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!