You’ll never need to make another wireframe, flow chart, content plan or other such things. That’s right, I have made an all-purpose plug-and-play website design. Merely show it to your client, see which buttons they attempt to push on the printed example, and include those in the design. If you need more Facebook, add Facebook buttons. If users are still confused about how to get back to the ‘homepage’, add another home button. There is even a wildcard slot in case I’ve forgotten something.
Recently my design friend Carli and I embarked upon a large side project together – making a lemonade stand for Restaurant Day, an event where anybody can make a pop-up restaurant for a day.
We hand-mixed three exotic flavors, created a booth with bunting and handmade signage, and even made a promotional video for our endeavor. Click here see recipes and photos from our lemonade stand adventure.
Recently my design friend Carli and I embarked upon a large side project together – making a lemonade stand for Restaurant Day, an event where anybody can make a pop-up restaurant for a day.
We hand-mixed three exotic flavors, created a booth with bunting and handmade signage, and even made a promotional video for our endeavor. Click here see recipes and photos from our lemonade stand adventure.
Four times a year Restaurant Day occurs around the world, where anybody can create a pop-up restaurant for a day. In Copenhagen usually 30 or so teams participate, resulting in a plethora of interesting food options for the day which you can find via a handy app.
In March of 2013, my Australian design friend Carli, her husband Wouter and I toured the booths of Restaurant Day Copenhagen. We drank koldskål on Queen Louises Bridge, tried champagne sorbet in a Nørrebro courtyard, and had a 3-course meal on the street near St. Hans Square accompanied by a Cuban band.
We had a fantastic time and vowed to participate with our own booth at the next Restaurant Day. Our contribution would be…A LEMONADE STAND.
Like any over-eager adult purveyors of handcrafted lemonade, we made a short video promoting our Lemonade Stand. If you’ve ever wondered how lemonade was made, this video reveals all. Thanks to the team at Jip Jip for animation and Matthew Matthew for the music clip.
Carli and I perfected our homemade lemonade syrups to taste just so. We even employed the help of a small team of taste testers from Holland (Wouter & Family) to give us feedback on our initial recipes.
Each flavor was sold for 20kr (about $3.50) with an special upgrade to a “Grandpa’s Lemonade” (hint: add gin) for 40kr. We also shared the recipes with visitors so they could make their own homemade lemonade.
Lemon & Lavender
– in a saucepan: 1 part sugar + 1 part water + 1 tablespoon lavender
– simmer 5 mins and then cool
– juice 2 lemons
– drain lavender bits out, add lemon to make syrup
– mix syrup (approx a shot glass, or to taste) with a cup of bubbly water, lemon slice and ice
Cucumber & Mint
– two cucumbers: peel + chop + blend
– drain juice
– in a saucepan: 1 part sugar + 1 part water + bunch of mint
– simmer 5 min. remove mint. cool. add cucumber juice to make syrup.
– mix syrup (approx a shot glass, or to taste) with a cup of bubbly water, lemon slice and ice (garnish with mint)
Strawberry & Basil
– in a saucepan: 1 part sugar + 1 part water + bunch of basil
– simmer 5 mins and then cool
– blend 100 grams strawberries with some fresh basil
– mix liquid with strawberries to make syrup
– mix syrup (approx a shot glass, or to taste) with a cup of bubbly water, lemon slice and ice (garnish with basic and strawberry slice)
Of course we made a Facebook event to attract customers and posted vigorously about our preparations and product offerings. At one point, an attendee commented “I get the point, I’m COMING to your Lemonade Stand!”. YAY!
We were as excited as two kids on the first day of school, and the day of reckoning was drawing nearer.
Carli and I spent hours hand painting directional lemon signage and making Pantone perfect bunting to decorate our tent. We had everything planned to a T…except the weather. Be warned future lemonade stand entrepreneurs! If there is anything that will foil your plans on a successful business model it will be BAD WEATHER.
On the day of the big event it was windy and rainy and not at all conducive to selling lemonade. A follow up project to this one could be writing the guide “How to Sell Lemonade in Inclement Weather” with the following chapter outline:
1. Don’t
2. Weather to Attendance Ratios
3. Upping Sales with Alcohol Add-Ons
4. Wind Resistant Tent Solutions
5. Frostbite Avoidance & Ice Cube Handling
6. What to do when Drunk People Request Freebies, and When Denied, Pee in the Bushes Nearby
7. If You Survive
But, our main goal was to have fun, which we accomplished in spades. We surprised customers with our unorthodox lemonade flavors, we visited with the local Jehovah Witnesses who took shelter from the rain under our stand, and we had enough leftovers to give private lemonade tastings to friends, family and co-workers.
Next up: Restaurant Day Fall 2013 (if I can convince Carli to repeat the madness…)
For the past 6 months I have been working on a very exciting project for a group of entrepreneurs who want to change the art and music economy. Frequently, only a few artists “make it” only to have a large part of their profits go to a label or agent. How to make a system that is more balanced? Enter the team at Bandwaggon.
Bandwaggon aims to make the process more fair by connecting fans directly with artists and letting fans helps artists succeed by sharing and promoting their work. In exchange, fans get a share of the profits – but only to a certain point; the artists always takes home the bulk of the profits. A direct artist-to-fan relationship, where they work together without the top 1% fleecing the socks off of everyone…sounds nice.
The essence of the Bandwaggon logo was found fairly early in a flag icon that leads everyone towards this new entertainment economy. Many rounds followed exploring the flag shape, how it was carried, and who was the bearer and a balance between being professional and non-slick. Ultimately the flag was brought in-line with the characters (below) as a banner with legs – no extra figure was needed to communicate that you should come along.
A series of characters were developed in the initial stages of the website to add personality and show that artists from all walks were included under the Bandwaggon flag. These characters were finalized far before the logo, which helped inspire the final logo.
A guitar rocking with its tongue out, an over communicative film strip, a clown using itself for entertainment, a book combating writer’s block, and a typewriter tripping on letters are just a few of the colorful cast of Bandwaggon. These characters are used throughout the site and other materials to emphasize that the magic comes from the artists and their wonderfully varying personalities.
Additional icons were created to accompany text explaining in detail the process of how Bandwaggon works, as well as to draw attention to specific areas users should take action (megaphone).
The website for Bandwaggon was a very fluid process compared to the “step 1-2-3 and it’s done” process. Since the development team was building in steps and the messaging was constantly evolving, the design also had to morph in response to new priorities and technology requests. Below is a range of excerpts from the site designs that were created along the way.
Please note all site images are mock-ups with fake content. Website is in beta testing so still in progress.
Bandwaggon is in beta-testing, so visit their and login if you’d like to help out in the early stages of their site.
Recently I had the pleasure of working with Danish singer-songwriter Niel Irson on artwork and schwag for his debut album, “The Sweet Joy of Hunting Someone Down”. While the title of the album might feel like a spurned revenge, deep down he’s a softie which is evident in one of my favorite songs from the album, the sweet duet “Mostly in Love”.
A simple logotype was needed to apply to all manner of materials large and small, so functional Futura was chosen with slight alterations. Another benefit of Futura, commonly available, is that the artist could create branded materials on the fly. The counter in the O was knocked out to allow for a smidgeon of graphic flair in the form of a two arrows at a crossroad.
Niel provided some key words to guide the design: journey, the road, hunt, adventurer, and romantic. After some brainstorming together we decided to create a nighttime landscape full of experiences guided by the stars. Orion, the original Love Hunter, was subtly featured in a splotchy skyscape. To get the most out of creating name recognition, the logotype was placed front and center on the cover artwork so that even on small uses such as Facebook the name is reinforced visually.
Irson is a man of grand gestures, he doesn’t do things in a small way, and the more I got to know him the more this was apparent in both his music and life choices. A few years ago he quit his job to move to Portugal, spend some time writing and playing, falling in love, and finding out about things the way you do when you’re in a new pool.
A year later he headed home, richer a plethora of recordings that he became determined to release as an album. After working at a day job as a programmer for a stint, he took the leap and became a music man full time, including a move to the UK to promote himself in a climate suited for the singer-songwriter. Kudos to anyone who has the guts to know they are meant to do something, and then follow through on that responsibility.
To help spread the word, we bit off the very tip of the merchandising iceberg by making a series of pins and postcards. There’s more to come, that’s for sure!
Niel is a throwback to the time of chivalry and love at first sight, a valiant modern gentleman. I wish him the best on his new adventures in moving to London to pursue his dream as a singer-songwriter – if putting your heart on the line gets you anywhere, this man will go far.
I’ve worked with Xplane several times in the past. They have offices in both Portland and Amsterdam, and focus on Business Design Thinking. Over the past few years they have changed ownership, but have recently returned to their roots. To help communicate this recalibration and new start, I illustrated three vision posters for the company. The content and structure of the diagrams were decided internally by the Xplane team and my job was to interpret the blueprint sketches to final illustrations.
See the full posters after the jump, or read Xplane’s blog post about the project.
Continue reading “Xplane Poster Trio”
I’m happy to share a project I’ve been working on for Umpqua Bank. The site is for their Private Bank that focuses on the needs of highly monied clients. I use Umpqua Bank for my business needs and their customer service (and chocolate treats when you visit in person) are unparalleled. This is a bank I can get behind so I was glad to be brought onto the project.
The task was to translate Umpqua’s sunny and upbeat public facing visual identity to a more formal space online without becoming a dry biscuit of financial conservatism. A custom tiling wood pattern background was made to reflect the use of wood in the interior of the bank while all content is contained on a piece of digital paper. Umpqua brand fonts were used in a large and friendly manner with short digestible text.
To populate the site, Chris Hornbecker took portraits of the private bank team with both the typical serious banker face (no smile), and the Umpqua face (smile!). Juliet Zulu created a video featuring one of their customers, Steve Smith of Smith Tea, which is shown on the homepage. I worked directly with Mark Jacobs who works in the Creative Strategies Department at Umpqua (and was also my partner in making the Goodie Monster in 2011). Matt Distefano of Umpqua coded the site.
Here are some shots of the site, or you can visit it here and see the exquisite video vignette.
I’m a fan of Mark Jacobs, I’m a fan of Smith Teas, and I’m a fan of Umpqua Bank.
TRIPLE SCORE!
Here are the results from my first direct freelance project with a Danish client – an illustration and info graphic project made in collaboration with food communicator Marie Sainabou Jeng for Café Noir.
Café Noir was hosting an event for Danish media in relation to their release of Aroma Editions, four new coffee products created with the coffee experience in mind, not just throwing back a cup of black liquid for the sake of an energy boost and scalding your uvula. The poster was created to give journalists key facts around Café Noir’s research, in addition to having a coffee tasting and some informational mini-classes about coffee.
Style-wise the piece was created to fit in with the Aroma Editions brand with illustrations that matched their packaging and were simple enough to be stand alone graphics in printed and online media.
The info graphic focused on the data that informed Café Noir to follow the story of taste in their new product line. For example, did you know that coffee has 28 distinguishable tastes and 66 aromas? Most people drink coffee because it is a part of their routine? Presented with these two facts, I think it’s high time that coffee drinkers get out of their rut and experience at least a few of the nearly unending flavor possibilities when it comes to being a coffee connoisseur.
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.
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.
