Questions To Ask Before (Re)Designing

I hate thinking about a redesign.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind redesigning things. There’s no problem going into a client’s situation and pointing out where they’re falling short or what needs to be addressed to underscore their brand. Similarly, I don’t have a problem getting a design from a buddy asking for advice and pointing out where they need to go back and rethink things. But that becomes a real struggle when the client is myself.

I figured I’d let the one or two readers into my process of design and redesign with this post: The Questions.

I mean, how would I describe myself? What does my “brand” consist of? I’m a designer, art director, illustrator, fly-by-night writer and photographer. I’ve orchestrated photoshoots, have worried about costumes, lighting, and have even made a point of mocking up packages for presentation. I’ve often used the term “multifaceted designer” to describe myself (pretentious, I know) but it’s a mouthful and clunky. I won’t drop the name since I think it’s accurate, but I can’t really use it on the fore—which my most recent design reflects—so how can I encapsulate the idea into my name? Should I? Would it be confusing?

This is usually my first step when dealing with clients but there I have the benefit of seeing what their business purpose is.  Me, I’m not so much promoting a business purpose but rather an individual (myself) who one can trust to do solid work. It’s a catchall for freelance, work, preaching—an electronic business card slash resume slash portfolio that goes on before me making assurances of what one can expect from me.

But that being the case, everything has to properly represent me.

The first is a sample of several years ago. The next is a sample of the current version of the site.

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ESPN Rise’s Video Game Issue with Alvin Lee

During the holiday season over at my shop in ESPN Rise we decided to do something a little bit different with our National Video Game Issue: get an illustrator. Usually we use awesome photography by the industry’s best, but this time we wanted to tap the talent of Street Fighter video game acclaim Alvin Lee (and the color genius of Fabian Schlaga to go buck wild with their illustrative awesomeness.

As our article over at the ESPN Rise website says: the idea was simple. We took four of the best players and video-gameized them in a battle against the Robots. Or the Aliens. Whatever. The point was to make these guys look freaking awesomer. You can check out Alvin Lee’s Facebook or Comic Alliance for some biggie sized images you can read the ESPN Rise articles about these great players (Nick Vena, Jadeveon Clowney, Daniel Norris, Michael Gilchrist)   . Images after the jump.

alvinleerise01 alvinleerise02 alvinleerise03 alvinleerise04

ESPN Rise’s Video Game Issue with Alvin Lee

During the holiday season over at my shop in ESPN Rise we decided to do something a little bit different with our National Video Game Issue: get an illustrator. Usually we use awesome photography by the industry’s best, but this time we wanted to tap the talent of Street Fighter video game acclaim Alvin Lee (and the color genius of Fabian Schlaga to go buck wild with their illustrative awesomeness.

As our article over at the ESPN Rise website says: the idea was simple. We took four of the best players and video-gameized them in a battle against the Robots. Or the Aliens. Whatever. The point was to make these guys look freaking awesomer. You can check out Alvin Lee’s Facebook or Comic Alliance for some biggie sized images you can read the ESPN Rise articles about these great players (Nick Vena, Jadeveon Clowney, Daniel Norris, Michael Gilchrist)   . Images after the jump.

alvinleerise01 alvinleerise02 alvinleerise03 alvinleerise04

Fontisizing Impact

Like an old yenta, a designer is often found matchmaking design projects and fonts.  With so many designs, the designer ensures they have access to as many possible matches as possible.

But that doesn’t always work out. After all, the designer, like the yenta, has a certain vision of the ideal font matches. They don’t even think about it; for some reason, a certain font just feels—until you look back and see a matching trend.

So these posts are to display, ogle, applaud, examine and objectify fonts that have crept out of my dreams and onto my designs. Go ahead: fontasize about Impact.

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Fontisizing Impact

Like an old yenta, a designer is often found matchmaking design projects and fonts.  With so many designs, the designer ensures they have access to as many possible matches as possible.

But that doesn’t always work out. After all, the designer, like the yenta, has a certain vision of the ideal font matches. They don’t even think about it; for some reason, a certain font just feels—until you look back and see a matching trend.

So these posts are to display, ogle, applaud, examine and objectify fonts that have crept out of my dreams and onto my designs. Go ahead: fontasize about Impact.

impact impact_01 impact_02

impact_03
Continue reading

Two Design Websites to Watch

Occasionally I like to link to some random stuff and call it “links n’ junk” but I have two sites here that are so not in the junk sphere that I couldn’t properly label this post in that way.

First, we have Designers & Books which describes itself as:

devoted to publishing lists of books that esteemed members of the design community identify as personally important, meaningful, and formative—books that have shaped their values, their worldview, and their ideas about design.

That’s pretty flipping interesting while simultaneously wrapped in nicely designed site:

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Then we have a site by my buddy Matthew which I’ve linked to earlier but just need to bring up often: Stretchbook. He describes it as “a collection of creative exercise” and “where ideas go to work out”.

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