Tuesday, December 29, 2015

new business card idea

It's weird that people trust doctors so much but for designers.... not so much. I wonder why. I guess everybody thinks they can design?

Maybe because there is no right or wrong in designing. But still, there's bad and good and better and best.

Also, patients are kind of at the mercy of doctors. (you're going to die if you don't do what they say). But designers are at the mercy of their clients.  (you're going to starve if they don't pay you ;)

drawing like children

Sometimes people ask if our drawings are done by children.

Children's drawings:
lines out of control
crazy colors
no sense of proportion
no planning so things fall off the page
coloring out of the lines
can't spell
random subject matter
try to copy grownups

It'd be crazy if we drew like children, and could still make a living selling our artwork.

Having said that, there is still something very intriguing about children's drawings!!
I think it is the fact that they can have so little control over their hands...their drawings are not polished. They have nothing to hide I guess.
I drew this cheetah with my 4 year old nephew. Kid-grownup collaboration

strange feeling

We just worked through the whole of our Christmas holiday! Last week we worked on fai chuns and a book.. drawing furiously every day late into the night (early into the morning). It was crazy!!!!

A few things were going on at the same time:

-drawing furiously
-stressed out by deadlines
-racking my brain for ideas
-crazy photoshopping
-warm fuzzy feeling of accomplishment
-having lots of ideas
-being in the zone
-secretly complimenting myself on my drawings

So the strange feeling that I am trying to describe is: working really hard but at the same time feeling like it is not really work. (?)

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

We are 4!!

All Things Bright and Beautiful 四歲啦!4歲的一些想法:



1) 4 年中,有咩事件係最印象深刻?


Jo: 很多很澎拜的東西:見到印好的貨,一箱箱疊到好高,見到好澎拜的人在市集買我們的東西,見到電車上面有我們的畫,見到剛剛買完1000個信封,一下子又無晒。















Li: 有一次去幼稚園教小朋友畫紙屋,那兒的老師叫他們小心,不要弄到衣服,但過了一陣子,他們一個一個在叫,好像病菌傳播一樣,每個都把顏料弄到身上! 每一次想起都覺得很搞笑。




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2) 眾多作品中,你最喜歡那一個?

Jo: Sunset collection, 因為全部都是我真的在不同地方collect 回來的,每一個我都記得!


Li: 喜歡 We are all travellers 動畫,因為會動的畫真的很有趣,而且不是一人能完成的作品,剛好有朋友幫忙錄音、彈吉他、吹口哨才可以完成呢!


https://youtu.be/rT5XBaXgRCg

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3) 黎緊最想做什麼?
Jo: 最想有人每天幫手寄貨和計數。最想一個人在山洞裏畫畫,但都維持到個生意!(妄想)重好想養柴犬!


Li: 想每樣野都做好d (好似無講過野咁)

Saturday, October 31, 2015

design job rates

It's hard to set rates for design jobs. We usually estimate the time and difficulty of the illustration. But I don't think that's enough.





Thursday, October 29, 2015

Picture frames

We are having an exhibition in Taiwan this November. We went shopping for picture frames today. But I have a strange hatred for picture frames. If their function is to hold a picture vertically on a wall.... they are doing it in a very inefficient way. I don't see why they have to be so big and heavy. Mankind has been using picture frames before Da Vinci but no one has invented something better? (Blue tack kind of works.) It is hard to explain why I don't like them. But we are still going to use them.




How to mail stuff

I have totally mastered the art of mailing stuff !!!!!! YEAH! (for cheap)

And here are some more rules:
1. Don't go to the courier at lunch time or after 7pm because the guys there will ignore you.
2. The post office is crowded on Mondays. 
3. If you don't seal your air mail package, postage is cheaper. (It's considered printed matter).
4. Don't forget to calculate the weight of your bubble wrap, box, packing paper and tape.
5. Always stock up on stamps! You'll regret it when you run out.
6. Some mail boxes have extra small slots. So beware.
7. Google-map (verb) suspicious addresses (suspiciously wrong) or you'll just have to mail it again when it gets lost.
8. Bring change for the courier but the post office will always have change for your $500 bill.
9. The courier sometimes gives you discounts. Yay yay yay! But the post office won't. (But the post office is losing millions of dollars every year)


Thursday, October 15, 2015

How we draw pictures



Pencil sketch













trying out some color




Refining it in illustrator








Testing different markers on different kinds of paper
smooth paper

textured paper


trying different brush strokes

some photoshopping


final picture!! :)

Sunday, September 20, 2015

buying postcards vs jewelry

I can't ever spell jewelry.

Anyway yesterday my mom said she thought people who bought jewelry were practical whereas people who bought our stuff (postcards and cards etc) were impractical.

What?! I thought it was the other way round - people who buy jewelry just need a little something extra to look nicer. If you want it, you buy it. But if you don't buy it, it's not going to hurt you much. But people who buy postcards are actually buying new ideas and enriching their lives and making other people happy!

Now that I'm typing out my thoughts, I guess buying postcards IS kind of an idealistic thing to do. haha.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

The Taiwan Hong Kong gap

I really love the Hong Kong way of doing things. We always say things in point form: 1, 2, 3, 4. It's "yes",  or "no". It's "meet me here at this time on this day."

I am still getting used to the Taiwan way of communication. Which is more along the lines of: let's get to know each other more. How do you feel? Could you explain more? Let's discuss over coffee and I'll tell you my life story.

I guess if you describe the Taiwanese as friendly and understanding, Hong Kong people are cold and business like. 

But I still really like people who are concise. It's easy on the brain.



Mind reading

I think illustrating or designing is never the hardest part of the job. The hardest part is the mind reading part - figuring out what people actually want.

I guess it's hard for people to tell you what they want because they don't know how to describe it. 

The worst is when people can't tell you what they want, but they can tell you what they DON'T want, (after you finish the picture).

I'm starting to understand their difficulty because we're asking Li's friend to write us some music. But how on earth do you describe music? The best I can do is, fast, slow, happy, sad....

 She must feel so frustrated now....


My drawing process

1. I make small sketches in my sketchbook.
2. Then I scan it and draw the picture in adobe illustrator, to get all the colors and composition right.
3. Then I print out the illustrator file actual size.
4. I use a light box and draw the picture with markers or color pencils.
5. I scan the marker drawing back into the computer and do whatever needs to be done in photoshop.
6. I get the final product printed for real.

So it starts out on paper (sketch),
becomes digital (AI), 
becomes paper again, (marker drawing) 
then digital (photoshop), 
and then paper again. (final product).

Friday, September 11, 2015

Colors vs numbers

We got our first blueprint of our calendar back from the printer's. The colors were kind of weird. Not exactly the way we wanted it.

But there's really no way to be exact with color. My blue is not your blue no matter how well you describe it.

We called the printer but talking about color is kind of crazy, like listening to food or smelling music.

At that moment I suddenly felt so much comfort in numbers. Those accurate, concrete, universal numbers I had in my excel spreadsheet. The exact numbers everyone else could read. It was a funny feeling.

Tax season!

This is our second year of doing our tax for All Things. It is still annoying. Although it is probably because we didn't do a good job of keeping track of where our money went.

I can't believe we used to just put the cash we earned into our pockets and spent money without keeping receipts. That's crazy.

And that's why our bank records were all messed up.

But it also makes me realize how far we've come. We didn't think that we would be making a stable salary from this business. But we are. So I'm thankful.