The Last Game - Theater Poster

The Last Game - Stage 773 (click to enlarge)

Here is a work I did (see below) for "The Last Game," a play that showed at Stage 773 in Chicago. It's a composite work of elements, some of which I found on DeviantArt. (Each element has Creative Commons licenses that allows such work.) Each element required a lot of manipulation on my part however, and the search for those elements was a time monster. The final artwork was displayed in the theater's entryway on an LED screen, as well as on various print media.

All I had for inspiration, was this: The play "tells the story of a gifted gang banger chasing his dream of becoming a Rap Star giving him his only way out from an early death as a gangster in Chicago’s forgotten neighborhoods. Running a gang leader’s card game, his desire to begin living a cleansed and deserving life, plays out in one night of betrayal, redemption, and violence as he deals his last game."

R,I.P., Eduard Khil, Trololo Guy Extraordinaire

June 4, 2012 - Singer Eduard Khil, also known as "Mr. Trololo," has died. Khil (or Hill) was 77 years old when he died of complications caused by a stroke he had last month. He was well known as a singer in the Soviet Union (USSR) for decades, but virtually unknown elsewhere. Until, that is, he became a worldwide sensation thanks to YouTube when somebody posted a copy of him singing the "Trololo song." It was, initially, derisive. That quickly changed, however, to a weird kind of adoration.

I remember the first time I ever saw "Trololo." I was trolling Twitter and happened across a tweet that said, "Creepy Russian guy sings." That was about two years ago.

Trololo Original HD by Misael512223

How could I resist? I clicked and was taken to YouTube. "Eduard Hill," as he was often called, was indeed kind of creepy (by American music standards), but I was mesmerized. It was so damned weird that I couldn't resist watching it repeatedly, over and over again. I was instantly hooked. And, I admit, the Khil's trance-like enthusiasm and the tune itself made me smile. There is an unexplainable joy to the tune, a crazy goofy joy.

Millions of other people worldwide soon came to feel the same way about this odd song, and with the fascination with the song came geniune interest in the man who sang it.

The tune went viral very quickly in mid-2010, and suddenly hundreds of remixes popped up. The tune and the singer both became cultural memes, so much so that the TV show "Family Guy" paid homage to it (video, left).

The Moscow Times says that Eduard Khil was born on Sept. 4, 1934, in Smolensk, and achieved fame as a singer in the USSR, performing the songs “Loggers,” “The Moonstone” and “Blue City,” among others. More at The Moscow Times.

Goodnight and farewell, Mr. Khil. You will be missed, but the joy you brought to us will last forever.
"Пу́сть земля́ ему́ бу́дет пу́хом" ("May the earth be soft for him").

How To Make Beautiful Food Photography

Restaurant owners and food service mavens know the value of beautiful food photos. Some of you would like to create your own and provide to us for use in a project. So, just for you, here's a nice video filled with excellent how-to advice for making beautiful, project-ready food photographs. Unlike a pair of shoes or a television, food is something you eat. After all, you put food in your mouth, and a badly done food photo can turn a customer off quickly. A badly done food photo can activate your gag reflex. A popular coffee shop on Chicago's north side has been using my food photos (by Thomas Mannis) for several years now.

The Importance of Banner Advertising for Local Companies

By Claire Jarrett

Any local business that is considering advertising to boost their sales should first consider a banner advert. This is especially true of any company that is located on a street with lots of passing traffic. Surprisingly enough, people will drive by a business that has existed at the same location for years and yet never go into the store or restaurant, let along made a purchase. Some businesses will have made the mistake of using a poor name for the shop and a person may not even know what is for sale. But everybody local to the business should at least know what they have to offer.

A good advertisement will bring in traffic flow and people will become familiar with the various offerings of a business. The beautiful thing about a vinyl banner is that they can be hung outside of the building in a way that anyone can see it. It is both easy to hang a banner and it can be done in a way that is only temporary without any permanent attachment. This type of banner is surprisingly low cost and will bring in a lot more business that the cost of the banner. The letters can be large enough so that cars can see the sign when moving in either direction on the street. A well made banner will also have letters that can be seen from up to fifty yards if the view is not obstructed.

A typical size for a vinyl banner is three feet by six feet. However, many banner sizes are available and a local printing company should be consulted. A good candidate for this type of advertisement is a restaurant. Perhaps a low cost lunch special can be displayed with a price. A small restaurant that serves ethnic food may be having trouble attracting business, but a big part of the problem may be that people have never tried the food before. A banner announcing a lunch special with a specific food item may be just what the restaurant needs to jump start sales in a local community.

For retail stores it is usually best to advertise an item and price it so you are not making a lot of money from the sale but you are not losing money either. The idea is to get people to come into the store and see all the items for sale. With restaurants a business is just trying to feed people, and menus are limited in their offerings. A retailer may have many items for sale and needs to try and increase the number of people coming through the door, and banner advertising is a great way to do so.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/graphic-design-articles/the-importance-of-banner-advertising-for-local-companies-4903026.html

About the Author

We Recommend Big Value Banners, who are dedicated in providing cheap and uppermost quality Banners with FREE designs and fast despatch. They also offer Cheap Vinyl Banners and PVC Banners Cheap.

Video Demonstrates the Power of Words

This is one of the most beautiful videos I've ever seen (below), and one of the best demonstrations of how a simple re-write can make a message more effective. A blind man sits on a street in a well-to-do London business district, his begging cup and a cardboard sign next to him. His cardboard sign is his sales pitch, if you will, but it's not as effective as it could be. A simple, beautiful piano track accompanies the wordless action.

The man's sign says, "I'm blind please help." Most of the people nearby are oblivious to him. A couple of people give him loose change, but it's clear that he's not making the rent today. A woman walks into the scene and takes notice of the blind man. Without saying a word to the him, she takes his sign and writes her own message on the back. The man feels the woman's shoes to 'see' her in his mind's eye. He knows she's messing with his sign – he can hear her pen scratching on the cardboard. He allows her to work without protest.

We get no indication, at this point, of what the woman has written. Her edit remains unseen to us. Finished with her rewrite of the sign, she replaces it at the man's side and silently walks away. Now, suddenly, many people give the man money. The newly rewritten sign is working its magic.

The woman returns later and stops in front of the blind man. As before, he feels her shoes and knows it's her. "What did you do to my sign?" he asks her. She stoops down, close to him. "I wrote the same," she says, "in different words." He nods in understanding. "Thanks," he says, and again she moves on.

The camera follows her for moment, then pans down to the sign. We now see what the woman wrote. It's simple, yet so powerfully touching that you'll probably get a lump in your throat as I do every time I watch this video. The lesson here is simple:  The phrasing of a message is critical, regardless of the medium used to present it. The cardboard sign did not change, nor did its presentation. The only change was the way in which message, "I'm blind please help," was reworded. (You'll have to watch it to find out what she wrote.) This is good copywriting in action. It is the power of words fully utilized.

The actual name of this video is "The Story of a Sign," by Alonso Alvarez Barreda. Filmed by www.redsnappa.com, Director Seth Gardner.

Black Hole Blues, Made With Inkscape

click image to enlarge

I've been playing around with Inkscape a lot lately, using it for some of my designs.

Just for fun - and practice - I created this spacey graphic.

Inkscape is a good, vector-friendly program that is freeware that you can download at: inkscape.org/download.

So, here's my black hole, sucking light and galactic dust into a vortex around it, with one doomed and lonely planet in the outer swirl.

This took me about an hour to create. (I am humbled to recall that the Big Bang - which created the entire universe - took a fraction of a nanosecond.)