This month’s theme is uncertainty and questions. Specifically about God. I am a Christian. I have been in a Christian family my entire life. But I never want to pretend I have things figured out. The more I learn, the less I know. So, I have questions. And that’s healthy. No one should ever stop questioning things, especially those things you profess to be guiding truths in life. So, these songs are about people asking questions about God, country, Christianity and life.

Enjoy. Because of the lateness of this mix, you might get another one in the coming weeks before May. It may or may not be inspired by a CD I found at my house in Edmond from the summer of 2006. And the cover may include a pair of cargo shorts, as did most of my clothing choices in that period of my life.

Click this link or any of these images to download.

I’ve been waiting for about two months now to move into my new digs. Now that I work for iThemes, I figured it was only fitting that I move everything onto the Builder Theme and especially get everything onto WordPress. I’ve got all new work, a new blog design and a much more integrated layout overall. So instead of having an HTML web site, a blog and the snacks blog all separate and linking to each other, we’re all under one reliably-hosted roof. No more static pages and no more GoDaddy.

I’m still working out some kinks, fixing some code and trying to find a lot of images that GoDaddy apparently didn’t like. But it will be a good fresh start.

Please check out the new site and let me know what you think. Try to break it. Click any link you see. Tell me how much you love or hate it.

I’ve been working on a new web site in the shadows lately. It’s being built at adbrad.com/test. The plan is to move it over in the next few days. I’ve used the iThemes Builder theme to create the structure and customized everything off of that. It’s a really powerful and stable theme. And yes, I do work for them now, but I believe it just the same. So the old AdBrad.com will be coming down soon, along with the outdated work I’ve sifted through. Check out the test site, or just make sure to check back here in a few days and you’ll be able to see what I’m really excited about.

While you’re waiting for me to get around to transferring the site, here are some wallpapers I made today. No reason. Was just messing around and decided to make it my desktop and iPhone wallpaper. It’s just in Macbook size by default but you can Photoshop it as big as you want around the edge. It’s a solid gray.

Enjoy. Check out the test site. And get ready for some changes.

Saved the colors a bit differently for iPhone. Not sure why. But this is the only one I saved.

Also a tip: iPhone screen resolution is a monstrous 180ppi, so creating wallpapers for it at 72ppi looks like crap. Make sure you save it at 180 or you will be disappointed. This one is 180ppi for your crisp iPhone wallpaper enjoyment.

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I’ve had this test site up for a couple months, basically to test out themes and mess with ideas for this site. I’m working on a redesign right now. I like the clean look, but I think it’s getting a bit tired. I also want to get my portfolio incorporated into the same site. One of the sites that has really been inspiring in me trying to redesign this site is urbanears. I think I want to pattern my portfolio after this style and incorporate this type of slider presentation into the blog.

Right now, I’m using a super stripped down customized theme, but on the test site, I’ve been using iThemes Builder theme. It’s ultra-customizable and a really interesting way to build complete web sites with great features and ability for customization. When I got the theme, it was all text and blanks. I’ve done a lot of tweaking and Photoshopping. It’s definitely a work in progress for now, but sometime soon, expect an AdBrad redesign.

So if you have any feedback or something you think would look awesome, let me know. Check out the test site and let me know any ideas you might have. It’s a constant work in progress. As I change as a designer and as a person, my site should change with me.

I feel like I have not done a very good job of creating meaningful content on this blog in a while. I’ve posted a few cool projects and ideas this semester, but nothing too consistent. This semester was one of my most stressful at school. And I started a side project called “snacks”. It’s gotten some pretty good traffic in its first month of existence. I’m still messing around with it, but I feel like it will be something cool that I can keep up with pretty regularly. It’s become a constant stream of things that inspire me. So if you want to see what I’m working on, what I’m looking at, what I’m reading, etc, try checking out snacks.

Aside from snacks, I’ve been doing this whole going to college thing. I’ve mentioned my incredible Internet Communications class before. Our final project was to create and promote a web site called PokeYourVote.com. Check out the video I made and the splash page I created to promote the site and build an e-mail list before it launches in Spring. I also designed an identity for the site.

[vimeo  clip_id=8274766 width=“500” height=“400”]

Each student also had a personal project. We were assigned local clients to help. We had to identify and solve their media problems by the end of the class. I was assigned Cooper’s Bicycle Center, a place I visit quite frequently. They aren’t very tech savvy, but today, they don’t need to be to successfully market themselves. I showed them ways they could easily and efficiently promote themselves on the internet using blogging and Facebook. Check out my presentation on Issuu.

• Star Wars: a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.
• dinosaur: awesome a long time ago on earth.
• killer whale: the first thing I remember drawing…and sailboats.
• astronaut: my lifelong dream career
• Star Trek: my fascination with technology and the future
• TMNT: my first brand obsession
• bicycle: my current mode of transportation

So maybe that didn’t really deserve a list, but I feel it needed to be explained. So, as snacks becomes something I keep up as a visual journal and sharing platform of things that inspire me, AdBrad will continue to be my thoughts and progress as a student. Not just school. Everything that makes me who I am: school, design, faith, science fiction, etc. I hope to update the blog at least weekly with something that inspires or fascinates me. I will make more time to create. As Cory Miller and Matt Danner always say, content is king.

Right now, I’m inspired by a book: The Divine Commodity. It’s been eye opening for me to realize the effects that branding and consumerism have had on the American church. We are so saturated with a consumer-driven culture that it has distorted our view of Christ and how to share His love effectively in a world, and specifically a country, driven by overconsumption. Jethani uses Vincent van Gogh’s paintings to illustrate his ideas. Van Gogh had a much more spiritual life than you’d expect. He was at one point a vagabond missionary who removed himself from the conventional church. Starry Night explains his vision of the emptiness and inauthenticity of the church in his time. I think it speaks to today’s church as well. I’ll have more to say on it by the end of the week. I’m halfway through. Thanks to my friend Cole NeSmith for sparking my interest in it with his blog post about the decentralization of the church.

The Divine Commodity is one of a few books I plan to read by the end of my nearly month-long break. Next up is Love Is An Orientation: Elevating the Conversation With the Gay Community. Then comes one I’ve been looking forward to for a while: Moby Dick. A few weeks ago I decided I was going to try to read Moby Dick over the break. But when I looked at the selection of books on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble, I didn’t find a single version I would be unashamed to hold in my hand. Every one had some generic series cover or a lame drawing of a whale covered in even lamer type. So I decided to design my own cover.

After going to these lengths to find an appropriate cover, I finally found one I approve of. I was in the Antique Mall in Stillwater today and came across a horrid dust jacket on an ancient copy of Moby Dick. When I took off the cover I unearthed a beauty of a book. From the pressed illustration on the cover to the perfect type on the spine, I knew this was the book I had been waiting for. So I brought it home and can’t wait to open it up. Better pictures to come tomorrow when I can borrow my sister’s camera.

The day after I made this design I came across a poster  by Mark Weaver inspired by the classic. Very cool. I feel his take on the book is a lot angrier. I will probably significantly alter my design by the time I finish reading it. I’ll keep you posted.

G’night.