Museum of Bees [business cards]

Just printed some business cards for the Museum of Bees. I've got a whole collateral system to post when I get some good photos of it all.

stencil

Working on some type for a client.

Sun'n'Fun

Got some shirts and photos in from a recent client. Check out the blog post (here) at the Focus Lab site, a little more in depth branding process.

Ten Principles of Good Design

According to Dieter Rams, good design:

• Is innovative - The possibilities for innovation are not, by any means, exhausted. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. But innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself.

• Makes a product useful - A product is bought to be used. It has to satisfy certain criteria, not only functional, but also psychological and aesthetic. Good design emphasizes the usefulness of a product whilst disregarding anything that could possibly detract from it.

• Is aesthetic - The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products are used every day and have an effect on people and their well-being. Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.

• Makes a product understandable - It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product clearly express its function by making use of the user's intuition. At best, it is self-explanatory.

• Is unobtrusive - Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user's self-expression.

• Is honest - It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

• Is long-lasting - It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today's throwaway society.

• Is thorough down to the last detail - Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

• Is environmentally friendly - Design makes an important contribution to the preservation of the environment. It conserves resources and minimizes physical and visual pollution throughout the lifecycle of the product.

• Is as little design as possible - Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

(source: wiki)

Manners

I did this a while back for a friend. It ended up be an unused concept but I love it so much so I thought I'd find a place for it here just to maintain the memory of it.

Gravity

An observation of gravity. This is from a class that centered around a topic of our choice. I chose gravity, which turned out being difficult to visualize without obvious cues.

Here is a concise process: gathering descriptive words and definitions, poster options and the 3D piece. One of my observations from the process was how gravity is a form of hierarchy; visually, gravity creates systems based on scale, proportion and distance.

Research & word lists

Visualizations

Series of icons that represent relationships of objects through gravity.

Final 3D piece, 2x2' cube with a 1x1' cube suspended within the larger cube. 

Beads are contained within the smaller cube to represent containment.

Photography & poster

Final poster, 28x18"

Text on the image says "always already ... the present is perpetual." 

This comes from the writing of Paul Ricœur and his theory of always already. 

sago

Unused lettering for a property management logo.

birthday

today is my birthday.

quote

"We will never know if an advertisement or opinion poll has had a real influence on individual or collective wills, but we will never know either what would have happened if there had been no opinion poll or advertisement. (...) There is and there always will be major difficulties in analyzing the media and the whole sphere of information through the traditional categories of the philosophy of the subject: will, representation, choice, liberty, deliberation, knowledge, and desire."

—Jean Baudrillard (The Masses: The Implosion of the Social in the Media, 1985)
(Full text)

coasters!

Using an old bedpost, I hand-sawed these coasters. I sanded them down a bit and put a little teak oil on them. The next step is the laser etch some cool designs into them...

I've got 3 other bedposts if they turn out good.

flower power

Working on a new branding project at Focus. This is an attempt at combining a flower (bud) with a crest. This is an exploration of more things to come—this is just the process.

quote

"To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle."
— George Orwell

What Type Are You?

So Pentagram created this website to determine What Type Are You?
Apparently, they published this site in 2010, but I'm just getting around to it.

Its simple: answer four questions.

• Rational v Emotional
• Understated v Assertive
• Traditional v Progressive
• Disciplined v Relaxed

Turns out I'm Perpetua Titling Light.

Long Builders identity

Thought I'd post a small branding project process. The company is Long Builders, building homes out of Rincon, GA since TR Long founded the company in 1950.

I started with a refresh of their mark and tried to solidify their brand. I used Franklin Gothic as a base and edited a few of the letterforms for a more stable and unique mark. From there I advanced the brand with some icons and selected a narrow color palette. 

The site's design is complete and passed along to the development team. I'll post when the site is live.

Process

Final mark