Government Work

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.