MV Bowl Shirt Design

The Graduate School Application to do list is slowly dwindling as my application to the University of Missouri has been fully submitted. Mizzou is one of my personal favorites because it is diverse and competitive and provides one of the best Magazine Writing graduate programs in the nation. Getting accepted would mean a lot and it would be difficult to turn down.

Anywho, I figured that with the Orange Bowl just one week away that I would share with everyone the final design for the back of the Marching Virginians bowl t-shirt. I tossed and turned in bed trying to come up with the right design for the shirt and had a few other designs completely mocked up before I came to the final design.

At first, I was really sold on using the old school Tech logo with the "T" inside the "V" because for the purpose of symmetry it worked better. After realizing that some people might not really like this, I scrapped that idea and took a new approach. I tried to incorporate Tyrod Taylor and Andrew Luck into the design instead of straight logos because I thought it would look better. In the end, the designs were either unappealing or had way too many colors to print for a low price.

After much thought, and a little Googling, I finally had my idea (sans the watermark of course):

In case you do not get the reference, the design and font is meant to mimic that of CSI: Miami with the font and the background of South Beach. I thought it was a nice and humorous yet creative design that everyone would like. Giving credit where credit is due, I originally had "OB:/Orange Bowl/Miami" but Jonas pointed out to me that changing "OB" to "BCS" would make a little more sense. He was right and I think the design is all the better for this piece of insight.

Like it? Let me know. Hate it? Let me know. I think it's pretty nice and will be a nice addition to the bowl package for the Marching Virginians.

Under a Blanket of Snow

First, let me congratulate former Hokie Michael Vick for taking what was supposed to be a "rebuilding year" and turning it into the Eagles first NFC East championship since 2006. Obviously the Philly fan in me is going nuts right now, but the Hokie in me loves to see Vick handle his adversity better than most players could.

Now to the real purpose of this story: the snow. People toss around words like "snowpocalypse" and "snowmageddon" and every other snow related doomsday reference they can think of when a heavy snowfall hits an area. For certain areas like the South where snow, at best, accumulates an inch or two, six inches seems like the end of the world. People rush to supermarkets and stock up with a ludicrous amount of food. The fact that this still happens in the Philadelphia area is a quandary to me. Despite just about every meteorologist calling for only about 24 hours of snow, people act as though they will be trapped in their houses for weeks. It's ludicrous. My area is getting about 8 inches of snow by the time this is all over and quite frankly that's not a lot.

I'm going to go way back right now, almost 15 years to be precise. I was seven years old, and my sister was four. Less than one week into 1996, a blizzard hit. I'm not talking four to eight inches. Nor am I talking about 10 to 15 inches. I'm talking about three feet of snow, at best. On top of the snow, swirling winds seemed never-ending as families were literally stuck in their houses for 72 hours. My front yard was worse than most. The wind seemed to keep adding snow from neighboring yards until we were buried under about four or five feet of snow. Where we had shoveled the driveway on the first day of snow was a mound about six feet high.

I was decked out from head to toe in a winter onesie that featured the four main colors of childhood: red, green, blue and yellow. I was wearing the kind of mittens that are attached by a string to my jacket, which was a good thing. I liked to take off my gloves and make snowballs to throw at my sister. Because the snow we had shoveled into a singular place next to the driveway, was packed down so well, it naturally seemed like a good place to essentially use as a slide. Since the slide on our backyard playset had been buried almost to the top by snow, this would have to do. It was a complete success. My sister and I had a ball taking turns climbing and then sliding down into the waiting arms of our father.

A few days after it ended, the area returned to normal (or at least normal enough) and life went on. The point of this story? This is not a blizzard. At best, it's a heavy snowfall. The world is not coming to an end. Revel in the snow, stay calm, and enjoy this time cooped up with friends or family.

Have You Ever Been To Blacksburg?

Ok, so I got rid of the old blog. One reason was that it was costing too much money. As a college student applying to graduate school, I cannot afford the monthly bills. Another reason is for a change in purpose. While the last blog functioned as a showcase for my articles, I feel this blog will take on a different mindset. While still occasionally showing some articles, this will function more like a journal, with random musings, humorous anecdotes, photos I have taken, video I have shot, random graphic design work and everything in between. The one thing I will try to do is update it daily, even if it’s short because I am away. I want to encourage sharing and feedback because those are essential in improving my craft.

Without any further ado, I figured my first post would be one of the projects from this past semester. Enjoy!