The Designers of Summer

"Hard Ball" Back print on white shirts.

Being a hired gun (creative pinch hitter if you will) means I do a lot of exploratory work that will never be used and tends to serve the purpose of helping an agency focus in on final solution. I'm not complaining, that's just the reality of the game.

Recently I was hired by Red Jacket Clothing to create a tribal tattoo themed baseball design. I love baseball, I think it has a lot of great metaphors that one can play off for all kinds of various concepts.

My client gave me full control of this project so of course I picked my favorite team, the Boston Red Sox to use in my design.


"Hard Ball" Back print on colored shirts.

I decided since this had a tribal tattoo look I'd play off of that theme with the term "Hard Ball." I also created a modular design that could be adapted for any of the MLB teams. This way the design would have a broader potential for the marketability and be relatively easy to customize by merely shifting ink and shirt colors either dark or light.

The hardest part of this design though was creating the baseball. The first one I did looked horrible. It didn't read as a baseball, it read more like a Klingon jig-saw puzzle instead. So I had to re-draw it a few times before I struck the right balance.


Logo front print on colored shirts.

The main design is a back print and this is the front center chest print. The team logo would be dropped into the middle of the tribal ring for each team.

It took roughly two months for the design to make it through MLB licensing circles and ultimately got benched. No reason was really given? But I've dealt with MLB licenses before and they are somewhat finicky IMO.

I'd be curious what others think regarding this designs marketability, so I created a simple poll you can vote in here.

Personally I like the design, it was fun to create so I'm just bummed it got put on waivers before it even had it's first at bat.

Maybe I should buy a steroid plugin for Adobe Illustrator? Hmmmm.

Nincompoop

Custom type for HGTV.

Over the past six years I've slowly been working on a new font design I call "Nincompoop." When ever I get a project that comes in and the style of my type works with it, I'll create new letter forms and re-use existing characters to create my art and expand my alphabet for the font at the same time.

Such was the case with this project for Scripps Network and HGTV.


Custom type for HGTV.

Prior to the dawn of OSX I use to design fonts more often. I use to work at a design firm locally where I was responsible for designing five fonts all of which are still available through T26.com. Of course my former employer owns these, but you can check each one out via the links below.

- Beat Street
- Frazzle
- Hunky Dory (Orig. name: "Scorn" AD changed it. Lame.)
- Lollygag
- Squidly (Orig. name: "Biomorphic" AD changed it. Lame.)

Over the years I've spotted my type in various places. Some usages last a few seconds, some are amusing, and others are just laughable.

When I designed the fonts above Postscript ruled the roost. But since then the Open Type format has brought a new standard for all future fonts and rightly so.


Custom type for HGTV.

I simply don't have the time to learn a whole new software application like Font Lab Studio so I'd rather focus on the creation of the letter forms and just hire out the production end. For that I'm willing to split the profits for any font developer wanting to team up. So if you know how to produce a font or know someone who does please introduce me to them.


"Nincompoop" sample.

Since Open Type allows for a lot of customization I'd create multiple variations on letterforms, ding bats, characters etc. in the final form of "Nincompoop."

But for right now I just have an Ai file I copy/paste from to create what I need.

Fa La La La Lifetime - Take III

Original Hand Lettering for "Fa La La La Lifetime."

This now makes the third Christmas in a row that the Lifetime Channel has used my "Fa La La La Lifetime" branding for their holiday promotional efforts.


"Fa La La La Lifetime" bug graphic.

During this season you'll see it as a bug in the lower right hand corner of the screen and it'll also appear in numerous TV spots. (But the ones that look ugly and where their in house people added dimension to the letter forms I had nothing to do with.)


"Fa La La La Lifetime Movie Network"

Lifetime contacted me again this year to create additional custom lettering to augment their current seasonal branding efforts. The image above shows a stacked option and I also created a long horizontal option with everything resting on the same baseline as well.


"Fa La La La LMN" bug graphic.

This shows an abbreviated version I also created that can be used as a bug graphic.


"Fa La La La LMN" alternate bug graphic.

Sometimes when working on projects like this I explore beyond the requested deliverables. So on this project I also provided them with the type nested inside a fun shape as well. Not sure they'll ever use it but I liked it.

TV Promotional Spot - 2009

Seek and You Will Find

Street Level Logo Design.

How do you motivate a group of stiff necked suits, or a room full of cubicle zombies, or any other garden variety form of corporate drone? Well, if you're "Street Level Adventures" you design custom treasure hunts to facilitate corporate team building for some of the nations largest companies.


Cycloptic Man.

The purpose behind the adventures is to help a team focus and operate in a unified manner. Because of that I decided to create a humanoid character with an all-seeing eye. A graphic nod to "E Pluribus Unum" if you will.

The adventures are fun and creative so I wanted the mark to be playful as well. The typography is all hand lettered too to go with the style of the artwork.


Unused Logo Concept.

This design approach played off of a man hole cover concept. Once again I kept the aesthetic playful and hand lettered the design.


Unused Logo Concept.

This business designs all types of adventures in various genres so I decided to play off a cloak and dagger theme motif. I liked it but felt it pigeon holed the perception of what type of genre adventures they offered, so it wasn't used.

A Graphic Skeleton from my Design Closet

Hitler and cheap font CD.

A good friend and talented designer Tim Frame emailed me the link to the above video earlier today. I drank my latte and chuckled as the video played and then nearly did a spit take as the following came on screen...


Guilty as charged.

There in front of me was my own typeface "Whutevur" which I had designed back in 1998 starring at me, mocking me, and being mentioned along side infamous design eye sores like "Comic Sans." I legitimately LOL when I saw it and emailed Tim back.

I should point out that my font was never included on a "Cheap Font CD" but I can't say I disagree with the videos assessment either. I tend to always cringe looking at work I produced in the past and seeing this font again gave me that same sense of artistic foreboding.


Whutevur font designed in 1998.

For those who've asked me if I've ever posted bad work, here you go. Behold the glory of my custom font "Whutevur" designed to be marketed with an art collection of the same name.

I liked it at the time but I look at it now and think "What was I thinking?"

Whutevur Art Collection created in 1998.

I think the art collection holds up well though. I still can't believe step by step graphics who published it wrote off on the concept. I basically sketched these out while working at Upper Deck during the day and built them at night until I had the whole set of 130+ done. It was like getting paid to do glorified doodles.

My favorite quote regarding this project was shared with me by a creative director at step by step. As the story goes a marketing person who apparently had never seen this art before it launched saw the final product sitting on her desk and exclaimed:

"Who would buy this?"

To which I replied "Whutevur." ;-P

So there you go, a graphic skeleton from my design closet.

Ambigram I am

"Von" ambigram.

Ever since "The Da Vinci Code" was published in 2003 I've been wanting to play around with an ambigram design. I've just never found the time.

The other day I doodled out my first name and figured it wouldn't take too long to build so I put this design together.


Ambigram in action.

My name is pretty easy to do this type of treatment too since it's only one letter away from being a very simple palindrome.

A real creative challenge would be taking my last name "Glitschka" and creating an ambigram from that. It may take another six years however before I get around to that though.

Fa La La La Lifetime - Take II

'Fa La La La Lifetime Seasonal Branding'

Last Christmas Lifetime Television hired me to create a seasonal brand for their holiday promotions. The promotion proved to be so successful they've decided to use it again this year even more prominently than they did last season and I suppose they have good reasons to do so.


'Fa La La La Lifetime Bug'

The logotype is also being used as a bug during seasonal programming along with the TV spots they are advertising for the Christmas promotion. It's kind of strange seeing your work on TV, don't get me wrong I think it's very cool but it's also kind of surreal in a way too. I suppose the ultimate would be to develop a character for a TV production, now that would be a kick in the head!


'New TV Spot.' Click image or here to watch video.

Last year the in house creatives at Lifetime added a wonky bevel effect to my logo type. This year they left it alone and I like it better. The above link is a truncated video to just showcase the "Fa La La La Lifetime" logotype. If you'd like to watch a full-length spot to see my work in context click here. (6.6MB)

For some reason on this TV spot they left off the ornament? Not sure if that was on purpose or if someone forgot to click something when editing? In any regard I hope this promotion proves to be as successful as last year.

Recently Spotted - Part 2

"Beat Street" and "Beat Street Inline" font.

The font "Beat Street" shown above I designed about 12 years ago. Like I said in my previous post about this type face, it's been a while since I designed a font. For the past four years however I have slowly been working on a new one called "Nincompoop" which I plan on finishing up and producing in 2009 sometime.

Over the years I've spotted my fonts being used in a variety of ways. You can view some of the "Beat Street" examples here in my previous post.


"Beat Street" spotted in the movie "Freaky Friday."

My youngest daughter was watching the movie "Freaky Friday" in my studio yesterday and I watched along as I worked and something in one of the scenes struck me as familiar. I hit rewind on my TiVo and sure enough there it was, my "Beat Street" font used on some poster in a scene of this movie.


"Beat Street" used in some type of motivational poster?

I never go hunting for this stuff I always stumble upon it and the context it's used in most often is craptacular at best. I can create a cool font but I can't control if and how a bad designer chooses to use it.

If any of you happen to spot this font being used please let me know I'd love to see it and document the usage with a new post.

BTW: You can test drive and purchase the "Beat Street" font here.

Fowled Out.

Illustration for exotic bird food packaging. (Click image to view larger)

This project was a lot of fun to work on. I was commissioned to create a fun and colorful illustration of a pet owner and their exotic bird. In this case an Amazon. The product this illustration was going to be used with was an exotic pet food for birds called "Fruit Blend Flavor."

The agency in charge was going to do test marketing and if that went well I'd be doing about seven other pet food products in the same illustrative fashion.


Custom hand lettering for logo type.

Well I provided the above art to the agency and they loved it. The agency mocked up the packaging with my art and logotype and showed it to their pet food client and they also loved it.

Of course I was happy and who wouldn't be, the agency loved it, the company loved it, things were looking great. But when they test marketed it the public hated it. That's right, it totally tanked. So the agency called me and let me know that because of that the client was going in another direction, a safer direction if you will.

As an Illustrative Designer I am familiar with the normal creative speed bumps like "Design by Committee" or the heavy-handed marketing folk who fancy themselves as Art Directors. But this was a new type of experience for me. It made me wonder, would the iPod have been so cool if they let the design be dictated by test marketing it first? I doubt it.

The blind public rejection of my art hung over my head like the Sword of Damocles for a few days. I decided to show my art to a friend of mine who is a bird aficionado and he loved it. I then told him what had happened and he made a good point I hadn't considered.

"These type of bird owners are very serious types. They look for scientific formulas to keep their pets health optimal and I'd bet this was too playful, and thus in their minds, too fun to take it seriously."

Fair enough, I could at least understand that point of view. I don't have to like it though. If we let the public dictate design on everything then what's the point of being a designer? But I digress.

You can view the art larger here.

Recently Spotted

"Beat Street" and "Beat Street Inline" font.

The font "Beat Street" shown above I designed about 12 years ago. Wow, has it really been that long? Yikes. It's been a while since I designed a font. When I switched from OS9 to OSX Fontographer stopped working so I just kind of put everything on hold in terms of designing fonts. (That has changed and I may create a new one soon) That said, I have created "7" fonts total. Five of those I created while working at another design firm so my name is never associated with them.

Over the years I've seen several of my fonts in use in a variety of ways. I've seen them on toy packaging, candy bar wrappers, advertisements, logos etc. I stopped counting years ago but in the past three weeks I spotted a couple usages that got my attention.


"Super Paper Mario" using my "Beat Street" font.

I was in Blockbuster Video the other week and spotted this usage of "Beat Street" on the packaging for "Super Paper Mario." I tend to cringe at moments like these because rarely do I see it used well. They don't go in and modify how the letters interact with each other and make it look nice. No, they just type it out and go with it. In any regard it was a nice Saturday morning surprise and being able to show that my font was on a Wii game scored me a few cool points with my kids. ;-)


"Novel Romance" movie on DVD starring the infamous Traci Lords.

Then there are times like this past weekend where I was browsing within my NETFLIX account and it asked me to rate a recent movie called "Bride and Prejudice." After I did so it then recommended two other movies and one of those were "Novel Romance." I immediately looked at the thumbnail graphic on screen and said out loud "Oh no." Sure enough who ever designed the cover for this DVD decided "Beat Street" was a good fit even though they decided to squash it.

I suppose I can now add "Soft Porn" to the fonts usage list?

If any of you happen to spot this font being used and can capture it via a picture or nab an image online then please do and send it my way I'd enjoy seeing it. Thanks.

BTW: You can test drive and purchase the "Beat Street" font here.

Animal Metaphors & Rabbit Trails

Multi-Tasking Octopus. Click to view larger image.

Even though I don't do a lot of editorial illustration I do enjoy the challenge when it presents itself. These illustrations were for Fortune Small Business magazine. The challenge with editorial is gleaning a creative and clever idea to illustrate after reading the article which sometimes can be very dry and boring. Thankfully in this case it was actually a very interesting topic.

My original pencil sketches included the pig concept below and because they liked that one so much they then asked me to create two other animal based metaphors so that each of the three illustrations would work more as a set. The octopus shown above was chosen to represent a company that did everything themselves rather then outsourcing and because of that their quality control was better and their production was far more efficient.

Rabbit Trail 1: When I was coloring this art I originally had green instead of purple. My oldest daughter came into my studio while I was working on it and said "Dad the octopus should be purple." I kind of shrugged her off and then looked up some information on octopuses and discovered they change color so I decided to just keep it green.

The next day after sending off the comp the art director asks "Can you change the octopus to purple?" DOH! Suffice it to say my daughter enjoyed hearing that bit of news. I reminded her she has my genes so that obviously was responsible for her opinion. LOL


Croc Loving Pig. Click to view larger image.

The next part of the article was about companies finding a unique niche for business by piggybacking on trends. The specific trend discussed was Crocs. Obviously the terminology in the article pinpointed the direction I should take.

Rabbit Trail 2: The art director asked me to add some type into two of the spots so the art above shows that as well. The type is part of an on going hand lettering project I've been working on for three years now. Eventually I'll produce a font called "Nincompoop" based on these letter forms.


Flying in Formation. Click to view larger image.

The gist of the last article needing an illustration was about a company who brought order out of chaos in the high tech parts market and profited greatly from their business solution. Prior to the animal metaphors I had a guy putting a puzzle together and on that puzzle was a dollar sign. But since they wanted animal metaphors that wouldn't work now. Some of the new concepts I proposed were "Getting your ducks in a row, with each duck carrying a part" and "A bird who takes random parts and builds an ordered nest from them." Neither of these ideas floated the art directors boat.

Instead the art director requested butterflies that form a dollar sign.

((( insert cricket sound )))

Yeah, I am scratching my head still on that one myself. Don't get me wrong I like the way it came out and think it looks cool, I am just not in sync with the underline concept. It's a bit detached where as the other two make sense right away. Hey 2 for 3 is great in baseball, so I can live with that creative batting average.

Rabbit Trail 3: BTW, these illustrations show how you can use the textures found in my texture book.

If any of you do figure out the butterfly idea could you please email me? ;-)

Illustrative Logo - MeeWok

The majority of my work over the last four years has been for larger design firms, ad agencies and in-house art departments. But I still really enjoy helping a small business owner kick start their new business with a logo identity that'll equip them to play with the big boys.

MeeWok is the name the two business owners gave to a toy concept they are developing themselves. Each work full-time at a large company but on the side they've been getting their toy business in order and needed an identity that would help them pursue investors and market their idea abroad.


'The actual MeeWok prototype.'

The owners gave me a working prototype to take home so I could visually reference the actual product. I have to admit I never did master the device myself, but my two daughters did in a matter of hours and were MeeWoking around my studio.


'Final logo concept.'

Watching my daughters waddle around on this thing gave me some ideas for the logo direction I'd take. They thought it was fun and I felt that was important to carry across in the logo itself, so I decided to hand letter the design. Using the "K" letterform I created a character using using a MeeWok. I thought in the future if this company grows and gains more exposure a possible animation could be done for marketing purposes.

The logo will also appear on the final product molded into the plastic base.


'Finished business cards front and back.'

The MeeWok will be released in multiple colors so on the business cards I decided to print each of the partners cards using a different color them. (Orange & Lime Green) I also decided to mimic the shape of their toy in the business cards die-cut. The owners love the cards and have enjoyed the feedback they receive when handing them out as well.

Whether your project is for a multi-national brand or a small business owner just starting out, I can help you discover and design an appropriate creative foundation to build your success upon.

Unwrapping a Logotype - TV Spot

'Lifetime Television Seasonal Logotype'

Lifetime Television just sent me the TV spot using my logotype design. They changed the colors and added some modeling to the letterforms but overall I think it came out pretty cool. The above image shows the art I delivered.


'Lifetime Television TV Spot'

The screen capture shown above comes from the actual TV spot being aired the whole month of December on Lifetime. Watch the entire TV spot here.

Unwrapping a Logotype

'Lifetime Television Seasonal Logotype'

I was approached by Lifetime Television to create the above seasonal logotype. They wanted fun and festive hand lettering for use in their branding for the holiday season the entire month of December. It'll also be used in their print publicity materials and online.

The TV spots will be animated and are suppose to start airing November 10th. I haven't been able to see the animation yet myself however.


'Secondary Seasonal Element Provided'

I also created the above secondary graphic to go with the logotype. All though I don't think Lifetime Television will end up using the holly berries I still provided the art incase they changed their mind.

I always enjoy doing hand lettering it's almost as fun as Christmas.

Linear Line Artwork

'Smiling Face Linear.'

Creating linear line illustration is as close to getting paid to doodle as it gets for me. The amount of time it takes to go from my revised sketch to final is about as short as it gets in regards to illustration. But that said this style is deceptively simple. Sure it's one continuous line (minus secondary elements like movement lines and such) but you have to balance the negative and positive areas well otherwise it can become a scrambled mess of overlapping lines. The other key is to not make the stroke too thick or too thin.


'The Whole Set.'

The ad agency White Rhino (Cool name) hired me to create the set of linear line illustrations shown above. The usage would be for TV spots for a regional bank called 'RiverBank' and on print collateral. The illustrations had to work moving from left to right when animated. The 'Dental Chair' illustration was never used because their client didn't want that theme related to their banking experience. ;-) Included in the project was the need for type matching the same style they could use on print collateral as well.


'Capture from TV Spot 1'

The illustrations were animated for two TV spots they produced. You can watch both spots using the following links.

- Watch TV Spot 1
- Watch TV Spot 2

Now if only Ragu™ would hire me to create linear illustrations out of spaghetti! Dat's a-spicy project!

Google, Yahoo.....Cambur?

'Logo Options I presented'

I'd be remiss if I didn't also post about projects I worked on that were less then successful. This post is case in point.

I was contacted by a couple engineers who are trying hard to become the next Google or Yahoo. (Easier said then done) Their expectations clearly defined their desire for a logo type they could use to brand themselves with.

Googles logo isn't a looker, that is for sure and there are a plethora of better logos for companies offering similar services and they haven't been as successful so all though I believe in a strong logo it's only part of the bigger branding picture which will only be as believable and effective as the quality and usefulness of the services being offered.

On logo projects specifically I require a lot of upfront information from clients, this helps me gauge perceptions and expectations as well as understanding them personally, their business and their target audience. After receiving this and other information I proceed to work out my concepts and the end result is presenting what you see above.

About a day after sending off the comps I received an email that contained a report card of tests these engineers apparently ran the logo comps through. In a nut shell my logos didn't pass their tests. I found it both amusing, frustrating and ignorant so I decided to share it with others.

Here was their evaluation criteria. (My comments in response to them follow each and are shown in italic)

1) Highly Recognizable: I liked the fact that you provided the initial concepts in solid colors as this is something I do to test the typeface recognition factor. Some question I ask myself are: Can I spot it instantly? Can I recognize it well even if I change the colors and effects?, is the font unique? Can the logo be identifiable even if it's reduced to 75px wide.

How do I test this condition? I reduce the size of the logo to 75px wide, I transform it to grayscale, I print it both by itself, and with some dummy text around, etc.

Disney and Yahoo are examples of logos that I see pass this test.

Of all of the logos that you provided me both #1 and #4 easily pass this test also. The others don't convince me.

If you mean by 'Recognizable' that it has visual equity then I'd have to say that is not what a logo accomplishes. This IS what branding accomplishes and that is facilitated with how well you market and advertise. If you do that well any mark good or bad will work to be frank. You do that with a well crafted design and it only makes it more effective. All four I have provided accomplish this in my opinion.

You say it's unrecognizable after you scale it down to 75 pixels. Well that's because you're not suppose to scale down art to create small onscreen graphics. It just doesn't work that way. Creating GUI content is part creative and part science. You build your art at 100% so it rasterizes art when you take it into Photoshop at a 100% this helps clarity and even then you need to go in and finesse the pixels to make it look it's best. So the only reason they failed is because you are attempting to do it the wrong way. (See my attachment showing all four very recognizable at 75 pixels in width)

Furthermore none of these four options are merely a font typed out. Number one I created from scratch. The rest are modified to he point they look very little like the typefaces I derived them from.


'My mock-up at 75 pixels wide to show that these do work.'


2) Readability: This is something I find extremely important. That's why I prefer spelled letters instead of handwriting-like letters like in the Johnson&Johnson logo. It is a great logo, I am not saying it's not, but it is not for an internet search engine for sure. This is a component that causes frustration, some designers have tried to satisfy condition #1-Highly Recognizable at the expense of #2 Readability.The first time I came to the US, I saw a guy carrying a computer that I liked, I looked at the logo and went back home to see if I could buy one. I typed on my web browser www.DOLL.COM and no computer site showed up. I want to avoid these kinds of mistakes. I believe a logo can be both readable and unique, again my old examples Disney and Yahoo, with Yahoo being the most readable of the two.

Your logos #1 and #4 in my opinion do not pass this test. I basically try to test and see if my brain can read the name in a blink. I showed your logos to several people and some of then read Combor, Canbur, and Camur (#4's "b" is not very noticeable)

The letter "C" should be capitalized.

Actually I ran all of these comps by eight different individuals (7 non-designers and 1 designer) who did not know anything about this project. One of them was a 9 year old girl and they all read them fine. I am a bit confused how you not being able to read 'DELL' pertains to these marks? That said I modified the 'm' letter-form to improve the readability.


3) Portability: Another reason why I reduce the logo size to 75px width is because the nature of our business involves engaging in co-branded deals and partnerships, application development etc. What I mean by this is: Try to envision Cambur:
a) Powering the search feature of another site and showing a very small "Powered by Cambur" logo next to the search box
b) Creating a desktop-based application that requires an icon, a firefox plug-in, extension, a favicon for the site.
c) Creating a browser toolbar.

On this logo #1 does a much better job than #4. In addition, the reflection effect or mirror effect that you did on all logos is not optimal because it does not pass this test. I like other components of the web 2.0 style, this one is not very portable.

Once again you build to size. This is easily done so your getting the cart before the horse. Further more you made it clear you wanted a logo type not a graphic mark for a logo. Even though you said that I still added secondary elements to the logo types you could use in that respect. A logo is not a desktop based icon, it can be but then that needs to be made clear up front.

If you wanted an icon for these usages that would either be part of the logo development as a secondary branding image or just another project after the fact to create a desktop icon. A desktop icon is never a name or word it's an iconic mark which would and can be developed for a, b and c as you describe. Google uses a 'G' and Yahoo a 'Y!' AOL uses the running man and so on. Think square proportion.


4) Neatness and Presence: This is the easiest component to test, I simply re-size the logo to 300px wide and I place it on a "Test" page similar to the google interface that I have attached for you to use. If I like what I see, and it passess all of the tests above, then I approve the logo.

Regarding the Web 2.0 style: I like the reflection effect, but I don't think it's portable, so I prefer effects like this: http://zimio.com/ (please look at the logo), and the other type effects on the forum I sent you about corporate web 2.0 redesigns.

Like I've said you build to size you don't merely scale at will and expect it to look good. Frankly even though you scaled it for this you can tell it looks good. I assume you don't like it though?

The web 2.0 reflection I only added because you mentioned that upfront. And that would only appear in places like the header of your web site, not on badges or co-branded applications etc.

Yes I can add layer effects to the mark to get subtle shadowing etc. None of which will hold up at the smaller viewings however. This is all detailing work though and something I'd do in the next stage of the process.

Well the client hated the logo concepts as you can see in the above tests he ran them through.

Since this new criteria was not provided up front when I requested such information made me realize this whole process was going to be an uphill battle dealing with engineers who fancy themselves as designers and view me as an extension of their arm. Some times it's worth educating a client and winning them over to a vision you have for the project or helping them understand something. Frankly I was too busy to deal with this type of situation so I made the decision to end it before I got in any further suggesting that they should find a new designer because I don't think I am a good fit for their project based on the new information they provided.

I don't like doing this but sometimes it happens. In this project I struck out pure and simple. But to continue with the baseball analogy I'll have another at bat soon and hopefully I'll hit a frozen rope to deep center. Thankfully this isn't the norm but rather the exception with my business. Live and learn.

Promotional Poster

'Promotional Poster' Click art to view larger image.

I'll be teaching digital illustration again come Winter term on January 4th. This is a poster I created to hang up at the college to encourage students to sign-up. Once I start this years classes I'll be posting the assignments and all the resources I use at 'IllustrationClass.com'. Anyone can download the files and if you do let me know and I'll show your work to my class.

You'll notice several common themes I have repeated in this artwork. I've been illustrating a lot of tubes coming out of heads, snakes, wings, fire, another bird cameo and of course the token fedora. Not sure why I've been on this kick but it's fun so stop whining about it already.

I am a new CS2 Illustrator user as you'd know reading this blog. This project was only the fourth time I've used CS2 to create a project. It's getting moderately easier but still far slower then FreeHand unfortunately. One thing for sure it's getting harder to use both and eventually I'll have to completely cut all ties to the previous. I am still a little bitter with the corporate weasels at Adobe who forced this change on me. Eventually I'll have to illustrate a corporate weasel and of course use CS2 Frustrator...uh...I mean Illustrator.

Urban Wrap

Classy, clean, simple and upscale.

About a year ago I designed a logo for a couple New York based software programmers. They were really happy with the work I did for them and when they decided to partner on a new inner city restaurant venture they contacted me to create their new logo for them. I thought the name they came up with was incredible and it really made me excited to work on this project.


Going Ghetto With it!

My failed first attempt at the logo.

Normally on logo projects I present a wide range of ideas but this project was more on the level of a pro-bono gig so I presented just one idea initially. I of course as you can see played off the whole 'Urban Wrap' theme. I like it, it's definately has an urban inner city vibe but it was a little too over the top for them. Their feedback essentially said "Too ghetto! We want upscale and classy."

No problem. The way my mind works is I almost always immediately see a design in my head and usually about 90% of the time it's what ends up being picked. So I set out to create a nice simple and clean mark with enough subtle conceptual flair to make it interesting. I also tried to keep the color palette flexible for easy application and low-cost reproduction of menus, signage etc.

They loved it and now I'll be designing their awning. I am due to fly out to New York later this year so I'll stop in and participate in some 'Urban Wrap' myself.