Beijing Opening Ceremony.

Found some sweet hi-res pictures from the Olympic opening ceremony. There were a lot of representations of 2008 in it, usually by having that many performers on stage at one time. Check it.

WALL-E Retro Posters.

Found these sweet retro posters for WALL-E via Abudzeedo. The movie comes out tomorrow and it should be pretty good. Pixar just has a habit of making good movies.

the dieline challenge.

i frequent a lot of design blogs while i'm at work (because i'm not actually doing work at work. weird, i know.) one of my favorites, the dieline, is a blog on only packaging. well today they put up a post introducing the first dieline contest. the challenge is to create a new 5 liter bag-in-a-box package for a norwegian bottled water company. the idea behind it is that bottled water, while being "healthy" and what not, actually produces a lot of unhealthy waste on the environment. the bag-in-a-box (which reminds me of boxed wine) produces waste that can be recycled easier. the final product should have a new name and design that supports an environmental friendly theme and stand out from the other waters on the shelf. The project is hot; it's due in one week. Judging will then take place, which will be done by two unnamed creative studios. The winner will have their design actually put into production and into the market, and will also be given for a 5 day 4 night trip for two to Norway. Not quite what i had in mind for my first visit to europe, but it'll do. so for the next week, instead of frequenting a lot of design blogs while i'm at work not doing work, i'll be designing a sweet ass package. it'll loaded up here when i'm done. i hope i win.

full sail ahead.

two weeks ago, i went beer shopping at central market and came across some sweet packaging for full sail brewing company from hood river, oregon. now i don't make as many trips to the beer aisle as i'd like, but last time i was there, i recall the full sail beers having a label that looked something like this:

boring, unimpressionable, and forgettable.

however, this time around when i once again stumbled upon it, i wanted to buy it solely because of the packaging. turned out the beer inside the bottle is quite tasty as well.

the packaging was updated by a design firm in portland called sandstrom partners, which turns out has quite a roll call of clients, including converse, levi's jeans, miller beer, tazo tea, and portland's very own trailblazers, who selected sam bowie over michael jordan in the 1984 nba draft. shame.

back to things that matter (which does not include basketball), the much needed redesign really boosts the appeal of the product. the wood grain background helps give the feel of a small 47-man brewery in the woodlands of oregon, while the thin line art seems to me to highlight the brewery's uniqueness. i think my favorite aspect of the new look lies within the new logo.


it's awesome that sandstrom took the sail from the original logo and freshened it up. in my opinion, that's the best part of the new one – the simple white sail full of wind with a slight drop shadow behind it. i'm also a fan of the font used for the name. it looks like they made the font themselves by combining the top half of a sans serif with the bottom of a german calligraphic font.

all things considered, this is one of my favorite beer designs, along with the shiner 98 (which i hear won some awards for packaging), and the rahr summertime wheat (available this month!) check out the rest of the set in sandstrom's portfolio. and if i ever find myself in oregon, i'm definitely making a point to stop at the full sail brewery.

showtime.

the dallas society of visual communication student show and conference committee finally announced what pieces they've deemed worthy to be in their show. our very own tcu graphic design program had a total of 24 accepted entries from 12 different students. i'm very excited to say that i account for 4 of those entries. i really feel that my work from my last semester at tcu really stepped up from what i had previously done, in regards to both quality of design and branching out from my norms. it looks like i'm not the only one that thinks so, considering three of them are from this last spring. maybe if i'm really lucky, i'll win an award too. but i won't get my hopes up. just being in the show is good enough for me.

clearly an expert on the subject.

logo evolution.

the evolution of tech companies' logos.

it's not like i've been doing anything with my time.

damn, i missed the entire month of january on this thing. oh well, it's not like this is a "real" post anyway. more like a bulleted list of happening things.

-tomorrow i start my first salary job at harper house in dallas. it'll be interesting for sure.
-hooray! the patriots did not win the super bowl! i hate sports teams and fans from boston.
-my current engaged friends/married friends count on facebook is 43 engaged and 64 married.
-i had a job at uno's pizza in downtown fort worth for a few weeks. it wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.
-super smash bros brawl comes out for the wii on march 9. yes, i'm stoked. yes, i'm a nerd. and yes, i reserved it at gamestop.
-the new animal planet logo sucks.
-because of this effin writer's strike going on, i need a suggestion for a new tv show to start watching from season 1. i'm considering house, 30 rock, and weeds right now.
-speaking of the strike, this is a pretty good ad.
-i updated the links on the right-hand side of your screen.

yeah, that's about it for now. hopefully i'll pick up blogging fairly regularly again.

all engines go.

i updated my portfolio website. check it out at http://stuwww.tcu.edu/krzamzow i'm going to research web hosting so hopefully soon i can have a dotcom address, because i don't know how long tcu will keep my stuff on their server.

a vail of hope and a vail of pain.

the arcade fire "neon bible" interactive site.

the big event.

tcu graphic design senior show
december 3, 7pm

eye candy.

a new look for my faithful few readers.

copycats.

i was at blockbuster last night with sarah and i came across a new release movie called "transmorphers." i don't know anything about the plot, but the reason i noticed it was because the cover looked strikingly similar to the new "transformers" cover, which it was right next to on the shelf.

although it's a little darker, the "transmorphers" cover mimics the blue-orange-white-orange-black gradient found on the "transformers" cover. it also reminded me of an interesting article i read this summer called "dark and fleshy: the color of top grossing movies."

just thought i'd share my recent observations.

business as usual.

well, i now find myself in the last half of my last semester as a college student. i know, it's hard to believe. but just like any other semester, the last two months are stock full of projects, not to mention prep for the senior show. but it'll all turn out well.

yeah, this post isn't much. my primary purpose is to let my few readers now that i'm currently in the process of creating the website for the tcu graphic design senior show. more to come on that in the next week or so. until then, ciao.

ps, my secondary purpose for this post is that i write a blog entry on my wii. come by some time and we can play mario soccer.

it's here! it's here!

after 30 days and 4 phone calls to campustech.com, i finally received the newest creative suite in the mail.



right now i'm uploading it on my ibook while i watch blue planet on animal planet in my living room. what a good day.

believe.

on the subject of well-made commercials, i found this 90 second commercial for halo 3. they created a giant diorama of a battle scene and then filmed it. it's pretty intense how much detail went into it. i also enjoy the use of shallow depth of field to focus on one point and blur the rest, giving it a better sense of a single moment. after i watched it, i found a behind the scenes video, however, it's told from the point of view whereas the battle had already taken place and they're making the diorama as a commemorative in a museum. that in itself is pretty creative.

leave nothing.

i'm not a big nike guy at all, but i really like this new commercial they have for this nfl season. the continuity through the different scenes as shawne merriman and steven jackson progress down the field is pretty amazing, even when their uniforms change. and the ending is just plain hardcore.

re-vamp.

i decided to give my blog a new look to it. maybe it'll inspire me to write more (even though i've done a fairly decent job recently.)

good news

i finally got an internship for the summer.
i'll be working for a design firm called range.

here's their website:
www.rangeus.com

and here's what my daily commute will look like:

gross.

new site

new folio site!
check it!



ps: matt and i ended up not participating in the insomnia photo contest because we came to the realization that we don't have a lot of spare time. in hind sight, it was a good decision because my work load has let me only get six hours of sleep since monday at 7am. sorry to disappoint you if you were really looking forward to seeing a photo.