So many Glens, so much lightning

I have already posted a description of this Glengarry Glen Ross poster and a small version of it on a postcard on a previous post, but below are larger, updated versions of the design.  The color version is for flyers and the black and white version is a newspaper ad (although a color version may run instead).  The original design had the text centered and nothing along the side, but this new version needed a different layout to fit all the required text into these smaller formats.

I am currently working on a few small web design projects and I'm looking for more.  Do you know anyone who needs a website?  Tell 'em 'bout me!

FutureHeights!

I have been working on some advertisements for an online benefit auction for an organization called FutureHeights, which is a community-based non-profit that supports Cleveland Heights, and University Heights, Ohio.  The former is the area of town I live in.

Here is a vertical half-page ad I designed for the event, which will appear in the Heights Observer (local paper/news mag).  I ended up using the same color scheme of this blog page because I like it so much and I thought it fit the subject matter.

 

Website is GO for Launch.

After a series of set-backs and creative slumps, my website portfolio is up an running at www.adrdesignonline.com

I will probably continue to tweak it in the coming days, as I hope to add some music to "what i've done" page, but please visit the site and look around.

And, while we're on the topic of creative slumps, here's an article that helped me out a bit:
Beat (even the Worst) Creative Blocks
Maybe it can help you too!

Not for the easily offended...

WARNING: This post contains some bad language.  Turn away now if you can't handle it, and then go cry the rest of the day because you'll seriously be missing out.

I recently saw the video for Cee-Lo Green's song "F*** You," which I have determined is not only an ingenious song (with excellent musical production), but is also clever video which can be appreciated from a graphic design perspective.  Here's the video - with more commentary after the jump.



Every second of this three minute and forty-six second video shows lyrics to the song in white sans-serif font various solid-color backgrounds, and it manages to sustain its appeal the whole time without really introducing any new design elements or video footage.

The backup singers are represented with lyrics written in parentheses, which literally made me laugh out loud a number of times, seen below.  

The song itself is a wonderfully crafted combination of new and old.  It took me a couple watchings to realize just how well the video fit with that concept.

First, the video contains clever use of panning and zoom to show you which word to look at as it is being sung - a modern take on the follow-the-bouncing-ball videos we've seen in the past.

Second, while the style of the white type on solid background is very much a relatively-recent "in" design element (due mostly to the Mac and iPod ads we've all seen over the past few years), there is faux film reel grain and crackle added to the whole video to make it appear as we are watching the video at an old movie theater.

And finally, the Motown sound mixed with modern production techniques and the sailor-like mouth of Cee-Lo Green combines to form something new and old at the same time, and also something unlike anything else I've ever heard.

Cee-Lo Green is the Soul Machine.

It's Fall already?

This is a quick commission for an invitation to a dinner party.  The painting at the top was provided for me and the leaves at the bottom were cut out samples from the top image.  Nothing too fancy, but gets the job done.  (Note: All the information has been changed so that they don't get random people showing up.)  

Two Glens and a Baby

Here is a postcard I did for the Surfside Players in Florida.  It advertises the next two shows Surfside will be presenting, Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet, which is a play about cut-throat business men in 1980's Chicago, and the other is Baby with the Bathwater by Christopher Durang, a farce about a boy named Daisy.

Glengarry Glen Ross' poster idea was suggested to me by someone at Surfside, and it depicts a man in a suit atop the Willis (then Sears) Tower with an axe, ready to cut the ropes of his climbing co-workers as they near the apex.  I combined a photo of a purple, lightning-filled sky with a photo of Willis Tower, and drew the people in later by hand, purposely leaving them faceless and sort of abstract (albeit hard to tell because of their small size).  The text is a typewriter style font, and the color scheme and whole look of the poster is meant to evoke a Tom Clancy-like book cover or, probably more accurately, a movie poster based on one of his books.

Baby with the Bathwater's idea was suggested to me by the director of Surfside's production.  He wanted a cartoon-y, bright depiction of a baby and an overturned tub.  I took this idea and set out to make the poster look like a children's book.  The baby has a small tuft of hair and a quizzical look on its face, and the font is  a simple serif font called Century Schoolbook.  More versions of these show flyers will be posted as I finish them.

Hidden Logo Tricks = Supercool

This is a post from a while back on graphicdesignblog.org, a site which I check frequently.  I think this post is particularly interesting, as it shows how some logos contain hidden images, meanings, etc.  Enjoy!

http://www.graphicdesignblog.org/hidden-logos-in-graphic-designing/ 

My favorites are Mosleep:

and Horror Films:

This design is 4 lyfe.

Yesterday I completed a (com)mission for my friend Chris, which was unlike any I have done before: a tattoo.  Knowing that my design would be on his body for the rest of his life, I set out to make something supremely awesome.

Chris is a fan of superheroes and asked me to design a personalized superhero crest with his initials, "CA".  Lime green and navy blue are some of Chris' favorite colors, so I included them in my initial rough design below, with some gradient effects to make it look somewhat metallic and shiny:

Chris then sent me some feedback and a picture of an uruz rune (a symbol of strength) that he wears, which he wanted incorporated in the design somehow.  An uruz rune is shown below.

After much back and forth and collaborative brainstorming, we arrived at a final product:

As you can see, the A is formed by the tail of the C crossing an uruz rune.  This simple version will be the tattoo, but I sent Chris a shiny design for him to have, shown below.

 

Do you want me to design YOUR tattoo?

Coffee House logo - but no coffee

For a while now I have been working on designing a new logo for Butler University's Coffee House Committee, which puts on events such as open mic nights, poetry slams, concerts, etc. in Butler's campus coffee house.  One of the first things I noticed in my research was that the committee's name was spelled both "Coffeehouse" and "Coffee House" on various websites and sources.  I told them that from a branding standpoint, that is an insanely huge no-no, and that they should decide on one or the other before we finalized the logo and then stick with that spelling from here on out, with which they agreed.

One of the only guidelines for the logo was that they did not want anything coffee-related, i.e. no mugs, no coffee stains, no browns, no coffee beans.  Here were a few of my first ideas, in very basic form:

These ideas were constructed before they had reached a decision on whether or not it was "coffeehouse" or "coffee house", but they were just to give them examples of directions we could take.  

This is a later version of a logo that was going for a more official collegiate sort of look.  They liked mic and the positioning, but not the tagline or the formality.  

This was a sleeker, smoother version I tried, which is actually my favorite of the designs I did for them.  The committee ended up choosing this version below, which I designed to look more "arty", with paint strokes, handwriting font, and a sketched version of the mic:

They said it embodies the nature of their committee perfectly, so I'm happy.

Neglected blog and new fonts!

To my readers:

I apologize for not giving you anything to read or look at for over a month.  I plan to be back on a regular basis from here on out. 

Thank you,
Adam


Here is something that I find interesting that you may or may not.  The types of fonts available to use on the web have always been very limited, but thanks to Adobe and TypeKit, there are lots of Adobe's sweet fonts now available for use on the web, like Myriad (Adobe's standard sans-serif font, equivalent to Arial), Minion (their serif equivalent), Rosewood (if you're planning on designing a website for a wild west saloon), and some cursive-like scripts for fancy schmancy sites.  Here's the link:  http://blog.typekit.com/2010/08/16/typekit-and-adobe/  or just click the picture below.

Be back soon, I promise!