Wedding albums and things

Albums are a pretty big deal when people get married. Why wouldn't it be? It's one of the best ways to relive those moments when you got hitched! It doesn't matter if you put some 4"x6"'s in a store bought album or if you opt for the more elaborate, leather bound option; what does matters is that it's suited to your tastes and acts as a fitting vessel for the priceless images it's meant to display.

Here are some images of an album I recently shot and designed. This one is a bit hefty, measuring in at around 16"x12" but what I love is the amount of real estate that you can get with these pictures. Also, the binding is reallly sturdy and the cover, wrapped in Italian buckram with a debossed title, adds some quiet sophistication.

I would love to have my own portfolio images in something as well made as this, but I can just picture me wanting to redesign it after I get it printed...

Anyways, enjoy!

 

Taquería logo

This project was a bit different for me. Not only was I put in charge of designing the identity and branding of this new burrito shop, but I also had to come up with the name! With the help of friends and the Internet, I settled on the name Taquería—pronounced tah-KEH-ree-uh. Thanks to the magic of Google and Wikipedia, I've deduced its meaning to "a shop that sells tacos or burritos". I thought it to be simple, fitting, unique and with enough visual meaning in the word itself to represent a new food franchise.

From the outset there were certain things I knew to be. There would be no tex-mex design influences, no clichéd iconography, proper use of modern typefaces, and all with a hint of youth. Sound weird and completely vague? Yeah, that's pretty much how most of my design projects start. I try to get a feeling for a design before I get to hacking pixels. There are obviously sound design choices behind the brand execution, but it all combines to encompass a mood and idea that has to be communicated within seconds of seeing the logo. I just find it easier for me to reverse engineer that feeling into a workable design.

In this case the feelings that needed to be conveyed were freshness, lightness, quality, and youth, all without alienating the idea of the food itself.

Keep a lookout for Taquería opening up very soon. There are multiple locations planned so hopefully one will be near you!

My new toy!

A few weeks ago I came across this article detailing how to turn a regular netbook into a functioning Apple version of itself. I've always been interested in getting those little suckers but I wasn't too taken in the choice of operating systems they run on. Because I haven't used a Windows machine in forever, nor was I too interested in getting acquainted with Ubuntu (even though I love it's open source stance), it seemed like a type of machine I would have to pass on. Well, now that there's a reliable way to get OS X, my operating system of choice, on a cheap mini-machine, I jumped at the chance!

The whole process took a few hours, and it would have been faster but my Windows skills are a bit rusty, but all in all it went surprisingly well. Now that I've had a good few hours to set things up how I like, install some programs, change some settings, I can say it's probably going to be a bit more functional than just that toy computer I pegged it to be. The small size lets me take it anywhere and they keyboard and screen are a good enough size that I don't have to crane my neck too much.

If there's one thing that I can take a dump on it's the trackpad. Even after I installed a custom driver to make it play nice with OS X trackpad gestures and features, it still sucks. A lot. I'll go ahead and say it's the worst one I've ever had to use.

And those screams for help in the video are coming from the Xbox I left on downstairs. I swear!

OS X on a Dell Mini 10v from Jason Jajalla on Vimeo.

Folia Grill

I never knew bacon was made out of pork belly. The pork gyros I tried at Folia Grill were made out of the same stuff, pork belly. If my limited deductive skills managed to stay intact despite years of weekend alcohol abuse, then these gyros are pretty much bacon wraps. How do you turn down anything with bacon?

Folia Grill is the newest gyro place in Greek town. They're located at Pape and Cosburn, just a few blocks north from Greek town proper. It's owned and operated by my long time good friends Nick and Eleni, and if I know anyone who's finicky about offering good, hearty food, it's them. They've always fed me well over the years and now everyone who's interested can have a taste. I'm not lying when I say it's the best gyro I've ever had, period.

They had their grand opening this past weekend and gave out the stuff for free. Seriously, free food from Friday to Sunday.

If you missed it then you can always head back to try it out yourself. Did I mention the gyros are ridiculously cheap?