Alas the time has come

This is my final year in school studying graphic design. Three whole years of drawing, brainstorming, 8 am classes, coffee drinking, pulling all nighters, bezier curves and live tracing, group critiques, rationales, flash and inaccurate dream weaver preview, photoshop and illustrator.

But besides all of that craziness, I really had the time of my life. I got to draw the whole time, learned some techniques and programs to be more efficient, and met some awesome people who, I hope, will forever stay around in my life.

As this year of craziness comes to a close in the next few months, I would like to thank everyone who have made these past few year awesome and fun.

So if you’re reading this, yes you who’s checking your Facebook feed instead of listening to the lecture, thank you. Keep doing what you do best, have fun and create awesome stuff. Kudos to us!

MRjan

MRjan’s Social Media Policy

Connecting: MRjan
An introduction is definitely a must in my opinion, most especially when connecting in social media sites. It’s way easier if you’ve met the person you’re connecting with beforehand because you’ve already establish a connection with them. But with other people who wants to connect with you on the net, basic info like name, occupation, company and a reason why they wanted to connect with you in the first place is essential.

Follow, add, friend: Friends, friends and more friends
I try to monitor myself when it comes to adding or following people. I only connect with people who I personally know, people who I look up to and people who have the same interest as I do. Even with that said, I still try to keep the number of people I’m following to a minimum.

Privacy, boundaries and safety: Keeping it private
It is true that it’s better to be safe than sorry. I always try to keep personal things private in my life most specifically things that I divulge online. You’re very vulnerable online, anyone can see who you are and what you do. So it is better for you to keep your profile very basic or just visible to people you know and trust. Particularly on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Signal to noise: Status Update not a chat window
Status updates are totally fine as long as you don’t actually use them like a chat window. These are used to update your friends or followers on what you’re currently up to, for voicing an opinion on a particular subject matter or for sharing things.

Personal data and sharing: I want to connect with you. You awesome person.
I mainly want to connect with people who have the same interest that I have. People whom I think I could collaborate and work with.

My networking needs and uses: Facebook
I try not to be too personal when it comes to my post on Facebook and professional on my page on LinkedIn.

Stay in touch!
Flickr
Facebook
WordPress
LinkedIn
Google+

 

 

Blog Review: Graffart.eu + xmarkjenkinsx.com

Graffart

This is a great blog to get up to date on what’s happening in the street art community. I’ve been following this site for a very long time now. They do a good job in cataloging street artists around the globe.

The site itself is very straight forward. Featured posts/articles are showcased in a JQuery script that lets you scroll through them from left to right. The main menu is divided into five buttons which changes colour when you hover over them. Archives, artist, dates, events and etc. are neatly piled at the left side of the blog. This leaves an ample space for the posts/entries on the right. The footer below is made up of basic links such as categories, comments, and popular posts. Above it are thumbnails of randoms posts.

xmarkjenkinsx

Ah Mark Jenkins. I love Mark Jenkins. He is one of my favourite street artist. His work is very surreal and very out there. It ranges from babies made out of packing tape to a manikin hanging on top of a fountain. He’s super fun!

His site is very minimal and its entirely photo based. A better way to showcase his work. They already speak for themselves so I thinks that’s enough. Some text are used for captions and to label each section. These sections are represented by icons which I think is very nice. Very minimal and direct.

 

Website review: Paprika + Magpie Studio

Paprika is a design studio/strategic marketing firm based in montréal (québec) canada. They do all sorts of stuff but they specialized inspecializing in business communications services. Their main site is very clean and straight forward. Right of the bat, they showcase all of their works in a grid like pattern. Each studies are distinguish from each other by the colour of their brand.

The site is simple and very easy to navigate.

Another great design studio resides in London is Magpie Studio.  Like Paprika, Magpie kept it really simple and made it easy for the user to navigate. Each sections were grouped into three main drop dwon menu–Magpie Studio, Selected Projects, and Archives. Each project is showcased using a JQuery to scroll the images from left to right. Clean and simple.

Loose Lips New Nibs!

I got some new nibs! It’s kinda lame that I didn’t post anything related to Christmas, I was too busy eating and hanging out with my family which is pretty sweet.

So yeah, just playing’ around with the nibs that I got on boxing day. They were actually pretty cheap in the first place. But since it was boxing day, I got 40% off the regular price. AWESOME, I know.

Tough turtles,
MRjan