Projects

I am taking the month of May to drive across the country and back. I got tired of the fact that friends from abroad have seen more of the States than I have, and this year is something of a crossroads for me for a few reasons, so the time seems right. Since I design web sites, it made sense to put one together to document the trip, so that’s what you’re looking at. It… See more →

Okay, I have to make this really quick, because I’m already leaving much later than I wanted to. Leaving for what, you ask? A month-long, cross-country road trip, naturally. I made a web site for it which is where I’ll be writing exclusively for the next month (not that you expected to see anything new here). My bitchin’ Corolla is leaving Philadelphia momentarily—jump in the passenger seat!

My fourth year at Austin’s juggernaut of an interactive conference was more of a mixed bag than years past, as both I and SXSW adapted to its growing pains.

This year’s conference was, I believe, about three times the size of my first (in 2005). Daytime sessions expanded to remote areas of Austin’s sprawling convention center, and overcrowded lunch and evening activities tested even Texas’s deft corralling hand. Those who knew the territory well enough… See more →

March has arrived, and since college basketball doesn’t interest me any more than a zombified messiah figure selling chocolate or an ophidiophobic Irish folk hero selling Budweiser, March means just one thing: South by Southwest. In just a few days, I will descend on Austin for nearly a week’s worth of quality time with good friends and good ideas. If you see me there, I hope you won’t hesitate to say hello. Here are some… See more →

Just realized exactly how complex this little personal project is, which is simultaneously intimidating and intriguing.

Chicken? htz.ru Egg? comhaltas.ie

fondly recalling the insane effort and ingenuity required to create the lo-fi, analog animations my cohorts and I made in college.

working on this year's editions of holiday gifts. Is my artwork an inappropriate gift for someone close who might not otherwise be into it?

Fuck it. Virtual Stan 2.0 is happening.

reveling in the publication of my first contribution to The Superest: thesuperest.com/archives/2007/10/…

devising vanquishment for the Detoxitron: thesuperest.com/archives/2007/10/…

Another busy summer has come and gone, most of the fruits of which are still not quite ripe enough to talk about. I do, however, have a few things going on this month that are worth a mention.

Screens ’N’ Spokes

Throughout the year and across the country, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society hosts the MS Bike Ride, a lengthy cycling excursion whose participants have raised a considerable amount of money to fight the organization’s… See more →

A brief history of type

Like all the arts, [typography] is basically immune to progress, though it is not immune to change. —Robert Bringhurst, The Elements of Typographic Style

The art of typography has a rich and storied tradition, and like most art forms, its production processes have moved at a snail’s pace. After Gutenberg’s landmark invention of movable type (a printing method consisting of individual letters carved out of metal) in the fifteenth century, the… See more →

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Whoever “they” are, they say you never forget your first time. And in 2005, my first SXSW was definitely unforgettable. They also say twice is nice, and as such, my second SXSW was all sugar and spice. As we all know, though, the third time is the charm, and this year’s SXSW charmed the hell out of me.

The people, panels, presentations, and parties were more plentiful than ever, but I still managed to absorb… See more →

I’ve done a bad thing. And I didn’t act alone.

Nine esteemed colleagues and I collaborated with Friends of ED editor Chris Mills to create a book called Web Standards Creativity, which will be released early in March. It is poised to infect the minds of innumerable readers with several creative approaches to standards-based web design and development. These progressive ideas in XHTML, CSS, and DOM scripting could single-handedly set back the cause of mediocrity… See more →

One doesn’t often have the opportunity to work on a project that strengthens his skills in multiple disciplines and helps him reevaluate his connection to his heritage. I have been fortunate to have just such an opportunity, and after months of hard work, that project is now available for public consumption.

In late August of last year, a handful of Happy Cogs flew out to Dublin to meet with some of the cheerful folks who… See more →

When I saw the gorgeously dreadful October 2006 edition of Stan’s site on Sunday, I remembered that I had intended to dust off my site’s costume from last year and put it back on. I dug around in my files, and was somewhat horrified to discover that the costume had vanished. Then I realized that if I was looking for that costume, summer must have ended. And boy oh boy, was there a lot of… See more →

Through an act of either charity or desperation, Born Magazine allowed me to contribute to its Summer 2006 issue, which launched recently. Having been a great admirer of Born for several years, I was honored to participate.

In its own words, “Born Magazine is an experimental venue marrying literary arts and interactive media. Original projects are brought to life every three months through creative collaboration between writers and artists.” I have always found their use… See more →

October has arrived once again, and as autumn’s chill makes its graceful entrance, a young man’s fancy turns to... the macabre. I’m something of a Halloween fanatic, which is a great comfort when the transition into fall would otherwise find me irritated by the loss of warm temperatures and extended daylight. So, with nature in its gorgeous death throes all around me, I fill my Octobers with all things horrific, and this year, even my… See more →

Another year, another CAmm Slamm. Baltimore’s premiere weekend moviemaking competition took place this past weekend, and Stan, Sutter, and I took a drive down to the Old Line State to help our Philly vs. Baltimore nemesis RedstarKGB make it happen. Little did we know we would be making the most ridiculous movie of our careers...

Well, I guess it wasn’t that much of a shocker.

CAmm Slamm is a 48-hour film competition in which competing… See more →

What’s that, you say? You’re an awesome, standards-based web designer with a bulging skillset and are looking for work in Philadelphia? Look no further than this, our recent Craigslist posting:

Pixelworthy in Philadelphia has a ton of work to do and is seeking very specific types of individuals—individuals who are first and foremost designers—people with a passion for the aesthetic and can execute attractive, user-centered design for business. We are not seeking programmers who dabble… See more →

I have owned a few web sites in my day, and like anyone who makes their work available to the public, I like to know the whos, how manys, from wheres, and so on, of the people checking out my stuff. Luckily for me and my fellow narcissistic publishers, there are plenty of stats packages out there that can inform us how many hits our sites have gotten, where our visitors are coming from, what… See more →

I currently have the good fortune to be working on a project in the service of Her Royal Majesty Heavy Metal Music, who just happens to have been my first love. I’ve done work for Her before, but most of it—from junior high notebook adornments to silkscreened gig posters—has been essentially pro bono. Now that She is a legitimate client, with a statement of work, a schedule, and a budget, I’m reminded of something I… See more →

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Another Free Slurpee Day has come and gone, and for the second year in a row, my roommate Peter and I took to the streets with visions of conquest, this time with our new roommate Kevin in tow. There are eighteen 7-Eleven stores in metropolitan Philadelphia, and we set out to suckle at the syrupy teat of each and every one of them.

Free Slurpee Day, for those not in the know, occurs every year… See more →

We have a pretty rad AirTunes setup in the Pixelworthy office, and we all take turns sending selections from our MP3 libraries to the speakers hooked up to it. Amidst the variety of tastes on display, some of us have taken to choosing a theme for the music we play on a given day. If yours is a musical office like ours, you might want to give it a try. Here are a few theme… See more →

Late in 2001, when CDNOW finally succumbed to the dot com crash and unemployment was imminent, I realized that a personal web site would be a necessity if I was to find another job. Self-promotion can be a tricky thing for any designer, especially a borderline-OCD perfectionist like myself. Personal deadlines tend to be meaningless if I feel my work is not up to snuff, and I am, without question, my own worst critic and… See more →

The 48 Hour Film Project was in Philadelphia the weekend of April 8–10, but due to a surplus of applicants, our team was not accepted this year. We decided to make a film anyway. Six films, actually.

Here’s how it happened: Six filmmakers each came up with a basic concept and the six concepts were thrown into a hat. We then each randomly drew a concept back out of the hat and developed it into… See more →

If you told me, in any tone approximating enthusiasm, that you had visited my site in the last year or so (for a reason other than the out-of-left-field hit, Virtual Stan), you would have been met with an incredulous look. This incredulity would have had nothing to do with false modesty or my tendency toward self-deprecation or my inability to believe that you had managed to operate a web-accessible digital device. It would be a… See more →

If there is one thing I can rarely be accused of, it is self-satisfaction. In this site’s three years of existence, I have fully mocked up no fewer than 18 designs for it, only three of which somehow found their way online. Ironically, the last of these was thrown together in less than an hour—a stripped-down, panicked replacement for an expired version I couldn’t stand to look at anymore. This “temporary” solution has now enjoyed… See more →

In the 77 days since I last posted:

I started a new full-time design job at TMX Communications. My face graced television screens nationwide in several episodes of VH1’s ILL-ustrated. I finished the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kutztown University that I started ten years ago. I saw Andrew W.K. for the ninth time. I had my 28th birthday. My bedroom was swarmed by dozens of winged ants. I got a cellular phone. I… See more →

The Philadelphia Film Festival ended a couple of weeks ago, and as it turned out, about 4 of the 8 screenings I attended were worthwhile.

The highlights included Haute Tension (as reviewed in my previous post), a French slasher gross-out; Time of the Wolf, Austrian auteur Michael Haneke’s latest chilling diatribe on the human condition; Robot Boy, a Tim Burton-esque fairy tale short; and Harvie Krumpet, the newest in Aussie genius Adam Elliot’s animated series… See more →

The 13th Philadelphia Film Festival began on Thursday and I’ve managed to fit 8 screenings into my schedule this year, including The Best of the 48 Hour Film Project, for which our film Lunch Break has been chosen!

My first film of the fest was last night’s Danger After Dark opener Haute Tension (High Tension).

Ostensibly filling a time-honored serial slasher mold, Haute Tension opens in familiar territory: College roommates Marie (Cécile De France) and Alex… See more →

BREDSTIK Entertainment made its second foray into frenetic weekend filmmaking, this time for the 48 Hour Film Project, on the weekend of the 19th–21st. Our randomly-drawn and decidedly unsavory genre options, Musical or Western, actually proved to be less of an impediment than the generally intensified circumstances; contrasting our last project of this sort, we had less time, fewer people, and for some reason, we devised a more complicated script. So the result, Lunch Break… See more →

Over the last couple of months, this site has offered its visitors little respite from boredom. I’ll make no apologies for this, since the lack of updates results directly from my own boredom, which is itself respite from my heated, ongoing battle with the coding of the site’s long-overdue web standards-compliant redesign. There have, however, been a few recent occasions that my attention has been occupied by something other than a spot on the wall… See more →

You know, neither my physique nor my personality suggests a similarity to any hibernating animal that I can think of, and yet, this site routinely falls silent at the beginning of winter, as if I had found a comfortable cave in which to reduce my vital signs and nap for a few months. If South Philadelphia hides any such caves, it hides them well, so unless business as usual is a mundane hallucination, it’s safe… See more →

The sleepless National Film Challenge weekend is behind me and its results have far exceeded both my expectations and my hopes. Our film is called Dial-A-Spy, and there’s not much I could write about it here that I didn’t already write in the Production Notes on the Dial-A-Spy web site, where the film itself can be seen as well. Enjoy!

Last night, I registered team “BREDSTIK Entertainment” in the National Film Challenge, which works like this: At 7:00 PM on Friday, October 17, we will receive an e-mail with a randomly-generated genre and list of elements (a prop, a line of dialogue, and a character). We then have until 12:00 noon on the following Monday (a total of 65 hours) to create a short film (between 4 and 8 minutes long) in the assigned genre,… See more →

There has been plenty going on, but I haven’t had much to say about any of it. Lightning Bolt, Hangedup, Battles, and Lost in Translation are all great and were all taken in last week. Over the weekend, I saw a bumper sticker that said “Abortion Causes Breast Cancer,” watched my dear friend Mary get married, and cheered as some friends’ 48-hour film submission took 2nd place in the 2003 CAmm Slamm in Baltimore. At… See more →

The long-awaited Camp Naked Terror 2 web site is finally up, complete with pictures and video from the event for your viewing pleasure. See for yourself.

Today I completed my first ever full-page magazine advertisement for a gay pornographic DVD. High five!

I have accepted a job in the design department at TLA Video. After nearly fifteen months of unemployment, getting paid to get out of the house will be lovely. And since I got the offer while in the midst of—and will be starting immediately following—a short-notice freelance gig, my excess of free time has vanished very suddenly, forcing me to adjust on the fly. I think this will be a good thing too. Since my… See more →

The newest addition to the Projects section is entitled Snowfall; it’s a series of photos I took in the aftermath of last week’s blizzard.

Also, I have been spending a lot of time on Designologue, which is one of the best graphic design community sites I’ve come across. As stated on the site’s homepage, “A designologue is a conversation between two designers in the medium they understand best—design. Comparisons can be made to Coudal’s Photoshop… See more →

Busy, busy week. We have updated the BREDSTIK site for the first time in almost a year, with Flash goodies and more from Pete Dalkner, Matt Sutter, and the mysterious Stet Villchicko. If that weren’t enough, the collaborative site I have been referring to cryptically for the last few months is finally live. Since we couldn’t agree on what the site should be, we just split the screen four ways and everyone stays on their… See more →

I had a dream that Sebastian Bach (of Skid Row fame) moved in with my next door neighbors. In the dream, I was really excited to tell the world about it here on my web site, so out of respect for the “dream me,” I’ve decided to tell the world (or at least whoever reads this site) about it anyway. Here’s hoping that in subsequent dreams, Baz and I can belt out the classics together… See more →

I guess it’s been pretty quiet around here. In the last month: I braved the Philadelphia blizzard fallout to get to the sold-out Interpol show at Gasoline and was rewarded with a terrific performance. I caught the final two Andrew W.K. club dates of the year and even got kicked out of one of them (apparently the Chameleon Club in Lancaster has recently found reason not to tolerate members of the audience getting up on… See more →

While I’m sure all (3) of my regular readers are enjoying my media critic pretensions, the About section does say something about the intentions of this site aimed at keeping people informed of what I’m up to creatively, so I think some relevant news is in order.

Lately most of my time has been been spent working on version 2 of the BREDSTIK Entertainment site, including a brand-new design and a bunch of new content.… See more →

My animated LEGO Trilogy shorts collection will be screening at the Bumpin’ Big Top at midnight this Saturday as part of a “Best of The Lost Film Festival” program for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. The entire program is also available on DVD, which will be sold at the screening and can be ordered from the merchandise section of the Lost Film Fest web site. Tickets are available online for the rather outrageous sum of $10… See more →

You may or may not have noticed that I redesigned the site. Welcome to robweychert.com Version 2, lovingly dubbed “The Motörhead Version” by my friend Merritt. Version 1 has been permanently archived and will no longer be updated. As with that original version, I welcome any and all comments, suggestions, criticism, praise, and disparagement regarding content, functionality, and/or aesthetics.

To coincide with the Version 2 launch, I finally finished the Ireland project I’ve been talking… See more →

Volumes 1 and 2 of the Lost Film Fest DVD compilations are now available. I’m not sure if they’ve actually been released yet, but they’re definitely available for pre-order. Included in the first volume is the LEGO Trilogy, directed by yours truly, which comprises my first three (and so far only three) animated LEGO films, the last of which was completed about three and a half years ago (a stern reminder that I should really… See more →

We finally got the pictures and video online from the Summer Camp Slasher Birthday Bash at Camp Naked Terror. The mini-DV wanted more light than we could give it, but the video doesn’t look too bad. Go check it out here.