LETTERING : ABOUNDING HOPE

One of the things I joyfully had the opportunity to work on during the past few months was a brand new Dayspring card line called "Abounding Hope", which will be out next summer/fall. I was able to do six different cards, four lettered by myself (I art directed a freelancer on the other two lettering jobs). I wanted to share some of the process behind my designs, with hopes to show more of the final product eventually...

CATALYST CONFERENCE

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the CATALYST : ONE DAY Leadership conference, where proclaimed authors/pastors Craig Groeschel & Andy Stanley spoke on various elements of practical, effective, and healthy leadership. There was so much good insight and inspiration, I couldn't share all of it here, but I have tried to break down the day into some simple points. This is helpful for me to not only process what was shared, but to also hopefully RETAIN what was learned. For more info on Catalyst and their conferences, please visit their website.

DESIGN : HAYLEY McVAY PHOTOGRAPHY

This is some recent work I've done for Hayley McVay Photography. She was starting a blog for her studio and looked to me to help bring a bit of the sweet style of her photography into the visual design of the site.

CHICAGO 2012

Went to my old stomping grounds this July. Came back inspired. Borrowed this photo captured by a friend, Sara Ferren. Threw this design together. Reminisced.

THE FIRE RISES

Another contribution to the Batman Build-up over at JEB KENNEDY. Check it before you wreck it.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

A piece of fan art I did as a part of Jeb Kennedy's Batman Buildup . Can't wait for July 20th!

MEET THE U-NEEKS!

They're finally here! All fearfully and wonderfully made, a little quirky, a bit strange, and completely U-Neek!

This is the message we hope to bring to kids and adults alike: to embrace the qualities that may make us odd, funny or unique, but still exactly the way God fearfully and wonderfully made us. Through simple, pun-ny messages of encouragement, these characters are a perfect way to bring a smile to someone's face, and are sure to catch an eye or two (or three).

I had so much fun working on them with my buddy, Jon, and I hope we can get an opportunity to do more! Please check out the site here to learn more about the characters, and try your local Christian bookstore/retailer to see them in person!

CREATIVES UNITED : LAUNCH EVENT

Coming Thursday, May 31st, Creatives United will be hosting their first (ever) event over at the Waterside Business Center by Lake Fayetteville. I am very excited to see this happen — a gathering of NWA "creatives" (who come in all shapes, sizes and skill sets). Looking forward to checking out the event, and seeing future CU projects. Should be inspiring to say the least!

Check out creativesunited.com to see more of what they're about 

Go to their FB event page to sign up and let them know you're going!

*image courtesy of © Creatives United 2012

PRINTMAKING 101 : PART 2

Awhile back I posted about the origins of my screen printing hobby and the creation of the printing station that I built (if you didn't see it, read it here first). 
    Once I built the station, I couldn't wait to try it out. However, since a garage isn't the most ideal workspace for a "print shop", I was going to have to be creative in how I actually went about the printing process in this place (with coating & drying the screens in the dark, exposing them, washing them, etc.) 
    After collecting the proper supplies —spray bottles, scrubbing brushes, garden hose, emulsion & coater, icing spatulas, and packaging tape— I put together a drying rack for storing and drying the screens.

CUSTOM DOCK ICONS

Awhile ago I discovered something that maybe only a nerdy designer like myself would care to discover. Via one of my favorite designers, Jessica Hische, I found that one can change the image for application icons (Safari, Quicktime, iphoto, itunes, etc.) which would create a fully custom & synchronized look to the dock on my mac. She has a wonderful blog post about it, check it out here for more.

    For someone who may be a bit of an aesthetic-control freak, this was a glorious revelation. The original icon images for programs appear somewhat ordinary after awhile, causing your iMac dock to become un-inspiring. What better way to liven up your creative workspace than to custom design those icons!

    So to give your desktop dock a more personal touch, what you will need is an .icns file. Check out Jessica's post to download her original icons, she has most of the essential ones done. I've added some JEDDY originals as well to go along with hers (which are available for download here), for example, the Back to the Future inspired icon for the Time Machine app, which I designed to look like the tail-lights of the Delorean. If you don't already have an .icns file made, then you can take an existing jpg image (created from the template also provided) and then convert it to one using the FastICNS software.
    Now once you have an .icns file, you can make it simple and use a program called Candybar, which will basically do all the technical grunt work of changing your icons for you. It makes it super easy, but the software costs $$ so that might be a deterrent for some...

    If you'd rather do it manually, I really couldn't explain it any better than Jessica already has with this short & sweet instructional video. See it at the end of her blog post that I mentioned before. Thanks!

J ALVIN : RES LIFE T-SHIRT

Awhile ago I finished the J Alvin Res Life Staff shirt. 

This is what it will look like, and what you would look like if you wore it.

U-NEEKS : Plush!

A couple weeks ago, I posted about a character driven card line that we're producing at Dayspring, due out this summer. Well, earlier this week, Jon Huckeby and I (the two designers behind the characters) received samples of the four plush characters that will be sold alongside the 20 other cards in the line! THEY ARE SO COOL! It is so neat to see something I drew brought to life in 3-dimensional form!

Anyways, wanted to give a preview to the plush that will be coming out with the cards later this summer. Check them out! More to come in the future.

Also check out this teaser-promo video, published by DaySpring: here