ALAN VALEK » Blog

Playing with Light

avalek — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 05:01:58 +0000

Here’s a quick post with some photos that my buddy Brian Garcia and I played with over the weekend in preparation for the Black, White & Fargie 2 photoshoot coming up this weekend. These shots were taken with a Canon 40D, 24-70 L f/2.8 and Sunpak 383′s with Pocket Wizard Plus 2′s. Brian is a UI Developer Ninja by day and a ass-kicking mixed martial arts fighter by night — he’s one bad mo-fo you don’t want to piss off. Stay tuned for the BWF2 pics soon…

Lino Block Valentine

avalek — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 03:06:14 +0000

¡¡WARNING!!
When you are in a relationship you have tendencies to say rather odd lovey dovey things to your significant other.With that being said, enjoy this blog post

With Valentines Day creeping up on us this next week I thought I’d share this lino block card that I had made for my wife. Doing lino cuts is fun, it’s really not that difficult, and it’s an effect that can’t be duplicated easily in the computer. If you want to try this out just watch the step-by-step video below and then stop by your local art supply store to pick up some supplies. Hopefully this inspires you to make your own card, poster or even a t-shirt graphic. I’m happy to answer any questions about this process, so feel free to leave a comment below.

1000 More Greetings

avalek — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 03:54:00 +0000

Rockport Publishing recently released their new book—1000 More Greetings, and I was lucky enough to have a couple of my personal wedding invite designs showcased in it. If you’re looking for some invite, greeting card or self-promotion inspiration from top designers all over the world, look no further. You can pick it up at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

Art Direction & Design: Aesthetic Movement

My featured designs

More designs that are mucho bueno

Designer: Hatch Design, San Francisco, CA

Designer: Rome & Gold Creative

Designer: Shauna Cross Design

HTML5. The Logo.

avalek — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 05:05:48 +0000

It’s official, the W3C has unveiled the logo for HTML5 today, here’s an excerpt on what they have to say about it:

“It stands strong and true, resilient and universal as the markup you write. It shines as bright and as bold as the forward-thinking, dedicated web developers you are. It’s the standard’s standard, a pennant for progress. And it certainly doesn’t use tables for layout.”

+ Find out more at the W3C website

Some HTML5 Hotness.

Check out these sites I’ve come across lately that are built using HTML5.

Typeface

avalek — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 02:38:13 +0000

Here’s another film for all you designer type buffs—Typeface. The film takes you to The Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin and shows you the lost art of wood-cut lettering & printing. You’ll get the urge to go cut some lino blocks after watching this, highly recommended film, you can get it on iTunes here.

Poppin’ Caps

avalek — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:50:26 +0000

Ahhh…..nothin’ like the smell of gunpowder in the morning. My pops made a visit to Texas this past Christmas so we headed over to the shootin’ range for some shit kickin’ recreation—Texas style! I brought the ol’ 70-200 f/2.8 to document the carnage, but I found out quickly that people at the gun range aren’t too fond on having their picture taken—whatever. Enjoy the pics.

Linotype: The Film

avalek — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:00:12 +0000

Here’s a trailer for the upcoming “Linotype: The Film.” If you’re a type nerd like myself you’ll be wanting to see this as well. No release date yet, watch the site for details…

Linotype: The Film is a documentary about Ottmar Mergenthaler’s amazing Linotype typesetting machine and the people who own and love these machines today.

Director & Editor: Doug Wilson
Director of Photography: Brandon Goodwin
Audio & Sound Design: Jess Heugel
Music on the Trailer: Iron & Wine “Freedom Hangs Like Heaven”

Linotype: The Film Official Movie Site

Goodwill Halloween

avalek — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 17:05:56 +0000

It’s that time of year again — Halloween! I’m going to kick off this month with one of my favorite Halloween campaigns from The Miller Group for Goodwill Southern California. This was made a couple years ago, but it never gets old — flawless execution.

Shaves, Shots & Roller Girl.

avalek — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:41:39 +0000

Whiskey at 8 in the morning is brutal to say the least — and that’s exactly how this day started. My friend John was about to get married, and like my other buddy Jared, he decided to take all the boys for some straight-blade shaves, booze & good times before the ceremony. Everybody got trimmed up at Hawleywood’s, a 1940′s inspired Barber Shop on Main Street in downtown Huntington Beach, CA while tossing back a few shots and brews, remembering old times, and looking forward to whatever the future might hold.

I would have to say the highlight of the morning was the best man “Bundy” living up to his reputation of being an absolute nut-job and almost finding his dream date for the wedding — we’ll call her “Roller Girl.” Poor Bundy almost had the deal sealed, but she quickly fled the scene after taking a digger caused by one too many shots of Jack — like I said, Whiskey at 8 in the morning is brutal. Later that day the ceremony went off without a hitch, good times were had by all, and I wish Heather & John nothing but the very best for their future. Enjoy these events as they were documented through my lens…..(40D / 24-70 f/2.8 L for all you camera nerds).

Meet Flipboard.

avalek — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:59:32 +0000

This seems pretty interesting — Flipboard, a social media magazine for your iPad. It looks like a Twiiter / Facebook app mash-up similar to TweetDeck or Socialite, but presented in a magazine format instead. It feeds in content based on you and your friends likes & interests. Read below from the official press release:

“With over 1 billion messages posted every day, social networks are quickly becoming the primary way people discover and share content on the Web. The result is a huge influx of incoming messages and links people must sort through across multiple web sites just to stay up to date,” said Mike McCue, Flipboardʼs CEO. “We believe the timeless principles of print can make social media less noisy, more visually compelling and ultimately more mainstream.” Designed from the ground up for iPad, Flipboard creates a magazine out of a userʼs social content. Simply launch Flipboard and “flip” open the cover to get started. From the Table of Contents readers can view their sections and personalize the magazine.

The Facebook and Twitter sections let readers quickly flip through the latest stories, photos and updates from friends and trusted sources. Because Flipboard renders links and images right in the magazine, readers no longer have to scan long lists of posts and click on link after link – instead they instantly see all the stories, comments and images, making it faster and more entertaining to discover, view and share social content.

Flipboard also lets readers easily create sections around topics or people they care about. Choose from Flipboardʼs suggested sections on topics such as sports, news, tech and style, with content hand-curated from popular and interesting Twitter feeds. Or, create an entirely new section by searching by topic, person or Twitter list to make Flipboard even more personal.

The Flipboard App is available for free at www.flipboard.com or from the App Store on iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore/.