A Lifetime Commitment.

'Claude Montreal a fan of my 'Tribal Tattoo' artwork.'

My artwork via my web sites is seen by a lot of people. Some of which have nothing to do with graphic design or illustration. Such is the case in regards to this post. Apparently a gentleman from Canada by the name of 'Claude' stumbled up my 'Tribal Tattoo' artwork (See Below) while surfing the net and then while in Cancun visited a tattoo shop called 'Second Skin' where an artist by the name of 'Ray' reproduced my artwork on to his back. This is only the third time (that I am aware of) that someone has used my artwork to get tattooed onto their body permanently.


'Tribal Tattoo face.'

Like I said in a recent post, I am a weenie when it comes to tattooing. I don't have any and if I did decide to get one it would be a temporary one at that. I could never commit to my own art, I get sick of it too fast. I am glad Claude likes my art and I wish him the best with his life time commitment to my art on his back, he's far more daring then I am.

Google, Yahoo.....Cambur?

'Logo Options I presented'

I'd be remiss if I didn't also post about projects I worked on that were less then successful. This post is case in point.

I was contacted by a couple engineers who are trying hard to become the next Google or Yahoo. (Easier said then done) Their expectations clearly defined their desire for a logo type they could use to brand themselves with.

Googles logo isn't a looker, that is for sure and there are a plethora of better logos for companies offering similar services and they haven't been as successful so all though I believe in a strong logo it's only part of the bigger branding picture which will only be as believable and effective as the quality and usefulness of the services being offered.

On logo projects specifically I require a lot of upfront information from clients, this helps me gauge perceptions and expectations as well as understanding them personally, their business and their target audience. After receiving this and other information I proceed to work out my concepts and the end result is presenting what you see above.

About a day after sending off the comps I received an email that contained a report card of tests these engineers apparently ran the logo comps through. In a nut shell my logos didn't pass their tests. I found it both amusing, frustrating and ignorant so I decided to share it with others.

Here was their evaluation criteria. (My comments in response to them follow each and are shown in italic)

1) Highly Recognizable: I liked the fact that you provided the initial concepts in solid colors as this is something I do to test the typeface recognition factor. Some question I ask myself are: Can I spot it instantly? Can I recognize it well even if I change the colors and effects?, is the font unique? Can the logo be identifiable even if it's reduced to 75px wide.

How do I test this condition? I reduce the size of the logo to 75px wide, I transform it to grayscale, I print it both by itself, and with some dummy text around, etc.

Disney and Yahoo are examples of logos that I see pass this test.

Of all of the logos that you provided me both #1 and #4 easily pass this test also. The others don't convince me.

If you mean by 'Recognizable' that it has visual equity then I'd have to say that is not what a logo accomplishes. This IS what branding accomplishes and that is facilitated with how well you market and advertise. If you do that well any mark good or bad will work to be frank. You do that with a well crafted design and it only makes it more effective. All four I have provided accomplish this in my opinion.

You say it's unrecognizable after you scale it down to 75 pixels. Well that's because you're not suppose to scale down art to create small onscreen graphics. It just doesn't work that way. Creating GUI content is part creative and part science. You build your art at 100% so it rasterizes art when you take it into Photoshop at a 100% this helps clarity and even then you need to go in and finesse the pixels to make it look it's best. So the only reason they failed is because you are attempting to do it the wrong way. (See my attachment showing all four very recognizable at 75 pixels in width)

Furthermore none of these four options are merely a font typed out. Number one I created from scratch. The rest are modified to he point they look very little like the typefaces I derived them from.


'My mock-up at 75 pixels wide to show that these do work.'


2) Readability: This is something I find extremely important. That's why I prefer spelled letters instead of handwriting-like letters like in the Johnson&Johnson logo. It is a great logo, I am not saying it's not, but it is not for an internet search engine for sure. This is a component that causes frustration, some designers have tried to satisfy condition #1-Highly Recognizable at the expense of #2 Readability.The first time I came to the US, I saw a guy carrying a computer that I liked, I looked at the logo and went back home to see if I could buy one. I typed on my web browser www.DOLL.COM and no computer site showed up. I want to avoid these kinds of mistakes. I believe a logo can be both readable and unique, again my old examples Disney and Yahoo, with Yahoo being the most readable of the two.

Your logos #1 and #4 in my opinion do not pass this test. I basically try to test and see if my brain can read the name in a blink. I showed your logos to several people and some of then read Combor, Canbur, and Camur (#4's "b" is not very noticeable)

The letter "C" should be capitalized.

Actually I ran all of these comps by eight different individuals (7 non-designers and 1 designer) who did not know anything about this project. One of them was a 9 year old girl and they all read them fine. I am a bit confused how you not being able to read 'DELL' pertains to these marks? That said I modified the 'm' letter-form to improve the readability.


3) Portability: Another reason why I reduce the logo size to 75px width is because the nature of our business involves engaging in co-branded deals and partnerships, application development etc. What I mean by this is: Try to envision Cambur:
a) Powering the search feature of another site and showing a very small "Powered by Cambur" logo next to the search box
b) Creating a desktop-based application that requires an icon, a firefox plug-in, extension, a favicon for the site.
c) Creating a browser toolbar.

On this logo #1 does a much better job than #4. In addition, the reflection effect or mirror effect that you did on all logos is not optimal because it does not pass this test. I like other components of the web 2.0 style, this one is not very portable.

Once again you build to size. This is easily done so your getting the cart before the horse. Further more you made it clear you wanted a logo type not a graphic mark for a logo. Even though you said that I still added secondary elements to the logo types you could use in that respect. A logo is not a desktop based icon, it can be but then that needs to be made clear up front.

If you wanted an icon for these usages that would either be part of the logo development as a secondary branding image or just another project after the fact to create a desktop icon. A desktop icon is never a name or word it's an iconic mark which would and can be developed for a, b and c as you describe. Google uses a 'G' and Yahoo a 'Y!' AOL uses the running man and so on. Think square proportion.


4) Neatness and Presence: This is the easiest component to test, I simply re-size the logo to 300px wide and I place it on a "Test" page similar to the google interface that I have attached for you to use. If I like what I see, and it passess all of the tests above, then I approve the logo.

Regarding the Web 2.0 style: I like the reflection effect, but I don't think it's portable, so I prefer effects like this: http://zimio.com/ (please look at the logo), and the other type effects on the forum I sent you about corporate web 2.0 redesigns.

Like I've said you build to size you don't merely scale at will and expect it to look good. Frankly even though you scaled it for this you can tell it looks good. I assume you don't like it though?

The web 2.0 reflection I only added because you mentioned that upfront. And that would only appear in places like the header of your web site, not on badges or co-branded applications etc.

Yes I can add layer effects to the mark to get subtle shadowing etc. None of which will hold up at the smaller viewings however. This is all detailing work though and something I'd do in the next stage of the process.

Well the client hated the logo concepts as you can see in the above tests he ran them through.

Since this new criteria was not provided up front when I requested such information made me realize this whole process was going to be an uphill battle dealing with engineers who fancy themselves as designers and view me as an extension of their arm. Some times it's worth educating a client and winning them over to a vision you have for the project or helping them understand something. Frankly I was too busy to deal with this type of situation so I made the decision to end it before I got in any further suggesting that they should find a new designer because I don't think I am a good fit for their project based on the new information they provided.

I don't like doing this but sometimes it happens. In this project I struck out pure and simple. But to continue with the baseball analogy I'll have another at bat soon and hopefully I'll hit a frozen rope to deep center. Thankfully this isn't the norm but rather the exception with my business. Live and learn.

Dithered Shading

'247 - Breaking Out a New Style'

I had a magazine assignment come in that was a super quick turnaround. The theme they wanted for this spot illustration was pretty generic too so I decided to handle my detailing with shading and using a dithered method. I was surprised how much fun it was so I've decided to try this again on another upcoming assignment.


'Dithered Tiff Image used for shading.'

All the shading in this art was done using three different sized dither tiffs like the one shown above. I just colored them and masked them into place. I purposely kept my art simplified using basic shapes since the deadline was so tight. This along with shading using the dither made the project go much faster.

I'll have a tutorial on this method of shading posted at 'IllustrationClass.com' soon.

gidde up

i passed this deborah butterfield sculpture

in sfo back in december.

the horse is bronze but looks like driftwood. stanford art museum notes that "the technique used to make the sculpture is especially noteworthy for its convincing simulation of the texture, shape, and color of the wood." which increases the impulse to touch the sculpture. at stanford, they have a separate piece of the bronze driftwood for people to touch.

at the airport, seems people wanted to ride it. so much so, that they added a sign.


check here for an image search for deborah butterfield.

earth-friendly

brendan monroe

and evah fan each have tote bags for sale in their web stores.

totes are cool. reuseable. wean you from disposable shopping bags; good for the planet and fellow travellers.

and, at $7 each, these are a bargain for prints of their work.

check em: brendan's/evah's

(and, brendan also recently posted his bacterium mug)

A Crappy Illustration

'Poop'

I usually wake up right after the scene where somone hires me to draw poop and realize it was just another silly dream. Well this time it actually happened. This illustration will be 1 out of about 20 I'll be doing for the 'Upper Deck Company' to be used in a card set called 'Gross-Out!'

Lots of things could be said about this illustration.

"Von, that looks like crap!"
"Your portfolio looks like a steaming pile of $#%!"
"Did you use a number 2 pencil to draw number 2?"
"Craptacular!"
"You CAN polish a turd!"
"Art happens!"
"This must be your brown period?"

I plan on doing the whole set in this simplified style so it should all tie together well when I am done. I have all my sketches done and it's going to be fun.

Some of the other topics I'll have to illustrate will be 'Vomit', 'Bad Breath' and 'Urine'. All of which will be scratch -n- sniff too so kids will love them. Yeah, it's a crappy job but someone has to do it. ;-P

Lull Before the Storm

"Essential Nonsense" doodle.

Sometimes I cannot control inspiration. Something I see or hear inspires me to draw. Today I was talking to a friend on the phone and something they said caused me to draw the above face. I can't even remember what exactly it was but when I hung up I had this cool piece of art.


Animated Nonsense.

Right now I am buried in work. But it's a strange position. I am waiting for final specs and details about each of the projects before I can start on any of them so I enjoyed this little respite of creativity before I get flooded in deadlines.

Tango Presentation Icons

'NOVELL Presentation Icons'

This project was my first venture designing icons in the 'Tango' style popular with Linux. These however are not GUI icons, they are for presentation usage such as Print Collateral, Powerpoint, and in PDF documents to relay information within NOVELL.

One specific attribute they requested was to work into these a nice glassy effect. This can be somewhat tricky and a good rule of thumb is to only apply it to a surface that would naturally have one under the right circumstances. Thus the icons with paper content don't get that treatment.

The agency that hired me for this assignment was 'angryporcupine*design'. How cool is that for a studio name? I love it.

Last Daze - Propaganda III Poster

'Last Daze - Start Soma Propaganda III Poster'

Recently I was invited to submit a poster design for the 'Start Soma Propaganda III Art Show.' I haven't done a lot of politically motivated art before. Don't get me wrong I have strong convictions, I just haven't had much of an opportunity to create for that type of theme. So when this invite was offered up I decided to participate.

One thing about propaganda art is that it seemingly never celebrates that which is good. As far as I can tell (and I may be wrong in this assumption) all the art done under the umbrella of propaganda tends to be highlighting the negative in regards to politics, social issues and the like.

Personally I view the world and our role in it from a bigger point of view, I try to understand how various aspects of different subjects relate and facilitate each other and from that type of observation I tend to draw conclusions that some may label as conspiracy. That's fine, its a fun topic to design for so I just decided to put together a garden variety poster that reflected a broad range of subjects I've been thinking of lately and weave them together in a compelling way.

- The Love of Money / Greed
- Power from Wealth
- Military Industrial Complex
- Microsoft Windoze Global Infestation
- Wars and Rumors of War
- Pop Culture
- Pornography
- Big Pharma
- Invasion of Privacy
- Driven by Consumerism
- Entertainment Mindset
- Drug Abuse
- Nuclear Threat
- Mark of the Beast
- Death & Destruction

If you'd like to download a pdf to print out a copy of this for yourself just click here to download.

hawaii

i posted a four part travel log on my recent trip to the big island of hawaii on proper's observations.

part 1 covers days 1-3, which included a hike into waipio valley (and wild horse feeding), life-sized polaroids, hilo's farmer's market, and waterfalls and rain forests.


part 2 covers days 4-5, with visits to another waterfall, the hawaii tropical botanical garden, volcano tree monument, and our first hike across the caldera floor in volcano national park and our travel around the perimeter of the caldera.


part 3 covers days 6-7, which included a hike at dusk to active lava flow (with a slideshow) and another hike across the caldera floor (this time with the polaroid sampler). we also saw sea turtles and some cool birds.



and part 4 covers days 8-10, which includes a visit to puuhonua o honaunau national historical park, the peak of mauna kea (the tallest volcano on the island), and whale watching.