AIGA New Website Design and Blog

May 15, 2008 by Jak

AIGA Charlotte recently spruced up their web presence a bit with a cleaner and more intuitive website, complete with a new blog. Stop by, be sure to check out their blog, and if your a designer and not yet a member, join up. Design by the Studiobanks.

Lets Go Bowling by Ad2 & AIGA

May 14, 2008 by Jak

May 27, 2008 06:30 PM - 08:30 PM @ Park Lanes

It’s not every day that two of Charlotte’s hippest professional associations team up to bring you an event of this funitude. Come celebrate the onset of summer, meet new people & enjoy America’s favorite past time that involves rented shoes. A little friendly competition never hurt anybody so smack talk will be encouraged.

$15 includes 2 games, shoes & snacks — Register by May 20th. (Lane reservations mean limited space; so sign up soon for your spot). This event is cosponsored by AIGA Charlotte & Ad 2 Charlotte. You must pre-register at AIGA Charlotte.

Simple Business Card Love

May 13, 2008 by Jak

Fellow local blogger and designer, Justin Ruckman, one of the founders of CLTblog.com, received some recent love from silicon valley pseudo-celebrity Guy Kawasaki for his uniquely simple business cards. Justin’s take on it here, Guy’s here.

The font is Clearview Hwy, a font collaboratively developed by independent researchers, the Texas Transportation Institute, the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, and the Federal Highway Administration to be as legible as possible in the worst of visibility conditions.

Godz of War MMA Event Trailer

May 12, 2008 by Jak

Pretty sick trailer for the upcoming Godz of War MMA Event in Charlotte by Limerick Studios. Always impressed by the work these guys do. The website is not too bad either, but no word on who designed it yet. Let us know if you have any details. Thanks. Event details on the website, Godzofwar.tv.

ArtEvation – Charlotte History Through Art

May 11, 2008 by Jak

James Sack, carbonhouse, principal and creative director of carbonhouse, is a featured artist at Artevation: A Celebration of History Through Art, which runs through May 30 in Charlotte. The show is at The Queen’s Gallery & Art Center, 1212 The Plaza. An opening event for the show will be held May 9 from 7-9 pm.

Read more here. Via Carbonhouse.

Daily Ink by Bloo Empire

May 9, 2008 by Jak

Illustrator Keeley Carrigan over at Bloo Empire is doing a cool daily exercise and posting it to flickr. Its called Daily Ink and the goal is to paint one illustration each day and post it to flickr. Sounds easy, but definitely a challenge to keep up with something like that. So far so good. Some pretty sweet pieces have been put up. We are very envious of the skills. Check it out and give some love. RSS feed of the flickr set here.

So my new favorite weapon is a brush. I really like the lines you can get from it, but I admit I’m not proficient with one yet. I’ve been doing some illos and comics with one so at least I feel like I’m getting better — I’ve decided to do at least one little drawing a day with my brush and post it for the world to see and criticize.

And Now Were Back From Outerspace

May 8, 2008 by Jak

Yes, content has been a bit slow the last week or so. Thanks for noticing. The reason? Simultaneously, I got a new job and had to put my laptop in the shop for a couple weeks. No time and no computer equals slow blog. Although getting back into the public library a little more was nice. Enough about me though, back to the content.

On the news front, we may have a new fashion contributor soon and have been talking to couple folks about doing some architecture happenings. Will get you more details as they arise. As always, thanks for reading. Be sure to check out the growing links over there to the right and give some love to Charlotte’s design community.

CityBlackBook.com Coming Soon

May 3, 2008 by Jak

Studiobanks has been hard at work putting together CityBlackBook.com (spash page only right now), what they hope to be a sleeker, hipper version of citysearch type websites where people go to find out the coolest places to go into the city. Keep track of their progress on the blog, which launched yesterday. The plan is for the site to go live before month’s end.

Pretty slick concept, everyone is always looking for that next hot spot in the city. Select contributors to the site will post reviews of some of their favorite cooler spots in Charlotte. For the explorers out there among us or the folks that our new to the CLT, it will not be a guide of every restaurant, bar, coffee shop etc. But rather it will give us a glimpse of what the people in the know think are the real gems in Charlotte, the places really worth checking out. We will keep you posted.

New Wake Forest Logo Followup

May 1, 2008 by Jak


(followup to New Wake Forest Logo post last week)

This is the video the campus sent to their alumni yesterday explaining the logo. Its long, so here is the cliff’s notes version, “Our campus is old yet new, small yet large, classic yet innovative, and we need a new mark to represent that.” They focused on the “intertwining” lines of the new mark and on the “dichotomy” of the two sides of the crest and the various symbolism they attach to that. And to my astonishment, they actually highlighted the funky “F” in the right side of the crest. I am speechless. I still like the mark, overall, but forcing the “F” is just shenanigans.

The website press release refers to a “partnership with” branding focused RBMM out of Dallas, part of the Richards Group (check their work here). According to the release, Wake seems to of revamped the website first and then the logo, cart before horse anyone?

Fly Your Brightkite – Free Invites

April 30, 2008 by Jak


(leave a comment or email designcharlotte (at) gmail dot com for an invite)

Yeah I know, “Another Social Networking Site?” Bare with me. BrightKite.com has a cool twist. Think Twitter (network based micro blogging) combined with google maps. The short of it, is you can see your network on an actual map.

Brightkite enables location-based community and friendships on the fly. Discover social communities around your favorite venue, restaurant, park etc… Explore who is there, who was there, what they are saying, photos are posting, etc.

And yes, you have complete control over showing where you are (if at all) and to who. Read the rest of this entry »