my plum digital common place book
From time to time I like to check in on my friends sites to see what every one is up to, and hope to learn more about what my school chums are doing since school. One in particular sticks out that is my dear friend Chelsey Brislawn, who recently gained an internship with Krown lab design. She rocks! Anyways, she inspired me to put up a bit of my sketch work with her wonderful caricatures post…..thank you Chels. So, here it goes.
This was fun. I was asked to design a potluck flyer for the zoo to celebrate the new year, and here is the result, a little bit of fun vector illustration. Now who can pass up on that!!
Part of my role with the exhibits team at the Zoo is to design directional and informational signage to fit with a set style guide. It’s advised not to feed the animals unless you wish to be lunch! So here’s some of the recent signage with more good stuff on the way.
For those that are yet not in the know, I have been interning with Oregon Zoo Exhibits department. I am having lots of fun making signs, getting to know the fun folk, and unusual things like making translucent vinyl decoration for a large, glass, emergency exit. I know it doesn’t sound glamorous but it did turn out to be really good. The premise of the design was to interpret the Boma fence otherwise used in Africa to ward off lions into something stylish and screen like across these otherwise bland glass doors in the Predators exhibit. Well I was up for the challenge and here are the results. I think in the end it worked to transform the space from waiting room to zen.
In the spirit of the Christmas cheer and OMG what to do for Christmas cards this year, led me to take the plunge in designing a card of my own. Well how hard can it be? A month later and many revisions past the design came into being, with a taste of the classic calligraphy and modern gestalt to get folks in the holiday spirit. I deliberately avoided the usual Christmas red and green, and opted instead for a rich, burgundy red. Needless to say once designed there was some cogitating until a colleague finally convinced me it was good to print. And so here we are, the finished product, and I am pleased with the results.
Merry Christmas everyone!
As I think I have mentioned before, I like to make a song and dance about cool local businesses and this one has a personal touch. Meet Robots Love Cupcakes an entrepreneurial start up by a good friend and neighbor, and her best friend… two ladies in sugar crime. Robots Love Cupcakes is an online baking store, everything is made fresh and delivered to your door, just place your order.
I have to admit they make some mean cupcakes, but also so very alarmingly good marshmallows. Now if you haven’t had the good fortune to have fresh home made marshmallows you need to hook yourself up with a fresh order from Robots Love Cupcakes…they are to die for…needless to say they don’t last long in my house. And parting is always sweet sorrow where those marshmallows are concerned.
OK so enough getting gooey, I mentioned this one was personal…in more than one way. These lovely ladies took the plunge with my design for their logo…they said Robots, I gave them Robots. I think they are still working on developing their official website but here’s a link robotslovecupcakes.com
A cute little fella ain’t he. Well the story thickens, Robots Love Cupcakes girls recently had a big launch with a big tasting party, full of lots of yummy tasties…including those marshmallows. Their tasting got the attention of Katu and a lovely photoshoot by Bill Roberson, Photos from Robots Love Cupcakes taste testing party | KATU.com – Portland, Oregon | KATU Photos .
Marshmallow Heaven
Robots love cupcakes what can I say…umm marshmallows..get your order now before I gobble them all up!
Photo credit to Joi Smith
Interning with Tarot.com continued.. I have been introduced to some new concepts for marketing. In particular the ‘Email Blast’ a means to get those click to link numbers, in Tarot’s case for love compatibility and all things Tarot. The neat thing here is the success of the blast is based on the strength of the design, did it make the readers click to find out more? The pressure is on! As a medium the email blast is replacing a lot of the direct mailers that we would otherwise receive in this digital age. So much for paper we may save those trees yet!
Anyway, aside from the brief explanation moving on to fun designs to show..here’s what the fuss was about that earned $5,000, something to be proud of; thanks Tarot for letting me have a stab at designing your email blast. The chosen design was the second comp. with the (brown background), although personally my favorite still lies with comp 1 (blue/green background). The header tag line was changed up to a subtler pitch in the review process. Personally with my complete inexperience I still voting for the blue/green…but what do I know, that’s why I am the intern right. All photographic imagery used was purchased by Tarot.com for use in these comps.
Well I have joined the well trodden path of many to gain the experience needed as a new designer. Although you may consider my path alittle strange, you’d be foolish to dismiss these guys. In truth they are professional and patient to new interns like moi. OK so my internship is with Tarot.com. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a mystical fairy, and am really quite clueless to which phase of the moon is retrograde with which ever planet it is anyways, nor do I care for patchouli oil, but I get the gist for design. My role in this giant website with constantly changing elements, involves some soul sucking production, and other surprisingly fun design elements such as email blasts, as they put it…, which allows for some fun design freedom. As a newbie to the industry it is an eye opener as to the real world requirements of a junior designer, and an up hill learning curve which involves a balance of design and time, cost effectiveness, and ability to meet the needs of the target audience/client within the design. So far I am off to a good start with a series of designs that I admit aren’t going to make it to communication arts, but are in themselves a testament to doing design on a tight time scale of less than a day start to finish. With the careful guidance of my mentor Jlee we are meeting that target audience with this photo gallery for their planetary personality profiles; feel free to browse. I have to admit it’s a brain twister with regards to the sheer amount of work these guys put out every day for this website; pretty amazing really.
well…I know it sounds a bit crazy, and off with the fairies but consider how much of an industry the astrological business is…how many of us have check out our star signs and rising signs online? And with that I rest my point… it’s a big big industry not to be mistaken.
I hope to post more as I go along, and hopefully as they are a great team keen to developing new designer and trying new directions there will be some fun, superior design to come. Here’s to the time honored traditions of internship in which ever form it comes in.
With the break of summer and school done, I have had the time to catch up on movies and raise my head above the sea of deadlines for awhile to view what’s out and new in our popular culture. One of the biggest and hottest things to come along and I suspect every one has been buzzing about is the district nine movie due to release on August 14th. And what a set up they have going too. Talk about viral marketing gone crazy, done well with a strong story leading to many strong design concepts. If you haven’t already started to notice the many ‘no human’s allowed’ signs posted at cinemas and other like media based stores, then you need to check out the movie website for district nine produced by Sony pictures. For all us new web builders and graphic designers, it’s an eye opener ….plus the supporting imagery and video is amazing!
I know I will be jumping in my seat when this one comes out. Have fun all avid film goers, this one is going to be big!
I thought this link to ‘Talk#7 Johnny Kelly’ would be of interest to those still following the blog we set up here through our humble course at Mt Hood Community College. This is an interview of a graduate from England from a very prestigious school in England The Royal College of Art. Johnny who is featuring his amazing work, is a talented and funny animator, and the interview is a presentation he did that featured on it’s nice that, by Will. It is very interesting as he delves into his process and talks about how he came up with the concepts for each of his films, and a little bit about how he achieved the effect he was after. Pretty amazing for us still new to the industry, and inspirational too, so thank you to Johnny Kelly for sharing. I believe they filmed this at Sense Worldwide a melting pot of talented people that are working toward future trends and culture.
Anyways it is a bit long but it is really worth it.
Enjoy
