State of the Encyclopedia Address
It’s time for your first State of the ‘Cyclopedia Address, where I will lay down some fax about what has been going on and why you haven’t read anything new on here for a couple weeks.
New website design
kevinczap.com, 3 iterations ago
The last time I updated my website, I have to admit, it was a bit of a rush job — essentially a makeover of the older design. To be fair, the changes I made were necessary and made the site a good deal better, and I liked a lot of what I had done. But I had really wanted to do something completely different.
kevinczap.com, 2 iterations ago
So why did I use it anyway? Because I needed to get it finished. I was looking for jobs again and needed to have something up that wouldn’t embarrass me. I went with a minor overhaul because, frankly, it was just taking a while to work out the bugs for an entirely new design. So, a little over 6 months later…
kevinczap.com, now baby
This is more what I was going for, and why this here blog changed the way it did, same as my Twitter account. There are still a couple things I think that could be tweaked, but in general I think it’s pretty nice and does a fairly good job of representing my work. I’m excited to see how it evolves (both my work and the design of the site to reflect it). My first predictions involve getting more DIY and colorful… better type for sure.
kevinczap.com, now baby
Gretchen Goss dot Com
The other internet thing that I am super proud of is the new portfolio site for Gretchen Goss. She is the head of the Enameling Dept. at CIA as well as chair of the Craft Environment in general, a really nice woman and an amazing artist.
gretchengoss.com
I love working with artists. If you are out there reading this, and you are of a creative persuasion looking for a website, I would very happy to talk with you. In the meantime, admire Gretchen’s mind-blowing enamel work.
mad shout-outs
We may have lost for Ohio on the 3rd, but there’s still time left to vote for other stuff!
Fellow CIA alum and rising star Niki Smith has a comic in the running to be the next Zuda strip. Yeah, DC’s Zuda (not to be confused with Microsoft’s Zune, of course). It’s called Maps & Legends and right now it’s in the number 1 slot, poised for the big win come the end of the month, meaning it would become a regular feature on the site. This is pretty big, but Niki is a seasoned vet already, having been published internationally, perhaps most notably for appearing beside the likes of Gilbert Hernandez (!), Erika Moen and Alison Bechdel in Last Gasp’s Best Erotic Comics 2009.
Be a sport and go vote — polls are open all November.
Of Maps & Legends, currently no.1 as of 11.12.09
Also, a bit closer to home, my own dear brother is in a contest! This one is for a Doritos commercial that would play during the Super Bowl. I understand a lot of people eat chips during that time, so maybe they would enjoy eating their chips and laughing along to my brother (spraying chip crumbs all over the TV screen). There is a lot of competition it looks like, but of course Matt’s is the best. His animations are set to the tune of a script by KeenSpot bigwigs Chris and Bobby Crosby (the latter of Pupkin fame, the former notable for living in an old schoolhouse).
It’s an intriguing examination of just how useful the mountains of information produced by consumer culture is from an archeological viewpoint. Watch and enjoy! Voting doesn’t start until the 10th of January, so keep this one in mind, I’ll do my best to keep it refreshed for you.
classic slapstick courtesy of Matt Czap
That’s all I got for now. Stay tuned, I love you guys!
I really like the new layout, Kevin. It’s very clean and easy-to-navigate. I may need to borrow some ideas from you in the near future. Don’t worry; You can have them back when I’m done.