WithOut electricity

Yesterday, we had 80+ mile per hour winds blow through our area and knocked out power to about 90,000 people. While my work lost power, I was fortunate to have power at my house. As I was talking with a neighbor about the situation he mentioned the abbreviation "woe" that he saw on a store that had no power. I realized the double meaning of this and thought it would make a great image if done properly since in this day an age, we are so tied to our electronic devices that when the power is out, not only are we With Out Electricity, we are woeful about the lack of access, games, and other entertainment these devices provide.

I was trying to figure out the simplest metaphor for having no power and as I woke up this morning, it hit me: a power button gone dark. The trouble is I couldn't make the background light either, otherwise it would ruin the mood. So it took a bit of tweaking to get the levels of dark just right on the text. Then I had to figure out just the right kind of dark for the background. I wanted to convey a sense of the power going out, so I added a gradient to the background where the black surrounds the text and goes a bit lighter near the top and bottom to convey a bit more texture and motion to the piece.

Free Fonts

I was talking to a friend the other about design related things. Somehow the conversation turned to type and I remarked to her that "free fonts are like a $20 hooker. You never know what you're going to get." She laughed and said, "that would be a great t-shirt." So I made it into a t-shirt and a poster for your enjoyment!


Like this? You can buy it as a poster and/or a t-shirt at my Zazzle shop.

Designers do it in Helvetica.

Designers fell in love with Helvetica when it was first introduced, and that love has not subsided over the years. A clean and elegant font, it works well under a variety of conditions. It only seemed natural to pay tribute to one of the all-time favorite fonts in the world with a tongue-in-cheek verison of a the classic style Helvetica poster.


Like this? You can buy the poster and/or t-shirt at my Zazzle shop.


*Helvetica is a registered trademark of notype Imaging. Used with permission. Helvetica is available for purchase at fonts.com: www.fonts.com/font/linotype/helvetica

Forget Me (not)

My dad, Harry O. Nawroth, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in the final years of his life. He lost his fight last year on this date at the age of 83. Some days he had good days, some days not so good. But deep down inside, my dad was in there. I'm glad that he's no longer suffering. I didn't realize how far he had slipped away from us until he had passed away. As I perused old photos of him, I remembered how he used to be. I was mad at myself for accepting this new version of my dad in his final years. Even though it is a blessing that he's no longer suffering, there are many other fathers, mothers, and other family members suffering this disease. That's why I'm again participating in my local Alzheimer's Walk in September.


I had a vision of this print in my head since last year, and while it didn't turn out quite as I originally saw it, I think this version is much stronger.


The flower is a forget-me-not, which is the flower of September, my dad's birth month. I used blues tones because it was my dad's favorite color. The white/light blue lines of the flower represent the chaotic nature of the disease as it destroys the brain while the dark blue lines represent the person's true self that is being consuming.


The textures are rough and coarse, reflecting the aggravation of not only person suffering, but their family members suffering too.


The line "forget me" is easily legible, but the word "not" is nearly invisible to represent the lost of memory.


This print is not for sale, but for those who donate $35 or more to my Alzheimer's Walk, I will give away a hand-signed and numbered 11x17 archival print. Once the fundraising for 2012 is over, this print will not be made again.