The client wanted an edgy ad that didn’t conjure up latin stereotypes, yet finding something cool and different about the culture. I think some the imagery for the ‘lucha libre’ is really bizarre and interesting. I did a set of 4 comps, copying the style of small town posters.

I found a wall painting of some mexican wrestlers and converted it into an ad. I added some extra POW and ZAP to the piece. Whatever it is now… it’s eye catching.

With this piece I decided to create in interesting background that, through contrast, I could manipulate the layout. I played with 5 backgrounds before choosing the one above. At this point in the campaign, KCRW’s online support drive was robust and I had to consider how to extend the print design into online cohesion.
I liked the way this turned out, as the white Mini lives in the white space of the layout and the vibrant images of the trips are framed against the dark blue.

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This probablly doesn’t represent great design. I think the final piece ended up looking better that I thought. Initially it was just going to be yummy black and white, with black squares holding the copy. Later, color pictures were added and I had to try balance the piece as more photos meant more rows and columns.

Sometimes it’s hard to go back to one color when you design. I find the simplest of shapes always works best, when working with limited colors. You can’t just convert a color ad to a black and white ad. This was designed to be B/W from the start, with careful attention given to negative space. As always with this client, there are a lot of headlines and sub-heads, so type size, font choice and color are needed to help with the hierarchy as well as give visual interest.

Many, many hours of retouching in this publication. 4 pages of 11 x 17 full color. All the imagery came from different sources and had to be scanned, color-corrected and scaled up. The content from the client was the worst. Eventually I was able to get uniform color hues and achieve a balanced look for the piece. THEN I added my own touches, such as the jet in the clouds which was a composite from 3 photographs. I guess, in the end, I mark this one down as a technical achievement as much as a design piece. I’m hoping I was able to give it a sophisticated and stylish look which is what italian jewelry is all about anyway.

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For this piece I wanted to create a formal-looking layout and let the bright, vibrant colors of the photos, punch holes in the white-space. My influence on this comes from a book I have on japanese travel brochures, where minimalism and simplicity reign. I personally would like even more elegance brought into the layout and reduce the number of elements. Clients are not always great fans of this approach, as it can sometimes look like lazy design.

The piece folds in half, and then in half again on the vertical fold. This and other elements are inserted into a #10 envelope. I do 2 of these a year and I make sure that every one is unique. I submit 3 designs and the client chooses one. It’s part of the Sweepstakes Series.

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Sometimes a piece will come together exactly the way you picture it. This is one of those. A composite of 12 picture and illustration elements, with 30 individual pieces all sandwiched together. This is one of my top five personal favorites. The content doesn’t have anything to do with the message, other than create an environment in which to receive the message.

This piece kinda ‘came together’. I found the parchment background first and once I began to place the elements on the page it started to look like an old medicine man poster. So I kept that flavor up using fonts and graphic elements. The premium elements were white and blue, so I kept the background in the warmer hues to allow the main elements to pop.

Final size 5.5″ x 11″, folded and inserted into #10 envelope. Part of a small round-up mailing to subscribers to renew. The piece is mailed 3 times, each time it looses a prize. I was inspired by an old poster with hundreds of arrows pointing in a direction. The negative and positive space of an arrow creates some nice shapes in which to place type and other pieces of information.

A 4 page self-mailer invitation that contains lists of wines and food to be auctioned off at a radio fundraiser. We were granted permission to use some illustrations by Ralph Steadman and I embraced his color palette, using it throughout the piece. The challenge with this design was not to make it look too crowded, even though there was a lot of information to compile. I had help from a local art director, Carol B. Scott.

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