John Cade

Nashville has an extremely high density of talented musicians, and believe it or not, they don’t all play country music. Since my move to Tennessee 5 1/2 years ago, I have been to countless pop and rock concerts, and witnessed some very impressive musicianship. I have chosen to dedicate my post each Monday to introducing the world (and more importantly, my friends and family outside of the Nashville area) to new (and hopefully well received) music from Nashville and other thriving local music scenes. My goal is not to review these artists, but rather introduce you to them.

Week of January 21st

AutoVaughn, one of the flagship local rock bands in Nashville, released Space in March of 2006, a 10-song album featuring catchy, Killers-like songs including One More Time, On The Radio, and Rock Your Body. Six-hundred people attended their sell-out CD release show at Mercy Lounge, one of the the premier local venues in Nashville. AV followed up this release with relentless touring across the country, putting them on the map nationally, earning them college radio airplay, shows with national artists including Rooney, and ultimately a major-label record deal with Epic Records late in 2007.

Press play to hear One More Time, On The Radio, and Rock Your Body

AutoVaughn on MySpace

As with any profession, being a designer has its ups and downs. My success is defined by my creativity and how other people perceive my art. There are no rules to follow. It is more exciting than desperately trying to meet a sales goal or struggling to increase the bottom line of Company X in hopes of receiving an annual bonus. Don’t get me wrong, corporate jobs are equally as important in most cases, and many people who have them enjoy them. However, the biggest perk of designing for a living is that it isn’t monotonous because each project must be unique. Therefore each day is unique. And so on.

With this freedom, however, often comes frustration. I’m not referring to ‘designers block’ here. What I’m talking about is much more frustrating than that. It’s the disconnect between the finalized design and the quality and accuracy of the display of the design in its final environment that can cause frustration. Let me give you a real life example.

I was assigned to design an identity for a youth group retreat called Wired. Naturally, Nathan and I went through all of the ways we could work wires into the logo, hoodie, and banner designs. We sent a few comps to the client, and they responded with a few minor adjustments. With those adjustments made, the design was done, and everything was sent off to be printed.

This is where I start to get nervous. How will everything turn out?

I ordered the banners onilne. We had never seen a banner that this company has printed. To boot, they are located in California. This alone is enough to make any designer worry. Ordering a 12 foot by 5 foot poster, sight unseen? That’s ludicrous! I thought so too. But this company was extremely affordable and their turn-around time was 24 hours. Alas, we ordered them, but not without hesitation. While Nathan and I discussed everything that go wrong, the posters were shipped, and came back perfect. We were amazed! We couldn’t have asked for better quality.

We also placed an order for some hoodies around the same time that were scheduled to be printed and picked up on January 17, one day prior to the event.

• Problem #1: On the 17th, the order wasn’t ready.
• Problem #2: The printer says “We have never printed a design across a zipper like this, so we are going to have to have to cover the center of it with a piece of tape.”

At this point, I’m thinking

Fabulous. Rather than splitting the design down the middle and making a new screen with everything in tact, you’re just going to knock out a line down the center of my design?

What’s the worst that can happen though, right? Zippers are thin. So it can’t be that bad.

But it can. What’s wrong with this picture?

The knockout is two inches wide, at least! It looks like a roll of duct tape was used to do it!

Outrageous! Why did I let this happen?

Now that is frustrating. At least I can take something from this situation though. Next time someone says “We’ve never done this before”, run for the hills!

As a side note, the incredibily beautiful model in the picture is my fiance. Thanks, Meredith!

I’m switching to WordPress. Things could get messy.

While Jason Bynum informs his readers about blogging, and Timmy and Josh both get started on their new domain names, I have struggled for the past hour or so trying to setup a blogroll on my sidebar!  Outrageous. 

For those of you who don’t know, every blog is powered by a content management system (CMS).  While Jason, Timmy, and Josh are all using WordPress, which probably the most widely used CMS for blogging, I have decided to go with MovableType, a less popular one that I am more familiar with.

There is a reason why MT is not as popular, and I think I am finding out why.  The hard way.

In order to set up a blogroll (a list of links to other blogs), I had to go through what seems like a several hour process, which included setting up a second blog where I actually create the links and then inserting code into this blog to display those thinks. 

I admit, the last version of MovableType I used was 2.6, and the current version I am using is 4.0.  A lot has changed.

I found an article that claims that creating a blogroll in MT 4.0 is ‘easy’.  However, they leave out 3 or 4 crucial steps in order the make the dang thing actually work.  The directions aren’t nearly as detailed as they should be.

Movable Type 4.1 is in beta testing, and I’m hoping blogrolls with be included.

It shouldn’t be this hard.

Ugh.

Part 1

One of the perks of having a design job in Nashville is the client base that I am surrounded by.  I’ve been working on some website comps (in design speak, website comp = photoshop template) for Warner Brothers Records.  They recently signed a new comedian who will be releasing a CD on February 12 of this year.  I have been given the duty of taking previously designed album artwork and turning it into a website and online store.  It’s too early on in the process for me to make those designs public, but I thought I would give some insight into what I’ve been working with these past two days.

It’s hilarious!

Gladys Hardy, an 88 year old from Austin, Texas, was made famous by calling the Ellen show and making some nonsensical and extremely funny statements.  Here’s a clip of one of her infamous phone calls:

However, there is much controversy over who this Gladys Hardy person really is.  Even the local newspaper in Austin couldn’t track her down.

Funny thing is, it doesn’t take a newspaper reporter to figure out who she is.  Since we work closely with ‘Gladys Hardy’s’  label, we get the inside scoop.  Just ask a designer!

Part 2

It’s snowing!  This was taken just outside of my office.