I had the opportunity this fall to design my first ever tapestry blanket to be given out as my companies holiday gift to clients. Below is the design and then a photo of how it translated to tapestry. There were definitely some
challenges in achieving the hoped for vibrancy and consistency of color that I had hoped but it’s still pretty cool to see something you designed woven into a fabric.

The actual blanket

As part of my job at MarketStar, I’m often asked to design down and dirty little logos for internal employee programs / campaigns. Between you and me, this is something I really enjoy. This year we went all out on the BYU vs. Utah Rivalry week with contests and prizes. I was asked to design a logo for the communication just days before things were to kick-off. Anyway. it worked out okay. The game went my way as well this year with the Utes winning 54-10 in Provo. Go Utes!

I was asked by a co-worker to help him create a quick logo for their first-ever entry into their church’s BBQ cook-off.
I didn’t have much time so I experimented with the Kawaii or “Japanese cute” style. They ended up winning best
chicken. Hopefully the branding factored into the results…

I am posting this mostly because I just got a new Wacom tablet and this was the first project I got to use it on. It was a fun illustration. I’ve posted the original pen and ink and then the final which was painted in Photoshop. lots to learn still but the tablet is absolutely amazing!

here is the illustration in the context of the campaign landing page…

I had a great opportunity to illustrate our first official MarketStar infographic this past month. We wanted to do something fun and different to illustrate the challenges sales and marketing organizations often have in terms of sharing information that leads to a healthy sales funnel. Perhaps it was the movie, perhaps it was the fact that we always refer to salespeople here as mavericks. In any case, the more we worked through the idea the more we realized it’s a perfect metaphor for what we were trying to say. Unlike the movie however, we are trying to show that despite their differences, cowboys and aliens need to work together.

You can view the entire campaign and download a larger PDF of the Infographic by clicking here.

UPDATE: We just published a corresponding eBook on Lead Nurturing. Download a copy by clicking here.

We’ve been running a recruiting campaign locally for MarketStar. The theme is “This, Only Way Better”. It’s been a fun campaign because you can customize the message to the audience. We’ve done a great billboard on 1-15 that sits just in front of a local call center. We’ve also been able to do a fun rodeo themed variation. Below is a small ad we did to sponsor Ogden’s Acapella stock concert. Again, we were able to put a fun spin on the overall theme. Let me know what you think.

I designed this logo for my brother-in-law. He is attending graduate school in Kansas and needed this for a business class project so I did this in exchange for free legal council the rest of my professional life – right Dan?

When a young friend of ours was diagnosed with cancer over a year ago, I started a pencil drawing with the intent to give it to her to boost her and her families spirit as they battled through the emotional ups and downs of the trial. I’ve never done well with emotions and as the weeks turned into months and the severity of the situation became heavier and heavier it became harder to bring myself to putting pencil to paper. Earlier this year Madey lost year long battle with a brutal and unfair cancer. When I heard the news I knew immediately that the picture I had started so many months before was meant for another purpose. I forced myself to finish the piece and was able to present it to the family as a memorial at the funeral. They loved it so much that later that month they asked me to do a version they could use on her headstone. It was an honor to be involved in such an intimate and emotional process. I believe our talents our gifts from God and sometimes we are meant to be instruments in his hands to bless others. This was truly my experience with this piece.

Through my friends at the Red Cliff family of companies, I had another great opportunity to create a new identity and brand for one of their adolescent programs. I always start the creative process with a “data-dump” of quick sketches. I’ll thumb through old annuals and online libraries looking for visual stimulation. One of my favorite resources has actually become my old sketches. I’ve started the practice of binding up all my old sketches on an annual basis and now have a literal volume of old ideas that I love to thumb through for inspiration.

Once I feel like I can provide the client with a good selection of viable choices, I’ll start digitizing the cream of the crop. I used to be adamant that they always be shown just in black and white to ensure they were simple and easy to reproduce but lateley I’ve been adding simple, flat colors but applying the same palette to the entire presentation. I try to work quickly and get every selection to about 80% finish. enough to validate if it stacks up against the others.

Once a final identity is selected I start refining the design, working out the details of each relationship and also work with the client to decide on a color palette that suits the brand.

Last fall when Jami was disappointed that she had missed the chance to sign up for the Ogden Utah Half-Marathon, I semi-jokingly suggested that she go ahead and run the full marathon. It was fun to see the seed of the idea start to germinate within Jami and once she made the decision to go for it she was very dedicated to her training schedule. When May rolled around I wanted to show my support and encouragement on the big day so I designed a banner for us to hold along the route.