There is about double the production time invested in this project, compared to The Shaggs Remix, so I hope you like it!

My teacher at Full Sail University (we call him “Bones”) issued a challenge to remix the worst band I have ever heard in my life. You need to look up “The Shaggs” on iTunes or Spotify just to see how bad they are. (the song I sampled was “Things I Wonder”)

Link to iTunes: The Shaggs on iTunes

I’m not surprised that I was the only one in the class to take the challenge, because I honestly had no clue how I was going to pull this one off when I started working on it. The original version of the song is terrible… TERRIBLE!!! LOL. Seriously, if you didn’t click the link above… then take a few seconds and check out the song “Things I Wonder”. I say, “a few seconds”, because that is all you’ll be able to handle.

… And here is what I came up with as a remix:

Comment below and let me know what you think!

It was a hard decision to leave my current career in graphic design, but the drive and reasoning lies within the future of my family. My wife has been struggling with her M.S. more now than she ever has.  I want, more than anything, to have a career that will allow my wife the freedom to not have to work if she doesn’t want to. As well as, have a career that involves my strongest passion for music.  Ultimately, I’m striving towards a future that will best fit my family.

Up until now, graphic design has been my career and music has been my hobby. I plan to switch those around. So, don’t worry, I’ll still be taking on some graphic design projects… I’ll just be a lot more selective on which projects I pick up. I do intend to continue to grow my talents in graphics and even expand into photography.

As for music, while I’m at school, I’ll be starting up a new music project called “Digital Beat Arcade”. This project will be a combination of pop style lyrics with the electronic drive of the upcoming Dub Step genere.  I also intend on maintaining the momentum of “The Bottom Line”. In fact, we have some new songs that are almost ready to be released. I will also be diving into the world of video production for these music projects. It’s all very exciting, and I hope you keep checking back to see what’s going on with these projects.

In conclusion, I’ll be out in Florida for 20 months. My main focus will be to excel in my classes and climb to the top of my class.  My wife’s health and her need for me to provide for her in the future will fuel my drive while I’m out there.  At heart I’m a family man, and I have a soul for music. I look forward to a future with my family, and a career in music.

*Photograph from FullSail.edu 

The Bottom Line is the band I’ve created, and I’ve spent quite a bit of time writing, recording, and editing the music.  We’re up on iTunes, but word on the street is that you can download the full EP from Facebook HERE, or you can download if from The Bottom Line Music website.  Please check it out and let us know what you think… comment below or join the conversation on Facebook.

- Posted from my iPhone

- Posted from my iPhone

- Posted from my iPhone

I just recently worked on some new graphics for my company…

My business has been developing and I believe I have found my niche market. So, I thought my brand should change and refresh with the tide. I was going for clean, very simple, and professional. Let me know your thoughts!  I kind of integrated the “thinking wheel” to symbolize my involvement with web design.

Here is a sneak peak at the new logo and business cards:

Blake James Design LLC - Logo

My Business Card - Front

My Business Card - Back

First, I am fighting for my name as search result on page one of google ( when you search for Blake James I want to show up closer to the top of the page).  The old blog template I used was terrible for search engine optimization (SEO). So, I decided like a year ago that I needed to redo the design and code… and I just now got around to the rebuild.

The next reason is, that because I design websites for a living, I thought that it would probably be a good idea to have a blog that reflected SEO industry standards and was designed a little better. Let me tell you though, it is really hard to find the time to work on my own websites when business is so stinkin’ crazy. However, I guess it’s a good problem to have!  In defense of all web designers out there… Don’t judge them completely based off of their website, because they might also be so stinkin’ busy that they don’t have time to work on their own sites.  For example, I have been wanting to get my portfolio up on BlakeJamesDesign.com for a while now… yet, it still doesn’t really have anything up there because I JUST DON’T HAVE THE TIME!

The last reason for the rejuvenation of Blake James .com is because my wife was watching Grey’s Anatomy… which means I was really bored out of my mind!  So, “Thanks, honey for providing me with the freedom and opportunity to work on my blog!”  I was also sitting next to her the whole time, so that has to count for quality time together in some way or another.

Anyway, here is the redesign…. Like I said, I can barely find the time to work on my own websites. So, my new Blake James .com design is a customized, tweaked, and manipulated version of a free template ( Amphion Lite 1.7 by Towfiq I. ) downloaded from WordPress.org. I thought I would throw that out there so it didn’t appear that I was claiming full credit for the design of this template.  I just thought that this free template was almost what I was looking for, and I settled in to it… with a few upgrades of my own.

Customizing themes/templates like this one, instead of creating a theme from scratch, saves a ton of headaches and time.  Shoot… I design for other clients all day long and I just want to take the easy approach, for myself, for once!

If any of you, reading this post, would like me to make adjustments and customizations to an already existing site… just let me know and we can get something up and running for you at a fraction of the price of creating a template from scratch.

Also, if you hear a little voice in your head telling you to help me out, please link to my blog by copying and pasting this link Blake James Blog on your site. Or, create your own link to BlakeJames.com . Thanks for the help!

Well, I have officially submerged myself 100% in entrepreneurialism. (Yes, it’s a word… Google it)  I took a big risk and jumped into business with some other entrepreneurs and tried starting a string of ecommerce websites. Although a complete failure of a business venture, it’s one of the best learning experiences I have had.

I gained a completely new understanding of business, and can finally wrap my mind around how to go about doing business on my own.  So, I’m diving in.  I have some secrets hiding up my sleeves, and will share them with you once they are ready to go public… I promise.  Let’s just say, I now have my wholesalers license, and leave it at that for now.

In the mean time, I have been booked out with design jobs through my design company, Blake James Design.  I guess you can always tell a busy designer by a crappy blog design of his/her own.  Haha… I’m not proud of this blog design in any way, but it gets the job done.  As long as you can read my posts, and I can stay ranking on page 1 of google when you search my name… then my blog is achieving all I need it to for now. Heck, this blog isn’t even optimized for SEO and it’s on page 1.  I believe I left out some H1′s, and this is anything but keyword rich content… I’ll focus on that stuff when I start to drop down close to elimination and banishment into page 2.

Anyway, I’m excited to see what business opportunities arise and flourish in the near future.  As these projects start to launch, I would absolutely appreciate your help in spreading the word.  Thanks in advance…. I’ll be back soon with a new post.