thisHero Designs

A Couple More Illustrations for You!

2011-02-19T11:20:00.001-08:00

'62 Fairlane Illustration

2011-01-26T17:33:00.000-08:00

Getting some interest in my illustration of Mator, so I thought it best I practice some more, and I illustrated the '62 Fairlane I use to own. This one had a little bit more details in different areas which made it a little bit more fun to build. All in all I think it turned out pretty well, and don't worry, I won't be illustrating my Subaru any time soon.

I was also undecided if I should add some sort of a backdrop to the image, and after playing around for a bit I decided that I wanted the car to stand on its own, so here you go.

New Mator Illustration, and Update

2011-01-25T12:17:00.000-08:00

It was a pretty big weekend for my shop truck, Mator, I actually have the cab mounted to the frame, it is so exciting to take this step, it's proof the project is really moving forward. Rob came down and helped me with some welding. We welded the motor mount perches to the frame so that we can mount the engine and transmission. I also did a little bit more cutting on the firewall and then painted it. A very good weekend of progress though.

Additionally I have spent that last week working on this new illustration of Mator. It's my end goal, at least that is where I'm hoping to go with it. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and it may has already lead to a new freelance job. Keep your fingers crossed.

Mator Update!

2011-01-21T12:51:00.000-08:00

Oh boy, what fun we're having now. With the Camaro clip in and the holidays past, we've got the motor placed and aligned in the frame and will be welding in the new motor mounts to the frame this weekend, and what comes next is something I can hardly believe. I'll be mounting the cab to the frame! Wow, I've had the cab mounts since I got the truck, close to two years ago, and will now actually use them. Plus with the cab being mounted to the frame, it seems like things will finally move forward. I'll attach the doors and we'll line up the front fenders and hood so that we can fabricate the mounts for the radiator support. Once that is in, it's mostly hooking the necessities of the truck up to get her driving. Brakes, steering, electrical... Now we're moving!

Johnny Robot - Episode 4 - Henry Robot

2011-01-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Years all! Had a great weekend down in San Diego with my wife and kids with my sister-in-laws. We spent time celebrating the new year, time at the beach and eating some fine food and beers. On New Years Day me and my brother-in-law decided to go across the bay to a new car show they had running at the convention center. It was a pretty good show, had all of the new cars you wanted to look at. Would’ve been nice if they had more concept cars, but it’s not like the San Diego Car Show is one of the big ones in the nation.

As we are making our way through the show however, we come across a booth that has a quite a few old classic cars, plus some automotive related sculptures, well once piece that particularly caught my eye was a robot sculpture made from old Ford truck parts and other various pieces of metal standing approximately 24” tall. After taking a quick photo, I start to examine it more closely, even reaching out to touch a piece of it as I couldn’t tell the material. Well as soon as my hand touches it, the little guy comes to life and swats my hand telling me, “can’t you read, ‘don’t touch the artwork’!”

I jump back pulling my hand back as fast as I can, “wow, you’re alive.” He tells me, of course he’s alive. I tell him I thought he was just a sculpture, and he tells me that’s no reason to touch him, after all, the sign does say not to touch anything. I apologise to him and tell him that I think he’s a great looking robot and ask if he has a name. “Henry” he says, which really makes sense, since he is made from old Ford parts. So I ask him if he has an owner and what his purpose is, and he tells me the owner of these cars owns him, and he is a mechanic and keeps the cars running in tip-top shape as well as keeping the cars showroom clean. I tell him I think that’s great, and that I use to have a robot to, but I haven’t seen him in many years.

Henry then asks me about his robot, that he has met a few robots over the years through various robot groups and run-in’s. I tell him, “I dunno, last time I saw Johnny Robot was in 1975, and he had a way of finding trouble so I don’t think he’s running any longer.” Henry looks at me and says, “Johnny Robot?” So I tell him yep, that was his name and then I give him a brief history of the robot I built when I was seven.

Henry looks at me and says, “yeah, I think I know that robot, I think I met him several years ago, and you’re right, he is trouble.” “Really?” I say, and I ask him to tell me what he knows. So the as Henry tells me, this is how the story goes.

In 2006, Henry and his maker were in Los Angeles prepping cars for the Los Angeles Car Show. Well they had several cars parked in an alley behind the convention center doing final touch up waiting for the go ahead to pull their cars into the center. Henry is just minding his own business, when he sees a man, who looks like a common criminal come running into the alley and he has a purse in one hand. Well right behind him comes this robot chasing the man, and the thing he that really made him stand out, was that instead of two arms, one arm is an old revolver.

“That’s him, that’s Johnny Robot!” I spurt out in excitement.

Henry continues, Well, Johnny Robot starts shooting that gun of his, and apparently it just shoots yellow rubber bullets now, and Johnny Robot starts firing at the bad guy while calling for him to stop running and turn himself in. The criminal doesn’t listen, he just keeps running, but he is now being fired at with these rubber bullets, but since they are rubber, though I’m sure the stung, they bounce off of the criminal. As the criminal passes by the cars that Henry is prepping, the rubber bullets start bouncing off of the criminal and hitting his fine automobiles, leaving marks on the paint.

Henry can’t have this, they’re about to show these cars, so he sticks his leg out and trips Johnny Robot as he is running by and the criminal continues on around the corner and out of sight. Johnny Robot get’s up and looks at Henry, and asks, “What were you thinking? I almost had him” Henry Robot then tells Johnny Robot that he was damaging his cars, pointing at the marks on the car next to him, and that Johnny Robot needs to fix this, the show is about to start.

Johnny Robot doesn’t like this, he then points his magnum at Henry Robot and fires a couple of rounds, leaving yellow marks across his domed head. “What are you doing?” Henry Robot asks, then knocking Johnny Over with his wrench arms, “Am I going to have to disassemble you?” putting one of his wrenches on Johnny’s magnum. Quickly Johnny uses his projector eye and starts showing a home movie from the early 70’s of kids playing in a sprinkler in their front yard. Henry watches the movie, not sure what to make of it, but at the same time unable to take his eyes off of the movie.

As Henry Robot stares at the movie, Johnny Robot fires a few more rounds of yellow rubber bullets at Henry Robot, knocking him down and Johnny Robot takes off running down the alley, the way the criminal had run. Henry Robot stands up and watches Johnny Robot run away just shaking his head.

I stand there, listening to his story in utter disbelief. Johnny Robot is still alive and living in LA. I then ask Henry Robot if he’s seem him since and Henry Robot tells me “no, that was it” and I stand there wearing a smile on my face knowing that Johnny Robot is still around, and apparently he uses my family home videos to mesmerize people, wow, this is all just so cool and funny.

Back to reality, my brother-in-law wants to move on, so I give Henry Robot my home address and ask him, that if he were to meet up with Johnny Robot again, that if he could tell him about me, maybe Johnny Robot could come visit me. Henry Robot took the information and promised that he would and I left Henry Robot to his car show.

On a final note, as I told the girls this story, I can not convey the excitement they have over the possibility they have over the thought that they may get to meet Johnny Robot one day. Who knows, maybe...

Simple Ice Hockey Background Tutorial

2010-12-21T17:07:00.000-08:00

I needed to back a back drop of an ice hockey surface in Illustrator, and after doing a quick google search not coming up with anything, I decided I’d try it myself. I think it came up convincing enough to throw out this tutorial.

1. Starting with a new document (I’m working on a 4” x 4” document) I change my fill to 10% cyan and apply “none” to stroke. Then I first create a box using the rectangle tool, creating it the same 4” x 4” size as my document.

2. Deselecting the box I just created I then apply white to my fill. Now select the mesh tool and randomly click on your blue feel to add the high-lights to your ice surface.

3. Then switch your while fill with the stroke so that fill is now “none” and stroke is white, and randomly draw lines across your document. To add a little bit more realism to the surface I also used my pen tool and draw a couple of arches as an actual ice surface would have.

There you go, lock your layer and build whatever you need on top of it. Enjoy!

Johnny Robot - Episode 2 - Downward to China

2010-12-20T11:19:00.001-08:00

So I’m out back playing with my hot wheels. I have some two by fours laid out on the ground, and I build little ramps out of dirt to get my cars up onto these freeways. Well no point in have a freeway unless I can have a bridge, so I start to dig a hole in the ground so that I can lay one of the two by fours across so that I can have a bridge for my cars. Well being a boy of seven I decided my time might be better spent digging a hole to China, you know to see what is going on down there. So I’m digging and digging and I just keep on digging. Well not far down is a water pipe, but it’s the olden days so it’s made out of metal so I don’t hurt it, I just have to dig around it, which I do. So I’m digging and digging and digging. The pipe is in the way, but it’s no bother, I’m young and dumb.

Well I’m getting tired and have a feeling I’m never going to make it to China, so instead I decide that since there is a embankment behind our house, that I will dig down so far, then out to the embankment so that I can have a fort/cave to call my own. So I’m digging and digging, and the hole is getting kind of deep now, and that water pipe, it’s still there and it’s still in the way. Well to really dig now I have to get down in the hole and dig and dig. So after some time I really start to make progress, enough so that the water pipe is now above my head, but that’s alright, because I’m going to have the coolest fort/cave in the world.

Well I hear my mom calling, it’s lunch time or something, but I can’t get out. I can reach the ground, but the pipe for some reason is impeding my way out, I can’t get out, so I start yelling... “Mooooooom!” So she comes running and so do all of my brothers and sisters, and they’re all looking down at me. So I frantically tell my mom I’m stuck, I can’t get out because of the stupid water pipe and Jim, my oldest brother, is laughing, he thinks this is sooo funny. So My mom tells Jim to lift me out of there, so he reaches down and grabs my hands and tries to pull me up, but that water pipe is still in the way, there’s just no way out, I’m just not fitting now.

Jim then tells me, I’m gonna have to wait til dad gets home (laughing the whole time) and then he’ll get you out, and you’ll be in trouble! My mom tells Jim to quiet down and says it’ll be ok and asks where’s Johnny Robot, maybe he can help. So I tell her he’s around, just call for him. So my mom calls out for Johnny Robot and he comes running up... “Beep, boop, beep, yes mom? beep” So my mom tells Johnny Robot that I’m stuck in the hole because the water pipe is in the way, so without spending a moment to think, Johnny Robot flips his .357 magnum gun down and aims it at the water pipe and fires. BANG! hitting one side of the pipe which then bursts and water starts spraying all over, just showering me with water, and filling up the hole. Well I start to scream because I think I’m going to drown, “Get me out of here!” and Jim tries to pull me up again, but the pipe is still in the way.

With the water up to my knees, Johnny Robot fires again, and off drops the pipe, hits me in the head, cutting me. I’m screaming some more but with the pipe clear, Jim quickly pulls me out as the hole continues to fill with water.

Well we obviously turned off the water, my dad repaired the pipe when he got home, I was grounded for a week and Johnny Robot saved the day. And you know, if the weather is just right, you can still see that scar on my forehead.

Johnny Robot - Episode 1 - The Beginning and End

2010-12-17T10:31:00.000-08:00

It was Christmas 1973, and boy did I love being a kid. Waking up Christmas morning, seeing all of the presents out under the tree, spilling halfway across the living room. Of course there were six kids, two parents, a grandma and uncle there, so it was always deceiving. I never got as many gifts as I thought I was going to get, but I still loved coming around the corner and seeing all of the gifts. It was like I hit the jack pot.

Anyways, as we settled down and started opening gifts, I got the usual, hot wheels and underwear, just going through the motions waiting for that last gift, you know the one your parents kept til the end, the grand finale. Oh and it was a good size box, must have been two feet tall, at the time I wasn’t much taller then it, I knew it was going to be something good, and boy was I not disappointed. As soon as I pulled off the first corner of the paper I saw the word “Robot” and I knew I had scored. Pulling the rest of the paper off, there it stood, “Johnny Robot”, man was it cool looking, “over 18 inces tall” the box said, and back then, toys were still made out of metal, so he was cool looking, painted all red and blue.

To that point in my life, that was my greatest moment, then I started playing with it. Of course the first couple of weeks was a blast, I would have Johnny Robot destroying cities made of blocks, crushing my hot wheels and saving the day. After awhile though I slowly became disappointed in the fact that Johnny Robot didn’t do anything. In all reality it was just painted metal. Sure you could move his arms back and forth, but so could my 12” Bionic Man, and shoot the bionic man even had the roll away skin revealing his bionics, and the eye-pieced drilled in his head so I could pretend I was using his bionic eye. Johnny Robot didn’t do anything, his arms & legs moved, and his head moved back and forth, big deal.

Well that wasn’t going to work for me, no way. First modification I had to make was to give Johnny Robot a voice, so one day when my brother Jim was at softball practice I stole his Tandy tape recorder and took it apart. Cutting up my Johnny Robot wasn’t too hard, my dad had all the tools any boy could need. I of course placed the speaker in his head where his mouth should be, drilling a small hole so that the sound could get out, I then placed the tape compartment on his back where I could access it easily, but it was still out of the way visually. The buttons however, looked more like teeth, so I cut a notch on the bottom of Johnny Robot’s head and hung them there. I always thought it was cool the one red button for record, really gave Johnny Robot a menacing look.

I then of course recorded his first statements, always beginning with “beep, boop, beep”, and ending with another “beep”, because after all he was a robot, so he had to sound like a robot. “Beep, boop, beep, Hello Steve! beep” was the first thing Johnny Robot said. I could still hear him in my mind, it was so cool. Other cool sayings I gave him were, “beep, boop, beep, Johnny Robot, protector of the innocent, beep” and “beep, boop, beep, Laser Blast! beep”. As the days went on more and more sayings were added, however I noticed that when I cut the metal on his head for the buttons, that some of the paint where his eyes were had peeled back, and it seemed so fake, I mean, who has painted eyes?

Hmmm... Ok, so I know my Mom has a video recorder, and I know she never uses it, so she probably wouldn’t miss it. I also know we have a projector, that we rarely use, they both have lenses that wouldn’t be missed. So after sneaking both items out to the garage, surgery began, and it wasn’t long after that, that Johnny Robot now had two glass eyes, one was a little larger then the other, but that wasn’t a problem, it also shot light out of it, the one larger eye, it was sweet, Johnny Robot now has laser vision! There was already an antenna on his head, so I just put the toggle for the light on top of his head, and added some wire to it to make it look like a second antenna. Another cool thing that I didn’t think of, but worked out by chance, was when you turned the light on for his laser vision, the antenna was pointed forward, really giving Johnny Robot a menacing look. Johnny Robot was getting cooler and cooler by the day!

Well we played like this for a couple of months and we had a good time, but one weekend my dad was out front working on my mom’s ‘68 Cougar that had the automatic doors covering the lights. Well back then they were ran by a pneumatic vacuum from the motor, and one of them was sticking on my mom’s car so my dad was going over it, and boy did that give me an idea. So after talking to my dad a bit, and showing him what I wanted Johnny Robot to do, he acquired the right parts and I got to set-up Johnny Robot to have pneumatic arms and legs. We ran a couple of wires out of his back to a make shift remote allowing me to control him. It was pretty cool, we also hooked up a wire to control the light in his one eye as well as the tape recorder. I left the buttons on the front however because it was just cool looking.

With this new tech, we were buddies all over again... for awhile. It got kind of boring controlling him. I wanted a real buddy, someone who could follow me around and play with me. Well one day my brother Robert and I were playing down at an old empty field. Sometimes people would dump junk at this field and we’d go through it looking for anything worth something, when I found it. Someone was throwing away an old Mac Plus computer that had become outdated and too slow for whatever purpose they needed it for. So I told Robert I needed the computer for Johnny Robot and he helped me carry the thing home. Back in the garage I opened up Johnny Robot’s chest and started filling in the hollow innards with the computing power of this old computer. I then hooked the remote control pieces to the computer, allowing the computer to have full control of Johnny Robot’s limbs, eyes and speaker, and the best part? The Apple logo was illuminated, so I placed that right on Johnny Robot’s chest, like a crest all the super hero’s have. Again, it was sweet. Rob and I stood back and looked at him and were just thrilled over what we have created.

Then Robert asked, “What’s his super power?” and I quickly replied, “he shoots a laser out of one of his eyes, duh” and Robert said, it’s not a laser, it’s just a light that projects a picture. Hmmm... I started thinking again, knowing that Robert was right. “Doesn’t dad have an extra gun he never takes to work? (Dad was a Sheriff’s Deputy for Los Angeles County). Robert said, yeah he does, he hides it in his closet. So with Rob distracting mom for a short time I snuck into the room and got his extra .357 magnum and got it out to the garage. When Robert got there, he had seen I had already taken off the handle to the gun, then he asked, “what are you going to do with it?” That’s easy I said, I going to take off one of his arms, and the gun will replace it.

Johnny Robot was awesome, he stood there with his two different size eyes, one shining a light out of it, his tape recorder button teeth, and the oversize Apple logo on his chest. But yeah, the master piece was the .357 magnum right arm, and he could now think for himself. Johnny Robot would follow me around, constantly swinging the gun upwards in protect mode, just to see it’s a cat jumping a fence or something. I decided the best job for Johnny Robot was to protect the house, so that is what he did. Constantly circling the house, protecting it from intruders. I guess the only real problem was that we lived in a good area north of Los Angeles, and it was 1974, so crime wasn’t really out of control back then. So Johnny Robot spent most of his times just walking in circles. Until one day...

One day a car was coming down our street real slow. Johnny Robot went on alert not recognizing this car, and the fact that it was driving so slowly with the driver looking at all of the houses. Well in those days we lived on a cul-de-sac and the car, realizing that she was not where she was trying to get to decided to pull into our driveway to turn around. Well Johnny Robot didn’t know that, and since me and my brothers and sisters were out front playing, Johnny Robot needed to protect us, so he ran around real quick raising his magnum “beep, boop, beep, INTRUDER! beep” and shot out one of her tires. The lady screamed and pulled out of the driveway as fast as she could and drove down the street on her flat tire. In the mean time my mom and dad came running out of the house to see what the commotion was to see Johnny Robot’s smoking gun and the car driving off.

Boy was I in trouble. Dad sat me down and had a big long talk with me about what had happened. He also sat Johnny Robot down to and talked to him about the proper way of protecting us. My dad also replaced all of Johnny Robot’s bullets with rubber bullets so no one could get hurt. I had to pay back everyone for the equipment I stole and was grounded for a month. My dad let Johnny Robot live, and Johnny Robot continued to protect our house, however one day Johnny Robot decided we didn’t really need any protection and he took off. I haven’t seen or heard anything from him to this day. I search Facebook sometimes just to see if he’s set-up a page, but he hasn’t. Not yet anyways.

Walking the line between Print and Web

2010-12-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

Finding a graphic designer who can truly create for all areas of your business can be difficult. Sure if you were to work with a design house they can handle all aspects, but is one person really designing for you, one person that you have a relationship with, or are you have a relationship with a salesman, and then they are passing the information onto the two different departments? Some of your info goes to the designers that design for print, while the others go to the designers that design for web. Or maybe there is only one designer, but unless that designer knows how to code for the web, there can be a number of changes that need to be made to your layout just to make it web safe.

Me, Steve Craig is thisHero Designs. I'm a one man shop, which means I do all the designing for both print and web. And once a design for your web is approved, I Steve Craig code your web site. I know through experience what can and cannot be done on the web. And while anything is possible with the web, is that anything possible while keeping your site optimized for any web browser, or any speed, or any search engine? These are all important factors to take into consideration when designing a page for your business. While sometimes flashy is called for, if no one sees it, what's the point.

Steve Craig - Graphic Designer for Print and Web.

NaNoWriMo

2010-11-12T13:32:00.000-08:00

I'm participating in the NaNoWriMo, which stands for National Novel Writing Month, which challenges people to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. My book is a Science Fiction book which is a prequel to a short story I wrote years ago called "Your Source of Violence". This book, This Hero Has Dead Eyes, is the story of how the main characters meet, how the main character in YSOV, get's the abilities he gets, and set's the stage for YSOV. It's been really fun writing the story as I'm re-introducing the characters to myself and am building quite a background for it. I'm also seeing where the original needs to change a little because of what I'm doing now. I think the changes will be for the better, because it is just adding depth and complexity to the story. Anyways, I've added the badge for NaNoWriMo, as well as an image that ties the stories title into the story. It may not make sense right now, but once you read the book, it'll make perfect sense.

One more thing, as far as writing this 50,000 word book, I'll have the story completed by the end of the month, but believe me, it'll be a very rough draft.

Simple Freshness

2010-11-11T16:13:00.000-08:00

I do most of the marketing advertising for Flooring Liquidators, an eight store chain in the central valley, and while he has a great logo and mascot, the pieces can get stale. So one thing that you can do to keep things fresh is by making slight non-permanent changes to the logo or marketing piece. In this example I had made a couple of slight changes to "Super Steve", the teeth and cape, that keeps his identity fresh, but not permanent. As soon as Halloween was over we went back to his normal logo. At least until Thanksgiving.
thisHero Designs... Keeping it real... keeping it fresh!

Navigation Icons

2010-10-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

As I work on Flooring Liquidators, I've realized by the sheer scope of the site that the UI or User Interface needs to be much more user friendly then past static sites for doctors and construction companies. With all of the pages that can be navigated for find the product one is looking for or account pages, we needed a better system then simple text based links. Therefore I decided at one point that certain navigation buttons would include an icon incorporated into the button to 1. help with ease of use and 2. to show that its level of importance is greater then other buttons (not that they all aren't important.

Anyways, I've created quite a few of these icons, and for the most part am pretty pleased with them and I thought I'd share them with all of you. Now these are the buttons from the site, just the icons I've been incorporating into the buttons.

Enjoy, and we'll talk to you soon.

Steve

Understanding Twitter

2010-09-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of weeks I have been trying to understand the importance of Twitter in running my own business, and while the results are still to come, some things have become obvious.

I read an article (and even tweeted about it) last week that talked about tweeting as "building relationships and building business". It talked about how you can not just tweet "10% off" or "this months special" but how tweeting is just like dealing with people in the real world. Sure you talk business, but you also talk about the nature of your business, tips and tricks and even your personal interests

So by building relationships on twitter, by replying to tweets, by re-tweeting and by tweeting myself, I do see my number of followers slowly increasing. Where these new followers come from I'm not sure but I definitely can see it more clearly as building relationships. For example, I replied to a tweet from some magazine, and actually got an @mention thanking me for a great comment (building a relationship). Well now my name is spread out to an even bigger audience, so maybe someone else agrees about what a great comment that is and decides to visit my twitter page and likes what I'm sending out in the form of tweets, then suddenly I've got a new follower.

Now I try to keep the business end, specials or announcements, to a minimum, but it's obvious I'm a graphic designer for print and web, but maybe, just maybe one of these new followers will need me someday, and that's when the time spent on tweeting and building relationships pay off. Additionally with the more followers I have, the better the chance one of them is going to say "I need a web designer" and there I am, waiting to serve them. This is of course all speculation at the moment, but I think it has some merit and as I continue this experiment, time will tell.

Secondly what I like about twitter is following people, I like reading about Apple news, I like reading about the automotive industry news, Sharks hockey news and local news, so I make sure these are the people and companies I follow. So now instead of having to go hit up different sites for all of this information, it is all sent to me on my computer or on my iPhone. I get the headlines and if I want to know more, I click the link and read the full story.

So these are my thoughts on twitter, not the strange new technology that was mis-understood, but a friend that can help me in the long run.

Shop truck is officially a rolling chasis

2010-09-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

Well I finally made it over a giant hurdle, the camaro clip is done, it's been welded on, and it's square. I have pulled all the front end components and am in the process of rebuilding the front end and front brakes, which after what I've been through on the front clip seems pretty easy.

I'll post some pictures of the completed frame soon. All I can say now is that Daniel did an outstanding job of joining the two pieces together, it looks great, and looks strong. Now we can get back to the business of putting this thing back together again, adding parts, instead of taking parts off.

At Long Last - An Update

2010-05-25T13:43:00.001-07:00

Well, since I've last been on, I got married, hence the pause in production. Well, tired of waiting for other people to do my work for me, last Sunday I finally went back down to Turlock to work on Mator. So first thing I did, cut off the front of the Ford frame, then Frank and I spent most of the day measuring, checking our measures and cutting. While we're not there yet, it should be just one more day then we'll be ready to weld the Camaro clip onto the truck. So far I must say I'm pleased with how it's going. I know there is a lot that can go wrong, and many different ways we can screw this up, but we're taking our time, talking lots of measurements, talking a lot about what we want to do, then proceeding. Hopefully next week I'll feel as confident about the whole procedure.

My Kingdom for some wheels!

2010-03-08T09:24:00.001-08:00

So with the new Camaro clip, I needed to locate some Chevy rims to fit on the front end. My first thought was that I would just run down to Pick N Pull and find some, but before I could go down there, I told my brother, some friends and my soon to be father-in-law. Well my father-in-law says he has a set of 4 Chevy rims in his garage that he would love to give to me, the only problem was he wouldn't be down for two weeks. Well, I'll wait for two weeks for some free rims I figure.

Well two weeks goes by and he drops the rims off last Wednesday, I'm as happy as a clam, I'll get to get some real work done this weekend. The first thing I wanted to do was take two of the rims with the worse tires down to the used tire place to have them replaced with tires the size I want (215/75-15) for the front. So on Thursday I run them out to Riverbank and talk to the owner, and he says he knows he has one tire in the size I'm looking for, but if I come back in the afternoon, he's sure the can find a second one.

So later in the afternoon I drive back out to Riverbank and find the owner, and he of course didn't have time to look, but he would do it right then, so he disappears for about 10 minutes, then comes back with more bad luck, he doesn't have another tire in my size, but then looking at the rim, he says, "you know those are Chevy truck rims, right?" What? So he measures the rim and sure enough, it's a 5 on 5.5", Chevy truck!

Dang it! Now I four wheels in my backyard that I have no use for, plus I still need two wheels for that Camaro front end. BTW, Chevy car is 5 on 4.75". So I ask the guy and he says he can look around, give him a call tomorrow (Friday). Well Friday shows up and I end up having a couple of free hours so I drive down to Turlock, because I've been told of a great used tire place that could help me out. When I get down there and I talk to the guy, he has no steel rims, the city told him to get rid of all his extra's so he through them all out two weeks ago. Dang it! Plus if I did have the rims, he doesn't have the tire size I'm looking for anyways. So hmmmm...

I decide I'll go to a junk yard and see if they have some rims. Once there I tell the guy I want some plain stock steel rims that'll fit a '77 Camaro. "Camaro?" he says, "No, I don't have anything like that" and I tell him it doesn't have to come from a Camaro, just need to fit a Camaro, so without looking or doing a thing he decides he has NOTHING in his yard that will work for me. So I go to another junk yard, and I get the same response. I figure that they are just being lazy because they won't get enough money to spend their time finding the rims I want.

So I head back up to Riverbank to see if the first guy had any luck and no, no luck there either. So time is ticking away, I have other things I need to do, so I decide I'll run over to Pick N Pull real quick and see what they have... And sure enough, a '78 Monte Carlo with 15" steel rims AND 215/75-15 tires on them. $30 for both. Should have gone there before I talked to anyone I guess.

Shop Truck Update, #5

2010-02-20T09:05:00.000-08:00

So this past weekend I blocked up the frame of the '57 Ford to my desired ride height and threw the sheet metal on to see if I'd be happy with the height. Oh yeah, I'm happy now. I've blocked up the rear tires and then I'll pull the sheetmetal off and mark up all of the important locations currently, front cab mounts, axle center line, radiator supports locations and other various spots so that when I start mocking up the Camaro front clip, I'll know where everything needs to line-up. Talking to people it sounds like the front axle is just more of an eyeball adjustment. It seems when lowering these trucks, the front wheel will look as if it sits back in the wheel well because of the angled rear in the opening. So after all is said and done, I'll probably be stretching the wheelbase by 1-2". Good to know.

Let's see, I also picked up a 351w from a guy in Turlock. The motor ran when he pulled it, but it has been sitting for a couple of years. As long as I can get a year or two out of it, I'll be happy. After I get the truck on the road, I'll start collecting parts for its rebuild, but would rather not get hit by all of it at this time.

Shop Truck Update, #4

2010-02-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

OK, I got the Camaro clip and cleaned it up yesterday. Looks be be in fairly good shape for have been sitting outside for the last couple of years. It's from a '77 Camaro and has disc brakes up front and a beefy looking anti-sway bar. I still need to talk to some people about installing it, I'm really looking for it to sit a certain way so we'll have to really figure out how it should be installed. More to come...

Shop Truck Update, #3

2010-02-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

Talked to Tim last night, a guy I met last Fall at the Autumn Swap Meet, and nothing is in stone yet, but it looks like I may be doing a trade, my drop axle and springs for a Camaro clip. This is very exciting news since I didn't get the stance I wanted with the axle, the Camaro clip will give it to me, as well as independent front suspension, disc brakes and power steering. A few months ago I met a guy named Dennis and he had done the Camaro clip and loves it, his truck has the perfect stance and he says it drives like a new truck. The truck I posted yesterday, the '58 has a Camaro clip as well, with the perfect stance.

So I guess I'm hoping for the best, I should know more this afternoon.javascript:void(0)

Shop Truck Update

2010-02-02T17:00:00.001-08:00

Well a busy weekend, I suppose. On Saturday the Turlock Swap Meet was around so I went down there to see if I could find a new motor for the Shop Truck. No luck, but one guy had a 351w short block (no heads) that needed to be rebuilt and he only wanted $750! Wow, I could build a motor for less then that. As we were leaving, Frank and I saw a '58 that had been redone. The guy did an excellent job on it, had a Camaro front clip so it sat nice and low. There are things I would do different, but it was nice all the same. One thing I really like about it was the tailgate. On these 57-60 trucks, the stock tail gate looks like an after-thought to Ford, just pasted on the back, but his guy trimmed it down slightly and stuffed it to give it a finished look. The stock tailgate always bothered me, and I always wondered what I would do to it, and I think I found my answer.

On Sunday I went back down and I pulled the motor from the truck, I'll see if I can sell the thing, which I should be able to do, ad that money to the new motor fund. That was about it for the Shop Truck. I did help Frank with a couple of things on his truck and he did get to start it. Sounds pretty good, mostly because it had not headers. He still has to fine tune the thing, but considering it's been down for over a year, it was music to his ears.

Lots of Web Goodies to Help Your Site become Web 2.0 Compliant

2010-01-07T09:40:00.001-08:00

Boy where do I start. There are so many Internet technologies that it's hard to keep track of them all, so it's always good to be talking to people about web solutions. Over the last couple of days I've had a couple of good conversations with people that I must share.

Twitter Widgets. I guess this is the easiest one, but I found a widget on Twitter's web site that allows you to feed your "tweets" directly to a webpage. This is a great way of keeping your site up to date without really doing anything, as well as give new avenues of networking. Right now I have a working example on a site I'm working on, check it out here: http://thisherodesigns.com/ezBooks/index.html At the present time it has my own twitter feed tied into his site, but by the time the site is done, I'll have set-up a Twitter account for him and it will have his feed.

WebYep is a compact Web Content Management System. It's a very simple program that allows clients to edit their pages in a very simple way without a lot of coding. In fact it does have a Dreamweaver plug-in so in reality you don't have to do any program. The beauty of this is that people who don't know web programming have a simple method for updating their site with the simplicity of using a word program. WebYep has security features so not just anyone can log-in and make changes. You can find out more here: http://www.obdev.at/products/webyep/index.html.

Finally I found out about JW Players. It's basically a flash player, with optional skins so you can give it a custom look. It's used in a very similar way as YouTube without having to post the videos to YouTube, a better way of controlling your content and your audience. I like the ideal of that. Find out more here: http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/.

All good stuff to help your site become Web 2.0 compliant and give you an edge on your competition. Need to know more? Give me a call and I'll gladly discuss it with you.

Steve

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Back to Work

2010-01-06T09:50:00.000-08:00

Well after a small hiatus for the holidays, I got back down to Turlock to work on Mator. Oh, first things first, for Christmas, Barb got me a set of stock mirrors for Mator. I did put one on and even brought my camera to take a picture, but unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.

Anyways, after installing one of the mirrors I decided it was time to button up the front end. One of the kingpins had a bolt that was giving me problems originally so I never finished the install. So after some hammering and grinding, it's in place and finished. I still need my pitman arm from my brother, but after that, the front end will be ready for the alignment shop.

I also looked at the way Mator sits, as it is right now, the rear end is a little bit lower then the front end, and that's not going to fly. I've been looking into ways to lower the front end more, because as I say, "the lower, the better", but without getting into a lot of money and changing out what's been started, I'll probably have to raise the rear end to get the rake I want. However, I do believe I'll wait till the truck is closer to being done since not all of the weight is on the suspension so I raise the rear end as little as possible to get her to sit right. The attached photo is a photoshoped picture of what she should sit like with the rear end raised approx. 1.5 inches.

Now for the bad news. I had painted the motor, but at the time it was sitting on the ground so I didn't get a chance to paint the oil pan. So now that the motor is sitting in the truck I decided to pull the oil pan so I can paint it. Well when I drained the oil, the first thing to come out, was water, and as we all know, water is a bad thing to be in the motor. So Frank and I talked about it and thought it is probably just in need of new head gaskets. Hopefully since that is a fairly easy fix. I talked to my brother though and he thinks it is best to pull the motor and the heads and take a good look at the motor, just to be safe.

One step forward, two steps back.

Added tweeter feed to homepage @ http://www.thisherodesigns.com/

2009-12-19T13:02:00.001-08:00

Something I've wanted for awhile, and now that it's slow, I've have the time to do the updates to the site that I've wanted to. My last post went over the updated UI, now I've added another testimonial to the flash movie and have FINALY added my twitter feed to the home page. I wanted to do this for two reason, one it shows potential clients my abilities and it help with SEO. Two birds, one stone.

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Updated UI on http://www.thisherodesigns.com/

2009-12-17T11:56:00.001-08:00

Got tired of the text links on the site, wanted to do something different. The new buttons are modeled off of old cash register numbers, when each number was on its own metal plate, before any type of electrical readout. The same but different, check it out if you get a chance.

Steve

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Some Really Nice Mac Websites

2009-12-11T07:14:00.000-08:00

Came across this site looking for some web inspiration. All the sites were designed Mac app sites. http://desizntech.info/2009/07/30-awesome-and-well-designed-mac-app-websites/

To Use Templates or Not To Use Templates

2009-12-02T13:57:00.001-08:00

As a graphic artist selling my services of web design, is it right or wrong to use templates on a customers site? I guess I ask this question because there are many free web templates available for free, which can save me time when coding a job which in turn makes the job more profitable for me.

If the client still receives a product that meets their demands, and even saves them some money, that's good. If I can save time by not having to trouble shoot code, that's good. If I can learn from other's code, that's good.

I think my dilemma comes from the fact that as a graphic artist and web developer, am I cheating by using someone else's code? Not necessarily I think, as long as I don't sell the site as my own by throwing it in my portfolio or delete the creators link off of the site and try to claim it on my own, I see nothing wrong with it. I am still very capable of design sites, which I still do, and I am still very capable of coding them, which I still do.

Templates are just another tool in a large tool box we graphic designers have. It help me be more efficient, it allows me to learn a lot from other's work, and it helps out my fellow designer by linking back to their site.

Steve @ thisHero Designs

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Give Thanks

2009-11-25T08:41:00.001-08:00

John, owner of Storage Auction Experts has me add quotes to his website every month, and one quote that has been sticking around my head is, "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed-Michael Jordan"

I've been thinking about this quote because I've been on quite a few new client meetings in the last few weeks and for one reason or another I did not get the job. And while I can easily let this get me down, I choose to be thankful for the jobs I do get, for the ongoing relationships with existing clients and for the great year thisHero Designs has had in spite of these stumbling blocks.

Let's be thankful for what we do have in these times, because it could always be a lot worse.

Steve

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Time with the 57 Ford F100

2009-11-16T09:29:00.001-08:00

My brother and I went down to Turlock on Sunday to look at the pitman arm situation, and for fun I started putting the front clip together well know I'll need to take it back apart for paint, but I'm really interested in how she's going to sit. So after Rob was doing what he needed to do we put the clip on, the bed on and through one of the doors on so we could get a full visual. Looks pretty good. I'd like to see the front end come down some more, it's sitting a little too level for me. I know we have an option of moving the rear end up, but I'd rather see it lower in the front then anything. Right now the front tires are 225/75 15's so I think if I change them (just the front) to 215/65 15's that will definitely help. Not sure how much, but it's the cheapest, easiest way to do it, I have enough money in that front end, I don't really want to spend anymore.

So next weekend I'll go down and take it all apart again. The rolling chassis has an appointment with the guy that did the c-notch. I need to work out the motor mount at this time. As it is, with the lowering the motor mount is about a quarter an inch away from the straight axle, and that just won't fly. So I need to take care of that, maybe if I'm lucky have him construct a new transmission mount and then I'll be ready to putting body parts on for real.

Let's hope we can get the motor mounts taken care of rather quickly!

57 Ford f100 Illustration

2009-11-06T13:31:00.001-08:00

Wanting to work on "Shop Truck" logo I decided the first thing I needed to do was create a illustration of the truck, so here it is. Turned out pretty good I think, there's some lines I'm not sure about, but there's still time. I don't remember the magazine, but there's a hot rod magazine out there that uses this type of illustration for vehicles throughout and I just really liked the style. Not that they have a corner on this style, I just thought it would be cool to get 'ole Mator in this style, plus I may be able to use it in the future, as in next years Cru-Zin in the Vineyards t-shirt.

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57 Ford F100 Illustration

2009-11-06T13:17:00.000-08:00

thisHero Designs. To Help Small Business with their Marketing Needs

2009-11-05T15:24:00.001-08:00

I was talking to a client the other day about an ad we were preparing. One of the things I noticed during this conversation, was his desire to really take it to the nationwide brands. His major competitors are Home Depot and Lowe's, which of course have a huge advantage because of their size. But is that really an advantage? My client does not need to compete nationwide against them, just locally, which of course means his message can be customized to the local audience. His message does not need to be generic appealing to the entire nation, but can connect with the local population.

Over the last year we have slowly been adjusting his message and style to be very effective, allowing him to take business from Home Depot and Lowe's. Sure he'll never put them out of business, but if he can steal some of their business, it's all the better for him.

How can I help you find your personal style and take business away from your nationwide competitor?

Steve Craig
thisherodesigns.com | graphic design for print and web
steve@thishero.com
209-988-8291

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thisHero Designs Fall Newsletter sent out Today

2009-10-30T11:21:00.001-07:00

Lot's of good information on new and current projects plus services as well as contact information. See it know at: http://thisherodesigns.com/eMail/newsletter.html

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Shop Truck Update

2009-10-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

Spent Sunday down at the shop again, working on the Shop Truck. Cleaned up the motor, found what looks to be a JB Weld fix job on one of the heads, that can prove to be significant in the future. I've heard the motor run, so for now I'm not going to worry about it. I painted the motor 'Ford Corporate Blue', all the Chevy fans out there should love that. I'm going to have the valve covers sand blasted and then I'll paint them the same blue, and have the Ford embossed logo painted in white so it sticks out really well. We then put the motor back into place and slid the cab to its correct position.

After looking at the way it sits, Frank and I decided to see if we could get a fender on, so we did, and it looked good, so next thing you know, we're throwing on the second fender and then propping the hood up with a baseball bat. It looks nice. I especially like the way it sits. I know it still has a ways to go, but it's days like this that make it all worth it. I can almost see her going down the road with thisHero Designs on the side right now.

Sorry about the quality of the picture, I took it with my iPhone, and you know, it just doesn't shoot pictures at night very well.

iPhone Desktop Pic - fighting thisHero! Get it Now

2009-10-28T14:16:00.001-07:00

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thisHero Designs is on Posterous, starting now!

2009-10-27T15:36:00.001-07:00

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Lowering Complete!

2009-10-13T09:11:00.001-07:00

When I first bought the truck, my only requirement before driving her was that she had to be lowered. I was not going to drive it at stock height, or as I like to say, at "farmer" height. Well, the rear axle has been flipped, the frame c-notched, for the front I installed a 3" drop axle and 3" drop mono leaf springs. While she was apart I put in new king-pins, new bearings up front with the rear differential STILL scheduled to be gone through. I am now working on installing the Toyota power steering box, and get my brake lines all straightened out before I move on to cleaning up the motor. She's comin' along, slowly, but surely.

57 Ford Shop Truck Update

2009-08-31T08:41:00.001-07:00

Frank and I went to the Turlock Auto Swap Meet Sunday morning, and met Tim with a nice 59 F100. Apparently he's been putting them together for years and he had some good advice and general information for us. It's interesting, most people say I'm crazy for leaving the straight axle, but whenever I talk to the old timers they all say that if the front end is rebuilt right, the truck can run as smooth and predictable as a newer truck. That always makes me feel better for sticking to the "old school" way.

The rest of the day I spent working on Mator. We threw the bed on the back to see how she sits, low. That makes me happy. We also threw the front springs and straight axle with the spindles on to see how the front looks. The front looked a little higher then the back, but considering there was no weight on the front and her wheel/tire combo aren't of the correct size I'm ok with it right now. It's actually looking like it's going to be just about perfect.

After we looked at that we took the bed back off and I finished painting the back half of the frame. It looks real good now. Next Sunday Joe, a friend of Franks is coming over to do a tune-up on the rear differential, so that'll be nice that I won't have to worry about it once Mator is going.

It was a very busy day working with not a lot of "real" progress since everything was just thrown on. The rear differential isn't even on the truck right now. I will be ordering some parts this week and hopefully by the end of next week the front axle, springs and spindles will be on permanently, as well as the rear differential will be on and painted.

I guess we'll see next week.

Welcome!

2009-08-29T17:16:00.000-07:00

Here's my first blog in an effort to help drive traffic to my website, thisHeroDesigns.com. If you are looking for a graphic artist for print or web, be sure to check out my site and contact me with any questions.

Thanks,

Steve