Graham Gibson, Jon Ho, Aaron Craig, David Chalk are musical group The Northern. This Manhattan rock and roll quartet of misplaced Texans releases their new album, The Shadowlands, on June 15th in NYC. If you are interested in going, check out their respective webbed sites for more information:

The Northern on Twitter: twitter.com/thenorthernnyc
The Northern on the Web: thenorthern.com/
The Northern on Facebook: facebook.com/TheNorthernMusic

On their blog you can see this new post about the logo. I had better get a shirt or something for this.

The Shadowlands releases on iTunes June 19th.

Throughout most concepts I wanted to retain either an element of “fun” or “film.” Catch the Moment provides their services at events, and records the special memories on film, so the intersection of the two is what I wanted to capture. (Hence the old Hollywood logo from the last post.)

The vintage movie theater sign above alluded to classic film, and the bright, fun color scheme below allowed for a little more flexibility.

At the end of the day, the client wanted a more contemporary approach than the vintage stylings I had through my early concepts. This “filmstrip” concept was a contender, but not a finalist.

And there you go: more interesting concepts left on the cutting room floor (pun very much intended.)

On the whole, strategy and concept decisions are more important to brand development than creative execution, but I wanted to show a step-by-step artistic review of my execution process as well. Here are the visual steps I used to create a “Catch the Moment” logo concept, which is pretty indicative of my normal logo design process.

Note: Catch the Moment did not choose this direction for their final logo. You can see the artwork they selected by visiting their website. Zaib Malik designed the final mark; I have referenced him before in this post.

92% (or so) of the time I will begin by sketching with pen on paper. If I’m in a rush, I sometimes don’t start on paper, but then I just end up wasting time on the computer for a few hours, and go back to paper anyway, wishing I had just started there. Maybe I should have learned my lesson by know. Anyway, here are some intial sketches.

Initial Sketches

After a few concepts, I settled on an old video camera as the image, and wanted to utilize a vintage Hollywood style.

Defining specific lines and forms is not as important to me in the sketching phase as figuring out how the whole image will work together. Composition, as well as general visual style, is really what I want to figure out while I’m in the sketching phase. This particular logo was really well described in the sketch phase, even more detailed than usual, so the next steps were relatively quick.

Shape out the Area

Note: Notice how in this phase I dropped the “button” that was on the left hand side of the circle. Often I will loose superfluous elements when going from sketch phase to illustration, but in this case I might have just forgotten about it. Oh well.

Do the lineart

Balance Elements / Text

Experiment with Colors

If I have a difficult time picking a color scheme, sometimes I will reduce the illustration to a greyscale version just to see where I want my darkest and lightest values. After I get this to work the way I like, I can easily explore schemes with the appropriate lightness and darkness.

Greyscale Version

Final Colors

All in all I am quite happy with how the final logo turned out. The colors and illustration style work together to create a fun, vintage tone. Although this particular brand would likely only exist online or in digital media, I felt compelled to create a couple simplified permutations of the logo in case of unexpected black and white printing from a desktop printer or similar situation.

Greyscale Variant

Single Color

Here is my old workspace, old chair in the foreground:

Nickelfish provides it’s employees with high-quality ergonomic chairs which are adjustable in more ways than one would care to know. This lies in stark contrast to my own $6 yard sale chair, and after less than one full workweek in it my lower back was beginning to pay the price. Not to mention that the chair and desk are both too short.

I have recently heard rumblings from friends and the internets alike about how standing desks are going to save the planet. While this might be a bit overstated, I did notice how much my sedentary, desk-hunching and car-driving lifestyle (totaling nearly 12 hours a day) affected my energy and overall fitness level (the latter gauged loosely by my endurance in intramural sports and weekly jogs). Let’s just say it affected it negatively.

I also began to experience a not insignificant level of back pain and soreness since switching work environments, and this appeared to be directly related to my bad working posture due to my desk/chair configuration.

Since I do not possess $500 to spend on a fancy chair, nor am I inclined to invest in a heavy-duty new desk that I will just have to move in a couple months (more on that later), I decided to disregard looks and go for a synthesis of functionality and frugality: build my own standing desk on top of my existing desk.

Step 1: Sketch

I used an ergonomic workspace planner to figure out the appropriate height for my keyboard and monitor and sketched from there. The original plan for the tabletops included some brackets and tabletops from Ikea, but I was doing this on a budget.

The goal was to build the desk for $50 or less, so pre-fab tabletops and fancy brackets were out of the question. My wife and I visited Home Depot to see if they offered a budget solution.

Step 2: Purchase Stuff

We discovered laminated pine boards pre-cut to the exact depths I needed for my new tabletops (who knew?). They were cheap and looked nice.

2×4 framing braces would provide more than enough support for my needs, so we picked up 12 to attach to the top and bottom of the middle shelf and then attach the entire construction to my existing Target desktop.

Home Depot has a rack of cheap 2x4s from which we culled our tabletop supports, and since I don’t own any power tools (aside from a borrowed electric drill) paid the 50 cents per cut to have them trim the boards and 2x4s to length.

Possibly because he was in a good mood the guy at the checkout didn’t charge me for the salvaged 2X4s or the cuts. Screws and a sanding block rounded out the purchases at a tidy $47.59.

Step 3: Sand

I did not finish these boards with stain or paint, but elected to sand the edges of my tabletops since I would be resting both my hands and computer equipment on it.

Step 4: Assemble

The first step was to remove the existing Target desktop from the frame, which primarily meant unscrewing the expanding bolts that keep cheap pressboard furniture together.

As I began to layout the structural elements and measure for the supports, I realized the Home Depot guys hadn’t trimmed my 2x4s exactly the same length. A quick run back to the store remedied the problem.

After assembling the desk elements together we had to affix it to the desktop. Quick Tip: use masking tape on laminate surfaces to make it easier to mark screwholes AND prevent the laminate from splitting when you drill into it.

My wife Olivia, who helped me build it, is here seen tightening the fasteners that will keep the whole thing on the frame. We also nailed the desk backing material back in place onto the desktop.

And there you go: a standing desk for $50.

After two weeks of use I am used to the perpetual standing, but the soles of my feet are noticeably sore after a long day. I will be purchasing a mat soon that I hope will relieve that issue. However, since switching I haven’t had a hint of back pain and my running endurance has increased. Coincidence? Possibly, but there is definitely something to not hunching over a desk 10 hours a day…

The nautical theme is clearly portrayed in the font choice, colors, background textures and iconography. Notice how we have four different elements from the name all combining to build the icon: the “O” of Anchor joins with an actual anchor, generating a life preserver out of the “O” and a cross out of the anchor.

I came on board with Nickelfish as their first Senior Designer in July of 2010, one month after getting married and one week after moving up to Princeton, New Jersey. Since that summer the staff has doubled in size and we expanded to our downstairs workspace. Check out these photos of the awesome space.

If you look above my desk you will see a panoramic image. This is one of the most fun projects I worked on during my time there: The Nickelfish League of Heroes. Over a lunch early in my Nickelfish career, I said it might be fun to illustrate our Nickelfish group as a team of superheroes. This was mentioned casually (and if you’ve known me for any length of time you will recognize this suggestion as pretty standard procedure anytime I am in a new professional or social setting), but the proposition was immediately taken up by the CEO, Justin Marcucci.

Though the pet project was delayed by busy months of actual client work I eventually began sketching on our then-15-person team and researching professional comic artists to render them. After many months of sketching, revising and proofing we finally printed our inaugural class image in the summer of 2011. The long-term plan is to re-print a new league poster every summer, updating the team as necessary.

The portfolio section of this site is littered with projects I’ve done while with Nickelfish, and my time there truly expanded my skill set and pushed me in directions I otherwise would not have explored. My relationship with the people at NFIDM is excellent, and I am leaving on equally excellent terms. I will continue to work for Nickelfish as necessary, wrapping up the rest of my remaining projects on a freelance basis and helping the team out as needed.

Thanks to everyone at Nickelfish for making my time there enjoyable and rewarding. I hope I contributed to the team’s experience as much as they contributed to mine. My best wishes to everyone over there, I hope to see you all soon.

What about The Brandit, you ask? That will have to be saved for another time.

My initial connection with Reel FX (Radium and Reel FX merged in March of 2007, just a couple months before I began working at the Dallas location) came from family, my mother having attended grade school with Brandon Oldenburg and his family. Brandon is one of the co-founding members of Reel FX in 1995.

During my brief time there I assisted him in a minor role on a couple projects, but getting to watch him work on his art was worth much more than my meager paycheck. As a skilled visual artist and storyteller, Brandon’s professional accolades are many, but his biggest one may yet be before him.

A couple years ago Brandon left Radium/Reel FX to join up with a group called Moonbot Studios. Radium/Reel FX had long been focused on animating the intellectual properties of other companies, but Brandon’s passion was developing original characters and stories. His training is in visual art, but he specifically loves using that skill to tell stories.

The synthesis of these traits is evident in Moonbot Studios’ new short film The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morriss Lessmore. Please enjoy the video above.

This is what Brandon and Moonbot Studios have to say about their work:

Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story.

Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a new narrative experience that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals. “Morris Lessmore” is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.

To date, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” film has drummed up fans all over the world taking home the following awards:

· Cinequest Film Fest: Best Animated Short
· Palm Springs International ShortFest: Audience Favorite Award
· SIGGRAPH: Best in Show

Here is a link to their Academy Awards Press release.

Congratulations, Brandon. Can’t wait to see you bring home the statue.

“I am a photographer based in Washington DC. I shoot weddings, families, kids, various events and any other random projects that catch my eye here and all over the world. This blog serves as my own personal journal for all of my professional work, personal imagery, travels, and other randomness.”

Wale called me in early 2011 for a logo and business card design. A fan of custom lettering, he wanted something slightly old fashioned, so that’s exactly what we did. (You might have seen this logo before in the Identity section of the portfolio)

Personal communication and attention to detail are the focuses of Wale’s work as a photographer, and he wanted to convey that in the business card. We elected a letterpress process, and made one side of the card appear to be “flashing” like the bulb from a camera.

Here you can see the letterpress impression of the logo, as well as the yellow highlight on the edge of the card.

And here is the new logo on-screen on his website…

Olivia (my amazing wife) has been wanting to have photos taken of us for a while now, so we elected to do an exchange of services: I would design his logo, and he would do a photoshoot for us in Princeton in the fall. Here is a beautiful photo he took of us…

Note: Exchanging services can be very beneficial for those who run their own shops, or are a relatively small business. In many of these cases, including my own, small companies like this run pretty lean financially, and have more freedom to do work than spend cash.

In an exchange of services (or bartering) both parties are taxed on the value of the service they receive, just as if that service was income. Since Wale and I run our own shops this is simple enough.

Wale claims his strength as a photographer is shooting people; after spending a brief afternoon with him I can see why. His friendly manner put us right at ease, and he is able to discover what his customers want from simple conversations without having to ask too many details.

Though weddings and romantic scenes are his specialty, I highly recommend Wale for any shoot you may have; he is based out of DC but is free to travel, mostly up and down the east coast. Here is his website: http://waleariztos.com/

Having lived in Princeton for over two years I decided it was about time to go see a Princeton Tigers’ football game. With all due respect to some remarkable individual efforts including a Princeton outside linebacker, their kickoff return man, and a few Yale offensive playmakers, the game as a whole left much to be desired for someone whose football tastes were cultivated in Texas and Oklahoma.

A student of team sports uniform design, the most interesting part of the game was Princeton’s winged helmet. If you have been aware of college football at any point in the last fifty years or so you will doubtlessly know of Michigan’s famous winged helmet. I asked one of the Tigers’ old guard seated behind me who had it first, and he assured me it was his alma mater.

Princeton

Not that I didn’t trust the homer sitting behind me, but this merited some research. Here is the story according to Princeton.edu:

“Princeton’s orange and black “Tiger Helmet” is a distinctive piece of the University’s sports tradition. Designed by legendary Hall of Fame coach Herbert O. “Fritz” Crisler and first worn by the undefeated national championship team of 1935, this colorful headgear is a link to one of the great eras in the heralded football history of Old Nassau.

“The helmet was styled to represent a fighting tiger with its ears glared back and three symbolic orange-stripes running sleekly from front to back and matches the traditional tiger striping on the jersey. At a time when all helmets were similar, Coach Crisler thought that this highly visible emblem would help quarterbacks more readily find their downfield receivers.

“When Crisler left Princeton in 1938, he took the helmet design with him to Michigan, where in maize and blue it became an icon of that university’s football program. This distinctive helmet design which originated at Princeton – where intercollegiate football was born – is a reminder to students, alumni, fans and worthy opponents of all the great Tiger players who ever proudly represented Old Nassau on the gridiron.” - Princeton.edu

Surprisingly, Michigan’s website supports this narrative:

Michigan

“The famous “winged” design dates from 1938 when Coach Herbert O. “Fritz” Crisler arrived from Princeton to begin a new era in Michigan football. Even as the design and composition of helmets evolved from stitched cowhide to high-tech, molded plastic, the winged design has remained the pre-eminent symbol of Michigan football.

“The distinctive helmet would also have practical advantages on the field. Crisler figured the helmet would help his halfbacks find receivers downfield. ‘There was a tendency to use different colored helmets just for receivers in those days, but I always thought that would be as helpful for the defense as for the offense,’ Crisler recalled.” – Bentley Historical Library

Here is an interesting video about the Michigan helmet reconditioning process. Although it is heavily pro-Michigan, the fact remains that their helmet is certainly the most recognizable in the college sports landscape.

However! As it turns out, there is more to this story. Ohio State University claims to have used a “winged” design as early as 1930:

Ohio State

“On September 11, 1930, Ohio State Head Coach Sam Willaman had his Buckeyes debut new uniforms along with winged helmets at Northwestern. This was the first time any team, either college or professional, wore a winged helmet.

The first winged helmet was a dark leather helmet with a lighter contrasting color wing on the front. The wing was put in place as extra padding to help sustain collisions.

Willaman had his teams wear the winged helmet for three seasons and in 1934, new Head Coach Francis Schmidt kept the winged helmets for his first season, but opted to return to the traditional leather helmets during his second season in 1935.” – SpartanJerseys.com

The reason this is not as popular a narrative, however, is due to the nature of the “wings” on the helmet. The uniqueness of the Princeton/Michigan design includes the three stripes coming out of the center front of the wings, and wrapping around the head to converge in the back. However! Photographic evidence proves that the “three striped winged helmet” had been used even prior to Crisler’s 1935 Princeton team.

Indiana

“In 1933, Indiana started wearing winged helmets under Head Coach Earle “Billy” Hayes with a victory over Miami (OH) on September 30, 1933. Indiana’s winged helmet consisted of a black leather helmet with a white wing and three white stripes running from front to back. A small block “I” logo was centered on the front of the wing.

“In 1934, Indiana hired a new head coach, Alvin “Bo” McMillin, who began phasing out the winged helmets only one year after the helmets were debuted at Indiana. Photos of the team and games depict only half of Indiana’s players wearing winged helmets during this season, with the other half wearing the traditional leather helmet. This suggests the NCAA and Big Ten rules regarding consistency with helmets were more flexible in 1934.

“By 1935, the entire team switched back to traditional leather helmets ending their two-year stint wearing the winged helmets.” - SpartanJerseys.com

Spalding’s FH5 three striped winged helmet featured on the cover of the 1938 Spalding Official Intercollegiate Football Guide:

So as it turns out Princeton was not the first utilize to utilize either a winged helmet or the three striped winged helmet design. The Michigan State Spartans page has a more robust history on it than mine, including excellent academic sources in case you don’t want to take my word on any of this.

I might buy what they have to say since Michigan State no longer uses a winged helmet design and doesn’t stand to loose anything. However, with Michigan being their biggest rival, it might behoove them to discredit one of Michigan’s coaches with the creation of it… conspiracy?

Although Princeton abandoned the winged helmet when Crisler left after the ’37 season, the Tigers resurrected it in 1998 and use it to this day. Upon further research (read: Wikipedia) I found an abbreviated record of other schools who have used the design:

• Saint Peter’s College, New Jersey (football program since dropped)
• University of Delaware
• Southwest Baptist University (stopped its use in 2008)
• Grove City College
• Gustavus Adolphus College
• Middlebury College
• Nichols College

This topic definitely merits more research than the cursory web search I’ve done here, but it’s certainly enough to whet my appetite on the unique headgear. In case you’re interested here is the Wikipedia page on the history of the winged helmet design. I won’t be posting again before the new year, so enjoy your holidays and the remainder of 2011.

See you all in 2012.

Back in April I designed a masthead for The University of Oklahoma’s Journal of Global Affairs, and recently received the completed book. Over the summer Texas Christian University Press hired me to lay out a novel by Texas author Tom Hardy: Slow Moving Dreams. When they arrived in the mail it provided the perfect opportunity to try out the new camera and start honing my skills.

I don’t do much book layout work. The nature of page by page layout spread over hundreds of pages doesn’t appeal to me as much as a series of unique layouts for a shorter publication, but the cover design is usually exciting enough to me to justify laying out a complete book, especially if the cover design will help inspire the interior.

Journal of Global Affairs

This project actually turned out better than I had hoped. The two-tones of grey throughout the book helped separate the various levels of information within each article, and the references and graphs read clearly at the end.

Slow Moving Dreams

The cover of this novel was supposed to romanticize the stark nature of West Texas. Some would argue that the miles of flat desert plains that roll into small mountains need no assistance being camera ready, but for those that are not familiar with the spacious grandeur, I wanted to lend an air of fond familiarity.

Slow Moving Dreams: Cover Design

And there you go. My first attempt at photography posted on this site: terrible.