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!

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!

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 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?

I thought I would let you guys in on where I do almost all my work. At one point I was all about taking my laptop to coffee shops, libraries, food courts, and anywhere that I could open the summabich up and start doing work.

Although it may have served me well for a while, I started to realize a few things. First, there's never a shortage of rubber-neckers if you have any graphic design or image retouching work to do. Second, some coffee shops can be infinitely interesting (or soul-sucking), so getting things done rarely happened. Finally, before the days of Internet cellphone tethering, I was rarely with a wireless connection.

The solution to those things was to have a home office I wouldn't mind working in.

I'm always curious what other people's workspaces look like. I think it gives clues to what the hell is exactly happening in that person's head. Similarly I love seeing images of companies' offices. Is it modern or cubical-farmy; are there amenities or is it somewhere you just put in hours; hang around a game console or water cooler? Things like that. I mean, I'd love to work at Google just because. Seriously, how would you not love to be there everyday?

So here's a quick rundown of my own hub.

1. I like to hang up randomness. The image in the middle is a Kozyndan print. War of the Monsters. Love it. I made the framed typography stuff.
2. This is where I hang my toy boxes. I think I'll leave the Gorillaz sealed inside. Although I've played with them a few times.
3. This is where I put my work-related books, and absolutely non-work-related toys.
4. My compooter. It's a Macbook Pro I got a few weeks ago, but you already knew that. It's hooked up to a 23"ish Samsung monitor. Dual screens is cool screens.
5. My "tasks" board. I should probably do them some of them at some point.
6. My storage drawers. (I never understood why people refer to their underwear as drawers. It sounds pretty dumb.)
7. My desk. It's where everything lays on or else it'd be on the floor. My camera is there too. Don't ask why.
8. My USB hub/card reader/iPhone charger/sync dock. Next to that is my tablet (if you don't have one and do a lot of graphic work, you really need to get with the program). These two things are third most important tools I use.

And that's that. Oh, and there's a picture of my dog since he sleeps in the office when I'm working, not paying attention to him.

I tried to steer away from what I thought to be traditional Thai menu elements (if such a thing exists) and go for a more modern, almost bubbly look. Combined with the chain's bright colours, I think it gives it a unique feel. These aren't meant to be heavy meals, so I wanted that to come across in the design's levity.

Bored about how I'm talking about a menu? Fair enough, just go and try the food! Their items were redone by a former Marben sous chef, so make sure to grab a bite if you're in the area.

And don't think they weren't coming from my camera! They were, but they just can't end up here, evidently.

Oh, and this picture isn't related at all. I just thought it was cute.

More stuff coming soon! Keep checking back.

Logos are some of my favourite things to design. They pose the greatest challenge in trying to condense a company's mission into a workable graphic, while being memorable and identifiable, and above all, not ugly.

Here are some examples of some logos that have been signed off on and are going to hit reproduction very soon. The first one is for UNIFX Uniforms, a Canadian based uniform company. The second is for Scorpion Apparel, a subsidiary company that specializes in the types of uniforms you wouldn't want to see if you were doing something bad, namely security and law enforcement.

I have a few other logos in the works so if you like what you see, make sure to visit again soon!

Vince became part of our family a few years ago. From what I've come to know over the years, to be inaugurated into our clan there's two things you have to be able to take: a joke, and your liquor. It's a good thing Vince is such a funny guy!

But really, we're all so happy for them. I could share some obscure anecdote about these two but there's no need. Marriage is about new beginnings and fresh starts. There's a lot more memories to be had from here on so I'm looking forward to new ones being made.

One such memory was watching all my younger cousins get belligerently drunk. Weird.

Remember when I was on a heart-designing phase? Yeah, I figured not, but I swear it happened! I'm not much of an illustrator but this is something I slapped together that grew from a t-shirt design.

Originally I wanted to have a limited print run with it but because this might be one of my only attempts at digital illustration, I thought I'd just give it out to my Internet people out there in the... Internet...

Without further ado, I put together a bunch of copies at varying resolutions for your convenience. Feel free to download them, delete them, redownload them, have your way with them in MS Paint, or whatever you wish, but if you like what you see please link back to show some love.

Thanks!

Download: 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x800, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1400x1050, 1440x900, 1600x1200, 1680x1050, 1920x1200