Studio: 407-894-4477

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.

I just finished processing the images from my latest photoshoot.  C.T. Hsu + Associates needed images of their prototype Fire Station designed for Orange County.  Fire Station 35 is located on the quieter side of town by Windermere.  While the weather wasn’t the greatest – the clouds moving through had a few breaks in them to allow for some nice images.

Jason Frazier (www.frazierfoto.com) and I recently did an interior photo shoot at the Serenity Towers in the gulf side community of South Pasadena.  The facility is an independent living senior high rise which was recently renovated.  You can view more photos on my Flickr page.

The time is coming when we say goodbye to this year and move on to the next.  For me this always means holiday items for my clients.  For the past few years I’ve been designing the holiday calendar for C.T. Hsu + Associates, which is their way of reaching out to their clients and presenting their work.  For me, it’s always fun to explore different gradients of colors and how they interact with the different images.

You can view some of the previous calendars on my blog:

• 2009 Calendar
• 2008 Calendar
• 2007 Calendar

If you’d like to design your own calendar, here’s the template files for Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator

• 2010 Monthly Calendar Template – INDD File (InDesign CS 4)
• 2010 Monthly Calendar Template – INX File (InDesign Exchange File – all versions)
• 2010 Yearly Calendar Template – Illustrator File

Let me put my disclaimer first, this project was done under CT Hsu + Associates where I work part time.  The project was done for the Chinese American Scholars and Professionals Association of Florida, which was an organization  CT Hsu presided over.  The project itself a was re-branding the organization and building the collateral items for their technology conference which ended this past Friday.  Below is an overview of the project and some of the items that were created.

First, we have the logo.  Several months ago I was tasked with recreating their seal.  The only items they had were a crude photocopied logo on some old documents.   After several iterations the final design was approved.  It incorporated both a book and an image of the state, both of which pay homage to the group’s audience.  The blue color complements the metallic gray around the logo as well as the light gold of the book.

The next phase of the project was to develop the overall theme for the conference.  CT had several ideas and he wanted to incorporate several Florida images to help attract people to what we offer.  One of the first items developed was the preliminary program which incorporated the blue of the logo, and started building the standard fonts and graphics that would follow through the project.  From here, the artwork was handed over to the Valencia Community College team who built the save the date and sponsorship brochures before it was passed back to me.

The final phase of the project included making the support items for the conference.  These included the name badges, tote bags, award certificates, podium signs, banners, pop-up displays, gala programs, award trophies and many other items.  NGI provided many of the large format items as well as the printing of the programs.    Overall, it was a significant undertaking in a short amount of time, but with a good schedule everything was able to be completed on-time and the event was a success.  Marisha and I attended the awards gala, which had a nice dinner and some really good entertainment.  And to top it off I was awarded a certificate of appreciation (which I happened to create for myself earlier)!

Kira, originally uploaded by Tom Smalling Photography & Design.

This weekend I played good husband for the wife and helped her friend Kira with some portraits to build her professional portfolio. Kira has a wonderful personality and is very warm and friendly, and if things go well you’ll see her at the next conference helping companies sell their products. Also, I have to give thanks to Jason Frazier who loaned me one of his flash units. If you’d like to see more from the photoshoot, please check out my Flickr page.

Although this project was completed a few weeks ago, I just now had the time to take a few photos.  This was a fun project for Limbach Facility Services to highlight their educational experience.  Some of the items, like the notebook paper, I scanned and added to the piece, and others where from stock photo houses.  What makes this project really fun is the use of spot varnishes over the photos to give the appearance they are jumping off the page.  This came out much nicer than expected!  Thanks everyone along the way who helped with this project!

I just finished up my latest project this week. It’s a website for a company called Roman Packaging, based out of Sanford, Florida.  They specialize in custom packaging for your needs.  There’s an entire catalog on the site, and I highly recommend giving it a look through if you’re in the market for these products.  Also, be sure to check them out at the Surf Expo August 20-22 at the Orange County Convention Center.

Yesterday I got a chance to run out and photograph the newest addition to Valencia Community College’s West Campus – Building 11.  The building was designed by C.T. Hsu + Associates.  What makes the building especially interesting is it will be shared with the University of Central Florida and it will be a LEED Certified building.  With two weeks to go, they were still moving in the furniture and finishing some of the common spaces, but it looked really nice.  More photos to follow.