Abstract Intellects abstractintellects.com is a music producer-slash-artist-slash-demo site I created for a talented musician. The site’s presentation highlights a efficient and textured layout that mirrors the songwriter’s own style. This was also the first site I created for which I had to build a custom music player and downloader. In its initial publication it relies on static assets, however I built it intentionally with Google’s Firebase system so the artist and I have a foundation to make it easily more dynamic (perhaps with a custom content management system) in the future.

Inkwealthy is a site-as-a-service I developed myself. It’s goal is to help authors find and connect with readers quickly and easily to read their works and polish them before they are published. I designed the site with a couple of things in mind. First, I wanted it to be incredibly simple and minimalistic. You’ll notice it’s three colors Red, White and Blue. I chose these colors primarily because they reminded me of typical pen and paper (blue for the author’s pen, red for the editor’s and of course white as the paper). Second, I wanted everything to be chiefly vertical. With MORE

The website I created for Chomp Gloves is a simple, custom eCommerce site that features a hero carousel and a tiled gallery for the shop section. It also incorporates the Shopify Buy SDK, one of the most popular hosted eCommerce solutions available these days. Additionally, the one-page design leverages the Bootstrap framework making it incredibly mobile friendly as well. Check it out here chompgloves.com Plus, if you’re a Florida Gators fan, really you need a pair of these!

This is a website I created for a local hairstylist who was opening her own salon. She wanted something simple but easily updatable. I built it using WordPress so she could dynamically add more to it as her business needs grew or changed. It features a mobile-friendly splash page that can instantly take users to the most important sections but also includes deeper content that can be accessed using the more complex menu. http://tsalonmesa.com

Recently a few of my colleagues launched a new podcast and website geared toward edu-tainment. Normally, I create all of the web-presence for my projects from the ground up but for this one I wanted to try something a little different. Specifically, I wanted to try a pre-built template and just build on top of that, mostly because I was pretty slammed with some other projects and wanted to get something up quickly. What I learned is that there are some really solid theme’s for WordPress that give you a lot of assume tools already, but if you’re savvy with MORE

More Pretty Please is a beauty blog with a focus on easy-to-do make up at home for everyone. Truth be told, the creator is my very talented wife, Maggie. She wanted something that would let her focus less on the upkeep and more on the content. She also wanted something that was very accessible but still stylish. With that in mind, I made it with a strong emphasis on mobile design and video integration. At it’s foundation it’s built using WordPress for robust functionality and Bootstrap for seamless responsiveness. Check out her blog at moreprettyplease.com

This is the site I’ve created for myself – it’s the one you’re perusing right now in fact. I try to remake my site every four years at least in an effort to learn a new skill or implement a new technique. I hope you like the latest iteration. I designed it with a few things in mind: Make it easily updatable – I wanted to make sure I could add new work to it as I completed projects Show case the content in a very efficient and appealing way simplify, simplify, simplify – I will say I typically take a MORE

I don’t often do a lot of illustrations. Mostly because I’ve never been that great at it. But I’m a believer that forcing yourself out of your comfort zone is a smart way to live – and work. So when a buddy of mine asked for a logo for a new photography endeavor he was a part of I thought, “hey this might be an opportunity to get my feet wet.  Here I created a simple illustration of a bloodhound – the dog breed the company is named after. It’s over true but also classic. A badge and ribbon complete MORE

Companies change and grow over time. As they do, their branding needs (and tastes) change. It’s expected that from time to time a logo you made a few years ago may no longer be the right look and feel for that company today. So when a former client comes back and asks for a redesign – for me it’s an exciting endeavor. For T-Salon, the changes were to closer match the owner’s style but it also made a clearer link to the state where the hair salon is located.

As I work more and more on my own projects and entrepreneurial endeavors I find myself consistently wanting to readjust or tweak the presentation of branding elements. Sometimes it’s a simple color adjustment. Other times it’s a rather drastic. The latter is true of the latest update to the logo for the site-as-a-service I created, Inkwealthy. The new logo, goes back to the original spelling. And while the colors are the same it relies more on iconography instead of simple lines and text.

Simple text-based logos are usually my favorite. It is, to me, the most effective and simplest method to create brand recognition. Immediately you can link the name of an artist or company with what you see, without needing to wait for an icon to become saturated and understood. Still being simple is easier said than done. With this logo, the artist wanted a graffiti style but still modern and clean. The contrast in typefaces used helps build this and the weight behind “Abstract” ensures legibility.

This is the stylized version of the logo for T-Salon. We used it as an eye-grabbing image to display a web page header, etc. I also wanted to sue this to show the client how the logo could be incorporated into a lot of different media. As in this example it’s an old-school neon sign that could be used inside or outside the salon.

This is the finalized logo for inkwellthy – it’s undergone a few changes from it’s original foundation. Most notable I wanted a simpler design, a more linear font and a name that allowed for better readability. As you look at the logo imagine you are looking over a pen resting horizontally atop an open inkwell. I’ve also included a few different color variations to show how it could be changed to match certain backdrops.

The logo I created for moreprettyplease.com is all about universality. By adding or removing parts it can fit into any location. The button in the center is easy to display as a badge or a printed sticker. The text can stand on it’s own while still showcasing eye-catching contrast. And it’s very easy to layer in dynamic backgrounds to make it stand out even more as a hero image (just like the watercolors added in this version).

This is the most recent logo for the Cat Bear Films Podcast and YouTube Channel. One of the challenges on this logo was incorporating the podcasts many pursuits. CBF comedically talks about movies, snacks, home repair and the list goes on and on. The diamond on the right not only breaks up the image visually but it also allows the client to sub in any necessary letter or simple icon. For instance CBF-S, for snacks or CBF-R for review.

I wanted to create an intro sequence for the Cat Bear Films podcast that included the new log but also allowed the opportunity to tease the content before the video started. I used the same concept with the updatable diamond in this video as well. As you can see the videos starts zoomed in on Snacks but then pulls out to show the rest of logo plus the incorporation of the first letter of the content type. I used After Effects to create the general animation and polish then used Final Cut Pro and Motion to make the content easily MORE

More Pretty Please has a heavy focus on video (specifically YouTube) integration. I wanted to create something that added a lot of pop at the start of each video but also gave the client another opportunity to brand her content. I created this short intro using After Effects to do just that. Additionally, I left the audio track relatively subtle to ensure the client could dub in her own audio to make the transition from the intro to her content seamless.

This is a 3D video intro I made for a friend of my Joseph Lao. He’s an amazing videographer, editor and director. Seriously, this guy can do just about anything.  I was playing around in After Effects one day and decided to use him as inspiration.

This was the intro I created for a project for the State Press during my time at Arizona State. It was a week long video series celebrating Black History. This was from my really early days as video editor when I was really trying to hone my skills at pacing and audio synchronization.

This is the demo reel I made that includes some of the projects I created while in school and from my stretch as a video editor for the Arizona Republic.