I was fortunate enough to be asked to work as a beta tester for the newest product from EllisLab called MojoMotor! The product just launched, so I wanted to give a few thoughts on this cool new web development package.

What is MojoMotor?
MojoMotor is a web publishing engine that, in my opinion, bridges the gap between a tightly hand-coded web site and a template-based CMS that’s easy for a non-programmer to update. It has a back-end interface that sits “on top” of your website so, when logged in, you can basically just type directly onto your web page and save the changes. This is particularly appealing from a designer’s standpoint because you don’t have to have a lot of web knowledge to update the content which fits the needs of a lot of clients out there. You could set up the site and hand it off pretty easily. That’s not to say that, as a programmer, you give up control. You can still edit the html/css files and can have full html source editing on every page for more exact tweaking. Here’s a link to their overview for more information.
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I submitted a couple of pieces to the Hott Sheet show at the Wonder Fair gallery here in Lawrence. I don’t show much of my “art” all that often, so I thought I’d post what I submitted to the show. The show’s opening sounds like it’s going to be a big party, so if you’re looking for something to do on Friday, you should definitely stop by!

Hott Sheets Art Exhibition
When: Friday, June 25, 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Where: Wonder Fair: Art Gallery, Shoppe and Studio, Lawrence

I’ve been thinking about starting a series of flat, graphic African masks since I really love working with the shapes, colors and emotion. This piece is an initial exploration of this concept, painted in acrylics.

This piece is based on the nursery rhyme:
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

There are some very colorful explanations of what this nursery rhyme means, so I thought I’d work that into the piece as well! I also wanted to work on some drawn type, so this seemed like a great place to experiment with that.

With so many cool new web technologies available, it’s hard to figure out what’s best to use, what’s not worth using and what tools best suit certain needs. I’ve been a little sporadic in my blog focus, mostly because I haven’t been able to find a good way to store both Designojek-related items as well as interesting things that I’ve come across online.

However, I’ve done a little mental restructuring and I think I’m on the right path! I’m going to be using this blog to showcase important design work, studio updates and design-related writing that deals directly with the Designojek end of things. This will definitely remain the primary blog, but I don’t want to distract people with external links if they don’t want them.

In addition to this, I’ve set up a Tumblr site when I can do a little curating and post links to interesting things that I find online, quotes that I think are relevant, and some less important personal photos and design bits that I think you, dear readers, might enjoy! I’m looking at customizing my theme a little, so pardon the dust.

So, the relevant links are:

• Designojek Tumblr: http://designojek.tumblr.com/ and its RSS Feed
• This blog’s RSS feed.
• If you’re interested, you can check out my Delicious Bookmarks or follow me on Twitter or Facebook.

So, what do you think? Too much, too little or just right? Most importantly, I hope to inform people about the work that I do and some of what I think is important happening in the global and local design community. Plus, I love hearing from people and having fun with my work! Thanks for your support!

I just finished up a children’s CD with percussionist Cory Hills titled The Lost Bicycle. The album consists of several fun, original works for percussion and storytelling including The Lost Bicycle, Tikki Tikki Tembo, and The Turnip. For the project, I did all the artwork, layout and photography. For more information on the CD or to order yourself a copy, contact Cory at his website.

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I recently did a poster for the University of Georgia that centered around a musical piece called The Here and Now by Christopher Theofanidis. The work is based on selected poems by the Persian poet Rumi and uses the powerful and mysterious qualities of band and choir. They wanted it to have a decidedly Middle Eastern/Turkish feel to it and so I thought it would be the perfect chance to try doing some hand-drawn calligraphy.

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