About
Chris Blakley
Biography, Awards/Recognitions, Influences, Groggie.com Sitemap
I am a graduate from the BFA graphic design program at SUNY Oswego. I really enjoy using Photoshop and playing guitar among other things. I tend to involve myself into a lot of different things, which is why I need a portal blog, such as this one, in the first place.
I got into design in high school making terrible art using MS Paint and eventually discovered Adobe Photoshop. After passing my stage of applying the lens flare filter to all sorts of images, I started making good photo manipulations. It was in 2003 that I signed up for Worth 1000.com, and dove in head first into design competitions. A few years and about 200 entries later, I had a few awards under my belt and was promoted as a Juror. Through Worth 1000, I had my first break through design with “Canada Invades.” It eventually went on to become Picture of the Day. When Worth 1000 released their second advanced Photoshop tutorial book entitled “I’ve Got a Human in My Throat,” I had the opportunity of having two of my own tutorials published in it.
Around this time I started my sophomore year at SUNY Oswego and began furthering my knowledge of design while utilizing it in actual real-life situations. During my college time, I worked with organizations like the Syracuse Brigadiers, Operation Photo Rescue, Oswego Reading Initiative, Stacked! Magazine, and the Onondaga County Bar Association. I was also included in a few juried art exhibitions at Onondaga Community College and SUNY Oswego.
I enjoy creating a lot of fun designs as a personal hobby. I had a second break through with “Integrate the Type” which has over 60 favorites and over 500 views by other users and has been featured in an article called “Unbelievably Unknown II” on DeviantArt. I look forward to having more designs that have a great deal to do with typography as well as maintaining my constant supply of photo manipulation ideas. I have also been recording many songs for a few bands as well as covering songs on my own. As “A Corvus,” my brother and I have almost three albums worth of songs that tell a story in the style of progressive rock, and as “Our 11th Hour” we are working on recording a demo in the genre of post-hardcore and metal.
I want to start getting back into Flash animations, and they will probably not be as “concepty” as my previous ones; I see myself going in a direction of comedy similar to the Dadaists of modern art. Other people have been doing it for a little while now and I really enjoy it.
Awards
- 2003 Congressional Recognition Award
- 2004 New York State Assembly Certificate of Merit
- 2004–2008 Dean’s List
- 2008 Worth 1000 Picture of the Day
- 2008 SUNY Oswego Senior Logo Competition Winner
Clients & Publications
- 2005 Operation Photo Rescue
- 2006 “I’ve Got A Human In My Throat”
- 2007 Stacked! Magazine
- 2007 Onondaga County Bar Association
- 2004–2008 Brigadiers Drum & Bugle Corps.
- 2006–2008 The Oswegonian
- 2008 Posters For Humans
- 2008 Showtime & Smithsonian Channel
Exhibitions
- 2005 Onondaga Community College Juried Exhibition
- 2007 Blood Bath City Exhibition
- 2008 SUNY Oswego 45th Annual Juried Exhibition
- 2008 SUNY Oswego Downtown “Food For Thought” Exhibition
- 2008 SUNY Oswego BFA Exhibition
- 2008 Adobe Design Achievement Awards Exhibition Semi-Finals
- 2008 SUNY Oswego Downtown “Propaganda or Propaganda?” Exhibition
- 2008 Art Kudos International Exhibition
- 2008 Anton Art Center “Buy This” Exhibition
