Placeholder and logo designed for Kris at KstudioLA:

Headed down to Long Beach City today to Sail on a 48′ Columbia Sailboat… and it was a very cool experience.

That’s Doug walking down the dock in this pic. He actually used to work as the foreman of the assembly line for Columbia boats building 20 footers. He told us he used to eat his brown-bag lunch on the unfinished big boats and think “How am I ever going to own one of these?” You can imagine the pride he had in his vessel.

Annie, still tired from the office party the night before

The view from out front. As complex as the pulleys look.. they make sense if you take the time to trace them from the sail to the cleats.

TTYL LBC

Got to do some driving last weekend with International Allstars at the home of my favorite team: Angels Stadium.  Event was great, cars ran great (thanks to Pat and Eric) and the guys from Mexico were super nice.  Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of space to work with, but it didn’t stop us from burning through the awesome tires that Bridgestone provided for the team.

My ride for the weekend was the yellow-nosed car #2– a carbon fiber laden cosworth-powered supermiata.  It was the first weekend out on Eibach’s new coilover setup which felt like a great street/track setup.  On this unit the rears weren’t adjustable, but the valving that Eibach set up was a bit on the softer side, which felt great at higher speeds but was a little hard to transition at lower speeds.  It’s not much of a price to pay for a coilover that would also work well for a daily driver.  I’m betting Eibach has another setup coming the way of the MX-5 for the more hardcore enthusiasts.

As video and pictures come, I’ll update the posts, but here’s a promo video from Lexani that has a little action towards the end:

Here’s one of the latest projects I’ve been playing with. It’s a proposal to Lexus for a project car I’ve been working on for drifting.

The big idea behind it is to create an iconic car for Lexus’ in house tuning parts company: F Sport.  So, when people see the car they don’t think “that’s a sweet car,” but rather “that’s the F-Sport car.”

Between graphics, media (print & online), and promotional events we should be able to turn this car from just an IS350 into “The Icon.”

I wish I could post all of the pages, but I’ve had trouble with other teams plagiarizing my proposals before, so here’s a few of the more design-centric pages:

(11×8.5 – center bound)

The logo has some meaning of its own behind it.  The F Sport icon (created by Lexus) is modeled after the first corner at Suzuka raceway, where the first F-Sport car (the IS-F) was developed.

When I started on my Icon logo, I was considering where this car would be tracked most; Willow Springs Raceway.  WSIR has quite a few tracks, but one of the fastest and most popular is the track nicknamed “Big Willow,” which is known to racers as “The Fastest Road in the West.” And it is fast. I took a look at the track and decided to design the “n” in Icon after turns 3-5 on the Big Willow course:

Which ended up coming out like this for print:

A good friend of mine put this CSS menu together and made it easy for un-code-friendly designers like myself to use.  Check out the source files and the how to here:

http://wirelessave.net/pixtun/Test/simpleStyle.html

For Orange County Pool & Spa cleaner Kevin Morton:

A couple weeks back I had a great time out at Las Vegas Motor Speedway at Redline Time Attack (blog post here). They recently added a new facet to their events called Redline Showcase–a full-featured car show.  Here’s the flyer designs and website (that’ll be up within the next few days) that I was contracted to put together…

website will be up live at: www.redlineshowcase.com

I’m a sucker for a good plate of noodles.  The Mongolian BBQ place at the Orange Mall (nice and close to home) is my favorite place to roll into at lunch time. Last time I was down there I noticed a hand-drawn sign above the register:

Sweet giveaway, right? But.. not so sweet sign.  I went home knowing that I had to help them out with a little 11×17 action.  Here’s the final product:

Goal: Draw some attention and deliver the message.  When you see it, do you think noodles and ipods?

So they put it up.. sweet!

And as no good deed goes unpunished, my fortune cookie came with two fortunes.  One of them said I’ll be extra creative on Friday (tomorrow).  No promises though.

bon appetit!

I just came across an interesting article on the99percent.com about killing ideas.  Now, ideas are great, they are the start of all those good things that you’re working on, have worked on, and will work on. But when does a good idea go bad? Co-authors of this article Michael Karnjanaprakorn and Scott Belsky suggest that the ideas themselves aren’t really what’s bad, it’s more about ideas competing with each other to the point of using up all of your energy. They suggest you analyze what you’ve got on your plate and practice the following:

• Creative destruction
• Donate your ideas
• Generate ideas in moderation
• Focus on results, not time

The article is a quick read, and well worth the time.

DC Shoes is pulling out at all the stops behind head honcho turned rally driver Ken Block with their gymkhana 2 video. This video is the sequel to the incredibly successful first gymkhana video that was put together by DC shoes with Ken Block driving. Gymkhana, for those who might be new to the term, is a type of racing that involves maneuvering a car through tight places in a somewhat funky course made of cones.  What you’re seeing in the video isn’t what normal gymkhana is, it’s more showboating than anything.

I’m posting this up because I think it’s an interesting take on selling shoes.  DC Shoes has typically been a brand that aligned itself with skateboarding. Over time they expanded to fall under more of an “extreme sports” umbrella, and now it would appear they’re going after the import automotive crowd.  The reason why I think this is smart and interesting is because in high performance driving, especially rally, gymkhana, or drifting, the feet are busy. I believe here DC is suggesting that those busy feet are wrapped in their product. They take that main idea and blow it up huge.  They’re not just sliding a Subaru around; they dodging heavy equipment, they’re coming within inches of walls, and they’re smoking up tires like you’ve never seen it before.

This video is like a real-life version of every out-of-this-world ad that you’ve seen, and I love it!

Lately I’ve been finding inspiration for print designs on things that aren’t necessarily print…

I ended up pulling a palette out of this house that I saw on an interior (and I suppose… exterior?) design site when I was poking around the net for some inspiration:

This point-of-purchase display that I designed a little while back for Green Oil.  The company uses this design as part of a motor oil display, which was originally intended to be used in-store, but has also been used at trade shows and car shows. This is what the actual display looks like:

Because of the tear-off sheets available for customers that want more information (and of course, the coupon!) I was able to cut out a lot of text that wasn’t pertinent.

Here’s the idea behind how it was broken down:

1. Since people tend to read top left to bottom right, front and center is the big idea: a tag line that intends to give the reader a little more of an idea about the brand than only the name would offer.  On the black background, white agreed with the rest of the design and still offered heavy contrast from the background.

2. On its side, the brand name is less easily read over and dismissed–if #1 worked, the reader should be interested in knowing which synthetic oil makes the others “green with envy.” If I could make changes now, I would probably go a bit smaller on the logo to give a bit more attention to #1 so that they wouldn’t be in competition with each other as much as they are right now.

3. Lastly, the specific product being shown on the arm of the display (and subsequently, the product being talked about) is identified.

I believe in the importance of giving the viewer the credit of being able to “figure things out,” so for example: even if the logo isn’t enormous, or the oil weight isn’t the most prominent element in the design, if they have enough interest they will find it in a matter of seconds if it’s available.

Georgian artist Erika Iris Simmons has tapped into a new medium that seems to define non-traditional media. Check out the more of her work from her “Ghost in the Machine” series by clicking the post title, or clicking below.

I attended the Addy Awards hosted by the OC Ad Federation a couple weeks back and had a great time meeting some new folks and checking out all the work from agencies around my stomping grounds and orange county schools with advertising programs.

The show was hosted at The Sutra Lounge in Costa Mesa, a swanky club venue off of Harbor blvd.

These were some of my favorite ads from the show. Aside from the clever copy, the overall layout of the ads is aesthetically pleasing without giving up too much leeway on actually giving information.  What the ads want to say, who its about, are found easily enough with the help of a visual hierarchy that guides the reader through the ad.

Special thanks to Landon Diaz for the pictures.

Last week I picked up Scott Belsky’s new book, Making Ideas Happen, after reading his guest post on swiss-miss.

One of the big ideas that Scott emphasizes in this book is that great ideas aren’t necessarily what is lacking in the creative mind–but rather the execution of those ideas, and I think he makes an excellent point.  How many great ideas have you had that didn’t make it further than the dreaming stage? With that creative brain inside your noggin, chances are you have the ability to make things happen, and the foresight to see how successful they could be, but competing great ideas and lack of willpower to see ideas through is what ends up keeping your idea from coming to be.

He also delves into what elements help act as a catalyst for a smart idea to become a tangible success. By tapping into the power of community and keeping studiously organized, Belsky points out that your ideas can see the light of day; all you need is a little sweat in your equation.

The way that Belsky succinctly offers ideas on how to organize was not only useful, it was downright inspirational. As I worked my way through the pages of this book I was able to look at which projects I had previously abandoned, and look more critically at current projects and how I can better assess and complete my current projects.

So, final word on it?  Good book, pick it up. I got mine from Barnes & Noble (had to special order it), but it’s also available at Borders, Amazon, and Indiebound.

Have you ever wondered what craigslist would be like if advertising folks ran the place?  Probably a little more color, and a whole lot less spelling errors. I’ll take a regular run-of-the-mill craigslist ad and give my best shot at making it have a little more impact.

I’ve found that staying organized makes my life easier. Here are three of my favorite organizational tools:

TEUXDEUX.COM (free)
This online to do list designed by Swiss blogger Tina Eisenberg allows you to keep your duties online, segmenting them by days of the week and an ever-so-useful “someday” category, for dreamers like myself. Just add what needs to be done on what day, and click on it to strike it out when you’re done.  As a bonus, check back on the homepage next time they update, they asked to use my feedback on the homepage.

BEHANCE ACTION JOURNAL (17.50)
While the name might suggest this is something Indiana Jones would pack in hit satchel, rest easy, fellow computer nerds; it’s certainly something Indiana would never be caught dead with. Take a look inside and you’ll find that each open faced pair of pages has a dot matrix, ideal of sketching, brainstorming, etc.  Their big idea behind it is that it’s not structured in most of the area, but there’s also space to keep your goals, main ideas, etc. organized.  I love it and keep it with me at all times.. you never know what an idea is going to pop up.  I went for orange.

MOLESKINE 18MO CALENDAR (18.95)
Moleskine makes a slew of very high quality, very useful notebooks. I’ve been using their18 month hard cover planner since January. Each of the days have enough space to write, but more importantly the opposing page is a ruled area for quick notes, directions, or for drawing lightning bolts. Also check out their sketch books, ruled notebooks, and even the planners that have maps of cities implanted. I got mine at borders, but you can find out where to buy one here.

Colourlovers.com is an awesome and inspirational website that has helped me get many designs started. Their palettes section really shows how much color (or colour, if you want to sound classy) can bring out in a design.