This Blog Has Moved

That's right. This blog has moved to its new location: www.joshcleland.com. There won't be any more updates here. Go to my new blog. Go, now! That's where all the cool people are.

Moving Day!!

Today I launch my redesigned website: www.clelandillustration.com! With it comes a new WordPress blog. It's time to say goodbye to Blogger.com. Blogger has been very good to me over the last couple of years, but it's time to move on to a more advanced blogging system, such as WordPress.

What do I do if I'm subscribing to this blog?!!!!
Don't worry. Tomorrow (Saturday, July 25, 2009) I will be transferring the feeds to my new blog, so hopefully you won't have to do anything. The feed should automatically transfer. If you are still worried, simply unsubscribe to this blog, and subscribe to the new blog after tomorrow. We'll get through this together if we stay together. I have faith in you.

Preview my new website!!

Hello, everyone. I've been hard at work developing my new website and blog. You can get a sneak peak at www.clelandillustration.com/test. There you can visit my new WordPress blog as well. I know what you're thinking: "But Josh, I'm subscribed to this blog. What do I do when you move???" Settle down. When the time comes I will provide with a 34-step instruction list that must be followed EXACTLY! Until then, sit back and relax. Worry about something less severe, like the economy.

UPDATE 7/25/09: My website is now updated and can be viewed at www.clelandillustration.com.

I'm also interested in your constructive feedback. This is your chance to tear me down (but please do it constructively). Comments welcome are:

"Love the site, but this is confusing to me…",

or

"The navigation is hard, and this is why."

Comments NOT welcome are:

"It looks weird on my browser. I'm using Internet Explorer 6.0".

Simply leave your comments on this post, or email me at Josh@clelandillustration.com. I thank you in advance.

New website development updates

I've been pretty silent lately when it comes to updating this blog. Mainly because I've been hard at work redesigning my website (initially posted about it here). I wanted to post a quick update to my progress. It's coming along great. I'm very excited about this new look and functionality, and I'm thrilled that I'll be completely dumping Flash!! Also in the works is an iPhone-friendly version.

Here are some tease shots. Hopefully I'll be able to post a link to the complete "beta" site version sometime next week.

I will also be redesigning this blog. This presents some dilemmas. I get a lot of compliments on my current design, which I like. However, I need to have my blog fit the identity of the new site. So, I'll have to work that out. I'm also debating switching the blog over to Wordpress, although figuring out how to transfer all the feed info and stuff sounds like a headache. We'll see. I'll also have to figure out how to design a custom blog with WP (something I need to know anyways).

So, stay tuned. As always you can keep up with the blog by subscribing via RSS, or signing up to receive updates via email. How fun is that!

New website coming!!

Yes, that's right, a new portfolio website. I'm in the very beginning stages right now, and I plan on taking my time to make sure the concept is fully discovered and development is top notch. So, currently I'm only working with pencil on paper (and occasionally the scanner and Photoshop to resize/place images). I found some great website sketch comps at www.960.gs.

Below are initial sketches in my discovery process. I haven't nailed down a look quite yet, but the one I'm developing here looks quite promising. There's going to be much greater emphasis on call to action, and highlighting/showcasing my capabilities. I hope to have progress updates here in the near future. This is going to be fun!

Get Your May Desktop Calendar

Yesterday, April 30th, I was featured in Smashing Magazine (along with many other talented illustrators/designers). Each month they hold an open call to submit desktop wallpaper calendars. At the last minute I thought I'd submit one for May. And I made it in!

Click here to visit Smashing Magazine's website where you can download one of these great desktop wallpapers yourself. My treat.

Promo workings and New Year

Hello, all. With this new year I am making the move to full-time freelance. It's a pretty scary move, but the right one. I am taking this opportunity to focus my marketing on gaining more professional illustration accounts (most of my clients are design-related). Below is a sketch of a promo-postcard that I will be sending out in February. It's going to be fun.

Blessing in disguise?

I drew this quick sketch the other day while watching the news and hearing about all the hardships people across the country are facing this Christmas season. For many people it's going to be a hard one. People are forced to scale back their holiday buying and gift giving. The ironic thing is, for me, the economic collapse is really causing me to focus more on why I celebrate this holiday. It's not about buying, or getting the best, most expensive gifts. I remember hearing my grandma tell me how joyful it was to receive an orange in her stocking on Christmas morning, and I hear the same types of stories from my wife's grandpa. Just something to think about.

If you want to know why I celebrate this season just ask (or watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas". It's on tomorrow night at 8pm!! Yay!!)

New Online Store

Hello, again. I've been trying out different methods of creating an online store, and I have another one here. I've created a store at Zazzle.com. I think it has a much better interface than CafePress, and there are much better customizable options for products and store appearance. Plus, there's no upfront costs on my part, which is a big plus.

Below is a preview of Christmas cards that I've created for you to buy. You know you want to. You can access this awesome store here.


buy unique gifts at Zazzle

FBC Site Launch

FBCbeaverton.org is now launched! There's still a lot of things we want to do with the site, but it's now officially out in the public.

New blog look… Again!

Well, I did it again. I got bored and refreshed the design of my blog… again. I just couldn't help it. Hopefully this one will last for more than 3 months. Who knows. I may be playing around with the illustration in the next couple of days so it may change here and there.

The black background really doesn't work well with large amounts of type, so if I decide to start typing more in my blog posts I need something that's easier on the eyes.


Edit: At the last minute I decided to submit it to this week's Illustration Friday. Topic: Island… because, he's kind of on an island, I guess.

It's launched!!

Hello, everyone. I wanted to announce that my site redesign has been launched. Yay!! I'm going to have an online launch party sometime in the near future. Okay, the party has begun… woohooo! everybody dance now!! Who let the designers out… woof, woof, woof, woof.

Okay, party's over. Everybody out.

Oh, of course you can get to my site by clicking the "Portfolio" button on top. Or just click here.

New portfolio site coming

I'm in the process of redesigning my portfolio site. Why am I redesigning it, you ask… because I feel like it, that's why. I can do what I want. Stop pestering me!

Anyways, the reason is I'm sick of the black and brown background. Too dark and depressing. It's time for something fresh and summery! Plus, my current site buries my work with many clicks (two at least--that's two too many). When one goes to my newly-designed site BAM!! they go directly to my illustration portfolio--no clicking needed. If they want to go to my graphic design section it's only one click away. How awesome is that!!

I still have work to do. I have to optimize many of the images for the new white background. And, I'm adding captions to the work so I'll be working on that as well.

You can preview this new "beta" site here.

New look

Hey, everyone. I wanted to get the word out that I'm sporting a new look.


(update: I thought I'd upload a pic in case you're reading this using an RSS reader.)

Rayna's New Portfolio Website

Hey, everyone! I wanted to announce the launch of my wife's portfolio website: www.clelanddesign.com! She graduated this past week with her associates in Graphic Design, and is now out on the job hunt. Congrats to her!

New Website: MTI Studios

This past week I launched the re-designed website for my work: www.mtistudios.net. I'm pretty happy with it. The goal was to make it much cleaner, streamlined, and easy to update. We also wanted to make it very functional--there are music demos that we wanted to play seamlessly when clicked on. The old website didn't do that at all. All the designing, coding, and building was done by ME. I don't fancy myself as a "coder" so Dreamweaver helped out big time. Content development was, of course, done by my bosses and coworkers.

Our New Baby!!

Well, my wife, Rayna, and I have an announcement to make: We are now proud parents of a 24" 2.8ghz iMac! (I'm sorry, Mom and Dad for not telling you first) We plan on holding an iMac shower in the near future--invites are forthcoming. Feel free to be generous on the gifts--new Epson scanners, printers, external HDs, iPods, iPhones are welcome gifts (anything with an Apple logo is great--if it doesn't have an Apple logo I can put one on it--the computer came with two Apple stickers). Even OpenType fonts are a desired. Maybe a new Wacom Tablet?!! Don't be stingy.

Okay, Rayna, you've had your turn on the computer, now it's my turn. C'mon, you've been hogging it all night!! I can see this is going to be a problem. That's it, I'm off to buy another one…