Square One Album Design 2011

Client:Nikolas Metaxas

Title:Digipak and CD-screen design
(digibook coming soon!)

Description: Nikolas Metaxas is a force having accumulated more than 1,000,000 views on Youtube combined and maintaining a following of over 21,000 and counting. We are excited to add him to our roster of talented clients! No really it’s true the Eurovision song “Firefly” by Nikolas was released by Sony Greece and was in the top ten on iTunes Greece for 2 weeks, topping the #2 spot. (Yeah awesome we know.

Vincent Leungs’ photographs were the launch point for the design as was the title Square One. I am especially pleased with the “Square” inspired typesetting on the back plate and disk.

I love experimenting with type and using type in a way that both represents the artist and/or their theme. The original type designer of “Agency”,  Morris Fuller Benton was a ture innovator. He changed the physical manner of type design and production by refining a process for creating scalable drawings for each letter. What better representation of starting at Square one?! And the well known designer David Berlow did an amazing job building a system from Morris Bentons’Original work.

Anya Ivanova Business Card

Client:Anya Ivanova

Title:Business Card Design
(website pending for april 2011)

Description: Anya is a gifted Pianist. Classically trained she performs often in Los Angeles, teaches and has even instructed a few students in the Russian language which she is fluent in. Most recently she garnered a co-producing credit on international piano sensation Carter Larsen’s new album. Anya and I talked at length about this first step into her rebrand. Many of the key points that kept surfacing were location centric. The two most notable of those being her Russian Homeland and her newly adopted home for over 10 years, Los Angeles. I introduced Anya to the work of the work of several Russian avant garde visual artists and she was immediately drawn to the work of one of my personal favorites El Lissitzky. To that end I paid homage with color and dynamism to El in the typographic treatments for her name including the symbolism/design of the black and white keys, staff on the front, and the emerging piano on the back. At the same time I incorporated decidedly modern allusions to LA culture. From the (in this case sea birds) birds taking flight, which are often associated with the freedom/soaring nature of music, to the warm toned distressed paper. Also of note is the typeset for the phone number, echoing a far east sentiment. Which certainly may sound incongruous, until you recall we are echoing the spirit of life in Los Angeles which is hyper-focused on practices like yoga and eastern spirituality both of which Anya takes an interest in. The birds on the back and the paper texture equally tie into this sentiment. At the end I hope we have achieved a cultural lenticular of sorts between homage to Anya’s Russian homeland and pursuit of of a new kind of creative life here on the west coast. Typefaces include Greg Hutchinson’s Badloc and Univers designed by Frutiger. I’m aware that both post date El Lissitzky by a fair margin. I feel confident he would have found badloc interesting despite the novelty as it’s meant to be more a graphic element here. Now the mechanical numbering system of Univers, that I’m certain would have been right up his alley. In any case it’s a nod to El and I hope the choices are interpreted as such.

Digipak and CD screen design for Ryan Schmidt "Black Sheep Run"

Client:Ryan Schmidt

Title:Black Sheep Run, Digipak and disc design

Description: Digipak and cd-screen Design for Ryan Schmidt.

Ryan Schmidt is well aware and is often inspired by analogue, image and sound alike. To that end his first request was to manipulate a single digital image. It needed light leaks, dust, and faded colors. My goal was to evoke that feeling of picking up a vintage photo at a swap meet. To me these images are always oddly poignant. Why were they lost or left behind? The lost image concept was applied to all of the photos on the package. The rust texture that fills the background reinforces the illusion that these images have been here a while. Are you opening up an old metal box from an attic, maybe a rusted out locker? In the stack are scraps of paper and notes. Note also the hand-drawn titles on the cover. The dominant typeface outside of the hand-drawn type is a departure for me. It’s called “Blur” designed by Neville Brody in 1991 a full 19 years ago! Why use this 90′s vintage face for a new artist? One it evokes exactly what the name implies, out of focus and a bit disorientating. As we make out the letters we hope to find focus, maybe a story in these lost objects. Second this typeface was designed in the era of grunge and radar magazine, anyone that’s a generation X’er will appreciate the homage to what was our own version of anti-establishment anthems. Ryan is of a new generation and in this album he tips his hat to his roots in more ways than one.

Title: 2010 Business Card

Description: Standard size Business Card coverstock UV coating front only

Design for Luther Gerlach’s 2010 business cards, Luther is one of my greatest inspirations. Master printer, expert on the wet plate collodian process, and the first fifty years of photography. Featured in countless magazines, regular “Artist at Work” demonstrator at the famed Los Angeles Getty Museum of Art and exhibited nationwide, I am always humbled to work in his presence. The front image on this card is a scan from one of his signature wet plate collodian images. Prominently featuring his beloved young daughter Amelie there are no photographic tricks employed to make the massive plate. The now largest wet plate camera in the world is true to scale positioned next to Amelie. A wonder in the world of modern photography. Luther is a modern photographer using historical techniques to create his work. Ergo the new card typeface the classic eternally modern “Gotham” reflects the same classically modern sensibilities of Luther’s work often overlooked by those who have worked for him in the past.

Design for Ripple FX business cards. The Ripple FX brand mark was existing for the company but needed to be incorporated into the format of the business card. Modern, forward thinking, and focused visually. Just like the the founder Joanne McLaughlin

Darrin Stafford Business card design

Client:DarrinStafford
Title:2010 Business Card
Description: Standard size Business Card Matte coverstock 1 color

Standard size business card design for musician Darrin Stafford. Darrin and I have worked together on many iterations of this card over the years. It’s always been a favorite of mine. There are so many nuanced details. The barcode scans to Darrin’s birthday. The image in the lower left is repurposed from an old mid-century electronics magazine, we like the decidely sci-fi binoculars he’s looking up with to Darrin’s name. The type design itself is an homage to the the constructivists. Unexpected elements fuse, and reverberate a singular message, much like Darrin’s music. Jazz roots, soul undercurrents with just enough pop to keep the fizz. Speaking to that, note the bubbles which are a play on this particular sentiment.

Luna eco-wallet and cd-screen

Danny Rasmussen is an up and coming singer/songwriter living in the Faroes Islands. After discussing Danny’s concept for his EP I decided to call the painter Paul Lajeunesse to illustrate the cover. Known for his painting’s of the Icelandic landscape, I felt confidant his aesthetic was the perfect choice. The final cover painting is stark yet appropriately melancholy. I designed the textures for the inside panels and executed the typography. The cd-screen was based on a lunar photo altered with painterly textures to echo the inside panels and tone of the project. The logo with the eclipse/moon phase reference is partly composed of Danny’s own handwriting. The moon phases reference the passing of time and change. Both occur in the process of writing and recording music, or pursuing any personal creative project with patience come to think of it.

Therabelt

Client: Disc-Traction

Title: Rebrand to Thereabelt

Description Box design and graphic design of box panels, One sheet design and Identity/logo design.

Periodically a project comes in that’s so full of potential. Disc Traction was one of these but it’s innovators could not get it placed in retail. Partly because of the blister pack but more importantly the hastily designed original inserts. We also discussed at length the name of the product which at first glance everyone read as Distraction! Oops, well after much research into the competition and trending packaging colors we built a very successful rebrand. Of note is the unfortunate environmental impact of blister packs which has become a critical placement consideration with buyers. To that end the redesign focused on a much more friendly, smaller footprint, environmentally sound corrugate box.

SMBC iphone GUI proposal

Project Name: Presidents Club Poster design

Description: Poster Design to promote retreat for top performing executives.