Its been a long courtship, but she's finally mine. All thanks to my man Joe who i met through the blog. Joe owns a shop in Michigan called Level 6 that carries all the hottest new Nikes as well as brands like NIXON. Out of the kindness of his heart, he reached out and offered to give me a deal on this Nixon 31-30 Chrono ive been wanting. It was such a great deal, i had to jump on it.

So if you need anything, hit my man up at http://www.level6blog.com/ to see whats new in the shop. His official site is in the works, but for now i believe they will take phone orders and ship everything they carry. My man Joe is a solid dude and ships fast, i'll personally vouch for him.

Im loving this watch so much i actually tried to take decent pics of it. (emphasis on TRIED)

I took these two to try to show the size of the dial (51mm). I should have taken a pic with it next to a quarter or something, but i wasnt thinking at the time. So here it is on my wrist. Im 6'2 215, so i have good sized wrists and this thing is still huge. I absolutely love it.

ps - Here is a list of brands Joe carries at his shop, i know a lot of my readers are into some of these brands, so check em out.

• Crooks & Castles
• D.G.K.
• G-Shock
• Jordan
• L.R.G.
• New Balance
• New Era
• Nike SB
• Nike Sportswear
• Nixon
• Puma
• Random
• Supra
• Vans

Thanks again Joe.

...So i was a winner. they ended up choosing 8 winners instead of 3, and i was one of them.

So i'll still get $250, and 10 hats once they produce them, which should be sometime this fall.

I dont agree with some of the winners (although i do like the 2 shown above with mine), but overall i still won. So i guess i cant complain, although i would have preferred to win if there were only 3 winners overall.

But a win is a win, money is money, and getting my design produced on official hats will be nice. Big thanks to those of you who voted to help get me into the semi-finals. The winners were chosen by the guys who run the site, but still, i like to think you guys helped get me into the semis.

So i hit the frame shop today to replace a frame for the original rooster drawing i did a while back for my lady's mom. Theyre re-modeling the kitchen, where the rooster will hang, and its gonna be mostly black, so i had to switch it into a black frame.

Also pictured is a smaller framed print i made of it, for Jakes dad Jeff. Just havent had a chance yet to get it to him. So if youre reading this Jeff, thats yours on the left.

Also, while at the frame shop i noticed there was a sale on the whole stock of prints they carry. Everything was $5. I came across this Justin Bua print and thought it'd be perfect for my good friend Myc's birthday tomorrow. Cant beat a 24x36" Bua print for $5.

So.... http://iliveforthemoney.com/ just did an interview with Ben Baller. If you read this blog regularly, you probably already know i do a fair amount of freelance design jobs for Ben and If & Co.

Anyway, he mentioned me in the interview, so thought id post it. Here are a couple screen shots (click them to enlarge)

Below is the question where my name pops up.

Heres the mention:

I really like the IF and Co logo mark. Who is the designer responsible for creating it? Are there in-house designers or does IF and Co work with a variety of designers?
Designers? Me, my cousin Jeff, sometimes my cousin Steve… as for graphics, I expedite and poorly draw or explain designs/ideas to my friend Chris Cox (oo206oo) and he usually whips up something super super fast. By the way, the IF and Co logo was designed by a guy named 57even who I met online through an L-R-G design contest and then ended up getting a design job at L-R-G and is killing shit! For the most part, we got it covered. Jonas Bevacqua has also always designed his own jewelry. He executed a lot of his jewelry beautifully and without his vision, we couldn’t have made the pieces we’ve made for him which are some of our best work to date.

Thats all i got for now. Should be wrapping up a logo job pretty soon, then ill post it up. Also just started a new logo job with a new client today (assuming the payment clears. Im sure it will though). So i got that in the works as well.

ps - Read that entire interview if you have some time, its pretty well done.

(Click the pic to enlarge)

Thanks to all my people that voted for me (and Stefan). All 4 of our submissions (2 each) made the semi-finals. Above are the 16 semi-finalists. Cant say i agree with all of them, but most of them, whether i like em or not, are at least well done.

The winners (top 3) will be revealed next Monday. Wish me luck.

They FINALLY got around to re-designing the Heinz ketchup packet.

Its about damn time.

That is all.

So the voting starts today for the Clink Room contest.

The Clink Room is a site run by a couple of guys at this design firm who specialize in baseball team logos/identities (both minor and major league teams). They decided to hold a contest and give their readers an opportunity to design an identity for a make believe team. The winner gets their hat produced by New Era, 10 hats for themselves, and a cash prize.

They took suggestions on what kind of league to go with and eventually decided on a "Skate Shop League". So its basically a baseball league made up of teams sponsored by skate shops.

Mstrpln and myself each entered 2 concepts. So here they are, the top 2 are mine, the lower 2 are his. The names are as follows, from top to bottom: Kings of Concrete, Seattle Grind, Gastown Gnar, & the Rochester Raging Wheelers.

CLICK THE PIC BELOW TO ENLARGE

The general public who didnt submit a design get 3 votes.

TO VOTE:

Email your 3 choices, in order (ie. E6, D8, F2) to theclinkroom@planbbranding.com and make sure to put "SSL VOTE" in the subject line.

Voting ends next week.

HELP US WIN!

Edit: Bigger, better pics.

This new joint from Stall & Dean just dropped. Its a 1915 Chicago Whales (baseball team) hat. Orange on Navy? with a nice classic monogram? Count me in.

But does anyone know how S&D hats fit? Ive never bought one. Do they fit the same as New Eras? Or do they run big/small in comparison?

Someone let me know.

Yeah, i know i dont post much music-related content (or ANY content these days) but i figured id put up a couple videos from this dude BJ the Chicago Kid. Ive really been feeling this kid's music for the last six months or so.

Hes on the hook in both of the below videos.

Plus, im a big fan of Dom Kennedy and Diz Gibran as well, so check them out if you havent yet.