One thing led to another...

Started with an icon design, ended up with an other-worldly object "from the stars"

Research Magazine

A recent illustration for a cover for Research Magazine about the value of a financial advisor. I worked with Design Director Don Heyl of Summit Business Media who produces some beautiful covers for his publication.

Case Study: Exhibitor Magazine illustration

Here I outline the process I used from planning to completion of a two spread illustration I recently did for Exhibitor Magazine. The multi-part machine is a metaphor for the rebranding process Medtronic and their subsidiaries went through in regard to how they present themselves in the marketplace and trade shows. The illustration was particularly challenging in that there were several stages in the machine which all had to coordinate with each other in sequence and coincide with where they fell in the story. All while avoiding the magazine gutters, bleeds and tight-fitting text. Equal to the challenge was concepting what each segment of the machine should look like. Too much detail would take away from the symbolic nature of each stage of the process. Too little detail would make the illustration less interesting. The following is a glimpse of how I did it (click each image to get a closer look):

Finished illustration rendered in Photoshop

Exact drawing in Illustrator of all components done in grayscale (my method of working - no color until the composition is set)

Rough planning sketch drawn in pieces then scanned and composed together in Photoshop and placed in a layout. Each component of the machine was drawn separately several times until the right view was created. Then each was brought together in the layout and the pipeline that connects them was added last when all the components were set in the right place.

The economy then and now

While doing a search, I came across this image which I did for US News & World Report in 2000 at the height of the tech economy. The article reported on the changes and challenges due to rapidly changing technologies. Ironic that it was done just before the tech market crash considering that we are in dangerous economic times again.

Pearson Connected Mathematics covers

Recently I came across this image which is a component of one of the illustrations I did for a series of math textbook covers for Pearson not to long ago. I had forgotten about it and found it as I was doing a search. I thought it would be fun to post since it reminds me of the days at amusement parks during the summer. I live pretty close to one and have spent my share of time in the bumper cars. Anyone venture an educated guess as to what the equation means?

Rural Telecom

Ferro + Ferro commissioned a cover for Rural Telecom magazine about Smart Grids that connect technologies and communications for homes and businesses in rural areas. Above is the final image, below are rough sketches prepared in development of the idea.

Northrup Grumman

How many ways can you knock out a missile? Northrup Grumman commissioned me to illustrate their complex missile defense system from ground ops to missile kill. It's an amazing orchestration of technologies. I chose a new way to portray the entire battlefield from missile command to satellites and how they communicate with each other. Rather than a traditional landscape, I merged the idea with an infographic approach showing land, sea, air and space as layers in ascending order and distance from the command center. Blue lines represent communications with the command center, green represents communication with members of the battlefield, red represents the sources which could perform the resulting enemy missile kill. The image is used as a primary display in major tradeshows, technology animations, and print collateral.

The series shown together

I've posted these individually over the past 3 years, but I thought it would be interesting to show the series together. Concepting and detailing these image is a labor of love to be sure. The small size doesn't do them justice though - these images work best at large poster size

Website design experiment

http://www.9surf.com/typographics/

This is my take on an anti digital age website for 9 Surf (if there ever was such a thing!). My admiration for paper and classical design is front and center. Unfortunately, my limited ability to code a website is front and center, too. But that's not my thing - there are many good coders out there. My intrigue is creating a site with a particular look, then building is so it functions well with a minimum of technology. After all, it browses fine on all platforms including mobile.

Paperless

An image commissioned for a magazine feature about banks and financial institutions going paperless. Shown along with the final piece is the initial rough concept sketch.

Baylor University

This image was created for Baylor University. Their publication featured a story about Extended Learning Groups (ELGs) where students of diverse backgrounds and studies live and study together in groups. Studies have found that these students learn and assimilate more while enjoying a fuller college experience.

National Engineer's Week

I've done several posters for Engineer's Week with Hugh Moore of Hugh Moore & Associates. This is the first one I did for Girl's Day, a special event during Engineer's Week where the variety of engineering careers are presented to girls who are considering college studies. The texture of the images makes up the girl in the poster while presenting a visual reference to every kind of engineering. This sort of image works great large. That's the downside of a computer monitor.

From the Gallery, 1

This is an piece I did for the Wharton School of Business when the tech boom was at its pre-collapse height in 2000. Interesting how things have changed - or have they?

National Engineer's Week

Hugh Moore of Hugh Moore & Associates commissioned me to do this poster image to represent the 60th Anniversary of National Engineer's Week. It was quite a rearch and design undertaking since the image needed to cover the gamut of engineering fields, convey the anniversary as well as appeal to an audience with a wide age range

Thrive Magazine

Art Director Letizia Albamonte of Pace Communications, commissioned this image for Thrive Magazine, a Syngenta publication, to tell the story about business planning in the agriculture industry. Here I show a concept sketch and the final image. On my roughs, even though the sketch elements are clear, it's not uncommon for me to label them in case the creative team plans to show them to their clients. Mostly, this helps everyone be onboard early with the concepts and direction of the image.

Hasbro Trivial Pursuit DVD game

One of a series of images created for Hasbro's Trivial Pursuit Pop Culture DVD game. This is a more developed version of the original art which was produced in red monochrome to match the color of one of the six gameboard pie colors.

DBRS

Lynn Chin of Vector 7 in Toronto, Canada asked me to create an overarching image for collateral for their client DBRS, an international ratings firm. It's horizontal format lends itself to a mural-like display. The image was created in very high resolution to be suitable for all possible size applications. Click on the image to see it larger.

CMP Media - Business

Another one from the e-commerce archives - a fun take on business

Oracle

When computers began going mainstream, I was busy illustrating the concepts, technology, and business of the emerging markets. Here's an image that was done for a magazine feature about Oracle.

Syngenta illustration

This image was commissioned by art director Shay Sprinkles of Pace Communications for their client Syngenta for a feature article about profitable practices in agriculture in our current economy. The completed image is shown with the initial rough sketch.