Title: OCFAMILY TV Logo Design

Client: Churm Media, in association with OC Family Magazine

Program(s) Used: Illustrator CS2

Time Span: 2 hours Conceptual. 2 hours design.

About: ocfamily.com needed a logo design for their new video feature in which anyone can upload videos of their children. The idea was to make them a TV star, on the web.

Designer Notes: I really wanted to add an element of freshness to this logo. In the end the company decided to take a darker direction and make everything black based.

Shocked and awed was my feeling when i saw a pingback on my wordpress dashboard early this morning. My logo “re-”design for We Heart It was mentioned for a shout out to the photo sharing community site. Thanks, Really Good Magazine, for the exposure. I should buy you a cup of coffee!

UPDATE: Someone just pointed out to me that my name’s missing a ‘D’ in it, but hey. i’m not complaining! Thanks again reallygoodmagazine.com

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s an interesting site dedicated to Quotes on Designers. You can even add your own if you’d like.

Couple personal favorites:

• Mieke Gerritzen – Good design goes to heaven; bad design goes everywhere.
• Shunryu Suzuki – When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
• Jack Moffet – Broken gets fixed. Shoddy lasts forever.
• John F. Kennedy – An error doesn’t become a mistake until one refuses to correct it.

Via One Plus Infinity [via SwissMiss]

Read the rest of this entry »

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!
Read the rest of this entry »

I found a great picture of Mickey Rourke and the SAG (Screen Actor Guild) Awards on The Superficial and got some inspiration to use some skills that i’ve recently been tinkering with… Grunge Styling.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think!

Larger image and full size Flickr link after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

By the power of Grayskull, i came across a huge time waster productive site. As always, i love to share these kinds of things with my community. Let me break it down for you. click, click, click.. sever is down at work… click click… internet is working though… SHAZAAAAM! Cubeecraft.com! *angels sing*

Ok, i may be paraphrasing a bit there, but i think you get the point. By utilizing a person’s sense of self worth when they create something by hand and the keen graphic design templates that produce MANY characters imaginable, cubeecraft.com was born. Being a child of the 80′s i WAS awfully tempted to have a little paper craft Pee-Wee Herman w/ Chairy, but then decided to settle on the infamous Stay Puft Marshmallow man (thank you ghostbusters!). X-acto in hand i began the semi-tedious process of cutting across the lines. Taking a minute to feel like i was back in crafts school, i carried on. 7-10 short minutes later the payoff was at hand, excuse the pun. Mini Stay Puff will now guard my cubicle from would-be assassins… errr well, not really… *mumbles* just don’t cross the streams…

Now, head on over to cubeecraft.com (Don’t forget the extra ‘e’ or you, like me, will end up in an internet black hole of asian characters) and cut yourself a little desk mate. Post a comment with a photo of yourself and the little fella, i’d love to see ‘em.

First off, let me say thank you Design Bump for leading me to this post, and secondly a big thank you to Sverre Sjøthun at Crestock.com for making this AWESOME List. I can in no way take credit for this, but i sure as hell can 95% relate to it. ahhhhhh, the good life of a designer. Look out world, we’re over-worked, under-paid and looking for our bosses to get all our hard earned recognitions. (kick up the feet on the desk and bask in the goodness)

• You smile that spanking-kind-of-smile when you use the CSS property: padding-bottom.
• You know exactly what I’m referring to when I say “Make my logo bigger”.
• Every now and then you go through a ‘herbal tea’ phase to try and reduce your dependence to coffee, but you always go back to the inky demon eventually.
• You’ve caught yourself more than once hitting CTRL or CMD+N when you need a coffee refill…
• Sleep and nighttime are no longer irrevocably linked.
• You have woken up in the middle of the night your sleep and started recreating the dream you just had in Photoshop.
• When getting up, you wish you had a healing brush/patch tool for those unsightly blemishes and undereye luggage.
• Your keyboard could definitely be someone’s grocery list – you’re eating there constantly.
• You know several Photoshop shortcuts that require 4 fingers (Shift+Ctrl+Alt+K anyone?).
• Whenever you see fog on a forested hillside, you think, nature is making a gaussian blur.
• You’re sitting in the movie theater watching the movie titles, shaking your head at how badly they’re kerned.
• Your biggest fear is Papyrus becoming the new Comic Sans.
• If you could go back in time you wouldn’t go back to see the rise and fall of civilizations, you’d go back in time to destroy Comic Sans and Papyrus.
• Your most romantic date was when you went to see Helvetica by Gary Hustwit.
• You’ve considered naming your children things like ‘Kern’, ‘Pica’, ‘Bézier’, ‘Nyala’, and ‘Serif’.
• You are trying catch the post-it notes at your monitor with your cursor.
• You know that, by default, if three designs are shown to a client, your least favorite will be chosen – or any combination of worst components of each.
• You also know that if you ask for more copy it will be sent as a Jpeg; If you ask for images they will be sent as PowerPoint presentations; if you ask for a vector logo, it’ll come in the form of a Gif – from their website.
• You have an uncanny ability to automatically see when something is lined up properly without the need for tools or devices, for instance if a shelf is straight, and where the center of the wall is to hang a picture.
• And as a direct cause, get an almost uncontrollable urge to adjust a painting that’s tilted ever so slightly.
• And when in doubt, you automatically think CTRL or CMD+;
• When girls are picking up Vogue and Cosmopolitan drooling over the latest trend in eye makeup and trying to figure out how to accomplish the the same effect, you’re drooling over the most amazing 2 page advertising spread you’ve ever seen – trying to figure out how to accomplish the the same Photoshop effect…
• You actually understand this post and pass it on to your fellow geeks friends.

Name: The Churm Media Band of Brothers
Designer: Albert Ornelas
Programs: Photoshop & Illustrator

Albert Ornelas is the Churm Media jack of all trades. Starting as a graphic designer and moving his way though the ranks to land as a web Specialist, Albert is one of “the band”. The “Band of Brothers” is the group of production guys who work in the heavily woman dominated offices of Churm Media. Over the year of the band’s inception, some have come and gone, but the brotherhood still remains. Taking the inspiration from the bond we have, Albert created his interpretation of the band of brothers. Taking the caricature drawings of the brothers and stylizing them with color, shading, and adorning them with helmets, Albert has created a flag to fly proud for “The Band”.

Full image after the jump… wait for it… JUMP!
Read the rest of this entry »

In the pending months to come there’s a planned re-design for ninethreestudio.com. This will include a new “web 2.0″ style logo as well as *hopefully* a complete site revamp… so i guess this logo is a small sneak peek at the new 2.0 stylings. Subtle, yet noticeably different than the current logo.

UPDATE:This logo has also been submitted to Logo of the Day, so let’s hope that they post it and my 7 faithful blog readers can vote for it!! *finger’s crossed*

Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think! … please …

“un-styled” logo after the jump and on the link… JUMP!
Read the rest of this entry »

“GOD” over at Deaddog has given a nice little blast about my latest portfolio addition, HALFrican-American. Now if only i could convince Jesus to be so kind as well…

HOW TIE™
instructions included

Job Interview? Briss? Court Appearance? Yes, a necktie is definitely called for, and not a clip-on! No problem…relax, take a deep breath, remember your days in the boy scouts, and study the oh-so-easy knot-tying instructions printed right on Fred’s handy How Tie.

Thanks Design You Trust for the link. (How Fresh and Creative Ideas Rules the World)
Follow through to see other ideas too, this one was just my favorite.

I got a kick out of this. not per se MY reasons for being a designer, but i like the pie chart concept. Although i found it funny that money wasn’t mentioned on th……….. wait a minute!! hahaha.
Designer doesn’t equal Money.

Thanks SwissMiss and Change Order.

TiltViewer is a fancy-shmancy web-based application that can be viewed as a single web page, or implimented into your own page. This cool little app lets you view your flickr photos in an easy-on-the-eyes interface with some smooth transitions. Check it out and give it a download to try out on your own site.

Here’s how the game works. First, and foremost, there’s a certain sense of boredom that plays a huge factor in the conceptualization of the images. Secondly, there’s also gotta be a lull in work, or a downtime. Lastly there’s that silent “wait until they open their e-mail” factor you have to be ready for… or in some cases when it’s just too good to be true, a little prod of “hey, buddy, you should probably check your mail” will suffice.

Rules:

Rule 1: All images must be SFW (Safe for work), unless you plan on sending these to a personal e-mail address of the Bingo Bango victim.
Rule 2: Search, scour and google creative keywords to find the funniest pictures.
Rule 3: Build a network, share the images you create in the workplace with other co-workers, just keep the spam to a minimum.
Rule 4: No holds barred. Be creative!
Rule 5: BE LIGHTHEARTED! This is just to help the time in the day pass, and it’s a great way to learn some quick photoshop tips and tricks!
Rule 6: And the most important rule of them all… do NOT neglect your work. Thanks!

Artist: Luke Hodsdon (e-mail)
Title: Art Director
Company: Churm Media (link)

Artist: Brandon Jaime (e-mail)
Title: Graphic Designer
Company: Churm Media (link)

Please, feel free to comment this page with your own workplace Bingo Bango’s! Some comments may await moderation, but i will be sure to get them up! (sorry, had a bad spam problem so i had to moderate)

At my current day to day job I use this technique religiously. It’s fast, easy and extremely effective when trying to achieve better quality photos for print and online. In the following Adobe Photoshop tutorial I’ll walk you though a quick (less than a minute once you learn the steps) process on how to brighten up those dull, dark photos you’ve been sent from your clients… or in my case, taken with your poor digital camera.

The following tutorial was done in Adobe Photoshop CS3, but 80% of the process can be used on just about any program with a “Levels” function (such as the freeware, open source image editing software, GIMP) while the last 20% can be done all the way back to Photoshop CS1 (this is the black overlay feature achieved by holding the ‘option’ or ‘alt’ key in levels).

» TIP: IT’S ALWAYS GOOD TO MAKE DUPLICATES OF YOUR LAYERS IN CASE YOU NEED TO GO BACK IF YOU MAKE A FATAL MISTAKE.

Step 1:

Open the file you wish to adjust and open the Levels adjustment window » SHORTCUT: COMMAND+L (pc users: CTRL+L). This will bring up your image’s histogram and the palette where this tutorial will focus. Locate the white point slider as seen above.

Step 2:

One of the best features of this tutorial is built right in to Photoshop CS1+. While on the white point slider, press and hold OPTION (pc users: ALT) and begin scrubbing the bar left and right. This will give you a black overlay over your image. If you’re using an older version of Photoshop or a different program you can skip to step 4.

» NOTE: THIS FEATURE WILL ONLY WORK IF YOUR IMAGE IS IN RGB MODE.

» TIP: USING ADJUSTMENT LAYERS IS A GREAT WAY TO INSURE THAT YOU DON’T RUIN YOUR ORIGINAL FILES. THIS IS CALLED “WORKING NON-DESTRUCTIVELY”. IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO KEEP YOUR ORIGINAL FILES INTACT FOR FUTURE PROJECTS, OR TO RETURN TO A PREVIOUS STATE IF YOUR ADJUSTMENT LAYERS AREN’T WORKING FOR YOUR DESIGN ANYMORE.