Posts Tagged ‘design’
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Blog Redesign
Posted on: 4th of February 2010 | Under: Artsy Fartsy

After almost three years, my “Dance Like No One’s Watching” layout has finally retired. Yes I know, it was about time, right?

This new layout is right in tune with the changes that are about to happen in my life.  Like my anticipation for those wonderful changes, I’m just as ecstatic to see this design finally up and running.

All graphics and images used on this layout were designed entirely by me. Most of the images were recycled from my previous moleskine paintings, while the vector images were made using VectorDesigner.

To be honest, I actually finished the main layout design early last year (almost nine months ago, to be exact!). But I only had the time to fix everything up this week. The fiance also helped me code the layout into a working Wordpress theme and patiently addressed errors that I kept on making while editing small details. I think it’s about time that I refresh my knowledge (or maybe take an online course/online degree) on HTML and CSS. It seems that I now know very little about coding. =P

Anyway, please excuse any broken links, if there are any. All the major parts of the blog should be working fine now, but there are still a few areas that I haven’t finished tweaking.

posted by anna @ 6:03 pm
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Web Design: Bedazz!
Posted on: 26th of January 2010 | Under: Artsy Fartsy, Geek Talk

It has been over ten years since my first love affair with web design. The first few years of that decade was spent enthusiastically designing different layouts (and searching for secure online backups at the same time) for personal websites and blogs I maintained all over the internet. However, the last half saw very little creative juices output on my my part, not necessarily due to the lack of spark plug juices (although, I did seem to run out of ideas for a while), but more of the fact that I had become more active in my offline life.

I enjoy spending more time in “the real world” but every once in a while, I do miss sitting in front of the monitor wracking my brain for hours until I came up with layouts to suit my liking.

Since my sister was planning to launch a Multiply site for her very own set of makeup brushes, Bedazz, I took the opportunity and volunteered to help her design the whole site from start to finish.

I quickly staged a late-night photo shoot, with my sister as the model. Our very own living room was turned into a makeshift studio, with one of our table lamps used as soft lighting.

My sister posing with one of her brushes.

We then had a quick product shoot the following afternoon in our garage, using the sun’s natural light.

Bedazz Stippling Brush

And with all the graphics and images ready, I spent several hours designing and fiddling with template codes.

The outcome?

A simple Black and White layout with just a few embellishments here and there.

Bedazz Header.

I took more time tweaking with codes than in designing the actual layout. My knowledge and skill in HTML and CSS has decided to fail me. Well I’m not really surprised, considering that it has in fact been years since I last fiddled around with code. =P

Anyway, do check out the multiply site. :)

Bedazz currently has three makeup brushes in its line, with several others in the testing stage. I’m not being biased, but the brushes are really nice! Mix good quality with affordable prices (only Php700 or around USD14 for a full-sized stippling brush!), it sure is a great deal!

posted by anna @ 11:30 am
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I Wish I Could Just Travel
Posted on: 25th of October 2009 | Under: Artsy Fartsy, Travel Junkie

Gouache on Moleskine Sketch.

“I wish I could just take a year off to travel.”- Gouache in my moleskine sketch mid 2008.

This year has been pretty eventful for me in terms of traveling. I shuffled quite a bit between Manila and Singapore, and had several trips to other countries, including Brunei and Malaysia too. Next weekend, the boyfriend and I are also heading to Bintan, Indonesia for an overnight getaway before I fly back to Manila.

I obviously enjoy the thrill of traveling. Sometimes I wish I could really just take a year off, hop on a plane (after buying some travel insurance online, maybe) and go from one country to another. ♥

posted by anna @ 2:44 am
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My Moleskine Works Exhibited
Posted on: 18th of July 2009 | Under: Artsy Fartsy

If you follow me on Twitter or read my Facebook statuses from time to time, then you would’ve probably seen my update about my Moleskine Folio Art being featured on the front page of Moleskine.com about two weeks ago. For those who missed it, here’s a screenshot of it:

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Click image for a full view. :)

It was a small feature on me, together with the six other artists who also donated their moleskine notebooks to Moleskine and Lettera27. That was the front page of Moleskine.com when the feature came out, and yes, that’s a page from my notebook.

You may still read the short article here.

Since I’m also in constant contact with Marsida of Moleskine Srl (Italy), she happily sent me more photos of the London exhibit where our notebooks were exhibited last April. I’ll share a few of them with you guys:

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Wish I could visit one of the exhibits one day!

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The crowd, looking at the artworks.

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The lady on the right is looking through my notebook! :)

Marsida also sent photos of my 2nd Set of Moleskine Sketchbook Art. I was informed that it has been exhibited around several cities in Europe:

  • Rome, Librerie Feltrinelli piazza Argentina, for 1 month
  • Milan, librerie Frltrinelli piazza Duomo, for 1 month
  • Torino, librerie Frltrinelli piazza CNL, for 1 month
  • Berlin, Hugendubel Tauentzienstraße, for 2 months
  • Frankfurt, Paperworld Internationale Frankfurter Messe

That list was given to me back in May, and I was told that it would be brought to a handful more cities (around the UK and Denmark too) after that. I don’t have the current list as of the moment, but I reckon my notebook’s just so lucky for being able to tour around Europe that long! Ugghh, I wish I was a notebook myself! LOL!

Here are several photos taken in Germany:

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Unlike the other Moleskine events where my notebook would just be showcased along with other artists, these exhibits only featured my artwork. :)

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This message came from the lady who was in charge of the exhibits in Germany: “The enclosed images are of paperworld Fair Frankfurt and of earlybird Lifestyle Fair Hamburg in 2009. I hope Anna Marie V. Avanceña will agree with them, because my college Ute Henrichfreise likes her work like me – there are such nice themes in it, so we took good care of it.”

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Check out my notebook on the bottom right, showcased inside the acrylic enclosure. =D

Collaborating with Moleskine has been such a joy. Not only do I get to do what I enjoy most, which is make art, I also get to see the care and importance they put into showcasing them. :)

posted by anna @ 12:48 am
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