Character concepts for EVP
Wow. Busy week. And I already feel like I’m getting behind on blogging. The original idea was to try to update this thing every couple days. No dice so far. Here’s hoping.
Speaking of busy weeks however, it’s been one of meetings, administrative work, meetings, and – on occasion – photography and design.
The examples this week are few and far between, but that’s really because none of the projects got finalized. I took large strides in getting closer to what Ironbridge Baptist’s logo will be. Worked on a logo for the historical bar Alewerks (located in Williamsburg). A couple other logo designs and some photography with my Aunt Monica too.
Pictured to the left is some initial concepts of characters that will be used in a logo and branding for Enterprise Vision Professionals. It’s really rough right now, but I always enjoy getting back to my cartoonist roots when i can. There’s something magical about sitting down with just a pencil and paper and making something come to life. I relish it whenever i get the opportunity.
I’ll be checking back soon with some more interesting stuff. Just need a little bit of a lull to organize my thoughts into something more presentable than… well… this. haha
A Good Natured Riot's new website
I met Jeslyn Vaughan, the lead vocalist of A Good Natured Riot, not long into this whole idea of starting a business back in 2006, and it was in talking with her and getting to know the rest of the band that I soon realized how much fun it was to work with musicians. There’s a lot more creativity and, while there may be pre-conceived notions of what music imaging is supposed to look like based on genre, you’re always free to be open and encouraged to re-define and push boundaries. Fellow artists get this and fellow artists like this. That’s how we roll.
I had the pleasure to work on the second iteration of the band’s website in the past week. Long withstanding from my initial 1996 version was the ability for the band to update show listings themselves. That’s there now, complimented with a new, sleeker aesthetic. I don’t think I really pushed any artistic boundaries with this, but it’s always fun working with aGNR, and look forward to more collaborations to come!
In other news, I shot more photos with little Avery Paul on Saturday. It was a more official setting this time, incorporating lighting and with our minds set on artistic baby photography. What I learned (or think I learned) was that good baby photos don’t happen as a result of planning: they just happen. The environment can’t have four people standing over the child expecting he/she to smile, coo, or grin at will… because they won’t. Rather, it seems it’s about setting up lights, setting up a conformable scene, and then treating it like any other day. If she wants mommy, let mommy hold her. If she’s willing to lay around and be photogenic, let that happen as well. Most of all, let baby call the shots, and with patience, great photos will happen.
Avery and Daddy Doug
This past Saturday, we did not do this. It wasn’t until looking at the shots afterward, that I realized I enjoyed the ones of her after the ‘shoot’ was over much more then the ones we tried hard to get. Ones of her getting her normal baby clothes put back on by mom – shot upside down. Gorgeous. Ones of she and Daddy Doug sharing a moment. Priceless. The rest aren’t bad, but they seem to lack a certain whimsical nature. They’re too staged. And you can tell that baby is not about anything contrived.
Maybe we all have something to learn from that.
First logo draft for Ironbridge Baptist
Panera Bread is a pretty special place. First off, I had an amazing meeting there with an awesome gal by the name of Cathy Boyle. We chatted about my potentially helping out with the Northfield Foundation‘s new website upgrade, and just had a generally awesome time where – and I rarely dip to the cliché and say this – God was present in the conversation. Seriously. There was a pretty awesome air about it. Maybe it was the Panera and it’s bread though. Who knows. haha
After the meeting I sat down and was able to knock out first drafts of two logos that I’d been spending the better part of a month being pretty perplexed with how to approach; both for churches. One was for my good friend Scott Marshall and his new pastoral venture, Trinity Church in St. Louis. The other was for a local Baptist Church called Ironbridge. With both, I’m not enormously optimistic that i’ve hit the nail on the head just yet, but at least the design is moving and we have a visual place to start some conversation from, right?
Scott’s required the use of a specific kind of tree that we couldn’t get the name of and didn’t have any detailed visual reference to go from, and Ironbridge Baptist wanted… well… a bridge. I’d imagine an IRON bridge, but all attempts to make a metal bridge into religious iconography came off really cold and industrial. To put it mildly, it didn’t work. So I made a stone one because that felt more ‘natural’. Its worth a shot right? (see image)
If nothing else, it’s been a really productive, good day. Right now I’m hoping to sit down and continue the trend by working up a new website design for A Good Natured Riot. They’re pretty awesome. We’ll see how it goes.
So, wow guys, after weeks upon weeks of conceptualization, coding, copy-writing, learning WordPress template design, and MORE… the new site is finally here and launched. If you’re reading the time on this post, it’s obviously late/early, and I’ve been up late again polishing this thing off for its debut.
So check it out! I mean… you obviously are already, but it’s all pretty much brand new across the board. The various portfolios under ‘services’ are a little thin as of now, but the hope is they’ll fill up soon and quickly if I remember to add new content from time to time. Also, this is the official launch/unveiling of the client login system that’s been running for a few months but was never fully integrated into the website itself. BIG Thanks go to Joe Donahue and his technical wizardry for partnering with me in developing that pretty much from scratch. It still has a few kinks here and there as well as a few more updates we’re still planning on implementing, but its pretty rockin’ right now too!
Other than that, the other big new addition is a blog. And you’re here and reading this, so you’ve obviously noticed. This is an experimental thing. I’ve often scoffed at various implementations of Web 2.0 into people’s websites just for the sake of interactivity and not for any real functional purpose, but here we are. If there IS a function it’s really more to let me vent a little about design, photography, and the life behind it all that drives it – specifically my own contribution anyway. Maybe it’ll be interesting. Maybe not. But as an experiment, it really has nothing to loose.
Enjoy the site, and feel free to drop a line with any feedback you might have . I finally have a contact page with a form after all.
Little Avery and her awesome mom, Elizabeth.
So I’ve had the enormous blessing of having two of the awesomest friends in
Doug and
Elizabeth Paul, and on the 20th of February, those kids had a kid of their own named Avery Grace. She’s amazing! Fortunately, they’ve allowed me to hang out and document little Avery as she grows from newborn on, and it’s been pretty awesome. I’m learning how to photograph newborn babies, as well as cementing my role as Unkee-Dee, the big weird dude with the camera.
Don’t really know what else to say about it all but that Avery is the first newborn I’ve ever really found myself ridiculously excited about, and as a young 28 year old guy, that’s a pretty new and intriguing development.
Enjoy the shot on the left, and here’s hoping for many more awesome shots to come!
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