Cole Elijah

Laptop Wall Mount Design

cole — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:13:33 +0000

Improving my home studio is somewhat of a hobby. I recently designed a custom laptop wall mount as shown below to reduce desktop clutter. When looking around for available products I found very few options. The best I came across was a vertical desk stand for Macbook Pros. The trouble with this design is it would take up precious desk space. So, I chose to design something myself.

What you see below is a collaboration between my father and myself. I provided the preliminary design concept and he made a few adjustments and built it in his workshop. It’s a functional design and perfectly suited for my needs. The materials include Peruvian Walnut, aluminum with felt padding to protect the laptop from scratches.

I do wonder if others have a similar need and am considering trying to create and market it as a product. Thoughts?

Crystal Bridges Museum

cole — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 02:38:59 +0000

My wife and I went to Bentonville, AR for Thanksgiving, and after a huge meal, took a walk around the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The museum just opened 11.11.11 and is already receiving great feedback. We were not able to go inside, as they were closed, but the architecture and design of the grounds was enough to satisfy us on our first visit.

The nature walk into the museum meanders through the river bed past several metal sculptures and cool rusty metal bridges along the way. Also, quite striking, is a huge silver tree sculpture, a giant stainless steel sculpture resembling a tree or neuron (not sure), outside of the main entrance. There are many levels to the museum with two rivers flowing through the structure to form three ponds within. It’s pretty striking against the natural landscape. I can’t wait to go back and see the exhibits and finished landscaping. I hear admission is free thanks to a generous donation from Walmart.

Crystal Bridges Museum
600 Museum Way
Bentonville, Arkansas 72712
479.418.5700

Tulsa Santa Photos

cole — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:48:45 +0000

Seasons Greetings! This season I will be at Philbrook Museum of art as their official Santa photographer. They are hosting a ton of great events this holiday season including a fantastic Santa Claus (real beard and everything!). Bring your kids down to meet Santa and share their Christmas list. No age limit!

Festival of Trees, a holiday art show, is going on at the museum as well as other seasonal events. Philbrook is beautifully decorated including the gardens, which are illuminated with Christmas lights galore. It’s a great time to visit the museum for the whole family. Come on out and see me, schedule below. Also see my other photography services.

Admission for non-members is $11 for adults and children 18 and under are free. Santa photos are $10 each or $20 for three poses. If you join as a new member (starts at $50) admission and a photo is free!

Santa Schedule

Day	Date	Hours
Sat	11/19/2011	9 am – noon; 5 pm – 7 pm
Sun	11/20/2011	11 am – 3 pm
Fri	11/25/2011	10 am – 3 pm
Sat	11/26/2011	10 am – 3 pm
Sun	11/27/2011	11 am – 3 pm
Sat	12/3/2011	9 am – 3 pm
Sun	12/4/2011	11 am – 3 pm
Sat	12/10/2011	10 am – 3 pm
Sun	12/11/2011	11 am – 3 pm

Visit Santa David’s Website

Holiday lights at Philbrook Garden Glow event

Philbrook at Garden Glow holiday event

WordPress is the Best

cole — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:09:27 +0000

With all the different Content Management Systems (CMS) available it is sometimes difficult to choose which one is best for you. Having worked with a number of systems over the years I have personally become a huge fan of WordPress. Since it’s launch in 2003 as blogging software it has come an amazingly long way and is now the most popular CMS used globally (downloaded 32.5 million times according to Wikipedia).

Why WordPress?

Open Source – As an open source project there are literally thousands of developers working together to continually improve this system. By developing new plugins and functionality and identifying security threats this group of developers works hard to keep this system safe, secure and powerful. As an end user this means development and maintenance costs are reduced as well as build time.

Intuitive Interface – If you’ve ever dreamed of managing your own website but don’t have the technical know-how it is now possible. Technology has finally reached a point that non-technical users can get along with managing their own websites to a great extent. Avoiding costly updates, delays and establishing more control the WordPress Admin Control Panel is pretty intuitive and makes this totally possible for most people.

SEO Friendly – The WordPress framework is built with search engine compliance in mind. There are tons of great plugins to maximize the potential, allowing fine tuning of meta data and site structure, but even out of the box this system puts a project on the right track.

Blog Ready – Frequently updating any website offers so many advantages both to users and search engines. The WordPress system began as a blogging software and has retained all of these features over the course of time. Built in commenting, comment administration, tags, categories and such can be configured to meet your content and audience requirements.

Have a WordPress Website Project?

As a web designer and developer I offer a full range of web services including everything WordPress. Whether you need just a basic install and set up or a custom theme designed to your projects specs I can help. Read more about my WordPress Design and Development Services.

Crossfit Shirt Designs

cole — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 21:23:17 +0000

I’ve had the opportunity to design a few Crossfit shirts. It’s been really great seeing my work on peoples’ backs!

Crossfit Shirt, Burpee Challenge

Crossfit 918 Shirt

Team Berry Crossfit Shirt (front)

Team Berry Crossfit Shirt (back)

Crossfit Life T-Shirt

Crossfit Life hoodie

What makes a good Crossfit Shirt?

Cut and fit are very important to athletes I have found. Crossfitters tend to be a more athletic build and want to show off that muscle! Material is also of the utmost concern. Light, breathable fabrics are most pleasant when working up a sweat. I have found through my own research and polling others that the Tultex 65/35 blend is a great choice and fairly economical. The shirts are a bit shorter than the American Apparel 50/50 Track Shirt, which is also a favorite.

Vintage BMW Design

cole — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 03:27:04 +0000

I have admired BMW’s since I was a child both as a sports car and as a brand. They were special to me from an early age. My father drove them and thought highly of them as did many of his colleagues. I genuinely felt the people that chose to drive these cars were somehow a different breed, more interested in the driving experience than the destination. BMW’s slogan, “The Ultimate Driving Machine,” seemed quite appropriate to me at the time and still rings true today.

I have enjoyed looking back at some of the classic brand’s advertising efforts from the 70′s and 80′s. The various magazine ads build the story of how owning a German sports car can impact your life as a consumer. Interestingly, these ads resinated with me years ago and still have the same impact today. Classy, optimistic and refined these ads communicate the experience rather well I feel.

It’s easy to get in a hurry these days so any experience within your control I feel should be enjoyed. I have been able to hold onto this ideal of enjoying the driving experience and continue to embrace BMW as my brand of choice.

Midnight Madness Photos

cole — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:10:08 +0000

I was asked to photograph this Crossfit event held at Crossfit Jenks, one of the most legit Crossfit gyms in Tulsa. The event consisted of 3 different workouts and over 50 competitors. It was very impressive to see these athletes push themselves to the max. As photographer I was up in everyone’s business with my camera. Pretty fun and I think I got some pretty decent shots given the low light and lack of external flash.

Midnight Madness. Crossfit Jenks. Flickr Gallery

Visit Flickr gallery to see more pics.

New Single: Mully Jam

cole — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:25:16 +0000

Here is my new song. It’s called Mully Jam and is a pretty trippy guitar riff based song with driving beat. I made this during the Snowstorm of 2011 while I was trapped in the house. Hope you enjoy.

Please let me know what you think by leaving comment below. You can listen to other songs or download my new demo album on the Vitamin Sea Page.

Listen To Mully Jam

Snowpocalypse 2011

cole — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 03:49:46 +0000

So it snowed big this year. In fact it was a Tulsa record. 14″ of snow in a single storm. Fortunately we didn’t loose power or anything overly traumatic. We were trapped inside for almost three days (at present) before things even started to regain order. Schools were closed, roads unpaved and general shutdown for the entire city it seemed. Here are a few photos I shot the morning after. These are around the Swan Lake district near Cherry St. Tulsa.

Auto Photography

cole — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 03:04:25 +0000

I’ve had the opportunity to photograph a number of cars recently so have been playing around with my approach. My thinking is that if I can incorporate well known local backdrops from around Tulsa people will be more familiar and interested in the vehicle depicted. Still experimenting but let me know what you think!