Standard Design

Northampton, MA

Standard Design has been making both corporate and creative graphic stuff since 1996, and wears many hats as a designer: After Effects animator, illustrator, print designer, web designer, cartoonist, and writer. Clients include locals such as Turn It Up! CDs, The Franklin County Bar Association, WFCR, LAZER 99.3, and a mural for Easthampton City Arts. National clients include VIBE magazine, Fleet, Car and Driver, and the AMC network.
Standard Design has been the unofficial recipient of every major regional and national art directing and advertising award in the New England area for the past decade, with the exception of 1999, which was an "off year".


Portfolio and online store

Broken Lines, A Graphic Novel

Whiskey! Tango! Foxtrot!, a weekly comic strip


Labels: , , , , , , ,













The No-Shadow Kick

Northampton, North Andover, Holyoke MA

Hailing from the same former shoe-manufacturing capital of the world that brought us delicate poet Rob Zombie and hard rocker John Greenleaf Whittier, No-Shadow Kick was formed in 1994 under a completely different name and played music they're too embarrassed to talk about right now. Joshua (guitar, vocals), Tom (bass) and Shawn (drums) were HAPPY. From the rural hills of Haverhill, Massachusetts, the boys migrated to the rural-er hills of Northampton, Massachusetts, where they have long since ceased looking for an audience to play in front of.

They released their DIY self-destructing debut Basement Make-Out Party in 1999, a full-length CD written and recorded in the band's basement rehearsal space. After releasing a promo EP in 2001 (aptly titled The Promo EP), the band shrewdly decided to avoid the limelight by waiting four more years before releasing their latest effort, 2005's hastily assembled Spatializing Sound in the Time Domain. Joshua left the group to pursue husbandry, while Shawn cleverly decided that since he knew how to play drums, he could probably play guitar, too. With Tom taking over vocal responsibilities, Sturgis Cunningham was added to the lineup in an attempt to inject a slight amount of professionalism into the group. The attempt failed, but he was retained regardless.

The No-Shadow Kick (adding the "The" to the beginning of the band name - that was another shrewd marketing move) does not play live very often. The No-Shadow Kick does not rehearse often, or really see each other all that much, either. As of this writing, there isn't even a photo of all of the band members in the same place at the same time. Though they would like to think of themselves as "mysterious" or perhaps even "enigmatic", they are, in fact, not. They do, however, write some pretty good songs every once in awhile.


Official Homepage - with mp3 downloads and other crap

NSK on MySpace


Labels: , , , ,













Susan Paradis

Merrimac, MA

[From her website:] I grew up in Arlington, Mass. and went to Matignon High School in Cambridge. Despite anxious warnings from the Sisters of Saint Joseph involving my immortal soul, Sigmund Freud, a licentious environment and a bleak future, I applied to the Massachusetts College of Art. The protests of the good nuns notwithstanding, by some miracle I was accepted.

Fast forward. Eight years, three children and one divorce later - I returned to Massart to get a teacher’s certification. The city of Haverhill hired me within a week of my course completion and I spent the next thirty years teaching art at Haverhill High School. My approach to teaching was simple. I believed that inside even the most wayward child, lived a five year old who wanted his work on the refrigerator. I wanted to make that happen. It turned out – we needed a really big refrigerator! (Loved those Haverhill kids!) During twenty of those teaching years I also worked as a freelance illustrator. (Three children approaching college in quick succession will force your hand.)

The arrival of my first grandchild set the wheels in motion for this last stage of my career. Those first few years of watching my son as a parent triggered the five year old in me. Having been raised without one, I just didn’t understand fathers. What was their role? What was the nature of the bond? One day I was holding my grandson on the balcony of their high rise while waiting for my son to emerge on the ground. When he appeared, my grandson turned to me and revealed a part of the answer. “Nana,” he said, “my daddy can cross the street alone.”

I have seven grandchildren now and many more questions. Each one of them opens an unexpected door into my own memories of childhood. I’m just waiting for the revelations…


Children's book illustrations - official website

Article in the Haverhill Gazette, February 2008



Labels: , , ,






This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?