Card: "Hoseph" [Birthday]

Front

Inside [click to enlarge]

Who: This card was made for one of my high school buddies Joey.

What: Front reads "HOSEPH" with inside reading "HAPPY HIRTHDAY"

Why: My other friend Lauren would call us with our names but with the first letter replaced with an "H". So for me, "Jay" became "Hayj," for Darryl it became "Harryl" and naturally for "Joey" [aka Jospeph] it became "Hoseph." The greeting inside is changed into the same fashion.

As a bonus, I recorded him reading the card using his best English accent [I wrote my message in very fine and proper English so felt the need to do so aaand has him wearing the unique moustache I include in all my cards].

And now for your enjoyment:

Card: "Chalk You Very Much" [Thank You]

Front

Inside

Who: For my teacher's aid in the CCD program [Saturday morning Catholic education program in which I'm a 7th grade teacher teaching morality]. One of them, Andrea has been with me for 3 years and the other Jem for 2 years.

What: Outside reads "Thank you" written repeatedly. Found a typeface that mimics writing in one of those writing pads when you were a kid and it reads "Detention would suck. Being endlessly thankful isn't."

Why: We don't use chalk/blackboard anymore, but we use dry erase markers on the white boards. Yet, going old school is always cool.

Card: "RN+" [Congratulations]

Who: For my girlfriend's friend who just graduated from University of San Francisco's nursing program. Woo! I'm next!

What: A simple type card with a message within a message. In line with nursing, I made the "R" and "N" from "Congratulations" red. Her name too I replaced "t" with a "+". Caman, please tell me you get it. hahah

Why: White and Red? That has nursing all over it.

Business Cards Ordered

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Business cards ordered to be enclosed in every card to encourage people to visit my website or even drop an email. The design is taken from my banner design with jjasef's main color theme.

On next post I will show what else is included in every card/envelope!

Card: "mymommy" [Mother's Day]

Front

Inside

Who: For the women who have kids and has a holiday to her own on the second Sunday of May.

What: "Mom" repeated 3 times and rotated to create a [colorful] flower. Leaf created with the word "my."

Why: Obviously, it's for Mother's Day but the title "mymommy" ties in with how you would like to interpret it. It can be read as "My Mommy" or "Mommy."

'Stache It Away Please

From now on, stick-on 'staches will be sent in every card and it will be just a fun way to 1) sport a new moustache to give everyone a second look and 2) a way for you [the receiver] to have your pic and your 'stache posted here.

Here's the premise: you receive a card enclosed with one of these bad babies. You peel the backing, place above your precious lips, and take a snapshot. You'll definitely look good so send it to me [jjasef@gmail.com] and it will be posted here on the website.

Now what do you get out of this besides looking totally cool? A FREE greeting card [with postage included] to send to a friend and a chance for her or him to be posted here on the site.

The point of all this as well is to request you to please don't trash these cards made out of love [and cardstock paper and printer ink]. Keep em! So "stache" it away somewhere safe so you can bump into it again later in time and reminince the past.

Card: "Do Not. Wait For Me." [Hello]

Who: For my cousin "Beng" in the Philippines.

What: A clear typographic card reading "I owe you Krispy Kreme donuts and when I have them, we'll have coffee as well." Inside reads "And in between all that will be conversations."

Why: As M.M.'s card, we used to write each other letters when we were younger. My cousin Beng is actually the older than M.M. but we've all kept in touch over the years. She recently wrote me a letter saying that if I do come over to the Philippines, I should being over 1 dozen donuts so we can have a sugar rush. That would be sweet. [Pun intendend].

Card: "Emem" [Hello]

Who: For my cousin M.M. in the Philippines

What: Two oversized M.M.'s fill the cover of the 4x6 card.

Why: Well her nickname is M.M. so it is quite fitting. Before when we were younger, my cousins here and my cousins in the Philippines would send each other letters and it was always exciting to receive a large envelope with letters inside. Because of the digital age, much of that has been lost due to email. While it does make things easier and instant, nothing beats the old fashioned letter/greeting card.

Card: "Remember the Doors?" [Birthday]

Front

Inside

Full Spread [Front/Back]

Who: For my high school friend Maxine.

What: Illustration made and colored in Photoshop with Wacom Intuos 3 tablet. Card depicts double doors when the card is fully spread out. First card by the way that I printed full color on the front and back of card.

Why: In high school, I believe in our Junior or Senior year, Maxine and I were trying to go through the double doors in the 2nd floor. Surprisingly, we couldn't open the door and I exclaimed it was locked. She too tried opening it and couldn't. We figured this was odd enough so we remained stubborn and leaned our weight onto the doors and finally it opened. I'd agree that we probably looked like weaklings. Doors too signify new opportunities so however she'd like to interpret this, by all means do so. Nevertheless, Happy [Belated] Birthday! [April 30th].

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

I recieved my custom wax stamp today from Old School Seals. It took me awhile to find a custom wax stamp company [online] but glad to come across this company based in Washington. Their service was great for the fact that they sent me a rendering of my seal in which I approved about 3 days after they received my custom order. About a week after, the final product came arrived at my doorstep.

Detailed shot of the custom seal's stamp imprint on the box containing the seal.

I'm sure you've seen unboxing pictures of hi-tech products. For something lo-tech, the product packaging is simple, elegent, and I'm pretty sure used with recycled materials. The seal itself has an aluminum handle which I've chosen over the wooden one. You can also unscrew the head and use different seals in the future [another reason why I chose the aluminum one].

The stamp's diameter is 0.75" round and they do offer larger diameters and even an orthodox rectangle/square custom seals.

Bringing it back to the old school days thanks to Old School Seals.

Wouldn't be complete without the wax and had to complete the look with the colors of jjasef. This here is Grass Green faux sealing wax to be used with an ordinary craft glue gun.

With the purple envelopes and now the green official stamp of jjasef, I think my packaging is sealed.

Stay tuned for my next update on how I will brand jjasef with a little creative marketing to include recipients on this blog. =)

P.S.
If you've stumbled across this and feel that you're not on my birthday/holiday address book, feel free to email me your address and I'll send you a card! Email: jjasef[at]gmail[dot]com

SFgate.com Horoscope Reading [Libra] 04/29

Good thing my girlfriend pointed this to me since I actually willingly passed today's reading on Google Reader. It reads:

"Little things--like thank-you cards and notes--matter. Others may [make] fun of your Miss Manners approach, but little touches forge lasting alliances."

=)

Card: "Dance Like Me" [Birthday]

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Who: For my friend Lauren who's part of the girl group opposite of the SI6 [the guys in high school in which we're known as. Yea, the group whom I've hung out with has a name. Ok, get over it].

What: Lauren does this very unique dance and this illustration shows only the upper half. I forgot to add actually that it requires you to stick out your ass and walk forward while doing the mentioned illustration/instructions. This illustration by the way is really me. I bought new suspenders today and they're navy blue with orange/red dots. This card is printed by the way horizontally. So the second picture posted is when it's unfolded and there in its space is where my message will be.

Why: Because it's funny. And I'm not there to show her this dance live and say happy birthday!

Card: "Initial Edit" [Birthday]

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Who: For my friend AJ who's home page is here, but you can watch his videos on vimeo right here, as well as his video reel here, and if you've watched the movie Lumpia, he's affiliated with my other friend Pat.

What: Using my Wacom tablet, I hand wrote his card and made the graph paper as the background in Photoshop. I probably came across his name in non-initial form and if I did, I forgot.

Why: AJ is a film editor. Here's my initial edit. Get it? ... ok..ok bye.

Card: "Matt Lai" [Birthday]

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Who: Read the card.

What: Simplicity: First name on front, Last name inside. Letters set to 50% opacity with colors overlapping to create more color than expected.

Why: Everyone knows Matt Lai. He's one of the boys from my "SI6" group [as Eli and Darryl are] in high school. Plus, everyone who does know him usually [almost all the time] refer to him with his full name at least once in the day. We never knew why.

Card: "Never Short" [Birthday]

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Who: For my friend Darryl [one of the "SI 6" boys that I grew up with in high school and still keep in touch with today].


What: Front of card are underscores representing the heights of of all the guys in our group. The shortest happens to be the birthday boy [today], Darrly.

Why: He's the shortest. And this is most fitting. haha ok.. Besides that, the inside reads "you are never short of how bright you shine like the sun." I get my poetic sarcasm from him because he truly is the master of it. He's also got a degree in poetic randomology in which I learned from him as well. So this card is to you Dar, Happy Birthday bro!

Card: "Arm's Still Swinging" [Birthday]

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Who: For my friend Alyssa whom I met as a Freshman semester II in nursing school.

What: A robot that I hand drawn and colored in Photoshop. Inside of the card reads "whirr. clink. whirr. che. [arm] swing, swing. happy birthday."

Why: During that semester she unfortunately tore her ACL [I believe that's what happened] and had to wear a metal brace for awhile. I decided to capitalize and so I started doing the robot dance whenever she'd come to class and ultimately did the hanging arm part of the dance. She probably hated me then and possibly to this day because that memory is everlasting.

Card: "Happy Easter!" [Holiday]

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Who: For my family for this Easter Sunday.

What: Falling Easter Egg revealing greeting inside.

Why: Holidays too are now a calling for me to make/design cards. I haven't given anything to anyone for Easter [I do miss those days when my mom would hide the plastic eggs but it was best when it contained bills!] but this time around I will give cards to the fam.

Card: "Baby Chick Nurse" [Congratulations]

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Who: This card is for my girlfriend who recently started her shift officially as an ER Nurse.

What: Hand-drawn illustration of a baby chick outfitted as a nurse. Illustration drawn with Wacom Intuos 3 tablet and colorized as well in Photoshop CS4. The model I used is an actual baby chick toy--the type that would float on water and used during baths.

Why: It's cute. [Right?] And I got this toy [for her] but never got the chance to give it... was waiting for the "right" moment and I think this time is suitable.

[Inside of card, text "this baby is already growing up. congratulations!" printed on the bottom right hand corner for maximum space to write message.]

Links

This will be the place for any good links to products I personally use/want to use. Also, I will post anything I find interesting/inspiring here.

If you'd like to even just plug-in your website/blog email me the link at jjasef@gmail.com

-
jjasef

Card: "Perillo's Kiss" [Hello]

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Who: For a previous client whom I provided photography coverage of their wedding anniversary in November 2008.

What: This is the photo of when they kissed right when the priest said "You may now kiss the bride." The image was processed in Adobe Lightroom to achieve its saturated pop effect. Will be printed as a 5x7 card and will open vertically to reveal message.

Why: After going to de Young Museum [SF], I flipped through a few books on the works of Andy Warhol and thought about that when creating this card. It will be sent to them to just say hi and hope all is well. [I taught two of their kids as well in the Saturday CCD Catholic school program so I can also give a quick shout out to em too!]

Card: "E in JEAN" [Birthday]

Who: For one of boys from SI [St. Ignatius College Prep] whom I've been friends with since day 1 freshman year. Birthday is April 2.

What: Simple text reading "Here's to JEAN Productions" and inside "And you eli. Happy Birthday."
Why: Sophomore year in SI, I created a "production media crew" to cover these teen club parties my friend was starting. The name of that crew is JEAN Productions. J stood for me, Jasef [aka JJ], E for Eli, A for Apol, and N for Nate.

Well the group last I'd say til junior-senior year. The funny thing was that I needed an "E" for the name "JEAN" to mean something--I did photography, Apol did video, and Nate did video/graphic design. So for Eli, I tried getting him into web design but that never caught on.

Eli, you'll always be part of JEAN because we needed you for sure. Albeit just for the name. haha Happy birthday.

You'll receive this in mail!

Card: "Cup(Birthday)Cake" [Birthday]

Who: For my friend's birthday [yesterday] in which she mentioned that she'd be a good cupcake baker for some reason when we talked over coffee this past Monday.

What: Along with a cupcake baking kit [giant cupcake pan, paper cupcake holders, and book], this is the card that will be accompanying her gifts. The cupcake design is hand drawn and painted in Photoshop.



Why: When talking on that Monday, I mentioned how it would be cool to have a potluck with our grammar school friends. I'm just trying to tell her straight up to share the wealth once she gets good baking em.

Product: "Bake On"

The bacon graphic was designed in Photoshop using heavily stroked lines. I failed effortlessly trying to hand draw it with my tablet.
Front of the card with full bacon graphic.
Inside reads "Get your bake on." Full explanation can be read on "Bake On"'s original post here.

"Bake On".

Product: "03172009"

Here's a card that I printed full bleed in which I rarely do. But this looked especially good with the light teal/blue card.
"03172009" original design posted blogged about here.


"03172009"