So it begins...

The year is already past it's first month, and a few more of the second one. This should be a good month for us as we should recieve notice from the immigarion office regarding our work permits. If so, this is going to be a whole new experience for us. Also we a few days past the Chinese New Year. Year of the Rabbit, which is representative of speed, strength and kindness of heart, but also, as the rabbit itself, we must go on with caution and always forward. I ussually like to talk about design ideas and problems on my blog, but these past months have been full of up and downs on the personal aspect of life, but not as much as I'd like on my work. With no work permit, I cant do much... and the things I'm doing, I can't discuss them yet.

These past few weeks have been some slow ones, although we had some really nice visits from our familly, mainly we are trying to keep up with our selves. We are trying, my wife and I, to get better on our trades, learning new techniques and skills. All this while also having some time for us, which is much needed. Even we spend most of the time together, we like to find activities that challenge us and keeps us active.

Lately I've been studying some projects created by designers I admire and by some of my peers. Analysing them and trying to figure out what techniques they used to create such pieces. A task that is sometimes frustrating because of the nature of the piece and also rewarding when I finally get to discover and learn from others.

I'm also returning to some things I enjoy, ussually to keep my mind off work, but for now I found myself lost between cups of coffe and book covers. I'm starting to read a series of books I read about 10 years ago, now in it's original language. A task proven more difficult and fullfiling than I thought.

One of our teachers at VFS, Mark Busse, told us that when someone is inmeresed in the world of printing, you would often see them touching, feeling, smelling and sometimes even tasting the pages. This time, I found myself doing pretty much all of those things when I had to decide which edition of the book to buy. The look on the pages, how they are cut, the color and mostly the smell of them reminded me of an old library, and that smell is what pretty much sold me the book. I find myself not only reading and enjoying the time, but also analysing the typeface, the cover art and even the few illustrations on the book.

Also, I've been trying to learn new pieces of software, and keep practicing on the ones I know. Keeping me active and sharp. And last but not least, I'm updating some of my social media sites, adding new ones and keeping the others up to date. So, wait for some new content and micro blogging sites that I'm working on. Keep an eye for the updates.And as always. I hope you Enjoy...