Services Rendered

“What exactly do you do?” The easiest answer is of course, um ... illustration and design. The simple answer is often not enough so I follow up with: “Well, I like to create illustration ... you know like cartoons, paintings and kid’s books. I design stuff ... you know like web sites, brochures, and CD packaging.” If their eyes haven’t glazed over I may follow up with examples or web addresses of recent projects.

The truth is that I do a lot of very different things. The “big” answer is that I love to create art that communicates well. That may be broad, but that’s what I’m passionate about. That being said, I know that I need to break it down to some real life examples. So here’s a last ditch attempt to break down what I can do for potential clients (if that’s you and you don’t see a correlation to your project, contact me anyways - I love a challenge).

Illustration
My first love, illustration is basically creating a visual that helps describe the story, ad, message that it accompanies. Editorial illustration tends to be found in periodicals (magazines and newspapers) and lends itself to conceptual work. I love working this way. Communicating ideas in creative and conceptual ways plays right into my style. This type of work is also great for concert posters, CD’s and other media in the music industry.

I also enjoy creating illustration that tells a story. This is often found in Children’s books and book jackets. I love the challenge of character creation and the details found therein. I like to collaborate with authors and publishers to tell the story in as an imaginatively way as possible. Sometimes this type of art works in advertising as well. I’ve created a mad scientist character to help accentuate a conference theme. It was a really fun project to bring into reality.

I work in a few different styles and often times will suggest a certain fit for a project. Be sure to visit my Illustration Portfolio to see a good cross-sampling of my work or The Sketchbook to see my “just for fun” work.

Design
Graphic Design is a broad category for a lot of different sub categories. I’ll do my best to give some examples, but to be honest - when you look at anything, it’s been designed. Magazines hire art directors and designers who make decisions on the use, layout and aesthetics of the the project. Design work is more than just color and type (though these are huge elements!) - it’s using the materials at your disposal to share the message clearly.

I’ve created as aesthetic for a series of messages at worship services. The initial logo, flash backgrounds for display on screen, and printed handouts - all helped deliver a consistent message over several weeks. This is a good example of good design. It all works together. This is very similar to branding for business (logos, business cards, letterhead, brochures, etc.) and music industry marketing (CD, Poster and Web site).

I also have experience with creating dynamic, engaging web sites. I’ve created flash sites and flash components for hybrid sites. I adhere to web standards and can build dynamic sites using xhtml and css.
I’m a big fan of simplifying the updating process for clients and love Expression Engine for this beautiful fact. Web design is as challenging a field there is! The power of a great web site is an amazing tool.

For a look at some of my design work head over to my Design Portfolio.

Feel free to contact me with any questions about possible projects.

This is where I ramble on and you tell me about it below. Ok, I actually hope to do more than ramble, but the jury is still out.