bit of research, I had absolutely no idea that goodwill accepted gift cards, boats and planes lol. Usually when I think of goodwill I automatically think.... Clothes, but doing this project showed me that there was a lot more to goodwill. With that said, Rocky (my partner) and I decided to go the gift card route and this was actually my favorite from the campaign. It still needs to be revised for the portfolio review but this was our first version.
I used my friend Aarron for the photo and he was such a good sport for being willing to let me use him, he's so photogenenic.... A natural ... I really think he had more fun than me posing for the camera lol. One thing I have noticed about myself is that I really like photography... I'm not great at it yet but its definitely something I would like to educate myself on in the near future.

Trying to REbrand herself?

Soooo while I was at work the other day, my coworker showed me a video of a super suggestive, low budget, frankly raunchy video. The first thing she said to me was "do you recognize the girl in this video" as I watched it, I knew I had seen the person dancing in the video looked familiar but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Take a look for yourself, listen to the lyrics and then come back and let me know if you recognized her at all.


So if you are still left wondering "who is that girl".... let me end your suffering!
It is Kiely Williams!!!! Yes kiely Williams of the Cheetah Girls!
If you are unfamiliar with the cheetah girls let me just say that they were a pretty popular group made popular and marketed by Disney. So that alone tells you that they were specifically geared toward children and young girls. Now Kiely Williams has decided to step out on her own and make "SPECTACULAR" which has been highly critized for seeming to promote date rape and blurring the lines between Cheetah girls and her knew found persona.
I personally do not think she is REbranding herself well at all. I have seen plenty of stars like Rhianna rebrand themselves successfully without becoming the polar opposite of what they once were. I understand she wants to do something different, but I also think that she has a responsibility to her fans.

Good advertising can make fun of itself and still sell the product!

I saw the new Kotex commercials for the first time a few weeks ago and I have been meaning to blog about it but I just kept forgetting to do it! I had heard people talking about them in one of my classes and got curious. I looked it up on Youtube and cracked up right away!



Now this was HILARIOUS! I loved the fact that Kotex was able to poke fun at their own previous commericials... it showed that they didn't take themselves too seriously and I definitely think it was effective because I was surely sitting at my computer yelling "HELL YEAA..... all that stuff is CRAP" lol.