justcreativedesign.com

Jacob Cass, a designer, and a native of Australia, now resides in Dumbo, NY. Yes, I said Dumbo. I find it really interesting how Cass constructed his website with detailed short biography, professional life as a designer, awards and recognition's, clients and testimonials, other design firms he has worked for, what school he earned his BA in Graphic Design, how he is passionate, enthusiastic, skeptical, and focused on design. Cass further lists events he has attended in the field of graphic design that are conducive to his knowledge of graphic design. By the time I completely read his homepage, and was ready to move onto his portfolio on his web subpages; I felt like I had already known Jacob Cass. Which I feel is important when trying to land an interview.

Lysergid.com

http://www.lysergid.com/

Loïc J. Sattler is an illustrator that makes some justly fascinating designs. Sattler uses tools such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to create unique works of art. Truly inspirational.

Week 10.2

OK, by now your probably either A-sick of seeing theDigitalVein, or B- you cannot get it out of your head. Hopefully its B. I wanted to display my ability to incorporate the logo into stationary. I gave the overall formats of the business card, envelope, and 8.5 by 11 letter a base by inserting the TDV symbol. Using the transparency palette in Adobe Illustrator, I gave the symbol around 20 percent transparency to allow for body copy to be easily read. I found it very difficult to contain all the necessary information i.e. address, email, phone, website without being too cluttered. I also ran into some problems when I had to take into consideration The United States Postal Service regulations and requirements on how a design can be intrusive to the correct processing of U.S. mail. If a design is not in regulation with The Postal Service, it may hinder the sorting machines leaving your design lost in the mail system from weeks or even months! This can be devastating to your business when your information is not getting communicated correctly.

Week 10.1

I created a logo for my future graphic design business and named it: theDigitalVein. I wanted a super modern look that contained a symbol that appeared to be similar to alien writing. I chose geometric shapes that formed TDV standing for "theDigitalVein" for a logo symbol and rotated upward to 45 degrees to give tension in the design. I then companioned the logo symbol with the name of the company. I chose ultra thin type that used red colors black and grey tones (colors utilized also in the logo symbol TDV). I intentionally designed the word DIGITAL in black bold to emphasize the main aspect the company; digital design. Notice closely to the name of the company. It is aligned next to the TDV symbol using the rule of thirds.

Week 9.2

This was my first attempt at creating a design with Autodesk Maya. The Digital Vein was a concept for a future graphic design business that I devised. I wanted to give the design an illusion that the 3D type was stuck with a poker or metal rod. Once again I utilized the rule of thirds at two points; first where the poker rod comes into the format and secondly where The Digital Vein is displayed. I used a red hue to give the 3D type a sense of warmth. After creating the design in Maya I then imported the design into photoshop and used the blur tool to give the design a sense of depth of field. I left the majority of the format white to bring out the design and its red warm color.

Week 9.1

While attending South University in Columbia, South Carolina I was tasked with a job to create posters for the University Library. The head librarian requested that I design a series of posters informing students of the rules and regulations set forth in the university library including: quiet area, no food, and no cellphones. The university librarian wanted a design that would grab peoples attention, contained the predominate school colors, remained fairly simplistic, and would not be offensive to a moderate university president. I used this opportunity to hone my skills with typography and color coordination. I believe it was important to use the rule of thirds for the main content because I feel the most important content should attract the viewers eyes with ease. Other visuals like the photograph and Thanks SU Library Staff were just additional design elements that I felt accompanied the main informative content.

Week 8.2

The program director of graphic design at South University Columbia Campus requested that I create a design that promotes my work as an aspiring graphic designer. I wanted a cold distorted design that used "plain jane" san-serif typeface. I challenged my self to use this "plain jane" typeface by moving type around in unexpected ways. I used scale to express ER not only for designER but for my last name; LoesER. I used illustrator for clean vector typefaces and photoshop for the background texture, personal photo, and paintbrush effects. I intended for the format to lack four sides so I used a paintbrush set in white to diminish some edges from the overall layout. I used contrast in black and white, along with some serious transparency to give the design depth.

Week 8.1

This is the winning design for Amalgamated Industries corporate logo. I feel that circles are very strong design elements. I placed circles in a way that not only gives a unique shape but also discreetly displays the companies initials: Aii. I matched the typeface of the company name to coincide with the circles. I then tried streamlining Industries Inc. with the typeface Flatron. I felt that the circle logo along with the company name should extend from left to right to ease viewers eyes. The logo can be used with or without the name of the company.

Week 7.2

Amalgamated Industries Incorporated is a company that has been building mechanical widgets for over a hundred years. In that time the company renovated their trademark only one time. In 2010 the company was ready to make a corporate makeover. The first thing on their list was a company logo redesign. After extensive research and collection of data, I put together five different logos that I felt, upon the completion of my research, fit the company the best. I have displayed all five to show the range of difference in my concepts. Upon completion, I felt the strongest design was the first logo. Which design do you believe is the strongest?

Week 7.1

The mission for this project was to create a spread utilizing a verb and a noun. I utilized both photoshop and illustrator for the design. Though the design really has no true message, I chose items carefully. The shoes above Lincoln's eyes are to mimic a mask, while bringing in present iconic objects (nike shoes) and pairing them with iconic people (Lincoln). I used a script typeface to give the word vein an organic feel with its curvilinear design. I used black and white to signify life and death. The white and black background enabled me to make great use of white space while designing the word: excreting.

logodesignlove.com

LogoDesignLove is a website blog that is primarily focused on logos and brand identity. The blog showcases other designers work, gives tips, educates, and keeps designers inspired. The site was originally created by David Airey, an Irish graphic designer from Edinburgh Scotland. Many popular post topics include: how 20 designers charge their clients, graphic design contracts, how to improve your portfolio, negative space in design, secrets from a search marketing manager, etc. This blog is extremely helpful, inspiring, and is a must see for anyone practicing design.

Week 6.2

This is a piece that I created in Adobe Illustrator for self branding. After much brainstorming I conceptualized the word Designate. The word contains my name and what I am passionate about; design. I used a black background to bring out the color and to give contrast to the white type. I used bold hues to bring out my name in the design.

Week 6.1

The Modern Art Gallery requested a poster to promote the plus three exhibition. I utilized Adobe inDesign to layout the poster. I felt the visual hierarchy of information was essential to the purpose of this design. I used design elements including glyphs, typography, and body copy to compose this poster. Placement and layout of elements were positioned to guide the reader throughout the composition. I wanted to use white space abruptly while not making it to overwhelming. Most elements are positioned towards the bottom to give the composition a defining base in overall format.

Week 5.2

While redesigning Boggart Ale I concepted an idea to create two additinal brews for Greenman Brewing Company; Boggart and Boggart Light. The labels are similar but have their own discrete designs. While the regular Boggart contains greengold accents on black background, Boggart Light includes white to giving it a "lightened" feel. Both labels contain wheat illustrations, but are laid out differently to give them their own distinct personality. The difference in layout was to make sure customers wouldn't confuse the two brews.

Week 5.1

Greenman Brewing Company located in London England was looking for a redesign of their Harry Potter branded Boggart Ale. While brainstorming for this new design, I couldn't help but think of the goblins written in the Harry Potter. I created an image that I truly believed portrayed a goblin. I wanted to compose the elements that made up the goblin in an abstract way. I used green because I felt it best exemplified the goblins in the Harry Potter series. I created a new logo for Boggart lined with parallel tassels of wheat. I used black as a base color, and greengold pantone to highlight the Boggart brand logo. Bottlecap, bottle neck label, and front/back label were designed similar to reinforce brand.

Week 4.2

Playfulness. The goal of this design was to portray playfulness through type. I chose script type for its organic structure. I felt the organic structures of script would give a better allusion of playfulness when composed in conjunction with one another. I used darker colors at the bottom to better define the base of the format. I enlarged each piece of type to give a sense that the type was rising to the top. Bright blue hues were used to give them a cool and calm personality. The organic lines, and cool blue hues of the type were constructed to translate playfulness.

Week 4.1

I enjoy the utilization of typography in design. In this piece I wanted to encapsulate contrasting hues, positive negative space all as an abstract form. I wanted the black object and dark greenish background to relate by using minimal contrast. The black on dark green background contain just enough contrast to give positive negative space. I then used bright and bold blaze orange number 9 to give extreme contrast to the dark background. The curvilinear lines of the blaze orange number 9 were positioned to accent the lines of the black letter e. I felt the baseline of the blaze orange letter 9 fit comfortably into the eye of the black letter e.

Week 3.2

I strongly believe the placement of logo and its format background color are essential in the design.

As you can see I designed the Dorado Verde logo on a few widely used materials like: pens, cap, polo shirt, and cologne/perfume. I placed the logo high on the breast of the polo shirt to be easily seen and read by people to promote the resort. Whether its a tourist wearing a shirt on the golf course, or a busy Dorado Verde employee wearing a polo while loading a baggage cart, the cap and shirt are designed white to reduce the ruthless rays of the Costa Rican sun. My overall goal was to get a clean, polished, and refreshing look for the resort, while maintaining purpose to their design.

Did I accomplish this?

Week 3.1

After research, conceptions, and logo creation of the eco-friendly resort dorado verde, it was time to layout a promo poster on print.

I have seen many posters in the past, especially resort posters that seem to be amassed with advertisements, excessive pictures, and too much type. I find it extremely distracting and downright confusing. A goal of mine in this poster design was to get the point across by promoting this eco-resort in the most direct way possible.

If you look at the poster you will notice that there is depth of feel contained in the photograph of the palm tree. I wanted the viewers eyes to come to focus down the palm tree straight in focus to the green gold resort appropriately named Dorado Verde. I also used other supporting elements consisting of rectangles and intersecting type to help assist the viewer in targeting the resort name: dorado verde. Additionally, I sprinkled the most important information: location, phone, and website address parallel to the bottom of the format to create an interesting base to the design print.

Week 2.2

A new eco-resort was being constructed on one of Costa Rica’s most beautiful areas. The client requested that I design and develop a brand for the eco-resort starting with a logo. The main goal of the branding would be to influence tourists to visit.

My first step was to do as much research about Costa Rica as possible. I found that Costa Rica was known for its extreme beauty and untouched inhabited rainforests. I learned from my research that the main language of Costa Rica is Spanish. With green lush rainforests, Spanish speaking people, and a request for a powerful brand for the eco-resort, I developed a name that I felt exemplified it all, Dorado Verde.

Dorado Verde translated to English is gold and green. Correct Spanish translation is “green gold”. Green gold is representative of the priceless valuable resources contained within the lush rainforests. Many tourists who don’t speak Spanish find out Dorado Verdes true meaning after they have experienced it during their visit.

Week 2.1

I enjoy transforming everyday items into alternate abstract forms. In this piece I was inspired by the receiver of pistols and their relationship to one another.

Week 1.2

My design influence has rooted from experiences growing up in the heartland of Illinois. My motivation for good design is my 19 month old boy; JD who promotes me to strive for excellence.

Week 1.1

My name is Nathan Loeser. I am originally from a small farm town called Henry. Henry is located in the heart of Illinois and is consisted mostly of timber and fields. Henry is located next to the Illinois river valley. It is a place of isolation and solitude. This isolation and solitude of the area has influenced my ambitions to create. My work is directly influenced by the locations that surrounded me growing up.