Summer to Fall

A train ride and four nights later I was across the country and back to the NW. Not two days later an art opening was held with much celebration. Surrounded by family, professors, friends, art and array of delicious treats cooked up by Matthew, I knew I was home. It was life-giving to be able to tangibly and visually share a part of my New York experience with the people who loved, supported and prayed for me while I was living there. 

The following weeks included a move to Newberg, and a two week trip to Hawaii with Matthew and his family. The tides seemed to wash away the rumble of the MTA subway and the clickity-clack of 3,557 miles of Amtrack Rails. 

Summer in Newberg was beautiful. My routine looked something like this — 

• Morning coffee

• Freelance

• Friends

• Adventure

• Sleep

Freelancing daily felt wonderful—I am still not over what it feels like not to have Homework. An uncanny turn came one day while perusing Craig's list. It was a one sentence ad listing the need for "a graphic designer for branding companies and websites but not code them." That was it. It was comical compared to the long listed ads for a designer who can write java script in their sleep and create fortune 500 logos on a whim using windows. 

I decided to go for it. Shockingly, I received a reply the next morning and by one o'clock I was in an interview. My attitude sounded like — "Well, it's probably a production artist job… not interested, but good interview practice."

The interview went something like —

• We Love your work

Wow, Thank you -

• Tell us about New York 

New York Design firm, Art Opening, Blah blah, New York... 

• That is the coolest Business card I've ever seen

Wow, Thank you -

• Would a 24" iMac be ok as your computer?

Yes….(holy what? no, duh)

• Call you with an update Monday for a second interview

Great, Thank you. ( Dream job….Omg, I am never going to get this)

Sunday - 9:00 AM - Job Offer

Monday - 12:00 PM - Terms and Agreement

Two Weeks Later - Start Date

Two Weeks Later - Moved to St Johns with Lucas Tomlinson & Seth Terpstra, Bought a Car

A month later have I found my first rhythm since April. I now have the responsibility to 6 companies (branding each from scratch) + freelance. It feels more like I have all my clients InHouse with me, versus the normal picture of the InHouse Designer. All of the lessons learned in MarCom & freelance have been invaluable here. 

Thank you all who have loved and supported me through these life journeys. Your friendship and prayers mean so much to me. More Updates Soon. 

Precision Locums

Client: Dallas Bailes
Business Model: Precision Locums is a connecting resource for hospitals who need emergency medical physicians and for ER doctors who would like more work, free time, and the opportunity to travel. 
Business Market: There are many Hospital Locum Agencies but not strictly for the Emergency Medical field. 
Target Market: Hospitals and Physicians in New York and Texas. 
Challenge: Design a clean, professional logo, website and identity system 
Design Direction: A Seal that conveyed the opportunity for travel and that is trustworthy as a brand. 
We ended up having a primary and a secondary logo. The first is a logomark and the second a wordmark able to be used interchangeably. 

Web Branding:
Working with my programmer/coder/webmaster, Rob Mosher,  we designed and coded the site for Precision Locums. 


Pre-launch - 

Post-launch -

BreathBeat

Community //
A new-found family here in the city has been the folk music scene. I was inducted in through Crooked Still and my client Greg Litz (Banjo player for CS and The Deadly Gentlemen) and have been meeting quality people ever since. The typical conversation to have at a "hang" is about who you know and what you play making the fact that I am an artist a curve ball that is thrown into the mix.

Second to meeting great friends, a few fun branding opportunities have also come to pass through sewing these connections. One of which is the incredible fiddle player, Rob Hecht. After touring with multiple groups around the world Rob has decided to take time to devote to his own project, Breathbeat.

Concept //
The name of the project itself stems from a focus on beat of one's own breath in meditation. The concept for the design was brought about through a dream I had after attending a concert in Brooklyn. At the concert I sketched negative shapes, sounds, and the band's movements as fast as I could. Needless to say I walked away frustrated at the fact that I didn't feel like I could capture the complexity and subtle organic simplicity of Rob's playing. The end of the bow danced around so fast it was impossible to capture it's movements. That night I dreamed of this music paired with moving light. Around two I woke up with a jolt and feverishly scribbled my thoughts out onto a nearby journal. I could capture this musical light with a camera and a dark room, it had to be possible.

The next morning I sent an email off to Rob full of excitement asking him if we could attach a book light to the end of his bow. Highly supportive of the idea we planned to do the shoot as soon as possible.

The Shoot //
After a round of single shot lattes at Ace we headed over to the studio, strapped his temperamental book light to the bottom of his bow and found a dark room to set up the shoot. Hoping for the best I set my camera to bulb and told him to play. We weren't even half way through the first Irish jig when that I knew we were on to something good. The lines that I wasn't able to capture with my pen were streaming before my eyes and frozen in my lens. The shutter speed was also taken into account. I timed the shots to coincide with the rhythm of the music creating a "breathbeat" of light.

Designing Light //
The next step was to take the organic light and draw from its form to create a word-mark that could be versatile across multiple platforms and sizes. The previously decided colors were a high contrast black and blue, also captured in our photos.

Our next step will be to implement the logo on the web including a Kickstarter page and other promotional sites. More design-life updates soon.

The Deadly Gentleman

One of the wonderful things about doing freelance design is that it involves working with, serving and meeting new people. Another part about it is that these acts of service usually come about in wonderfully off the wall circumstances. For instance, I was at the Alaskan airport this summer walking through the security line when I overheard the man in front of me with a banjo case in hand saying he plays with Crooked Still. My curiosity peaked as I remembered that they are on my Pandora all the time. Eventually we started talking and now we are working together on branding The Deadly Gentleman, a group of musicians who play some great 'epic folk'.

We started on doing an album and cd design integrating a wooden sculpture that he had. He then came to me and asked for a logo with the same figure. I started out by doing a bunch of line drawings on tracing paper in different styles to try to find the feel of the band, keeping in mind that typography was going to also be integrated.

After a few proofs we arrived at the solution below. The logotype allows the type to interplay with the logo - while still able to stand on their own. Our next project will be implementing the logo onto band websites and T-shirts.

Font : Thyssen J

The Place To Be Café

One thing to be enjoyed about the graphic design profession is how portable it is. While here in New York I am still able to work with a number of clients on the West Coast. One of these clients is a coffee shop starting up in Canby Oregon. 

It was the begining of September when we began the project of branding from the ground up. The number of different concepts created for this identify had looks ranging from hand lettering to abstract patterns. It was a learning experience not being able to create in the space for the logo, or near my clients. Instead I hunted out my favorite coffee shops around the city and sketched away. The biggest challenge was designing for Canby Oregon in New York City, two cultures that have completely different vibes. 

After a few rounds of concepts we landed on one that met all needs. Dave Kerr's voice came in my head often, saying "The logo should work well in black/white and all sizes. It should be simple and allow space for the eye to move through it; also, remember future uses of this brand - create something dynamic with potential in all medias."

With this in mind I began to think about the materials used in the café, wood. 

The first few of the concepts came out very symmetrical. The client and I agreed that they were too static. We then came up with the final design (as seen to the left). 

The bars offer a place for the type to rest, but still allow the eye to move through the logo. They also have potential to hold different textures and motion for future promotions and in different digital platforms. 

The coffee shop is scheduled to open up December 1st, which means we are now in the heart of the production phase. I can't wait to visit home for Thanksgiving and see the design in context! More photos to come soon as we further the brand and get settled into the new Place To Be.

Ron Linn

It all started one day in May in the Pottery Lab at Fox. I had signed up for Mark Terry's May Term class and was becoming more fascinated with the art of pottery every day. One day Mark sat me down at a dusty canvas covered table and told me of a design opportunity. Mark had just finished his MFA Thesis the year before and in his Senior thesis we heard of tales of Megan Clark (a design alumni from Fox) and how creative her branding solutions were. He was now asking me to do the same for his friend Ron Linn. 

I first met Ron at Douglas High before his morning class. Memories of high school art classes began to flood my head. He showed me into his office tucked in the corner of his lab and we proceeded to talk about what kind of branding solution he needed. The lists of materials required for the end product seemed insane, but I understood after creating a system the rest would fall together. 

He showed me around four different rooms in the art area of the school where his work was stacked in boxes, up-top shelves and even fresh out of the kiln. He started to express his frustration about how he hadn't been able to see his work in one place before. This was something we had to change. 

Not too long after our first meeting we rounded up all of his work for a photo shoot in the Minthorne Gallery at Fox. Piece after piece was unloaded from the trailer in Steven's Parking lot. As they began to fit together Ron's nerves began to turn into excitement. He was finally able to see his work together, out of the context of the dusty kiln shed and on pristine white walls. Five of us set up the show and tore most of it down before we broke for lunch. 

After a fare few design hours, emails, phone calls and trip to the press Ron and I met up at the Bipartisan Cafe in NE Portland to exchange the goods. I gave him a short lesson on the Blog we had set up for him and he was on his way, only his journey had just begun. I think that is one of my favorite things about design. It will go places and do things that are beyond what you can personally be or do. 


Needless to say Ron Linn did incredible presenting and defending his thesis and plans to returns back up to Oregon in the beginning of August. We look forward to working with each other again soon.