Dear / Sicily

This was a poster I did for Peter Says Denim for Warped Tour...

jamestwawake — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 03:03:22 -0400

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...

jamestwawake — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:57:49 -0400

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...

jamestwawake — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:55:10 -0500

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 :)

jamestwawake — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:08:21 -0500

Heartless World

Happy Valentine’s Day :)

Dreams/Nightmares I’ve finally gotten around to updating...

jamestwawake — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 04:39:16 -0500

Dreams/Nightmares

I’ve finally gotten around to updating my page. Its about 4:30am, it’s my birthday and I spent the first handful of hours of it creating this. So for this piece, it’s a deconstructed dream catcher. I recently had a talk with a co-worker about being at peace and happiness in your dreams, but waking up to realize that it was all a dream, and only that. That dreams are beautiful nightmares (in some cases).

The removal of the vowels (besides being just a common/generic design touch), represents the missing link between reality and dreams. That either dreams will forever just be a thought of fiction, or something turned into reality.

If you feel the happiest in your dreams, but cant bring it to life, you know you have a problem.

Happy New Year! RIP 2012, welcome 2013. I dont know how to...

jamestwawake — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 02:43:30 -0500

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

Chocolate Dre Need I say more?

jamestwawake — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 01:29:37 -0500

Chocolate Dre

Need I say more?

Michael “Slenderman” Sartor So a month or two ago,...

jamestwawake — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 01:24:23 -0500

Michael “Slenderman” Sartor

So a month or two ago, my band took band pics, and as I was testing the lighting, I captured a pic of Mike while he wasnt paying atttention. This was the result.

When I Was Your Man - Bruno Mars I recently came across this...

jamestwawake — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 04:28:00 -0500

When I Was Your Man - Bruno Mars

I recently came across this song and it touched a soft spot because I relate to it. The feeling of losing a loved one, and knowing they’ve moved on. The song talks about how much he misses her, how it still hurts even when he hears her name and all the things he wishes he could have done. Shes now with someone else and has moved on from him. The song ends with him knowing that theres nothing that could be done so he just hopes that the guy that shes with now, could do all the things for her that he was never able to do.

I used the saddest part of the song for this poster because I guess Im in the same boat. As much as it hurts to be alone with nothing to be done, as hard as it is, you just have to find a way to move on.

Winter Collection I hope I will be able to post a bunch of new...

jamestwawake — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 03:16:16 -0500

Winter Collection

I hope I will be able to post a bunch of new original designs in the next while. This will include designs that have designed for my band The World Awake, designs for this page (I hope I will be able to expand this into something bigger like printing shirts), and extra design work Ive done on the side.

*All of the work that will be posted on this page, will be done by me :)

That Hipster Shit v. TWA

jamestwawake — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 03:56:48 -0500

That Hipster Shit v. TWA

The QuestionPossibly the saddest thing I’ve ever designed...

jamestwawake — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 03:32:00 -0500

The Question

Possibly the saddest thing I’ve ever designed haha. Visually, its a simple and clean piece, but the main message is quite depressing I must say.

Remember: Its never about the question, its always the answer and you’ll find that sometimes there just is no answer. So just try to live, and try to be happy.

“Heaven’s not a place you go when you die,...

jamestwawake — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:19:16 -0400

“Heaven’s not a place you go when you die, it’s a place you live when you’re in love and alive. I was there. But it walked away.” Beautiful music with the most depressing lyrics ever haha

A poster with based on the song I Created by The Elijah.

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

jamestwawake — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:07:50 -0400

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

I created a secondary logo designed for photography...

jamestwawake — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 03:02:32 -0400

I created a secondary logo designed for photography watermarking.

Awareness Ribbons A couple weeks ago a friend approached me to...

jamestwawake — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:01:33 -0400

Awareness Ribbons

A couple weeks ago a friend approached me to help him to design something for his hockey team’s coach’s friend who recently passed away to MS/Diabetes. The design was to incorporate the awareness ribbons for both and the initials “D.A”

This was not the final design that was selected, but it was the design I liked the most. This is also a look at it minus the colours that were used.

Dream | Pursue | Inspire pt. 2 I once again teamed up with...

jamestwawake — Wed, 30 May 2012 22:54:00 -0400

Dream | Pursue | Inspire pt. 2

I once again teamed up with HiddenCitySounds to create 3 slideshow images for the newly released website.

If you want to know more about it, check it out @

www.hiddencitysounds.ca

*(images taken by HiddenCitySounds. Images designed by me)

Serena J. Giancola I recently had a friend approach me to help...

jamestwawake — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:56:00 -0400

Serena J. Giancola

I recently had a friend approach me to help her design something for her fashion blog, and I ended up designing her a logo and a brandmark while at it :P. It’s simple, yet elegant and Im happy that I got to do something different.

So check out her blog @

serenajgiancola.wordpress.com

Dayseeker *(this is not their official logo, just something I...

jamestwawake — Sun, 27 May 2012 12:41:00 -0400

Dayseeker *(this is not their official logo, just something I took a stab at)

A couple days ago I stumbled upon an unread, 3 week old message sitting in my personal facebook page. It was from Mike Karle, drummer of Southern Lights, and now Dayseeker. The awesome thing was that he found this page, and because of that he messaged me about helping them out with their new project in terms of merch or whatever. Considering the fact that I replied so late, I knew that they must of had something done or already in the works, which they do. Nevertheless, I just took it upon myself to design something out of the blue anyways for personal practice, and this was the result.

This was such a surreal moment because I was approached by someone whos music was a big part of my last and final year of my Graphic Design program. I will most likely make more Southern Lights and Arms Like Yours, to even Dayseeker related posters and what not as time goes by this summer. In the mean time, check their music out.

Graphic Design Program Thesis (revisited) Its been a month since...

jamestwawake — Sun, 27 May 2012 12:19:00 -0400

Graphic Design Program Thesis (revisited)

Its been a month since I’ve finished school, and a couple weeks until I actually get to graduate. For my final year I had to create a design thesis, and mine was to create a re-imagined first-aid kit as a “musical-aid kit.” I called it “Music Heals.”

First aid kits contain all the essential medical equipment one would need to help treat and heal minor cuts, wounds and injuries. My musical-aid kit embodied that description but instead of physical wounds, it would be music products that aid in ones emotional and mental wounds. Im proud of what I produced, but within the improvements of which I stated (a section of my process book of my workin beginning to end), I wish I was able to incorporate imagery. I couldnt because it would have taken focus away from the overall simplicity of the design. Well heres a take on what I wish I could of done :P