Green Gorilla is a carwash located in Logan, Utah. The previous designer used cartoon clip art for a gorilla which the client hated. They asked me to create something that was more corporate, (at least not so cartoony) fun, but professional. “It should have the feeling of strength with a green environmentally friendly feel.” (Which gives you an idea how where the other logo did not end up.)

I started, as I always do, with thumbnails in Sketchbook pro. After finding something I liked, I looked up scrap from google and used it as a base for a quick high-contrast conversion. There is no button for this, I do it by sight. There are some who say you can do the same thing by using Threshold in Photoshop, but I like to add things that are not always there or conversely delete things which are there, but get in the way. The best conversions are those done with the mind as a filter not an algorithm. IMHO.

After I have the conversion done, I then jump into Photoshop and start distorting things. Again I could do this by hand, but I like the liquify filter for quickly pushing and pulling lines I have already drawn. It is also convenient to have an undo. After the filter is done creating a mess, I go back over it and redraw the art using the distortion as a base. I will again add or delete elements based on what I feel worked and what didn’t.

When the graphic is pretty much done I copy it over to Adobe Illustrator and do a hand-tracing. Again, there are some who think that Autotrace is the answer to all vector problems. While there is a time and a place for this tool, I often find I can do a cleaner trace, with less points, and a more natural flow, doing it by hand. (Quicker too; when you consider all the time that is saved by not having to clean up the Autotrace mess.)

From here I will start playing with “real” fonts, colors, and design elements. I can spend a lot of time down this hole; Time that is generally well spent. I try and control myself while at the same time giving myself permission to explore as many variables as possible. It is a balance sometimes between making money on a job and finding the best solution. In the process I try to find relationships between the graphic, the shape, the fonts etc. When I have something that begins to work I will clone it and pull it of to the side. This gives me a working file with a series of historical changes. This can be essential if I want to revisit a particular grouping or undo a customized font outline.

Along the way in all of this is the client’s input and direction. I think that their input is essential for a natural collaborative end product that we both share. With the final logo design nailed down, I will then start working on solutions for CMYK, 2 color, 1 color, Greyscale, and Black. I will also find a solution for reverse (if appropriate) or dark backgrounds. In the end I provide solutions in native .ai files as well as jpg, tif, .eps and png.

I’ve created a new website for Mike Kennedy’s campaign for CdA city council. I do a fair amount of work with Mike at Intermax Networks and I have known him for many years. The graphics which include yard signs, hand bills, this web site, a 60 sec video spot (commercial) and other collateral. We are also talking about a billboard and voter registration cards. Anyway, it is good work for a great guy who lets me have the creative freedom to incorporate my ideas into his overall campaign strategy.

This is a test of embedding a YouTube video. Great stuff here for fun and profit.

Between my bouncing around in advertising, web design, and illustration, my summer activities have included a new commitment to finish my children’s book. It is nothing of great importance, but if opposition is a measure of anything worth doing, then it must be of some value. Along with this undertaking, I am putting finishing touches on a English/Spanish flip book that may have some merit. When these are done I will offer them as e-books as well as your typical case-bound hard copy versions.

There is a great amount of discussion lately on the validity of this new wave of “freeconomics” that seems to power the web. Within this idea, the creation of products (like books) are no longer the end focus. Rather; creating a channel where people can connect and take part in the evolving stream of conciseness, seems to be the order of the day. Within this collective hand wringing, products can be purchased, of course, but the driving distribution paradigm is in the building of this hive mind.

It is a dichotomy of sorts. Much like building a boat in the middle of a desert or building the same boat in the middle of an ocean; too early or too late can kill you.

Some have espoused social networking as a safe middle ground for the exercise. It is a natural base to gather a collective of “followers” if only passive in nature, and use it as a jumping off point for when you are ready to leverage the power of your channel (or network).

Along with this network, is the idea of “giving away” your product. For example, giving away an e-book that can be read on a iPhone, tablet, or computer. People watching such things say that free e-books drive sales to hard copy books of a more traditional nature and profit margin. I have reservations as how long this will last as technology becomes more and more portable over time. It feels like a transition solution. Still, the idea has merits.

It is all very interesting from many points of view. The new breed of publishers, marketers, advertising aficionados, and content producers are looking at this and saying: Hmmmmmm. Myself included.

Somebody asked (emailed) me what do I do to keep myself in business? In this market, it is is tough. You are linked with your pool of clients and their failures are you failures to a certain degree. When a client goes under I feel it. I am a small shop, I can’t not feel it. However, there are five things that I try and keep consistent that I believe contribute to the over all health of my business. (This applies to my illustration as well as advertising clients.)

Be service oriented: Treat yourself like a plumber with a pen. People come to you to get a service performed; to fix their visual communication pipes. They come to you because you are the expert. If they could have done the job themselves, they would have. Treat your clients with respect, listen to their ideas, and foster an attitude of service. It will win the client’s loyalty and keeps them coming back.

Be approachable: An air of superior aloofness may foster an image of artistic aptitude, but being a friendly, approachable, down to earth person of character is something that you can take to the bank. Unfortunately, art programs often don’t teach this positive skill set. A lot of artistic types are loners, and not apt at being overly sociable. This may cause an outward appearance of aloofness, when you are in reality standing behind a protective wall. As much as I sympathize with this, it is bad business. Do your best to be open and approachable. Your clients will find it refreshing and frankly it is a lot more fun to be around.

Be deadline focused: An acceptable job done “on time” is worth more than a stellar job handed in late. This is a carry-over from my work in publishing and illustration but it applies to advertising too. More often than not you are not the only person in a workflow. Copywriters, editors, printers, designers, illustrators, photographers, publishers, distributors, are all in the boat with you. A small delay on your part can equal thousands of dollars in overruns for your client and cause problems for the others who are depending on you to do your part professionally. This is no excuse to do mediocre work. Do the absolute best you possibly can, within the established deadline.

Be flexible: Stuff changes. Clients ideas evolve. Better ideas sometime take a while to incubate. For whatever reason, the work that you do and the reputation that you secure will hinge greatly on your ability to adapt to what the client wants today not what the brief outlined two weeks ago.

Be grateful: I worked for a number of years as an in-house artist and art director. I also worked day-labor for a few years before that. Sitting on my backside while I attempt creative greatness is the best job ever. Doing it for myself, on my own time on under my one direction and schedule is about as good as it gets. I have know some great art directors and creative directors at some high powered agencies and companies. Without fail, all of them have said that despite the downsides of begin self employed (there a a few) nothing beats owning a small to mid-sized shop under your control picking and choosing the work you want to do.

I’ve been wanting to post this for a while. It is one in a series of sponsorship ads that we will be running on Idaho Public Television. This was cool because I was able to tap into my brother’s extensive talents in video production, give him a script, supply the graphical elements and then have us both put it together via an iChat video conference. (He is in New York.) You gotta love the flexibility of using the net to do work.

YOUTUBE LINK!

School is out. This last couple of weeks has been intense, but I made it though. I honestly thought of not returning next year to teach. The time commitment is immense. I like the teaching, however, and it forces me to get out of the house and into the community and stops me from becoming a basement troll. (My studio is in the basement of my house; a side benefit of having a lot of clients that reside outside my state.)

This week I am doing some catching up on misc work and little projects that have been slipping into the cracks. There is a lot to do, but If I set up this week correctly, the rest of the week (summer) will be smooth and efficient.

In this vein, I am posting a brief project rundown of the Budget Storage phonebook ad. This includes where we started, where we ended up and what where my thoughts along the way. I won’t be doing this with all my projects, but I thought it would be good for a select few to be used as reference for my class.

Clicking on the thumbnail will bring you to the graphic. In Firefox and Safari you will get a magnifying glass icon to zoom in and out.

As always, feel free to comment as you see necessary.

Phone book ads remind me of protection rackets. “Youz are gonna pay us $650 a month, for your full page display adz. And we promise to cash your check and forget who you are for the next year. And ifs youz nice, and don’t scream too much, weez will actually attempt to get your phone number correct — no extra charge.”

I am creating a new phone book ad for a client to replace last years (freebie) ad that they (the phone book people) screwed up. Freebie is a loose term really. They design it for “free,” although at $8,000 a year it’s hard to call anything free. And the quality of the design is three steps above Bongo the chimpanzee and his amazing finger paints.

To compensate for the screw up, they are giving my client a “free” color upgrade this year. Yes, my client had to live with the awful ad all of last year. (Phone books don’t do reprints.) And yes, my client lost business because of it. But the best the phone book people could do was a color upgrade?

(In my best Tony Soprano voice.) “It’s just bitness, nuttin personal … you understand?”

Speaking of which … when was the last time you used a phone book? It might just be geeky me, but when I need to find a company, I Google it. When my client asked me to look at their ad, I had to quickly dig up the book, which was buried under winter coats and boots. It was placed in this place of respect by my son, who distributed them as a Boy Scout fund raising project last fall, and dropped it here when he walked through the front door. We must have kicked it around for three weeks before the accumulating strata hid its whereabouts from view. Otherwise, I would have had NO clue where to find it.

Which reminds me … I need to add my address and phone number to my big yellow blog header.

There is something about me that likes the “outside the box” approach that grass roots guerilla marketing lays claim to. I like it even better when the results of those guerilla promises actually deliver. What do I like about it? It could be the on-the-low, biggest bang for the buck, stand up and take notice, no holds barred, mentality. It could also be that it forces a designer to stop thinking pretty and corporate and gets you dirty.

I have recently completed a somewhat market focused ad built around a three cent xerox flyer on yellow paper that will be distributed, posted, tacked, and handed out by volunteers here in Coeur d’Alene. The ad was built from the ground up to be lossy — the the more grittier and grungy the better. I created some hyper contrasty Photoshop magic from a picture that was already in-your face. For me, the ad is definitely a stretch. For my client, it is also an experiment in something different x 10. I don’t want to let too much out of the bag, but I will post a visual of this next week after we tally the results. Until then … here is a sneak peek.

It has been a long time coming, and I have not yet reached the point where I can say to myself that it is finished (is there ever such a point?) but I have successfully updated my portfolio and made some navigation changes.

To start off, I killed all the drilling down into specific folders and lumped all my logos and advertising together. I have also brought all my illustration under one umbrella. This should make it easier to view samples and keep navigation simple. I have moved my sculpting portfolio off of this site and I am moving it to another domain. I know this goes contrary to what I was saying earlier this year, but it never felt right to have it sort of frankenstein-ed onto this site. Instead of a blog, however, I think that my sculpting site will be a stand alone informational site. We will see, a lot of this rearranging is still in the air.

Comments or no comments? The rest of this site is open to comments and those of you who read and send “good vibes” my direction are encouraged to keep doing so. A few of you have noticed that I do not have my portfolio open for comments. I am not sure why I choose to do this? It is not like my portfolio is more “formal” than the other parts of my blogfolio. I will think about it. If you want to influence the decision, I can be bribed with M&Ms or you can leave a comment here.