In The Works

A few pieces in the early or mid stages of production.

Expansive Website For a Downtown Firm

Website Tech Work & Website Design - Project Management - CMS, Database & Plugin Installation - Graphics, Extensive Photoshop Editing, & too much more to list.

Here is the first draft of the home page. The page and it's functions do actually exist in code. This is "not" a Photoshop mockup.

   

Full Page Print Ad for A Nashville Real Estate Company

Jennette Realtors asked me to illustrate all they do without relying on words. Even a call-to-action was not desired by the client.

As we have all witnessed, real estate ads can get pretty darn boxy, wordy and cluttered. Sometimes they are even a little ominous looking as they try to use too much black to look sophisticated. In this case, I took a white blank page and attempted to brand the company in a fashion commensurate with the depth and breadth of their real estate services. Hopefully you will agree that the ad is warm and welcoming - a little bit casual and neighborly, while at the same time it communicates Jennette’s significant reach and expertise in greater Nashville. My selection of images, textures and a limited color palette was carefully planned. The curved shapes, organic background texture, and tilted photos are intended to soften the traditional ad. And yes, along with work on improving the skies and clouds in the photos, I also made the apartment building roof just a little blue-er to match the other photos.

Josh Jennette, the owner of the company, is a great guy. If you're looking for down-to-earth local help with residential, commercial, city, burbs or country sales and rentals, give this Nashville company a call.

Website For A Burgeoning Real Estate Company

New Product Launch

Branding an as of yet unnamed product. My duties: Branding, Graphic design, Photoshop manipulation, Product name team, Copywriting. The following images are my very first attempts to play around with some ideas. A guitar pick does not easily fill a page physically, nor does it normally fill a page with any sense of importance or gusto. That's no problem. I can usually turn nothing into something surprising.

Below you will find my initial color experiments. I have created 30 combinations of warm and cool colors with varying textures and geometrics. Copywriting and typography are not even in the mix yet. As you can see from the source images, I am working from a very sparse beginning.

Sandwiches and Insurance?

Sure, why not! Here is an example where I start with a few scribbled words and take my best shot at conjuring something out of thin air. This first image is the entire written instructions from the client. I was asked to keep the image white and on the simple side. Below you'll find my first draft of a very simple attention getter.

This image is where I spruce up the clients "purely text" idea for a promotional sign. I researched the clients character traits on the internet and determine that his personality should be part of the promotion. (The head in the image is a temp for this display. The clients real face is already in my artwork.) As the eventual sign will be displayed outdoors, I strive to make use of human kind's innate curiosity. We are instinctively drawn to images showing faces, and people in general. The odd juxtaposition between the size of the huge sandwich and the mismatch between the size of the head and the body doesn't hurt either!

This image is what you would get if I left out my creativity and put together an image based on the clients verbal and written ideas.

Book for an International Touring Performer and Nashville Studio Musician

Graphic Design, Photoshop manipulation, Copy Editing, and Copywriting for front and back covers and interior merchandising content. Also some photography and wizardry for the interior.

The first book image is a quick Cover mock-up. The third book below shows the Cover close to the final direction we're taking. You would not believe all the Photoshop work that is going into piecing together "parts" of individual instruments to make one rich illusion. This gets the photo angles Stephan and I like the most, and maximizes the lighting from various photos of the same grouping of his beloved instruments. We've had a great time working on this. Stephan (pronounced Steven) and his wife Linda are a joy to be around. Click to see the entire Book and CD project progression .

Here is the nitty gritty as I begin to make progress. In addition to the the extensive work on the instruments themselves, the background image behind the instruments is also made from many, many different parts, using a variety of techniques. The last images below are very close to the final version of the cover.

A Beginning Composite

This is my first draft. Here I perform duties as an Art Director/Designer. The images are not my original work. My idea spark led me to research new possibilities and find new images. I combined, recolored, reoriented, and scaled both the images and the logo to come up with an interesting play between a busy background image and the multi-layered logo. I think the way the lines of the body, wings and guitar interact are quite interesting. The flame atop the "V" is not bad either. Though I do think I need to move the flame just a pinch more to the left.