insectengine

Project branding for the Teiid project.

James — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:41:48 +0000

A while back, the Visual Design team did a branding project for the Teiid project on the JBoss Community site. The name is a play on “eii” (Enterprise Information Integration). Turns out, there are very few names that contain eii in them. What the project team came up with is a type of lizard. I had some fun with working up the logo.

What does the project do? “Teiid is a data virtualization system that allows applications to use data from multiple, heterogenous data stores.”

Learn more about the project.

JBoss Community Visual Design site

James — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:13:30 +0000

As part of our on going changes to the infrastructure, we’ve moved our design files outside of the old “labs” environment. We’ve got a cool new place for our stuff.

Check it out at design.jboss.org

My Waltworks Single Speed 29er.

James — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:06:04 +0000

So, I’ve dove head first into Mountain Biking over the past year and change. I purchased a used Santa Cruz Blur and rode if for a long time. On one of my Sunday rides with the local Bike Mojo crew I met a few guys who rode single speed (SS) and one crazy nut job who rode Fixie. Anyway at one of the breathers on the trail, I took a quick spin on one of the guys SS. Wow, it was nice. No worries about what gear to be in… just go. And I took it up a hill and I was amazed. It was light and climbed like a billygoat.

So, I got my hands on a cheap single speed and rode it for a couple months (exclusively) and really love the experience. It was an entry level bike and it was fully rigid so I was killing my shoulders on downhills. Hey, I never claimed to be a good rider ok. I decided to get a suspension fork on the front to make the rides more enjoyable. Well, needless to say, it would have cost more than the entire bike. So a discussion was had between me and my MTB mentor about it. He said I should get a quality steel frame and go from there.

That started my quest for frames and after a month of searching and test riding I fell into a deal on eBay for a custom Waltworks frame. This guy is a reknowned frame builder from Colorado. Anyway the frame on Ebay was built for a guy who matched my measurements exactly and it was a fraction of the cost and wait time of getting Walt to build me one from scratch.

So I bought it. My buddy Jason built it up and it’s been love ever since. I’ve been riding this bike exclusively for about six months and have no desire to ride anything else. It’s to the point I’ve put road slicks on my Santa Cruz and use it for road riding.

Here are some pictures of it in all it’s manliness.

Cycling Jersey Design… Tender Gooch Racing

James — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:42:53 +0000

I’ve been riding with a group of Single Speeders for a while now on a weekly ride on Mondays. Quite a few of them all race together under the banner of “Tender Gooch Racing”. I figured they needed to meet their quota of overweight balding middle aged guys so they made me a member. Suckers.

They like to make fun of other “race teams” so the idea of a mock jersey came up. So, being a designer who can’t seem to say “no”… I couldn’t pass on the chance to help some friends out.

Check out the design.

New logo design for “HornetQ”

James — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:01:26 +0000

I just completed the logo design for a renaming project for an open source project at work. HornetQ is a project that deals with messaging between applications. The project lead wanted something a bit on the “sporty” side.

Here is the logo:

Here is a better look at the logomark:

Check out this iphone wallpaper I created for it:

New desktops for the projects of the JBoss Community (JBoss.org)

James — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:49:57 +0000

In my day job, I’m the Visual Design Lead for the JBoss Community site. I’ve been working for JBoss.org for several years. My role is is quite interesting in that I’m responsible for the brand and the usability of the site as well as I help the individual projects with their branding. I also help with the usability and user interface design on the projects from time to time too.

Anyway, that being said. I’ve spruced up the site a bit by adding spiffy new desktops for the site and several of the projects. We’ll be adding new ones from time to time as we complete branding exercies for projects.

Check all of them out.

Repping Polska proper.

James — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 03:50:07 +0000

So, a while back, I picked up a Santa Cruz Blur on Craigslist. I posted about it and told some of my friends from Poland to check it out. My buddy Tomek was aghast. “Why do you have that grungy pigeon on it” he said. The previous owner had put a “Deutschland” crest sticker on it and I hadn’t bothered to take it off.

See the proof…

After awhile, I get this in the mail…

Tomek’s Gift

So, in honor of my Polish friends, I’ve scrapped off the German Chicken and have replaced it with a proper Crest.

New and Improved

Enjoy Tomek.

Stumbled across this the other day…

James — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:32:29 +0000

Just when you think the internet no longer holds any value, you run across a nice gem like this:

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

Ouch…Something bit me!

James — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:57:44 +0000

So I borrowed that line from Forest Gump.

I had my first serious “issue” riding my Santa Cruz. Riding Barton Creek Green Belt (BCGB) and hit the ground, well actually a rock, on my side during an ill-advised downhill. Ended up with a nasty and painful bruise on my side (love handle) and the associated severe soreness. Well I rode a bit more but decided to cut it short. On my way back to the 360 entry point, I was trying to climb a ledge when I was again smote by the mountain bike gods. Wasn’t going fast enough and stopped dead in my tracks so I hopped of my pedals only to run my leg down my outer chain ring. Didn’t feel it but I noticed the large open gash. Luckily it didn’t bleed much as I still had to ride about 10 minutes more to get out of BCGB.

Took a trip to St. Davids ER… Three hours and 17 stitches later…check out my lovely parting gifts!

My new ride…

James — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:07:35 +0000

A friend let Luke and I borrow his mountain bikes (Thanks Christian!) for the Adventure Race. I gratefully returned it and needed to find a ride of my own. I looked on the newpaper of the 21st century (craigslist) and found an 03 Santa Cruz Blur. After a bit of chatting I picked it up. Man, that full suspension is nice as it eats up the bumpy trials. I took it out to the veloway for the initial shakedown ride then I hit the Barton Creek Greenbelt on Sunday to ride with some fellas. I again took a beating on some of the rock gardens but the bike was super nice. I managed to get my first scratch on it so, that’s out of the way. I rolled through Walnut Creek last night on it and it flew. I’m quite happy with my new ride.

Check it out…