Peace on Earth

Wishing you the gifts of peace, love, & joy.

Hope your 2010 rocks!

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you have a Merry Christmas! 

Here's a cool link from the folks over at Mental Floss on about the first Christmas Card.

Want to give a meaningful gift this Christmas Day? You could always donate to one of my favorite causes and donate to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. (I don't work for 'em, but I believe in what they're doing.)

My Holiday Card - O Christmas Tree

So I've been planning this year's holiday card since last year. I had a few too many sketches from last year that I felt were cool enough, so I made life easy for myself this year and started from these sketches from last year:

I decided to "zoom in" on the what I call the "swirly" Christmas tree and use that as my base. At first, I envisioned my standard workflow of digitally inking my sketch and laying out flat color in Illustrator then taking that into Photoshop where I add lighting and texture. I reached my usual point of having all the flat colors laid out and I even made a Photoshop version of the file:

But something just didn't feel right (yes, the blue and purple, but I typically change my mind on colors in Photoshop, so that wasn't a big concern for me at this point). I set it aside and let the idea marinate a bit. I came back to it and added some more elements and details in Illustrator. And then more. And then I played with some of the filters to create a parchment-ish texture for the background.

Inspired by my success with the background texture, I attempted several versions of texture for the tree. However, after much experimentation, I couldn't develop a texture that worked for the tree (nor that matched my vision in my head). So I decided to continue the swirls inside the tree as its texture which unified the design better.

My previous 2 cards featured a dove and I decided to add it in to this card to keep with my tradition and to reinforce my wish for peace for the new year.

While I was skeptical of just leaving everything in Illustrator at first, especially since my work usually includes many different textures, I think the illustration is much better for it, and I might experiment more with creating those textures in Illustrator for future work.

Just what they didn't want for Christmas!

I was out shopping the other day with a friend and we were looking at the Christmas stuff. Along with the typical Christmas lights, candy, and displays there was this:

I call him "Gansta Rappa Spuds Mackenzie", and he sings and lights up. He has either a gold or silver plated "grill" in addition to his way cool pimp-dog metal. Woo. Just want I didn't want for Christmas. I wonder how this one got past the suits and onto shelves.

Cool Last Minute Christmas Gift Idears for the Designer in Your Life

Are you a procrastinator? Me too, that's why Santa Nick's got ya covered on some cool gift idears:

For those last minute shoppers with some dough, here are some way cool gifts:

Vertical Blinds Lamp (very clever design and technology)

Gesture-Based Interface (Ok, this one's not out yet, but this is too cool, it could be the future of how we interact with electronics)

Flying Car! (Ah, my dream is nearly a reality! Too bad it's not a Delorean... :)

Oh, and if you do have money to spend, consider building a secret room in your house! I've got a buddy who has the skill. He did one for a friend's parents and it rocks! If you're interested, lemme know and I'll connect ya (serious inquiries only please).

And some more practical ideas:

Goldberg Change Sorter/Counter

HOW Design's Gifts for Designers

And if none of those strike your fancy, you could always try something from Core 77's Ultimate Gift Guide. 

Good luck! This is the last weekend to shop before Christmas, so if you celebrate, this is your last shot to get that perfect give for the ones you love. Or you could hand make them something special, or fake it with a gift from an Etsy shop.