fifteen.

Wrapped up the "first draft" I guess you could call it of the book. I sort of crammed every direction I'd like the thing to take into now close to 40 spreads - 80 pages. It's much more of an in depth "proposal" then is probably ideal. The disadvantage to this sort of thing being that depending on WK's reaction the last 2 weeks could have largely been a miscalculation. The upside, though, is that assuming things go well We'll have given our ideas for the work out best shot possible.

Will let you know how things go after the weekend.

GO PATRIGIANTS!

fourteen.

Today Tim Knox came by again. He had some revisions in mind for his site and also talked to us about recently shooting the Wu-Tang Clan down in Florida. I feel like Musicians and celebrities like that only ever really show their TV side and so it's super interesting to hear someone interact with another person named Raekwon or Ghost Face Killah on a personal level.

It turns out they're not too smart.

More work on the book. Last day of revisions it tomorrow, meet with WK on Monday.

thirteen.

Today we met with Adrian about the branding redesign he wants done. His background is in design among other things, and so he understands the language and is quick to recognize nice work. It's refreshing to work with a client who actually wants things to look good.

I continue to work on the book and have gotten into serious thinking about materials and non traditional printing procedures and the flow of the work throughout the book etc. I've hit around 30 full spreads, so that's 60 pages, which is quite a bit actually. At this point I'm finding the questions about where to go becoming a bit more abstract. I'm spending as much time designing things as just deciding whether these 3 or 4 pages feel smooth enough or gritty enough or do i want the transitions to be quiet or loud or what. A lot of art speak.

Also, WK called and said he couldn't meet until Monday. This was even later then I had expected or wanted, but it will guarantee two more days to get things polished.

twelve.

Today at work we became a little sidetracked.

No doubt by now you've become acquainted with the Tom "I'm insane" Cruise scientology video. At work we came to find out in watching and discussing this viral last week that we are all independently private Scientology connoisseurs, ravenously devouring any little tidbit of the bizarre cult we can get our hands on. It wasn't until today though that we happened across the fully 4 hour long series of Steve Fishman Deposition Videos.

Good God.

At times the videos were simply playing in the background, a steady stream of batshit insanity that is an ideal backboard to bounce subconsciously against. At other times, though, we literally would stop everything we were doing and stare blankly at Steve's calm, indescribably surreal depiction of the Scientologist's landscape.

And I thought I knew how far down the rabbit hole goes.

eleven.

More work on the book. We talked about when would be best to meet with WK for feedback, I had wanted to do it early this week but we decided to push the meeting back until Thursday. This will allow for a lot more time to flesh everything out and have more of a concrete direction rather than a sort of haphazard amalgamation of ideas. I'm increasingly more pleased with how things are going, though still a bit apprehensive about being completely shut down. Not that I would mind a harsh critique, but we are starting to have faith in the design direction and I'd like to see it through. We'll see.

ten.

A few days in and things are beginning to feel like they might be going in the right direction. I've done about 20 sample spreads each in some way an example of different thoughts I have for the work. I'm going to continue to work this weekend, take what I have and comp it / build a deck, then meet with WK and cross my fingers. We'll see how things go, I've been pretty cavalier with his work, it's a gamble and we'll see if it pays off.

nine.

Continue to concept for WK. I keep being encouraged to get crazier and crazier. The idea here is generally just do whatever is the craziest thing you can think of first, then show it to the client (they can always pull you back), but atleast you have a shot at getting something through really remarkable. My spreads are finally starting to look somewhat passable. I've switched from a horizontal layout to a tall vertical. Though most of WK's work is actually landscape I have always felt stronger composing on a vertical ground, and I've pretty much decided that each page and spread will be almost like a "poster" unto itself.

Rather than build a grid and float in the pretty images, the book is going to be a an ebb and flow of intricate compositions, each different from the next.

quite a challenge to give myself, and extremely time consuming for a 100+ page book, but shit will it be cool if somehow I can pull it off.