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: "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].

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: "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"

Card: "Bake On" [Birthday]

Who: My friend's birthday is coming up and she has a likening for bacon products. She's laughed at bacon novelties such as band aid branded bacon or bacon floss.

What: Bacon. You see it right.
Why: The tagline is "Get your bake on." because the gift I'm giving is a cupcake pan and book. We got those designer cupcakes in which they cost much and so learning how to bake em will save money. Ya dig.

Card: "03172009" [Birthday]

Who: It was my friend's birthday from high school [who's my girlfriend's closest friend]. She is having a dinner tomorrow night and we are all having dinner and this is the card that will accompany her gift.

What: Simple design using numerical type for her birthday "03 17 2009" Colored background to add some color

Why: Text is added just to make sure it's crystal clear--"march seventeen two thousand nine". Inside it reads "happy birthday hazel"

Card: Birthday [Angela's 24th]

Who: Friend from USF who just turned 24
What: Watched the documentary Helvetica and got inspired to not use the font Helvetica. Instead I used Orator Std in different font sizes.
Why: Her name is Angela, so I thought I'd go with the obvious and make something with angels. Instead of drawing one which I was about to, I thought I'd use the usual greeting to make one. Inside, using the same font and color of "Happy Birthday" it reads "HAPPYTWENTYFOURTHBIRTHDAYANGELA" running vertically on the right side of card. This way, I'd have maximum space writing a message.