I'm finally getting settled in my new place after a month of tedious improvements. Above is a picture from my balcony, which overlooks downtown Chattanooga. It's beautiful. It's just too bad I'll only be in this place for the summer... but more on the reason why later.

I've recently completed the design for a personal stationery packet. I've always loved the tactile quality of letterpress and with Crane's new Lettra papers decided to have the talented folk of Widgets and Stone handle this portion of the production and they did an incredible job. I'll attach some shots of the stationery soon.

After spending the majority of the week under the covers, dropping about 8 pounds, and aching beyond belief - I am very happy to be on the mend. Unfortunately, this will entail many hours of catch up. If you've already caught the bug, I'm sorry but it will be over soon. For you lucky bastards who have avoided it, stay healthy. It sucks.

We're live... and I've lost track, among other things, on the number of redesigns this site has gone through and the number of domains it has switched between. In the process I also lost many, many entries and some motivation for the entirety of the design profession. But that was short-lived. My passion and desire to continue to grow in this field I’ve come to live for was masked by various unfortunate situations (professionally) that left me just shy of a career meltdown. A meltdown that drove me back into school seeking a degree in psychology, but we’ll get more into that as time goes on.

For now, I just want to welcome you back and point out some things about the new design. Oh, and don’t mistake this “newness” as meaning I will be posting on a more regular basis. While I will be posting more that I usually do, school and work don’t leave much time to do anything else.

So, the new digs sport a full width and scalable layout, although I did stick with px sizing for fonts. I will slowly be adding pages to the site as time permits. I will also be flowing in some images of my recent work which can also be seen (soon) at my professional portfolio site: justinkroppdesign.com. God-willing, I’ll be honing my javascript skills in the near future, which will enable me to implement some niceties here. So that’s the short and sweet of the new skin. I hope you’ll join in and follow along.

The generally dispensable status of art and design, assigned by our consumer-minded culture, has allowed even the most naive bastard to recognize and revel in the quality of their personal creative vision. Uneducated designers and photographers permeate society and, like their Sunday Painter counterparts, cannot muster a fraction of the effort necessary to create anything of merit. The inordinate number of design agencies opened in recent years is a testament to our desire to communicate visually as well as our ignorance in believing everyone can do so. In the race for status and recognition, money and reputation, process has taken a backseat to pretense.

A fledgling minority still recognizes the importance of the process inherent to design‚ it is process, not product, that creates. Unfortunately, however, patience has been forfeited for immediate gratification and craft and thought have been superseded by contemporary trends.

In short: asinine expropriation is in vogue.

I seek to subvert tradition‚ to unapologetically dismantle the regurgitation that so viciously pervades our industry. I abhor style, high-design‚ and the other atrocities being sold today within the confines of the style-houses that plague our industry.

2008 happened last night at about 12:00 or shortly thereafter. I was asleep. I’m not much into the traditional celebratory festivities that occur this time of year, although I am quite fond of listmaking and the necessary metaphorical re-set, otheriwse known as “new year’s resolutions”. I make them not out of a desire to force change, but as a means to reflect on all that I am and all that I will ultimately become.

Besides, the past is overrated.