SCHWARTZROCK GRAPHIC ARTS

Propaganda Poster Wanna Be

2009-07-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a recent image I created for a long time client, BI. The art director, John Eastman, wanted the vibe of those great WWII propaganda posters from the Soviet Union. I'm also noticing some Douglas Fraser influence... although I'm pretty sure he would have done a much better job.

LogoLounge 5

2009-06-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I received my copy of LogoLounge 5. Just like the previous publications, this book is full of beautiful work and I'm honored to have 38 of my own logos/icons included. I'm especially looking forward to being a guest juror for LogoLounge 6!

Drip.Dot.Swirl.

2009-06-26T06:54:00.000-07:00

Drip.Dot.Swirl, a book and DVD offering 94 patterns for design or illustration has recently been published. It's a fine collection of repetitive designs and patterns that can conveniently be used by graphic designers and illustrators.

When preparing the book, Von Glitschka, the author (and also an incredibly-talented illustrative designer) asked me to submit a design incorporating one of his patterns. I was honored and used his pattern in a Christmas greeting.

Visit Amazon to pick up your own copy today... you won't be disappointed.

Health and Beauty

2009-06-04T08:26:00.001-07:00

Here's three icons for a series of health and beauty suppliments for a client in Boulder, Colorado. The demographic for this product is heavily female, so the client wanted something elegant and flowing.

Miscellaneous Images

2009-06-04T08:11:00.000-07:00

Here's three images I recently created for a client. I won't even bother explaining what these are for.

Watchman University

2009-05-13T09:08:00.001-07:00

Dianne Yanovick is one of the smartest women I know in the strategic marketing/branding field. When I work with her, I feel like a child learning at the feet of the master.

She recently asked me to help her with a sub-brand identity for a client of hers. We needed to keep an element of the original logo in the new mark. After a lot of exploration, the best idea (shown below the original mark) was actually her idea... and I was able to bring it to life.

Hush Hush... again

2009-05-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

Here's an illustration I finished recently. That's all the information I can share with you. There are secret agents standing behind me now as I type this post to make sure I don't leak any mission critical info. (:

Bar-b-cue Cook off

2009-04-22T07:06:00.000-07:00

Deep Down, Inc. manufactures subsea equipment and services for the oil and gas industry. Every year at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, there is a barbecue cook off party. Deep Down wanted to create a logo for their team. I guess Texans take their barbecue seriously. (:

A new client, W3 Advertising out of Stafford, Texas, asked me to supply the design.

Here's the winning selection I created for them.

Letterpress

2009-04-09T11:28:00.001-07:00

Any opportunity I get, I try to use Studio on Fire (letterpress and design studio in Minneapolis) to letterpress stationery. It's old school technique and yet so very cool. Here's a calling card I recently designed for Love's Garden, a Christian ministry in Israel. They will love handing these things out.

p.s. be sure to click on the photo for a much better view.

Final Product

2009-04-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

A while back I showed you my early progress on this annual report cover. Here's the final product along with a couple of the interior images. This project was an epic battle. I told Scott Di Girolamo from Design Center that if we ever survived this, I would buy him a beer. We celebrated this week over lunch at the Lexington in St. Paul.

New Bible

2009-03-24T07:48:00.001-07:00

A while back, I was asked to design the layout for a new kind of illustrated Bible to be published by Zondervan. The idea was similar to the now famous St. John's Bible, but with more of a fantasy art flavor. I used already existing samples of the artists' work for the mock layout, but all new art would be commissioned... if you notice the level of detail in these images, the idea of illustrating the whole Bible is staggering. My part was to create a layout that would be flexible to accommodate multiple compositions but yet still carry a strong visual theme from book to book. Be sure to click on each image for a larger view since there are a lot of nice details.

AIGA Design Award

2009-03-24T07:25:00.000-07:00

It is sad to say that I've been in the design field for over 20 years and only last year joined AIGA. So, for the first year ever, I entered the annual design competition. Minneapolis is a hotbed for some of the best design firms in the nation... so I was very pleased to find out my stationery system won an award.

The House

2009-03-16T08:12:00.000-07:00

As I've mentioned before, there weren't many upsides to my foray into Christian comic book publishing. One of the few benefits was meeting and working with Zondervan's Zonderkids publisher, Bruce Nuffer. He eventually left Zondervan and found himself at NPH (Nazarene Publishing House) where he was quickly asked to start a new entity to meet a demand for relevant material for the 20-something church.

Bruce's energy is addictive and I wanted to help. He needed a logo, so I offered to add ideas to the ones NPH's in-house design department was supplying. I found it challenging to incorporate the given name, "The House" which didn't add much value to their mission. None the less, here's the ideas I proposed.

Government Work

2009-03-16T07:50:00.000-07:00

Have any of you ever been part of a government RFP? It's as you might imagine it to be. Recently I was asked to be one small cog in a proposal to converge the myriad of medical reports into one, efficient, secure data base. The project is overwhelming to think about, but I was honored by the request to be part of the communications team. The project lead felt we needed a logo to identify the team (much like the Justice League) so here's my attempt at creating a patriotic medical logo. No, we didn't apply it to spandex suits.

Embark Icons for Target

2009-03-13T10:59:00.001-07:00

Years ago at Design Center in Minnetonka, MN, I worked with two incredibly talented designers, Jon Erickson and Eric Vermilyea. They have since moved on to do great things at Target's in-house design department. From time to time, they ask me to help them which is always a joy because they are both fun to work with and they always seem to have great projects. They asked me to help create the icons for a Target product line called Embark. Recently I was asked to expand the volume of icons but because of my workload and the deadline, I needed to bring in some help of my own. Fortunately, Paul Howalt (www.TactixCreative.com) was able to lend a hand.

It isn't everyday they I get to work with three master designers on a single job.

Smarty Pants

2009-02-05T10:48:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite clients contacted me and needed some really quick art. She needed some animated characters on the theme of smart people. I was able to meet her deadline with these three.

More Comic Work

2009-02-05T10:35:00.000-08:00

As you might remember from an earlier post, since I worked as a full time comic book artist in 2005, I'm now the "expert" comic guy for my professional clients. Here's a playful internal promotion where I needed to create recognizable likenesses of various employees. I can honestly say caricature is an art, and I'm not the master. But, I think these come close to the target.

It's been a while since I've needed to ink with a brush so I was glad to have this project to keep me from getting too rusty. Jonathan Koelsch supplied the colors. Be sure to click on the images to view the detail.

Mod Squad meets Men In Black

2009-02-05T10:28:00.001-08:00

Here's an image I created for an operations team promotional logo/badge. I was just asked to create the people art... the art director finished the logo part.

DVD Cover Redesign

2009-02-05T09:58:00.000-08:00

Recently I had a nice change of pace and was able to redesign the DVD packaging for an animation series. I focused on creating a cover template that would work well both on a shelf and on Amazon since these are the two main marketplaces. To do so, I kept the design bold and clearly legible while eliminating the various violators the previous packaging wore. To make this work, I needed to redesign their existing logo. The old mark, like the old packaging, had over time attracted more and more unnessasary detail until you could barely read it.

I'm showing here how a full color image works with the template as well as an image that turns the background into a duotone. Either way, I think the template holds up.

Strathmore Design Contest

2009-01-25T10:05:00.000-08:00

I normally don't enter too many design competitions even though I know I probably should. Some competitions can be very expensive when you add up several entries and there's no guarantee that money will pay off with a winning selection. So when I noticed Strathmore has a quarterly competition for stationery design (incorporating their paper) that didn't cost anything, I took the time to enter. I was amazed to find that my own stationery won first place (www.strathmore.com). On top of that, Strathmore sent me a check for $500 and I'm also promised a plaque. Needless to say, I'll be entering ever quarter.

Color Variations

2009-01-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

This post is a continuation from the previous one. Here's the latest direction for the annual report cover illustration. We've settled on basic content, but gone back and forth on the color pallet. As I look at all of these variations, it's amazing to me how much of an emotional effect color can make. Which one do you prefer?

Be sure to click on each image for a closer view.

Maybe Later...

2009-01-14T10:54:00.000-08:00

I've been working on an illustration for the cover of an annual report. The image below was initially approved for further development but was recently dropped to move in another direction. Here's the sketch and the rough shapes built in Illustrator for a color study. This image is designed to be folded in half for a gate fold. Click on the individual images for a larger view.

The new cover illustration (not shown here) will also be very nice, but I really liked this one. After you've spent a considerable amount of time invested into something, it's hard to let go I guess. Perhaps someday I'll take the time to complete it, but since we planned on a painted version, there's still quite a few hours required to get this to the finish line.

Vacation on Big Island

2009-01-05T09:08:00.000-08:00

I recently finished a logo project promoting a vacation at a very posh resort on Hawaii's Big Island. The logo's name says it all but I wanted to add elements that are indicative of the Big Island. I love this type of project because it fits my design sensitivities... but it was also nice to immerse myself in all of the sun-kissed imagery of Hawaii. The temperature here in Minneapolis right now is hovering around zero degrees. ):

Click on the image below for a much larger view.

Keep the MAX

2008-12-30T07:03:00.000-08:00

I just finished working on another sales incentive plan logo for a medical device company. There were a number of prerequisites for the design but the one that proved most difficult was keeping the pre-existing "MAX" logotype. I think a different font would have worked better with the diagonal aspects of the three letters, but this font still allowed me to garnish it a bit. Click on the image below to see a larger version.

Super Quick Super

2008-12-19T08:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick vector-art illustration for a promotional logo. The client handled the text treatment.

After a brief career drawing comic books, apparently I am the expert on super heroes. My clients ask for this type of work quite frequently. For example, Target asked me to fix a brochure design for them that promoted their movie tie-in merchandise when the Hulk movie came out. It was strictly a graphic design project, but since I was a comic book artist too, I would know what to do. I'm not complaining... the brochure turned out great and I got to art direct a Marvel-certified artist for the cover illustration. That will be the closest I get to working with Marvel. (: