Category Archives: Design

This Calvin and Hobbes-themed wedding will make your day

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Calvin Hobbes wedding

Jonathan and Stephanie tied the knot in July 2012 at Casa Real Winery in Livermore, CA. Photos by Junshien Lau.

I don’t typically gush over wedding themes and engagement photo shoots, but I’m a big fan of Calvin & Hobbes so I just had to share this with you.

Indeed, these Calvin and Hobbes wedding photos will melt your heart if you loved Bill Watterson’s classic comic strip, which ran from 1985 to 1995 and sadly (or perhaps gladly) hasn’t been touched since, even for a movie, TV show or cheap merchandising. Jonathan and Stephanie tied the knot in July 2012 at Casa Real Winery in Livermore, California, and they’ve just this week shared pictures from photographer Junshien Lau here.

“We wanted our wedding to feel like our relationship — joyful, kid-at-heart, quirky, whimsical, breezy, with a dash of mischievousness,” Stephanie writes. “We came to the realization that these were all adjectives that described our beloved Calvin and Hobbes comic series — one of the first things we bonded over, when we met five years ago! We decided to have fun with it and drew all our inspiration from the comic.”

The theme included an engagement photo shoot with Jonathan dressed as Calvin, posing with a red wagon and a transmogrifier box while Stephanie holds Hobbes, the beloved orange tiger that made the comic come to life. Save-the-dates, wedding invitations, programs and more used the comic’s quirky font, the ring bearer wore a red-and-black striped t-shirt and carried Hobbes while the flower girl perhaps personified Susie Derkins. They even had Calvin & Hobbes cake toppers and dinosaur-shaped bubbles (because Calvin and Jonathan both love dinosaurs) instead of rice!

Calvin and Hobbes wedding

Jonathan and Stephanie tied the knot in July 2012 at Casa Real Winery in Livermore, CA. Photos by Junshien Lau.

Calvin and Hobbes wedding

Jonathan and Stephanie tied the knot in July 2012 at Casa Real Winery in Livermore, CA. Photos by Junshien Lau.

Calvin and Hobbes wedding

Jonathan and Stephanie tied the knot in July 2012 at Casa Real Winery in Livermore, CA. Photos by Junshien Lau.

See more photos here.

2012’s Best Halloween costumes: ‘Say Anything,’ Ludacris, ‘Back to the Future,’ leg lamp and more

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Here’s my take on the best Halloween costumes of 2012, from celebrities dressed as other famous characters to ordinary people with really clever outfits. Enjoy!

Lloyd Dobler from ‘Say Anything…’ [link]

'Say Anything' Halloween costume

‘Say Anything’ Halloween costume by Nikki S, featuring her baby as the boombox John Cusack holds over his head.

‘Back to the Future’: Baby Marty McFly [link]

‘Back to the Future’: Baby Marty McFly in a flying Delorean


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All I want for Christmas is the ‘DeafGeoff’ poster from a Garbage Pail Kids tribute art show. Seriously.

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Deaf Geoff by Ryan Brinkerhoff

This is a poster by Ryan Brinkerhoff from a Garbage Pail Kids tribute art show at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles

Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles hosted an awesome Garbage Pail Kids tribute art show in September. It consisted entirely of GPK-inspired art, including remakes and reinterpretations of the famous trading card set (and TV show, and movie) that grossly parodied Cabbage Patch Kids, with characters like “Adam Bomb” and “Dire Rita.” The Hundreds posted photos of the gallery’s opening, which featured celebrity guests like Hayley Williams from Paramore and Chad Gilbert from New Found Glory.

My favorite was a piece by Ryan Brinkerhoff, an electro-inspired remake of “Deaf Geoff,” which was an actual Garbage Pail Kids trading card in 1986. (Yes, I have the card.) His design is similar to the original, showing a character literally blowing his ears out by blasting music from a boom box on his shoulder. But Brinkerhoff changes up the colors for a funky interpretation that would have looked cool on the walls of any ’80s dance club.

It’s currently on sale as an 18″ x 24″ poster for $30 on the Gallery 1988 website.

I want it. I want it for Christmas, my birthday, “just because,” whatever — and I’ll totally frame it and hang it in my apartment. It’s too awesome not to have it, especially since it’s a modern art twist on the GPK card inspired my namesake*.

» View a slideshow of the best art from Gallery 1988’s Garbage Pail Kids tribute art exhibit

Here’s what the original “Deaf Geoff” Garbage Pail Kids card looked like, No. 206a from the 1986 set:

***Final Update: Someone wonderful got me the poster. :) Thank you to everyone who offered. Happy holidays!

*A few people have asked me over the years where I got my name “DeafGeoff,” and if it has anything to do with the Garbage Pail Kids card or the ’80s rapper Def Jef (who later produced Shaquille O’Neal’s first album). There’s also an obscure ’80s movie called ‘Plain Clothes’ (starring Arliss Howard, who played grown-up Scotty Smalls in ‘The Sandlot’) that had a character named Deaf Jeff, but my name came from none of those. No, I simply came up with the name myself when I was 12 years old — before I know about any of the other versions of the name — and made it my first screen name on AOL. It’s my DJ name, too, and it’s an easy introduction to the fact that my name is Geoff Herbert and I’m mostly deaf.

Top 5 Super Bowl XLV commercials – and the ones that you’ll never buy from again

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If your team isn’t playing, then the best part of the big game is the ads. Of course, you care about the game (there were a few great plays) and want great performances (Christina messed up a line of the National Anthem but still sounded good; Black Eyed Peas were one of the better halftime shows in a long time, though my predictions were off).

Here’s my take on the best and worst commercials of this year’s game…

#1 NFL – Best Fans Ever
Simple, and simply awesome. Hits every demographic by including clips from nearly every popular show of the last 40 years: “Full House,” “90210,” “The Brady Bunch,” “Family Matters,” “The Office,” “Happy Days,” “South Park,” “Seinfeld.” Genius. (Anyone else find it odd that the best commercial was for something that we’re all already watching?)

#2 Pepsi Max – Love Hurts (aka The Jealous Girlfriend)
The girls loved this one the most, and it was pretty funny – no explanation required, just watch. All the Pepsi Max ads were good, but this one was the best.

#3 VW Passat – The Force
This plays on the sympathies of every Star Wars fan who ever tried the Jedi mind trick, but it’s cute, and you can’t help but love the little Darth Vader kid. I wonder how much George Lucas got paid for it. See what the kid looks like without the helmet – cute (and a little like Mark Hamill, oddly enough).
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Ever notice magazine covers all look EXACTLY the same?

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I only personally subscribe to one magazine (SPIN), but if I’m hungry for something new to read, I will scan the magazine aisle in the grocery store.  Here’s what I saw in one section – 11 (!) magazine covers that all look exactly the same:

Now, to the average reader of any of these, I’m sure they would say “no way, they look totally different!”  After all, the content of each is (slightly) different and the audiences are different, too.  But imagine if you had never seen a magazine before and wanted to buy your first one.  Which would you choose?  Why?

Just looking at these 11 magazine covers (I’m ignoring the Glamour bonus issue in the corner because it’s not really a magazine), they all possess the same qualities:
– female celebrity cropped at either waist or knees
– magazine name at top
– article titles around celebrity in 4 different fonts, some in different colors
– all contain buzz words “fashion/look/style” and “sex/sexy”
– all contain some sort of “secret” list (188 style secrets, 150 best fall looks, etc)

Haven’t these magazines ever heard of the Purple Cow?  Seth Godin’s book says “Transform your business by being remarkable.”  There’s nothing remarkable about these magazines – they’re the same as the others, and they’re the same every month.  (Doesn’t it seem like Cosmopolitan always has 77 new ways to “blow his mind”?)  Typically, if you’re going to buy one it’s because you’ve read it before and/or the celebrity on the cover compelled you to buy it.  The articles certainly aren’t much different, and the style/look of the cover certainly isn’t, either.

Imagine you’ve never read any magazine before.  You’re an alien from outer space, or you’re Amish, or something… and this is your first time in a supermarket.  What is going to make you choose one and not the other?  Dare to be different, designers.  Fortune favors the bold.