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So, it’s been a while since I’ve posted to my design blog and for good reasons. First, I’ve been working as a teacher for Osceola County teaching all things digital and web. It’s been a fun process teaching the students and a challenge figuring out how to communicate many years of knowledge in small, digestible formats. Along with teaching I’ve also been taking classes at Valencia College to earn my teaching certificate – I’m finishing the last five classes as I type this. Now that summer has arrived it’s time to get caught up in my own business. Most of the projects I’ve done as of lately have been web updates, so unfortunately I don’t have much to share. I did just complete a website for an engineering company under an advertising agency I team with. With all of this said, it’s time to pick up business once again.

Check out the AiInsite website for an article about crowd sourcing.  I’ve been vocal in the past about crowd sourcing and how it’s changing the creative profession.  I can understand both viewpoints, but I think it really hurts the designer in the end – both those working for the crowd sourcing sites and those trying to run a successful practice.  It teaches our clients that design is nothing more than a commodity that can be bought cheap.  My view of design is that I’m a creative problem solver; here to offer my clients 12 years of professional experience and explore ideas they may not have considered.   Here’s the article.

Smalling Studios recently launched a new website for the College Park Family Practice and Baxley Center for Executive Health.  Both are located in College Park, Florida, just outside of downtown Orlando.  The Baxley Center for Executive Health specializes in complete on-site physical for busy executives and professionals who don’t have the time to go visit the doctor.

Would you believe this isn’t straight out of the camera?  Of course not!   We’ve all seen the power of Photoshop from places like the Dove Evolution Campaign to the Photoshop Disasters blog.  The above image came out much different from the RAW image in the camera (see below).

As you can see the image is a lot flatter, this provides a wider range between the light and dark areas of the photo and allows me to creatively adjust the lighting.  The red light in the foreground was from a red LED street sign, it was flooding the parking lot with a strong red light.  A simple GOBO would have been ideal, but this was a quick shoot between rain showers.  Also, there were several lights out on the building, easily replaced in Photoshop.  Finally, the client requested the drop off to be removed from the image.  So, as you can see, it takes some time and work to make a truly presentable image.

This postcard was designed for Roman Packaging, a company that specializes in creating custom packaging solutions. Normally I don’t show off smaller projects like this, but once I saw the final printed piece I knew I had to share.  It’s an over-sized 9″ x 6″ postcard, with a bright red that grabs the viewer’s attention and demands them to view the piece.  It’s being used as a select mailer to their industry groups, and as a hand out at their trade show appearances.

Check them out, the new business cards are finished for the studio.  I went all out this time and printed them on a 16pt card stock with a “soft-touch” aqueous coating and rounded the corners.  The next step is starting an email campaign and building the client base.

The Cultural Tools of IIF is an initiative formed by Limbach Facility Services to help drive home how important safety is to the company and their workers.  The piece showcases the six tools of IIF, and how Limbach has incorporated them into their corporate culture.  The brochure features several interesting details including an embossed/debossed logo on a textured paper as well as a translucent columned paper for the inside.  Both of these give the brochure a rich, tactile feel connecting the viewer to the design.

I recently finished a brochure design for Springwater Homes, a custom home builder located in Brevard County, Florida.  The design is based off of an existing brochure and incorporates some of their latest homes as well as their commitment to green building and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Builders Challenge program.   The final brochure was printed on glossy paper with a soft-touch aqueous coating to provide a nice tactile experience to the reader.

It’s now official, my website has been officially upgraded from version 2.0 to version 3.0.  The entire site has been built from the ground up to work with the WordPress platform making it easier to update and maintain. Also, new work has been added to better show my skills and the level of work a client should expect.  Be sure to check out the latest news where I’ll be keeping posts about all the latest projects I’ve been working on.

Sorry if you’re having problems accessing or finding items on my website. This weekend I decided it was time to re-evaluate the website and take it to the next level. I’ve formally adopted WordPress as my CMS for the new site and built a new template to display my entire site. While I couldn’t finish the entire site this weekend, I was able to get the posts up and running and start designing the portfolio pages. Within the next week I should have the site finished up and ready to show it off.

Also, as a side note, Marisha and I went to see Gabriel Inglesias at the Hard Rock Live in Universal.  We had a great time, and a lot of good laughs with his Fluffy Shop Tour.  If you get a chance, check him out.