For several years now, a revolution has been gaining momentum in popular culture in the United States: ‘conflict free’ diamonds. I’ve been on the hunt for the ‘right’ diamond for the past few months since deciding to propose to my girlfriend of two and a half years. She was not concerned with the size or quality of the stone, but asked that her diamond be conflict free. I thought, ‘oh great, one more roadblock to the process’—it was hard enough making the commitment to get married (but most things with a commitment are hard for me so I’m used to it).

Some other diamond seekers I know have had an easier time with the process. Not me. I usually hyper-research topics to the point of stagnation. I freeze, unable to make a decision, overwhelmed with too much information. I interrogate both sides of the story and ruminate over the details depending on the weight of the decision to be made. Now, as I’m faced with plunking down honest money for a less-than-honest investment, I am confronted with the shadowy side of the diamond business.
(continue reading this article at The Other Journal where it was originally published.)

project update
None of the names I submitted for the project below were selected for the project. However, I made some great connections and hope to work with Finca Vista Hermosa in the future.

Last week I got a call from a good friend, Gabriel Rodriguez, about a friend of his who is opening a new venture in Bellingham, WA. He asked me if I could come up with any names for this new project because he knows I enjoy a good naming assignment. I cannot speak of the details at this point because I’m not sure how public this idea, but I will say that the naming project is for Finca Vista Hermosa, a third generation coffee plantation in Guatemala. You can see photos from Gabe’s recent trip to the Finca Vista Plantation right here. If one of the names I came up with makes the cut I’ll make sure to post an article about the process.

I’ve had the opportunity to write more at evo. Lately, I’ve been writing a block of text that goes underneath our email campaigns and I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. I’ve had to brush up on my grammar a bit and I’ve had to learn to take constructive criticism when others edit my writing. It’s been a good experiment and I’m looking forward to writing more frequently. See some samples below…

Email Marketing:
Liquid Force Sale
New to Us, New to You

-A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present, by Howard Zinn.

-Practical (Practekal) Clothing Company.

-No Logo, by Naomi Klein.

-Making a documentary about my closest friends from many DV and Hi-8 tapes containing footage from college and afterwards.

-Internship with Kendall Ross. A Seattle-based design and branding firm (I got a job offer I couldn’t refuse).

-The application process for NYU’s journalism program.

-Article about my succulent plants.

-Article about my taking a year off after college to do something else besides join the workforce.

-Reading all of Cormac McCarthy’s books.

continue reading A List of Things I've Started, but Not Finished...

-Play chess
-Play the piano
-Direct a documentary
-Edit video
-Eat nutritiously
-Give back to society
-Connect with inner-city kids
-Write a novel
-Be a journalist
-Curate an art exhibit
-Defend myself (Martial Arts)
-Build a coffee table
-Buy and invest in real estate
-Build a financial portfolio
-Exercise appropriately
-Grow strawberries
-Survive in the wilderness

continue reading I Want To Learn How To:...

A concept not-so recently concieved, but recently put on a shirt.

Thank Peter for the photo.

Leave It Be print. Two Color. American Apparel Standard Tee. Brown.

The t-shirt above was a collaboration between me and waves. It was the second shirt we ever did. I came up with the concept and waves did all the design work. I produced only 50 of these shirts and distributed them to friends and coworkers. This was by far the most popular shirt we ever did.

Not long after we produced this shirt I got a call from a friend who was standing in Urban Outfitters. He was holding a shirt with almost the exact same concept on it with different colors and composition. The concept isn’t a new one and we got it from a Boy Scout saying, “Leaves of three, leave it be,” which is referring to poison oak.

continue reading Leave It Be Shirts...

This was my first project as a copywriter. Pravda Studios, in Seattle, needed a name for this spacious room adjoining their design studio because they wanted to brand it and market it as an venue for special events.

I went through many ideas before submitting LIGHTROOM. I thought this was a great name for the space because it had southwest facing windows which let the light pour in. Some businesses around Seattle were renting it as a natural light studio for shooting models and products.

LIGHTROOM actually came to me by thinking about the space as a photography studio. I thought about photography, photographers, black and white photos, developing, and then a darkroom. It struck me after thinking of darkroom. The opposite of a dark room is a light room and that’s how the name LIGHTROOM was conceptualized. Joseph King worked on the design. I’m not sure who took the photo above.

continue reading LIGHTROOM: Pravda Studios...

I’ve been inspired lately to post new photos on the practical flickr account. Then late one night I started writing quasi-haikus for each of the photos. It was pretty fun. Check it all out here… Expect more photos and words soon…feel free to make up your own quasi-haikus or legit haikus too.

I thought of this idea last Friday on my way out of town. It was one of those ideas that jumps into your mind when you’re completely busy and don’t have time to jot notes down. I was about to walk out the door and be okay with not writing this one down, but something forced me to get a pen and quickly sketch it out.

The image above is not the original idea, but a couple versions I thought of after looking at the concept a bit. Sometimes I get ideas and think they are completely obvious and learn later that they are just the opposite, i.e. Oregon, My Oregon t-shirts. If you get it, let me know that you got it. If you’re an artist and want to develop this idea further just contact me.