braggart series...

basic bookcover samples...

i recently joined a ning network for black authors with the hope of gathering new clients;
to that end i created a few 'basic' bookcover looks (most of the authors seem to write about business, marketing and self-promotion) to hopefully reel them in... i'm working on some other ones as well, but these are the latest ones...

the new make-my-logo-bigger cream!

emailer... or something like that...

new self-promo... plus, dirty one - because you know how i hate 'sanitary'...

kung fu grip

bored stiff...

commentary on a dying horse...

mythium masthead redesign...

we're getting very good reviews for our mythium literary journal and i felt it necessary to redesign a few of the site banners (the new main page banner comes from a cover mock for the spring issue).
i'm hard to please. i'll love a work immediately after i've finished it, but give me a couple days to stare at it and i begin to grow dissatisfied. its just my nature. the previous banner was also the off-spring of a cover design, so i think im setting the tone to change the site's appearance every six months, something i probably wouldnt do if it was an originally coded site and not created from a template provided by our internet carrier. i love and appreciate classic sites that maintain a visual aesthetic over time, but because so much of our site is beyond our ability to properly code the on-site graphics tend to grow 'stale' with time - sorta like going to your favorite blog only to find there's been no recent entries in months.

so i thought it was time to update some things (wish we could adjust our navigation bar, but you work with what you've got, i guess) so i made changes to the main page, the contest page and the submission page banners. i couldnt help myself. it just wouldnt leave me alone  - the old graphics talked me into it... they said "pleaaaaassssseeee....."

 

 of course, i just HAAAAD to redesign my literary blog header also... i cut up the old projects banner to make it... i really like it.

best ads of the decade

adweek has open voting for best ads of the decade in the categories of media, creative, branding, and agencies - waaaay too many to list here... but here are some of my favorite commercials

iphone humor from political cartoonists...

daryl cagle's website
check it out...

i was so mesmerized by the iphone when they first started advertising for them
(as well as lusting for the macbook air - i mean, just drooling!)

but i'm over it now.

i just dont want a device that replaces all other devices in my life: i like my cd player... i like my camera... i like my computer... i've recommitted myself to using the house phone...

caint i just have a cell phone that rings and hangs up? ...is that too much to ask for?

great websites...

jason gray's music

magnetic north

m1 design

to logo or not to logo, that is the question...

so many graphic designers face this hurdle - designing their own logo...

some designers choose to forgo the logo concept, deciding to instead bank on the professionalism garnered solely from their names as a dependable designer... for them, logos are of a cage that could potentially box them into a certain perception, if not fully developed correctly - which is very hard to do these days since so many designers have developed more than one specific design skill set. what mark could ever embody all of their professional nuances?
but for other designers, a well produced logo offers the opportunity for instant recognition, especially on the internet (which i'm increasingly beginning to rename "the omniscient whorehouse", but that's my own hang-up - i swairfogawd, i think virginal sacrifices are required on an hourly basis to placate the internet gods to slow down their consumption of all of mankind... )

but the fact is, for designers choosing to include a logo in their own personal branding, we tend to  create the most horrible logos for ourselves... i mean, just hideous. and it kills me when i see a bunch of suck-up designers create a list of 'best graphic design logos' include those hideous monstrosities on their list (especially if the named designer is uber-popular) - "graphic design", one part cult, two parts disease. (dont try to cure us, we'd only re-infect ourselves!)

case in point, i'm an illustrator at heart so the vast majority of the logos i create incorporate elements of branding (meaning they just dont represent a philosophy or idea, but are also trying to manipulate mood or navigate an emotional or visceral response in the process - logos define a company, branding defines how you as a consumer choose to connect to that company)
and i've been playing around with various logos for myself for years, stuff that i think is cute at the time of creation but nothing with a lasting impression that i deem marketable.

"someone" defaced my latest attempt with graffiti, but here was a recently failed concept:

you have to envision it without the exhaust and eyeballs and torso and other agitated embellishments, but if you stand back and squint while spinning in circles, you'll see what i was going for with the 'upfromsumdirt' design brand...  vomiting might occur, but we'll blame that on the spinning and not the artwork, okay?

iDRAW

new collage