Design is not about innovation. Design is about communication. Innovation in design is usually a wonderful byproduct or direct result of a particular need. Design that seeks to foremost be innovative will commonly fall apart under its own stylistic girth. — Jason Santa Maria
l’art pour l’art
Leafing through an old magazine, I noticed a small ad about a design course by mail. The headline read, “Art for pleasure and profit!” I have never found a better definition to describe my profession. Of course, at times it is more the pleasure and less the profit, at times the contrary. But if one […]
It’s not a pink slip, it’s a blank page.
I ran across this documentary on Hulu about a month ago. Lemonade tells the story of laid-off folks (mostly in advertising and creative fields) who are taking full advantage of all their extra free time. They are pursuing their true passions and finding so much joy in it. You might say that they are making […]
Branding, Clients, Creative Improv, Design Concept/Ideas, Logo Design, Print Design, Redesign, The Design Process, Website Design
Parallax View Band design process
A few months ago, when Creative Improv was in it’s infancy, the Parallax View project came our way at just the right time. I had wanted to work on this project since high school. I knew Ben & Seth in high school and thought it would be cool to do a website for them back […]
A Brand New sketchbook!
I got my ‘mystery product’ from Brand New today. It is a miniature sketchbook to continue sketching logos. I, along with the folks at Brand New believe strongly that great design starts with a sketch. The edges of each page contain a quote from various designers who contributed to this blog post on June 11, […]
My thoughts on design to be published
I got an email today from someone named Armin Vit. I was hovering over ‘mark as spam’ until I read the subject line. Brand New Mystery Product Now, for some reason this caught my attention as not being exactly spam (don’t ask me why). So I opened it. If I have contacted you it means […]
Questions: Design Style
I recently had a conversation with a good friend about design styles. The question was posed to me… That begs the question….is it better to develop your own “style” that you become recognized by, or have an arsenal of styles to draw from to please your clients? Both have valid arguments… That’s a tough question. I think […]
Blackcat Billboard Ideas
I’m currently working on designing a billboard for fredericktown school district – it’s a project meadow heights church is doing for the school. First I had to re-illustrate the low resolution blackcat that I was provided with. There’s gotta be a high-res version floating around somewhere – now I have my own – and it only […]
Branding, Design Concept/Ideas, Jobs, Print Design, The Design Process, This Week in Design, Typography, Website Design
This Week in Design
MEADOW HEIGHTS CHURCH ‘REMEMBER’ MESSAGE SERIES Another message series! I’ll have another one to post in two weeks. This one was a borrowed set of graphics from LifeChurch.tv. What is borrowed is the glass image and ‘remember’ logo. The rest is a unique design that fits the Meadow Heights ‘style’. It’s funny that Meadow Heights […]