Uppercase/Identity Project

For this project my client owned a letterpress and silkscreen shop. They needed a new identity that incorporated both silkscreen and letterpress all into one. They already had a logo, but they wanted to present their logo in a very creative way. Both silkscreen and letterpress are hand processes, but they are two very different mediums. In my experience, whenever I use ink or paint it seems to get all over everything. So I decided to go in the opposite direction with the design. Everything was going to be clean and pristine white; very simple and very elegant. I decided to represent the silkscreen side of the business by putting the logo on an actual see-through screen. It gives their logo a very distinct style and flair. For the letterpress aspect, I thought about “ink” and how it seems to find its way onto everything. So I added a black ink fingerprint to help tie both processes together.

For this client I created a business card, letterhead, envelope, and promotional piece. All of the different pieces have the see-through logo, and every now and then a fingerprint appears.

Typography/Haiku

This project was my first ever design project. I was going through all of my old work and I thought it was pretty cool to see where my dream of becoming a professional designer started. For this project I was given a Haiku, and I had to illustrate that Haiku with only typography. None of this work is digital.  The only tools used were pages and pages of type, scissors and lots of glue. The final compositions were photocopied to help flatten the images.

Design Philosophy

This turned out to be a great project and overall great experience.  I spent the entire morning writing my design philosophy and when I finished I e.mailed it to my mentor to read over. About 30 seconds later I got an e.mail back and it said,

“This will be a good test, I am a busy designer this is far to long. You need something that will grab peoples attention right away. Try again, and use only 5 words.”

After I finished yelling at my computer for wasting four hours of my life, this is what I came up with, and it only took about 5 minutes.

Natural Disaster Timeline

For this project I chose to design a timeline that illustrates the world’s most deadly natural disasters. The timeline spans over a 150 year period, and also focuses on the most populated cities in the world. For this assignment I had to look at an event in history, pick a definite point of view (even if I did not agree with that particular point of view), and try to convince the viewer to believe all the information I am showing them. All of the information used in this project is factual, but I am implying that over-population is the direct cause of natural disasters. How many natural disaster deaths occur in Idaho each year compared to Bhopal, India?

But would anyone actually be convinced with my argument? It is very interesting to me that people take things that they read in the paper, see online, or watch on television as direct fact. This project helps shed light on that very subject. Just because something is in print or on the net does not make it fact. Just because I took the time to design this timeline and say that I did a lot of research, does not make it true.  It is up to the viewer to decipher fact from fiction.

AIGA Student Group Poster Design

This is a series with three different posters, designed for the Boise State AIGA student group. All three posters were printed and then hand painted. AIGA is a club that focuses on Graphic Design, Illustration, Photography, and Fine Art. I wanted to represent all four disciplines on the posters so I used an iconic image as the backdrop, but presented it in a way the audience was not used to seeing. The original icon we are all used to seeing is very serious, almost stern. By painting over the top of the original image, I created a different mood for the posters while simultaneously setting the tone for the club and any potential new members interested in joining.

Magazine Cover Design

As a class we were given the assignment to create a magazine. The class was broken down into four groups and each group was given a color and a typographic design style. My group was given the color yellow and the typographic style of fragmentation. I had the task of creating the magazine’s cover and table of contents. The style of fragmentation involves fragmenting text with typography and vise-versa. The key to fragmentation is that even though text and imagery are clearly broken apart, all of the imagery and typography still need to have a clear level of legibility.

Burning Burro BBQ

The client for this project was a new restaurant owner who needed to create an identity for his restaurant chain. All he knew was that he was going to sell traditional spicy American BBQ and that he needed a logo along with a name. I began by making a list of words to describe spicy. In doing so, all I could think about was what spicy food does to my body, and no matter how much I hurt after eating it, I always go back for more. The owners signature sauce is called “Butt Burner,” but I did not think we should use the word butt on his logo. So I suggested something a little more tongue- in-cheek.

Gene Harris Jazz Festival

For this project, my client was the Gene Harris Jazz Festival. I was required to create promotional materials for the event which included a poster, postcard, black and white newspaper ad and an event T-shirt. The dates and times for the event were provided but everything else was to be created by me. I wanted the overall design to be like a puzzle with interchangeable pieces. No matter what order the pieces are in, all of the information remains the same.

Re Inventing the Calendar

The majority of people I know use a calendar on a daily basis. For this project I had to invent a new visual method for presenting the information people were used to seeing in traditional calendars. I chose three months: January, February, and March. In the U.S., January occurs during winter so I created seven different snowflakes to represent the seven days of the week. For February I focused on Valentines day since it is a such a prominent holiday. For the month of March,I used a basic grid format almost like a traditional calendar, but not quite. March is also color-coded. For example, you’ll notice that the seventh day of the month, is also maroon which corresponds to a day of the week.  In this case, Friday.  Therefore, all maroon dates are Fridays.

Social Dance Poster Series

This is a serial poster project from 2008. For this assignment I had to design a series of 3 posters for the same event, but they all had to be different. I wanted the typographic information to be consistent throughout the series, and I wanted a new illustration for each poster. For this performance series three different styles of dance were on display, so I felt it was important to represent all three styles equally. I also wanted to represent movement in these posters, because whenever I watch a performance I am mesmerized by the movement and control the performer has. Each poster is strong on its own, but they also work well as a group.

Recycled Art Show

The Recycled Art Show is a fundraiser for the non-profit organization “Second Chance.” Second Chance helps recovering drug addicts with treatment, employment, and housing. The Recycled Art Show is open to all local artists and this year they will have over 50 entries. All of the artwork submitted must be made from recycled materials. They allow everything from 2 dimensional and functional to 3 dimensional and sculptural. The client wanted the packet to remind everyone to go green. For this project my client knew exactly what they wanted, even the type family I used. Basically I just put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Menu Design/Boise Fry Co.

For this project a new local business owner  Blake Lingle was looking for a menu for his new restaurant. This was an amazing experience!!!!! There was so much more to this project then just designing a menu. When the project started Blake knew that he wanted this menu to be the central focus for his restaurant. But cost had the potential of being a big problem. Sense Blake was opening his first restaurant bills were adding up fast. I suggested creating a menu that has the ability to change, without re-printing new menus every time there was a change. We looked at chalkboards, but you had to pay an artist. Wood, metal, plastic, any and every material was a possibility. Then it occurred to me, why not make a huge paper menu, and laminate it with a dry erase plastic. Perfect, now Blake has a fully functioning menu that he can change the prices on, change the menu items, and he does not have to pay to re-print.

For the take out menu I wanted to have the same feel as the menu at the counter. I created a smaller version of the main menu and used a thick font to represent the look of the dry erase marker you see on the menu at the counter. When this menu was first printed all of the typography was left blank, and then just filled in when Blake knew what potatoes and prices he would have for that day. When he has a more concrete idea on his prices, I added the typography to the menu permanently.

24 Hours/A diary of my day

All I had to do was document every hour of my day. When this project was first presented to me I did not have a clue how to present my boring day, in an interesting visual way. As I moved through my process the design became more and more in depth. To start with I wanted to highlight how much time I spent on certain activities, that time is represented by the numbers. Second I wanted to show how much I enjoyed certain activities, so I used the size of the circles to show my level of enjoyment. The smallest circle is the driving circle, I hate being stuck in traffic more then anything. The largest circle represents the amount of sleep I got that day, after a hectic day there is nothing better then a good night sleep. The small circles on the outside represent a clock, and they are color coded to match the amount of time spent on each activity.

Page Layout/History of the bike

This project was my first attempt at designing a multi page layout. I was given a subject, “The Bicycle.” The rest was up to me. I did not have very many restrictions with this project, but I did have to include three things. 1. the history, 2. the culture of the bike, 3. the function. I did all of my own illustrations for this project, but the black and white photo was scanned from an old magazine. I decided to use the typographic style “radial.” The radial style is based on the radius of a circle, all of the heads and the text for the timeline are all based on the circle. I felt this style was a nice complement to the bicycles wheel, and it adds a nice visual variety and helps break up the structure of the grid.