Dear / Sicily

This was a poster I did for Peter Says Denim for Warped Tour 2013. Its not the final image that was chosen, but it was my favourite out of all the design options I created :)

For the past while, I’ve been helping a friend to make a poster for her room. Out of all the drafts I made for her, this one (in my opinion) was my favourite :)

In Death, I Created

A 4 part series of posters based on the track listing to The Elijah’s album I Loved I Hated I Destroyed I Created. All 4 posters share an identical typographic layout, with 4 separate background images. The first one says, In Misery, I Loved. The second one says, In Fear, I Hated. The third one says In Regret, I Destroyed. The final piece (which is this one) says, In Death, I Created.

The track listing (in terms of titles) is genius. I previously created a poster with the same idea, but in this case, I wanted to make something clean that I can print and frame and set them side by side.

Heartless World

Happy Valentine’s Day :)

Happy New Year!

RIP 2012, welcome 2013.

I dont know how to really describe 2012. It had its best of times and worst of times. My highlights of the year was the progression of my band. The summer of 2012, we played our first show out of Toronto, and not only one, but a couple of them. I was able to see parts of Ontario that I never heard of for the purpose of doing what I enjoy the most, which is playing music. Playing in Belleville, Campbellford, and Napanee was such a cool experience. We made new friends and fans and while playing these places, I was the only asian guy there which made me exotic :P

Fast forward to December 27, 2012, the bands we played with in Belleville, we played with them again here in Toronto, proving to be my favourite show I’ve ever played thus far. That show was a good way to end 2012. What made it so amazing was being able to play with friends, especially with a college classmate who I always talked about music with during our time at school. It was our first time actually playing a show together. On top of that, I had coworkers come to watch us play for the first time, and seen some friends who landed us our first show ever. The night showed me the progress that we’ve made from when we started playing up til now and the friendships that you make, and them supporting what you love to do. This was possibly my favourite part of 2012, even though it was at the end :P

Another great highlight of 2012 was the release of our EP. We released it on Christmas Day, but it will sure be a great was to start off and hopefully carry 2013. It took over a year and a half to complete, but long story short, its done and its here. theworldawake.bandcamp.com is where you can find our music :)

Though music was my greatest highlight of 2012, a close second was the design work I’ve done. Working with my friend Jacky of HiddenCitySounds was awesome from a design standpoint because though I did work for him, I also did some work for Peter Says Denim via HiddenCitySounds which was pretty surreal. Peter Says Denim is a clothing brand that a lot of bands I listen to wear, so having a small affiliation with them was legit. I helped my friend Jacky design components to his website, some poster work, and a tank top design. One of my proudest moments as a designer was going to Dave and Busters in the summer and seeing someone who I did not know wear the tank top I designed for Jacky. That was awesome.

Another design highlight was being contacted by the drummer of Dayseeker to help them create a logo. Unfortunately, I replied to them too late but the mock logo I made can actually be seen on YouTube haha. I spent the winter up til the summer of 2011 just listening to the bands Arms Like Yours, and Southern Lights, so when they broke up, they merged to make Dayseeker. In the process of being a new band, they needed a new logo and they contacted me. That was surreal.

And now the bad. To be honest, the only downside of 2012 was just myself. It was still a hard year to get by dealing with shit I just could not get over. I worked 2 jobs the whole summer for 4 months working up to 6 days a week to almost 2 weeks straight at some times. I thought it would be a great way to keep my mind off of things but to be honest, I think it just made things worse haha. Working 7am - 3pm from Monday to Friday, then part time hours on the weekends was not fun at all. When something just eats are your thoughts day after day, it just makes you fucking tired and it ruins things. When you work alone 5 days a week basically by yourself with no one to talk to doesnt help either. Though my summer was rough, I spent all of 2012 still dealing with depression on top of anxiety that ive had since forever now (fyi, I’ve been dealing with depression for quite a long time now, and it was due to a couple of things that I wont mention). I wont go into detail how depression made me feel throughout the year, but I’ll just say that I’ve beat myself up and was pretty hard on myself the whole year. Not fun. I stopped asking/looking for help from my closet friends because I feel like its a waste of their time to ever mention anymore. From things I seen and heard that happened this year, I also know they cant help, so I know its not ever worth bringing up.

(*Sorry for venting. I just wanted to get the negative vibes out)

But thats 2012. Looking back, it was the best of times and the worst of time from my experience. I have high hopes for 2013. I have a feeling its going to be amazing somehow. Time will only tell, and its up to myself to make it amazing too. I hope this year I will be able to continue to improve and create new designs for you all to see. My goal for 2013 is to actually design and print shirts as well!

Note to self/you: Keep your head up, be positive and make this a year to remember!

-Dear/Sicily

A self-portrait photograph of myself (looking like a loser).