Happy birthday to John! I-M.net / YFIGTASOF.net project is no longer secret…
Written on March 5, 2009 in General & with 29 responses
Tags: 39, birthday, love, project, secret, sun, super, teamwork, warmth
First and obvious, John is 39 years old today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Now, the time has come to reveal the Super-Secret Project 2009. As some people might've guessed, it was meant to be released today.
On 23rd January, while sitting and reading a piece of text that couldn't have been any simpler, yet more goosebumps-worthy; I came up with a very strange idea for a comic, featuring a stickman and a sun balloon. I drew it and showed it to a couple of people. And they liked it. A couple of days later, by a total coincidence, the sun appeared in a context very similar to the one in the comic; which was a rather scary coincidence, but it also gave me an idea.
And, a couple of weeks later, on 17th February 2009, the time came to announce this idea to the public. How? By inviting people over to participate in something they didn't know what it was, named "Super-Secret Project 2009". I asked Nella, a long-term site visitor and a dear friend, to help me coordinate this project; by giving her opinion on file formats, quality of pieces sent in and dropping additional ideas on the concept itself.
256 people expressed their interest in the unknown and silently advertised only with doodle banners during the last couple of weeks. The occasion behind the Super-Secret Project was, obvious to many but thankfully not too many: John's 39th birthday. The idea was to give everyone a stencil and let them do whatever they wanted to do with it. Frankly, many things were possible. One could've done digital art in programs such as Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator, Gimp, Corel Draw/Painter or even the plain Paint. One could've printed out the stencil and decorated it any way they wanted it to: by drawing, making a collage or simply by writing into it. After that, everyone sent their finished pieces of work back to my email address.
119 of them have completed their 118 pieces of work (the numbers aren't matching because there is a piece two people worked on). And, needless to say, every single piece created was unique. There's one done with popcorn and cornflakes, there's a photo in perspective, there's a painting done on fabric, there's a knitted sun, there are a couple of doodles. Many pieces
The catch behind the whole project was NOT to do fanart of any kind, not to write any personal messages and, of course, not to steal anyone else's work. I wanted us all who participate in creation of Invisible Movement and YFIGTASOF - by visiting, interacting with others and supporting - to be true to themselves, to be who they are...not just people defined by the loose term "fans". However, given that some people did not read the rules properly, yet they took a lot of time to create some stunning pieces - I allowed SOME fanart in; with hopes that people who submitted them would make it up with a totally unrelated work of art some other time.
The only thing that was remotely associated to John in all this was the stencil itself - a doodle of the sun drawn in Adobe Illustrator, originally taken from the above mentioned comic with a stickman. For those of you who aren't keeping up with John's blog, he used sun as the symbol that represents things in life going up and down in a couple of his January 2009 posts. And therefore, we (Nella & I) thought that this was a good idea. On the other side, the sun is a synonym for warmth, life and joy. This was just our way of offering a warm hug to someone who's deserved it for the more or less significant impact he's made on our lives - and in some cases, the process of growing up and getting to know the world, getting to express own creativity in a better and more efficient way. So, this is, at once, reflecting our own creativity and is our way of saying a big "thank you and happy birthday".
Our e-book, the warmest e-book on the internet titled A Book Of Suns, can be downloaded by right-clicking here and picking save as or save link as. It's 89 Mb in size and it was already downloaded 2005 times. Moreover, individual pieces can also be accessed through the gallery, in full-size and in many cases full quality. Obviously, it's a birthday gift. Will it be seen? No idea. The internet is like an ocean sometimes, you have to put a message in the bottle and perhaps someday, it'll end up where it was ment to end up at. Perhaps not. We don't feel that it's essential to have it picked up by him, but yup, we'd love to see that happen. With these words, the suns are being released to aether! ^_^
Feel free to comment on the suns (just be nice), feel free to leave messages of any kind (though no one on the planet can't guarantee if you're setting them free the same way we're setting these suns free)...
This is how the original stencil looked like:
The stencil was available in .ai, .psd, .jpg and .pdf.
The oldest person in the project was 56, the youngest is 13. Our average age is 22,30.
70 of us are female, 49 are male. People from 35 countries took part in this project.
29 Reactions to Happy birthday to John! I-M.net / YFIGTASOF.net project is no longer secret…
Pravila za komentarisanje:
great idea! i like the whole sun concept. i hope to make a good art. and happy birthday to our dear john!
Brilliant idea!
I would be very flattered and utterly happy for all this love these suns reflect. I admire administrator of I-M.net and hope that beams from her heart reached their destination! Let there be light!
Here is an amazing coincidence : today is a surprisingly sunny day, for, where I am, we had not seen sun for a couple of days...
This super secret project seems to let even more sun shinning in than expected
May this day be a wonderful one, first for our beloved John, but also for all of you who dare showing love and sharing feelings, because that is all that matters after all.
All the best ! And, once again, thank you dear Iva for all these great things you do !
Take care, all of you !
LOVE the layout Iva! Crinkly paper owns! And they all look sooo much better like this, in context, than as separate images. It all comes together so well. All pieces are unique, and this just looks friggin' amazing. Hope this somehow winds up in the hands (or at least on the screen) we want it to.
And to all who participated:
THANK YOU, YOU ALL HELPED MAKE A KICKASS PROJECT!
wow
makes me wish I had the time to take part
bugger
x
it's amazing, made me cry
so many incredibly talented people out there!
I'm sure the message will trickle through to the birthday boy even if he never sees it
Impressive outcome for this very interesting and exciting project! The idea was brilliant and the efforts are appreciated! Congrats to all involved in this!
It would be great to see John's reaction to this, if possible 
It is raining here but who cares anyway, this day is so special!
Happy birthday, John! May you bring joy in our souls and hearts for many years to come!
Have a great day everybody
Love,
Irina
Wow !!!
I'm kind of just falling into this project as I wasn't here for a couple of weeks, and wow !!!
thanks so much for letting me participate at the last moment !!!
And the complete aspect of the project is so good ! Creations by us to thank the artist who has changed our lives, I mean creatively, the sun and all... Wow !
I've seen all the gallery, and there are a lot of really wonderful works (especially compare to mine's work...), by inspired and talented people, congratulations to all of the people who made it !!!
As I already said on the forum, this was an awesome idea.
I'm really proud to be a part of it, and want to thank everyone who participated. I hope we can do something similar in the future. Great work people!
wow iva, you've made a really amazing job!
congrats everybody for the suns, they are great,all of them, because all of you've done them with creativity, love and the best wishes!
hugs!
Thanks for the opportunity, it was great to participate in this. All the suns are amazing!
And of course happy birthday John!
I am truly honored to have had the privilege to participate in something so truly amazing as people from every edge of this earth coming together through music and art in such a simple yet vastly unique and meaningful way. When i see things like this, even such a small task as designing a sun, it gives me hope (as a young person) for the future of this somewhat creativity oppressed and incredibly ill planet. It looks great, well except mine, because we are all beautiful, creative, intelligent people, and if I were John I would be immensely proud to have such intelligent fans.
Happy Birthday John,
what a magnificent project. It's great to see all of the other suns! So many beautiful ideas. Hopefully there will be more of this kind of projects in the near future.
Thanks everyone!
Iva, Nella, et al, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to such a beautiful project. Also, for your organization and collaboration on all of it. Love the layout and idea. Secondly, I want to say that all of the entries were very unique and creative in each their own ways. Thanks for sharing the love and creativities, everyone. The message speaks loudly, as the book of suns is a ray of light from the source and from within each of our beings. To express such magnitude of Love for a special person who has "Touched" each and every one of us in so many ways, the bright star that has embedded inspirations within our souls, a man with many talents which goes beyond his beautiful guitar riffs and music itself. Happy Birthday, John! May you find Peace, Love, and Happiness! Have a wonderful day.
Wish I had participated in this. Regret I didn't. Ooh well, too late now.
P.S.: It's my birthday, too
yeeaah, that is really beautiful job!! I'm proud to be in this too
every sun is specific and amazing! Thanks to Iva for her work for us 
and thanks to all of you and your creativity... It makes me smile 
These suns are amazing, I am sooooo impressed by everyone. Like Paige said, I bet there are like a total of 20+ countries represented. This is a an amazing effort, for an amazing person. Good job everyone!
I am really impressed with the results, you can see everybody put love and creativity into their suns
A Book Of Suns is a beautiful birthday present, thank you for giving me the chance to take part in this project. And people from 35 countries participated, that's just another amazing thing.
It was a very great idea
i think it turned out reaLLY bitching
i think it really show how unquie
i love it
happy day o' birth john
:}
the chance to take part in this was one i could not pass up.
just making a little bit of this huge mosaic of love and creativity feels amazing, and i am grateful for the opportunity.
fellow john fans, i am honored that we are all one and the same.
shine on.
blessings
xxoo
Amazing book! Congrats to everyone involved.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FROOSH!
and it could have been 120 people - I had the idea and the time, but I broke a shoulder two weeks ago and I just couldn't do it with my left hand. Gonna take a look to the suns now. Congrats everyone and John
Wow, it is amazing how everyone's sun is so different. Great idea Iva. It was such fun to do and I am proud to be the oldest person!!!!!!!!! Happy birthday John! So much love is sent your way!
Beautiful idea and piece of work, it's a amazing how people express their creativity in different ways, and there a those who are really artistic as well
good job and great initiative
all of the suns are great and the idea is too!!
i wish i would have had the time to also participate in the project. would be cool, if you did something like that again!!
happy (belated) birthday, john <3
I love it! Now I know I should've participated. What an ultimate expression of love!
I just downloaded the book and am pleased to see my entry made it, even though I didn't follow the rules properly, opps - I didn't use the sun stencil - but I did incorporate the idea of a sun, even though I didn't know I was supposed to.
All the other entries are really interersting and inspiring - makes me wanna create more. It's also really cool to see that the book includes people from all over the world and of different ages, sweet.
happy birthday
As somebody who participated in the Book Of Suns, I can say I'm amazed by the result. Everybody did such a great job and it's nice to see all the different ideas people came up with
I'm really proud to be a part of this 