I need to get back to being serious about my job search because I kind of slacked off the past few weeks. I'm glad March and February are over because they were seriously hellish in terms of stress, emotional stability and not to mention the health scare I had that I didn't post anything about here. BUT that turned out to be ok and my health is fine. So all in all I'm looking forward to the coming months with warmth and sunshine and then SUMMER! Uh anyway I've kinda been eh about jobs because I have the chance to look for a job that's close to my dream job and something that will allow me to grow as a designer and artist. I already did my time during bullshit work that I didn't enjoy and didn't inspire me.
I think a few years ago I was an advocate of going to a big school to become a graphic designer or anything related to that field but honestly you might as well go to one of those vocational schools and save yourself from the student loan debt you'll end up being in after school. Most of the things you'll need you don't learn in those big schools anyway and you just do bullshit work that doesn't relate to real world work experience so IDK personally most of what I learned I taught myself and investigated on my own time.

The graphic design world at the moment I find very one note, everything you see being published is within a certain style that everyone does so no one really stands out, its just loads of busy compositions with bright colors that look cool but overall seems to say nothing o.O; To me its like how many bright colors can I cram onto a digital canvas idk hahaa, but I appreciate people doing minimal work like this person on DA, its refreshing not seeing a totally cluttered canvas and good use of negative space.

Anyhoo I also need to um stick to a budget and save! I'm receiving unemployment at the moment which is nice 8D I kinda went crazy with shopping and stopped using my credit card because I don't need more debt on that and I've been working towards paying it off completely since it has a really high APR D: So nehuu I was using my debit card so all my purchases were paid off immediately. I kind of like this because it stops you from overspending, once you have a high credit card limit you're like oh I 'afford' this, I'll just pay it off later. I have two of my credit cards completely paid off and now I'm just working on one and it should be done this coming pay cycle.

On the egl someone asked what people were gonna do with those stimulus checks we are all gonna receive in the mail next month. Hahah actually I was wondering about this too, the general consensus seems like most Americans will use it to pay off their debt or save it. I was going to use it to pay off my one credit card but since I'm going to achieve that before it gets here I'm not sure what I'll do with it. I think I might save half and spend half? IDK it's free government money and they want us to put it back into the economy! What are you guys gonna do with it if you receive one?

Its so weird lately to see all these compilations books popping up in the local bookstores with full color pics of Japanese street fashion, jrock cosplayers and lolitas. Years ago we had the Fruits mook, now there's a Gothic & Lolita mook that's made by the same company I believe. There's also the Tokyo Look Book which I thumbed through today and found really interesting.



I like how they had interviews with some of the lesser known designers (from a Western pov) and how they showed off more than wacky street fashion, it actually had "normal" high end street snaps of office ladies during their down time and girls and guys who were in their 20s and enjoyed the high end brands. The only part of the book that made me lol was the total inaccuracy of labelling a Die Macabre era cosplayer as having a totally original outfit on. I mean she had the fox shawl, dyed red hair in the same hairstyle as Die, coat, accessories and all. Although to be fair there are other Dir en grey cosplayers identified as such, one was Child Prey era Kyo! Hahaha it's funny that out of all the bands the book only really identified and photographed Dir en grey ones.
There's also an interview with Mana where he speaks for the first time ever hahaahah j/k.



There's also this book called Style Deficit Disorder: Harajuku Street Fashion - Tokyo which features a lot of really old school Dir en grey cosplayers. A lot other jrock bands are also mentioned and shown in this book, Mana is once again in it. They do a break down of the major brands like h.naoto, et al. My biggest problem with this book is the design, the typography is atrocious and it features this horrible font that you see on the book cover. I prefer the design of the Tokyo Look Book because its cleaner and very clear and easy on the eyes and puts the focus on the pictures and fashion instead of on the graphic design itself.

Then there's the newly launched English version of Gothic & Lolita Bible, I picked it up the other day, and it was a whopping $19.99 D: WTF? D: As someone who doesn't follow this kind of fashion and every major development and know about all the brands I found the issue informative, but I can imagine experienced Lolitas to be really bored with the content. The one thing that I really hated was the fact that they featured fashions from 2005! Why the hell would I buy a fashion publication to see 3 year old fashion statements? Fashion related mags/mooks should be on the cutting edge and like most mainstream fashion mags show you fashions for the UPCOMING seasons, not from years past. Why do I care what BTSSB made 3 years ago? LOL. I think experienced Lolitas would care even less and look to a magazine like this to showcase new and upcoming fashions they'd like to purchase and wear.
In terms of the design I think they need to cut back on the "gothic" fonts, like yes we get it, its GOTHIC & Lolita Bible but gosh its like beating you over the head visually. Plus since there are so many subsets of Lolita fashions their design should reflect that too, and maybe choose some traditional serif/san-serif fonts to go with their one main Gothic font.

Also with all the practicing lolitas in the U.S. I think it would be cool to see some professional photo shoots with them, I'm sure they're some of there that model haha. I hope the magazine moves beyond the recycled content from the Japanese version and really start to do their own thing and showcase Western Lolitas, because frankly I think the recycled content can be done in small portions but they need to have their own original sections to continue to be relevant to their target audience.

AND since Tokyo Pop is behind this I assume they have some money, along with resources and a team of people in Japan who can take pics of the current collections of the big coveted brands. I think doing this mook is a major undertaking and it can be really expensive for Tokyo Pop to try and showcase the clothes and keep the magazine relevant and having people in the community to support it. I think the Lolitas have been keeping up on the scene for a long time on their own so having a magazine like this become part of their routine will be challenging haha. Content is definitely key.