Briefing:

Create a logo for Pixel Heist
Create a business card for Pixel Heist

For me as a designer it is always a challenge to create something for myself. I personally do not like designing for myself and usually pass on projects for myself to fellow designers. The reason is simple. The self criticism and try to create the perfect design for myself is at best impossible. Over the years I recognized the following symptoms when designing something for myself:

Very rarely am I 100% happy with the result.
Just when I though I was finished with a design I keep changing things around.
I spend way too much time on any given design.

This time I tried to come up with a logo and a business card for myself. I was close to passing it on to a fellow designer but I decided to just give it a shot.
An effective logo is a simple logo. That is my experience and that is how I approached the process. I tried to not spend too much time and avoid continuously changing things around. I fixed up a few sketches:



The idea was to integrate a pixel into the logo. Also some interaction of that pixel with the font itself. I am not a friend of taking the easy way of putting the object, in this case the pixel, as the dot of an i. In my eyes this is a valid practice but quite overused in logos. Even though I tried it within the sketching process, I actually took it a bit further and replaced the i completely with an object. I tried to add the scientific background I posses and been drilled with before entering the world of design. So a little lab gadget with a pixel coming out of it. I tried many variations and wanted to integrate something like an eye within the pixel. Building a relation between pixel and the eye. Sketching for quite some time I was happy with the lettering and the object hovering above the X.

I went into Adobe Illustrator and started to transfer my ideas into the digital vector world.

I played around with fonts and I was NOT happy with any of them. As a designer I accumulation/acquired a virtually infinite amount of fonts over the years.
So the decision was clear, I am going to create my own font. This is a very time consuming process but well worth the time investment if I can reach the desired vision I had for the logo.
I tried to integrate an eye within the pixel but it turned out to be not as effective as I thought. Still keeping the idea in mind I came up with the following result:



As shown above I decided to go with black and red as the primary colors, which I personally find quite powerful.

At this point I finished the design/creation of the logo. Now it is time for the business card part. For the text information on the business card (other than the logo) I used a standard font. To loosen it up a bit I used round background elements following the black and red color scheme. Following the final result I sent off to the printer:



UPDATE: 03/10/2009

I picked up the business card from the printer today I am surprisingly pleased with the design for myself :) ..



If you would like me to design your logo, business card, etc. feel free to fill out a contact form and let's talk.

The client approached me after finding out about my service at iToonU.
Briefing:

iToonU the complete company staff
Put all staff in business suite
Visually separate staff by position in company by using business suite with different color combinations
Deliver toons optimized for web and print use

This is one great example to show how my iToonU service can be employed to replace real life photographs in a professional way. All toons have been created with my Wacom Graphics Tablet in Adobe Illustrator. The results are vector images that can be used for web and print.



The client was happy with the results, all I care about.

The client that I did the iHula design for approached me again and asked me to do another design project following the iHula design. I accepted since I really enjoyed designing the iHula project.
Briefing:

We need a nodding dog
The scenery should be a backyard with elements that match the scenery
We would like to see something cute like the crab in the iHula project
Add the dog's name Charles somewhere
We need 512x512, 480x320 splash screen, 480x320 animation screens, iPhone icon

I created the whole project in Adobe Illustrator as vector to take advantage of lossless upsizing and possible print option down the line. I started with sketching of the dog and added the details later right within Adobe Illustrator without sketching these elements. I covered the 'cute' element with a cat sitting on the fence, watching the dog.
The following yard scene was approved by the client:



Following the splash screen including the name of the application.



I have created the 512x512 and the iPhone icon analog to these screenshots.
The client was happy with the result, all I care about.

Briefing:

The idea is to to create an iPhone application that shows a tilting hula girl, just like the ones you put on your dashboard.
Make the hula girl look attractive.
Add something cute.
Create a 512x512 image, 480x320 splash screen, all 480x320 animation screens, iPhone icon.

I looked through stock designs and the internet and have not found a single hula girl that fit my vision for this project. I ended up creating my own hula girl from scratch.
I submitted the design to the client and it was approved. I created this hula girl in Adobe Illustrator to take advantage of vector scaling and possible print option down the line. To add the 'cute' element I opted for a crab. Here too, I had to create the crab from scratch. I sketched it and used Adobe Illustrator for this task as well.
Following the hula girl and the crab I have created for the client:



I added the background scenery and the following result was approved by the client:



Following the 512x512 image I created:



My vision for the splash screen was to add the iHula lettering and something funny, involving the crab. Following the result I cooked up:



The client was thrilled, all I care about. I hope the application will sell well at the Apple Store.

I have just finished another toon. Thank you Ron for having me toon you.

Do you want to be tooned by me? Feel free to check out my service at iToonU

October is the breast cancer awareness month. What better way to show my appreciation, respect and support by creating an awesome looking pink awareness ribbon. I thought of topping it by creating a whole package containing the pink ribbon in various formats so it can be used for web, desktop and print. This package is FREE for personal and non-profit use. I appreciate any help spreading and using it wherever you can.

Click here to DOWNLOAD the Pink Ribbon Awareness Pack

I have just finished another toon. Thank you Tammy for having me toon you.

Do you want to be tooned by me? Feel free to check out my service at iToonU

The client's briefing:

Brief Summary:
Redoing my branding, need a logo that is simple, clean, modern, cutting-edge, fresh. Looking for something to communicate an artistic, upscale identity.

Wants:
My color scheme is black, white, green (hex #4c6429), and I sometimes use copper in my marketing materials. Colors should be used as accent colors only, not be overpowering
Much of the time the logo will be in black and white, without color... needs to function with both (could I get the same design in BW as well?
Simple line art graphical element that I can incorporate by itself
Should be a vector graphic

Don't Wants:
3D effects
Camera or film-strip graphics
Anything that even remotely resembles clip art
Strictly wedding-oriented logo (I'm trying to appeal to family/child/senior portrait clients too)
Sappy sentimentality
Anything too corporate

Following the result I delivered to the client:



The client was happy with the results, all I care about.

I have just finished another toon. Thank you François for having me toon you.



Do you want to be tooned by me? Feel free to check out my service at iToonU

Briefing fron the client:

We need a custom designed mascot for our PDA (Personal digital assistant) hardware and sofware company.
The final product needs to be available for web (RGB) and print (CMYK) use.
The mascot should reflect our PDA business maybe a PDA in mascot appearance.

This was an interesting job. Creating mascots is always challenging because you actually have to come up with something from scratch, to avoid copyright issues down the line. At least thats how I do it. I submitted a sketch and the client seem to have liked it right off the bat.
Working with a vector program seemed naturally to me, since it needed to be available in various sizes for the web and print. I went to work and created a vector from my sketch within Adobe Illustrator.
Following the result I came up with for this project:



The client was very happy, all I care about. I ended up doing the whole ad campaign for the client which was awesome. It included the Web images, flash animations, banners, regular and oversized prints, T-Shirts, etc.