being a grown-up

I wonder how long it will be before we're back to only being able to buy gas on certain days of the week?... so far: a false fire alarm, and construction workers sawing through metal air ducts yards away from my head.... It'll be like Comic Con, where I try to pitch my mad l33t illustration skillz, but only to book publishers instead of comic and game publishers.

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surfacing for a bit

She, of course, is much more accomplished than I am, so it's easier to see what's going on. Blue Ridge is making some kickass oil paints, which I plan to order as soon as I get paid. I got to use some of the vermilion they make a couple of weeks ago, and it's just awesome.... They're making a blue-black, which is tough to find, and a vital part of the Zorn palette (well, when you only have four colors in the palette, all of them are arguably vital).

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Six categories of design firm promotional phrases

In Design Patois: Voice: AIGA Journal of Design: Writing: AIGA: Steven Heller points out that for all the differences in individual designers' styles, there are only six categories of design firm promotional phrases.... This still wasn't enough of an explanation for the small businesspeople I was working with, so I added a bit more, talking about how the design should get out of its own way, how the message should be important, blah blah blah.... I can't say, 'Well, we sit around and drink coffee and snicker at your choice of Bookman for your memos,' or 'We make jokes about how you can't make up your mind about capitalization, and you write a bunch of crappy jargon and call it copy.'

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