Revamped Personal Logo

Yes folks, I have reworked my personal logo a little bit. I had been tossing the idea around for a few months now and thought it was time to tweak it. I wanted to first, shorten my title and second, make the hyena a little sleeker and a little more menacing. Short, succinct, impactful. That's what I was going for.

For the hyena, I smoothed out some of his edges, added a few more curves, and made the eye a little concave to make him a little angrier. I also stretched out my design a little bit as I thought his original proportions made him a little blocky and static. I didn't want him to fight too much with the title, as I thought he was in my old logo, so I made him just a smidge brighter than the background so that he took a little more of a backseat in the logo.

I thought spelling out my full title was just an insane waste of characters and loved the way how these five letters just rolled off the tongue. It still says just as much, but has a much nicer ring to it. I wanted to keep the same color scheme, but made the background black instead of white or light gray to add to the sleek, menacing look I was going for with the hyena (and also--to be quite honest--I thought the title and dark hyena would just look way cooler on black). Overall, I like how it turned out and will now begin revamping my personal website and this blog as well to match the new look. Stay tuned for updates!

U of M Spring Football Invite

Here is the Spring Football invite I did to send out to recruits this week. With the 2011-12 recruiting season wrapping up earlier this month, the 2012-13 season is now in full swing!

U of M to the Big East? I've Got a Piece for That...

Upon reading the article on ESPN that the U of M was moving to the Big East, I had to dust off this piece and throw it on the blog. I believe I did it a few months back, in case this day arrived. Now that it has, feast your eyes on the announcement!

More Work for the U of M

These are a couple pieces I did for the Tigers last week. The top one is an invite to their upcoming Junior Day, and the bottom one is a flyer they sent/will send out to those recruits that sign with them. I had a lot of fun creating both, especially the bottom piece. I tried a couple new techniques and effects on that piece just to see what would happen with them. I'm not calling it totally perfect, but I definitely like the result.

BBQ Bash Flyer: Before & After

The top 2 images are before...

 ...and here it is after I got my hands on it.

It has been a little while since I have posted some work so here is a flyer I recently did for a BBQ contest. The top 2 images show their flyer from last year. It took several read-throughs to dissect it into my solution below. I tried to break up the "muddleness" (yeah, I made up a word) by creating a little more space for the contests and awards. I also wanted to clean up the backside and clearly show the title of the event and all the information that was need. I don't know what drew me to the S-curve design for the front, but in one of my sketches I just saw the page expanding out from a center circle. I never really wanted the center circle to be a grill, as I thought that would be too literal, but I thought the circular shape lent itself to an interesting design.

My Artwork on the Ice

 The logo hanging in the rafters...

 ...flanking center ice...

 ...ready to be skated over at the face off...

...and above the goal as well.

My fiancee and I attended our first Knoxville Ice Bears game last night and had a great time. She has decided hockey is her new favorite sport...not because of the game itself but because of how the fans are during the games. She gets an absolute kick out of their love of brutality and brash chants.

I, on the other hand, enjoyed watching some hockey and seeing my 10th Anniversary logo plastered all over the Knoxville Civic Coliseum as well! I knew it was going to be on the ice but had no idea it was hanging from the rafters as well. I must say I was pretty excited to see my artwork being used so much. I had a great time creating the logo and am loving all the use it is getting from the team. They also happened to move into sole possession of first place in the SPHL last night too, so I'm glad that my logo is part of such a strong season as well.

Skating by my logo

Well, I should say attempting to skate by my logo. Anyway, I've spotted my Ice Bears 10th Anniversary logo again. This time it was on the boards at Holidays on Ice at Market Square. To all those who, like me, spend most of their "skating" time stumbling around, don't crash into it too hard. Thanks.

A Welcome to Coach Fuente

Here is the introduction piece I did this weekend to introduce the recruits to new U of M football coach Justin Fuente. I had fun playing with some different techniques on his photo to give it that high contrast/lightly desaturated effect.

A couple new U of M pieces

These are a couple pieces I did over the Thanksgiving holiday. The top one is for those recruits whose teams won their state title. The bottom piece is for all those who helped with the official visit weekend the U of M had a couple weeks ago. I'm currently working on the Potential Student Athlete Questionnaire as well as some other pieces. Working with the Tigers certainly keeps me busy, but I can't complain when it's for football.

U of M Postseason Good Luck Pieces

Here are a couple good luck pieces to send out to recruits whose teams are fighting their way through the postseason. I had a lot of fun with both. The bottom piece is one of a series of three with a different going out after each playoff victory. I particularly like that one because the picture at center is one I took when I had the opportunity to watch the U of M take on MTSU from the sidelines. I was able to take my family to watch the Tigers play UAB this past Saturday as well. Although they didn't win, we had an awesome watching the game.

Several New U of M Pieces

 Tulane Game Review

 20 Reasons #10-Internship Opportunities

It was a real challenge to create this piece as they wanted me to incorporate all the logos of the companies into the piece somehow. I was brainstorming for this one when I came up with the idea of making the logos shape the "M" in the Tigers logo. I thought it was an interesting solution with a fairly solid turnout

 Coach Congratulations

 Team Congratulations for Undefeated Season

(I know I'm partial to Lombardi quotes, but I'm a Packers fan. What do you expect?)

Tough Season

This piece was one of my favorites from this week. I really spent some extra time looking up inspiration before I got to work this past weekend and I think it helped a lot in adding some new flavor to the pieces like the one above. I went away from the grungy fonts and went for a crisper look on this one and I believe it turned out very well. I had three different versions of the background, this being the one they liked. All in all it is one of my favorite pieces of the season so far, which I am happy to say. As a designer, I always want to keep replacing what I think is my best piece with something newer. It helps you to know you are growing as an artist.

10th Anniversary Logo on Ice Bears Rink!

A lot of artists want their artwork to be hung on a gallery wall...

 ...I prefer mine on the rink!

Check it out, the first glimpse of my 10th Anniversary logo on the ice at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum (lower right of the pic). I can't wait to go to a game to get a better look at it in person. It is still an insanely awesome feeling to see it like that. To give proper photo props, here is the link to this photo on the Ice Bears website. After I go to a game I will post photos of my own.

A Happy Halloween from the U of M...

...and Good Luck piece that I really like how my typography turned out on. Why not?

New U of M Powerpoint Backgrounds

New U of M Game Invite & Good Luck

 Good Luck #9

 Good Luck #10

ECU Game Invite

I decided to change things up a bit this week with a couple pieces I've been doing pretty regularly for the Memphis Tigers. I was working on finding quotes for these two latest Good Luck pieces when I thought about just changing things up a bit to give the potential student athletes who are receiving them a change of piece. I decided to take the picture out of the background and put it to the side and separate it from the texture/quote area. I like the way they turned out and the team did too.

For the Game Invite we decided since that this game would mark the halfway point we would change things up just a little to once again give the potential student athletes something somewhat new to look at. I went with a straight on vertical layout but still kept the kind of movie poster quality to it. It was a bunch of subtle changes that ended up looking like pretty spiffy. I am now looking forward to meeting the team in Murfreesboro this next weekend and rooting them on against the Blue Raiders!

New U of M Work

 C-USA Bowl Tie-in Poster for U of M Recruiting Room

 C-USA Player of the Week Template

Game Review of the Victory this week!

I had to throw in the game review I got to do Sunday after the Tiger victory on Saturday (which I listened to in its entirety via the interwebs while designing for the same team. Now that's what I call dedication). I'm also extremely excited to be headed to Murfreesboro next weekend to meet the team, coaches, etc. and see the Tigers take on the Blue Raiders of MTSU. Other than that the other two projects on here are a couple I did this weekend that I was really happy with how they turned out. I am also working on a logo for their "PAWS" (Preparing Athletes for Winning Success) right now that I will post once it is finalized. Lovin' the sports design more and more!

More work for the Memphis Tigers

 Happy Birthday Mailout for Recruits

 Business Card Back

 Business Card Front

"Great to See You" - A mailout coach's will send to high school's after visiting them for a game.

Some new items for the U of M

Here are a couple new pieces I created this past week for the Memphis Tigers. The top is an "On Our Radar" piece that will be sent out to current high school juniors that they have their eye one. The bottom one is to inform recruits of where to catch Tigers on TV each week. The one above is the first one I created. I'll be meeting the team in Murfreesboro to watch them take on the Blue Raiders of MTSU in October. I'm looking forward to meeting everybody then!

Several New U of M Pieces

 Boys on the Bluff Info Sheet

 Coach Spotlight (Larry Porter)

 Congratulations to Recruits

Good Luck for Recruits

It has been getting pretty busy for me with stuff for the U of M. Here are a bunch of projects I worked on for them last week. They especially liked the Good Luck to be sent to recruits before their big games, as well as the Boys on the Bluff info sheet. It was nice to start putting that logo into action. There will be plenty more U of M stuff soon!

Knoxville Ice Bears 10th Anniversary Logo Development (Part 2)

I ended the last post with my initial five designs I sent to the Ice Bears. After we discussed them, we decided to go with a more circular logo, as it would work well as an ice logo and a jersey patch. I then took bits and pieces of my previous designs to make the ones below:

After I sent these, we decided to try a the next series of edits with the ribbon to the bottom and make it a little more flowly rather than highly stylized. Thus came these versions:

 After I sent these in they were extremely happy with where it was going...we just had one small change left to make. We took the bottom version from above and dropped a "10" in instead of the "X." And thus, you have your official 10th Anniversary Logo for the Knoxville Ice Bears:

It was a long process, but it all came to a very outstanding ending. I am definitely happy with the logo that came out of all the work and I can't wait to see it in use this season. I hope all you Ice Bears fans like it as well! I am glad to be in town to root for the team this season!