No real place

No real place to fit these drawings in according to some logic. But actually, they are all ideations on spaces. And in my way, that comes out as weird and associative, quickly rendered, and expressed through color.



ballpoint pen on paper



charcoal and pastel on vellum



pastel and ink on paper

Figure Drawings

Here's a selection of some older figure drawings. Most of these were done when I was in college, though a few are from one-off classes here and there.

Recent composite photos

Here are some more recent examples of digital manipulations.





Alia and her UFO sighting.





The red-man group in Reno.





Another Reno shot - Reno noir...





A group of images I put together from a walk about in Austin.


Shake it like a photoshopped pitshah...

Dippin n' trippin

This series of two older paintings is set up as a diptych (set of two panels side by side). When I made these, I was interested in painting at a level of abstraction that was more than broad strokes and bold expressions. I wanted to make abstract shapes contain a level of rendered detail, light, and illusionistic space, so that ambiguous form would begin to reveal the framework of a story or narrative. I think the imagery is suggestive of bodily parts, of a kinetic world of interiors turned outward, and of a moment of expired or suspended action.




"Dropping Non-sequitur"



"Spill your guts"




The second group is a triptych I made about a year later. My idea here was to use simple, bold graphic representations of almost elemental symbols: key, cup, knife. And then to give it a sense of drama as if these things somehow had an inner life of their own, as tools, but also as the symbol itself.

Old digital photo composites

In 2000, I made these composited photos. Most of them involve myself in situations or actions, and suggest a darkly humorous narrative. They were typically shot with a self-timer. I made them with the first digital camera I had ever. I'm sure it was like one-tenth of a megapixel. And I was using Photoshop 5.5. The good ole days...




With the amazing Shaka McGlotten

A couple of random sketches

My idea was a grid of vignette's with random imagery; some of it appears up-close, and some denotes space; some is graphically simple, others ambiguously abstract; and some of it is just weird.

Underwater animals getting the job done

My favorite progressive, non-profit consulting firm asked me to help update their business cards. Each person was to get a personalized sea creature (of their choosing) to go on the card. I illustrated the sea-life for the cards.


Mark's Leopard Shark:




Mars' Starfish:



Alia's Octopus:



Davis' Marlin:



Sarah's Coral:

Get a room

Recently I did a freelance project for a hotel in San Francisco that specializes in long-term stay occupants. That is, professionals that work in SF, but live elsewhere. The hotel wanted to put floor plans of their newly remodeled double suite and single rooms on their website. I measured and sketched out the room, and composed the plans in Illustrator.

Me and Alia's wedding website

Alia and I got married last October. I have heard designers say that getting involved in designing their own wedding invitations or website can be the kiss of death because it is the toughest committee you will ever face. Luckily, I have an amazing wife with great taste, so I decided to eschew this conventional wisdom and do both the invitations and the website myself. I knew that Alia would not demand anything, uh, floral, flashy, white, or too feminine. I wanted bold, simple, and a representation of our personalities. Plus, we live in San Francisco, and were married across the Golden Gate Bridge in Sonoma county, so I wanted to use the image of the bridge and take that metaphor to stand as a central theme.

Here are some of the pieces from the wedding website:

4th of July fundraising campaign

Last 4th of July, I created several page elements for a fundraising campaign on Alternet.org Alternet is a brilliant online community for progressive news and media, and this particular campaign was working with a match donation. I designed the masthead, an email call-out, sidebar content, and a widget badge. All the imagery incorporated the use of fireworks, and in particular, using a firecracker as a level gauge for the amount of money they raised. Here's how it looked.



Masthead





Sidebar





Email call-out box





and the widget badge.

Sample email comp

I envisioned this as essentially an emailed flier for an online retail business.

Brushed effect text

I wanted to make text appear like a negative stencil inside of a big, messy brush stroke. Here's what turned out:

Some sample banners

Here are some examples of banners that I've put together:


















Crazy Dave has a beard in need of some recognition.

Blowing the whistle

This is a study logo.

Getting this thing off the ground.

Hey out there. This blog is a space to view my work. I will be displaying the graphic design work that I am putting together such as logos, banners, call-outs, and comps. I'd also like to include some of the architectural renderings that I've helped develop.
In addition to graphic work, I will also be posting my paintings, drawings, prints, videos, animations, and any other extra stuff that turns out interesting.
I hope you enjoy what you see. Thanks.