brother's music

Four Panel CD Sleeve Art

My brother Brook asked me if I'd help him with the four panel sleeve art for his CD.  Usually I start a design like this in InDesign, but I ended up doing the entire project in PhotoShop.  Brook used to do a lot of 35mm photography back in the day.  He had the Latent Image title rolling around in his head for the past 30 years.  It seemed only fitting that the sleeve art incorporate black and white imagery along with the 35mm film negative strip.  It wasn't my idea.  I was pretty much carrying out his concept for the cover.  I threw in some of my own ideas along the way.

J Holland for Mayor

I started this logo with a pen and ink illustration of J. Holland. I scanned the illustration into PhotoShop and went from there.  Nothing beats that good old red, white and blue color scheme on campaign branding.  This is simple, bold and eye-catching.  There will be other variations of this logo as the campaign progresses.

a winning book cover

Concept and design of book cover for Doug Moore Financial which included an original cartoon illustration.  I usually draw cartoons by hand and then import into PhotoShop.  I tweaked and colored the illustration in PhotoShop and used Adobe InDesign to layout this book's cover.

white and negative space

I just put the finishing touches on the Doug Moore Financial logo a few days ago.  This has been a fun project.   It was challenging developing a corporate image with an eye-catching use of white and negative space.  The reverse arc is symbolic, and also adds a pleasing contrast to the square corners.

I'm still in the process of designing print layouts for Doug's marketing campaign.  One of the first applications for the logo is a presentation pocket folder.  I look forward to seeing this image embossed on the front cover.  It's really going to pop.

a grand logo

The good folk at Baker Piano and Music wanted to keep the founder, Gerald Baker.   Though I do a good bit of cartoon illustration work, I wanted Baker's presence to be simple and light but not cartoon-like.  Rendering a satisfactory image for the late Mr. Baker was the most challenging aspect.  I rendered version after version until I came up with the one I knew would work.   Much of the logo was rendered in CorelDraw and then imported into Adobe PhotoShop.  The portrait was in pen and ink, scanned and imported into PhotoShop.

During my initial work I had submitted two versions, a version with Baker text against the grand piano lid backdrop and another using Baker's illustration without the piano lid.  The keyboard rendering was present in both submissions.  The folks at Baker Piano wanted both ideas combined.  I was a little hesitant.  It was too easy for the head illustration to distract from the piano lid.  There is a lot of text in this logo...a lot going on.   I usually push for simpler imagery, but this really came together nicely, very strong.  Jay Holland (of Jay Holland Communications) and I worked together to merge the two concepts and make it all work.  I'm very proud of this logo and confident it will serve Baker Piano and Music Company well.

School Safety Security logo

Here's another logo for a local community service.  The School Safety and Security Committee was recently formed to ensure that our area schools stay safe in light of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting last December.  Gun free zones are not safe zones.  This bipartisan group are working on ways to ensure security for our children.

A reversed image of Etowah County was placed within a shield.  There was a little challenge making a name with seven words work as one image.  As you can see, the logo  is red, white, blue and black and also works fine as a gray scale image.  The logo was developed in PhotoShop.

Local Heroes

I just finished this logo this afternoon with J. Holland.  This is pretty straight forward, simple look to it, but strong imaging.  The ECRS logo was built in CorelDraw.  The hard hat was a quick mouse drawing, shaped via node editing.  The Etowah County Rescue Squad wear white hard hats with red jump suits.

J came to me with a good idea of what he wanted.  He just needed someone to put what he envisioned into an actual image.  I really like how it worked out and sure this branding will be used for decades to come.  I look forward to seeing this branding on their future red jump suits, safety helmets and vehicles.

The image below will go on their letterheads and documents. Their original logo was pretty busy with a lot of elements.  The image below includes most of the previous logo's elements, but simplified and cleaner.

WJBY is a sister station of WGAD.  I was asked to create this branding image while I was finishing up on the WGAD logo.  This image visually ties in with the other logo - while maintaining an identity all it's own.  I saw both logos enlarged on a banner last night at the Gadsden/Etowah Chamber of Commerce's 'Business After Hours'.  Having created these logos in CorelDraw and fine tuned in Photoshop - I only had seen them on my computer monitor.   It was rewarding to see how well they both looked super-sized.

They blowed up...they blowed up real good!

tuning in

WGAD is a radio station that's been servicing Gadsden, AL since 1947.   I was honored to be asked to develop their new logo.  The station is now under new management and new direction - now boasting a new transmitter facility, new transmitter and a new tower.  I'm anxious to see what the new improved WGAD will offer our community.

The initial challenge was to create a branding image that has a lot of elements (WGAD, 1350, 99.5 and News Plus) and make it work as a single unit.  The initial idea for this image was to integrate the the old 1 3 5 0 frequency into the bold WGAD call letters.  I welded the call letters together to work toward a single element appearance.  The other two elements were brought into the image using the bold red bars.  There was a lot of tweaking involved to get this one just right.  I am very pleased with the final outcome.

collective savior

This one's from a while back, yet still relevant.

not my idea

I thought this idea from John Shaw was a good one - so I fleshed it out.  If you don't know already, it's based on the idiom, "Fool me once, shame on you;  fool me twice - shame on me."  I hope that when the next presidential election rolls around, more American's will have wised up to Democrat promises of hope and change.  Thanks John.

my sentiments

Commander in Chef

This graphic was inspired after watching the Frank & Beans clip from Obama's CNBC Townhall.

“I’m exhausted of defending you, defending your administration, defending the mantle of change that I voted for,” said the first questioner, an African-American woman who identified herself as a chief financial officer, a mother and a military veteran. “I’ve been told that  I voted for a man who was going to change thin...gs in a meaningful way for the middle class, and I’m waiting, sir, I’m waiting. I still don’t feel it yet."

I tell you, I literally laughed all the way home yesterday.

remember in november

This is a freebie that pulled together in PhotoShop to share with my facebook friends.

bipartisanship obama style

a lymphedema panel

 

Here's another lymphedema related cartoon.  As most of you know, my wife and I are owners of Occupational Therapy of Gadsden, LLC.  Gina is a certified lymphedema therapist and most of our clientele are lymphedema patients.  As a graphic designer, I use my cartoons to market our services.  During the course of the year I will be working on an illustrated pamphlet/booklet to help educate our lymphedema patients.

This particular cartoon was scanned directly from my sketchbook and popped into a cartoon panel.  I rendered it while attending a Lighthouse Lymphedema meeting in Atlanta last October.  If you are part of the lighthouse network, you'll probably see some of my cartoon panels from time to time.

here comes the judge

Judge Roy Moore asked that I help him with his campaign logo back during the Summer.   It took several long sessions, and we finally came out of the other side of the project with a strong image that met his need.  We had a great time working on this image.  Creating it was a long process and I'm proud of the results.

I start most logos in CorelDraw.  I like the way Corel lets me manipulate fonts with ease.  The 'M' and banner were built as separate images and we discussed up front that the judge could use the 'M' independently if needed.  As always, after working with the text, the graphic was taken into PhotoShop to polish.

About Judge Roy Moore.  Don't believe everything you see on television or read in the paper about people.  To get to know this fellow, you'll discover a kind man with a real heart to serve God.  I always enjoy our conversations.  He's a very intelligent man. By the way,  he's one of the good guys.   My prayers go with him.

first sketches of 2010

Not too long ago I came across some Marx Brothers movies real cheap at our local Big Lots.  I sat up late last night watching a couple of them and had the urge to pencil sketch Groucho.  After Groucho, I turned the page and scribbled Harpo.  I had to improvise on Harpo because he's a moving target.  He was never still enough in any scene to make out facial detail.  Even if he did stand still - Harpo was constantly making faces.  I thought Chico was going to be the reel challenge - but he was actually my favorite of the brother's to draw.  Like Buster Keaton - Chico was a comedian with a dead-pan face.  Chico could have been his own straight man.  Growing up, I enjoyed Groucho and Harpo the most.  Watching these old movies again though, I've grown a new appreciation of Chico's talents.  Each of these illustrations, I feel, capture a little of the personality and energy of their characters.

This afternoon I scanned the three images into PhotoShop and merged them all together as one playful image.  I wanted each of the penciled caricature to remain unique, so I gave each brother their own color hue.   Looking at all three images together makes me think of the old cartoon imagery used in the old Marx Brother's publicity material.

self promo piece

This cartoon is on a new direct mail piece/post card going out to area physicians. I've also worked up a gray scale version for a puzzle book that is being distributed at health fairs. We've also ordered some jar openers with a black and white version of this cartoon to give out.

I've been using cartoons as a marketing tool for Occupational Therapy of Gadsden, LLC since we first started. I thought this piece turned out well. I know that not everyone out there who doesn't know what lymphedema is will get the cartoon.

he's coming for you

This a half page Ad that will run in the Messenger next week.
I was very happy with the outcome.