Flightless Bird Logo

Reading Program Logo.

The agency for Janus asked me to create a logo for a program called "Janus Elevating Education Alliance" for the Denver Colorado school district. The logo needed to match the primary branding in style, use a bird and book for imagery and be fun, smart and somewhat sophisticated.

In the end they didn't use my direction and went with something else they had presented. This is pretty typical for agency work, it's hit and miss at times. You get paid to take an at bat and even when you think you get a solid hit, you find out later you never really got on base. In other words the owl didn't fly.

Israel Trip

Update: The trip is now over and it was a total blast. To view my online gallery of around 500 pictures click here.

Well, I left on the 18th and have been traveling around Israel now for about three days so far. Lots of cool places I've been able to visit and I've been taking all kinds of photos. My internet access and speed has been somewhat problematic and not very reliable. When a hotel says they have internet it doesn't mean broadband so the photos I have posted are a very small sampling of what I've taken so far.

So I sit in the grand court of a hotel in old town Jerusalem typing this. Hebrew and Arabs talking all around and I am drinking some kind of grapefruit juice. The internet is cool in that I can somewhat share it with you via this blog. So enjoy a few Israeli interludes I have had the past few days.


'A beautiful flower at Caesarea.'

The first place we visited was the Roman city of Caesarea built on the coast of the Mediterranean. The ruins were awesome and since there is so many fragments of antiquity they don't mind if you take pieces as long as they do not have certain features, so I grabbed a few of those.


'On top of Mt. Carmel overlooking the Megiddo Valley.'

We traveled to the top of Mt. Carmel which overlooks the Megiddo Valley. The future location of the battle of armageddon. While we were there the Israeli air force was flying jets through the air space so that was cool too.


'Steep stairs going down into an underground tunnel.'

In the Megiddo Valley was the 'Tel Megiddo' an ancient city that has about 26 layers of various ages built one on top of the other over time. To get water to the top they had to build a tunnel going straight down and out to the natural spring below. The picture above shows this access way. Of course it would have been san stairs back then.


'Zimbabwe gentleman.'

Met this Zimbabwe gentleman at Nazareth of all places. He was the founding pastor of a Church and their members were traveling in Israel right now. Very nice guy.


'Sunrise on the Sea of Galilee.'

Got up at about 5am to watch the eclipse then watched the sunrise over the Sea of Galilee. Too cool.


'St. Peters fish for lunch.'

When in Galilee eat like the Galilians. I am not a big fish person but I had to try it. It tasted pretty good but was very bony.


'Ruins at Capernaum.'

Up on a hill overlooking the shore of Galilee is the ruins of the apostle Simon Peters home. Next to that is the ruins of the first century synagogue. Hard to take a bad picture at this place.

In between all the cool pictures of the various locations we are visiting I am also capturing a bunch of great ancient textures I'll be creating a set with. Of course I am getting all kinds of strange looks though when were at a famous location and everyone is taking a picture of the main attraction and I am standing facing a wall or bending over and taking a texture picture of a wall or cool mosaic floor etc. LOL

Will try to post more later in the trip.

Small Business -vs- Corporate Giant

'The classic, tired and poorly designed Gold's Gym logo.'

I really enjoy doing logo identity work for small business owners. Helping them kick-start their new business with a logo identity that'll equip them to play with the big boys.

A recent client of mine use to own three "Gold's Gym" franchises locally. Over the years the franchise fee they paid monthly continued to climb eating into their profit margin. This year they decided to sell all of their locations and open up one new location under their own brand name.


'The Fitness Experience logo. Two formats.'

I always try to provide two formats for a logo so as it will work in any context regardless of proportion. The top incarnation I have nested the core mark inside a nice shield shape. The shield graphic is an iconic representation of the human torso. Cut-in on the sides yet still strong and bold. Fit if you will.

The bottom version is more airy, fresh, healthy and vibrant.


'Business card design.'

One of the best ways for a small business to market itself is to have unique business cards that stand out in a sea of marginal cookie cutter cards normally distributed to the public. In essence a business card is more then passing along mere information it's also communicating and advertising your brand and over time just adds to the bottom line equity of a business.


'Interior poster design. 1 of 3.'

In addition to a new logo, identity pieces, building and street signage I suggested they produce a set of '3' posters they could display inside their facility. The clients budget wasn't huge but I worked with the print vendor and we agreed on a fair price to digitally print '30' of each poster at 18x24 inches for a very reasonable price.


'Interior poster design. 2 of 3.'

I will assisting a web developer to flesh out their online presence as well.

Working on projects like this make me realize that a designer can effectively play a part in changing their local design culture in a positive way. It happens one project at a time.


'Interior poster design. 3 of 3.'

My client likes the fact they no longer have to pay a monthly franchise fee and they now have a better logo as well.

Switching from FreeHand to Illustrator

Poster art for Adobe.

Well it's been just over a year since I switched to Illustrator. You can read all about the real-world design project (shown above) that led to my switch and the back story of the move from Macromedia FreeHand to Adobe Illustrator here.

My first official design job from beginning to end in Adobe Illustrator was the above poster design. I've given myself a year to get use to Illustrators methods and functionality. You can see my entire process of creating the art above and my struggles to use illustrator for the first time beginning to end on this project via a free tutorial on my other site IllustrationClass.com.

I've noticed a few nick-names former FreeHand users have given Illustrator since switching and all prove to be accurate ironically enough. Here are some I've heard. (Feel free to share more in your comments below)

- Frustrator
- Castrator
- ill-luckstrator
- #$@!strator

See a trend developing?


Bubbling ideas. Or as I like to call it, "Slow Boiling."

I've had a lot of FreeHand users contact me about switching. So I decided to share a few plugins for AI that I use which helps building vectors go a lot smoother and faster in Illustrator. It is kind of sad that these tools exist if you think about it. If an application was adequate why would anyone be motivated to create essentially the same type of tools that already exist in the app for the most part? It's because Adobes are found wanting pure and simple.

Plugins I suggest for Illustrator
- XtreamPath: These tools work better then Adobes own tools which says a lot about Adobes lack of progression with their base tool set and improving upon it. They simply never do and it shows. These tools speed up my build times greatly so it was well worth the price.

- Point Control: Adobe promised with CS3 that point control would be added and improved. At best it's still hinky and clunky. This plugin works great and I use it all the time and avoid Illustrators lame and lacking point control tools.

- Better Handles: Another excellent plugin for Illustrator. The whole idea of point control is what this plugin does so well and makes so easy. Sad that Adobe refuses to realize how wanting their core tools are to the point (Pardon the pun) that it's inspired other software developers to step in and make them work the way they should. Well done Nineblock Software.

A replacement for "Collect For Output"
- Art Files: In FreeHand it was easy to gather content for final production you simply used the "Collect For Output" feature and it would gather everything into one folder. I still can't believe Adobe doesn't have this simple feature in it's app? That is just stupid. But thankfully a company offers a great little app called "Art Files" and it works the same way. Sure it'll take longer just because it's not integrated into Illustrator but hey everything will take longer now that you're using Illustrator so stop whining. (Sorry, kind of reflected Adobes attitude towards FreeHand users there)

Setting up Custom Keyboard Shortcuts to Mimic FreeHand Functions.
I have set up a bunch of my own custom keyboard commands to make building go faster in Illustrator. Below is a list of the ones I personally use. This makes running the function one key press rather then a combination of keys. It also helps me do what I did in FreeHand even though Illustrator wasn't set up to do it that way.

F1: Paste Inside (Have both mask shape and content selected)
F2: Cut Contents
F3: Clone (An action Copies, and Pastes in place))
F4: Send to Back
F5: Bring to Front
F6: UnGroup
F7: Fix Compound Paths
F8: De-Select All

All of these plugins and custom keyboard shortcuts are merely workarounds for a poor user experience in Illustrator. Of course Adobe fan boys will now feel obligated to post but frankly they don't know any better. Sure they are use to it and don't see it as a problem then again they have nothing to compare it too either. Kind of frog in the kettle if you will.

Bottom line Adobe has neglected Illustrator over time, they continue to stuff it full of new feature bloat which makes Adobe marketing weasels hot and bothered and tool hacks excited but does nothing for professionals who don't rely on pull down menus to achieve their design and or illustration. Adobe continues to develop new tools at the expense of improving existing tools and methods. Simply put there is no balance.

Will they improve the base building of vector shapes? I doubt it so it's my hope that another company will create a better drawing application and thus encourage Adobe to do what they should. My vote is Apple, but I know I am dreaming.

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.

MacWorld Predictions

'Jobs wearing his standard issue jeans and black turtleneck.'

For most people Christmas tends to be the apex of expectations in any given year when waiting for the unknown to be revealed. But for diehard MAC Addicts like myself Christmas is a mere warm up to the greater expectations that soon follow at Macworld with the Apple keynote given by Steve Jobs. What new products or technologies will Apple announce? Much speculation and rumor abounds this time of year and I thought I'd take a few guesses myself and see how well my forecasting skills bear up against the final truth to be revealed January 15th.

UPDATED: Well the keynote is over and it looks like I was far too hopeful then reality delivered. Anything tagged RED below either proved to be true or at least partially true. The rest was more or less wishful thinking or just pure science fiction I had hoped for. :-)

MACWORLD 2008 PREDICTIONS

Apple will...
- Preview next-gen OS utilizing resolution independence. (Shot in the dark)
- Preview proof of concept for new OS navigation via touch-screen. (Eh)
- Announce touch-screen Mac. Tablet format. (iMac format?)
- Announce touch-screen programmable monitors. (Please)
- Announce iTunes movie rental service. (I know not original)
- Announce new Apple TV improvements. (Big surprise)
- Announce Apple Plasma TV. (Shot in the dark)
- Announce the ability to upload/edit video via Apple TV. (New iMovie)
- Announce the next generation iPhone. (3G, GPS & Video)
- Announce OLED Keyboard. (Sorry Optimus you're taking too long)
- Reveal it's own suite of creative apps to compete w/ Adobe. (I can dream)

Steve will...
- Slam Microsoft in some form at least 3-5 times during keynote. (Amen)
- Have Woz come cruising out on the stage riding his Segway. (LOL)
- Say "But there is one more thing." at least 2 times. (Maybe 3)
- Announce Beatles on iTunes. McCartney closes keynote. (Giddy Up)

Once the keynote wraps up on January 15th I'll post a follow up to this and see how well my predictions faired.

Protect and Serve Quality Illustration

'FBI Tees Now Available.'

Do you feel drawn to be a special agent of the FBI? If so you'll investigate and solve illustrative crime by protecting and serving quality illustration. Show your support for the bureau and gird your loins with the official FBI moniker.

To view and order a t-shirt click here.

You too can also show your support for the "Federal Bureau of Illustration" by downloading an FBI wallpaper for your machine today!