Letterheadfonts.com sells fonts, but what is really remarkable about the site is the amazing typographic designs in the portfolio section. Typographic skill is what separates real graphic designers and art directors from the pikers and this guy has skill in spades. The gallery section has a couple hundred samples of logos, signs, covers, and packages that scream talent. It is a really impressive collection of work.

The Times had great article on classic advertising (pure snake oil sales) for tobacco. Lot’s of lessons for aspiring art directors, copy writers and ethicists. Check it out here.

Here is another oil painter that I admire tremendously. He has the traditional, technical skills of a realist combined with a modern, artistic vision. He combines these to create some incredibly striking art. Check it out here.

Just finished my companies new site. I wanted something clean and modern, while still being true to the style of graphic design that I am most comfortable with. If you have a minute check it out here.

This is a great place for the image obsessed to look at historical images. There is historical advertising, propaganda posters, war related art, WPA era photographers like Walker Evans, all kinds of cool stuff. It is a huge collection and a lot of it it available in high res. Take a few minutes and check it out here.

The image below is a magic show poster from one of their collections.

I was hired to redesign the corporate logo for Zerega Pasta. I came up with the following options some of which are better than others. They have yet to choose one so I’ll have to update it when and if they do make a decision. Until then the bills are paid and I’m mostly pleased with the results. Click for larger image.

This guy is a painter’s painter. Check out his amazing work here and best of all watch time lapse videos of his painting process. For anyone who paints or is interested in the process of making an oil painting this is just great. He also does a really cool project called a painting-a-day.

Click he image to see a larger version of his awesome peanut butter and jelly painting.

Inkjet printers rock. We produce really nice signage, counter cards and invitations on a canon i9900. It prints 13 x 19 full bleed. The cost per unit is not really cheap because the disposables are expensive, but if you need to produce 4 signs, then 5 dollars worth of ink, paper, and foam core per sign is not a big expense. I produced my wedding invitations on an ink jet. I used inkjet friendly water color paper, transparent vellum, punched them by hand and bound them with silver cord. Very nice result, but a lot of work. I also do the studio holiday card on the inkjet since I only send out 20 or 30. Below is art of last years and tried to simulate the paper texture that I used in photoshop. Got a nice letterpress kind of feel to go with the idea.

Folio is a magazine for magazine pros–art directors, designers, writers, and business types. It’s a great publication. Recently I was asked to be a panelist for their cover critique section. Art directors of various publications submit their covers for critique and a panel of other magazine designers share their thoughts. Maybe one of these days I’ll work up the courage to submit one of my covers, but it is so much more fun to be a critic than to take criticism. Check it out here and here.

The president of the New York chapter of the American Association of Public Opinion Researchers approached me about their lack of an identifying mark so I came up with the logos below. Public Opinion as a graphic concept is a little vague. The checkmark as a representation of the survey process seemed to make the most sense. The other thought I had was the traditional group of people type design with the people in various shades of color to represent varying opinions.

These were well received, but they were missing the New York aspect of the organization. This was very important to them because they are the largest and most relevant branch of the organization and the needed to differentiate themselves from the national group umbrella. So the basic NY icons are lady liberty, Empire State Building, and the ubiquitous apple. Here was the final logo design. Click for larger Image.

Below is a before and after of an ad that was created for Oregon Home Magazine, a nice quality home publication catering to a high end clientele. One of the dealers of Milgard Windows purchased the ad space and proceeded to create the ad in house. Milgard Corporate Marketing was not thrilled with the design and contacted us to redesign it. Click on the image below to see what we did.

Micro Stock is the new business model for stock photography and illustration. Sites charge very low prices for high resolution, royalty-free, stock art and photographers (supposedly) make money on volume. I don’t actually know how good this has been for photographers, but it has been great for designers. We now can comp stuff with high res art and get quality art for low budget projects. Here are links to some of the best micro stock sites in no particular order:

Fotolia
istockphoto
shutterstock
dreamstime
123rf
stockxpert
featurepics

These were mailings targeted at high end buyers to promote a new type of high quality, zero-calorie sweetener. The client went all out with the budget and allowed us to create a really classy mailing. The wooden box was made by a cigar box manufacturer in the dominican republic. Click for larger image.

This was a logo for a made-to-order windows and doors program for Milgard. Click for a larger view.

These were covers I designed to pitch a custom publication to Ethan Allen. Still waiting to hear about that one. Click for larger image.

Did these a while back. I thought they were pretty interesting. Click for larger image.

Two of the companies we work for had anniversary’s last year and we we’re asked to design logos for them. Click the images to see them larger.

I’ve been designing Tobacco Outlet Business magazine for 10 years and they finally agreed to a redesign. I inherited the design from a previous art director, and while I have modified it over the years I have never been completely satisfied with it so this is long overdue. The publication is B2B, but I we wanted a bit more of a consumer feel while still remaining business oriented. Here is an old cover and a new one side by side. Click to view larger.

Here is the cover story from the first issue of the new design. Click for larger image.

Here’s a page from the old product section beside a spread from the new one. More products, tighter design etc. Click for larger image.

These boxes held some of iSi’s awesome products–silicon bowls, spatulas and basters–amazing stuff. The promotions were designed to help iSi generate face-to face meetings with it’s distributors and operators and the promotion was a success. Click the image to see it larger.

Milgard had a run and a bike ride to benefit various charities and contacted me to do the logos. Click to see the results.