My business cards now match my brand identity for Power Source Studios.

Things are coming along. Hopefully by this time next year I’ll have 20 some odd clients and I won’t be transferring money from my savings into my checking at the end of the month.

See the larger versions of the designs for my business cards below:

 

Using a program called Rasterbator, poster board, ink from my office, frames my grandfather helped me create and paint from Loews I blew up these tiny comic panels to make supremely large pictures to hang on my wall.

Before you look at the result of the finished blown up panels and frames hanging on my wall, you should understand why I did this. So, why is this post called Suck it, Quesada, and why is it filed under “site updates”?

Well, it shouldn’t be any surprise to any NINTR fans out there, but Spider-man is my favorite superhero. And his weekly comics are things I still buy, collect, horde and am obsessed with to this day. In a mini-series titled One More Day, which begins after his Aunt May had been shot, Spider-Man seeks help to save her life. He encounters the demon Mephisto, who offers to save her life if Spider-Man gives him his marriage. Spider-Man and his wife Mary Jane Watson agree, and so upon that agreement that part of their history is erased so that effectively, they have never been married.

Well, it should be needless to say, but I know that’s presumptuous, the decision to abruptly end Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s marriage and the events of “One More Day” are heavily criticized.

I wont go into why other people don’t like the way it ended, but I will go into why I didn’t like it.

A few years back a writer by the name of J. Michael Straczynski, (of Babylon 5 fame) jumped on board to write Spider-man comics. Well, even though his work on Spider-man is criticized heavily as well, his stories and adventures he wrote were more popular in terms of sales and likability. Well One more day was intended to serve as a capstone to J. Michael Straczynski’s mostly well-received run on Amazing Spider-Man. Instead, it somehow managed to taint the entire run, bringing its overall quality down several points, simply because it’s such an abysmal comic.

The series managed to make likable characters unlikable, and Peter Parker look completely insecure and needy beyond any insecurity he’s ever displayed. Mary Jane, once to be praised for being long-suffering and basically always putting up with her husband, suddenly seems like she should’ve gone out for cigarettes and never came back years ago.

The series took two already well established personality’s of HUGELY popular characters and introduced a sudden level of doubt, hate, and regret that 20 some odd years of marriage displayed in hundreds of books would lead you to believe otherwise.

But I’m sure we all can relate, that when working for a company the powers that be, the people in charge, get the final say; regardless of how stupid and wrong you think their decision is. And since, Joe Quesada who wrote One more day also happens to be editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics, of course he got his way.

His way being that he thinks that Spider-man comics worked and sold better when Spider-man was relatable to Spider-man’s core audience. Insecure, down-trodden, living with their parents, no job young adult college/high school students. He didn’t think that the happy, married to a super-model, older/wiser Spider-man was a character people could ‘relate’ to. But a man who can walk up walls, can afford a downtown Manhattan apartment on a freelance photographer’s unsteady nonsalaried income, and constantly single and always fucking up and bad luck finds me wherever I go Spider-man was more believable.

Oh wait there’s more believability for you coming: Events, post-One more day in general seem to be geared toward making Peter’s life as comically, unbelievably horrible as possible. He can’t get a job, despite being a brilliant scientist who invented a synthetic ‘webbing’ chemical as a teenager. His roommates hate him and/or Spider-Man. Aunt May marries J. Jonah Jameson’s father. Jonah becomes Mayor of NYC and immediately sets about making capturing Spider-Man priority one for everyone. And Norman Osborn – despite being publicly known as The Green Goblin – has become head of the national agency in charge of monitoring/commanding all the legally-operating superheroes in the United States.

If you don’t think any of that is relatable or makes any sense, you’re not alone. A lot of fans don’t think ANY of this makes any sense. And it doesn’t. Peter Parker – written properly – would never make a bargain with The Devil because it was easier than dealing with tragedy. It doesn’t make any sense for Harry Osborn (Norman Osborn’s son) to be back from the dead because of Peter’s bargain with the devil. And known-murderer and lunatic Norman Osborn being appointed to a national agency, much less being beloved by the public REALLY doesn’t make any sense…unless this is all part of Norman’s wish.

Would Norman make a literal deal with the devil to get power and a chance to cause as much chaos as possible by jacking around with the superheroes? Especially Spider-man? Yes. However, I have no faith in Marvel anymore that this is what will come out that has happened. I would love if it turned out that Norman made a deal with Mehisto that set a series of events that put him into power, brought back his son from the dead, and Spider-man’s marriage “erased from history.” But, knowing Marvel, they’ll pretend like One more day didn’t happen and never talk about it again and never retcon it properly if at all.

And in case anyone was wondering what the original creator of Spider-man thinks, here’s a direct quote from Stan Lee:

“Well, I think it was good in the sense that it made a lot of people sit up and take notice and it generated a lot more interest in Spider-Man. But I must admit I agree with you, it wasn’t typical of the Spider-Man we have known and I think they’ll either going to get back to the normal Spider-Man and Mary Jane relationship or they’ve maybe already done it… they will, sooner or later they will, I’m sure of it.”

Well, as a homage to some of the greatest comics/stories/books/adventures I’ve ever read I spent a great deal of time creating giant pictures to hang up on my wall to see and wake up to every morning that will always remind me of a better time, the best time, in Spider-man comics. The time when J. Michael Straczynski was writing the book. The panels I blew up were specifically from one page in an issue of Amazing Spider-man where Peter Parker is lying awake at night next to Mary-Jane, and he’s thinking to himself and/or possibly talking to God, where he’s thanking whomever, for bringing Mary-Jane into his life. He realizes that he needs her and that she completes him.

Again, Quesada’s timing and forced personality change in all of these characters doesn’t make any sense, and something should be done about it. Hopefully, this small gesture of creating these pictures will send out vibes that will attack Quesada’s insecurity and make him retcon this atrocious series for good.

Also, I added this to site updates just because I don’t know, I thought I could add to this to my portfolio because it was a very interesting/educational DIY project.

Click the below image to see a slideshow of images of the result. If you are using an RSS reader please go to actual post:

See the original panels in sequence by clicking the image below:

• Boston College
• Boston College–One Year later
• Boston College–Year two

One year later and Year two were rough years, and not because of work, but because of what was going on outside of work. Well, year three smoothed things out. Year three has been a great year. Both at work and outside. And even though I’ve posted things recently that would lead you to believe otherwise, just know that BC and my new living situation are the primary things in my life that are keeping me going strong.

Here are some of the projects that have been keeping me busy:
If you are using an RSS reader, please go to the actual post.

The homepage is still one of my main responsibilities. Haven’t got around to adding some javascript animation like I wanted to for the featured highlights and events yet, but, that’s only because we were switching over the BC CMS so I had to wait to see what was going to be possible within it:

The bulk of my work this past year has been making features and creating technology to showcase those features. Here are the one’s I’m particularly proud of from this past year:
We revamped the look and feel of Portfolio:

Last year there was an audio slideshow that I was working on that I am SUPER proud of. That came out AWESOME, called Here’s looking at me:

Another audio slideshow that I did that came out really good was one called Welcome wagon:

I found and started utilizing this new slideshow technology called Highslide:

We even started doing interactive features, which has been great for me because it means the video/audio people step aside and I can actually utilize my expertise:

Even though I didn’t shoot this piece, I thought I should mention that the storyboarding and concept was my idea that I proposed:

This in an interesting feature I did of a tour of the University’s main data center:

At the beginning of the year the Carrol school of management wanted some interesting new pieces of technology that we had to build and create content for. We created an accordion style Javascript feature to house audio slideshows that I created:

Not everything I do is technology/code/content driven. I actually get to digitally illustrate some artwork for various pieces we’ve done:

Not everything I do for the University I can actually highlight here using images.

There is a lot more that I do that I shouldn’t talk about as of yet. Only because a lot of thing are in testing, approval, and somewhat hush hush that I don’t think my higher ups would approve of me posting.

Stay tuned to Year four…all will be revealed.

And as always, I owe a GIANT thank you to my employers and the College for this amazing opportunity to let me be a part of something bigger than myself. <3

My contract templates now match my brand identity for Power Source Studios.

The only template not listed on here are the pages where I outline the scope and summary of the project since there’s nothing to those particular templates.

See the larger versions of the designs for my contract templates for when I do freelance work below:

 

Proposal cover

Customer non-interactive questionnaire

Logo INTERACTIVE questionnaire

Website INTERACTIVE questionnaire

Price list

SEO submission form

Terms and conditions

Invoice

Approval sheet

Regular commenters of NINTR may have already noticed, but not understood, the cartoon depiction of Adam and Eve in the form fields for the comment section…

Well, if, you read the line preceding the comment section: “YOU ARE FREE, YOU HAVE A VOICE, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SNEAK…SO, FOR GOD’S SAKE…SPEAK!” which links to the following post: The Secret History of the Nursery Rhyme! you would understand.

But I added the depiction there because I felt as though it was appropriate for the comment section to highlight and allude to a nursery rhyme that specifically addresses freedom of speech. Paying homage in a way and strengthening the theme of the blog by allowing people to comment on the things that I post and displaying that image.

Also, in regards to comments, I found a nifty little bit of code that enables the display of “Most Commented on Posts.” Honestly, it’s really cool, but, I don’t get as many comments as I’d like so the five that are there will probably stay there for a while. But whatever you can do to get people to read more, the better. Check it out, it’s on the right over there →

What more is there to say? I redesigned my resume. I’m not looking to leave BC or anything, but, it’s smarter to always be prepared, because you never know what life might throw at you.

(I didn’t redesign to be prepared, I redesigned it to make it match the Power Source Studios brand identity)

I chose beauty over practicality.

Story of my life.

After I created the post “The Secret History of the Nursery Rhyme!” I got inspired to create drop caps for all of my posts!

For me, drop caps have always been synonymous with old scripture and nursery rhymes. And if you haven’t figured it out by now, my whole theme revolves around nursery rhymes.

So I thought it would be appropriate to start putting drop caps at the beginning of all my posts if my theme is going to emulate nursery rhymes.

Cool, no?

(If you’re using an RSS reader, please go to the actual post to see)

Recently a start-up company called “Modern Things,” inspired by the Björk song, hired me to create a logo design that would primarily be used for their website.

Which was interesting, because, in my experience you’re supposed to create a logo that can be used across mediums, at different sizes, and in various colors.

Strongly feeling as though they do not want designs for those mediums I went forward with what they asked and paid for. In the end, I really like the way it came out.

This logo was created using some tutorials I found online, Flash and Actionscript 3.

Please click on the above image to see the animation and turn up your volume, I added a low neon hum for additional effect.

(RSS Readers, go to actual post)

So the video exhibition (aka my video portfolio) has been finished for my online portfolio site. Please check it out! It came out really well. I’m very proud.

Below are some screen shots:

Here is how the daytime design looked before.

Here is how the daytime design looks now.

Here is how the nighttime design looked before.

Here is how the nighttime design looks now.

Now hold up a sec, by clicking the links above, you’re not getting the full-experience…go to the actual site www.powersourcestudios.net to see the video that is playing.

Well that concludes the work for the video portfolio edition of my site. It’s time to begin some legitimate client work and build up this portfolio. So having that said, I am currently looking for freelance work. So if you or anybody you know is looking for a logo design, brand identity, website work, website design, video editing, animation, etc etc etc; please consider me Miles Benson, for any of your creative services. Here is a little bit about me:

I am a designer that lives in Boston, MA.

I design for all different kinds of mediums including but is not limited to video, animation, print, and web.

I have had over five years of experience working within the industry as well as working freelance.

I’m currently taking on projects big and small and from anywhere inside the United States of America. I would love to hear from you!

If you would like to see some of my work please go to www.powersourcestudios.net

Made a few graphic changes from last time.

As you can see, I added a window washer, added half the logo, a display stand for the lawnmower, hung a DVD on the wall, and cleaned up some of the construction equipment.

Here is how the daytime design looked before.

Here is how the daytime design looks now.

Here is how the nighttime design looked before.

Here is how the nighttime design looks now.

Now hold up a sec, by clicking the links above, you’re not getting the full-experience…go to the actual site www.powersourcestudios.net to see the video that is playing.

To be concluded…