Hawaii problems
So Hawaii is certainly feeling some of the economy stuggles although from what I hear it’s still not as bad as it is in the Mainland. Hotel occupany rates are hovering around 60% which hasn’t been seen in 30 years. Home sales aren’t plummeting as fast either but month after month we’re still seeing 5% – 10% slump in values and activity. Construction is obviously down. I posted a few weeks back how one of the new condos was only halfway built? Well, nothing’s changed there. Now the Governor has imposed a...
read moreFreedom Financial Logo
I finished the logo above a few weeks back, I don’t think I mentioned it yet? A friend of mine started this company to help individuals become financially independent — freedom from having to worry about being able to pay off your bills (i.e., mortgage, credit cards, tuition, etc.) I think his education program is really exciting. I understand there are ways to use everyday corporate strategies in our own personal finances so that we can easily handle our daily expenses. You can pay off a standard 30-year mortgage in like 7...
read moreLaughter
Kingston 4months. from Raphael Lowe on Vimeo. Kingston is just starting to stay up longer during the day and he’s definitely observing things a lot better. As you can see by the video, he’s definitely laughing and smiling now. It isn’t just gas anymore. Sometimes he laughs so hard he chokes up…you know when you laugh so hard you can’t breathe? It’s the cutest thing. Yeah I must say when your child laughs it’s the best feeling in the world. If someone figures out how to bottle that laughter I’d...
read moreSkin Font
Do they have a serif version of this font? Disgusting eh? But it definitely caught my eye this morning. Looks like these are different people for each one…some are hairy like a sasquatch and some of these folks look like they’re about to blow a blood vessel. Somehow there is no “Y” and “Z”. Maybe they ran out of volunteers. “H” and “T” look like the most painful. I’d be like, “go grab some more loose skin you summamabeetch…yowtch!” Hmm, is “r”...
read moreAll good things come to an end
So today’s my last day of my self-imposed vacation. Of course, this is a long Memorial Day weekend coming up but now with a little boy involved, these weekends aren’t so much for me anymore. So once again, another vacation has come and gone. I’m not so sure I managed to relax as much as I set out to do, but I did accomplish a few things I wanted to do. (a) cleaned up my office, (b) played a satisfying amount of Fallout 3 on Xbox, (c) managed to pick up a running again after a 6-month haitus, and (d) managed to find a...
read moreDone with teaching
I finally submitted my grades for this past semester of teaching Art 112 over at KCC. I handed down 5 “Fs” this quarter. Some of them simply didn’t come to class past the 3rd week. I think maybe some of these students either forget to withdraw OR I understand they go to 2 or 3 classes just to make sure they keep their student financial aid working and then they don’t attend the class. What I found more surprising this time was that there were a couple of students who had As and Bs going into this final project and...
read moreMisfits
I saw this somewhere the other day. I was very impressed. Remember how I keep saying I’m a little type-challenged? Well, some artists are so good at it they can create an art piece like the one above using nothing BUT type! Apparently this tribute (?) to Steve Jobs was done using only the font-types that have been historically used in Apple branding. (Dylan Roscover via MacGasm)
read moreLove Type
As I mentioned before, I’m not that IN to typography. But I DO find it interesting despite the fact I don’t often think enough about things like “ascenders”, “terminals”, “bowls”, etc. So I wandered onto this really rich resource of font information on this site called “I Love Typography” which I thought was pretty nice. There’s a list of what they thought was some of the best new fonts of 2008. There’s a couple I really like…perhaps I’ll see if I can work...
read moreReading Rainbow
So I’ve been running into people here and there who have infants in and about as old as my boy Kingston – roughly 3 and a half months old. This includes, one of my wife’s colleages who has a daughter who was just 14 hours older than Kingston. What naturally occurs when you talk with these people is of course about the infants, “oh my 3 month old daughter has learned how to roll over already”, “my 2 month old grandson can sleep through the night”, “my 2 and a half month granddaughter has...
read moreAhhhhh
I sent out a newsletter yesterday to my mailing list. It felt good… just a short piece letting people know about Kingston (if they didn’t already know), headsup about a small vacation I’m giving to myself for my birthday next week (May 15 – May 22). Mainly just reminding people I’m still around. You gotta do that every once in a while when you got your own business. Funny how my marketing training kicks in every once in a while….I keep remembering my college professors teaching me about “top of...
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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