These are just a few of my illustrations that I have permission to show or personal pieces that I feel are finished and show-worthy. I feel that a few of these are strong enough on concept to make them better than more interesting images that have little or no concept behind them. You be the judge, and if you notice a lot of diversity, that is because I am constantly reinventing my style searching for something distinctly me.
There are probably lots of ways to use the Illustrator Brush Engine to make life easier, I just wanted to point out 10. I would like to credit Veerle and her post about Brushes which indirectly prompted me to think about this.
The swirly curls from Veerle, could be accomplished with a single curl and the application of a brush like this. Note the simple variations that yield impressive results.
I love the Art Brush Setting, but what I love even more is the Pattern setting. Use it too make a Celtic/Greek Key pattern like this. Not that simple, but super powerful. If you want the corner and end pieces, you need to add the object to the swatch palette.
These are a few of the things that I did for MetroValley Magazine. I was a designer, photographer, photo-editor, compositor and illustrator as well as being responsible for the development of the layout of the magazine. I will have an in-depth discussion of the blueprint/prototyping process for MetroValley Magazine. The logo was not designed by me.
The Book ’n’ Bean is one of those trendy, indie coffee shops that hosts an open mic once a week where postmodern angst flows like wine. I miss that place so much. I was working at a sign business when the owners needed a new sign in front of the business. I was more than happy to not only develop a highly visible identity, but provide a full suite of identity materials. A suite that once delivered, was adapted by the staff as Stamps, Stickers and a host of other improvised identity pieces.
This is one of those projects that I like coming back to with fresh ideas. This flier was one of those, just to help out a bit. All of the art is original and my creation using Adobe Illustrator. It was inspired by both the air brush poster art of the Object Poster and a nod to Movietone news graphics. There has been a recent revival of this type of work in the Gevalia advertising in posters and magazines. I think it is a response to the complexity of much modern design, using abstraction to simplify and elucidate the message.
The murder mystery train poster was an interesting job from the start, as the owner/operator was very specific about the style. He saw a proof that was very retro, a 2-color design that wouldn’t look out of place in Nashville. I opted against the red, yellow and black since that was one color too many. I liked the blue overprint so well that it was the final choice. I enjoy overprinted color very much, especially the style of Aesthetic Apparatus and their contemporaries. I am an abstractionist, in the sense that I like to take things out of context and manipulate ideas, but I disagree with the “medium is the message” school of thought in that a poster has to just be cool. I feel strongly that a concrete idea has to be conveyed beyond just “cool collage.” Most of my work is very driven by idea and concept with a strong echo of the content. It makes it easy to over think an idea, and even be pedantic… I think that is the biggest challenge in modern design.
One of the magazines that I was responsible for at COMAR, Inc was West Virginia Executive, which stands as the premier business magazine in the state. I was responsible for the photography and the illustration on this cover, which indexed the 50 most powerful West Virginians. When I arrived at COMAR, the magazine was 2 1/2 months behind, when I left, they were ahead 3 weeks.
