A day at Studio Ace of Spade

Hello there. I’m Simon, one of the two partners and designers at Studio Ace of Spade (http://studioaceofspade.com).Caleb asked me to summarize a day of work at Studio Ace of Spade for you, along with the apps, softwares, web services and websites I use. This day isn’t necessarily all that typical, but hey, what are you gonna do.

Between 8:30 and 9:30 AM
Coming in at the office. We have an office at The Bricolage, which is a shared office space for individuals and small businesses in downtown Goshen, IN. (https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bricolage/156283371058935). To kickoff the day, we typically chat a bit about what’s going on for each other and grab a coffee. Or two. Or more.

9:30 AM
Email checking, turning Pandora (http://www.pandora.com/people/simonh40) or the music on the computer or iPad on, checking on Dribbble, DeviantArt, Behance and other design related websites (resources scouting on Lost and Taken, Bittbox, Dafont…). The Studio does the community management for Go Media (their facebook, DeviantArt and blog, the GoMediaZine), so I also check these profiles and answer to comments, forwards messages if need to be, etc.

• Dribbble - http://dribbble.com/simonh
• Facebook - http://facebook.com/studioaceofspade and http://facebook.com/13Spade
• DeviantArt - http://simonh4.deviantart.com
• Behance - http://behance.net/simonh
• Twitter – @simonhartmann and @StudioAoS
• LastFm (while we’re at it) - http://www.last.fm/user/simon_torsions

For Go Media:

• DeviantArt - http://gomedia.deviantart.com
• Facebook - http://facebook.com/gomedia and http://www.facebook.com/arsenal.gomedia.us

11:00 AM
Today’s project (when I was taking notes for this) is a small portfolio document to show our potential clients. No surprises here if I tell you that my predilection tools to mock it up and prepare the page template are from the Adobe Creative Suite: Photoshop and Illustrator CS5. I know I should use InDesign because it’s a multipage document, but here’s a confidence: I hate it.

Since Jon, my studio partner is taking some time with his family back in lovely Ohio after graduating, we’ve been working “remotely” for the best part of the summer so far. So we’re also making an intensive use of Dropbox (http://db.tt/BtQiGOa - yes, that’s my referral link) and Google Docs.

12:00 AM -ish
Lunch break!

Then, another round of email, Dribbble, Facebook, etc keeping up. Also, time to read the news. To do so, sometimes I use Google News but I mostly read the news from back home (France) through the website of 20Minutes, a free French newspaper (http://20minutes.fr). I also follow a couple of news-related twitter handles (@20Minutes, @cnnbrk, @cnn, @washingtonpost etc)

1:00 PM -ish
Back to work! And the process is sensibly the same than in the morning.

We also check our store 13 Spade (http://13spade.com) at (ir)regular intervals to make sure we’re not missing on an order or something.

Between 5 and 6:00 PM, sometimes later
Time to go home! I do like to work late at night, because there’s nothing else to distract you and it’s quiet and all, but

1. I’m married and love to spend time with my wife and our (dumb albeit cute) dog
2. College is over, and I’d love to keep a certain health
3. I believe that having more or less firm “office hours” helps to keep focused on your work
4. There’s no way I’m taking work home. I sweat enough during the day to have a break after a long day
5. Home is to recharge your batteries at the end of the day. A cold beer can help

I mean, personal projects (like Project 52 - http://flic.kr/s/aHsjtnkokL) would be done mostly after hours and/or on weekends, but that doesn’t count. I will however usually take a sketchbook home just in case, and the iPad with the sketchbook app to play with. But that’s it.

I also took photos of my desk and of our workspace for you to admire. I also included a picture of our cute (albeit dumb) dog for you to aww at it.

Some of James’ Works:

James’ Flickr Page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/signalnoiseart/

James’ Website:

www.Signalnoise.com

James

My name is James and I’m a graphic designer working in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. After drawing all my life, I trained to be a designer from 1995 to 1998 and have been working in the field ever since. I do corporate design work by day and always have various personal art projects I work on during the evenings and weekends, which ultimately fuels my love of art and creation. I let my design and personal art bounce off of one another as I learn new techniques.

James

Everything is a challenge. Whether it’s a client job or a piece I want to create for myself, it’s the process of coming up with an idea and executing it properly that really keeps my fires burning. Art and design is everywhere, and I draw a lot from my environment in terms of inspiration and exploring different styles. I start my with a mug of coffee and surfing the web for art updates (mostly via ffffound.com) which is easy because the web is flooded with new art every single day. Being an artist isn’t limited to the pencil or computer, to me it’s a way of life so it’s very easy for me to keep the ball rolling.

James

My weapons of choice are Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash and my mitts. I’ll sketch out an idea to nail down a simple composition that appeals to me aesthetically, then mock it up in Illustrator using simple blocks so I can experiment with color on the fly. After that it is a matter of building all of the elements I require for the given piece, which sometimes involves using Flash as a random asset generator for shapes and things. Illustrator is where most of the logos, type and precise shapes begin. I then use Photoshop to bring everything together and really refine the composition, colors, type and texture. I rely quite heavily on the happy mistakes that happen along the way which causes me to see the piece in a new light and may give me ideas I never would have considered otherwise. My process is rather lengthy, but it’s enjoyable to see all of the elements finally come together when/if they do.

James

Blocks happen fairly seldom to me because I really do try and immerse myself in what I love all the time. I’m constantly watching inspiring movies and cartoons, reading design magazines and comic books, and keeping up on the internet art scene as much as I can. I also do a lot of art history research. Having inspiring material and people around all of the time really makes design-blocks a rare occurrence, and keeps me into what I’m doing. Many of my friends are creative types and their ambition to pursue their own projects is very easy to get swept up in.

To get a shot of inspiration I will sometimes start reading US conspiracy theories and checking out 1970s television network promotions on Youtube. Sounds strange I know, but it works.

When a block or bout of discouragement should hit, I normally just go for a walk to get away from my sketchbook and computer for a while. I live close to a park and the ducks there are good company.

James

Constantly. I love my rock and metal and it keeps me going as I click away in Photoshop or do some sketching. Some of the art pieces I have created hinge directly on what I might be listening to at the time because I love music so much. A few of my favorite bands to play as I work are Queens of the Stone Age, Led Zeppelin, In Flames, Massive Attack, The Beatles, Isis, Pelican, Mastodon, Jesu, Tool, Red Sparowes, Unkle, etc.

James

I’ve come across so much great work that has inspired me, but I’ll do my best to pare it down. Older influences come from the early part of the 1900s, guys like Georges Braque, Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko, Marcel Duchamp, Josef Müller-Brockmann, Saul Bass and the Bauhaus School. Most of these artists were practising far before the computer was invented, yet there work and style are benchmarks in a lot of new work coming out today.

I surf a lot of artists’ websites to keep up on what is happening on the modern global art scene. There are some wonderful things happening online now in the ‘post web-boom’ era, and so many artists who came to light in the early 2000s have really found their voice. Some of the artists I’ve been watching over the years are Joshua Davis (Joshuadavis.com), Scott Hansen (iso50.com), Chuck Anderson (Nopattern.com), Fatoe (Fatoe.com), Jemma Hostetler (Prate.com), Mike Cina (Trueistrue.com), Mike Young (Designgraphik.com), Sheppard Fairey (Obeygiant.com) and the comic book artist Darwyn Cooke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwyn_Cooke).

James

Absolutely. I am always interested in potential commission or collaboration work, and I’d love to work with any of the musicians or artists I listed above. My full contact information can be found on my website, Signalnoise.com.

James

Keep the pedal to the metal. Never stop trying new things and exploring different avenues and mediums. You will never know your full potential if you set boundaries for yourself so keep looking forward and plan how to evolve your work. Also, there are riches to be found in the past. A little bit of online art history research is a wonderful way to generate new ideas and concepts. If you have an artist who is your hero, find out who influenced them!