Branding Samples

My previous post regarding Starbuck's recent branding move reminded me that, while I'm constantly designing on the job and at home, I'm rarely posting examples of projects. I've been working on quite a few logo samples for an upcoming conference that my work is putting on. The details are still fairly vague so I'm taking pretty broad stabs at it right now in an effort to pin down the direction we will end up going for this particular brand. These are by no means finished, and pretty rough, but a good place to start in order to get a better idea for what the requester does and doesn't like.

Brand History: Starbucks

I saw our project manager drinking coffee from an unusual starbucks cup this morning. Upon closer investigation I discovered that the logo was strangely different... and brown; definitely not the iconic green and black emblem that we've all come to know (for better or worse) on virtually every civilized street corner in the United States. My good friend Mr. Google quickly told me that this was Starbuck's original logo from the 70's. A further investigation had me digging up this cool article written by John Moore of Brand Autopsy. It details the development and evolution of the Starbuck's logo- pretty cool information. As a designerd (yes, that's right, I'm making up my own words now), I think its really cool to see how time and history effect a company's branding. Just some graphical food for the thought.

EDIT: I found this article in business week that further discusses the temporary logo switch on select cups of coffee. Check it out here.

The REAL Cloning Brush

My friend Garrett sent me this cool video illustrating a concept design of a '3D Film Brush'. Essentially its a real life cloning brush (a la photoshop). The developer says this about it:

"...a new drawing tool to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by “picking up” and drawing with them. I/O Brush looks like a regular physical paintbrush but has a small video camera with lights and touch sensors embedded inside. Outside of the drawing canvas, the brush can pick up color, texture, and movement of a brushed surface. On the canvas, artists can draw with the special “ink” they just picked up from their immediate environment"

There's more about this cool little novelty here. Thought it was cool!

BTC Conference

I'd like to encourage you to pray for (and consider attending if you are a young adult) the upcoming BTC Conference which will take place in August. My home church, Grace Covenant, is the one heading up this conference and we are really excited to see what the Lord will do with our efforts. This conference was the original idea of my good friend David Giarizzo, who has been spearheading the efforts to develop and implement the conference. David is currently at the ARBCA General Assembly and will speaking to the pastors and assembly there to follow-up the official announcement of the conference during last year's GA. Here's so more info on the conference itself:

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• What? Reformed Baptist Young Adults Conference
• When? August 8th - 11th, 2008
• Where? Prescott, Arizona
• Speaker? Pastor Bob Selph
  

The goal of BTC is to help young people understand the importance of the local church. Our hope is that this younger generation of Reformed believers will grow in love for Christ and His Church and will pursue active involvement in the local congregation.

BTC is not a “single’s conference.” This conference is geared towards all young adults, 18+ yrs old, regardless of marital status!

We hope to see the BTC conference become a regularly anticipated and attended conference for young adults across the country for many years to come!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Loving what I do...

Anyone who knows me, will be able to tell you that I love my day job. Working as a graphic designer for Food for the Hungry has been an incredible experience thus far. I feel so very blessed to be able to utilize my creative talents at a non-profit organization who is dedicated to being the hands and feet of Christ. I have a wonderful team of brothers and sisters in Christ who make my job an absolute joy and the departments I work with here are fantastic (they are known as 'requestors' in an in-house design environment as opposed to 'clients' in a production-based company).

One of those departments that I get to work with is our Artist Ministry. It really is a blast to be able to create promotional materials for Christian musical artists who have partnered with FH to help get hungry and hurting children sponsored. In my time here I've come to really appreciate the artists that truly give back to society and the world at large. Just to name a few: Leeland (this band is amazing and is definitely up and coming- I predict them to be headlining some big name tours in the near future), 33 Miles, Sara Groves (I'm currently developing a display graphic for her to use at shows, see right), Tammy Trent, PCD, etc. These guys and gals are the real deal, and they let their faith shine through their music AND their actions.

Not to jump on a soapbox, but I really do believe in the organization I work for. Food for the Hungry does make a REAL difference in lives throughout the world. We know that, as an organization, we are completely dependent on God. We seek to follow him always, we strive to do His will. We live by the the words of Micah 6:8, "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." If anyone is curious or wants to know more information about Food for the Hungry, please don't hesitate to contact me. I'd be happy to give a tour of our facility here in Phoenix and to get you more information.

Please, consider sponsoring a child or getting involved somehow. We have been blessed with so much here in America; may we never forget to share that blessing with those who are less fortunate then ourselves.

InDesign CS3 VersionCue Woes

I hadn't experienced any trouble at home with InDesign CS3 before, but at work I've been fighting it ever since I upgraded the platform to OSX Tiger. It seems that there is an issue with the way Adobe updates Adobe VersionCue (or rather, doesn't update VersionCue... ahem.). Never mind the fact that VersionCue is essentially useless in a single-designer environment (not sure about VersionCue's purpose? Click here.), Adobe saw fit to integrate it into the very core functions of 'save' and 'save as' file commands. What does this mean for someone with a corrupted version of VersionCue? Saving doesn't work... oh but it doesn't just not save, it crashes the entire program. Yikes.

Thanks to a blog posting by Joe Maller I was able to remedy the problem- thanks Joe! Now I really should cut Adobe some slack, in all my years of using their products, never have I once encountered a bug like this. However, I thought I should bring some attention to Joe Maller's blog post since it was one of the only places on the web that I can find a viable solution to the problem. Hope that helped for those of you who reached this post by desperately crawling Google in hopes of finding an answer.

My Best Friend

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"A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.

Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.

Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."

-Proverbs 31:10-12, 29-30

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"Her"

Deep brown, flickers of joy and laughter

echo in those beautiful eyes that look upon mine

How can I, just a simple man, be so fortunate

to claim the affections of this intoxicating beauty

Lord may I never forget to count my blessings

And this, second only to your very son,

May I guard, protect, and cherish her

As the very beating of my own heart.

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I love you Celeste- thank you for making me the happiest man I know!