Order

This poster is inspired by how God has ordered things. It says 'order', in a kind of graffiti style.

In nature there is incredible order. I was listening to a RadioLab podcast the other day about how there's a particular tree that only when it's burned does it release its seeds! Interesting to note too that if species die or ecosystems are destroyed, how that all affects the rest of nature. Things die to help other things live. Evolution points to things being created independent of each other but what about how everything is connected in such an orderly fashion?

This poster is not finished but will be. It's made up of pieces of old cards that I've collected for ten or so years.

Matt Burk Music School

This week I'm starting a logo design for Matt Burk. He runs a music school in Dallas, TX and he's wanting a new look and identity for the business.

http://mattburkmusic.blogspot.com

A new design

Another card design I did for a friend turning 30. The process is basically layered card with varnish on it. Nice effect. I like how the shapes here slightly break the picture plane to give an added sense of movement.

Hope Fellowship logo

During the summer I've been busy doing a few freelance graphic design jobs. Here's one of them: a logo for a new church in Dallas. They have a particular emphasis on reaching the poorer sector of Carollton in Texas, finding ways they can meet needs.

The idea of offering a door of hope came as I spent time thinking about their ministry and is a concept they can use to draw awareness and raise funds by creating interactive media in the future. You can see my design process with them by clicking on the following link:

http://hopefellowshipgraphics.blogspot.com

Good communication

It struck me today how much as human beings we value and long for people to notice us, to be affectionate towards us, to value us. It's in all of us, no matter race or religion, we were born with this longing and if we don't get to be noticed or no one values us then we throw our teddy in the corner (British phrase for throwing a tantrum), or we become bitter. For a young girl the affection and love of her father is the thing she craves. If dad shows that he loves her and cherishes her and notices her then the little girl grows up strong and confident. If all dad does is watch TV and drink and shout at anyone and everyone, then the little girl grows up starved of love and affection, she becomes bitter towards men and others who don't give her what she wants.

In design we can learn from this. People love to be communicated to. Imagine being an iPhone 4 owner right now and Apple completely ignores the antenna problem. Are you going to think well of them? Are you going to buy an iPhone 4 for your friend? Probably not. But, if Steve Jobs recognizes the issue at hand and communicates to the customers and does the right thing, whatever the fix might be, he will more than likely keep his customers, make them happy and strengthen his brand.

If design is really communication then we really should understand our audience, serve them well and appreciate them, for the long haul. Better that than a bitter, angry customer shaking his fist and never coming back! People are not commodities to be picked up and put down whenever we feel like it.

A nice little card

Here's another design I made, this time as a card for a friend. It's interesting when the design is small like this and the pieces large it doesn't have quite the same impact, unless you hold it away from yourself and squint.

A new art style

The other week I made this card for Kathy, a friend of mine who turned 60. I was so excited by what I had made (I'm not telling you how I made it), I'm going to attempt a bigger design using one of my older sketches as a template. It's exciting because I feel like I've stumbled on a new way to turn my 2D, black and white sketch work into textured color art. This has a lot more dimension to it. It's time consuming because it's fiddly but the result is very interesting.

Payless Internship

Here's some photographs from my time working at Payless in Topeka:

Payless work out of an old distribution center in Topeka, Kansas.

My first job there was to design a gift card for the upcoming Christmas holiday.

They liked my reindeer so much they chose it!

My second job was to design a shoe ad for a Puerto Rican newspaper.

First step, locate the shoes.

After some rough photo shoots I designed 27 possible layouts!

Sorting through the best ones with Justin.

Jimmy does the final shoot.

Justin taking me through the production process.

So far the internship is going well. I'm learning a ton about design in the world of footwear and fashion. The staff at Payless are all very welcoming and friendly. They have been so accommodating and very willing to teach me a lot about what they do. They have a fairly decent sized marketing department which includes pre press, production, graphic design, retouch and even a couple of well kitted out photography studios.

It's a very fast paced environment; ads, product and packaging go through very quickly. They might sit on a rebrand of something for a few weeks or months but when the time is right, whoosh, you gotta get it done in a few hours for a top level meeting.

There are quite a few layers of management which can be interesting to navigate, as far as getting approvals for ads and such, but that would be the norm for any large sized organization. These guys know what works and what doesn't. They've been around for about 60 years and are still doing pretty well despite the economic down turn. As far as efficiency goes, they've got it down to a fine art.

Branding Essay

Here's a good article entitled 'Typographical Distinction in Branding', written by my good friend Josh. He used to be chief editor at the International House of Prayer. Together we worked on a style guide (below) for the organization that included the four elements he talks about; style, color, font and logo. Josh also produced a multi page type style guide as part of the manual covering how to write things like dates, references to the Trinity and punctuation.

The essay touches on how to brand, the role of typography in branding and the power of consistent type use in branding.

About the importance of good branding Josh writes, "If the customer feels the brand coherence, uncertainty is alleviated and they feel reassured during interactions such as purchases or submitting personal information." That's well put in my book.