He hunted his cluttered store for a good 20 minutes reassuring me that it was an ashtray with the iconic horse-and-rider that Wyoming is known for. We even talked a bit about Frontier Days, also known as the ‘Gandaddy of em All,’ because it’s the largest rodeo in the country. I grew up with it just across town, and Big Red (the shop owner) took great delight in this.

You can imagine his disappointment when he finally found the ashtray and it had ‘Georgia’ scratched across it. And what am I to feel about Georgia fighting for cowboy credentials? Sorry Georgia. You can have peaches, but please keep away from horse-and-rider imagery. In the meantime, I’ll hold on to this ashtray for you.

Big Red is an interesting man, and if you live in the area I encourage you to find his Carrboro store. I’ve featured some of his designs on this site before. His wonderful photocopied poster for his store, Oddities and Such, is in my post about the hand-painted signs of Carrboro, as well as his open signs with clowns painted on them.

2009 has been a great year, and the fact that November is around the corner is just a reminder that the year is almost over. I only hope 2010 can be so good.

I hope you get some enjoyment from these playful pups on your desktop this month. If you like it, I encourage you to spread the word. Thanks.

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Soon there will be no new way to update the world on what we are doing.

This has been a great month, and I believe it’s only going to get better. For one, it’s Julia’s birthday month so there will be some celebrating going on. I think that means more pumpkin pie for me. We’ll see.

As you know, last month’s wallpaper had us orbiting Saturn’s rings with Blackletter type. I decided to ground us a bit this month, but letting us down easy with Le Monde Livre PTF and a little inspiration from Scott McCall’s Meteor Shower sound-scape.

Please help me out in spreading the word. Below are the links to each available download, and some links to make it easier for you to share. (You can still add photos to the Wallpapers in Use Flickr group, too) Cheers!

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I was thinking of having some T-shirts printed up, but I think I am going to concentrate on getting my online store setup with collage prints first. Once that’s sorted out, I’ll consider shirts. I’ve started redesigning my site, and have plans to overhaul my portfolio so look for those changes in the coming weeks.

Many of you have emailed about changes to Sugar Cane, and I hope to publish a new version that will solve some things that should have been taken care of long ago. I am sorry I have not replied to all of the emails, and I hope to get you the update soon!

And now for a couple of images from the archives:

I am glad to be getting this month’s wallpaper posted while it is still August, but I am disappointed that it’s not a collaborative piece. We’ll have to do that for October. I’m becoming more adjusted to my new job, and should be able to get things together enough to let you know what to do to participate. Until then, please enjoy the beginnings of Autumn and this somewhat minimal wallpaper. If you are feeling ambitious, you can photograph your computer sporting the wallpaper (or any that I’ve created), and add them to my Flickr group.

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They’re just two pages in my sketchbook that happen to look kind of nice next to each other. Also, the swan is a bee, and the dog is a zebra. Get it?

These letters were created during a logo design process this week, but since they won’t be used I thought they would look good here.

What are they congratulating you ask? Well, I’ve just accepted an offer to be a Composition Artist at McKinney. This is great for many reasons. The first being I get to commute (and work) with my lovely wife. Secondly, McKinney is full of great folks who I will get to learn from on a daily basis.

I have a few projects that will be wrapping up over the course of the next month that I am excited to show you, but as for taking on new projects, I think it would be best that I didn’t as my time is quite precious to me. I’m sure you understand.

I will  continue making the monthly wallpapers as I have for about 18 months now, and I am working on a redesign of my site. Hopefully I’ll even get that online store that I keep talking about running!

The commute
I was thinking about it this afternoon, and realized I have not commuted more than a mile to my daily job in about eight years. I have worked at home for many of them. For others, I walked or rode my bike no more than a mile to work. In fact, I rarely leave the town I currently live in, and it’s small.

With that in mind, my most foreseeable hurdle is to get used to driving for at least an hour a day.

I took him through our apartment and to our back deck where I filmed him sneaking around on the table. He crawled towards me as he groomed his legs, than attacked!

Notice the screaming sounds of the cicada’s? So loud outside during North Carolina summers.

I find the result quite stunning. I hope you find it enjoyable.

I’d also like a challenge. Which is why I’ve decided to seek your participation in creating the September wallpaper. Here’s what I’m thinking: You send me hi-res images, and I’ll find a way to collage them together in a way that everyone will want to display it on their monitors for a month. Will you help me?

What does the above photo have to do with this? Glad you asked. It’s an example of something you could send me, and it’s an example of how I could collage submitted images.

I don’t know how this challenge will end up. It depends on how many images are submitted, and the quality of the images. If lots of images are submitted I might not be able to include them all. In that case, it’s almost a contest to see who can submit the best images. Basically, this is new, and I don’t want to pretend I know how it will work.

If you are interested in participating, leave a comment below, and I will contact you with more details. I look forward to seeing what happens!

I’ve been getting more and more photos sent in from folks that I thought it time to start a public group. If you aren’t on Flickr, I suggest it. If you are, then this will be easy. Anyone can join and add their photos. Below is the first addition from Jos Buivenga. My guess is that Mac’s are less expensive in the Netherlands.

It’s simple in it’s construction, but I keep going back to it. I kind of ruined the sketchbook version so I’ve modified it a bit in Photoshop.

As you can see, Andy loves vintage scooters, Volkswagon vans, and typography. He works at Veer, and keeps a nice blog about all of these things. Be sure to check it out. He can also be found on Twitter.

Thanks for sending in the photo, Andy!

But in these hard times, don’t forget that your customers are in the same struggle as you. They might even be your neighbors!

There is a storage company down the street from where we live with a sign out near the road. I’ve noted before of how their sign can be a bit quirky. One time it said, ‘Are you lonely? Stop in and buy some boxes.’ They’ve recently thrown out the soft talk, and their sign currently looks like this:

I’d like to know what my neighbors think of this sign. Maybe they’re just relieved that it’s not prodding at the fact that they don’t have a partner in life as their past sign did. Maybe they think, ‘Yes! Great idea.’ and head in for some boxes. Personally, I am put off by this message. I find it more odd than the prior sign that just left me scratching my head.

It is with trifles, and when he is off guard, that a man best reveals his character.
— Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788-1860)

I’m sure someone thought they were real clever when they were arranging the letters one by one, but could they be thinking that THIS is the one. This is the phrase that will bring them in, then we can sell them a storage unit! I don’t know. It makes me think that during these time, more than ever, we need to be empathetic to those we are trying to reach.

We need to understand that no decision is too small. Our actions are held accountable by the people we are here to serve. This goes for designers, waitresses, landlords, and it even goes to those who sell boxes.

I’d like to hear what you think of this sign. Am I overthinking it? Do you have a story of a terrible marketing blunder? Please leave a comment below or just move along and watch this video from Coudal Partners.