Online Identity Crisis

My name is Travis Avery and I am Graphic Artist, however it is not necessarily that simple. Social networking has become increasingly important; your online persona can sometimes become a representation of who you are professionally as well as personally. When your life becomes separated into various different accounts with various handles representing you, keeping track of the spiderweb of usernames spread across the interwebs can sometimes feel like multiple personality disorder. It doesn't help that I legally changed my name from "Travis Alan Jackson" to "Travis Avery" back in 2002.

Much to my surprise, and somewhat accidentally, I have come to realize that I have a fairly consistent online social identity:

twitter.com/TravisAvery
facebook.com/TravisAvery
vimeo.com/TravisAvery
linkedin.com/in/TravisAvery
live.xbox.com/member/TravisAvery
myspace.com/TravisAvery

XY(Z)

I had a discussion with co-worker the other week about how we had gotten the direction to make our designs more "modern" and in the same breath we were told to appease to the “MTV generation” of people in their “mid-twenties.”

Now I was not there in person when we had gotten this direction, however I got quite a chuckle from this when my co-worker told me about it. The so called “MTV generation” is in fact also called “Generation X,” and it has been a long time since they have been in their mid twenties. We have long since moved into “Gen-Y” and arguably even “Gen-Z,” however I feel that this terminology in and of itself is outdated. Now, me being artist who actually is in his mid twenties I can honestly say my generation would probably be much more willing to describe ourselves as the “Rock Band Generation.”

Appealing to my generation is a more difficult task than most people think; the old ploys don’t really work anymore. The consumer is now educated; we have grown up with technology, with information at our fingertips, and we can easily research to discover if we are being bullshitted.

What I have found is that the trick that works the best is to catch someone’s attention as quickly as possible; show them the product in a way they weren't expecting. Then give them only the simplest amount of information followed by a URL pointing them to find out more info - empowering the consumer to take matters into their own hands.

RE: Consumerist Whoring

For the past few weeks my sister has been chronicling her journey in opening up a small business - a yarn store that shall be known as Clever Knits. In the near future I will be designing the store sign and logo and helping her with the web side of things. She is having a little bit of trouble so I promised to forward the following post onto my site.

"The most difficult part of starting a business is locating the start-up capital necessary to actually START the business -- to rent space, to purchase yarn, etc.

I've become BEST FRIENDS with Alfredo at Bank of America. He calls me almost every day, and smiles wide every time I go to visit him. I think this is the most attention I've gotten from a man in a long time!

But Alfredo's attention is not enough to finance the yarn store. And I'm still waiting for word back on an assortment of small business loans, but in the meanwhile, I thought I would prove to the world that I am a complete whore by begging for money. WORSE than a whore, really, since I'm not even spreading my legs for it!

Obviously there are a thousand worthier causes to which you could donate a dollar or five, so I implore you to go do that right now. Disaster relief, abused animals, starving children in Africa -- ALL of these deserve your five dollars more than I do. But if you'd rather fund the American Dream, or consider it an investment in the future knitterly awesomeness of San Diego, then here is the button:

[cross-posted in a wide assortment of other locations -- I'm not spreading my legs, but I sure am spreading the word!]"

Towel Day!

In preparation for Towel Day 2009, I have compiled a collection of goodies for said event. So, this May 25th go out there, have fun, and don't forget your towel. None of these are official or endorsed by anyone in any capacity; they are just for fun! Feel free to use them for anything you want to, just please link back to my site.

Wallpaper


1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200

100 x 100

80 x 80

64 x 64

32 x 32

Banner Ads

728 x 90



486 x 60

The Pendulum

I have had various conversations recently discussing the uniqueness of my generation; how we are the paradigm shift in modern technology. We are the children of the information age, yet maybe the last generation to know what it feels like to be disconnected.

My high school experience is a good example of how the pendulum has swung. My freshmen year of high school very few families owned a computer. People who considered themselves “gamers” were considered to be socially crippled. The only ones who owned a cell phone were those who needed them for business purposes. Yet by my senior year finding a student with a cell phone was an easy task, and most families had at least one computer.

My little sister is graduating high school later this year, and the idea of the family computer was all but dead because in many cases every family member in a household owns their own computer. It is common to find multiple video game consoles in a single household, and just about every person that you run into has a cell phone attached to them. It is also common to find people that do not have a land line.

The Challenge

I would like to be the cynical artist and and blame others for my own frustrations; say that it is caused by fickle people making unnecessary changes, with ridiculous time constraints, and vague requirements. However, that's just the nature of the beast and it is something every artist has to endure. Shifting the blame would be insulting because usually those pushing me had the same requirements thrust upon them in a similar fashion.

Even though all of these excuses, these justifications, are valid they end up being just that: excuses - excuses for not growing, excuses for being lazy, excuses for not doing what I most enjoy about my job. When things start getting more complicated I become afraid and try to revert into a "safe zone" of design.

I have to make my designs malleable to allow for changes in way that doesn't make each design seem like a template of the previous one. That is where the balance begins, because the more creative you make your work, the less it lends itself to changes further down the path. I love creating original inspiring designs with lots of detail and motion, so the challenge for me is the balance.

A little Update

After a few weeks of procrastinating I have pretty much finished the design for my site. At first I was going to commission my amazing sister to build the for me, however boredom and insomnia mixed together to created a cold front of productivity.

To celebrate my lovely new design I have updated my portfolio with several of my old designs, one of which I had to completely recreate from scratch, which I did because I am completely insane. Well, in reality I rebuilt it because really I liked that animation it but it was really old and near impossible to render in Hi-Def.

I have been building my all of animations and designs in high-def for a few years and now and downscaling them when necessary. I think ever artist is a little obsessive compulsive; for me, there is allot of my old work from before I started working in HD that I would really like to showcase in portfolio. I have begun the cumbersome task of converting all of my old work into HD so that everything is the same format.

Generally what I discovered is that I am awesome; most of my work was built in a way that was surprisingly easy to convert to HD without loosing quality.

Game Advertisement

This is an animation that I recreated from scratch specifically for my portfolio. The advertisement is designed to showcase the various games that can be played from one device for free. I created this animation using Maxon Cinema 4D, Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, Trapcode 3d Stroke, and Photoshop.

"Three Roads" Advertisement B

This is part two of a three part advertisement that I created as part of a large regional promotion where the top players would win a trip to Vegas to compete for the grand prize. I built these ads using Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, and Photoshop.


Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

"Three Roads" Advertisement C

This is the last of a series of advertisements that I created as part of a large regional promotion where the top players would win a trip to Vegas to compete for the grand prize. I built these ads using Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, and Photoshop.



Part 1, Part 2, Part 3