Then July came around, Bloody Marys and oysters seemed to be the theme.

On July 2nd I was stoked to be chosen as the designer for Local Produce v.2 at the Ivy. I had a blast designing the flyer LIVE at the event along side Colour Vision and SQZMYLMNZ. I was absolutely blown away by the amazing writeup Taylor Doms published. I’m still in disbelief anyone could write so much good stuff about me! Thanks to everyone involved, especially The Mixster for inviting me to contribute – Below is a taste of some of the fun I had at the event:

Also, I teamed up with my dear friend and wonderfully talented illustrator, Leah Goren for the very first time to create a poster in celebration of the 40th anniversary of two amazing people. Check it out below – I haven’t had this much fun working on a project in quite some time:

I had been planning for a while to return and snag one off the wall for my self… luckily I ran into Product Etcetera founder, Jordan Stark and he said he’d just give me one… so that worked out. Yesterday his partner, Tony Martinez stopped by theHIVE, as promised, and dropped off a poster for me.I can’t wait to frame it. I’m stoked for June 3… PE is taking over 5&A Dime to launch a pop-up-shop and celebrate the the Product Etc. brand launch. Details below.

I’m excited for this. There’s nothing I love more than watching great things happen in my city. Hats off to the Product Etcetera team for going big on this. Keep your eye peeled for some Westside Love in your ‘hood – you won’t want to miss it.

Read Look Buy

In the days of old we used to have ‘Creative Fridays’ – we got paid to dick around and make stuff. I always thought that it was a joke and a waste of money for our boss “… Can’t we just have ‘Go to the Beach Fridays’ instead?…” Well, turned out to be very valuable. The value was in taking a break from our daily task list and actually creating something… something wouldn’t have otherwise done. We allocated time in the week simply to do something new – it was brain exercise and I liked it. …So I’ll be starting up ‘Creative Friday’ again. This time I won’t get paid for it though, that’s sort of a bummer (unless some one wants to sponsor me). I encourage you to do the same… schedule two or three hours in your work week to do/make/think something different.

Now for me, there are a few things I desire at this point.

One is to move closer to the Greater San Diego Metropolitan Area where I can easily walk to a bus stop, a grocery store, hell, Maybe even a bar. (I don’t have a car and I don’t want one and I think my quality of life would improve living in a nice community that is central to the City. Ideally South Park or Golden Hill.)

Two is to have a kick-ass office space (where my bed is not visible from my desk). A space that is built for getting the good stuff done. A space where I can have other people around to bounce ideas off of, where I can bring an intern to help me out with out creeping them out with my laundry that still needs to be folded. A place that is dedicated to making ideas. Essentially – a coworking space limited to only the best folks you can find that all work for themselves in symbiotic fields.

So friends I propose to you a live work mansion of sorts. The house would be a sort of professional Fraternity of creative folks living and working together under one roof. The house would have a name and our individual creative forces could be promoted as one under this name. Not a firm or a co-op but more or less a Coalition of Creative Collaborators. It’ll be like killing two birds with one stone – except instead of killing ‘em We’re helping them Fly!!!! A-huh-Laaaaghh!!!! (tongue out and hang loose sign with both hands)

This may be a lofty dream of a creative utopia but I say lets do it. It will just take the right people and a realization of my detailed and complex schematics below.

Then we picked up Max from the Zoo (he was on a field trip or something) and headed east to El Cajon, home of Wild Bill’s Western Emporium. I bought 2 sweet pairs of Wranglers ($25 a piece and they fit like jeans ought to). It feels good to have some new jeans, I’ve been wearing the same three pairs for about a year now, each of which have been patched several times and now are at the point of disintegration.

Next we headed to an Army surplus store where, indeed, I found the coolest pair of shoes you could find, (used) Navy-Seal issue “Guppies” aka “Coral Crawlers.” I also bought a pair of ultra-sturdy (used) military issue eyeglasses I plan to turn into sunglasses.

On the way back home, Max mentioned he needed to cut some Nopales for a dish he was planning to bring to a potluck tonight. We video taped the outing and decided that Max will host a new video segment for TMY that will educate viewers about all the edible plants that just grow around town. We’ll call it “Urban Edibles” or something lame like that.

So January has been nuts and it’s already almost over. Obama’s been in office for a whole year now… so no more excuses dude. I’ve officially decided to take a break from college to pursue whatever it is I’m pursuing. The Motivated Youth project is rolling full steam ahead with some interesting interviews events and ramblings planned, we need more content and a bigger audience… help wanted?

I just returned home from taking an extended vacation for about a month (only a mile away at my friend’s house) and it’s actually been very interesting, I’ve been satisfied living on 4 shirts a jacket and 2 pairs of jeans – its just so nice being close to the bus… I want to be closer to where I work, I’m still not very close. My dad has been giving me quite a few rides in his car lately. It reminds me how useful they are for getting places quickly. However, it makes me feel quite incapable and discipline-less when I have to call my dad because I didn’t get up early enough. Public transit is one of the biggest exercises in self discipline. I’m excited about this year but my inner struggle of staying motivated and organized persists. I’m working on it though…

I’m working on quite a few exciting projects right now (literally I’m juggling chainsaws) so stay tuned for links and photos and stuff.

Goals for 2010: This year I will live near the bus stop, not have a day job, kick ass, hone my self discipline.

Is that too much to ask? Ok so you all will hold me accountable now alright?

…for those of you that don’t know, Home Ec is my baby. We’re a boutique design firm specializing in branding, creative direction and party-starting; We are Dylan Ousley(San Diego) and Gareth Geraty(New York City) and we are visual communicators. I need your help spreading the word so I don’t have to get a real job ever… that’s sorta my life goal – it’s been working out so far. Now you know. Check us out at http://home-ec.org

They’re stoked, I’m stoked, are you stoked? Blahahaaaaaaa!(I’m sticking my tongue out and holding up a sarcastic ‘hang-loose’ sign if you couldn’t tell)

check out their blog for more info on when and where you can purchase the tees.

Ironically – A few of my close, talented friends and I launched an organization we call “The Motivated Youth” this week. We launched the social media side about two weeks ago and have had an amazing response. In a nutshell TMY is “a network of young people challenging each other to turn good ideas into good actions.” Our function is to identify meaningful projects and give them a running start. It will be our task to find, facilitate & organize funding, labor, PR, branding – anything, everything the project needs to be successful and stand alone. If it’s a good idea it’s our responsibility to put it into existence – Basically, we’re fed up with talking in circles and we’re taking action – our youth is our finest blessing, its what allows us to think big and outside the box – besides, the box we live in is falling apart.

On Dec. 1st we’re excited to do a soft launch of the website – but for now follow us on facebook and on twitter

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In other news Gareth and I had the opportunity to work for Holiday Matinee once again and it’s always a pleasure. HM created all of the collateral for Thread Show San Diego and San Francisco (thats posters, flyers, mailers, banners, yada yada)  – It was awesome being a part of this job, everything looks great and it feels good to be finished   You guys all have to come to the Wonderhaus on Dec. 5th and 6th, Holiday Matinee will be there in full force promoting creativity. Home Ec is planned to make a cameo appearance as well pushing posters and tee’s – It should be fun so plan on being there!

The other big project we just finished is top secret until further notice… but you’ll know soon enough.