Chris Jennings

Say You Will - CD Art

chris.jennings — Mon, 19 May 2008 04:25:00 +0000

Every so often a project will come along that allows me to venture out of the browser and into a different medium. Say You Will is getting a lot of attention by the press, labels and most importantly new fans. The band and I decided to go in a very colorful direction with a bit of “fresh grunge” to draw attention on shelves and shows.

I began with a panoramic photo of a New Zealand skyline… I found the photo very breathtaking from the moment I first laid eyes on it and wanted to bring that sensation into the piece.

I then scanned some burned and crumpled paper along with some ink splats I created over Labor Day weekend. Soon enough I had a treatment for the type and the rest is history. You can look for this CD, “Now or Never” to drop late October.

The official end of television as we know it.

chris.jennings — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:36:42 +0000

Tonight marks a day in history that I will never forget. While watching Jay Leno, I was presented with a post-monologue catastrophe in which I thought was a part of a bad joke gone totally, totally wrong. I was half right.

It turns out that NBC is trying to monetize programming by inserting annoying and obvious advertisements into the content of it’s shows. I rarely catch any television prior to Thursday (thank god for Lost), so it’s very likely that this isn’t the first time.

It all began when Jay introduced announcer John Melendez along with some random ~~cockdiesel~~ American Gladiator to ‘joust’ for a Klondike Bar. John began screaming loudly while hitting the gladiator in the side when the Neanderthal hit back with one devastating blow to John’s head. John fell to the floor like an over dramatic actor who was dying for work with one last chance to make it happen.

But this leads to the part I will never forget. The camera flashed back to Jay who was staring at the scene that had just unfolded, with obvious embarrassment and said “And they ask me why I’m leaving.” Cut to Klondike commercial. Okay, make that TWO Klondike commercials.

When asked what would you do for a Klondike bar? NBC responds, “Sell out.”

Update: Here’s the footage (fittingly jammed with ads), enjoy.

Wordpress 2.5 is Released

chris.jennings — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:14:22 +0000

After an entire month of delays, Matt Mullenweg and crew have released the highly anticipated WordPress 2.5. As a WordPress developer, I am excited about the abundance of new features included with the most major release since 2.0. For example, one of the biggest complaints from my clients is the fact that the standard WYSIWYG editor would try to out smart your code when saving. Not this time.
Other great features include a brand new admin interface, one-click upgrading for plugins, multi-file upload for attachments, enhanced tagging features, built-in photo galleries, and full-screen editing.

Find download and upload information here, and if in fact you need custom development, get in touch

New Design!

chris.jennings — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:59:04 +0000

Ok, I know everyone is probably tired of all the design changes on this site but I think I’ve finally found the one. I decided to put the focus here more on my design work and less about ranting and I think it really works. Feel free to help me test the design or to suggest ideas to make it even cooler. Thanks for reading!

Bryghtpath.com

chris.jennings — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:53:20 +0000

Matt Craven approached me after Dave Krug suggested that he should look me up. I had never met Matt, but I was aware of his contributions to Problogging, Inc and The Blog Herald.

I learned that Matt had a series of web properties and wanted to form a new company, Bryghtpath.com, to be their parent company.

Just like any other site, Bryghtpath started as a series of sketches. After I finalized the information architecture, Matt let me know that I was spot on with the first concept. We were both excited with the way that it turned out and I still think it is one of the stronger user interfaces in my portfolio.

Link: Bryghtpath.com

Bryan Strawser

chris.jennings — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:51:20 +0000

his is another project through my friends at Problogging and Bryghtpath.com. Bryan was looking for his first custom wordpress theme that would allow him to stick out amongst the thousands of free theme based layouts. I used a fresh orange and blue web 2.0 style palette along with a clean plastic feel on the headlines and backgrounds. Overall I was very pleased with the unique end result on this effort and I believe Bryan was, too.

Link: BryanStrawser.com

Will Ferrell’s Funny or Die

chris.jennings — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:48:32 +0000

Randy Adams and the folks at Sequoya Financial commissioned me to concept a new solution for Will Ferrell’s comedy website, Funny or Die.

Texty

chris.jennings — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:45:06 +0000

Mike Jones, VP of AOL contracted me to do some concepting for his new venture, Texty. I used a Web 2.0 palette with rounded fonts and come to a great solution.

Link: Texty Concept

Tim Ferriss - 4 Hour Work Week

chris.jennings — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:36:25 +0000

Upon the release of his new book, Tim Ferriss through a referral from Noah Kagan, approached me for a custom Wordpress blog design.

Tim had a good idea of what he wanted and we worked together closely to get it finished in time for the release of The Four Hour Work Week that has since topped the New York Times’ Bestseller List at #1.

I can only dream that in some way my blog design has added value to his efforts and I wish him the best.

Link: The 4 Hour Work-week Blog

Noah Kagan - OKdork.com

chris.jennings — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 07:34:38 +0000

Ben Bleikamp volunteered to redesign an early version of OK Dork, a marketing blog written by Facebook employee and Berkley graduate Noah Kagan. This job lead to a lot of work due to Noah’s contacts, he’s a great guy and I see us working together in the future.