Tag: design
I Made This
posted: 04.04.2008 12:45 pm tags: curling, design, screen printing, tee shirts
Yesterday me and some fellow staff members went down to The Vera Project for a little screen printing class. You would think I would already know how to do this, but in fact my only previous experience with making my own silkscreen was in grade school.
That said, being a designer (and one who’s built stuff for screen printing before), I caught on quick. It was super-easy, and of course super-fun. I’ve caught the bug and I’ll now be going back often, as I’ve got tons and tons of ideas.
Posters, t-shirts, cd covers… the shirt I made yesterday is just the beginning. Special thanks to David Gallo for being such a friendly and knowledgeable guide.
About the Shirt: I went curling a couple weeks ago at Seattle’s Granite Curling Club and had an absolute blast. It was at least as much fun as screening my own t-shirt. This was a phrase my friend Kiah came up with, and the moment she said it, I knew a slogan that good deserved to be emblazoned across my chest.
New Work: The Sound of Music
posted: 03.26.2008 9:55 pm tags: design, portfolio, work
Theater posters everywhere! So my friend Andy asked me to design something for his upcoming Shorecrest High production of The Sound of Music, and I jumped at the chance to do something different.
I’ve also got a translated graphic based on this design that’s going to be used on t-shirts and such. I’ll share that in an updated version of this post, but for now, you can take a gander at the full size version of the poster.
New Work: The Wind in the Willows
posted: 03.26.2008 9:51 pm tags: design, portfolio, work
Just finished this postcard for The Magnolia Theater’s The Wind in the Willows and I felt like sharing. At some point in the distant future when I revamp the site I’ll put up a new portfolio/work section, but for now this seems like as good a way as any to get new images up.
Here’s the full image.
Happy Halloween
posted: 10.31.2007 10:01 am tags: design, holiday, pop culture
Here are two of my three pumpkins for 2007. Much like my 2006 pumpkins, I like to pander to commercialist pop culture and do famous characters and toys and such.
I also like to be topical, so this year I have Snoopy in honor of the recently released Schultz and Peanuts as well as the logo for the 20-year-old property that somehow became one of the biggest (and worst) movies of the summer, Transformers.
I've got one more pumpkin to show off, but it's not quite done yet. It's a good one though, one of my best yet.
South by Sunday: High Class vs. Low Class Web Design
posted: 03.18.2007 1:16 pm tags: austin, design, interactive, sxsw, texas, web
While it may not have been the most instructional, or even the most entertaining, the most thought-provoking panel I attended all weekend at SXSW was Chris Fahey’s HIgh Class and Low Class Web Design. On paper alone, I found the subject matter fascinating. In a world where everything around us is designed, we make judgments on quality. There’s “good design” and “bad design.” Maybe it’s not really that, but a case of designing for different tastes, classes, markets. What are we to make of all this? And can we apply what we’ve learned to things beyond web design?
South By Sunday
posted: 03.12.2007 8:48 am tags: austin, design, interactive, sxsw, tech, texas
Sunday at SXSW ’07 was an eventful one for a number of reasons: a good mix of panels, the Web Awards, Selection Sunday games & bracketology, and some nasty, nasty weather. Here’s my report.
South By Saturday
posted: 03.10.2007 7:50 pm tags: austin, design, interactive, sxsw, tech, texas
I just finished the first of many more long days at my inaugural visit to Austin & SXSW Interactive. I saw lots of interactive design celebrities, some great panels, some not-so-great panels and tons of stuff in between. Here’s my report.
The New Yahoo Sports
posted: 02.04.2007 9:59 am tags: branding, design, interactive, yahoo
Yahoo’s been working on a site-wide redesign for quite a while now. It began with the new Yahoo! home page and has slowly migrated from there. On the heels of the Fantasy Sports rebrand last fall, the Sports pages were refreshed a few days ago with a completely new look.
Happy Halloween
posted: 10.31.2006 9:31 pm tags: design, holiday
Shaun the Designer would like to wish everyone a happy Halloween courtesy these personally carved pumpkins of Dora the Explorer & Bob the Builder. Enjoy the candy, tricks and treats everyone!
Thank You for Smoking
posted: 10.24.2006 3:39 pm tags: design, movies, titles
Saw this over the weekend and was reminded about the great opening title sequence I had read about online earlier this year. Using cigarette packaging as the inspiration, the titles and name plates drift effortlessly from style to style. I particularly love the attention to detail in the form of scuffs, creases and ink patterns. It’s amazing how real it all looks. The choice of music running in the background, “Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette!” by Tex Williams, adds to the nostalgia for the days when everybody smoked and nobody really knew how bad it was for you. Kudos to Shadow Play Studio for making a highly enjoyable film—Aaron Eckhart is particularly entertaining here—even better.
Interactive Annuals Awfully Static
posted: 09.29.2006 4:17 pm tags: design, interactive
Kevin Temura over at Blue Flavor commented the other day that the recent Communication Arts Interactive Annual misses the mark and I couldn’t agree more. The recent Print Interactive Annual does the same thing. I love a fancy, Flashy website as much as the next guy, and they do deserve accolades.
Yet there’s something missing, and it happens every year. If we’re going to credit great website design, shouldn’t we look beyond the surface? Shouldn’t we consider things that make the web truly interactive, like navigation, content presentation, user interface and usability? What’s funny about all the interactive annuals is that I start to think they pick stuff that will look good in print.
I’d love to see things break out, either with categories or with just more attention paid to the content-rich, highly usable sites out there like Flickr, ESPN.com, The New York Times, The Onion, etc.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
posted: 09.18.2006 2:15 pm tags: design, movies, titles
I heard/read that this movie had a nice off-kilter approach to the standard (?) caper/buddy/noir genre. Much like my fairly recent viewing of Mrs. Henderson Presents, I was somewhat shocked by the quality and “new originality” of the title sequence. I put that in quotes because although I’ve seen great work like this before (Catch Me If You Can comes to mind), it’s always welcome to see people trying something new and different from the current status quo.
Featuring a distressed take on noirish, silhouetted drawings, these really pop with reds, whites and blacks. The movie, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer, wasn’t half bad either. Twisty, briskly paced, and winking at the cliché and convention of the genre, it was a lot of fun. Check out some more screen grabs here, here, here and here, or rent the movie and see for yourself.
Credits: Prologue (company info)
Mrs. Henderson Presents
posted: 08.30.2006 3:03 pm tags: design, movies, titles
So I Netflixed this movie last week, without much expectation. I knew it featured a mildly bawdy (if that's possible) performance from Dame Judi Dench, but not much otherwise. Upon pressing play I was immediately hit by something you don't see very often in the movies anymore—a well-constructed title sequence. Even better, this one was illustrated.
To say this was the best part of the movie for me would do injustice to the film, which was cute and occasionally entertaining. Yet the titles were my favorite part. In an age where we roll credits over a black background or the opening scene, actual title sequences are a welcome diversion.
Featuring a World War II-era illustration style, some very inventive scene transitions, and playful use of type, the opening truly captured my fancy. Check out some more screen grabs here, here, here and here, or rent the movie and see for yourself.
Credits: Foreign Office at Foreign Office & Pathe Pictures.