Crystal Madrilejos

Design & Creative

I made my first Myspace banner! Spread the word.

myspaceOJ

Rock this banner on your page. Copy this code to spread the word!

Fondly,
Crystal
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

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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.
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!

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
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.

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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

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New Photos

It took a second, but we did it. We were finally able to reshoot some of our goods. This round focused on the tote bags that we made around Christmastime for the Kraftenplatz Craft Fair at Cake Shop. Trying to come up with a clever way to shoot them proved to only prolong the process of actually taking the photos. In the wee hours of remaining daylight, we took the simple way out and hung them on the wall in natural lighting. Done and done. Here is a sample:

This is a black tote bag with a applique of one of Crystal’s drawings. The drawing is a silkscreen onto a vintage fabric (that used to be a pillowcase.) Expect to see a few up in the Etsy shop before the end of the week.

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OJ All Day

Remember those creative forces we mentioned last post? Well, i’ve been fortunate enough to have been asked to work on a project with our friends at Olive Juice Music. Major Matt Mason, the brains and brawn behind Olive Juice, has planned an all day festival of “Real Independent Music” here in NYC that will feature 20 bands from the label. Here is a little bit about Olive Juice Music taken from their website ’cause i’m not too good with words:

Olive Juice Music is a D.I.Y. label, studio, and mail-order distributor, based in New York City, interested in helping people who are in the developmental stages of trying to do something with their art. Olive Juice Music is not a traditional record label. The artists associated with Olive Juice take an active part in how their music is produced, financed, and marketed. They in turn receive more of the profits gained from the sales of their records directly, which is how it should be. The strength of Olive Juice relies upon the active participation of its members to share resources and help promote a communal spirit among everyone involved as well as claiming responsibility for taking their art to wherever they would like it to go. Olive Juice Music is about independence and community. And if that doesn’t sound cool to you, well then you’re just going to have to buzz off, mister…

This event will take place on May 19th, 2007 at Cake Shop in the LES (one of the best venues around, in my opinion.) I’m really excited to be working on this. I’ve been brainstorming ideas for posters and flyers the last few days. Last night I met up with a group of OJ-ers (Major Matt, Dibson Hoffweiler, Julie Delano and Casey Holford) to talk about ideas and so far we’ve decided to do a poster, a double-sided postcard/flyer, a special edition OJ button, and there is already a website in the works. (Thanks Dibs!) I already have some ideas mocked up and i’m super happy with how things are turning out.

Here is a list of the bands that are planning on performing:
Dave End, The Best, Frank Hoier, Peter Dizozza, Prewar Yardsale, Dan Fishback, Toby Goodshank, The Baby Skins, Church of Lurch, The Leader, Recording Angels, Purple Organ, Huggabroomstik, Randi Russo, The Wowz, Urban Barnyard, Dream Bitches, Schwervon!, Dufus, Jeff Lews Band

fondly,
Crystal

We mentioned last post that there was minor setbacks with the “photo shoot.” well, that wasn’t all. Friday was supposed to be the first meeting about our new project but our collaborator was feeling under the weather, so the meeting has been postponed until this coming Friday. We figured we might as well go ahead and talk about our plans so after the meeting we won’t have to make an epic post and explain everything all at once.
So, here goes:

One of the, if not THE, best thing about living in NYC is the abundance of creative forces. We are, literally, surrounded by the most talented and amazing people. The one downfall of this is because there are so many people making super duper awesome things, to be singled out is quite a feat. we figured that we could try to bring more attention to artists that we know and also benefit by this symbiotic relationship. We scratch your back, we’ll scratch yours? No, really. We aren’t looking for glory, we just want to make things with other people. Share our talents and have something cool to show for it. We are extremely happy to present:

yes, have some: Toby Goodshank
We have teamed up with local NYC musician and artist Toby Goodshank to make a line of items. The meeting of minds will take place this Friday, so there will be a clearer idea of what is actually going to be made. In the meantime, we’ll tell you about the man himself and why he is totally deeeluxe!

Hailing originally from Connecticut, he now resides in Brooklyn and is probably known more for his musical stylings than his visual art, though they are both equally masterful. He is probably the most prolific artist…EVER. He churns out the goods like a machine. Here is a description of his recent musical accomplishments, pretty much ripped from his myspace page (though we did edit it a little, cause it’s so damn long! HA!)

Toby Goodshank plays in the bands Double Deuce, the Tri-Lambs, the Christian Pirate Puppets, Moldy Peaches, Bearded Witness, and with himself. His recent discography is as follows:


Toby Goodshank Safe Harbour (2004)
Tri-Lambs Self-Titled (2005)
Toby Goodshank Come Correct (2005)
Doube Deuce Camp Candy (2005)
Christian Pirate Puppets White Man-like Object (2005)
Toby Goodshank Music 4 Heroes Volume 4 (2005)
Toby Goodshank Jyusangatsu (2005)
Toby Goodshank di santa ragione (2006)
Toby Goodshank Cover Album (2006)
Toby Goodshank Mogo on the Gogo (2006)
Christian Pirate Puppets Unpruded (2006)


Most of these can be found to download on iTunes or through Olive Juice Music. For more information feel free to email Toby at toby_goodshank@yahoo.com. You can also check him out on myspace.

His visual works are equally impressive. He has mad drawing and collaging skills. Much of his works are…psychedelic and surreal, would be the best words to describe them. His intricate pattern work and painstaking lettering, are truly amazing. Here are some examples from his website (we highly suggest you check out the photos page to see the rest of his work)