I didn’t just want to welcome and thank you, I also wanted to give you an idea of what I will be tweeting about. I unlike most, have certain days I tweet about certain subjects and I would hate for you to unsubscribed because I chatted all day long about comic books on a specific day.

What I’ll tweet about

My main topics will be about art, comics, design and 80′s/90′s nostalgia. I am a freelance graphic artist so some self promotion will pop up from time to time.  I also am a contributer at Comic Booked so my articles will probably show up sometimes too.  In the evenings I’ll mainly take some time to catch up with friends, so you might see lots of @ convos going on.

Here’s a rough idea of my Tweeting schedule:

Monday: In the morning(am) I’ll tweet about design, artist tips, my projects. In the evening(pm) chat with friends, misc topics
Tuesday: In the (am) I’ll tweet about design, artist tips, my projects. In the (pm) chat with friends, misc topics
Wednesday: I’ll be tweeting about COMICS all day.
Thursday: In the (am) I’ll tweet about design, artist tips, my projects. In the (pm) chat with friends, misc topics
Friday: I’ll be tweeting about comics and 80′s/90′s stuff all day.
Saturday: Misc topic day/ catch up with friends
Sunday: Misc topic day/ catch up with friends

BTW I am in the US in Eastern time, so set your time accordingly

Over the past few years I have been looking at the state of print design and I wanted to be competitive. The only way I saw it being possible was by becoming more knowledgeable in web development.  My passion has always been with print design, but the market was saturated by college students “needing experience” and clients who did not understand the value of a good designer’s time. So I decided to make the plunge and offer web services. I gained new knowledge and  client base, but the more web projects I did the less print time I had. I spent more time troubleshooting web projects than actually doing the things I love.

So today I made the decision that I will refocus on my passion – Print and Graphic Design.  I love creating logos, posters, Powerpoints, banners, notebooks, billboards, brochures, mock-ups, branding campaigns… and I want to spend all of my working hours on these projects.

If you do want web design/development done, I have a great friend who does phenomenal work. His name is Derrick Williams and he will take good care of you. Check him out at http://derrick-williams.com/ You won’t be disappointed.

Thanks everybody for your ongoing support. I hope you understand my decision. I look forward to working with you on your next design project!

~Jacques

I know I’ve been missing for a while now. But that’s because lots of AWESOME things have been happening in my life lately.  One of them is me doing some writing over at Comic Booked. I get to write about things I love…COMICS. I’ll mostly be focusing on Independently published books or unknown comics. My goal is to get these amazing books featured and getting them the respect they deserve.

Well what are you waiting for head over to COMIC BOOKED and take a look at my articles!

If you’ve got suggestions or a pretty cool comic you’l like featured feel free to post here or send me a message via the contact form!

A few days ago I was catching up on some tweets when I saw a very strange kid. He was blue haired with braces and really got my attention for some reason. Might be the fact he had completely white eyes or that he was puppet, regardless of the reason, I decided to see what he was talking about.

I read each tweet and felt like I was transported into my childhood! I decided to go visit his website and I immediately felt at home. I saw posts on Weinerville, Mortal Kombat movies, Family Matters, Beetlejuice cartoons and a whole lot of other seemingly forgotten stuff of my past got unearthed. For a brief moment I was transported to a happy place. During that moment I also realized I was Strange Kid.

I  am happy to have joined the club! Here’s why I think you’ll want to join:

1. Theres enough 80′s/ early 90′s stuff to keep you entertained for hours!
2. Interviews of AMAZING artist. Mainly influenced by the strange 80′s stuff we love so much.
3. Where you ever fascinated with Garbage Pail Kids? I really think you’ll like this site a lot.
4. If you’re into CREEPY 80′s horror movies…there’s something for you too
5. You’ll feel relief in knowing that it’s OK to be “Strange”.

Oh WOW I can’t believe while writing this post I stumbled upon 80′s rap sensation The Fat Boys. Yeah They’ve got something for everyone.

Hurry up and check out this website. Your inner strange kid self will thank you!

~Jacques

This video is inspired by the A-ha music video Take on me. It took me some time because I do not have fancy software. I had to manually/batch the illustrated parts using Photoshop…not much fun. But I’ve always been the type of person who does not wait until I can afford what I need. I just use what I have.

I hope you like it. It’s been truly a labor of love and I must say I love how it turned out. The music, filming and anything related to this video was done by me and me alone.

Copyright © Doug TenNapel, All Rights Reserved.

How many of you guys and gals remember the game/cartoon  Earthworm Jim? For those of you who don’t know or have gotten so old you forgot about it, I’ll lazily cut and paste the Wikipedia plot summary to refresh your memory:

Jim was at first an ordinary earthworm who did very earthworm-like things such as flee from crows and eat dirt. One day, in the space above Earth, the evil Psy-Crow had cornered a rebel spaceship pilot who had stolen an “Ultra-high-tech-indestructible-super-space-cyber-suit” built by Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. The suit had been commissioned by the evil Queen Pulsating, Bloated, Festering, Sweaty, Pus-filled, Malformed, Slug-for-a-Butt so that she could further conquer the galaxy. In the ensuing space fight, the suit was dropped to Earth, and fell on Jim. By a stroke of luck, Jim managed to land within the collar of the suit, and it ended up mutating him into the large and intelligent (at least by earthworm standards) superhero he is today.

Well Jim’s creator Doug TenNapel has been very busy. Not only has he created lots of graphic novels one of which (Ghostopolis) is being nominated for two Eisner Awards, he now has a new hero: RATFIST!!!!

It’s a highly entertaining web comic created and illustrated by Doug and beautifully colored by Katherine Garner.

Copyright © Doug TenNapel, All Rights Reserved.

It’s a story about Ricky (AKA Ratfist), a guy pushing 40, who dons a rat costume by night as a “champion of the intellect and protector of the little people!” He has several sidekicks to help his cause: Milt a talking rat, Tail who acts as his multi tool (Ricky chopped Tail off when he mutated…trust me, you’ll have to read it) and finally Sheldon and Tad some geeks with hacking and gadget making abilities. Together they join forces to fight the sinister Mr. Black (Ricky’s Boss).

After reading my synopsis I’m sure you’ll agree with Doug’s coining it as “absurdist humor”. But I love every bit of it!

Why I think this web comic is so COOL:

1. The illustrations are AMAZING and keep you glued to the screen. I was a little bit late in knowing about this comic but I read 75 pages in one morning and caught up.
2. It’s great seeing Doug interact with his fans in the comment sections.
3. Earthworm Jim makes a cameo that made me smile.
4. Kat did a WONDERFUL job with the coloring. I LOVE it!
5. The words CHUMP makes a comeback several times.
6. There is a talking severed tail.
7. Tikis have never been so awesome!

Well you have it! I love this web comic and will be tuning in every week to catch up. I hope you do the same!

Go enjoy it HERE!

~Jacques

I have those random moments when I feel like drawing something. While watching Robin Hood: Men in Tights this quote came to mind and immediately I thought of this image.

Welcome to my mind :0)

Hope you like what you see.

**NOTE the shadows on the hands since he’s in a invisible “box”.

(c)2011 of Totally Rad!

If you are a photographer of Graphic designer, I am pretty sure you have posted some of your work on Facebook and noticed they look like CRAP. The colors are muddied, the crispness gone, they are a complete mess.

Well I’ve tried tweaking things in Photoshop and adjust brightness, contrast and a host of other things but one thing really did the trick. Out of laziness I downloaded an action from a Facebook group called TOTALLY RAD ACTIONS. As soon as I used it I saw the difference on my Facebook uploads.

How to use it:

First, grab the action from the link above. If you grabbed the .zip version, then unzip the file to extract the action. Next, install it by double-clicking on the .atn file. Once it’s installed into Photoshop:

1. Open the photo you want to use.
2. Run the action.
3. Use File -> Save For Web to save the image at quality 95 or higher.
4. Upload to Facebook and marvel at the prettiness!

They also have HEAVY DUTY photo retouching stuff on their WEBSITE.  Check them out!

For years now I have been working as Jacques of All trades LLC. I initially chose to do that because I believed I needed anonymity. I felt like my work and life should be separate and that customers trusted an established business over a regular guy who loves design.

“I have one of those personalities that likes to talk to clients about book/television show recommendations before we have a business meeting.”

Well years passed and I’ve grown considerably. I quickly realized that I spent to much time and effort trying to separate my business and my personal life. This wasted time made me lose clients. After months of consideration, I finally accepted that my business and I are a single entity. I have one of those personalities that likes to talk to clients about book/television show recommendations before we have a business meeting.  My old corporate mindset can not thrive in an ocean of graphic designers competing for work.

So I’ve decided to consolidate my business and my personality in one website; http://jacquesnyemb.com.

This website will give potential clients a glimpse of who they will be working with. It will also be a place I can  share information I learn along the way with friends, other designers, small business owners, art lovers and nosy people. I’ve got lots of ideas and it’s only appropriate for me to share them here.

This website is an open book on things happening in my life professionally and personally. Feel free to comment, chime in and share anything you think will make me a better person.

I appreciate your time! I look forward to seeing you around!

Take care!

~Jacques

What is it?

Well it’s something I’m experimenting with. I want to do a FREE design project each month to help out a cause or person in need. (NOTE: I can only print a small run of the print collateral. Depending on the amount donated, I currently can’t afford to do large volume prints) The type of work I plan on doing are:

• Logo design (branding)
• Print collateral design
  • Business cards
  • Brochures
  • Letterheads
  • Postcards
  • Flyers
  • Posters
  • Booklet
  • T-shirt designs
• Digital Design
  • PowerPoint
  • Laptop and mobile background images
  • Icon design
• Photo retouching
• Photography (If within the NC RTP region)
• 5 page informational html website (includes hosting for one year)

How will it work?

It will be pretty simple:

1. You nominate someone (or yourself) below. FYI, the pool of nominees roll over, so they get several chances.
2. I review, then choose one of the nominees and contact them.
3. I work with them to get the best/effective designs imaginable.
4. When done I post the results on the web.
5. Rinse and repeat!

How you can help?

I can’t do this all alone. I need your help. There are a few things you can do to make this idea possible:

Nominate someone:

Spread the word:

Share this link to everyone you know. Below you’ll see a bunch of social network links you can use to share!

Donate:

I would LOVE to do this full time and not have to worry about being paid to do my passion. But the reality is the hours spent doing free work takes away from paying customers. So a donation can help justify my drive to do good. I won’t have to feel like I’m stealing food from my family (after all I have a new baby on the way). Also it also allows me to offer more cool things to get these people/organizations exposed out there.

You can easily donate by clicking this Button:

Thanks A LOT you are AWESOME!

Do the same:

If you have a talent or just plain drive to do something, DO IT! Help people around you. We can’t wait on government or agencies to do things we can do ourselves. Let’s utilize the abilities we have to change the world!

Thank you!