John Cade

You’ll have to forgive me - I broke my blog at some point over the last two weeks while trying to updgrade Wordpress, and I left my readers with the dreaded “php errors” for viewing.  Maybe after reading the list of what has been going on over the past few weeks, you’ll understand why I neglected to fix it.

• I moved into my new place in Green Hills two weeks ago.  Other than listening to extremely loud traffic while in bed at night (clarification:  the traffic is normal.  the windows are super thin), I absolutely love the place.  The lady who owns the house, and lives downstairs, is a great neighbor.  Thank God for that.  Also, it only takes me 10 minutes to get downtown during rush hour.  Couldn’t have selected a better location.
• During GMA Week, I attended a preview of the Music Builds Tour with Switchfoot at the Wildhorse Saloon.  For anyone who has never been to the Wildhorse, Jon Foreman said it best:  “This is a nice country bar.  That’s what this is.”   As always, Switchfoot was incredible.  I never miss an opportunity to see them live, and neither should you.
• Meredith and I also attended the Dove Awards at the Grand Ole Opry.  It was my first time in the Grand Ole Opry House, and it was definitely a unique experience.  Sitting through a live taping of that magnitude is a very surreal experience.  Even though I was actually present at the awards show, it felt as if I was watching it all through a monitor.  Everything ran like clockwork.  I was able to see Switchfoot play for the second time in one week.  They played “This is Home” which is going to be featured on the Prince Caspian soundtrack.   Do yourself a favor, and listen to it on their myspace page.
• May 1 and 2 were my first two days as an employee of LifeWay (actually, it was just orientation).  My official title is Internet Producer, and I will be working in Digital Media Publishing.  I was able to meet a lot of great people and get familiar with the 22 acres or so of land that the campus sits on.  Second only to the Tennessee state government, LifeWay is the largest property owner in downtown Nashville.  If you need any advice on surviving the hiring process with a large organization, feel free to shoot me a message.  After three entire months of conversations with one, I know a thing or two.
• Meredith and I will be married in exactly two weeks.  I can’t believe how close it is!

Please excuse the missing images and sound files throughout my older posts.  I’ll work on getting those back up withing the next few days.

Meredith and I are infamous for taking entirely irrational road trips at the last minute. It really has less to do with spontaneity and more to do with the fact that we are terrible planners. Case in point:Meredith learned about a bridal trunk show (whatever that means) early last week, scheduled to take place at a shop in Peachtree, Georgia, on Saturday afternoon. She absolutely had to attend it. She told me about it on Monday or Tuesday, so I marked it on my not-so-tangible calendar in my head. I love road trips, so naturally I told her I would go with her. Of course, we didn’t speak about the logistics of attending the show until Thursday. Our only real option for a place to crash on Friday night turned out not to be an option after all, so we had to take a very extreme measure. Drive to Peachtree City and back to Nashville all in the same day.I guess this is where I tell you that Peachtree City, just south of Atlanta, is 4.5 hours from Nashville. That means (for all of you not-so mathematical people out there) that we were be in the cars for a minimum of 9 hours on Saturday.That’s not so bad, right? Wrong.This bridal show just happened to be taking place on the same day that the Foo Fighters were playing in Nashville. Now this is a huge problem. I’m not missing the Foo Fighters, you see. I can’t. It’s just not an option. If I were to make a bucket list, seeing them live would be definitely be on it.So what is the solution?We left Nashville at 8 a.m., drove to Peachtree City (a quaint little town where everyone rides around on golf carts all day long), arrived at about 12: 30 p.m., went to the trunk show, left at 2:30 p.m., and arrived back in Nashville at the Municipal Auditorium at 6:30 p.m. for the sold out show. Somehow, somewhere, we shaved half an hour off of our time on the way home. It was a beautiful thing. However, the line to get in was already wrapped around the entire arena once and was starting to snake back the other way. Insane, I tell you.After being scolded and denied entry for trying to bring a ‘professional’ camera inside, running to the car and back, arguing with a security guard and a Metro cop that called me some choice words, I was finally inside. I did have to put my camera back in the car, so the only pictures I have were taken with my Blackberry.Here’s a brief review of the show:Opener 1: Hello Stranger. Terrible. Moving on.Opener 2: Against Me. Solid but boring. Strike two.The Foo: Legendary.

I don’t care what anyone says, Dave Grohl is a legend. His rock and roll, his personality, his swagger - he has it all. There wasn’t one part in the Foo’s set, as Meredith said, that was off, in any way. Highlights:

• Dave Grohl running down the catwalk and standing withing 15 yards of us
• The acoustic stage that dropped down from the ceiling in the back of the arena halfway through the set.
• ‘My Hero’, acoustic
• The triangle solo
• The gazillion rock and roll hits that they played
• Dave Grohl. Period.

Whether you like them or not, go see them. It was the greatest rock show I have ever seen.

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UPDATED - Jan 25th: - Added another picture below!

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Meredith and I hired the McLellans to take our wedding pictures, and as a part of the deal, we were able to have a two hour engagement session. We met the McLellans in downtown Franklin, which is a very rich and historic community about 20 minutes outside of Nashville. The picture below, which they posted on their blog earlier today, is one of the ’serious’ shots they took of us. We are still waiting to see some of the others where we are smiling and goofing off.

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!