Graphic design

Ah yes, it’s Halloween season and a couple weeks ago during another moonlit working session, I altered the backgrounds and colors of my website on a whim for the season. Traditionally, I think of oranges for Halloween, or fearful greens, but for the site, they didn’t evoke the desired effect (and together they remind me more of a carrot). Thus, I arrived at the blood red and stark whites against the grey, which fit also with the mailer idea I was working on.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to complete the mailer this year in time to produce and send it. I suppose that considering I was delayed in my efforts with paying work, the immediate need for a mailer doesn’t seem to be present. I still think, though, that when business is good, it’s still time for self-promo, both to advance as well as to keep business flowing.

Some time ago, a concept of a moontanning vampire stuck in my head and I adapted that to a card idea playing off a traditional holiday or vacation card which relate sunny days, beaches, and such. In the Halloween vacation card, the moon replaces the sun, and a pale vampire enjoys a sanguine drink on the beach, his reflection absent from the water, of course. I’ve had the correlation pointed out to me, as lately (the past couple decades), I have a natural inclination to be most active at night, though I don’t think that’s terribly uncommon with designers and illustrators.

A couple months ago I was pleased to collaborate with Bjorn Pendleton, a former associate of mine from BYU. The project brief for QL Labs reminded me of NutraSanus– natural health supplements with an emphasis on the natural in the design. The instructions from Bjorn were to investigate the juxtaposition of natural and pharmaceutical lab elements as well as the integration of the ‘q’ and ‘l’ initials (incidentally, neither Bjorn nor I knew what the initials stood for, other than perhaps founders’ names).

As pictured above, I worked a lot with the leaves (simple, but a quick metaphor). In the far left draft, I meant to integrate the initial with the leaves, which, in a ring suggest sun rays, flowers, a cycle, and a complete whole. I also wanted to work an option with more than leaves, thinking of roots as sources in natural supplements along with their symbolism of growth and nourishment.

Yes, it’s been two months since my last blog. Although there has been plenty of work going on, there’s much that’s still in process and accordingly I’m not able to blog about those project, fun as they are. I did get to do some quick illustrations (one afternoon) for a tag associated with some t-shirts Omniture distributed at a BYU game. The plan was, of course, to get everyone to put them on with the reward of prizes, so for the tags the thought was aiming for the kind of drawings typically seen in airplane safety instructions. Originally I went with the parted plastic hair I usually associate with schematics from a few decades ago, but apparently that was a bit too nerdy.

At the beginning of the month, I was in the Victoria and visited the Royal British Columbia Musuem and particularly enjoyed the First Nations Gallery. Strong graphic quality to a lot of the masks, carvings, and drawings that I’d like to look into more. I like the sparing use of color and the play of organic shapes. Some items struck me as reminiscent of Mayan designs. There were also a couple interesting galleries in Seattle with current artists’ designs that I’m glad I saw. Last May when visiting the Met, I was glad to have made a point of spending more time in the African, American, and Pacific art sections.

Today I received a few emails notifying me of the approaching release of Adobe Creative Suite 4. Seems like all to recently I upgraded to 3. I have to wonder if new releases come around too often forcing everyone to upgrade to maintain compatibility with each other just for a version with a slightly new UI and minor buttons. There’s even been a couple times when some functions are more complicated in newer versions. Not that I’m making any particular total conclusion here, new stuff is always nice, but I have to ask if a minor upgrade every two years is more waste and hassle than progress.

The Atlas Capital Management logo is another collaboration with Michael Hancock of GoFish Creative similar to a previous piece for the Orion Management Group. I often see images of Atlas in profile, but for this one, my instincts leaned toward face-on symmetry for a stronger and more stable appearance… something that seems more inline with Atlas. Again, my mythological geek side comes out to make the point that Atlas supports the sky, not the earth as is sometimes depicted. I designed a simplified armillary sphere, not wanting to make more of the sphere than the figure. Pictured above is the final figure that I created at left and Michael Hancock’s implementation at right.

Incidentally, last week I was in Manhattan and was disappointed that Lee Lawrie’s sculpture of Atlas in Rockefeller Center is covered. On the other hand, it’s great that it’s being cleaned and taken care of.

Following up on previous blogs, I’m posting a couple images from the Business Case Guide that I was working on for Venafi. The Systems Management for Encryption guide was designed to complement Venafi’s other collateral, which was facilitated by the fact that the company has a well-established color pallette, font preference, and parameters on details such as the corner radius of the curved boxes. I’m interested to see how the graduated tabs and subsequent increasing page width worked in the printed piece.

It’s been a busy month. Work at Omniture has been centered on Summit, a fairly intense time for them. Frequently, people have been out of the office for Summit. It was an odd feeling going in to Omniture and being the one of the few people in the section of the building during the Salt Lake Summit. My contract there just finished this week and I’m looking forward to working with them again next quarter. The last major piece I worked on was a collaboration with Steve Gustavson for the annual report cover. The Omniture style makes an interesting challenge to design with two colors, one font family, and no photography.

Between work with Omniture, I’ve had some other small freelance jobs and have also been working again with Venafi on a couple of larger projects. I feel the increasing shift toward the corporate and technologies.

I was hoping again to balance out all the corporate design work and have pieces ready for the Communication Arts Illustration Annual, but despite their annual practice of moving the deadline back a couple times, the month was full enough with freelance projects to be able to do a satisfactory piece. I suppose that if work is that busy that I shouldn’t be needing to advertise for more just yet. Still, it’s always good to have as many options as possible.

Three weeks into my current contract with Omniture, I’ve completed many projects for the Omniture Sales Kickoff. Their thematic concept relates to various historical achievements: Great Pyramid, Great Wall, Eiffel Tower, Combustion Engine, Microchip, all building up to Omniture itself. Above are two banner designs: one of my favorite drafts that wasn’t selected, and the final. Below are some smaller banners, the right pair are finals, and the left an unused concept.

I’ve gone corporate, as Brad would say. My latest client, Omniture, invited me to work on site a couple days per week over the next couple months. I’m working in the marketing department with Steve Gustavson and Ben Child and having a great time with the projects I’ve had so far. Hopefully I’ll be able to display some of that work later.

Last night I went up to the Utah State Fairgrounds to vote at the “Night of the People” for the Utah Advertising Federation Addy’s. I’m grateful for the post about it from from the Utah Graphic Artists Forum. I’ve never been before, but was impressed by the kind of work coming out of Utah. I arrived in the latter half of the event and hoped that there were more people attending earlier, as the turnout was a bit slim. I often hope to have a better association between colleagues in the area.

Some of the ads or campaigns that I remember particularly were for Salt Lake Convention & Visitors Bureau, I like how the elements came together in the various components of the campaign. The Route 66 era, National Park look excites thoughts of travel and tourism. The Utah Film Commission had a gorgeous book of photography that was ordered by color. Richter7 had some very fun, but quickly read billboard designs. Bajio has always had some fun ads which interest me despite that fact that I generally shy away from that kind of food. I thought the writing and the creative placement for Utah Opera were strong points. I would also liked to have seen more for Bountiful Bicycle, which plays well off of the current environment. There were also quite a few PSA’s that appear to allow for more creativity.

This last month, my friend Justin Kunz was kind enough to refer me to Elias Akinaka, of Hui No Ke Ola Pono in Maui. Elias was really good to design for and had an interesting project for the native Hawaiian health organization that he works for. He asked me to design some traditional Hawaiian patterns for bandages as well as a simple illustration to promote healthy lifestyles. It was educational to work out the specific native details.

Being the Christmas holidays, my brother was in town, which makes for many opportunities for talking shop. My father Richard, brother Thomas, brother-in-law John Jensen, best friend Brad McCall, and I all have a background in design. Tom just received an invite to judge the Communication Arts photography annual.

Fortunately, the past couple months have been fairly busy. From early August, I’ve had a continual stream of freelance work and other opportunities to investigate. Curtis Packer at Venafi has been a very good client to work with, (icon samples above), and I’m looking forward to working more with him in future.

I also received a call from Becton Loveless at NutraSanus, who I’ve done freelance for off and on over the past couple years, and there’s the possibility of some continuing projects there.

Another referral out of the blue came from Chip Haskell at Crowell Advertising. I anticipate some good business relationships there. They have some really great offices at the Gateway in Salt Lake. Chip also said he enjoys maps and astronomy– that’s a bonus. Always nice if you can work with someone with similar interests.

Brad Pamer also contacted me about potentially collaborating on projects that he has, some of which are former clients of the now defunct Indigo Creative. We even talked about the possibility (however fanciful) of a virtual studio (called Indigo Orange, of course) of our former collaborators at Indigo Creative. I was surprised that our website is still up, but, as Brad explained, he owns the URL and pays for the hosting– the owner of Excel and Indigo never reimbursed him for those expenses. I also saw Michael Hancock the other night and am pleased that he’s doing well. We talked about freelance work versus full-time work. He says he’s in a good place right now with the freelance. I have to admit, it’s nice when you have enough work to sustain you and can have your schedule to yourself.

Unfortunately, with many things occupying my time, I didn’t complete a piece to submit for the Society of Illustrators annual. I’m hoping that my dad, Richard Hull, enters some of his pieces that he did for a current exhibition at Brigham Young University. He mentored a group of students a year and a half ago in Ghana and this month they’re showing pieces inspired by their time there.

I’m off today to Asia for two weeks, and I’m already anticipating all there is to follow up on at the start of November.

It’s always good to have freelance. Recently I had a couple of small jobs come in from my friend Michael Hancock at GoFish Creative, including some illustration work for a logo for Devereaux Mansion in Salt Lake. I enjoy these collaborative jobs and am glad to see what Michael does with the type treatment and arrangement of the logo as a whole. It reminds me of the days at Indigo Creative.

At the same time, I received an unexpected freelance referral from my website. I didn’t design a website to be the first tier of self-promotion as it’s a rare thing for anyone to be browsing the internet and happen to come across a portfolio site and request work that way. Yet, I had the fortunate surprise of just that occurence. Alicia Quillin from Dangles Hangers contacted me and asked for a logo and accompanying illustration and layout.

As I’ve left Indigo, I’ve applied to other studios while freelancing, one of which was Rare Method (formerly B/O/W/G). I didn’t get the job, it isn’t always the right match, but Rare Method did refer an associate of theirs, Curtis Packer at Venafi, to me to make some modifications on a series of icons.

Recently a contact of mine from Razor Data asked that I design some logo concepts for a business he was starting up: Epic Experiences, an outdoor adventure tour company. His original thoughts were that of a circular shape including a mountain, another mountain with a rockclimber, a river, and a forest. I indicated that that many elements would likely be difficult to incorporate into a legible logo.

I attempted one logo involving the different elements, focusing on the rockclimbing figure, and simplifying the two mountain concepts into one central one. I also variated many other simpler designs, again focusing on the figure and the mountain. Sketching out ideas triggered ideas of aboriginal-type designs and mirrored E’s to form the mountain. Having further feedback from a graphic designer family and friends, I added texture and focused more on the facing E’s, being among the favorites.

Friday i quit my job at Indigo Creative to return to freelance and portfolio-building. Having been debating the timing for awhile, my quandary was answered when it was announced that Excel Graphics, our parent company, is finally collapsing with no money remaining for paychecks, having gone to fill the printing company’s increasing debt, and that the owner was requiring a designer to be laid off immediately. As I was planning on leaving in the near future anyway, I quit so that Indigo’s art director wouldn’t need to terminate our newest designer only to have me leave soon afterward. Sadly, after having lunch with my former co-workers today, it sounds as though they may shortly be joining me in life after Indigo.

After over three years working for the strange business association of Indigo and Excel, I’m happy to have worked with excellent designers and hope to maintain ties with them. Michael Hancock, our first art director, has already moved on to GoFish Creative. I’m interested to see the progress of Brad Palmer, the current art director; and my other associates, Kevin Sheehan; Scott Troxel; Jared Wright; and Kira Ludwig Shelton.

Occasionally, I have the misfortune of designing logos that don’t hit the mark for the client. I received a client referral from my brother, Thomas, who is a partner at Rigsby Hull in Houston. The project was to design a logo for some new condos near Memorial Park in Houston, Park Square Condominiums.

Another skill I have yet to perfect is getting adequate information from clients concerning their needs on a specific project, and learning to work with the ‘We’ll know what we like when we see it’ kind of situation that often arises when clients honestly don’t know what they want, or can’t articulate specific parameters to the designer. I knew the logo needed to be a monogram, something streamlined and simple, and reflecting the park environment, and that there wasn’t much time allotted for the project.

Nevertheless, the first drafts monograms (a sample of which are pictured below) were rejected, with the further note that the committee had decided to put the logo on hold for the time being.

I had the opportunity lately of collaborating with my former boss at Indigo Creative, Michael Hancock. He now designs independently as GoFish Creative.

Michael needed a logo illustration for Orion Management Group, a business I really don’t know much about. All I needed to know is that they wanted an illustration of the constellation Orion with his bow and arrow. Being an astronomy junkie, I had to point out that Orion (though, a hunter) is never pictured with a bow and arrow (that constellation being Sagittarius, the archer), but is pictured instead with a club and either a shield or lionskin in the other arm upraised against Taurus.

I understand that the logo doesn’t require the strictest astronomical representation, and suggested that the primary traits that communicate ‘Orion’ are the belt of three stars, and any attributes of a hunter, usually his hunting dogs. The client suggested the concepts pictured below (they must really like the archer idea). The final version is being produced by Michael as he applies color and type, after which I’ll have another piece to add to my design portfolio.

It’s always good to have the opportunity to collaborate with someone you’ve worked with before. I first met Michael Hancock in the summer of 2003 when he worked at Focus Design, where I did some freelance for him before he became art director at Indigo Creative, where he hired me as a designer three years ago.

Another of my recent freelance projects has been for Mark Averett, who is progressing with his personal shopping business, Custom Style. I’ve been reworking his logo and brochure, producing a square tri-fold which I’m excited to see printed.

I understand that he’s received a lot of feedback from Sam Saboura of Extreme Makeover, who has noted his use of color and suggests that he’d do well with television and commercial work in the Los Angeles market.
Currently he’s building his business in Salt Lake City and networking well with models, photographers, and clients; but the Utah market is limited and progress will require him to move eventually.

It’s always good to see a friend taking a risk to do the things he’s good at and enjoys doing, and to be a part of building that new business.

While working on site with Razor Data for the past two months, I’ve primarily been working with a product called Arriba Trade. This entails working on many website pieces as well as printed manuals.

Of course in the beginning, there was the logo. The client presented me with the company name ‘Arriba’ associating ideas of success, moving upward, and increase with the company product which instructs and enables customers to analyze and trade stocks and currencies (as I understand it). Steering away from the latin connotations, I focused on rapid upward movement. Perhaps it was my preoccupation with astronomy that conjured images of a rocketship that culminated in the final logo. I have to credit my friend Brad McCall with the refining concept of subtly (or perhaps not so subtly) integrating the initial letter into the form of the rocket.

The color ideas originally suggested were along the lines of oranges and reds… colors which relate energy. However, as the logo was presented to the larger audience in the company, I had to understand that blue is the predominant color of their market and red is strictly verboten.

I’ve heard tales about design studios that can spend a great deal of time working on logos. Thus far, I’ve never been alloted much time to arrive at a concept for a logo. This is not a complaint, though, as I respect the ability for a client to readily accept a solution that fulfills their needs rather than agonize pedantically over a decision.

I’ve recently had some experiences and subsequent discussions about dealing with freelance that prompted me to blog. Admittedly, this is mostly a ‘note to self’, but here goes.

The first thought that springs to mind stems from having a freelance client ask me to reduce thier bill because they hadn’t budgeted for as many hours as I’d taken. I had related to the client how many hours I had taken to complete their first draft, but had failed to update them through three additional rounds of designs. They felt surprised that it took me twice my original amount of hours to complete the additional drafts and urged a reduced bill. I complied in the interest of good relations, as the client was technically a friend’s client, and because I hadn’t kept them updated on the time involved. I relate all this not to bag on clients but to note that clients ought to be updated on the hours each round of additional work are taking. We would have this problem at the studio where I work, particularly with long-term projects, where a client would be surprised at how many hours they were being billed for.

Contracts are another topic of discussion lately. Typically, for a short and straightforward job, I don’t much see the point in requiring one. As the designer, by default, I retain ownership, and invoice the client at the agreed amount. When it comes to something more involved, long-term, or (in the case of recent experience) a spec-work job, I’d like to have something in writing. I was concerned lately that I may have offended a client by suggesting a simple contract, nothing complicated, just a couple points to mutally agree upon to avoid misunderstanding. Twice I was given the advice that contracts are to help maintain a friendship or good business relation, and if someone is offended by using a contract, then they may be a dubious client.

Once again I display what a geek I am as I set out to create a world map in actionscript . Mostly it was the challenge of a designer trying to figure out some programming, and with some late nights, I managed to create this little thing. What it will do is display any location you enter or city you click on in the center of the world, with a measure of thousand-mile rings radiating from it. I originally tried it with the text, as in a previous design but the overlapping text made the cities difficult or impossible to click on. For now it loads centered on my home in Utah, but I think it’d be great sometime to set it up such that the default loading location is that of the visitor, determined via their ip address, but I think I’d be investing more time figuring out that programming than I ought to right now. Every now and then I’m have to do some design, of course.

In preparation for the snowboarding season, I encountered a local company here in Utah called Revolution that manufactures custom snowboards. It sounds like the quality of the boards is good, possibly not for heavy use, but for my level, I’m not terribly concerned about a high-performance board as yet. While I already have a board to use, I thought it’d be a good design or illustration project. It’d be good to have a board with a pattern I really enjoy on it, also. Now I just need to come up with that design. Started roughing a few things out, but ‘rough’ is the operative word. Anyway, another project to advance on before the snowboarding season is very old.

So I’m going throught my website again tonight to revise the descriptions for each piece and trying to hold back from giving too much of the story on each. Just the professional stuff, right? Seems like a few of those have some typical story of being rejected for being too weird, or are the result of something toned down to meet the common ground of a large committee. Ahh, the typical plight of designers to have to produce the bland in some corporate attempt to please everyone. Perhaps I get a wild hair all too often, but I think I’m supposed to in my line of work. One such example is Indigo. In the early days of designing our corporate I.D., there was a matter of debate over what color ‘indigo’ really is. My solution was to simply abandon blue altogether, and make the logo orange. I figured it avoided the comparisons and brought added intrigue and attention to our little logo. Of course, reality sets in and despite having all our team being on board with the idea, owners will require the most logical and straightforward option and thus the logo is blue.

Then there are times when we design something we’re all behind and joyfully have the option of tactfully telling a client to take a hike. Example: Baghaa. A snowboarding, skiing, rollerblading, etc. company needs a logo to put on the gear they manufacture. Their initial suggestion is a ‘b’ and a ‘g’ where the loops form the eyes, and the descender of the ‘g’ forms a smile, with kind of a kid-drawn crayon look to it. But, they said, they’re ‘wide open to ideas’. Never trust a remark like that from a client. It means they’re married to their original idea and they want you to make it look good by some miracle. We, of course, quickly moved on from their original idea and designed a logo to fit a wintersport genre, involving the ‘b’ and ‘g’ integration, but aiming for something more sporty (see above). The client rejected it as being too weird for extreme sports. We, in turn, suggested they present both logos to a focus group, and of course we never heard from them again. Good luck to them. I’m glad we kept to the design that we knew was good, and not allow design by dictation. If a client wants that, there’s little point hiring a professional designer.