Merry Christmas!

This is my animation for the Siggraph IUPUI Winter Wonderland Competition. I had a lot of fun designing the penguin in Illustrator (I imported most of it from Illustrator into Flash).

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Illustration Friday - MUSIC

Music is to be assimilated, taken in, absorbed.

Shadow Shapes

Just playing around with shadows. I wanted an almost continuous shadow.

Poster: Band Concert

Poster for Direct Contact Latin Jazz Band that will be playing this weekend.
They also requested a logo for the band:

Siggraph Logo Contest

This is my submission for the Siggraph Logo Contest this year. It needed to incorporate the theme "The People Behind the Pixels" as well as the official Siggraph IUPUI symbol.

Flash Website

We've been learning Flash CS4 in a couple of my CGT classes, so I thought I'd try my hand at it!
The website is for Dual-D, check it out at www.dualdindy.com

IF - Germs

Germophobic's point of view.

Vector Illustration (Illustrator CS4)

IF: Welcome

Illustration Friday: "Welcome"
Welcome to Panama!

Made with Illustrator CS4
in honor of my friend, Felisa.
Happy Birthday!

Draw More 4

Rothenburg: The Walled City. One of the most beautiful places I've seen!

DUAL D Poster

Posters for Dual D a little more complete!

Draw More (3)

I had to go quickly with this one as the subject had a tendency to not sit still :)

Operation "Draw More"

A few weeks ago I was motivated by a post I read encouraging designers to draw more. Although I've had a slow start after making that decision, I hope to continue to draw more regularly.

I'd like to be able to get an impression of an object and sketch it quickly and effortlessly...not there yet! I'm looking and studying the object too much and getting hung up on the details. Hopefully, with practice, I'll get there.

Technical Ad/Article Layout

Tech Ad Layout for CGT 216.
The images were made in Illustrator andh the text added in InDesign.

Kinetic Typography

Kinetic Typography for CGT 251

("Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield)

Information Card

Information Card to be passed out during the Student Exhibition (probably post-card size).

Instructions Card

Instructions for CGT class assignment

detail

INTERVIEW WITH AN ART DIRECTOR

(Assignment for OLS Class)

No matter what the profession, people today have been working longer and longer hours, making the time spent on the job longer than that spent at home. Our co-workers have increasingly become the friends and family in our life. Therefore, it is very important to forge strong and healthy relationships at the workplace.

The work community can be a strong influence on a person and their development as a worker. If this “family” is supportive and motivating while instilling the necessary rules, then the worker will develop a strong sense of loyalty, work ethic, and drive.

A company that shows a great family-type of work ethic is The Basement, a graphic design company for the Web and TV. The Basement has eleven employees filling various design functions within the company. I recently had the privilege of interviewing their Art Director, Amy Kingman, who was kind enough to answer a few questions about her job and the dynamics within their group.

• Me- What are your regular duties on a daily basis?

• Amy- The Basement Design + Motion is a small shop with only 11 employees in house. As a result my position as art director allows my duties to remain varied so that I do both production and direction on a daily basis. My production responsibilities revolve around design and animation so I spend a lot of time in my sketch pad, photoshop, illustrator, after effects, and flash. At any point in time there are on average around 3 projects that I am working on in tandem, depending on where they are in the production pipeline. I am involved in initial brainstorming concept, initial design mockup, and often pitching the design/concept to the client. Once we get approval, I work with other designers and developers on the team to bring the project to life. As art director it is my responsibility to provide a clear vision of the project to the team and assist with technical knowledge, visual critique, and project organization.

• Me- What is your favorite part of the job? Least favorite?

• Amy- I love production, it would be very difficult at this point in my career to step away from that completely, but I also enjoy working with a talented team to bring something together that I couldn't create on my own. I also enjoy initial concepting and uncovering client hopes for the project. My least favorite part of my job would be assisting with project cost estimations, explaining to a client when something does not fall within scope of a project, and all of the financial realities that are associated with this business. Luckily, there are people here that take care of the majority of those details and with a well thought out and written contract, the tough conversations with clients are limited.

• Me- How many people do you supervise/lead?

• Amy- There are 5 additional production team members that I art direct on projects. 1 illustrator/designer, 1 3D modeller/animator and motion graphics specialist, and 3 flash developers. I am also responsible for overseeing any freelance designers or animators that we bring in to assist on projects.

• Me- What are the dynamics of group projects (what is your role, others' roles, who does what, etc)?

• Amy- We are a close group so the dynamic is casual and friendly and we all have a high standard of what we expect of ourselves and each other. Even though we are friends, we understand that a critique of a project is only meant to make the project better and has nothing to do with personal feelings for each other. We have a lead technical director/flash developer who calls the shots on what we can and can't do on a project. We all work together to brainstorm alternate possibilities if something seems out of scope or impossible technically. I work closely with the other designer/illustrator who is an amazing artist. I often will begin a design, then hand it off for further development as we work together to flesh out the details. Once a design is complete and the file is nice and clean we hand it off to one of the web developers to convert the design into a working flash file.

• Me- How do you resolve conflict between subordinates/co-workers?

• Amy- I've been extremely lucky and there is little to no conflict among co-workers. There is a high level of respect and care among the team. If we have differing opinions on what will make a project best we have a discussion and debate the issue. Generally the debate ends with one idea surfacing to the top, but if it didn't we would most likely refer to the Senior Art Director who would have the final say.

I was very impressed by Amy’s description of her team. The interdependence, support, critique, and overall motivating atmosphere had the added advantage of a smaller work unit where each person gets to develop their own special ability while at the same time trying their hand at something new. Creating a family-type work environment is a very smart way to run a business. Whether we are supervisors, co-workers, directors or assistants, we are just as responsible of influencing and motivating those around us to become their utmost best.

You Know You've Crossed Over When . . .

Having a background in fine arts, it has only been within the last three years that I've developed a love of computer graphic design. Through painful experience I've learned the habit of saving my work every so often as I come up for air from working on a piece.

Over Spring Break I've been working on a rain forest piece (just for the fun of it). I've started by making a sketch study of a tiger. I realized I'd crossed over from the world of fine arts to the world of computer graphics when, every so often, I'd find myself looking for the save button on my paper sketch pad . . .

Tiger Study

Tree Study

Update: David & Godzilla

I added some high and low-lights to Godzilla. I'm not sure if I might just prefer the previous one. I also tried a different T-shirt color.

David and . . . Godzilla?

T-Shirt design for CGT course. Alternate historical event.

Interface Design - Print Ad

Interface Design for Veer inspired by print ad from Echo Chernik.
Colors: aqua, light golds, metal greys, white, red accents.

Interface Design - Movie

Interface Design for Veer inspired by the Movie "Indiana Jones: Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
Colors: warm grey, golds, olive green, tan.

Interface Design - Song

Interface Design for Veer inspired by the song "Pocketful of Sunshine" by Natasha Bedingfield. (Listen)
Colors: Yellow/orange rays, light denim blue, light green accents.

Silver Surfer

Assignment for CGT class. We had to copy an existing art piece of a comic book cover.

CD Cover Artwork

Final Design for CD Cover: "Collage: Music from the IUPUI Music Faculty."

Cd Album Cover

Preliminary design for a music CD, titled "Collage" for the Faculty of the Music Dept. of IUPUI

FLAWED

Illustration Friday
Illustrator
2/6/09

The term flawed made me think of the formation of a pearl.
From pain emerges beauty.

Climbing

Illustration Friday
Term: Climbing
Photoshop
1/30/09

Sketch

PALE

Interpretation for
IllustrationFriday.com
Illustrator
1/23/09

Preliminary Sketch