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leviblum · 3 years

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↪ brief introduction to levi blum.

BASICS

full name: levi aksel blum. nickname(s): lev. age: twenty-nine. date of birth: 15 september 1992. zodiac sign: virgo. place of birth: san diego, california, united states. ethnicity: white, ashkenazi jewish. nationality: american. gender: cis male. sexual orientation: pansexual. romantic orientation: panromantic. religion: levi grew up practicing judaism alongside his family and though he doesn’t practice as strictly as he did when he was younger he still tries to attend temple as often as he can, tries to keep a kosher diet, etc. education: bachelor’s of fine arts in photography from the university of southern california. occupation: he’s a professional surfer though he’s taking a break from the sport while he recovers from an injury; to make money outside of that he’s a freelance photographer. language(s) spoken: english, hebrew, yiddish. accent: he definitely has what people might consider to be a “stereotypical” southern california accent– of the sort that surfers have on television but if you asked him he’d be fairly adamant that he doesn’t have an accent at all.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

face claim: logan lerman. hair color: dark brown. eye color: blue. height: 5′9″. weight: 159 lbs. build: athletic. tattoos: he has an ocean themed sleeve on his left arm ( here ) & a tattoo on his chest of a cresting wave ( here ). piercings: he has a septum piercing and two lobe piercings in his left ear. distinguishing characteristics: people tend to comment on his sleeve tattoo when he can wear clothes that show it off, his demeanor – he’s a relatively mellow person, how passionate he is about his work.

PERSONALITY

label: the thalassophile. positive traits: adventurous, affectionate, ambitious, compassionate, confident, creative, easy-going, empathetic, fearless, genuine, loyal, passionate, persistent, quick-witted, relaxed, sincere, thoughtful. negative traits: boastful, flippant, gullible, impatient, impulsive, irresponsible, jealous, opinionated, petty, possessive, sarcastic, shameless, stubborn. goals/desires: to recover from his injury and get back to surfing, to make the best of the time he’s in providence peak, to be open to any new experiences life throws at him. fears: that surfing won’t ever be the same after his injury, that he’ll never feel fulfilled doing anything else when his surfing career is over. hobbies: screwing around editing in photoshop, listening to podcasts, skateboarding, hanging out with his dog, playing guitar, watching foreign films, watching old american films, going to temple, facetiming with his sisters, going out with his friends, drinking, surfing, learning new photography skills, people watching, sex, scrolling through dating apps when he’s bored, collecting skateboard decks, cooking, going to the beach, swimming, traveling, finding creative ways to keep a kosher diet, smoking pot. quirks: he talks with his hands when he’s excited about something, he’ll invariably mention surfing at least once in any given conversation without thinking about it, he always seems to have some top 40 song or another stuck in his head, he chews on his fingernails when he’s anxious, he always seems just a little too relaxed in any given situation. likes: visiting places he’s never been before, doing tourist-y stuff in new cities, meeting new people, talking about surfing, skateboarding, spending time with friends, dad jokes, hanging out with his cousin, good beer / good alcohol in general, mexican food, coffee, watching nature documentaries, true crime podcasts, cheesy action movies, foreign films, old hollywood films, the beach, adrenaline highs, sex, people he can be totally relaxed around. dislikes: dealing with shitty people, anyone who wants to talk shit on what he’s chosen to do with his life, not being able to surf, physical therapy, missing temple, being away from the water for long periods of time, wine, anti-semites, not seeing his family for most lengths of time, bad pot.

FAMILY

father: gabriel isaak blum. mother: astrid marie blum ( née bronson ). sibling(s): abigail, hannah & naomi blum. pet(s): he has a six month old husky puppy named kelly ( after kelly slater ). financial status: upper middle class.

BIOGRAPHY

When Astrid Bronson and Gabriel Blum met on a sunny afternoon in Los Angeles it seemed even to the friends who’d introduced them that something in the universe that had longed to settle down had finally clicked into place. Their backgrounds were wildly different– Astrid having grown up in Hollywood with family who had been involved in the both the entertainment industry on one side and the media in general on the other; and Gabriel hailing from a small community in the Sierra Nevada’s that had never been home to more than three hundred people during the length of his life there and still managed to be one of the most wonderful, accepting places he’d ever known. In Gavin’s mind it had been a waste of his first two weeks at UCLA to not have met Astrid any sooner than he’d managed to and it seemed to him to be a stroke of luck of the highest sort that Astrid was just as smitten with him as he was with her– to their friends it seemed that there wasn’t a more perfect match in the world for either of them and when they started dating no one batted an eye. By the time their respective degree programs were drawing to a close they were engaged and Astrid was pregnant with their first child— leaving behind the sprawling city for the suburbs of San Diego where they hoped to raise their family in an environment that would be well suited to anything their children might want to do with their lives.

In the end it would be the third Blum child who developed such an intense fascination with the ocean that Astrid and Gabriel made it a point to allow him to pursue any and all water based activities he wanted as he grew up and proved to be precocious and headstrong and passionate in all the same ways his parents were and then some. Levi, ultimately the only son the Blum’s would have out of their four children, was borderline obsessed with visiting the seaside whenever he could– begging his parents to take them on weekend trips as often as possible and, when he was seven, begging his uncle to teach him how to surf– something he’d wanted to do since he was a small child. Everything in his life seemed to click when he was on the water and Levi quickly developed a love for surfing that, to hear his family tell it, was matched only by the natural talent he seemed to possess for the sport. He spent endless hours surfing in La Jolla with his friends as he got older and though he was an equally gifted student he’d made it clear to his parents that surfing was all he wanted to do with his life and by the time he was fourteen he was competing in tournaments all over the world with his parents wholehearted support.

Levi finished school online to earn his GED at the age of sixteen and from that moment on threw all of his attention into competing– he racked up sponsors, magazine covers, and even at the junior level was expected to be a credit to the sport all around when he finally made it to the majors to surf with people he’d admired since he was a small child. It was only after a long conversation with his parents that he considered pursuing anything resembling a college degree after he’d been gifted a camera to honor his first tournament in the pros when he aged out of the juniors bracket. He wasn’t wholly convinced he could manage a full degree almost entirely remotely but after considerable conversation with professors in schools in California he’d considered attending, he enrolled at USC with the intention of earning his degree in photography while he continued to compete professionally. It was difficult on his best days but when he walked the stage to graduate four years later with a degree in something he was just as passionate about as surfing, well, Levi wasn’t sure he’d ever done anything in the world that made him prouder.

As the years passed Levi’s skill and passion for his career in surfing earned him a small handful of victories in major tournaments and even more in major opens and it seemed to him that nothing in his life could ever be better– at least until he blew out his knee in a tournament and found a season ending injury staring him in the face. It was devastating to him in more ways than he could count and rather than return to his home in San Diego he made the decision to seek out a place to live in Providence Peak at the behest of his cousin who had lived there for several years. There was no surfing to be done there but Levi hoped it would make it easier for him to focus on his rehab if there was nothing for him to do to exacerbate his injury– since his move to Providence Peak he has had surgery and is recovering from his injury, working as a photographer to keep himself busy in the mean time. It wasn’t the worst spot he’d ever found himself in but with months of recovery staring him in the face he still found his thoughts drifting towards the ocean and the sport he can’t wait to return to.

#providence.intro #「 levi — general 」 » levi blum.

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illusteresa · 5 years

Text

Pick a Card

2019 Brighton Illustration Fair overview

I got on a train early in the morning and went to the BIF, one of the illustration fairs I always wanted to attend hosted by the University of Brighton. I went with the curiosity for the overall market and the kind of illustration style the participants had so I could gain more knowledge. So many booths and so little time to see it all and Brighton School of Art was full in every square meter you could find with not only beautiful art pieces, their artists and editorial companies but also with a big crowd of art lovers.

The urge to augment my visual culture made me spend 5 hours on my feet that seemed like only 30 minutes had passed since its beginning. The way time is perceived when we are enjoying ourselves seems unfair to me especially since I am a forgetful person and wanted to take it all in. This lack of memory made me collect mementos everywhere I go since I was a young girl. So at BIF I was set on collecting business cards.

These, in the business of illustration world, are most effective for elevator pitching and events like art markets, when illustrators want those who pass by to notice their work and to reach them with potential commissions. For the client, fairs are just like window shopping, they will pass by the booth and if interested in what the illustrator has done they will stop, ask stuff, maybe buy stuff too but, in the end, no one wants to lose these clients so making sure they get a business card is incredibly important for the art business to prosper since it’s the fastest way to give your contact and social media just by handing out a simple card.

Being a designer I found these mementos quite interesting since I have a different perspective on illustration business cards and I emphasize the importance of a good card design specially to the illustration field.

Most books underline that the “perfect postcard” or the promotional piece is the right way to get your work seen by Art directors (Rees, 2014 and Heller & Arisman, 2004) but nowadays it is my belief that the social media is way more effective and a business card does the same trick as the postcard since nowadays people value one on one elevator pitching more than the mail loads they receive each week.

To my disappointment, some illustrators didn’t bring enough or just didn’t make those. Two mistakes I learnt myself through experience: always make 100 or more for an illustration event, never less and the illustrator should always have at least 5 of these in its wallet wherever he goes because you never know who you might bump into (Graham, 2012). This exemplary network starter called business cards runs out quicker than we think.

Social media is the most important thing illustrators should write on the cards and I thought actually that this was common knowledge but there were a lot of illustrators without their Instagram or Facebook on the cards they had on display. Social media nowadays is the portfolio of the illustrator’s journey first hand and people who are interested on our work will always follow us because it is as simple as clicking on a button.

Others made the big mistake of printing cards on 70g paper which to the future client just looks like we don’t care at all about our work. It is that kind if disregard to the business that clients avoid. An illustrator does not print in shitty paper. We print in high quality. Every detail of a business card design portraits the work quality of the holder if he takes himself seriously. Or at least it should!

Talking about the graphics and typography, overall I have no big comment on it. There was an obvious lack of knowledge in some cases where the typography had too much of an impact and took the attention from the work itself due to exuberance or inadequacy which is something an illustrator should avoid. Others just had a lot of fonts on it instead of settling for one or two at most when they lacked the typographical skills of a professional designer. Another aspect I found worrying in terms of graphics and typography was that there were some illustrators who had only the name and a colour on the background. Even though a freelance illustrator can actually give those away and be effective, in these events there are more than a hundred illustrators so if the artist doesn’t brand himself with imagery or a good logo he will easily be lost and forgotten in the middle of the other cards. This is always worse than having a card that is badly cut or a little pixelated.

Looking back on the cards I collected, I can remember most of the artists’ works as if it was yesterday. Some better than others, some displayed their work in a modular way, others in a more random way. Some artists’ work matched well with their cards and others didn’t. But I can easily say that I feel that their care for their business was as good as their cards. It mirrors them not only in their work quality but also in their attention to details, time and organization.

Every person will know that carrying around 100 different business miniature cards is complicated since no one has enough storage space for them in their wallets. Viewing all the artists as a whole, I decided on making a digital collage using their business cards graphics in order to portray my visual memorabilia in one single image: the BIF’s business crowd.

For such, I started by displaying the cards with paper tape in three A3 sheets of paper so I could scan them. With the scan done, I made the collage in photoshop. No changes were made to the originals other than cutting and pasting.

After doing this piece out of the mementos I accidentally shaped it like a head in profile. I found it very intriguing since most memories are kept in our brains and the feeling I got after the event was of a massive amount of information that filled up all my head with colourful imagery. A perfect protrait of my overall experience.

Illustration’s credits

Lizzie Lomax - Anna Soba - Dommy Sullivan - Bárbara Malagoli - Catherine do art - Alice Monvaillier - Shake Bristol - George Manson - Kissi Ussuki - Flying Eye Books - Nobrow - Angela Hadrill - Mia Minerva - Monosodium - Ewe Rynkiewicz - Ella Willson-Smith - Lloyd Stratton - Jo Dertili - Olivia waller - Aysha Tengiz - Illwookie - Meneer Heirman - Robert Sae-Heng - Honey Parast - Maya Doyle - Printed Goods - Hannah Peck - Hayley Wells - Wingki But - Arabella Simpson - Kate Lorton - Yuk Fun - Evie May Adams - Jessica Smith - Owen Davey - Beya Rebai - Pencil Bandit - Sundance Goods - Michael Vankehem - Alex Norris - Hazel McCoubrey - Aga Giecko - Laura Girling - Jayde Perkin - Lauren Morsley - Marie-Yaé - Fern Eleanor - Family Store - Amber Timm - Guy Field - Ellie Fryer - Playtime - Jack Snelling - Shanti Rai - Nikoo Bafti - Stacey Thomas - Hiffy Ulrich - Leanne Rule - Lineette - Brandon Seager - Rachael Presky - Carlett Li

References

Graham, A. (2012) Chapter 47: Business Cards. In: From Business Cards to Business Relationships: Personal Branding and Profitable Networking Made Easy, New Jersey: Wiley.

Heller, S. & Arisman, M. (2004) Inside the Business of Illustration. New York: Allworth Press.

Rees, D. (2014) How to Be an Illustrator. London: Laurence King Publishing.

#bif #illustration business cards #illustration

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