3D art takes brochure into overdrive

Here is a brochure created in Photoshop and InDesign for the Automotive Technology program at Cerro Coso. I had lots of fun doing the design and layout for this piece, but the coolest part of this brochure is by far the awesome 3D visuals of the cars. The cars were all created by Kris Horton, a graduate of the Digital Animation program at Cerro Coso. Kris now does automotive visualization professionally. You may have seen some of Kris’ work in Popular Hot Rodding magazine as his modern camaro concept, pictured in the brochure, received world wide attention.

The target for this brochure was high school students so having a design that was attractive to a younger crowd was important, and using eye-grabbing car visuals was the way I addressed this. Carrying the road theme through the brochure tied together the car concept and also added some visual flair to the brochure. The color palette for the brochure came from the various vehicles featured in the brochure and the cover title was based on the program website. Overall this is one of my favorite pieces of work.

• Digital Animation Program
• Automotive Technology Program
• Cars by Kris
• View full brochure in PDF
  

InDesign: Schedule Cover

The newest schedule cover for Cerro Coso for the Spring 2007 semester. The background was created in Photoshop. The rest of the document was laid out in InDesign. I really love InDesign for doing page layout, it rocks. Oh yeah, I also took the photos seen on the cover using an Olympus 4040z.

Cerro Coso Theater Ad

Here is an ad, created in Photoshop, for Cerro Coso to be shown in a local theater. This design was based on one of the postcard designs I had done previously. The ad is made up of stock photography and vector shapes. Pretty simple, though admittedly a somewhat busy design. The focus was a more youthful appearance showing diversity.

Steve Irwin; a man worth remembering

I was deeply saddened by the death of Steve Irwin earlier this week. Not only was I a fan of his Crocodile Hunter show, I can’t imagine anyone not being a fan once they watched his zany antics, but I truly admired his passion for his work. I admit there were times I thought he’d gone off his rocker, but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen someone so totally enthused by his work.

I think everyone could learn a lesson from Steve, to do what you love, but to go beyond that, to be passionate about it. There is no doubt in my mind that Steve had fun every day he was working, even when it was a tough job like capturing an unruly croc. He made his job his life and shared his passion, not only with those he loved, but with the world.

If we could all take a chapter from the life of Steve Irwin and write that into the books of our own lives, well, we might just find the kind of passion for our own work that Steve found in his. I will always respect Steve Irwin for demonstrating to me, through his work, the kind of passion that I should have for mine.

Learn more about Steve Irwin.

Coyote Howler, re-visioning a newsletter

I've been involved in a project to release the Cerro Coso newsletter via an email listserv. Previously called "The Report to the Board" the college wanted to revision the newsletter, in particular with a name that was more fitting of a college community-wide publication. I initially suggested the Coyote Howl, which then became the Coyote Howler. Since this was a great time to not only give the newsletter a new name, I thought it would also be great to give it a new fresh look. I originally had planned on only working on a new masthead as I had an idea to go with the new name, but as often happens with me, the concept grew from there and it became a full-fledged redesign (much to the surprise of those involved with the actual production of the newsletter). The inspiration behind the overall design is the new college catalog cover design I recently worked on. I felt it would be ideal to have two well seen publications tie together to create some visual continuity for the college.

Originally created as a full-bleed concept in InDesign, the layout was revamped to fit print specs and converted into a PageMaker doc since there was software incompatibility due to version issues with the system of the staff member who would actually be producing the newsletter every month. Here is the result of the makeover. Enjoy!