Hey HUE!

I have this friend who I will refer to as Jenn HUE – because she is such a colorful person in spirit, work (she is also a designer) and personality. She is embarking in a big change which will take her east, and I’m both happy for her and sad to see her go. But it’s the kind of friendship that I know will remain intact despite the distance. We recently met up for one, last happy hour feast at Barcelona Tapas. It seems I always segue to food, but there is nothing better than good food and company, especially when you are pondering over big changes in your life. Side note: I was dizzy from the amount of delectable choices … we finally ordered GAMBAS AL ALIOLI – Garlic shrimp; QUESO DE CABRA AL HORNO – baked goat cheese in tomato sauce with garlic bread; chicken and chorizo skewer with cumin alioli; and CAPIROTE – warm bread pudding with caramel sauce (not shown). All were exceptional. Yummy yum yum.

Godspeed dear Jenn. When I come to visit {and you know I will}, you will have to take your directionally-challenged friend through the coolest hangouts in DC. ♥

instagram @groovininthesun {Ren Reiske © All Rights Reserved}

{Don’t} Read between the lines

As I work on a perpetual design project involving multiple graphs and financial jargon, I took a much needed creative break — and cue from SoulPancake. A poem is waiting for you… Grab a page from a newspaper, magazine, or a book you wish you'd never read (I'm looking at you, Twilight). Black-it-out until you discover the poem within.

A poem {perhaps} discovered within W magazine by Ren. What’s yours?

The Loop

Pre- and post-concert goodness at the Loop.

When you’re having a bad day. Chew. Thank you, creative Jenn for fun gum, cool cow, awesome bag, and saving me when I’m directionally-challenged.

Pre-concert nosh at Cicero’s. Super Pig pizza, Two Hearted Ale, and the traditional “T” {thanks Ry, for not breaking tradition}

My first time at The Pageant.

Kayak’s serving Kaldi’s turtle latte and Banff sandwich — turkey, proscuitto, gruyere cheese on grilled farmer’s bread. Utterly delicious. {Ren Reiske © All Rights Reserved}

Stay gold, MattyNay

Oct. 18, 2011

Dear Matt, 
Stay gold, Ponyboy ... tonight you gave a stellar performance, true to what Nathanson fans expect: a lot of swagger {Adam Levine eat-your-heart-out}, gyrating hips, sexy sex love songs, funny ad libs regarding scrabble/gettingrandyontheroad/etc., a bottom-line good performance. Then you ended it with the Kim Kardashian spiel {which I loved} about Art being lost and how fame {money} is wasted on non-talents like reality-show celebrities and fame chasers. Amen. You quickly got off your soap box and played All We Are. Good stuff. Now, I’m stepping on that box for a moment.
The Pageant is a good-size venue but not stadium-size, so the odds of meeting you again were pretty good. I drove down a few hours with friends to see you live and do just that. After your show, we noticed a huge line forming and we jumped in, hoping to chat/get a line or two in about your show. We were quickly escorted out by the merch Nazi for not having a fookin’ orange wristband. Well Pageant Nazi, I have the tshirts, I even brought my worn-out Modern Love CD — I am a devoted fan — so yeah, I buy a ton of merch. But will I get in line to watch Matt turn into a marketing magnet {dejavu — shades of Vampire Weekend}. Fook, no. I will miss this guy. Modern Love will bring you more air time and fans. Great talent prevails. I sincerely hope you are not jaded by fame, the marketing machine, the business end of it. If you stay true, your fans {including me} will stay true and continue to follow. Stay gold.

“My ass is the metronome.” Hips out ... claps.

Matt wagging behind the drummer. “We get randy playing each other’s instruments.”

 

{Ren Reiske © All Rights Reserved}

Opened for Matt Nathanson — upcoming band, Scars on 45 lead singer Danny Bemrose, Jenn and me. Danny and Aimee were utterly SWEET, nice, cool and talented. Another reason to love England. Hearts on Fire. {photo: Ry Murray}

I {like} LA

Random bits from LA: Venice Beach, here or here. I wasn’t in LA long enough to fall in love with it, but I did meet some of the most interesting, smart and inspiring people. As I’ve always said, you are never too old to learn new things, and AdobeMAX confirmed that — I’m excited about the new software, saving for a much coveted Canon 5D camera, and continuing to grow as a designer/photographer/creative.

… my traveling gnome.

A few wonderful Adobe peeps. Thanks guys! Chocolate mint ice cream and red velvet cake at JW Marriot. Sweet ending. {Ren Reiske © All Rights Reserved}

LA Confidential

Sept. 30 - Oct. 4, 2011 Los Angeles

I woke up to this every morning. Steven Tyler, Aerosmith love.

The Luxe hotel across Grammy Museum, ESPN, and LA Live.

Yard House. Tasty lettuce wraps. Where I discovered a love for spicy tuna roll {hello Todd, Chris}.

AdobeMax 2011.

Venice Beach. {photo: Tricia Heislen}

Opening keynote. Five mega-projectors. Freakin’ amazing.

Kevin Lynch and photographer, Chase Jarvis introducing PhotoShop Touch. Want.

Machinerium. Most likely my first game app.

Angry Birds creator. Yes, I’m the only nerd one who has never played this game.

Make it RAINN! Dwight’s in the house.

Who doesn’t love the shoes?

A few of my favorite Rainnisms. {Note: when I took this photo, he was glaring right at me.}

{Ren Reiske © All Rights Reserved}

Blush

How To Be An Artist #18

Refuse to be responsible. I didn’t set out to do that. But it just happened. I received my first speeding ticket. Ever. I didn’t feel creative or adventurous ... just miserable and loathsome. Lately, I’ve been very irresponsible with my diet and work-out routine. Madness, I know. Sark must have figured that in doing this {not being responsible}, it takes us out of our safe element and opens our eyes to new things. So true. 
My eyes have been opened to few, new things. Here’s my brief confession, in my most honest voice: Designers have their mean reds too. I know it looks like we have fun, and you probably think we just draw pictures all day and learn new nerdy tricks on the Mac {ok, some of us do}. But it’s not always fun and easy because like any job, it’s a business. 

A few designer life lessons that I’ve learned (over again):

1. The simplest projects are never simple. If each draft (for one, simple job) equaled a meal, there would be a village of happy children in Africa.

2. Never fall in love with one of your innovative and creative designs. In the end, they always go for the old, been there/done that, big and ugly.

3. People get hung up on the weirdest thing. For instance, when I receive a design request for a calling card, people will obsess over every bit of information. Hello. It's not a book, it's a card. Nobody really cares about all that *@^}, they just want your digits. 

4. It doesn’t matter what color you go with. With 20 cooks in the kitchen, one is bound to hate that color. Oh, I didn’t realize Pantone made f*©king green.

5. There are clients who never want change. Even when change is needed. And it doesn’t matter how well you present the new idea, people who don’t like change will look at you like you’ve asked them to fly to the moon.

I’m going to stop now and find my happy place, sketchbook and Mac in tow. Speaking of happy place, here’s a pretty picture of the goodies that lovely Lynsie brought back from lovely London. She knew I was having a difficult week {being responsible and all}. ♥♥

The Road Less Traveled

{Ren Reiske © All Rights Reserved} 

My daily jaunt to work consists of a nice drive through the backroads of spiraling countryside. As the sun was coming up and storm clouds were threatening to roll in, I found myself slowing down to keep from hitting a fawn. It’s not unusual to see deer on this road, but at that very second, with Kings of Leon’s Use Somebody blaring in the background, I had a moment. The small doe didn’t run across but languidly ran on the road and I slowly followed behind until she ran off into the tall grass. You know those moments where everything slows down and you see things clearly, and it’s perfect. 

Those moments exist and are most apparent when you are someplace different and taking in all the new sites and sounds … but clearly, it’s everywhere, even home. 

I’ve been reminiscing about distant places lately which brought my attention to one fellow traveler. I was inspired by his gumption and fearless attitude to live his dream. His name is Colin Wright and from the great town of CoMo. It’s inspiring to see someone young achieve what others may view as unattainable, but I believe most dreamers who are doers, do in fact succeed. It doesn’t hurt that he looks like a young Ethan Hawke and after receiving a quick reply from him, I had to smile at his motivational and networking skills. {By the way, Colin, I rarely watch TV, especially reality shows or So You Think You Can Dance … so that road block will never happen. However, the stupid voice comes in the form of my thinking, “I don’t want to end up like that guy who thought he could live with grizzly bears, only to be eaten up by one.” But thank you for keeping the traveling designer dream alive.}. Creative inspiration came from him this week, so I will place this shameless plug (he’s all over the map so one more won’t hurt) for Mr. Wright.

{source}

Sweet and Sparkly

I created this simple DIY wine label for my creative friend, Jenn, who just turned 25. Sweet and sparkly — just like her. {Renette Reiske © All Rights Reserved}
Friday, I met up with Jenn and friends to continue her celebration at 44 Stone Public House, where I dined on Three Little Pigs — three toasted corn tortilla tacos with house-made chorizo, avocado, goat cheese, pickled red onion and cabbage. Delicious.

My all-time favorite: Irish coffee bread pudding with Bailey’s and cream. Yummm. Happy Birthday, Jenn!