cheap.awesome.graphicdesign

French & Indian War Commemoration logo

2009-05-19T07:22:00.000-07:00

The poster (coming soon) and logo kind of came about at the same time. The poster was where the logo was born. I wound up using the logo for various other materials (that I'll be posting soon as well). I think that in my nearly 10 years of experience at I Love NY, this was the most exciting and rewarding project I have had the opportunity to work on. So romantic. So dramatic. I listened to the Last of the Mohicans and Glory and Patriot and Pocahontas soundtracks for days and weeks while working on this. It put me in such a great creative and dramatic mindset. You can see the cinematic influence in the drama of the look and feel of these pieces. So many people commented that the campaign looked like promo for a movie. Good! That's what I wanted. They got excited to go see the re-enactments. It became more than just dry history.

Most rewarding: the commission reported attendance and revenue for the 2007 season were up an astounding 361% over 2006!!! That is CRAZY ROI!!

USA Niagara Development Corporation newsletter

2009-05-18T14:44:00.001-07:00

This is a newsletter I designed for the USA Niagara Development Corporation. I also designed their logo, stationary, numerous ads, tradeshow displays, and various other print materials. As a whole, the body of marketing materials received an award for excellence. I'm trying to find the email that stated what exactly the award was. When i find it, i'll update this post.

I LOVE NEW YORK seasonal microsites

2009-05-01T11:47:00.000-07:00

These screenshots are all that's left of the work I did on these projects. They were seasonal sites I did a few years back. I designed the original template, and then was the sole production person on every page. The fall one was the most robust...more that 50 pages in that sucker. These were mostly utilized for ad tracking and specialized information that didn't have a home on iloveny.com (the parent site).

North Jersey Rowing website

2009-05-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is a website I built for a New Jersey rowing organization. Originally, this site included third party course registration integration.

Hearts on Fire website

2009-05-01T11:32:00.000-07:00

This is a website that's currently in development. It's my uncle's band. Good stuff!

Ulitmate Road Trippers Love New York

2009-04-30T14:30:00.000-07:00

This is an ad that received national recognition and was published in Graphic Design USA's American InHouse Design Awards Annual of 2007. It leveraged I LOVE NEW YORK's sponsorship of YES Network's Ultimate Road Trip reality TV show. Concept, copy, and design by yours truly. Photo by the very talented Mr. Darren McGee.

Martin Luther King Jr program ad

2009-04-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

This was an ad I did for a program at MLK2 day event. All they told me was the size and that it was black and white (irony?). I had about an hour to put it together, but I really like how it turned out. Sometimes the best projects are created under stress and constraint.

New York Heritage Areas Program poster

2009-04-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

This was a poster I did for the New York Heritage Areas Program. They wanted to show the diversity of the heritage areas, while communicating richness and depth at the same time. To do this, I gilded their logo, and used an antique bordering on the inset photos. A warm leather background texture with subtle flourishes completed the feeling nicely.

DestinationNY Group Travel Magazine

2009-04-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to completely redesign the look/feel of New York State's group travel magazine. I developed a style guide, and laid out each of the 48 pages—complete with ads, articles, features, maps, listings and more. 15,000 copies were printed and distributed in the mail and at trade shows.

IT Remedies Logo

2009-04-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

I've done business cards, stationery, a homepage, and various print ads for this Albany-based IT company. It all started with the logo though.

I LOVE NEW YORK 25th Anniversary Logo

2009-04-30T07:56:00.000-07:00

We were looking to do something clean and classy for the silver anniversary of the I LOVE NEW YORK tourism campaign. I was honored to be chosen to create this special edition logo.

Foreign Investment Award Program

2009-04-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

This is a saddle-stitched booklet I designed and laid out for a banquet honoring New York State Department of Economic Development foreign investment awardees. I kept the look clean, simple and corporate.

A Christmas Carol Tickets

2009-04-30T05:03:00.001-07:00

These were the tickets for the show.

A Christmas Carol poster

2009-04-30T04:57:00.000-07:00

This was a logo and poster I did for a small country church's theatrical adaptation of a Charles Dickens' classic. I wanted to use iconic and mysterious imagery from the story, and that cold ominous door knocker seemed to really fit the bill. Contact info for tickets was on the final printed piece, but left off this post for privacy.

Album Cover 02

2009-04-29T21:49:00.000-07:00

Here's another album cover. Again with the tree theme. This one was substantially more of a challenge to figure out, but i felt like it really came together in the end. Most of the quotes were vague and fluffy phrases. This one was a defiant statement. I felt like the photo crop captured that voice—the thick trunk is just as immovable as it's message. The typography is always my favorite part of any design. Placement. Style. Tone. I liked how the brush script kinda smiled at you all happy and innocent on the heels of the sans serif's "whatcha gonna do about it" kind of statement. For this one, my random elements were:

My Band
My quote: "A specification that will not fit on one page of 8.5x11 inch paper cannot be understood." -Mark Ardis
My photo

Album Cover 01

2009-04-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

This was an album cover i did as part of the Random Use of Random Stuff Album Cover Edition. Missed the first prize by a handful of votes. It was a cool exercise though. Tons of fun.

Here were my three random elements:

My Band
My Quote: "Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), (attributed)
My photo

Our Journey with Joshua poster

2009-04-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

This is a point of purchase poster I did for a local author who wrote a book about how her family dealt with her brother's near-fatal car accident and his long road to recovery. It's an honest and inspiring story. You can buy it here.

Ride4Love logo

2009-04-29T21:00:00.001-07:00

I did this logo for a charity bike ride to benefit Love146.org—an organization dedicated to the eradication of child sex slavery and exploitation. If you're interested in the ride, check out the site.