Monday, November 30, 2009

look how sad my USB is



Sahar, I am so depressed. All you ever want me for is to link your laptop to your printer or external hard drive. You don't love me for me!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

I agree with the guy who has been doing this for half a century.


I see graphic design as the organization of information that is semantically correct, syntactically consistent and pragmatically understandable.
Massimo Vignelli

Monday, November 9, 2009

Comically depressed everyday objects

Last Thursday, I was invited to my friends' Eric and Ryan's apartment to draw comics. Let me share them with you fine readers. You might notice a common thread throughout many of these: Chickens/Blobs/Horrifying Whales with Elephant Heads who hate themselves.
That poor snail!!!! By Ryan



who wants crazy taxidermy? By Amanda



A jaunty eggplant by Amanda



Eric's initial sketches.



A chicken with body issues. By Sahar



a very disturbed California Raisin by Rebecca



Art by Sahar, copy by Ryan



Raison d'etre by Rebecca



By Sahar. It was Eric's idea that the ghost would try, but fail to vomit into a bucket.



by Eric, I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. There is a SAD TEAR and a portrait of a razor blade. Could anything be more deliciously emo?



Also by Eric, I really want to get that whale thing tattooed but I promised myself I would never get a tattoo because I would get something stupid



A very lifelike portrait of Rebecca by Sahar




this made me really sad



image by Ryan, copy by Sahar



a true story by Amanda



image by Rebecca, copy by Ryan



By Ryan and his friend, Evan (I think)




by Eric. This one has a plot!


Sunday, June 21, 2009

1999

I've been thinking lately about how this decade only has about six months left. For some reason, the fact that 1999 was then years ago is sort of, to use a Buffy the Vampire Slayer term, wigging me out. I was 15 then. Wow. It feels sort of good that there's a good ten years between current Sahar and 15 year old Sahar.

The summer of 1999 was when I first read The Catcher in the Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird. I remember getting into a huge fight with my step-brother for ruining my Donna's CD. I remember swimming in a pool as it was being refilled with water. I went to an art camp where I impressed this counselor who looked a lot like Aladdin by knowing about things like Dadaism. I remember my bedroom getting infested with insects because I left out this summer sausage I was supposed to sell for some fund raiser. It was all and all a pretty shitty time.

I wanted to gather and share some things that came out in 1999 that I liked a lot at the time.


Coffee and TV by Blur. I think it still holds up.



For some reason, I was really obsessed with this Gap commercial.



I was especially into the guy with the ridiculous hair (he sings, "gonna dress you up in my love, in my love"), even though he would later be responsible for this. I made my mom buy me a pair of Gap flared corduroys for Christmas that year. In our house, since we've never done anything in a normal fashion, the "from" tags at Christmas were usually a silly joke. For the cords, she put "eyebrows" and I knew immediately what was inside the package because for months all I ever talked about was how mesmerizing his eyebrows were She accidentally bought the pants ten sizes too big. Oopsie!

1999 was also the year Rushmore came out. I saw it with my dad in the River Oaks Theater in Houston. We felt special because it was filmed in Houston, even though they never mentioned it.


Youtube is being dumb and not letting me embed this. It is my all time favorite music video.

And of course, how could I end a post about being 15 in 1999 without including some Fiona Apple.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Oh, Romance

I got home last night I had two "boyfriends" in my inbox.

Hunk #1, from my dear sister, Yasmine.


This one is from Katie. It features our 27th president, William Howard Taft.


In other romance news, whenever I sent someone something on Facebook, an ad like this shows up:



Then when you are bored with your Iranian girl you purchased at a great price, you can go chat with your friends using this service:



Or if you love Jesus, get a hold of these people.



Sorry that none of these banners go anywhere.

Friday, June 5, 2009

A Tasty, Plushy Friend

A week or so ago, I received an text from my dear friend Fawn saying she purchased me a gift. All she would tell me was that it involved the word, "pork." This of course intrigued me. What appeared in our mailbox surpassed anything I could have imagined.







Apparently, he is supposed to go like this. Pardon, my gross fingers. I had an ink accident yesterday.



The text on his lil' tag says, "Plush dumplings filled with love...and pork. It doesn't get any more delicious. Whether steamed or fried, these mini pot stickers are sure to warm your taste and your heart---not to mention your love of food-based stuffed things."

Thursday, June 4, 2009

It's nice and rainy.



Today was a good day.

Despite failing at drawing realistic boats (don't ask).
Despite spilling a bottle of water in my bag.
Despite the fact that I then spilled a bottle of ink in my bag.
Despite while cleaning the spill(s), I dropped my sketchbook in a puddle.

Because I got a really cute hair cut yesterday and I look like myself again!

Because my wonderful roommate killed the mouse that was roaming our apartment! (It wasn't afraid of people! It was duped by poison. ahhhahha).

Because I saw Adrian Tomine and Seth talk at the Strand and it was really inspiring and lovely.

Because it is summer! And instead of feeling stressed out and overwhelmed, I am eating lots of water melon and watching tons of Kids in the Hall.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

New Gossip Cover

I saw this on umm....ONTD. It is the cover of the upcoming album by the Gossip. I don't know why, but I just really love it.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

oh, Pandora

So this year, I decided to give pandora another chance. When it first came out years ago, I tried it and it was terrible. It would kick you off for being on it for too long and once, I had a Belle & Sebastian station and it played this, which is actually my least favorite song in the world.

It still has problems, but it is soooo much better (even if it tried to place the Beatles in my twee station. But check this shit out:

Yeah, Pandora. That is not the right cover art.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

something troubling me

In my typography class, we were each assigned a typeface and instructed to make a huge as poster (I am actually "working" on my poster for Gil Sans right now). One of my classmates got the typeface gridnik, which was designed by this Dutchman, Wim Crouwel. The poster had this amazing quote that I can't get out of my head, "I am functionalist troubled by aesthetics." That feeling pretty much summed up how I feel about lots of things, especially design. Of course, it was a Dutchman, who expressed the senitment the best.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

David Byrne



My own ambition is to write a song that sounds like I stole it---like 'I' didn't write it, but it has always been there. To get the 'I' out of the song is the ultimate compositional coup, whether in music or design. Having a non style is more slippery amusing and surprising to one nice recognizable look. It's a way of staying half-awake, or noticing things, enjoying things and learning to love things---especially the vernacular and banal things that have been relegated to the garbage heap of design.

From Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist, 1998

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Books Typeface

So, I guess after the tampon typeface, this one will be a little less exciting. It took a lot more work, obvs. And I think it's really pretty.


Again if you want a closer view, just click the image.

Tampon Typeface

So a few weeks ago in my type class we were assigned to make a typeface out of "found" objects. I made two. This one, out of tampons, and another one out of stacked up books (which I will upload later).


Click for a bigger view.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Fun with Spot Color

I had too much fun with spot color and opacity in InDesign today.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Final Poster


I am dumb and I didn't put up my personal poster when I finished it, which was, like, a week and a half ago. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.





The idiot at the copy shop keep messing up, so I ended up with a lot of extra prints. I had a blank wall yesterday, I don't have one today.

Snow Daze

So, today, the East Coast fell victim to a substantial snow fall. So much snow in fact that school was canceled, which I guess means that today was my first ever snow day.





Becca (the roomie) also got off work. So we decided to eat snacks and watch Wayne's World and Wayne's World Two, both of which are fine films.


This soda, called Champagne Cola, tasted like a combination of cream soda and bubblegum. The whole thing only cost 99 cents.


Becca investigating.


And not being too impressed with the results.

Also, check out this hilarious snack, Munchies. It, indeed, is a good cheese fix.


After a couple of hot toddies, I fell asleep. It was nice, but lazy days just mean I have to work twice as hard tomorrow. But I'm not going to think about that now.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

I usually hate shit like flash mobs and Improv Everywhere. It epitomizes the most annoying thing about bad theater: It is more about the performer than the audience and it takes up more time, than say a bad painting or something. Also, I think that audiences should have the right to consent to viewing a performance. It shouldn't just happen to you; you should be asked first.

Anyway, I obviously think about this stuff too much. But all that said. I love this video by Beirut, even if it just happening on the street.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Second Draft

So, last week I shared the first draft of my self-poster. This is my second draft. After I get critiqued tonight, I will start my final draft, which I will share with y'all next week.

This is the whole thing:


And here are some details: