Working On It

Sorry for the no-post as of late. Things have been hectic on all fronts. We're still moving along with the Toby Goodshank line, but we've been having difficulties with our silkscreen process and it's been a lot of trial and error. Of course, we chose probably the most difficult things to silkscreen first, but things are definitely in the works. Crystal has been busy with her day-job and was out of commission for a few days for a shoot in L.A., but this weekend we'll be full steam ahead. Hopefully, at least one of the doll prototypes will be completely done and another one will be in the works.

On a more productive note, the yes, have some. Etsy shop has been selling some items. Most of our vintage housewares have been sold and a couple totes as well. We will be in Ohio most of next week for vacation and family time, so we'll be stocking up on more stuff. There are still more things, mostly vintage bags and some clothes, that need to be photographed and posted. Maybe this weekend. So, if you're in the market for a vintage purse or a crocheted shawl, keep your eyes peeled.

Press Kit

Awhile ago, I designed a press kit for the band Cheese on Bread. Here is their bio ripped from their website:

Cheese On Bread was born in a university cafeteria, the bastard child of a post-structuralist education and a rather poor dinner menu. After naming themselves in honor of the West's most dependable dish, Sara FitzSimmons and Dan Fishback spent the rest of 2002 perfecting their blend of cultural commentary and complete silliness. They quickly saturated the West Philadelphia party circuit with C.O.B. pins; simple economics forced them to cut an EP in Matt Keesan's bathroom.

Their debut was received with critical approbation. Even so, Dan followed his heart to New York City. He stumbled upon a new home for Cheese On Bread in the city's prolific anti-folk scene. Sara and Dan soon returned to Matt's bathroom, revitalized, to record a full-length record.

During the sessions, Sara picked up Kevin Kelly in a bar and quickly put his Ph.D. in music to good use. From Kevin's bass and banjo to Matt's plinky toy xylophone, new musical textures kept sneaking into Cheese On Bread's live show until the two boys became Side Of Fries, an official backing band. Like any good side plate, they were soon augmented by a special sauce: Dibson T. Hoffweiler, a Sidewalk regular, who relieved Dan of his acoustic guitar.

Luv-a-Lot Records released Maybe Maybe Maybe Baby in 2004. By then, Cheese On Bread had grown into a six-piece pop-rock outfit featuring Daoud Tyler-Armeen full-time on drums.

Daoud eventually left the band to finish college. After his successor, Gregg Mervine, left for a financially-viable Klezmer ensemble, Cheese On Bread reconfigured into a quintet for an acclaimed 30-state tour in 2005.

These days, Dan, Dibs, Kevin, Matt and Sara swap instruments like children swapping lunches, bouncing all over the stage with joy, disguising Cheese On Bread's biting critiques of the modern condition with a sincere exaltation of life.

I decided to post it here because I am really happy with how it turned out. It's nothing groundbreaking design-wise, but it was so much fun to make because the band has so much personality (and style!!!). Cheese on Bread is an amazing, energetic and mind-blowing band; unfortunately, the band is on an "indefinite hiatus" but you can still enjoy their tunes here.












































Fondly,
Crystal

Roughs

First and second prototypes for Toby Goodshank Mandor doll.

Support this place!

The amazing Jay LaPierre has just taken over the Empress Ballroom in Danbury, Connecticut and turned it into Heirloom Arts Theatre! Here are a few words about the plans for this new acquisition from their Myspace page:

Heirloom Arts Theatre is located at 155 Main St. in Danbury, CT. 06810 It used to be The Empress Ballroom, but they closed. Now, its going to be a new era. Here's the plan: Movie theatre, bar, live shows. TOTAL RENOVATION. The plan is to begin renovations in May for a June opening. Until then, we need to raise a few bucks to make it all happen. Please check out our FUNDRAISER SHOW with APSE, ARMS AND LEGS, TOMBSTONE MINDS, HOME MOVIES on APRIL 21. Doors at 5, show at 6 or 6:30. ALL AGES, but then we are going to kick out all the 21 and under people after the show and have an after party with DJ's like PROROCK, and CRANE, and PARTYTIME. They are going to play good stuff, too. Anyways, this kind of line-up pretty much sets the tone for the new place. We are going to be all about getting good bands to play here and showing crazy movies. There will be couches and tables, and drinks. It will be an awesome place to hang out. I'll let you all know how the renovations are going soon... Until then, we'll see you on the 21st! Oh, yeah...Just to make it worth your while, we'll give people who are 21+ a free drink ticket with admission that you can use when we start selling after the show. Ok, Thanks!u

Support the arts and repost this flyer wherever you see fit! It's great to see great people doing great things. High fives all around.

Rain Day

This weekend has been productive at yes, have some.

Friday night we met with Toby Goodshank to work on our collaboration. Basically, he's already done with almost all the drawings that we had requested of him last week (yes, he's that productive). So far the Toby Goodshank line will include stuffed creatures, stickers, Limited Edition silkscreened prints, silkscreened fabric prints and probably totes of some sort.

Today, we started working on some prototypes for one of the stuffed creatures and we have a lot of work ahead of us. We have to design the patterns (which we've never done before! yikes!) We still have yet to set a release date for the Toby Goodshank line, but hopefully in the next week or so, we'll have a better idea. We're hoping for early May.


Also today, Andrew finished a prototype for a duffel bag. The real deal is in the works and we should have those up for sale relatively soon as well.

We have a bunch of vintage bags and some vintage clothes to photograph for the Etsy shop, so keep your eyes out for those.

Help Support OJ All Day

I made my first Myspace banner! Spread the word.

Rock this banner on your page. Copy this code to spread the word!
<div align="center"><a href="http://www.ojallday.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/239/455803038_1a9d4a0793.jpg" width="475" height="70" alt="myspaceOJ" /></a></div><br />

Fondly,
Crystal

Design Can Change

Down at the bottom of our sidebar, there is a new section of affiliations. Here at yes, have some. we have taken the pledge.

In our professional practice, we will endeavor to:
Learn: Engage in the topic and seek to understand the issue
Think: Make a sustainable mindset second nature
Act: Put our knowledge to use in our daily work
Inform: Share information and build awareness for sustainability
Unite: Spark change through collective strength

New Addition

If you'd like to be notified of yes, have some. updates, feel free to subscribe. If you look down at the bottom of the sidebar over there ------> there is a little box where you can put your email address and Voila! you will know every move we make.

Etsy Update and Other News

We've added new items to our Etsy shop. We now have a vintage section that, so far, features vintage housewares. There is also a new basket bag up that Crystal made a couple months ago. If you have interest in such things, you should check them out. We still have more vintage items to photograph, which will probably happen sometime this week. Maybe even next weekend. Check back for updates.

Last night we finally had our meeting with Toby Goodshank and the wheels have been set into motion for our next project. You can read more about this project a few posts back. There had been some setbacks, but yes, have some: Toby Goodshank (this is the tentative name for the project) is finally happening. We have yet to decide on the release date, but we're hoping for sometime in May. Our meeting seemed ambitious and we're hoping that everything comes together without a hitch. Toby is an unbelievably productive artist, so we don't imagine the slacking will be on his part!

Done and Done

All the workings for OJ All Day are pretty much in order. Button Design: Check, Poster Design: Check, Postcard: Check! I still have some ads to do for a couple local publications but those will be easy-peasy. I'm really happy with how everything turned out. I was inspired by those newsprint handouts you get from the grocery store, advertising the specials of the week or whatever. They always have the best high-contrast, lo-resolution photos of foods. At least they used to. I've noticed they've upped the quality a bit. But you can occasionally find some around the city offering 5 cans of Goya™ Black Beans for $1.00. Here are the finished images:

This is the poster and a modified version will be one side of the postcard.

This is the back of the postcard with a listing of the performers and the times and locations they will be playing.

Fondly,
Crystal

Showin’ Some Etsy Love

We finally did it. Our Etsy shop is up and rolling with all of 6 products! HA! If you look to the sidebar, there is a quick link and little pictures of the featured items in the shop. We have to get cracking on new things right quick so as to expand our line beyond totes. Super Duper.

Who knew?

I swear, I totally was in the process of trying to upload the totes to our Etsy shop today, but then I realized that I was unprepared. It's a completely easy process if you are fully prepared, which I was not. I've decided to wait until I get home so I can ask Andrew his thoughts on things like, How do I figure out how much postage to charge? and Should we accept personal checks? these were decisions that caught me off guard. So many things to consider. Hopefully, tonight that will all be sorted out. I didn't want to just throw out some numbers and end up underestimating the shipping costs and having to foot the bill!

In other news, I recently worked with local musician Phoebe Kreutz to lay out her new CD entitled Big Lousy Moon. Phoebe is from NYC and she is a brilliant wordsmith and quite a lovely lady. Here is the bio from her website:

Phoebe Kreutz is a boozy floozy with a heart of gold. She sings silly songs about the things she likes best: boys and bars and vikings and tacos.

Growing up in New York’s East Village, Phoebe learned a lot about all these things. She also learned a lot about rhyming from Dr. Seuss and the joys of thinly-veiled social commentary from “He-Man” and “The Smurfs”.

Now she’s all grown up and still loving life in the big city. She gets to sing in all kinds of fun places like The Knitting Factory, Fez, Birdland and The Sidewalk Café. It was there that she found the jolly antifolk scene, which has nurtured and indulged her like a benevolent uncle these past few years. It was also there that she met the boys who would later join with her to become the world’s greatest art-indie-rock band that only sings about animals in the city, Urban Barnyard.

When not rocking out on stage, Phoebe works as the puppet wrangler on the hit show, "Avenue Q". While there, she grabbed every musician she could get her hands on and turned them into The Phyllis Newman Health Initiative Dancers - a band that blends uptown excellence with downtown crudeness with lively and sometimes dashing results.

But sometimes Phoebe hears the call of The Road and has to set off on wild adventures. She’s played in fun towns like Seattle, Olympia, Portland, Eugene, San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, Albequerque, Flagstaff and Las Vegas. She’s also brought her message of ridiculousness to college campuses such as Oregon State University and Stanford.This year, Phoebe is proud to have played twice in the “Voices for Change” benefit series for John Kerry, sharing the stage with fancy folks like Tom Wopat, Cady Huffman, Charles Busch and Christopher Durang. Also, she’s been honored to have her songs sung by “Avenue Q” stars John Tartaglia, Ann Harada and Jen Barnhart at caberets around the city like Ars Nova and Joe’s Pub.

She has been the recipient of many awards including an Emmy for her work on Sesame Street, the coveted Sportsmanship Award for her team's pleasantly incompetent performance in the Broadway Show Softball League and $25 in the "Hot Buns" competition at the Rickshaw Karaoke Bar in Seattle.

There wasn't much actual design work to be done on her CD because Phoebe already had the artwork she wanted to use. She really just needed someone with technical layout skillz ASAP to get it all together before her tour. It was still fun nonetheless! You should check our her musical projects here.

Fondly,
Crystal