Identity Design - Banana Thursday

I recently finished this identity design for Banana Thursday. I had a lot of fun working on this project because I got to let my personal design style shine through. Banana Thursday is an electronic dance music fan group. Members dress up like bananas and rock out. I've learned that dressing in a banana suit in a large crowd makes it rather easy to find your friends. Check out their Facebook page, which I also designed.

Using Adobe Kuler to help create color palettes

I have known about Adobe Kuler for a while but have never used it until now. Kuler is a great color picking tool. You can start with one color or upload a picture and pick colors out of the picture to create a palette. I did this exercise to help me pick a palette for a surface pattern design I am creating. I am mostly drawn to bright jewel tones, but I tried a few different things. I really enjoyed using Kuler the interface is very smooth and intuitive and it's free. So play away! Have you used it? Do you like it? What other tools do you use to pick colors?

Wild Mushroom Surface Pattern

I went to Point Reyes on a long drive with some close friends this last weekend. I was inspired to draw some mushrooms and turned them into a surface pattern. This is a new faster style then I usually work in. I made these mostly digitally vs some hand painting and some computer work. I have some good ideas on how to combine my paintings into this style. Anyway I'm pretty pleased with these little guys. And I'm also trying to keep a better sketch book so more work to come as always.

30 Day Challenge - Day 2

I'm doing a 30 day challenge where I do a blog post each day for 30 days based on this 30 Day Challenge List. Feel free to do the same and send me a link to your challenge.


2. Something you feel strongly about


I feel that we we are all put on this earth to create. Being creative is very important to me and it's a skill we all possess when we are born. Some chose to embrace our creativeness and some choose to ignore it. So, I say if you are ignoring your creativeness, don't. The world would probably be better off if you take action and put your creative energy to work. So Get going. 


The pictures below are a mood board I created for the design of an iPad App I'm working on. 
Feel free to leave a comment about how you have been creative this week. Cheers. 

Casey Caplowe of GOOD

I attended a design lecture presented by AIGA SF last Thursday. Casey Caplowe the co-founder & chief creative officer of GOOD was the speaker. GOOD is doing a lot of Good shit, pun intended. You should check out their site and projects. But, without recapping the lecture I wanted to talk about one bit of information that I walked away with. My brain latched onto one quote that Casey threw out there, and it really resonated with me: Fail Harder. Fail Faster. Try to fail, and you won't.

This quote rocks. Don't just sit there, if you are afraid to fail you will never succeed. We were all put on this earth to be creative, that is why we have thumbs. So get out there and paint, draw, snap photos, decorate, sing, write, design, inspire.

Focusing on Myself

I set a goal at the start of 2011. I wanted to create an art licensing collection each month for the entire year. I've had a pretty hectic few months full of a lot of bullshit upsets, and as a result I have fallen behind on my goals.

Why is it that my personal goal gets swept under the rug the moment my life has a hiccup? Well I say fuck that. I am making some drastic changes in my life to make sure I meet the major goal I set forth this year. I can't keep putting my dreams on hold. Here are the four things I'm going to do for the next 86 (that's ironic) days to help me meet my goal. (My birthday is in 86 days, and yes I will be drinking on my birthday.)

-Quit drinking
-Give up online dating
-Make a list
-Quit shopping 

WTF? You might be thinking, how the hell will this help you draw more cupcakes?!? Yeah, I thought you might ask. First off, drinking is stupid. Fun, actually, really really fun, but stupid. I'm not an alcoholic or anything but I like to drink, the amount of time and money I spend on drinking could be spent on painting, designing, entering contests, social networking, real networking, getting inspired, making new friends or sleeping. All more productive then being hung over, and getting fat. 

Giving up online dating. (Cough, cough, oh God.) Yeah, it's time consuming. Why am I spending a few hours a night a few times a week with some weird stranger, talking about the same stupid crap over and over again and never feeling a connection? Not to mention if I spent a few hours a day a few times a week painting, well geesh I would be light-years ahead of where I am now. So again I say fuck it. If Mr. right is out there, he can find me, I'm sick of looking. So fuck off, because I'm awesome.

Make a list. I'm pretty sure I have ADD and my mind is in hyper spazz mode 24-7. I've got freaking awesome ideas zipping around in my brain like a caffeinated ninja. They come, they go, they come again. I'm capturing those thoughts in a massive creative "ninja list." why a ninja list? Why not, ninjas are awesome and they smell like cinnamon bits. 

Quit Shopping. Time is money people. The less crap I buy, the less I need to work doing side projects to pay for that crap I don't need. This leaves more time to crush the list.  

I'm really nervous to post this list to my blog for the world to see. But if I post it, then it makes these decisions real. Also, by no means am I going to hole up in my art studio every spare second of my life and work my self to death. I'm an artist, I need social time, inspiration, sunlight and a break. I'm starting a new job this week and I plan on kicking some major ass at it. I'm so excited for the new challenges of working as an Art Director for a San Francisco startup. 

So with all of that said, for the next 86 days I'm going to have a new focus: myself. Weird I know, but it needs to be done and has been a long time coming. 

Wedding Invitation Inspiration Board

One of my good friends got engaged at the start of the year and she asked me to design her wedding invitations. I'm pretty excited about this project because I love designing invitations and the color pink. These ones so far in my mind are going to be antique rose, charcoal grey and cream. I put together this collection of pictures as an inspiration to my creative process.

Purple - A color study

I went to one of My best friend's weddings this weekend. It was possibly the best wedding I have ever been to. The colors were purple, silver and black. This is a little tribute to Morey and Katie may they live a long happy life together and inspire others to do the same. Love you guys.

Feeling Blue, a color study

I work with color every day and I love it. Today I am concentrating on the color blue. I picked this color for a few reasons. My last job's logo Flip Video was blue and this is a little tribute to my "blue" stage.

Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.

Portfolio + Identity Design

I have spent a lot of time and effort creating and refining my Business Identity and Portfolio. I found this wonderful company Pina Zangaro they make a wide variety of portfolio covers that can be custom printed, as well as the pages, cases, and sleeves for the portfolios. This company is located just a few blocks away from my studio. I had the pleasure of meeting the owner Tim at a portfolio day in San Francisco a few years back. I am in the process of updating my portfolio and resume because of a recent job lay off at Flip Video. I think as a graphic artist you should update your portfolio every 6 months to keep your book fresh. Graphic Designers should always be prepared to show their work. I use the hinged paper pages the PZ offers and I can print on both sides of the pages. This is a great solution because the pages are pre-punched and fit perfectly into my book. I use my Epson printer to print the pages. Each page takes about an hour to print front and back, so I will be spending a lot of time in my studio in the next few days. Looking forward to finishing my book and going to interviews.

My Studio Mate Josh LaCunha (NSFW) photographed my book for me his work is very beautiful. Thank you Josh!

Raven Works Logo Design

Logo design is the illustration of the business. It is considered to be the tool which gives the first impression of a business. Before starting a business much consideration is given to the logo design. The logo should be designed according to the name of the company and the business product. Logo design has many advantages including:

• Logo design promotes the business in the market.

• Logo design helps in attracting potential customers to the business.

• Logo design gives a unique identity to the business

• Logo design is as important to the business as the business name.

This is a new logo I created for Raven Works. Raven Works is a company that makes unique jewelry using wire weave techniques. In this design I wanted to incorporate the lines of the wire and the beads used in the jewelry. I recently did an artist Interview with the owner of Raven Works. This jewelry makes great christmas gifts I plan on buying some myself. 

Logos

Effective Logos should be 5 things:

Simple
Memorable
Timeless
Versatile
Appropriate

I am currently working on a rebranding of Gladstone. I work here full time. Here is a sample of the current identity.

This design is not:

Simple
Memorable
Timeless
Versatile
Appropriate

Here are a few examples I have mocked up (Bottom 3). In these designs our name is simplified to Gladstone and the many departments are treated similarly and the logos are taken away to make our identity feel united.

National Student Leadership Conference Poster

I designed this poster for the NSLC. High school students interested in a career in science sign up and visit many scientific institutions. I volunteer to be a tour guide for this event. I was asked to design a "cool" poster that would attract high school students attention. And this is what I came up with.

Memory Walk Tee Shirt Design

I designed the Memory Walk Tee Shirt For our Neurological Department. Here is the design, the institute color is green and I thought this would stand out in a sea of white and purple shirts.