December 2012
1 post
6 tags
How Load Time Affects Google Ranking →
Hey I made an infographic (link to the original post in the title).
October 2012
1 post
August 2012
1 post
July 2012
1 post
June 2012
1 post
8 tags
Rails Shirts
I did a couple of t-shirts for New Relic a while back, the idea being that Peter Cooper could hand them out as swag. We wanted one to be fun & quirky, and one to be a bit more subtle. Have a look!
Ruby & Friends: Ruby leading the way, with his rail-car of buds. Coffeescript is up to something behind him - not the most trustworthy fella. Everyones favourite hero, HTML5, came along for the...
May 2012
3 posts
8 tags
Placemarkers are tricky: Sketch to polish
Start with sketches…
Play with the goodies…
Polish’em…
Add ‘em to the set!
5 tags
The Seven Stages of Constructing a Talk
I’ve been doing some talks lately, and after speaking at last nights Behance Portfolio Review I thought I would put this together (or more specifically, after nervously spacing out before it was my turn to speak, this occurred to me). I should preface it with the fact that I quite enjoy doing talks, and this is just meant to be a light-hearted take on the seven stages of grief - don’t...
7 tags
Everything I wish someone had told me (about...
I’m putting together a talk about freelancing at my old school, the Art Institute of Vancouver, for the new grads. Why not share it here, too!
What is freelancing? Freelancing working for a number of companies on your own terms. You’re managing a business: the accounting, accounts-receivable, client relationships and everything in-between, while simultaneously generating the product that...
April 2012
10 posts
8 tags
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Neat! One of my illustrations was featured on a... →
Illustrations are some of the most common form of artwork. But taking things into the digital platform includes software such as Adobe Illustrator and tablet pads. Thus this style is very complicated, and outright difficult to master. The showcase below contains some of the most popular illustrations I’ve ever seen! If you enjoy the post let us know your thoughts in the comment wall.
Neat! One of my logos was featured in... →
40 Construction Logos That Convey Strength & Durability
Construction firms have special needs when it comes to branding: not only do they need to effectively show that they are builders ready for the next job, but they also need to stand out among the masses of hammers and hard hats that are the go-to imagery for construction logos. There’s a difficult balance to strike between the...
2 tags
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Neat! I was featured on VANCOUVERISAWESOME →
Heh, I guess I should have put an asterisk by my VIFF campaign **student project. Still feeling very honoured to be included in such a great site.
March 2012
4 posts
Freelancer Payment Protection Act →
Freelancing isn’t free. When a client doesn’t pay, copious amounts of time and money are needed to chase that paycheck. Let’s change that.
TheFreelancer Payment Protection Act – which would legally protect freelancers from non-paying clients – needs your help.
Over 1,000 freelancers are already a part the campaign. The bill recently pushed through the New York State Assembly and secured key...
February 2012
11 posts
Guys. Everlane is cool. You should join. →
8 tags
Bold & Justified: The Huge World of Typography... →
I was lucky enough to work with a great community, COLOURlovers, in launching their marketplace! I helped them by designing an infographic about the great big world of typography. You should check them out!
Comic Sans is installed more on PCs. Why so serious Linux & Mac? That just one of the many things we discovered while looking into the creative history of typography aka fonts. They play a...
9 tags
January 2012
10 posts
4 tags
7 tags
Updating Icons
One of my latest tasks for Placeling was to create a gas station icon to fit in an existing set of icons.
The original icons:
Fairly obvious requirements in order to fit the style: beige colour scheme, some perspective, hint at retro feel. Per usual, I started in the sketch book.
With a little feedback, I decided that just the handle was the way to go. I thought it turned out alright.
...
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Illustrator course on matygo
Just finished the syllabus for the crash course in illustration that I’m teaching on matygo.com! Learn the power of Adobe Illustrator in 8 weeks. Check it out!
This course teaches how to create beautiful digital illustrations using Adobe Illustrator. Through a series of interactive worksheets, learn the purpose and power of Illustrator’s vector graphic capabilities.
What you...
5 tags
The best advice I can give you, is Paula Scher's...
Back in my days at the Art Institute, I took a class in Art Direction. Our first assignment was to pick an art director who we admire, get up in front of the class to tell them what makes our art director awesome, and what we should learn from them. I picked Paula Scher. The advice that she gives in her TED talk, is arguably the best advice that I’ll ever receive as a graphic designer. Have...
5 tags
Gas Station Icon
Working on a “gas station” icon for this set:
Turns out there’s a lot of different types of gas pumps… {I’m leaning towards the one in the top right corner}
Thoughts? Comments? Concerns?
Placeling: City Guides: Toronto →
You know those designs I’m always posting? Get a better idea of why they’re great, when you hear it from them.
placeling:
We’re back, and this time with an eclectic guide to Toronto.
As always, you can get this guide - plus all future and past guides - on your phone simply by following the Placeling user citysnapshots.
If you’re using the app, just search for the user...
2 tags
December 2011
5 posts
okaydudenobingo asked: Hey there! Liked your copy now inspired later post. great line about giving up our organic ideas. do you think that designers of all levels should be worried their work is getting passed around too much? I mean only one re-blogger is needed to remove the identity from a piece. Granted I only really use tumblr for browsing for inspiration and looking at funny shit so I'm not a big...
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Freelancer Lesson: There's never too much...
Figuring out the ins and outs of freelancing is not something that happens over night. How ever you got started, either making the plunge all at once, or dabbling until it took over, you wake up one morning, completely overwhelmed. All of a sudden you’re trying to market yourself, maintain old clients while finding new clients (which is about 100 emails a day), managing subcontractors,...
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Walk Through: Sketch to Digital art
I was working away on a logo/illustration hypertiny (check them out, they do cool things) and it occurred to me that this would be a great example to take a walk through in converting a sketch to digital art. Here we go.
Okay, so maybe the first step is a bit tricky, but if you can get through this part on your own, I’ll walk you through the rest… Take out your sketch book and draw...
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Copy Now, Inspired Later
Daily, we as designers try to create something genuine and compelling, that both suits some mood or feeling that we’ve seen before while remaining original, and maybe even pioneering. Unfortunately, breaking grounds is not a daily activity that anyone can maintain, and more often than we might like to admit, uninspired days show up.
Naturally, we all turn to magazines, books, movies and...
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November 2011
28 posts
2 tags
