Magic Wrench Media

The one size fits all designer

that I used…myself

I have grown up doing the iron work.  Not enjoying baby sitters or those large farms of child day cares, I ended up hanging out at the shop with my dad.  He promptly set me up with a forge, hammer and anvil.  Growing up in the shop and working through in my teens, a lot of discipline was taught…and patience.  I still have problems with the patience….lol  In my teens a friend and I took a dump truck for a “joy ride.”  We ended up running over a shed and owing the owner a pretty penny.  I spent the next 2 years working the debt off.  At the end of it I was really enjoying the metal work but had this idea to “get off the damn mountain” that I grew up on.  Fast forward through some bad relationships, an attempt  at a psychology degree and simply an attitude that caused me to stop caring I had a couple of “dark years.”  I applied to the Art Institute of Colorado in 2002.

I graduated from the Art institute of Colorado in 2006 with a bachelors in media arts.  There was some “animation” in there although the college was a crash course in learning the tools and not so much on technique.  From this establishment I squeezed every bit to get the education I so desired.  Starting a game club, called Isolated Reality, I was able to get other students to join and use the tools we were taught to create our own “game.”  At its peak I had 20 people in the group.  10 joined due to a class requirement for a group project, the other half joined on their own.  Since the college was a commercial art, pumping out grads and with no real concern about quality.  They had a clear focus on numbers and stats — Ill get to that later.  The game club lacked actual programmers.  At the time in 2004 Steam, a large gaming company, had released its SOURCE SDK.  Allowing you, the player, to actually create your own levels and in one way or another, make a game.  I took it farther and researched out how to import your 3d models, textures, bump maps and other nerdy things so that we could make our game.  This tool was our programmer.  I could edit the code and simply replace file names thus allowing me to import the objects we made.  We were also protected by the educational standpoint and did this for no commercial profit. None of this was easy.  It was an uphill battle the whole time.  I was constantly butting heads with the Art Institute of Colorado and college students whom joined up, but did not want to do the work.

Why all the hard work? Why stick with it for 2 years?  Because I was trying to establish a team of people whom I could start a game business with.  Colorado has a handful of successful companies. If the game club could not make it into a company then at least students could put it down as some kind of experience and use it to their benefit.  I am uncertain if anyone did really benefit from the group, none the less it was an important part of our education.  The college attempted to create a “student leadership” program that was a joke lead by an idiot who was counting the days between his paid vacations.  He had made some promises about the program that ended up empty handed.  I was frustrated…to say the least.

Fast forward after graduation I pursued to get a job that was with my degree.  The game companies in Colorado could have cared less of what I attempted to do and the competition to other companies was cut throat. I was approached to do children’s education video in Michigan for $25k a year.   Disappointed with my conveyor belt of an education, the years I spent in school complimented with the trendy degree was not quenching the thirst I had.  Graduating 2nd in my class, running that game club, doing this “out of the box” ideas really didn’t matter.  My perception was that money ran everything.  Companies could find cheap, local talent and get what they wanted out of it.  Another big factor that I didn’t like was how fast digital media lost its appeal.  As a gamer myself I know there were 2 types of customers:  One who played new games only for a few months, the other who played the same game for years.  The whole time they really are playing for the experience.  The only ones who really admired what that game was were other artists who also made games.  Hearing “Look at the normal map!” from a player would be rare and far between.  As a digital artist you would be constantly pushed to complete the current project knowing another one was ahead of you.  Then knowing that current project would most likely be forgotten about in 6 months to a year and on sale by Christmas.  This was not it for me.  After a year of pushing for a “job in the industry” I approached my Dad about getting more involved with the business of Dragon Forge LTD.  The iron work has a place and will last generations.

The Iron Work

I walked away with a healthy understanding of photography, color correcting, websites, digital art, designing ads, and other commercial art techniques.  I brought this to the table to Dragon Forge LTD.  I wanted to be forging and helping with the projects, as well as, take over the advertising for the business.  Not only did it save some major $$ but allowed us to establish the branding process that the current designer(s) were not doing.  My dad, Craig May, does all custom work. They are designs that he comes up with, presents to the clients and we build it.  “Get it hot, hit it hard!”  The work, the process is a lifestyle that satisfies alot inside me.  Working with my hands has no replacement.  Nothing I can buy can even come close, and until you do it yourself, it is something I cannot put into words. On the same level the amount of work that goes into the advertising is up to standards and the company is being presented in a professional, high quality light that it deserves.

In the summer of 2007 I took a class at the Gunter’s blacksmithing school, The Gunter’s Site .  Chad and Brad Gunter helped me so much in one week that it started a disease of practice, experimenting and a new perspective of the craft.

I have done some side gigs, like custom driveway signs, picture frames and am currently doing a run of decorative metal bowls.  I try to focus on attractive iron work for the home and / or business.  I also do blacksmithing demos when and where ever I can.  I really enjoy showing and talking to others about the craft.

Magic Wrench Media

I took what I learned and started Magic Wrench Media.  The idea was to do what I had done with Dragon Forge and offer it as a service to others.  I use the adobe creative suite to do all my work since my teaching was mostly that.  My first project was to do IsolatedReality.com.  I do all the photography, all the art work and, like the game club, have used code that I modified to establish the look.  The websites I work on are wordpress sites.  They have a great presentation, work great on smart phones and really are blogs.   Which also allows me to let the customer take it over for easy updating.  This website has been a slow evolution and am constantly redesigning it.   The name was from a game that had an engineer.  He ran around with a Crescent Wrench and could fix everything!  Taking that concept and the many hats I can offer to wear as a service, I combined that two and have a fun appeal, meanwhile, can provide a serious service.