New Company Vehicle!

When a business is growing, sometimes one vehicle isn't enough. I found a skateboard at a Goodwill for ten bucks so I figured I'd have some fun making it my own. Here is the Before and After Photo . . .

Find out how about the process (11 photos) . . . 

Portfolio

Over the last year, I have been pretty busy working on some new and exciting projects (which I will start to share more on this blog). The first of which, is a physical portfolio to show to potential clients and employers. Recently, it came in the mail and I wanted to share with everyone a sneak peak. Here is the cover . . .

Photo Manipulation

Photo Manipulation is a big part of the modern day graphic designer's job. It is not limited to fixing the exposure of a photo, but sometimes involves erasing people, changing backgrounds and creating new images altogether. I will go over the history of photo manipulation in a later post (it's pretty interesting, trust me), but for now please see below (or click "read on") for some examples of photo manipulation that I have done for my clients . . .

Anti Smoking Ads - Unused Proposals

I work for ARC Total Market Communications and we do a lot of stuff for the Orange County Task Forces. When you are brainstorming for an ad campaign, anything goes. I thought it would be fun to share some of the unused proposals that we created for the County of Orange's Anti-Smoking Ad Campaign.

We tested these Ads with various target audiences (depending on the campaign) and received both positive and negative reactions. Regardless, they decided to go a different route. I will post those later. Anyways, here they are. Feel free to let me know what you think.

Film Noir Title Screens - Free Wallpaper

From a design viewpoint, film title screens can be so cool. I am a big fan of old title screens from the 1940's  - 50's Film Noir Genre. I have collected a bunch of them and made them into a free wall paper for your viewing pleasure. But first, here are a few classic title screens . . .

Logo Design Process : Jdot Handcrafted

When small business owner Joleen Locanas contacted me to help her create a logo for her upcoming company "jdot handcrafted" (jay-dot hand crafted), I was happy to help. I thought I would share the experience as an example of the logo design process.

1. Research

I had some follow up questions for Joleen in regards to her company. Here's are some of the notes I received from the client:

"I want to focus on the "J."/jaydot portion of the name for the logo design. I am imagining something simple/minimalist/forward/classic. I would like it be simple and to the point because one core idea of my designs is to be functional/practical but not boring. Also, I would like to emboss the logo on my future leather work so I would like a logo that will scale well/adapt well in various applications/media."

2. Black and white roughs
My creative philosophy dictates that simple is better. The more detailed a logo becomes, the less versatile it is. A simple yet visually impactful logo is almost always the best solution.

Although many logo concepts were explored, the following pages contain the three that I deemed most worthy of consideration. For this phase of the process, color was withheld to focus on shape and design. Once we have secured a direction, color and other minor design elements will be explored in the next phase.

Joleen also wanted to explore how the company name would be represented which is why it is written in different ways.



Important: The client is not limited to these three options. If the client wishes to see more options I am always happy to work from their notes.

2. Black and white version polished.
Once the client has picked a direction to head in, we polished up the rough a little more to get the version below.



Designer's Notes Sent to Client: I felt the Jay best represented the company, not only because of the name, but because the birds spend great care in building their nest similar to the great care it takes to create your unique hand crafted products. Since the J. can be seen in the logo image, I thought it best to spell it out in the title to make sure people know how to pronounce it.

3. Color Options
Now that the logo was secured, the next step was to add some color to the logo. Joleen wanted to see the colors maroon and blue to be utilized as well as a couple other options.


4. Finalization of Logo
jdot handcrafted has some more minor changes to the logo and the way their name was displayed.



You can visit them here

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"I love the concept and thank you for taking the time and care to work on the logo and banner with me"

Joleen Locanas, jdot handcrafted

What's on their mind . . .

Here is some of what I have currently been working on these days. It's an Ad Campaign for "The Solution is You" Program for the County of Orange. The ads are directed to parents to talk to their kids about the dangers of Drugs and Alcohol.





Feel free to let me know what you think . . .

New Posts Coming Soon!

Hello Everybody,

Some of you may notice that some of the previous blog entries have been deleted from this site. That is because I am currently working on updating this blog with more entries and I figured it was time for clean start. So feel free to stop by often for new content!

Enjoy

Matthew Dow