Actually, I know very little about the Cthulu mythology as first created by H.P. Lovecraft. The catalyst behind this piece, besides the simple urge to create something yesterday, was the ‘board’ game Cthulu Dice from Steve Jackson Games. Recently, a friend of mine who has discovered an interest in tabletop games, shared this game with me. In a nutshell, each player starts with all of their marbles (3) intact. Then the designated player (the caster) picks another player to attack. Depending on how the die lands, you either lose or gain sanity, from the victim or from Cthulu….

This year for Christmas, I realized that most of the people I gift have everything they need (or what they need is more than I can afford) so I decided to give them the gift of my time. However, I couldn’t go in empty-handed (even when all of these carry with them a monetary component) so I made these ‘tickets’ as symbols of the gift I was giving.

They were based loosely off of the Golden Tickets from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, but the…

This is fantastic, and believe it or not: real, public service announcement from Metro Trains in Melbourne, Australia. I don’t know how effective something like this would actually be in convincing the target market (people who might not be safe) to be safer around railroad tracks, but the end-result is certainly a catchy, and amusing piece of animation, song, and online marketing. 

UPDATE: There’s a little more in-depth look at the campaign on ViralBlog, which also points out the related Tumblr blog.

For anyone in the United States: please go out and vote today.

• If you’re still undecided on the Presidential race, check this nice (if imperfect) questionnaire from  ISideWith.com to see who you most agree with on some key issues.
• Once you’ve become the Decider and know who you’re voting for, find your polling place using this tool from Google.
• With the hours and location of your polling place, make sure you have time to go and vote; check here for your state’s laws on what your…
  

My face was freezing this morning in the 36° weather we currently find ourselves in. It wasn’t solely because of the temperature though; it was because, other than a few brief moments, I haven’t been clean-shaven in about 5 years or so. It’s a foreign feeling not having whiskers, but it’s for a good cause: men’s health issues.

If you aren’t already aware, the Movember Foundation raises awareness, and money, for men’s health issues, focusing on testicular and prostate cancer. From their website:

Movember is the month formerly…

It has been almost two months now but Aaron Draplin, of Draplin Design Co., visited Louisville back in May to talk to us and relay ‘tall tales from a large man.’ It was a good talk that I’m glad I was able to attend, as he had several things to say that were good for me to hear in that moment. In the end, after the applause, he opened up for questions. Unfortunately, at the time I couldn’t think of any to ask (though I was sure I had forgotten something thought of during his presentation). Luckily, Draplin…

I move in and out of toying with ambigrams ever so often. I was first introduced to the art form through John Langdon’s book Wordplay, which has some really nice examples if you’re curious for more. I highly recommend at least checking out his site. Ambigrams as a design choice seem to have settled into a sort of sub-genre in tattoo design, and I think they could see more popularity with the recent rise of expressive, hand drawn typography. I haven’t tried my hand at creating one in a while, but I drew up this piece a few years ago and had…