Some key ideas

The body background is a transparent PNG with a halftone dot pattern repeated from MRI’s logo. The actual header div utilizes another dot pattern. When the two are combined it creates a completely different effect than either would solely, on their own. This is a very minor design touch but I plan on making this idea a fundamental design element throughout MRI’s branding. It embodies everything about light painting in overlapping colors.

Bright, bold colors

The theme is very minimal but it relies on bold color to re-enforce your eye’s focus.

CSS 3 and Internet Explorer

I do not expect anyone using IE to see the website as intended. This is similar to a director’s cut of a film. I will no longer go out of my way to dumb-down websites I design, just for IE — at least when I can avoid it, anyway. I chose to utilize border-radius (rounded corners) and text-shadow via CSS 3 and only folks using current web standards-compliant browsers will see the website as intended. IE users will not see rounded corners, drop-shadows or text shadows. Internet Explorer 9 is supposed to support CSS 3, finally, we’ll see. Microsoft, please stop making your own browser — use it in your operating system all you want but stop allowing people to use your shitty browser. Please, focus your energy and resources on making a semi-decent operating system.

Future ideas for expansion and refinement

• Play with sidebar widgets — how to display them in a not-so-default manner
• The heavily desired “where’s the beef” footer — more interesting footer business
• Creative ways to present post-sharing/social media badges
• Implement some @font references for headers/typography
• Strive to remember that simplicity is usually the best route to take

Click image to visit the new website.

I want to thank Michelle and Ryan for being awesome and letting me use their website as a design playground. I love you guys. This post is like, 4 months past due, but whatever. Better late than never.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.

MRI Lightpainting is Ryan Warnberg and Michelle McSwain. Ryan is a talented story teller, writer and works for a living as a music industry marketing nerd at Sony. Michelle is a ridiculously talented photographer, together they form the uniquely creative duo MRI Lightpainting. They are quickly making a name for themselves throughout New York and the world. After designing business cards for both Michelle and Ryan, they came to me to design a logo for their new adventure. After several months of back-and-forth emails and phone calls (they live in NY), we solidified a concept.

The Process

The initial goal of the logo was to express the act of light painting, which is no easy task. After brainstorming, sketching on and off for a month or so, I started to realize that the logo did not have to express what they do. The logo needed to be stylish, simple, memorable and flexible for wide-application. Some of my initial attempts at creating a “lightpainting effect” were successful, however were not versatile enough to work in one color and still carry it’s message. Their work expresses what they do far greater than any logo ever could. The final colors had been determined early-on, as the print colors CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). They wanted bold colors to match the light effects utilized in their work.

Now, my personal favorite for a long time was the simplicity of the top right — semi-circle. However, it does remind me of a few other logos out there. The kerning is a bit off in the version above, oh well. I do still really like it — and I adore the Avant Garde Gothic typeface.

End Result

Here are some final interpretations of the logo. It is versatile enough to work in one color or in a layered fashion, which I am a big fan of. The letter forms are half half-tone, half solid, largely filled-in with slight bottom insets, to hint at their full form. When over-laid in three color, they resemble a screen printed element. They also effectively illustrate light painting, in colors overlapping one another. This can also be manipulated/layered further, offering an endless combination of the original logo, to appear in various mediums.

Matt Wells is a talented illustrator who is extremely active in the local art community. I always enjoy the chance to work with him and occasionally partake in some fine beer drinking. From providing illustration and design for annual events like the Red Hot Art Festival, to his own successful art shows, like 2009’s Rush Hour, he always produces high-quality noteworthy artwork. Some may also have noticed his work for 2008’s Doomtree release Hand Over Fist, which made my top 15 of that year.

I had designed and coded a very simple website for Matt years ago. It was completely static and tedious to update. Over the past few months he came to me for some new thoughts and advice in resolving some server problems. I suggested we migrate his current site into WordPress. The biggest reason, his previous hosting provider was not secure. His website became listed as having malicious content (in Google’s eyes) and as a result, his domain was developing a bad reputation. I suggested he ditch that hosting provider because they obviously couldn’t resolve the security issues. After he received a humorous email from some Motorcyle-enthusiast wanting a link exchange it became increasingly necessary. He clicked the link in the email and was directed to a page on his site that was essentially a link farm. This was baffling to me and I have never seen this happen before. Long story short, he is now hosted elsewhere, securely and has WordPress as a content management system.

Design Notes

The layout is extremely minimal, clean, holding some subtle touches. Above everything, it serves to provide the public with an overview of his stunning work. That was the most important goal of the website, as it should be with any artist portfolio site. I am a huge fan of big bold headings, in this case I used Helvetica. I feel the site is now professional, clean, easy to navigate and simple. His work can really shine and updating the various galleries of work could not be easier.

Visit: The New Lizardman Art Website

Let me know what you think!

Emily came to me for a slight redesign of her current site, which I designed some years ago. The previous site was completely static (no administration installed on the server) and required her to learn HTML and proved to be more work to update. Since that time, her business has grown and I have grown to love WordPress, specifically using WordPress as a content management system. We decided that this was this best solution to show-off and maintain her gallery of incredible jewelry! Also, she can now easily update her monthly events and news.

Design Notes

The layout is very clean, minimal and stays true to her business card design, while furthering her brand.

On a personal note, I was thrilled to work on this because it challenged me to learn more about how WordPress functions, from the hierarchical templating to more robust and specific features.

Visit: The New EC Design Studio Website

Let me know what you think!

Ex-Cop play their own special blend of black metal-meets-noise, mostly black metal though. They are crazy, create damn fine music and have unparalleled taste in beer. A relatively new band, Ex-Cop is made-up of members from Cellphone (rip) and Waterbear. Though they have not had an official release, they do frequently perform at unknown underground venues near you. It’s probably someone’s basement, hotter than hell, sweat-dripping and flying everywhere. Hell, there is probably a naked guy straddling an air conditioner, flopping his dong about and throwing food coloring at the audience. There is beer, music, deep film discussion and extreme levels of intoxicated pedal-falling-off bike-riding. But that’s the way Ex-Cop rolls. Peace to Mikkeller.

The Poster

About the design

If you hadn’t guessed it yet, this is heavily inspired by the work of the legendary Saul Bass and more specifically his work for the 1959 classic film Anatomy of a Murder. I’ve always adored hand-crafting type and I dig it when it’s sloppy. I had no master plan with this and wanted it to appear D.I.Y. Sure, this poster design could be refined, but I wanted to preserve it, as-is. A testament to experimenting with typography. Over time, I plan to hone my hand-craft-type skills and expand, in my own way, on the work of a legend. Note the “ex-cop” outlined body/figure assembled out of .38 special bullets — matching the .38 special revolver. All Ex-Cop, all day long.

When I think of the members of Ex-Cop, I think of the 1950’s-1960’s. I am ridiculous nostalgic and obsessed with the 50’s & 60’s. A time when I didn’t exist, but love to think of what it must have been like. Shout-out to Mad Men.

This is not a typical black metal aesthetic but who says it needs to be.

While I was designing the icon & business cards for Intran Media, I took on a new idea for their core marketing/sales promotional tool. After several meetings with the sales team, we decided on a layout and started thinking about content. The end result is foil-stamped, has die-cut tabs for each page and a folder like flap adhered to the inside back cover (with die-cut slits for business cards). The inside cover also features “truckside billboard advertising” typography in the shape of a freight truck.

Looking back, we could have styled the copy to a greater extent. That was not necessarily the goal however. This sales booklet was a replacement for the previous leave-behind, a folder filled with loose-leaf laser-printed papers. It also was a one-stop piece which replaced several PowerPoint documents they also used to leave behind.

Closer look: die-cut tabs

Closer look: back folder sleeve and “truckside billboard advertising” typography

Of all the work I did at Intran Media for the 2+ years I was employed, the opportunity to re-brand the company was the most enlightening experience. I learned a lot through the process and it was a massive undertaking. Their business cards utilized an icon I developed to represent what they do, advertise on freight trucks. This proved to be an excellent compliment to their logo. I developed a type treatment for their new slogan “Truckside Billboard Advertising”, which clearly defines what they do.

I was able to create three varieties of cards, based on each employee’s role in the company. The Sales department got the black + red combo on the fronts, the Leasing department got red + white and the administration/owners got white + red. Everyone loved the new cards and was eager to start handing them out.

In hindsight, I wish I had left out the “caution-like” bars at the top and bottom, but everyone liked them, so we kept them in.

Closer look: type + icon

Chris Naylor is an incredible woman. We have been working together on various projects for years and is truly a pleasure to work with. She had pretty great business cards prior to coming to me to “freshen them up”. We refined her brand, incorporating various green tones, tweaked her logo and put them on business cards, printed with a matte finish. They turned out very nice.

Michelle McSwain is an amazing photographer. She asked me to design elegant business cards with a solid color scheme. The browns and lime green are a favorite color-combo of mine, so we went with it. I am really happy with how they turned out. She also does awesome light painting with my homie Ryan Warnberg.

Utilizing Emily’s brand, we developed sophisticated and unique business cards. Utilizing a sleek rusty red, subtle beige on the front for the “Jewelry Metalwork Sculpture” text and printed on 16pt paper with a matte finish. These cards are among my favorite card designs to date. These cards showcase the final logo design, with the “C” eating “design”. I dig it!