Rococo Cocoa

I am a Television STAR

2009-08-04T13:43:00.005-04:00

So, I'm finally posting about this, and sorry folks, but I often forget that I even have a blog, because I have a habit of keeping my thumbs in like 100 pies. And I only have two thumbs, so you think about how complicated that gets.

So, I was on CBS news last Saturday. Well not me per se, but extensions of myself: my art. The company I work for, EdOptions, was featured on the CBS evening news, and some of my designs for the company were featured, as you can see in the above video, at about 3/4ths of the way through. Of course, its really just a passing shot, but its a close up passing shot. And my graphics have nothing to do with the subject (health care reform). But that's okay! National television! Say it with me.

All in all pretty sweet, I gotta say. Made my week! Check out some more of my ~~background atmosphere~~ nationally recognized designs below.

The Filter is Right

2009-07-26T13:29:00.003-04:00

I'm trying my hand at doing one of those graphic-designer-playing-around-with-quotes posters.

This is a ~~not so~~ quick study that I did for my upcoming poster. The best part about this is that it appears I invented a photoshop technique for something: glitter. Go figure. :)

I should have the actual thing finished... soon...ish.

Trussardi 1911 Beaded Necklace

2009-07-01T01:11:00.004-04:00

I haven't blogged about fashion in a long while... and I'm trying to make this a Joe-Lamour-Art-Related blog only, but I think this is okay since I'm planning on making this necklace here:

from The Sartorialist

from Men's Style

So, I've never beaded something before, but it's got to be easier than paying a thousand dollars for a necklace. More to come!

The Din of Shock

2009-06-26T00:29:00.003-04:00

There probably is nothing to say that hasn't been said. So I will leave you with my all time favorite song by the one, the only (understatement), Michael Jackson:

In conclusion (to everyone else's in the universe's thoughts): Crazy, yes - so we'll choose to ignore it today and talk about awesome pop music from the 80's. Rest in peace.

A Random Selection

2009-06-25T13:44:00.005-04:00

WTF with this picture, right?

"I did this a couple of months ago, but my music collection changes more often than my hair color because I’m constantly dragging and dropping things between my Macbook and my external hard drive, so I thought I’d do it again."

Also, what better way to procrastinate than by plundering my iTunes library?"

Number of Songs: 12,707
Most Recently Played Song: Little Boots - New in Town
Most Played Song: M83 - Skin of the Night
Most Recently Added Album: Little Boots - Hands

First Song Alphabetically: Vampire Weekend - A Punk
Last Song Alphabetically: Basement Jaxx - Zoomalude
Smallest Song Numerically: Sol Seppy - 1 2
Biggest Song Numerically: Magnetic Fields - 100,000 Fireflies

Shortest Song: Janet Jackson - Interlude: Memory (0:05)
Longest Song: Stereolab - Jenny Ondioline (18:08)

First Album Alphabetically: Aaliyah - Aaliyah
Last Album Alphabetically: Hellogoodbye - Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs!
First Album Numerically: Beatles - 1 (Even though its a compillation)
Last Album Numerically: Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak

First Five Songs That Pop Up On Shuffle:
Louis Armstrong - La vie en rose (Single Version)
Joss Stone - Less Is More
Tresspassers William - My Hands Up
Aqualung - The Lake
Death Cab for Cutie - Lightness

Interesting. To me, at least.

Reblogged from Triumph of BS

Blog Updates... Again

2009-06-22T11:58:00.002-04:00

Hi Everyone!

I decided that I wanted my blog to more closely reflect my upcoming website, so I switched a few colors around. It also had an additional positive in that it's a little more legible around here. Which is always a plus.

Past Afrocentricity

2009-06-18T16:17:00.002-04:00

Here's a cover I designed for the Liberator Magazine. I'm liking this whole cutout side illustration thing I have going. All the patterns (Her dress and the background) were created by yours truly. Textures include mahogany wood, scanned rice paper and linen.

True Blood Premiere Party

2009-06-09T12:15:00.004-04:00

So, I love me some True Blood. I've read all 9 books, and I will preorder the 10th as SOON as it becomes available. I'm having a vampire themed premiere party complete with vampire cupcakes and blood martinis. Yeah, I'm crafty like that. Anyway, heres an invitation I designed on the quick for it. The logo is unavailable elsewhere so I just traced it from a screenshot (obsessed, I know). Here's a link to the article about the font. Good work, Camm Rowland.

Aurora, Rare, Beautiful, and Time Consuming

2009-06-05T16:26:00.011-04:00

Here is the first draft of a little something I'm doing for my 9-5, an educational software company. The aim was to have a school subject (this one being astronomy) leap off the screen, and hopefully if the head honcho likes it enough, it'll be featured as a full marketing campaign.

I looked at some tutorials on how to get an aurora borealis look in photoshop at design sites Abduzeedo and looking at the art of James White, Justin Maller and God himself, but it took me a hell of a long time to get the fairly realistic look that I wanted. All and all, I think this was a pretty good go at it. I think I have a little refining to do... I'll keep you (all three of you) updated!

It all matches!

2009-06-04T00:55:00.006-04:00

So my blog now fits thematically with my website, and my twitter. Excellence in motion. Now on to business card designs. And actually finishing my website and getting collateral together and taking my bio picture and...

picture from awkwardfamilyphotos.com

Pardon My Dust

2009-05-26T21:30:00.003-04:00

I'm changing my blogger theme. It's not this one, don't worry, but will be a fantastic reflection of www.joelamour.com . Now, if to figure this all out...

Two times in a row!

2009-05-21T09:28:00.005-04:00

This must be some record! I blogged not once, but two times in a row.

I, again, have resigned my logo. I'm glad I didn't order those business cards! For this redesign, I refer to one of my favorite design blogs, BrandNew for an image-and-explain format:

So, the reason I switched logos is that the first logo I designed was made from one of my favorite fonts, and the thing is just that... it was a font. It was pretty, yes, but my hand just wasn't in it. So, I took the original letterforms as a illustration and I actually hand drew my initials.

I feel as if my logo says this: that my work is elegant, but still has aesthetically pleasing imperfections that make my work so endearing. Also it shows I know both vector design (graphic design) and hand drawing (illustration), which are the two main services I provide.

Redesign of this blog (and its header) and identity to follow soon. Hurray for change!

I know, I know

2009-05-20T09:47:00.005-04:00

I know guys. The three of you who read my blog have been asking: where in the world have the posts been? Well all I can say is I apologize. Just know, as long as I still do art, and blogger is still in business, this blog will be updated... eventually.

I've been designing my new website for a while, and I've even had the web space for a full two months without even loading a coming soon splash page. Silly me. But all that is fixed! I have a theme, and consistent branding, et.cetera.

So this is what my site will look like eventually. A little more variety in the way of thumbnails, though. Stay tuned!

FFFFound Coolness

2009-02-04T14:50:00.002-05:00

These randomly generated images in the bottom left corner (from ffffound) interact in a nifty way.

Similarities

2009-01-28T23:38:00.003-05:00

On the left, my picture, on the right, Kanye.

My picture was taken about a year ago.

I had no advance knowledge of his picture,

lthough mine was taken a couple

of months after his was published in GQ.

What does it say that Kanye West and I have had almost identical photoshoots?

One More Reason I love Amy Adams

2009-01-20T23:40:00.003-05:00

Adams Glad Idol Wasn't Around When She Was A Kid

Doubt star Amy Adams is glad American Idol didn't exist when she was growing up - because it would have wrecked her dream of becoming a star.

The actress is a huge fan of the U.S. talent show, and she fears if it had aired when she was young, she would have been among the hopefuls turning up to auditions - and that would have been a disaster.

She explains, "I would have taken my ill-suited pop voice and gone in and sung some musical theatre song, and they would have put it on air, and I would never, ever (have) ended up here.

"I would have humiliated myself publicly and probably shrunk off and done something else with my life."

From IMDB.

The Sunday Best

2009-01-02T05:13:00.005-05:00

Does Resort simply mean casual? (How awesome is this model's expression. She's wondering why she's wearing a teapot as a skirt.)

I love fashion blog The Sunday Best. I can't find any information about the blogger, but I from what I can discern he is funny and Canadian. His blog covers everything from what he's wearing that day to flavorful commentary (like about Isaac Misrahi's 2009 Resort Collection) to even a comic (about fashion, but still a comic- it looks very Monty Python to me). So you should check it out.

Charade

2008-12-24T14:58:00.005-05:00

I'm watching Charade right now and the clothes in it are absolutely magical.

I especially like what James Coburn is wearing:

All of Audrey's clothes are by Givenchy. I'd give anything to dress like this every day.

Invitation Tribute: Catalina Estrada

2008-12-18T06:33:00.008-05:00

(click image to enlarge and see detail)

My first task for new years was to create the image for our New Years Party. I decided I wanted to do a gradient bonanza a la Catalina Estrada. She is a fantastic artist that uses gradients for her images in wild psychadelic patterns:

Just gorgeous. Take a look at Catalina Estrada's fantastic work here.

Spearsmas

2008-12-17T00:18:00.003-05:00

Say what you want about Britney Spears, but you have to be a good sport to run around Los Angeles in those getups with Ellen freaking out random people.

Via D-Listed.

Long Found Love

2008-12-11T14:07:00.003-05:00

Loree: Oh my god...

Loree: I like technology and stuff but a guy i spoke to from online dating just contacted me...

Loree: From like 5 -6 years ago. Men don't believe in time do they.

Me: ...from 5-6 years ago?

Loree: YEAH

Loree: Insanity.
Me: You're clearly exaggerating, right?

Loree: Nope... i wish i was lol

Me: that
Me: is
Me: utter
Me: INSANITY

Is this not...

2008-12-08T11:18:00.005-05:00

...the creepiest thing ever?! Paintings/Photographs by Fumie Sasabuchi.

Jesus.

In other news, I bought a vintage tie clip this weekend that has a little doorknocker attached to a chain. I wanted to take a picture and include it in my blog, but sadly, my camera died. Go figure.

via Trendland.

Twitter Pitter Patter

2008-11-28T12:28:00.005-05:00

Added twitter to the bar on the right. You don't know how excited that makes me.

I am also a part of Blog Catalog. Maybe I'll have 4 readers because of it instead of three? ;)

New Feature! Play Count Day

2008-11-24T12:22:00.003-05:00

For a while, I had a Song of the Week post, and then I got lazy or something (who knows with me) and stopped. But I still yearn to share my love of music with you somehow. And so! This new category appears- Play Count Day. Every Monday, I shall detail to you what songs have been all up in my craw as of late.

This week's Play Count comes courtesy of Beyonce's latest album I am... Sasha Fierce.

I don't care how gay the title of the album sounds, it's really good and she'll probably take home 47 grammies. I tend to listen to songs on repeat a lot. Not just a lot. a. lot. I've been overly obsessed with the second track "Halo" on her album and the play count on my iPod is officially at 89. Yup- that's right. 89.

You may wonder how in the hell I could of listened to the song almost 100 times in 6 days. Let me give you a fair vision on how often I listen to music:

I wake up at 6:30AM to an iPod set alarm and take a shower with my battery powered speaker system (which I connect my ipod to) then travel to work listening to- you guessed it- my iPod. At work I listen to music most if not all of the 8 hours while I'm working and when I travel home I continue to listen.

When I get home I sometimes make dinner to music and that's usually where my music listening stops, around 6:30PM. Thats 12 hours 5 days a week. I dont know about you, but I seem to like music.

Official Documents

2008-11-21T12:20:00.003-05:00

You have to admit getting letters personally addressed to me from the White House makes me cooler than you.