When my older daughter was a senior in high school, I decorated one of her lunch bags with Brown University graphics because we were about to visit the campus in Rhode Island, and she was excited about the prospects of life after high school. From that day on, I started decorating (and photographing) lunch bags for both my daughters on every day they took a lunch to school. They were simple Sharpie drawings, mostly original, some not so original, but always bright, cheery drawings. I'm going on two and half years doing this, and as best I can count, I've drawn on 345 lunch bags. For Christmas last year, my younger daughter ranked her top ten favorite bags and put them in a scrapbook for me. Here they are—David Letterman style—in descending order.
Brush With Fame
When I traveled the country art directing photography for Culverhouse College of Commerce's print campaign, I met some very accomplished individuals who had graduated from the University of Alabama's business school. Shaun Alexander tops the list as the most memorable, as it was my first trip to Seattle, and I was invited to sit in Shaun's skybox to watch an exhibition game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys. Shaun had been named NFL MVP the season prior, so it was quite an honor to meet him and and his family.
54 Saint Emanuel Street
Last year, right about this time, I was placed in charge of the design for Red Square Gaming and RSQ's new office space. From October 2013 until June 2014, I made weekly, sometimes daily trips to the new space and picked out furnishings, light fixtures, paint colors and flooring—"FFE" as it is called in the business. It's the closest I have come to realizing a dream I once had of becoming an architect. The job was not without its challenges as I answered to a committee of many, juggling budgets and an ever-changing move-in date, not to mention my duties as creative director for Red Square Gaming and later VP of Marketing for Red Square Gaming and RSQ. But the big payoff was seeing the project through to completion and knowing that I had a hand in it.