Coming to fruition

I feel like a proud father right now. =)

The two biggest graphic design projects I have ever been involved with are exploding with publicity right now. Both of these projects saw great success when I designed them last year, and it's really picking up more steam this year. It's just really exciting.

BEE Japan is one organization that I have helped design for. Last year, I was asked by two fellow Fukui JET Program teachers to design a bicycling jersey for their 2-month bike ride (called "BEE Ride") through Japan, in efforts to spread environmental awareness to Japanese residents throughout the country. It saw a lot of publicity on the radio, TV and newspapers all over Japan. Bee Japan will be riding for the 13th time in 2009.

In a few months, a new team of riders will make their yearly trek around Japan. Just recently, the website released a preview of the new jersey design. It's mostly the same as last year's jersey, but with a few cosmetic changes and a new color scheme for 2009. Jerseys are actually available for sale right now (limited time only, probably only a few weeks longer) for $100, and they are made of really high-quality material.

Salem Willard, the head rider for this year's BEE Ride group is currently a JET Program teacher in Shiga Prefecture, and he came to my current residence (Sabae) to help with a clean-up activity last week. Our small group went around Sabae JR Station picking up trash for an hour. Taisuke Fukuno, owner of jig.jp and a 2nd year sponsor for BEE Japan, is planning to make this a monthly event. Salem posted a few more Sabae pics on the BEE Japan flickr photostream, if you would like to see it.

Arcade in a Box is the other big project that I worked on since last year. AIAB is a company that hails from my hometown of Tucson, Arizona, and they make excellent professional-grade fighting game joysticks for home systems such as Playstation 2 and 3, and XBox 360. The quality of these joysticks are unrivaled, fast becoming the preferred fighting game stick for fighting game enthusiasts in America.

Ed Farias, proprietor of AIAB, made a post a year ago on a popular fighting game forum, asking for help on designing a new logo for his up-and-coming company. I answered the call, and the rest was history.

The publicity has been pouring in steadily for AIAB. AIAB has been featured in "The Jace Hall Show", a popular online show with Jace and his misadventures in the video gaming world. In Season 2, he takes a pilgrimage to Tucson to visit AIAB headquarters. NOTE: Unfortunately, this episode is region locked in Japan.

This weekend is big for AIAB. In Phoenix, Arizona, one of the nation's biggest video game tournaments is being held for huge cash prizes at Devastation 2009. AIAB is one of the sponsors for this event, and they will be at the site promoting their joysticks to convention visitors and tournament players. I was asked to make a huge banner for their booth, so hopefully I will be able to show you pictures on a later update. My logo is everywhere at the event, with representatives wearing AIAB shirts and tournament participants toting around their own AIAB joysticks. I was able to see this because of the live tournament webcast that they have at the event. Yes, this event is really that big.

It's exciting to be a part of something so big, and I hope this is just the start of more great things to come. =)