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!

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Title: December OCMETRO Cover, The Best & Worst Issue, Tiger Woods

Client: Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO

Program(s) Used: Quark 6, Photoshop CS2

Time Span: 2-3 Hours

About: 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.

Designer Notes: 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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Title: Sneak peak Nine Three Studio logo & Glowing text in space.

Client: None, Personal Project

Program(s) Used: Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2 (for logo)

Time Span: 10-20 minutes, not including logo

About: 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.”

Designer Notes: 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.

Click through for the full image after the jump.
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Title: November 2008 OCMETRO Cover, The Hot 25: Revealed

Client: Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO

Program(s) Used: Quark 6, Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2

Time Span: 6-8 Hours, concept to completion

About: 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.

Designer Notes: 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.

Click through for the full image after the jump.
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Title: October OCMETRO Cover, What’s at stake for Orange County? Obama – McCain

Client: Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO

Program(s) Used: Quark 6, Illustrator CS2, Photoshop CS2

Time Span: 4 Hours

About: The cover story told of ways that each presidential candidate could effect Orange County, since we’re a hyper-local magazine media company.

Designer Notes: 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.

Full image after the jump…
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Title: CEO Centerfold – Andre Filip, OCMETRO 10-08

Client: Churm Media, in association with OCMETRO

Program(s) Used: Quark 6, Photoshop

Time Span: 1 hour.

About: CEO Centerfold spread pages for OCMETRO, Photography by Tracie Spence.

Designer Notes: 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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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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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!
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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!
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TO SEE HOW THIS WORKS: Visit the previous post. Please visit and feel free to participate any time.

Artist: Brandon Jaime (e-mail)
Title: Graphic Designer
Company: Churm Media (link)
Artist Comments/Picture Title: “All you little Hulksters out there, give me an oooooohhh yeah!” -Justin “The Hulk” Moore-Brown

To see more Bingo Bango! Visit The Vault.

TO SEE HOW THIS WORKS: Visit the previous post. Please visit and feel free to participate any time.

Artist: Brandon Jaime (e-mail)
Title: Graphic Designer
Company: Churm Media (link)
Artist Comments/Picture Title: Someone should tell Justin that you don’t need to bring money to a swinger’s Key Party!

To see more Bingo Bango! Visit The Vault.

TO SEE HOW THIS WORKS: Visit the previous post. Please visit and feel free to participate any time.

Artist: Brandon Jaime (e-mail)
Title: Graphic Designer
Company: Churm Media (link)
Artist Comments/Picture Title: ……that’s not icing.

To see more Bingo Bango! Visit The Vault.

TO SEE HOW THIS WORKS: Visit the previous post. Please visit and feel free to participate any time.

Artist: Brandon Jaime (e-mail)
Title: Graphic Designer
Company: Churm Media (link)
Artist Comments/Picture Title: Denim Dan and the rocking quartets.

To see more Bingo Bango! Visit The Vault.

TO SEE HOW THIS WORKS: Visit the previous post. Please visit and feel free to participate any time.

Artist: Brandon Jaime (e-mail)
Title: Graphic Designer
Company: Churm Media (link)
Artist Comments/Picture Title: Is that Mario and Luigi?

To see more Bingo Bango! Visit The Vault.

TO SEE HOW THIS WORKS: Visit the previous post. Please visit and feel free to participate any time.

Artist: Brandon Jaime (e-mail)
Title: Graphic Designer
Company: Churm Media (link)
Artist Comments/Picture Title: Little Nicholas in time-out

To see more Bingo Bango! Visit The Vault.