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Thai Memories

August 11, 2012 by Michael 2 Comments

In my room I have a piece of coral from Thailand, and yesterday I was looking at it, remembering the beach where I found it two years ago in Thailand.

As I look back on my high school years, our family vacations were some of the best days. Connecting Four was actually started on a family vacation in Malaysia (Our look book from the trip here).

I am so excited for my sisters to get back tomorrow and can’t wait for the fun times ahead–vacations are times to reconnect and invest in each other.

My piece of coral will serve a great decor accent in the new office.

In the tropics it rains a LOT, but the water droplets left behind are great inspiration.

Any fun memories from family vacations? Not-so-fun memories?

If you are in Koh Samui, Thailand, stay at Impiana. Quiet beach, rooms overlooking the water and great attendants.

This post is part of my Memories Collection-revisiting places where Connecting Four really connected and explored the world together. See my Guilin Memories post here. See my Tianjin Memories here.

Filed Under: Connect Tagged With: coral, girls, impiana, memory, miss you, rain, reconnect, reunited, sand, Style, Thailand, vacation, waves

Blog Office/Studio: Redecoration

August 10, 2012 by Michael 5 Comments

Today is my last day of work, and I have only two weeks left in China. One project I want to complete before I leave is our current office. It was a place for me to set up my studio when I come to visit, and also a place for my sisters to work on art.

Now that we are focusing a bit more effort and time on the blog, I want to inject some crazy colors, patterns and inspirations into the room to get those creative juices flowing and provide a fun place to blog and create.

I’ve been inspired by a few people, namely: Katie from Paperfashion, Bri from Designlovefest and Joy from Oh Joy!.

Here is Katie’s office:

Inspiration from Bri:

Got some ideas from Joy for throw pillows (This&That):
Pillows below from

I’ve started a pinterest board-and started sketching:

I even tried to see if I could render the space with sketch-up:

We are well on our way for the re-decoration project! So excited to get rid of this:

Filed Under: Construct Tagged With: blog, blog office, bri, decor, decoration, design, designlovefest, interior design, joy, katie, office, Oh Joy!, paint, Paperfashion, pillows, shelves, Studio, work

Style: Tribal/Aztec

August 7, 2012 by Michael Leave a Comment

The style and design world has been taken by storm this summer by tribal and aztec inspired prints, fabrics, and accessories. I have really enjoyed following the trend and have really enjoyed a few in particular. Bri from Designlovefest had a ‘color fest’ post including a tribal tank a few months ago; and Lookbook.nu seems to be all about tribal prints:

From Shoes: (By CHEYSER P.)

To Shorts: (By LUA P.)

To Shirts: (By MOHCINE A.)

So I decided I had to get in on the action, and I designed a tribal/galaxy inspired pattern.

I also gained inspiration from our Geometric board on Pinterest. The tribal patterns that are popular right now are very geometric focused and use various shapes to create the effect.

I loved working on it and actually used AutoCAD for the vector work, then coloured it in using Photoshop.

Tips: Use galaxy images for filling and overlay-creates a great look and enriches the color. Use shadows and layering to help give depth and complexity to the design.

Filed Under: Construct Tagged With: bri, design, designlovefest, fabric, galaxy, geometric, graphic design, lookbook, pattern, print, Style, tribal

Mama What’s Cookin’: Chinese Dumplings

July 26, 2012 by Michael Leave a Comment

Stuck inside today because of the rain here in northern china, and what else does one do inside all day? Cook!

I made Chinese chicken and cabbage dumplings. (With sweet and spicy soy sauce.)

The trick is to first fry the dumplings in some oil for a minute or two , this will prevent them from sticking when you steam them.

An easy way to steam the dumplings is to keep them in the same frying pan and pour a cup of water into the pan while hot and place a lid over them. Let it steam until the water is all gone.

An alternative step is to then pour some more oil in the pan and fry the other sides of the dumplings to get a crispy exterior.

And finally-Enjoy!

Filed Under: Consume Tagged With: asian, chinese, dumplings, food, fried, korean, mandu, soy sauce, steam

Mom, Love you

July 26, 2012 by Michael 1 Comment

It’s mom’s birthday tomorrow, and I can’t be in America to celebrate it with her!
I miss you mom and I love you too!
(The boom box is our gift for her, hehe).

Filed Under: Connect Tagged With: birthday, boom box, love, mom, music, party

Pinning: An Art

July 7, 2012 by Michael Leave a Comment

Pinterest.com, the new up-and-coming social media site promising to take your reach to infinity and beyond.

When done correctly, Pinning can be a powerful tool. (Not to mention, you stumble upon some pretty amazing work. Above are compiled some of my favorite pins from our boards.)

Here are some tips on Pinning…

1. Start with just a few boards, and make them great. Don’t create thirty boards with few pins and little draw for an audience. Give yourself enough range when thinking of the board theme, so you can make sure you have enough pins. Yet, make your board specific enough to capture a viewer.

2. Stay “on topic” within your boards. Related to the first point, but just another reminder to stay within the board’s theme.

3. Make sure your board cover is representative of the board’s content. This is the first impression of the board, make sure it is something that will bring an audience to the board.

4. Be yourself. Pin what you like, that is the whole idea of pinterest. Showing yourself through your boards will make your boards unique.

Here, our Pinterest profile has just a few boards, but with specific themes (and fully populated boards).

Filed Under: Construct Tagged With: Art, board, pin, pinning, pinterest, social media, theme, twitter

How To: Become a pro on Instagram

July 3, 2012 by Michael Leave a Comment

I am constantly amazed by the creativity that shows up on my Instagram feed: the textured action shots , surreal scenes, and incredible landscapes.

In a way, Instagram on the iphone has become a strain of the popular analogue “toy cameras” produced by Lomography.

The trick to this hobby is to use a wide range of apps (not solely instagram) on your phone to get your image just right.

Michael Headrick's Instagrams

To get the most out of your iphone (or android smart phone), here are some apps to really open up this world of photography:

Great photo editing iphone apps.
1. D-Series 2. Art Studio 3. Filter Mania 2 4. Instagram 5. PuddingCam 6. Pixlr-o-matic

D-Series and PuddingCam are both camera applications that have a wide range of filters, and include their own options like image size, resolution, coloring, exposure, and more.

Filter Mania 2 is a bit of a cheesy app. They have many filters for photo processing, but most of them are almost cartoon-ish. However, they can be modified with the luminosity and opacity functions on the app.

My favorite are Pixlr-o-matic and of course, Instagram. Pixlr-o-matic has more freedom, but doesn’t have the strong social media aspect that Instagram has created.

Lastly, Art Studio is an interesting app. The main function is for painting and drawing, but has the capability to load images and gives freedom like blending options. This is an almost photoshop-like app, which you can use to layer images and do more detailed work.

Here are some examples and tips:

These three images were created using a variety of Instagram, Pixlr-o-matic, and Filter Mania 2.

You can add more a more graphic design look with Filter Mania 2, in the top image (the opaque circles and added colors).

Use these textures give your photos a bit of depth and some color interest factor.

The three above were created with Instagram and ArtStudio. All three are layered images.

This adds an interesting aspect to any image. The different layering and blending options utilizes the light and contrast in multiple images to give it a truly unique look.

–

Lastly: Use Instagram to add the finishing touches (color, contrast and blur) and share with the world!

Filed Under: Construct Tagged With: artstudio, d-series, instagram, iphone photography, layer, photography, pixlr-o-matic, texture, toy camera

Sunset at 3am

June 21, 2012 by Michael Leave a Comment

The countless carefree summer evenings, always comfortably residing in the back of our mind.

(nikkithy, instagram)
The artist places focus on the seaside sunset and dark ocean clouds, steering away from pure photography and stepping into the realm of art. The geometric alteration and vintage color scheme transcend a representation of this moment to communicate an emotion.

Here I tried the same technique.

By the way, check out Nikkity’s web store and blog here.

Filed Under: Connect Tagged With: China, design, family, hanjia, Hong Kong

The Learning Process and a T-Shirt

June 20, 2012 by Michael Leave a Comment

You know, this image isn’t about growing. It isn’t about changing. Nothing too deep.
This is just my attempt to make something better.
The process of refinement.
The voyage toward new possibilities.
Starting with the realization that you always have room to grow, to change, and to think deeper.

Filed Under: Clothe, Construct Tagged With: ai, Art, butterfly, collage, design, digital art, fine art, high school work, illustrator art, photoshop art, t shirt design

Resurrected Ideas (But maybe just for these 5 minutes)

June 18, 2012 by Michael 2 Comments

I felt a mixture of nostalgia and embarrassment as I went through my middle school sketchbook yesterday. But in some ways these forgotten ideas and simple sketches have the power of suggestion for the future.