Aug 22, 2014
Hello and Good Day, Mike Pouch here!
I’ve been bursting with creative energy as of late, so where to begin?
First off, the MikePouch.com blog is being restructured with a more defined focus. The purpose will be to explore the creative process. I have a lot of passion for music, art, illustration, design, theatre, film, dance, etc… of course with the finished work, but also what it takes to get there. I will be exploring many avenues of creativity, through my own projects, interviews with other creatives, occasional tutorials, as well as sharing videos, blogs, and podcasts that have inspired me. With the content I provide, I hope to inspire the creators in us all!
There will also be occasional news and announcements (like today!) So besides the blog update, what else is going on?
I just finished illustrating a 10-page comic book! My local comic book shop, “Uncanny” (formerly “Comics and More”), at the King of Prussia mall, is in the early stages of self-publishing their own works! Their first release is ‘Five Deals, One Devil,’ a collection of stories about people making deals with the devil. I contributed to “A First Time For Everything” written by Benton Freight; a story about how a Neanderthal meets face to face with the ‘big man downstairs’. I never realized how much work is involved with illustrating a comic, but enjoyed every last bit of it (besides flatting, maybe!), and I’m thrilled with the results! I plan on doing a blog series showing each step of the process, from thumbnails, to research, to designs, to penciling, inking, flatting, coloring, and lettering! I will also keep you posted about when this goes to print, of course!
On the music front, big announcement coming soon about the too-long-on-the-backburner Five Years EP! Stay tuned!
And lastly, I’m getting married in 51 days to a lovely (and absolutely incredibly creative) fiancee, Jewel. I’ve surprised myself that I was able to finish illustrating a comic, write and record a lot of music, while working a 40+ hour job and being fully involved in our wedding planning! Between Jewel and I, there is a lot of design and craft going into the wedding, which I will be happy to share with you!
Until next time, enjoy life and keep creating!
Thanks for reading!
-MP
Feb 20, 2012
Hello long lost friends,
I’ve been doing/have done a lot of random creative projects (custom cakes, designed a calendar, homemade Halloween costumes, etc…), and I’ve decided to start posting them on here – probably mostly short entries, but it’ll help keep this blog alive! …So be on the lookout!
-Pouch!
Jul 19, 2011
Well, if you are reading this, then you can see that the new design is up! So far, I’m really loving the way it came out, and the functionality of it (both from the user’s end, and from a designer/updater’s end.)
Here’s a screenshot of the old site:
I removed the top bar, since it was kind of unnecessary, and made it annoying to bookmark pages/send links to specific pages to people. As well, the blogger bar right below that looks kinda silly.
I’m still having some issues with the new site, though.
Internet Explorer indents the last word of every track. This is particularly bothersome with the production tracks (seen here) which are numbered. This only seems like a problem with internet explorer and doesn’t seem fixable without installing a new player. So yeah – if you are using IE – click this picture for a solution.
So everything in the site is fuctioning, but I still have some optimising/designing to do. I’m also still having issues uploading a background actually. Strange – it should be one of the easiest things to do. If you find anything not working, or simply want to suggest something, let me know (and let me know what browser/OS you are using.) Thanks – and thanks for reading!! Enjoy the new site.
-Pouch!
Jul 15, 2011
(Originally posted on Blogspot on Thursday, July 14, 2011)
Hello dear readers!
This is a short post to let you know… my site is going to go through another redesign. I discovered the wonders of WordPress and figured I would give it a shot. I’m doing this for a few reasons:
1. It’ll be easier to edit individual pages. This has been a bit of a hassle – (editing code and uploading new versions of pages everytime I upload a new mp3 or whatever.)
2. It’ll look more professional. For one, I won’t need to link blogger into the main page for news. Also, I won’t need to use the top bar the way I’ve been using it (rather poorly.) And lastly, the site will look good on all browsers without me doing any additional work.
3. The widgets and wordpress applications are useful! I’d like to link my twitter to the main page, and be able to upload mp3s more easily!
So that’s it! I’ll try to get this done later tonight (since I won’t have to change much content, just some new design integration!) I may transfer over all of these blog posts, since there weren’t too many, and they contain a lot of interesting information (8-bit tips and whatnot!) So yeah – be on the lookout for the new design!!!
-Pouch!
Jul 15, 2011
(Originally posted on Blogspot on Wednesday, March 30, 2011)
In continuation of my ‘setting up an internet presence’, I’ve done a ton of work to the design of my site, MikePouch.com. I’ve decided to make it easier to edit, to remove clutter, to make a cleaner looking layout, and to add more useful content.
1. Making it easier to edit: I’ve linked this blog to the main home page, rather than having an HTML news page. It’s very easy for me to sign in to blogger and type up some quick news from any computer, without having to type any html code.
As well, the top ‘link bar’ used to be a jpg. This made it very annoying to have to edit, as I would have to edit a new jpg to add or remove a link. Yikes! Now, when I make a new store page (for instance), I can add a link on the bar in minutes. Nice…
2. Remove clutter: I had each page have it’s own individual ‘news’ page. If I was working on producing an album, there would be news for it under the Mike Pouch Productions page. For my solo album, there was news on the Mike Pouch Solo Music page. If there was news of a film score in the work… film score page… etc. What would happen with this format, is that nothing would ever get updated, and there would be a lot of outdated news very quick. With one single ‘News’ homepage that updates weekly, it simplifies things. As well, if I am working on a film score, album, etc – or something new gets release – you’ll hear about it on the main page.
Also, there was a lot of unused pages, and a lot of ‘coming soon’s. I have removed all of those placeholders, and rather – I’ll just post a link to those pages when I add them.
Some other things I removed were the individual bios for each page. There was one for my film scores, one for my solo, one for my production work, etc. This just led to a lot of uninteresting content, and an excessive amount of outdated content.
3. Make a cleaner looking layout: I decided to make the backing pages white, and the font black. This is pretty basic, but it looks much cleaner than the dark grey backgrounds with white font. Also, I’ve been making effective use of tables! I used to center everything – now all content is formatted to the left of it’s section. Much easier to read!
4. More useful content: While many of the pages are not updated yet, I am posting a lot more music onto the individual music pages (I plan on uploading a lot of music this weekend). And as I stated before, a centralized news update with this blog.
Here’s a sample look of the old design vs. the new design.
OLD:
(Lots of ‘coming soon’s that were there for years, lame content, centered fonts, dark backgrounds…)
NEW:
(Cleaner white background, simple content, MUSIC!)
-Pouch!
