Softly Sketching

I'm very excited to start work on illustrating one of my friend's newest books and here's an early sketch. Without a deadline this time, I'm now able to take my time and illustrate with the detail that I enjoy. It's starting out very well and can't wait to design the accompanying layouts. I'll post updates as I go.

Seasonal Work

One of my past employers contacted me a couple weeks ago asking if I could help out with some photoshop work. Evidently the issue was that their due date on a couple of their largest catalogs was moved up an entire month. My role was to help out with imprinting products (usually on of the most time-consuming tasks). This involves designing an imprint, warping it to fit the perspective of the shot, and applying any relevant filters (depending on the focus and grain of the photo). Some of these can be quite labor-intensive when the frame area is quite detailed and needs a clipping path. In certain circumstances I need to apply an adjustment layer just to locate the borders I need to work within. And to make things even more difficult, 20-30% of the shots are on reflective materials which means doubling the work. Click on the image to see a larger view.

Blog Header (Fall issue)

Here's my completed Fall version of the blogger's header design (see previous post).

Pat Balder

A former colleague's friend had exhausted his original graphics budget on something he wasn't entirely pleased with. After talking with him about his unique situation and some of the details, I agreed to spend a limit of 3 hours on this (left) flyer in exchange for future project consideration. He was pleased with the outcome and I will post our future projects when they're completed.

Final Logo Design

After taking a little break, I decided to experiment with alternative styles and rethink the theme behind the logo. A majority of the time, I see company/client names involving actual subjects making it much easier to brainstorm ideas. This name was more of an idea focusing more on the service the client provides than the actual name of the company. In addition, I needed to find a compromise between an effective color combination based on her initial ideas, and one that will work with the website template she had already chosen. I started with a simple new idea based on an old illustration of an open door. That's it. I then toyed with the relation between the emitting light and the negative space while attempting to retain the shape of the house/building.

Business Logo Concepts

Above are some more early logo ideas that I've been working on. The first three were the initial concepts after some brainstorming and color experimentation with the last two being modifications based on what the client said she liked. I still wasn't completely happy with the direction the designs were headed and decided to take a little break and do some chores and return with some new thoughts. It worked! It looks awesome (to us anyway) and totally different. Unfortunately, I'd like to hold off posting the final design until the client is completely comfortable.

Motorcycle Logo Update

At last an image of the logo that used my vector motorcycle (see earlier posts)! I might have spent a little too much time on the details on the motorcycle for what it was used for, but I really got into it and was enjoying it too much not to.

Blog Header (Pt. 1)

This is a quick blog header idea for another client. There was a little back and forth on the details, but painless in terms of revisions. This scrap booking blog will have multiple/revolving headers depending on the season, so when I finish the "fall" version, I'll post it.

Early Concept

This is an early sample of one of my logo ideas for a client's new endeavor. I liked it at first, but her? Not as much as I did. Anyway, since it's been eliminated from the process, I thought I'd post it.

Project Update(s)

Some disappointing employment news has been counteracted by a couple new projects. One illustration (starting on a new children's book) and one logo (which I'll post once it's finished) are keeping me busy and keeping my skills sharp.

More Motorcycles?!

My wife needed me to quickly illustrate a vector image for a charity/memorial project she's working on and above is what I came up with. She will add colors later today and I will post the final project when it's finished. Right now I'm working in a warehouse to pay the bills, but projects like these remind me how much I can't wait to get back to full-time design.

Latest Catalog Work

Open publication - Free publishing - More variquest

Here's an online sample of my latest catalog work.

Online Page Layout Sample

Here's a sample of just one of the pages I designed. If you'd like to see more, visit www.variquest.com

See the book!

Open publication - Free publishing - More acceptance

Here's the online version of our most recent book. Please let me know what you think! I'd love comments.

Realtor Logo

The client that requested a magazine ad (displayed in the earlier post, Key Concepts) requested a couple logo concepts. These are a couple ideas that I had so far. Some elements they wished to retain were the key element and the letters K, D, and T. Haven't heard anything from the client for a while, but I'll post any updates if I do.

New Business Cards

For some reason I'm more comfortable designing business cards for others than my own. I finally decided on this design to match my resume and (future) website. I took the illustration (that I used for my profile picture) and converted it to a framework-like design for the background.

Finished!

This surprisingly labor-intensive project is done... for now? This children's book is my first, and from the experience, hopefully not my last. It's been a while since I've done this much illustration outside of Photoshop or Illustrator, but with a deadline, it's been one of the most time consuming and rewarding projects I've worked on in a long time.

Illustration Project Update 4.22.09

Here's another sketch from the book I'm working on. This project is turning out to be more labor-intensive than I originally thought. But it will probably be one of the most rewarding when we're finished.

Illustration Project Update

It's been a while since I had the chance to work on a project like this, but after meeting with the author and reading her book, I couldn't help but get excited about it. A small book (16-24 pages) with at least one illustration on each page, starring a young girl and her grandmother. It's been fun developing the characters and working with the author on the story. I'll post updated images as they develop.

Full Throttle: Part 2

I received an update on this project recently. After considering the original design, the customer forwarded an illustration of what image/style they specifically desired. After hours of work on the original submission, I wanted to see how I might be able to alter my illustration to better fit their idea. After some trial and error, I simplified the design and roughened the stroke on each and every shape that makes-up the motorcycle. The effects made the illustration look more hand-drawn and still allowed for personalization (difficult to see on this posted image). No confirmation yet on whether the client approved of this version or not, but the Creative Director I'm working with said it would work.