My brother and his friend are developing a website they hope to launch soon. They asked me to help them with a logo and it was fun to create the logo you see below.

They were great to work with and I will keep you posted on the nature of their site when they get closer to launch. Good luck guys and thanks for letting me in on the fun!

FORTHGEAR was asked to generate some campaign creative for a pretty signifigant software company. We presented three ideas. This is the one I finished from the ideas that came out of the initial brainstrom. Click on the links to read the fine print.

Three great links today in Liquid Treat

UCLA Extension Catalog Covers
Moleskin Notebooks City Campaign
CalArts Poster Series Catalog

Epic Dental is a company we have been working with for a couple years now. Most recently we have created the look and feel for a printed card that will be going along with a marketing campaign they are doing with their existing clientel. Epic has a 100% cavity free quarantee associated with their product and they offer a cavity free challenge to new clients. If you go through the program and have no cavities, they send you a nice “party in a box” that includes a pinata, and free epic products. We also helped them rebrand their company and have offered some consulting creative development on their website www.epicdental.com

I have had the opportunity to design a number of wedding invitations for close family and friends. My cousin Tyler is getting married this weekend and I designed their invitation. They were great to work with and gave me a lot of creative license which is how I would always prefer to work. My uncle Craig Stevens did the photography.

I just my client approve the design for this years race for life logo / shirt artwork (above). It is one of the few pro-bono projects we do annually. I designed the look and feel for the event three years ago so it was nice to get back in and do this years design as well. It was an interesting process this year. I had done a design that I really liked a lot (see below). When I am designing stuff that I know is going to end up on a shirt I always ask myslef, ‘would i wear this’. The first design I really liked a lot but as is often the case, it did not resound quite as strongly with my client. It was hard to get back in and keep forcing the creative when I had something I already liked. In this case I was working really hard to modify another concept I had presented that they were mildly warm to but the more and more I tried to force it the worse it got. Finally out of almost desperation, I took some elements from a couple other ideas and started to see a design that I knew my client would probably like. Sure enough. That design was the one they chose.

This comment is from an Article intitled “Arc of the Covenant” from the March 07 issue of Computer Arts magazine:

“In some industries, staying on the job for a long time is a badge of honor, a sign of total commitment. In the cutting-edge industry of graphic design, that sort of employment history translates as being burnt out, repetitive, tired or died in the wool…”

I am approaching my fifth year of employment with the same firm. I have counted about 18 designers who have come and gone in those five years. While I don’t know if I agree with the articles comment, I often wonder if and when it will be time for me to explore the possibility of moving on. I work for a great company. Like a lot of people, I wonder if I am in the greenest pastures or if the grass may be greener on the other side. . .

www.urbandirty.com is a website featuring free natural stock photo textures. All the photography Paul Burgess requires is a photo credit. not bad.

As I am planning to buy a new iPod once the new widescreen iPod I have been anxiously anticipating is unveiled. I have been looking for a way to convert my existing DVD collection so that I can take my movies with me on my new iPod. I have also been thinking about a way to back-up my DVD collection once I get my external hard-drive. MacWorld has two recommendations; Handbrake and VisualHub. I have downloaded Handbrake and am looking forward to giving it a try. It is Open Source Software and is available at no cost so I decided to start there. VisualHub is a scant $23. According to Macworld (April, 07 p. 90) the only real advantage to VisualHub is it’s fine DVD ripping softward.

These are a couple campaign concept billboards I have been developing for a local used car dealership. They were presented last week. I have not heard any concrete feedback – yet.