I have this feeling of being really overwhelmed by new music or completely stuck listening to same 3 albums that I've been listening to forever. To help broaden my musical horizons, I started a music mix sharing club with 11 other friends. It's a labor of love for everyone to make their own mixes, make some artwork for it, burn all of the discs and mail them off. Finally my mix was due, after much internal debate here it is.

Download ACMC #9 Here | More mixes here

I'm excited to announce the Yearbook Yourself site has been nominated for a webby. We need help to get the people's voice vote. Thanks for your help.

Info on voting here

When we were working on the Toys in the Attic print we had a hard time figuring out which toy to use. Here is my alternate idea, a minimal Simon print. This whole project has re-energized me to start making my own screenprinting setup in the basement. We will break ground early January, stay tuned for coverage.

For now, enjoy it as a desktop wallpaper.

Melanie and I were asked to be in the Toys in the Attic art show, a benefit for Toys for Tots. The show is focused on toy-related art. After much debate about what toy to go with, we chose Lite Brite. The show should be fun, looks like lots of fun pieces will be in.
Show Info Here
Large version of our print

I've been working with my buddy, Lee Hanson, over at Colle+McVoy on animations and in-store signage for Caribou Coffee's Flavors of Fall for a while. Yesterday we finally launched them. We worked with great local animators, Puny Entertainment. We had a lot of laughs making them, we had a lot of great voice work from Joe Weismann and our own hidden gem, Dan Mandle. Thanks to all that made these possible.

Watch all five here: jackandgourdo.com

After an amazing response last year, Yearbook Yourself was brought back for another year. I had the pleasure of working on everything from the design of the site to combing through about 100 yearbooks to find the best photos. This year we played off what was great: keeping it super simple to have fun with these old photos, but also added some great new functionality. Also new this year is the Student Life section that allows you to work in pictures of your friends with yours. Lots of fun and a great team effort. Now go Yearbook Yourself.

www.YearbookYourself.com

For the last 2 months, I've been working on this project for Yahoo! Messenger. They came to Colle+McVoy after seeing YearbookYourself.com, looking for holiday promotion ideas. There were tons of great ideas and we ended up producing this one called The Emoticarolers. Embracing the messenger emoticons, we wanted them to come to life and sing at everybody's digital doorsteps this holiday season. The greatest part about this is the ability to write your own custom lyrics. and share them with all of your nearest and dearest friends. We gave everybody the ability to send it however they want – embed, send a link and most importantly, send via Yahoo! Messenger.

www.emoticarolers.com

Prior to this project, my sewing experience was limited an annual piecing together of a halloween costume for my son. I decided to step it up a notch and explored the fascinating world of quilting. I'm obsessed with the unbelievable assortment of fabric patterns and combinations. It's insanely overwhelming, and I strayed far, far away from my original vision for this quilt. What can I say, I was seduced by hedgehogs. I'm moving on to my second quilt, a lovely little robot number for the boy. Then, hoping to have established enough skills to piece together my own design. Easier said than done, I'm sure.

There are so many beautiful, modern and inspiring things happening with quilting these days. I'm a big fan of Boo Davis (see: robot quilt): Quiltsryche! Are you kidding me? C'mon... that is AMAZING.


Also seriously inspiring, Carson Converse:

Happy and healthy. Keeping us good and busy and much too distracted to keep this blog updated properly. Photo by the lovely and talented Vickey Weiss.

My hubby got me a very thoughtful gift certificate for letterpress at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts for my birthday. It's something I've always wanted to learn, but never found the time. It was a little like meditation, setting the type by hand, adding little bits of leading, testing, changing, tweaking. Loved it! I set this little poem for my son. And as a nice little reminder for me too.

Minnesota Center for Book Arts

Easier than updating our portfolios, and a lot more fun. This pretty much is our answer to "what have you been up to lately?"