Skills USA: California Advertising Design Contest

Produce the following projects on your computer. Use any software you are familiar with. You will design a logo for a company called Evergreen Marketing. Evergreen is a new company, trying to enter the direct mail market and portray a “green” environmentally-friendly image. Once the logo is created, you will create an 11” x 17” advertisement Design your projects with the grading criteria (listed below) in mind. Remember, this project is destined for print production, so watch color model, resolution, and bleed issues.

Details:
Evergreen Marketing, 4800 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside CA 92506
Phone: 951 222-8583
FAX: 951 222-8491
www.evergreenmarketing.com
Jeffrey Finner, owner
Services: Ad creation, mailing lists, brokered printing, ink jet labeling, postage, and inserting (Make up other detail as you see necessary).

2nd Place Entry

Logo

Layout

Thanks for reading!

An Experiment in Color

For a class I'm currently taking on color theory, I was recently given an assignment designed to explore the emotions and feelings associated with different colors.  

For my photos, I drew inspiration (i.e. stole the idea :-D) from a simple lighting set-up I read on my old photo instructor's blog.  THANKS PETER!   ;-)

From the start I kind of saw this assignment as a chance to experiment.  I figured that if I kept certain elements the same (in this case the wine glass and light source) I could better gauge the impact of the changes that were made (the colors).

And not only that, but this gave me the happy excuse to only shoot one simply executed setup (HOORAY for laziness! :D).  Here's what I came up with.

I was fairly surprised by the results.  I mean, everything was kept the same save for color, but that change made a huge difference in the way the photos looked and the emotions they exuded.  I found myself being fooled depending on the color (the red made me see a glass of wine, the orange of champagne, and the black made me see poison),  even though I knew that it was just plain tap water. 

I often think about colors in the design work that I do (it's pretty essential actually), but It still really surprised me how much it could change and truly impact an image.

Thanks for reading.

The Things I Get Away With...

Sometimes when I'm making something at work, I'll think to myself "This sh*t is never going to fly."  It'll be too goofy and too stupid and I'd worry about all the time I've just wasted on something no one  would ever relate to or even want to be associated with.  I had just created the visual equivalent of laughing at my own joke.

But sometimes, for some whatever unexplainable reason (be it karma points for donating that blood, avoiding those cracks on the sidewalk, a plump full moon?), my boss (who is a fantastic designer in her own right) will look at it, nod her head and say, "This works.  Let's run with it."  …. Which in turn makes me wonder whether or not she needs to get her eyes checked.   :D

 Email Blast

Email Blast

Recruitment Flyer

Product Flyer

Thanks for reading! ;)

And the Winner is…….

Not me :-).  The Riverside International Film Festival has held a poster design competition every year over the past handful of years.  I entered and got 2nd.  To tell the truth, I'm really surprised to have placed so high.  I got a chance to see some of the other entrants from my fellow students a while back and (imho) they were so much better than in previous years (and by "previous years" I mean "last year").  I think it's a reflection on how much better the instructors have gotten since I started taking courses at RCC.  (The phrase "addition by subtraction" comes to mind <cough> good riddance <cough>  ;).  So if any of you are thinking about taking some very good photoshop type classes on a budget, now is the time. 

But now I'm rambling.  Without further ado, here is this year's Riverside International Film Festival Poster Contest 2nd Place Winner! 

11" x 17" poster

Thanks for reading. :)

Arts and Craps

Photo 13: Advanced Digital Darkroom.  Or as one of my fellow students disaffectionately called it, "Arts and Craps."  As much as I agreed with the sentiment at the time (and pretty much still do), looking back, it wasn't so bad.  As the cliche' goes "hindsight is 20/20".  And reflecting on it now, I have to admit.  I took away some things of value.  Nothing concretely useful, really.  But in terms of perspective.  During the course of the semester, I was exposed to certain artists and ways of thinking about photography that I wasn't very aware of before. Consequently, I made some things that I probably wouldn't of made otherwise.  That's not to say that I've changed my mind.  It was a pretty useless class.  But I guess sometimes even useless things can be inspiring. :)

Such a Square

Summer afternoon in December

Uelsmann Moon

You can see more Here if you'd like.

Thanks for reading.

Corporate Graphics?...

So for the past couple months, I've been trying my hand at corporate graphics. And the results have been mixed.  Clear, concise messaging? Clean leading lines? Complementing colors? Negative space?  These things don't come as easily to me as maybe they should.  And there are many times that I wonder why anyone would pay me to do this.  But, seeing as I haven't been fired yet, I suppose I'm doing something right. ;-)

10" x 10" Square Card

In-company email blast

In-company email blast

8.5" x 11" flyer

8.5" x 11" flyer

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That thing I did last month...

Thanks to Cesar and Stephanie for a fun shoot and Congratulations on their engagement!

Click HERE to see more.

Thanks for reading!