Apologies for not posting in a while! Summer has been great so far, and we’re looking forward to a hectic fall! Here is a small piece recently done for an energy program put together by COSE (Council of Smaller Enterprises). This is a tri-fold brochure was used to distribute information to promote energy audits for local small businesses.
Every now and again and opportunity comes up where I get reacquainted with my old friends, pen and paper. I usually sketch ideas out, but you never see those, only the finished product. This time around I was lucky enough to work on a series of marketing materials through COSE for the Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute, which is Cleveland’s award-winning business training course for literary, media, performing and visual artists. So I thought, hey, what better way to advertise that than with an illustration to really drive home that “art” vibe. I started out sketching the old-fashioned way, then brought it into illustrator where I noodled and doodled. I’m showing here the original black + white art (below), and also with color added, which is how it appeared on the postcard, poster and ads.
It’s that time again! Time for the AIGA Annual Student Portfolio Review! This year I thought it would be fun to do an ‘old west’ theme for the poster. I originally started with a ‘show-down’ concept, but along the way it morphed into a wanted poster, which I believe came together nicely. I had a lot of fun with this project….mostly because I was hearing the old west shoot-out music in my head as I was designing, and occasionally saying “paard-ner” to myself.
COSE is revamping their event calendar for 2010. Their idea was to present their events and activities with more of a “curriculum” approach so that the members could easily decipher the level of events they are choosing to attend. Event content ranges from beginner (101) to advanced (301).
Immediately, I wanted to expound on the curriculum idea with the theme of continuing education, without appearing too juvenile. The approach also needed to be clean, clear and concise, given the amount of info inside. The content is divided up into categories by subject area, and then also by “course level” indicated by numbers. Additionally, the networking and other re-occuring events needed to be included but read as separate information, so that it wasn’t confused with the educational events.
Here’s a quick pic of a banner I just finished for Citizen Groove, sent to me by John Knific (on left). They are just getting started in launching their website and business, and they needed a banner for an upcoming tradeshow. Luckily, I was there to save the day. These guys were great to work with, and I wish them the best of luck in their venture!
The latest and greatest from the BeeHive Studio is a site launch for the Unique Bird! This site was built using CSS (my first, aww) and was created to obviously announced the beginnings of a new business venture, as well as direct folks to the online store set up on Esty. You can also follow the Unique Bird on Twitter and Facebook. So by all means, visit the site and buy something!
The Fall Kickoff event for AIGA Cleveland is coming up fast! Art Chantry, a legendary rock poster designer, will be speaking at Windows on the River September 24th. I had the pleasure of collaborating with Mike Burton of Little Jacket on this poster advertising the event. He wanted to obviously have the design be relevant to Art’s work, but also be a little playful in regards to our event. We went through a few ideas and landed here. I then took his established design elements and applied them to the back of the poster. Yay teamwork. Big thanks to Mike for all his hard work.
Unfortunately, the JPG of this poster on your screen doesn’t so it justice. We screen printed a florescent ink over the black for a really nice effect, but it just doesn’t translate digitally. Jakprints here in Cleveland graciously donated the printing for this piece, as they are one of our sponsors. They did a fantastic job, it came out great. They also put it on their blog to showcase the process. Very cool– Thanks guys!
I just wrapped up this quick postcard for the COSE Arts Network advertising a forum on intellectual property and the arts. The event is coming up in the next few weeks, and details are as follows.
“The COSE Arts Network and the Center for Law, Technology and the Arts at Case School of Law present a one-of-a-kind event featuring independent musician, arts activist and “citizen lobbyist,” Mark Hosler of the band Negativland. Mark will discuss his experiences fighting legal battles over copyright, intellectual property and fair use in art and music. Local attorney, Sharon Toerek, and legal professor, Peter Friedman, will then present their legal points-of-view on many of the same issues surrounding intellectual property and the arts. Don’t miss this unique forum–reserve your seat today! Visit www.cosearts.org to register.
Just wrapped up a tradeshow booth for STERIS Corporation based in Mentor, Ohio recently. What a great opportunity to design in 3-D, something I would love to do more often. It’s fun (and challenging!) to be able to design, think, and visualize on a life-size scale. I’m really excited with how this project turned out, and already looking forward to the next one!
