August 2010
Flyer for Electronic and In-House Printed Distribution
Design Applications: Illustrator CS4
Time Limit: 1 Hour
Typeface: League Gothic

I was called to design a flyer for Maestro Theatre that had to be distributed immediately. This was completed and emailed back to the client within an hour.

This final concept selected by the client focuses on the six goals and meetings of the program and is more "high-tech" and industrial than the other two.

A concept visualizing "tools for success" with a playful while still sophisticaled mood.

A more traditional, formal, type treatment.

July 2010
Identity for The University of Tulsa’s Freshman Leadership Institute
Design Applications: Illustrator CS4
Typefaces: Dekar, Bank Gothic, Fedra Sans Italic

The University of Tulsa’s Freshman Leadership Institute is being restructured with a new focus on empowering students with real world advice (often referred to as “tools for success” in the brief) and on student retention. The new program had six areas of focus, one for each of the six scheduled meetings throughout the freshman year. I developed three logo concepts for them.

View and Comment at Behance

June 2010
Printing Methods: Digital on Coroplast
Design Applications: Template in Illustrator CS4 finished in InDesign CS4
Typeface: Helvetica

A series of signs produced for the Tulsa Advertising Federation’s 1st Annual Golf Tournament to mark hole sponsorships and challenges. After spending too much time watching Mad Men and playing Mirror’s Edge, my mind was stuck between AMC’s world of 1950’s Advertising and Electronic Arts’ sparkling clean, corporate-controlled, Helvetica-infused (except when they messed up and used Arial), surveillance-riddled environment. In said stupor, my friends at the Tulsa Advertising Federation requested event signage with no requirements or established identity. Knowing that it had to be stark and legible from across a golf green, I realized I had been staring at my answer for days. Besides, some of these people remember when Helvetica was new… It could be accused of being the easy way out, but it was fun.

June 2010
Event Identity for Dave’s RV Free Show and Sale
Design Applications: Illustrator CS4
Typeface: Satisfaction Pro, Gill Sans (Ultra Bold Condensed, Extra Condensed Bold, Ultra Bold)

View from South Mall Graduate Seating Area

View from Booth

View from Booth

Finale

Finale

Day View from Booth

Loggia Roof West

Rings Setup for House Lights and VL3000 FOH Specials

Rings Setup for House Lights and VL3000 FOH Specials

May 2010
Electrical Work for Olden Lighting for the 127th Spring Commencement at The University of Texas at Austin
Position: Load-In/Strike Electrician, Focus Crew
Rig Includes: Varilite VLX, VL2500, VL3000, and VL3500; High End Systems StudioColor, StudioSpot, StudioBeam, Cyberlight, and Technobeam; Moonscape LED pars and strips; Strand CD80 dimmers; Dove Shoebox dimmers; ProCan PAR64; and Strand SL ellipsoidals.
Photos in this album courtesy of Darren E. Levin

My favorite job of the year, this was my third year (2007, 2008, and 2010) to work as an electrician for the University of Texas Spring Commencement. It’s the one time of year when my inner Longhorn gets to come out and work on the campus I grew up on, where most of my relatives and scores of friends call their Alma Mater.

The set up is distributed across five major areas of the Main Building:

• The porch outside the presidential complex’s Stark Library hosts a bank of fixtures to side light the Tower and a primary distro box that serves power over 6-circuit and LeGrand cable to the rest of the roof.
• The service porch behind the Presidential Lobby facing the UT Tower holds all the front light for the tower: VLX (the new Varilite LED Wash fixture), VL3000, and Cyberlight (one equipped with a glass litho of the UT Longhorn for projection).
• Both sides of the roof/balconies on the loggia hold the side light for the south face of the Main Building and the courtyard where the ceremony takes place and LED wash bars to tone the columns outside the 2nd floor offices .
• The courtyard below has architectural uplight and specials along the sides and specials throughout the “playing” space: HES StudioSpot, StudioColor, and StudioBeams as well as conventionals.
• Both of the light posts in the South Mall, referred to us as the “rings,” are rigged with thirty feet of triangular truss to hold PARs for the seating area and automated front lighting for the playing space: VL3000 and VL3500.
• At the back of the South Mall, a truss tower over the lighting and sound control booths holds HES Technobeams and Pars to light the graduate seating area.
• Finally, along both sides of the green extending south of the Mall, each of the academic buildings is lit with four trees of white and orange PARs; at Degree Conferrment, the white PARs cross fade out and the orange upfades to color the entire mall in UT Burnt Orange.

It was, as always, a pleasure to work with Olden Lighting on this job and I hope to be able to do so again next year. It was not until I started attending other University graduations that I realized that this is a unique spectacle and celebration. Only in Texas. Congratulations to all my Longhorn Graduate friends. Best wishes.

Hook ‘em Horns!

Card Front

Front Detail 1

Front Detail 2

Card Back

Back Detail 1

Back Detail 2

June 2010
Season Teaser Card for Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust
Design Applications: InDesign CS4
Typeface: Univers
Printing Methods: Digital by J. D. Young in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Paper: Sappi LOE Glossy 80# Cover
Size: 9in x 3.75in
Download the Teaser Card PDF

A simple season teaser card for the Tulsa Performing Arts Center Trust. A dream client who told me during the brief to “just run with it, I’m sure we’ll love it.” Their only requirement was to display as many photos of the performers as possible and noted that most of their other collateral is “edgy with clean lines, very modern looking.”

Texture, Type, and Color Study

About Us (Home) Page

Portfolio Page

Services Page

Weddings Page

June 2010
Website Design & Copywriting for D&H Stage Lighting of Austin (Cedar Park), Texas.
Design Applications: Photoshop CS4, Dreamweaver CS4
Development Platform: Wordpress
Typefaces: Interstate Condensed Bold (used in image headers handled by TTFTitles plug-in)
D&H Stage Lighting Website

The D&H Stage Lighting website needed to be redesigned with a photographic focus to highlight each of four main specialties of the company with the ability to be updated easily and frequently. As a marketing tool, the website needed to position D&H Stage Lighting as a company with superior customer service experience. They carry an inventory skewed towards event (and wedding) lighting, which is a primary focus. Additionally, although the inventory of D&H is currently smaller than its local competitors, their ability to network with and ship to/from other businesses in the region allows them to offer a wider selection and higher quantity of equipment more easily than their competitors, making them a solid choice for tours and jobs with special or large requirements, which is their eventual goal.

The website is based on Wordpress  using the Next-Gen Gallery for image management with custom templates coded by hand in using XHTML and CSS 3 with basic PHP5. The development testing browser was Opera 10.51, and it has been extensively tested with the current versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. The site is designed to be backwards compatible with minimal loss in features or visual styling; the most notable loss is the CSS3 border radius property which is not visible at all in Internet Explorer or in older generations of other major browsers.

Prompt: "Eco-Friendly Special Promo Package for a Pineapple"
Answer: Reusable Natural Gum Rubber Band.

Prompt: "Eco-Friendly Special Promo Package for a Pineapple"
Answer: Reusable Natural Gum Rubber Band.

Prompt: "Rebrand the Chinese dive around the corner"
Answer: Photgraphy-Inspired 2-Color Carry-Out and Menu.

Prompt: "Rebrand the Chinese dive around the corner"
Answer: Photgraphy-Inspired 2-Color Carry-Out and Menu.

Prompt: "Self-Promo Piece"
Answer: Set of resume-wrapped coasters.

Prompt: "Self-Promo Piece"
Answer: Set of resume-wrapped coasters.

Prompt: "Self-Promo Piece"
Answer: Set of resume-wrapped coasters.

Prompt: "Self-Promo Piece"
Answer: Set of resume-wrapped coasters.

Prompt: "Fix this bad wine label"
Answer: Tourist-trap motif to label this "economical" wine.

Prompt: Package an emotion
Answer: Dark Curiosity takes form as wicked-looking Gerber Artifact (my knife) hidden in a book.

Prompt: Package an emotion
Answer: Dark Curiosity takes form as wicked-looking Gerber Artifact (my knife) hidden in a book.

Prompt: Package an emotion
Answer: Dark Curiosity takes form as wicked-looking Gerber Artifact (my knife) hidden in a book.

Prompt: Package an emotion
Answer: Dark Curiosity takes form as wicked-looking Gerber Artifact (my knife) hidden in a book.

Prompt: Package a Flash Drive called "DataCap" by "Technocrat" Answer: Small box with an approachable organic and vintage appeal, but not devoid of "high-tech" accents.

Prompt: Package a Flash Drive called "DataCap" by "Technocrat" Answer: Small box with an approachable organic and vintage appeal, but not devoid of "high-tech" accents.

Class Portfolio from Packaging Design, Spring 2010
Printing Methods: Color Laser, Serigraphy, Spraypaint
Design Applications: Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS4, some InDesign CS4
Typefaces: Harlem Slang, Korean Calligraphy, Neutra Face, Interstate, Bull Inked, Disturbance, Deli Deluxe, Univers
Academic Work

My Packaging Design class this spring explored 6 different assignments:

1. Packaging a Pineapple in an Eco-Friendly Way – Despite my original question of how to eco-friendly package a product that is traditionally unpackaged, I ultimately decided to use a band of natural gum rubber (which is both reusable degradable) around the fruit. It was silkscreened (the color accent in the logo was added using Photoshop) inside and out. The inside has potential re-uses for pieces of various sizes and gridlines for cutting.
2. Rebrand the local Chinese dive – New Hong Kong is a favorite among my friends in that “it’ll probably cut years off our lives, absolutely delicious, greasy yet satisfying, cheap cash only” kind of way, so I was really excited when that became an assignment. Using a heavily altered stock photo of Hong Kong and setting it against a photo I took years ago at the Forbidden Gardens in Katy, Texas, it visually compares the new and the old of China and can be printed economically in two colors.
3. Self-Promo Piece – Self-promotion is terribly difficult. Knowing how crowded stacks of portfolios can become, I decided to reposition my work to the break room. I put my work on coasters where a hypothetical potential employer could protect his tables by looking at my work every time he or she sets down the coffee mug. The set comes wrapped in a colored resume (it will likely be torn like wrapping paper) and another copy of the resume inside.
4. Down Under Wine – An Australian wine imported through Crane Lake Winery in California was selected to be redesigned. Knowing that the price per bottle could likely only cover its shipping costs, I opted for an accessible, entertaining, and touristy motif using the stereotypical Kangaroo crossing sign common in that country.
5. Packaging an Emotion – Guest Artist Winston Peraza, Creative Director at Cubic Creative, visited and declared our next assignment: package an emotion. I immediately decided to explore curiosity, but that slowly morphed into that darker curiosity. The reason that idiot in the horror films goes out into the woods without a flashlight. The feeling that Lesley Ann Warren (Ms. Scarlet, Clue, 1985)  had when she opened that black box and said, “A candlestick? What’s this for?” The fact that my xacto knife looks pretty scary also made it a little easier. I carved the middle pages out of a sketchbook to hide the knife and designed a book jacket to describe the product. Though as Winston and I both agreed, I could have simply left it in a black book simply marked, “You’ll need this.”
6. Package a Flash Drive for a One-Time Promotion – The “DataCap” by “Technocrat” needed packaging for a one-time promotion. To stand out from the usual, I opted for a more organic, vintage appearance, but still kept some more technical looking accents.

Judges' Choice Award

Front Cover

Research Spread II

Constitution Spread

Challenge and Strategy

Concept Test Groups and Television I

Public Relations Spread

Objectives and Creative Strategy

Website Mock-Up

Front and Back Covers

April 2010
Plansbook for an Advertising Campaign presented to the 10th District (American Southwest) of the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition and their sponsor for the year, State Farm.
Printing Methods: Offset by ResourceOne in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Design Applications: InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS4
Typefaces: Satisfaction Pro, Absara
Paper: Finch Fine Bright White Antique 100lb Cover and 80lb Text. (The colored texture background was artificially printed on certain pages to match the appearance of Mohawk Via Felt Jute.)
Size: 11in x 8.5in, 32 pages plus cover
Download the Plansbook PDF (I apologize for the harsh image compression; it is quite a detailed file.)
Competition

I have been waiting to post this for an eternity, but I had to wait until after the district competition! Every year, The University of Tulsa participates in the American Advertising Federation’s National Student Advertising Competition. Participant schools prepare a campaign for that year’s sponsor, generally to increase brand awareness and market penetration among a college/18-24 demographic (though to match State Farm’s insurance brackets, this campaign specifies a target market of 18-25 year-olds). This year’s sponsor was State Farm.

Through extensive research and sleepless nights, our team created our concept: The Cool Old Guy. Given that State Farm is well-known in the 18-24 demographic to be “old as dirt,” we knew that we had to embrace that; there was simply no way to convincingly make State Farm “young.” Moreover, we discovered that we shouldn’t try to reboot State Farm. Through our research, we learned that when these young adults need help (think insurance claims situations), they don’t want something hip and trendy like the Gecko (GEICO), Flo (Progressive), Justin Case (SafeAuto), the Superhero (esurance), or even “That Guy from 24″ (Allstate). They wanted someone relatable, reliable, and trustworthy. If “old” means “knowledgeable/experienced” instead of “out-of-touch,” then it’s a winner. “There’s nothing wrong with being old if you’re the best at what you do.”

As Creative Director for the campaign, I supervised all graphic design efforts and handled personally the layout and compilation of the plansbook. Mock-ups of several of the executions were handled by my talented graphics team: Amanda Morton and Justin Hobbs. Copy was written by our many writers and researchers. Video stills (and the fully produced commercials, of which there were SIX!) and the iPhone Age Progression App were executed by the Production team, lead by Rob Nickels. At the competition, the plansbook received the “Judges’ Choice” award.

When concepting the book, inspiration came from the basics of our campaign. In a simplified way, our campaign highlighted the positive of age. Also, the campaign was very personal. As such, the book was designed to emphasize the character of the Cool Old Guy and appear traditional, approachable, and inviting without looking out of touch or unappealing to both the Target Market and the Client. It was important to have characteristics of a professional business proposal (at the end of the day, this was a proposal for a $40 million investment for State Farm), but without seeming overly commercial or dry. I also thought a lot about my own “Cool Old Guys.” (The home of my Cool Old Theatre Director is the background on page 2.)

Great thanks go to our fantastic advisors Bill Hinkle (advertising and communications) and Teresa Valero (graphic design); and every single member of the team; Carla Hammer of Clampitt Papers; Nancy, Cindy, and Bill from ResourceOne; and at least a hundred other people. My personal thanks go out to those people who helped kept me sane and well-caffeinated as we approached the printing deadline; you know who you are.

And of course: Thanks Cool Old Guy!

View and comment at Behance

The 24th Annual Brass Ring Awards hosted by Oklahoma Christian Univeristy held their awards ceremony last weekend (April 3rd). I was notified the honor of winning a Gold medal in the Miscellaneous Category for Fixin’ To. The Brass Ring Awards recognizes both collegiate and high school work in several different categories:

• Advertising
• Graphic Design
• Photography
• Illustration
• Interior Design
• Game Design
• Animation
• High School Works

Thankfully, there is also a “Miscellaneous” category because Fixin’ To is technically book design and a mixed media piece (serigraphy and digital printing). Check out their website to see some fantastic work from all over the country. Other winners from the University of Tulsa are graphic designers Luca Cavallaro (Package Design), Justin Hobbs (Photograph), and Salah Ahmed (Photograph). Congrats guys.

Detail View

24" x 30" Poster

Front Side of Registration Card

Back Side of Registration Card

February 2010
Design Applications: Illustrator CS4
Typeface: Neutraface (Display)
Pieces Produced: A very snarky 24×30 poster and a 5×7 postcard membership form.
Tulsa Advertising Federation

The Tulsa Advertising Federation held it’s 43rd annual ADDY awards banquet this weekend. I was asked to produce a poster to recruit new members as well as a matching registration card. Knowing that I was advertising to advertising professionals, I decided the most effective way was to play “their game” as obviously and tactlessly and unapologetically as I possibly could. Hence: bold colors, a harsh but original diagonal violator, and the temptations of choice vices.

The 43rd ADDYs showcased some absolutely brilliant work produced by many firms and individuals in the Tulsa area and I am proud to say that I am studying mere blocks from the houses which produced such quality work. The ADDYs treated me well also; the Tulsa Advertising Federation named me as recipient of the Rosie Hinkle Scholarship Award. I am so grateful for their support and recognition and look forward to working with them in the future as one of their Student Representatives on the Board of Directors and in any other projects they let me in on. Thank you TAF!

Typographic Animation, October 2009
Design Application: Adobe After Effects CS4
Source Material: Abbott & Costello’s famous skit “Who’s On First”
Typefaces: Mosquito Fiesta, Helvetica (Condensed), Kiddie Cocktails
Original Resolution: 720p High-Definition
Academic Work

My first experience in motion graphics was this semester’s in Animation, a course based in Adobe’s After Effects CS4. We produced several pieces, these two being the longest and most complete. I enjoyed what I learned, and will keep fiddling around in After Effects to produce more work on my own. I have a brand new respect for what goes in to the work of motion graphics artists, and I commend them for being able to pull more all-nighters in a row than I can.

Demo Reel, December 2009
Design Application: Adobe After Effects CS4
Music: “Malarki Opus in D Major”, All The Pretty Horses (Soundtrack), Marty Stuart
Source Material: Selections of my own design and photography work from high school to present.
Original Resolution: 720p High-Definition
Academic Work

Books stacked, showing spines. Binding is Japanese Slab Stiching with embroidery thread.

Front Cover

Book standing showing paper separation

First Spread

Close-up on Von Rosenburg story

A spread of short stories on Texas bugs

Showing the Colophon

Rivers Map, folded in its bracket

Rivers Map, open and displayed

Fixin' To received a Brass Ring Award in its category.

December 2009
Printing Methods: Serigraphy, Color Laser
Design Applications: Primarily InDesign CS4, some work in Illustrator CS4
Typefaces: Absara, Buckboard
Paper: Mohawk Via Felt (Warm White, Jute) with covers and specials on Mohawk Proterra (Chili Antique, Iris Antique, Black Antique)
Size: 8.5in x 7in, 32 pages
Academic Work

Download Fixin’ To Mockup PDF (Certain texturization, effects, and art details are not consistent with the final printed piece.)

Fixin’ To is a handmade book written by people from Texas, explaining a little bit about our Texas pride in response to an academic prompt to create a book on culture. It is a collection of edited short stories and thoughts ranging from crazy huge bugs to the life-long journeys of people born elsewhere now living in the Great State.

It is thirty-two pages with two folded maps held in bands on a middle spread. The covers, maps, and bands were all screenprinted with a 255 mesh. Text pages were printed on a Xerox Phaser 7700DN.

Fixin’ To won an award in the 24th Annual Brass Ring Awards, was accepted to the 42nd annual Gussman Juried Student Competition at the University of Tulsa School of Art in March of 2010, and was on display in the Spring of 2010 at the University of Tulsa’s Special Collections Division at McFarlin Library.

View and Comment at Behance

Logotype (for presentation on dark backgrounds) for use on all creative and communication pieces to represent the vacation package.

Logotype for use on all creative and communication pieces to represent the vacation package.

Full-page ad (scalable to other sizes as needed) to be placed in the more cost effective smaller community newspapers outside the Tulsa area.

Admissions Tickets (front and back), one ticket to each of the three venues will be provided to the family in the ticket jacket for easier paper management.

Ticket Jacket (back, front, and first inside fold) inspired by commercial airline boarding pass jackets to hold the tickets to the three venues for the family. For a personal touch, the family name is handwritten on the front when the tickets are signed and inserted.

Postcard (front) with a thank you note to be mailed to the family the week after they leave with bounce-back promotions to be offered at the discretion of the participants to encourage return visits.

Letter-sized gate-folding brochure (first inside fold, back, and front) for distribution or direct mail to potential customers.

Letter-sized gate-folding brochure (inside spread) for distribution or direct mail to potential customers.

Spread from Creative Executions laid out in the campaign plansbook.

Spread from Research by City laid out in the campaign plansbook.

November 2009
Advertising Campaign presented to the Tulsa Air & Space Museum regarding a possible partnership with the Tulsa Crowne Plaza, Tulsa Zoo, and Oklahoma Aquarium to form a vacation package.
Design Applications: InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4, Illustrator CS4
Typefaces: Bell Gothic, Eidetic Modern
Pieces Produced: Plans book, newspaper ads, letter gate-fold brochure, website mock-up, ticket jacket and unified admission tickets, water bottles, hand-screenpritned sample canvas tote/gift-bag, and thank you/bounceback postcard
Speculative Work

The Tulsa Air, Land, and Sea Weekend represents a partnership proposed by the Tulsa Air and Space Museum between TASM, the Tulsa Zoo, the Oklahoma Aquarium, and the Tulsa Crowne Plaza to create a vacation package targeted towards families with young children (or grandchildren) focused within a two to four driving radius of Tulsa. The cities most strongly targeted would be those which would allow a media presence through local newspaper and cable television: Springfield, Joplin, Fayetteville/Springdale, Fort Smith, Muskogee, Henryetta, McAlester, and Coffeyville. Currently the presentation is under review and consideration by the client.

Graphic design by Taylor Smith as part of an integrated marketing campaign joint effort with Kristle Lacy, Morgan Bolom, and Mary Graham.

Brochure Cover

Welcome Spread

Agenda Spread

Student Shirt

Leader Shirt

Staff Shirt

May – June 2009
Printing Methods: Offset and Commercial Silkscreen
Design Applications: Print production in InDesign CS4, Illustration and apparel in Illustrator CS4
Typefaces: Al’s Motor Inn, Lionel Text (Diesel & Steam), Mosquito Fiesta, New Your to Las Vegas
Pieces Produced: Initial Brochure (8.5in x 5in, 8 pages) and t-shirts for students, leaders, mentors, staff, and volunteers.
Orientation 2009, Office of New Student Services, Univ. of Tulsa

There is nothing like walking onto campus for a new semester and seeing all the freshmen wearing a shirt that you finalized at about four in the morning over the summer and then hid in a closet the following day at work to talk to the printer… I had even almost forgotten about the job in all the time that had passed. “Welcome TU the jungle” was the 2009 theme and I was asked to produce an initial brochure and t-shirts for the Orientation Office. The only requirements were the copious use of animals and the specific shirt fabric colors. I was free to envision the rest. I enjoyed this job because it forced me to be illustrative, when my typical preference is for typographic, photographic, or geometric solutions. But the shirt has stood the test of time on campus, with freshmen still wearing it even into December, so I suppose I pulled it off. I hope to be a part of the 2010 Orientation as well.