As mentioned previously, the design group over at Churm media likes to have some creative fun in our “downtime”. Given nothing more than an objective and a few “must use” image files, the designers are set free to explore whatever they can come up with to achieve victory. This round the objective was simple, to create an ad using whatever theme you want and a selection of 4 must use images. And if memory serves me correct, I took the win this round with the ruling judgement of our awesome colleague judges.
Category Archives: Portfolio Photoshop
der Rattenfänger
This “movie poster” design was sparked from an in-house design competition we started at Churm Media to help keep the down time productive and the design minds moving. The goal is to present a challenge with some ground rules and regulations, and then let the designers minds run free. My design was for “der Rattenfänger”, which loosely {and probably poorly, thanks Google translate) translates to the pied piper in German.
Photo: year 29 || day 3
Like a kid whose parents just got him the new Lego pirate ship, all I wanted to do when I unboxed my EF 75-300 lens was shoot. First day out of the box and excited to play with some low light situations, Frankie (my cat, aptly names after Frank Sinatra) was my inspiration. She was sitting by our back door begging to get out on the balcony and sitting in just enough light scattering through the window blinds for me to roll across the room on my swivel chair and open this new treasure up to it’s maximum zoom length. Snap. Done. The only photoshop work was to B&W everything but the eye.
Photo: year 29 || day 2
A clear choice for my #2 image post was the Chucks. How is it that Chucks go with everything? Hell, I was best man in a wedding where all the groomsmen wore brown and baby blue high-tops with their suits. Originally designed for basketball, adopted by the punk scene, snatched by the skate crowd and still finding ways to hold market share in this overly saturated market we live in. I salute you Charles “Chuck” H. Taylor. Thanks for the Chucks that we all know and love.
And so it begins; Photo: year 29 || day 1
Under the guise of “lets go for a bike ride”, I took the opportunity to take my Canon T2i out to some old railroad tracks near our apartment for some much needed photo-therapy. There’s always been a fascination of mine with old railroad tracks, possibly stemming back to the nights in Rosamond when the distant thud thud, thud thud, whoooooo-whoo of the mile-off train would put me to sleep. Or maybe the familiar heat from the elongated face of good old Abe when we’d tape him face down to the railroad tracks anxiously awaiting the next graffiti art show to come screaming by. There really is something about destroying a bunch of pennies with your childhood friends that tickles the nostalgia nerve. Ahhh, memories. So, to get to my point, and to start this countdown (or is it a count up?) off right, here’s photo #1 of my soon-to-be-gone twenties.
Tutorial: 5 simple steps to give your images some punch
Working in the graphics design/publishing field I come across at least 10 photos a day that could use some drastic help. Washed out, overdeveloped, under exposed; These are all things that we’ve all had to deal with with our photos. Well, Here’s some simple processes you can follow to punch up those colors and get your images back to looking the way they should, GREAT! Inspired by the new little ducklings that have recently hatched in our back yard, we snapped some shots on a point and shoot Canon. As you can see from the original image, it’s good… but i thought it could be better. The following steps to enhance your photos shouldn’t take you any more than 5 minutes, and once you learn the procedure you’ll be editing your photos in no time!
Click through to see the full tutorial. Continue reading
OCMETRO Cover, 1-09 ECOnomics Report
January OCMETRO Cover, The ECOnomics Report, Special Green Issue
Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO
Quark 6, Photoshop CS2
4-8 Hours
OCMETRO’s first “Green” issue. They wanted something to capture the feel of the large green movement in Orange County.
Thanks to online tutorials (via PSD Tuts), this cover was not only fun, but also a huge learning experience. The client loved the idea from the start.
Portfolio: CEO Centerfold, Lincoln Salazar 2-09
February 2009 OCMETRO CEO Centerfold, Lincoln Salazar
Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO
Quark 6, Photoshop CS2
2 hours
CEO Centerfold spread pages for OCMETRO, Photography by Tracie Spence.
This was my 6th design of a CEO centerfold for OCMETRO magazine.
Click through for the full image after the jump.
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Portfolio: OCMETRO Cover, 12-08 Best & Worst
December OCMETRO Cover, The Best & Worst Issue, Tiger Woods
Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO
Quark 6, Photoshop CS2
2-3 Hours
Cover design for OCMETRO’s Best & Worst Issue with a special Tiger Woods feature. The Tiger Woods Learning Center was featured as one of the ‘Best’ events in Orange County California, 2008.
Getting to work with a cover image of a well-known, famous face really opened the perspective up to produce a great cover.
Click through for the full image after the jump.
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Portfolio: CEO Centerfold, Clarissa Ngo 1-09
January 2009 OCMETRO CEO Centerfold, Clarissa Ngo
Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO
Quark 6, Photoshop CS2
2 hours
CEO Centerfold spread pages for OCMETRO, Photography by Tracie Spence.
This was my 5th design of a CEO centerfold for OCMETRO magazine and third in a horizontal layout.
Portfolio: Sneak Peak Logo redesign & Space tutorial
Sneak peak Nine Three Studio logo & Glowing text in space.
None, Personal Project
Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2 (for logo)
10-20 minutes, not including logo
Thanks to a GREAT, and fast, tutorial at Denis Designs, I was inspired to give my own take and twist. The tutorial is super easy to follow, and the results, as you can see, are pretty spectacular! Hey Denis, ever think about the tagline “You can’t spell design without Denis.”
Easy to follow tutorial steps, great result i can’t really say much else! By the way, if you hadn’t noticed, this IS the new logo the site will be using in the re-design that is, god willing, still slated to happen mid year this year. Big plans in my brain… getting them out might be the hard part.
Portfolio: CEO Centerfold 12-08, Chris Hite
December 2008 OCMETRO CEO Centerfold, Chris Hite
Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO
Quark 6, Photoshop CS2
2 hours
CEO Centerfold spread pages for OCMETRO, Photography by Tracie Spence.
This was my 4th design of a CEO centerfold for OCMETRO magazine and second in a Horizontal layout.
Click through for the full image after the jump.
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Portfolio: OCMETRO Cover, 11-08 The Hot 25
November 2008 OCMETRO Cover, The Hot 25: Revealed
Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO
Quark 6, Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2
6-8 Hours, concept to completion
Annually OCMETRO chooses it’s “Hot 25″ business people of Orange County California. This year we wanted to try a fresh new look, with a feeling of anonymity to appeal to the readers and grab their attention.
I really got to strech my design wings with this cover. Working for a business related publication, design like this is a tough sell. The image pleased enough of the decision makers and i got the green light to go ahead with the cover and cover story.
Portfolio: OCFAMILY.com Logo Masthead
OCFAMILY.com Masthead
Churm Media, in association with OCFAMILY
Illustrator CS2
3 Hours
Churm Media requested a way to show it’s readers and advertisers the success it’d had at this year’s annual PPA (Parenting Publications of America) Awards Convention.
I really wanted to explore trying to make the banner really appear as if it was intertwining throughout the Masthead. Piggybacking upon the great success of OCFAMILY’s website at this years Parenting Publications of America’s Annual awards contest & ceremony. Here are what some of the judges had to say about the website itself.
Gold: OC Family; Kimberly Porrazzo; Kristen Schott; Jeff Kitchen
OC Family’s web site provided rich multimedia content for its users. The highlight of this content is the ability for OC Family’s community to contribute photos of children. The photos are tastefully incorporated into the Web site’s design and provide an engaging entry-point into the site’s additional content. The directory of community businesses provides detail with both contact information and a description of services.
Portfolio: CEO Centerfold, Leila Entezam 11-08
November OCMETRO CEO Centerfold, Leila Entezam
Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO
Quark 6, Photoshop CS2
2 Hours
CEO Centerfold spread pages for OCMETRO, Photography by Tracie Spence.
This was my 3rd design of a CEO centerfold for OCMETRO magazine.
Click through for the full size image after the jump…
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Portfolio: OCMETRO Cover, 10-08 Obama-McCain
October OCMETRO Cover, What’s at stake for Orange County? Obama – McCain
Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO
Quark 6, Illustrator CS2, Photoshop CS2
4 Hours
The cover story told of ways that each presidential candidate could effect Orange County, since we’re a hyper-local magazine media company.
I wanted the cover to look vastly different than anything we’d produced in the past, bringing techniques and ideas which Churm Media hadn’t explored before. The idea of adding in the Orange slices was to really bring the hyper-local aspect to the cover, and to get a nice bright splash of colors.
Portfolio: CEO Centerfold, Andre Filip 10-08
CEO Centerfold – Andre Filip, OCMETRO 10-08
Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO
Quark 6, Photoshop
1 hour.
CEO Centerfold spread pages for OCMETRO, Photography by Tracie Spence.
This was my second CEO centerfold design for OCMETRO Magazine, and the first ever horizontal layout for the section.
click through for full image.
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Portfolio: OCMETRO Cover, 9-08 Tito Ortiz
September OCMETRO Cover – Tito Ortiz
Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO
Quark 6, Photoshop
4 Hours total project
October Issue cover design for OCMETRO
This was the first issue of the re-design, and my first cover for OCMETRO (Previously i’d been designing OCFAMILY & Inland Empire Family Covers & layouts)
UPDATE: RSS footer re-design… check.
In my previous post (literally) i was toying around with my RSS feed footer. Trying to integrate the “community” of Design and networking that i have come to love. Well, i’m happy to report that all has worked. So if you’re a subscriber, i hope you enjoy the visuals (and don’t worry, they’re extremely low load time 12kb for the whole set) and if you’re not a subscriber (yet) then shame on you! haha. just kidding, but you should probably subscribe. i’ve been known to be called awesome. I’m just saying.
So, without further blabbering by me, here’s your american-idol-esque moment…. right after this jump!
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Portfolio: Follow the yellow brick [tutorial] road
My dear love for tutorial doage (yes, that’s now a word) keeps my skills sharp and my knowledge of all things graphic design high. I generally browse through the tutorials pages looking for something to catch my eye that gives me a sense of “how can i incorporate that into one of my Magazine layouts.” On this particular day i was looking through Photoshop Lady’s website to see what new and exciting things the graphic design community had come up with this week. Low and behold, there it was. A Gel Button effect in photoshop to rival MANY gel button tutorials on the “market”. And trust me, i’ve done many of them. Most of them good, and get you to the goal you’re set out for, but this one had so much glamour that i knew i’d have to see how it was accomplished. So, not to bore you with the details or to try and explain the steps i’ll just give you a link so you can test for yourself. All in all, once i got a subject for the ‘logo’, this tutorial took me about 5-10 minutes, then add another 5 for personal tweaks and adjustments.
So without further ado, here’s my rendition of the tutorial (via 3nhanced)…. after the jump [click image for full size].
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