One accomplishment during my term as president of AIGA Upstate New York was to re-establish new methods of communication using the internet. Along with Debi Bower, Web Chair, I designed and assisted with the re-skinning the web site. The back-end of the site is provided by AIGA and each chapter has the ability to change it to appropriately brand it to their chapter.
One important addition to the web site is the rotating banners showcasing work from our members. It is inspired by the AIGA.ORG web site which includes images from the AIGA Archives.

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I am not claiming to be a videographer, just a guy who likes to make stuff. This time it was a video for the Good Food Collective to kick off the 2010 Growing Season. Thanks to Chris and Brian for being good sports and contributing to my playfulness.

In the past, we have been using a logo created for the St. Louis Old School Tattoo Convention. It is a great event created for the Old School Tattoo community and Lyle Tuttle. It also had a star. Not the navigation star that you would associate with old school ink.

I proposed going “old school” with a Sailor Jerry style image. Something sexy and something coffee. I was able to locate a book of drawings for tattoo artists. It is not “Flash” but sketches. Making the work open for interpretation. The women I chose was holding up her dress, as if she was carrying something in the front. Instantly, I thought, coffee beans! Composing the image with pencil and paper, then scanning it in, I shared it with Matt Herren for his approval. “F*ck Ya, man. Let’s do it!” he said with great enthusiasm.

One thing that my skills lack is coloring tattoos. It really needed to be colored in by someone who works in the medium. Matt forward the drawing to Carrie at Evermore Tattoo in Edwardsville. She did a great job interpreting the drawing into color. Something that I was not thinking about was ethnicity. The result was a beautiful Latina.

I took the new artwork and finessed the lips and eyes. Giving her the come hither and buy this coffee look.

End result looks great. Our next step will be creating posters and t-shirts to promote this blend. Labels are at the printers and should be on the shelves by mid-February. Order now!
BUY OLD SCHOOL TATTOO BLEND

It is said that you need to create a “niche” market for your business, something that I do a lot of and enjoy every minute of it is creating web site portfolios for artists. I have a great network of artist friends, most of these are glass artists. Since I am married to one, the ability to have access to them is easy, they are all top notch people and the work they make is absolutely brilliant.

This time I was able to work with world renowned glass casting artist, Anna Boothe. Anna came to me for some updates on a static web site that was cumbersome to edit. I proposed to her a solution that would allow her to update her own imagery, resume and news. That sold her on the idea to graduate to the next level of web technology to improve her self marketing and ability to keep her fans informed of new work and upcoming casting workshops.  It was a great joy working with Anna. Next, we have to get a site for her husband Steve!

We were able to solve the functional problems of the previous web site and keep within her budget by capitalizing on previous experience building these types of web sites using WordPress. This theme is a custom WordPress theme that allows a unique design for this project.

This site is a composite of technologies. The core of it is a WordPress CMS that allows editing to much of the content on the web site. There is a little bit of Adobe Flash to create simple transitions in the banners. The photo galleries are created with the wordpress plug-in: NextGen Gallery in the CMS. The images appear as “pop-ups” from the gallery that include a slideshow from a technology called “Lightview” using the Lightview Plus Plug-in.

The other thing that was mentioned for future additions to the web site would be ability to add an eCommerce section. WordPress will provide us with the opportunity to do this quite easily. It will be added with WP e-Commerce plugin.

If you are an artist and would like to build a web site that you can manage, contact me!

>>View Anna Boothe Web Site

There are times when you have a pile of “rejects” from the client. This poster represents an idea that has grown out of numerous “rejects”. A few of the original designs,  I thought were pretty darn awesome. Others, not so hot. This was the last idea sent along that have not received approval or rejection. With great excitement to get away from the computer and get my hands dirty. I took my Saturday and ventured to the basement to experiment. The goal for me was to visualize how overprinting with different colors of silk-screen ink looks on chipboard and 110# card stock.

So, Shindell. Scott should be receiving a package in the mail soon. Now, you have some posters for what some call: “Shits and Giggles”. Enjoy!

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Ever since I built the silk-screen press in my basement, I have been itching to create 1 and 2 color posters for Matt at Goshen Coffee Company. The first of these designs is a 2 color 11×17 on chipboard. Laying down the white first and making it have some rough edges. Then putting the a crisp black typographic layer over top. Limited edition of 25. Looking forward to printing more of these in the near future. Watch out St. Louis. These will be keepers!

Even on a low budget, WILLY BE GOOD uses available technology that will assist in establishing a rapid web presence and allow the artist to communicate with his visitors through news updates. The site is HTML/CSS with a WordPress CMS.

I love keeping it simple.

http://www.willybegood.com

The concept was to visually represent the variation and amount of ideas inspired by the visit of these very different and profound guests.

The light bulbs are all individually drawn, no two are the same. The distorted text was photographed through a large slab of glass creating refracted perception only glass can create. Our choice of florescent inks represent the risk taking and safety by glass artists. Metallic ink was used to represent the reflection/change of light across the page that paper and ink so often is not associated.

Special Mention to OSER PRESS in Rochester for doing a great job printing, again!

It is a clean and informative site that is HTML/CSS based using a WordPress CMS to edit existing content and provide opportunities for future phases of site development.

http://centerforgrowthandpotential.com/

View some of our past emails:
JULY 2009
JUNE 2009
MAY 2009