Unearthed icons

I was recently asked by Matthew Spiel to help create a small set of three icons for Unearthed, a Christian organization. In order here are pray, give & share.

process

This mark still needs technical edits, but here is a basic “making of”.

discard!

Some discarded icons from my website. I wanted to showcase icons, photography and archived work. These were supposed to represent each of those categories.

16px

Some marks that I’ve made set at 16×16px favicon dimensions. I love pressing the integrity of the mark at such a tiny scale.

logo construction

Buckminster

“A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist, and evolutionary strategist.” 
—R. Buckminster Fuller

certifyD

certifyD : establishing values through professional certification

A graduate thesis by Esteban Pérez-Hemminger

(The audio quality isn’t the best in the world.)

Problem statement 

Today, the term “graphic designer,” rather than understood and respected, has become devalued and insignificant. The tools we use, not the knowledge or expertise we possess, have unfavorably defined our profession. Design's focus on problem-solving, creative-thinking and its obligation to society has been displaced as a needless expendability by commercialism and the prevalent notion that “anyone can do it.” As a profession, graphic design needs to establish achievable standards that objectively measure educational experience, business competency and ethics within all practicing members. These parameters would provide a platform for redefining our profession's purpose, delineating the basic qualifications necessary for professional practice, and reinforcing our relationship with society. Such principles would become a guideline for young designers, a measure of excellence among practitioners and a facilitating tool for clients to identify designers of parallel vision, beliefs and thorough expertise. Communications Design not as computer dexterity or a tool for propaganda, but as a validated responsible profession, would then become a viable instrument for solving the communication, social and environmental problems we face today. 

 Within the 5 major design fields (industrial, engineering, architecture, graphic, interior), graphic design remains as the only field in the USA with no system of requirements, standards or benchmarks to follow.

Be forewarned, this is 2:09:36 — not a brief video. From :00 to 6:30 sets the stage with a thesis on certification. Jump to 9:30 for dialogue with panelists.

Here is a PDF of the thesis paper.

new site!

Hey folks, great news: I finally an updated portfolio site!

I owe a huge thanks to my buddy Josh Bielick for helping with the development.

All about Magic

On the 45th Anniversary Edition of The Sword in the Stone, there is a featurette called All about Magic. The section is hosted by Walt himself. I love that lettering of Disney’s name.

For reference, the current Walt Disney logo.

The full, 48 minute feature, All about Magic.

Men wearing boys coats

Thomas Jefferson, in a letter written to Samuel Kercheval in 1816, had this to say about the law and human progress:

I am certainly not an advocate for for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with; because, when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.

via kottke.org

A Very Southern Christmas

Filmed for a friend in Korea, entirely on an iPhone. My role was Santa.

Memory: Esse Quam Videri

This is a school project I finished through November. I'm just now getting around to posting some photos. The project was about memory: we needed to make a book, a poster and a box to put it all in. My memory focuses on North Carolina as a concept and my role in it.

The box is another, larger book with pages carved out to fit the smaller book inside.

The larger book (the "box") was fit with a collage-style dust jacket. The title is Esse Quam Videri.

 Dust jacket removed to show interior, memory chart

Poster, North Carolina state seal

Book

Deception of a Ghost - Firework (Katy Perry cover)

continu (without the “e”)

Icons for a workforce-education service. Lots more to come with the whole brand soon.

Archetype release

Last year, Nick Cox of EverydayType contacted me to make the brand identity and user interface for an iPhone app. The idea was a comprehensive typographic reference, part glossary, part letter-by-letter anatomy lesson.

The app consists of over 200 terms and definitions with over 100 accompanying illustrations and diagrams for all upper and lower case letters in the English alphabet as well as typographic page layout references.

Check out the site and sign up for updates at Archetypeapp.com.

Download the app directly from the App Store here.

★★★★★