BEFORE

CLIENT: Bone Cootes

“[Cootes would] like the cover to be whimsical, but not too silly or jokey. “‘Intriguing’ is probably the word that best describes what I’d like the designers to go for.”

San Francisco singer/songwriter Bone Cootes performs his original compositions in small clubs around the Bay Area. In 2001 he self-produced mock piehole, a CD of songs co-written with fellow musicians. “Ry Cooder meets Tom Waits” is how one rock critic described Cootes, a musical raconteur whose gravelly voice delivers slice-of-life lyrics backed by reverberating guitar. But the indie musician prefers the high-concept description used by another reviewer: “Leonard Cohen meets the Cramps.”

One of the benefits of the indie music scene is creative control. Cootes not only co-writes all of his own lyrics and music and produces his own CDs, he’s also involved in creating the visual concepts for his albums. On the latest CD, he worked with a designer to realize an art treatment the singer already had in mind. “‘Mock piehole’ is one of those word mashups—a combination of mock pie (like mock apple pie from the Depression) and pie hole, which means the mouth,” he explains. “I came up with the idea of showing an Asian puppet with a false mouth.”

Although he’s happy with the cover, Cootes is curious to find out what the new designers will come up with based on their reaction to his ironic lyrics and musical references. He likes the idea of giving them free rein, aside from a couple of requests. He’d like the cover to be whimsical, but not too silly or jokey. “‘Intriguing’ is probably the word that best describes what I’d like the designers to go for,” he says. And though the current cover has a brownish tint, Cootes is adamant that the designers use what has become his signature color: “Green, green, green.”

We sent five songs from the client’s CD to three designers and gave them carte blanche to create a CD cover, front and back, that’s a little Cohen, a little Cooder, a little Waits, a little Cramps, and a lot Cootes.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Brook Berth www.gunthergraphics.com

©BROOK BERTH

“I made paths around different areas and played with making some parts color and others black-and-white. But ultimately I decided on a mostly black-and-white front cover…”

After listening to songs from Cootes’s CD, I decided to incorporate a blackbird into my design. My goal was to combine symbolism—blackbirds are bearers of messages—with a funky layout. The name of the album, mock piehole, gave me the idea of using a bird-shaped pie vent and putting it in someone’s mouth.

I set up a photography session in Milwaukee’s Third Ward in front of an old brick building. The model wore a polka-dot dress, which gives the cover an urban-retro look. In Photoshop, I made paths around different areas of the image and played with making some parts color and others black-and-white. But ultimately I decided on a mostly black-and-white front cover to draw the viewer into the imagery and evoke the raw feeling of Cootes’s music. The exception to the black-and-white treatment was the green layer in the lettering to tie it into the back cover, which has a green tint.

I used Albertus, a sharp, bold font with slight serifs, throughout this project. I even modified it in the white outline on the title to create a sense of vibration. I repeated the front cover image on the back, where I used it in a transparent layer above the green. I also used the pie vent, skewed at an angle, to create dynamic movement through the cover.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: GUNTHER GRAPHICS

In addition to working as a full-time graphic artist, Brook Berth runs her own home-based sign and design firm, Gunther Graphics, named after her Boston terrier. During her more than eight years in the field, she has created visual treatments for clients ranging from magazines and newspapers to individuals, small businesses, and corporations in just about every genre, from branding—creating logos and identity—to print, Web, signage, and monument design.

Berth describes her design style as eclectic and streamlined with an urban flair. She owes her early success to starting in the industry as a junior in high school, when she joined the Workforce 2010 Apprenticeship Program at Times Printing. That early exposure gave her a solid technical foundation and a head start in figuring out what she wanted to do professionally.

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

AFTER

DESIGNER: Jay Kustka www.jaybirddesign.com

“My initial idea was to use pies with faces, but that evolved into simple circles with eyes and a different symbol for each mouth, or piehole.”

Before I began sketching, I listened to Cootes’s music, trying to get a feel for it. Since he likes the artwork he currently has (as do I), I wanted to provide a design alternative that would give the cover a different flavor but still capture the essence of his music.

My initial idea was to use pies with faces, but that evolved into simple circles with eyes and a different symbol for each mouth, or piehole. Working in Illustrator, I put together my first version (in green, of course), but the end result looked too stiff—not at all what I was going for. I then decided to try photographing the design to give me the effect I wanted. So I printed the Illustrator file on a color laser printer, laid it on a table, and took several pictures with a digital camera at different angles and distances. Using one of those images as a background, I overlaid text in Rosewood (filled), a font that’s a bit overused in circus and western themes but which works nicely here in the filled version.

Because I have a preference for completely transparent jewel cases, I designed the mock piehole cover to fit that kind of tray, which gives more room for the design.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: JAY KUSTKA

A Boston native recently transplanted to New York City, Jay Kustka is not only a designer but also a musician who has played guitar in bands in both cities for the past 20 years. Kustka branched out into print and Web design eight years ago. Since then, he has worked with Big Duck Studio and Newport Creative Communications, as well as on independent design projects. He’s also partnered on projects with his fianc©e, a Web developer. Currently he’s the sole dedicated freelance designer for a large consulting firm in New York City, but he continues to devote as much time as possible to music. “Music inspires me on a core level. I always listen to music while designing and have found it to be an essential part of the creative process.”

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS2, Adobe Photoshop CS2, and Adobe InDesign CS2

AFTER

DESIGNER: Donovan Sears www.transfixdesign.com

“I immersed myself in the music and experimented with various combinations of images and textures in order to create the mood I got from his music.”

Knowing when to say when doesn’t just apply to beer. One of the most important things I’ve learned is to eliminate unnecessary elements. Before starting a project, I try to focus on the specific purpose the piece is intended for and figure out what mood I want to establish. Then I streamline. In the end, the customer has a piece that serves its purpose and does so in style—just not too much style.

My idea for Cootes’s artwork was to work off of the word “mashup,” as his current design does. I immersed myself in the music and experimented with various combinations of images and textures in order to create the mood I got from his music. I was particularly drawn to the songs “The Happiest Hour” and “Mock Piehole.” I feel they are reflected most in my design.

I chose to run the image across the entire exterior of the booklet, in order to create a large, less-constricted image. I prefer the proportions of this “widescreen” visual format. The image also wraps around to the back of the tray card. Photography help came from the other half of Transfix—Kevin Shuck. He composed and photographed the face you see. For fonts, I chose the strange and grungy font Nasty, a nice contrast with the simplistic and condensed Orator. And of course it’s all dipped in Cootes’s signature hue: “green, green, green!” [Insert credit for photograph] ©KEVIN SHUCK

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: TRANSFIX DESIGN

Donovan Sears started his business right out of college in 2001 with his partner in crime, Kevin Shuck. A lot of their work is with the indie rock bands and studios that make up the incredible music scene in Louisville, Kentucky. They provide that music scene with CD packaging, poster design, apparel logo design, and Web design. They’re particularly drawn to working with musicians because Donovan plays guitar for a band, and because he’s part of the indie scene, they’re able to make connections with local musicians. Aside from rock bands, they have also created promotional materials for country and bluegrass acts, and they’re working with local concert venues to help them better connect with concert goers.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop CS

BEFORE

Client: Firestone Walker Brewery www.firestonebeer.com – www.nectarales.com

“The company is looking for a new label to broaden Hemp Ale’s appeal and increase its market share among 25- to 35-year-olds who embrace a healthy lifestyleÂ…”

Firestone Walker Brewing Co. in Paso Robles, California, has grown in only a decade from a tiny microbrewery to a mid-sized company that makes award-winning craft ales for craft beer lovers. The brewery makes two types of ale. Firestone is its more traditional brand of British ales that’s made using a process uncovered in England by founders Adam Firestone and David Walker. On a smaller scale, they also produce Nectar Ales that appeal to a younger breed of beer connoisseurs who enjoy more unusual flavors and all-natural ales. One of these is a niche beer called Hemp Ale. It’s a brown ale brewed with sterilized hemp seeds to add subtle flavor and is something of a marketing challenge.

The company is looking for a new label to broaden Hemp Ale’s appeal and increase its market share among 25- to 35-year-olds who embrace a healthy lifestyle that includes organic foods, natural fibers, a focus on well-being, outdoor activities, environmentalism, and grass-roots politics. “We want to market the lifestyle through the beer,” says Jamie Smith, marketing manager of Firestone Walker.

The current label focuses too much on hemp leaves, he points out, and the company wants to downplay any association with marijuana. In fact, there’s no THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) in the beer. They’d also like to update the label’s clip-art look and artificial colors. “We’d like the label to have a natural, earthy look. Our goal is to emphasize the natural aspect, but we want it to be fun too,” he says.

All of Firestone Walker’s labels, including the one for Hemp Ale, are die-cut and have an oval-shaped top. For this project, the brewers asked the designers to create a 3-1/8×3-1/2″ label for a 12-oz bottle. The art is important because it goes on everything related to the beer: six-pack packaging, posters, advertising, and the bottles too. The brand should also correspond to what the customer expects it to look like. “Sometimes we’ll advertise a beer on the radio and later someone will tell us they couldn’t find it at the store. They didn’t connect the packaging with what they heard,” says Smith. “Successful packaging also draws new customers. If they like the way the package looks, they may try the beer.”

AFTER

DESIGNER: Kimberly Graham

“I knew from the beginning I wanted to include the font FF Erik Right Hand somewhere on the packaging, because it has a natural, earthy look to it.”

When I first began this project, I wanted to find out what other products in the same category looked like. I did a Google™ search for images using keyword phrases such as “organic beverages” and “hemp ale” to get an indication what kind of packaging already existed for this target market. I needed to visualize how this label could stand out from those of other products in the category, but also look as though it belongs with the other beers.

The challenge for this project was to give the label the natural look the company had asked for but still create a complex design. I knew from the beginning I wanted to include the font FF Erik Right Hand somewhere on the packaging, because it has a natural, earthy look to it. I used Matrix Extra Bold for the word “hemp” and made it smaller to deemphasize the relationship between the ale and marijuana. I created the background in Photoshop, showing hemp fabric in its natural state blending down into beer bubbles. I then masked it to the appropriate label size and shape in Illustrator and added the text.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: KIMBERLY GRAHAM

Kim Graham graduated in 1991 from the Graphic Design and Advertising Program at Conestoga College of Applied Arts and Technology in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Since then, she’s worked for a variety of companies, including a design studio, a kitchen-product manufacturing company, a greeting-card company, and St. Jacobs Printery in St. Jacobs, Ontario, where she’s been employed for the last 11 years. She likes the challenge of creating new concepts that take into account both the client’s wishes and the reality of the market. Aside from graphic design, her other passions include poetry and psychology. She credits her son, Nicholas (her greatest influence), with reminding her that it’s okay to be silly once in a while.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Illustrator CS2

AFTER

DESIGNER:Alicia Markey www.atomic17.com

“Â…I was influenced by the flowing curves of henna tattoos. I wanted the curves to flow throughout the design and blend into the background at times as smoke would.”

When I thought about the design for Hemp Ale, I kept in mind the very narrow demographic the company is reaching out to. I wanted the label to speak to them and match the clothes and jewelry they wear, the art on their walls, and the music they listen to. When these laid-back 25- to 35-year-olds see the label, it should make them feel comfortable, as if they were already familiar with it.

I began my design with the color palette—natural earth tones with a hint of energy. For the background, I used an image of burlap, but adjusted the colors to fit my design. For the drawn design superimposed over the burlap, I was influenced by the flowing curves of henna tattoos. I wanted the curves to flow throughout the design and blend into the background at times as smoke would. The type has a rustic feel to it. I used Times for the name of the beer, but gave it a heavily textured feel to make it worn and tattered-looking. In contrast, I used Myriad for the subheadings for a cleaner look. I didn’t want them to stand out as much, so I used type in the same color family as the background. Overall, I wanted the design to be edgy, yet reflect a laid-back lifestyle.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: ALICIA MARKEY

Alicia Markey received a B.S. in Graphic Design from Drexel University. She has been a graphic design specialist at Cecil Community College in the marketing department since 2002. Before working at the college, Alicia held an internship at the Philadelphia Museum of Art where she was part of a team that designed and installed the Honami Koetsu Exhibit—shown for the first time in the United States. Alicia also does various freelance projects for clients, including the New York City Classical Guitar Society. Currently, she’s pursuing her graduate degree at Wilmington College in IST, specializing in Web/Internet design. Alicia’s interests also include swimming (far distancesÂ…too far for most to think sane), coaching, and spending time with her husband, Shawn.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe Photoshop CS2

AFTER

DESIGNER: Loredo Rucchin www.rucchin.com

“I used the picture of a young woman to suggest a holistic, active lifestyle among people in their twenties and thirties who do yoga and embrace physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.”

My overall design concept was to make the label convey something fresh, unique, and modern, yet give it an organic, natural feel, thus appealing to the target audience. I wanted to go with an earthy look, incorporating the unkempt trail pathway—with its wildflowers and dirt—against a clear blue sky. I used the picture of a young woman to suggest a holistic, active lifestyle among people in their twenties and thirties who do yoga and embrace physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.

The subtle background border shows the Hemp Ale color in all its golden glory. I also wanted to make the name “Hemp Ale” unique by using different fonts—Suburban and Triplex condensed—detailed with fine vertical lines.

I created the Hemp Ale logo and the Natural Ale banner in Illustrator and then placed them in Photoshop. But the majority of the work was done in Photoshop using layer masks and layer positioning.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: LOREDO RUCCHIN

Loredo Rucchin lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia. A self-taught designer with more than 12 years’ experience, he has worked with a wide range of mostly American clients—from gaming companies to pharmaceutical firms. He specializes in Web and print design and also does photography. Influences: director and producer Peter Jackson (love his knack for detail). Design likes: clean, modern, urban design. Design dislikes: tacky clip art and designs obviously executed in Corel Draw. His creativity is inspired by his wife and new baby, Lucas, who was born while dad was working on this makeover. Loredo, an Ironman competitor, loves pushing himself to the limit. He works an average of 16 hours a day on what he calls “fun projects.”

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Illustrator CS and Adobe Photoshop CS

BEFORE

Client: BlueRibbon Coalition www.sharetrails.org

“We’re not wedded to the traditional. Basically what we’re looking for are vastly different options, so that we can choose a direction.”

BlueRibbon Magazine is a 35-page monthly published by the BlueRibbon Coalition in Pocatella, Idaho. This national nonprofit works to educate the public about responsible recreation on public lands and acts as an advocacy group to keep outdoor recreation available to the public.

The four-color monthly goes out to the Coalition’s 11,700 members, who include snowmobilers, dirt bikers, ATVers, four-wheel drive owners, equestrians, mountain bikers, rock hounds, and prospectors. Many businesses and organizations also receive the publication, and the group sends complimentary issues to people in the forest service and the federal government’s Bureau of Land Management. According to membership manager Mary Jo Foster, the organization is evolving from a mostly male-dominated group to one with a more equal gender distribution. She says that readers range in age from late teens to retirees.

Once a tabloid, the publication morphed into a magazine about four years ago, designed in-house. But the coalition now wants to enhance the appeal of the magazine by streamlining and modernizing it. “We’re not wedded to the traditional,” explains Foster. “Basically what we’re looking for are vastly different options, so that we can choose a direction.”

For budgetary reasons, BlueRibbon relies on amateur photography, usually submitted by a member, because it doesn’t have a photography budget. But month after month of nature shots lends a sameness to the covers that makes them indistinguishable. The opening editorial page has its own challenges: It’s crammed with a table of contents, a list of staff members, a list of Board members, and a letter from the BlueRibbon Coalition’s Executive Director. This page sometimes runs in color and sometimes in black and white, so the design has to work both ways.

We asked three designers to take a fresh look at BlueRibbon Magazine and update it inside and out.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Craig Maher www.modulationdesign.com

“I thought a clean, bold, and playful look would appeal to the magazine’s readers, and I wanted to create a new, less-condensed logo that would have more impact.”

My goal was to give the magazine a fresh, contemporary, open feel and to create a memorable, iconic insignia. I thought a clean, bold, and playful look would appeal to the magazine’s readers, and I wanted to create a new, less-condensed logo that would have more impact. At the same time, I also wanted to retain some of the old identity, by keeping the blue color and stylized fonts, so that readers would still recognize the magazine.

For the logo, I chose Avenir, a clean, legible sans serif font with a nonabrasive feel. For the word “ribbon,” I selected Berthold-Script because it suggested a ribbon. I used Rockwell, a sporty, bold font, for the coverlines because it blends well with Avenir.

Because readers often report that they can’t tell one issue from the next, I used a photograph for the cover that I shot at Bear Mountain National Forest in New York State. I thought it would help to vary the covers and represent a region other than the west.

For the opening page, I went with a black-and-white layout. Overall, I reorganized and cleaned up the page to make it easier to navigate visually. I set up a three-column grid and carried over some of the type families from the cover to give a sense of editorial continuity. I also tried to inject some fun into the layout by adding ornaments, such as trees, the sun, and mountains, which help break the grid and lend an organic aspect to the page. Plus, I decided on large, bold numbers for the Contents to help readers find the cover stories.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: MODULATION DESIGN

Craig Maher, a freelance designer who works out of New York City, studied at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. He currently combines freelance work for various advertising agencies and design firms with solo projects he handles through his own design studio, Modulation Design. His most recent project, Stand Ye Steady, is a DVD/CD packaged set for the West Point Military Glee Club. Maher received two Graphis New Talent Design awards in 2005. Maher also composes music, recently completing the music score for Brooklyn Lobster, a newly released film starring Danny Aiello and Jane Curtin. He draws his graphic design inspiration from the works of Hipgnosis, Bauhaus, and Stefan Sagmeister.

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

AFTER

DESIGNER: Jeannette Gutierrez

“I brought the relationship between the parent organization and the magazine into the masthead, linking the Coalition’s logo to the magazine’s and strengthening the brand identity of both.”

Because the client is a nonprofit with a small budget, it’s important that they be able to reproduce their new design without having to rely on an outside designer. A design that depends on Photoshop wizardry and custom spread layouts isn’t going to maintain its integrity in a low-budget environment. So I tried to keep things simple and consider how the client might set up an in-house production environment to produce a professional-looking publication.

I propose that they invest in a copy of Adobe InDesign because the program has special features that allow a nondesigner to give things a designer’s touch. For example, I drew the colored squares with the program’s simple Rectangle tool. The only special technique I relied on was the built-in InDesign drop shadow, which I used on the cover to make the blurbs more readable. To make in-house production easier, the cover art remains a full-bleed photograph. BlueRibbon’s challenge is to vary the cover shots enough to enable readers to distinguish between issues. They can achieve this by sometimes using nature close-ups and sometimes using shots of equestrians, off-roaders, and the like enjoying the outdoors.

I freshened the magazine’s logo with clean, readable Chocolate Script, but combined it with a sans serif to give it presence. I brought the relationship between the parent organization and the magazine into the masthead, linking the Coalition’s logo to the magazine’s and strengthening the brand identity of both.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: JEANNETTE GUTIERREZ

Jeanette Gutierrez graduated from the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit with a degree in Industrial Design. A Detroit native, she has worked in corporate communications and as a marketing art director for Consumers Energy, Automotive News, and Waldenbooks. She is currently Creative Director/Art Director at Group 55 Marketing in Detroit. Group 55 (www.group55.com) is a full-service advertising and marketing agency specializing in branding and identity for a national clientele.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe InDesign CS2 and Adobe Photoshop CS2

AFTER

DESIGNER: Andrew Bass www.adbassdesigns.com

“I decided to concentrate on giving the publication a look resembling a consumer-style recreation magazine, making it more stylized, upbeat, and fun.”

To get a better understanding of BlueRibbon and its organization, I studied their website and looked at other outdoor recreation titles in the market. I decided to concentrate on giving the publication a look resembling a consumer-style recreation magazine, making it more stylized, upbeat, and fun.

My overall design had to be easily replicated by the staff, so it couldn’t be overly complicated. I chose to give the magazine a clean but rugged look, beginning with a more readable logo using the Acropolis typeface. BlueRibbon has a limited photo budget so creating more upbeat and varied covers requires some ingenuity. I suggest using free photo sources, such as the National Park Service. For this cover, I used a portrait of George W. Bush, playing up the coverline for a little levity. With many of the cover images donated by members, alternating nature shots with members’ action shots on snowmobiles, horseback, ATVs, and so on would create more variety. Cheltenham, the typeface I chose for smaller coverlines and body text, gives the text a clean feel without competing with Acropolis. Images on the inside pages can be punched up more by using silhouettes, to give the pages more energy.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: ADBASS:DESIGNS LLC

Principal and creative director of adbass:designs LLC, Andrew Bass has more than 16 years’ experience developing effective visual communications. Bass, who prides himself on his ability to assemble photographers, illustrators, and designers to give a unique identity to visual media, has applied his creative methodology at corporations, such as VNU Business Media USA and Essence Communications, and at smaller companies and nonprofits such as TaylorMade Media and The Blues Babe Foundation.

Bass holds a BFA in Communications Design from Pratt Institute and has won several design awards: American Graphic Design, American Society of Business Publication Editors, The Ozzies, and American Business Media (Neal Awards). He’s also an adjunct instructor of typographic design at the New York City College of Technology.

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Photoshop CS2, Adobe Illustrator CS2, and Adobe InDesign CS2

BEFORE

CLIENT: Eight by Ten Club, Inc. www.the8x10.com

“Clients rarely ask designers for something generic, but in Berg’s case, that’s exactly what he’s looking for—a logo with general appeal rather than one associated with a specific musical genre.”

Having recently gone through a name and ownership change, Baltimore’s Eight by Ten Club—formerly known as The Funk Box—has been desperately seeking a new logo. “We’ve gone through three logos in the past two months,” says Mike Berg, manager of the alternative music venue, which features live performances by emerging artists and Indie musicians in a spectrum of genres from reggae to rap and jazz groups to jam bands.

Clients rarely ask designers for something generic, but in Berg’s case, that’s exactly what he’s looking for—a logo with general appeal rather than one associated with a specific musical genre. Perhaps more so than for other businesses, a club’s logo is its brand, appearing everywhere from the marquee to the website, to newspaper ads, and T-shirts. And for the Eight by Ten, whose 18- to 35-year-old customers are serious alternative music fans, getting the brand right is crucial to the survival of the club.

We asked three designers, each of whom is a 2005 Adobe Design Achievement Award winner, to give the Eight by Ten a cool new logo.

AFTER

DESIGNER: Klaas Neumann www.orang-magazin.net

“To put more swing and music into the design, I chose nonconcentric circles and arranged the letters and numbers somewhat arbitrarily. The irregularly placed circles remind me of emerging sounds.”

Before starting to redesign the Eight by Ten logo, I looked at the club’s website. Ideas that may have lent themselves to illustration (such as showing musicians or a street crossing) turned out to be too complicated for a logo, so I focused on arranging the various parts of the club’s name into one design element.

To make the name recognition immediate, and create something more like a picture than a row of words, I used numerals rather than spelling out the club name. The word “by” had to be included because it’s an integral part of the name, so I positioned it in such a way that it can’t be dissociated from the numbers. I used circular shapes to simplify the logo—more complex letters might have drawn associations with certain music styles. To put more swing and music into the design, I chose nonconcentric circles and arranged the letters and numbers somewhat arbitrarily. The irregularly placed circles remind me of emerging sounds (although that may be a bit of a stretch).

I chose colors that conjure up a nighttime mood (a purple “8” that heats up to yellow at the bottom; a bright, warm orange for “club”). The colors also point out the sequence in which the logo should be read. And the color scheme works well with the black background of the existing webpage. The logo fits in with the insider attitude that alternative clubs often project: If you’ve been to the club, you know what the logo means. I did the entire logo in Illustrator, as it allowed me to play around with shapes, create basic letters, and try out different color schemes.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: KLAAS NEUMANN
A student at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Germany, Klaas Neumann studies illustration. Although his professional focus is on information design, he indulges his lifelong passion for drawing as a regular contributor to the print publication Orang Comic Magazin, a zine about comics and graphic novels (www.orang-magazin.net).

In addition to studying, Neumann works as a graphic artist for the Financial Times Deutschland. Far from a digital snob, he’s also interested in analog media, such as books and cinema. “I’d like to create more comics,” he says, “but you can hardly make a living doing that in Germany.” Neumann is the 2005 Adobe Design Achievement Award winner in the Digital Illustration category.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Illustrator CS

AFTER

DESIGNER: Micah Ganske www.micahganske.com

“To capture the feeling of real paint, I spray painted the logo on cardboard, photographed it, and digitized the tag in Photoshop.”

For the design of this logo, I went with the first and most basic concept that came to mind upon hearing the name of the venue, the numbers “8” and “10.” Numbers are the most powerful and easy-to-identify characters in language and for this reason, they make an excellent starting point for any design.

As a response to the attitude and orientation of the venue, I decided to go with a spray-paint motif. A simple, sprayed “tag” speaks to the immediacy and rawness of the independent music scene. To capture the feeling of real paint, I spray painted the logo on cardboard, photographed it, and digitized the tag in Photoshop. I kept the type for the word “club” simple by using a basic font—Courier.

This all comes together to form a logo that is both simple and bold. And keeping it all in black and white makes it cost-effective from a printing standpoint.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: MICAH GANSKE
Micah Ganske received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002 followed by a Post Baccalaureate certificate from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2003. In 2005, he completed his studies at the Yale School of Art, where he received his MFA in Painting. While primarily a painter, Ganske is very interested in photography and digital aesthetics and has integrated these into his art-making process. Ganske has been featured in group shows in Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, and New York, and is currently living in New York City, where he’s working toward his first solo show. Ganske is the 2005 Adobe Design Achievement Award winner in the Digital Photography/Imaging category.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Photoshop

AFTER

DESIGNER: Roxane Zargham & Ryan Weafer www.studio-r-r.com

“We designed the logo in red and white against a black background, a combination that projects a sort of radical, sexy minimalism. The colors are also a nod to neon signs that are often associated with nightlife and club culture.”

My design partner, Ryan Weafer, and I wanted to make the logo something that appealed to a broad range of music patrons, so we gravitated toward a clean, simple typeface. We decided to use numerals, so we selected the FF DIN typeface, which has beautiful but simple numerals.

We designed the logo in red and white against a black background, a combination that projects a sort of radical, sexy minimalism. The colors are also a nod to neon signs that are often associated with nightlife and club culture. And the black background of the T-shirt (or the website) becomes the stage, the night, or the emptiness from which the nightlife emerges. The strike-through in the zero enables the logo to be read as a logotype rather than a simplistic default set of characters. Much like the logo of New York’s music venue CBGB, it becomes a sort of code that only insiders will understand.

We think this simple, pared-down identity for the Eight by Ten has broad appeal and will position the club as a premier insider’s music venue in the Baltimore nightlife scene.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER: STUDIO R+R
Roxane Zargham is the 2005 Adobe Design Achievement Award winner in the Print Design category for her work on the UCLA Design/Media Arts identity under creative director Rebeca M©ndez. A senior in the UCLA Design/Media Arts department, she’s had design internships with Harper’s BAZAAR and V Magazine. Zargham plans to attend graduate school next year but she’s also focusing on Studio R+R, the design firm she and design partner, Ryan Weafer, opened in March 2005 to create identity systems, print work, websites, and other designs for clients. Zargham and Weafer are also writing and designing a book entitled Dual. Duel. Do all., which explores the contexts and inspiration for their personal and collaborative works.

APPLICATION USED: Adobe Illustrator CS

CLIENT: Shahasp Valentine – www.precieux.com

Shahasp Valentine is a San Francisco Bay Area jewelry designer whose main jewelry line, Precieux The Modern Artifacts Collection, is a series of handmade necklaces, earrings, and rings of precious metal clay, a material that contains micro-particles of pure silver or pure gold mixed with a clay binder. When fired at ultra-high temperatures, the clay burns away, leaving pure precious metal. Valentine also incorporates precious stones, such as rubies and sapphires, into her jewelry, which she sells wholesale to gift stores, jewelry stores, galleries, and other retail outlets, and to individuals over the Internet.

“The Modern Artifacts Collection is historically inspired and draws from all periods,” says Shahasp, whose pieces range from Renaissance and Victorian designs to styles derived from various religious symbols throughout history. Even though her handcrafted jewelry is new, it looks antique, like an heirloom handed down through generations.

Shahasp says it’s important that her line sheet reflect the antique quality of her jewelry. At the same time, it needs to be extremely legible and straightforward, so that storeowners can easily select the styles they want, figure out the wholesale prices, and place an order.

There are additional design challenges: Shahasp would like to be able to photocopy the line sheet. When she has only one or two information requests, she prints them out on her printer in color but when she attends a trade show, she sometimes makes up to 50 blackand- white photocopies to hand out to prospective buyers. Some of Shahasp’s collateral materials suggest the antique nature of her jewelry by using images of aged, cracked marble or faded logos and screens; however, she’s discovered that those things don’t photocopy well. So the challenge is to create a design that has the look she’s going for, works in black-and-white and in color, and reproduces well.

Another consideration is that she needs to be able to update the line sheet. Prices change, pieces get added to the collection, and other pieces get dropped. She wants to make text changes whenever needed.

We found three designers to give a new look to this jewelry designer’s line sheet.

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DESIGNER: Calixto Flores – www.maxpictures.com

After reading about Shahasp and how she makes her jewelry, I wanted to maintain the artisan feeling reflected in her work and her original line sheet. I thought the line sheet could use a cleanup, so I focused on simplifying the fonts, organizing the information more clearly, and placing more emphasis on the jewelry.

The original line sheet used several fonts to show different types of information, but the result was more distracting than differentiating. I spent time trying to fi nd a font family that would have the right look and enough variety for the various kinds of information on the line sheet. Monotype Centaur seemed to fit the bill. Aligning the prices for the jewelry pieces and moving the stone type to the top of the listings also helped organize them.

To bring the jewelry to the forefront, I increased the size of the images and also cleaned up the images in Photoshop, erasing necklace links and increasing contrast for black-andwhite. To accommodate the larger jewelry images, I moved the earrings section to the back of the sheet, and to further emphasize the jewelry information, I placed the identity and contact elements in a frame along each side of the sheet.

Finally, the new layout is full-bleed, but functions well enough when printed on 8.5×11″ paper with margins. Time permitting, the line sheet could be output on 11×17″ and trimmed down.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Calixto Flores originally went to college to study computer science and engineering but became interested in graphic design when he saw someone creating a party flyer with MacDraw on an Apple Mac Plus.

Twenty years of in-house creative services and freelance production experience later, Calixto now designs full-time for the University of California, Berkeley. In his spare time, he works on independent documentary films at Max Pictures. See the results of his labors at www.maxpictures.com.

APPLICATIONS USED: InDesign 2 and Photoshop 7

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DESIGNER: Joe Nicklo – www.nicklomedia.com

After viewing the original line sheet, I experimented with several different layouts until I decided that the best format to keep the layout uncluttered was landscape. I adopted a layout similar to that of the “before” line sheet and focused on the type. I chose Trajan Pro as the font for the product names and Helvetica Neue to ensure the legibility of the prices and descriptions.

I also decided to clean up Shahasp’s logo a bit and incorporate new typography. I knocked the logo down to two colors to give myself a color palette to work with for the rest of the line sheet.

To close off the layout and convey an “antique” look, I introduced a simple background image and footer that incorporated a screened photo of a Renaissance-style stone floor and then set the foreground to the color I used in the logo and product titles, to tie it all together.

ABOUT THE DESIGNER
The lead designer at an automotive performance parts manufacturer in Boca Raton, Florida, Joe Nicklo has been designing professionally for six years and he’s also a freelance logo designer. Joe attends the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, working toward his Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design. In his spare time, he runs an online community for graphic designers at www.anticubicle.com. Joe enjoys all aspects of design but considers corporate identity to be his strong point. He’s grateful to many people for nurturing his talents but above all says “thanks to my father for fi rst putting Photoshop in my hands.”

APPLICATIONS USED: Adobe Creative Suite

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