Warts and all

As the end of the year approaches, I decided to do a quick survey of what I did this last year. Over the holidays, I’ve observed that it has been tricky to recap my year to friends and family. The work I do has been varied and hasn’t fit neatly into a single category. On top of that, 2011 flew by in a very busy hurry. I could scarcely remember everything I’ve been up to!

• 3D and 2D motion graphics for a UNICEF video (soon to be released)
• 3D and 2D motion graphics and titles for an Ontario Federation of Labour convention video
• 2D motion graphics for a corporate social responsibility awards show
• 2D motion graphics for a short website promotional video (soon to be released)
• A website for a small Toronto-based consulting company
• A website, visual identity manual, and communication strategy for a North Carolina-based farmworker justice organization
• Several printed leaflets for federal NDP candidates
• Tour videography for the Saskatchewan NDP during the 2011 provincial campaign

In March, I took on a part-time position at CFC Media Lab as a Technology Coordinator. It has been an extraordinarily active and fulfilling position. The work I’ve been able to contribute to has been varied and received some great feedback.

• I developed and delivered an introductory, multi-day web technology workshop.
• I interviewed Amon Tobin, AntiVJ, Sol Del Rio, and Tristan Perich (soon to be released) at MUTEK.
• I was technical lead for an EEG biofeedback-powered interactive narrative, The Quetzal.
• I proposed, designed, and developed the Media Lab’s holiday e-card, an homage to Angry Birds featuring Media Lab staff as unwitting projectiles (you can play a slightly feature-reduced version of the game here if you have Flash Player 11 installed and a fairly modern computer).

What’s coming in the year ahead? I can’t comment on everything ahead until it’s formalized, but 2011 was definitely a year where I gained a great deal of experience working in 3D workflows (mainly with Unity 3D, Cinema 4D, and After Effects). I expect that to continue (hello, UDK!).

I’m continuing work for freelance clientele in the motion graphics and web design/development arenas as well.

If you’d like to see what I’m up to on a more regular basis, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@aylwinlo). And let me know what you think of the work you see!

Update 2011-12-30: I forgot to cover VJ gigs! I had a great time throwing up visuals alongside the likes of Your Pretend Boyfriend at NXNE and DJ B# at Naco (RIP) and Bike Pirates. For 2012 I’m looking forward to some engagements with Yamantaka // Sonic Titan and hopefully more musicians to come.

Also, a big shout to Leslieville Creative Partners, with whom I performed much of the motion graphics work listed above.

I probably first met Narina, the principal of Nagra Consulting, about 10 years ago, when I was a volunteer at the Waterloo Public Interest Research Group, and she a newly-hired Volunteer Coordinator. I’d always had a great amount of respect for her as a fellow activist, and when she approached me a few months ago for some help with launching a website for her new consultancy it was an honour to accept the project.

Nagra Consulting offers training and support that “facilitates learning and development about diversity, inclusion and workplace violence from experienced non-profit professionals, by realizing equitable solutions in partnership with non-profit workplaces.” That’s a mouthful and a difficult area of work in which to prove competence, so there are plenty of client testimonials included throughout, and room for Narina to show off the resources she creates for her clients.

Working with the solid visual identity work laid out by Meera Sethi, I wireframed, designed and developed an easily administered, Drupal 6-based site for Nagra Consulting.

This is also the first site I’ve launched using WebEnabled’s development hosting platform; I’d highly recommend it to fellow developers!

Well, I know I’ve been silent on this blog and on Flickr, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been sitting on my hands, oh no. This would be a good time to mention that Twitter has pretty much taken over how I post updates on what I’m up to; it’s much easier to carve out a sliver of time to text something or post a link than to compose something longer-form.

But hopefully, soon, I’ll have much more to blog about, including a few website launches (such as the small Drupal site I just did for Nagra Consulting), some workspace changes, and more!

Back in my days working in electoral politics, a familiar part of our job was to seek products and services that fulfilled the Party’s official mandate to prefer Canadian, Union-made products. A number of other organizations have similar purchasing policies, such as unions, governments and schools. Locating promotional products that fit the bill can be tricky, so it’s a good thing that companies like Union Pride exist.

A new place to find Green, Union made, and Canadian made promotional products continued »

In my experience, in any language, fluency – or at least the illusion of it – leans on knowing how to wield some basic low-significance words. And sounding like a local means knowing the local slang. Argentines have a litany of their own. Overhearing others’ phone conversations, I’ve gleaned that I can fill awkward phone moments and the stereotypical gringo serial “si”-speak by adding in:

• Bárbaro
• Buenisimo
• Dale
• Perfecto
• Claro
• Che

Personally, I’ve become fond of using buenissimo – it fills more time and I can drag it out to emphasize my imitation of the Argentine accent. But nothing tickles me like bárbaro. I haven’t looked it up yet, but it sounds so different from anything else I might expect to hear that I can’t help but smirk to myself when I hear it.