Leaving the gym, around 6:45am, looking east on Market Street. (L to R: 4/25/18; 4/26/18; 4/27/18; 4/30/18; 5/10/18; 5/11/18; 5/14/18; 5/15/18; 5/22/18)
Leaving the gym, around 6:45am, looking east on Market Street. (L to R: 5/23/18; 5/24/18; 5/25/18; 5/29/18; 5/30/18; 5/31/18; 6/1/18; 6/4/18; 6/5/18; 6/6/18; 6/7/18; 6/8/18)
After a couple of days in San Francisco, we took the shortest & most convenient flight down to LA (well, the Hollywood Burbank Airport) to continue our California adventure.
Highlights included: Driving around Silverlake + tacos at El Siete Mares / Runyon Canyon Hike / the delicious Korean BBQ feast that was Genwa / hangin' with Chelsea + Will (with a special shoutout to doggo Roscoe) / fun times in Downtown LA / the Bradbury Building / Frank Gehry's incredible Walt Disney Concert Hall / crazy good dinner at Bowery Bungalow / and the worth-it-but-trendy SQIRL (go on a Monday at about 9am.)
Our trip to San Francisco in early May was a dream. It was beautiful, fun, tasty, and interesting. The weather was a brisk, but sunny/overcast 60º – which made the city feel bright and energized.
My favorite things mostly centered around food, but included: fancy toast at The Mill / the beautiful, multi-colored homes / a lazy, delicious lunch at Zuni Café / lush plant life / Musical Night at The Edge with Joe / fun, weird dim sum inspired American food at State Bird Provisions / walking a lot (nearly 57,000 steps over 3 days) / wandering through Golden Gate Park / seeing great (old + new) art at SFMoMA.
Here are some of my favorite photos from our days exploring (and eating) our way through the city.
While exploring SFMoMA (which was closed/being renovated when I visited SF in 2014), I was struck by how exciting and expressive all of their exhibit graphics were. Each exhibit had a unique and thoughtful identity or entrance graphic.
Loving these pastels! Leaving the gym, around 6:45am, looking east on Market Street. (L to R: 3/23/18; 3/27/18; 3/28/18; 3/29/18; 3/30/18; 4/4/18; 4/5/18; 4/9/18; 4/10/18; 4/11/18; 4/23/18; 4/24/18)
While waiting for the trolley recently, I saw this abandoned + splattered cup of coffee. It looked so violent and extreme, I had to take a picture of it.
I added some text and played around with adding some color. Just something fun -- an ode to caffeine.
Another batch of sunrises — leaving the gym around 6:45am, looking east on Market Street (L to R: 2/20/18, 2/21/18, 2/26/18, 2/27/18, 2/28/18, 3/6/18, 3/9/18, 3/13/18, 3/14/18, 3/16/18, 3/19/18, 3/20/18)
AIGA Philadelphia hosts a series of events called "Drink and Draw." Various artists chat about their process/work and inspire those in attendance to do some drawing themselves.
The February event was hosted be MECRO, who is known for his use of dynamic, bold, and layered typography. He encouraged us to explore how different styles of text layer on top of one another. I was struggling to come up with words to write (do I use song lyrics? do I think of clever words that look appealing? what about random words? or one category of a thing?) So I instead turned to a summary of the event & my experience at the event.
After spending about half an hour working on this – adding in comments, overheard conversations, observations, and details, I was ready to move on.
For my second sketch of the night, I wanted to try something completely different but still in line with MECRO's thinking. I chose to treat the word "Fluxy"(an obscure reference to a song by the band The Early November that i've adopted and been using since 2008.) I drew some boundaries and started layering and adding type (playing with scale and density). The "final" piece is weird, imperfect, and fun.
This is one of the benefits of getting up early and going to the gym – leaving around 6:45am and catching the sunrise and changing sky as you look east down Market Street. (Left to right: 1/3/18, 1/8/18, 1/9/18, 1/10/18, 1/29/18, 1/31/18, 2/5/18, 2/9/18, 2/12/18, 2/13/18, 2/14/18, 2/19/18)
My family and I went on a cruise to the Western Carribean / Mexico to celebrate my Dad's 60th Birthday this month. Despite some not-so-great weather during our trip, we had a fantastic day while in Cozumel, Mexico (except we were only in Cozumel for about 30 minutes total...)
We chose to head to Playa del Carmen (and then further south along the coast to explore the Mayan ruins in Tulum). During our trip out of "downtown" Playa del Carmen and further south, I saw some great colors, typography, and general design.
Not only are these two albums (Lorde's Melodrama and Manchester Orchestra's A Black Mile to the Surface) two of my favorites of the year, but I also am really drawn to the simplicity and effective use of color. The Lorde album cover is haunting and captivating. The hand-painted portrait captures the album's emotion & spirit.
There are so many great book covers from the year - it was hard to narrow down to a few of my favorites. I had not seen the cover for When Dimple Met Rishi until I was looking around at some of the 2017 book covers, but I was instantly drawn to the casual, cheeky, and specific aesthetic being communicated from the cover. Janet Hansen's cover for All We Saw is simple, restrained, and intriguing. And Nick Misani's cover for The Age of Perpetual Light is so effectively executed that it completely encapsulates the title and makes for a fantastic image.
I'll be very curious to see the Chobani rebrand roll out into stores. I'm wondering if it will stick (is it too design-forward and "now" looking to last in the mass market?) and/or how it will continue to evolve. I love the new typographic choices, and the effective use of illustration and photography makes for a fascinating system.
Even though I hated the entire experience of sitting in a theater and watching mother!, this poster is stunning and a work of art. The soft painterly style adds to the image that is laden with visual references to many of the Biblical undertones and allegories from the film. (Side note: I lauhged out loud and rolled my eyes a number of times throughout the movie...)
(Keeping this as a blog post so I can update the Philly Free Streets page with more current work.)
While working at the Philadelphia Water Department, I was lucky enough to get to do most of the branding, advertising, marketing, and day-of design work on the inaugural Philly Free Streets - which temporarily closes Philly streets to cars, inviting people to walk, bike, & play. Philly Free Streets is a people-powered initiative of the City of Philadelphia. I worked closely with the wonderful people from the city's Office of Transportation & Infrastructure Systems..
Working with my Creative Director to finalize the logo, I developed a wide scope of materials that lead up to the event, as well as some items for the event itself. Some of the first things I worked on were the icons that would round out the pedestrian icon - aiding in showcasing a variety of activities & types of people who would come out to experience Philly Free Streets.
The first part of the process was to slowly roll out the brand across a variety of channels - through traditional press and social media.
As the event drew closer, we wanted to ramp up visibility, and had advertisements displayed at bus shelters around the city. Both print posters & digital displays were used.
I designed two different styles of t-shirts for the event itself, one for volunteers, and one that was a giveaway to Philly Free Streets participants.
A quick little sketch-to-vector process :)
A long weekend in the Berkshires (Pittsfield & Camp Becket) that culminated in one of my good friends, Chelsea, getting married. It was a beautiful weekend and an incredibly fun wedding.
Here are some of my favorite shots from the weekend.
look at this tomato!
Quintessential Los Angeles -- couldn't resist this dreamy shot before I left for the airport :)
I spent a few days in beautiful (and hot.... 120º hot) Palm Springs in early July to celebrate a friend's upcoming wedding. Not only is the landscape it's own kind of stark beauty, but the architecture is it's own attraction. The sleek, minimalist, mid-century modern homes were captivating and amazing to tour.
I had a great time exploring Minneapolis this past weekend. These photos are some of my favorites from the 4 days I was there. It was pretty grey/rainy the whole weekend, but that didn't stop us from exploring and checking out tons of local restaurants and outdoor spaces.
Highlights featured in these photos: (1,2,3) Walker Art Center; (4,5) Views from the Guthrie Theater; (6) Mill Ruins Park
I was looking through some old files...
Every few months (or when I remember to), I wipe the photos off the phone and back them up on an external hard drive. I always enjoy reliving the last few months and finding an image and remembering why I snapped a picture in the first place.
Above, from L-R: subway texture in NYC (July 2016) // Schuylkill River in the late afternoon (November 2016) // Tioga County Rest Stop on PA Rt. 287 (January 2017)
Part of my current job involves these mini "campaigns" promoting the Philadelphia Water Department's residential improvement program, Rain Check. The fall/winter is usually a slower time for the program and we have been doing small social media pushes for sign-ups aligning with various holidays/motifs over the last 6 months or so (Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.)
This is one of my favorites we have done - a fake personal ad from a rain garden to a resident. I personally enjoy how tongue-in-cheek and specific it is - but I had a blast making this particular graphic.
Here's a break down of what the process was:
Starting from the left:
I saw these boards in the vestibule where the elevators & payment info are in the Port Authority. I have no idea what they are, or what message/information they are communicating (or who for) - but I was struck by the abstract minimalism and variance in composition and execution.
They all remind me of some of Cy Twombly's work...
I guess you never know where inspiration will strike – like the 5th floor of the massive and complicated maze that is Port Authority.
I was looking through some old files...
In August of 2013, my family and I went on a cruise to Alaska. It was, without a doubt, a trip i will never forget for many reasons - especially the train ride we took from the Yukon Territory along Bennett Lake to Skagway, AK. These are some (mostly) unedited photos from along the lake. I only tweaked the color and contrast, but all of the natural perfect reflections and immense beauty is representative of the incredible trip we took.
