Before

Swing Goth was born out of an attempt to marry partner dancing with modern music. “We dream of a future where dancing with each other is once again the norm, but we’re unlike other partner dancing clubs in that we dance to modern music,” said Brian Gardner, originator and promoter of Swing Goth. Gardner hosts biweekly dance parties and occasional live-music events in San Francisco—Swing Goth’s home—and the activity has spread to New York. “We teach partner dancing based on upper body connection, and we focus on developing a personal style and flair rather than on perfecting cookie-cutter footwork,” Gardner said.

Some of Swing Goth’s events, such as this October’s “Ball of C’thulhu,” feature steampunk bands. Steampunk is a visual aesthetic and literary genre that, like Swing Goth, combines old and new. “I think of it as what would happen if the combustion engine and mass production were never invented,” explains Gardner. Think of floating airships or computers with keyboards made out of typewriters. “Aesthetically, it is said that steampunk is what happens when goths discover brown.”

For the ball flyer, one of the participating bands came up with the tentacles-and-cemetery theme. Gardner took it from there, populating the cemetery with ghouls drawn by a friend or images from the public domain. The flyer will be printed as a 4×6″ postcard to be distributed in clubs, record stores, and the like; and as 8.5×11″ posters to be hung in appropriate neighborhoods.

Gardner likes some aspects of the flyer, such as the tentacles wrapping around the band, but he worries that it looks too wordy and doesn’t like the way the text breaks down into horizontal bars that interrupt the eye’s flow. He’d like a flyer that covered the event details but still gave a feeling of “gentle, dark seduction” between elegant ladies and gentlemen. We asked three designers to create an appropriately seductive—but appropriately spooky—monster mash flyer.

After

DESIGNER: Maria Stephens
www.tigerlillydesigns.co.uk

My immediate impressions of the original design were that it was busy, absent of any real focal point, and lacking impact. I wanted to give it a more professional touch that would complement the reputation of the promoter and musicians.

I began by stripping the poster down to its basics and identifying what the client liked about the current design: colors, central image, and dark mysterious vibe. I then looked at what elements were necessary to the flyer and reordered them in terms of size and location to create a more structured hierarchy. I considered the main focal point of this poster to be the event, theme, and date, and therefore concentrated the design on these areas. I liked the cemetery theme as it has a link with the headline act Abney Park (also a cemetery here in London), as well as being a perfectly fitting theme for this monster mash.

The overall colors of the poster remain dark so that the white, green, and yellow text can really pop in the ultraviolet lighting common in clubs. All the band logos have been displayed using white text in the style of their logos—this will ensure that they stand out in nightclub lighting while complementing the central image rather than detracting from it.

To reinforce the event theme of C’thulhu (a fictional cosmic entity created by horror author H.P. Lovecraft), stylized ethereal tentacles were added crawling out from under a headstone. The tentacles provide a sense of horror and mystery, as well as conveniently creating the perfect frame with which to emphasize the main details of the event. The event name and date appear on the headstone, almost as though they were carved there.

Overall, the final design is a classy, stylish, elegant take on a subject matter (Halloween) that can often be clich© and cheesy.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Maria Stephens
www.tigerlillydesigns.co.uk

Originally from the beautiful valleys of South Wales, Maria Stephens has spent the last five years honing her expertise on the streets of London, working her way up through the ranks of design teams and enjoying both agency and client side projects. With a Masters Degree in Graphic Communication, Maria realized that she could have more fun and greater creative freedom working for herself and founded Tigerlilly Designs, a boutique design agency with big ambitions, in 2008.

Since its founding, Tigerlilly has worked with start-up entrepreneurs, blue-chip businesses, charities, and classy individuals on both sides of the pond. Recently, Tigerlilly nurtured a flourishing relationship with Razor Research, an award-winning research agency based in London. This partnership has led to work for well-known brands such as Green Giant, Betty Crocker, and H¤agen-Dazs.

Maria lives in Central London with her boyfriend and her basil plant named Fred.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS4, Adobe Illustrator CS4, and Adobe InDesign CS4

After

DESIGNER: Kwasi Amankwah
www.kwasi.net

This project was very interesting to me because it covered a topic that I truly knew nothing about. Swing Goth was a whole new world, and before I started any designs I spent time learning about the culture. Once I had a good understanding of the scene, I started by coming up with an element to focus the piece around.
I created a drawing that depicted two people heading to the party. The illustration was a composite of all the characters I saw in my research—the female guest, for example, was an homage to one of the band members. The figures and the background were colored in Adobe Illustrator. The blue used was sampled from the original piece, and the line drawing of a graveyard silhouette added a texture to the background.

The toughest part about this project was incorporating all of the different band logos, with each of them using a different font. I decided that a dramatic angle would allow me to incorporate the logos as party information more cohesively. The logos and information were manipulated so that they appear to fit into the same 3D space as the illustration’s people. Changing logo one into a spatial element allows the different fonts to act as a unit while being so different from each other. I set the ampersand in Angelic War, which I thought looked like a nice blend between the fonts used in the Swing Goth logo and the Clockwork logo. For the rest of the copy, I used Helvetica Neue Bold, Light, and Light Italic. It’s a simple font, but with the complexity of all of the other fonts used I wanted to keep the other information as simple and clean as possible.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Kwasi Amankwah www.kwasi.net

Kwasi started as an illustrator and moved into graphic design after gaining a background in Adobe Photoshop. After getting his Bachelor’s Degree in Art History at the University of Illinois, he moved to Chicago to attend the Art Institute of Chicago. There he earned his BFA in graphic design, after which he attended the University of Illinois-Chicago for his MFA.

His diverse background and his love and interest in all different styles of art gives him a unique approach to his design projects. While he spends most of his time working on graphic design, he also draws, paints, and belongs to a screen print studio.

After school, Kwasi spent several years on an in-house graphic design team and teaching graphic design at a local college. Kwasi has now moved into the freelance world and started his own company, At Nine Design. Kwasi resides in Chicago with his wife and dog.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS3 and Adobe InDesign CS3

After

DESIGNER: Matt Holley
www.mattholleydesign.com

Having no knowledge of Swing Goth, steampunk, or H.P. Lovecraft, I was jumping into a completely different world blindfolded. The name C’thulhu had little meaning to me until doing the research. This creature was created as a symbol of extreme horror and evil. While the “Ball of C’thulhu” bears the creature’s name, it’s an event filled with fun and fantasy.

Looking at the original poster, there are several elements that are distracting. There’s so much text and so many line breaks that it’s virtually impossible to notice the design. From the cartoon characters to the poorly beveled tentacles, this poster doesn’t reflect the vibrance and quality of this event.

Browns and greens gave me the fall feel I wanted, while allowing me to keep the poster bright, warm, and inviting. I drew my interpretation of C’thulhu as if he were going to a costume party (on paper, then redrawn in Adobe Illustrator). His plaid suit and paisley tie is what he grabbed from Goodwill the night before the ball. He’s positioned on the hardwood floor and is holding a mystical scepter as if he’s the dancing disco ball of the party.

The header text is Oliver’s Barney, which was the perfect thickness for me to apply the wood grain texture to. The leaves echo the warmth and fall feel of the wood. Reprise Stamp was used as the informational text because it’s eroded yet remains as legible as Helvetica. The header and footer text are both set in a triangular shape and give a nice sense of balance to the page. Logos were strategically placed so as not to take attention away from the overall design of the poster. I’ve always loved the look of screen-printed posters, and wanted to give this poster a similar vintage look and feel.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Matt Holley
www.mattholleydesign.com

Matt Holley is a passionate freelance designer out of Columbus, Ohio. With a broad range of experience ranging from corporate rebranding to creative marketing and interactive design, Matt brings a clean approach to design and focuses on getting rid of unnecessary clutter. Clean lines, balance, and symmetry are at the forefront of Matt’s design profile.

After graduating from Marshall University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Design, Matt moved to Columbus to pursue his design career. While he enjoys corporate design, nonprofits have always had a soft spot in Matt’s heart, as his dad and brother are both ministers. He loves using his talents to glorify God and help local churches grow, and impact their neighborhoods. Matt also enjoys playing music and is part of the Jared Mahone band, a groove-driven soulful pop band in Columbus. He is recently engaged and looking forward to being married to his fianc©e, Krista.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS3 and Adobe Photoshop CS3

Client:
Community Arts Center www.communityartscenter.net

Before

The Community Arts Center in Danville, Kentucky, serves the artistic community from the surrounding Bluegrass region by providing music and art lessons, exhibiting local and international artwork, and hosting artist receptions and lectures. “We target all demographics,” says Mary Beth Touchstone, the Center’s Executive Director. “Our mission is to cultivate and support the arts for the benefit of our community. We teach the fundamentals, and most of our activities and lessons are free or low cost.”

The Arts Center’s website was designed about five years ago by their Web developer, who just wanted to get something up quickly. Touchstone and the Center staff like some aspects of the site’s functionality, such as the way visitors can download registration forms for the classes and events right from the homepage. But they wish there was a Donate button too, since the Center is a nonprofit organization and relies on donations. They also think the site is too plain for an arts center and has a lot of wasted space on the sides.

The latest marketing brochures from the Center have a more sophisticated look, with lots of evocative black-and-white photos and a blue, tan, and black color scheme. Touchstone would like the website to look more sophisticated as well, but remain engaging. The brochures are part of a fundraising campaign that gets sent to the Center’s patrons and supporters, for whom an upscale, polished design is appropriate. But participants in the Center’s activities come from a wider demographic; furthermore, current participants are mostly families and seniors, and the Center would like to attract more 20- and 30-somethings, and students from the local college. The website needs to appeal to all those audiences without putting off any of them.

“We want to be seen as accessible and inviting,” says Touchstone. “We’re in the central part of a small town, and we’re the place to go for all sorts of arts activities.” We asked three designers to help the Center welcome all their constituencies with a revamped homepage.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Joel Glovier
http://jagdesignideas.com

To me, the Community Arts Center homepage felt anticlimactic. This organization is doing really great things in the community and apparently has a rich history behind it, but you don’t get that impression from their site.
I wanted to make the homepage engaging and full of content, partly because Web industry stats show you really only have a handful of seconds to make a first impression with visitors before they decide to either leave or keep browsing. I gave the header plenty of breathing room, and this treatment would remain the same site-wide. Also, reused on every page would be the footer, which has important info that should appear on the entire site.
The new Featured Content slider could be used with up to five or six slides. (The Center’s staff says they have the capability of making slide shows.) Replacing a whole separate link in the navigation for the newsletter is now just a banner on the homepage to sign up directly. Upcoming Events are big and bold, right under the main content, and additional images and promotional items also take a prominent place.
I intentionally restructured the navigation, trying to get each link down to a single easily recognizable word, removing any unnecessary links. The number one rule in usability is don’t make the user think. So making the meaning of navigation links painfully obvious is a big help in getting visitors to browse more pages of the site.
Stylistically, I built on aspects of the current design, reusing key colors and sticking to a style that’s relatively minimal. Most design cues were typography based, and I made use of negative space. I made some minor tweaks to the logo, using Garamond Bold both there and in headings throughout the page. I incorporated as much imagery as I could—using photos from the Center’s new brochures—to make the page feel more personal.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Joel Glovier http://jagdesignideas.com

Joel Glovier is the Web and graphic designer at CURE International (www.helpcurenow.org), where he’s been diligently working on a complete redesign of their website for several months. CURE is a nonprofit charity that provides surgery to disabled children in developing countries.

Joel also runs a freelance business, JAG Design Ideas, doing design work for mostly nonprofit clients. He’s been doing freelance design since graduating from Liberty University in 2004 with a degree in communications. Although being a designer and quite visual by nature, he has come to greatly appreciate the balance that coding HTML and CSS brings to his work. He feels there’s something really energizing about building something he designed.
Joel says his driving focus in life is knowing Jesus Christ and doing all things to bring Him glory. He also enjoys breakdancing, skateboarding, his better half (Ashley), the Pittsburgh Steelers, and most recently, Iron Man 2.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop CS4

AFTER

DESIGNER: Chris Anderson
www.chrisanderson-designs.ca

The first thing that came to mind when I viewed the Community Arts Center (CAC) website was that it was stark white and clinical looking. My objective was to ensure that the end user quickly recognized that the CAC was a warm, fun, and accessible local “community” environment.

I started with a small gallery of six expressive black-and-white photos taken from the brochures, showcasing a variety of artistic activities enjoyed by all ages. I also added a secondary slide show using photos already on the site for a quick look at all the activities and events.

For the CAC brand, I chose to use the Adobe serif typeface Trajan Pro, which is popular for movie posters, book covers, and branding. It’s known for its stability and subtle sense of excitement.
It was important to keep consistency throughout the site. To do this, I first chose to use the humanist sans-serif typeface Trebuchet MS for its bold, classy strength, and ease on the eyes. It’s also a standard for Web browsers going back as far as Internet Explorer 4. Second, I added a bright red title banner wrapped around the top-left corner of each section.

With bluegrass music in mind, I used a soft woodgrain paneling to span the background. I delineated each section using two shades of red to help organize and prioritize the content. For a nice contrast, I used gold for the gallery borders and for the navigational typeface. These choices result in simple and clear navigation, with the primary content (the main links and feature events) split across the top and bottom of the header, and the secondary content in the footer in a two-column stacked sitemap.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Chris Anderson www.chrisanderson-designs.ca

Chris Anderson was born and raised in the heart of Muskoka cottage country in Ontario, Canada. From a young age, Chris enjoyed illustrating anything and everything. This passion was carried onto the screen using early visual manipulation programs such as LightWave, Modular, CorelDRAW, FreeHand, and then moving quickly into everything Adobe.

After graduating from Cambrian College through the Arts and Technology Graphic Design program, Chris spent time enjoying something else that he loves: working as an outdoor adventure instructor and guide leading whitewater canoe trips in and around Ontario and Quebec. Shortly thereafter, he joined an in-house design team in Toronto, but looking for more design freedom and flexibility, Chris decided to start his own design business. For the past two years he has had the pleasure of working with all aspects of the design process from website design and development, custom management frameworks, and eLearning modules to branding, photography, illustration, company stationery, etc.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop CS4

AFTER

DESIGNER: Anita L. Elder
www.lolaludesign.com

My first goals in redesigning the Danville Community Arts Center’s website were to create a site that was easy to navigate and to showcase what the organization offers. I also wanted to reinforce the brand message by coordinating it with the newly created brochure and rack cards, in both color and the use of the Scriptina font.

I moved the main navigation near the top of the page so viewers could easily find it, and changed the background color of the relevant tab on the navigation bar so they would know where they are within the site. Because donations are critical to the Center, I included a call to action, as well as easy navigation for site visitors wishing to offer other kinds of support.

The Center hosts a variety of art events and activities, and many of those images are in the main photo (which could be a slide show). The organization is housed in a lovely old building easily recognized by the local population, and I incorporated its image into the background, where it’s visible but doesn’t dominate the page. For site visitors not familiar with the center or its location, I included the address and phone number in the header where it’s easily found. I set the Center’s name in the classic California FB.

The Center staff edits the featured events list weekly, so the process needs to be user-friendly; I stuck with a similar bulleted list in the right sidebar. For the list and the body copy, I used Segoe UI, familiar to any Windows user.
The homepage’s content concludes with larger text to emphasize that many of the Center’s events are free. In addition to the Facebook icon they currently use on their site, I added other social media icons and recommended they use those services to help promote the Center.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Anita L. Elder www.lolaludesign.com

Anita has spent the past fourteen years living in the Seattle area. She has always had creative tendencies and started designing websites as a hobby in 1995. In 2000, Anita went back to school, receiving an AAS in Multimedia Design and Production and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications. She worked for Vulcan Inc. and the Seattle Times before venturing out as a successful freelance designer. Design projects aren’t just a job, they’re her passion.
When not creating Web and print designs on the computer, Anita enjoys photography, cooking, and traveling the world. She also volunteers her time teaching English as a second language to women refugees, answering phones during KUOW public radio pledge drives, and doing pro bono print design for nonprofit organizations.
Anita lives with her husband William and two cats, Rico and Lola.

APPLICATION USED: Photoshop CS4

Joe Blondo

BEFORE

Seattle writer and poet Joe Blondo first met Milton Wan at the Chinese restaurant where Wan worked. Their many conversations about how the Vietnam-born Wan wound up behind the counter of a Seattle restaurant eventually turned into Caught Between Cultures: A Story of Milton Wan and Viet Nam. In the book, Blondo traces Wan’s journey from a difficult childhood in ’40s and ’50s Saigon, through a risky escape via tramp steamer from Cambodia, to his sister’s house in Seattle. Soon enough though, Wan found himself back in Vietnam—this time as a soldier in the U.S. Army.

When it came time to design a cover for the book, Blondo turned to a longtime friend and collaborator, illustrator Frank Morgan. “I wanted the cover to convey the cultural elements inherent in Milton, both in his personality and the world he grew up in,” he says. Frank feels the cover communicates those elements with its use of the red and yellow of the South Vietnamese flag and the red, white, and blue of the American flag.

He also appreciates the way the bold colors placed against a black background should help the book stand out on bookstore shelves. “I find this cover very conversational in the way it ‘shouts out’ to the passing book buyer,” he says.

Blondo agreed to let us assign his cover to three designers to see what others would do with the personal and political elements of Wan’s story. We were also able to supply the designers with some of the photos that appear inside the book, courtesy of photographer Peter Mumford. Here, then, are three alternate covers for this book about one American immigrant, but also about every immigrant’s experience in an adopted country.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Kristine Stallman
www.thedesignscompany.com

The main thing the client liked about his current cover was the flag theme, so I decided to carry that aspect over into my design. I wanted to create a cover that the author felt still “shouted out” to book buyers but could also communicate a little more about the book’s content.

I started by searching for images of flags from the two countries that frame the story, the United States and Vietnam. I didn’t want just flat drawings of flags, however, I wanted pictures that showed movement to help bring a more 3D aspect and some life to the cover.

Once I found the images I wanted to use, I brought them into Adobe Photoshop. I wanted to show both flags overlapping, almost merging into each other, to portray the blended cultural elements of Milton’s character. I positioned each flag in an opposite corner of the cover and then applied a vector mask to each one. Using the Gradient tool with the Foreground to Background option, I faded out one side of each flag and then overlapped the flags to merge them into each other.

To lend a personal touch to the design, I added in a couple of grayscale photos from Milton’s past—you can see these through the flags in the bottom corner. This helps to communicate to a book buyer that it’s not just about two countries but that it’s a personal story as well.

Choosing a clean serif font (Adobe Caslon Pro), I placed the book’s title slightly to the right to keep the focus on the background images. I used white for the text and applied a slight shadow to help it pop off the background. Setting the word “between” smaller than Caught and Cultures not only makes it visually appealing but it also plays upon the words themselves. Placing the short description of the book in the bottom-left corner draws the eye down from the title and toward the black-and-white photos in the background.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Kristine Stallman
www.thedesignscompany.com

Inspired by designing a cereal box in a high school marketing class, Kristine decided early on to pursue a career in design. She attended Sheridan College and graduated with a diploma in advertising. Since then, she has worked in several business environments, and with her schooling and natural design talent, she brings a unique perspective to design that her clients have come to rely on.

She started her own home-based graphic design business in 2004, focusing on working with small businesses and startups, so that she could stay home to raise her children. With a little word-of-mouth advertising, her client base has steadily grown. Kristine specializes in print design but also dabbles in a little Web work as well. She relies heavily on the K.I.S.S. theory of design.

Kristine currently resides in Waterford, Ontario, Canada with her husband and their four children. She can be reached at kristine@thedesignscompany.com.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop CS3

AFTER

DESIGNER: Keith Gillespie
http://www.jonevan.com

I wanted my cover to both tell and sell. “Tell” by foreshadowing the story inside; “sell” by using colors and design to attract shoppers’ eyes to store shelves and webpage listings. Such a cover would work its hardest to get noticed, pique a prospective reader’s interest, and drive impulse sales.

The book is about Mr. Wan’s cultural and family pressures during the time he served as a U.S. soldier in Vietnam. So my cover likewise focuses on Mr. Wan, while using design to depict his being “caught between cultures.”

I represent his cultural past by placing the pre-1975 South Vietnamese flag behind him. The U.S. flag is in front of him, much as our culture was in front of him when he left Vietnam in his youth. Mr. Wan is trapped between the two flags, as if in a vise clamp.

The word “cultures” presses in on his head, which is his mental and emotional center. And I use an old photo of his family and an image of Vietnam-era U.S. soldiers to grip him within yet another visual vise. Finally, I chose Aachen Bold for the headline font, because its capital “C” echoes the shape of a clamp, and its letterforms are squeezed as well. The parallel lines in the flags provide even more visual stress, serving as fencing.

Yet despite all these restrictive design elements, the flags stand brightly, boldly, proudly. Their parallel lines symbolize the parallel cultural allegiances that tug on Mr. Wan’s heart and soul. And Mr. Wan—the only vertical element on the page—rises like a phoenix, further foretelling the story inside.

Mr. Blondo’s name recedes in the design much as an author recedes behind his words. He’s not caught between cultures, appearing only within the American flag.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Keith Gillespie
www.jonevan.com

Keith served as creative director for one of America’s largest marketing agencies, overseeing five offices across the U.S. In 2001, he began his own agency, JonEvan Marketing Group. With clients ranging from major corporations to small businesses, he delivers the strategic planning, concepting, writing, designing, website programming, and search-engine marketing himself, using outside support sparingly. His multiple skills let him work efficiently, with a deep understanding of how each skill affects the others while working toward specific project objectives.

He has sold products and services in a wide range of industries, with work in print advertising, direct mail, radio, TV, consumer activation, in-store displays, websites, email, banner advertising, search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click advertising, and more. Keith has degrees in both design and writing, and is the featured crossword puzzle constructor for Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine.

Keith resides in Princeton, New Jersey, with his wife, two sons, and dog.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop CS4

AFTER

DESIGNER: LuAnn Arena
www.funkykittyproductions.com

After reading the synopsis of the story, I had a clear image of the visual for the cover and I knew I wanted to do the illustration myself rather than use any stock photography or stock illustration. My goal was to show, simply and powerfully, the drama of Milton Wan’s unique struggle at a glance. And, of course, the cover clearly needs to draw readers to pick up the book and want to know more.

The original cover, predominantly black, with portions of both the Vietnamese and American flags in the text, needed a stronger visual component. I felt the human piece was missing, leaving it to look a little more like a textbook or something similarly impersonal. The author did state that he felt black would get the book noticed on the shelf, that he liked the bold colors, and wanted to convey the cultural elements. That seemed to fit right in with my plan.

I created a composite using multiple images that provided the structure to work from—a lone soldier looking out over a Vietnam landscape. I can only imagine the incredible internal conflict of returning to your home country to fight as a soldier of another. I made a couple of sketches and then scanned my final choice, adjusted the scan in Adobe Photoshop, and rendered the final art in Adobe Illustrator. For the landscape, I used red and varying tints of yellow—the colors of the Vietnamese flag. This provided a striking backdrop for the stark black silhouette. I resisted using the distinctions of the flags as literally as the original cover, because the story, in addition to the historical context, is about the personal challenges of familial relationships. Finally, I used Eurostile for the font, as it gave a clean, tight look for the title, tag line, and author.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
LuAnn Arena
www.funkykittyproductions.com

Originally from Rochester, New York, LuAnn made her way to the Hudson Valley after regularly traveling the U.S. playing her original music to anyone who would listen. After thousands of miles on the road, it was time for a new challenge.

With a B.F.A. in Graphic Design, LuAnn has more than five years’ experience in print and Web design, starting with an on-campus job in the SUNY New Paltz Publications Department and continuing through her current work on SEGD, an international environmental design magazine and 2009 SNAP (Society of National Association Publications) Award winner. Along the way, she has also worked on numerous freelance projects for print, Web, and logo design. LuAnn has also produced hundreds of event posters, many including her original artwork, for the Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, New York.

LuAnn writes a design blog at her website focusing on interviews with designers, sustainable practices, and the sources of creativity. She’s currently working on a limited-edition poster series including a special poster donation to the The Haiti Poster Project.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Illustrator CS4

Client:
Southern Virginia Higher Education Center www.svhed.org

BEFORE

The Southern Virginia Higher Education Center’s logo is based on an abstract representation of the building itself, which stands on a hill overlooking a river.

The Southern Virginia Higher Education Center calls itself an “educational connector,” in the words of Communications Manager Hope Harris-Gayles. It’s not a “school” per se, in that it doesn’t confer degrees itself. But it provides the support and infrastructure that enables instructors and students to come together. The courses students take can be applied to a degree they’re earning from a degree-granting college—in fact, says Harris-Gayles, students can take all the courses they need for a degree at the SVHEC.

The Center’s students run the gamut from illiterate students who come in for one-on-one literacy tutoring to GED (high school equivalency) students to people working on Associate, Bachelor, and even advanced graduate degrees.

The SVHEC is housed in a former tobacco warehouse (tobacco used to be a big part of the economy in that part of Virginia). “We’re educating folks for future economic development,” says Harris-Gayles, so it’s appropriate to do so in a renovated reminder of a past economy.

The current logo appears on the Center’s website and on all their print materials, including business cards and newspaper ads (which means it sometimes appears in black and white). It’s based on an abstract representation of the building itself, which stands on a hill overlooking a river. In full color, the building is gold, the river and the top of the tower are burgundy, and the hill is green with the Center’s name reversed out.

The colors are actually a bit of a problem: the three spot colors can make new printed materials expensive. And having the name reversed out means that when the logo is printed small, the words can get very hard to read. The SVHEC is a progressive, innovative institution based on a cutting-edge educational model, so we asked three designers to give the institution a smarter logo that could work in both color and black and white.

AFTER

The dynamic perspective emphasizes the building’s tower, which I feel defines the building and is the most recognizable feature.

DESIGNER: Anthony Louis Kelly www.anthonylouiskelly.com

The SVHEC’s current logo has some good elements, but they’re undercut by poor execution. The result is an image that’s flat and uninspiring.

I like the fact that the current logo depicts the site of the building, which is a renovated tobacco factory on a hill overlooking the Dan River. I wanted to stay within this theme; that way, the new logo would be recognizable to people who are already familiar with the school and the building. For the same reason, I wanted to stick with a similar color palette, as I assume they’re already using green and gold on current school materials.

I placed the name off to the side of the image and set it in Adobe Garamond Pro, which I chose for its strong and clean appearance. I modified the serifs on a couple of the letters to create a more uniform look in the text—the “T” and the “A” in particular had angled serifs, which I straightened. The picture still depicts the school on a hill with the river below, but I changed the perspective to make the hill seem higher, which works as a play on the term “higher education” in the logo’s subline. The dynamic perspective also emphasizes the building’s tower, which I feel defines the building and is the most recognizable feature. I placed a slight gradient behind the building to depict the sky, and to represent the river at the bottom I used varied shades of the same green as on the hill.

I stuck with only two colors; this will help keep costs down when ordering printed materials and it also makes the logo look less busy. At the same time, the shading effects give the logo depth and character, which is especially important when it appears in only one color.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Anthony Louis Kelly www.anthonylouiskelly.com

Anthony Louis Kelly is a graphic and Web designer born and raised in Rochester, New York. Although he’s only 25 years old, he has been working as a graphic designer for many years: Anthony received his first paid graphic design project as a junior in high school and has been at it ever since. He holds a Certificate in Commercial Art and an Associates Degree in Graphic Design.

Anthony currently works as an in-house designer for PrintAll Solutions (www.printallsolutions.com), a printing, promotional products, and apparel branding company in Rochester. He also works regularly as a freelance designer, taking on a variety of design projects from logos and identity to brochures, catalogs, and signage. Anthony has clients throughout the east coast ranging from top financial institutions to real estate and signage companies. Starting out as a traditional graphic designer, he finds himself recently taking on an increasing amount of Web design projects.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Illustrator CS4

AFTER

I wanted to narrow the design down to a couple of key elements so that when you look at it, you instantly know it’s the SVHEC logo.

DESIGNER: Brian Strong www.brianraymondstrong.com

The SVHEC logo isn’t bad—they had the right design ideas, but the execution fell a little short. I see three problems that keep it from being a strong graphic image: it has way too many elements battling for attention; squeezing all those elements into a letterhead-size graphic causes the logo to become weak and the text hard to read; and the cost of printing the logo in color can get pricey.

When I create a logo for a client, I always start my design process with the idea of it being used as a one-color image, so even if colors are added to the design it will still be a strong graphic element. Here, I wanted to narrow the design down to a couple of key elements so that when you look at it, you instantly know it’s the SVHEC logo.

So my main focus was the tobacco building, the river, and enlarging the school name. I started by transforming the tobacco building into a simple, yet solid graphic image and showcasing the smokestack and water tower, which are instantly recognizable.

The water was the next element. Instead of it being a separate graphic, I wanted to tie it with the building so it becomes one solid graphic. To keep the images from looking as if they were just free floating once printed, I wrapped the image in a box to contain all the elements. I placed the school name to the right, which let me run it much larger than previously. I set it in the free Larabie font Blue Highway.

The new logo works in black and white or in two colors, and if they wanted to use it as a poster, other elements can be added to the graphic without weakening it.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Brian Strong www.brianraymondstrong.com

Brian says he can’t really pinpoint the start of becoming an artist. Ever since he can remember, he’s enjoyed drawing. After numerous scribbles and doodles here and there, fast-forward to high school where Brian signed up for a graphic design course and fell in love with the art.

He enrolled in the Pittsburgh Technical Institute and got a degree in Graphic Arts. After graduation, he snagged a gig with a small graphic design and exhibits firm, which gave him the opportunity to travel and set up trade shows all over the country. After going back to school to study Web design, he started his own design studio with his good friend Eric Brown: Design Fu in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. Fast-forward again to the present, when he has recently opened a screen printing studio as well as a clothing company. Graphic design continues to be his passion: he says, “I love creating something for millions to see and enjoy.”

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Illustrator CS3

AFTER

I wanted to communicate the idea of forward movement in my design, so I started thinking of ways to incorporate a “road to success.”

DESIGNER: Tyson Junkers www.TJunkers.com
When it came to designing a logo for the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center, I wanted something simple but powerful and symbolic of what the school represents to the students attending. I started out by reading through the SVHED.org website, and found a lot of information that helped get me started.

The Southern Virginia Higher Education Center likes to keep some of the old with the new. They’ve been that way since they started, and even today they hold classes in a renovated tobacco warehouse that they converted into a school. They retained some of the warehouse’s history through an old elevator, fire doors, and humidifiers. The school stands as an important symbol for its students, and I felt that quality should be retained in the new logo.

I wanted to communicate the idea of forward movement in my design, so I started thinking of ways to incorporate a “road to success” that takes current and future students on a journey to the school and beyond. I added a single sharp edge to continue the road into the unknown: the future of SVHEC’s students.

I chose to keep the colors simple, only using blue and white. Blue represents creativity and intelligence, both of which SVHEC has and offers to its students. I used white, as it represents purity and cleanliness, which are welcome attributes in any education center.

As for the type, I wanted something that looks professional while being inviting. I decided a thin, round font would work best, so I ended up using ITC Avant Garde Gothic. It fits the look of the logo and would work on everything from letterheads to T-shirts.

I feel my design gives the school a more modern look while retaining a connection with its history.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Tyson Junkers www.TJunkers.com

“Design is every part of who I am,” says Tyson Junkers. “The way I dress, the way I act, the way I work, all have some kind of subconscious reasoning based on a design I’ve seen in my life.”

Tyson’s dream in life is simple: he wants to have fun and wake up in the morning happy to go to work. It’s what he does for fun that influences him to work harder. He says he loves working in design, especially 3D. He has spent countless nights lying in bed awake, his mind spinning with new ideas. He keeps a notepad by his bed for any ideas that come to him in the night; so far, he has filled several pads. He lives in Orlando, Florida, and is pursuing a degree in Digital Arts & Design at Full Sail University.

“My name is Tyson Junkers. I’m a designer with 25 years of influence behind me.”

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS4 and Adobe InDesign CS4

Gardner Sign www.gardnersign.net

…it looks good on paper and on the truck. On the sign outside the business itself, it’s not legible from a distance…

Gardner Sign, located in the small Maryland city of Salisbury, started in 1985 as a manufacturer and installer of electric signs. “We built our own signs,” says owner Butch Gardner, “and we installed signs for other companies, like ones that McDonald’s or Burger King might ship in.” Over the years, though, the business has evolved to keep up with new sign-making technology. “We’re a commercial shop now,” Gardner continues, “doing a lot of vehicle lettering and sign work. We also have an embroidery shop and a screen print shop.”

The company’s identity hasn’t kept up with the times quite as well, however. The current logo, for example, was created a few years ago by an employee at the firm. Gardner likes some aspects of it, such as the bright green and the swoosh shape. He says it looks good on paper and on the truck. On the sign outside the business itself, it’s not legible from a distance, he says. It’s recognizable once you know what it says, but it’s too hard to read. It works on the back of his truck because the drivers behind him have time to puzzle it out. But it doesn’t do the job for people driving by on the street.

What Gardner would like a new logo and website to communicate is that Gardner Sign does high-quality work using the latest technology. His identity has to appeal to a variety of customers, though. Salisbury is in a rural area, and Gardner says that his relationship with some regular customers is like a “good ol’ boy network.” At the same time, while there aren’t a lot of corporate clients in the area, he wants to be able to project a more professional image when it’s appropriate. “We try to be what we need to be at the time we need to be it,” he says. With that in mind, we asked three designers to help Gardner Sign be the best it can be.

After

DESIGNER: David Joyce http://exit42design.com
I thought the Gardner website was too dark and cluttered with vibrant colors that distracted from the content. The company is very modern and uses the latest technology, so using a corporate-looking, shiny, and sleek aesthetic for the design would be the obvious thing to do. But that can make a website feel overly pretentious and impersonal; instead, I opted to use a warm and approachable vintage look that feels very honest and down-to-earth.

I started by choosing soft, warm colors: I went with a dark earthy brown background that plays nicely off of the fresh, bright green. The main logo, the main navigation, and the body text are given a slightly yellow, off-white color that helps the text pop out from the dark page background but complement it at the same time.

For the logo, rather than keeping the familiar corporate swoosh, I turned to the vintage font Satisfaction from E-phemera. Satisfaction has a very distinctive capital “G” that helps it stand out, and using a script typeface gives the logo a human and approachable feel while remaining professional. The word “sign” is set in Neutraface Titling, and the rest of the page uses variations of Gotham.

Front and center on the site is the branding with the contact information. The main navigation was simplified to the five core products of the company. It’s placed right below the branding and set in a light-colored bar so that visitors can see immediately what Gardner has to offer. The footer contains links to other parts of the site, and those same links are mirrored in a secondary navigation in the upper right of the page.

The new logo and website puts a human face on the company that should appeal to the “good ol’ boy network” that the business relies on. At the same time, the corporate clients are greeted with a refreshingly approachable and friendly site.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
David Joyce] [http://exit42design.com
Dave Joyce is based in the beautiful mountains of East Tennessee, where he works remotely with clients all over the world.

Dave graduated from East Tennessee State University in 2007 with an Information Technology degree. Design has always been his passion, however, and designing specifically for the Web has always been his delight. Dave started building websites while still in his teens. He feels it’s a fantastic medium to design for, as it offers unique challenges with unique rewards. As he writes on his own site, “Web design is like no other graphic medium. It requires a perfect blending of form and function.” Visitors need to feel immediately comfortable, and they need to want to spend time on a site. Creating an aesthetic that fits with the company and makes visitors feel at home is critical.

Dave has been freelancing full time for two years and is always looking for new design challenges.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop

After

DESIGNER: Jonathan Robertson www.kreativebomb.com
As a graphic designer who often subcontracts out work to this type of service provider, I would expect the Gardner Sign website to display the same characteristics present in their work: creativity, precision, attention to detail, and above all, an air of professionalism. The company’s branding should demonstrate they care just as much about their own image as their clients.

Starting with the logo, I first took the step of removing the word “Incorporated.” Letterheads and invoices will already contain the full company name, so I didn’t think it would be a problem to drop it from the logo. Plus, it would give us more design options and help the logo become more legible by reducing the amount of characters. I did want to retain the dual identity of the current logo: one part serious and professional, one part a little wacky and colorful. For the word “Gardner,” I used Amplitude Heavy, a nice solid legible weight with a slight twist (the angular cuts). For “Sign” I went for Angelina, a handwritten typeface that has really nice curves and, again, is easy to read.

I gave the homepage a much more concise menu bar with just four items, and below that I placed six large “stickers” that act as buttons leading to the main sections. The stickers are each tinted in a single color, but when you roll the cursor over one, it turns full color and has an overlaid title that describes the section. Each section contains a main page that shows a couple of example photographs and some intro copy about the services they offer.

If all the currently empty “coming soon” pages on the Gardner site were finished, I think there would be too many pages for a potential customer to navigate through. My suggestion would be to give each section at most two pages, highlighting case studies and listing their other services in the category.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Jonathan Robertson www.kreativebomb.com
After completing a BTEC in Graphic Design at Calderdale College in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, Jonathan was ready to go out and earn some money. Unfortunately, this was in 1992, design studios in the North of England were just introducing the Macintosh, and Jonathan’s portfolio mainly showed traditional techniques. He took a job as color separation artist at a local textile and wallpaper company and pursued three objectives: buying a color Macintosh, teaching himself how to use the applications, and redoing his portfolio.

Three years later, he landed his first job as a design junior in a studio in Halifax. Two years after that, he decided to go freelance and has never looked back. He now manages a steady stream of clients from his home studio in Todmorden, England (approximately one hour north of Manchester), and also works in-house at some of the region’s most creative advertising and design studios.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS4 and Adobe Photoshop CS4

After

DESIGNER: Samuel Barney http://aftersparkmedia.com
Upon first viewing the Gardner Sign logo and homepage, my reaction was that the logo had plenty of color, but there needed to be a better correlation between the colors and the site itself. My first goal for the logo was to come up with something similar in shape but with a less blinding contrast of colors. I selected a similar but gentler color scheme using Adobe’s Kuler color theme generation site, and I imported it into Photoshop for the logo design process.

Then I played with the site’s existing black background with gray menu bar. I thought that instead of a black background I would try a shade of gray, and it worked out well.

Once I had the color scheme and general layout brainstormed, I focused on what should go on the homepage. I decided to lay the menu of popular services over an image slide show so as to use the space to its fullest. After that, it was fairly easy to decide on three sections underneath the slide show. One section contains updates from a blog, Twitter, or similar source that refresh the site’s content frequently for SEO purposes. The other two sections present the map and directions, and an About Us page that can provide testimonials and other information to get users to click through to the next page.

The goal for a site like this is to get the viewer to call or email the company. That means the contact information needs to be present everywhere, so I put it in the page footer that will appear throughout the site. Finally, promoting the 25 years of service in large text shows a sense of stability that most users will respond well to.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Samuel Barney http://aftersparkmedia.com
Sam fixed his first computer at age 8, back when Space Invaders for DOS was the only game to play. At age 14, he made his first website and, along with it, his first dollar as a creative mind on the Web. After working for Echostar—the parent company of DISH Network—Sam began pursuing the IT profession. He worked for several startups and was eventually offered a job with an auto-restoration company as a webmaster and senior IT supervisor.

In 2006, at age 21, Sam got tired of working for the other guy and founded After Spark Media in Dallas, Texas. Since then he has expanded his capabilities and the company and now employs motion graphics and numerous frameworks to construct Web portals and mostly professional informational websites for clients in the Dallas region, ranging from financial planning firms to construction companies to dog breeders.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS4 and Adobe Kuler Desktop App

Client: Terry Shaw www.musicpotential.com

Musician and music teacher Terry Shaw has an independent streak. “I like to do things myself if I think I can do them better,” he says. “I’d rather play solo than with lesser musicians.”

That’s why he plays all the instruments on his latest CD, Instrument of Choice. On his website, he describes the CD like this: “It’s plastic, round, 4¾” in diameter, silver on one side with pictures of me on the other.” Obviously, Shaw has a sense of humor; however, he also describes the songs this way: “They’re original compositions covering many styles—bluegrass, swing, waltz, gypsy jazz, Celtic, Latin, contra, and jazz. And if that isn’t enough, I even include my cat singing on his own track.”

“I don’t have ADD, but I like all types of music,” he says, “Irish to Balkan to swing. But it still sounds similar because I wrote it.”

Shaw’s musical career started with playing the trumpet in his school band. He took up stringed instruments when a friend in the fifth grade introduced him to the guitar; he has since expanded his repertoire to include the mandolin, banjo, dobro, and fiddle, all of which appear on Instrument of Choice.

Shaw sells the CD through his website (www.musicpotential.com) and directly at the venues where he performs. When we approached him about a redesign, he said he likes the current cover, though he’s not fond of the lettering. “It’s too common,” he says. “I’d like a font that’s a little less pedestrian—maybe even one that looks like hand lettering.” He also says he’d like to project the same kind of image as Mark O’Connor: that of a virtuoso player who can play multiple instruments. But he doesn’t want to lose the personality and warmth that the current cover captures.

CREDIT: ©2008 DAVE KENNEDY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. www.davekennedyphotography.com

AFTER

DESIGNER: Stephen Woltz (designer), Ben Capozzi (teacher) www.svhed.org

Employing images ranging from mandolins set aflame as a nod to Jimi Hendrix to collaged bluegrass fantasies, 19 Halifax County High School students in the graphic arts class at the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center tackled the CD makeover with relish. We bought and listened to the CD, did a heckuva lot of individual and group ideation, and looked at Mark O’Connor’s branded material before beginning our designs. Unfortunately, the photographer’s request that we use the photo in its entirety removed from contention those designs that relied on isolating Shaw from the background (and frustrated those who had looked at Shaw’s website and seen his penchant for inventively placing his photo into improbable settings). Finally, just three choices remained. Two were by outstanding sophomores, but senior Stephen Woltz’s design is our final answer.

Noting that Shaw says his background is primarily in rock, Woltz wanted a “grunge” feel for his design, and to give it some personality without pretension. To achieve that look in Photoshop, Woltz built up layers of marbled paper as a background in warm earthtones and added coffee stains. An unrehearsed placement of instruments against the background gives the cover a handmade feel while suggesting Shaw’s virtuosic range and affinity for craft. The design walks that fine line between country and cornpone and still manages to capture the jazzy feel of Shaw’s music.

Woltz chose an edgy but strong font, Cracked from www.dafont.com, for the CD title. He picked another font from dafont, Joe Hand 2 for the signature and the song titles, and tweaked the paths to refine the handwritten feel.

Woltz simplified the weak layout of the original back cover and focused it on a boldly cropped close-up of a banjo. The final design is homemade without being homespun, a theme that seems to run throughout Shaw’s work and comments.

[ABOUT THE DESIGNER]

Stephen Woltz – Southern Virginia Higher Education Center
Stephen Woltz and his classmates are students in dual-enrollment courses at the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center’s Business of Art & Design program, an innovative curriculum for Danville Community College students and Halifax County high schoolers.

In addition to developing his design talents, Woltz writes and directs his own films, competes for top honors in his graduating class, flings himself at opponents in the Allied Independent Wrestling Federation, and volunteers with the Ruritan Club.

Digital Art & Design curriculum coordinator Ben Capozzi has a degree in Studio Art from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, and worked in the school’s InnovationSpace multimedia center. He’s now pursuing an M.A. in Education & Instructional Technology and works with Woltz and other students five days a week to develop Virginia’s creative professionals of tomorrow in a sweet lab outfitted with Adobe CS4 and Mac Pro towers. His job, like each of his students, rocks.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop

AFTER

DESIGNER: Davin Sanchez www.behance.net/DavinSanchez
When I saw the original CD cover, my first thought was, “Whoa!” It feels like a rush project, and the generic font doesn’t live harmoniously with the overall imagery presented on the cover. Certain aspects of the cover are fun—the cat thinking of the song titles—but the execution makes the overall effect seem silly and hokey, miles away from the fun and intriguing nature of the music. But I knew that with a little TLC, Instrument of Choice could be a true eye-grabber.

I didn’t want to use the existing cover image because it tells the viewer nothing about Shaw’s music. I wanted to convey the feeling, emotion, mystery, and storytelling that is Terry Shaw. When I listened to his music, read his blogs, and checked out his website in an effort to familiarize myself with the artist, I realized that this music was far more complex than the cover led his listeners to believe.

I removed Shaw from the cover and focused on a more reflective and intriguing image that matches the breadth and depth of his music. I chose the image of the woods because this image, much like the music, wasn’t easily defined—you could get lost in it, and yet it could be your own backyard. In an effort to convey Shaw’s lighthearted nature, I chose to preserve the image of the cat and the curiosity that cats so readily symbolize.

The cover also needed some organic, hand-wrought imagery to reflect the individuality of this artist and his music. I handwrote the text and drew some illustrations. I thought they would complement the sincerity and uniqueness of Shaw, and I thought they would be fun.

[ABOUT THE DESIGNER]

Davin Sanchez www.behance.net/DavinSanchez
Davin has lived from coast to coast but now lays his head primarily in the City of Angels. He started designing in high school in Florida, laying out flyers for local bands, silk-screening T-shirts, and painting and drawing. Davin took his first major corporate job at a well-established company doing identity branding and Web and print design, as well as working on the side with local bands. The corporate print world became uninspiring after a few years, and he needed to move on.

Davin then came into contact with an Interactive Agency in L.A. He packed his life in his car and left for the Wild West a week later. Davin quickly became an Art Director, creating work for Scion, Budweiser, Bud Light, Pepsi, and Sony Pictures.

Davin has moved on and now does contract work in the Los Angeles area. His most recent work has been (on the Web) for Ford Models, Battle for Terra, and Bank of America; identity work for SanSu Solutions; and clothing for Maroon 5 and Sara Bareilles.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS4, Adobe Illustrator CS4, and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

AFTER

DESIGNER: Laurie Davidsohn-Bienstock www.davidsohngraphics.com
Terry Shaw is a multitalented instrumentalist and composer with a wide array of music styles. Shaw clearly has a sense of humor, which adds to his personality and spills over to his music. My vision for the redesign of Shaw’s cover was to create something upbeat, magical, fun, fluid, and full of high energy, with a hint of whimsy, all while maintaining a serious side. Wow, that’s not a lot to ask for, is it?

I started with classic music symbols: the treble clef and musical staff. The treble clef serves as an anchor for the cover, and the lines of the music staff also represent the strings of Shaw’s repertoire of instruments. I built upon these elements with fun, colorful, and random string instruments. I created multiple layers in Photoshop with various textures and silhouettes of more instruments and generously included swirls and wavy composition lines for fluidity.

Since Shaw lets his cat “sing” on one of the cuts and has a picture of him on the original cover, I thought it was something personally important to him. I wanted to keep it in my redesign, so I added the singing black cat among the instruments.

For Shaw’s name, I chose Adobe’s Voluta Script, and I used Sam Wang’s free Harrington font for the CD title. Since Shaw’s music style ranges from bluegrass to Celtic to jazz and then some, it seemed fitting that the fonts would be so different from each other but somehow still work well together.

I toned things down a bit for the back cover. While I do like the photo of Shaw with all of his instruments on the original cover, it seems to lack a bit of style. I cropped the photo and gave it a sepia tone to blend in with the overall design. Finally, I added an excerpt from a favorable review on a popular industry website.

[ABOUT THE DESIGNER]

Laurie Davidsohn-Bienstock Davidsohn Graphics
?????Laurie Davidsohn-Bienstock continued her education in graphic design after receiving a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism in 1985. Over the following decade, Laurie refined her talents and professional qualities while working for some of the most prestigious design firms and advertising agencies on the West Coast. In 1998, Laurie launched her design firm, Davidsohn Graphics, and in March 2007, along with her husband Cion, purchased Town and Country Printing in Agoura Hills, California. Sometimes Laurie feels like a kid in a candy store, only she’s a graphic designer in a print and copy shop.

Laurie has an intense passion for graphic design, and since the purchase of the print shop, a love for different and unique paper and card stock. While she typically uses all three of the main programs in Adobe Creative Suite, her favorite is Photoshop, where she enjoys creating textures using multiple layers, filters, and masks. Laurie and Cion live in Granada Hills with their two daughters. Laurie also has five indoor cats and several outdoor strays.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign

…when people see the AMERS vehicles on the street, they mistakenly assume they’re ambulances for humans.

Animal Medical Emergency Response System (AMERS) operates vehicles that provide mobile care and transportation for injured and ill pets. In other words, they’re just like ambulances, except that they’re for animals rather than humans. And therein lies the organization’s design problem: the vehicles don’t successfully communicate what they’re for.

AMERS was founded in 2001. CEO David Watts tells the story of a friend of his whose beloved dog collapsed one day; she called 911 and an ambulance arrived, but the responders were unable to help because they weren’t trained in animal care. They couldn’t even transport the dog to a vet, Watts recalls, because government regulations forbid it. The dog died, but the idea of an animal ambulance service was born.

The service is based in Antioch, California—in the San Francisco Bay Area—but is available to provide assistance statewide. AMERS has what Watts calls a “Domino’s” service area, comprising four counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, within which they can respond to a call in 30 minutes or less. But they’ve sent an ambulance as far away as Los Angeles to pick up a dog and transport it to veterinary facilities near Sacramento, a total trip of nearly 800 miles.

The problem, Watts says, is when people see the AMERS vehicles on the street, they mistakenly assume they’re ambulances for humans. At least twice a month, he says, they get flagged down by police or citizens who want them to respond to an emergency. It’s not only awkward for the AMERS personnel, who have to decline, but a threat to public safety because it can delay calling for a “real” ambulance. So he requested a new look for the vehicles, one that would identify them as providing services for animals without diminishing the seriousness of their services. “We considered putting a picture of an animal on them,” says Watts, “but we were afraid it might look like a cartoon. He also wants to make sure the new design projects “compassion—that we’ll treat a pet like one of the family.” With that in mind, we asked three designers to come to AMERS’ rescue and give them a vehicle design that leaves no doubt as to their mission.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Quinton Wash www.nicheonline.net
My overall approach to this project was influenced by the fact that the vehicle would primarily be seen in motion, heading to an emergency. Because of that, I knew that an extremely detailed design would not be necessary. My design is intended to be printed onto a vinyl vehicle wrap, rather than being painted onto the vehicle.

I chose a dark green for the base color of the ambulance because you rarely see vehicles that color. The green would cause the vehicle to stand out on the road while also differentiating it from a human ambulance. In addition, I’ve learned that green is a motivating, action-oriented color. Once I chose the base color, I generated ideas for other colors that would work well with it using Adobe’s kuler website (http://kuler.adobe.com), which has been a lifesaver on many of my projects.

I decided to display images of animals along the side of the ambulance so that viewers would be able to get a clear idea of the organization’s services, even if they weren’t able to read the writing as the vehicle sped past. The variety of animals—besides being cute—shows the range of services provided, while the enlarged image of the doctor makes the nature of the services clear. I found the images I needed on iStockphoto.com through a simple search for “Animal Medicine” and “Animal Doctors.”

The only font I used was Silom, a system font that comes with Mac OS X. I wanted to make sure that the name and Web address were clearly visible because they’re both easy to remember and pretty catchy. I set the name of the organization in a different color to make sure it was perceived as a separate element, so viewers wouldn’t read the whole thing as one phrase (AMERS Animal Ambulance). The contact numbers were left on the lower end of the side panel and back door panel of the car.

The green would cause the vehicle to stand out on the road while also differentiating it from a human ambulance.

[ABOUT THE DESIGNER]
Quinton Wash NicheOnline.net
Dallas-based Quinton P. Wash learned from his father what it takes to become a successful and respected businessman. Working under his father’s tutelage in the field of concert promotions, Quinton realized that among the most important tools a businessman needs are honesty, integrity, and talent.

With an undying desire to follow in his father’s footsteps as an entrepreneur, Quinton founded NicheOnline.net. At the start of his career, Quinton’s projects consisted of company logos and custom pages for members of BlackPlanet, an online community aimed at African-Americans. Since then—still with no formal training or design classes—Quinton has had the pleasure of adding to his portfolio such high-profile clients as comedian Rickey Smiley (from the Rickey Smiley Morning Show), Doug Banks and DeDe McGuire (from ABC Radio Networks), Paul Quinn College in Dallas, and the University of North Texas.

His progress is built on the foundation of those who gave him a head start in life: God, his mother Cynthia Pierre, and his father Al Wash.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop

AFTER

DESIGNER: Kat Sheldon www.pollencreative.com
The existing ambulance graphics are chaotic, plagued by a nondescript logo and a “tossed salad” of illegible fonts with no particular hierarchy or order. I approached the job like a branding project, not just the creation of graphics for an animal ambulance. I started with nomenclature—in the acronym of their name, AMERS, the S stands for “Systems.” I changed it to “Services,” since they’re primarily a service organization.

Developing the identity was the next step. My proposed design is a family of graphics including a logomark, the AMERS acronym, and the image of a Dalmatian. The logomark is a combination of a heart-shaped dog tag with a white cross. Rotating the logomark to a 15? angle adds personality and enables it to point to the prominent “ER” (for “Emergency Room”) in the acronym.
The Dalmatian graphic serves as a secondary element. Its posture is attentive, trusting, and caring. The Dalmatian is not instantly recognizable; its spots imply its outline. This graphic solution makes viewers think, then it makes them feel smart that they figured out what it is. From this point forward, they’ll always see the Dalmatian.

I chose the typeface Frutiger for their corporate face. The lowercase treatment for the acronym gives it a “living and breathing” quality without being stylized and sacrificing legibility.
The red, white, and black color palette creates a sense of efficiency and trust. When picking colors for the ambulance, I choose to make the top red and to differentiate it from the body of the vehicle. This color scheme streamlines the shape of the ambulance and gives it a custom look. My intention is to have the top painted and all of the graphics on the body to be applied as cut vinyl.

This proposed design has flexibility and can be adapted for use in various formats.

The red, white, and black color palette creates a sense of efficiency and trust.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Kat Sheldon Pollen Creative
In 1992, Kat graduated with honors from Arizona State University with a BFA in Graphic Design. She then moved to Denver to start her career as a designer. She worked for Genesis, Inc., on projects for Disney, Frontier Airlines, Schwinn, Scott USA, and the Quaker Oats Company. After relocating to San Francisco in early 2000, she worked for the firms Man Bites Dog and SMWM on projects including the San Francisco Ferry Building and Galleria Dallas.

In 2004, with 12 years’ experience in the field, Kat founded Pollen Creative. Her diverse client base includes ArtSpan, Keystone Strategy, Microsoft, and Steinberg Architects. In the last few years, Kat has been working with alternative energy clients including Recurrent Energy, Shai Agassi, and Tesla Motors. She commits to cultivating originality and thrives on the “Aha!” moment where client, designer, and campaign cross-pollinate.

Kat’s colleague, Susan Carter, collaborated with her on this project. Constructive criticism and pushing the design process is critical to an enriching design experience and a successful product.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Illustrator CS3

AFTER

DESIGNER: Drew Dunlap http://dunlapstudios.com
When I first began this project, I started creating an elaborate vehicle wrap filled with images and vectors. I soon discovered that the more I included, the less the result looked like an ambulance. So I decided to go back to the drawing board and play off of the typical ambulance style. I started again from scratch with three key factors in mind: simplicity, readability, and understandability. My intention was to create something that would be printed on vinyl and applied to the vehicle, so keeping it simple means the design will require fewer materials and less printing, thus keeping customers’ costs down.

I decided to go with a single-color approach, which is characteristic of most ambulances. But I wanted to steer clear from the typical red to help distinguish this ambulance from the norm, since confusion with human ambulances is the main issue AMERS is trying to address. I chose green because I think it’s a neutral color for both males and females, and I think it would catch other drivers’ attention. For ultimate readability, I chose the bold sans-serif font ITC Blair Medium, a revival of a turn-of-the-century engravers’ typeface. I not only chose it because it’s a great font, but also because I felt that its clarity and timeless elegance fit the piece perfectly.
To help viewers understand that this ambulance service is for animals, I included a couple of simple identifying elements. First, I played off the Red Cross symbol and placed a paw in the circle instead. Second, as an alternative to enclosing the text in a simple rectangle, I decided to use the shape of a dog bone. And finally, I traced an image of a dog and worked it into the ambulance bar. Once I had everything in place, I felt that it was, if anything, too simple. So I worked on the green center bar a bit more and made it wrap around into a large back piece with the paw print symbol boldly displayed.

I decided to go with a single-color approach, which is characteristic of most ambulances. But I wanted to steer clear from the typical red…

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Drew Dunlap Dunlap Studios
Drew is a 21-year-old graphic designer and illustrator based out of Gilbert, Arizona. He’s been using design software for almost a decade, and says he’s been drawing ever since he could hold a pencil. He’s currently completing the requirements for an Associate’s Degree and Digital Art and Illustration Certification at Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Once he finishes, he plans to pursue a Bachelors Degree through Arizona State University.

Drew works full-time as a graphic designer for Group Imaging, a small- and large-format print company located in Mesa, Arizona. He also pursues several freelance ventures, one of which is Indie Web Studio, a progressive design studio focusing on indie music. (Look for www.indiewebstudio.com coming soon.) He also maintains a blog at his website (where he offers free Photoshop brushes of his own design).

When not designing, Drew spends time with his family. “I have a beautiful wife and a 1-year-old daughter that are my main priority,” he says. “I love what I do, and there’s nothing else I’d rather do.”

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop CS4

Client:
WS Photography – www.wsphotollc.com

While Wilson would like to maintain an open and friendly look, he’d still prefer something more professional.

Rio, Wisconsin, home to Roger Wilson and WS Photography, is a small town of fewer than 1,000 people located about 25 miles north of Madison. Wilson runs the business—now in its second full year of operation—with his stepdaughter Heather, who lives in a larger town nearby. According to Wilson, their customers are mostly local, from within 40 miles of Rio.

The photographers specialize in portraits of graduating seniors from area high schools; they also do family and maternity portraits. “We don’t do weddings,” says Wilson. Most of the work is on location, in the customer’s house or yard, though they do have a small studio in Wilson’s garage. Promotion is mainly by word of mouth; they also run some ads in the local free shopper paper, maintain a small portfolio on SmugMug, and send out business cards with their finished work.

Wilson says that what distinguishes WS Photography is its fresh approach to senior portraits, which he credits to his stepdaughter’s youthful sensibility. At the same time, he says, they’re more than willing to throw their own ideas aside and go with the customer’s point of view. “We want to do what the customer wants,” he says.

Wilson has made two business cards himself, the first in Broderbund’s PrintMaster and the second in Adobe Photoshop. He prefers the second because “it’s a little more elegant, less cluttered, and more refined.” But, he thinks the background texture is too distracting and he’s not really fond of either of the attempts to turn “WS” into a logo. Most of all, he thinks both just look homemade. While Wilson would like to maintain an open and friendly look, he’d still prefer something more professional.

We asked three designers to create a more flattering portrait of WS Photography and use it on a new business card.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Scott Robertson

The client was fond of the old business card’s elegance, so I decided to base the redesigned logo on another script font. The “WS” is done in Kon Tiki Enchanted from JAW Fonts; I used Adobe Illustrator to join the two letters together. The result is elegant but still personal, rather than a slick and corporate one, which is just what a small-town photographer needs.

My approach to the business card started with the color scheme. Since the client’s specialty is photos of graduating seniors, I called up the local high school and found out that the school colors are red and white. That’s perfect: I could now make this a budget-friendly, one-color job. The deep red is very readable, and picking up the school colors will give Wilson a slight competitive edge with the local students.

I liked the slogan from the original (“Your Life, Your Images…Your Story”) and elected to keep it. I decided the best thing to do was add visual interest when implementing it, and the idea of a filmstrip came to me. That addition adds character to the business card.

The layout relies on a strong left-right balance, though it’s not immediately apparent with the large logo in the upper left. The contact information at upper right is placed even with the top of the logo—this adds tension and keeps the eye moving. All the non-script text is set in Geo Sans Light, a free Avant Garde imitation. The word “Photography” contains a lot of round shapes in the p’s and o’s, and choosing a font with the roundness of Geo Sans let me bring out that shape in the g and a, as well.

This new business card is much more attractive and personal than the original. It’s a card Wilson can hand out without looking like a celebrity photographer, but rather a talented member of the community who is at your service.

“Photography” contains a lot of round shapes in the p’s and o’s, and choosing a font with the roundness of Geo Sans let me bring out that shape in the g and a, as well.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Scott Robertson
Scott Robertson is a computer graphics major attending school in South Jersey. He was introduced to graphic design in 10th grade while taking a graphic communications course, and was soon designing everything from the school calendar to honor roll certificates to graduation programs. While he enjoys all things print, his passion is T-shirt design.

While still attending college full-time, Scott recently began freelancing, working on building an ever-stronger portfolio. He currently oversees some computer graphics labs at his college—helping students with software and assisting with design. After completing his studies at Camden County College, Scott plans to attend Drexel University in Philadelphia. Then after college, he hopes to run a small clothing line, silkscreening in his own small shop. And besides running the clothing company, he’d like to work his day job as an art director or graphic designer for an ad agency. Scott says he’s “a true graphic design nerd, a fan of Helvetica, and he can’t stand poorly designed menus.”

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Illustrator CS3

AFTER

DESIGNER: Elizabeth Rose – www.elizabethrosestudio.com

WS Photography needs a look that represents the company and speaks to their target market. Their current cards look homemade and don’t convey the image of a professional photography business. In the more recent version, the marbled background is a distracting element and the typography is fussy, making the company name hard to read. Overall, the card feels more like it belongs to a wedding photographer than a business specializing in portraits for high school seniors.

The bulk of WS Photography’s business comes from students, so the logo should be fresh and appealing to young people while not being so funky that it scares away other potential customers. As a starting point, I took a look at their website to get a feel for their work, then I created a clean, simple logo, using color to give it a more youthful vibe. The circle represents a camera lens without being too literal an interpretation.

Once the basic logo concept was done, I tested out a variety of fonts: Highway Gothic and Adobe Jenson Pro gave me the balance of modern sans serif and classic serif that I was looking for. For the color scheme, I chose to use black as a neutral and to pair it with a bolder color. The greenish-yellow has a nice bright feel without being overpowering—it gives the design some punch. Also, the logo can be updated with a different second color in the future, allowing the company to refresh its look without changing its branding. I included the tagline from one of the original cards because it adds a nice marketing element to the logo.

In designing the business card, I wanted to continue the clean, fun feel that the logo established. The color bar at the bottom helps ground the card and offers a nice contrast to the black-and-white text. I used only Highway Gothic to set the text, so that it would continue the clean, contemporary feel of the logo.

…the logo can be updated with a different second color in the future, allowing the company to refresh its look without changing its branding.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Elizabeth Rose – Elizabeth Rose Studio
An independent graphic designer with 12 years of experience in the field, Elizabeth Rose has a dual degree in communication design and social history from Carnegie Mellon University. She’s worked as an in-house designer and agency designer in a variety of industries involved in projects ranging from traditional print design to tradeshow booths, and even some simple product design.

In 2007, she started her own business, focusing on working with small businesses and nonprofits to create “great design work on an affordable budget.” Her clients range from food-related businesses and restaurants to colleges. Specializing in print design—logos and branding, brochures, ads, and posters—and the occasional website project, Elizabeth also creates and maintains email marketing campaigns for clients. She’s creating her own email newsletter that focuses on design issues for small businesses. Elizabeth lives in Natick, MA, with her husband and dog, and in her spare time, she’s working through a drawing and painting program at Rhode Island School of Design.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS3

AFTER

DESIGNER: Paul Kazmercyk – www.granitebaydesign.com

To see the natural relationships that occurred between the letterforms in the logo, I experimented with a variety of old-style and contemporary faces and found a few interesting possibilities in some scripts. In each case, however, I felt the results were too old-fashioned or too ornate. I thought that Roger and Heather’s small-town photography business called for something warm and inviting without being overly ornate. I found exactly the right balance in Montoype’s Colonna typeface: The openness of the letterforms and the fact that these two characters actually contained five distinct forms inspired me to experiment with adding color to the logo. I wound up with a spectrum: colors starting with cool blue on the left and moving to warm red on the right. (The dual colors can also be a metaphor for two distinct people/personalities).

The words “Photography LLC” as well as the balance of the text on the card are in Adobe’s Hypatia Sans Pro. I like the way this friendly typeface works on its own and nicely complements the logo type. Placing “Photography LLC” in a 35% black bar with rounded edges not only serves as a soft base for the “WS” letterforms but also draws more attention to the word “photography,” which is, after all, what Roger and Heather are selling. My design is intended to be printed on white stock with subtle fiber and fleck inclusions to enhance the feeling of warmth.

One final note about their existing cards: Neither said anything about the type of photography one could expect. The slogan on one card (“Your Life, Your Images…Your Story”), while interesting, still didn’t address their specialties. My final design retains that line of text but is followed by “Portraits by…” One of my earlier drafts (perhaps a better alternative) instead read “Graduation, Family, Senior, & Maternity Portraits at Your Home or Our Studio.” I’d probably advise the client to consider that as a possibility.

Placing “Photography LLC” in a 35 % black bar with rounded edges not only serves as a soft base for the “WS” letterforms but also draws more attention to the word “photography”…

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Paul Kazmercyk – Granite Bay Design
Paul was born and raised in Connecticut and, though he loves to travel, has remained there—now in his 23rd year as a home-based, self-employed, graphic designer. His company, Granite Bay Design, is named after his Branford shoreline neighborhood.

Blessed with creative genes from both parents and inspired by Bewitched’s Darrin Stephens, Paul thought from an early age that a career in advertising looked liked fun.

He obtained his BFA in graphic design with a minor in printmaking from the University of Bridgeport in 1976 and learned design and production in the days of mechanical boards, Rubylith, Rapidograph pens, and metal type. He was quick to adopt digital production methods when the Macintosh II appeared in 1987 and was among the first designers in New England to begin four-color production exclusively from digital files.

Paul lives with his wife, Donna; daughters Melanie and Jamie; and dog, Gracie. He can be reached at paul@granitebaydesign.com.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe InDesign CS4

Client: Mikee – www.mikee.com

There’s nothing wrong with having a history, but you don’t want to be stagnant either.

Mikee makes sauces. According to current VP Sales Adam Kaufman (representing the fifth generation in the food business), the line started in his father’s butcher shop in Queens, New York. The elder Kaufman loved Chinese ribs and was determined to come up with his own recipe. When he delivered food to local Chinese restaurants, he’d peer around their kitchens and make note of the ingredients he saw on the shelves. Then he’d buy the same ingredients and start experimenting with different combinations.

Once he came up with a recipe he liked, he started selling meat already marinated in the sauce. His customers began asking if they could just buy the sauce, and the light bulb went off. He started bottling the sauce, designed a label, and named the new company Mikee, after his nickname. Since that time—about 30 years ago—the line has grown to include more than 30 items, from the original sauce through other Asian sauces (the number one seller is their terriyaki sauce, says Adam Kaufman) to more standard marinades and barbecue sauces. In Adam Kaufman’s words, “It took us 30 years to become an overnight success.”

The product distribution is still primarily retail, but about five years ago, Mikee started selling their sauces over the Web. The purpose of the website, however, is less to build up a mail-order business than to continue to serve loyal customers who may have moved out of their retail distribution area but still want their Mikee marinades. Nevertheless, Kaufman says, he recognizes that the site has to be attractive and functional even if it’s just serving repeat business.

The main thing Kaufman likes about the current site (designed by his wife, who is a designer but not a Web designer) is the underlying concept of a “family” of sauces: Asian, Fisherman’s, Terriyaki, and Specialty. But the site is incomplete, he says, and he’s not sure that it really communicates the nature and character of the business. He’d like a site that’s interesting, fresh, and modern: “There’s nothing wrong with having a history,” he says, “but you don’t want to be stagnant either.” With that in mind, we challenged three designers to whip up a new site to meet Mikee’s tastes.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Ryan Sorenson -www.bozell.com
The main focus of our redesign was usability. There’s nothing worse for a consumer than running into difficulty finding the information they need. Besides the functional problems (much of the navigation didn’t work), the original site is hard to navigate, the homepage only shows portions of the product labels, the images on the product pages are all very small, and the layout distracted from the goal of purchasing. We set out to create a site that’s easy to navigate and puts the product first.

First, we moved the navigation bar to the top of the site, where customers can find it easily, and added a tab to tell visitors exactly where they are. Because the consumer’s first encounter with the product is through the packaging, we featured the bottles large and on a background that complements all the various package designs. We updated the site’s color palette, using a yellow that combines the old yellow and orange and adding a teal to replace the dated bright green. This new palette of yellow, teal, and grays gives the site a more modern feel, complemented by the use of the clean Frutiger font.

We highlighted a few areas with gradients to add to the energy of the design and added a subdued stripe pattern to break up the solid gradient.

Our vision of the product page continues to focus on the sauces and buying. To update the product page, we clearly identified the families of sauces and added shadows behind each product area to give dimension. With a clean design that also shows a little “sauce” of its own (via the vector graphic of a splash in the background), the new Mikee.com site showcases the product—which is what people are looking for.

Because the consumer’s first encounter with the product is through the packaging, we featured the bottles large and on a background that complements all the various package designs.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Ryan Sorenson – Bozell
Ryan has always been a winner. At the early age of seven, his soccer team made it to the semifinals of the 1986 Cornhusker State Games. And then in high school, his mom gave him a ribbon proclaiming him “World’s Best Son.”

Ryan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Nebraska and is currently putting his winning attitude to good use as an Art Director for the worldwide advertising firm Bozell in Omaha, Nebraska. He has held several previous art director positions, working for national clients such as Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sue Bee Honey, Gateway, Compact Power, Leupold, First National Bank, and countless regional and local clients.

Ryan’s hobbies include wasting time, playing Nintendo Wii, solving his Rubik’s Cube, and looking through paper sample books. He loves his job, his mom, and tiny puppies.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Illustrator CS3

AFTER

DESIGNER: Beth Berst-Gregory – www.sunberst.com
The overwhelming black color of the current site dominates the beautiful packaging design of the product. Additionally, the homepage doesn’t convey that there are four main product lines, each with a distinct theme. Overall the site feels heavy, unbalanced, and without a focus.

My first goal was to create an immediate recognition of what Mikee is: award-winning kosher sauces from Long Island. I also wanted to bring a clean and modern look to the Mikee brand and really let the product stand out against a predominantly white backdrop. I placed a map of Long Island behind the simple product shot to serve both as a design element and a reference to the company’s roots.

The secondary goal was to make it easier to find and buy the product. I highlighted the four main lines within the Mikee sauce collection and added direct product links under each category. Each category is color coded, using colors that harmonize with the product packaging. I set the family names in Present, a font similar to the one used in the logo. Too much Present can be overwhelming, so for my secondary typeface I chose the beloved sans serif Helvetica. Everyone loves Helvetica (just watch the documentary film by Gary Hustwit), and it displays well in most browsers.

For a bit of interest and elegance, I added a subtle Chinese lattice pattern to the background, a nod to Mikee’s predominantly Asian flavor. The new site feels gourmet and modern. More importantly, it communicates what Mikee’s award-winning sauces and marinades are all about.

I wanted to bring a clean and modern look to the Mikee brand and really let the product stand out against a predominantly white backdrop.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Beth Berst-Gregory – Sunberst
Born and raised in Illinois, Beth has embraced her artistic journey in life. A graduate of the American Academy of Art Chicago, she received her Associate’s in Commercial Art and has designed and illustrated for a variety of companies, appearing in both Web and print. While she enjoys the thrill of the digital world of graphic and Web design, she counterbalances that with old-school art techniques such as painting and printmaking.

A lover of texture, detail and imperfection, Beth recently received a Diana toy camera and has been trying her hand at experimental lo-fi photography. When she’s not designing, she’s busy cooking, drawing, crafting, and fixing up her tiny Italianate home with her art teacher husband Chad and Blaine, the super mutt.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop CS3

AFTER

DESIGNER: Ryan Wagner www.visualrush.com
My goal for the Mikee redesign was to give the website some unique character and make it fun. After hearing about how Mikee got started in the family-run butcher shop, I felt the company history could provide a rich backdrop over which to feature their sauces. Several hours of brainstorming and concepts eventually led to a rustic wood surface with dripping sauce. The deep red, gold, and black color scheme was sampled from Mikee labels across all the lines, and it helps pull the various members of the family together. Actual Mikee bottles were traced in Illustrator to create the silhouette menu running down the left, which offers the visitor a quick, visual way to jump to the four varieties of sauce. I chose to set the main navigation items in Trajan Pro for its sleek condensed look.

Integrating a show/hide menu at the bottom of the homepage that slides up and features all the Mikee sauces gives the site some Web 2 usefulness while gaining SEO points with Google and other search engines.

An occasional newsletter is a great way to communicate with customers, so we added an easy signup box. The photo is part of a rotating Flash banner that would feature delicious dishes made with Mikee sauces, then links to the Recipes area. In this part of the site, customers can upload their own recipes made with Mikee sauces.

The product page was simplified to feature just the sauces. Users can jump directly to any category in the slideout menu to the left, or move through the sauces individually by clicking on the smaller photos. Mikee’s current Zen Cart shopping cart system could be revamped and integrated using a custom CSS template that matches the rest of the new design.

The deep red, gold, and black color scheme was sampled from Mikee labels across all the lines, and it helps pull the various members of the family together.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Ryan Wagner – VisualRush
Ryan Wagner is the owner and creative director of VisualRush website and design solutions, a graphics and Web design studio located in Evansville, Indiana.
Using his degree in Advertising and Graphic Design from Murray State University, he has gained diverse graphic experience in newspaper print advertising, Web design, magazine publications, logo design, billboards, and identity branding. His strength lies in keeping his clients focused on maintaining their brand integrity.
After working in the corporate world, Ryan realized his potential as a freelancer and pours every ounce of his creative energy into VisualRush where he helps clients promote their services all over the world.
Owning his own successful company at 32 has allowed him the freedom to spend more time with his wife Heidi and their four beautiful girls.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Illustrator CS3

BEFORE

The voice mail at Apostle Construction Company greets callers with a cheery, “Could your project use a miracle?” That question encapsulates both the Christian underpinnings and the can-do attitude that Apostle would like its logo to project.

Apostle Construction was founded as a roofing company in 1996 by Robert Brooks, a minister who wanted to create more than just a business. According to Brooks’s wife, Monica, he wanted Apostle to be a business that operates with integrity and honesty and that gives back to the community. Now licensed in six states, the Maryland firm takes on such jobs as doing all the roofing and siding for a school or a hotel; the company also handles complete construction jobs, such as houses.

Apostle’s current logo was put together by the sign company that made the signs for the company trucks. Brooks specifically requested they use the familiar praying hands picture and his favorite color is blue, so the design of the logo pretty much took care of itself. Monica Brooks says the logo works in that it catches people’s eyes and starts a conversation, and it gives the business a chance to convey their belief system along with their competence.

There are issues with the current logo, however. For one, its appearance and presentation is inconsistent, as a comparison of a business card to one of the company vehicles will show. For another, the praying hands image is so familiar that, by itself, it doesn’t uniquely identify Apostle Construction. So we asked three designers to perform a minor miracle and create a logo that would maintain a religious connotation while still communicating the other qualities that distinguish the company. According to Monica Brooks, it’s not too big to give personal service, but not too small to take on a big job; the attitude that “the job’s not done until the customer is satisfied;” and a commitment to do what they say they’re going to do.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Jeff Cook
My primary goal in reworking the Apostle logo was to not only update the concept but also give it a sleeker, less bulky appearance. My issue with the original logo was that all the words had the same weight—nothing pulled for attention. When I designed my updated version, I made sure that the word “Apostle” was a primary graphic, while the word “Construction” played a secondary role.

I also swapped religious graphics, as I felt that the praying hands image was the most outdated element of the logo. I updated that graphic with what seems to me to be the most recognizable imagery when it comes to religious items: a cross. I placed the cross graphic inside the “o” of Apostle, where it’s contained within the overall structure of the logo—unlike the praying hands, which were floating loose on the side. This new element gives the logo a polished and finished appearance, without looking dated.

The original logo used the same font for all text, but mixing serif and sans-serif fonts in logos with multiple words is a treatment that’s always more appealing to the eye. The word “Apostle” obviously has a religious connotation; therefore, I decided to use a serif typeface (Aviano from Insigne) to convey a professional, yet historical look. The word “Construction” should have a masculine quality, so I set it in the sans-serif version of Aviano. The sans-serif version lends a strong appeal, while remaining sleek and refined.

For reasons of personal preference, the main color choice for the original logo was blue, so I stayed on the same path for my redesign. Instead of the flat royal blue of the original, I opted to use a more slate-like blue and applied a gradient effect. Taken together, the approach helps modernize this new logotype.

I placed the cross graphic inside the “o” of Apostle, where it’s contained within the overall structure of the logo…

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Jeff Cook –Jeff was born in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago in 1981. As a young child, he loved to color and constantly won community coloring contests. As he grew older, he recognized that he was fascinated by logos, so he started studying layout and composition. A 2003 graduate of the Illinois Institute of Art, Jeff holds a degree in Visual Communications. Shortly thereafter, he gained four years of graphic design experience at Brian Keith Advertising, the midwest’s largest and most respected real estate agency.
He currently resides in Arlington Heights, Illinois, and works as a graphic designer for the in-house creative department of Camping World, a nationwide chain of camping and outdoor stores. He also strives for greatness with his at-home, freelance company, JC Design. Jeff also loves spending time with his niece and nephew, who love to color just as much as he does. He can be reached at Jeffcook88@yahoo.com.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Illustrator CS2

AFTER

DESIGNERS: Don and Amy New –www.newslandingdesign.com

NewsLanding’s brand redesign methodology always starts with a client survey of the existing mark. We want to know what the client likes about the current logo and why they’re motivated to change at that point. Graphically speaking, the client expressed only one requirement—that the final treatment clearly portray the owner’s faith—and one preference: the owner’s favorite color is blue. It’s a wise design principle that if the guy writing the checks prefers the color blue, at least one iteration in your presentation should use blue.

Our next step in the re-branding process is usually to write a creative brief with the client. For this makeover, we just used the notes provided us from a conversation with the owner’s wife.

After all that, we go someplace quiet and simply write out words. With Apostle, we created categories and under each, listed as many words within those categories as we could come up with before hitting the old Google button or going to our favorite online thesaurus. In our “religious icons” category, we ended up with such terms as cross, Star of David, crucifix, olive branch, fish, dove, robes, candles, halo, praying hands, steeples, and so on.

Armed with the list of words, we selected several candidates that could be treated graphically. Next, we began combining appropriate typestyles with sketched icons—the dove was a combination of several dove shapes I had in my scrap files. Everything at this point was being done in black and white. Once all the assets are in digital format, we can work very fast with combinations, overlays, transparency, typography, and color.

With Apostle Construction, we ultimately rendered the dove in Adobe Illustrator and selected a font that reinforced the fine craftsmanship so important to the client. We set “Apostle” in Linotype’s Herculaneum and used Adobe’s Orator Std for “Construction Company” and other text. The result was a ligature/icon that would show as well on the side of a construction trailer as on a golf ball.

Armed with the list of words, we selected several candidates that could be treated graphically.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Don and Amy New NewsLanding Design
As a graduate of the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts, Don founded his first firm, Graphic Media, in 1980. This company grew to a fulltime staff of 65, held the top position for marketing communications firms in Portland for 10 years, and during that time, Don was the runner-up for Inc.’s Entrepreneur of the Year for the Pacific Northwest region.

Don sold Graphic Media to his partners in 1995 and in 1997, joined Portland’s Creative Media Development (CMD) as Corporate Creative Director. He was named Chief Creative Officer the following year. In 2001, CMD garnered more than 30 regional and national creative awards.

In 2004, Don and his wife Amy formed NewsLanding in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Their current clients, who consider NewsLanding to be an extension of their marketing staff, range from real estate firms to a biofuels refinery. NewsLanding is also committed to pro bono work for several nonprofits and a great little Christian-based orphanage in El Salvador.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator

AFTER

DESIGNER: John Webb –www.jweb3d.com

In re-creating the Apostle Construction corporate identity, I wanted to maintain the religious aspect of the logo but give it a more professional look. The sketched praying hands have been overused, so I didn’t feel that image offered the individual identity a company would benefit from. They also had two different variations of the logo, so I wanted to give them a consistent brand mark that can be used on all of their collateral. I felt the font was very plain and that the black and blue color choices weren’t aesthetically pleasing.

The first thing I wanted to do was find a Christian symbol that was powerful, could relate to the company, and wasn’t seen on every Christian building and book. That ruled out a fish, cross, sacred heart, etc. Through my research, I came across the winged lion, which is a symbol for Saint Mark, representing faith and a connection to God. The wings represent a messenger of God, which I felt was symbolic of a company that does charity work, such as offering aid to Hurricane Katrina victims (as I read on their website). I also thought the winged lion would be a strong, trustworthy mascot (for lack of a better word) to represent a Christian construction company. I found a photo of a winged lion statue online, traced over it in Adobe Illustrator, printed out the sketch, drew over it by hand to add detail and modify some of the shapes, scanned my drawing back in, and manipulated it until I was satisfied with the result. The final image looks something like a gargoyle, which suggests the roofing aspect of the company’s services.

For the word “Apostle,” I chose Clairvaux LT STD Roman from Linotype, which has a biblical look. And for “Construction Company” and any text that would accompany business material, I chose Adobe Garamond Pro because it’s easy to read, fits well with Clairvaux LT STD Roman, and is a professional-looking font.

To top it off, I felt a cool gray and an eye-catching blue gave it a nice modern color scheme.

I also thought the winged lion would be a strong, trustworthy mascot (for lack of a better word) to represent a Christian construction company.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

John Webb John is a multifaceted artist based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, offering a wide range of services—from graphic design to fine art and airbrushing. Born in 1980, John has been drawing since childhood, using mostly pencils, pastels, Pantone markers, and ink. To this day, much of his work is inspired by graffiti and by the comic books he enjoyed as a child. During his high school years, he excelled in art classes, which led him to pursue a career in this field.

In 2001, John began airbrushing and creating T-shirts and tattoo designs for his friends. Then he started creating and selling custom T-shirts in a store he partially owned in West Philly. The following year, he began to try his hand at fine art, with a focus on acrylics. His work in computer arts, primarily graphic design, began in 2003. At present, John is refining his knowledge of the Adobe Dreamweaver, After Effects, and Flash programs. He attained his Associate’s degree in Graphic Design in June of 2008.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Illustrator CS3