Real Art is Never Finished
I'd like to consider myself an artist, at least in the sense that I enjoy creating art. Yet even after I am finished with a design, it still feels incomplete. I see work to be done and details to be perfected. Are there legitimate changes that still need to be made or is this struggle simply the nature of art? I wonder if that's how God, as an artist, feels about me and my life; pride in the completed work, yet seeing the improvement to come. More About Jesse.
Thoughts
New Website, Finally March 1, 2008
This new website is a long time in coming, in fact, I designed the last one in less than a weeks timeframe for a class in my junior year of college. It was pretty rushed and it was never fully thought out. After I graduated and had a bit more time on my hands I started to want to design a new site.
That was almost 2 years ago now! I’ve worked on this project on and off during that time, but its always a challenge designing for yourself. I’m never completely happy with what I’ve come up with. In fact, I think that I went through 14 designs to arrive at this one. (My wife thinks I’m insane!) At some point, I just had to say, “this is the one, be happy with it.”
My goal with this site is to keep it more updated. I’ve made it pretty easy on myself to add new content to it, so I have no excuses now! I’m hoping to be able to add new designs I’ve created, new photos I’ve taken, and some varying thoughts from time to time.
I call the blog section “thoughts” because I hope that it will be more than the occasional “Hey, I just saw the coolest website” or “I had Macoroni and Cheese for dinner last night, boy is that good!” I hope to bring something new to the blogosphere, from design commentary, to advertising ideas, to thoughts on Christian spirituality. Join in the conversation with me and let me know your thoughts as well, I welcome the feedback.
This is definitely a work in progress, I may add sections, or change how things work, so don’t be too surprised. Feel free to let me know if you have any comments, thoughts, or questions.
I Haxored Wordpress February 12, 2008
One of the things I’m proud of in this new website is the technology behind it. It represents a couple of steps into new grounds that I haven’t made before. First off, the website is based on a simple XHTML skeleton, and then is styled using CSS. This method has been around for a while now, I’ve waited for a while for technology to catch up, and then I also got lazy and just didn’t want to learn it. It was a good challenge and I certainly see the flexibility and the wisdom in separating the design and the content.
Second of all, this website is completely based on the Wordpress blogging platform. Now, running a blog off of Wordpress is easy, and doesn’t take much. But after trying out a billion CMS’s out there I finally settled on simply using this system. It took a bit of haxoring, and a little PHP programming on the way (scary!) but it was actually relatively simple and I’d consider recommending it for clients and friends. Each item in the Portfolio is actually a post with some custom features, this makes adding new stuff really easy. (The idea being that I update this website more often!) Plus, those designs can be sorted any number of ways, by discipline, campaign, or any other way I want.
McIntyre Library “Off the Shelf” November 11, 2006
Heya, this will probably be my last school post, as I hope to change this site up completely soon, and I am now graduated from Eau Claire. As I mentioned in the last post, The McIntyre Library has begun using the logo that Seth, Dave, and myself designed. They have posted the newest edition of Off the Shelf and it has a featured article about us on the second page. It’s exciting to see that some of our work is going to good use. Enjoy.
The Professional World September 27, 2006
I haven’t updated this site for awhile, so it’s about time. I’ve graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. I’ve got my double major in Graphic Design and Advertising and it only took me five years.
I’ve started in the professional world of design and advertising at Morsekode a Twin Cities advertising agency. I love the people and the atmosphere there. I hope to be able to post some of my new work from there on here soon, but it may take me awhile.
In other news, the logo that Seth Koslowski, Dave Bromeland and myself designed for the McIntyre Library back in Eau Claire has been chosen as the official logo. I’m proud of the work we did, and it was a nice culmination of my school career for design. You can see their website which makes use of the logo, although we did not design the website itself.
More Updates: Few & Far Between March 30, 2006
Because the website has been updated since this post, these links are no longer working.
It’s been awhile since I got anything new on this website, and I want to spend the time to redesign it, but unfortunately I don’t have that time to spare right now, so its going to have to stay as it is. But I did find some time tonight to update some of the work from the portfolio. I changed up the Logos, Photos, and Websites sections, but I will specifically point out what is new below.
In the logos section I added a logo I did for a class project last semester for the McIntyre Library. I also added a recent logo I did for the University’s radio station, WUEC 98.7 Blugold Performance of the Air. Those are the new ones, but you may not recognize others that are updated on there.
In the photos section I added one of my favorite pictures of mountains. A rowboat I took a picture of two summers ago, and a digitally manipulated picture from my Digital Photo class.
In the websites section I added another project from this summer’s internship, a Great Harvest website. I also added a recent Flash project that I completed for my Electronic Media course. You can see the poetry in motion.
I really, really need to figure out what to do with the graphics section, that will come soon, because I have more things to add there.
Activism or Evangelism? January 26, 2006
My roommate has been reading “God’s Politics” by Jim Wallis, I can’t say I’ve read the book, but our discussions have been really interesting over the last few days as we’ve been talking about it. As Christians in America it seems we are always trying to defend our way of life, and our right to practice our beliefs. Christians tend to stand against things like abortion and homosexual marriage. We’ll go to rallies, we’ll write letters, and pastors will devote their sermons to these things.
Now, don’t get me wrong right away. I understand the purpose that Politics plays in everyday life and why it is important. I understand and what the Bible says about those issues, and truthfully, I even agree with most of the church folks about them. But I disagree with the pedestal that we put those issues on.
Here’s the deal, why do we spend so much time fighting and worrying about these things when there are much more important things we could be doing? Why activism instead of evangelism? Is it simply because the enemy is clearer and the objective is straightforward? Are we actually being selfish as we march? Looking out only for our comfort and our rights, wanting the world to act in the way that we want it to?
We have to play an interesting balance as Americans. According to our Bill of Rights we have certain rights that we can claim for ourselves. We deserve them as Americans. Yet, in Philippians we find Paul talking about Christ’s humility in spite of his right to equality with God:
“Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death-
even death on a cross!”
Philippians 2:5-8
It seems like we would be much more representative of God if we spent more time telling the people that we disagree with that God loves them and wants to invite them into a personal relationship with himself. Why are we trying to make everyone act like Christians before they even know Christ? I know it’s simplistic, and I know that life is more complicated than the easy answers. But I feel like as Christians we need to have our priorities straight and focus on what brings the most glory to our Father. Spending time at a rally, waving protest signs doesn’t have that same effect. Put aside activism, start evangelism.