Dear Santa/Wife/Millionaire Admirers

I have once again been inspired to make a list of sorts, this time with a little helpful inspiration via the Grain Edit 2009 Holiday Wish Lists. Below you will find an entirely hypothetical list of things I wouldn't return if given to me this Christmas (I say hypothetical because if anyone ever bought me a gift costing over $50 I would feel so guilty that I wouldn't be able to enjoy it).

Some new kicks for myself and in turn a child in a third world country

An inside look at the most successful branding anyone has seen in years/possibly ever

A sweet print to accommodate my vintage camera collection

A much needed upgrade to my bicycle

This rad shirt by a rad designer

A really nice jacket to wear for one month out of the year

This desk to hide away wires and mid-afternoon snacks in

A new driveway decoration

A visual treat from The Decemberists

More goodness to hang on my wall

And of course. World Peace.

2009 - The Year in Review

If your anything like me your a fan of lists and end of the year/top 10 lists in particular.

My love of end of the year lists started a couple years back when a few of my favorite designers over at Invisible Creature (formerly of Asterik Studio) would post their favorite albums of the year, every year.

My categorization curiosity has continued to evolve due largely to the fact that one of my co-workers, Scott Shipley, assigns nearly every album movie or show he consumes to a seemingly endless running list in his head comprised of top of the year and top of the decade categories. He claims to be comprising a Top 500 Albums of the decade list but we have yet to see anything come to fruition but I can assure that Outkast and Nas will make the cut.

This year is the first time that I have actually created a list of my own and it was every bit as fun as I thought it would be. I probably could have spent more time contemplating my entries but I tried to go with my first reactions for sincerity's sake. The entries are in no particular order so there is really no number 1 album or movie just a top however many.

I hope this will inspire others to create their own top whatever lists so I can read thru them and see what kind of stuff my friends and acquaintances are into. Happy listing.

Top 10 Albums
Thrice - Beggars
Blakroc - Blakroc
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South
The Decemberists - Hazards of Love
The XX - The XX
He Is Legend - It Hates You
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus
Brand New - Daisy
Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
The Dead Weather - Horehound

Top 10 Songs
Thrice - Beggars
Thrice - Helter Skelter cover
Brand New - Bought a Bride
Conor Oberst and the MVB - I Got the Reason #2
Monsters of Folk - Whole Lotta Losin'
Every Time I Die - The Sweet Life
He Is Legend - Mean Shadows
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home
The Dead Weather - 60 Feet Tall
Blakroc - Ain't Nothing Like You

Top 5 Films (Haven't seen enough to constitute a top 10 list)
Zombieland
District 9
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
UP!
Inglorious Bastards

Top 5 Shows (There are only so many you can keep up with)
Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Fringe
30 Rock
The Office
Lost


Top 10 Websites to Frequent
Kitsune Noir
A Time to Get
FFFFOUND
For Print Only
Huffington Post
Digg
Design Sponge
The Art of Manliness
Pitchfork
Thrice

Top 10 Highlights
Getting hired on at Fender Guitars and having rad co-workers
Buying a home in Coronado Historical District
Starting FightforFeuille.com and helping a friend
Finding out that I will have a niece in 2010
My wife graduating from the Aveda Institute
Phoenix Design Week and all that came with it
My good friend graduating with his BFA (Good work Beardagon)
Being asked to contribute to a design book (coming in 2010)
Having two good friends move into my guest house
Being a part of the Praxis Creative Team and making some great friends in the process

PHX DW 09

Phoenix Design Week will have its inaugural event from October 21st-25th. The week will feature galleries during the week, showing local work of graphic, interactive and motion designers. Among the exhibits will be a display of client rejected logos, a paper sculpture showcase and a collaborative poster show with work from students from 4 different local design programs.

Friday night will kick off the weekend with the Typophile Film Fest at MadCap Theatres. The typography themed short film fest is only being shown in a few select cities, with Phoenix being lucky enough to be included in this exclusive list.

The weekend conference is being held at the Phoenix Convention Center in the heart of downtown Phoenix. The list of speakers includes the national president of the AIGA, Debbie Millman, Chaz Maviyane-Davies the "guerilla of graphic design", Eric Hillerns, Bobby Solomon, Bennet Peji and many others. The panels, presentations, workshops and roundtable discussions held during the weekend conference are meant to bring together the design community in an unprecedented way.

Thoughts on a friend...

As many of you know my friend Robert Feuille was diagnosed with testicular cancer a few months back and promptly rushed into surgery and then into treatment, narrowly escaping with his life. Unfortunately the treatment was not enough to kill the disease and he is currently undergoing hi-dose chemotherapy treatment in Indianapolis. The treatment has been paired with a stem cell transplant which is essentially a method of keeping him alive after the grueling chemo treatment. Complicating the situation, his wife Aimee has been pregnant through the entire process with their third child and first son, Egan Triumph. Because of possible radiation issues Aimee was unable to be with Robert through most of his initial treatment and more recently has not been able to travel to Indianapolis with him because she was too pregnant. Robert has also been unable to enjoy the company of his two little girls Ethne and Emeline, out of fear of exposing them to any radiation, so the girls were sent to live with their grandparents in El Paso as Robert battles the disease.

Robert has taken on the task of documenting his treatment and fight via a video blog, which he updates almost daily. Seeing Robert in front of the camera day in and day out is both inspiring and heartbreaking. The most recent video (day +! (and egan?)) is especially moving, even for somebody as generally emotionally unshakable as myself. I made the grave mistake of watching the video at work and in turn was forced to crowd myself into the corner and hide my tears from my fellow design nerds. If anybody asks about the incident I will probably just tell them I was listening to some Kenny G and got a little worked up.

That video was what lead me to writing this and sending it around. Upon listening to Robert’s words I realized that it would be selfish of me not to share his journey with my friends, family and anyone who would benefit from the astounding example that Robert is. As you watch the video I would encourage you to contemplate that before you is a man who has been given a 20% chance to live, he hasn’t seen his wife or children in weeks, he wasn’t able to be there for the birth of his son, he is quarantined to a hospital room in a strange city halfway across the country from his home and yet despite all of this, with his body broken by chemotherapy and nausea swirling in his stomach, he is full of nothing but admiration for his fellow man and gratitude to God for blessing him with a new son. It comes as a stark contrast to how most of us live our lives, seemingly jaded by the world and throwing a perpetual hissy fit about not being the center of the universe as we know it. While facing death Robert has trumped most of us in the art of living and I think its worth all of us taking note of.

With that I will end my session of thinking out loud (or as I’m typing anyway) and ask you to pray for Robert and his family, if your not the praying type please just send good vibes his way (not quite sure how that is done but I’m sure there is some sort of dance that can be done in order to do so).

http://robertfuel.com/fight/

Thanks,
Jon Ashcroft

Resemblence

Today at work I was chatting with one of my fellow print designers and one of the copy writers named Jeff. In mid conversation Jeff said “has anybody ever told you that you bear a striking resemblance to one of the all time great Fender players?” being caught off guard I said “no the only thing people have said I resemble is one of the inbred disfigured mutants from the Hills Have Eyes”. Jeff replied “Have you ever heard of Hank Marvin from The Shadows?” Now I consider myself to be a pretty big music buff but I’ve got nothing on the guys around here and the 50’s and 60’s aren’t my strong suite so I honestly replied that I had no idea who that was. Jeff went on to give me a cool little history lesson about The Shadows and how Hank Marvin was one of the first guys in the UK to play a Stratocaster and how he inspired Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmie Page and a hand full of other legendary British rockers to play Fender because they idolized him.

I was intrigued so I decided to get online and see if Jeff was right. I found some of The Shadows material online and gave it a listen while I searched for photos to see if I could guess which one he “thought” I resembled. As soon as I saw the first photo is was pretty evident that Jeff was spot on and I do look a lot like Hank Marvin. The resemblance isn’t too strong from the front but if you look at his profile it’s pretty close. That and we both like our glasses thick, black and out of date,well I guess his were probably all the rage.

Tomorrow

Is my last day as an employee of GoDaddy.com and it comes with a bitter sweet flavor. I couldn't have been happier with my first post graduation job and could have seen myself there for a few more years. I made some great friends and learned a lot from the very talented people I was lucky enough to work along side.

As sad as I am to leave I am also very excited to begin my new position at Fender Musical Instruments Incorporated as a graphic designer. I'm still trying to figure out how I beat hundreds of other applicants and landed what I myself and I'm sure several other design nerds would consider a dream job. I guess my fascination with and previous work involving music and musical instruments played to my favor in this scenario. I guess it's like a guy named N. Dynamite once said "follow your hear, thats what I do". I debated showing up on my first day wearing a Gibson Guitars shirt but maybe I should give everyone a chance to get and know my sarcastic personality before I start in with all that

2.17.09

2.17.09, originally uploaded by jOn aShcRofT???.

Thoughts on design

stay away, originally uploaded by jOn aShcRofT???.

I guess it's a bit of a rule visually to stay away from the edge of your composition. I however am quite fond of it and thought this little guy up to say so.

thoughts

yup, originally uploaded by jOn aShcRofT???.

I was laying on the couch thinking about how I wanted to go to bed and these words popped into my head. So instead of going to bed I made this. I think I will go to bed now though

Hmmmm..

Haven't posted anything in awhile, mainly because I've been trying to cut back on time spent in front of my electric glow box. I've also been thinking about changing things up around here. It seems the majority of what I post on here is recent design projects, the same design projects I usually post three other places on the web. It gets a bit repetitive is what I'm saying (and more so pointless).

The other day somebody asked me what I do for fun and to my surprise (and dismay), I had absolutely no answer. I used to be able to say that design and photography were my hobbies but anymore that is just not true. Graphic design is what I do for a living and my view of photography for some reason is becoming more and more jaded. I would actually like to sell my camera for an extra chunk of change but I know it is more financially viable if I keep it and use it to make some doe.

What does all of this mean? I don't know, I just starting writing and it came out. I haven't ranted about anything in awhile, maybe I will do some more of that. No! Thats not what I need. What I'm I saying? I need a new hobby, something I can get excited about. I've actually been trying to do so for awhile but nothing seems to be sticking. Except for throwing bean bags into a hole, I loves me a game of corn hole.

New Portfolio

I let my site go down while I rethink and redesign it. In the mean time I set up a portofolio on a really cool website called the Behance Network. If you like me you will go and check it out and then report back to me on your inner most thoughts.