jeffrey + upstairsloft

Here’s one of those videos that creeped me out a long time ago. But I couldn’t stop watching it. Then I forgot about it. Then I had a dream. I wondered what that freaky connection was. And here it is. Portishead’s “All Mine.” Nothing like noir imagery, a creepy looking English girl, grainy quality and ethereal sounds to conjure up a creepy classic by sneaking into my dreams.

Ahhhh. Still so fresh in my mind…

Believe it or not, Kate and I have an ongoing battle with whose shoes is taking up too much space in the apartment. With a tiny one-bedroom in San Francisco, we have to fight for closet space and shoe space. Can’t blame us; we love swaggerin. Kate has her boots, and I have my drivers. I’ve been rockin the loafers and oxfords for a few years and I love them.

But it looks like it’s time for a new pair of brown ones. I’ve outworn ‘em. I don’t mind the scuffs. In fact, I love them, but the they’re almost sole-less. I have 15 other shoes I can easily pop on but these are seriously like my two pairs of Chucks I wore 90% of the time when I was a young little mijo. Oxfords and loafers are my grown-ass man versions of my pair of Chucks and Van’s.

I spent my first “unemployed” week setting up for freelance work to trickle in and I started freelance work that I held off on while I was at Loomis Group. I made great headway, caught up on my RSS feeds and spent quality time with the wifey. It was productive and relaxing.

I also decided to catch up on some design reading. While Rob and I begin to expand Majorminor, I purchased a couple of books to read that will help me bridge the gap between being a full-time designer at an agency to a double full-time life of being a designer and art director at Majorminor and my own freelance work.

Never Sleep, by Andre Andreev and Dan Covert
I’ve been waiting for Never Sleep to come out for a while. I’ve had the two authors under my radar of cool design kids to follow since I was in design school. They’re only a few years older than Rob and me and they are uber talented, graduating from CCA in San Francisco, which I’ve always wanted to attend, working at MTV off air and MTV on air in NYC, to starting their own studio in Brooklyn. See dress code. A year before I graduated design school, I emailed Dan to check out my portfolio. He called me and had great advice and insight to offer. I remember telling him, “Dude… thanks! You should write a book.” I can tell he was smugly smiling at the other end, a few moments of silence passed before he replied, “I am.”

The book chronicles the life of two super talented design folks who know what they want and are still open to life’s surprises. They’re the type who finds inspiration in old school french boudoir photography to grimy ass hip hop. They live, breathe, eat and fcuk design. The book documents their bridge between design school to being design professionals. Their adventure highlights their struggles and successes and helps shed light on some of the issues Rob and I will encounter, and what red flags and green lights to look out for. Two words to describe these cats and their book: real talk.

Copywriting: Successful Writing for Design, Advertising, and Marketing, Mark Shaw
I’ve always been a fan of writing. Not the physical act of writing, but looking at writing. I love the shapes that make up words. I was the kid growing up who always loved staring at other people’s handwriting, flipping through their journals and not to read what they wrote (sometimes) but to geek out at how neat or sloppy their writing is. Something about pages filled with words and letters tickles me. Remember that scene in Se7en when the detectives are flipping through John Doe’s journals? I do. Enough said. I love the pattern of what shapes make to create what the humans calls words. So naturally I fell in love with typography in design school.

After all these years of geeking out over people’s handwriting and letterforms, it was a natural progression that I start to have an affinity for language. This books helps me focus on message for its purpose and sensitizes me to look out for it. It’s a pretty important tool for a designer to have. And well, it’s marketed towards people like me, to help break down and simplifies the structure of writing.

I used to work with Calvin Ma at Loomis Group. Back then he was a media planner. Over a year ago he quit Loomis Group, moved to New York, moved back to SF, and here he is sitting down with me over a cup of coffee at Four Barrel in the Mission.

He follows my Twitter and saw every post I made about being free. He hastily replied to grab of a cup of mud with me and I was more than happy to.

This guy is a character. When I met him two years ago, he was this off-the-wall type, who could talk real talk while throwing in a penis joke or three. He hasn’t changed much since I last saw him. But it was great to catch up on what we’re each up to. He’s currently a photographer’s assistant to two renowned San Francisco photographers. And well, I am pursuing my freelance career. We have tons in common so we had tons to chat about. Plus, we’re both free birds in charge of our own schedules, who aren’t tied down to the 9-7, meeting for a cup of coffee on a Friday morning.

Summer of 2007, Kate and I graduated, traveled a bit, got engaged, moved back to Milpitas and began looking for design jobs. We would dedicate Monday-Friday, from 9-2pm, doing anything job-search related at It’s a Grind on Calaveras. This lasted for just less than a month. I swear it feels longer. But within three weeks of correspondence, interviews and phone calls, one of us landed an internship. I landed an internship at Chen Design Associates, an award-winning San Francisco studio that frequently dominates the design annuals.

I hastily accepted the position. I was on cloud 9. Then Loomis Group called me for an interview for an internship position. I knew it was bad form to blow it off; plus taking on any interview is good practice. So I nailed it. Hours later I received a phone call, offering me a junior design position. I was already ready to say no. I had my head in the clouds knowing I was going to work at Chen Design. Loomis Group was persistent in getting me. Long story short, after 9 hours at Chen Design, I made the decision to accept Loomis Group’s offer. Chen was not happy. But it was the right decision. I could have a great name on my resume and a handful of cool small projects, or I can have the experience of a lifetime for anybody just out of design school.

I hit the ground running hard. I mean, real hard. I was hungry and ready to take it all on. They sensed it. I was assigned to a handful of complex projects. I worked on large accounts and small accounts. It’s been a great 2+ years.

Since early this year, I’ve been assigned to big projects on smaller accounts and had the opportunity to art direct and design for Google, VeriSign and SanDisk Extreme Pro. Below is a sample of just a handful of projects I saw through from conception to execution. This year has been great to me and it’s only going to get greater as 2010 is a turn away. Thank you Loomis Group for the trust and huge opportunities to spearhead more than two handfuls of projects. Thank you Kate for your patience in sharing your husband with Loomis Group. It’s time to start a new chapter in my career.

I quit my job. I have a bad back. So what did I do? I bought this: Eames Soft Pad Management Chair but the knock off. You’d do the same thing with a Chanel knock-off.