paulsutton.us » Paul Sutton

Graphical Update for Logoall

Paul Sutton — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:01:49 +0000

Quick update to the Logoall.com site theme. The stagnant site just needed some fresh updates. I built the new theme around a Photoshop tutorial I did awhile back. I brought a little more of my style into this one, as the previous design was more ‘toned-down’, if you will. Sometimes I think I should be designing movie posters as much as I enjoy creating elaborate, intensely-graphical and fantastical scenes.

Here is a preview of the site before the update.

LogoALL before redesign

New design.

LogoALL after new graphics

Click on the image to see a larger preview on my Flickr account. And if you’d like to see a full preview. The site can be found here, Logoall.com.

HDR, Photoshop and Composite Fun

Paul Sutton — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:04:42 +0000

I had a little down time over the weekend so I decided to have a little fun with Photoshop, again. Seems anytime I am bored, Photoshop always remedies this ‘boring’ thing.

I’ve had some old, pretty horrible digital-camera vacation photographs stored away on my hard drive. After going through them I picked out a potentially-worthy candidate. Below is the first choice, in its original state.

Vacation photo from Rodeo Drive, California -- Pre Processing

The point of this little project was to see if I could take an uninteresting, badly-exposed photo and make it fun. First off is to do the classic Photoshop-HDR fake process within Photoshop and then adjust the tones in PhotoMatix. After quite a bit of processing, below is the result after HDR, PhotoMatix and minor composites. For those of you not familiar with HDR Photography.

HDR and Photoshop Result

After the previous step, I showed my friend Vanessa, and having an even-more-twisted imagination than myself, she started offering suggestions on elements I could add. At this point I decided to make it a full-on-composite, or manipulation. After a day and a half of collaboration, below is the result.

Final Composite

Click the image to see a larger preview in my Flickr account. If your computing with some real processing power, see all the details in its full-sized-glory.

UPDATE: Decided to take a stroll down Rodeo Dr. (via Google Street View) and was lucky enough to find this house. Thought it would be fun to compare the house to the image.

FYI, the project was done for fun, nothing at all commercial about it. Many of the elements are obviously copyright their respective owners and you may use as you’d like, aside from claiming it as your own.

Finding Clarity in a Noisy World

Paul Sutton — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:49:07 +0000

What is it that drives you? What is it that causes you to react to your emotions the way that you do? Is it psychological? Maybe necessity? Age? Experience? Ego? Whatever it is, are you reacting in a manner that is constructive to not only your own progression but that of those close enough to hear you?

Something I have noticed as the clock continues to tic and the lines around my eyes become more defined, is the way that I handle and react to written dialogue. The cliche about age and wisdom takes on a new meaning as I no longer feel like I need to be “right” or have the conclusive answer to the topic at hand. The piss-and-vinegar has dried up and I am more in-tuned and focused on finding a solution to the problem, rather than adding to it.

One thing I can be sure of is that the more you close yourself to criticism and the more you take yourself serious, the more others will not. Don’t get me wrong, if something seems out-of-place or makes no sense to you, challenge it, don’t be afraid to be wrong… there are plenty of experts willing to explain. Asking the questions or challenging a point-of-view will also spark others to explore it and possibly have alternative, (in some cases) better views or solutions.

No matter how much static you create, if you aren’t aiming it in the right direction, it is only noise. Make it be heard.

Defining the Lines of Graphic Design

Paul Sutton — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 05:38:22 +0000

I have recently read a few articles discussing the titles that go along with the “graphic designer”, unfortunately the one that stuck out in my head the most, I could not find… (Twitter search fail) but that’s ok, that only means I am forced to rely strictly on my own beliefs rather than make comparisons with others.

The point of this post isn’t to debunk anything that I have read, nor jump on any bandwagons of ideas that I have absorbed over the years… rather, it is a “real time” personal exploration of what distinguishes the differences. Generally when I am “forced” to fill out some form or online depiction of my portfolio persona, the first thing that comes to mind is “graphic designer”. I never fail to hesitate thinking “if I generalize myself as a graphic designer”, ” does that in-turn limit others perception of my capabilities?” I am then forced to analyze whom the information is intended for and then alter my input based on that.

The plain truth is, I am versed in multiple design mediums (Flash, web, print, branding, etc…). Even though I haven’t found myself using Flash for quite some time, I can nonetheless build a site or presentation using Flash. Most of the “design” work that I do (based on hours alone), is related to web site design (mostly development). But I can’t use “web site designer” for everything either, that’s way too specific, especially if you’re looking for someone to design you a logo.

Lately, with the rise in popularity of the buzz term “user-experience” designer or UX, that seems to be the direction a lot are going. Though once again, it’s too generalized. It would seem that if your designing for the web, user-experience would be included.

I completely understand the need for having various titles for all facets of the graphic design industry. It’s obvious there are schools that are teaching these specific fields and some web designers don’t have the slightest clue what a print designer does, and vice versa.

Update

As I am cross-referencing my facts, I ran across Jason Santa Maria’s post regarding the same issue. It seems this is a common topic and obviously the lines are still blurred.

Conclusion: As I sit here attempting to talk myself into settling on one term, I realize it’s not going to happen. The lines are too blurred and that is the whole reason it has not been decided on as of yet. I am interested in what you, as a designer or spectator, think of the subject and would like your input.

Photoshop Movie Poster Fun

Paul Sutton — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:58:34 +0000

I was having a conversation on Facebook with an old high school friend the other day, just reminiscing and catching up. At some point on the wall-to-wall, Photobucket was brought up, (an online image storage site) and it was used in context like I had never heard it used before… as an image editing application? I guess since I have never needed to use the web site for any reason this came at somewhat of a surprise to me, especially since my friend claimed it could do photo manipulations (similar to Adobe Photoshop).

I did not go as far as testing Photobucket and its capabilities, honestly, if you know how to use Photoshop or Fireworks, what’s the point? It did however give me some incentive to bust open Photoshop and stretch my muscles a little bit. I hadn’t really done any cool manipulations lately and it was just what I needed for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Below is the before image (of my friend) and then the results after I was done playing. This little experiment actually came from a tutorial I ran across a long time ago and have been wanting to try it out for some time… I finally found the perfect opportunity.

Photo before fantastical manipulation

Fantastical result

Logoall Web Site

Paul Sutton — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 04:25:34 +0000

A lot of internal changes have taken place at my day job in the last year, one of them being a complete restructuring of the companies objective and bringing all of the services we offer into one main brand, also know as Logoall Branding Agency.

Logoall used to be divided into 3 separate entities: WebMediaRx, whose services included general graphic design, web sites and branding services, Practice Identity, which offered pre-designed, customizable and affordable web site templates and the original LogoALL, which focused primarily on the apparel and promotions aspect of the industry.

The new LogoALL.com is now the hub of all our services and respectfully named LogoALL Branding Agency.

The new Logoall.com

Mill Avenue Directory Brochures

Paul Sutton — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:42:57 +0000

Two months, a 100mb Adobe Illustrator file, a computer upgrade, 50,000 revisions, and a slight delay from the print press… and the Mill Avenue directory brochures are complete!
It was a battle at just about every turn; the map alone (the 100+mb Illustrator file) pushed my 32bit XP machine to its limits, resulting in an upgrade to the 64bit machine. The fact that it will be used as a tool to aid in the navigation to downtown tourists meant that it had to be passed around many sets of eyeballs to ensure accuracy and readability, hence the 50,000 updates (slight exaggeration). Not to mention that since it was a custom cut size, double gate fold meant that the guaranteed in-hands date did not apply to this order, resulting in a delay in delivery… Nonetheless, it is complete and I could not be happier.

Mill Avenue District brochures

Sertifi Web Site Design and Devlopment

Paul Sutton — Fri, 15 May 2009 08:41:16 +0000

Got a referral from a good friend of mine (Chuck Reynolds) for a company in his home town (Chicago) needing a web site. After spending the last month-in-a-half in Illustrator and Indesign, Photoshop was a welcome change. This is concept number one for a streamlined, electronic signature company looking for a “big business” appeal and a more professional look.

This is the design before I got my hands on it.

Sertifi before redesign

May 15, 2009. Concept #1 submitted

Sertifi redesign

After submitting the first draft I received a brief email from the client and it seems as if the concept went over well with him. Who knows though, he will sit with the rest of the team tomorrow and I’ll go from there.

Additional concepts coming shortly

Mill Avenue District Map Directory

Paul Sutton — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:00:12 +0000

Volunteering your services to a community has certainly opened up some new opportunities and the chance to explore some creative aspects of myself that have never been challenged. I have never doubted my imagination, but like a lot of “graphic designers”, I am not naturally gifted when it comes to fine art, however… the constant use of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator for the past 8 years has essentially turned my hands into tools that with a little direction can create some pretty nice things.

The following is a very rough draft of the first proof that I will be submitting for the redesign of the map directory for the Mill Avenue District. It is only about 80% complete and will most likely transform extensively before being submitted. Updates and progress reports will be made here in this post, so check back soon.

April 15, 2009. Initial concept, layout and perspective. Concept approved.

Mill Avenue map -- in the beginning

UPDATE: April 22, 2009. Mill Avenue Directory Map nearly complete.

Mill Avenue map -- color updates

UPDATE: May 15, 2009. Mill Avenue Directory Map pre-press.

Mill Avenue District Map Directory -- as printed

UPDATE: June 15, 2009. Directories Post Press

Mill Avenue Directory Brochures

Music on Mill Branding Campaign

Paul Sutton — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:08:17 +0000

So, following the great feedback received from the MADCAP Branding Campaign, the client was anxious to get moving on their next effort to revitalize the Mill Avenue Districts culture scene. The next item on the block was a little project called “Music on Mill” and like all branding campaigns, the logo design was first up.

Concepts/Ideation – proofs sent

Music on Mill logo concepts

As most designers will tell you, some concepts definitely fly better than others; after the first round of proofs were sent and the reviewed, it was obvious that further communication was needed with the client. I think the phrase that was used for this set was “too Sound-of-Music-like”… ouch, I never even seen that movie!
New mind-mapping words given: urban, edgy, modern, vintage rock, concert posters and graffiti art…

UPDATE: New Concepts sent

Music on Mill logo concepts

UPDATE: Concept and Colors Approved

Music on Mill logo

Now that the logo had been established, a quick push to complete the poster to kick off the campaign was necessary.

UPDATE: Various Poster Submissions

Music on Mill poster proofs

UPDATE: Final Poster Approved

Music on Mill poster final

UPDATE: We have been commissioned to redo the directory maps (and all relating printed collateral) in the Mill Avenue District (pending proposal approval), this means many hours in Adobe Illustrator, and that’s a good thing!