Nothing Spaces

Flux: ID Seniors’ Exhibit. // January 19, 2010

Yesterday was the first day of Flux, which was the exhibit of the thesis projects of the ID (Information Design) students of Ateneo. I think it also opened Humanities Week, which is pretty cool. Here are a few photos:

Father Javellana and Dra. Vilches cutting the ribbon.

Paulina making last minute edits.

Tracy making a LED lantern! Over at Meggy Kawsek’s area.

Made one, too. :)
(Photo taken by Glen.)

Children’s books by Kim Ng.

Paulina’s personal lightsaber duel.

Kris Caguiat’s thesis.

Mine!

I have some more (but not a lot) of photos over at my Flickr, if you guys want to see.

The exhibit will be ongoing until Friday, I think. :) The works are mounted over at the area behind the stairs on the first floor of the Rizal (or, old) Library.

You know, kind of like a cupboard.

 

Today = Day of Infamy! // January 15, 2010

LOLJK. I just finished my thesis, is all. I mean, that’s all. Nothing special.

I have loads more to say, and obviously, the insides of this book(let :( it’s really short) has more pages. But I am still swamped, so this little update will have to do. I just wanted to say IT IS FINISHED because I really was getting a little desperate because it seemed like it was going nowhere… but here it is.

And thesis, if I may say so, it is absolutely lovely to see you.

 

DEPARTURES: Don’t Forget, Clementine’s Album Launch. // December 4, 2009

Don’t Forget, Clementine is the band of a few of my (and Paulina’s) friends. We were asked to do their album art, since they are releasing one this month. It’s called Grace, And Dragging Her Wings and the launch is actually next Saturday, December 12, 2009.

If you live near or want a copy of the album (because they are extremely good), drop by! To maybe somehow “convince” you into going, here are a few shots of the inlay. (This leads to their MySpace account, with short samples.)

I promise, we are going to have a time.

 

Work, thesis and sharing your work online. // November 28, 2009

So, this blog was actually meant for sharing works in progress, and not really as an emotional dumpsite, which to be honest, is what it is shaping up to be. I can’t say that I’m grossed out by it (because I’m not — I kind of like the “feel” of this website, to be honest. If I may say this without appearing to be self-absorbed), but here is an attempt to reconcile what Nothing Spaces is right now, with what I intended it to be in the first place.

While fixing up my Cargo Collective account (which doesn’t really have much up, yet, so there’s very little point in linking to it), I realized that for the past three years, I have been including a certain project of mine in portfolio sites and resumés, and it is called Baraja. I am sure you are familiar with it. In fact, if we do not already know each other from a separate online platform (or in real life), that is probably how you got here in the first place.

Anyway, I got a little bit disappointed because I had this whole idea in my head, when I first registered this website, that I would be the kind of person who would be making stuff all day and posting about the process and the output or whatever on here. Which has clearly not been the case. I’ve actually been posting some exercises I had been doing on my Tumblr and my Flickr, but since I am generally averse to watermarks, there have been a few times where my work has been stolen and reposted without credit, so I don’t really know how safe the Internet is anymore.

I used to tell myself, “Well, at least that means your work is good enough to steal,” or “Well, if they steal something of yours, that makes them pathetic, not you.” But now that it’s happened to me, it really is a sucky feeling. I especially hate it when they take something of yours, and then re-alter and tweak it. Amy Ng from Pikaland.com recently had this to say about the issue: “When someone copies your work, it’s a crime against the spirit of sharing that is prevalent online.”

And it’s true. But I realized that I shouldn’t let them stop me from posting my work online, because it really is the best place to get critique and to get hired for projects or tapped for collaborations. So, here! Some small sneak peeks of the last few projects I’d been working on:

(click for bigger)
This is something I made for The Bead Shop, which is going to launch
a collection of luck-themed jewelry.

This was a collaboration with Paulina Ortega.
We were tapped by our friend, Marvin Sayson to design
Don’t Forget, Clementine’s new album, Grace, and Dragging Her Wings.
It was a lot of fun (I got stressed out a few times, but mostly because of time.)

(click for bigger)
Lastly, here are some mock-ups of the book covers for my thesis.
I don’t know what to do about it, but judging from the last meeting I had
with my thesis adviser, I would like to think that it was pretty well-received.

YAY. Hopefully I’ll be making more things or reading more or writing more the next few days. I’ve actually finished reading Dave Eggers’ “The Wild Things,” so maybe I can write about that. One thing you should know, though, is that book really made me really, really sad, and my heart was really heavy after it. I sometimes find Dave Eggers’ prose a little overwrought, but this book really found new ways to break my heart.

But I’ll talk about that tomorrow, maybe. For now, I have to get back to the daily grind and read Aristotle for Philosophy. Sometimes, I really love school, but then I get reminded that I need to be good at it, and then it’s not so fun anymore.

 

a ho-hum kind of weekend. // November 22, 2009

 

For me to remember: // November 6, 2009

On a few other notes:

1. School on Monday.
2. I am looking for work. E-mail me if this information is relevant to you: yankee@nothingspaces.com.
3. I should really finish my online portfolio.
4. NaNoWriMo is not going so good.
5. Just because you can be a douche about something, it totally doesn’t mean that you should be. Yes, I am looking at you.

Also, a message for Julian Casablancas: BOO YOU WHORE.

What Ever Happened?

 

Thesis Business. // September 19, 2009

The reason why I haven’t really been talking about my thesis is not because it’s top secret or because I’ve been so busy working at it that I didn’t have time or space to talk about it. The main reason why I never really talk about my thesis (save for a vague “basta, it’s about pop culture.”) is because I haven’t really gotten around to fleshing it out and actually working on it. It’s curious that I have checked out several books to help back up my very flimsy thesis statement, surrendered a couple hundred bucks in overdue fees and have had very little to say about it.

So, today, I am telling anyone who cares, and those who asked and I’ve blown off, about it. I’ve whittled the ginormous and vague ‘pop culture’ to three main focuses, all of which happen to be the main characters of television shows: Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars), Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Angela Chase (My So-Called Life). What started out as, supposedly, a collection of general commentary on films, music and television has been “reduced” to a book on three of my favorite T.V. characters. I’m going to write about how they are similar, something like that, and it’s generally going to be all in good fun. The design aspect’s going to be the general layout of the book, which will feature articles, “artistic renditions” (if I figure out how to draw in time) and informational graphics, much like these by Feltron.

I’ve recently realized how behind I really am, and I’m just writing this post as a reminder of how much I’ve been slacking off, in hopes that when I log onto the greatest/worst invention of all time (aka, the Internet), I will be reminded of how crappy my thesis is going to be if I don’t get on it and git ‘er done. I’ve only finished several article outlines — the one I’ve fleshed out the most is called “The Cons of Being a Vampire Slayer” — and yeah, wow. I’m really going to have to hustle.

So, there. Now, you know.