Christmas Eve...

Yes, I've finally arrived in Montreal. It was a long drive but it was definitely worth it. I don't know why, but I always feel refreshed and well...relieved when I'm here. I feel more at home I suppose...

Anyways, it's Christmas eve, it's snowing, there's alternative rock playing in the background, I have Eggnog and brandy by my side and not to mention I'm on my comfy bed with my comfy pillows. It's pretty sweet so far. :)

As you may or may not know, I had a photoshoot on Sunday. I learned a lot from it and I realized thatI have a lot more to learn. My model's name was Michelle, it was her first time modeling and although she was pretty shy, she did pretty well. I hope she enjoyed her time, I hope to take more pictures of her again sometime soon. :)

Anyways, here are a few of the pictures...

Photoshoot2

Alright everybodyyy, woo I'm at the studio at the moment and guess what?...
PHOTOSHOOT!

Yup, I'm doing some more expert work at the moment. I'm using the same model as before (Tiffany) as well as my new model, Michelle! This one is much more interesting than before, especially since Michelle seems to be really photogenic no matter what pose she seems to be in lol It's her first time modeling and she's doing pretty well so far. This whole fashion photography thing can get pretty tiring lol.

I'll post some pictures from the photoshoot a little later...

Welcome Back...

Woo I'm back on lol, sorry about the delay...
I'll update everything A.S.A.P

Happy Halloween!

Alright so it's been 11 days since I last post, I'm sorry my fellow Blog fans. :) Lately has been quite busy to be honest, but everything is going quite well.  Remember that Ad campaign for planned parenthood...the one with the face on the penis. The higher ups found that and the slogan to be a bit racy, so now we have to come up with a whole new idea, we need one by November 2nd. x]

Luckily we were able to come up with one; i'll post it up later.

For the past 2 weeks I've had this idea...a plan. I'm thinking of creating a multimedia studio. I'm thinking of renting a loft downtown and building it into a place where I along with a few other people can do our work. I realize that this will require quite a bit of funds, however I'm not worried about that, it's not even a problem to be honest. However, I want to get this whole thing rolling as soon as possible but I realize that this will take a while...maybe a few years, but I' m willing.

MATTHEW FIGHTING!!

oh and Happy Halloween! :D

A small preview...

So I was asked to assist a photoshoot on Sunday, but to make a long story short, I ended up having a 30 minute photoshoot of my own. :]

Sssh, it's our secret ;)

And here they are...

Alright, so I said I would post pictures of a few of the campaigns I have worked on. Here are the concepts you've all been waiting for for so long! (I realized the reason why the quality was so bad was cause I left the mode in CMYK) Blah!

The concept above is for planned parenthood. Basically, we wanted to create an ad for young men telling them to use condoms. Because this was an ad for YOUNG MEN, we decided to play on something that young guys do that requires protection. So far we  we came up with the idea of skateboarding.  Don't mind the typo in the word "protect". This whole concept is a play on words and stuff, seems to have gotten good reviews so far

So this was another idea we have for Planned Parenthood once again, however this is for young men to get tested for STI's and HIV. So, a lot of people think that to get tested for STI's (Sexually transmitted infections) You have to get some blood work done. However, what many don't know is that all you can do to get tested is pee in a cup. Although this is not the case for HIV, it's just as easy since I believe all it takes is a small pin prick of blood and you can have results within a few months. 

This was the genius campaign a team of us created in August; we just finished filming the commercial a few days ago. I already explained this one in one of my previous posts, however I'll explain once more. So, this is supposed to be an anti-violence campaign, but instead of making it depressing and gory, we decided to make it a bit more light hearted and sarcastic. I'd say it's something refreshing.

Where's my golden watch?

So back in high school my friends started this "secret" group of pick up artists, I thought it seemed pretty cool and decided to join them. If you don't know, a pick up artist is someone who is skilled in the art of picking up girls. It was interesting to see the changes it made in the lives of my friends. They dressed better, they gained more confidence in themselves and they became much more social. It was definitely a fun ride with them.

I love having girl's numbers sprawled across my desk and I love having notebooks full of girl's Facebooks and emails. I love seeing a pretty girl on the street and instead of curling away, I can easily start a conversation with her and even meet with her for coffee afterwards. I met a lot of great girls and a couple of bad apples, but it's because of this that I don't think that girls are just a great big pile of drama and insecurities.

But as much as I love picking up girls and having this kind of social life, as my friend calls it "The playboy life", I have to concentrate on other things at the moment. As much as I love girls, I also love having a stable future LOL. So I'm going to retire from being a pick up artist, playboy, sex fiend or whatever it is you want to call it. It's very time consuming and honestly as exciting as it sounds to have so many women in your life, it does get tiring. (Not to mention the cost for bus tokens GEEZ LOUIS!)

So I'm writing this in order to confirm to myself that I'M RETIRED! :D
I had fun guys and I'll definitely contribute to your mansion in the near future. LOL
Make sure my room has a hot tub and soundproof walls haha
And as much as this may disappoint you all
I've been thinking that perhaps
Settling down with one girl
Wouldn't be all
That bad
Haha
x]

Take care.

And then she heard me say...

I love to workout. I wake up every morning at 5am or maybe a bit later, to run on the track by myself and around the block. Though now that it's getting colder, I should probably invest in a treadmill. After every workout I feel refreshed and overjoyed, as if I've just accomplished something, and I did! It's like a motivator for me to just not be lazy; if I can wake up every morning to exercise, make a good breakfast and look fresh, then I can surely put effort in to my design work and whatever else I need to do.

I even shaved my head the other night and as I entered the studio, I immediately got comments about how fresh I was. As one of the staff made a comment, I gave her a quirky and joking conceited response. She then replied "Oh boy, you sure have self confidence now don't ya?!"

I think that's what it is; Working out just gives me that self confidence to achieve greater things. I look great, I feel great, I think great, I am great and because of this I can do great things yet still hold a good level of humbleness. So what's your confidence builder?

The sounds of love

Alright, as many of my friends and family know, Me+Relationships=Undefined
I keep getting asked the same questions over and over as to why I refuse, yes refuse to be in a relationship with a girl. So here I will expose myself on my blog so that the next time somebody asks me, I'll just refer them to here. Yay for publicity!

First off, I'll say that guys want a relationship just as much as girls do. However, they don't express that around their guy friends unless they're totally comfortable with it or have just had enough. So yeah, this whole "Guys aren't as sensitive" and stuff, is total bull. Get up from under your rock.

Anyways, I'm personally not a fan of relationships. Why? Because everyone makes too much of a big deal out of it, and in the wrong way. Everyone these days wants to be in a relationship, they want to find that special someone as soon as they can no matter what, and usually hope for a storybook ending. I find it...humiliating to be honest with you. We all speak of having and cherishing our independence, but once the subject of love comes up, we'd trade in our independence right there. This is wrong on so many levels and you'd be surprised as to how easily a relationship can deteriorate because of this.

People have become so fixed on looking for love so much that we don't even enjoy the time we have being single. It's no longer become "I want to be in a relationship" but more so that "I need to be in a relationship." And once they get into that relationship they've been looking for for so long, that independence is lost, and they depend on the other person to fulfill their needs in order to make them happy, to complete that"puzzle," which does nothing but put stress on the partner and the relationship. The point I'm trying to make is, if you can't be happy in your life being single, then how the hell are you going to be happy in a relationship without your partner having to fulfill your needs.

Enjoy the single life you have now, fulfill what you can at this moment. Make the single life you have the best you can ever make it and be able to provide your own happiness without relying on anyone else to do it for you. Make your life so interesting that people will come to you without any reason except for that you're a really interesting person. And when you believe your life can't get any better than it is, then choose as to whether or not you WANT (not need) someone in your life to make the Best life you have even better. It's the path of independence and the path of maturity.

I believe that I do lead an interesting life, I'm a graphic designer, a photographer and am currently creating my own clothing line. I have very nice clothes, I live in a very nice house, I have a body to die for (So I've been told) and I'm surrounded by beautiful women every week who I talk to and even take out to lunch sometimes. My life is great and I love it, so why am I not in a relationship? Because even though I believe my life to be awesome, I still believe I can achieve higher than this, however you never know; someone may just pop up and take my breath away.

A feeling of nostalgia

I went to Montreal a few days ago for the ThanksGiving weekend, and gosh was I thankful. I needed that refresher even if it was just for the long weekend, it feels nice to have a new change of scenery every once in a while. But not only that, I just feel really connected to Montreal, maybe cause my relatives live there, or perhaps because it's my hometown, but I find Montreal has something that Toronto lacks. I can't seem to put my finger on it just yet, but I feel it every time I go there; maybe it's the community, the pride, the actual history? I'm not sure, but there's some sort of charm to it that Toronto doesn't have.

Well anyways, the Thanksgiving dinner was awesome; lots of jokes over the dinner table. I wish my grandpa made the turkey though, this was the second year in a row that we didn't have turkey. :( Hopefully for Christmas there''ll be a giant juicy one in the oven...ah shit, gotta watch the calorieeees.

Throughout the whole weekend though, I ended up playing cupid for my cousin. He wouldn't stop texting this one girl throughout the whole 6 hr trip and for the first 2 days we were there. I'm not sure if he actually likes this girl or if he's just being the player that he is (I taught him well _tear) but I lent him my magic and lo' and behold he has a date with this girl in a few days. Too bad it was near Valentine's day. x]

Also, my uncle who's a copywriter ended up getting me a small prt in some avdertising show. Basically Toronto holds some huuuuge advertising thing like the Grammy's, however, this is specifically for car commercials. I find it very cool. So he's writing the script for the whole show I believe, and he wants me to pull a Kanye west Vs. Taylor swift thing on stage LOL. So when they announce the award to whoever, I have to run up on stage and do my whole "I'm sorry and I'mma let you finish but so and so had the best video of ALL TIME!" I can't wait. :)

Other than that, I feel very motivated to get things rolling a little smoother now. I have a T3 meeting tomorrow and a whole other line up of the things for the week. Let's get started!

And she said like...No wai!

Ah, so many things going on lately it's incredible. And here I thought that my year would be pretty...uneventful. :P

Today the Michelle, my client for the Protect your sex ad campaign came in and gave us feedback on the my ad concepts. SHE LOVED IT! So, I'm finally done with that, well not exactly. But I'll be taking a week's break from that before I start touching it up and getting what I need for the Ad. I'd post up my concepts, but Blogger really lowers the quality of pictures, so I'll create a photobucket account and start linking to there.

I've been really interested in fashion photography lately. I joined a photography program yesterday and it was really fun... I never knew had such hidden talent. x] 

I'll post up my pics later.

The days have been pretty short lately, or it feels like it at least. Not only that, but it's also been really windy, it was actually snowing outside the studio at about noon. (I jumped for joy)

This month I've just been thinking about Montreal, I don't know why, I probably just miss it. I'm going there on Friday though for the thanksgiving weekend, I don't plan on holding back! :)

Dear Mr.Romantic...

A friend of mine asked me what I thought being "Romantic" meant. It was pretty out of the blue, but I've honestly never thought about what it would mean. I've thought about the meaning of love and what it means to other people but the word Romantic never hit me lol. The things that come to mind for Romantic would be roses, cuddling, kisses and such...But I guess if you look past the physical aspects of it, it would be something like...

Appreciate the person for who they are, to be able to not overlook their flaws but instead accept them. To be romantic is to change yourself for the person you're with, not because they want you to change but because you want to become a better person for them. In a romantic relationship, there's always something to learn and there's always something new.

And so it went like...

Alright so I'm at the studio at the moment, working on the logo design for T3 (Toronto trek for teens) Well I don't think it's T3 anymore since we're breaking off and starting a new group for it.

Here are the two logo designs I've created on Illustrator. Credit for the logo idea/design goes to Michelle, this is a pretty hype.

Well the quality isn't as good on Blogger, but this is basically our logo. They're two hands forming a roof and a heart, and in the second one, instead of a heart it's a person. I had a lot of fun creating this, and also learned a few new tricks to make things easier for me next time when using illustrator. x]

Also, I told you about the Ad campaign I was working on, well here's our concept.

Wow...the quality is horrible for this one...Well, yeah here's our 'anti-violence' campaign. Took a few hours to complete. We basically put a quirky spin to things, instead of it being all serious and depressing as most anti-violence ads are.

Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our campaign launch!!

I was going to take pictures of the studio and post them up here but I have to work on that "protect our sex' campaign still (I've been holding it off for weeks) So until next time!!

Later days! :)

...Timeskip!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything haha. So quite a bit has happened so far within these past few months. Remember that 'internship' I told you about? Well, throughout the month of August, I've worked with the other people in the graphics program to create an Anti-violence Ad campaign, and it was quite interesting because instead of using the usual scare tactics, we went about it in sort of 'oxymoron-ish quirky' way. I'll post up a picture of it later today to show you.

Basically though, the month of August was our training month to get used to the program, so now that we're in September, we're getting down into the sticky icky stuff. In the 'internship' we were all assigned different independent projects to work on. Since I'm a Graphic designer/Illustrator, I of course got the whole 'Create this many pieces by this date!' project.

Here's what I gotta do:
*Create 9 pieces
*Every 3 pieces will have a certain theme
*The first 3 pieces will deal with Creativity, the next 3 on Positivity and the last 3 will be on Peace
*All these illustrations must come together in some way. (sort of like a giant puzzle)

I'm pretty excited about this one, I can't wait to get right into it, however, at the moment I don't have the right computer to do this task. I'll have to wait a few weeks till I get my beautiful laptop and then I'll be in CREATION mode like no tomorrow. :)

Oh also before I forget, I met with the leader of the Toronto Trek for Teens. I'd explain what it is, but here's a link instead to their facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500567859&v=photos&so=15#/group.php?gid=10722396786&ref=ts

Surprisingly the leader is a freshman in University just like myself...sort of. I met with him at UofT's frosh week and he was telling me about how he was looking for a Graphic designer to work with him, but it was difficult cause he didn't really have the funds to pay them. Well, well just look who he happened to talk to! ME one of Toronto's greatest graphic design prodigies! (getting my Kanye on...) But I offered to work with him for free since I found it'd be a great opportunity to design for a great organization such as T3, and it'll look great in my portfolio/resume. :]

I really look forward to working with Mike and hope I'd be able to get an executive position as a graphic designer with them instead of it being a one time thing. :)

Well see how everything rolls but for now everything seems to be coming along perfectly! :)

5 days

In a few more days my internship for Graphic Communications starts. I'm pretty excited to be honest....lately I've been doing a whole bunch of personal illustrations and have been thinking that maybe having this as a career wouldn't be so bad. Although it's not the most exciting job, I feel happy when I'm doing it and I can actually go at it for hours without switching to something else...which is quite incredible for me. x]

So wish me luck on this!

Also my friend comes down from Ottawa today! She moved to Ottawa last year in order to attend University, so this is the first time in a while that I'm seeing her. I'll be picking her up later today and we have a LOT of catching up to do. ><

Talk about an ego streak

For the past few days I've been job hunting, looking for any company that would take me in...okay maybe not any company. Throughout the last 4 years my work and volunteer experience have come been from well known companies like the police services and Sunnybrook hospital, so I really don't want to break that streak by suddenly working as a busboy...no offense to all you busboys and busgirls out there. :P

So I've decided-

While I'm looking for a job, I will be freelancing my ass off doing commissions for people and companies. I may as well start getting my name out there!

I'll update you guys later on how it goes!

Thar she goes

It's 9.44am in the morning here in Toronto and I've got another full day of stuff to do! What stuff you ask? Well I'm not too sure actually...

You see, I work at a multimedia studio where I create illustrations on programs such as Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. However, I don't feel like doing that today...Instead I'm more in the mood for creating music. (I'm talented in many areas of the arts) A career that I'm looking into is Music Producing and Dj-ing. I'm a really big fan of House music and just love mixing beats and vocals to create a new upbeat song. I'm actually hoping to have both Graphic design and Dj-ing as my two main careers in the future.

There are actually plenty of careers that I want to pursue, but I can only choose 1..or 2 and hope to keep the others as a hobby at least. My earliest career path was to become a fashion designer, however I dropped that and decided to come up with my own clothing line instead in the near future. A few other paths were dance choreographer, actor, animator and a few more which JUST slipped my mind haha. But I believe that I will definitely stay with graphic design and Music production seeing as these are things I genuinely love to do. (NEXT to dancing)

I'm taking a year off till University, a lot of people think I'm just going to slack off this whole year (because that's what everyone does when they take a year off) But I can't do that, I WANT to pursue a higher education and learn more about the career paths that I'm choosing. It's the love of wisdom that is keeping me on this path so far...and the fact that I don't plan on having a low paying job when I'm in my 30's-40's.

I plan on going to Ryerson for Graphic communications and I'll somehow learn Music Tech/Audio production outside of school. Perhaps at the studio I work at now... I was planning on taking Music tech in University instead, however ironically enough, even though Toronto is the Media capital in Canada, they don't have any univerisities which offer this as a major or minor for that matter. There are insitutes I could go to for a year or two to learn this (such as the toronto film school) , but I thought that if it's only for such a short period of time, with Graphic Communications being a 4 year program, I may as well study that first.

Well I have to start making my way to the studio now, check back for another post later on. :)

The Sounds of Life

Hey there and welcome!
I created the Sounds of Life blog for the fun of expressing myself to others, to meet different people through blogging and to hopefully learn a few things throughout the next few years of my blogging experience.

My name is Matthew, I'm 18 and have just graduated from High school a few weeks ago. I'm not too sure about what lies ahead, I don't really have anything planned, most of my decisions are usually right in the moment and I'm taking a year off before I head to University. But even so, I have plenty of opportunities which lie in front of me...I'm just not sure which ones to choose...*sigh*

I suppose reading my blog would almost be the equivalent of watching a reality TV show, only a lot more meaningful I hope haha. I want to cover as many things as I can from, Fashion and Politics to Philosophy and the weird things which happen around my neighbourhood. So sit back, relax and hope you enjoy The Sounds of Life.