Hauler Challenge Typography

Here is a typography project I worked on for the Portland, OR interactive agency Pop Art for an app called Hauler Challenge (available here). Yes, you can pretend to race Freightliner trucks, the official hauler of NASCAR®. This is one of those things I never would have known existed if I weren’t a designer – being asked to work on such diverse topics as veganism, freight trucks, and monster vending machines is a true pro of this job. Here it is in all it’s glory and genre-fulfilling greatness – CUSTOM SHINY FAST TRUCKER TYPE!

Wintertime Greetings

A wintry scene from Fyn Denmark during the month of December. A deserted walking street the day before Christmas with old buildings and street lamps.

Wintertime in Denmark is something special. The high latitude means that days are short (very short) and the darkness instigates a hibernating hush over the land – people grouped indoors around candles and food to stave off the bleak, cold season. But during those few hours of daylight, the townscape can be absolutely enchanting, which I was especially aware of in the photo above taken in a small town on the island of Fyn. Swish swish, shhh shhh.

Holiday Chutes & Ladders Game Board

Just in time for the holidays, here is a board game illustration I did for Xplane, a Portland, OR based company that focuses on Business Design Thinking. Basically they make strategies for businesses in visual format, often resulting in interesting diagrams and infographics. The client-provided concept was Chutes and Ladders, which was to be reinterpreted with the theme “corporate holiday party”.

The game of chutes and ladders as reinterpreted for "company holiday party survival guide 2012" for Xplane of Portland, Oregon.
Chutes and Ladders, Xplane Holiday Style

The piece was sent out to clients so they could fill any pre-holiday work breaks with a quick game, trying to avoid the open bottle of Jagermeister and vying to make a good impression with the boss’ spouse. Here is an 11×17 (tabloid) PDF of the game if you’d like to play as well. Try my silent dice.

Patterned and circus-inspired hand drawn 3D typography with textures.
Close up typography.

This was a fun project because Xplane works with a specific process that involves lots of upfront sketching and getting clear approval at each step of the project. After the initial sketch had been approved it was smooth sailing through the illustration and revision phases. Plus, my pioneer rabbit got to make a sneak appearance under the chute “inappropriate use of the office copy machine”. Poor bunny.

Spot illustrations for Xplane Holiday Game: bowl of porridge, drinks and pills, unfortunate antler costume, talking politics, getting a giant bonus, yule log on the television set, designated driver, jagermeister, disco ball, social jackpot machine, copy machine shenanigans, roll the dice.
Spot illustrations.

Holiday Chutes & Ladders Game Board

Just in time for the holidays, here is a board game illustration I did for Xplane, a Portland, OR based company that focuses on Business Design Thinking. Basically they make strategies for businesses in visual format, often resulting in interesting diagrams and infographics. The client-provided concept was Chutes and Ladders, which was to be reinterpreted with the theme “corporate holiday party”.

The game of chutes and ladders as reinterpreted for "company holiday party survival guide 2012" for Xplane of Portland, Oregon.
Chutes and Ladders, Xplane Holiday Style

The piece was sent out to clients so they could fill any pre-holiday work breaks with a quick game, trying to avoid the open bottle of Jagermeister and vying to make a good impression with the boss’ spouse. Here is an 11×17 (tabloid) PDF of the game if you’d like to play as well. Try my silent dice.

Patterned and circus-inspired hand drawn 3D typography with textures.
Close up typography.

This was a fun project because Xplane works with a specific process that involves lots of upfront sketching and getting clear approval at each step of the project. After the initial sketch had been approved it was smooth sailing through the illustration and revision phases. Plus, my pioneer rabbit got to make a sneak appearance under the chute “inappropriate use of the office copy machine”. Poor bunny.

Spot illustrations for Xplane Holiday Game: bowl of porridge, drinks and pills, unfortunate antler costume, talking politics, getting a giant bonus, yule log on the television set, designated driver, jagermeister, disco ball, social jackpot machine, copy machine shenanigans, roll the dice.
Spot illustrations.

Yay!

Here is a quick typography study I used to practice for an upcoming project. It’s a funny word when you think about it, that those three letters can be put together in a such a silly looking combination to create an exclamation expressing triumph, approval, or encouragement.

Three Bird Mobile

When Brittany Watson Jepsen of The House that Lars Built asked me to contribute to her 24 days of Christmas blog series about holiday decorations, I took the opportunity to work in a new format I’d been wanting to try – mobiles. My inspiration came from a small felt bird I have placed above my doorway that my mom sewed for me when I was a baby.

Thanks Mom!

For the simplest mobile possible, forget about balancing acts and bars and doing pseudo-math (or even real math). Just hang three things in a row with a string between them – they still spin gracefully and take up much less space than a traditional mobile.

Step 1
The materials you need are cheap and easy to get: thread, a needle, scissors (and an X-acto if you want to be crafty), and thick colored craft paper.


Continue reading “Three Bird Mobile” →

Glider Logo

Recently I finished a logo for Glider, a company that in their own words “…is redefining word processing from the ground up to make organizing, negotiating, and signing documents as simple as it should be.”

Sounds good to me. Even though my efficiency orientated brain can easily calculate the time between meals, snacks, and how many rabbits can be drawn in the interim, my thought upon waking is not focused on BUSINESS TIME. Anybody who wants to make business time easier is a friend in my book.

The project consisted of a lightning round of design to prepare for a presentation at TechStars Seattle Demo Day, the #1 startup accelerator in the world. Things in this world are FAST. MONEY. BUSINESS. TIME. There are no RABBITS. However, the results were just what Glider needed – a simple, iconic logo symbolizing a transparent document. VROOOM.

And, they’re hiring. If you want to be a back-end engineer, sales lead, or UI designer in beautiful Portland, Oregon check it out.