Rohdesign Weblog: Milwaukee

Here you'll find all posts file under the Milwaukee category.

February 18, 2010

Milwaukee State Street Bridge Illustration

Last week I came across an ink illustration of a Milwaukee bridge from 1989. I was a graphic design student at Milwaukee Area Technical College, still learning my craft.

I still have fond memories of walking with my drawing class to the State Street bridge in Milwaukee to draw on warm spring mornings. The entire drawing class trekked out to the bridge each day of class. We each found a spot and we drew like crazy.

I inked this piece with a Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph ink drafting pen on heavyweight drawing board, using some freehand and a fair amount of help from a triangle.

The most interesting thing learned while drawing this piece was to have patience and enjoy the process. Something of this detail level could have driven me crazy, yet by having to tackle it a little every day while enjoying the process made it achieveable.

Permalink | | Sketches | add to del.icio.us

October 31, 2009

Photographing Linnea

On Friday, my friend Derek Dysart stopped by the house to take photos of our 2-week old daughter, Linnea. We had a great time working the Derek, enjoying a house call after experiencing the agony of waiting for photoshoots at Sears.

I've known Derek was a photographer for a while, but never had a chance to hire him for a project until now. Boy am I glad we brought him in! Just few hours after our session, Derek posted this amazing photo of Linnea:

Derek was able to capture Linnea in a special moment with this shot. Every time I look at it I'm just blown away with the expressiveness of her eyes in this image.

This experience with Derek also reminds why it's so important to hire people who know what they're doing. In this case, Derek has spent time building his craft of shooting portraits, and it really shows.

Derek remarked to me that this shot is one of his top 5, and reminds him why he loves photography so much.

Hire Derek Dysart

If you're looking for a photographer for portraits in your home, or other photo assignments, drop Derek an email or give him a call at +1 (262) 758-2456.

Related Links
DJ Dysart Photography
Derek Dysart's Flickr Account
Derek's Web Development Business
Derek's Blog - Hirlpoo
Derek on Twitter

Permalink | | Kids | add to del.icio.us

January 8, 2009

Spreenkler Sketchnotes: Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett

Last night I had an opportunity to attend the Spreenkler January meeting, to hear Milwaukee's Mayor Tom Barrett speak about his vision for sustaining creativity and innovation and answer questions at The Residences at Hotel Polomar's sales office.

I wasn't intending on sketchnoting the event, as I'd left my blank Moleskine sketchbooks at home. However, I did have my Moleskine notebook and a G2 gel pen along, so I decided spur of the moment to see what would happen.

Turns out that Mayor Barrett had some great things to say, which I was able to capture in sketchote form, shown above.

Thanks go to Steve Glynn for starting up Spreenkler to give Milwaukeeans more opportunities to connect and generate excitement in the city and this area, and to Mayor Barrett for speaking and taking questions.

Permalink | | Sketchnotes | add to del.icio.us

December 7, 2008

John Harbor's Coffee House Lives On!

December 18, 2008 — John Harbor's is alive!
My favorite local coffee shop, John Harbor's Main Street Coffee House was in a bind on December 7th, 2008. They needed to raise $25,000 and/or gain new business partners by Monday the 8th in order to stay open on Tuesday the 9th.

Our family and some friends visited John Harbor's multiple times since the call went out for support and I've been very happy to see the open sign lit every day, as I pass by John Harbor's.

Here's an email from Jeremy & Erin at John Harbor's, letting their fans know they've survived with new business partners and a new plan:

Thanks for your help if you supported John Harbors!

Here's the first press release from Jeremy & Erin from John Harbors:

Permalink | | Food & Drink | add to del.icio.us

November 19, 2008

Aga Artka: Interior Designer

Just learned that Aga Artka (ASID, LEED AP), a friend of mine and the wife of my co-worker Brian Artka is now available for full-time employment as an interior designer or for interior design project work.

Check out Aga's bio, have a look at her portfolio of interior design work, read her blog, review her LinkedIn profile or send her a note about employment or project work.

"My ultimate goal is to help hospitality business owners create interior spaces that attract, excite and retain customers. Through the proper use of color, light and space, every restaurant, hotel or retail environment can be transformed to reflect its unique style and atmosphere." — Aga Artka

Aga recently earned her Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) credentials, has a passion for creating beautiful and usable living, working and retail spaces and is fluent in Polish (she's originally from Southern Poland).

Permalink | | Milwaukee | add to del.icio.us

October 4, 2008

BarCampMilwaukee3 and PhotoWalk Images

Had a great time today at BarCampMilwaukee3, especially the photowalk after lunch today.

About half way through the walk we encountered James Haertel, who invited the photowalkers to tour the original Pabst Brewery buildings in Milwaukee.

Images of the PhotoWalk have been posted Flickr if you'd like to check 'em out.

Permalink | | Milwaukee | add to del.icio.us

September 26, 2008

BarCampMilwaukee3 T-Shirts are Done!

Last night I picked up 4 boxes of beautiful, charcoal gray t-shirts for BarCampMilwaukee3! Here are shots of the actual shirt, hot off the presses:

Note that I've had my friend Brian Artka add his name, Twitter handle and tags to his shirt, so I could demonstrate how the shirt will work at BarCampMilwaukee3.

The idea is to create space in the design for each attendee to add a name, Twitter or Identi.ca handle and 5 tags to represent what they're interested in with a permanent marker. Each shirt becomes unique and personal, while also embedding key information to encourage strangers to say hello and start discussions.

I'll be picking up a bunch of colorful permanent Sharpie markers next week, which I'l spread out on a table for BarCampMilwaukee3 attendees to customize. I can't wait to see how the concept works at the event!

My favorite neighborhood screen print and embroidery shop, MJM Ventures, did a stellar job with my design once again. Thanks guys!

Get a free shirt while they last!

How? Sign up and attend BarCampMilwaukee3, October 4-5, 2008 at Bucketworks, 1340 North 6th Street, just north of Downtown Milwaukee (map).

Go Sign up today!

Permalink | | T-Shirts | add to del.icio.us

September 25, 2008

Jason Fried's Discovery World Sketchnotes

This evening I had the opportunity to hear and sketchnote Jason Fried of 37signals while speaking at the Discovery World Museum on Milwaukee's lakefront. Jason's 1.5 hour talk was sponsored by my alma mater, Milwaukee Area Technical College.

I captured 22 pages of sketchnotes from the talk:

View the archived live video from the September 24th, 2008 event here: www.justin.tv/signals37/archive

Afterwards I had a chance to say hello to Jason, and show him the sketchnotes. He seemed very pleased and a little surprised (in a good way) about how I managed to capture that many pages in an hour and a half.

Jason, thanks for coming up to Milwaukee to talk with students, MATC alumni and the business community. We all really appreciate your time and insight.

Come up again anytime! :-)

Permalink | | Sketchnotes | add to del.icio.us

September 15, 2008

BarCampMilwaukee3 Final T-Shirt Design

After receiving not a single entry in the BarCampMilwaukee3 T-Shirt design contest, I decided late last week that I ought to come up with a design for the shirt, and quick.

Below is the final BarCampMilwaukee3 T-Shirt design for 2008:

How did I Get Here?

The deadline for ordering shirts and submitting some art was looming, and there were no submissions to the contest to speak of. It was last week Thursday when I opened my sketchbook and started to doodle. What came out in rough form was a design vaguely similar to the design above.

I wanted something a bit organic, fun and round. I remembered that Pete Prodoehl had "tagging" space on name tags at the first BarCampMilwaukee in 2006. I took his idea a step further by embedding the tagging spaces right in the shirt design.

At the Web414 meeting that evening, I saw Jordan Arentsen wearing a charcoal gray t-shirt from a recent Adobe AIR event, and loved how the shirt looked. I checked his tag (with his permission) and found it was a Gildan Ultra Cotton, the same shirt I've been using with all of my projects for the last few years. Excellent!

Design Iteration v1.0

When I got home, I was wired from the Web414 meeting, so I began working with the sketch I had, and generated a v1 design iteration. I quite liked the feel of this first iteration — the rounded shapes and tags, white backing color and the use of the BarCampMilwaukee icon on the back.

As I look back, James Carlson gave me some inspiration with a Wiki character he's sprayed on a large sheet of paper and showed at the Web414 meeting. It had eyes on stalks, which influenced my decision to add similar circles/eyes on stalks to the t-shirt design.

However, I wasn't sure of the dark blue color, and decided to sleep on the design until Friday.

Design Iteration v1.1

In the morning, I had the idea to try another color. Since the BarCampMilwaukee logo takes inspiration from the Milwaukee Brewers Blue & Gold colors, why not try a retro 1980s Brewers medium blue?

That's what I did, and I really loved the feel against the white and the charcoal gray shirt material.

I also wanted to describe the idea visually to the BarCamp core team, so on the v1.1 iteration, I added some sample texts in the balloons for my name, Twitter handle and 5 tags that represented my interests.

Design Iteration v1.2: Final

Feedback from Web414 and BarCampMilwaukee people was very positive this weekend, so tonight I've finalized the EPS art for t-shirt printer, complete with the sponsor list for BarCampMilwaukee3.

Thanks to everyone who helped with this project, especially Pete! I will follow-up when the shirt goes to print with photos of the shirts hot off the presses.

Permalink | | T-Shirts | add to del.icio.us

September 3, 2008

BarCampMilwaukee3 T-Shirt Design Contest

Calling all designers! we've just kicked off a contest to design this year's BarCampMilwaukee3 t-shirt! Submit your design and get recognition and 2 free shirts shipped directly to you.

BarCampMilwaukee3 T-Shirt Design Contest page

Design Requirements:
• Must have the BarCampMilwaukee3 logo on the front and back, and the logo should be readable (i.e. No ultra-tiny logos to simply meet the specs). Here is the logo for your reference:

In color:

In Black & White:

In Black & White Reversed:

Download the EPS outlined logos in color and B&W, zipped (389k) compatible with Adobe Illustrator:

http://www.rohdesign.com/bcmke3/bcmke3-logo-Logo.eps.zip

• The t-shirt will be dark gray or black.

• Two colors max, with one color being white. The second color will print on top of the white on a dark shirt. Using only white in the design is OK.

• Design space is 12" x 12" max (no wraparounds, etc.) front and back.

• The design should capture the idea of sharing, learning, community, equality, technology — along those lines.

• The back must include sponsor names as listed on the site at http://barcampmilwaukee.com/sponsors. A list will probably work the best, but hey, if you have a crazy cool idea, just make sure all sponsors are listed and are treated equally on the back design (i.e. Don't make some sponsor names huge and others tiny — all sponsors are equal partners).

Here's a sample of the BarcampMilwaukee2 sponsor area on the back of the shirt from last year:

• Do not use copyrighted images in your design.

• T-Shirt designs must be your own work and not copied from someone else.

• Samples of last year's shirt designs for a starting point:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/1331040068
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/1343016695
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/1403125149
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/1404091242
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rohdesign/1468555199

• Deadline for submitted design ideas is Friday, September 12, 2008 at Midnight Central Daylight Time, submitted to Mike Rohde

• The contest is open to any designer who wishes to submit a design, whether local to the Milwaukee area or anywhere in the world.

• The winning shirt design will be announced on the BarCampMilwaukee site on September 15th, 2008.

• All submissions will be posted on the BarCampMilwaukee.com site with the option for comments by the public, for input.

• The final decision on the winning shirt design will be based on comments by those who view and vote on the designs, and selected by the organizing committee of BarCampMilwaukee.

• We reserve the right to make technical adjustments needed to print the winning design on a t-shirt.

• Winner receives 2 final printed T-Shirts in whatever size they wish, shipped to them directly.

Questions? Leave a comment below.

Permalink | | T-Shirts | add to del.icio.us

August 2, 2008

BarCampMilwaukee3

Woohoo! We're just 2 months away from BarCampMilwaukee3, on October 4th and 5th at Bucketworks, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

This morning I've updated the BarCampMilwaukee3 logo and icon designs, and am starting to ponder ideas for the t-shirt design for this year's event.

What's a BarCamp?

In a nutshell, a BarCamp is an event where technology people come together and share what they know, in a low-key environment. There are no keynotes or special speakers — anyone who attends has an opportunity to present their ideas and knowledge. There is a heavy emphasis on sharing with others at BarCamp events. It has earned the name "unconference" because it turns the conference idea on its head.

How much is it?

It's a free event, paid for by sponsors, which makes it easy for anyone who wants to come to be there. It's also a great way for sponsors to give back to the local tech community, and already we have a number of sponsors signed up. If you're interested in sponsorship, a donation of $200 to $500 gets your name on the website, t-shirt, and a sign and mention at the event. Not bad!

What will I eat & drink, where can I stay?

Food and beverages are provided for free. Sponsors provide many of the meals and snacks and several of the attendees bring along food and beverages to share if they like. If you want to save cash on a hotel room, you can crash for the night at the event, all you need is a sleeping bag and a pillow.

Where and when is it?

It's taking place at Bucketworks, the "World's First Health Club for the Brain" at 1340 N. 6th Street in Downtown Milwaukee. It's taking place October 4th and 5th, 2008, with a kick-off party happening on October 3rd (my birthday!).

BarCampMilwaukee2 Video

Here's a video by my friend David, from BarCampMilwaukee2:

Come to BarCampMilwaukee3!

You are invited you do come to Milwaukee and experience BarCampMilwaukee3. It's a great opportunity to learn, share and connect with others who love technology, the web, hardware and social media as much as you do.

Questions? See the Getting Started section of the BarCampMKE3 site, or Join the BarCampMilwaukee Yahoo mailing list. You can also leave a comment here and I'll do my best to answer your question.

Permalink | | Milwaukee | add to del.icio.us

April 28, 2008

Web414 Stickers

Recently, I was invited to try PSPrint printing, by marketing manager Trisha.

For a while I've wanted to create stickers for Web414, the local Milwaukee web design and development group I'm part of, so I sent some EPS art to PSPrint.

A week later, I received a package of 50 white stickers with a 2 color Web414 logo on them, and they look great!

The stickers were designed at business card size: 3.5" x 2" then trimmed above and below the logo. Using my wife's corner rounder from her scrap-booking toolkit, I rounded the corners to complete the look I was aiming for.

I could have gone with a custom die, but since this was a free test run, it wasn't in the budget. If I were running a large quantity, I'd most definitely order a die.

Sticker Quality
PSPrint uses a medium weight vinyl for their stickers, printing the logo in 4/color fade-resistant inks with a 6 months fade-free guarantee, under normal use.

The substrate is tough and resilient, though these are not intended for extreme situations. For heavy duty stickers, check out StickerRobot.com.

Still, for placement on a laptop, notebook or other medium duty applications, I'm very pleased with the results of the PSPrint stickers created for Web414.

Come to the Web414 May meeting and get one free 'til they're gone!

Related Links
Flickr Photos: Squared, Rounded, and shown In Context with a Moleskine.

Permalink | | Logos | add to del.icio.us

April 23, 2008

The New Gig: Art Director at Northwoods Software

Last November, I mentioned in detail Apple contacting me about a job opportunity with the iPhone/OS X design team. After taking time to ponder and reflect on the opportunity, I felt it wasn't the right move for myself or my family.

I loved living and working in Milwaukee, helping independent software developers with branding and design challenges at MakaluMedia.

These were the major reasons I decided to decline the Apple opportunity.

Fast forward to spring 2008.

Following several discussions with leadership team and design/development staff at Northwoods Software, I've been offered an art director position, which I have accepted. I start my new job in mid-May.

After 10 great years at MakaluMedia, I'm taking the next step.

A Tough Decision
This change was a very tough decision. I love the design work I do, the clients I help and the many colleagues I've had the pleasure to collaborate with. I've spent several years building a reputation for doing good design work, solving problems for my clients and being a designer who listens and is easy to work with.

There is nothing wrong with MakaluMedia. I've loved my time at MakaluMedia.

This change in direction is about new opportunities and challenges on multiple levels. This is the next step in my growth as a person, a designer and art director.

10 Years at MakaluMedia: Priceless
Working for MakaluMedia since 1998 has been a wonderful experience. Matt Henderson, the owner of MakaluMedia and I have been through quite a bit together.

I was Matt's first employee, leaving a position with Hare Strigenz, a Milwaukee print design firm. I'd developed a passion for the web and wanted to learn the new medium by diving in head first.

I learned HTML from books and building sites in BBEdit. in 2003 I shifted from tabled design to web standards, thanks to Designing with Web Standards.

I was the first MakaluMedia employee to work fully remotely. This was way back in 1998 when it was still a little quirky and unusual. I produced my design work on a Powerbook Wallstreet, with a 19" Sony CRT on a folding table in my apartment.

I experienced a shift from larger design projects with the European Space Agency, to building a network of small, independent clients over several years. The first year was tough, but a long-term, steady approach to doing good work and making clients happy has paid off in many referrals, a backlog of work and profitability.

By working remotely and having to build my own network of clients and partners, I've effectively run a small design business. I've enjoyed the entire process: finding clients, winning projects, solving design challenges, selecting and managing partners, producing the solutions, invoicing the work and promoting the work.

These past 10 years have shaped who I am, formalized my iterative design process, provided a better understanding of business, built my knowledge of helping clients, improved my customer service and more. It's been a priceless experience.

Northwoods Opportunities & Challenges
Becoming an art director at Northwoods Software is a step in my process of growth as a designer and a person. I'll be working on larger projects, exercising research, analysis, problem solving and visual thinking skills in new and different ways. I'm looking forward to bringing what I've learned to new projects and users.

I'm very excited about working within a creative group again. Working alone has developed my focus, but I've missed being in an office with a small group of creative people. Over the years I've built a network of design colleagues online, but IM, Twitter and voice chats are just no substitute for having colleagues close at hand.

Sharing with my team will be satisfying part of the position. I'm looking forward to offering up my 20+ years of experience in design practice with colleagues. I hope that all of the joy and pain gained from many years of working on projects with clients will benefit my colleagues at Northwoods.

The company is focusing on new creative areas of expertise, and I'm extremely excited to be part of this. I'm hoping my skills and experiences in building a small design business from scratch will be helpful in this regard.

Finally, the company attracted me with its unique working environment, including a private office with shower and toilet, ping pong tables, popcorn on Thursdays, workout and nap rooms and space outside for frisbee. Northwoods' family first approach and flexibility made a positive impact on me, as I'm coming from a pretty family-friendly and flexible work at home environment.

All in all, I am very excited about this new Northwoods opportunity.

Thanks!
I'm very thankful to Matt Henderson for the opportunity to be a part of MakaluMedia these past 10 years. It's been a great ride, I've learned quite a bit, and I know the team will continue to produce great stuff.

I'm also grateful to the team at Northwoods, for making me a part of their team at this exciting time in the life of the company. I'm looking forward to being a contributor to Northwoods' success and growth.

Northwoods Movies & Photos
Tracy Apps, a friend of mine and my future Northwoods colleague, has grabbed several movie clips and photos of the Northwoods offices on Flickr. I thought would be fun to post several of them here for a little context. :-)

My New Office at Northwoods

Yep, that's my own private office with a window, bathroom, shower and vanity. Northwoods has retrofitted an old hospital space for their offices, so every employee gets an office just like this. Pretty slick.

The Creative Wing Tour

Tracy takes the camera down the hall from my office, and shows the central area where the ping pong tables and other amenities are located.

Brian Artka Scootering in the Creative Wing

A few weeks ago, Northwoods picked up scooters for the team, and of course my friend Brian Artka had to show off his scootering skillz!

Tracy's Extreme On-Board Scootering

Here we have Tracy capturing her thrill-a-minute extreme scooter ride!

Ping Pong Tables

And here are several Northwoods team members playing ping pong.

Permalink | | Design | add to del.icio.us

March 15, 2008

The MilwaukeeDevHouse Experience

Last night, Nathan and I packed up the MacBook, Canon scanner, 27 of his "transportation" themed drawings and headed downtown.

We were off to take part in the first ever MilwaukeeDevHouse at Bucketworks — an opportunity to hang out with a bunch of local Milwaukee tech geeks, doing stuff together.

When we arrived, Bucketworks was already hopping! I counted 30 people, and I may have missed some attendees wandering around Bucketworks (not to mention those who came after we left at 9pm).

We found a spot at one of the tables and setup the MacBook and scanner, then Nathan and I worked together as a team to scan, tune and upload his drawings on Transportation to Flickr.

Today I asked Nathan his thoughts on the event, and he said:

"I liked the people and the noise and the food. I liked pushing the buttons to scan my drawings. I liked everything there!"

This was an excellent experience for us both on many levels:

• We shared quality father and son time in a fun, shared environment
• I was able to encourage Nathan in his creative work by scanning his art
• Nathan met a variety of Web414 pals and learned how to interact with others
• We were able to build a memorable experience with tangible results

What's MilwaukeeDevHouse?
In a nutshell, a DevHouse is a space where people can work on serious or fun projects, either by themselves or in a team. Here's the official description:

MilwaukeeDevHouse aims to be the premier regularly scheduled hackathon event that combines serious and not-so-serious productivity with a fun and exciting party atmosphere.

If you’re a coder, designer, or just someone who enjoys software and technology development, MilwaukeeDevHouse was made for you...

MilwaukeeDevHouse is intended for passionate and creative technical people that want to have some fun, learn new things, and meet new people.

If you have the chance to check out a DevHouse locally, do it! Our experience was wonderful. Even better, start a local DevHouse in your area.

Special thanks to Pete Prodoehl, one of the leaders of MilwaukeeDevHouse.

We're already looking forward to MilwaukeeDevHouse2! :-)

Related Links
MilwaukeeDevHouse1 Photos on Flickr
Nathan's Transportation Drawings:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Permalink | | Milwaukee | add to del.icio.us

February 6, 2008

February Blizzard in Milwaukee

Milwaukee was hit with a big blizzard today, dropping 16" of snow across the entire area.

Around 3pm, I took a break from work to clear our snow, and was shocked by just how much white stuff was in our driveway.

Our neighbors helped me shovel, and a little later, Nathan came out to play. I took a few shots of him climbing the Mount Everest pile near the driveway to give you an idea how much snow we've got up here.

Holy Cow!

Permalink | | Milwaukee | add to del.icio.us

October 15, 2007

BarCampMilwaukee2 Was a Success!

Another BarCampMilwaukee has been successfully pulled off!

In my wanderings and speaking with people in attendance tis weekend, BarCamp was a success.

I repeatedly received positive comments such as "what a great event!" or "wow, people here are so helpful and friendly!" and "this was very well planned and managed" from attendees.

Those who have been involved in putting on a conference will know it's a different view from the inside. We certainly had our glitches, but I was always impressed with the team of organizers and random attendees stepping up to help.

It was very encouraging to see the group do it for themselves, giving of themselves and sharing what they had to make BarCampMilwaukee2 happen for everyone.

As an example, I was set to handle registration and t-shirt handout with several helpers. All was well until I found that the spreadsheet I was using was somehow un-searchable in NeoOffice, two co-organizers moved the file to another machine, while several others started taking names and shirt sizes on good 'ol paper and pencil. Several fresh registrants stepped up to help distribute shirts to other registrants.

Things like this happened repeatedly throughout the weekend, problems being identified and helpers stepping up to solve them. It was a great experience seeing that sort of ad-hoc willingness pop up again and again.

Great Sessions
Sessions were varied and interesting, ranging from personal branding, portable apps, web and graphic design and analog tool capture, to hacking elevators, the Flickrverse, social networking history and more. In each of the sessions I attended, fascinating discussions got going, and kept right through to the end of each hour.

Photowalk
I went on the BarCamp Photowalk and had a great time shooting a few images and getting to know several campers better. Check out photos from the event on Flickr. We wandered Schlitz Park, and we then invited into the building of an attendee to snap images inside. We rode in a creaky freight elevator in a old warehouse building, to explore a room full of busted piano parts.

But I think I most enjoyed meeting new people. People like Marcus and Jen and Tracy. There were many more and everyone had a story, an interest, a passion. And those I met seemed to be having a great time, just like me.

Thank You
Thank you to Pete and all of the organizers! I'm very proud to be counted as a small part of the BarCamp organization team, handling t-shirt design, production and printing as well as various other tasks. It was a true honor to be part of this group, watching it move from planning, to preparation to fruition.

Thanks go to our sponsors, who made this event possible. On a several occasions I had attendees ask who was paying for food or shirts — it was a great feeling to tell them that everything was covered by sponsors and individual donations. I'm very proud that the company I work for, MakaluMedia, was a sponsor of this event.

If you're curious about the event, check out the batch of photos generated at the event on Flickr, or check out other postings on Technorati.

Attend or Organize a BarCamp!
If you learn of a BarCamp in your area — go! It's a blast and you won't regret it. If there isn't one in your area, start one! You'll find fellow BarCampers very helpful, and full if ideas and information.

Lord of Chaos T-Shirt
You can see the story behind the Lord of Chaos T-Shirt I designed for Pete Prodoehl, and if you like itm pick up your own directly from GoodStorm:

Technorati Tags: barcampmilwaukee2, milwaukee

Permalink | | Milwaukee | add to del.icio.us

October 1, 2007

BarCampMilwaukee2 Shirts: To the Printer

This afternoon, I took the final BarcampMilwaukee2 T-Shirt art, sizes and specs to MJM Ventures. 290 shirts are now in production, with delivery of the shirts set for Thursday October 11th.

After 12:00 today, I closed the window for new BarCamp registrants to gurantee their shirt sizes. I had to deliver the information and art today, so MJM could make the October 11th delivery deadline. That's the way it goes.

Registranst will still have shots at shirts, as I have about 75 extra shirts ordered for walk ups, to be given given out on a first-come, first serve basis.

Final Artwork
Here are snapshots of the final front and back artwork:

T-Shirt Front: Navy blue and rich gold.

T-Shirt Back: Solid Navy blue logo and sponsor names in the shape on an X.

Thank You!
Thanks go to Jen Anne for her wonderful illustrations, MJM for shirt selection and production, Pete Prodoehl (A.K.A. ChaosLord) for advice and information from last year's shirts and Blake Hall for all of his help creating t-shirt lists in Drupal.

Permalink | | T-Shirts | add to del.icio.us

September 22, 2007

BarCamp Milwaukee 2 T-Shirt Mockup

Yesterday I visited MJM Ventures, the company who is printing our BarCamp Milwaukee 2 T-Shirts. They kindly got a sample of a Gildan Sand colored shirt, so I could see the color and create a mockup.

Wow! What a perfect color! It's neutral with a hint of warmth and light enough to work with out dark gold and navy blue colors.

Today I created a quick ink-jet iron-on mockup of the BarCamp shirt, to figure out the correct size of the imprint and to make sure the colors would look good on the shirt's surface. I'e done many ink-jet iron ons before and they are a great way to envision shirt designs or make custom shirts.

I think the emblem is going to be enlarged a tad, and then I need to find a good Pantone gold that's not too greenish. For whatever reason, the dark gold we had been using has a tendency to go toward the green, when I want it to stay warm and rich.

Next week, the art gets finalized along with the sponsor list.

To secure one of the t-shirts, you must register to attend BarCamp Milwaukee 2 before Wednesday the 26th, when the art goes to the printer!

Permalink | | T-Shirts | add to del.icio.us

September 21, 2007

Your Personal Invitation to BarCamp Milwaukee 2

This week I've been sending out personal BarCamp Milwaukee 2 invitations, and so far several friends seem very interested, including a couple of out of town friends.

Today, I realized it would be smart to post the same invite information I've sent to 50 friends to my blog readers — you!

Consider this your personal invitation to BarCamp Milwaukee 2, Saturday, October 13 through Sunday, October 14, 2007.

Where is it?
BarCamp is happening at the Schlitz Park Center, 1555 Rivercenter Drive in downtown Milwaukee, on the river's edge (map). I was in the meeting space the other day and the whole Schlitz Park and 3rd Street areas are getting revitalized. There's a great energy down there.

What is BarCamp all about?
It's a space and a place where people interested in learning and sharing can hang out, and learn with others who want to learn and share.

BarCamp is a free event but we aim to have active attendees we encourage everyone to share something with the group whether expertise, knowledge, passion about a topic or simply helping out during the event.

Learn more about Getting Started!

How Much is it?
It's totally free! There will be food and camping space provided for attendees who need a place to crash on Saturday night, though you can drive home, or attend just Saturday, or just Sunday, whatever suits your schedule.

If you decide to camp, just bring a pillow and a sleeping bag. :-)

Free T-Shirt with Registration!
Register, and you'll get a cool t-shirt for free!

IMPORTANT: It's critical that you sign up by Wednesday, September 26th, and be sure to include your shirt size!

Once we take the art and shirt info to the printer on the 27th, there's no guarantee of getting a t-shirt!

I would love to have you come to BarCamp Milwaukee 2. It's going to be a great time of learning, sharing and getting to know all kinds of different, interesting people from Milwaukee and the Midwest. Sign up here.

If you have any questions about the event, send me a note.

Thanks!

Mike

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September 14, 2007

BarCamp Milwaukee 2

It's coming! BarCamp Milwaukee was so much fun in 2006, we're doing it again!

BarCamp Milwaukee 2 is set to happen on Saturday, October 13 and Sunday the 14th, 2007, at Schlitz Park Center. BarCamp is an "unconference" in that the people who attend are also the presenters who share expertise and passion with others.

BarCamps usually focus on technology, though at the Milwaukee event we want to encourage the discussion of creative culture and how to integrate new technologies to foster further growth.

We plan to have discussions on Creative Commons, which so often can seem hard to grasp. I look forward to hearing about this, so I can be better about applying CC licenses appropriately, and share my work with others who are interested.

I'm also giving a talk on Iterative Design at BarCamp, sharing some examples and getting a discussion going on how to practically apply principles of iteration to various forms of work, whether creative or otherwise.

So, come on down and read the Get Started page, so you can sign up and donate! Check out the Sessions, and Participants pages. If you're a press person or blogger, the Press Kit is a good place to get concise info on BarCamp Milwaukee.

If you sign up before September 26th, you get this cool T-Shirt, with beautiful illustration work by Jen Anne and design work by myself:

Get in on the fun and join us at BarCamp Milwaukee 2! :-)

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July 21, 2007

Selling & Buying Houses, Moving Ahead

It's nearly done!

We're in the home stretch in our house selling and buying experience. On Friday Gail and I signed a pile of papers to complete the process.

After signing the papers to sell our home, the closing agent delclared:

"Congratulations... You're homeless!"

Technically, we were homeless for about two hours, until completing the paperwork to take ownership of our new place.

The next step? Pack our stuff, and move it all to the new house next Saturday. We have a bit to do, but are optimistic and have great friends helping us out.

House Sale Follow-up
By the way, the sale of our house went very well. We sold it in 5 days, with 4 offers coming in. This was a great feeling, especially during a "buyers" market in the Milwaukee area. It really helped strengthen our position as buyers to have no home sale contingency in our offer.

You can read about our open house day to see that we put in some serious effort getting our place looking great. It really paid off. If you're selling your home, research home staging beforhand. Decluttering and staging our house really made it shine and let buyers see the space as their own space.

The Importance of Great Team Members
We can't say enough about our agent, Donna Best, for the hard work and excellent advice she provided to us in selling our home and buying a new home. Some may choose to buy and sell houses themselves — I loved having Donna, a knowledgeable veteran agent on our team. She rocked! :-)

Our new house purchase was a challenging ordeal, and having Donna there to help negotiate and advise us was critical to our success. I understood the value of having a great real estate agent as she guided us through obstacales to a successful home purchase. Donna taught me many lessons about superb customer service.

So, we're off. It's an exciting time, moving a new community, setting up a new house, establishing a new home office space, and more. Yes, this move will have challenges, but we're optimistic, and know that God is leading us to new, exciting things.

Have a great weekend!

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June 13, 2007

Citizen Blogging Summit: On The Panel

On Friday, June 15th, I'll be appearing at the Citizen Blogging Summit sponsored by Newsradio 620 WTMJ with my good friend and fellow blogger Pete Prodoehl and blogger Jason Kotecki, who I don't know yet, but love his cartoons.

The three of us are on a panel from 2:25-3:10 called "Beyond Politics, Beyond Milwaukee" which means we get to talk about everything else related to blogging. I think we're the breather session, meant to cleanse the palette after talk show host Charlie Sykes and the political bloggers argue political theories.

I love how Pete expressed this on his post about the Summit:

I’m really not sure what to expect. Mike Rohde and I are on the 2:25-3:10 Panel, Beyond Politics, Beyond Milwaukee. I’m guessing we are the ‘tech bloggers’ or maybe the token ‘non-political’ bloggers. Anyway, I’ll just prepare for this the same way I prepare for BarCamp or Web414 presentations, wait until the last minute, attempt to do nothing, then embrace the chaos.

Classic Pete. I'm with ya Pete! :-)

I plan to discuss blogging as a method for "thought leadership" which is to say, sharing your work, process, personality and thinking, as a way to build credibility and to augment your business. That's what I find most valuable about this blog.

We're not sure if this will be on the radio, or recorded as a podcast. If I find out more before Friday, I'll post it here, and will add a link to the podcast, if there is one.

Special thanks go to Phil Gerbyshak, who told organizer Sean Hackbarth, about Pete and I as candidates for the event. I owe you one buddy! :-)

Interested in attending the Citizen's Blogging Summit? it's free, lunch is provided — just register to attend.

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May 27, 2007

Open House Day

It's Sunday morning, and today is our big open house. It's been a long journey.

The past several weeks were filled with de-cluttering, tossing junk, storing away little-used but needed stuff, and cleaning. Oh the cleaning. It felt like a never-ending process of cleaning. I'm Mr. Clean.

Last night was a long night, cleaning, de-cluttering and prepping the house until about 3am. This morning the tweaking continued, as I put finishing touches on each room — washing windows, turning on lights, replacing our half-bath's 70's vanity door handles with modern ones, and so on. Like they say, God is in the details.

I began to see prepping out home like designing a logo or an icon: the details make the difference. Every time I'd think to myself "That's good enough" I'd stop that thought pattern and push to the next level. It's the same process I follow in design — pushing to the next level until it's excellent. It's a pain, but worth it in the end.

I just hope the details aren't lost on the visitors. I know that when we go to open houses, we notice those small details, and in doing so we've built up a reserve of inspiration and ideas for our own open house. I think it will make the difference.

It just feels good to be done. In fact it feels so nice in our de-cluttered and cleaned home, we hate to sell! However, we also know that it's time to sell and move to the next step in this journey of life.

Once we sell, then the next step is finding a house to buy — that's another story! :-)

Update 2007-05-27: Wow! We've heard that had 8 parties went through our house today, and one expressed interest by phone to our agent. We are very excited, and can't wait to learn more on Tuesday. Oh, and our agent was very impressed with our house preparations, which was great to hear!

Update 2007-05-30: One offer came in last night and another is coming in today, plus we had a private showing last night and have 2 more private showings scheduled for this evening. We're feeling pretty good so far. :-)

Update 2007-06-01: We had a total of 4 offers on the house and accepted one on Thursday. We were very pleased with the final offer, and now have an inspection left. Time to find a house to move to!

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April 12, 2007

Embracing Iterative Design Talk (Slides & Audio)

Tonight I gave a talk to the Web414 group on embracing iteration in the design process, and I think it went pretty well.

I discussed what iteration was and gave ideas on how to embrace iteration and use it to your advantage when designing logos, website and more.

I shared sketches, black and white and color artwork from the Blit logo design, and the UserScape web redesign. We had a great discussion in the Q&A, where I had a chance to share details of my design thinking related to both of these projects. It was fun to get up in front of my Web414 friends and talk about my design work.

Interested in checking out my slides from the talk? You can view the Slides on Slideshare or on Flickr.

You can listen to my talk, recorded at April's Web414 meeting in MP3 format, or hear it streamed here from Blip.tv at the end of this post, or stream it from Archive.org at the link below:

Mike Rohde: Embracing Iterative Design (Archive.org)

Thanks Pete for recording it for me!

You may also want to read my article at Graphic Define on the same topic.

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January 22, 2007

Only in Milwaukee: Polski ATM

Tonight I deposited a check in a local Milwaukee ATM, and saw something unusual:

Polski as an ATM option? I love it! :-)

Only in Milwaukee (and Poland)!

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October 3, 2006

The BarCamp Milwaukee Experience

On Saturday, I headed dowtown to BucketWorks for BarCamp Milwaukee, not knowing what to expect. The sessions on the website looked great, but pixels and reality can often be quite different.

I was not disappointed. In fact, I was very impressed with the entire event, enjoying the BucketWorks space, meeting new and interesting people, enjoying challenging discussions, sharing my passions and learning new things.

Settling In
I arrived at BucketWorks around 2pm, and was welcomed by organizer Bob Waldron at the door. He checked me in and directed me to the schedule and main meeting area. BucketWorks occupies one floor in an old printing warehouse, with wide open spaces, heavy duty beams and old wooden floors.

The space has a warm, lived-in, industrial feel which I liked very much. BucketWorks has a nice mix of both large meeting areas and small, intimate rooms, perfect for the mix of sessions on tap for the day.

Sessions were already running when I arrived, so after orientation to the space and a glance at the low-tech schedule board, I dropped into a gadget roundtable with Pete Prodoehl, Jordan Arentsen and abut 8 other guys. Pete had an impressive collection of gadgets, I brought my Dana Wireless and blew several guys away when they realized it could run a browser, email client, a terminal app, IRC client and IM client.

The Flat World Roundtable Session
My first session of the day was a roundtable on the topic of Flat World, and its impact on society, business and culture. At first I was a little concerned as only Jordan and John December, my cohorts in the session, were in the conference room. Campers slowly filtered in, taking their seats around the long oval table. When the session started, there were roughly 15 campers participating the session.

I shared My Unusual Work Life to kick off the session, then discussion ranged across many aspects of the flat world and Thomas L. Friedman's book, The World is Flat. Some highlights of the discussion: the benefits and drawbacks of working remotely for global clients, and how integral place, people and our preferred culture determine where we decide to live. I thought it was interesting that now some workers can choose the place they want to live and work, while having connections to other distant people and places.

We also touched on the impact of English on the flattening world, whether machine translation would be realistic in 50 years time, debating network access as a utility, the digital divide being spawned by the flat world, how 3rd world countries might enter into the flat world, and whether flattening was good or bad.

Of all the sessions I most enjoyed this one, because of the large group, varied ideas and positions from very smart people in attendance. I was reminded how fun it is to get a good thought-provoking discussion going with a group of passionate people.

Moleskine Custom Planner Hack Demo
While this session was small, with Jordan and Dave Bost attending. A few others mentioned being interested up unavailable to attend (now I need to schedule some one-on-one demos!). it was a nice opportunity to have a more intimate discussion with Dave, who has adopted Getting Things Done and was looking for an alternative approach to managing things in his life.

I showed Dave what a Moleskine was, explained how I moved from a Palm to a custom-made weekly Moleskine planner and discussed the system and how it was working out for me.

Afterwards, Jordan and I had a chance to learn more about Dave's move from developer to evangelist for Microsoft, and discuss the new XAML and Windows Presentation Foundation. It was a nice time to share and discuss ideas away from the crowds.

Logo Design Process Presentation
Immediately after my Moleskine demo, I was up in the meeting room again for the my Logo Design Process presentation. Jordan and I had to locate a DVI to VGA adapter from Scott Reynen, then fiddle with an old projector before I could begin.

I shared my collaborative, sketch-based process with 7 campers, and had a nice Q&A and discussion time following the presentation. All of the guys had interesting questions for me about the process, and through them I came to realize how fortunate I've been to have such great logo clients.

Again, a few people I knew were unable to attend, so I gave Phil Gerbyshak a personal demo beforehand, and will likely present again at the next Milwaukee Web Designer's Meetup in October. I was very encouraged by the interest in my process, and I quite enjoyed sharing my passion for logo design.

For those interested, I've posted my PDF presentation online for download:

Mike Rohde's Logo Design Process (9.2MB Acrobat PDF).

RSS Feed Uses & Future Ideas
When my session was complete, Jeremie Miller of Jabber fame took over, heading the discussion into RSS and Atom feed territory. He asked our opinions of secured and signed RSS ffeds for viewing sensitive documents (like bank statements), we discussed current interesting RSS feed uses and how many feeds we each followed. Like good geeks, we veered into other territory at the end: del.icio.us vs. other social bookmark tools and various semi-related topics. :-)

Mini-Mash Pit
My final session of the night was Pete Prodoehl's mini-mash pit session, talking about interesting mashups of various services with open APIs. By this time I was starting to loose steam, even though the discussion was quite interesting. At 12:20 the guys were ready to start coding a mashup, so I packed up my gear and headed home for some sleep. :-)

Meeting Cool Campers
I appreciated the opportunity to re-connect with people I knew: Pete Prodoehl, Phil Gerbyshak, Jordan Arentsen, Chad Lawson, Ashley Dryden and Juan Valencia. I also enjoyed meeting new, interesting people like Pehr Anderson, Todd Clausen, Kevin Ciesielski, Dave Bost, Ken Meltsner, Jeremie Miller, Scott Reynen, Tegan Dowling, Clint Laskowski, and Jason Tertadian (to name a few).

I think this aspect of BarCamp was my favorite part: seeing other people interested in gathering and sharing ideas on technology and life. Since I'm a pretty social person, meeting others who share similar passions or are keen on hearing about mine always gets me stoked up.

Constructive Criticism
Of course, there were a few things I felt could be improved for the next round:

1. Reduce amount of sessions happening at the same time. I felt torn in several cases over which event to follow, and heard from several people who wanted to be in my logo design presentation but had chosen another session. I don't know if fewer sessions, fewer tracks or spreading them out over the full span is a solution for this.

2. Setup a public address system. I think it would have been helpful to have some way for organizers to announce things in all of the session areas so everyone could be on the same page.

3. Better WiFi support. The network was pretty flaky and I do know it was being hammered pretty hard — but for some of the demos a network connection was critical.

4. Coffee as well as sodas and water for the evening sessions. At one point in the mashup session I smelled brewing coffee and it drove me crazy to not locate it. I may bring my own espresso machine and brewing gear next year to help those who choose coffee over sodas for caffeine. :-)

5. Consider a Friday night through Saturday Midnight timeframe. I would have loved to start on a Friday night with a dinner together somewhere and the chance to get a few sessions in afterwards, then go the full day Saturday with more sessions.

Hopefully these ideas are helpful for BarCampMilwaukee 2.0.

Final Notes
I think BarCampMilwaukee was a great success, thanks to the tireless efforts of guys like Pete Prodoehl, Bob & Luke Waldron, the BucketWorks people and many others. Thanks to you all for putting on a great un-conference for Milwaukee — I can't wait for BarCampMilwaukee 2.0!

Related Links:
BarCampMilwaukee on Flickr

Technorati Tags: barcampmilwaukee mikerohde, rohdesign

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September 29, 2006

BarCamp Milwaukee 2006 is Tomorrow!

I can't believe the weekend is actually here — BarCampMilwaukee kicks off Saturday September 30th through Sunday October 1st, 2006, at Bucketworks 1319 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

I'm looking forward to meeting many other interesting Milwaukee people, since much of this event is geared around creating a local community and sharing ideas with each other. I'm very excited about sharing on my logo design process, demoing how to create a custom Moleskine planner and facilitating a round table on working remotely with global clients and colleagues.

There are many other sessions being presented, ranging from videoblogging, sharing gadgets and self-publishing, to Drupal, Linux and Thermonuclear Fusion!

If you're near the Milwaukee area and are looking for a way to connect with other technical people, sign up at the Barcamp Milwaukee's Camper page, find a way to get involved and come on down! It's not too late! :-)

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September 6, 2006

BarCampMilwaukee 2006

About a month ago, fellow Milwaukee Web Design Meetup Group member Pete Prodoehl happened to mention something called BarCamp in one of our conversations.

Turns out Pete is one of the organizers of BarCampMilwaukee, happening on Saturday September 30th & Sunday October 1st, 2006, at Bucketworks 1319 N. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

What's BarCamp Anyway?
Now, I'd heard the term BarCamp before, but had only a vague idea what it was. I figured it was another geek conference, sponsored by a tech company, complete with expensive entry fees, well-known presenters, hosted in a pricey hotel in San Francisco, or New York City.

Wrong! I've since learned that BarCamp is an "un-conference" — BarCamp are started by local people who want to attend one, in any city where other interested people will come and be part of the event.

In many ways BarCamp is an open source conference — the "campers" create the event, attend the event and even present at the event for other attendees. In fact, every BarCamp attendee (campers) should share in some way about their passions with other interested campers, or at least help setup/cleanup.

I'm Not a Super-Nerd, Can I Come?
Well, I figured a super-nerdy un-conference would probably exclude me. I can't wax poetic about arcane perl commands, lecture on proper PHP syntax or discuss the inner workings of the latest Linux distro. What technical demonstration could I offer that geeky campers wouldn't know 50 times more about?

Wrong again! Pete told me BarCamp is about sharing your passion on a subject, not being a super-nerdy technical expert. Of course, good technical presentations are welcomed, but not required. If you have a passion, you can share it with others at BarCamp. Cool!

So, I asked Pete: could I share my logo design sketch process? Or maybe how I created a custom Moleskine planner and hacked a G2 mini to use a Uniball cartridge?

"Heck yes!" said Pete.

He thought both would be great topics, so I've added my Logo Design Process and Custom Moleskine Planner & G2 Mini Pen Hack Demo to the sessions page.

Come to BarCampMilwaukee!
If you live in or near Milwaukee and have interest in meeting other people, and being a part of BarCampMilwaukee, I encourage you to sign up as an camper and come on down Saturday, September 30th through Sunday October 1st. It's going to be a blast!

If you decide to become a camper, please let me know in the comments or via email. I'd like to meet fellow BarCampers and talk over a coffee.

Related Links:
JSOnline: BarCamp stuffs tech ideas into 24 hours
Wisconsin Technology Network: BarCampMilwaukee promises a tech-focused event

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June 14, 2004

Cranky Al's & Mrs. Java

This weekend, my wife and son visited Cranky Al's & Mrs. Java, our favorite local coffee and donut shop. Of course we had a great time in their little storefront shop, sipping good coffee, eating hand-cranked donuts, and interacting with fellow visitors.

Al and Suzy are quite the fixture in the small community where they operate and they have done this in just a few short years. Its as if they're a community gathering spot, offering a welcome place for kids to grandparents and everyone in-between — even hip young singles and couples in the area.

It has something to do with good coffee, donuts an pastries, but it also has something to do with their real personalities and the environment they've created at the shop. They are active participants in creating this friendly, homey environment, which is quite different from a more corporate setting of a Starbucks. It's something more like being in a small town bakery, coffee shop or greasy spoon diner.

For instance, it's not unusual to walk into the shop and have Cranky Al bark some friendly, yet cranky comments at you. If someone orders an espresso drink, Al will shout "FANCY COFFEE!" and immediately move to the next customer, letting the barrista handle the lattés and cappuccinos. To the kids he might offer, "Hey, line up along the counter and have your choice ready, this is a donut shop, not K-Mart!". In between friendly jibes at customers, comments pop out such as "Cranky Al's donuts, they're Krispy and Kremey!"

On the surface it sounds cranky, but you immediately know it's an endearing welcome, similar to the crankiness waitresses feign at Ed Debevic's 50's burger shops. Of course you have to have a sense of humor to detect this — which I imagine might be a problem for too-uptight, literal visitors. :-)

As a final example of this cranky yet funny and friendly humor, this is the text of sign posted on their donut counter:

"Unattended children will be given two shots of espresso and a puppy"

I think it's wonderful that a place like Cranky Al's and Mrs. Java exist for people to visit. In a world where chain stores and corporate attempts at homeyness are so prevalent, a genuine instance brings a smile to my face and my tummy. :-)

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January 8, 2004

A Gray Day at the Café

The sky is a muddy blend of pale blue and battleship gray today. It seems to draw the brightness off of shiny metal surfaces and even seems to dull the headlights of passing cars. Strangely enough, even the yellow gold warmth of the café's hanging lamps is absorbed into the grayness of the sky outside as it reaches the expanse of windows. Like a big gray sponge.

Cars come and go. Beemers and beaters. Pickup trucks, SUVs, minivans, compact cars. Sometimes I'm surprised by the drivers of cars that arrive. For instance, a small asian woman who seems no more than 13 or 14 years old, driving a new VW Passat. A rough and tumble tradesman jumps out of a utilitarian white pickup truck. A well-dressed middle aged woman with funky glasses climbs into a seemingly appropriate BMW. A group of three commuters, lattés in hand, converge on a single car and climb in, sharing the ride to work.

Inside the café, patrons enter and order, following the signs to the pickup station, grab fancy coffees and leave again. Caffeinate and repeat. Espresso machine whooshes in the distance, turning milk into a hot foamy substance. Large skim almond latte! Small chai tea! That'll be $17.02 please. Have a great day! Get back on the road. Go, go go. Get to work. Sip, sip.

It's an interesting mix of customers. At the counter, a Middle aged woman with short, slightly burgundy spikey hair and a red scarf waits in line. A tall, slim, red-haired man in army pants and cross trainers (who looks like a vertically stretched version of the guy who visits Neo's apartment for a disc in the first Matrix film) leaves the café for his car. A Business man in a tightly wrapped brown trench-coat, leaves with his drink... he's in a hurry.

Near the coffee pickup station, a woman who looks like a living doll waits for a chai. She sports a head of jet black hair, perfectly trimmed to the shape of a black olive. Her dark locks provide a stark contrast to her very fair skin. The unnaturally pink wool coat she wears completes the look perfectly. A businessman in a tidy dark gray pinstriped suit and close shaven hair, sits in one of the leather easy chairs by the fireplace, sipping at his white coffee cup, reading a novel.

As I walked to the café earlier this morning, I noticed that the mechanical billboard across the street was getting a bit stuck in the 15 degree cold. It's still not working right. Tall, thin triangular bars, each one with a narrow sliver of the billboard applied to it form the surface of the billboard. These bars are mounted tightly together to look almost like a single surface. Every few moments these triangular pieces rotate in unison, displaying one of three billboards encoded on each of side of the triad surface. But a quarter of the left edge seems off by just a few degrees, leaving a strange sub image in place. The slacker quarter.

Now the sky is a lighter shade of gray, but it still cancels out the warm yellow light. It's one of those days when I wish for a sunny, green, late spring day. Oh well, I've got a few months to wait for that. Sip, sip.

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September 1, 2003

Harley-Davidson 100th Celebration Parade

Saturday morning we awakened to a constant rumble of motorcycles that has become quite normal around Milwaukee since mid-week, when riders began rolling into town. It's hard to explain how the rumble sounds, because bike engines are sometimes close enough to the house to clearly hear them, yet most of the time they sound more like a collage of bike engines that blurs into a hum. The rumble is pretty loud too... even down in our basement we could hear the constant hum quite clearly.

August 30th was the big day when 10,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycles paraded across town in celebration of the company's 100th anniversary. Since we didn't live far from the parade route, we decided it'd be a fun experience to walk down and see the parade as a family. So, we had breakfast and dressed for the occasion in our Harley-Davidson t-shirts.

Nathan was sporting a home-made shirt with Harley-Davidson logos ink-jet printed and ironed on Friday night. The front of his shirt had a 100th anniverdary logo while back had "Harley Lovin' Half-Pint Hog" encircling a Harley-Davidson logo.

Gail and I wore t-shirts from a Swedish Harley-Davidson dealership we visited in 1998, on the outskirts of Uppsala, north of Stockholm. It was great fun meeting the owner of he store, Kjell, especially when we mentioned we came from Milwaukee. We chatted with him a while, talked about the upcoming 95th anniversary celebration taking place in the summer of '98 and bought two dealer t-shirts (he even gave us a Milwaukee discount!). As a small thank you, we gathered 95th anniversary items and sent a care package to Kjell, which he really loved.

Once we were packed up, we headed off to see the show. Milwaukeeans were already streaming toward the start of the parade at the Milwaukee Zoo. As we approached the exit point of the Zoo parking lot, we could already hear bikes rumbling past us, but couldn't see a thing because the crowd was about 8 to 10 people deep! We kept walking east, until we were able to find an opening in the line of spectators.

The crowds in general were amazing! From the reports I heard, spectators filled the entire 7.5 mile parade route 8-10 people deep and 15-20 people deep at intersections and corners on the route. One rider in the parade interviewed on TV said "I don't think anyone in Milwaukee is home today!"

Our spot was pretty good, but because of the crowds and the narrowness of the road, it was very difficult to see bikers coming more than a few feet ahead. I was looking in particular for international riders and flags they might have mounted on their bikes. Fortunately, many of the flags were large enough to see above the heads and shoulders of the crowd. I saw quite a variety too: Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Ireland, Wales, Honduras, Sweden, Germany, France, Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Puerto Rico, Switzerland, South Africa and there were probably some I missed. This for me was the coolest part -- seeing visitors from around the world coming to Milwaukee with their Harley-Davidsons and being welcomed so warmly.

The riders cruised down Bluemound road two abreast, and at a reasonable speed so that we could see them as they passed by. Many in the crowd cheered, waved or gave thumbs up signs to passing riders while others held signs like "Welcome Home" and "Come as Visitors, Leave as Friends" which the riders would wave, beep at or cheer to.

On occasion, a backup would occur ahead of our position and the group of riders would bunch up and come to a stop. When this happened, riders would rev their engines to the cheers of the crowds.

Gail knew a work colleague who lived a bit further east of our first stake-out spot, so we decided to continue east and look for him. It actually turned out to be a much better location for viewing the parade, as the crowd was much less compressed. We spotted Gail's work colleague across the street but couldn't yell loud enough to get his attention. A reunion would have to wait until after the parade.

Meanwhile, bikers just kept coming and coming and coming... At one point I saw a huge blue and yellow Swedish flag coming towards us and pointed it out to Gail. The parade slowed down and the Swedish rider and his wife came to a stop right in front of us. Thinking quickly, Gail jumped into the road and turned her back to them both, pointing at the 'Uppsala, Sweden' on the back of her Swedish Harley shirt. After a moment of reading and realization, the Swedish rider's eyes lit up, a big grin spread across his face and and he screamed "UPPSALA!!!" His wife yelled "Yea!" Gail and I just smiled and waved. The parade of bikers began moving again and the Swedish riders were off with big smiles and a great story for their friends back home. For us, that moment was the highlight of the parade. :-)

As a designer, I was impressed with the variations of bikes we saw. Each Harley seemed a uniquely customized bike. I suppose a few riders may keep their bikes stock, but the vast majority seem to modify them with accessories or paint. We saw nearly every model Harley represented, including classic Fat Boys (like the one Arnold Schwartzenegger rode in Terminator 2) to the new high performance V-Rod, which I think looks very cool. Some of the bikes had gorgeous custom paint jobs while others sported flags. One bike from Oregon was covered with animal skins. Eewww.

We were a little concerned about Nathan and his reaction to the noise, because he didn't do well at the July 4th parade this year with fire engines' sirens. However, he did just great! As long as we were nearby, he was enjoying the rumbling bikes. In fact, near the end of the parade, he became overloaded with all of the people and action, and fell asleep in his stroller. Pretty amazing.

Nearly 2 hours later, all 10,000 bikes had rolled past. Three Harley-Davidson semi trucks finished off the parade, beeping their air horns as they lumbered past us. What an amazing sight. We crossed the street and visited with the friends we'd spotted earlier and then began the walk back home as spectators and bikers alike, packed it up for the 100th parade.

On the way home I thought about how cool it would have been to ride in the parade. Just imagine, you're a regular person who's chosen to ride a Harley-Davidson. You've come to Milwaukee with your bike, an entire city welcomes you for the 100th celebration of your cycle's company and cheers as you ride through town. Man, that must have been an amazing, emotional feeling for the riders to experience.

Overall, I think the 100th celebration went very well. I've heard of no problems in the city and that the events were all well organized and attended. Bikers and residents of the city seemed to have high respect for each other, with many business offering special deals and freebies to visiting riders. This is probably the biggest event ever to occur here in Milwaukee, and I'm really proud to have been part of it.

If you happen to be a Harley-Davidson rider who was here in August 2003: thanks for coming! We'll see you again in 2008 for the 105th! :-)

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August 26, 2003

The Harleys are Coming!

Here in Milwaukee we're in hog heaven -- literally! This weekend Harely-Davison Motorcycle company will mark their 100th anniversary in business with a huge Harley parade through the middle of the city, followed by music and festivities at the lakefront. Actually, the party has already begun in the city, with thousands of Harley riders from around the world already in town for the weekend bash.

Currently there are 4 groups of Harley riders making treks from the Northwest, Southwest, South Central and Northeast this week, arriving in Milwaukee in time for the 100th anniversary celebration.

So, this town is going to be a hoppin' place the rest of the week and this weekend. Already, every hotel room in town is booked solid. Yesterday I heard that riders have booked up hotels within a 50 mile radius for this event. There are even people who've rented out their homes to visiting bikers, in some cases $1000 per week! There's one way to pay the mortgage.

At the party portion of 100th there's supposed to be top-secret, musical guests flying into town. I've heard rumors of Elton John, Tim McGraw and Kid Rock, but who knows. There are already plenty of planned musical acts playing at the Summerfest grounds on the lake, and many, many parties happening all over the city. I get the feeling the average Harley rider will have no trouble finding something to do this week.

I was in downtown Milwaukee on the parade route for the 95th anniversary back in 1998 and it was amazing. The rumble of bikes and the array of Harley-Davidson motorcycles on display was very impressive. New bikes, old bikes and everything in between were rolling through town. I think I stopped vibrating from the loud pipes on Tuesday of the following week!

The design firm I worked for then produced 10 home-made signs with "Welcome to Hog Heaven" on them. During the course of the 95th ride, riders passing by asked if they could have them as souvenirs. We managed to give every single one of them away within minutes! The riders were tickled to have them and we were pleased to contribute to their positive experience. Funniest thing is, I bet all 10 of our signs are hung up in the garages and dens of bike riders around the world right now.

For the 100th anniversary ride I happen to live closer the starting point than to downtown, so our family is planning to make our way to the start of the Harley parade route on Saturday and experience the event first hand. I hope to get some great shots with my Canon digital camera and post them here on the weblog come Monday.

I'd also love to have a story to tell. I'm hoping I can run into a few out of state, or even better, international Harley-riding visitors. I think it would be interesting to hear what riders from around the world think of the Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary event and Milwaukee. So, stay tuned for that.

Lastly, if you're interested in the 100th, here are a few links to learn more about it:

Official Harely-Davidson 100th Anniversary Site
OnWisconsin's Guide to the Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary
100th anniversary Story (Flash)
The Ride Home Photo Gallery
Harley Owner's Group (H.O.G)
Harley-Davidson 95th Anniversary Article archive

If you're not far from Milwaukee and would love to see and feel the rumble of 100,000 loud-piped Harleys as they parade through the center of town, come on over this coming Saturday August 30th -- it's gonna be a blast! :-)

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