Short selection of logos & marks for industries such as apparel, beverage, restaurant and metal fabrication I've had the pleasure of working on over the last year.
I recently had the pleasure of illustrating & designing a small merch package for Jump, Little Children's 2015 Church & Queen reunion tour (which all dates incidentally sold out in a matter of minutes) - Well done, guys. For the first poster, I wanted to use visuals that eluded back to the "Church & Queen" tour title - so I arrived at a stylized Queen playing card idea using the sceptor to illustrate a general idea of religion, without excluding any specific group. (three eyes from different viewpoints all looking in the same direction) - The guys in the band liked this one so much that they decided to use/sell it throughout the tour as the official tour poster. They also printed tees from this design.
Additionally, for the two separate show posters I used my knowledge of the band's catalogue (more specifically, the song "Cathedrals") to layout the Nashville, TN poster.
Throughout the entire project, I thought that it was pretty funny that the band's name takes on an entirely different (and much more foreboding) meaning when the comma is omitted. (A mistake I almost made early on) So I couldn't help myself from laying out a poster which centralized on the comma itself. Just a little easter egg for all the J,LC fans.
A self-initiated project I began after my experience witnessing The Typefight. I'd head home from work every day at lunch and take 1 hour to eat and freehand an alphabetic character. I ended up enjoying the exercise so much that I continued on with numbers 0-9 after I wrapped up the letters. And every designer wants to illustrate a custom ampersand, so I had to indulge.
I then took the sketches to the machine and further experimented with color and texture.
Turns out I wasn't the only one that was currently embracing typographic challenges/exercises at the time. I eventually found the 36 Days of Type project, a small designer-centric Instagram project for people who were interested in doing the same thing!
Identity & website project for a young entrepreneur and student in DC. The client had recently jumped into production on a line of tees with front pockets fabricated from vintage-patterned neck ties. The company name reflects the amalgamation of ideas (the client's inspiration from his well-dressed Boston-born grandfather balanced with his youth spent in North Carolina observing the easy-going Southern lifestyle)
While exploring potential logos & marks, I wanted to expound on certain underlying themes such as direction, collegiate lifestyle and fabrication, all while providing options that ranged from nostalgic to modern.
I then opted for a clean & contemporary website design with touches of vintage imagery to illustrate the contrast of the product, which was one of the client's most important requests.
In a project like this, it's typically the little things that really make the challenge fun. Be it a monocle and mustache in lieu of a magnifying glass icon to represent the search field, or the typographic contrast of a modern sans-serif coexisting with an old style wedge serif, I always enjoy a project that can appreciate and illustrate the union of old & new.
Completed during time at Mitre Agency
Anyone who knows me personally could attest to the fact that music always has been and always will be a huge inspiration for me. Be it something as small as a tee design for a struggling band or a month-long screen printed tour flyer campaign for a major label artist, work based around music is always especially fulfilling for me. I've been there and I know how draining it can be emotionally and financially, so maybe this is my way of giving back to an industry that has given so much to me. You take the good and the bad.
That being said, get out to a show. Like, now.
Branding and Identity project for a new North Carolina distillery. The client came to us with a logo and recipe for an amazing spirit - Trust me, I tried it. It would put hair on a golf ball. Moonshining has been an ongoing art form since prohibition of the 1920's and early 1930's, so we settled on an aesthetic that was rooted in the early 20th century to illustrate the longevity of the craft, while adding certain modern touches to appeal to their present target audience.
I was responsible for various tasks on this project, starting with revising their existing logo, which looked more like something I would refer to as "Jimmy Buffet Script," to something with a more vintage feel, setting up the visual identity system, conceptualizing and designing company collateral, retail items such as apparel, ticketing, bottle design, shipping & promotional packaging, & retail bags. Additionally, I also had the opportunity to crank out a few posters for the interior of the distillery, as well as the letterpressed grand opening invitation and designing their mobile retail system including event canopies, banners & more.
Completed during time at Mitre Agency
A brand identity & retail system for a mobile clothing & jewelry boutique in Brooklyn, NY.
This client came to me with a really innovative idea - a food truck that doesn't sell food, but clothing, jewelry and accessories for the young bohemian. This required a slightly different approach to conceptualizing and applying an identity system. Having no brick-and-mortar space meant that the retail area would need to be dynamic - you can't exactly control the atmosphere of where you park. This required a very bold color-centric approach that would stand out and garner attention in any environment. This also meant that the backbone of the brand could not be too busy b/c visibility and immediate recognizability were tantamount.
The name that the client had envisioned demanded a certain cultural flavor and we agreed early on that a logo/mark should be put in place that could also serve as a building block for pattern work in the future. I developed a simple & elegant mark to flank a custom typeface and an accompanying organic color palette.
I then went about creating a writing system that utilized their main brand color along with the introduction of wood, kraft and other recycled materials to harken back to the organic aspect of their business (correspondence to dealers, consignment arenas, existing retail shops and prospective clients as well as networking were very important to the client in the initial phases of brand development), as well as initial retail options.
When I was approached by Our State Magazine to handle the visual design for the new NC BBQ map application, I was a little nervous as this would be my first attempt at designing for a solely digital environment. After countless hours of research into UI/UX and a survey of the current application landscape, I decided to revert and step backwards and do my best to design an app that is digital at heart and function, but harkens back to the old BBQ restaurants that I frequented as a kid in the middle of nowhere, NC. For this reason, I landed on an aesthetic that included a weathered paper background (show me a BBQ restaurant with a clean, pristine menu and I'll buy you a beer), vintage-styled illustrations, and not-so-comtemporary typography.
Additionally, custom and consistent iconography was necessary b/c we wouldn't want our button graphics to closely resemble nav from other apps and end up a confusing mess.
The layouts featured are actually an option that got the axe about half-way through the process, but something about this one still really excites me when I hop back in and give it a look. If you'd like to see & download the finished product, head on over here and pick it up.
One of my favorite annual projects is creating the event art for the Center City Cinema program. Due to a legal situation, CCC is not allowed to post the names of the films on the posters and pole banners. This works for me because it gives me an amazingly fun yet challenging riddle to put together each year, utilizing specific visuals, iconography, themes, etc. to convey the idea of the film without cluttering up the poster with any sort of copy.
After each year's series is completed, I pop back into the files and add the film names back in for presentation & showcasing purposes.
A few examples of recent album artwork and layout that I had the absolute pleasure of handling. And all on colored backgrounds, too.
An small selection of point-of-sale, ticketing and event branding for Wrangler Jean Co.
Completed during time at Mitre Agency.
A few hand-lettering pieces done for event identities, tees and exercises from the past couple of months.
Self-initiated project that includes building icon families for a few of my absolute favorite 80's (and a few 90's) films.
Available for purchase here
This is an ongoing project so check back frequently for new additions.
Catalogue design undertaken as part of a lateral move in brand positioning for Duck Head Apparel.
In congruence with a fresh, home-inspired aesthetic, all product was shot within the walls of a new flagship store in NC located within a 100+ year-old renovated flour mill. The warmth of the original mill flooring successfully reinforces the new identity, while showcasing the product in an environment rich in local culture and longevity.
Completed during time at Mitre Agency.
This was student work done for a packaging class.
*2013 Gold Student Addy Award winner
A few spreads I had the pleasure of working on. All content on pages was illustrated and/or photographed by myself.
*Top left portrait illustration was a 2013 Silver Student Addy Award winner and also got me a place in the illustration showcase of CMYK magazine for that year.
