paulsutton.us » Portfolio

Yellowstone Bear World

Paul Sutton — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:00:54 +0000

Gearing up to be one of my more rewarding WordPress theme designs, as far as creative-impression goes, is Yellowstone Bear World.

The gentlemen of Yellowstone Bear World came to me with hopes of bringing the fun-spirited excitement that the Great American Road-Trip, partnered with the wildlife of the Yellowstone National Park… to the website. Of course, giving the site a more professional look and encouraging social-engagement, was atop the list as well.

As with all successful projects, communication and constructive feedback is a must, and that is exactly what I got with these guys. Each level of the design phase has (in my opinion) elevated the concept and brought it closer to the goal.

Following is some of the presented proofs, with the fourth one being the final. Hop on over to the Bear World website and take a look, and hey, if you’re looking for a great vacation idea, and want to get up-close-and-personal with the animals of Yellowstone…Bear World is your place.

BuildDirect Blog Redesign

Paul Sutton — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 22:00:29 +0000

Another great referral from my buddy Chuck Reynolds for a web site redesign. This one sparked my interest for more than a couple reasons.

First, it gave me an opportunity to finally work with the Genesis Framework, one of the better WordPress frameworks available today, not to mention it was replacing an old, outdated-looking, difficult-to-customize, Thesis theme (as seen in the screenshot below).

Second, it also gave me a chance to experiment with WordPress Multisite. However, since the blog.BuildDirect.com site is already so well established with articles and SEO rankings, WPMS was not a great option at the time. Importing so many posts can tend to get quirky when transferring to another WordPress install and the risk was not worth it. I did, however, really enjoy getting to work with a bigger site and WordPress MS, and hope to use it for a build sometime soon in the future.

Lastly, I had the pleasure of working with a great client in Rob Woods and Build Direct. I don’t know if it is because he is Canadian or what, but I’ve never worked with a nicer guy, not to mention professional and very well informed.

This is how the site looked (with the Thesis theme) prior to the redesign.

And after the redesign.

Site link: BuildDirect Blog

Divorce Attorney Web Redesign

Paul Sutton — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 23:12:43 +0000

Client needed a site redesign and front-end development in a short amount of time (5 days). Happy to say I got it done in 4. Design approved in round 1 and coded out in 2 and a half days. I have wanted to experiment with subtle textures, mixed with attractive typography like this for awhile and I am happy with the depth created in the header, within the layers of cityscape.

Update

The first site redesign transition went well enough that the client asked me to redesign another affiliate site, preview is below.

Before Redesign

After Redesign

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.

New design.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It seems Google Maps no longer allows embedded StreetView previews, so
go here to see it with StreetView. It is the house on the corner of Elevado Ave. and North Rodeo Dr.

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.

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.

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.

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.

May 15, 2009. Concept #1 submitted

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.

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

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

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

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

UPDATE: Concept and Colors Approved

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!