Reality Check

This Saturday, I along with a few other designers will be representing HA for AIGA's Reality Check. I'm really interested in seeing what young student designers are producing these days. We'll definitely be looking for potential interns and/or junior designers to join or interactive team. It's being held at SPU at freakin' 8:30am, so I'll be in a really good mood for giving honest critiques!

Launched

It's been a pretty big week for us at HA. The SkyQ at the Space Needle project officially opened to the public. I guess the mayor and some other "big wigs" were there for the opening ceremony. Unfortunately I didn't make it in time to tell him to keep the Sonics in town.

There was a write up in the Seattle PI yesterday, and King 5 also covered it on the local news. It's a pretty satisfying feeling to see "real people" using the stations after many months of work.





The other notable launch was Redfin. Essentially Redfin gives people the ability to buy or sell a home over the Internet without the need for a real estate agent, which ultimately saves them money. They've built a model for buyers to shop for homes online, compare their prices to adjacent properties, check property taxes and sales histories, view large photos of homes, and then fill out standard sale documents.

We were responsible for a new identity and the look of the website, which they built out themselves. See their official press release for more info.

New Job!

This week is Tara's last week at HA. She's moving on and taking a design position with Graffiti Associates in Fremont. No more proposals and powerpoint presentation design for her! I'm really happy for her. Somebody finally gave her a chance to demonstrate her talent, and I know she'll exceed their expectations.

Sorry Magic

But who is going to read all this shit on the side of a bus?

Pup!

10 week old Rand at Drew and Joe's old apartment.

Dogs at the Office

19 dogs in the office today for a doggy celebration. It was mayhem. Here are two of the fun ones!

Letterpressed

Last night we finished printing all 400 of the invitations for Lindsay and Josh's wedding. We figured out how to adjust the ink rollers so that the floor of the plate wouldn't get covered in ink, and we we're a little more deliberate in our lockup of the plates, which made the transition easy between different plates.

RSVP Card Letterpress

Saturday night Tara started printing invitations for Lindsay and Josh's wedding using the letterpress at the HA office. We have free access to a Vandercook #4 letterpress, which is used for prints up to 14¾" × 20," and features power ink distribution, type high bed, and a traveling sheet delivery tray.

She designed four plates for the invitation, and that night we printed 400 RSVP cards from one of the plates. We still have to print from three other plates—1200 more cranks—starting tonight!

I posted more pictures of our first experience without a letterpress instructor in a flickr group, and they were kind enough to let me know that we did a lot of things incorrectly. Nevertheless we had fun, and we're learning as we go.

III x 4

Mad Hectic

After a hectic couple of weeks, Drew, Joe and I went up to the market for lunch to relax. Two huge projects with essentially the same deadlines really makes you focus.





And for those of you that haven't already seen it, Joe's Security Pattern Collection has reached 100! Be sure to send any unique patterns you receive in the mail to him and he'll add it to the collection.