Early summer 2008 I started programing a completely unique Content Management System for iDiz Incorporated (WebiDiz.com). After working with a variety of the top open source CMSs (J!, Wordpress, Drupal…) we decided to make a CMS that would be faster, easier to customize and mind-numbingly simple to use. Late 2008 we finished development and were finally ready to start marketing it.
Of course you need a basic information oriented site to describe the product, but we wanted to generate some buzz. After kicking around several ideas and hunting for the perfect domain name we came up with ihatemyUGLYsite.com. ihatemyUGLYsite is a contest to determine which Credit Union (CU’s are our primary market at iDiz Inc.) has the WORST web site. When the contest is over the ugliest Credit Union will be awarded a free site redesign complete with our CMS.
The campaign includes email blasts, postcards and buttons (to be handed out at a CU Marketing conference) all based on the site design.
It is an artist’s goal to create works with holding power. You walk into an art museum and scan the paintings as you saunter by. Occasionally you stop to examine a piece closer and are trapped in the artists world for a moment. That moment is like a drug… we want to partake of these moments as much as we can. The masters would fill their painting with symbolism and detail in hopes that you would never tire of uncovering complexities. Later artist would employ different techniques from the bold and obscene to arrogantly simplistic. Unfortunately like most drugs the dosage must continually be increased to achieve the same euphoric state and the more I expose myself to art the more I am increasingly convinced that the moments may eventually face extinction. This fear is only eliminated by the knowledge that as long as I continue to paint I will always have those moments.
One quiet Saturday staring blankly into a book of works by Franz Klein I considered all that was required to achieve that moment. The work I was staring at projected a sense of honest boldness that lacked any uncertainty. Franz Klein did not stress over any mundane detail. He seemed to simply be caught in the moment of creating the piece and was letting that moment create itself. While considering all this I realized that what I enjoyed so much in his piece was the connection it mas making to my life. I was reveling in the memories of my own creations while staring at his work. With all that still floating around in my head mixed with my own personal opinion that art should be exclusively inclusive the following concept came to me.
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Absorb 1
is white acrylic painted over aluminum. The paintings below are all the same piece under a variety of lighting settings and angels.
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It is also important to note that they were all taken in a white room at the same time of day. The piece is unique to each viewer standing before it and will never repeat itself.
32″ x 35″ – watercolor & acrylic:
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There is a mysterious element to the distant glows of lights on a dark winter night. They blur forms and wash out the physical while simultaneously igniting the snow to reveal the vibrant spirituality of the moment. These moments bring a higher state of clarity we usually muffle with the chaos of life.
A clean business cards that utilize a 100% black / rich black combination for the background splatter. Once I received the cards I then inked the edges black to create the illusion that the cards were printed on black stock.
60″ x 40″ – 4 panel acrylic:
and a small section magnified:
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I’ve become quite comfortable working with watercolors; pushing the envelope on color saturation and contrast. However, occasionally watercolors fail to fully capture the image as I think it should appear – which is when I turn to acrylics. A medium I usually find adequate for illustration but sadly lacking when attempting to paint a piece that needs to make its own decisions as I coax it along. This time acrylics did no disappoint.
While at iDiz Incorporated I was able to completely redesign their web site to match a name change and new image for the company. The end result was a clean site that framed the companies work, rather than detracting from it with unnecessary flashiness.
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Part of the redesign was a new blog. The blog needed to follow the same general layout, but would not have images to add interest to each page. As a result the blog’s color scheme had to adequately communicating the fun vibe of iDiz Inc.
