Something Growing at Eight Bit Zoo!

Exciting! So every Thursday, there will be a little bit of growing done at Eight Bit Zoo.. stay tuned and check back peeps!

Also new: a Facebook like button! We'll be launching Eight Bit Zoo's official Facebook page as well as a revamp of Twitter page!!

So many exclamation marks so little time...
xoxoxo

Update

I might have to create a company blog soon, even thought I most likely will keep this as my own personal blog. But for now, I am still here.

So things have been pretty crazy lately. That of course, is pretty much the biggest understatement of the year.

Paper People Clothing project is soon going to be wrapped up. I couldn't have asked for a better project to have taken on, since Jennifer has put my name out there in any instance possible! Without having to say, I am really really grateful for this since she didn't really have to. But if you would like to be part of the hype, she recently mentioned me in one of her interviews! (click) 

And being the overly-ambitious person that I am, another huge (yet totally exciting) thing has happened. Since I've decided a while back that the way to go for me would be freelance, I thought it was actually time to take action. Well, I didn't think it was but with a little push and shove from someone who in my mind I secretly regarded as my mentor, I am now going to take that scary step. Scary not because I don't totally crave it, but because I am obviously just starting out and far from being financially stable. Everything is costing so much more than I anticipated. Logging in my expenditures has definitely been scary!

So having said that, I now have a splash page to my website. I'll probably get a ton of questions as to why I named it what it is currently (unless you were one of the unfortunate fews who actually had me mumbling at you at every which hour!) As well, my business cards are printing and will soon be on the way! So hopefully there will be more to post on here soon. As well, there will be weekly surprises to my website until its final official launch! So you'll all just have to stay tuned. The goal here is to slowly unveil what my company is going to be like at a steady interval.

Enough of staring at the screen!
xoxoxo

A little teaser for my site :)

Enjoying it too much..

That's how my sister describes my relationship with my work.

It's almost 3 AM and I still feel like I can do more. Maybe things can be aligned better, or there's got to be a better code for that thing on the website, that leads to this other thing that can also maybe look better. I wish I had this kind of relationship with exercise. If only.

Lots of progress on the website for Paper People Clothing today. Finally got my butt to work, as I've been doing nothing but dragging it around lately. The blank squares on there is driving me nuts, but that is out of my control for now.

As I was working on the site, I realized I still have not updated my portfolio or revamped my own site. It's gotten to the point where they are so outdated,  I definitely do not want to show anyone either of those. That means I can't even link my stupid site to give myself credit.. huge bummer... Bleh. I have some idea as to what I want it to look like, but definitely no time to start it yet.

Unless... is it too late to start on a website at this time? LOL! Tempting..

I want the domain name ideazoo.com, but apparently it's taken... and it's not even taken by some kool. I am disappointed to say the least. Plus, after doing some google-ing, it's also a design firm already. And there I was thinking it was the most creative idea ever. Maybe I can just add the word "the" infront of it... haha.. nope, wait, it's taken too... ugh.. makes me wish I was alive when internet first became popular, so I can grab some domains..

As a side note, my hobby of the day: vacuuming spiders. Fun.

Ridiculous

I feel like I should have a picture of me pointing to the title of this post, and just end this entry at that. Because really, it's just that: ridiculous. I don't know where the time went, or how I ended up feeling like I was literally tossed into the month on June, and now facing the end of it! The question that kept popping up while I was prepping myself to write this entry was, "What on earth have I been doing this month?" The only thing that came to mind was the huge project I currently took on, but being the ever guilty multi-tasker, I know it couldn't have been just that. So that is why I am blaming my seemingly lack of events on amnesia.

This new branding project has been taking a toll on me, not because it's been particularly hard, nor is my new boss demanding, but rather it is because of my withdrawal symptoms. For those of you that know me, drinking coffee takes up around 90% of my life, if not more. The first half of the month I was convinced I no longer needed coffee, while the second half of the month I spent all my energy convincing myself that I deserved a break from not drinking coffee. That was probably where all my time went, contemplating whether or not to have coffee, then justifying to myself why it was no big deal to drink a cup or four when I finally caved in. Other than my struggle with the on again and off again caffeine addiction, the project is going great.

Another interesting event though, is that today is me and my lovely boyfriend's three years minus one month anniversary. Yes, I know it's ridiculous. I hope he doesn't read this entry or the surprise will be ruined, but here's a little something I made for this amazing person in my life :) Honestly, the constant in my life that makes it bearable. I don't know who else can tolerate me and my craziness.

This card is drawn on a regular white piece of paper, with pen and colour pencils.
Giraffe with a detachable envelope with handwritten letter.
Underneath: a heart-shaped window with hidden message :)

Besides cards, I seldom get to draw anything with a pen or pencil nowadays, other than the random sketch of concepts here and there. Since I've discovered my love of digital artwork, colouring something stroke by stroke just seems really tedious and I have now fallen into a fear of making mistakes that I can not correct with a click of the mouse. So if I ever make a card for you, you know you're special. Plus, handwritten letters are so underrated nowadays...

Taking a picture of this card has also got me to notice that I rarely use my camera now. Despite how I kept thinking to myself that I would take it on "artistic excursions" that would result in beautiful photography, I have not even taken the camera out of my house since the last fashion photoshoot. The easily accessible card reader that is now built into my computer does nothing to ease my guilt either.

Maybe I have a thing against cameras. I bought my Diana F+ with me on my trip the past week, and the only picture I took of it was of me making a silly face before I got into the car prior to departure. Epic Fail. I didn't even realize I left it in my boyfriend's car after the trip until he brought it up. What comes after 'epic fail'?

This is me attempting to update my blog. I apologize if this post made no sense to anyone but myself; or even myself, after I read this a couple days later. I feel completely groggy and my head feels like it's stuffed with cotton then was used as a punching bag by a four year old. However, after reading my dear writer friend's blog, the realization, then guilt of not updating my blog finally caught up to me.

Ok this is it, other than, spot the amount of times I've used the word 'guilt' in this entry. This may call for a change of the title for this post. Haha... working titles...

xoxo

Mail!

We live in a world where people no longer write letters by hand, and even the phrase for sending mail has a negative connotation: snail mail. You even have to lengthen the amount of time it takes to say the word snail. Snnnaailllll mail. 

Because of this, it is always a treat and almost an adrenaline rush to hear the sound of your doorbell and find the mailman/woman on the other side of your door. Even though the package I received today was an expected one, this did not dampen my excitement. 

Here it is in all its glory:

It even had a sweet note from my boss attached to it! I think its always simple things that you don't expect (like this bright coloured note) that seems to make my day. And being an intern that I am, this is actually really unbelievable! :) 

Having seen the product photos multiple times, I expected a plain black box, but it came nicely wrapped in pretty pink tissue paper. The cherry on top was absolutely the pink ribbon and the overall presentation of it all! This is saying a lot since those of you that know me, know that I am a sucker for packaging and have been known to buy products based on the packaging alone. (Yes I know, tsk tsk) 

For those of you have that have been wondering, or wasn't aware of this, but this company's name is pronounced as silk. Why this name you say? If you actually asked this I'd have to LOL at you. Their website just recently came online and you can check it out yourself at http://www.cilque.com. All their items are 100 percent silk, from their different coloured pillowcases to their bed sets. The intriguing thing to me about their company besides its benefits to beauty, is the products named after desserts like how brown is not just brown, but Belgium Chocolate, and white is not just white, it's Creme Brulee! Sweet!

Here are more pictures about
 

So this was me sharing this little piece of joy with you for today. 

Time Passes

So it's almost midnight again. Technically it's going to be a new day, but it never feels like it ends at that time. My day ends almost always around 2 a.m. (if I'm lucky) As an insomniac, this is always either the most peaceful time of the day or the most stressful, depending on whether I want to sleep that day I guess.

I spent hours trying to come up with a Twitter page for the lovely lady I am working for currently. And yes, I refer to my boss as the lovely lady as I think I am still in the honey moon phase of starting a new job. She is quite lovely and fun to work with, unlike the dread I feel everytime I know I have to go into my retail job the following day. Today was a relatively good day, as I finally got paid for my not so hard, but long-houred retail job. So I guess not I can feel a bit of the tension easing as I am now a few dollars less poor. Getting back to my Twitter page, I spent hours designing this layout, manipulating the photo I had to work with until it was almost unrecognizable (which was the entire point as I was given nothing else to work with). The whole idea could be scrapped by tomorrow, and the weird thing is, I don't think I really mind all that much!

Is this a good or a bad sign? Does it mean I didn't try enough or I just expect it to be rejected?

New Machine... Sorta...?

Just yesterday night, the night before my politics exam, my Macbook's hard-drive died on me. At first I was devastated to see the "white screen of death" up-close and in person, until something brilliant happened. In the middle of the night, I had to use my long forgotten PC and make an appointment for see a Mac Genius at the GeniusBar. When I got there the next day, I was surrounded by hordes of people lining up to get iPads after iPads, then iMacs after iMacs. Was I jealous? Hell yea! (Not for the iPads though, but that they have money to not buy one, but in a lot of cases, two iPads!)

It was a long wait before I got to the counter. That was when they told my my iCare was just over! I was ready to faint until the nice man behind the counter told me that he would make an exception for me, How nice! I was prepared to leave my precious Macbook behind for a day or two, until more good news! The Genius told me that he would just grab a hard-drive from the back and change it right away. So he went behind the store, and I was just about to remind him that he left my Macbook on the counter, until I realized he was going to change it right then and there infront of me! So after two screws (as in those metal things u assemble things with, get ur minds out of the gutter! I wasn't that grateful!) my Macbook was ready to go! Notice how I used so many exclamation marks at the end of my sentences? I was really excited. 

As me and my hubby headed home, I was joking to him how, oh, my hard-drive was so old, they probably didn't have the OS I had installed on there. All jokes and games until... I turned on my hard-drive. I saw the dock and I soon realized that I actually got an upgrade to my operating system for free! I guess my hard-drive really was old. Mind you, it was only Leopard, and not Snow Leopard, but you have to keep in mind that my OS was the Tiger OS and I was already one and a half (half being what i considered Snow Leopard to be) behind. Plus, Lion is about to come out soon, so I was really out of the loop. Nonetheless I was happy. What a brilliant and bright day.

On the side note, what I really wanted to share today was this new user I found on deviant art, with the most brilliant wallpapers. I have to say, I'm really picky about what wallpaper I use, but these wallpapers however took my breath away. Simple and Clean, yet nicely designed just like how they're supposed to be. I'm also going to try out their icons. I have my eye on the wooden crate looking ones. Go check them out: Pixartica. Awesome. 

They're like, Peas in a Pod.

This is going to be a short entry, but Toy Story 3 came out with a new toy, and it is by far the cutest toy ever!

They're three peas in a pod, and they come in a pencil case-like felt container. The coolest part however, would be they actually fully come out! When I first realized Disney was selling them, all  the stores that was within driving distance was sold out. I was bummed out until my friend bought two for us (me and my boyfriend!) Haha, just too cool to not share about it. Anyways, going to go juggle them now!

Bean Website

Once again I am in the place of designing/ laying out the storyboard for the new site. It has proved to be a pain in the butt. I think my problem is just over thinking.

I hate design: when thinking too much is a crime!

And having said that, I have a literary research methods exam in a few hours.
Now I have to put my thinking cap back on... see you all on the other side!

First week of class

The first week of class is totally kicking my butt.. already!  Not because of the workload, not yet, but I still have no idea what I'm going to be doing about my capstone project yet! This is really bothering me, and causing me to worry, because usually I'm full of ideas as to what to do for my next project. Maybe this summer really wore me out, or I was slacking off a tad too much. Either way, I better come up with something soon. How do I find a project I can take on, and more importanly, tolerate for a full two semesters when my passion for fashion (yes, sounds corny) is wearing thin? Right now, I'm thinking fashion meets tech... somehow... Either I'm going to wait out on the starting of this semester's new media project, or start on my blogging comic. What's keeping me from starting is the possiblity of incorporating the comics into the new media class. That way, I can do something I'm passionate about for class. I'm still sitting on the fence about it.


On a lighter note, only weeks (but I like to think of it as days) until I get my new phone! Yeh yeh! I can't wait! Being the nerd that I am, I already have a list of apps I want to try out and download on the new phone, as thank goodness I will no longer be stuck with my crapberry! First time on an android phone, and I am uberly excited! I feel like I should type this entire last part in caps and end the sentences in multiple exclaimation marks. Ha Ha. Anyways, I'm just hoping the Evo 4G does not come out in GSM right after I get my desire, or I will be majorly pissed off.

That's it for now. More ranting and ravin' laterrrrrz! :)
(I feel like I should say something cool like 'Peace out' or 'C'est fini' like those youtube vloggers, but I have a feeling people will roll their eyes at it so I'll leave this until I find a creative way to say bye.)

Life as an Intern

I apologize for not updating like I promised, but life is not as "lax" as it used to be unfortunately. I was being ambitious and actually sent my portfolio into a design company, trying my luck at getting myself an internship. Literally days before my trip to Hong Kong, I received an email requesting a meetup/ interview. And that is why I am tired today.

Officially the first day at the internship, unofficially the second day, and I am exhausted! Never did I think that I would be this tired. Haha, yeah right, I so expected it. This is what I get for emailing to request to go to work days earlier. It is pretty awesome though, never having been to an official 9-5 job, so this is sort of new. I even have my own email address! Yeah, the petty things in life gets me excited. However, the not so interesting part of this whole internship thing is the lack of pay. Imagine all the things I can buy with the money. Anyways, here is what I did so far, enjoy for now:

End to the Year

I thought my work would've taken longer than it would. But since it didn't I would like to share the great news with all you out there, that I am officially done for this school year! By done, I mean digital design wise, but I still think its a start to the end.

So, since I'm officially done, I would like to share with you all three new additions to my portfolio. This project is based on three images, each of a different theme. We are given a certain predetermined phrase, and from that phrase, we are to create an image based on our interpretation.

1) Alternative Energy- Since the green movement, society has a larger concern over environmental matters, and our Fashion program always tries to do what we can to promote this. This theme was sort've expected, I think.

2) Abstract Expressionism- Another term that I expected, or something along the lines of art movements and such. Besides the brutal fashion history courses, we also focus on art history and their influences on different aspects of society, which explains this theme.

3) Nobel Savage- To be quite honest, I had to Wikipedia this. I'm still not sure whether there are more than one definition to this phrase, but with my image, I tried to portray the corruption of innocence by the "culturing" of society. How society tries to make its people noble, when in fact, it is merely the corruption of the natural innocence.

I would like to warn everyone however, because these are converted to jpeg images, the colouring is a bit off... yikes!

Web Design

As I mentioned before, I am going to post a lot of what-I-did-in-school posts, please bare with me until I actually get a life back. Good news is, I am going to Hong Kong for a month during the summer, so I'm sure there will be more interesting posts. Until then, here is another project I did, this time for Web-Design class. It wasn't a long project, and it was due in the midst of crazy-ness so I have to admit, I didn't do as much with it as I had planned before.

Please feel free to visit it:

Photoshoot from a While Back

Since I'm doing this post thing, I've decided to share a photoshoot that I did from a while back...
LONG while back. The model Leanne was amazing! I don't think I would've done it without her if she wasn't so quirky and cute. Anyways, there was lots to choose from, which usually isn't the case. I was actually  disappointed that we only needed three spreads, but here are the final spreads:
(yes, they did come in bigger sizes, but it would take too long to load here
you can click on them to see them a slight bigger though)

Opening Spread

Second Spread

Last Page

Blue Q Product Design

Here is another segment continuation from the series "Work I Do" haha? Yes, I just decided to name it, since I suspect a lot of upcoming posts on this topic. (Since as I mentioned before, school is life at this point)

So this one particular project is based on a company called Blue Q. They are known for their quirk designs, but have been criticized before for their over-packaged products. Especially during a time where the green-movement is a hit, or perhaps a fad (we have to wait a while longer to see for this one) consumers are often than not concerned with the packaging. The point here being, if it's nicely packaged enough, maybe consumers will think twice before throwing something out. The main product here is the totebag; its purpose being to promote one of the 3Rs we learned in grade school: REUSE. The key here is to not seem like a hippie and be all in your face about it.


This campaign is called "No Evil." Evil being the plastics, trash, or whatnot for the totebag.

Use No Evil: The totebag.

This is the sunglasses. See No Evil: Rose-coloured Sunglasses, the evil here being the world.

Hear No Evil: Noise Canceling Headphones.

Smell No Evil, Taste No Evil: Mint, Strawberry and Creme-sicle Flavored Toothpaste.

Book Cover

So here are one of the things I've done for Typography class

It's a book design for a book called Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant. Basically, it's a compilation of short stories on the joys or "adventures" on eating alone. Sounded depressing to begin with, and my sister said some stories actually made her sick, but I found it quite charming. (Maybe because I related a lot to some of the stories) Anyways, back to this project. The process work almost killed me, it started off with an overkill of purple (because of the eggplant) but it turned out better than I thought I would. As you may notice, I'm in my "sketchy" phase lately, and that translates into my work. Good or bad, you be the judge! Comments are welcomed! (Always)

This is the reinvented cover.

The opening spreads.

First page of text.

 Full text spread.