After a number of weeks of hard work, I am officially launching a new blog, Love & Utility. The website will document research and inspiration for my upcoming thesis project, and focuses on our unique relationships to special objects in our lives. It is founded on the simple principle that a perfect product is both loved, for its beauty or uniqueness, and actively used. A person’s relationship with an object is built on this consistent and affectionate use.
I came across this video, with a few degrees of separation, through the talented and exceptional BeckySlogeris, and I think it’s really fascinating and powerful. The effect recognizable imagery has on the decision making of these children is staggering, and adults are certainly not immune from these influences. As we get older we simply drown out the impulsive kid inside of us with logic; I don’t think one can ever silence that voice completely. This may account for the “gut” feeling that we often make our less logical decisions by.
This video, in many ways, shows why I am so attracted to branding: I think a good brand can often times touch an emotional part of a person that no other design can really reach. The versatility and diversity of delivery vehicles makes the message more impactful. A single publication or poster cannot have the same impact that a full suite of vehicles (printed materials, engineered products, video, etc.) can have, especially when all of the aforementioned vehicles are speaking with the same voice. People have authentic and dynamic relationships with brands. I want to create something that people can have a nourishing and valuable relationship with.
I also love kids, especially the way they communicate. They are pure and unadulterated by silly things like shame and self-esteem, or lack-there-of, and often times provide the simple insights that I want my work to communicate. Thesis beginnings? #cliffhanger
I have a very exciting new branding project on deck right now, and it has permitted me to pretend that all of my looking at pictures of bicycles online is research, and not merely pornography. To provide the best possible service to my client, I aim to become an expert on bicycle branding, and I am bringing you all along for the ride. Special thanks to Boutique Cycles for a nice starting point for this search. This is part one of a series on the branding of cycling, and I will be showcasing some logos:
I recently watched Field of Dreams for the first time in a very long time; and while I felt the movie was a bit overdramatic and sentimental, I was captivated by the White Sox logo that “Shoeless” Joe Jackson sports on his old school jersey. This prompted me to dig into some other vintage sports logos, and I was surprised by how many are truly beautiful. I wish more modern day teams would use marks with as much character as the old school ones. I have collected some of my favorites, all from www.sportslogos.net, to share with you here. Enjoy!
As a young designer, my web presence is an important aspect of my personal branding, my best method of marketing myself, and a strong reflection of the designer I am, or want to be. Since I started putting my work online three years ago, this domain has had six different designs, only three of which I am not completely ashamed of (a good sign I am growing as a designer). Keeping to my unintentionally established six-month website life cycle, I will be redesigning my portfolio and blog for launch sometime in early 2010.
I have been spending the last couple months accumulating bookmarks of portfolio and blog designs that I find to be highly effective, compelling, or interesting for any reason, and I thought I would share my thoughts. These are some of the best websites out there in the portfolio/blogosphere, in my humble opinion.
This semester I am going to have the unbelievable privilege of working with Mike Weikert and Ryan Clifford, along with a small handful of other undergrad and grad students, at the Center for Design Practice. We are working on an exciting project I will not explain just yet, but Mike & Ryan have said it will be okay to blog about the work we do, so I hope to document the project fairly thoroughly on here.
Now that school has started back up again, my work will be for ME and I will therefore actually be able to post it. Hopefully things will get a lot more lively around here in the weeks and months to come!
This past Saturday I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to help facilitate a Leadership Retreat for the MICA and University of Baltimore community. I had been working with the planning committee for a few months prior, and the whole thing went off without a hitch and was a really great experience for me, and I hope all involved. I had, with the help and feedback from the planning committee, come up with the branding for the retreat, and it was cool to see the logo plastered all over folders, name-tags, signs, and screens at the event. (more…)
