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Portfolio Update: December 2010

Herbie Hysteria — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 21:20:02 +0000

Salaam, shalom and ‘Wasapnin?’.
I’ve just added some stuff to the portfolio which has been recently completed this month and last. I thought I’d do the December update early before the holidays started. Other projects I’m currently working on will be up soon too – some interesting and varied things going on!

Graphic Design

A few logo concepts have been worked on for a couple of larger projects. Logos – forever the starting point of massive organisations. You’ll hear more about them in due time. Meanwhile, I’ve added five new original logos I have designed and used this month.

Logo design for PAST Parents Group

Logo design for Heavenly Perfumes.

Design and Print

Getting a full cafe/takeaway menu onto two sides of A5 isn’t easy, but I’ve had to do it three times this month, of which two are included in this update. A couple of great poster jobs got dealt with too, amongst varied other stuff.

A5 Menu for Spice Of Asia

Signs and Vinyls

I also completed a digitally-printed UV sign for Madni Channel, the Islamic TV Channel on SKY 838 (tune in!). A new Islamic bookshop funded by them opened locally. The sign-board was designed, printed and installed in November. Also, a banner for a school-fayre kept me busy.

UV Design and Print Sign for 'Madina Bookshop'

Custom Requests

One custom request was a set of ID cards for a school parents’ group. These came out great and the ladies loved ‘em. Other stuff included a family portrait printed and laminated to A1 size.

People and Places

I met a brother who is the owner of a new busines called Heavenly Perfumes. Heavenly Perfumes, a new retailer based in my hometown approached me for logo and poster design. The job was completed on time, within budget and the results were definately the design-highlight of the month!

A very clever poster-design concept to bring the name ‘Heavenly’ into some associated imagery. However, you’re going to have to go to my Facebook page to see it because I have included it in the portfolio there under ‘Graphic Design’ and ‘Design and Print’. Also, more design-work for the ever-presents such as Stylz Hairdressing!

Site Tweaks

Beyond this, you will have noticed a few subtle changes around the site. I’m a tweaker, I just can’t help it and a major addition has been a little widget in the right-sidebar called ‘Latest Thoughts’. Think of it as a ‘status update’, it’s just somewhere I can quickly add my thoughts at a particular time, usually updated daily!

Also, you’ll notice some changes to the header links up ^^ there! I’ve added the ‘Latest Articles’ in chronological order as ‘The Blog’. Yes, ‘The Shop’ is there too and I’ve started incorporating it (nothing exciting to be viewed just yet) into the site, so hang on to your hats.

Anyways, view the complete additions to the portfolio here. The snowfall this month has left me and my homies quite numb, so I’m off to sit on a radiator(!) Don’t forget to leave your feedback!

Anyways, it’s been a good year, 2011 better be ready for me. To you and your family, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May God bless you all.

Other Infamous People Called ‘Herbie’

Herbie Hysteria — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 01:07:48 +0000

Yeah, I thought I’d write a post about all the other infamous people called Herbie. Even though it’s been my nickname since school, I’ve still not yet met another ‘Herbie’ in real life. I really don’t know what it feels like to have a common name. Even my real name is so unique I’ve never met another one in my life. I mean, all you people out there with popular names like ‘John’, what does it feel like when you meet another ‘John’?? I’ve never really thought about it that much but I suppose you get used to it, in the end. Well you’d have to wouldn’t ya?

1. Herbie the VW Beetle

The 'Love Bug'

The title of this post says ‘..Infamous People..’ but the most infamous isn’t even a person! Herbie was the self-driving and self-conscious VW Beetle racing car starring in such adventures as ‘Herbie Rides Again’ (1974) and ‘Herbie Goes Bananas’ (1980). I think a reason why the films and character was so popular back in the ’70s and ’80s was because so many people owned VW Beetles back then ad they could relate (well, VW did manufacture a whole shitload of ‘em).

Whilst I’m here, I must add the 2005 remake ‘Herbie: Fully Loaded’ starring Lindsay Lohan was a disaster. The ‘magic’ of the old movies just wasn’t there anymore. They should have just left the franchise alone. It’s kinda like Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, it was pure overkill and the story should have ended with Terminator 2: Judgement Day – possibly still, in my opinion, the best sequel EVER made.

2. Herbie Hancock

The 'Jazz Daddy'

Regarded as one of the all time greatest living jazz musicians, Herbie Hancock revolutionised the jazz music scene by blending it with other genres such as pop and funk. He is, in my opinion, the ‘Jazz Daddy’ and has been going strong since the ’60s. I appreciate original music myself, and the way Herbie ‘broke the rule book’ by giving access to jazz to a wider audience deserves respect. Anybody creating something new instead of following the masses gets my vote. ‘Creativity’ should be a religion(!)

Maybe I was born in the wrong decade, both the above ‘Herbies’ excelled and ‘kicked ass’ in the 70s and 80s (although Hancock is still performing to this day).

3. Herbie Hyde

Herbie Hide 'kicks ass' again

Coming in at number three is Nigerian born British heavyweight boxer nicknamed ‘The Dancing Destroyer’. I’m not really a boxing fan but have always wondered why, just for the hell of it, they don’t make a skinny featherweight boxer go a few rounds with the ‘heavies’, such as Hide. Hmm, I wonder. Measuring 6′ 2″ and over 200lbs in weight, there’s bigger beasts out there, but that still didn’t stop Herbie winning the WBO World Heavyweight Championship twice in the ’90s (1994 and 1997). Well done, Herbs!

4. Herbie Frogg Menswear

For the discerning gentleman

On Jermyn Street in London’s West End are not one, but two, Herbie Frogg tailored menswear shops. They say ‘Gentlemen Prefer Herbie Frogg’, so I doubt you’ll find your average ‘Burberry wearing chav-the-lad’ shopping there. You could think it was named after a person or founding father, but the name is just the name of the business. They offer sophisticated and tailored formal wear for men such as tailored suits and overcoats, and have been around since 1967. The kinda stuff you see stockbrokers and ‘big biz’ city bankers wearing. My old ‘wedding suit’ is getting a bit tatty now, maybe a visit is in order(!)

5. 3T feat Herbie – ‘Gotta Be You’ (1996)

Herbie in the video

Who remembers 3T? Michael Jackson’s three nephews (albeit not as talented as the late King of Pop) who briefly did well in the charts in the late ’90s. Not really my cup of tea, but I gotta admit back then I did ‘dig’ one of their songs (I’m not gonna tell you which one, I do have a rep to maintain you know). Anyway, ‘Gotta Be You’ was an RnB joint that reached number 10 in the UK. It featured a verse and some uncontrollably ‘dodgy-sounding shouts’ from a rapper called Herbie. I think this was rapper Herbie’s ‘claim to fame’ because I’ve never heard of him since. Oh well, Herbs, carry on rappin’(!)

That’s it for now, I’ll keep on coming back here to add more Herbies worthy of being included in this post. Also, any Herbies reading this post, I would love to hear from ya!

Ciao for now,
Herbie Hysteria

Your Comments and Feedback

Do you know any other worthy ‘Herbies’ who you think should be added to this post? What do you think? I’d love all your feedback and responses to this list. Your comments are much appreciated.

Out With The Old, In With The New

Herbie Hysteria — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:06:21 +0000

Design

The old www.artbyherbie.com website was a simpler affair than this one. Back in early 2008, I registered the domain name because I wanted to showcase my wall art. I was becoming renowned as a ‘shit hot’ wall artist around my neighbourhood and felt a web presence was mandatory. I was already a confident web designer and I started jotting ideas down for the site.

As a creative designer, I wanted something unique and eye-catching whilst allowing the user minimal input (clicks, scrolling blah blah blah) so that they could view my portfolio with ease. The old site is still ‘live’, albeit on a sub-directory of my domain and you can see it here. I stopped updating it around September 2009, when I started developing www.artbyherbie.com V2.0, using WordPress. Click the picture below to see the old site.

Layout – Inline Frames

I used to rely heavily on DreamWeaver as my HTML editor. I would create full websites and then publish them through DW’s onboard publisher, or FTP. Back then before I delved into the world of php and content management systems, it was simply a case of laying out my pages in my graphics software, and then transferring the images and layout using div tags and inline frames. Aesthetics and graphics always looked great, but functionality and user interaction was limited. I opted for a single index page, within which there would be FOUR inline frames. I chose this idea because it meant my users wouldn’t have to navigate different pages. Instead, the content area of the various inline frames would change.

The layout I decided on was a bit ‘unorthodox’, but hey, creative design is exactly what I’m about, right? I created a 900px by 150px image of a wall with the ABH logo, with abstract sillouettes of a graffiti artist and his equipment. I decided to use this as the footer graphic, with all my content and navigation above it. This eliminated any user scrolling. Yeah I know, I’m a genius.

Page Content

This was a static site, not at all dynamic and interactive like the new one. All my various pages content would show in the far-right inline frame. Only this area of the screen would change depending on which navigation button was clicked. I had to save each page as a seperate HTML file, and then link all the pages to the inline frame.

Thumbnails

I created thumbnails of each and every image to be used in my portfolio. These thumbnails were aligned in a list format on a separate HTML file and then called from the inline frame which displays the thumbnails. I had to make sure the scrolling element of this frame was active because I wanted all the thumbnails to be available by scrolling down, as only three or four would be visible in the space. When clicked, the left inline frame would show the same corresponding bigger image. This was laborious as I had to create two sized images for each portfolio photo, and my dimensions were strict so that everything would fit in the allocated space.

Old versus New

I had been reading about content management systems such as WordPress around the time I was developing the old site. Deep down, in my heart of hearts, I knew this was the way to go in regards to new technology and Web 2.0. However, my wordpress skills at this time were basic and php was new to me. I opted to go with what I knew and went ahead and created the site in DreamWeaver. Updating meant adding new photos and content, as and when needed.

It’s been four months since I dove head first into the new site, this one you’re on right now. To say the least, the learning curve has been steep! WordPress, xhtml, php, template files and the blogging world in general was new to me. However, I am so glad now that this site is shaping into the creature I so much want it to. The benefits are HUGE. Users are able to post comments and links to me and I have a lot more functionality and features. There’s so many advantages such as better SEO and exposure on the web.With plugins attached, anything is possible. For me, this was a HUGE step forward from ststic websites. I say to anyone looking at WordPress or any other CMS as a replacement to your old web development methods – ‘What the hell have you been waiting for?’

Herbie Hysteria

The ‘Lost Coursework’

Herbie Hysteria — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:01:00 +0000

OK, so you should be at a point where you know what the ‘Lost Coursework’ is, and how it’s related to Herbie. For those of us who are thick and have a memory worse than a sieve, I’ll give you a recap: ‘The Lost Coursework’ was one of the fundamental discoveries of my life which made me re-evaluate my life and career.

School Days

I’m in my late twenties now, I left school at 16, like everyone else. You see, I was a bit of an ‘all-rounder’ at school. I was always ‘kickin up dust’ with the homies (some which are still close all these years on), flexing with the females, whilst at the same time balancing it all off with always performing well in my studies. I was one of them ‘naturally clever’ little screamers who would get great marks with minimal effort. I just had ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ was. This was also true for Art. I had a knack for drawing, sketching, painting, caricatures blah blah blah. My Art teachers loved me. I was simply good at everything. I was always in the top ‘sets’ or ‘classes’ for all subjects and kicked everyone’s asses at everything. I was even selected to play for the school football team, even though I didn’t even put any effort in the trials.

What the fuck is ‘The Lost Coursework’?

‘You could have got all A grades if you tried harder’, my headteacher put it, as he passed me my exam results, which were a mixture of As, Bs and Cs. Yeah, I passed ‘em all but my teachers expected me to do EVEN better. I got a grade A for my ‘GCSE Design and Technology – Graphics Design’ subject. I was chuffed to bits. The final submitted work consisted of 50% practical (physically building and creating stuff) and 50% coursework (30 sheets of A3 detailing the project report, completed over 9 months). This was back in 1998, and my teacher Mr. Chel (are you still alive? if so, get in touch!) returned my work to me after it had adorned the ‘Exhibition Hall’s’ walls at my school. It had been shown off as a masterpiece. (My first ‘gallery exhibition’ I might think).

GCSE Graphic Design – The Teach’

My graphics teacher back then, Usman Chel, or ‘Mr. Chel / Sir’ as we HAD to refer to him, was a jekyl and hyde kinda character with over-sized brown-tinted glasses frames that covered half his face which made him look like an astronaut in space. Mid-30s and I’m sure he was Indian, although we never really found out. He was a good teacher, but a shit graphic artist(!) Young family man taking on his teaching career. I gotta be thankful though, because I got a good grade with him but he didn’t half get the piss taken out of him about his knackered banged-out coughing spluttering little red peugeut car he used to bounce about in. This so-happened to have the last three letters in it’s reg-plate as ‘P A D’, which sounded like the word ‘fart’ in punjabi and so which was, obviously, used against the poor fella by the classes more notorious male members.

The Brief – ‘Occasions’ Catering Company

Everybody got allocated a different business industry and I got ‘Catering’. Hmm, not very exciting, but I had to ‘make’ it exciting. Choosing a name was easy, it seemed, I thought of ‘Occasions’ because caterers are used on such events. The brief was to design the corporate identity, branding, marketing material and show it in action. The research, design and development would all be documented in a 30-page A3-size report, which was to be submitted as the coursework.

For the practical part (50%), I had to build a replica of a company vehicle, the famous Ford Transit Van, which was to be built out of ‘styrofoam’, a cushiony kinda material which Chel just loved, for some unknown reason. Below is the coursework, all 30 sheets. Theyr’e a bit tatty and a bit rough around the edges, but this is the testament to my skill, aged 15 and a bit(!)

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