I’d been growing my illustration skills every time I doodled in a meeting, drew out my name, and explored shapes while I sketched for projects. This illustrative epiphany occurred today after a meeting where I was left with this sprawled across my notebook. Nothing more than my name in three typefaces, mixed with numbers, pulled together by spirals and shapes.

Now, with this new found encouragement, I’ll be able to keep up with my goal of illustrating every day, even if it is just doodling in my notebook.

Going through my projects and pieces, I noticed some pieces were shot on white, some on black, and some on gray. Obvioiusly, that was not going to work. What a great opportunity, or excuse, to build a light box and buy a tripod for my camera! After some focused Google-ing, I came across a tutorial written by Jason Tomczak showing how to create your own light box with white foamcore. A material I loathed as a student quickly became the idea material for the walls of a light box.

This photo from the tutorial shows how quickly and easily it came together. Soon after I was shooting photos that looked great, no glares or odd shadows. I felt like a pro. Tonight as I get together all of the pieces I need to shoot, it will be a crash course in lighting. If nothing else, there’s always Photoshop retouching right?

Now, where will I store this thing…

It’s Friday again, so I’m wearing another tie-dyed shirt. Of course it’s paired with a bit of hip jewelry from my silver peace sign belt buckle. Fabric dying is such an interesting art and every piece finishes differently. It’s an ideal way to relinquish a little control and be surprised by the outcome, which is often incredible. Whether it’s using wax resists or adding black dyes, the process is as much about the finished design as the initial idea. Design and fabric dying are closely related and require many of the similar principles such as conscious color choice, and proper use of white space.

Not just for hippies, this art is a model example of color mixing. A person could position green and orange adjacent to each other, but the end result would be a muddy dull brown. However, if you place that same green next to a bright cyan, the result will be a bright turquoise or aqua color. The process of color mixing is further explored as you introduce different proportions of the dye or experiment with levels of saturation in mixing the initial dyes.

Additionally, as in any good design, there is the importance of white space. A shirt full of blending dyes becomes visually messy and the colors are not as defined and highlighted as they would be given the opportunity for white space.

I’ve been enjoying the process of fabric dying since high school and have only grown more technical within the process. However, the excitement and anticipation is the same as it was with the first shirt I’d done. Some students may paint, although I enjoy that too, or spend hours toiling in Photoshop to hone their skills and increase their desire to be a designer; I chose to spend my time analyzing color changes and saturation, paying attention to that ever-so-important white space.

Flave H2O came with the challenge of creating new and exciting packaging for its aerated flavored waters. They were looking for a design that was hip and on trend that would resonate with young people with a strong focus in music culture. Bright fruit flavors were the center of the brand and were expressed through conscious color and shape navigation.

The first option shows a tall tag with a die cut mark that would allow the bright red secondary page to show through. In addition, the cover page has delicate clear foiling of the texture from the tamper seal.

The second option shows a metal front tag with a painted red area to communicate the brand colors and finish the Slovak crest. Hanging on top of the larger metal plate, is a delicate laser cut outline of the Slovak crest. As the tag moves, the crest is active and catches light.

When Sioux Valley Health changed their name, they needed a rebrand to introduce the new name and update their mark. We were challenged to incorporate the historic brand elements from the original mark while highlighting the new strength of the name.

The Lorraine cross was a pivotal piece of the original Sioux Valley Health logo and needed to be expressed in the new wordmark.  A heart was present in the original but after rounds of ideation we felt it was an outdated icon and did not communicate Sanford effectively. Finally, the chevron from the Sioux Valley Health logo represented just that, the Sioux Valley of that area. With the name change, the valley was no longer an important brand element. With this research, we began ideation on a series of wordmarks that featured the Lorraine cross in modern and new ways, often playing on the negative space of the letterforms. We worked to create an effective use of the cross inside the O of the name.