shawnokeefe.com

Author: Shawn

  • look ma, no ink with austin laser art

    laser-etched biz card
    this post officially ends my blogging hiatus. thought i would once again start sharing a bit more on the interwebs, at least in batches longer than 140 characters…

    even though i’m short on time these days, i love busting out small / personal / miscellaneous design projects when i get the chance. i thought i would take a moment to share one of my latest…

    laser-etched business cards rather than do the awesome-but-familiar moo cards, i wanted to make a little business card with just my personal contact information.

    years ago i whipped up a card via a web vendor and ended up with a fancy plastic card. it was dark transparent gray with white text in agency bold (a font by david berlow from atf agency gothic by morris fuller benton). sure the plastic cards looked pretty cool, but they had the sharpest corners ever. you couldn’t write on them, but boy you could use them as a weapon if absolutely necessary. super-cool looks + lack of practical functionality = fail.

    this time around i wanted to get it right. parameters included: ability to write on the card, eco-friendly paper and ink (or lack thereof), and possibility for card recipient to easily pass along my contact information if so desired (double-sided / tear in half). i picked up some nice stock from french paper (their blog is a great source of inspiration) and developed a few variations using stainless extended.

    special thanks to aaron haley at austin laser art. can’t recommend his services highly enough.

  • faces behind the posters at flatstock 20

    yesterday i took a breather and walked through flatstock 20 — hands down my favorite annual event during sxsw. inspiration overload to say the least.

    rather than showcase the obscene amount of amazing work (that you should be picking up from these talented folks via gigposters anyway), i conned a very small handful of participating artists (friends both old and new) into sitting still for just a moment…

  • project number one

    per a little something i hinted at in my previous post, i’m happy to reveal that adrienne and i will be launching a very special project around may 21 of next year. this 2001-esque image should provide enough of an explanation…

    the above was taken a while back… we’re now 17 weeks into this new adventure. (apologies to all we have not yet been able to tell in person.)

    and too soon to know whether it’s a boy or girl by the way. may opt for a nice surprise on that issue in any case. more to come. all fingers and toes crossed.

  • doing more by doing less

    “jack of all trades, master of none… though often better than a master of one.” – adam savage, mythbusters[*]

    there’s a lot of talk these days about whether twitter and other micro-blogging services have killed blogs. while i tend to agree this is very much exaggerated, my own online publishing behaviors have suggested otherwise. (allow me to now disclaim the obvious: i’ve never considered myself a blogger.) in any case, i must now admit i am drinking a good amount of “twitterade.” which brings me to another pattern of “less is more” that has been emerging since the summer… (more…)

  • keeping good design solutions, or: how i learned to stop worrying and love my old bicycle

    MS150

    as i’m cooking myself with cathode radiation this week due to the tour de france, i thought i’d re-publish the following rant… in short, a geeky rationalization to avoid purchasing an expensive new bicycle. originally published july 2007. (at right: sporting my new ride and bikehugger kit during the MS150 charity ride from houston to austin this past april.)

    on the eve of this summer’s tour de france, i thought i’d ignore the doping scandals for a moment and share my passion for the sport with a little rant on modern bicycle design…

    people generally want the latest and greatest. this is especially true of the road racing community (don’t even get me started on triathletes). truth is, we’re all susceptible to marketing departments and those inspirational pictures we see in our favorite cycling magazines. so aside from shelling out some very serious cash, what’s a gearhead with a love of fancy bicycles to do? i’ll begin by delving into why a one-hundred-year-old design remains relatively unchanged.

    position is everything
    every now and then some really geeky folks ask why new frame designs such as recumbents aren’t adopted by road racers. heck, they are more comfortable and aerodynamic. in addition to subcultural factors and official organizations that idealize tradition over change, the bottom line is acceleration. a traditionally-shaped frame allows one to take advantage of body weight and gravity to more efficiently generate power on those painful climbs… (more…)

  • the paper south + fires were shot

    The Paper South - July 6th at Hole in the Wall The Paper South - July 6th at Hole in the Wall

    as i get older, it gets harder and harder to simply make time to be creative. (some will obviously note that i don’t yet have children and thus have no freakin’ idea.) well in an effort to keep my knives sharpened a bit (and to abuse illustrator’s live trace feature), i whipped up these flyers for an upcoming paper south show with fires were shot. being that the event is part of “shoegaze sundays” at the hole in the wall, i went back to my astronomy-obsessed roots and worked from an old soviet stamp design. played in terms of concept, but i had a good time with it.

    (the real bonus of this particular evening is that you get to see the infamous johnny ray wilkins perform in both scheduled bands.)

  • fifteen pumps, two breaths

    recently one of my close friends decided to play a little practical joke on me by creating a fake myspace page — complete with a ridiculous soundtrack, numerous porn stars as my closest friends and a proclamation of my bisexuality. oddly enough, details such as these didn’t tip off the vast majority of my friends and family (which i can only hope is a testament to the well-crafted mix of fact and fiction). i discovered the covert operation only after another friend and co-worker stormed into my office to inquire as to why i had not yet invited her to be my “friend.” (more…)