If so, I can help. It’s never been more important to reach your clients on a global level, and I am here to make sure when they do reach you, their first impression…impresses!

Are you interested in competitive pricing on a CMS-based site (Content Management System), designed around your brand? Please contact me now for a free quote.

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.

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the Genesis Framework, one of the better WordPress frameworks available today, not to mention it was replacing an old, outdated-looking, difficult-to-customize, Thesis theme (as seen in the screenshot below).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

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

Here is a preview of the site before the update.

New design.

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.

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.

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.

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.