Is it obnoxious to have so many mirrors? But they’re so pretty.

“What a successful day! I’m going to take a picture of your haul even though it looks like garbage.”

Much love to my personal shopper & decorator for going through all the franticness of our shopping trips with me. 

TwentyFourCarat.net has been a record of all the good times in my last year of high school, graduating with all my girlfriends— the “Asian Girls”, as we were cliquishly named in high school (who are still my best friends), sleepless nights all throughout art school till my final portfolio show that landed my first and very exciting career-starting job a couple weeks later, my transition into a lazy to healthy lifestyle and everything in between. Six years later, so many things have changed and I’ve grown and learned so much in all aspects of my life— I feel like I’m at another significant milestone in my life because huge things are going to be happening in 2012 and I can’t wait! I will share it with you all when time is right.

2011 has been an intense whirlwind— an exciting, new high-profile project at work that we are just wrapping up and will be shipping in March, intense night schooling, re-learning how to “study,” miles and miles of training for the Ride to Conquer Cancer, so much intense fitness it wasn’t even funny, lots of freelance projects with new and old clients, months and months of sleepness nights (well 5am nights) and most recently: starting a new design partnership with one of my best and most talented friends:

Our website doesn’t have much up at the moment but we have so many ideas, just not enough time to do them all! We also have some pretty exciting projects and contracts lined up for the new year that we are just itching to start after all these holiday festivities. Everything, including our logo, website and first launch project were cooked up 3 weeks before launch, and we don’t think the polish level of the posters are up-to-par yet but on top of the everything we had to do and went through, I think it’s amazing. The last 3 weeks were the craziest, most intense and wanting-to-die-because-I-was-so-tired-everyday weeks of my life. I still have no idea how we did it but I would happily do it all over again with my Kimchi.

The new year is coming up and I still have a bunch of freelance projects I want to finish and still be able to live my life and do other fun things like snowboarding and girls’ nights, so I probably won’t be posting until 2012.

I know I haven’t been posting entries regularly like I use to and keep saying I will but I’m especially thankful to my group of loyal readers who are still reading, commenting and supporting me, no matter how sparse the entries… since the beginning. Some bloggers like to say they only blog for themselves but if I knew that no one reads my blog, I would not blog at all.

I wish you all a happy and healthy new year!!

I love you all. xoxo.

Have an inspiration gallery on your hard-drive for things like:

• websites
• packaging
• logos
• business cards
• illustrations

Browse through this folder when you are facing a design-block. You can have a general gallery or have separate folders for each project and sub-categories are also helpful (eg. under websites: corporate, fashion, food, etc.).  There is nothing wrong with using other people’s work as inspiration because this is what most designers do— we look for images that inspire us and use that newly-found inspiration to create something from scratch in our own style. Just don’t copy a design outright! Make sure you keep adding to this folder when you come across work that inspires you.

Have a design library on your hard-drive full of resources:

• fonts
• stock images
• patterns/textures
• icons
• vectors
• actions/scripts/brushes

Having a design library on your computer allows for efficient designing process so you don’t have to look for new textures and fonts every time you start a new project. Make sure the rights of all these art assets allows you to use them for the project you intend to use it for and remember to keep on adding to this library!

Accessibility.

With online file-syncing services like Dropbox, you can keep all your resources and inspiration in reach at all times if you need to design on different computers.

Use content management tools.

To view my images I use Adobe Bridge with the thumbnail pane enlarged— you can adjust the size of the thumbnails with the slider on the bottom right of the screen. This allows me to browse and compare all the images in a folder without clicking each of them (because I hate clicks!).

All designers should know this already but you shouldn’t be dropping all your fonts into your Windows/Fonts folder or it may effect your computer’s performance especially if you have thousands. Instead, you should be using a font management tool to install or uninstall fonts you need. Advanced font tools may have tons of features for example, categorizing your fonts. I use FontXplorer because it’s free, simple and has all the features I need.

Actions and Scripts.

One of the best things about Photoshop are it’s actions and scripts. I create actions for functions I use daily such as:

• Pasting (F4) and clearing (shift+F4) layer styles
• Flipping horizontally (F8) and vertically (shift+F8)
• Auto-Contrast (F2)
• Save as Pattern (F5)

What are some methods you use to design efficiently?

As in mouse clicks. I surf the web like a bullet train and I want everything right there in front of me and want to do as little as possible (you can call me lazy). If I had it my way, there wouldn’t be anymore “continue reading” links or thumbnails and everything would be laid out right in front of you. And they call me an interface designer. Hah. But of course that can’t happen or imagine the size of websites and not everyone properly saves their images for web!

• Pictures: I prefer seeing pictures resized and laid out nicely in front of me. I HATE clicking on thumbnails— in fact, 95% of the time I don’t. I’d rather wait for big images load which usually isn’t a problem nowadays as long as they were properly exported. Just for the record, my Flickr bar up there is just for aesthetics. I have an online photo album and all the pictures are all laid out vertically (for myviewing pleasure, not yours).
  

  But some thumbnails are okay as long as they are big so I can see what I

  

  Left/Right navigation arrows makes it a little better, although I still think there are too many clicks. It

  

  Perfect. Everything laid out, simple, clean and all I need to do is scroll. Of course, there is the debate about portfolios needing more

• Annoying pagination. Eg: Listing each point of a blog entry on different pages and it’s the worse when the page takes forever to load. WHY? Are you trying to build suspense?! FAIL. AND let’s not forget multiple-paged blog entries.
• Lightbox — It looks good but I can’t stand sites that use it. Is it just me or is it EXTREMELY slow …or the loading icon just makes it seem like it’s taking FOREVER to load?
• Loading Icons. Functional and works aesthetically but I don’t need to be reminded that your page is taking forever to load and it’s ONLY at 19%. I swear, loading bars makes loading seem longer than it actually is.
• STFU I don’t want to “hit the jump.” If a blog has a “continue reading” link, chances are I won’t continue unless it’s an informational post. Sometimes the link is so useless and obnoxious… is your content THAT good for someone to want to see it that bad? And what’s the point of it if there is nothing but one sentence after I “hit the jump?” I applaud you for saving a whole 20px of vertical scrolling though.
• I never use the “back” button on my browser; I’d rather have a billion tabs open. It’s a pretty bad habit because sometimes I’d accidently close a page if I forget to open it in a new tab and I’ll forget which site I was on.

What do you prefer in terms of UI?

Credits: sxc.hu, tednasmith.com, jamimages, amki222, jourown,
digitalMattePaintings, earthunderheaven , festblues, steinliland , lupi75.

I want to own a beautiful mansion in New Orleans’ St. Charles Avenue.

Jump to: The Definition of Narcissism Pt. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

If you’re on my blogroll… I tag you!!

The meme was to list 25 facts about yourself but I split it into 5 parts because 25 is too much to read at once.

1. My wedding was either going to be themed Old Hollywood or Marie Antoinette but now I’m pretty sure I’m going for the Marie Antoinette theme. I hope none of my friends who will get married before me steals my theme.
2. I know I said that you should never head to a stall where the toilet seat is closed but I realize that I ALWAYS put down the seat before I flush if there is one because I’m paranoid with the nasty bacteria that flies out of there when you flush.
3. Ways I think I died in my past lives: by fire, being strangled and in a car accident.
4. I want to own and live on a horse ranch. I was a city girl but now I think I’m a country-girl at heart (whose never lived in the country).
5. I don’t want a house with hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances. I want my house decorated with the splendor and extravagance of past centuries (with a hint of contemporary glamor) but then I’d have to be super rich to do so because I want the whole package… so hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances will have to do for now.
   

   An 18th Century French Salon.

   

   A room in Marie Antoinette's Le Petit Trianon.

Jump to: The Definition of Narcissism Pt. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

ART & DESIGN

• ilovetypography.com
• smashingmagazine.com
• typeneu.com
• veerle.duoh.com
• xanga.com/junshien – I’ve been reading Junshien’s Xanga since early highschool and have been a LONG TIME fan of his. He’s super talented and he’s going to be my wedding photographer.

BEAUTY & FASHION

• denimblog.com – Can’t live without my denim.
• fashiontoast.com – My absolute favorite fashion blog.
• lilylovesmac.blogspot.com – my favorite beauty blogs are on the Blogspot community.
• thesartorialist. com
• thestylespy.com – I’ve been reading The Style Spy since it was on Xanga plus it started locally.
• nessasarymakeup.com

PERSONAL

• conartistry.com
• ditz-revolution.net
• xanga.com/angy4881 – Angy’s the baddest bitch on the block! I’ve been following her Xanga for years now and I’ve always admired her confidence and independence— and not to mention she’s one hot Asian!
• xanga.com/CaKaLusa – Back in the old Xanga days, Chris (along with Jonas) were two of my favorite Xangians because they’re blogs are just fking hilarious!
• xanga.com/JonasApproved – Read above.*

RANDOM

• bjmagazine.blogspot.com
• hellokittyhell.com
• postsecret.com

DNA Box. Some interactive/multimedia work by South Korean designer, Lee Kwankoo. Of course, I love anything to do with Korean culture so I had fun watching the videos.

Dreamer’s Ink Aesthetics. Mitchell Paone’s portfolio… Love the MTV Prime concept board with the custom typography … and remember to watch the demo reel!

In Graphics We Trust. Portfolio of Sebastian Onufszak. Always been an inspiration.

More Yellow. I originally stumbled upon this portfolio because of their eye-catching Konami print ads.

Mikmik. Love the work and the play on type.

Mola Ativism. Unique navigation although not a huge fan of it… but once you get past that, there are some amazing pieces to be seen.

Guilherme Marconi. Some very amazing (and richly colored) illustrations which you can even purchase and download for your mobile phone!

Obey. Was introduced to this website last year. Had to have it on the list.

Plong. All videos well-worth watching if you’re looking for inspiration and ideas.

RBG6. Very slick graphics and video projects which are well-worth watching.

Si Scott. I became an instant fan when I came across his illustrative typography a couple months ago but the rest of his portfolio is amazing as well.

Vascolo. Check out the videos!

Other projects:

(also check out Flickr set for entire project photos):

Of All The People In All The World uses grains of rice to bring formally abstract statisitcs to startling and powerful life. Each grain of rice = one person and you are invited to compare the one grain that is you to the millions that are not. Over a period of days a team of performers carefully weigh out quantities of rice to represent a host of human statistics

• the populations of towns and cities
• the number of doctors, the number of soldiers
• the number of people born each day, the number who die
• all the people who have walked on the moon
• deaths in the holocaust.

The statistics are arranged in labelled piles creating an ever changing landscape of rice. The statistics and their juxtapositions can be moving, shocking, celebratory, witty and thought provoking.

Flickr Pool: Exploring the Lost “Art” of the Film Poster

Seeing Double: Twins or mirror?

Major Redesign: The New Milk Jug for a Green Earth

Shit Happens: Dog Poo Bags

An artist to watch: Melissa Haslam

Treasure Hunt: The Little People

Amazing portfolio: Mario Belem

Designer Coke: Seductive, feminine— Cavalli style.

It’s all about fashion: Lucy Liu in Fashion Olympics for Harper’s Bazaar

Love: Terre Peck Sandal now going for $182

Anyway, Oregon trip plans are good (for now, just waiting for something to mess up a day of two before we leave) after a week of wanting to kill myself.

Boyfriend is going to Vegas with his friends in September but I decided not to go because it’s one month before my 21st birthday and I don’t want to take any time off work. I told him he can do WHATEVER HE WANTS there (gamble, go to strip clubs/clubbing, look at girls, etc.) as long as there is no touching of other girls (and guys) involved— and maybe not eat as much since I hear he’s training himself for the buffets (he is the king of buffets) which is totally gross. Lol. But anyway I’m encouraging him to have fun and forget about me that week because when he comes home, he’ll have to face my constant nagging and mood swings for the rest of his life (and because I have 120% trust in him). ? God help him. Plus I don’t want him to be like certain guys who are obliged to be with their naggy girlfriends 24/7. Hah.

Speaking of Vegas, I never really understood the hype about it and why EVERYONE wants to go when they turn 21. I considered it for fun but never seriously; I’d rather waste my money on a trip where I can mingle with a wealth of cultural and historical experiences. Vacation spots like Hawaii, the Caribbean, Florida, etc. sparks like a 10% interest in me; it’s not like I won’t go but I’d rather go visit places like Egypt, Rome, North Korea, Afghanistan and/or anywhere in the Middle East, etc. because they either have a rich history that fascinates me or because the place touches me with the current events happening there.

Where would you guys like to go on vacation?

Since we’re on the topic of vacations, I’m so excited for our plans to Asia next year! I think we are going to leave either in late January or on Christmas Day with his family to Vietnam and stay there for a week of two and then hopefully go to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Taipei, Seoul, Phnom Penh, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Bali, Singapore, Phuket and a bunch of other places but I doubt we would have enough time. Boyfriend wants to stay a couple days in each so we don’t get sick of it and would still have stuff to see when we go to Asia again which totally makes sense (and is something that I would’ve never though of). I’m the most excited about Phnom Penh (Angkor Wat is one of my top places to see which is about 5 hours away), Vietnam (I just discovered this awesome designer in Saigon) and Seoul (home of the Korean dramas and plastic surgery!). I told Boyfriend I’m gonna get my eyelids done in Korea and that he couldn’t do anything to stop me and he believed me (I think), but are you kidding me? I don’t want to recover during my vacation.

Next year, hopefully I can convince Boyfriend to visit Africa with me if he decides not to go to Europe. For me, Europe can wait another 5 years but Africa needs to come now!! We chose Asia this year because Boyfriend wanted to go see his grandpa in Vietnam. Aww. :blush:

Smashing Magazine has an amazing post on beautiful and feminine illustrations. I love looking at girly illustrations and art work! Here are my favorites:

Other random art:

Nasty thought of the day:

Would you wear these contact lens attachments?

50 Designers’ Current Favorite Typefaces; found this on John’s blog (ilovetypography.com). The book is limited edition because they were printed for free so unfortunately they are out of stock. But according to James from createreject.com, if you are anywhere near London right now, there are still some copies in Koenig Books in Charing Cross Road and Artwords in Shoreditch. Proceeds of the book sales go to Unicef.

Pantone Expresso Cups; although I quit drinking coffee a year ago (it was a very long and hard withdrawal), maybe I should start again just so I can buy these Pantone cups and drink in style and pretend that I’m a better designer than I actually am. Actually, I’m going to stick with my Chinese herbal teas but I’ll be drinking them out of pantone cups.

Romain Laurent; some very very cool photo manipulations by a very talented designer.

Cable Box (by Blue Lounge); if you know me and have seen my desk at work or at home, you’ll know I need one of these… BAD.

Lovemomiji.com’s Collection; for the lovers of all things CUTE, check out their collection and their shop! *ahem Richelle.

Sonya Gladiator Sandal by Dolce Vita; we all know we love gladiator sandals and can’t get enough of them! So totally sexy. Yummy.

Jean-Michel Cazabat Twister Sandals in Gold; and you thought Gladiator sandals were hot? Check out these snake themed sandals; very very sexy and Cleopatra-like. I like. I like. Now I hope someone gets them for me

Hautelook.com is having a Vix sale. Very very cute bikinis… perfect for this perfect weather we’ve been having. Unfortunately I’ll be saying no to this until I get back to my “regular” weight. Damn office job, and gourmet cafeteria!!

Corteo, which means “cortege” in Italian, is a joyous procession, a festive parade imagined by a clown. The show brings together the passion of the actor with the grace and power of the acrobat to plunge the audience into a theatrical world of fun, comedy and spontaneity situated in a mysterious space between heaven and earth.

The clown pictures his own funeral taking place in a carnival atmosphere, watched over by quietly caring angels. Juxtaposing the large with the small, the ridiculous with the tragic and the magic of perfection with the charm of imperfection, the show highlights the strength and fragility of the clown, as well as his wisdom and kindness, to illustrate the portion of humanity that is within each of us. The music, by turns lyrical and playful, carries Corteo through a timeless celebration in which illusion teases reality

Boyfriend actually thought Corteo was “boring” compared to other shows because there were less insane acrobatics. I was sooo annoyed at him when he said that because I thought it was the most amazing show I’ve ever seen… I actually teared up during some of the acts because it was so damn beautiful (yes, I get emotional sometimes). The dramatic lighting and music totally set the mood and got the viewers involved in the story and of course, the costumes and stage props were gorgeous like always. He still liked it though but he just doesn’t know how to appreciate art as much as I do (I’m still trying to drill it into his head)!

It’s kind of funny because the first time I heard about the shows in Vancouver a couple years ago, I was so excited but he was rather the opposite and didn’t want to go because he thought it was lame. Forward to a couple weeks later, he suddenly told me he was going to get tickets (of couse I had to call him a hypocrite and didn’t let him forget about it for weeks) and now I think he loves the shows more than I do!

I can’t wait to find out what’s coming next year! If you’ve never seen a show, I totally recommend you go see at least one.

You Suck at Photoshop

I hate everything about the actual webpage itself (the colors, clutter, etc.) but the videos are well-worth watching if you want to learn Photoshop and get a good laugh. Have fun!

2. You shall not use Comic Sans.
…along with Papyrus, Bauhaus 93, Hobo, Lucida, Century Gothic, Cooper Black, Curlz MT, Impact, etc., etc. And the list goes on. Sigh.

3. You shall check for widows and orphans when typesetting.
Please adjust leading, kerning, tracking, margins, hyphenation, etc…WHATEVER you have to do to reunite these lonely phrases with their families.

4. You shall not piss off the printer with bad pre-press practices.
PLEASE visit prepressure.com (or go back to school).

5. You shall not use a 72dpi image in a print job.
Unless you want to blind the world with ugly mega-pixels.

6. You shall not use RGB in a print job and CMYK in web.
I hope I don’t have to explain this.

7. You shall not forget that negative space is your friend.
“Less is more.”

8. You shall not create type (or logos whenever possible) in Photoshop.
There are vector-based programs for that.

9. You shall not create a multi-page brochure in Word, PowerPoint or Photoshop.
WTF. Like are you even a designer?!!!

10. You shall always create multiple back-ups.
Or else you’ll try to kill yourself many times when your computer dies on you.

I know I missed about a billion others but there isn’t enough space on my server to list them all. What are your 10 commandments (which doesn’t have to be design-related)?

Instead, here’s an alternative: Comic Jens!

It’s not in English, but you can view a badly translated version of the page here.

The Toki Cafe. Since I was professing my undying love for dim sum in my last entry, check out Toki Cafe’s adorable little dim sum creations; I want one just so I can be reminded of Shui-Mai wherever I go. They also have sushi and 1-UP (OMGZBBQZ!!!). I loveee the 1-UP mushrooms. Check out their blog for latest project updates.

Candypop Creations. Just because I love everything to do with food.

Bella’s Gallery. I love her art; it’s very dark, gothic, moody and very mysterious in general. I needed paintings to hang around my room and I think I’m going to order some of hers to add to my already dark and gloomy room. You can see more of her art at bellas-playground.com.

Erinzam’s Shop. She has a billion awesome projects, especially some really cool bookmaking and binding projects. Definitely check this out if you are a designer! You can visit her blog at Spin Designs Inc. I’m so in love with the silhouettes embedded into their jewelry and mobile designs.

This is the famous Greek Revival townhouse which was also the setting of Anne Rice’s The Witching Hour!! I actually never knew this house really existed until a couple months ago and omigosh, you wouldn’t be able to imagine my excitement. Of course, she owns this place as well. When I go to New Orleans, that will be one of the first places that I drag Boyfriend to. Too bad I won’t see Deirdre Mayfair sitting on the front porch and Stella wouldn’t be having one of her parties, but it will still be fascinating. Ooh, and it’s said that if there is a black limo parked outside, that means Anne-is-in-tha-house!

This is a French Second Empire-style mansion. I would love to live in a mansion surrounded by a vast lawn dotted with huge trees because there is some kind of mystique to it. Okay, maybe a moderate sized lawn unless I’m super rich and have a couple gardeners. Don’t expect me go outside and do any landscaping because bugs freak me out.

Can you say BEAUTIFUL!!? I’ve always wanted to live in a house with gigantic white columns like this Greek Revival townhouse. If you ever want to look “rich,” just build a couple of these columns around your house… well you’d probably have to have some wealth just to get these made.

This is Claiborne Cottage, also owned by Anne Rice. So cute don’t you think? I want a house with a nice, big porch as well to sit, read and people watch. Black iron fences always remind me of my grandparents’ house in Saskatchewan and they always add a little touch of class. My houses in Sims 2 always have black iron fences. Harhar.

Another beautiful house and guess what? Peyton Manning grew up here! This can be our second stop in New Orleans just for Boyfriend (but he probably won’t care much about the house anyway).

If you haven’t noticed, I want everything. I could go on and on but this will do for now.

And no, I don’t think an “imposter” would be capable of writing like that unless it was just someone whose really determined to crush my hopes! If so, I would still like to think otherwise, thank you very much.

I feel like a… teenybopper in a… ummm… Backstreet Boys concert.

But thank YOU, Anne, for making my day.

But anyway, now I have no clue on what to blog about anymore. If Anne ever stumbles back here again, my words are soo unworthy for her eyes to read.

He started out as a concept artist for a video game company, then him and his buddies started conceptart.org as a joint portfolio to increase traffic and it exploded into a web phenomom, turning into a major web community. Later on, they started a company called, Massive Black which does concept art, 3D-modeling, animation and a ton of other things for their clients and of course, it became a huge success as well. They also started doing artist workshops because they wanted to travel around Europe but didn’t want to pay for it! It’s funny how something so insignificant like that can blow up to something as big as it is today. Later on, he decided he wanted to do something new and different with his creativity so he started do live paintings for concerts and raves. All I can say is… WOW. I’m high on inspiration. I wish I had ambition like his then I could let my creativity go crazy. Unfortunately, I don’t… yet.

Anyway, their next workshop is in Seattle next year but it’s the same weekend we are going to Big White! I’m not a concept artist nor even an artist, but this is good inspiration and that’s all that matters.

Andrew Jones. Andrew Jones. ANDREW JONES. Don’t forget that name!

Anyway, when I was telling the Boyfriend today, he was like “OOOOH ANDREW JONES!” And I was like “oh, the baseball player?” (trying to sound like a smartass). Little does he know, I googled Andrew Jones earlier and saw him pop up in the results too. HAHA.

If you could travel through time, what era would you visit and why?

Ooh, I would totally travel back to the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt when Nefertiti lived or to Cleopatra’s Ptolemaic dynasty. Or I would go back to England in the 17th Century. Hmm. That’s hard. :S