The Red Wings go Duck Hunting

The Detroit Red Wings have extended their stellar playoff record to 22 consecutive seasons and I decided that was worth celebrating. Over the weekend I whipped up a little image that played on the fact the Wings will be facing the Ducks. I took a screen from the classic game “Duck Hunt” and dressed the dog up in Red Wings gear. It was great to create something just for fun. It seems too often I get caught up in work or freelance projects and forget to just make things for myself. Good luck, Red Wings!

red-wings-duck-hunt

Bonus: Can you spot the Easter egg?

Quick Review: NameChanger

NameChanger Screen ShotI’ve been using a great app called NameChanger for years now. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve saved by renaming files with its smart replace, append, prepend and series functions. The app is so simple and such a staple to my work flow, I often forget it’s not part of OS X. On that note, if you’re listening, Apple, buy this and make it so.

NameChanger Sequence Screen ShotBasically NameChanger lets you take files from the Finder and batch rename them with ease. There are options to replace first or last occurrences, all occurrences, prepend or append text and even remove characters. All this with just a few clicks. What’s even better is you can create a sequence like it’s nothing. Just imported a hundred images of a recent trip from your camera? Want them to be named my-trip-01.jpg and so on? Drag them to NameChanger and sequence and in a few clicks it will take care of the rest. Bam. Easy. Done.

It’s a really powerful little piece of software that will save you tons of time and increase productivity. The best part? It’s free. I do recommend throwing a few bucks their way via PayPal if you really enjoy it, which I’m sure you will.

BNs for Bruce

Jones-BN-Swatch-FinalOne of my graphic design professors is retiring. After 39 years (not a shabby run), Bruce Naftel is “Beginning New.” Last week we celebrated with a “Big Night” retirement party. Obviously, the theme was Bruce’s initials B and N. Bruce’s former students (including myself), some colleagues and friends all came together to create a special project for Bruce. We each created a composition using the letters B and N. Here a few I came up with.

My paint composition has a particularly special meaning. My first class with Bruce during my very first semester in the graphic design program was “Color for Graphic Design.” During the class we studied color theory. To do so, we often painted little swatches by hand. This particular composition was an ode to those little swatches we painstakingly painted. My version for this project was much less than perfect like we were expected to make back in school. I figured it’d read better as “paint” this way. I’m sure Bruce would have NEVER accepted something like that in real life, but that kind of made it more fun to make.

bns-combined

The last two were just fun explorations. They’re reminiscent of my early typography classes when we’d crop in on type. There’s no deep meaning to them but they were still fun to make.

It was very nice to be a part of Bruce’s retirement. He was a huge part of my design education, and it was great working on one last project for him. It was even better not getting graded this time. 😛

Happy Foursquare Day!

Foursquare Day Badge 2013

If you haven’t already checked-in today, what are you waiting for? It’s Foursquare Day and time to unlock a badge. Foursquare Day is a great time to spread the love by adding a few quality tips, creating a list or even getting a friend to try it out. A while back I wrote a getting started guide to Foursquare, that for the most part should still be relevant to newbies.

There are Foursquare events and meetups all over the world today. If you can, try to check one out. I’ll be swinging by for a Bell’s Brewery tour later tonight if you’re in the Kalamazoo area. Be sure to check out all the other great Social Media Week events happening around town too.

Making Friends on the Disc Golf Course

I’ve been very lucky in my relatively short time disc golfing. I always seem to find someone willing to shoot a round with me. Recently, I had the day off work, the sun was shiny brightly and all of my discing buddies were unavailable. I didn’t want to let a perfectly good spring day go to waste, so I decided it was time for my first solo round.

I grabbed my bag and headed over to an easy-but-fun local course. It was, as expected, moderately busy on this beautiful day. I walked up the first tee about the same time as an older gentleman. Still needing to stretch a little, I offered to let him shoot first. He inquired if I was playing alone, and if so, if I’d like to join him. I’m usually a pretty reserved, some might say shy person, but he seemed friendly enough so I replied, “sure, why not.”

My first solo round turned into my first round with a random stranger. It ended up being great. I had a solid round with many great shots (including with my rediscovered 2011 Ace Race disc and my brand new Prodigy D4). My round buddy for the day, Tom, turned out to be a really nice fellow. He wasn’t a super star disc golfer, but not a newbie either. We talked about our disc buying obsession, and how to best hide your new discs from your wife. He gave me a few tips he had picked up on throwing styles, and I shared some of my acquired knowledge. The round seemed to go by so quickly, I barely had time to over-think my shots. I’m not sure if it was the casual conversation or the lack of competitiveness (which is often present with my regular buddies), but it was one of my best rounds recently.

I set out to have a simple round by myself, but ended up having an even better round with someone I just met. I had a great time, Tom, and hope to see you on the course again soon. Meeting new people is a little out of my comfort zone, but this experience makes me want to give it a try again. I encourage every disc golfer to take a chance and play with someone new. Even if it doesn’t end in a new friend, at least you got to play disc golf.

Kalamazoo Social Media Week

Next week will be the annual Kalamazoo Social Media Week with a variety of events designed to promote social media and local businesses. It also happens to be Foursquare Day (4/16) on Tuesday. Be sure to check out the all of the events and details at www.kzoosmweek.com, and stop on by if you can. I hope to see you there!

It’s Spring and time to Fling [Discs]

Number sixteen basket at Air Zoo Disc Golf Course.The blogging has taken a back seat the last couple weeks because we are finally emerging from another long, cold and dreary Michigan winter. I’m happy to report the season of snow discing is over. It’s now time for good old fashioned, warm-weather disc golf, and I couldn’t be happier. I haven’t forgotten about you, blog, and I promise I’ll return to normally posting soon.