Some time ago I had ordered The Big Book of Contemporary Illustration from the publisher and it finally arrived. Normally I wouldn't write about a getting a new book except that some of my work is featured on its pages! Yes, on pages 195, 198 and 200 you can clearly see a few of my illustrations. The book is also full of amazing work by some very talented folks including illustrators Si Scott and Nik Ainley.

About 6 moths ago the author of the book, Martin Dawber, contacted me about putting some of my illustration work in a new book he was putting together. Of course I said "yes" and I gathered some high-quality examples and sent them off. Six months later, here we are with the book being released earlier this month. The pieces published exist on this site already, here, here and here.

A bit about the book:

From digital drawing, pixilated pictures, and Photoshop fantasies to traditional sketching and painting, it’s a showstopping display of style and technique from more than 160 international artists. With close to 1,000 images, the illustrations range over such categories as architecture, fashion, logos, manga, maps, nature, people, packaging, and pop culture. This is an essential anthology for artists, creative professionals, students, and anyone who appreciates the fine art of illustration.

I took a few iPhone pics of the book itself and the pages I'm featured on so check them out on my Flickr page.

I'd like to thank Martin Dawber and Anova Books for the chance to be part of this amazing collection of work by some of the most talented designers around. If you're interested, you can order the book from Amazon.

Early voting in Florida took place this last week until Saturday so I put aside some time to do my patriotic duty. After all, I just had to walk a block away. And I'm grateful I did early voting on Saturday even though waiting in line took over 2 hours. It was my very first time voting too, since during the last election I was still technically a Michigan resident, but this time around I was ready, having registered early.

I never would have thought voting would be such a gratifying experience, but it was. And the free sticker didn't hurt things...

Last week I finished work on the Wordpress site for Interactive Expeditions. It was my most complex design to date and it turned out great. Wordpress made this site buildout quicker than the typical website plus its a great CMS for that clients who need a simple CMS for easy updating.

Interactive Expeditions offers a revolutionary means of experiential teaching and learning through an immersive, real-time, interactive platform that links geographically remote expedition teams with any web-connected student/participant worldwide.

Simply it links teachers with students. But the cool part is that the teacher is is Bermuda... in a cave... 400 feet underground. The realtime video application that NFi Studios helped to create works to connect students with the experts while they are in the field.

To learn more about Interactive Expeditions and find out about their current trip to Bermuda, check out this Orlando Sentinel article. Also check out interactiveexpedition.com.

The weekend started a lot earlier than normal for me. I usually roll out of bed about 1pm on Saturday so I had to get up a bit earlier than usually to get there but the registration time of 10am. And I had a talk so I wanted to get there even earlier. I headed to our (NFi's) office to prep my note cards (which I didn't even use) for my 11.30am talk time. I caught a couple talks then I was up. I thought it went well. Altogether, a good time. Here's my presentation.

A lot of good talks. To mention just a few that stood out: Dan Kinchen on Creating a Central Florida Tech Association, Erik Hersman on Using Social Media in a Time of Crisis, Gregg Pollack's Rant on the Community and Greg Rollett's Music, Media, & Money.

The Izea after party on Dev Day was also a blast. Open bar, music and enough video games to keep someone busy for days. I met a lot of great people and had a great time.

Media Day was also just as fun as the first day, although it had a smaller turnout. Many of the presentations centered around social media, blogging and new media. I also did an impromptu talk on my blog, Helpmepaymyloans.com.

Big thanks to everyone of who helped put on BarCamp and all the sponsors (including NFi). It was a great time and I will definitely be attending the next.

BarCamp is set to take over Wall St. in downtown Orlando next weekend. This time the community tech event will be spaced out over 2 days: April 5th, Dev Day and April 6th Media Day.

BarCampOrlando is a community building event which happens twice a year to brings together people from different backgrounds to share and learn from each other. There will be people who know Java, .NET, Ruby, PHP, and other technologies coming together for Dev Day, and there will be people who know film, music, photography, graphic design, podcasting, and even other new Media coming together for Media Day

I'm looking forward to the weekend. I'll be attending both days where I'm sure I'll hear some great talks. My company, NFi Studios, will be sponsoring the event along with the community's top technology businesses. Check out the BarCamp Orlando website for more info.

This past weekend I attended BarCamp and the Future of Web Apps conference, both in Miami. I had a blast to say the least. Here is a recap of the weekend.

Upon arriving in Miami on Thurday, Sterling, Derek G. and myself quickly checked into our hotel and went to BarCamp Miami which started only a couple hours after we arrived. Some great talks including Kevin Marks Google’s Social Graph and Open Social APIs. As BarCamp wrapped up we went to dinner. Sushi and beer were had by all.

Day two was the main event: Future of Web Apps conference hosted by Carsonified. Well not totally up my alley, the talks did get me thinking and by the end of the day I had a ton of ideas racing through my head. Highlights included talks by Cal Henderson of Flickr, Emily Boyd of Remember the Milk, Leah Culver of Pownce and the panel discussion on brainstorming an app in 40 minutes.

The weekend was topped off by the Scrapblog sponsored after party and it was amazing. I met a bunch of great, interesting people along with Kevin Rose of Digg fame. Elizabeth and I struck up a conversation with him and it turns out he's a cool guy. There was also a certain Subversion joke involved.

Great weekend. Apart from almost being hit while crossing the street a few times (we had the right of way) and almost hitting a couple pedestrians who walked into the street and people who need to learn to drive (what is it with Miami and bad drivers?), it was an amazing weekend. And I also went to South Beach and played golf for the first time too. But that's another post.....

Enjoy my photos from the Miami trip on Flickr.

So I finally launched the Helpmepaymyloans.com blog! So far it has gotten some press in its short few days of existence. I'm excited about starting a blog with so much potential behind it. To sum it up: Helpmepaymyloans.com is dedicated to to bringing you news, resources and statistics about student loans, colleges and general finance management.

Please support the site by Digging it and telling your friends.

Originally, before this blog was launched, I did a mockup, much like start of every site that I work on. It was a great design but sadly, it never has seen the light of day due to my lack of time and understanding of WordPress and PHP.

But there's good news! I've decided to resurrect that mockup and build it out into a working theme! In addition to making it my new theme for this blog, I'll also be releasing it to the public for use on any blog.

Yes, it'll probably take months to complete due to my current work and project load but I guarantee it will get done. Eventually. Stay tuned for more info.

I finally got around to updating my 'folio and just in time for the new year. Check it out here.

In total I've added 3 new branding pieces, 3 illustrations and 4 websites. This is just about half of the work I've done since my last updates. Please let me know what you think!

Awhile ago I had a conversation with my buddy Cory. It seems he's into Death Metal (who knew!). So after a conversation over lunch we struck a deal. I'll be working to help him start up FloridaDeathMetal.com by doing his branding and website design.

Florida Death Metal will function like a sort of portal where pure metal fans can come to post, listen and learn about their favorite local metal bands. It's all in the beginning stages but hopefully soon we'll both get more time to dedicate to it. You can check out the logo in the pic above. And yes, that is a coffee cup.

Stay tuned for more updates and also check out Cory's blog for the most up-to-date news about Florida Death Metal.