I really need to post here more often. This was a recent logo I completed for a San Diego company that makes commercial doors. I had a fun time with it, playing with the gradients to get a shiny and reflective metallic-like look.

I know I need to focus more on creating new content for my portfolio, and new projects, but most of my time lately is going towards finding steady employment, or trying to expand my micro-stock work into as many sites as I can. I spent a lot of time last week trying to get all my work on Fotolia.com, and I still have 30 or 40 more files to upload. This week I thought I would focus on Bigstock.com, and I just applied with DepositePhoto.com. I’m not expecting a lot from the micro-stock work, but I feel I should try to get as much as I can out of what I have right now.

I was asked to go down to Sorrento and do a “working interview” for three days (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). It was for a company called University Readers. Here are some of the concepts I came up with. Since I do want to put these in my portfolio, I did spend some time today cleaning them up, and making a few changes. For example, in their templates they had areas for a photo of the author and a UPC Barcode or SKU. I felt those really mucked up the designs, and if they are absolutely necessary, then they could always go on the inside of the cover. I also swapped out their place holder text for Lorum Ipsum text, since no copy was given for the back covers… I just thought it looks better. Another thing I did was replace all the watermarked images that I’d found on stock photo sites while I was there. I wanted these to look more complete, so I tried to use what stock images I had here, or what I could find for free on the web.

The last part of the LibraryYOU project was to design a header for their website. I worked up three concepts that I really liked. I heard back from the client yesterday and it looks like they’re going with the first one. This was a fun project and I hope to find more like it in the future.

LibraryYOU/ Escondido Library Project

I was contracted a couple months ago to design a logo, business card and promotional posters for an Escondido Library project called “LibraryYOU.” It’s a program to invite the local community in to educate each other and share knowledge, using internet tools like YouTube. I tried to keep the logo fairly simple, but incorporate some of the feelings and elements they were asking for. I’m still working on the poster designs, but below is the card.

Worth1000.com Coach Character Illustration

This was for a Worth1000.com contest to illustrate a character for Coach Auto Sales, the character being named Coach Otto. I ended coming in third… honestly I’m not sure how happy I was about that.

Yeah, I know, it’s spec work. On the other hand, I have rent to pay, along with credit card bills, student loans, and even a surgery from 2002 that I’m still trying to pay off, and what I don’t have is a steady income. So, any chance I get to stretch my skills, and maybe earn a little cash I’m going to take right now. Maybe someday when I’m making a decent income off my skills I’ll stop doing things on spec, but right now while I’m trying to get established, I don’t see how it’s unavoidable.

Freelance Work for Studio 318

Since October I’ve had the opportunity a few times to go down to Del Mar and do some freelance work for Joan Maloney at Studio 318. Hopefully I’ll get more chances to go down there, and get more experience in a studio doing print design. Anyhow, below are few of logos and other things I’ve done while I was there.

Illustrative Book Cover

This started out initially as me wanting to be more illustrative for my own purposes. I just wanted to draw and vector a subject I knew I would enjoy. I was going to make it just a piece of pin-up art and put it up on my DeviantArt.com gallery, but I ended up making it into a mock book over. This is the kind of stuff I really enjoy doing, and hopefully, someday, I’ll figure out how to make a living off of it. I’m currently working on another one, also Star Trek related, and I hope to have it finished soon.

There’s been a bunch of stuff I’ve done for my microstock accounts, but I’m not going to post those here. Instead you can see those pieces on iStock.com, or Shutterstock.com.

These are some book cover concepts I recently came up with to help build my print portfolio. All the interviews I’ve been to lately say that’s an area I’m severely lacking in. I came up with a few ideas for the covers, and I’m hoping to get to the others soon, but I thought I would start with these. I’ve been wanting to try something in the minimalist style for awhile now anyhow. Also, I think it would be fun to put out a series of classics with covers that gave just a hint of the story within.  The logo for “Alliance Books” was just something I made up. I saw a mural once in Switzerland of something similar. The copy on the back of the books I took from Barnes & Noble’s Classic Book series. There’s more images of the covers below.

Dracula Cover

The first cover I worked up was Dracula. I kind of knew right off what I wanted to do for this one.

Frankenstein Cover

This is the second time I’ve come up with a concept for Frankenstein, the first time was for a student project while at Utah State.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Cover

This one I’m not that satisfied with, and would like to take another shot at. Still, this is the best I’ve got for now.

This is something I put together last night for Atomic Moo. It’s a printable pair of 3D glasses visitors to the site can download and put together themselves. I’m hoping to do more 3D projects for the site. I even put together a 3D version of this print (below).  This one is 11″ x 17″; I still need to make an 8.5″ x 11″ print available.

I wanted to get this done tonight, so tomorrow I could focus on other projects. I think I’m going to take a break from vectoring for my microstock accounts. I’m hoping my brother will step in and help me out there and vector some of the sketches I’ve come up with. Instead I need to focus more on finding a job and building a better portfolio. I definitely need more print work. I have some ideas for a few projects I could work on to help me out in that area. Again, something I keep hearing from the studios I’ve been visiting is that I’m not pushing myself enough. I also need to start putting together another portfolio book, but with out a printer, and very little funds, I’m not sure how I’m going to physically put it together. I guess I’ll have to figure it out.

There was a lot I wanted to do last night, but couldn’t because of the blackout. I tried to draw some characters that I could vector up for my microstock accounts, but then I started drawing this. It’s from an image I had printed out awhile ago that had been lingering on my desk. I’ve been wanting to do something based on the Bride of Frankenstein for a while now, but I’m not sure what. I’m still not sure. Anyhow, I learned a couple things from this: 1. drawing by candle light sucks, and 2. I don’t sketch enough.

Some of the things I was hoping to get done last night was to go over my portfolio and see about putting together a nicer book. Also, the site here needs some reorganizing. The last three days I’ve had the opportunity to meet with the creative directors of a few design studios. Though they all differ in what I should or shouldn’t put in my portfolio, I seem to hear the same thing from them: I’m not pushing myself hard enough, and I need to make a better presentation of the work I have and the work I want to do. So, I’ve got to make some changes to my portfolio, clean it up, and come up with some pieces that really push me… but I still need to find a job. Need to pay the rent so I have a roof over my head while I work on all this. Hopefully something will turn up soon.

I actually submitted this a couple days ago, but so far it’s only been accept to Shutterstock.com; it’s still pending on my iStockphoto and Vectorstock accounts. I guess I’m more interested in doing more pin-up like work at the moment. Still, I’d like to keep focusing on simple character illustrations and see how that works out for me. I need to take some time tonight and do some more sketches.