A friend of mine has started a local civil association, here in Nayarit, called “Caminos Al Mar”. Literally translated it means “Roads to the Sea” and he took this name for the group, as all of the access roads and paths to the places we surf are all being closed off, one by one. The groups stated goals are to work directly with governments, municipalities, developers and other civil associations to maintain and ensure proper access to beaches for everyone; beach and surf break protection; clean water initiatives and education on conservation/environmental issues.
To make a long story short Nayarit and Jalisco are both going through massive development. All development is supposed to be under the control and direction of the urban planning wings of local municipalities. Unlike places like the United States, Mexico’s constitution explicitly states that beaches are the property of the people and that access to beaches can not be denied. This is exactly what’s happening to large stretches of coast that up until now, have been largely undeveloped.
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This friend asked me to create a tshirt design promoting the group and this is the result. I had to distill the groups message into something as (relatively) simple as possible. The “Save The Waves” / “Salvar Las Olas” message seemed to work and he gave me the tagline “Seamos realistas, lo pidamos lo imposible” (We are realists, we ask the impossible).
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The association’s logomark is respectfully borrowed from the Huichol symbol for the Ojo de Dios (God’s eye), Birri came up with that inspired thought. and the tagline means “supporting the rights of surfers in México”.
The US Campaign for Burma is still kicking with daily videos showcasing Burma’s fight against its military junta.
The above video is a collaborative effort. Isaiah Seret wrote and directed the video. Our nomadic homie Alexander Kori Girard created the drawings and hand-drawn type. I put all the pieces together, added the type cards and laced it all with a bright shiny ribbon. Jesse Klein edited it. and that’s Beirut on the track with “The Penalty”.
Again, do yourself a favor and watch it in high quality, under the lower right hand side of the video.
More on Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced kinda like “on son sue chee”).
Ok, so I’ve finally launched my photographic portfolio site. So what’s so different about the new site then the one you’re reading now? Well, first off, this was always meant to be my blog, a journal of sorts, to record the daily events of my life. I like photos with writing that firmly plants the photos in context. I host my images on Flickr and participate in the Flickrverse. My modus operandi has always been to tell a story, photos don’t necessarily need to be technically good in the classic sense as long as they help move the story along. In contrast, my portfolio site was created to display just the very best of my photos. In a simple, easy to use interface. no links, no blog roll, no widgets, no fuss. Sometimes you just gotta go with less. So edfladung.com is a more minimalist jawn. Just the best of the best.
Technically, it runs on wordpress and uses slideshowpro/director to run the photo slideshows. I spent about 2 weeks trying to get slideshowpro to work nicely with flickr using Brian Sweeting’s flickrssp. It seemed like a great idea and after some serious code finagling I got the mashup to work, but not in the way I had wanted. So, I scrapped flickrssp and chose to use slideshowpro director. This created a small problem in that I have to upload images twice, once to flickr and second to the new site, but it was a small sacrifice to be able to present the photos as I have intended.
Underneath the hood, is a fully functional wordpress blog with the comments turned off and all meta data hidden. There are no archive pages (category, date, etc…). Everything else is essentially the same. The latest gallery shows up on the home page. Using All in One SEO plugin, I add keywords to each gallery that then show up as meta keywords in the html header. This allows me to describe the content of each slideshow for search engines and crawlers. Each gallery has an excerpt that describes the content of the photos (with screenshot), that shows up in the rss feed.
My sister needed a new brand identity for her work down here in Mexico, so I happily busted out a new logo, cards, flyers etc… for her. We definitely get on each others’ nerves when we work together, but the outcome is usually pretty good. I posted the process on her logo as well (view large). One of these days she’ll get around to finalizing her photos, so we can launch her new website.
My friend Molly asked me to redesign a logo for one of the (many) non-profits she works for. It’s called “Art & Philanthropy”, the organization teaches kids art and sells the work of several artists, with profits going directly towards philanthropic causes. Unfortunately, the organization didn’t like my version, so it remained tucked away inside one of my hard drives, until today! I posted some process for this one as well (view large).
Roots, our favorite little veg joint, is growing. Roots will be three years old this summer, in restaurant years, that’s like early 20’s. With it’s 3rd birthday, comes a new location and brand identity, logo, menus etc… Andrew asked me to whip up a logo for the new identity, so over a 3 or 4 month period (about a year ago) we went back and forth and came up with the new logo. I’ve posted my process, since there were a lot of directions I went in that I particularly liked (it’s best seen large). Since there was no real rush, it was nice to let the logo marinate on the back burner, putting in a few hours here and there, every few weeks. The M.O. of the logo changed on a weekly basis, so it was great to have an extended time frame to work on it. In the middle of the process, our buddy Ro joined Andrew as a partner in Roots and entered into the mix as well.
The past week has been insane. Insane. Following last weekend’s large swell, we (Mom, Marcia and I) decided to collectively withdraw from the project we have been working on, La Vida. It’s been our baby, for two years. We have ate, breathed, slept and dreamt this project. And now, for us, it is over. I won’t go in to the reasons why, that wouldn’t be appropriate, but our decision to end our relationship with the project was most certainly for the better, for each one of us. So now we find ourselves unemployed once again. And we love it.
It’s time to go into business, purely for us. simple and easy. we provide the vision, the business plan, the marketing, the sales, the dough and the sweat-equity. We’ll start small and keep larger projects on the burner, grow organically. It’s time to turn over a new leaf, we don’t know what the future holds quite yet, but we’re confident that good things lay ahead.
Hey! looky looky: we’re live: La Vida.com. This is what I’ve been doing in mexico for the past year and a half (besides surfing, of course). why don’tcha go check it out. woo-hoo.
update: we’re getting a ton of unique visitors to the site. awesome.
in other news, some heavy family stuff has been going down and I don’t quite know what to say about it just yet. These past coupla weeks have been hard and long. I look forward to working less, so I can relax and get back to a normal surfing (and posting) schedule. i have a ton of photos and no time to pick through and post them.
Our project had it’s debut last weekend and we’re starting to take the wraps off it. so I’ll start posting more about it in the next few weeks. It’s really exciting and I can’t wait to share.
ok, so I haven’t updated in a while. Things have been crazy the past coupla weeks. The client for the house in Punta Mita came in to town last week and so we were working right up to the minute he got here. The house looks gorgeous and he was very appreciative. He then went on to ask us to change somethings that we’d rather not. Nothing too big, just some paint colors and tiling here and there. So i’ll have to get good pictures before we go and ruin it.
I’ve been designing out a lot of the marketing material for our “large” project and that’s all going smoothly. We’ll go to print soon, on the brochures and I’m already wondering how badly I’m gonna screw up the colors. The printer is great, but like most other services, doesn’t speak any english. that’s gonna be hard, especially on color proofing. I’ve been learning InDesign and I hope to goddess I can pull it together enough to get something that even slightly resembles what I’m seeing on the screen. Printing a 25 page glossy perfect bound brochure is hairy. wish me luck. One of these days I’l upload a sneak peak.
My good friend, Lisa Candela, has been supplying me with the most awesome photos to use in the marketing material. her photos are insane, full of interesting personalities and colors. her photos define the word “resinate”. and in exchange, I’m designing a photography website for her, using Word Press, so that she can update it herself. The site is very simple, based on a liquid layout, tons of colors and really large type with some cute little css tricks and a javascript trick here or there tucked in for good measure. I’m coding this one by hand and it’s been a breeze, well mostly a breeze, I knocked out most of the design and functionality this past weekend and now I’m about to port it to WP templates. I can’t wait to see it go live. We are both very stoked on the bartering thing, artists helping each other out.
And last but not least, the ocean has been flatter than a pancake for over a week now. It’s grueling when there’s no surf. I miss my “me” time. re-watching A Broke Down Melody makes me fall into a zen like bliss, but it’s no substitute for the real thing.
I’ve been working hardly. very hardly. I’m currently in the midst of coding the website for our big project. it’s a total nightmare. stubbornly, i’m trying to code the whole thing in transitional xhtml and css. this is a guy who started out coding sites visually with GoLive. hardly ever touching the code, itself (not to say i didn’t know html, because i did). I’d say I know css maybe 30%, the rest I’m learning on the fly or borrowing from folks gracious enough to post tutorials. The site is coming along nicely, the structure is up and running and now i’m concentrating on the templates for content of the pages. its been very fun and very frustrating at the same time. I’ve been going back and forth on hiring a css freelancer to clean up my code and create the various content templates, to save time. but I’m stubborn and want to do it myself, to save money. css may be cool programming logic perspective but for a visual designer it’s a total nightmare. the site may look nice, but under the hood I have random ‘divs’ popping out of every nook and cranny.
but i digress.
one of these days, as we get closer to launch, i’ll post a link to the site. it’s all so fun and exciting. i have a ton of pictures up on Flickr, that I haven’t posted here, so if you wanna see good pics from NJ and NYC, your digging will be rewarded.
August 23rd marks a full year that I’ve been down here in Vallarta. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about this blog and what it accomplishes, the parts of my life that i choose to leave out for one reason or another, looking back on a full year of living outside of the United States, completely changing careers, meeting and falling in love with an amazing girl, etc…
It’s been a long strange trip. an extremely fun one but also very stressful and testing along the way. The first 4 months or so were almost a perpetual vacation, as I adjusted to the tropical lifestyle of an ex-pat living in Mexico. New experiences were happening every few seconds, this country was new and foreign and it still is to a certain extent. February marked a left-turn towards work as the vacation ended and I learned to balance the work with the play. And now as we move into September and work continues to dominate my daily experience, I’ve been thinking about putting more of my work thoughts into this blog thing. Not necessarily the daily grind or the office drama, but more the kind of things I’m learning as I continue to forge a new career for myself, graphic/web designer turned house developer/designer. The idea is to open this new focus of mine up to a two-way forum like this one, I have so many questions and things to share. Going forward, I don’t think this site will change much, maybe a few nips and tucks here and there and a new header graphic when i get some free time, but mostly I just hope to start talking about some of the things, that up to this point, I’ve kinda felt were off-limits. Not necessarily off-limits but more breaking down the myth that I’ve consciously or unconsciously portrayed that I’ve been on a year long vacation/adventure. This isn’t to say that the experiences that i’ve written here are any less authentic, but more like when at the six month mark I started to balance out the play and work lives, I hope to do the same thing here to create a clearer picture of my daily life.
So that’s about it. Here’s to one miraculous, wonderful, insane year. Thank you, Mexico. I also wanna send a big, special hug to my girl, Marcia, September 1st is our nine month anniversary and I can’t even imagine my life without her.
I’m back in the land of green green everything and extreme humidity to the nth degree. Mexico City was a wonderful little trip. I love Mexico City. Someday I’d love to live there. D.F., as in “day-eff-ay”, is one of the craziest most beautifully ugly places I’ve ever been, the city is over-packed with vibrance, culture, life and vitality. Chaos theory is the unspoken religion underlying all things, in this city. Modernism and post-modernism and post-post-modernism clashes with colonial, pre-colonialism and every other kind of ‘ism’ out on the streets in front of your eyes. A neighborhood of conquistador houses set down the street from Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s house; an entire new colonia of corporate office towers built on top of a trash dump with severe water shortages with the most shi-shi mall in all of Mexico; an entire neighborhood carved out of the hillside, one house at a time, essentially removing the entire hillside and leaving a giant concrete patch wall; union sewage workers peacefully blocking traffic in a solidarity march to raise awareness of the city government’s crooked contract; armed guards at the entrance to what looks like a small little side street yet turns out to be the old house of an ex-president’s slain brother; armed guards standing sentry outside of practically every other high-walled property in the hill section of Reforma Avenue; ladies who lunch and business men who do breakfast; Mexico has something for everyone and offers up something new ’round every corner. This trip was no different. I learned so much and for that I am thankful.
So it’s Monday and we’re back in Vallarta. The Guadalajara trip was great, Operation “Relax And Enjoy Ourselves” was a smashing success. Lots of photos to post, one of these days I’ll have enough time to edit and upload ‘em. my flickr account is starting to feel a bit lonely.
Yesterday we came back to a nightmare scenario where someone who was supposed to be doing some legal translations for us, flaked and did turn in the docs last night as was supposed to be the case. So Marcia and I had to stay up until 3:00 am translating mexican legalese into english. Two words: fun. Anyways, we did the best we could and our investors, who the docs were intended for, were very grateful.
Today I’m headed up to Mexico City, D.F. for a meeting with the architects we are working with. Tomorrow will most likely be an all day meeting and then we’ll spend wednesday establishing contacts with vendors for the various finishings. and then we’re back in PVR early thursday.
I can’t wait to get back into the waves, but the waves are pretty non-existant right now and will be until i get back, so not much lost.
Once again, Marcia and I are in Guadalajara for the weekend. Her sister, Andrea, just finished the 6th grade and today was her graduation. We just a had a pretty busy week and it’s good to rest away from home. Tonight we’re meeting Marcia’s friend, Alejandra, for some food and drinks. I could use a beer or three. All is good though. yes, things have been quiet, but we’ve been working on big things and one day soon I’ll be able to let the cat out of the bag. I can’t wait.
We’re now head long into the raining season here and this topic deserves it’s own entry, so I’ll be brief. I love the rain. Up here in Guadalajara it doesn’t quite have the one-two punch it has in Vallarta, when you mix the rain with the humidity, but still, it’s so nice to hear and smell the rain. Everywhere you look, an intense, vibrant, saturated green is exploding from every tree, field, crack in the concrete, yard etc…
everything is alive.
ps. it just started raining in biblical proportions. Guadalajara literally turns into one giant river system as the streets can not drain the water fast enough. Marcia says we’re still going out, this should fun. wish me luck.
So we got back last night, from LA. all is well. my parents also got back, today. LA was nice, a little too short, but geez was it expensive. I don’t think I could have afforded to stay any longer. Those 40 dollar meals were killing me softly. A warm thanks to all my peoples that I was able to hook up with and Mel, Lilia and Jasmin I’m sorry we didn’t connect. It was a hectic fast paced trip and I never seem to be able to plan things correctly.
Marcia and I both dove right back into work and today has been utterly exhaustive. We’re heading into a week of preparation for next week, our investors are coming into town on monday. Marcia is doing a million different things and I am working on our branding and identity and put together a first look at sales material.
work work work.
So, I got a new board. It’s a beauty. it’s a 5′7″ fish, shaped by Zippr. Fish are slightly smaller, wider, and thicker then a short board and have a split tail with only two fins on the sides. I got it at ZJ Boarding House in Santa Monica, the famed successor to the Zephyr house immortalized in Dogtown And Z-Boys. I cant wait to try it out tomorrow, there’s a new swell coming into town and there should be some good waves.
I have a ton of photos. Now if i could get off my lazy tukus and upload ‘em.
So all is well and we’re back in town, working our asses off. Guadalajara was a great trip and I have lots of photos to come. Hard to think that we got back 2 days ago.
working like crazy.
We’ve been picked up for a remodel job. for a friend of mom’s, that is quickly threatening to make my life complete hell for the next 5 to 6 months. But we need the dough and it’s a great experience for me, if I can manage to survive it. This job will mostly be about designing a nice bedroom suite and some nips and tucks here and there and then managing the construction process and the book-keeping.
Day - hot pink. a traditional color in this area of mexico.
Here are some photos of our new office that I recently designed. a mix of warm mexican modernism and bare bones quick-n-easy construction. makes for a nice working environment. sandblasted windows, palapa roof, hot pink, yellow/green, black and white with a touch of silver.
Night - the greenish color of the back wall lights up the sand-blasted glass - like a light box. beautiful.
So we’re in Vallarta for the next two days, scouting out small hotels and large houses for our next project. We want to create an ultra high end boutique hotel in the downtown Vallarta area. We saw some great places today along with some great views. here are two photos whose views I liked the most. We saw an amazing sprawling hacienda style house that would easily accommodate 15 rooms, the owners are a famous Vallarta family that owns a local Macy’s-style store. Maybe one day you can come and stay at our Hacienda.
“The Client from Hell” came into town this weekend and and so I worked furiously last week to finish up on the remodel in La Cruz. All went well and the house is looking so fresh and so clean. It’s amazing what 100k can do to a place. Trust me, this place was such a dump, albeit a dump with some awesome bones and one of the best views of the bay imaginable.
As usual the client had 200+ details that she wants changed and only managed to insult me or my team a handful of times during my hour long house tour with her. but all is well and this job will be over in no time. It’s such a shame that a beautiful place like this is owned by someone with so little gratitude. So now, we rest for a week while she is here and then back to work fixing all the little details. I can’t wait to see what the place is like after the interior decoration is done and I can take some good press shots.
So we’ve been working hard lately on finishing up the remodeling job in La Cruz. The client came into town Saturday and I spent most of last week making sure the crew was working hard to finish things up, as much as possible. We planted the garden on thursday and what a sight it is. The client showed up Saturday and all hell proceeded to break loose. Suffice to say that this client is crazier then I care to mention here on the world wide super info net. Things culminated yesterday with a rude call from the client to my house in which she yelled at my father, presuming it was me, because she had no hot water. My father tried to reason with her and when that didn’t work, he hung up on her. So mom had to go to La Cruz this morning to face the music and I’m still not sure, as of right now, how things turned out. I had to go with Pinky, today, to sign my working visa and get finger printed and then I was supposed to go to La Cruz today to over see the jardinero who is laying in the “pasto en rollo” (rolls of pre-grown grass), when I called mom she pretended like all was good and then whispered in the phone, in the infamous “I’m-far-too-pissed-to-be-acting-this-nice” voice to not come to La Cruz today. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. mom’s cell phone is kicking over to her voice mail. So I assume all is not well.
In the end, it just sucks that we are doing such a beautiful job and the person we are doing it for will never be able to fully appreciate it.
Currently learning the mexican land purchasing system the hard way. trial by fire. making all the mistakes as I go along and learning from them (hopefully).
I haven’t talked about my work life too much. Work has been great, challenging but fun. For the first months I was here, I was basically a glorified go-fer. shadowing mom in meetings and running errands. helping her with drafting the garden and the kitchen on the remodel we are doing in La Cruz. Creating and Organizing the office. Meeting with various architects. Helping tweak the business plan on Playa Las Palmas (our larger project). Looking for new pieces of land for future projects.
About two or three weeks ago, we agreed that we should start splitting the work up so that we could get twice as much done. At first it was hard for me to go out and do things by myself. Run errands. Go to the bank. Pay the payroll at the job site. Supervise Camarino (our construction maestro). Getting bids on construction work. Talking to the accountant, etc… all the while, doing it in spanish.
Lately, I feel I’ve come along way towards being productive and feeling that I’m accomplishing tasks that benefit our company, while taking some responsibility off mom’s shoulders. That rivals the feeling I get as I drop in on a wave and ride it all the way to the beach.
I love Mexico. sorry kids, I ain’t ever comin’ home….
Hi, my name is Ed Fladung, I'm a recovering web-designer who moved to Mexico about 4 years ago. Learned to surf, got married and bought a nice camera. This is my weblog/photoblog. It covers broad subjects like becoming an ex-pat, surfing, photography, graphic design, music, art, architecture, living in mexico, all things Apple and WordPress related, etc... You can find more about me here. I hope you enjoy.
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