CCUC Turns 90!

Chinese Christian Union Church turns 90 this year. It's been quite a day. The Lee brothers (Tommy and Jimmy) are well known for their ability to come up with brilliant ideas only to expect the peons around them to figure out how to bring these ideas to reality.

As I type, Jimmy Lee is on a plane to China. Thank goodness. Who knows what other things he might be having me do if he were still on U.S. soil and able to contact me. On Sunday afternoon, my phone rang and I noticed on the caller I.D. that it was Jimmy. I seriously contemplated not answering because when he calls on a holiday, it's usually because he has one of his "special projects" for me to work on. Since Jill is in Hawaii and Randy doesn't really know how to use Illustrator, I became his special friend for the day.

THE PROJECT - Create banners commemorating CCUC's 90th anniversary that will hang on the lightposts in Chinatown. What he provided for this project wasn't going to work well because most people, myself included, don't have a clue about what's needed to created high-quality, print-ready artwork. Eventually, using an entire collection of Adobe software, we were able to create vector images that will print clearly regardless of the size. The project has taken most of my work day. As I sit here even now at 6:15PM catching up on other official work projects that I didn't have time to complete today, I think to myself that I probably shouldn't answer when Tommy or Jimmy call anymore. It's not that I mind doing these things, it's just that I get so consumed by these things that it's hard to think straight when I'm done. It may not look like it takes much effort to do these things, but you wouldn't believe the countless hoops that need to be jumped through to get to the final product. It's not as simple as typing text into Word and watching the final product evolve on it's own.

The nice thing is that Jill and Randy have already created all the graphics and logos. My job is to do the file conversions, clean-up the little quirks, place the text, and prepare the art for print. I'm the one who waits and wait and wait for people to review and give the ok that I can put the project to bed. From start to finish, this particular project took about 7 hours.

Anyway...hope you enjoy the sneak peak. I think they should look cool hanging on the posts in Chinatown. Gotta finish this post as I must make it to my parking lot by 7PM in order not to be locked in. Who knows? Maybe we'll be lucky and they won't let Jimmy back into the country. J/K. Seriously.