Willow Glen Winery Print Ad

Willow Glen Winery Web Site

Willow Glen Winery Color System

Willow Glen Winery Potential Logo Designs

Shining Sea Chocolate Branding and Packaging

Walnut Growers of California Print Ads

Design*Sponge: Regional Round Up Portland, Maine

GAH! Just when I was feeling comfortable so far from home, Design*Sponge does a feature on Portland! Also, while I was snooping about, I found that I missed (as well as not eligible) for their scholarship. Zut alor!

Sensory Appeal

The fourth assignment for Concept was to use texture to communicate "pain" or "pleasure." The first time around on this project I used stiletto heals for my "pain" portion. The heals themselves were incredibly shiny, black, and more or less screamed sex appeal. Sure, they might be uncomfortable to wear, but aesthetically they are very smooth and more in line with pleasure. A trip to a thrift store on 16th St in the Mission district found me my painful texture. Just thinking about putting that sweater on ever again makes my neck itch.

Curves Ahead Print Ads

The third assignment for Concept was to photograph a vehicle and prepare the photos to be used by a company called "Curves Ahead" in print ads. The company is assumedly large and does not need copy of introduction. I originally used my Bianchi San Jose, but although using a bike would help communicate separation from car culture, greener living, fitness, yadda yadda the on emphasis was supposed to be on shape. As sexy as I think my bike may be, it is comprised of hard steel and straight lines. There is a car dealership on Van Ness that was nice enough to let me in and snap a few photos of a gorgeous Lambourgini. I'm not a fan of cars anymore, but this car was dripping with sex appeal. The curves that it was sporting were both feminine and chiseled like a man's jaw.

Viewpoint

The second assignment in Concept was to capture a building in such a way as to make the viewer want to visit it. To be honest, I can not remember what building this is, it is downtown in San Francisco and is home to a bank. US Bank? Regardless, the architecture is what attracted me, and I captured exactly what drew me in. The combination of hewn stone, hard angles, fragile glass structures, and organic line work on a building were completely gorgeous and intriguing to me. Taking a squared, smoothed, and harsh material such as granite and utilize it for building looming structures can often feel so lifeless, and sterile. The architect kept his materials in mind and was able to take the edge off by carving circles and curves. I used to work as a designer for a tile and stone showroom, and it's great to see how beautiful those materials can be in action.

Fastenate Print Ads

Our first assignment in Concept this spring semester was to create four print ads to pitch to the fictitious paperclip company, Fastenate. These were my designs, I was really pleased with them when I was first working on them. They were comp'ed in Photoshop (which is unusual for me), and we primarily based off of scans I made of cut paper and paperclips. The exception is the "don't you look smart" design, which was done entirely in Illustrator.

Welcome to the beautiful Bay Area of California

School has been out since May 17, it's been a good two weeks since I have attempted anything within my major besides download sitepoint's "The Photoshop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tricks & Techniques" by Corrie Haffly. Literally, just opened it and have very little to say about it currently. It's free (for now!), so if you are interested , get it now.

I am also skimming through Ben Hunt's "Save The Pixel: The Art of Simple Web Design." There is a sample chapter available for download on his site, and it definitely seems well worth the money. He has a very no-nonsense style that I think a lot of us as web designers need to re-adhere to. With Web 2.0 and gradient madness, and just stock options that it almost seems that people are picking from, it's nice to read a voice that knows very well what it takes. Immediately, I am adopting the term JFDI (Just Fucking Do It). Ben has has a great tone for the material.

I have so much to update and upload, but unfortunately, I left my precious external hard-drive in Seattle last weekend and (bad practice!) all of my final versions from my Concept class, as well as my Design Tech class are on it.

I opened a, currently empty, Etsy shop. This will in the future be filled with prints of my original artwork, as well as crafted goods for people and our better halves (dogs!)

My summer semester starts June 16th, and I am frantically trying to assemble a portfolio... well frantic is not the correct word. But regardless, I am trying to REMAKE my portfolio that was lost somehow in Maine at my father's house.

Ever lose a large body of work? Ouch.