DIY Leather Macbook Case

So I missed last weeks Creative Collective (bummer) but I am so excited for this weeks!
My laptop has been getting a little dinged up lately and the Creative Collective post for this week was a Pinterest DIY.

Guess what I made!? A new home for my money maker! aka my Macbook pro. Seeing as my laptop is how I make a living I thought I should start taking better care of it! My buddy Kenton Sorenson was kind enough to give me some "scraps" from his leather work that he couldnt use. Make sure to check out his website.

Stay tuned for some products coming out of my studio soon using this leather and also concrete! Cant wait to show you all!

On The Verge of Spring

Spring is coming!!! I believe it.

This long winter has been hard for us all, but we are survivors here in Wisconsin. I found this little beauty laying on the ground the other day ( inside unfortunately ) but was thrilled at this small reminder of spring. I grew up in Norther Wisconsin in the middle of nowhere-ville where the first sign of spring is the budding of trees, tulips popping out of the snow, and the smell of fresh earth meeting the suns rays after its hibernation.

So this is my encouragement and reminder that spring is on its way! Enjoy the sun today. Take a walk. Ride your bike. Sit in a sun ray on the couch and read a book! Spring is on its way!

Creative Collective // Skillshare

This week the Creative Collective prompt was to - Take a Skillshare class -
Easy right? Kinda. Actually not really.

I have personally never taken a Skillshare class (and still haven't! oops.) but after checking it out I was blown away. There are classes on everything and anything creative, and after browsing for 5 mins I already wanted to take 10 different classes. A good problem to have I suppose.

This past weekend I went to the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point NOWhere Design Conference (my alma mater) where I took a workshop that I am using as my "Skillshare" class! It was a hand lettering workshop which is very popular on Skillshare so I figured it would count. Good enough right? The workshop was hosted by the very talented Xavier Casalta from France. He is an incredibly talented letter and works very hard at developing his craft. You have to check his work out. It is amazing. I was lucky enough to get to know him pretty well and cant wait to take a trip to France for a visit!!!

I haven't gotten a chance to transfer my design to nice artist paper but that is the next step! Let me know if you want one because I want to make prints to give out!

Xavier Casalta // WEB

Insta-Fam // @JonTheGingBeard @CasaltaXavier

Creative Collective // Anything Goes

So here we are again on this fine, warm, Wisconsin Wed. with the newest addition to Creative Collective! This week we get the chance to create some "anything goes art" which at first was a challenge for me. Being a professional artist that tends to plan things out and think way to much about the art I am creating made things tough. I decided to mess around in Photoshop on a new photography series I am working on and that's when things started to get fun!

This new body of work will be an exploration of a series of double exposed images that I created in college. I love this series and that is why I wanted to explore it further. To see my original series click // here // It was fun to dabble and explore where this new series could go and not worrying about how good the images look but instead find the potential or lack of potential in each image!

The originals were also featured in a poetry book I designed call Pictures & Poetry and featured on Neenah Papers blog! It was so much fun and I am so excited to expound on this series!

Leave feedback if you like! Hearing what other people think about the direction Im going is always good!

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The Single Man // Valentine

Just some hand lettered type on this Valentines Day. I don't have a special lady to say "je t'aime" to this year but there are so many others I can say it to. Dont forget to tell all your loved ones how much they mean to you, not just your sweetheart. Life is fleeting. Love is hard.

Now I'm going to call my mom and tell her I love her ;-)