Michael Archive

Last year I started a new project called Modest Messages. Modest Messages initialized as a small online store where I could sell one-of-a-kind graphic design pinback buttons to designers looking for small unique buttons that truly reflected their passion for design. When the site first launched, I think I had just a handful of designs that centered around fonts, typography and color.

Today, however, the shop has expanded a bit, offering graphic designers and other creative cats a place to shop for a unique variety of graphic design t-shirts (for designers both big and small) and now is slowly experimenting with new products like license tag frames, stickers, embroidered clothing and magnets.

In addition to being able to browse through different topics like Fonts, Typography, T-Shirts, Color, Programming and others, visitors to the site who can’t find what they are looking for can submit their ideas to me for custom and future designs for any type of product.

As you can read, the store has truly morphed over the past year into a really unique place for graphic designers to shop for buttons, t-shirts and other products that really express their passion for great design. Take a look around the site and let me know what you think. If you’re in the market for something new from the store, you could get $5 off your purchase (visit the site for promo code).

Edit: I uploaded the last days worth of photos from the trip. This final day entailed the park, the Oklahoma City Zoo, and Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater. See the photos using the links below.

Edit: Uploaded more photos - Dallas Natural History Museum, Adventure Landing and Visiting the Thompsons in OKC. See them below.

Edit: Uploaded some photos of the Dallas Zoo. See them below.

Our trip to Dallas/Oklahoma was pretty awesome. In addition to going to Jamie and John’s wedding, we also explored several cool attractions including the Dallas Zoo, the Dallas World Aquarium, the Dallas Natural History Museum, Turner Falls, the Oklahoma City Zoo, the park, Eskimo Joe’s and many excellent restaurants. We were away for a total of six days and drove a total of 957 miles. We took many photos of the trip and I am still in the process of uploading them to the site have one last set of images to upload before I’m done. Take a look at some photos of our trip (more photos to be uploaded later):

• Turner Falls
• Dallas World Aquarium
• Dallas Zoo
• Dallas Natural History Museum
  & Adventure Landing
• Visiting the Thompsons in Oklahoma City
• The Park, OKC Zoo and Eskimo Joe’s

A couple of months ago, I went back to Lucky Devil Tattoo and met with Ron about the possibility of getting some more work done. I was looking into having a phoenix flow in and around the open spot right above the existing koi tattoo he completed for me last year. In addition to the phoenix, I wanted to have some dogwood blossoms floating down, just like the existing cherry blossoms are falling on top of the koi.

After a short discussion, he wrapped some tracing paper around my leg and quickly sketched out the boundaries of the existing koi tattoo. We talked a while about some of the detail I was looking for in the phoenix and dogwood blossoms. A few minutes later, I setup my first appointment and walked out the door.

Saturday, May 3, 2008
I had my first sitting today. The illustration Ron came up with was outstanding. After Ron finished getting the artwork ready, I went back and we began. About 2 hours later, the outline of the Japanese phoenix and dogwood blossoms was complete.
(Session Time: ~2 hours)

The next session will probably be in August or September. At that time Ron said he would work on shading and some color. A third and final session (maybe around January?) will be needed to complete the coloring and touch-ups.

View all photos of the japanese phoenix tattoo outline.

I honestly cannot remember the last nice day we (on a weekend) had since the New Year began. I’m sure there were several and at those points I probably took full advantage of the outdoor air. But since it is March 1st and Christmas was over a full two months ago, I felt pretty silly my Christmas lights still up on the house. So this morning, I took them down.

As you may remember back in November when I put the lights up, I wished I had taken photos from our rooftop because the view was a fresh site for sore eyes. Well, today as I prepared to take the lights down, I remembered the camera. Here are a few photos from atop the McClure rooftop this morning.

After a few days of catching up with the real world in Wichita, I have managed to get some photos up on the site from our snowboard trip with the CYO group at St. Francis. This past weekend Mikayla, I and 22 other St. Francis parishioners took at 12.5 hour bus ride to Monarch Mountain for a few days of snow-filled fun. As usual, we stayed at Waunita Hot Springs Ranch (where the home cookin’ is unbelievable) and had a great time. Take a look at some of the photos I took while on the trip.

This year Juli decided we needed to have photos taken of the entire family…to show off the kids and document their remarkable growth, personality and good looks (from Juli of course). Take a look through the McClure Family Photo Gallery to see some updated photos.

Juli stumbled upon a cool site on Friday. Thanks to the folks at OfficeMax, you can now turn anyone into an elf. Take a look and see for yourself. It’s easy and only takes a few minutes. In addition to making anyone into an elf (that you have a digital photo of) you can also call an 800#, make a voice recording and add that to your message. Ingenious. Hope you all enjoy.

• Dana and Sophie
• Dana and Juli
• The McClure Family
• The Hein Sisters

So the guys at work decided to all have a beard contest. It began in early November and will last until late December. Essentially the rules are simple. Grow your beard out, style it and get points. The beard contest can be followed by going to The 360 Office website.

Scott was able to get a couple of shots of my initial beard styles on Monday and Tuesday. More styles will come at the end of December at the closing of this years contest. Enjoy!