I wanted to draw people’s attention to an important event happening in Portland this week (Thursday, January 21). It’s a concert called Songs for Haiti, held at the Aladdin Theater in SE Portland. The concert features some of Portland’s musicians Thomas Lauderdale (bandleader of Pink Martini), Cool Nutz, Portland Cello Project, Storm Large, Grammy-nominated pianist Janice Sroggins, and more.

I’ve had the pleasure of creating some newspaper and flash banner ads promoting the event. As you can see from the fancy graphic I designed, 100% of money raised goes to Mercy Corps. You get to have a great evening, and help out the relief effort in Haiti. How cool is that?

More info available at Aladdin Theater’s website here.

Sometimes people say to me, “Josh, you create awesome designs and fun illustrations. But why should I pay for custom work? Isn’t it just eye candy?” Here’s a simple response to that question: “See video below”. It’s an excellent example of the enormous influential power that effective “fun” design has on human behavior. Imagine the stairway traffic as a metaphor for increased business? Whether you’re a start-up company looking to grow your business, or a non-profit looking to spur social change, the importance of effective, thought-out, researched design cannot be overstated!

For some reason I just got the urge to go buy a Jetta.

In case you’ve been wondering why my site is “ClelandIllustration.com” instead of “ClelandDesign.com”, it’s because ClelandDesign.com has been taken. And whom, you may ask, has this domain? My wife. I’ve been trying to acquire it from her for several years now, and she won’t budge. I’ve offered her millions of dollars but she refuses (something about money not meaning anything because we have a joint bank account). I even made her hot chocolate last night—still won’t budge. Oh well.

Since she’s being a big meanie I’ve decided to be the nice one and update her portfolio website for her. She has really great work, and needs a good site to showcase it. The site has been updated a few weeks now, but we’ve added a blog over the weekend, so be sure to subscribe. Check it out at www.clelanddesign.com. Comment on her first blog post. Encourage her to update it regularly, because she has a lot of cool stuff in the works.