Find Your Inspiration

The best part about this blog is that I’m not committed to a company, product, or even a singular career field. I can freely post whatever is important to me and with this I’m solely responsible for meeting this criterion. In this blog I post on topics that interest me without writing to bore you. It would be easy to publish my entire opinion on every works of art that I see, but what’s the point. I would rather show you why it’s important to me allowing you to view my interests without limiting you to perception of a topic based on my own.

With this being said I thought it was important to find some cool websites or projects that I think are worth checking out. If you’re reading this post let me know what you would like to see if you love photography or terrible marketing let me know, and I’ll do my best to research these to bring new insight other than your own. There are so many great websites out there that you will never view, and an infinite number of small essays that you will never have the chance to read.

You might be looking for that spark on how to write a book(O’Reilly Publishing), or even a fun read that you can start and stop a number of times in your busy schedule. I found Scott Berkun’s website a year ago, and since then I have actually purchased a few of his books on Amazon. My last Scott Berkun book that I bought I’m still reading which is titled “Mindfire, Big Ideas for Curious Minds” for less than $10. This book is a list of amazing short essays that have great insight on many topics that we overlook each day. What I find interesting about his books is that he allows his audience to view a majority of his old essays and posts on his personal website. How many people do you know that have their entire book online, and are still able to have customers purchase their work for the “other” works that are not on his website. Scott’s website is an absolute must see. This is a great spot to check out his website that shows his work off in multiple medias as a presenter, journalist, and a inspiration for many. Check Scott’s website out at ScottBerkun.com and read a couple of my favorite essays “How to detect B.S.” & “How to give and receive criticism” or you can purchase his book to read all of his great essays!

I found a cool website of Dan McCarthy’s a while ago, and I often check up on it every once in a while. McCarthy’s ridiculously talented at what he does that includes my favorite topic of screen printing (something on my bucket list to get into), art prints, paintings, and even apparel. The art print located on the above this paragraph is called “Yellow Moon on the Rise” by McCarthy and is only one of many great pieces of work found on his site at DanMcCarthy.org. If you check out McCarthy’s website make sure you take time to look into his screen printing, and projects that include the Sundance Film Festival 2011 Winner “Tyrannosaur.”

If you are a sports nut like I am there’s a good chance that you play as many sports related video games as I do. Operation Sports is a great website and forum that allows you to get the latest news on upcoming games as well as talking about bugs and venting about poorly made concepts in your favorite game (Madden Football). I enjoy this website a lot because this website allows each user to help others. There are many forums on logo development for “created” teams and custom sports covers for free by requests. I have done many logo designs on this website for individuals who know what they want without knowing how to develop their ideas. You can check out this website atOperationSports.com, and if you’re interested check out a sample of my custom logos also on my Operation Sports page here.

Don’t limit yourself by not looking, and if you have found something that you see and think “wow that’s awesome” why not share this with everyone? I’ve posted a couple things above that I think are cool and will hopefully inspire someone. Let me know how you feel about these, and I love to see new things as well. So don’t be afraid to post your blog or anything else that you think is fun in the comments. I hope that you found something new and unique in this post which you enjoyed!

Boise State Fauxback Logo

When professional sports teams use “retro” uniforms they replicate previous designs, but they don’t follow past styles of equipment. A true retro design would need to incorporate the same era’s equipment to be authentic. Fauxback logos have become increasingly popular with the design of new logos based on past designs.

Last year I was asked to make a fauxback logo based on the old Boise State logo while incorporating the new Boise State design. My Boise State fauxback logo incorporated the old style while updating the design to reflect the new Broncos design. I thought that this would be a fun project while showing unique opportunities combining two different logos that where designed in completely different eras. The first Boise State logo in which I was to base this design on was used from 1974 to 2001 that incorporated an orange bronco in front of an outline of the state of Idaho. It differentiates from the current logo’s layout and color scheme which incorporates a primary blue logo with orange as a secondary color. The design is a collage based on past and the current 2001-present Boise State logo using Photoshop. Below are the photographs used to complete the collage with the completed project as well as the past and present Boise State logos.

Why You Can’t Blame Denver

As you probably know by now it’s “semi-official” that Tim Tebow will be a New York Jet. Before Tebow can join Linsanity in the Big Apple he must rewrite his contract with the Denver Broncos. This week has been a stressfull one for Tim Tebow with all of the trade rumors after Peyton Manning was signed to a long term deal close to an estimated $96 million dollars with the Denver Broncos. The hiccup with Tebow’s contract has delayed the trade until Tebow restructures his contract so Denver will be able to trade him to New York without penalty. ESPN has cited that this trade should be official as soon as 4 p.m. ET Saturday. New York will prepare to have a “dynamic” offense that will be able to co-exist two sub par starting quarterbacks in Mark Sanchez (NY Starting QB), and Tim Tebow(DEN QB). This should be interesting at best with two quarterbacks in the NFL that have trouble with the forward pass, but that’s another story.

According to Adam Schefter of ESPN the Denver Broncos dealt Tim Tebow and a 2012 seventh round draft pick in exchange for the New York Jets fourth and sixth round selections in 2012. This was the structured deal before the “hiccup” in Tim Tebow’s contract.

The hiccup in his contract was that Denver paid Tebow 1.6 million dollars in salary advances with 5 million dollars still left unpaid. New York believes that’s Denver’s liability to pay him while Denver states that the 5 million dollar burden is now on New York’s budget.

With all of this being said for a foundation of the situation Denver has dodged a bullet with how they will operate their franchise over the next couple of years. Peyton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game, and this contract signings will be remembered forever based on the future of Manning’s health and performance.

I believe that Denver could have received more for Tebow, but their primary interest was just to ship him out of Denver. This was a must if they want Peyton Manning to succeed, because he needs to be the only starting quarterback in Denver who they will be able to build around. The AFC West is a conference that Peyton Manning will be able to perform extremely well with horrible secondaries in the Oakland Raiders (my favorite team), Kansas City Chiefs, and the San Diego Chargers.

With Manning as your quarterback the Denver Broncos will be able to aggresively search for talent in recievers which will then help build a quality cast for Manning worthy of a Super Bowl caliber of team. You can’t blame Denver for seeking a talent such as Manning because he is easily one of the top 4 quarterbacks in the league coming into this season without playing a single snap last year. Manning makes since for Denver because he will be able to set the tone for a team that will be able to have an opportunity playing deep into the playoffs if he’s able to stay healthy.

The only downside to this trade is that Denver must now find a suitable back up for Manning just in case he has continuing troubles with his neck. Denver must find a quarterback that will be able to learn from Manning without taking away his snaps. Manning is known to be a perfectionist, and also not sharing practice time with backups very well. He needs to prove that he’s in football condition and that he’s one hundred percent to play. Denver believes this is possible, but if everyone thought he was one hundred percent he would still be in Indy.

Integrated Blog

I'm sorry that I don't have any new posts for you today. I spent most of my night with creating this same blog onto WordPress. Don't worry I will keep this blog up to date as well, but I will be double posting all posts here on blogger as well as the new WordPress blog. I love blogger, but WordPress is a little more mainstream and I will be able to integrate my new WordPress layout easily with my LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. To view the new layout click here! justinjones32.wordpress.com

Wedding Fix using Photoshop

Before & After - Click each photograph to enlarge to see the differences once fully restored.

One of my high school teachers gave me a fun project to fix with Photoshop. Above on the left is an original wedding photograph from Kim Peterson's parents wedding in the seventies. The photograph was a proof that was found in a stack of old wedding pictures, but this was a special photo that was only available in a proof. Kim taught me many subjects including Accounting, Business Management, and Graphic Design. This was my first class learning Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver which made me excited to restore one of her pictures. This photo was restored by myself using only Adobe Photoshop, and is still one of my favorite restorations that I have completed.

Back to the Real World

If you haven't noticed it's been awhile since my last post with Henry Rollins and Shepard Fairey. As boring as this blog has been while I was away I was trying to organize and cram in all of my homework for the this and last weekend so the vacation that I just got back from with my lovely girlfriend Bailey in Las Vegas would be absolutely stress free. As you might think I didn't keep very much emphasis on my blog while I was cramming all of school work into a couple of days, but I did find some really cool things throughout our trip that I'm excited to share. I made sure to take notes of these "news" and make sure to let you in on some excitement from Sin City. We were only there a few days, but it was a much needed breather from a hectic work and school schedule.

I don't have any blog posts completed about any of the cool things I read, saw, or stumbled upon in our trip, but they will be coming very soon. The trip was extremely relaxing and with the multiple flights and layovers I was finally able to catch up on some relaxing reading by Scott Berkun which I will share with you later this week. I hope all is going well, and stay tuned! 

The Start of Obey Giant with Shepard Fairey

Henry Rollins Interview with Shepard Fairey. Two very odd and cool people that you should take something from. Both of these individuals are very unique and are fun to listen to. This post explains the background of Obey and Shepard Fairey's run in with the elements of street art including fines, arrests, and the public. I love how Rollins is able to ask certain questions revolving the differences in corporate marketing and marketing from artists and even street art.

Moving on after my last post I feel that if you don't know who Shepard Fairey is, you should. Looking at his art and subliminal messaging I didn't know what to expect or even how to stereotype him because I've never seen anything like it. Studying Shepard and his Obey Giant work I feel that I have been exposed to a different aspect on the philosophies of marketing and consumer behavior. One quote that I find true from the second part of this interview is when Shepard believes that a majority of people are lazy and they tend to embrace the familiar. This to me is very odd, but it also makes a lot of since. Path of least resistance is something not often discussed, but it is a driving force in both nature such as the progression of a lightning strike and our consumer behavior often relying on purchasing based on repletion of familiar products.

By starting Obey Giant Shepard unknowingly made regular consumers question everything by asking what and who should I "obey". In the first part of the interview Shepard shares the story on how his iconic image where he made his first images of Andre the Giant has a posse. Something so simple was able to capture an audience trying to figure out what the image was representing and why they couldn't find the product with this artwork.

The Start of Obey Giant with Shepard Fairey

Henry Rollins Show   Part 1 | Part 2

The video listed below are portions of the Shepard Fairey interview by Henry Rollins. It is possible that the video URL or the actual video itself will be moved or removed making an error if you follow the link below. Hopefully not, but if this happens the original episode "The Duke Spirit" was aired August 24, 2007, Season 2 Episode 19, on The Henry Rollins Show. Enjoy!