tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158365592010-02-08T15:27:53.464-10:00Being Mice Elf AgainRaphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.comBlogger389125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-25765544193241983012008-08-18T09:37:00.002-10:002008-08-18T09:43:15.562-10:00

OK, I've made the switch.From this point on I'll be blogging on my main site over at Lowe Studio Inc. (http://www.lowestudio.com)It still needs a LOT of work but at this point I just gotta get it up and work on it when I find little gaps of time.This blog will still be here I think. I'm still debating whether I need to separate my personal rants and observations from my actual design stuff...but

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-40069396058311363102008-08-14T16:49:00.002-10:002008-08-14T16:57:01.711-10:00

About the new site, sorry it's just taking me WAY longer then I expected to put all my information up. With my big mouth there's just too much to say. Not to mention I'm juggling a work load that's superhuman right now and I'm fighting the urge not whine about itHey, having too much business is a GOOD thing! At least that's what I have to keep telling myself when I'm up at 2 in the morning and

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-3930331582267530312008-08-08T12:20:00.003-10:002008-08-08T12:29:40.291-10:00

You know, this month somewhere around this time marks the 3rd Anniversary of Lowe Studio Inc. That was freakin' fast! It's still a little hard to grasp that somehow I'm getting this done, I'm surviving on my own.What was significant about year 3 in business? I think at this point you're just slightly less concerned about where the money is going to come from. I mean the effect is very slight --

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-49095057931960773482008-08-07T08:57:00.004-10:002008-08-07T09:15:22.070-10:00

This may be the last one or two posts I'll have here on this blog. Yeah don't go pretending like you don't read my blog once in a while to see how Raph screws things up now and again. I know you're out there.No no no, I'm not quitting this. I need an outlet to talk about what I do and how my life is going. Like I said since day 1, this blog started more as therapy for myself to get away from the

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-52273029600854400312008-07-31T08:36:00.004-10:002008-07-31T08:55:00.555-10:00

Yeah yeah, I know I sound like a broken record, "buy lightroom, buy lightroom". Yadda yadda.Hey you know what, in my little business this is just about the only news I have relevant to what I do. Well, except for taxes of course. But that's nowhere near as fun.Anyway, I'm a few days late but the full release of the lastest Lightroom 2.0 is out. If you're a NAPP member you can get the upgrade

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-84321108322102212502008-07-27T22:41:00.004-10:002008-07-27T22:52:31.028-10:00

Well, the cat's out of the bag for many of the closest people in our lives, I guess it shouldn't hurt to announce the coming of our little one next year.How's that for fast huh? About a week before our move this little surprise news came into our lives. I think we're still in denial because my wife really isn't showing yet and there's no sign of any morning sickness.One day a few years into the

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-29543715363414076412008-07-27T22:26:00.002-10:002008-07-27T22:34:10.994-10:00

Illustrators can be pretty mischievous if you rub them the wrong way. Remember all those stories about Disney cartoonists who would put all these promiscuous hidden objects in the Little Mermaid cartoon?Well, an associate of mine sent me the funny illustration above. On the surface it looks like 2 dancers....or does it?

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-46588881291932990532008-07-22T09:15:00.004-10:002008-07-22T09:23:40.512-10:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.Here's a little font humor...whodathunk? I thought it was pretty cute. But the commentary for videos like this are pretty interesting too.When you talk about font types, some designers (most?), are VERY touchy about it. I see some people have their favorite fonts and never stray from them for decades. Others are so good with their type

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-35120485128726213352008-07-21T09:18:00.004-10:002008-07-21T09:31:08.458-10:00

Well, here's the latest about the 2 situations I ranted about late last week.Roadrunner responded pretty quick after all and sent someone over to look at the connection the next day. In all fairness the guy who came was pretty cool...he checked everything, replaced my modem, and even gave me his personal cell number to let him know how it's performing over the next few days. The connectivity has

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-66611239636930453072008-07-20T17:30:00.003-10:002008-07-20T17:40:24.668-10:00

I find some people very creative....or very bored. Perhaps boredom spawns the best artwork? I know it did for me when I was younger. I'd spend a whole night drawing some of my best pencil drawings because I had nothing better to do. It was either that or go outside and help my mom with the house chores. Yuck.I digress.Anyway, I can't figure out any Japanese to decide if this is just one

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-45587261774911304392008-07-17T08:16:00.004-10:002008-07-17T08:40:22.538-10:00

Will you allow me to rant a bit? Trust me, the language below isn't nice, close your eyes while you read this.This won't be design related at all. Nothing really about business or anything either. Plain and simple, I need to bitch and ramble and there's simply nobody around right now I can offload onto. So you, my friend, my silent readers...are those whom I will subject to hearing my rants.

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-84445619674633793262008-07-15T10:04:00.002-10:002008-07-15T10:15:09.624-10:00

I share the same name with at least one other guy in the world. There are not too many Raphael Lowe's in the world let me tell ya. Here I am, a Chinese guy with an Italian first name and a German last name. How cosmopolitan.I digress.Anyway, this other Raph finds me on Facebook a year ago and we made a couple of quick comments to each other and just added a link as friends. I know nothing of

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-13222306402605790002008-07-14T10:27:00.002-10:002008-07-14T10:40:52.990-10:00

Here's the new digs for my office. You know what I call this? My "tax deduction" Well, at least that's what all my business colleages and my tax guy tells me it should be called. I won't know yet until the end of the year. For now it's what I call "expensive"Nah, but it's really great so far. For years now since I started Lowe Studio Inc I've needed a big flat table and then I find this one

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-17390444419238361022008-07-08T22:47:00.002-10:002008-07-08T22:54:48.766-10:00

Now that I'm one of those guys who made the Switch, I guess I've got more then a passing interest in all things Apple all of a sudden. No no, I don't bash PCs yet...I'm just enjoying the new experience of a system that's running all nice and smooth.Anyway, here's some artwork that combines art and computers together quite literally. For Apple fanboys you can send this guy your old Macs and he'll

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-50894983270056288262008-07-08T22:22:00.002-10:002008-07-08T22:35:28.257-10:00

I underestimated how stressful and difficult it was to move 7 years of my life to a new condo. Sure, I moved before, but either I blocked out how difficult it was last time, or this time it was especially time consuming because I now had a partner to work with.I remember back in my previous moves, it was just a matter of throwing everything into boxes and trucking them over. Now? Nuh uh... we're

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-81853094579302163712008-06-26T15:04:00.002-10:002008-06-26T15:13:29.941-10:00

Yup, we're moving our home and our business. Between the dates of July 3rd, 2008 - July 9th, 2008 our internet service might be spotty at best so my ability to help clients and new customers might be limited. Please email me during this period anyway, I'll be checking email via my phone and respond where I can. Any emergencies, please just call 808-781-9529

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-73657107006719408602008-06-24T12:21:00.002-10:002008-06-24T12:25:01.617-10:00

A couple of artists developed these series of cool yet disturbing snow globes. Kinda neat how they that. Wouldn't these make cool gifts for that special someone?

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-76544685344881207142008-06-24T11:11:00.002-10:002008-06-24T11:28:23.811-10:00

I still want that camera.I know, I know, I've been talking about this damn thing even before this model came out. I wanted the 30D. Now my wife is saying, "why don't you just wait for the 50D!" /sigh.It's just so hard to justify when I'm not really making direct money off of this hobby and there's so many other financial things coming up that we have to tackle. But little by little I've been

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-67942755043944077312008-06-18T12:02:00.003-10:002008-06-18T12:12:16.255-10:00

Well, on the subject of Web Design, knowing when a major release of a new browser is a big deal. What's an even bigger deal is an update to a browser that might soon overtake Microsoft's Internet Explorer for marketshare.Yesterday Firefox 3 was released for free download. I think they were going for some kind of record download on the first day I'm not sure if they accomplished that yet.With this

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-88721961317495013492008-06-15T00:33:00.003-10:002008-06-15T01:13:07.008-10:00

It occurred to me this past weekend how very stereotypical "pake" I'm becoming now having married my wife from Hong Kong. It's a bit funny and yet sad at the same time.For those of you not in the know - "pake" (pronounced PAH-KAY here in Hawaii) is a term often labeled for Chinese folks, normally associated for the fact we're tight with our money. Yeah it could be used derogatorily, it could be

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-17254160964707214152008-06-12T16:43:00.002-10:002008-06-12T16:49:20.306-10:00

You know, as a kid...before I really geeked out on Atari & Commodore 64 and all that video game stuff, there were a couple of things I really loved. There was LEGO and then there was anything that involved Robotech, like mechs and droids. To me there were no better characters then C3PO and R2D2 in Starwars either.Today I caught a post on Engadget where they found this guy that made a mech droid

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-18656788952323880282008-06-11T09:28:00.004-10:002008-06-11T09:38:02.701-10:00

We completed a new logo concept for a client above. It's an investment corporation so they wanted something pretty bold and regal. The treatment above has this gold effect for the obvious reasons but it actually works quite nice in silver as well.This one above was one of the half dozen concepts I came up with during development of the logo. I just wanted to show it because I really liked it.

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-58837978954611587052008-06-10T10:21:00.004-10:002008-06-10T21:08:41.211-10:00

My brother got "secretly" married just recently. No it wasn't that he eloped or anything, it's just that the new couple was planning to migrate (is that the word to use? Sounds like they're birds or something) down to Australia so they figured they might as well tie the knot first to make it easier.Good for them, I think that Australia has a lot of opportunity right now...especially since the US

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-88934089600033944252008-06-09T08:10:00.003-10:002008-06-09T10:31:10.707-10:00

You have no idea how many times I've written posts lately only to wipe it out before publishing... I just can't get my thoughts in order lately. Too much stuff going on. So... I'm not even going to try. Let me spit it all out somehow. Bear with me, I need to purge:1st time home buying - We might be getting one. Despite forecast of gloom & doom, an opportunity came up for us that just can't be

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15836559.post-54550617220024101422008-06-02T09:38:00.002-10:002008-06-02T09:47:51.315-10:00

No seriously... apparently NASA has found a way to actually see magnetic fields and they come out looking like hairy balls. I can imagine the designs that might be influenced by looking at these colored fields...I don't know who's hairy balls these things looks like but it sounds like some of these scientists needs to work on personal grooming...If you can't see the vid search for "Magnetic

Raphaelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13857414714233467444noreply@blogger.com0