Design Machina

Typography March

The Milstead — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:50:01 +0000

It’s official because I say so. Why argue with that? Here’s two great finds regarding typography:

Use of Effective Typography in Logo Design
Yet another one of those lists of “inspiring logo designs,” but it was tough to find one I didn’t like out of this blog post.

Measuring Type
Funny, yet informative, set of pages where the amount of pen ink used in relation to the typeface written in is measured and compared. I’m happy about the winner.

Albemarle Corporate Folder

The Milstead — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:52:24 +0000

Media: Folder
When: Winter 2008
Professional Work

Albemarle is an international developer and marketer of specialty chemicals for use in pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics, petroleum refining, and many other markets. Imagery and verbiage already widely used by the corporation were combined to summarize their identity and mission in one designed piece. This project was completed during my time as an intern with TiLT.

Cajun Connections Logo

The Milstead — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:46:56 +0000

Media: Logo / Identity
When: Spring 2009
Professional Work

Cajun Connections is a Louisiana-based parent company over a selection of services which each focus mainly on assisting in new employee training and rewards within certain industries. Thus, the “nurturing” aspect is more prevalent than “Cajun,” and is also a reflection of their tag line. As you can see above, “Connection” was the original choice, and the plural form was later added by the company themselves, shown in the following images.

Tally Book Plus

The Milstead — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:42:32 +0000

Media: Book Covers
When: Spring 2006 – Autumn 2009
Professional Work

Tally books are pocket notebooks that oilfield and construction workers commonly carry around at the work site and have proven to be very useful for notes and other things. For years, the standard was for the company to issue basic 2-color books to their employees sporting only their logo and occasionally some measurements or contact info.

J.W. Toups, Inc. has integrated a new full color printing process for these books, and I am sometimes requested to design a spec sample for a new client. These are a few I’ve designed over the past couple of years, showing the possibilities that full color printing can bring if the client wanted to add detailed charts or other important images to their tally book.

NSU Ceramics Club Logo

The Milstead — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:33:09 +0000

Media: Logo / Identity
When: Winter 2007
Professional / Student Work

The logo design class I was in at university (late 2007) was called upon by the department’s Ceramics Club for an identity for fliers, ads, and other printed matter. We all contributed, and my concept was eventually chosen. The logo itself is rather straightforward, as they didn’t need anything complicated, deep, or overly artsy. Familiar pottery shapes are subtracted from Nicholls’ initials, clearly and simply presenting the intent of the design.

Sticky Fingers Barbeque

The Milstead — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:28:43 +0000

Media: Identity / Promo Material
When: Spring 2009
View the commercial on YouTube.com!

Each of us in our design class collaborated with 4-5 culinary majors at my university to conceptualize and brand a restaurant. My group’s idea was a barbecue joint featuring a nice sized arcade with its own identity (the Pixel Pit). The elements we created to complete a set of promotional materials were a logo for both the restaurant and the arcade, stationery, a full bi-fold menu, postcards, billboard ads, a website mockup, and a short television commercial, which can be viewed on YouTube.

NSU Art Department Brochure

The Milstead — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:23:06 +0000

Media: Brochure
When: Spring 2008
Student Work

The Division of Art at Nicholls State University doesn’t have an “official” brochure for incoming art majors, so our project was to create one that reflected the personality of the department. Using photos of faithful students working ever so diligently, field trips, and pictures I took myself, this foldout was created with simplicity in mind. Compact and eye-catching, the brochure contains only the most necessary of information (required classes, directory of staff/instructors, introduction to facilities, etc.) while maintaining the fun attitude of the Nicholls art department itself to keep it from being just another boring info packet. Very modern and digital in its design aesthetic, yet containing elements such as paint splatters, allows the piece to convey that the university is open and accepting of students pursuing direction in any type of medium.

The Microphones Music Video

The Milstead — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:12:51 +0000

Media: Video
When: Spring 2009
View on YouTube.com

“I Hope You Wish You’d Die” is an outtake from The Microphones’ bestselling album The Glow, Pt. 2 and one of my favorite songs from the group (really, Phil Elvrum, the brains of the whole project). For my second New Media class, we were to create music videos for a song of our choice with After Effects, and this is what I put together. It was made to capture the recurring themes in Elvrum’s lyrics about the awkwardness of life situations, feeling small in the world, and the use of everyday things we take for granted as deeper symbolism.

Sumatra Select Coffee

The Milstead — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:05:51 +0000

Media: Retail Packaging
When: Autumn 2008
Student Work

With such weird flavors (for java, at least) as Vanilla Mint Twist, White Mocha Raspberry, and Banana Nut Creme, the fictional coffee brand Sumatra Select aims to add an adventurous new twist to the all too familiar commercialized Starbucks world we live in. The coffee comes packaged in a squared metal tin colored appropriately for each variety.

Halloween Masquerade 2009

The Milstead — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:00:24 +0000

Media: Poster
When: Autumn 2008/2009
Student Work

This was a poster designed for, you guessed it, a Halloween masquerade to be held at Nicholls State University in October. There were a couple of other designers offering different ideas, as well. Originally designed in 2008, it wasn’t used until the next year. Though the process was entirely digital, the concept was to present the feel of a very unfortunate printmaking job. The characters were pieced together in Photoshop from several photograph sources and later traced in Illustrator.