Finished project

Here are some examples of the finished product. I ended up doing the label. When I do the finished quantities I would like a professionally produces round die cut label. I think that would stick really well and have a really great contrast with the uncoated paper. For right now I printed it on label paper. I really like the idea of being able to stick my sticker on anything. 

I also put an example of the cut down version of my screen printing.

Personal branding

On my first, round of creating identity for myself I tried silk-screen printing. I wanted something original and hand crafted. However, my hand crafted tenancies were not quite up to par. I ended up spending 4 hours and $35. What you do is (1) cut a stencil out of wax paper (I also tried it out of think cardboard and paper - neither successful) (2) place the stencil in the paper (3) do a flood coverage of ink across the silk screen box - place in on the stencil. (4) Then use your squeegee to pull ink across the screen. This puts ink evenly onto the paper. 

However, I would not take my advice because I tried a million times - cut a million different stencils and none of them were very successful.  - so I moved on to Identity plan #2. 

Self Design

I am on a search to market myself after graduation from college. I started by working on who my target market would be. I would love to start off working at a smaller design firm doing motion graphics. I also love illustration and trying to incorporate that into my designs. I want my identity to say "progressive designer, that uses unique solutions to solve problems of design." 

I also want my designs to be unique - something that shows that I handcrafted it - and stands out in a crowd. My first idea was to use labels (professionally made with a glossy shine - to contrast the bright white matte paper.) My next idea was to try silkscreening.  - I will update on the one I end up with.

John Hersey

John Hersey is an innovator in digital illustration. I had the opportunity to interview him on some bro-bono projects he did for the San Francisco area Film Night in the Park posters. They show his extraordinary style. John loves bold, simple and unusual design and

despises conservative design.

In addition to designing he is a father (with a whole creative bunch) and a professor at California College.

I was extremely excited to interview John. Pro-bono works are one of the best ways to see the true creativity of an artist. Posters are one of the most fun and interesting things to design. They lend themselves to innovation. With our congested, images saturated world, posters are a fun opportunity to communicate your message.

Project Background: Film Night in the Park is a public outdoor activity in the San Francisco area. John created the posters for 6 years.

Here are some of the posters he created:







Project Goal: The goal of the Fill Night in the Park posters is simple: to attract people to first read the poster, then to attend the show. Pro-bono projects often start out as a favor for friends, but more than that it gives the artist a chance to express their creative freedom and do something they really enjoy. John enjoys the chance to take a novel idea and mix up the design without limitations. Taking pro-bono work very seriously, John works to make a fresh portfolio piece. Although complete creative freedom is not the only way that John creates interesting works. He also stressed that limitations can be just a liberating (demonstrated by his entire portfolio). Restrictions and working with clients help him focus his creativity. Seeing what you can do with limitations. That is one of the reasons that he loves icon design. There is only so much you can do with them – making it more challenging to arrive at a creative solution.

Problem: Creative a design that will catch attention.

Ideas: John goes back and forth between paper and computer to generate ideas. If blocked in one medium he moves to the other. These posters are character based. For these posters he was inspired by pop culture and Japanese style. He also experimented with Typography to make his eye-catching appeal. The characters were sometimes tied conceptually to the films or the event. The octopus was inspired by one of the films that year where an octopus attacked the Golden Gate Bridge. He did an ant one year because of the idea that it is in a park with a lot of ants.

Client/Designer: John did get input from the client. Before John shows ideas to the client he normally always does computer versions of his ideas. He also normally creates the design, in its entirety, digitally. This is really interesting to me becasue it seems that many illustrators do a lot by hand then convert to digital. The client sometimes thought the posters were a bit crazy (intentionally) but trusted him. Sometimes he pushed his innovation a bit far and had to crank it back a few notches. For example, the posters were printed on translucent paper, so he tried putting the text backwards so you can only read it from the back of the sheet.

Solution: After the whole process, John made the final decision, and created the posters that made everyone stop to see what he has to say. John’s work is very inspirational. He can take any project and make it something so unique and interesting. I look forward to following his fresh style in the future.

More of John Hersey's work

Here is some of his other work - check out his web site http://www.hersey.com