After two years of the previous design, returned to the Adobe chalkboard for another non-computer project. For a first project of the year, it made for a lovely full-day start to finish just illuminating a basic design in black and white and listening to some good music.

Last August kicked work into high gear, fortunately, and has been stacked since. So, though my site hasn’t changed much, apart from some fidgeting around with blog themes, I’m starting to get some of the finished projects at least mentioned.

As social media moves faster than just about anything else, last week I saw a Facebook link to a project I’d worked on for the LDS Church at the end of summer before I heard about it’s completion from the client— link here on YouTube or on the LDS Church’s site.

It’s the first time in awhile that I’ve done that much illustration for a client and my hand felt it. Note the backgrounds in the clips, those are mine. This is another highly collaborative work, so I wasn’t involved with the live video, or the figures, and actually not the coloring or animation either. Still plenty of work sketching out the backgrounds and good to see how my stylization was used in the animation.

At a recent meeting at the Grand America in Salt Lake City for Summit, I came across AtTask‘s WorkOut Summit, which I was able to do some work for before digging more heavily into Adobe’s. AtTask is actually going through a progressive rebranding process, and it was good to have a little involvement in that.

Sleep must be wearing thin today and I’m sure my writing isn’t as tight, not that it’s terribly so, being a designer. I’m thinking that the packed schedule is driving me a bit more for other projects, and hoping that momentum continues after the work load regulates. Just to get away from the computer, I’m getting back into sketching, realizing how badly I need to be more consistent with it. Last night there was also another guest illustrator speaking at BYU, C.F. Payne, and this evening I’m hoping to get out to an AIGA event with the local chapter. Definitely not in the doldrums, but looking forward to being able to breathe again in a couple weeks.  (Close Rambling Blog).

Excited to be starting into another Summit for Omniture—now the Adobe Omniture Summit. This time around brings a new aspect in working with some different groups of people for the event. As part of the new structure, Adobe opted to send me down to Adobe MAX in Los Angeles. Flattering to have a client fly me down to take in all the printed signage and décor of the conference and evening events. The meetings were interesting to discuss the various concerns about the concept and execution of the actual Summit event and I’m really hoping it goes fantastically this year. Of course, right now, I’m just seeing all the aesthetics with the great contrast of sky blue, dark green, and Adobe’s red in all the textures and thinking on fun ideas, if not for Summit, then for filing away for the well of ideas for other projects.

The actual MAX sessions that I was able to get to intrigued me as when I think of Adobe software, my focus is Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, and on rare occasion Flash—basically the design suite. However, I never heard those mentioned in the general sessions where to push is for programming and interactive media—Flex, AIR, Flash Builder, and Flash Catalyst. Damn, always so much to learn and keep up with, if not for actual use, at least for proper understanding of what’s possible.

Realizing the ages that have passed since my last blog, and how long I’ve been working on continuing projects that I’m unable to display yet. I need to wake up from the summer coma and take some time again to work on the list of portfolio projects. I need to fabricate deadlines and play the role of art director as usually personal projects are so open-ended that the overwhelming excitement of many possibilities for any one piece mean that nothing ever gets started.

After a trip to New York City, I’m once again energized by the museums and the architecture by some of the usual interests (deco), and some more recent fascinations (had to buy a good book on Islamic art and architecture). A recent rash of job possibilities has been exciting, even if they don’t immediately solidify. Still feeling spoiled by freelance and weighing the hypothetical situation of full-time work again. After an all night haul that yielded a good amount of work done and a lot of fun with netflix, still leaning toward the bohemian designer life today. And now hoping for more posts and newer work…

Working in sci-fi and fantasy illustration, he cited inspiration from Waterhouse, Rockwell, Frazetta, and the punk scene—I like that variety. He commented about surrounding yourself with good art that you enjoy, learning by imitating it; and a good variety such that your work doesn’t become a knock-off. Sometimes I think I get some design and illustration ideas by osmosis, seeing the same (and hopefully good) work often such that those techniques come naturally when designing. Not to say that I don’t study specific interpretations of subjects similar to a project at hand.

I’m enjoying when illustrators show some early work or projects that they didn’t necessarily enjoy doing, recount early rejections, and describe some of their nonconformist paths. Additionally, there are some habits that Brom, like some other illustrators, have indicated, that I identify with. He spoke about employing non-academic techniques, such as sketching from imagination, sketching out the concept into detail before gathering reference to keep from becoming limited by the scrap. He largely works in traditional media: sketching, photoshop comp for approval, detail drawing on gessoed masonite, acrylic underpainting, and oil finish with digital tweaks. As some illustrators have indicated before, different approaches to illustration styles and new types of projects keep the work fresh and enjoyable and also keep one active in the market.

There were other details in his work that I enjoyed from my graphic vantage point, such as unified color schemes and the stylization of single figures, and symmetrical elements. I enjoyed how he denoted the mindset you have while working out concept contrasted to the mindset during production work. For example, I really can’t listen to music while brainstorming, but often remember the song or movie I listened to while rendering the design.

Overwhelming. My first word for SXSW. After five days of the interactive conference, I have a long list of sites, apps, and ideas to be checking out for awhile to come.

Originally in the mindset of handing out some business cards, I found that far better than networking to simply toss cards around in hopes of scoring jobs, it was an opportunity to exchange ideas and expand by everyone sharing their work. There are some new contacts with intriguing businesses that I need to check out. Incidentally, I’m happy the QR codes on my cards seemed to be a point where I was up with tech trends (surprising, I know). It was a rare chance for me to share how something worked to a few people. I also appreciated the codes SXSW attached to everyone’s badges as a means to follow them online. Another bit of knowledge I have to credit Brad McCall with relating to me, and another subject of brought up in sessions—”finders”—those people that are early adopters, that find all the cool new items going on and spread that knowledge. Brad is a finder.

I got into a few sessions on the design side such as making websites more beautiful, sketching out concepts pictorially with clients rather than noting keywords (quote: sharpies smell like ideas), dashboard and app design. The balance was jumping into more technology-heavy sessions (which gave me some homework). I particularly enjoyed the panel about the pros and cons of HTML5 Canvas and Adobe Flash. Augmented reality, technology ideas from sci-fi, crowdsourcing science, and a couple hours of infographics and maps (I am a geek after all) added some apps to play with. (Foursquare anyone? Gowalla, Dopplr?). There were a couple particularly good discussions on self-promotion. Excellent thoughts from Peter Shankman that are simply good general rules for life, but are always helpful to remember and apply to professional situations.

There’s so much said about social media, very much the center of nearly every discussion. One intriguing axiom reiterated was that there isn’t a distinction between your personal and your professional “brand”. Also funny to see the focus of social media manifest with an audience with their heads down on mobile devices and laptops while listening. I’m an oddball in that I don’t have a twitter account. So far, I haven’t felt a compelling need to have another vein of social media to maintain (while I ought to be working or developing my direct professional skills)…for the moment, anyway. I get tempted to apply myself to it for awhile, or rather I think I’d spend more time following and pulling design and technology information out of it.

There’s not a chance I could relate all that got my mind going, in a single blog anyway. Though I hope to expound on those new lines of thought in future posts as I start to follow up on what I jotted down. For now, I’d better hush up and get back to some design work.

It’s one of those projects heavy on the production side with a lengthy list of similar pieces, though I enjoyed working with Steve Gustavson and Ben Child from the marketing team mocking up the creative imagery around the new year.

I’m thinking sometimes there ought to be a good balance between projects that are thoroughly creative and energy-intensive on idea, and ones where I can just sit down and push through the production of the design.

With the event finished, I’m hoping to be able to post some photos taken of the actual pieces from the event.

Ah, the smell of a printing press, something I haven’t experienced in awhile…or enough. Already noticing things I’d like to improve on and ideas to try out for next time, but pleased with the finished product.

Another project that’s been in the works for too long is now at the press. With the production of the snowboard and the approaching SXSW conference, I made a push to finish some business cards. Basically, I adapted elements from my snowboard to maintain that self-promo theme. Funny thing is, I now have both the snowboard and business cards using a kind of logo that I don’t intend on maintaining as a permanent logo. It’s really more of a branding element reflecting the kind of characters I draw, more of a style association than a specific mark. It is an abstraction of my initials, which makes me think more along the lines of creating similar characters or redesigns of my initials without any of them being a standard.

Through the design process, I considered many different print possibilities with the cards—letterpress, die-cut, specialty papers, foils and metallics, emboss, etc. I didn’t want to overdesign, though; the card doesn’t have to implement everything. I did go for rounded corners and a slimmer vertical format. Also, a qr code appealed to me with the interactive festival approaching and I’m hoping it’s not going to be something too trendy. Finally, the press run necessitating a higher quantity than I’m likely to hand out anytime soon, it seemed like a good idea to create some variety from the theme, resulting in the three different designs.