Sticks and stones

Imagine you're just chilling, on a cool Monday afternoon, and you get an email that someone has commented on a website you've been featured on.

So you decide to check it out, then this is what you come a across:

I'm not too sure what exactly it is that this person saw on my Twitter page, but still.

Am I the greatest designer ever? No.
Are my designs the most unique-est thing ever to hit the internet? No.
Is there anywhere on the internet (or anywhere else for that matter) where I claim to be the be-a-and-end-all of all things design? No.
Am I guilty of shameless self-promotion over and over and over all over the internet? YES. YES. And oh hell YES!

Am I gonna apologise for that? No.
Why? Becuase if I don't do it myself, then who's gonna do it for me? No one.

So what if my designs aren't the greatest designs ever to hit the internet since porn?
I never said they were. The sole reason why I put my stuff all over the internet is to get some feedback on what I'm doing right or wrong. Not to be judged on my tweets. Not to be praised either. But to be given criticism. Both positive and negative. If someone is just going to come up out of nowhere and say I need more practice or more humility, then I'm all for that. Lemme know where I need to improve, where my short-comings are. Where my faults are. I'd appreciate that. But the rest of that comment was absolutely unnecessary.

I'm not gonna say "don't mistake my confidence for arrogance".

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On your TV screens!

Yesterday I was informed of some awesomeness that'll be gracing TV screens all across the border!


That's right, the one and only Diamond Dealer will be featured doing his thing on SowetoTV (DSTv Channel 150) today.

I'll obviously be glued to my TV that time. My ritualistic PlayStationing immediately after work is gonna have to take the backseat. I wanna be there to witness history unfold!

You might be reading this and thinking, "what's the big deal!?". Well, let me ease your aching head...

The 051Free State range of t-shirts were only launched on the 15th of March 2010. And not even two months later they're gonna be on TV! <-- That right there is a big deal on it's own! Coupled with the fact that I basically took a giant leap in approaching a total stranger and asking them to be the brand ambassador for a brand that had only printed it's very first t-shirts in June 09. A brand that not a lot of people knew about. A brand that is determined to make it regardless of who said what. A brand that has had no sort of funding or exposure from any other big name. This could easily be the very best day of my life! The begining of it all! I just hope broadcast doesn't get postponed/canceled or anything along those lines. *touch wood* Deuces! Keep it 27degrees cool!

PS: Thanx to tehPaperCut Designs for the killa pic :)
PPS: I'm plugging myself like you wont believe.
PPPS: I don't care how that sounds!

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The rebirth

Can't believe this is what my life has come to.

Ok. That's a bit of a melodramatic opening line...

Let's try again...

So this is it. Make or break time. (muuuch better)

I told myself that at some point in my life I'd return to school and study something in the creative industry. Not because I think it's gonna be easy, but because I wouldn't mind spending 3 years of my life studying something I am passionate about.

One thing I didn't anticipate was what I'm faced with at this very moment. I have to draw or paint something (anything) before I can be considered for admission.

This is no problem for me. I know I can draw. Even though I don't remember the last time I actually drew something.

I'm not worried about actually doing it. I'm not worried about what the end result is gonna look like. I'm not worried about ho little time I have. Actually... I'm not worried at all. I'm gonna do this. Even if I have to submit a page with one blob in the center!

Just got back from buying some drawing pads, pencils, an eraser and a sharper. All the tools I used to rely heavily on back in school when I used to draw during my downtime.

Come to think of it, back in the day I used to only draw when I had nothing better to do. On those days when I wanted to be alone with just me, my pencil and my music. Not a lot has changed since then, seeing that I still do pretty much the same thing, only difference is that I've come to rely so much on clicking and double-clicking that I have somehow lost the connection I used to have with paper. I guess this is my chance to rekindle that bond. See if the spark still exists.

There's no other way to do it but to do it to it!

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27Degree Update

Hmmm...

Where to begin...?

Been gone so long. Haven't been blogging for a while. I guess not having my own internet access is yet another hurdle I have to jump over sooner or later.

First it was not having my own PC to blog on whenever I wanted. Got that sorted. And now it's the internetlessness issue.

Anyway, I didn't come back on this blog to complain about my lack or resources. But rather to update you. Yes you, the reader about what I've been up to.

So, let me be the very first one to announce that my days of boredom are a thing of the past.

And by past I mean a very very long time ago. Over eight months ago actually.
You see, last year in June I started a clothing company called 27 Degrees Clothing. Wasn't as hard as I thought it was gonna be. Didn't expect so much support from a place where I didn't know even one person.

This is basically how it all started.

I had this brilliant idea of starting a t-shirt line combining all the popular t-shirt brands that are already available out here in South Africa. I took inspiration from up-and-coming brands as well as well established labels. Everything from AmaKipKip, to IMAKOOLKID to even the smallest of the small brands that seem to be popping up everywhere.

I studied most of these brands, learned from their successes and failures. Took what worked from them and adopted it into something that'll suit my style and my target market. I can safely say this has yielded great results for me.

I may not be where I wanna be yet, but I'm most definately on the right path towards that dream.

The main idea behind starting this company was to provide a way for people to represent where they're from. Using area codes together with the name of the province, was an effort to take wearing a tshirt a step further than it having just a name and no other interesting element to it.

I also created a website to go with the clothing brand (http://www.27-degrees.com/). I wanted to have a platform where I can interact with my customers and allow for total transparency in case somebody wants to get through to me and doesn't know how to, or where to go. Hence the reason the website is not only a way to show off the latest designs, but functions primarily as a blog for the company.

Though the brand is still small, I'm proud of how far it has come in the short time that it has been around.

Having gone from just one Facebook page with only one fan (me) to having an estimated total of over 463 fans spread out over 3 pages. With well over a 500 t-shirts sold in 8 months... the best is yet to come.

And basically this has been the one thing that has taken up most of my time, money and energy.

The plan for this year is to basically get the brand recognised throughout SA. Even if you don't know what it's about or why it exists, as long as you recognise the design. Then that's all that matters to me.

For more details on the brand feel free to go through the official 27Degrees website or check out the pictures on Flickr.

011 Gauteng on Facebook

012 Gauteng on Facebook

013 - Mpumalanga on Facebook

See y'all later!
:p

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20 Day Challenge - The end

So the 20-Day mission finally came to an end yesterday.

Was crazy hectic. I know I haven't really been updating you guys on the progress. I meant to, I swear I did. I've been so damn occupied, I couldn't even dedicate a few minutes to blogging about the days as they went by.

To say I have made some progress would be an understatement.

At the begining of this whole thing, I set out to achieve some things that I think I had always either been putting off or just hadn't done. In pursuit of achieving those, I ended up having done some other things I didn't even plan to.

Now for the details...

1. Design better stuff
   Though I did start work on some designs, I just never got around to finishing them. But I didn't wanna design things and rushing them off onto the internet, without being 100% happy with them. That's the graphic side done.
   The web side of things has proven to be quiet a journey. I'm in the process of designing two websites. One for at work and the other is a design for my business. You'll see both early next year.


2. Be more organised
   I though I had managed to get this done; until for some reason, I misplaced my ID. I guess that's what you get for messing up the organised chaos I had already gotten used to. At least I found it again. :)
   But apart from the ID issue, everything else is nicely organised. My business stuff is in order now. Especially my clothing company.


3. Quit Coke
   This was crossed out at the beginning, simply because I was a bit unsure about putting it up on the list. Not because I didn't wanna quit Coke, but because I wanted to see if I could actually do it. The first 10 days were a complete failure. I remember at some point I had two 2litre bottles in my fridge. LOL. I guess that was the final binge before going 100% cold-turkey. Which I did. (YAY!) I can proudly announce that I haven't had a drop of Coke in over two weeks. I'm back to the soft drink I lived off of back in my high school days - Sprite.


4. Love more
   Done. LOL. What you want me to say? I love more now. In every way. Over the past 20 days, I've gotten somehow closer to everything that's close to me. *if that makes any sense*


5. Achieve more
   No idea how I planned on measuring this. So I can't really say if it's done or not. Hmm... let's leave it at maybe. :)


6. Exceed expectations
   This I can safely say I have done and will still continue to. In all aspects of my life. I guess that old 'mantra' under-promise and over-achieve was in full effect over the past four weeks. Though I wasn't constantly exceeding expectations, I did give it my all. *must remember to look up 'mantra'*


7. Eat Better
   Eish... Ya, well... I tried. Actually I think I failed dismally. The reason I'm saying this is because over the past 20 days, I ate far worse than I thought I would. My food consumption (LOL) wasn't very constant. So I can't really say I was eating any better.


8. Eat more
   Uhm... Even though I wasn't eating better, I was definately eating more. Might not have been more often. But I was definately having huge helpings. Does that count? It was more like mini-binges really. :)


9. Experiment with food
   Done. I ordered, ate and cooked some things I wouldn't normally eat/order/cook. Nothing too abnormal. Just some things I had always put off. Which is what this whole challenge was about - getting things done.


10. Spend more wisely
    Something wrong with the English in that one... Anyway. I managed to become very money-wise during these past 20 days. If nothing else, this is definately one thing I can take away from this whole experiment - having spare money in my pocket. Such a nice feeling. :)


11. Save more
    Done! Can you see this smile on my face --> :) ?? [if not, then see #10]


12. Design more
    Done. See #1


13. Be more
    Well... This I've always been. Just pushed the envelope a bit further this time around.


14. Learn more
    Haven't really learnt too much. I mean, nothing more than usual. Nothing extraordinary. I've always been keen on learning new things, so there wasn't really much of anything to achieve here.


15. Live better
    To me, that translates into having less stuff to stress about. And to be honest, I can't even think of one instance (except for the ID thing) where I was actually stressing or worrying about anything. So yeah, living has been much better lately.


16. Stress less
    *I swear when I wronte #15, I wasn't aware the next one was stress-related. Nice.*


17. Be more aware
    I think the me before this challenge was a lot more laid back and I didn't really pay much attention to a lot of things, especially when it came to my business stuff and where money's concerned. But since starting this whole thing, I've been paying a lot of attention to the finer details in my life. And it has really really paid off. I'd recommend this to anyone.


18. Live more
    I've definately been living more. I've been more impulsive. Done some minor things without thinking twice (like I normally would) about them. It's been nice.


19. Do more
    This was on the list, not only for me to do more for myself, but mostly for the next person. I think I've achieved that. Fully.


20. Try something new
    I dunno if I've done anything new lately. I think I've done the same things I've always done, maybe only a little differently than how I normally would. That's all. Nothing much has changed.
    *Maybe I should try something old next. LOL!*


21. Give more
    I overpaid my taxi guy a while ago. Does that count? LOL. I think what I've given more of has been my time more than anything. That's paid off nicely too. :)


22. Take less
    I don't even think I've been a taker all this time. I just think I have been more aware of what I take. Thereby minimising that more than normal. I can't think of a particular instance where I took less than the next person, but I'm pretty confindent in that I've achieved it.


23. Open more
    I've done this. I think my colleagues will be the first to attest to the fact that I've opened up more of my private life over the past few weeks than in the 12 months I've been here.
    Over the past 2 weeks (the past two Fridays), I've hosted parties for them at my place. That's gotta count for something right? :)


24. Blog more
    Done. But not as much as I would have liked to.


25. Take more pictures
    I think I over-achieved on this one. I was the designated photographer at the parties at my place, so I think that pretty much covers everything.


26. Love her even more
    I do/did and she knows it! :)


27. Design bigger and better stuff
    As you can see, I'm pretty obsessed with designing. Making it's third appearance on the list now. :)


28. Watch less TV
    I think this was in an effort to spend more time staring at my computer screen. I can't say there was much of a change there. But considering I managed to design some things, I can say I did this. Though I feel I should've/could've done more. It's cool though...

All in all, the challenge brought about some nice changes in my life. Made my a +1 better person. I'm not where I wanna be, but I now know what it takes to get there and that it is possible to get there.

Peace and love!

:P

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What I wanted

I wanted to design something.

Something that I'd give to my friends and family. For whatever reason. Not as a Christmas present or anything along those lines.

I wanted to design something that would remind them of me every time they looked at it. Something that would last for as long as it can without ever fading into the background.

Something that would bring some inspiration to them each time they saw it. Motivation to face another day.

I hate the fact that I never got around to getting that idea out of my mind and onto a canvas. I hate the fact that I procrastinated because of lack of resources where I currently live. I hate the fact that the year is coming to an end in a few weeks and I still haven't realised my vision of designing something.

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A blessed design...

Hey, been a while since I last posted something worth reading here...

And as usual it's simply because I've been spending more time on my designs.

So one of the first 'works' I worked on as soon as I got back from my visit 700KMs away. Without ever opening Photoshop or any other image editing software out there. I worked on this...

[This pic is also here: Behance deviantArt Flickr My website ]

Took me about thirty minutes to work on the initial look. Then around an hour fiddling with the background. Not sure of the colours to use, then settled on a simple black and white (b&w) image. I don't know why. I just have some sort of weird perversion when it comes to b&w pictures and graphics. So I settled on B&W.

I actually cut out one other pic while I was working on this image. But I've decided to finish it at a later stage.

Anyway, hope you didn't miss me too much. Feast your eyes on that in the mean time. (till I finish my other designs...)

Oh, wait, before I go...

The person in the pic is singer Goapele. A South African native living in America.

She's a friend (I don't wanna use the word contact, sounds less personal. lol) of mine on most social networking websites I'm on. I've been a fan since Closer came out while I was still dreaming to be "closer to my dreams". Now I am, and I just wanted to hook something up for her, to show some appreciation.

I first featured a mini-work of her on my first website... //click here / Didn't really do much to the pic except enhance it.

I sent her a message on Twitter asking her what she thought of the design, and without mincing her words, she basically said...

That's all the blessing I needed. And, NO I DIDN'T PHOTOSHOP THAT REPLY!

Thanx Goap!

(yeah, we on nickname basis now. I just gave her that. "Goap! That's what's up!" it rhymes, I know. ©PaperCut 2009-forever!)

Check her out on the following sites:

• Her site
• Follow her on Twitter
• Her fan page on Facebook
• Flickr
• Read about her on Wiki

Peace & love!

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dedicated...

...to all the lovers in the world...

...whether you believe in it or not...

...it's all around. So spread a little...

L.O.V.E.

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Friday the 13th

Happy Friday the 13th!

Just in case you didn't know... I don't beleive in any sort of superstition.

Bye.

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teh PaperCut Designs

Here's the design I was talking about... here

I think it goes well with the fact that February is considered "Black History Month".


This is the first one I did:
With 5 of the most influential "Africans" of our time - in my opinion. Malcom X, Barack Obama, Dr Martin Luther King jr., Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko. All feeling good to be African! LOL!

The background and inspiration behind this creation, is a speech/peom by former State President (then Deputy President) Mr. Thabo Mbeki titled, I Am an African. Which he delivered on the occasion of the adoption by the constitutional assembly of "The Republic of South Africa Constitution Bill 1996." Delivered in Cape Town on 8 May 1996.

Followed by this one. Didn't actually plan on having two. I just wanted one. But I thought it made more sense to only have African-Americans this time around.

Excerpts from the poem:

Together with the best in the world, we too are prone to pettiness, petulance, selfishness and shortsightedness.

But it seems to have happened that we looked at ourselves and said the time had come that we make a super-human effort to be other than human, to respond to the all to create for ourselves a glorious future, to remind ourselves of the Latin saying: Gloria est consequenda - Glory must be sought after!

Today it feels good to be an African.

It feels good that I can stand here as a South African and as a foot soldier of a titanic African army...

//get it here//

To me this speech encomasses everything that makes us African. Everything. From what makes us African to our beautiful vista all over the continent.

It makes me feel proud to be an African.

So yes, today it does feel good to be an African.

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Zulu girls [PaperCut Designs]

Clearly there's some sick, twisted, demented sexual fascination with Zulu girls all accross the interwebs, and it seems since my blog post about seeing them in Joburg, people from all over the world have been visiting my blog for all the wrong reasons.

I'm very sorry to have disappointed you in terms of the content of the post, no it's not about how you can fck Zulu girls, but yes it is about appreciating God's creations. Not about perving over them. But that's your choice, sorry my blog doesn't cater to your need to fap-fap over my writings.

But, seeing as you like them so much Mr Perv, here's a lil something for you to drool over while admiring my creativity all at the same time.

1. 
   bigger version from flickr
   
2. 
   it's biggr on flickr

Have fun!

Check more of my pics over here!

Thanks for visiting my blog anyway... tell your friends about me.

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PaperCut Designs

Designed these from pics I found on the net. Reproduce or use them in any way. I WILL be suing your ass. I will track you down, trust me.

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Money maker

Mr. Money

I've recently decided I'm gonna start making dollar bills. The interest rate is killing me, maybe I can get a real deal from the Rand/USD exchange rate.

Yeah.

:P

go here...

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PaperCut Designs [#4]

For my other blog

Felt bad after neglecting it for so long... :(

:P

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PaperCut designs [#3]

Just did this one now:



I like it.



edit:

Changed it a little:



still like it.



:P

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PaperCut designs [#2]

Random one for today:

Don't worry ladies, I haven't lost my skin pigment!!

:p

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Original PaperCut designs [#1]

I think it's only fair Ishare my designs with the world not only through my site, but here too.

Most of these are not even on the website, so count yourself lucky!

:P

And so it begins...

From this:

to this:

final product:

(they're supposed to be glowing, not too sure why the text is static! faark!!)

Some sigs/av combos I've used on PCFormat.co.za :

My current one:

© PaperCut

Most of these images are animated. They're supposed to animating (lol). Clearly Blogger's not cooperating! O well....

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nOOb web design skillz

So I've decided to design a website. Well, it's always been an idea really, just that I didn't have content for the site... but all that's changed now. I'm done with everything else.

All I'm doing right now is basically experimenting with different layouts and so on... but so far I'm pretty happy with the layout I decided to go with.

Anyways... in my constant search for ideas and stuff... I went through some local sites to see what the competition is like and i must say, if I were to become a client to any of the following websites, I'd firstly need to get my head checked THOROUGHLY!!!!

There's sites that "specialise" in web design, but instead of a proper screenshot of their work, they take actual pictures. As in they literally take a camera and take a picture of whatever website that was designed by them...

Here's a quick example... check this out...

from the site: http://www.ukubona.co.za/default.asp?pageid=2661
from the same site... http://www.ukubona.co.za/default.asp?pageid=2736 seems they "forgotton" something...

Oh... yah, here's a great website... http://www.epnetwork.co.za/

Here's another great web design site with a great look and feel, to definately attract potential clients a mile away... http://www.warthog.co.za/

Their header:

Welcome - take a little time on this website . . .

some wise words from the people @ warthog.co.za:

Tip #3: Visitors are in a hurry - make your content succinct.

"We can suggest ways of making your website design more effective"

...nevermind the red-x on the top-right corner and all the errors on the pages (on warthog.co.za). It's probably nothing.

OMG!!! this is great.... the navigation disappears...
http://www.warthog.co.za/website-analysis.htm WOW!!!! I want them to design my site!! YEAH!!

here folks... I say nothing... http://www.intoweb.co.za/index.html feast your eyes...

I'm gonna be adding more as I come across em...


peace & love!

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