andrew dodson

I found this on Justin Taylor’s blog and it really hits home with me. Sort of shapes how I should view my work as a graphic artist.

1. Christian artists should view their talent as a gift from God and see its use ultimately as worship to God.
2. A Christian artist should have a sober assessment of his gift and neither
   over-estimate the opportunities it should given him or undervalue the
   contribution he can make with it.
3. The most authentic Christian art results from our joy in Christ overflowing
   into Christian art, not our strategies to do art that is Christian.
4. Creating art is an expression of faith and obedience, not of compulsion or identity.
5. The Christian artist should see his art as a way to love God, his people, and the world.
6. The Christian Artist sees the sovereign hand of God in both his opportunities and his obstacles.
7. The Christian artist is committed to truth in the way he lives and what he creates.
8. While the Christian artist is under no burden to make all of his art
   explicitly Christian, it would be an unbiblical use of his gift to
   intentionally create a body of work without reference to Christ.
9. The Christian artist rejects the worldly concept of artist as an outsider
   and embraces his place among God’s people in the local church as
   essential to his life and gifting.
10. The Christian artist should not ignore his personal responsibility to evaluate the theological soundness of his work.
11. Because the Christian artist trusts God, he will battle selfish ambition,
    competition, and any pretense of entitlement in regard to his art.
12. The Christian artist will see the evaluation of others as an essential help
    in both growing in their art and assessing its fruitfulness.
13. The Christian artist will resist elitism and care about the accessibility
    of his art to the average Christian in the congregation
14. The Christian artist must never confuse the joy of creativity with the joy of knowing and pleasing God.

So, I’ve got graphic design on the brain. I’ve had a creative spurt lately, which has led to some new and different designs for me. I figured I’d showcase some of them here, mostly done for The Point:

We’ve broken fresh ground.

I’ve partnered up with someone to do some graphic work, in exchange for some promotion of BADmedia.  One thing they want is animated GIFs for their website.  I’ve never created animated GIFs so I figured now was a good time to learn.  Also, I’m working on a website for BADmedia to get ready to start promoting my business some more.  Why not create an animated GIF for the BADmedia site?

I couldn’t live with a simple animated GIF.  I wanted something more along the lines of Flash (another web animation I’ve never learned).  After reading a bit on the net, I learned you can turn an AVI into an animated GIF.  Cool!  I dropped a background graphic and some animated text into iMovie HD, exported as an AVI, dumped it into ImageReady and voila!  My first animated GIF.

Howdy y’all (That’s Kentucky for “hello”).  It’s Derby Week here in the Bluegrass, and to be honest, I don’t care that much.  I always hate to say “I’m busy” because everyone is busy this day and time, but that would be more true right now than any other.  Seems like spring time is always my busiest time of the year.

I’m working on several recordings right now.  I recorded a southern gospel concert a couple of weeks ago, so I’m moving on to the mixing stage of that project.  I recorded last week’s Georgetown College Symphonic Band concert.  That recording should be wrapped up this weekend, since it was just a few mics.  Mixing will go quickly on that.  But, I turn around on Sunday to record the Central Kentucky Concert Band’s spring concert.  On top of all this, I’m beginning the process of picking songs for The Point’s first worship album.  It’s really more of a glorified “bootleg” concept.  I plan on recording all the services from now on, and every few months, making a low-budget CD of 10-12 songs.  I’ll manufacture all of them myself in small runs of about 100.  It’ll mostly be a good outreach tool, I think.  We’ll see.

I’ve been digging in to some new graphic design techniques as of late.  I’m a self-trained artist, so I still have a lot to learn.  Mostly, I’ve been digging into Photoshop a bit more to create stuff for web and print.  The majority of my time is usually spent in Illustrator designing shirts.  But, I’m doing more graphic work for The Point these days, and I’m looking to expand BADmedia some more.  So, I think learning more in Photoshop will help.  Mostly, I’ve been playing around with new brushes and the like to create the ever-so-popular grunge and distressed looks that are “all the rage” right now.  I feel like I’m jumping on the bandwagon, but I’m learning new stuff, so that’s always good.

I’m not doing a whole lot of web stuff for the time being, but I think that will change as I move into the summer months.  I have a few sites in desperate need of redesigns, and as mentioned, I’m working on getting some more clients.  I’ve struck up a small partnership with another local business that might lead to some new web clients.  More on that to come.

Tonight was PCG night, and our group went through the study fairly quickly.  It was a good study and I think we were all surprised that we hammered through it in under an hour.  So, I find myself with some free time that I don’t normally have.  Hence, this novel of a blog post.  I’m off to enjoy the rest of the evening…

Instead of a YouTube video this weekend, I’m posting an interactive tour of Sweetwater’s new facility. They are a musical instrument and audio equipment dealer, based out of Fort Wayne, IN. I actually applied for a graphic design position with this company a long time ago, but didn’t get it. Part of me is glad because I’m not sure I would’ve liked moving to northern Indiana. But, after seeing this facility, it might be worth it!

> Tour the new Sweetwater facility

(p.s. - this is my first post using Wordpress 2.5 - I really like it!)

After a weekend break, I have some catching up to do….

• My apologies to Rich Brooks.  A couple of years ago, I was wondering why UK would ever hire a retired coach and expect to build a program.  Seems he’s done quite a good job over the last two seasons.  Sitting at 4-0 and looking at the rest of the schedule, I think UK is capable of a 10-2 record, but that’s awfully optimistic.  The thing is, it’s hard to tell just how good they are.  We’ve beaten two ranked teams in consecutive weeks.  At this point, the sky’s the limit.  With Notre Dame sitting at 0-4 for the first time in history, it would seem the college football world is off its axis.  Why not dream about a 10-2 season for the Cats?
• The Bengals played much better against the Seahawks than I expected.  They still couldn’t pull it out, but I had expected a loss anyway.  Granted, it would’ve redeemed their loss against the Browns last week, but I still think they have a decent shot at my prediction of 11-5.  I don’t expect them to beat the Patriots next week, but after that, the schedule softens a bit.
• The Josh Martin Band DVD is finally available!  I watched bits and pieces Saturday night, and watched it in its entirety yesterday.  I’m very pleased with how it turned out.  I still think it’s the best mix I’ve done to date, and Bert did a great job editing the video to get the best camera angles of each shot.  Bert also did a wonderful job on the artwork.  Thanks to Kari McGrath for some great photos to work with!  The DVDs are $15 and you get a copy of the audio CD as well.  I’m planning a fairly large update and/or redesign of the JMB website, so it will be available at our online store very soon.
• The hybrid drumset has performed admirably over the last two weekends.  I think it’s fairly close to being the perfect drumset for all occasions and playing situations.
• My new Motorola Q is pretty cool.  I’m really glad I didn’t spend a lot more money on a new Treo because it seems the Q can do everything the Treo can do.  I had to purchase a special program to get the phone to sync with my Mac computer, but that has made it very easy to keep track of contacts, calendar dates, etc.  I’ve yet to drop a call since switching back to Verizon, and the reception on my calls has been very clear.

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Based out of Lexington, Kentucky, Cricket Press is a small operation with a big client list.  I discovered them through The Dame, who benefits from CP’s concert poster designs.  Their designs are very, very good.  If I was a good graphic artist, I’d aspire to be like these people when it comes to design.  One day, maybe…. one day.  If you’re looking for posters, letter pressing, invitations, signage or anything of the sort, check them out.

Stuff like this motivates me to become a better graphic artist.  With that said…. back to work…

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I’ve created a new logo for my business - BADmedia. Actually, it’s the first logo for BADmedia.

To borrow the title of a JMB song, I’m not so easily pleased with my logo ideas for The Point. There’s a whole lot of (perhaps) over-analyzation going on in my head in regard to this logo, but I haven’t fallen in love with any of my ideas. This isn’t “just a logo.” To me, it means a whole lot more.