The Great Martin String Swap

A promotional typographic illustration commissioned by Spark for their client CJ Martin & Co., the guitar maker. The idea is to maintain the classic sensibility and history of the company and marry it with modern execution. I used an image of their guitar as well as wood textures, inlays and other materials and shapes that allude to guitars and flavor of the music industry. Click on the image to see it larger.

Alberta Venture magazine

For Alberta Venture magazine - The Venture 100, a special issue of the top 100 companies. A different take on the design of the 100 which is used often on magazine covers. Click on the image and see the texturing up close.

Pensions & Investments

I love marrying the classical genres with a modern textural look. This cover for an annual issue called the P&I 1000 does just that. Click on the image to get a closer look!

State Farm

A classic insignia design with a modern message. One of a series of exploratory designs for a proposed State Farm auto insurance campaign.

Library Journal

A bit of a different typographic approach, this special issue cover for Library Journal displays the title to reflect features about new landmark libraries that are noted for design, sustainable and green technologies incorporated into their architecture

Bud Light Bowl 2011

I was commissioned by the Shaw Company in St. Louis to design the logo for the Bud Light Bowl, a Budweiser promotional event held in Texas around the time of the Super Bowl. It was great fun working with Greg Litwicki at Shaw, who despite having an in depth client review process and legal scrutiny (the nature of the beast with these logos), gave me much creative leeway in the development process with pretty cool results. Shown below the final logo are several of the preliminary designs

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.

Alberta Venture magazine

Art Director Kim Larson contacted me to design the cover which claims that if you buy this issue, it will be the best investment you'll ever make. The design brief: give it a little attitude and flare without being audacious.

MultiChannel Merchant

These two images are from a recent cover design for MultiChannel Merchant magazine. The first is the tight design build in black and white. I work this way first because I don't want to be influenced by color in the early stages. If the design works in b&w, it will work that much better in color. This also serves as the proof stage to check size, proportions, spelling, etc., before going to final. The second image shows the fully rendered piece with color, texture, dimension, shading etc.

Happy Holidays...

..and a healthy and prosperous New Year!

Killer VARS

A cover illustration for a special issue of Accounting Technology magazine, a Source Media publication

IVD (In Vitro Diagnostics) Technology Magazine, a UBM/Canon publication, commissioned me for a distinctive anniversary logo for their 15th year of publication. I wanted to capture the technology in a contemporary, warm and celebratory way without alluding directly to specific science.

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

Logos

It's a fascinating process taking a message, title, brand name, idea, etc. and bringing it to life as a logo or typographic treatment. Here is a sampling of a few I've done for a variety of clients.

gizmo

One of the influences on my typographic work is the interplay between letterform and architecture. I did this piece for the shear fun of it - a case study in creating an unusual design, imagining what it could look like 12 feet wide on the side of a building or marquee, then bringing it to life unhindered by actual costs of building, labor and materials. Don't wake me from this dream!

500 x 2

A material difference: I'm having fun swapping out materials and textures to create different looks with my 3D design work. I do lots of work with numbers, so this experimental image takes my regular work to a whole new "dimension"

Ride

Always trying something new. I have been working on the design and rendering of logos in 3D space to round out my studio's offering in the typographic arena. There are times when the design has to take on a lifelike appearance. Suitable for print and animation. Here are a couple of examples showing the design and rendering using different finishes. Of course that's one of the great things about 3D - the ability to edit, change texture, and rotate the view.

On Wall Street Magazine cover

Mike Vella, art director of On Wall Street magazine asked me to create an unusual hybrid of the dollar sign and question mark symbols for their annual salary compensation issue. Intersecting the two symbols on separate 3d planes added to the idea that there is more to the story than what's on the surface, i.e., the salaries in different segments in the financial industry, and the supporting theme of how they are effected by the current economy.

Conceive Magazine cover

Art Director Patrick Greenish of Conceive Magazine commissioned me for a cover of one of their flagship issues. The challenge was to make a bold iconic cover with the right sensibility and appeal to an audience in infant and conception mode. Some of the simplest things are the most challenging - the "50" had to be just right