A Creative Year

Summer came and went, too quickly if you ask me. I thought I would post a few project examples, as Jason Milburn Design has been ignoring the economic conditions and blazing ahead, helping companies with their web and print design needs. We also have our first E-Newsletter coming out shortly, as well as some big plans in the works – which will probably result in a major renovation to this blog, and possibly a name change. Stay tuned!

Website design – AVJ events:

Logo: hardwood Restoration Services (as well as their business cards and website):

Business Cards (as well as their logo and website design) for JLS Land Co.:

Author Anthony Muchina contacted me regarding several creative projects he needed for the launch of his new business, appropriately called ‘Muchina’. The company will be selling various luxury items, and the client was looking for something stylish, that would work no matter what type of product he was selling. Initially, the leaning was toward a script style lettermark, and I kept that in mind as I sketched. However, after brainstorming and sketching, we ended up going a different direction. Here is a scan of a few of the sketches:

I typically come up with as many ideas as I can and try not to limit myself in any way through the sketching process. Then, after I’ve exhausted that and have a few ideas that stand out, I like to quickly mock-up a couple of them. At this point I send everything to the client, with an explanation of various stand-out ideas and the thought process, if it needs explanation. I’m not shy about showing them both the good and the bad – you never know what will spark some inspiration. There’s some debate about this, as some designers fear the client will pick out something that really should not be used, but when that happens I find that you can explain why it would not be a good choice, and also find out what attracts the client to that particular design and try to take that aspect of it and carry it into a something that will make more sense.

For the Muchina logo, right away the client saw one he liked and we went to work perfecting it. There were many experimental changes using slightly different shapes and fonts. We went back and forth a few times, and all told there were 26 variations of the chosen logo sent to the client. The final logo was shown at the beginning of this post, in black and white. You can see some of the spacing relationships here:

The type face used was Gill Sans. The shifting of the ‘Muchina’ name to the left helps to offset the weight in the symbol above – even though it is technically not truly centered, moving it left looks right to the eye. The amount of spacing between each letter (tracking) equals the amount of space from the right edge of the circle to the right edge of the sliver, and the space from the symbol to the type is 75% of that space.

Next we will be designing the packaging for the initial product, with the client indicating the box will be purple with 1 color printing (an undetermined golden hue). After that, I will be working on the website design. We’ll highlight those projects in a future post and also include a testimony from the client.

My daughters birthday is coming up and my wife let me know, in no uncertain terms, that I would be designing the invitation. She even provided the photo! With wild abandon, and plenty of free time, I dove right in. It turned out to be the perfect opportunity to see if I was liking Lightroom 2.

Here is the original photo:

My wife took this shot in the front yard, and it was my job to jazz it up and throw some text on it. I mean, apply my years of design knowledge to produce an elegant and informative invitation.

So, I imported the photo into Lightroom and worked up a couple of options for the picture. Now, my experience with Lightroom is limited. However, I have taken the Lynda.com training on the program, so I know my way around it pretty well. Having said that, I have to admit I wasn’t initially liking the program. That probably has more to do with changing my workflow and getting used to something new than the software itself.

Right now, the thing I love most about Lightroom is the virtual copies feature. Creating several versions of a photo, while still only having one actual file (and easily comparing and going between versions) is fantastic.

After processing the photo in Lightroom 2, I added some snow and made some further edits in Photoshop. Here is the final version:

You can see there are some color changes, adjustments to the skin, hat, coat, eyes and teeth. I may have overdone the snow, especially the big fuzzy flake over the hair, but I was limited on time. There is a vignette as well, and the photo has been cropped to allow room on the left for text and also create more visual interest. All in all, I would say Lightroom is growing on me. I think if you use Bridge, Camera Raw and Photoshop, you are perfectly fine and don’t necessarily need Lightroom, but it can make some things easier, and has a few really nice features. I’m not wild about the cost, but for full time photographers, it’s probably worth it.