I’ve recently been contracted to work in a marketing/promotions capacity for a developing brand. More on this to come!

I prepared the PowerPoint supplements for two Cengage college textbooks on Community Policing. Although my role was strictly PPT, I did spot a couple minor edits. I heard back the following feedback: “I agree with the supplement author – those items need to be edited. … if you would please pass along our thanks to the person who caught these two things, we’d appreciate it.”

With ToyCyte being on permanent hiatus, I needed a place to channel my toy blogging energy. John “Spanky” Stokes opened the door and gives me the chance to blog my head off whenever I feel the need. I even have my own tag! The article pictured above is a story I’m particularly proud of. I encourage you to check it out!

I made it to the big time! Amazon’s Toy Whimsy blog gave me a guest blogger position, and I began writing an Art Toys 101 column called “The Art of Toys.” Occasionally, I post a blast from the past. This little post about Devo toys apparently got an unprecedented number of hits. There’s a fun interview with me here.

The editor in me had to pick at a few typos on the brilliant Sergey Safonov’s Rotocasted database, and that critique lead to a great friendship and a position as Database Librarian. When I’m not correcting tags and typos, I’m taking pictures of toys for safe archiving in the library. Lots of good stuff is in store for this site. In the meantime, pardon the dust!

In the past couple months, I’ve been honored to contribute art and design news to Cool Hunting.

Cool Hunting is a daily update on ideas and products in the intersection of art, design, culture and technology, and features weekly videos that get an inside look at the people who create them. Published since February 2003 as a personal catalog and reference tool, the site today attracts and inspires more than 400,000 regular readers from around the world.

Earlier this summer, Doodlesplatter got a makeover from Jon Burgerman himself and my new co-conspirators, the generous and talented, The Neon Hive. With Doodlesplatter, I coined the term blogography. The blog is a biography about Jon and his work, with a Web 2.0 twist: I infuse a little bit of me (the blogographer) in the way of opinion and commentary in each post. This is some of the most fun I’ve had in a blog, and it’s turned into a really uniting factor. A street art project based on Shepard Fairey’s iconic Andre the Giant sticker has even sprung up worldwide. Doodlesplatter is updated nearly daily.

To date, more than 15 emerging artists have participated in ToyCyte’s custoMONDAYs.

Click here to read more about The custoMONDAY Project.

Click here to view the entire archive of all custoMONDAY artists.

Click here to view the website of graphic artist Jason Babler, designer of the custoMONDAY logo.

Every other Monday  on ToyCyte, I spotlight an emerging artist. Each profile includes an interview, comprehensive photos, links to the artists’ online imprints and a contest where the artist gives away a customized art toy or original creation to a lucky fan. The figures are all exclusively created for the custoMONDAY Project, and not to be immodest, but some of them are worth several hundred dollars.

I work to promote each artist during their two-week “residence” by reaching out to other blogs and fan forums. The artists who have been a part of custoMONDAY are truly tomorrow’s art stars. Some have been tapped to make production figures for Chinese and Japanese toy companies, one saw his figure auctioned in London, one caught the attention of Kanye West, and others regularly sell out in stores and shows.

Click here to read more about The custoMONDAY Project.

Click here to view the entire archive of all custoMONDAY artists.

Click here to view the website of graphic artist Jason Babler, designer of the custoMONDAY logo.

The custoMONDAY project brings significant attention to artists. A couple examples of custoMONDAY creations below are followed by the viral re-blogging of one of our biggest success stories.

custoMONDAY creation by Mike Slobot

custoMONDAY creation by OsirisOrion

custoMONDAY creation by MONSTREHERO

ABOVE: custoMONDAY creation by Dustin Cantrell

BELOW: Dustin’s custoMONDAY goes viral.

A quick note about Doodlesplatter: In my daily postings about art, toys, design and culture, I found myself blogging Jon Burgerman more than any other artist. A t-shirt here, a skateboard there, but certainly something every single week. I became very interested in the variety of “canvases” open to today’s artists, and I began to dig around. Whether you’re sick on a plane (airplane vomit bag) or stuck in the rain (umbrella collab with SIZE?), Jon’s doodles are there to cheer you. The more I searched (Jon called it an “e-dig”), the more I found. This site is meant to complement Jon’s other sites as a “blogography” or archive from a fan’s perspective. It also functions as a glimpse into what’s possible for artists who want to go beyond the easel. Under construction!