Digital Learning Sketches -- Old Index Pages

This is a collection of items that used to be on this site's index page over the course of years.

These pages aren't master works, and generally aren't complete ideas.  They're more like different pages from old sketchbooks that I wanted to keep -- they are a window into some of my learning areas at different times. I like to keep them around because it reminds me that I've worked on some ideas for a long time -- that I've failed (and succeeded) on some of them to different degrees.

Most of these index pages are probably only interesting to me, which I'm fine with. There is#mysteryMeat everywhere! ;)

You'll require the flash plugin to view many of the old items.

2007 - Index Pages

Art was becoming a way that I could support myself without design. It was a great feeling, until the fall came and in one week I had my hard drive crash and my back up stolen, leaving me with nothing I'd ever made, shot, or created. I stopped making index pages after that. I came really close to giving up art & design completely.

Appul goes to Banff

Dave and I were featured in the Herald when we went to the Banff Television Festival trying to hock Appul.

El Norte

I met great people in Monterrey. It was a really great experience for me that introduced lifelong friends.

Monterrey

I was about to have my first solo gallery show in Mexico. My thesis project, 49 stories, was showing at Galeria Regia.

2006 - Index Pages

I got a mortgage, published a book, and started to have art really pay off. The police were starting to hassle me for a few projects, but otherwise things were great.

Please Vote

It often surprises me how involved my work is in politics.

WAR made me [do it]

My book was released in the fall -- an anti-war postcard book. Many of the images toured extensively across Canada and the US.

2005 - Index Pages

This was probably the best year of my life. I lived in Montreal for half the year, met some amazing people, and pushed myself artistically in the studio. "Work" got to take the back burner and I really got to explore where I wanted to go in life and with art. Climbing buildings won!

Pretty Inc.

I really started to find my voice with design. I called it "digital punk." I started knowing the rules well enough that I could play off them.

Dumped

Sarah dumped me and Moe Norman died. "Leave the gun, take the cannoli." I went hard after this.

Blowing Up

I was working less, charging more, and had time to think big. It was exciting. Letters and FB were taking over.

2004 - Index Pages

Work started to dominate my agenda, but it allowed me to start spending a lot of time traveling and in Montreal. Art shows and graffiti beef became very large parts of my life.

Gone Fishing

Beautiful Sarah and I went to Thailand. The Tsunami hit. You get some pretty crazy emails when people think you're dead.

Vote

Vote because you want to bitch! It's obvious i've fallen for a colour palette as a designer (charcoal, grey, and maroon).

weirdness

I had a bad experience with a girl in my first year of university who threatened to kill my girlfriend. It kind of ruined this gesture. Communicating with the deaf became extremely important around this time.

orientation :: landscapes

I learned a few lessons about dipping my pen in the company ink, so to speak. She was so hot and crazy though!

2003 - Index Pages

I started trying to use my voice more in design, getting into political ideas -- and getting into trouble as a result. It didn't seem to matter though, as I got larger contracts from all over North America looking for "your weird stuff" so I must have been doing something right.

Merry Christmas - A common sense wish

War really started bumming me out and became a massive theme in a lot of my artwork and commercial design.

Scorch email - glenn gould narrative

Someone wrote me asking to see a project I'd worked on years ago. I like getting random emails like this. The piece is here.

62 days

Jaylene and I were fighting, so she moved to Vancouver for the summer. I lost my mind a little bit.

Button Gate

Of all the stupid things I've done, I can't believe this is the one that made the news and caused a bunch of feminists to march. Wow.

Important Notice

The direction of the web was becoming predictable. Gmunk wasn't going to win. Flash was going to lose. Netflix and Tindr were easily foreseeable. This was kind of a sad time for the maturation of the internet.

2002 - Index Pages

I started getting a little bit dap for the design work I was doing. I got more comfortable with all the technical tools and as seeing the web as a complex narrative environment. This was a big time in my development as an artist and as a designer. I got to work for film and TV, and people started seeking me out to build fun projects. It was a very rewarding year.

New Release

I'd worked really hard this year and was looking forward to building on that in 2003

Super

It was finally time to learn more programs after a busy year. Here comes 3d.

work

I was really starting to dig flash. Professors called it "video games" and there were no art grants for work like this.

Procrastination

What else are you supposed to do on Valentine's day when you're in a weird relationship? Make something. Protip: click the 'winter' button.

Toqueboy vs. Sundance

The boys from FUBAR let me come down and go wild. What an amazing trip. That's Paul you hear laughing in the background.

Ma

I always really loved this picture of my ma. Happy Birthday.

2001 - Index Pages

I realized really early in this year that I didn't want to continue fashion photography. I loved taking photos of objects/people in their natural environment -- it contained much more storytelling. I had a photo studio in the garage and a dark room in my kitchen; this was a big learning period for Joel and I. Lots of repetition and note taking. Lots of thanks to Ozzie Mansour for all his mentoring.

Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday Javen.

26

Sales sites were pretty funny back in the day. I made this for my 26th birthday.

blah. blah. blah

Joel and I were getting pretty deep into film and narrative theory. It was everywhere for us.

Gin and Juice

The work I was doing for the Mercury and DJs really started to push me back into design.

Not Gmunk

I was having a major case of the "Salieris" at this point in my life.

Failed Projects

Mike and I went to Waskesieu to make a hip hop album. I came away knowing I had no sense of type treatment.

Retired Designer

I was getting really frustrated with life as a designer and photographer. I didn't like the brakes that were put on everything. 

Stampede Breakfast

Rock Central Stampede breakfast used to be an amazing time.

Flower

I loved shooting flowers. They are easy to turn into shape and colour.

Kinship

Joel and I worked a long time trying to figure out how to take and process rich B/W photos that told stories and had character.

Jaylene - 23

This girl is amazingly crazy and beautiful. We went nuts together. 

Zvetlana

This is where i learned definitively that I had no interest in shooting models.

2000 - Index Pages

These contain a lot of flash learning, and trying to figure out how to create an interesting presentation using my video and photo work. It's also a transition from thinking of design as super corporate advertising to more of an artistic outlet.

Ballerina

She used to dance all over the screen -- hours of time. Computer crashed. Work lost. This is a reminder to 'save'.

First Toqueboy Studios Index Page

This is where I decided to go out on my own and move away from corporate design and explore more experimental stuff.

Eric - a Guided Experience

I tried to make a full video interactive experience in flash that engaged people for my first toqueboy site.

Cornucopia Design Digital Card

Experimenting with video in flash using clients photos. The last piece I made before I left Cornucopia Design.

Old Versions of toqueboy.com

These are old versions of the site that Johan happened to find on some of the assorted servers we had. I wish we'd have found some of the earlier stuff, and there's definitely a lot of broken links, but it's kind of fun for me to look back on. I sure did a bad job of selling my important work and also tilted towards the little stuff. Weird.

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