CS5
I’m off on my vacation in 2 days. Of COURSE I’m counting! I can’t wait….although I must say I feel a little nervous anxiety crop up in the pit of my stomach over the 19 hour plane ride over with my little boy Kingston. He’s now reached the age where he’s starting to understand he can own things if he holds on tight enough, AND he’s walking around like a champ now. A deadly combination on a plane ride I’m sure. My stomach’s been a little queasy these past couple nights & I’ve been...
read moreTick tock…
I’m REALLY excited about going off on my trip. 7 Days!!! But who’s counting? I’m looking forward to seeing family, watching my boy explore a different part of the world (even though he’ll forget most of it), eating great food (getting sick from eating too much of it), and just getting off this rock of an island. From a design perspective I always look forward to trips out of the country like this because I almost always come back with new ideas. Seeing how graphic design is applied in another part of the world is awe...
read moreCanon mugs
You know, if I can’t save enough to get an actual $1300 70-200L Canon lens, I may as well get this mug replica so I can look like I’m rich enough to drink out of one. (via NerdApproved)
read moreGoing ons
Reminder to all my clients and friends that I will be away on vacation from March 31st – April 15th. The funny thing about heading towards a vacation is that it always seems it suddenly gets really busy. Projects suddenly come flooding in. I love it — scheduling work around and after a vacation is a great way to feel like things will keep moving once I get back. What’s the latest scoops in my world lately? Looks like I’m scheduled to teach 2 classes of Art 112 this coming semester at Kapiolani Community College....
read moreKeeping your brand alive
I get it. The economy has been hurting and everyone’s scared of spending money. I’m not immune to that feeling myself…it’s this time of year where all my advertising renewals start to happen and I’ve been re-evaluating what my spending strategy will be this year as well. I don’t want to continue spending big bucks on things I don’t think are working very effectively, but at the same time, I don’t want the recognition and awareness of my brand to disappear during this year as well. I’ve...
read moreWebsite background ideas
On the heels of my post about how things were in web-design trends back in the mid-90’s, today you can practically do anything. In the hands of a good illustrator or image artist, websites can look pretty amazing these days without necessarily resorting to methods that might break accessibility standards. I’ve been working on the Australian website for Lowe Studio and went around searching for inspiration on backgrounds. I arrived on this beautiful collection of websites with fantastic background ideas. (Old Loft via Smashing...
read moreGood old days
I’ve been doing web-design since I first discovered it back in 1995-1996. Put it into perspective…most sites were hand-coded, I think HTML editors were just starting to turn up (I remember one of my favorite editors at the time was one called HotDog made by a company called Sausage), Photoshop was maybe around version 2 or 3 (there was no such thing as image slicing tools), the only browsers to contend with at the time were Netscape and the fancy new browser called “Internet Explorer”, and the growing masses of people...
read moreBrochure Design
Some beautiful sources of inspiration in the form of “22 Beautiful Examples of Brochure Design” today. /sigh. I have one brochure project like this that is supposed to be very fancy. Die-cuts, metallic paper, non-standard folds… sitting in limbo right now waiting on the bosses to approve it. It’s been a year. I suspect they’re holding off on spending. Yes I want to get paid for this project, but more so I wish the design could see the light of day!
read moreAnders Clausen
You know how I always say that you can find design just about anywhere? Well, this artist Anders Clausen took it a step further and made a whole exhibition based off of the design he found right on his own desktop. I kinda like it, I need to make one of these for my own room! (spotted via Today and Tomorrow)
read moreHow Web Design Goes Straight to Hell
Sadly this comic strip describes the hazards of being a designer so well I had to post it. Just recently I had a small project I was doing for a friend put to a halt for similar issues. That issue got resolved in a friendly manner but it honestly does make you fantasize about changing careers to “give sponge bathes to the elderly” (via The Oatmeal) I think I’ve encountered every one of these situations…and while I’ll professionally stay as calm and collected as I can be, at home I’d be fuming at the ears...
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LoweStudio Inc was founded by me, Raphael Lowe, a Honolulu based illustrator and web designer. I presently design and manage a few dozen commercial websites, but my main focus these days is acting as the head developer for Kapiolani Community College and teaching