Montana Website Makeover

I was just checking out the weather in good ol' Montana when I saw an advertisement to check out the new Montana State visitor website. I clicked over and was pleasantly surprised by the sophisticated new look of the site. As far as I remember, the old website consisted of less than five pages and looked like it was made circa 1996, which it probably was. Kudos to my home state for updating their visitor site and showing what Montana has to offer. Check out the website here.

Project #1 - Take 3

I rewrote and redesigned my Project 1 to get a better grade, so here's what I have so far. Take a look and let me know if you have any comments. Thanks!

Project #6 Inspiration

I've been looking for some design inspiration for my How-To project and decided to go with an outdoorsy theme, considering my topic is "How to Capture Sasquatch." But I thought I'd take it a step further and make the design look like a Boy Scout handbook. For inspiration, I found some ephemera (a new word I learned in class this semester) showing vintage outdoorsy and scouting details. Take a look below.

Show & Tell #10 - Unnecessary Process

My final show & tell of the semester - sad day! For this one, we had to find an example of an unnecessary process. Here's mine:

How to Eat David Sunflower Seeds Crack the shell with your teeth, eat the seed and spit the shell. Experienced seeders pop a handful of seeds in their mouth and store them in one cheek, then transfer a seed over to the other side with their tongue, crack it, then eat the seed and spit the shell.


I especially like how they include the information on how "experienced seeders" do it. That's fantastically ridiculous.

Threadless - T-Shirt Heaven

How I love Threadless, let me count the ways... Threadless isn't just an online t-shirt store, it's so much more! In addition to the fantastic t-shirt designs (which are also available on hoodies and even just as a print), Threadless also allows users to submit their own t-shirt designs. And users can also vote on which designs they think are the coolest. It's almost too good. Here are just a few of my favorite recent additions:

Undergraduate How-to

I totally forgot that I did a how-to in my undergraduate degree. I found this in one of the seventeen (give or take) flash drives that I have lying around my desk. The project was for an advanced writing class where we had to work in groups. Our group had to write a process for professors and instructors on how to use Blackboard - a technology similar to WebTycho. The final product was a small handbook for users to refer to.



Apparently, I liked to use a lot of words in titles back then too. Amy would not approve of that!

Project #5 - Insect Incinerator

So, here's what I have for my Project 5. I plan to include the Enemy Profile as a leaflet inside my package. Any questions, comments, or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Donut Seeds

Fantastic idea to repackage an existing product as a completely new product. Fun! Check it out here!

Toaster/Message Board

This awesome message board is also a toaster! Write a note on the top of the toaster, then pop in a piece of bread to see the note transferred to the toasted bread. Fun AND delicious! Check it out here.

How to Clone a Wooly Mammoth

This is a fantastic how-to. Maybe we can use it to bring back some dinosaurs too! Read the full article here.

"The Tequila Trigger"

I saw this and thought of Tim's idea for Project 5. Instead of Tim's "Beer Bullet," this is the "Tequila Trigger!" Now that I think about it though, tequila is dangerous enough by itself. Check it out here.

Show & Tell #8 - Storytelling Package

Trader Joe's Strawberry Yogurt O's displays a fun, captivating little story on the side of its box. The story explains why the cereal is so special, making sure to mention why the cereal makers are "fussy with the yogurt coating." Click on the photo to the right to read the full description.

Delicious Packaging

Fans of HBO's TV show True Blood will recognize this bottled blood alternative. In the fictional vampire world, this concoction allows vampires to "come out of the coffin" and live in public, posing no threat to humans. That's the idea anyway.


Tru Blood's packaging goes great with the tone of the story. The black, red, and gold label compliments the blood-stained glass bottle perfectly! And you can actually buy it from HBO's online store. It's not actually blood, but it is blood-orange flavored soda. Yum!

Show & Tell #7 - Narrative

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is a short story by Rudyard Kipling in which Rikki-tikki-tavi, a mongoose, battles two evil king cobra snakes, Nag and Nagaina.



This is a classic example of narrative, exemplifying the triumph of good over bad. Themes in Rikki-Tikki-Tavi include loyalty, courage, family, charity, and honor. The story is full of suspense, which makes it a fantastic narrative.

Here's the opening clip of the animated version of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (a childhood favorite of mine):

Baltimore...in Butte?

As I was gathering images for Project 4, I stumbled upon this little gem.

I almost did a double take when I saw "Baltimore" sprawled on the side of the Vu-Villa building in uptown Butte, Montana (my hometown). Like many of the older buildings in uptown Butte, the Vu building still displays historic advertisements from back in the day. This one is for Flor de Baltimore cigars and, according to the ad, they're "the best." Weird...turns out I didn't have to move to the other side of the country to get a glimpse of Baltimore.

Tsk, tsk Pennsylvania Lottery

Here's a new addition to my lottery ticket collection.

I noticed the creator used an apostrophe incorrectly. Tsk, tsk Pennsylvania Lottery.

Project 3 - Campaign (Take 3)

Ok, so I'm burned out on this project, but I think I actually have something presentable finally! Here's all the pieces of my campaign, including the postcard (front and back). Let me know what you guys think. Thanks!

Project #3 - Poster and Magazine Ad (Revised)

Here's my revisions for my campaign. I still need to finish my postcard, but I'm about done with the magazine ad and poster. Let me know what you think.

Show & Tell #6 - Interesting Typography

Just for funsies, I decided to use a theme for my show & tell this week. All my examples of interesting typography come from DVD covers. There's some really cool DVD cover designs out there, but I picked out six that I really like. The typography on these covers can mostly be found in the movie title, but some of the supporting information is displayed in a really cool typeface too.

Have a look:

Dirty Fonts

I stumbled upon this fantastic blog featuring artwork from Juan Carlos Pagan and Gaius Benbow. They designed posters devoted to exploring the humanistic qualities of letters, but the posters show letterforms in quite compromising positions.

My favorite scene is the K, seen as it's stepping out of the shower.



A bevy of words come to mind as I look at the image. Here's just a few:
kinky
killer
kiss
kick
kinetic

Take a gander. What do you think?

My Crazy Font

So, I took Jackie's idea and made a font out of my own handwriting. It's crazy!

Images for Project 4

For my mini-documentary slideshow, I plan on telling the story of the Berkeley Pit, the large body of toxic water in my hometown of Butte, Montana. The story will briefly document the mining activities around Butte that led to the formation of the pit.

To prepare for the project, I've been researching historic images of Butte from its mining heyday. I found some awesome photos from the early days of Butte, and I thought I'd share them here.

Show & Tell #5 - Favorite Words

So, this is probably the best show & tell we'll ever had. I love me a lot of words, so I kinda went crazy here. I wasn't sure how to categorize them, so I just made a wordle. Check it out!

These are a few of my favorite things, I mean words.

Project 3 - Campaign Poster

Ok, so here's what I have so far for my poster for Project 3. I'm feeling a little uneasy about the whole campaign, so if you have any comments or suggestions, let 'em rip!



My concept is take charge of your health. In this case, it's taking charge of your health in terms of seeking treatment for symptoms of hypothyroidism, a metabolic disorder. My magazine ad and postcard ad will also focus on increasing awareness of hypothyroidism.

Let me know what you think. Thanks!

"I" Murder!

Finally, that Pixar lamp gets what it deserves...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

My Collection - NY Lottery

Thanks to Rebecca, I added a new item to my scratch ticket collection. Not only do I have a new scratch ticket, but it's also from a state that I've never been to!

I Heart Word Spy

Word Spy is an awesome website for word lovers, especially those who can't get enough of unusual, new words.


Here's my favorite recent entry:

hobby hobo - n. A part-time hobo; a person who engages in hobo-like behavior (e.g., hopping freight trains) while on vacation from their full-time job.

Show & Tell #4 - Call to Action

I found a fantastically simple poster that uses one word to serve as a call to action. "VOTE" was created during the recent 2008 presidential election as part of a guerrilla advertising campaign.

Combining a minimal amount of text with dynamic and action-oriented visuals make this piece an effective call to action.

Project 3 Inspiration

I've decided to work on a health campaign for Project 3 focusing on thyroid disease. I plan to develop the poster, magazine ad, and postcard to increase awareness of thyroid disease and encourage people to see a doctor if they experience certain symptoms.

After searching for past health-related posters, I found three that really caught my fancy. I tried to find posters/ads that contain a fair amount of text because our poster needs to contain a 300-word count, so I thought I'd see how posters dealt with that.

Here are the posters:

Show & Tell #3 - My Collection

Heyo! So, the collection I decided to share with everyone is relatively new. I didn't start collecting these until Summer 2008, when I interned at the Montana Lottery. After getting to know the lotto business, I discovered all the cool scratch tickets that each state lottery makes in-house. So, I started collecting them.

Here are the three I decided to share:



"Fast $1500 Fireflies" - Hoosier Lottery



"Lucky 7s" - South Dakota Lottery


"Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith Darth Vader" - Montana Lottery