Project
Environmental Report Redesign

Class 
Type 3

Overview: This editorial project was an environmental sustainability report for the San Francisco International Airport. We were tasked to redesign an existing report using the text and data but with new imagery of our own.

Analysis: The existing report was a straightforward account of the airport's efforts to minimize it's environmental impact, but it lacked any real pizzazz or memorable impact.

Solutions: I designed this with the aim of highlighting the airport’s environmental efforts with splashy photographs, collages, and colorful info-graphics.

PROJECT
Branding Books

CLIENT
Advancement Branding & Truist Bank,
Graton, CA

Intro: This project was for Truist Bank, the 10th largest bank in the U.S. It is the result of a recent merger between two other banks—BB&T and SunTrust. This was a large project in co-operation with three design companies including Advancement Branding (Graton, CA), Principle (Knoxville, TN), and Priority (Wisconsin). The project was to design branding books for bank branches that focused on the marketing and interiors branding specifications.

Analysis: The branding updates to be made included for marketing materials, furniture, wall paint, flooring, millwork, drive-thru areas, ATM’s, vinyl, plaques and regulatory signs.

Solution: The project involved many layers of review by other designers and bank managers. These layers of review and documentation helped to get the details of these branding books correct.

Project
Book Design

Client
Beautiful Feet Books/ San Luis Obispo, CA

Intro: This project was a set of books for grade school kids introducing them to books and stories from around the world. The first book dealt with stories from Asia, Australia, Antartica, and Africa. The second book dealt with Europe and South America.

Analysis: The central request for this project was to design a book that was modern, clean, and minimalist, while also incorporating educational material that was text-heavy and had many layers of detail and information.  

Solution: My solution was lay down a flexible grid system that could incorporate spare or heavy pages of text, along with other images and material needed. We also agreed upon a clean sans-serif text for the body text, while incorporating some traditional serif text elements for drop caps and other elements. 

Project
Electrical Engineering Documents

Companies
Swellfox, Master Electronics, Bulgin, and CUI Devices

Intro: These projects were documents for the design firm Swellfox, based out of Boise, Idaho. They work predominantly with Electrical Engineering companies in the Western US.

Analysis: These documents needed to cover areas such as ‘how to sell’ certain product lines for dealers, and to cover how products work such as peltier devices for cooling.

Solution: The solutions here involved showing the variety of industries and products that some of the companies were involved in (i.e, Bulgin), and also explaining in detail the ways in which some of the products worked (i.e., CUI Devices).

Project
Tea Rebrand

Class
Packaging Design 2

Overview: This project is a rebrand of an existing company. The requirements for It were to have at least three items, in either loose leaf or teabag form.

Analysis: Stash Tea is a tea company in Oregon. It's packaging tends to use loud gradients laid over photographs, and use typography that isn't cohesive.

Solution: My solution was to more fully embrace the name’s origins, which was a term used for a captain's private reserve during the days when tea was moved by clipper ships. I created a more concise logo with a keyhole in it, and I used water based textures, and straps and lines to suggest shipping trunks. I also used metal containers with a white coat to give the product a more upscale feel.

Project
Music Website

Client
John Paris/ Marysville, CA

Intro: This project was for a website to showcase the Jazz/New Age fusion music of concert pianist John Paris. 

Analysis: I was approached to make this website for pianist John Paris to showcase his music, create links to buy his albums, feature some of his videos and reviews, and to create an updatable schedule to highlight his upcoming performances.

Solution: My solution for this was to create a website in Wordpress that highlighted all of the above requests, as well as make an engaging home page, and a photo album area. While making this website, I also enjoyed listening to the music of John Paris and tried to incorporate the stylistic nuances of both Jazz and New Age music in the website, while also making something clean and simple. The cover art  for this project is a pocket that refers to one of Paris’ songs “In Da Pocket”, a musical term in Jazz that has different meanings depending on who you ask, but generally refers to really capturing the rhythm of a piece of music.

johnparismusic.com

PROJECT
Museum Information Brochure

CLIENT
CMATO: California Museum of Art Thousand Oaks/ Thousand Oaks, CA

Overview: This project was an informational brochure for the California Museum of Art Thousand Oaks. The point of the brochure was to showcase the museum’s success as well as contributing artists, staff, visitors, and community partners.

Analysis: The challenge for this brochure was to create a new and specific graphic style that captured CMATO’s goal of being a place where “Ideas are shared and people connect”. CMATO is a relatively new museum that has had a limited set of branding standards until recently.

Solution: I developed a specific graphic style for the photos in this brochure. This included setting two photos at an angle to show people side-by-side together and the different ways that people connect at the museum. I also expanded the color palette beyond blue and purple to include an orange and red color in order to suggest warmth, sharing, and connections.

Project
Olive Oil Rebrand

Class
Packaging Design 2

Overview: This project was intended to be a rebrand of an existing olive oil brand. It had to include three bottles and a gift box.

Analysis: Belle Vue is an olive oil company in Carmel, California. It is a small, up-and-coming boutique brand that has won numerous olive oil awards. It’s packaging however relies too much on photoshop filters and has typography that is obscured.

Solutions: The name Belle Vue, French for Beautiful View, refers to the view of the coastline that their olive groves highlight. Solutions for this project were to take photos of coastlines and groves that didn’t rely on filters, and make a label inspired by French typography and quatrefoil patterns. 

Project
Book Covers

Class
Type 2  

Overview: This project was to be a set of book covers that was driven by type, with little to no use of images. 

Analysis: The idea for this project came about during a trip to Napa. I was struck that many people talked about their wineries with such a sense of pride, and that wines from this area were known all over the world. I thought about a set of three books that would explore relatively new wine-growing regions like this, and capture their enthusiasm.

Solution: My solution was to have the type and title exploding out of a bottle, to symbolize the dynamism of these new regions. I chose three areas which included Sonoma (California), Mendoza (Argentina), and Victoria (Australia).

Project
Louis Malle Film Festival

Class
Integrated Communications

Overview: This project was a film festival that had to have a strong theme based on four or five films. 

Analysis: The French director Louis Malle has made many powerful films based on the theme of young people dealing with difficult times and a loss of innocence.

Solutions: I shot photographs of a friend who could pass for younger than she was. I chose a palette of reds and yellows to stand for childhood, and used black and ink splotches to stand for the troubled times they lived in.

PROJECT
Paint packaging

CLASS
Packaging Design 2

Overview: This project was to be a paint set inspired by a well-known designer or architect and to be a co-marketing project with said person. In this case I chose the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. 

Analysis: His work is characterized by organic forms and curved lines, and a very clean color palette of whites, blues, and greens. His work has also been described as “neo-futuristic” by some commentators.

Solutions: My solutions for this project were to use this prefix "Neo" for the brand name and to design a logo, logo container, and line art with curved forms. The paint color names were named after towns in Catalonia and characterized by light colors

PROJECT
Book Design

CLIENT
Beautiful Feet Books, San Luis Obispo, CA

Intro: Around California with Children’s Books: A History of the Golden State deals with the history of California and highlights books for 4th & 5th grade level students.

Analysis: This project was intended to teach some of California’s history, but did so through various books and elements that were somewhat disparate. The main challenge was then how to find ways to weave the different elements in to a cohesive whole.

Solution: The material was organized by major time periods, distinctive chapter headings, and the same underlying grid system. The end of the book also has drawings of animals, plants, and people that were done in similar styles and in sepia colors—all of which help to make the book cohesive.

PROJECT
Film Festival

CLASS
Type 2

Overview: This project was to design a poster and brochure for a film festival in the Bay Area. I chose the San Francisco FIlm Noir Festival, my favorite film festival in the area, and one I've regularly attended.

Analysis: Many of the films deal with unpleasant discoveries being uncovered and revealed. Cities and urban areas are often shown as dark and corrupt. 

Solutions: I made the visual system with the concept of things being pealed away to reveal truths and clues underneath. The type and images are all being pealed off to reveal something that was hidden.

PROJECT
Thesis

PERIOD
Spring 2014–Fall 2015

Overview: The thesis project asks one to use design to solve a problem and involves extensive research and the building of a brand. My project involved making materials for small museums to make hands-on exhibits and activities.

Analysis: Museums I questioned were interested in making interactive exhibits and activities but did not have the money, space, and expertise to make them. 

Solutions: I made a book and case studies of interactive exhibits and activities that were cost-effective, small-scale, and did not require deep expertise to make.