WeHateYourSite sticker
This is a preview sticker for We Hate Your Site for SXSW. In thinking about this job, I thought about what kinds of things indicate a written kind of critique — which is what We Hate Your Site is all about — I thought about grading or scribbling comments but that didn’t seem strong enough. I needed something pretty esoteric, so much so that it bordered on being difficult to read.
I used Andale Mono and Helvetica as my font set for this piece.
Orenda Technologies
Creation of Orenda’s first round of print advertisements. Number one is more brand based while the second and third ones are more product based.
As an eco-friendly solution for algae, stain and scale prevention, it was important to demonstrate their core proposition of “prevention science in harmony with nature, without compromise.” We chose the underwater shot as a way of showing the results of using products like Orenda rather than telling. One of the biggest ways that a lot of people relate to pools and chemicals is in an unnatural way; the smell, feel and taste of chlorine, and we wanted to show something different — like the clarity of a glass of water, the pool from below was blue, natural and calming, demonstrating everything we wanted to communicate about the Orenda product line.
One other thing about Orenda’s products — unlike other green products — is that it’s actually less expensive over time. And that message was very important to my client, and so it we used it in the copywriting of our first comp.
For font, we used Futura for these pieces because they need to be straight, clean and to the point.
pda, summer 2009 collateral
pda, a night of dj’ed electro, indie, retro music and the kitchen sink at Elysium that happens semi-regularly. Its title is based on the song by Interpol.
For this design, I wanted to have a display of vinyl record sleeve spines like you’d see a shelf of books, to demonstrate the variety of music. I setup two photo shoots, one at my friend John Gross’ house and then one at Backspin Records but I had a problem with the readability and clarity of the spines — some were just old and battered and some were still in plastic — and then not having all the records I’d need to have. So, I did what anyone’d do in my situation, I created it from scratch.
Some are based on actual spines, some are based on the cd spines, some are just completely made up. Some of the logos were found (Röyksopp, Bjork, the Sisters of Mercy overbombing graphic), some were traced (Depeche Mode, elastica, TV on the Radio), some were created from thin air.
The type used for the logo and info are the Maple Origins (created by Last Soundtrack) and two flavors of Condensed Futura.
Event info:
doors at 9:30, free before 10
May 29, 2009
Elysium, 705 Red River
$3 cover, 21+
illustration: cheese!
A leftover concept from Mariessa’s tshirt preliminary designs.
Since her brand — Loves, Mariessa — is very much based in the cool and a stylistic pursuit of the fashionable, I loved the idea of the paparazzi camera, one version with cheese and one with love. In this day and age of hyper documentation, we’re taking pictures of everything, Twittering our every thought and treating gossip like the news. The pop of the flashbulb reinforces self worth and promotes envy, it seems.
My favorite part? Has to be the half smile that could be a sly grin or a cool wink, maybe both.
Loves, Mariessa tshirt design
Approved t-shirt designs for Loves, Mariessa. These were screened by Bearded Lady printing in Austin, Texas for a limited edition.
wordplay
Type exercises that started out as typical interpretations of words by adjusting the spacing, scale and position of letters on an art board, but then I went a bit further. Rules are made to be broken, after all.
rocket fuel labs logo
Five logo treatments for rocket fuel labs, a think tank/incubator with some venture capital leanings.
As of this writing, the client is leaning towards the bubbling test tube/beaker.
ASW 10-minute play festival (2009)
The title for the 2009 play festival — choices ranged from Flashback Dance to Ya Mama Don’t Dance — clearly informed the poster/postcard design. With limited time, Time Steps — also a type of dance step — became the title and I really liked the idea of demonstrating time running backwards in a kind of reverse hourglass series.
Every year, the plays written and chosen have to follow three rules — this year, they were:
- The play must go backward, from beginning to end
- Include a sudden dance break that causes a shift in the action
- Include three things your mother told you not to do
I’m not sure what kind of dance can made from the steps I drew in the poster, but it looks like a lot of fun, eh?
As the copy font, I used Gotham. For the title, I used Sketch Rockwell.
pda/Stockholm Syndrome collateral
Postcard front and back for a semi-annual night of music at Elysium.
Stockholm Syndrome is a night of Swedish music and so I enjoyed making that side in the colors of Sweden using the backdrop of legal paper. Scribbling followed — naturally — and the heart candies seemed like the perfect finishing touch. Almost cute.
The blueprint was an esoteric way to explain what kind of music to expect, this kind of electronic rock — like M.I.A., Bloc Party, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Le Tigre. I can only hope that Pulp’s “Common People” makes an appearance because I think that brings the dance like nothing else, and I say that as someone who has a very high dance tolerance.
For Stockholm Syndrome, the title font is FG Starlet. For pda, the body font was Flux Architect and the title font was Oil (created by Typo5).
about
elsewhere
RSS- Kuvva
- Life Cycle
- Trailer for Wes Anderson’s new movie, Moonrise Kingdom
- Something to Write Home About
- Photographic fascination with twins
- Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users
- Did You Just Hear That?
- Made in China: A Portrait Using 5,500 Toy Soldiers
- Fincher Explains Reasons Why He Made Each of His Films
- Interview with Maurice Sendak