I shoot a lot of photos in the average month, whether it be on my iPhone, or any of my other cameras. Sadly, most of these photos never see the light of day, and sit somewhere on a hard-drive, buried under work that needs to come ahead of it. And there they sit.

I’m going to try to do a monthly dump of photos, both from the iPhone (which are generally reference photos, or photos of crazy things I come across when I’m out and about) and then I’ll try to do an export of photos from the other cameras too, which are usually a lot better than the iPhone photos. We’ll see how long this lasts… Like I said, I’ve usually got a bunch of work that comes ahead of this, but, I should be able to find a few minutes to dump some photos out here and do something with them.

The staff liked the new design so much they ordered additional sizes so that they could have some too. The design was printed on 100% organic cotton shirts using a ‘discharge’ technique where the graphic is bleached into the shirt, as opposed to printing ink that sits on top of the shirt. Sounds like the kids are loving them too, so if they’re happy – I’m happy.

Above are a couple photos of the final printed shirt.

Photo gallery from the grand opening of the new skatepark/pool at Kensington Park.

We had a good turnout of both kids and neighbours of the community, as well as seasoned skateboarders that were ready to put on a show for the public officials that turned out to see for themselves what an awesome new facility this pool is. Vancouver City Counsellors Andrea Reimer and George Chow, Vancouver-Kingsway MP Don Davies, Vancouver School Board Trustee Mike Lombardi, and Vancouver Park Board Commissioners Sarah Blyth and Stuart MacKinnon all in on hand to show their support for the new skatepark. They were good sports about jumping into the pool for the ribbon cutting, which was pretty cool. Right after the ribbon cutting, the ceremonial cutting of the cake duties were handled by Sarah Blyth and Andrea Reimer. Be sure to see that picture of the cake, it’s a miniature sized version of the new bowl/park, and it was really well done.

Immediately following the cake, Wee Wong, a long-time fixture of Vancouver’s skateboard community donated 200 helmets to those on hand; and some of the helmets will remain at the Kensington Park Community Centre to be shared amongst the park users.

Here’s a few links to stories about the new skatepark:
• The Province — New skate park brings retro California vibe to East Van
• CBC Radio, On The Coast with Stephen Quinn. Interview with Wee Wong — There’s a brand new skate bowl at Kensington Park in Vancouver. Wee Wong knows all about it. He’s been skating in Vancouver for more than 30 years. You can listen to the interview here. (you’ll find the interview at the top of July 7th, you may have to scroll down a bit — runs 6:06)
• The Globe and Mail — A new skate park for sick old-school tricks

A little while back Bob Kronbauer from VancouverIsAwesome.com hit me up to see if I’d be interested in contributing a short series about the Vanier Park Dirt Jumps – something that could explain a bit of the process that happens behind-the-scenes of getting a project like that to become a reality. I’m always keen to get the word out about these kinds of projects, and Vancouver Is Awesome is exactly the kind of platform that’s perfect for this series. I’m really down with the VIA concept, so I’m quite happy to do put some time into this. And, maybe somebody will learn a thing or two and be inspired to make something like this happen in their neighbourhood/town/city. I’ve got over 15 years of experience working with city councillors and park boards on skateparks, so I’m happy to share some of my ideas.

I’ll admit it’s quite a challenge to edit down the past 10+ years of this process into a digestible (short), interesting story. People aren’t likely to sit down and read a story like this on a blog, so this series will merely skim the surface of the process, but maybe people will be interested in knowing a bit more about how much work goes into getting a skatepark or dirt jump facility made. They just don’t magically show up one day. Public projects like this drag on for years, and are mostly uninteresting, so I’m interested in what kind of feedback we get on this.

I’ll be sure to come back and add links the other parts of the series as they go live, but for now, you can start here:

In The Dirt Series! Part One: Vanier Park History
In The Dirt Series! Part Two: Coming Together

This is great timing for this series to come out – fresh off the very successful launch of the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition’s Kensington Park skatepark/pool (the last 2 pictures shown here), we’ve had a lot of momentum as of late, and a lot of the projects we’ve been working years on are all coming to completion by end of summer.

I’ve put a lot of time and work into the portfolio section of the site, since that’s what I really want to showcase. The main reason I’ve put this website together is, as it’s boldly called out on the landing page – I’m looking for an Art Direction job. If you think I’d be a good fit for your company, or know someone looking for my skills, please get in touch.

For those wondering, all the photos in my portfolio were shot using my Panasonic Lumix LX3 (a killer camera) and a temporary photo cove set up in my living room with some white seamless. This is just one of the many tricks I learned while working at MacNeil Bikes/Ten Pack – when your budget is non-existent, you learn how to make the most of what you have lying around.

The last couple photos shown here are how I organized my digital portfolio, using more analog methods. Sometimes the old way of doing things is the quickest and most logical route. Trying to sort the order of the 80+ projects in the portfolio took quite a bit of time and I needed to see it from a birds eye view, so printing out thumbnails, and sorting by hand truly was the best way.

Take a few minutes to check out my portfolio… and let me know what you think. Be sure to click on the large previews to really take a good look at the projects.

Project consisted of a complete redesign of The Salient Group’s corporate website. The company had grown, and wanted to present a more accurate representation of what the company had grown into. They also wanted to augment their news section, get their entire company’s press and media coverage online, and provide more information to buyers on both their residential and commercial projects.

I designed the original website for The Salient Group a couple years prior, but it was limited by what little content they had at the time. In the two years between websites many projects were completed and more were in the works.

We took advantage of all the new social media tools including Facebook, Twitter and flickr. An HTML email newsletter was also deployed in conjunction with the new website to deliver highly-tailored information and promote blog content.

You can learn more about this project on my blog > What I’ve been working on: Salient Group website.

You can view The Salient Group website here. (note: changes have been made to the website since my original design)

See also the Bowman Lofts website, Paris Block website, and Terminus brochure.
See all projects tagged ‘Salient Group’.

Brochure for Qualex-Landmark’s Luxe development in Burnaby, BC. Took advantage of matte and gloss varnishes on the cover to create a rich look using a pattern applied across the project’s collateral, opening up into a vibrant presentation of the twin-tower project. Brochure highlights the neighbourhood and building features across this 16-page document. The brochure followed design cues from the website and other collateral.

See also the Townline corporate brochure, and the Mosaics Homes Stories brochure.
See all projects tagged ‘Real Estate Marketing’.

The presentation folder was designed to hold a large amount of customized documentation in it’s deep gusseted pocket. The Townline corporate brochure, and a wiro-bound overview of Townline projects were also included for investor presentations. The cover featured a blind-emboss logo, opening to a large photo inside which was split across the fold.

Two different presentation folders were produced – the first one featured a backhoe working on a construction site, and the second one highlighted a warmer, brighter construction photo of Townline’s 540 Beatty project in progress.

See also the Townline Corporate Brochure, Townline Display Suite back-lit sign, and Down to Earth logo. See all projects tagged ‘Townline Group of Companies’.

The corporate brochure defined the company. It included an introductory letter from the company president, and a timeline of the company’s milestones in a graphic 3-page spread. The final page explains the company’s environmental commitment, a program they call ‘Down to Earth’. Designed with a back pocket for project-specific information packs, including die-cut areas for a CD-ROM/DVD and business cards. The corporate brochure was designed to fit into Townline’s presentation folder and was also used as a stand-alone piece.

See also the Townline Corporate presentation folder, Townline Display Suite back-lit sign, and Townline Realtor Portfolio books.
See all projects tagged ‘Townline Group of Companies’.

Intracorp’s corporate website was starting to show it’s age, it had been more than six or seven years since it’s original launch. They were looking for a clean, slick, and much more content-rich site than their old one. They wanted to really showcase their history and reputation of building exceptional homes and buildings in a very simple, at-a-glance way.

You can view Intracorp’s website here. (note: changes have been made to Intracorp’s website since my original design was implemented, some of straying far from the original concept  – please refer to my images for a more accurate representation of my work).

See also Intracorp logo update, and Intracorp Customer Service vehicle graphics.
See all projects tagged ‘Intracorp’.