Gecko coolness

Had a lot of fun today creating this freeform character of a Gecko. I normally don’t do spec work, but the idea intrigued me and I had a pretty good chance to sell it regardless of whether the client liked it. I started out with a quick thumbnail in Sketchbook Pro, and then placed it in Illustrator (AI) where I traced it with a pressure sensitive brush. Cool beans.

Lake City Dental

The logo for Lake City Dental is a modern take on a traditional mark of professionalism; the monogram. Using the letters L C D,  Van Etten Studios created a unique typographic mark that can be used in any application environment. The mark itself plays to the peaceful serenity of windswept lakes; a far cry from the sometimes painful associations of teeth and drilling.

Coeurd'Alene City Council member web page

Van Etten Studios created all the campaign materials including posters, handbills, advertising, billboards, and lawn signs for Mike Kennedy’s last two (successful) election cycles. Within the scope  of this project we also created a self-hosted weblog using the WordpPress blogging engine. The project included re-skinning an existing theme, and then tweaking the CSS (and some minor PHP) to make it distinctive. The result was a large project with VERY containable costs that function according specific client parameters. In the end we turned over the blog to Mike and he still uses it as a platform for keeping in touch with his constituents.

The CIN Logo and banner

Through my connection with the Community Library Network, I was asked if I could do something to help the branding of CIN.

Hand drawn pieces of mountain ranges (Sketchbook Pro)

We started by creating a vector of the photograph. To keep the image flexible we hand drew a series of mountain ranges, using the photograph as a visual guide. We then auto-traced and cleaned up the independent pieces in Illustrator. Keeping the pieces separate, allows us the flexibility to adjust and move (or even remove) sections of the drawing to meet the requirements of different layouts.

MojoMama

Kayla is a good friend of ours and was showing us her blogger.com page. (Mojomammablog) She paid good money for the design, but it had some serious issues. Whoever coded her custom template had over written (and in some cases commented out) basic CSS styling in favor of hard coding fudges into the HTML. While I understand the desire to jump to a hard coded solution, especially when an unfamiliar framework constrains your options, I am never-the-less a fan of letting CSS do the work it is meant to do.

One of the fudges that this designer employed involved creating large navigation image maps, with small graphics, that covered vast real estate  across the header. If you had a link within the first two lines of your blog post (it happens) the page navigation links above, covered the post links below, so when you clicked on the post link you were directed to a different blog page.  (Yes, it was that strange.)

Starting fresh, Diane went into the Blogger.com CSS structure and created a new skin, with custom graphics that worked within the framework. The page loads faster, works better, and looks much better. To ice the cake we created a caricature of the Mojomama and included it in the revised graphics.

I created the caricature using Sketchbook Pro on my iPad, (while waiting for my wife to get her teeth cleaned!) I saved it off to Dropbox. When I returned to my studio, I opened it in Adobe Illustrator and set the drawing in a template layer. Using a custom pressure sensitive brush, I created and tightened “inked” lines in an ink layer, and then added color in a separate color layer. By adding color in a separate layer I can easily duplicate the layer and change the colors to grey scale or turn them off altogether for line art if needed. Also, because it is vector art, it is resolution independent which means I can use it anywhere small or big, print or web without worry of image degradation.

I love working on fun stuff!

The wind-up girl.

Within the steampunk retro sci-fi genre, the concept of automatons has a rich history. In this illustration, we break down the process from concept to painting. Starting with the thumbnails, we build up the ideas from scratch, refining as we go along. When the drawing are approved, we paint it using digital watercolors.

From the very first mark, all aspects of this illustration are constructed digitally, from the initial sketches to the completed painting. The drawings were completed using Sketchbook Pro. The painting was finished using Corel Painter, and Photoshop.

You Name It!

L. Kay originals asked us to create a product POP display card for their racks of custom girl’s barrettes. In a not so unusual turn, the client provided us with a thumbnail. The thumbnail showed the extra large head which accentuated the product and the client wanted to know if we could “fix it up some” but still keep the basic intent of the drawing. We drew up a thumbnail right away, adding out own touches but following the lead of our client. The result was a branded character that is completely unique to them. It is used on products, display items, packaging and website.

What is a 404 Error page?

It’s the lost, forgotten page that shows up when other lost, forgotten pages come to light. Creating a custom 404 page seems to be a trend with designers, and I could not resist the temptation to create my own.

Prophets of the Old Testament.

Wind River Publishing called on us to create a cover illustration for a book “Prophets of the Old Testament.” In this detail of the illustration we again started with a solid digital line drawing where we burned in areas of light and then completed a digital watercolor painting over top of it using Corel Painter and Photoshop.

Using a digital workflow allows our clients to control size, and color issues, and make editorial changes which are often dictated in the publishing industry. Since we also leveraged the power of internet file sharing, we were able to complete the project from two different geographic areas as if we were working in the same office.