New Art Direction

I've been so inspired lately by imagry my friend Tracy had shown to me so I have been really sketching up a storm. Here are some of my newest illustrations. Going with the above theme I have decided to create a set. I will definitely be posting it here and on my Deviant art once completed. I'm so excited.

This is one I created of my Best Friend Tracy Maclauchlan. She drew a picture of Veil, from The Taffetas

It starts with an Idea and a sketch

I paint right over it in Photoshop

I then refine it, adding small details and fixing things I dont like

I cell shade it ... even though I LOVE the flats

Then its the background. It looks a little funky now ... but add some flowers...

And try not to box the image ... Viola finished XD

So I am going to go back and continue drawing, but I thought blogging might be a nice break.

This last one is a sketch of an upcomming illustration I am about to complete.

New internship and other Shenanigans

This is me ... Larger than life and enjoying a Coke

Hello everyone,
Well its been a long day, spending my time between working on WB's new Harry Potter website created by BFG Communications. I'm a recent intern there, working with the interactive department.

It's been 3 weeks since I've started and I've been privileged to work on a few projects so far. As mentioned prior I'm assisting other designers with the newest Harry Potter website, I worked on  Camel Cigarettes new web launch, 99th Birthday - a interactive experience celebrating Camel's 99th year in business, and some other smaller web projects. So far its been a great experience trying to get the groove of things there and balancing The Taffetas project and freelance work along side it.

While this isn't the part I worked on, it is the part of the website that is actually live as of this moment.

Zarya and Toby

One of the projects I have been working on until recently has been an animated short for Mind Katalyst. I have been working with Mind Katalyst as a designer and became design lead for this project.

I helped to create the story and created the style guide for the film that was sent off to the animation studio. The style of the animation is based off of old UPA cartoons with updated colors and patterns. I'm really excited to see the film once it is complete!

A mock screenshot I created for the style guide

What I have been up to

Well its been quite some time since I wrote in here. I guess I have to face the truth that I am definitely not the most consistent blogger out there. However that being said, I am happy to be once again writing in this little journal of mine.

Veil and Gemini of The Taffetas by Tracy

So much has been going on lately I almost don't know where to begin. Tracy and I have been reworking our sketch muscles as well as continuing our animation pitch project The Taffetas. For those unfamiliar, The Taffetas has been an ongoing project between myself, Tracy, and a slew of wonderful volunteers. The latest info can be found on our production blog : theTaffetas.blogspot.com but some of my part included cleaning up and vectoring Tracy's wonderful sketches

Tracy's wonderful new banner sketch

After some small edits, and some long hours vectoring

I try to help out in the sketching stage, but sometimes I have a bit too much fun. 

All in all I have been super excited about the direction of the project, which includes the art and writing and the re-finessing of the pitch.

CuddleBat Graphics LLC

So I am finished with another one of my side gigs, reinventing Cuddle Bat's unique branding and creating a website, business card and stationery to go along with it. Cuddle Bat is a company owned and operated by Emma Lee Dyer and her boyfriend Collin (his last name escapes me). They create one-of-a-kind apparel and hand-made housewares using up-cycled materials and original designs. If you want to check out the site live, or buy from her shop go here : LINK

The logo was created by the owner of the store and the design was reinvented by me to be more her. Becuase of their offbeat merchandise my design choices followed suit - typography was chosen to mix and match and photos were made to look more grainy and used. Inspirations for this indie chic store stem from band posters and an argyle sweater. 

The business card (front) mock-up and cover to the left are a continuation of the branding direction and state their mission. At the bottom of the post is the mock-up to a letterhead. Emma hadn't requested that I make this particular things, but I loved the project so much that I added them in (though she has yet to see them).

What I like most about this project is that it is a much different aesthetic than I normally do.  It has definitely been rewarding to step out of that design safe zone that I find myself in. This project has been long due for an overhaul and I am honored they saught me out to do the job. They sell really neat wares and their stuff comes and goes so you have to check often for new items.

Third Potato - Brianna's New Website

So recently I have just finished one of my pet projects, a website for Brianna Alexander, a deviant artist who goes by Fyuvix and is the artist behind Pompfiction (pompfiction.com). You can check her out either right on her portfolio website (ThirdPotato.com), or on deviantArt.com (fyuvix.deviantart.com)

I tried to recreate her personality by duplicating the colors she often utilizes in her own artwork and the present color scheme for her corporate identity. Although there are a few things I would like to fix as far as the design goes, I really love the way this project has turned out.

As far as the corporate id, I have been a great part in assisting her with what she wanted her site to represent. This includes nudging her to go with something that that has a little more "third potato" and less comic-y flair to make her more original in her branding. Coming up with different layouts and ideas for her branding, and of course creating the website to go with it all.

All in all I think this will definitely set her apart from many of her competitors and really showcase her already amazing portfolio when searching for job opportunities in her field and I wish Brianna the best of luck and I am happy she loves her site as much as I do.




Now to move onto creating my own site to finish my newest branding solution!

Jeffrey's Heart Color Options

Hello Everyone! 
This is just a follow-up to Jeffrey's Heart Foundation branding and logo design work that I have finished up some time ago. Below are the color options that I had considered when starting the project. The first are a color combination being presently used by the organization. The middle was a solution I found to be best suited for the overal scheme (to keep it from being too predictable), and then the last being the happy medium.

(Read top to bottom then left to right) Pleasing color combinations for Jeffrey's Heart Foundation.

So to just explain, there is a reason why I went with the center blue scheme. The red & white color scheme pictured first on the left side really doesn't look too nice when combining things such as the tin man imagery and I felt the colors are a bit obvious. White and red are the colors of many hospital organizations (such as the Red Cross, American Heart Foundation, etc) as well as the local color of a heart and a piece of paper. But does this really go on to represent Jeffrey at all?

I wanted to go beyond that. I combined a much more sophisticated pattern of blues and browns to push that there is a boy behind here with a family and a story. I was inspired by a picture Tatiana took when exiting the hospital after a visit with her brother Jeffrey. The image itself is a simple one: A stain on floor shaped like a heart right on the path outside of the hospital. This was the key image and a sign of hope for Clarisa, her son Jeffrey, and the rest of people behind Jeffrey's Heart Foundation. The blue is eye dropped directly from this image and the rest of the colors accentuate that blue in a pleasing sense that is both earthy and masculine. The heart shape is derived from this stain as well and the proportions remain largely unchanged from this image.

A sign of hope for Jeffrey and his family
found by his sister, Tatiana when visiting
him at the Hartford Hospital in Connecticut

The last color combination is a mix between the two. I kept the incorporation of the "red heart" as it's a big color in their overall branding scheme already and then followed it up by earthy browns with maroon tints. Its a pleasing combination of both color schemes, and though it loses some of its connection with Tatiana's original post, it continues to be a warm, loving, much more feminine color scheme. The colors do a wonderful job coming together and balancing each other out, and are a nice break from the red-white combination.

Photoshopped T-shirt Mock-ups for the
"Show Some Heart, Wear a Heart" Campaign.
Information on that on previous post.

 However being much more fond of the brown and blue, I continued to create mock-ups of the design in that color scheme. Above is a snapshot of the pieces created right out from my own portfolio. To the left are T-shirt mock-ups that feature the patch design that went for the donation campaign I had described in an earlier post (To see the post click this link : LINK). Model Shot T-Shirt Mock-ups taken from DBH at http://www.designbyhumans.com/. Poster Mock-ups were made below. Idea was to be sold as prints or be formatted for later use as banners or props. The original printed versions have the finished logo underneath.

Poster Mock-ups featuring the "Tin-Man" motif & the Simple Missing Heart motif.

As for logo choice,after going through several failed versions, this one is the one I had chosen. There's a quirkiness to the font and a simple illustration with meaning.

Representations of the tin hat in different color
options from color scheme 1 : original color choice

I had tried to incorporate the Tin-Man's tin hat into the logotype, however as you can see below it starts to look more like an Asian straw hat without the tin-man underneath to make sense of what people are looking at. 

Finished with my Last SCAD class

Me in the fetal position...something only my lovely roomie gets to see

Hello everyone!
It's been so long since I have last posted, but I am happy to announce my classes are finally over. Man this quarter was hard, I was just bogged down with so much work to do and no time to do it. No one seems to believe me when I  However I managed somehow and now I'm ready to get right back into blogging more regularly, updating The Taffetas more regularly, and practicing all my artsies.

As for my plans right now and for the hopeful future I think I am going to apply to some jobs that I've always wanted, but never really had the balls to go for. Since the final stretch of my last portfolio class I feel that I can be a real good contender. Wish me luck~<3

I'm also going to try to keep this thing updated. I like being able to just chit chat (well to no one in particular) here and up until now I actually have the time to do so. (Let's hope it says this way)

Jeffreys heart update

I haven't blogged in a while but much has gone in. So much I have fallen a bit back on posting again. It seems I might never make a habit of posting regularly. Luckily with school ending and my work going into manageable levels, I might be more consistent.

Now let me tell you about my newest piece for Jeffrey's Heart Foundation. Recently my cousin Jeffrey was able to finally come back home after being in the hospital for a long while. He was diagnosed with non-compaction cardiomyopathy in July 2011. Although my family found another designer to go with I did want to help out so I designed a website mock-up (screenshots of it can be seen right below) and a campaign based on the mission.

My idea for the campaign was a simple one to show gratitude and support. I dubbed it, "Show a little Heart, Wear a little Heart." Plans to go with it is still in the approval stage. Here are mock-ups of the shirts using the models from DesignedByHumans T-shirt mock-ups. I was going for something easy and simple.

Show Some Heart, & Wear A Heart Campaign
Help donate to the cause and receive a small token of our appreciation in the form of our heart patch. Place it on a tee and show your support for Jeffrey and his family as he continues to wait for a heart of his own.

The original ideas wore based off an illustration i did on behalf of Jeffrey in hopes to create a poster and sell the prints, however the Tin Man idea was dropped in favor of the ideas above.



If you would like to help donate to help out Jeffrey and his mother Clarissa, please check out this link (LINK) or donate right through paypal and like Jeffrey's Heart Foundation on facebook for more info on the family and Jeffrey's condition. We thank everyone for all their generosity ans support in these trying times.

Jeff's heart : Tin man Campaign

these are mock-ups for a new campaign I am starting. More details as the work progresses